"Oh, Jeff, I am so glad," she cried. "Of course, I never believed ..." She broke off breathlessly, and then added, "you will come back to the Double K now?"
"Yes, I must take my medicine," he replied.
"I don't think it will be a very bad dose," she smiled happily. "Let's go at once."
He was turning his horse when an exclamation of dismay arrested him.
"Not that way, Jeff; I can't be seen in these awful clothes."
"But you make the prettiest kind of boy, Joan," he protested. "The outfit will be falling in love with you all over again, and I'll have to lick the lot of them." He paused, fearing he might have offended, but her downcast eyes and flushed cheeks did not indicate anger. "I've no right to talk like this, but while I was in that living tomb, I used to have visions of you as the wife of another man, and it was torment. Tell me, dear, is there ...?"
Joan Keith was no coquette. She shook her head, and said softly, "It was always you, Jeff. Even when I could not but believe--the worst, I--still--cared."
Perhaps the horses understood, or had also something to say to one another, for without either rider being conscious of movement, they were side by side. Jeff had but to stretch out his arms.
When Sudden and his companions reached Hell City again they were met by Mart Merry, who surveyed the red-masked, gruesome burden they brought with callous complacency.
"So yu got him?" he said. "Where's Joan?" The information produced a hoarse chuckle. "Durn that boy; we get him outa one scrape an' right off he tumbles into another," quoth the hardened bachelor. "It looks like Ken will have his own way after all." He turned to the sheriff. "Mighty near straightened up here. A few made their getaway, but we've some prisoners for yu. Come an' look 'em over."
Apart from the shattered gate, and the fact that men were digging holes in the corral, the bandit town wore its custom ary appearance. Near the whipping-post was a group of bound men, among them Squint.
"Where's Roden?" Sudden asked.
"He stopped a slug an' it stopped him," the ruffian replied. Dirk too was there. The puncher pointed to him. "He warn't one o' the gang--just ran the saloon--got a wife an' kids, too," he said.
The sheriff looked at the other prisoners. "Did this fella fight against us?" he enquired, and when several of them growled a sullen negative, gave orders for his release.
The moment he was free the saloon-keeper looked for his benefactor, but Sudden had vanished; he did not like being thanked. Moreover he wanted Nigger, so he and Frosty used the secret exit and having regained their own steeds, set out for the Twin Diamond.
"Satan's saddle warn't on the black nor any o' the other hosses," Frosty remarked. "D'yu reckon the Dalroy woman hived it?"
"Likely," his friend replied.
"Bet it was worth takin'," the Double K rider ruminated, and with a sly glance, "Why didn't yu go with her, Jim? She's as pretty as a picture, an' she'll have a wad--now."
"When a man marries he wants more'n a picture, even if it does have a gold frame," Sudden told him. "I got somethin' to do before I start fussin' around females."
And Frosty, who knew what that "somethin' " was, had nothing to say.
Chapter XXVII
The day following the fall of Hell City was one of rejoicing tempered with regret, for casualties had not been confined to the conquered; there were gaps in both outfits, Dugout and Red Rock had lost citizens, and the wounded were many. But the job was done, thoroughly.
At the Double K ranch-house, the Colonel was receiving visitors. He had heard a wellnigh incredible story, and insisted on seeing the Principal performers in the drama. So, one by one, Merry, the Red Rock sheriff, Sudden, Frosty, and the Double K foreman filed into the bedroom, where the invalid--propped up by pillows, with Joan sitting beside him--apologized with old-world courtesy.
"Yu don't have to say a word, Ken," Merry assured him. "We're mighty glad to be able to see yu a-tall. How're yu makin' it?"
The Colonel replied that he was progressing favourably, and asked for details of the strange happenings of which he had been given only an outline. He listened as each added his quota to the tale, but his gaze was on the door. Presently it opened, Jeff stepped in, and stood, waiting. Instantly the deep-sunk eyes in the sick man's gaunt face became obdurate, relentless.
"What do you here?" he asked harshly. "Have you come slinking back to see if there is still a hope of regaining the inheritance you threw away?"
The thunderstruck company saw the boy's face turn as white as that of the man who hurled this cruel question at him, but there was no anger in it.
"No, sir, I came to beg a father's forgiveness and nothing -more," he answered quietly.
"Very touching, but a lie," was the searing retort. "I happen to know that, in case I decline to be duped, you have provided yourself with a second chance by persuading this foolish girl that you care for her."
"Oh, Daddy Ken," the "foolish girl" murmured, and hid her shamed face.
Merry stood up. "Ken Keith, yo're my friend, but if yu wasn't crippled, I'd shake the eternal lights out'n yu. Of all the--"
The Colonel did not let him finish. "Attend to your own affairs, Mart, and allow me to deal with mine," he snapped. "As for you Joan, if you marry that fellow, you go to him empty-handed. That makes a difference, doesn't it?"
The girl's wet eyes met his steadily. "No," she replied.
"Joan is more to me than all the ranches in Arizona," young Keith said. "I have learned my lesson, sir, and I'm sorry you--feel this way."
He was turning to leave when Merry spoke again: "Hold yore hosses, I'm comin' along. We'll go to the Twin Diamond, an'--" He stopped, and the belligerent look faded when he saw the change in the Colonel's face; the sternness had gone, and with a smile which was like the sun bursting through a cloud, the old man said:
"Would you rob me of my boy, Mart?"
The fat man stared open-mouthed, but Jeff understood. With a bound he was at the bedside, gripping the thin white hand waiting for him.
"Dad!" he cried.
"Forgive me, lad," Kenneth Keith said. "I had to try you --for Joan's sake; I couldn't trust her to a weakling." Taking the girl's hand, he placed it in that of his son. "There must always be a Keith at the Double K, Jeff."
"I hope there will be, sir," the young man replied, with a look which brought the blood back into Joan's cheeks.
By this time Merry had recovered. "Well, yu of fraud, I'm free to admit yu had me razzle-dazzled," he remarked. "Shore thought yu meant it, an' I 'most wish yu had; I was figurin' on gettin' me a son an' daughter at the ranch-house." He sensed the significance of Frosty's grin. "O' course, she'd want repairin' some."
"All she needs is new floors, walls, roof, an' fixin's," the white-headed cowboy suggested. "The ground's good."
This produced a laugh in which the owner of the maligned edifice joined heartily. Then the Colonel spoke.
"My friends, I owe a great debt to all of you, but especially to James Green, whom I woefully misjudged."
The Twin Diamond man could not resist the opportunity. "I put one over on yu there, Ken; said all along he was straight."
The Colonel turned on him sharply, and--smiled. "That is so," he agreed, and Mart--who had expected a prompt contradiction--was sorry he had spoken. Then, divining Sudden's evident discomfort, the invalid went on, "We must have a long talk, Green, when I am stronger. Now, I see my nurse is looking severe ..."
Jeff lingered behind the others. "Dad, you're being very good to me," he said.
"Nonsense, son," was the reply. "When a man is ill, he has time to think, and I have found much to regret. Run along and entertain our guests."