Starr, of the Desert

by B. M. Bower

  CHAPTER TWENTY

  STARR DISCOVERS THINGS

  Starr was sitting on the side of his bed with one boot off and danglingin his hand, and with his thoughts gone journeying out over the mesa andthe desert and the granite ridge beyond, to a squatty, two-room adobeshack at the head of Sunlight Basin. During the days he had been toofully occupied with the work he had to do to dwell much on the miserablefact of Helen May's duplicity, her guilt of the crime of treason againsther native country. But at night the thought of her haunted him like thefevered ache of a wound too deep to heal quickly.

  He swore an abrupt oath as a concrete expression of his mood, and droppedthe boot with a thump to the floor. The word and the action served toswing his thoughts into another channel not much more pleasant, but agreat deal more impersonal.

  "He's shore foxy--that hombre!" he said, thinking of Elfigo Apodaca.

  As matters stood that evening, Starr felt that Elfigo had the right tolaugh at him and the whole Secret Service. Elfigo was in jail, yes.Only that day he had been given his preliminary hearing on the chargeof murdering Estan Medina, and he had been remanded without bail toawait trial.

  On the face of it, that looked as though Starr had gained a point. Inreality he felt that he had in some manner played into Elfigo's hands.Certainly he had not gained anything in the way of producing any buzzingof the Alliance leaders. Not a Mexican had shown his face at the hearing,save Luis Medina and his mother, who had been called as witnesses.

  Luis had been badly scared but stubborn, insisting that he had heardElfigo call Estan from the house just before the shot was fired. Themother also had been badly frightened, but not at all stubborn. Indeed,she was not even certain of anything beyond the drear fact that her sonwas dead, and that he had fallen with the lamp in his hand, unarmed andunsuspecting. She was frightened at the unknown, terrible Law that hadbrought her there before the judge, and not at anything tangible.

  But Luis knew exactly what it was he feared. Starr read that in his eyeswhenever they turned toward the calm, inscrutably smiling Elfigo. Hatewas in the eyes of Luis, but the hate was almost submerged by the terrorthat filled him. He shook when he stood up to take the oath. His voicetrembled in spite of him when he spoke; but he spoke boldly for allthat--falsely, too. He had lied when he told of the quarrel over the oldwater right. It was not a water right which the two had discussed, andStarr knew it.

  But it was Elfigo that puzzled Starr most. Elfigo had smiled, as thoughthe whole thing amused him even though it annoyed him to be under arrest.He denied, of course, that he had known anything at all about the murderuntil it was common news about town. He had been somewhere else at thetime Estan was shot, and he could and would prove, when the time came,that it would have been physically impossible for him to have shot EstanMedina. He preferred not to produce any witnesses now, however. Let it goto a jury trial, and then he would clear himself of the charge. Allthrough his lawyer, of course, while Elfigo sat back with his hands inhis pockets and his feet thrust out before him, whimsically contemplatinghis tan shoes.

  He had seemed confident that bail would be accepted, and he wasunmistakably crestfallen when the judge, who acted under certaininstructions from those above him, refused to accept bail. But Elfigo hadscored, nevertheless; he had not permitted any of his friends to becomeidentified in any manner whatsoever with his movements, and he hadwithheld his side of the case altogether.

  So Starr was left in the dark where he had expected to find the light heneeded to direct him. He had also permitted Luis to mark himself foranother murder in the Medina family. Well, Luis was a conspirator, forthat matter; but he was a boy, and his judgment had not ripened. Itseemed a shame that a youngster like that should be drawn into such amess. Starr, determined to do what he could to protect Luis, had seen toit that Luis was locked up, for the purely technical reason that he wasan important witness and they wanted to be sure of him; but really toprotect him from the wrath of Elfigo.

  "And now," Starr's thoughts ran on, "I stand just where I stood before,except that I know a whole heap more than I wish I knew. And if the thingbreaks loose before the trial, Elfigo will be in jail where he's got acast-iron alibi. The rest of the bunch must be strong enough to go onwithout him, but I shore did hope they'd be stirred up some over thisshooting. They'll likely get together right away, hold a meeting and makearrangements to do without Elfigo. If I knew where..."

  He lifted the other foot to remove its boot, hesitated, and set it downagain. Surely the Alliance would have to adjust itself to the loss ofElfigo. They would get together, and what buzzing they did would bebehind barred doors, since they had been too cunning to show themselvesat the hearing; that night, probably, since they knew now that Elfigo hadbeen bound over to the grand jury, and that he was held without bail.Where would they meet? That was what Starr wished he knew.

  He sat there rumpling his hair and studying the question. He could notfix upon any particular place, unless it was the Sommers ranch; and thatwas too far from town for any urgent business, and travelers to and fromthe place would be taking too great a risk. For he was sure there wouldbe a dozen or more who would make up the Junta, and for so many men to betraveling in one direction would excite curiosity from any one who sawthem leave town or return.

  There was another possible meeting place--the office of _Las Nuevas_.Starr thought of that rather hopelessly. Just as a common precaution,they would guard the doors if the Junta met there, or they would have menstationed on the stairs; that he would not be able to get up withoutgiving the alarm he knew as well as though he had tried and failed.

  His thoughts went to that hidden, inner office where he had found thepamphlets and the writing that pointed to Helen May as one of the band.There, where there were no outside windows to betray a midnightconference by any showing of light within; where eavesdropping wasabsolutely impossible; where the men who met there might gain the yard byvarious means, since it faced on three streets, and be practically safefrom observation, he became convinced would be the logical meeting place.

