Part 3 (1/2)
”Thanks,” she drawled, her hand moving to rest lightly on her hip.
”Have you a few more old scores to settle to-day, with that tin Juggernaut of yours?”
A shadow had fallen across the dazzling white of the road, but neither noted it. The girl stood straight as a sapling, smiling up fearlessly into the twisted, sardonic face thrust close to hers.
”You mean that yellow dog I ran over yesterday?” The semblance of mirth was gone from his voice. ”The fool wouldn't move quick enough, and if anyone stands in my way I get them, sooner or later. You're a little queen, Billie, and you've been lording it over the roughnecks around here so long that you think you can set your heel on the neck of the universe. A little cave-man stuff would be good for you, my dear.”
”You being the cave-man?” Her clear laughter rang out scornfully.
”You aren't very well acquainted with us around here, Mr. Wiley, or you'd realize that it isn't right healthy to appoint yourself to office in these parts. The road is still clear, but you might find it barred with something you couldn't run down if you don't move quick.”
”You little she-cat!” He sprang forward and seized the wrist which swung at her side. ”You'll take a ride with me, do you hear? And you'll come now, or I'll pick you up and carry----”
He got no farther. Something caught him sidewise and whirled him headlong into the bushes, and a very calm, very resolute voice sounded in almost forgotten tones.
”You'll pick yourself up first, Starr Wiley, and come back for more if you want it. You know what's coming to you!”
Billie started in sheer amazement. There before her, sprung from nowhere, was her companion of yesterday, the smug young man who had wanted to play the chaperon, and who had seemed surprised and shocked when she revealed her ident.i.ty. Her eyes blazed.
”How come you to b.u.t.t in on this little argument?” There was an ominous note in her slow drawl. ”No one asked you to sit in, Senor Duenna, I'm playing my own hand. You durn fool, don't you see I had the coyote covered all the time?”
Her hand moved from the hip pocket of her khaki skirt and he saw the glint of the sun upon a small but business-like, blunt-nosed revolver.
Kearn Thode stepped back, his face crimson at the name she had dubbed him as well as at the unexpectedness of her attack, and at that moment Starr Wiley leaped, snarling, from the undergrowth.
The girl stood fascinated. She had seen many rough-and-tumble fights in the history of Limasito, but the clean-cut scientific way the two lean, lithe, well-matched figures sprang to combat thrilled her.
Wiley was the heavier of the two, but indolence and dissipation had softened him and Thode was in the pink of condition. After the first blind onslaught he steadied himself and parried, waiting for the opening his opponent's uncontrolled rage would give him. It was soon forthcoming; a side-stepped lunge left Wiley's pallid face exposed and Thode caught him fairly on the point of the jaw. He shot across the road, crumpled into the ditch and lay quivering and still, as his victim of the day before.
Panting, Thode turned to the girl.
”I am sorry,” he said stiffly. ”I didn't mean to b.u.t.t in on your game, but, having started, I had to finish.”
She seemed not to have heard. Her eyes were s.h.i.+ning and a little spot of clear rose showed in her cheeks as she held out her hand.
”A good, clean knock-out!” she cried. ”I wish Dad could have seen it.
You're some fighter, Mr.----?”
”Duenna,” he supplied grimly. ”Do you wish me to leave you here with him now, or shall I wait until he comes to, and see if he wants a fresh deal?”
She laughed merrily.
”Wiley won't be looking for anything but home and a stiff drink of hooch when he gets back to the world,” she remarked. ”I reckon he's in for quite a siesta.”
”We can't very well leave him there.” Thode spoke reflectively. ”Last time, he had a buckboard and I dumped him back into it. The team took him home, all right, but you can't very well expect that of a motor.”
Billie eyed him curiously.
”But you've only just come, and he hasn't driven any team around here.”
”We've met before.” Thode's face had darkened and his tone was terse.