'Dunno,' Judy snapped. 'Gone to get his head busted, I reckon. 'Pears to be the on'y use yu men got for 'em.'
The sarcasm was excusable, but applied to Sudden, unjust. He unearthed a grubby urchin who ran errands and did chores at the hotel, and learned that a lady had called to see Miss Eden about two hours earlier and that they had gone out together. Asked if he knew the visitor, the boy hesitated.
'She gimme a dollar not to say,' he admitted.
'I'll give yu two dollars,' Sudden offered, and reading the youthful mind, added, 'Yu can give hers back an' say yu changed yore mind ; that'll make it right'
This somewhat specious reasoning satisfied the boy. 'They call her `Lily Gold' an' she rooms with Mammy Porter, opposite the drug store,' he said. 'I -guess she ain't much class.'
Sudden returned to the sick-room. Eden was still unconscious but breathing easily. Sandy was in a fever to see his friend.
'Jim,' he cried, 'Navajo was there--I heard his voice. Damnation, they've got Carol. What we goin' to do?'
'yu'll stay here,' Sudden replied. 'I've got a line on the girl an' I'm goin' after her, right now.'
He told what he had learned and Aunt Judy snatched up her bonnet. 'I'm a-comin',' she stated. 'No use yu arguin', Jim Green ; yu may be able to tackle a man but it takes a woman to handle a woman. I can't do nothin' more for these two saps.'
With a face which might have been carved from a block of wood she followed the cowboy down the street. They found the house, a two-storied, ramshackle frame building. The door was opened by a stout, middle-aged negress.
'Mis' Gold is upstairs but she ain't seein' nobuddy,' she told them.
'She'll see us,' Sudden said, and slipping a coin to the woman's hand, pushed past.
They found Miss Gold smoking a cigarette and lolling in an arm-chair. Not yet thirty, she still had charm of a kind, but her once pretty face had become hard, predatory, and her yellow hair was obviously dyed. The silken frock which revealed too much of her opulent figure was shabby and the high-heeled satin shoes were rubbed and worn. She greeted her unannounced guests with a stare of surprise. *
'And who the hell may you be?' she asked belligerently. 'That don't matter,' the cowboy 'said. 'We wanta know what yu've done with Miss Eden?'
'Don't know the lady,' the girl replied insolently, but there was a flicker of fear in her eyes.
'Lyin' won't help yu,' Sudden said evenly. 'We know that yu called on her an' that she left the hotel with yu.' Lily Gold studied him appraisingly. Usually she found cowboys easy to handle, but this one seemed different ; her wiles would have no effect on him.
'Oh, that kid,' she said. 'I showed her round a bit and then she said she wanted to do some shopping. I expect she had a fellow to meet.'
Her sneering laugh was rudely cut short. Aunt Judy thrust Sudden aside. Her eyes were blazing.
'Lemme talk to her,' she said. 'Listen, yu dance-hall drab. Do yu know how the Injuns serve women o' yore sort? They slice their noses off, an' yu can take it from me it don't improve their looks any--I've seen 'em.' Her left hand shot out and fastened like a claw on a bare shoulder, digging into the soft flesh and forcing the girl back in the chair, while her right jerked an eight-inch bowie knife from the bosom of her dress and flashed it before her prisoner's frightened eyes. 'Come clean, yu slut,' she raged, 'or by the livin' God I'll make yore face somethin' for men to shudder at.'
The harsh discordant voice, fierce angular features, and set grim lips told that it was no mere threat, and the dance-girlwho would have face a furious man and told him to do his worst--shrank back in stark terror from this fiend in femaleshape. Out of the raddled, bloodless mask on which the patches of paint stood out with startling distinctness, her terrified gaze travelled to the cowboy.
'She'll do it,' she whimpered. 'She's mad. Call her off.'
'I ain't interferin',' Sudden said sternly. 'It's up to yu.' The girl was shaking. 'There's men in town who'll hang you for this,' she panted.
