Part 42 (2/2)

The crowd perceived him with Madden and it believed him a prisoner even if not handcuffed and marched with a pistol at his head.

A profound silence at first greeted the party as it alighted. Madden, a.s.sisting Burkhardt to alight, pulled the man's broad-brimmed hat low over his eyes to conceal his face from the revealing moonlight. A short struggle again ensued, but Burkhardt finally yielded to the pressure exerted by his companion guards.

A murmur of astonishment ran over the surrounding throng, each instant being augmented by the voices of others running to the place. Not only did it appear that the engineer was under arrest, but likewise others,--a handcuffed, gagged man and two sullen Mexicans, strangers to the community. Yet a number of the onlookers, possibly men with Vorse's or Sorenson's money in their pockets, shouted as the new-comers moved through the press:

”Killer, murderer! Hang him, shoot him!” And more voices began to join in the cry.

Clearly the intent was to stir up feeling in the crowd to a point where action against Weir would seem a spontaneous outbreak. Even women joined in the cry; curses followed; fists were shaken.

”Open up the way,” Madden ordered, as a surge of the crowd threatened to surround him and his party. In his hand, as if to emphasize his command, a six-shooter swung into view, sweeping to and fro and menacing the press of people.

The frightened men directly before the party struggled to get out of line of the weapon, yielding suddenly a clear pa.s.sage.

”Quick! Around the courthouse and back to the jail,” Madden exclaimed to those with him.

Pus.h.i.+ng forward from the moonlight into the shade cast by the cottonwoods, they dragged their prisoners past the first building towards the low stout stone structure at the rear, half-illuminated and half-concealed by the patches of light and shade falling from the trees.

A minute later Madden whipped out his keys.

”Two men remain here at the door and don't be afraid to show your rifles to that bunch,” he said. ”In with you, Burkhardt; there's a nice soft stone floor to sleep on. Keep those Mexican camp-burners covered, Atkinson, till I get the cells open. You, Weir, slip on back there in the shadow and wait for me.”

The engineer had taken but three steps into the gloom along the outside jail wall, glancing about to avoid any curious straggler of the crowd already hurrying around the court house towards the jail, when he heard a call. In the advance was a slim well-dressed Mexican, full in the moonlight and very important of bearing. The call was directed not at Weir but at Madden.

”You got him all right, sheriff?” he said.

”Yes. He came in with me,” was the answer.

”But who are these others?”

”Step inside and I'll tell you, Lucerio.”

The county attorney joined the sheriff, peered inside the doorway and hesitated. It was dark within; no light showed except a patch of moonlight at the far side of the building that fell through a barred window.

”Go right in,” Madden exclaimed. And laying hand on the other's shoulder he forced him ahead. The door closed after the pair. Before the doorway there remained, however, the pair of young engineers, rifle in hand, whose threatening bearing and glistening gun-barrels were apparent even in the patchy light dropping through the boughs. At a distance of about ten feet off the crowd of people halted, staring eagerly at the jail building, showing their white teeth as they carried on low talk in Spanish and awaiting with impatience the return of Madden and Lucerio that they might flood them with questions.

Weir remained to see no more, for the increasing crowd pushed out further and further on the flanks, a circ.u.mstance that would eventually result in his discovery. So slipping to the rear of the jail and keeping well in the shadows he gained the fence. This he leaped and, lighting a cigarette, examined his pistol, then proceeded to smoke calmly until Madden arrived.

”Hurry; slip away,” the latter said. ”They wondered what the devil I dodged back here for and are coming, curious as cats.”

The two men glided away, keeping well in shadows until they gained the side street and thence pa.s.sed to the main thoroughfare.

”What if Sorenson and Vorse are somewhere in that crowd?” Madden asked. ”They're likely to be, expecting your arrest.”

”Then we'll have to wait till they leave it. But I don't believe they're there. They won't want to show their hand even by being on the scene.”

”Probably they've found out Gordon is dead.”

”Probably. But on the other side, they suppose now that the dam has been destroyed and that I'm locked up,” Weir said. ”Still, I'll guess that if they've learned Pollock and Martinez and I were at Gordon's all the afternoon, and he committed suicide, they'll be worrying some just the same.”

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