"He sent her away yesterday, with Silver, and the other woman," she replied. "I saw them pass along the valley, going west."
She could tell them no more, having had but a glimpse, but the news drove the blood from Jeff's cheeks and brought an oath to his lips. A burst of cheering from the other gate, and flying figures seeking sanctuary in the cave-dwellings from the pitiless leaden pellets, announced the triumph of the Twin Diamond contingent. Hell City was taken. The firing died out, a little breeze dispelled the veil of smoke and acrid smell of burnt powder; here and there, arms outflung, face downwards, lay the form of what had lately been a man.
The sheriff and Merry came hurrying up, both with the same question. The answer left them glum indeed.
"Me, Frosty, an' Jeff is takin' the trail soon as we get our hosses," Sudden told them.
"I'm with you," Dealtry said. "Mart, you ain't built for speed; s'pose you stay to clean house, an' then come along if we ain't back?"
"Suits me," the rancher replied.
"An' Mart, look after Miss Anita here--we owe her a lot." Sudden requested. "C'mon, fellas, let's get goin'." He started and stopped. "Which I'm shorely dumb. Where'd yu leave yore broncs, Mart? Just outside? We'll use some of 'em --that'll save time."
Shortly afterwards they were travelling westward at full speed. When they reached the split in the trail, they had to decide which turning to take. Sudden got down and studied the surface.
"Several hosses have gone to the left recent," he said, "an' one of 'em was in a hurry. Hello, what's this?"
His searching eyes had caught a gleam of white in the grass, and he picked it up. The find proved to be a tiny fragment of linen, embroidered with the letters, "J.K." He passed it to Jeff, who needed only a glance.
"It's a bit of Joan's handkerchief--she must have dropped it in the hope that someone would follow."
"Smart of her to leave a signpost," Sudden remarked, and smiled as he saw the boy slip the said "signpost" into a pocket. "It's a safe bet Satan is on his way to join her."
Frosty was enjoying a private joke. "We are now leavin' the place where I staged my on'y hold-up an' got away with thirty thousand cold, belongin' to the Bosviile bank," he stated, with a sly look at Dealtry.
"Best tell a straight story, or the sheriff will pull yu in," Sudden bantered. "An' keep agoin' while yo're doin' it."
The Double K rider obliged, telling the tale in a whimsical way which made two of his hearers laugh; Dealtry listened with grave intentness, his gaze on the man pounding along a pace ahead of him.
"yo're an odd number, Jim," he said. "If ever you take the crooked trail, I hope it don't lead you to these parts; you'd get us all guesin'--wrong."
The compliment brought a sardonic smile to the puncher's lips; the sheriff did not know that the man to whom he paid it had already a price on his head.
Chapter XXVI
Some eight miles past the Devil's Bowl was a similar but smaller hollow, one side of which sloped gently to the sagebrush plain which rose and fell unendingly to the horizon, while the other climbed abruptly to a jagged ridge. At the farther end, hedged in by pines, stood a great tooth of rock, streaked and splashed with reds, greens, and yellows. At the foot of it, some ten yards apart, were a couple of caves, and in front of them, a level expanse of scorched grass.
The place was known as Painted Valley, and it was here that Silver and his charges were waiting. The women, after a night passed in one of the natural shelters, were sitting in the shade of the trees. The man was squatting on a big boulder a little distance away, watching. The horses, still saddled,were tied to the pine-trunks. Joan regarded the animals wistfully. "Can't we reach them and escape?" she ventured.
"I have no wish to," Belle replied. "Even if it were possible, wandering in this wilderness without supplies doesn't appeal to me. Moreover, Silver has a gun."
The spoke seldom after this, for Belle seemed to have become infected with her companion's moodiness. The hours crept slowly by and the afternoon was well advanced when Silver, who had left his post only to prepare a meal or water the ponies, scrambled clumsily down and ran towards them. "He's a-comin' an' ain't losin' no time neither," he rumbled.
Joan retired to their cave; she would not be there to welcome him. Silver's throaty laugh followed her.
"Gone to prink up, I s'pose," he said. "She's a good-looker, but I knows a better."
His meaning ogle incensed the woman. "Guard that tongue or your master shall cut it out," she replied fiercely. Ordinarily the threat would have made him cringe, but this time she saw the mammoth shoulders quivering with silent mirth.
Swiftly the black horse swept along the valley to pull up, panting. Bloody wounds, dust-caked, where the spurs had bitten too deeply, showed it had been cruelly ridden. The rider too was breathing heavily, and below the mask, his face was white. He staggered a little as he alighted.
"What has happened?" Belle asked.
"Hell City is captured," he told her. "I got away, but they are on my heels, three of them, and one is the sheriff of Red Rock."
"Why is he in it?"
"I shot his son. Curse it, they can't be more than two miles away, and there's nowhere to hide here."
"If we start at once ... "
Impatiently he shook his head. "They would run us down --we couldn't blind our tracks."
Belle stepped to him, her eyes eager. "I've an idea, Jeff. We can trick them, and gain time. It's you they want."
He listened avidly. "It's clever, damned clever, and should serve," he said. "You would do this for me?"
"Even more, as you will learn," she murmured. "Now, send Silver to the spring--he will be out of sight there--give me your mask, and put Pluto at the entrance to the second cave. A whistle will tell me when to act."
"You have a head, Belle," he complimented. "I shall make for Willow Bend, California. Meet me there, and we'll conquer the world--together."
He handed her the disguise and turned quickly away to complete the preparations. The black was placed at the mouth of the cave, but not until he had changed the costly saddle for that on one of the other ponies. This occupied precious moments, and he had but just finished and concealed himself when three horsemen appeared on the far rim of the valley. He gave the signal, and at once a figure, dressed like himself, the turned-back brim of the soft hat clearly showing the red mask, darted out, leapt into the saddle of the black, and shot away towards the plain. The new arrivals saw it, too, and with a shrill yell, set off in pursuit. Satan's expression was one of triumphant derision.
"Run, you mud-heads," he muttered. "By the time you catch Pluto, tired as he is, I shall be out of your reach. It will be a pity if they shoot you down, my Belle, but it will save you a disappointment at Willow Bend, if there is such a place."
When the riders had vanished, he entered the second cave and called softly, "Joan." The girl in the shadow turned, and he fell back as though he had encountered an unseen obstacle.
"You?" he gasped. "You--have dared--to play this prank?"
"Yes, I dared," Belle repeated steadily, but her heart was hammering. "I had the courage to do that--for you." The face she was seeing for the first time in its entirety was that of a fiend. The right hand, fingers spread, moved slowly towards his gun and she knew that death was very near. Her voice did not falter. "Hear me, Jeff: the Double K is lost, and that girl could not bring it back. What use would she be to you? I am different--your kind, the wolf-breed--ready to war with the world. You have lost this throw, but such a man as you is never beaten, he plays again--and wins."
The sinister hand had stopped. She drew herself up, stamped her foot, and cried, "Am I not as desirable as that prim madam of whom you would tire in a month?" The challenging charm of her brought a flash of life into the flinty eyes, and she added softly, "Once you told me, `Love is all-powerful; it will find a way, and it forgives.' Well, I love, I have found a way, but it is for you to forgive."