'Mebbe, but that won't put yore nose back,' Judy retorted, and raised the knife.
The story came tumbling out. She had been paid to lure the victim to a certain Mexican dive, the bait being that a cowboy named Sandy had been badly hurt in a brawl. Two men had met them there, seized Miss Eden and ridden away. One of the men was Baudry ; the other a stranger.
'Where have they taken her?' Sudden barked.
'How the hell do I know?' the woman snapped, and then shrieked as the steel gleamed before her eyes.
'There's an old shack out on the plain, about two miles due north,' she gasped. 'I heard them mention it. That's all I know. Get out, damn you. Get out!
Aunt Judy looked at her. 'If yu've lied, or they've harmed Carol, I'll find yu an' cut yore rotten heart out if I swing for it,' she promised.
When they had gone, the woman staggered to her feet, flung open a cupboard, and pouring out a stiff dose of spirit, gulped it eagerly.
'Christ! I wanted that,' she muttered. 'What a devil, and she meant it! I'll have to get away, pronto. If they've hurt that kid'
Hurriedly she began to throw her few possessions into a bag. Miss Gold was taking no more chances ; she was attached to her nose and wished to remain so.
When Sudden and Aunt Judy reached the hotel the cowboy turned to her and said meaningly:
'I'm gettin' my hoss an' follerin'. This is a man's job.'
To his great relief, she uttered no protest. Her violence seemed to have evaporated ; she had resumed her sex. 'yu'll bring her, Jim, won't yu?' she pleaded. 'An' yu won't say nothin' to nobody 'bout me gittin' peeved back there?'
'Why, yu done noble,' Sudden replied. 'I'd never 'a' got the truth outa that dame.'
'Mebbe, but I misdoubt I behaved like a lady oughta.'
Sudden, saddling his horse a few moments later, was moved to express his thought:
'Nig, I reckon in choosing a hoss, a friend, or a wife, looks oughta come way down in the list, ol'-timer.'
In a lonely, tumble-down cabin to the north, lit by a guttering candle stuck with its own grease to the rickety table, two people were facing one another. Carol Eden, her hands bound, leaned against the wall, contemptuous, defiant.
Baudry, seated upon an up-ended box, regarded her with a fiendish smile of exultation. As the fitful light set the shadows dancing about the room, now revealing and then half concealing her disdainful form, his sense of satisfaction grew. He had sworn to have her and here she was. Soon they would be away--headed for civilization, and by the time they reached it ... Affairs had not gone quite as he had planned, but with the girl, the herd-money, and the mortgage on the S E in his possession, he would take most of the tricks. But first he must deal with the half-breed, the man who had jeered at and taunted him.
'Sit down,' he ordered, pointing to a second box on the other side of the table.
'I prefer to stand,' Carol replied. 'I can keep farther away from you.'
The man smiled tolerantly. 'When you're my wife, you'll know me better,' he said.
'Impossible!' she cried. 'What else are you besides liar, cheat, and coward?'
This time the scorn in her low vibrant voice seared him. He stood up and stepped towards her, slowly, like some wild beast about to pounce on its helpless prey. Staring at him with fear-wide eyes, she backed away until she could retreat no more. The gambler's gaze dwelt gloatingly on the lissome, rounded form.
'I'm a man who can tame women and make them do as I wish,' he said softly. 'In a little while you'll come creeping to me for a kind word and be happy if you get it, though now you dislike me.'
'Dislike?' the girl echoed passionately. 'I hate and despise you.'
The nearness of her intoxicated him and he laughed evilly as his hands darted out, prisoning her arms. The feel of thefirm flesh beneath his fingers fired his blood and sent his hot lips questing for hers. Mad with terror and loathing, she fought to avoid them, but bound, and held in that grip of steel, could do little. Drunk with desire, he tore open her shirt-waist and rained kisses on her bared neck.
'I'll teach you, my beauty,' he panted thickly.
