immediately followed her. As yet, they had been unobserved, but now, with twenty yards of clearing to negotiate, discovery was inevitable. The abductor had thought of this. Slinging the helpless girl across one shoulder, he strode forward, a jeer of triumph on his face; they would not dare to risk hitting the burden he carried.
And so it proved, but at the instant he disappeared among the enveloping trees, the marshal and his deputy sprang up, and regardless of the bullets which greeted them, sprinted after him. They reached the shelter of the brush safely, and thrusting through, were in time to see the quarry fling the girl on the neck of a horse, leap into the saddle, and drive home the spurs.
'Damnation, he's done us,' Dave panted.
Sudden dropped to one knee, levelled his rifle, and squeezed the trigger. The horse staggered and went down, but the rider jumped clear, dragging his captive with him. One sweeping slash severed the cord confining her ankles, and she was forced to her feet.
'Run ! ' Jake hissed. 'If those hombres catch us, youdie.' He flashed the knife before her eyes, and gripping an arm pulled her after him. 'Hell burn their souls, I'll beat 'em yet.' That he would stop at nothing, even murder, in his desperation, she did not doubt, and strove to obey, stumbling blindly at his heels through thorny thickets which tore her garments and lacerated the flesh. In and out they wound, and she divined that her captor was chiefly concerned to baffle pursuit, while at the same time, heading in a definite direction. Unnoticed, she contrived at intervals, to let fall a fragment of her tattered frock. The din of the battle behind them was growing fainter when they emerged into the open again. Torn, breathless, with aching limbs, she sank wearily. But the ruffian gave her no respite.
'Get on, if you wanta live,' he ordered.
They had come out on a scrub- and tree-studded declivity, along the face of which ran a narrow ledge, a perilous passage even for a pedestrian, since one slip could send the traveller hurtling down the steep slope to the pine-tops hundreds of feet below. The girl gave one glance and shrank back. Jake gripped her shoulder and pointed to some black wheeling dots high in the sky.
'Them's buzzards--waitin' for one of us to fall,' he told her. 'Now, git goin' an' watch out, or it'll be you.' Meanwhile, the marshal and his deputy were floundering in the labyrinth of undergrowth into which the cunning cattle-thief had led them. Broken twigs and trodden grass were all they had for guidance, and these must be searched for, causing delay. Came a time when even these slight indications ceased and they looked at one another in dismay. Then Sudden chanced upon a shred of cotton material impaled on a thorn. Dave recognized it.
'Mary's dress,' he said. 'C'mon.' A few yards further they found a second, and others followed.
The pointers enabled them to put on speed, with the result that they reached the ledge in time to see the hunted man and his companion vanish round a bulge some distance along it. The marshal swept the high ground which commanded the path the fugitives were taking, and came to a decision.
'Yu keep on his tail, Dave,' he said. 'This looks like a hump in the mountain, an' if I can cut across it, there's a chance o' headin' him off.' He began to climb, while Dave resumed the chase. Unhampered, save by the necessity for care, he soon had the satisfaction of sighting the quarry. Goaded by curses and threats, the girl was doing her best, but the exertion in the terrific heat would have taxed the powers of an ox, and she was utterly spent. Aware of this, and confident he had thrown off his pursuers, Jake told her she might rest a moment.
She slumped to the ground and closed her heavy eyes. A low curse made her open them again; Jake's face was towards the trail they had traversed; he was listening intently. Round a curve less than fifty yards away a familiar figure appeared, moving steadily towards them. With a murderous glare the bandit snatched out his revolver and fired. The deputy saw the movement, and pulled the trigger of the rifle he had no time to raise. He felt the wind of a bullet on his cheek, and then saw the other's weapon jerk into the air and drop into the abyss; his lucky shot had torn it from the fellow's fingers.
Dave pressed on, his rifle ready; the miscreant might have a second six-shooter, and be waiting to make a better job of it. But Jake's one thought now was to save himself. With only a knife, he was no match for an armed man who had every right and reason to shoot him like a dog. Dragging his prisoner behind him so that her body should shield his own, he resumed flight, revolving in his crooked mind a desperate expedient to secure his freedom. With that, and the ransom money, he could make a start elsewhere. It involved sacrificing Mary Gray, but there were other women, and she had been, largely, a means to an end.
