Green guessed that his guide was taking him direct to the finish of his trailing; evidently the murderer had, as he suspected, doubled back after crossing the Border. Deep gorges, masked by black pine forests, slashed the lower slopes of the range, and above them towered the great grey granite peak.
Into one of these ravines the Indian led the way, his mount splashing along a small stream which swept smoothly over its stony bed. For about a quarter of a mile they rode in the water, and then the leader turned sharply to the left and vanished in the bordering bushes. The marshal followed, to find an unexpected break in the wall of the gorge, an opening only a few yards wide, guarded by a rough pole gate. On the other side was a tiny pocket of not more than a dozen acres, covered with rich grass and walled in by cliff. At the far end a black horse was grazing. On a bare patch of ground near the entrance, which his guide carefully avoided, were several hoofmarks, some of which Green recognized; the others had been made by a smaller horse.
'Good work,' he said approvingly, and the Indian's expressive eyes gleamed at the praise. 'I reckon there ain't much doubt, but we'll make shore.'
They rode slowly into the valley, keeping away from the strange horse until they were level with it, and then Green suddenly whirled his mount and jumped it at the grazing animal, round the neck of which the noose dropped before the victim could dodge. Slipping from his saddle, the marshal walked up the rope, coiling it as he approached, but ready for a breakaway. The black, however, proved ropewise and docile; it allowed him to pull its head down and discover, at the roots of the hair, little flakes of white. Lifting the near foreleg, he found the same singularity.
'She's the hoss, shore enough,' he muttered. 'All we gotta do now is find the owner.'
'Nothin' here--me look,' Black Feather said.
'Huh! Just uses it as a private corral. Rides here, changes mounts to do his dirty work, an' has the other hoss waitin' to get away on,' mused the marshal. 'That means he ain't too far from here.'
Leaving the gate exactly as they found it, they made their way back to the open range, and then, having warned him not to talk--Pete would have deemed this unnecessary--the marshal sent his companion back to town. He himself headed east, following the line of the mountain. Presently he began to come on scattered groups of cattle. He had drawn near to one of these and was endeavouring to decipher the brand when a bullet droned through the air, followed by the flat report, and a hoarse shout of 'Put 'em up; the next one drills yu.'
The marshal did not comply--his hands were too busy subduing the evolutions of Nigger, who, having decided objections to bullets whistling past his ears, never failed to register a protest. When the rider had succeeded in calming the black, he looked up into the gun of the man who had given the order. It was Leeson. Despite the threatening weapon, the marshal laughed.
'Why, if it ain't Mister Wild Bill 'Hiccup,'' he said. 'Playin' with fire-arms, too. What yu mean, scaring my hoss thataway?'
The man glared at him, his finger itching to pull the trigger. But the marshal had been appointed by Raven, and besides, although his own gun was already out, he had an uneasy feeling that this jeering, confident devil would somehow get the better of him. So he holstered his pistol and said sullenly:
'Didn't know yu. Wondered what yore interest was in our cows, that's all.'
'Yore cows?' the marshal repeated.
'Yeah, I'm ridin' for the 88,' the man explained.
'Raven's ranch, huh? How far away is it?'
Leeson pointed east and said it was some three miles to the ranch-house.
'Who put yu up to that fool play the other night?' Green asked.
The man flushed. 'Some o' the boys,' he growled. 'It was on'y a joke.'
'Well, I hope yu laughed hearty,' the marshal said. 'So long.'
He turned his horse and rode in the direction indicated.
The 88 ranch-house was an unpretentious log building of no great size and somewhat slovenly appearance. The bunk-house and corrals were rough, and conveyed the impression of being temporary structures. The rear of the ranch was protected by the lower slopes of the mountain, a jumbled, precipitous piece of country which made the open range in front the only means of approach. The place appeared to be deserted, but Green's shout of 'Hello, the house,' brought Jevons to the door. His eyes narrowed when he saw who the visitor was, but he forced an unwilling grin to his lips.
' 'Lo, marshal,' he said. 'What's brung yu out so far?'
'Just havin' a look round,' Green said easily. 'New territory to me, you see.'
Jevons suddenly remembered his duties as host, 'Light an' rest yore saddle,' he invited, adding, 'That's a good hoss yu got; had him long?'
'Coupla years,' Green told him carelessly. 'Some folks don't like blacks--claim they're unlucky; me, I ain't fussy.'
'Don't care for 'em myself,' the foreman said, 'Wouldn't own one as a gift.'
The room they entered was rudely furnished with the barest necessities and littered with a medley of saddles, bridles, guns, and the various paraphernalia of ranch equipment. Jevons produced a bottle and glasses.
'Yu 'pear to be pretty well fixed here,' the guest offered, meaning exactly the opposite. 'Raven come out much?'
'The place serves its purpose,' the foreman said: and, boastfully, 'Seth leaves things to me--must be a'most a month since he drifted over; reckon he finds the Red Ace more comfortable.'
'Can't blame him,' the marshal agreed. 'Yu got some fierce scenery back o' yu; I ain't surprised yo're losin' cows.'
'We ain't shy many, an' if folks warn't so soft over warpaints we wouldn't be losin' them,' Jevons said pointedly. 'My men has orders to shoot any brave pirootin' round this range.'
The marshal made a mental note to warn Black Feather, declined a second drink, and asked the nearest way back to Lawless.
'Bear off east an' three-four miles'll bring yu to the drive trail north,' Jevons told him.
Until the visitor had become a mere speak on the plain the foreman watched him, his lips twisted into an ugly sneer. 'Wonder what yu were after, Mister Man?' he muttered. 'I've a hunch yu ain't exactly mother's little helper so far as Seth is concerned, an' that it's goin' to be worth while to keep cases on yu.'
Meanwhile the subject of this speculation was proceeding leisurely homewards, his mind busy with the problem he had to solve. That the man masquerading as 'Sudden' was one of the refugees in Tepee Mountain he did not believe. The fact that the crimes had been perpetrated at propitious times could not be mere coincidence, the miscreant must have bad inside knowledge. The location of the hidden horse so far from Sweetwater made Lawless the most likely place to look for the owner. He thought of Leeson, who had already adopted one famous alias.
'It don't need much nerve to shoot a fella from cover,' he reflected. 'If he thought I'd found an' collared the black it might explain his cuttin' loose on me so prompt, an' that shot was meant to hit--he warn't funnin'.'
It was late in the afternoon when he reached the town, and putting his horse in the corral, joined his deputy in the little front room of their quarters.
Pete answered the marshal's question as to whether the Indian had returned.
'Sifted in two-three hours back,' he said. 'Couldn't git a word outa him. Gripes! a clam is one big chatterbox alongside that redskin.'
'He's obeyin' orders,' Green said, and told of the finding of the black horse and what followed.
'Leeson ain't got the brains,' the deputy decided.
'Somebody else may be doin' the plannin',' Green argued.
'Who?' Pete asked unthinkingly, and instantly wanted to kick himself.
The marshal looked at him commiseratingly, 'That's the worst o' them hair-trigger tongues,' he said. 'Fella's gotta say somethin' even when he's got nothin' to say.'
This reasoning was too much for the deputy; with a snort of disgust he stamped out of the room. The marshal's smiling glance followed him.
'Tubby, yo're one good little man, white clean through,' he apostrophized. 'I'm shore glad I met up with yu.'
But not for worlds would he have had his friend hear this eulogy.
