Part 14 (1/2)

”Because three mules stood hyar fer a leetle spell--ye kin see whar they stomped, an' movin' mules don't stomp twice or thrice over ther same spot. Then two of 'em went on gallopin'--and one went on walkin'.

Yes this is whar she got rid of 'em, but I mis...o...b..s ef they lost sight of her.”

A little further Bud showed Brent where the two mules had turned aside to the right and, a mile further on, where Alexander had also abandoned the main road and gone to the left.

”She held ter ther highway a mile further then she 'lowed ter,” growled Sellers. ”Thar's jest one reasonable cause fer thet. She knowed she war bein' spied on, an' she aimed ter shake 'em off. I wonder _did_ she shake 'em off.”

When they had almost reached the Gap itself and were proceeding warily they came to a narrow ford at whose edge Bud drew rein.

”Let's pause an' study this hyar proposition out afore we rides on any further,” he suggested.

It was a particularly wild and desolate spot where the road bent so sharply that they had turned a corner and come upon the crossing of the water without a previous view. They had been riding toward what had seemed a sheer wall of bluff, and that abrupt angle had brought them to a point where the road dipped sharply down and lost itself in the rapidly running waters of a narrow creek. On the opposite sh.o.r.e the road came out again with a right-angle turn to thread its course along a shelf of higher ground as a narrow cornice might run along a wall.

Below was a drop to the creek; above the perpendicular uplift of the precipice.

”This hyar's ther commencement of Wolf-Pen Gap,” Bud Sellers enlightened his companion. ”This is just erbout whar they aimed ter lay-way her at. I shouldn't marvel none ef some of 'em's watchin' us from them thickets up on thet bluff right now.”

”Then let's hurry across,” Brent nervously suggested. ”Once we get over the stream the cliff itself will s.h.i.+eld us. They can't shoot straight down.”

”Oh, I reckon they don't hardly aim ter harm us,” rea.s.sured Bud. ”An'

anyhow we've got ter tutor this matter jest right. Thet creek's norrer but hit's deep beyond fordin'. We needs must swim our mules acros't.”

Brent shuddered at the sight of the chill water but Bud went on inexorably. ”Now, ye've got ter start as fur up es ye handily kin--because ther current's swift--an' if hit carries yer beyond thet small bend ye comes out in quicksand. Jest foller me. I'll go fust.”

Brent had faced a number of adventures of late, but for this newest one he had little stomach. Nevertheless, he gritted his teeth and prepared to go ahead and follow his companion's lead, since need left no alternative.

As Bud's mule thrust its fore-feet into the creek's edge the creature balked and the young man kicked him viciously. Brent was waiting with bated breath when abruptly from overhead came the clean, sharp bark of a rifle. Brent's hat went spinning from his head and he felt the light sting of a grazing wound along his scalp. It seemed to be in the same instant that he heard Bud's revolver barking its retort towards the point from which the flash had gleamed. There followed a second report and the zip of a bullet burying itself in wood, and then he heard Bud yelling, ”Go on!”

Realizing that once across the narrow stream he would be under shelter, he kicked and belabored his mule to the take-off. There was a downward plunge, a floundering in the icy water, and then an unsteady sensation as the beast struck out to swim. The current had taken its effect so that mule and rider were being carried down channel faster than they were gaining across, but Brent instinctively turned his head to see what had become of his guide.

He saw an unbelievable thing. The mountaineer upon whose coolness and courage he had absolutely relied had not ventured the crossing at all!

He had wheeled after firing and kicked his mount into wild flight, making for the protection of the turn about which they had come. Twice before he gained safety the rifle above spat out venomously, but missed the fleeing target.

Such a confusion seized upon Brent that he never knew how he got across that creek. Ahead had lain quicksand, above a rifle in the laurel and in his own entrails an overpowering nausea of betrayed confidence. His comrade had deserted him--had run away!

Somehow, his own mount had won across and was plodding up to solid roadway once more and there safe, for the moment at least, he halted and looked back.

Hoping against hope, Brent waited for five minutes with a clammy sweat on his forehead, but there was still no sign of a returning Bud Sellers. Then Brent unwillingly admitted that it was a pure and unmitigated case of desertion under fire.

”My G.o.d,” he groaned. ”He quit me cold--quit like a dog! He simply cut and ran!”

With a sickened heart he rode on. His head ached from the near touch of the a.s.sa.s.sin's bullet. He was not even watching for a second ambuscade, and fortunately for him, there was none. But with dulled observation he pa.s.sed by a place where, close to the road, a shaft ran back into an abandoned coal mine and he followed his dejected course without suspecting that at that moment Alexander was being held a prisoner in the cavern to which that shaft gave access.

CHAPTER XI

The men who had come into town for the purpose of co-operating with Jerry O'Keefe and with Halloway had of course drifted in singly and with no seeming of cohesion. It was vital that they should avoid any manifest community of purpose, yet they were armed, ready and alert, awaiting only a signal to gather out of scattered elements into a close-knit force with heavy striking-power.

As they waited through the day for the call which did not come they began to feel the dispirited gloom of men keyed to action and kept interminably waiting--but none of them dropped away.

It was close to sundown when Brent himself arrived, and since he failed to encounter Jerry O'Keefe on the streets he did not pause to search for him, but went direct to the telegraph office. It had not been disclosed to O'Keefe how close to the heart of the conspiracy was the operator and the young man with the Irish eyes had not been stirred to any deep suspicion in that quarter.