became livid. Dumb with rage, he made a movement towards his gun.
'I--just--wouldn't,' the marshal said.
Simple as the words were, they carried a threat which penetrated the mind of the half-demented man. His hand stopped, and then, with a furious wave of dismissal, he turned and walked back to his ranch-house. Owen had a parting shaft:
'We're leavin' the cow you paid for.' No response coming, they rode unhurriedly away. For a while neither spoke; the marshal was the first to break the silence.
'Has he really been a guest o' Uncle Sam?'
'Yeah, it ain't generally knowed, but he got two years in the pen; that finished him with Amos.'
'Yet he leaves him practically all his property. Odd, ain't it?'
'So damned odd I can't believe it, but the will seemed straight enough. O' course, Amos was queer in some ways, but he thought a lot o' Mary.' Another silence ensued, and then the rancher remarked, 'Well, I got troubles o' my own. What am I to. do 'bout this brand-blottin'?'
'Yu can't move till yu know for shore,' Sudden told him. 'It might be a frame-up like he claims.'
'I'll stake my life he's mixed up in it,' Owen said stubbornly. 'They steal, an' he buys--cheap; that's my guess.'
'Yu may be right,' Sudden agreed. 'I was watchin' him close an' he didn't seem so surprised as he oughta been, but we gotta have proof. It'll mean waitin', but we'll get it. I'm beginnin' to feel a whole lot interested in Mister Sark.'
Chapter XII
SEVERAL days had passed, and Sudden was again at the Silver Mane, watching the sheet of water sweep over The Step, to drop, with a continuous boom, into the stream beneath and go dancing and eddying away between the willow-lined banks.
He waded through the water and rode to the other side. Dense masses of evergreen masked the sides of the fall, but pushing into these he found a narrow space between them and the wall of rock. Following this, he came to a ledge of stone some three feet in width, directly under the Silver Mane, and there, completely concealed, was what appeared to be the entrance to a cavern. Though it was high enough to admit a horseman, he decided to explore on foot.
As he had expected, the opening led into the bowels ofThe Step itself. By the light which came, as from a window, through the sheet of water, he could see innumerable hoof-marks, both of horses and cattle. So this was how Pockmark's companion had got clear.
The tunnel sloped slightly upwards, and from the roughness of the walls it was evident that man had no hand in the making of it. As the faint light from the entrance failed he found that the passage veered to the left, and since it soon became entirely dark, he had to feel his way. He had covered something more than two hundred paces when a voice came to him, reverberating weirdly through the gloom.
'I'll see you,' it said, and a curse followed. 'Damn it, two-handed poker never was no good to me.' Sudden went on, but more warily, until, groping round a bend, he saw that which sent him swiftly behind a projecting spur of rock--a fire, and beside it, two men playing cards on a spread blanket. The leaping flames showed that here the tunnel gave upon a large and lofty cave, the full extent of which he was unable to determine; on the far side, through an irregular opening, he could see daylight.
The gamblers were conversing in low tones, and the marshal was considering an attempt to get near enough to overhear when an indefinite sound of movement from behind arrested him. Ere he could even turn, a heavy body dropped on his back and sent him sprawling. At the same moment, steel-like claws gripped his throat and strove to choke him. Spread-eagled on the ground, his face forced into the sand, and pinned down by the panting burden above him, he was well-nigh helpless; but not quite. Arching his spine, he bucked violently in a desperate effort to throw off the weight which was crushing the breath from his body. He came near enough success to draw speech from his assailant:
'Hi, fellas, come an' give a hand.' The card-players rushed over and flung themselves on the struggling pair just as Sudden had again almost unseated his rider. But those digging fingers on his wind-pipe were sapping his strength, and the reinforcement rendered resistance futile. He drove a heel into the midriff of one newcomer, to send him down, groaning and gasping, but that was all; a few more hectic moments, and his wrists were tied behind his back. The two who had done this stood up, breathing hard; it had been no picnic.
'That's that,' one of them said.
The prisoner's guns were removed and he was hustled to the fire. As they entered the circle of light, the one who had spoken before emitted a whistle of astonishment.
'The marshal, by thunder ! If we'd knowed you were payin' us a visit, the welcome would 'a' bin warmer.'
'I ain't complainin',' Sudden replied. He remembered the man, Galt, who had left Welcome with Mullins; the third he did not know. He sat down. 'Nice place yu got here,' he remarked casually.
'Yeah,' Pock-mark snarled. 'an' as we aim to keep it to ourselves, yore findin' it may be awkward--for you.' *
'I'll have to talk that over with Jake,' Sudden said coolly.
'Shore you will. Better fetch him, Pocky--he's at the corral,' the third man said, and was promptly cursed by the others. 'Hell, what's the odds? Dead men don't squeak.' They wrangled for a few moments and then the pitted ruffian departed, grumbling. The remaining couple squatted one on either side of the captive. Galt picked up Sudden's guns and examined them.
'Thought you was a killer,' he remarked. 'There ain't a notch on 'em.'
'They're kind o' new,' the marshal said gravely. 'My old ones was so carved up that there warn't sca'cely any wood left, an' it spoilt the balance; I was shootin' fellas through the eyes 'stead of atween 'em. Not that I had any complaints, but I like to do a neat job.' The rustlers received this boastful bit of imagination with hard grins and the conversation languished. This was not tothe marshal's liking. He was testing the bonds on his wrists; the rope was thick for the purpose, and not tied in the manner of an expert cowman. He could feel the knots give a little, and with the loss of some skin, there was a chance of freeing himself. But he must have time, and keep their attention occupied.
'Ever travelled in Texas?' he asked, and when both shook their heads, 'Fine country, but too many law- officers an' coyotes.' The speaker paused, but his hands went on working; the knots were slackening.
'Is there any difference?' Galt asked.
'On'y in the number o' legs,' Sudden agreed pleasantly. His hands were nearly free; if he could hold their attention another moment.
Galt guffawed. 'That's a good one.'
'An' here's a better,' the marshal added.
With the words his right fist swung round and landed with venomous precision on the rustler's chin, stretching him senseless; one leap put the prisoner in possession of his weapons, and before the other man could recover from the paralysing swiftness of the attack, a crashing blow from the butt of a gun tumbled him by the side of his companion. The murmur of voices outside warned Sudden that he had no time to lose, and gaining the tunnel, he dashed down it at the risk of breaking a limb. Reaching the outlet safely, he found his horse, and set out for the Bar O. He had not gone far, however, when the unwitting reference to a corral recurred to him. It would not be for the horses--they would want those handy, and Pocky had been quite a while fetching Jake.
'They'll flit now their hide-out is discovered,' he reasoned. 'An' mebbe try to take some stock along. If I can find the other entrance to that cave . . .'
'Yi-i-i-i-i-i-ip ! ' The shrill call advented the approach of a racing pony which slid to a stop by the marshal's side. The rider straightened up and disclosed the cheerful features of the Bar O foreman.
'Found any rustlers?' was his greeting.
'Yeah, like to see some? If yu got nothin' to do ...'
'Me? I just come out for a ride.'
'Is there a gully runnin' at right angles to The Step and just south o' the fall?' asked Sudden.
'Yu mean Dark Canyon--one hell of a place. There's no way out this end, an' don't I know it? Tried her for a short cut once; I was wrong.'
