The place was known as Painted Valley, and it was here that Silver and his charges were waiting. The women, after a night passed in one of the natural shelters, were sitting in the shade of the trees. The man was squatting on a big boulder a little distance away, watching. The horses, still saddled,were tied to the pine-trunks. Joan regarded the animals wistfully. 'Can't we reach them and escape?' she ventured.
'I have no wish to,' Belle replied. 'Even if it were possible, wandering in this wilderness without supplies doesn't appeal to me. Moreover, Silver has a gun.'
The spoke seldom after this, for Belle seemed to have become infected with her companion's moodiness. The hours crept slowly by and the afternoon was well advanced when Silver, who had left his post only to prepare a meal or water the ponies, scrambled clumsily down and ran towards them. 'He's a-comin' an' ain't losin' no time neither,' he rumbled.
Joan retired to their cave; she would not be there to welcome him. Silver's throaty laugh followed her.
'Gone to prink up, I s'pose,' he said. 'She's a good-looker, but I knows a better.'
His meaning ogle incensed the woman. 'Guard that tongue or your master shall cut it out,' she replied fiercely. Ordinarily the threat would have made him cringe, but this time she saw the mammoth shoulders quivering with silent mirth.
Swiftly the black horse swept along the valley to pull up, panting. Bloody wounds, dust-caked, where the spurs had bitten too deeply, showed it had been cruelly ridden. The rider too was breathing heavily, and below the mask, his face was white. He staggered a little as he alighted.
'What has happened?' Belle asked.
'Hell City is captured,' he told her. 'I got away, but they are on my heels, three of them, and one is the sheriff of Red Rock.'
'Why is he in it?'
'I shot his son. Curse it, they can't be more than two miles away, and there's nowhere to hide here.'
'If we start at once ... '
Impatiently he shook his head. 'They would run us down --we couldn't blind our tracks.'
Belle stepped to him, her eyes eager. 'I've an idea, Jeff. We can trick them, and gain time. It's you they want.'
He listened avidly. 'It's clever, damned clever, and should serve,' he said. 'You would do this for me?'
'Even more, as you will learn,' she murmured. 'Now, send Silver to the spring--he will be out of sight there--give me your mask, and put Pluto at the entrance to the second cave. A whistle will tell me when to act.'
'You have a head, Belle,' he complimented. 'I shall make for Willow Bend, California. Meet me there, and we'll conquer the world--together.'
He handed her the disguise and turned quickly away to complete the preparations. The black was placed at the mouth of the cave, but not until he had changed the costly saddle for that on one of the other ponies. This occupied precious moments, and he had but just finished and concealed himself when three horsemen appeared on the far rim of the valley. He gave the signal, and at once a figure, dressed like himself, the turned-back brim of the soft hat clearly showing the red mask, darted out, leapt into the saddle of the black, and shot away towards the plain. The new arrivals saw it, too, and with a shrill yell, set off in pursuit. Satan's expression was one of triumphant derision.
'Run, you mud-heads,' he muttered. 'By the time you catch Pluto, tired as he is, I shall be out of your reach. It will be a pity if they shoot you down, my Belle, but it will save you a disappointment at Willow Bend, if there is such a place.'
When the riders had vanished, he entered the second cave and called softly, 'Joan.' The girl in the shadow turned, and he fell back as though he had encountered an unseen obstacle.
'You?' he gasped. 'You--have dared--to play this prank?'
'Yes, I dared,' Belle repeated steadily, but her heart was hammering. 'I had the courage to do that--for you.' The face she was seeing for the first time in its entirety was that of a fiend. The right hand, fingers spread, moved slowly towards his gun and she knew that death was very near. Her voice did not falter. 'Hear me, Jeff: the Double K is lost, and that girl could not bring it back. What use would she be to you? I am different--your kind, the wolf- breed--ready to war with the world. You have lost this throw, but such a man as you is never beaten, he plays again--and wins.'
The sinister hand had stopped. She drew herself up, stamped her foot, and cried, 'Am I not as desirable as that prim madam of whom you would tire in a month?' The challenging charm of her brought a flash of life into the flinty eyes, and she added softly, 'Once you told me, `Love is all-powerful; it will find a way, and it forgives.' Well, I love, I have found a way, but it is for you to forgive.'
She stood with bent head, as in submission, but she felt that she had won. And so it proved; her beauty, spirit, and subtle flattery had fired his imagination, and wiped out--for the moment--his defeat. Impetuously he took her in his arms.
'By Heaven, you're right, girl,' he said. 'I've been blind--'
The low growl of a wild beast cut him short and he turned to see Silver at the entrance, head down, long arms swinging.
'That's my woman,' the dwarf said thickly. 'you promised if I treated 'em fair I should have her.'
Belle recoiled from her lover with a look of loathing. 'You --did--that?' she whispered. 'you would have given me to a --monster?'
'It was a pretence, for your sake, Belle,' Satan protested. 'I never meant to ...' He saw that she did not believe, and swung round on the intruder. 'Get out,' he ordered.
'I want my woman,' Silver grunted. 'I'm takin' her--now.'
He moved forward, dogged, threatening, teeth bared, the great paws of him opening and shutting; desire had destroyed dread of his master, and he was blind to everything but the prize he had been promised.
This second defiance fanned Satan's fury to a white heat. Snatching out a gun he sent a bullet into the broad breast. Silver wavered, but came on. Again the bandit fired, and this time the stricken man stopped, head swaying uncertainly from side to side. Then, with glazing eyes and lips which moved soundlessly, the ponderous body collapsed as though the puny legs could no longer support it. Ashen-faced, the woman stared at it.
'You--murderer,' she breathed.
Ere the man could reply there came a voice from without: 'Lander, I'm waitin' for yu.'
The flush of passion on the killer's face faded, leaving it ghastly. Sudden! What freak of Fortune had brought him to bar the way to liberty and life? The swift advent of peril found him unprepared. Instinctively he looked at Belle.
'What can I do?' he muttered.
'Play the man--for once,' she replied harshly, and he knew that his infamy had turned her love to hate.
Into his craven heart crept a cold despair. Wantonly, without a qualm, he had sent others into the Great Unknown, and now ... It seemed incredible; he was young, strong, and yet, out there in the sunlight, death awaited him. His numbed senses could not realize it.
'Lander !'
The one word carried a threat. Motionless as a statue, the woman watched the man fight his fear, and heard the horrible croaking laugh as the actor in him came to the surface.
'I believe that is my cue,' he said, and stepped, with leaden feet, into the open.
The puncher was standing about fifteen paces distant, hands hanging by his sides. He was alone, and this brought the bandit a faint hope, and a regret--that he had slain Silver.
'What do you want with me?' he demanded. 'Payment,' Sudden said sternly. 'Yu forced me to take the life of one I had been sent to save--Dolver.'
As the full import of this statement seeped into Satan's brain, tempestuous rage took the place of terror. This fellow, emissary of the Governor he had derided, had outplayed him at every point and wrought the ruin of his plans. He, the clever schemer and born leader, had been deceived and defeated by this--cowboy. The shock to his abnormal vanity bred only one craving--to kill. After all, they were man to man, and he was a fine shot.
'So you're a dirty spy, too?' he jeered. 'Well, why don't you shoot?'
'I'm giving' yu what yu never gave--a chance,' Sudden replied. 'We'll walk towards each other, an' at the word `Three,' go for yore gun.'