'I'd tire of her in a month,' he muttered, and snatched a glance backwards.
Dave was overhauling him; he must act soon. Just ahead was a likely spot for his diabolic design; the descending slope was less abrupt and about thirty feet down was a clump of scrub-oak, jutting out from the inhospitable surface of the mountain. Opposite this he stopped, lifted the girl, and laying her lengthwise on the ledge, deliberately pushed her over and darted off, ducking to avoid possible shots.
But the sole spectator of this undreamt-of-development was too stunned to shoot. Horror-stricken, he watched the fragile form of the woman rolling helplessly to what seemed to be certain death. Only when she collided with the oaks and hung there, perilously poised on the verge of a deep vertical dip, did he find his voice.
'For God's sake, lie still,' he shouted.
There was no sign that she heard; if she had fainted, came to her senses, and stirred . . . The possibility sent a chill along his spine. Slinging his rifle, he lay down, face to the incline, and edged himself over the brink of the ledge, clinging with fingers and toes to any inequality which might lessen the speed of his descent. Outspread, clawing at the rock-face with cut, blistered hands, he gradually lowered himself.
'If I get outa this, I'll never be mor'n a yard away from a rope again,' he communed.
He screwed his head round to find the bunch of gnarled trees only a few feet below, and a moment later he was squatting beside the girl, calling her name, and gently wiping the blood from a cut on her forehead. Fearful that she might move, he put an arm about her, and soon her eyes opened.
'Oh, Dave, thank heaven you're safe,' she murmured. He was deeply stirred; after all she had suffered, her first thought was for him. His clasp tightened.
'There's no fella in the world worthy of yu,' he said softly. 'But will yu let me try, Mary?' Bending, he kissed the upturned lips. 'Yu don't mind me doin' that?' The question brought a tremulous smile. 'I couldn't--very well-- slap your face, Dave,' she whispered.
'I'm plumh loco,' he said contritely, as he released her wrists, and noting the angry red weals the cord had caused, added viciously, 'I hope Jim ain't too late.' For a while he was silent, cudgelling his brain to find a way out of their predicament. To go for help would mean leaving Mary alone, and that he would not do; Jake, finding himself intercepted, might come back, and there was another danger--Argus-eyed--in the sky. Sudden would come in search of them unless ... He dismissed that thought too. He shifted a little and an ominous crack warned him of the risk they ran by remaining there; the trees could not be deeply-rooted.
'We gotta climb up,' he announced, and was aware of a shiver she could not conceal. 'It ain't far, an' I'll be right ahead o' yu. Scared?'
'yes,' she admitted. 'But with you ...'
'We'll make it,' he assured her.
Standing up, he drew his knife and set about the task of cutting footholds, as far as he could reach, at short distances where the rock was sufficiently soft. Then he helped her to rise.
'Hang on to my belt whatever happens,' he cautioned. 'Tread where I do, an' don't look down.' Inch by inch, as it seemed to the rescuer, they crawled up, resting every few moments while, clutching with one desperate hand, he scooped fresh primitive steps with the other. Though she strove to lessen it, the dragging weight of the girl imposed a terrible strain, and before long every nerve and muscle of his body was pulsing with pain.
The fierce sun swept the sweat from his skin almost before it was formed, and the stone he had to grip burned his hands. Eyes glued to the cliff, he had no means of measuring their progress, but he appeared to have been climbing for endless hours when at length his fingers found the edge of the pathway. With a final effort, he pulled himself andhis burden to safety, and collapsed, conscious only of a blessed release from exertion. An anxious whisper aroused him.
'Dave, you are not hurt?' Mary was bending over, endeavouring to remove the caked dust from his face, and there. was that in her eyes which restored strength to his overtaxed frame. He stood up, shakily.
'I'm all right,' he protested, 'but I feel as if I'd been drug at the end of a rope for about a million mile.' The smiling eyes sobered. 'I'm worried 'bout Jim. Figure yu can walk a bit--if I help yu?'
'You've done enough of that already,' she returned. 'I can manage quite well.' Notwithstanding, when he
