"It is not for myself," the other admitted, and laughed. "One gets these foolish fancies; probably he is fifty miles away by now."
Joan was speculating about her companion. What dire listress had driven her, young, beautiful, to this sink of iniquity? At the risk of a rebuff, she asked the question.
"I had to choose between hanging and--this."
Joan looked aghast. "Hanging?" she repeated. "But what--?"
"Oh, I just killed a cur," Belle said brazenly. "He deserved to die, but your man-made laws don't take that into account." With a bitter grimace, she pointed to the bed. "Sleep sound. Hell City has had a taste of its master's medicine to-day and will be quiet."
The assurance was of no avail, and it was long ere rest came to the overwrought girl. Fears for her father, and forebodings as to the future kept her staring for hours into the blackness. There seemed to be no hope. Even if her whereabouts became known, what could a handful of cowboys do against Satan's well-armed horde of desperadoes, entrenched in this rock citadel.
Consternation reigned at the Double K that evening, and each rider as he came in from his day's work was met by a worried foreman and received the same order.
"Change yore hoss an' git busy. Miss Joan rode out around two an' ain't showed up. We gotta find her."
From all he got "Hell!" and prompt obedience. He despatched the last of them and went into his shack for his rifle. As he came out, a warning voice said: "Keep yore han's mighty still, Steve."
He looked round. Sudden, sitting on his black, gun drawn, was just behind him.
"I've come to talk, not fight," the visitor went on. "What about it?"
The foreman propped his rifle against the side of the hut. "Come inside," he invited.
Sudden slid down, without losing the drop, and followed him into the shack. "Why are yu sendin' the boys out?" he asked.
Lagley told him. "She's a good rider, but a hoss can find a hole an' break a leg. What's yore guess?"
"That she's in Hell City."
The foreman looked relieved. "If that's so, she'll be all right; Jeff would never let her come to harm."
"That's comfortin'," the puncher said sarcastically, and then, "Steve, I'm goin' to put some straight questions an' I want the same sort o' answers. Just why are yu doublecrossin' yore boss?"
The veins on Lagley's forehead swelled up, he shut his jaw, and for a moment it seemed there might be trouble. Then he said angrily, "It's none o' yore damned business."
goin' to be ," Sudden replied sternly, and reading the desperate thought, "Don't gamble, Steve; yu'll be outa luck."
Lagley hesitated; this man was his master with a gun, and there was no help within miles. He made his decision.
"Because o' the way he served young Jeff," he burst out. "I'm admittin' the boy was skittish--what colt that's worth anythin' ain't?--but he never give him a chance. Whipped him allatime with that sharp tongue o' his, like he does all of us, an' fair drove him to rebel. I wanta see him an' Miss Joan runnin' this ranch, that's what. So now yu know."
Sudden nodded. "An' if another fella was tryin' to grab it vu wouldn't help?" he queried.
"Anybody but a Keith at the Double K?" Lagley snorted. 'I'd help him into the next world with a slug in his gizzard."
"Good. yu an' me haven't been too friendly--I expect we got off on the wrong foot--but I'm beginnin' to like yu a lot better. Now, get ready for a jar: that masked fella in Hell City is not Jefferson Keith."
The foreman gazed at him, eyes and mouth wide open, and exploded in a guffaw. "Yu ain't expectin' I'll swaller that, are yu? Me, what's knowed the boy sence he was knee-high, an' made him the good cattleman he is. I wouldn't reckernize him, huh? A fine joke that."
"Is it?" the puncher asked. "Well, laugh this one off, too: the Colonel's hurt was no accident, he was deliberately shot by the man yu claim is Jeff Keith."
"But Jansen said--"
"What he was told to say; the 0I' Man would not have it knowed."
The derision died out of the foreman's face. "Jeff would never do that," he muttered perplexedly.
"He was miles distant from Dugout when it happened."
"Where is Jeff now?"
"I ain't sayin'--yet," was the reply. "But he ain't in Hell City, nor coverin' up his face. I came over because I guessed yu were on the wrong trail. How many Double K men will line up to smoke out that thieves' nest?"
"If what yu say is true, all of us. That is--"
"Except Turvey."
Lagley looked uncomfortable. "It's a fact he's different," he confessed. "Kind o' new, bin here less'n twelve months."
"Wasn't it Turvey who suggested yu should get in with Satan?" Sudden asked, and when the other assented, "I found out that he was in Hell City afore he came to yu."
Lagley swore forcibly. "He gits his time in the mornin'."
"No, that will tell them too much; we gotta lie low till we're ready to strike. Don't whisper a word to anyone 'cept Frosty --he's wise."
"I'll be dumb as the dead," the foreman promised, and awkwardly, "Green, I've treated yu mean, that bill 'bout yu, an' the frame-up, but honest, I thought I was helpin' Jeff. That devil had his tricks o' speakin', movin', an' remembered happenin's when he was a li'l lad that on'y Jeff could 'a' knowed. Anyways, I'm sayin' to yu that I'm sorry, an'--"
"Forget it, Steve, he fooled us all, even Miss Joan," the puncher said. "Now I'll fade, in case any o' the boys drift in; it won't do for them to see yu shakin' han's with me."
The foreman did not comprehend at once, but then he saw the proffered fist and took it eagerly. "Yo're a good fella, Green," he said. "Wish I'd found it out earlier."
He waited until the visitor had disappeared in the dusk and then sat down to digest the astounding news he had received. Looking back, he could see nothing which might have raised real doubt. The perpetual mask was typical of one prone to extremes, and the harsh, insulting manner merely an accentuation of the father's caustic habit. One thing he had never been able to explain; why the regard he felt for the boy he taught to ride and throw a rope should be, akin to fear in the presence of the man.
"Steve Lagley, if any hurt happens to that gal yu'll deserve to be roasted at a slow fire," was his final decision.
Darkness came and brought riders but no news. The last to arrive was Frosty, and they heard the drum of the pounding hooves long before he could be seen.
"Sounds like he's got her," the foreman said hopefully. "There's on'y one hoss an' it wouldn't be carryin' double at that pace," Lazy objected.
He was right, for when the white-headed cowboy shot out of the gloom and reined in, sending the gravel flying, it was seen that he was alone. Leaping from the saddle, he thrust a paper at Lagley.
"Found it in Coyote Canyon," he said. "As I read the sign, she was waitin' there an' five riders grabbed an' took her north."
They perused it in turn. Only Turvey had anything to say.
"Skittles ! we've had our trouble for nothin'. Her lover is gittin' impatient, an' when a woman has to choose between an old man an' a young 'un, it's an easy guess. I'll bet she went willin'."
"Yo're a dirty-minded liar," Frosty told him. "It was plain enough she tried to git away."
"Yu an' yore sign--" Turvey began, but the foreman told him sharply to shut up. "We can't do nothin' more tonight," he added. "Git yore grub an' hit the hay. Frosty, I wanta speak with yu."
The two men entered the foreman's hut. Lagley came to the point at once. "I've had a pow-wow with Green, an' he shore told me plenty. It seems I've bin a fool--an' worse. Ye see, believin' like the rest, that young Jeff was behind that red mask, I was sort o' backin' his game, but mebbe yu knew this?""No, I had my own ideas, but Jim never let on."
"An' he knew," Lagley said. "He's one white man. If yu know where to find him, take this paper along in the mornin'. What else can we do?"