"I'll be back--if the war-whoops don't get me," the young man promised. "An' Rogue, I wanta say thisa mighty han'some act"
"Aw, go to hell," the outlaw retorted. "She interferes, an' that's all there is to it. Get agoin'."
Furtive glances followed the pair as they rode away, but there was no protest, and the inevitable ribald remarks were uttered in undertones. Sudden had waved a cheerful paw but purposely did not go near them ; he had no desire to invent explanations. When they had gone, Rogue came to him.
"What about them guns o' yores, Jim?"
"I've pledged myself to stay here till Sandy returns. Don't yu reckon it would be wiser to let me wear 'em till then?" The other considered the proposition ; in the event of more trouble with the men, the prisoner would necessarily be on his side.
"Mebbe yo're right," he decided.
Meanwhile the girl and her escort were slowly making their way in the direction they believed the S E camp to lie, slowly because, there being no trail, they had to pick a path for themselves in the wilderness.
Despite the necessity for constant caution, Sandy stole an occasional glance at the girl riding beside him. She had courage, and if the slim, straight figure now drooped slightly in the saddle, it was only to be expected after the nerve-wracking ordeal of the last forty-eight hours. Her first words, after they had ridden a mile in silence, took him by surprise:
"Some of those men seemed to know you."
"We'd met 'em," Sandy admitted. "yu run up against all sorts when yo're driftin round."
She did not speak for some moments, and then, "Why did that man let me go? He could have made his own terms with my father."
"It's got me guessin'," the boy told her, truthfully enough. "Mebbe Jim struck some sort o' bargain, seein' he stayed behind."
Carol shook her head. "He could have kept all of us," she pointed out. "He was disputing with his men when the shooting occurred. Was anyone hurt?"
"I expect so," Sandy replied. "That's a tough team an' it takes a hard man to handle 'em. Rogue's all o' that."
"Somehow I wasn't afraid of him," Carol said reflectively. "Though I believe he had just killed or maimed a fellow-creature."
Chapter XVIII
IN the S E Camp, anxiety at the absence of their young mistress deepened when neither Sandy nor Sudden put in an appearance. A search-party was sent out but owing to the redskins' use of dividing their forces, was led astray and lost the trail completely on a wide strip of stony ground. Its return with-Jut Carol reduced the invalid to a state of blasphemous despair ; he cursed everything and everybody, including himself for exposing her to such a peril. Aunt Judy, who had spent all her life among rough-tongued men, fled before the torrent of vituperation, and her husband, nursing a sore head, listened with awe. As he afterwards confessed to the outfit:
"For comprehensive cussin' I never heard the beat of it ; the 0I' Man shorely covered the ground. I reckon he musta bin a mule-skinner one time."
But bad language, however "good" it may be, gets one nowhere and morning broke upon a helpless, and wellnigh hopeless community. The cattleman, propped up by the fire, looked at his foreman in sullen misery.
"Never oughta let her come," he burst out presently. "Jeff, yu gotta find that damn trail. Take all the boys
"The herd" the foreman began, and stopped when the lightning commenced to flicker in his employer's eyes. "Hey, Jeff, there's a coupla riders a-comin'," Pebbles yelled. The foreman ran to the speaker's side. Two horsemen were entering the valley at the far end. Jeff studied them for a moment and shook his head in disappointment.
"That ain't Jim's black," he said.
"They might 'a' swapped hosses," Pebbles said hopefully. "It ain't neither of 'em," Jeff replied, and, as the visitors drew nearer, added, "Why, if it ain't Mister Baudry." The gambler it was, and with him was a middle-aged, bent-shouldered fellow, with a long horse-face and deep-set sly eyes. With a word of greeting to the cowboys, the pair rode to where Eden was sitting, and dismounted.
Baudry shook hands with Eden and presented his companion : "Meet Davy Dutt ; he's in a deal with me."
The cattleman received the stranger without undue enthusiasm--Mister Dutt's exterior was not impressive. Then, in reply to an inquiry for Carol, he told the story of their predicament, and was surprised at the effect it produced ; the gambler's full, faintly-tanned face took on a yellowish tinge and his voice betrayed real concern.
"My God!" he cried. "Miss Carol in the hands of savages? That's terrible, Sam. What are you doing about it?"
Eden told him and Baudry swore in perplexity. "you can't do a thing till you locate those damned heathens. Got any ideas, Davy?"
"Nope," the stranger confessed. "yu seen the kind o' country we come through ; yu could hide Noo york in it."
The gambler explained that they had been travelling northwest from Fort Worth, and finding a cattle-trail some way back, had followed it on the chance of it proving to be the S E.
The day passed monotonously enough for the little group left in the camp, and when, as the sun sank in the west, the searchers again reported failure to discover the trail of the red raiders, a blanket of gloom descended upon the whole company. For the cattleman, weakened by illness, the blow was a crushing one, and, strange to say, Baudry was little less affected. Of them all, Judy was obstinately optimistic.
"That Green fella's got savvy," she announced. "He'll fetch her back."
The prophecy proved nearly correct, for as the dusk was deepening into dark, Sandy and his charge rode wearily into camp and were instantly surrounded by whooping cowboys. The rancher's eyes bulged when he found the girl he feared was lost for ever, kneeling beside him. One arm hugging her close, the other hand went to Sandy.
"By heavens, boy, yu've put me deeper in yore debt than I can say," he cried.
Sandy fidgeted. "I ain't done nothin'," he said. "yu gotta thank Jim."
Naturally Carol was the centre of attraction ; everyone was avid to hear what had happened to her. The story of Sudden's slaying of Red Fox brought ejaculations of "Bravo Jim" and "Good old Texas" from the cowboys, but when she related how they had been rescued from the redskins by some of Rogue's riders, it was Baudry who spoke:
"What's brought that road-agent to these parts?" he asked. "Think he's been trailing you, Sam?"
"It would be a safe bet he stampeded our cows," the tore-man volunteered.
"But if he's after my herd why did he let yu an' Sandy go?" Eden asked the girl. "He must 'a' knowed he had me cinched."
"I was to tell you that he could win without women," she replied.
"Huh! there's two words to that," her father said grimly. With the girl safe by his side he was becoming his own dour self again. He looked at Sandy. "Can yu explain it?"
"No, but I'm guessin' Jim fixed somethin', an' that's why he stayed an' I've to go back."
"Like hell yu have," the cattleman exploded.
"I've promised."
"A promise to a prowlin' thief don't hold."
Sandy looked at the girl; in the firelight her cheeks appeared - pale ; her lips were silent, but her eyes spoke.
"Rogue's word to me was that if I didn't show up' it would go hard with Jim," Sandy added.
"Did he call him by his name?" Baudry put in.
"No, he said 'yore friend,' " was the quick reply. "An' because he's that, I'm goin' back--alone."
The rancher was about to make another angry protest, but Carol anticipated him: "Daddy, he has to go," she said, and the young man's heart leapt at the regret in her voice. "Yu would do the same yourself."