  To be sure, he was only guessing. He had no evidence whatever save hisown reason that there would be a meeting, much less that it would be heldin the secret office room of _Las Nuevas_. But he put on the boot he hadtaken off and reached for his coat. A half hour or so ought to prove himright or wrong in his deductions, and Starr would not have grudged a fullnight to satisfy himself on that point.

  It was late, nearly midnight, to be exact, when he slipped out to theshed, and watched from its shadow until he was sure that no one had seenhim, before he let himself down through the hole in the manger to thearroyo bottom. He went hurriedly, but he was very careful not to showhimself without first making sure that the way was clear.

  For that reason he escaped being seen by a tall young Mexican whom hecaught sight of lounging at the corner opposite the building that held_Las Nuevas_. Ostensibly the fellow had merely stopped to light acigarette, but while Starr watched him he struck three matches insuccession, and immediately afterwards a shadow glided from the shelterof a plumber's shop opposite, slipped down to the gate that was alwaysbarred, and disappeared.

  Starr circled warily to the rear of the yard to see what chance theremight be of getting over the wall unseen. He did not know what good itwould do him to get into the yard, but he hoped that he might be luckyenough to see any one who entered the back door, which would be thelogical means of ingress.

  He was standing back of the garage where he had found the cord tires,when the quiet of the night was split with the shrill, nerve-rackingshriek of the fire whistle, four or five blocks away. In spite ofhimself, he was startled with its suddenness, and he stood tensed andwaiting for the dismal hoots that would tell what ward the fire wasin. One--two--three, croaked the siren like a giant hoot-owl callingin the night.

  "Third ward--down around the depot, probably," he heard a voice sayguardedly on the other side of the fence. Another voice, more guardedeven than the first, muttered a reply which Starr could not c
atch.Neither voice was recognizable, and the sentence he heard was so obviousa remark as to be practically meaningless; probably a hundred persons intown had said "Third ward," when the siren had tooted the number.

  At any rate some one was there in the yard of _Las Nuevas_, and it wouldnot be wise for Starr to attempt getting over the wall. He waitedtherefore until he heard careful footsteps moving away; whereupon hehimself stole quietly to the corner, thence down the side wall to thefront of the building, so that he could look across the street to wherethe Mexican had revealed himself for a moment in the light of a distantstreet lamp.

  If the Mexican had been on watch there, he had left his post. In a minuteStarr saw him hurrying down the unused side street, toward the angry glowthat told where the fire had started. Too much temptation, Starrinterpreted the fellow's desertion of his post; or else no more men wereexpected at _Las Nuevas_, and the outpost was no longer needed. Taking itfor granted that a meeting had been called here, Starr reasoned from thatassumption.

  He waited another minute or two, watching and listening. There wasnothing at the front to break the quiet or spoil the air of desertionthat surrounds an empty office building at midnight. He went cautiouslyto the rear corner and turned there to look back at the building,watchful for any stray beam of light or any movement.

  The upper story was dark as the rest of the yard and building, and Starrcould almost believe that he was on the wrong track entirely, and thatnothing was going on here. But he continued to stand there, loath to giveup and go home with nothing accomplished.

  Close beside the building and back perhaps twenty feet from the frontcorner, a telephone and electric light pole stood with outstretched arms,holding aloft its faintly humming wires. Starr stood looking that way forsome time before it occurred to him that there was no street light nearenough to send that warm, yellow glow across the second bar from thebottom. The rest of the pole was vague and shadowy, like everything elsein the immediate neighborhood. The bottom of the pole he could not see atall from where he stood, it was so dark alongside the building. But thatsecond cross-arm was lighted as from a near-by window. Yet there was nolighted window anywhere in the place.

  Starr was puzzled. Being puzzled, he went slowly toward the pole, hisface turned upward. The nearest street lamp was a full block away, and itwould have lighted up the whole top of the pole evenly, if at all. At thefoot of the pole Starr stood for a minute, still staring upward. Then hereached up, gripped the metal steps and began carefully to climb.

  Before he had reached the lighted cross-arm he knew that the glow mustcome from a skylight; and that the skylight must be the one that hadsaved that hidden little office room from being dark. He was no lineman,but he knew enough to be careful about the wires, so it took him severalminutes to work his way to where he could straddle a crosstree that hadfew wires.

  Just below him and no more than twelve or fifteen feet distant was theskylight he had suspected, but before he gave that much attention, helooked across to where the fire was sending up a column of crimson smokeand bright, eddying sparks, four blocks or so away. The man left on guardwould find it difficult to tear himself away from all that excitement,Starr thought satisfiedly; though if he came back he could scarcely helpseeing Starr on that lighted perch, and he would undoubtedly take a shotat him if he were any man at all and had a spark of loyalty to hisfellows. For Starr's business up there could not be mistaken by thestupidest greaser in the town.

  With the fire to help his cause, Starr craned toward the building andlooked down through the skylight. It had been partly raised forventilation, which was needed in that little, inside room, especiallysince twelve men were foregathered there, and since every man in the lotwas burning tobacco in some form.

  Sommers was there, seated at the end of a table that had been movedinto the center of the room, which brought it directly under theskylight. He sat facing Starr, and he was reading something to himselfwhile the others waited in silence until he had finished. His strong,dark face was grave, his high forehead creased with the wrinkles ofdeep thinking. He had a cigar in one corner of his mouth, and he wasabsentmindedly chewing it rather than smoking. He looked the leader,though his clothes were inclined to shabbiness and he sat slouchedforward in his chair. He looked the leader, and their leader thoseothers proclaimed him by their very silence, and by the way their facesturned toward him while they waited.