The five men spurred toward the gate, quirting Wichita's horse to equal speed. Three of them were firing at Luke; and just as he reached the out-building, just when he was within a second of safety, Wichita saw him lunge from his saddle, hit.
Then her captors raced through the gate and into the hills south of the ranch, whirling Wichita Billings away with them.
Eighteen - "THE APACHE DEVIL!"
OUT on the east range a horseman reined in his mount and listened as the rapid reports of rifle and pistol came faintly to his ears. There was something amiss at the Crazy B Ranch and Wichita was there, practically alone! Shoz- Dijiji wheeled Nejeunee so suddeniy that the little pinto reared almost straight in air and then, at a touch of his master's heels and a word in his pointed ears, leaped off in the new direction at a swift run.
After sending Luke back to the ranch, Kreff's suspicions, now thoroughly aroused, continued to increase. He began to realize that if they were well founded one man might not be sufficient. He wished that he had sent more. Presently he wished that he had gone himself; and soon he reined in, halting his companions.
"Fellers," he said, "the more I think about it the more I think that mebby Cheetim's givin' us a dirty deal. He may have jest wanted to git us all away from the ranch. He's tried to get Chita twicet before, I'm a-goin' back an' I'm a-goin' to take Jake an' Sam with me. 'Kansas,' you take Charlie an' Matt an' ride after them rustlers.
Ef you kin pick up some fellers along the way, all right; ef you can't, do the best you kin alone. So long! Come on, fellers!"
As the five men entered the hills with Chita, Cheetim joined them. It was evident that he was much elated.
"Good work, boys!" he cried. "I reckon I didn't pull the woolover 'Smooth's' eyes nor nothin', eh?" He rode to Chita's side and grinned into her face. "Say, dearie," he exclaimed, "you don't hev to worry none. I've decided to do the right thing by you. We'll spend our honeymoon up in the hills 'til things blows over a bit an' then we'll mosey down to the Hog Ranch an' git married."
Wichita looked the man straight in the eyes for a moment and then turned away in disgust, but she did not speak. Luis Mariel, sober eyed, serious, looked on. He had not bargained on a part in any such affair as this.
"Well, fellers," said Cheetim, "let's pull up a second an' licker. I reckon we've earned a drink."
They stopped their ponies and from five hip pockets came five pint bottles.
"Here's to the bride!" cried Cheetim, and they all laughed and drank, all except Luis, who had no bottle.
"Here, kid," said Cheetim, "hev a drink!" He proffered his flask to Luis.
"Thank you, Senor, I do not care to drink," replied the Mexican.
Deep into the hills they rode--five miles, ten miles. Wichita guessed where they were taking her--to an old two room shack that prospectors had built years before beside a little spring far back in the mountains. Apaches had gotten the prospectors, and the shack had stood deserted and tenantless ever since.
She felt quite hopeless, for there seemed not the slightest foundation for belief that there could be any help for her. Luke, if he were not badly hurt, or possibly Chung, the cook, could get word to their nearest neighbor; but he lived miles and miles away; and any help to be effective must reach her within a few hours, for after that it would be too late. And even if men were found to come after her it might be a long time before they could locate Cheetim's hiding place.
Cheetim and his men had finished a flask apiece as they rode, but this was not the extent of their supply--each had another flask in his shirt--so that by the time they reached the shack they were more than content with themselves and all the world.
Once Luis had ridden close beside Wichita and spoken to her. "I am sorry, Senorita," he whispered. "I did not know what they were going to do. If I can help you, I will. Maybe, when they are drunk, I can help you get away."
"Thanks," replied the girl. As she spoke she turned and looked at the youth, noticing him more than casually for the first time, and realized that his face seemed familiar. "Where have I seen you before ?" she asked.
"I brought the pinto pony from El Teniente King to your rancho a year ago," replied Luis.
"Oh, yes, I remember you now. You brought Shoz-Dijiji's pony up from Mexico."
"Shoz-Dijiji's pony? Was that Shoz-Dijiji's pony? You know Shoz-Dijiji, Senorita?"
"I know him," said the girl; "do you?"
"Yes, very well. He saved my father's life; and twice when he could have killed me he did not."
Their conversation was interrupted by Cheetim who rode back to Wichita's side.
"Well, here we are, dearie," he said, "but we aint goin' to stay here long. Tomorrow morning we hit the trail fer a place I know where God himself couldn't find us."
The shack, before which the party had stopped and were dismounting, was a rough affair built of stone and mud and such timber as grew sparsely on the slopes of the canyon in the bottom of which it nestled. A tiny spring, now choked with dirt, made a mud hole a few yards to one side of the building. The men led their horses to the rear of the building where there were a few trees to which they could fasten them. Two of the men started to clean out the spring, and Cheetim escorted Wichita into the shack.
"We brung along some grub," he said. "It wont be much of a weddin' breakfast to brag on, but you wait 'til we git back to the Hog Ranch!We'll have a reg'lar spread then an' invite every son-of-a-gun in the territory. I'm goin' to treat you right, kid, even if you haven't been any too damn nice to me."
Wichita did not speak.
"Say, you can jest start right now cuttin' out thet high toned stuff with me," said Cheetim. "I'll be good to you ef you treat me right, but by God I aint a-goin' to stand much more funny business. You kin start now by givin' me a little kiss."
"Cheetim," said the girl, "listen to me. You're half drunk now, but maybe you've got sense enough left to understand what I am going to say to you. I'd a heap rather kiss a Gila monster than you. You may be able to kiss me because you're stronger than I am, and I guess even kissing a Gila monster wouldn't kill me, but I'm warning you that ef you ever do kiss me you'd better kill me quick, for I'm going to kill myself if anything happens to me --"
"Ef you want to be a damn fool that's your own look out," interrupted Cheetim, with a snarl, "but it wont keep me from doin' what I'm goin' to do. Ef you're fool enough to kill yourself afterward, you can."
"You didn't let me finish," said Wichita. "I'll kill myself, all right, but I'll kill you first."
The men were entering the room; and Cheetim stood, hesitating, knowing the girl meant what she said. He was a coward, and he had not had quite enough whiskey to bolster up his courage to the point of his desires.
"Oh, well," he said, "we won't quarrel this a-way on our honeymoon. You jest go in the other room there, dearie", and make yourself to home; an' we'll talk things over later. Git me a piece of rope, one o' you fellers. I ain't goin' to take no chances of my bride vamoosin'."
In the small back room of the shack they tied Wichita's wrists and ankles securely and left her seated on an old bench, the only furniture that the room boasted.
Out in the front room the men were making preparations to cook some of the food they had brought with them, but most of their time was devoted to drinking and boasting. Cheetim drank with a purpose. He wanted to arrive, as quickly as possible, at a state of synthetic courage that would permit him to ignore the moral supremacy of the girl in the back room. He knew. that he was physically more powerful, and so he' could not understand why he feared her. Cheetim had never heard of such a thing as an inferiority complex, and so he did not know that that was what he suffered from in an aggravated form whenever he faced the level gaze and caustic tongue of Wichita Billings.