"I do--times; you'd be s'prised," he said. "An' Mary that fella Lesurge ain't fit to lick the mud off'n the boots o' them two cowboys." It was as though another man had spoken, and by the time amazement had given place to indignation, he was some yards distant.
"Uncle Phil," she called sharply.
"I'm tellin' you," he answered, and scurried away.
Later, as they followed the curves of the little creek, she put a question to Pauclass="underline"
"You expect to find Green at this place we're going to?"
"Yes, and probably his friend Mason, who declined to join my party."
"But why should Green have come, since he knew where o find the mine?" * "That's his damned cleverness. If he could persuade us that the ravine was the genuine article, we go back to Deadwood in disgust, leaving him a clear field, an artful scheme which, thanks to you, we shall defeat." The praise did not please her--she was dubious about the part she' had played, and almost regretting the search for her uncle and his elusive fortune. It had been a shock to discover that the quaint, gentle old man was a fraud and she could not yet believe that he had meant ill to her. It gave her a feeling of lonely helplessness which the presence of Paul failed to eradicate. She found herself hoping first that Gerry would be there, and then that he would not.
* * * The fugitives found the company at the Rocking Stone busy as beavers, but they gathered round eagerly to hear the news, for the puncher's early appearance, with a companion, told them something had happened. The story did not take long.
"So here we are," Sudden concluded. "Husky figures to throw in with us." The big miner shed his coat and rolled up his sleeves. "Gimme a shovel," he said. "One week here an' I'll go back an' stand Deadwood on its head."
"We won't have a week," Sudden warned. "I reckon that right now they're on the way."
"Yu think they'll find us?" Gerry asked.
"Shorely, the girl will weaken--Lesurge has a medicine tongue with women"--he saw the boy wince--"an' she's fond o' Snowy, even though he ain't what she thought."
"Never could understan' her bein' kin' to that of scatterbrain," Gerry said.
"Snowy is straight," Sudden told him. "Don't yu gamble too much on his bein' loco neither." He spoke to Husky. "Yu gotta remember that this claim belongs to Miss Ducane; we're on'y workin' it for her."
"What's yore plan?" Rogers asked the puncher.
"Hide the hosses outside an' put a man at the entrance," Sudden said. He studied the long, steep slope at the top of which the giant stone frowned down upon them, direful, menacing. "Cuss it, if they get up there they can pepper us like rats in a pit." However, short of abandoning the mine, which none of them even thought of, there was nothing else to be done. The horses were removed to a grassy hollow hedged in by thick, thorny scrub, and Bowman, armed with a rifle, was stationed at the entrance. The others went on with the work of gathering the wealth which for centuries had lain there undisturbed. Sudden and Gerry were together.
"How much o' this mine will Snowy an' Miss Ducane get if Lesurge can put his dirty paws on it?" the latter asked presently.
"Six foot each to lie in, same as the rest of us," was the grim reply. "An' he'll wash the dust out first."
"But he wouldn't kill the girl."
"Mebbe not--at once, but she'd come to wishin' he had." The young man's spade rasped fiercely against the rock floor. "We're as strong as they are. Why not go an' clean 'em up?"
"He holds the trump card--Miss Ducane. If we could steal her away--but she wouldn't come."
"Yu tellin' me she's in love with that--skunk?" Gerry demanded hotly.
"Whatever has skunks done to yu?" Sudden asked satirically. "Mebbe she thinks she is. Yu see, he's got all the points that appeal to a girl, an' he don't run around with outlaws."
"No, Fagan and company bein' highly respectable members o' the community," the boy sneered.
"But he on'y employs 'em Gerry, which is some different," Sudden said with quizzical gravity. "Now if yu paid me to do yore killin' ... "
"Aw, go to hell," was the inelegant rejoinder.
The afternoon was waning when they got the first intimation of the enemy's presence, and a sad one it was. Rogers had gone to relieve the sentinel, only to come back on the run, his face drawn with rage and grief.
"Tom's dead," he cried. "God damn the murderin' rats." In horrified silence they followed him. There, just outside the opening, Bowman lay sprawled face downward, his hands full of rubble gripped in a last agony. An ugly red stain below the neck of his shirt betrayed the manner of his passing. Sudden knelt beside the body.
"Stabbed from behind," he said. "Never had a chance. What's that?" He pointed to a Ievel space on the cliff-wall, just above the dead man's head. Scratched there in rude print were the words, "Evens up for Husky." Sudden stood, his face rigid with grief; he had brought this man to his death. "That settles it," he said. "We'll move the camp here an' have two of us in it allatime; we mustn't be catched again." The others nodded agreement. Familiar as they all were with violence, the swiftness of the tragedy had stunned them. In grim silence they carried their comrade away, and later laid him to rest in a corner of the basin. As they piled rocks over the grave, Rogers, who had known him long, spoke for them alclass="underline"
"I'd never ask for a better pardner than Tom." * * * Determined not to be misled again, Lesurge kept as close as possible to the creek. This involved a circuitous route and the negotiation of many thickets and patches of scrub, lengthening the journey considerably. It was Paul himself who first descried the belt of pines with the conical rock cleaving the sky above them.
On the verge of the pines, near where the stream emerged, Paul decided to camp. Calling Hank aside, he gave him certain directions, and with a nod of comprehension, the fellow took his rifle and vanished, on foot, into the deep shadow of the trees. The others lighted two fires, at a little distance apart, unloaded the packs, and made preparations for spending the night there. It was more than an hour before Hank reappeared striding swiftly.
"Well?" he said, as the messenger came to where he was pacing up and down, alone.
"You were right, boss, they're there, shore enough," was the reply. "An' by the way they're pitchin' in the stuff's there too. It's a hole in the rocks--like a big holler tooth, an' I couldn't see but the one way in."
"How many of them?"
"Seven--leastways, there was seven."
"What do you mean?"
"Well, one was watchin' an' I sorta subtracted him, just to level up for Husky." The evil smirk of satisfaction with which he admitted the murder wilted as he read his employer's expression. "You clumsy clown," Paul rasped. "That puts them on their guard and makes it impossible for us to get in."
"I had to abolish him," Hank said sullenly. "Couldn't 'a' seen nothin' no other way; that hole is walled all round."
"The more reason for leaving the opening available," Lesurge snarled. "In the dark, with only one man to deal with, we could have surprised and overpowered them while they slept. Was Green there?"
"Yeah, an' his bunkie, Mason, an' Jacob."
"Jacob? What's he doing there?"
"I didn't ask," Hank replied impudently, and got a black look, which disturbed him not at all; he was hitting back to recover his self-respect.
Lesurge dismissed him with a gesture and joined the women, who, with Snowy, were sitting by one of the fires. The old man eyed him furtively as he approached.
"It is as I expected," he informed them. "Green, Mason, and five--four others are in possession of your property, Mary, and shifting them is not going to be easy." The girl looked troubled. "Would it not be possible to make some arrangement--to share?" she asked. "If the mine is as rich as we believe, there should be enough for all."