Part 31 (1/2)

”No!” said Jimmy with some embarra.s.sment. ”You're kind, of course, but you ought to see---- If you start me off, I expect I can find my way.”

Margaret turned and fronted him. The blood came to her skin and her look was strained.

”You can't find the way and I can't go back. The police know I'm not at the ranch, and if I start for home, I'll meet them in the valley. But we mustn't talk. We must get off.”

Jimmy leaned against the table and frowned. Although his heart beat, he hesitated. He knew Margaret's pluck and he loved her, but she must not pay for her rash generosity. One must think for the girl one loved.

”Suppose the police do know you warned me? It's awkward, but perhaps that's all. Anyhow, I'll go down and meet them. Since I expect I shot warden Douglas, I must bear the consequences.”

”Oh, but you are obstinate!” Margaret exclaimed and used Stannard's argument. ”It looks as if one of your party meant to shoot Douglas and the police have not caught the man. They must catch somebody and they'll try to fix the shooting on you. To join the chain-gang would be horrible.”

”The thing has not much charm,” Jimmy agreed and was rather surprised by his coolness, but he was cool. ”I don't know much about the police code, but I rather think they'd stop at----”

He heard a noise and Margaret turned.

”I put up the rails,” she said in a sharp voice.

Jimmy went to the window and saw a mounted policeman pull down the slip-rails at the fence and ride through the gap. Then he heard a quick step and looked round. Margaret had got his rifle. The b.u.t.t was at her shoulder and the barrel rested against the doorpost. Jimmy saw her face in profile; her mouth was set tight, her glance was fixed and hard. He jumped for the door, but struck a chair and the collision stopped him.

The rifle jerked and a little smoke floated about the girl.

When Jimmy reached the door he saw the policeman's horse stumble. The trooper leaned back, tried to pull his foot from the stirrup, and fell with the animal. Jimmy thought it rolled on him, but after a few moments he crawled away from its hoofs. The horse was quiet and the man got up.

His movements were awkward and he looked dully at the house.

Margaret pushed Jimmy back and put the rifle to her shoulder. A sharp report rolled across the clearing, twigs fell from a quivering pine branch, and the trooper vanished in the woods. Jimmy's hands shook, but his relief was keen.

”I expect his rifle's in the bucket under the horse and the horse is dead,” Margaret remarked. ”I was forced to shoot.”

”Ah!” said Jimmy hoa.r.s.ely. ”I thought you had hit the man!”

Margaret's pose was stiff, as if she braced herself, but she smiled.

”He knows I shoot straight. Until his partner comes and helps him get his rifle, he'll stop in the woods.”

”But perhaps the other's not far off.”

”He's at the ranch,” said Margaret ”He'd stop to see if you were about and try to find out something from father. Father would keep him as long as possible----” She stopped and turning her head resumed: ”But the first fellow knows a woman shot his horse. When I put up the rifle, he was riding for the door.”

”I expect that is so,” said Jimmy. ”After all, you must go to your cousin's. Let's start!”

Margaret said nothing. When Jimmy brought her horse she got up and he ran by her stirrup. For a time she went up the valley, and then turning back obliquely through thin timber, pushed up a steep hill. Near the top she stopped and Jimmy got his breath and looked down across the trees.

Dusk was falling and all was very quiet. Gloom had invaded the clearing, but he saw a small dark object he knew was the policeman's horse. A thin plume of smoke went up from his house; his fire was burning, and he wondered when it would burn again. For a few moments he was moved by a strange melancholy, and then his heart beat.

”I hate to go away. If you were not with me, I think I'd stay and risk it all,” he said. ”I was happy at the ranch; in fact, I soon began to see I hadn't known real happiness before. At the beginning I was puzzled, but now I can account for it. You were at Kelshope----”

”Not long since you didn't want me to go with you,” Margaret remarked.

”Oh, well,” said Jimmy with some awkwardness, ”you hadn't yet shot the policeman's horse.”