Judith of Blue Lake Ranch

by Jackson Gregory

  IX

  THE OLD TRAIL

  On the Blue Lake Ranch there was more than one man ready to scoff atthe idea of a robbery like this one, frank enough to voice thesuspicion: "It's just a stall for time!" So much had last week's rumordone for them, preparing them to expect something that would set asidethe customary monthly pay-day. But when they had seen Charlie Miller'sbruised head and heard his story; when they had sat on their horses andlooked down at the animal which had been shot under Bud Lee, they weresilent. And, besides, when long after dark they came in behind Carsonfrom a fruitless quest, their pay was ready for them as formerly, ingold and silver.

  Major Langworthy imbibed an unusually large number of cocktails andlong before noon of the following day had suggested that the ranch beput immediately under military law, hinting that a military-mustachedgentleman be appointed commanding general of the Blue Lake forces, andforming within his own mind the picture of himself in the office,revolver on table, cocktail at elbow, directing the manoeuvres fromthis point of vantage, not to say safety. Mrs. Langworthy ruffled herfeathers and sniffed when Judith's name was mentioned. It wasperfectly clear to her that all the ruffians of the West would be quickto take the advantage arising from the ridiculous condition of a rowdygirl assuming men's pantaloons.

  "I am rather inclined to think, mama," said Marcia, "that you don't doJudith justice."

  Trevors, with little to say to any one, took his departure in theforenoon, extracting from Hampton the promise to ride over and see thelumber-camp some day soon.

  Judith, held at the office by a lot of first-of-the-month details, didnot get away until close to eleven o'clock that morning. Then she rodeswiftly down the river, a purpose of her own in mind. At the store shestopped for a sympathetic word with Charlie Miller who had long agoforgotten his own hurt in his grief and anger that he had lost herthousand dollars for her.

  "What's a thousand dollars, Charlie?" she laughed at him. "We'll loseand make many a thousand before the year dies."

  Just below the Lower End settlement she came upon Doc Tripp. He was inone of the quarantine hog-corrals, his sleeves rolled up, a puzzledlook of worry puckering his boyish face.

  "What's up, Doc?" asked Judith.

  "Don't know, Judy. That's what gets my mad up. Just performed anautopsy on one of your Poland-China gilts."

  "Found it dead?" asked Judith.

  "Killed it," grunted Tripp. "Sick. Half dozen more are off their feedand don't look right. A man's always afraid of the cholera. And,"stubbornly, "I won't believe it! There's been no chance of infection;why, there's not an infected herd this side of the Bagley ranch, sixtymiles the other side of Rocky Bend, a clean hundred miles from here.But, just the same, I'm taking temperatures this morning and having myherders cut out all the dull-looking ones and break the herds up."

  "Not getting nerves? Are you, Doc?" And Judith spurred on down thevalley.

  Before she came to the spot where Bud Lee's horse had been shot shecame upon Lee himself. A rifle across his arm, he was looking up atthe cliffs of Squaw Creek canon.

  "Well, Lee," she said, "what do you make of it?"

  He showed no surprise at seeing her and answered slowly, that far-awaylook in his eyes as though he were alone still and speaking simply toBud Lee.

  "Using smokeless powder nowadays is a handy thing for a man shootingunder cover," he said. "Then rig up your gun with a silencer and getoff at fair range, half a mile and up, with a telescope sight, and it'sreal nice fun picking folks off!"

  "All of that spells preparation," suggested Judith.

  He nodded. When he offered no further remark but sat staring up at thecliffs, Judith asked:

  "What else have you learned by coming back down here? Anything?"

  "There were two men, anyway. I'd guess, three. The one who stuck upCharlie and then drifted while the drifting was good. Then the twoother jaspers that tried to wing me."

  "How do you know that?"

  "My horse that was shot," he explained, "got it in the left side of theneck. Now, look at that hole in the little fir-tree yonder."

  Judith saw what he meant now. At this point Lee yesterday had heardthe second bullet singing dangerously near. It had struck the fir, andplainly had been fired from some point off to the right of the canon.Her eyes went swiftly, after his up the cliff walls.

