Part 41 (1/2)

Mackay looked at me curiously; and when we had mounted, said: ”I'm asking no questions, but yon was surely a bit summary dismissal!”

”It's just as well you are not, because I am afraid I should not answer them,” I said, and Mackay frowned upon his subordinate when Cotton laughed.

We had ridden a league before he vouchsafed any explanation. ”I could not call in my other men in time, and as we may have to divide forces, demanded your a.s.sistance in virtue of the powers entrusted me,” he said formally. ”We'll call first at Gordon's on the odd chance our man is there, and pick up Adams, though Lane's away hot-foot for the rail by now, I'm thinking. He had no' a bad nerve to cut it so fine.”

”Did the confounded rascal know there was a warrant out?” I gasped, almost pulling my horse up in my indignation, as I remembered Boone's hint.

”We did not advertise the fact, but yon man knows everything, and I'm no' saying it's quite impossible,” Mackay answered dryly. ”But what ails ye that ye're drawing bridle, Harry Ormesby?”

I drove the spurs in the next second and shot clear a length ahead, and, though the Bonaventure horses were good, the others had hard work to catch me during the next mile or two. If Lane suspected the issue of the warrant, he had victimized us to the end, for he had tricked us into furnis.h.i.+ng him with not only the means of escape, but sufficient ready money to start him upon a fresh career in another land. We met Boone and Haldane returning from Gordon's ranch, and while the former advised the sergeant that Lane must be well on his way to the station by this time, I drew Haldane aside and hurriedly related what had happened at Bonaventure.

”Lane is a capable rascal, and will certainly catch the westbound train.

There is little to be gained either by wiring the bank,” he said. ”He insisted on taking a large share in paper currency, and as the draft was one I had by me, he would no doubt arrange for his friends to cash it before I could warn the drawer. Do you know the bureau you smashed in cost me sixty dollars, Ormesby?”

I was endeavoring to express my contrition when Haldane laughed. ”I am not sure that you are the only person responsible for the destruction of my furniture.”

Mackay had started before our conversation was finished, and it cost Boone and me a long gallop to come up with him, while it was only by dint of hard riding that we eventually reached the station some hours after the departure of the train. Mackay first of all wired to the stations down the line, and then explained: ”That's just a useless duty.

Yon man is keen enough to know he might find the troopers waiting for him. He'll leave the cars at the flag station where there's n.o.body to detain him, and, buying a horse at the first ranch, strike south for the border. It would be desirable that we grip him before he reaches it.”

Because various formalities must be gone through before a Canadian offender is handed over by the Americans, this was clear enough, though I did not see how it was to be accomplished, until Mackay had exchanged high words with the station agent. A freight locomotive and an empty stock car rolled out of the siding, and we took our places therein, men and horses together.

”Sorry I haven't got a new bogie drawing-room for you, but it's getting time the police gave some other station a share of their business,” said the exasperated railroad official. I also overheard him tell the engineer: ”You have got to be back by daylight, and needn't be particular about shaking them.”

It was not the fault of the engineer if he did not shake the life out of us. Canadian lines are neither metalled nor ballasted with much solidity; and with only one car to steady it the huge machine appeared to leap over each inequality of the track. There was also nipping frost in the air, the prairie glittered under the stars, and bitter draughts pulsed through the lurching car. It was not an easy matter to keep the horses on their feet or to maintain our own balance, but the swish of the dust and the rattle of flung-up ballast brought some comfort as an indication of our speed.

”It's a steeplechase already,” gasped Boone, holding on by a head-rope as we roared across a bridge. ”I looked at the gauge-gla.s.s, and the engineer can hardly have full steam up yet. We'll be lucky to escape with whole limbs when he has.”

The prediction was fully justified, for the bouncing, jolting, and hammering increased with the pace, and I made most of the journey holding fast by a very cold rail as for my life, while half-seen through the rush of ballast I watched the prairie race past. When one could look forward there was nothing visible but a field of dancing stars and a smear of white below, athwart which the blaze of the great headlamp drove onwards with the speed of a comet. All of us were thankful when the locomotive was pulled up before a lonely shed, and while we dragged the horses out the man who drove it, grinning at his stoker, said: ”I guess there's no bonus for beating the record on this contract?”

”No,” said Mackay dryly. ”Ye have the satisfaction of knowing ye served the State.”

By good fortune we found a sleepy man in the galvanized iron shed, and he informed us that Lane had alighted from the last train and started on foot towards the nearest ranch, which lay about a league away. Inside of fifteen minutes we were pounding on its door, and the startled owner said that the man we asked for had bought a good horse from him, and inquired the shortest route to the American frontier.

”Four hours' start,” said Mackay, as we proceeded again. ”Ye can add another three for the making of inquiries and searching for his trail.

It will be a close race, I'm thinking.”

It certainly proved so, as well as a long one, because we lost much time halting at lonely ranches, and still more in riding in wrong directions; for Lane had evidently picked up somebody, perhaps a contrabandist, well versed in the art of laying a false trail. Neither did he strike straight for the border, and after dividing and joining forces several times, it was late one evening when we found ourselves close behind him.

”Oh, yes! A man like that paid me forty dollars to swap horses with him and his partner, it might be an hour ago,” said the last rancher at whose dwelling we stopped. ”Seemed in a mighty hurry to reach Montana.

How long might it take you to reach the frontier? Well, that's a question of horses, and I've no more in my corral. You ought to get there by daylight, or a little earlier. Follow the wheel trail and you'll see a boundary stake on the edge of the big _coulee_ to the left of it.”

Though we had twice changed horses, our beasts were jaded; but there was solace in the thought that Lane was an indifferent rider, and must have almost reached the limits of his endurance, while, though used to the saddle, I was too tired to retain more than a blurred impression of that last night's ride. There was no moon, but the blue heavens were thick with twinkling stars, and the prairie glittered faintly under the white h.o.a.r frost. It swelled into steeper rises than those we were used to, while at times we blundered down the crumbling sides of deep hollows, dest.i.tute of verdure, in which the bare earth rang metallically beneath the hoofs. Still, the wheel trail led straight towards the south, and, aching all over, we pushed on, as best we could, until I grew too drowsy even to notice my horse's stumbles or to speculate what the end would be. Before that happened, however, I had considered the question and decided that there was no need for any scruples in seizing Lane if the chance fell to me. We had merely promised to refrain from pressing one particular charge against the fugitive, and were willing to keep our bargain, though he on his part had deceived us into making it.

At last, when only conscious of the cruel jolting and the thud of tired hoofs which rose and fell in a drowsy cadence through the silence, Mackay's voice roused me, and I fancied I made out two mounted figures faintly projected against the sky ahead. ”Yon's them, and ye'll each do your best. We're distressfully close on the frontier now,” he said.

Once more the spurs sank into the jaded beast, and when it responded I became suddenly wide awake. It was bitterly cold and that hour in the morning when man's vitality sinks to its lowest ebb; but one and all braced themselves for the final effort. Boone, in spite of all that I could do, drew out ahead, and we followed as best we might, blundering down into gullies and over rises where the gra.s.s grew harsh and high, while thrice we lost the man who led us as well as the fugitives.

Nevertheless, they hove into sight again before a league had pa.s.sed, and it even seemed that we gained a little on the one who lagged behind, until, at last, the blue of the heavens faded, and grayness gathered in the east.