  "I doped it out while I was running," he went on. "Look at the way thetrees grow here. If a man was on the cliffs shooting at me, and comingthat close to winging me, why, he'd have to be off to the right. Thesebig pines would shunt him off from the other side. It's open and shutthere were two of them. And darn good shots," he added dryly.

  Briefly he went on to give her the rest of the results of his two-hourseeking for something definite. If she'd ride on a little she'd cometo the spot where his horse had been killed; she would see in the roadthe signs where, at Tripp's, orders, the carcass had been dragged away.From there, looking off to the left, up the cliffs, she would see thespot which Lee believed had harbored one of the riflemen. High abovethe canon rose the rocky pinnacle he had marked yesterday, with brushstanding tall in a little depression.

  "Indian Head," broke in Judith, gazing upward. "Bud Lee, I'll bet ahorse you're right. . . ."

  "And," said Lee, swinging from the saddle, "I'm going up there to havea little look around."

  In an instant the girl was at his side.

  "I am going with you," she said simply.

  He looked at her curiously. Then he shrugged his shoulders. An angryflush came to the girl's cheeks, but she went on with him. Not a wordpassed between them during the entire hour required to climb the steepside of the mountain and come under Indian Head cliffs. Here theystood together upon a narrow ledge panting, resting. Again Judith sawLee glance at her curiously. He had not sought to accommodate hisswift climbing to a girl's gait and yet he had not distanced her in theascent. But in Lee's glance there was nothing of approval. There weretwo kinds of women, as he had said, and . . .

  "Pretty steep climb from here up," he remarked bluntly.

  "For a valley man or a cobble-pounder, maybe," was Judith's curtrejoinder.

  Thereafter they did not speak again until, after nearly another hour,they at last came to the crest of Indian Head. And here, in theeagerness of their search, rewarded by the signs which they found, theyforgot, both of them, to maintain their reserve.

  In the clump of brush, close to the outer fringe, behind a low, broadboulder, a man had lain on his belly no longer ago than yesterday.Broken twigs showed it, a small bush crushed down told of it, the marksof his toes in some of the softer soil proclaimed it eloquently. And,had other signs been required, there they were: two empty brasscartridges where the automatic ejector had thrown them several feetaway. Lee picked up one of the shells.

  "Latest thing in an up-to-the-minute Savage," he told her. "That gunis good for twice the distance he used it for. I'm in tolerable luckto be mountain-climbing to-day, I guess!"

  While Judith visualized just what had occurred, saw the tall man--hemust have been tall for his boot toes to scratch the earth yonder whilehis rifle-barrel lay for support across the boulder in front--restinghis gun and firing down into the canon--Lee was back at her side,saying shortly:

  "What do you think? There's a plain trail up here, old as the hills,but tip-top for speedy going."

  "And," said Judith without looking up, "it runs down into the nextsaddle, to the north of that ridge, curves up again and with monumentsall along the way, runs straight to the Upper End and comes down fromthe northeast to the lake."

  Lee looked at her, wondering.

  "You knew about it all the time, then?"

  "If we hadn't been on our high horses," she told him quietly, "I shouldhave told you about it. It's the old Indian Trail. If the man we wantturned east, then he went right on to the lake before he stoppedputting one foot in front of the other. Unless he hid out all night,which I don't believe."

&nbs
p; "What makes you think he went that far?"

  "There's no other trail up here that gets anywhere. If he left thisone for a short cut he'd know, if he knows anything, that he'd have totake a chance every ten steps of breaking his neck in the dark. Now,"and she rose swiftly, confronting him, "the thing for you to do, BudLee, is to get back to your horse, take the road, make time getting tothe Upper End and see what you can see there!"

  Hurrying back to their horses, they rode to the ranch-house whereJudith, with no word of adieu, left Lee to go to the house. Lee made alate lunch, saddled another horse, and when the bunk-house clock stoodat a quarter of four, started for the Upper End.

  "That girl's got the savvy," was his one remark to himself.