CHAPTER XXIII
WHERE THE WHEEL TRACKS LED
Bud Jessup removed a battered stew-pan from the fire and set it aside tocool a little.
"Well, by this time I reckon friend Tex is all worked up over what'sbecome of me," he remarked in a tone of satisfaction, deftly shifting thecoffee-pot to a bed of deeper coals. "He's sure tried often enough to getrid of me, but I don't guess he quite relishes my droppin' out of sightlike this."
Buck Stratton, his back resting comfortably against a rock a little wayfrom the fire, nodded absently.
"You're sure you didn't leave any trace they could pick up?" he asked witha touch of anxiety.
"Certain sure," returned Jessup confidently. "When Miss Mary came inaround four, I was in the wagon-shed, the rest of the crowd bein' down insouth pasture. Like I told yuh before, she had a good-sized package alldone up nice in her hand, an' it didn't take her long to tell me what wasup. Then we walks out together an' stops by the kitchen door.
"'Yuh better get yore supper at the hotel,' she says, an' ride backafterwards. 'I meant to send in right after dinner to mail the package,but I got held up out on the range.'
"Then she seems to catch sight of the greaser for the first time jestinside the door, though I noticed him snoopin' there when we first comeup.
"'I hope yuh got somethin' left from dinner, Pedro,' she says, with one ofthem careless natural smiles of hers, like as if she hadn't a care on hermind except food. 'I'm half starved.'"
Bud sighed and finished with a note of admiration. "Some girl, allright!"
"You've said it," agreed Buck fervently.
His appearance had improved surprisingly in the ten days that had passedsince his accident. The head-bandage was gone, and his swollen ankle,though still tender at times, had been reduced to almost normal size byconstant applications of cold water. His body was still tightly strappedup with yards and yards of bandage, which Mary Thorne had thoughtfullypacked, with a number of other first-aid necessities, in the parcel whichwas Bud's excuse for making a trip to town.
Stratton was not certain that a rib had been broken after all. When Jessupcame to examine him he found the flesh terribly bruised and refrained fromany unnecessary prodding. It was still somewhat painful to the touch, butfrom the ease with which he could get about, Buck had a notion that atthe worst the bone was merely cracked.
"They wouldn't be likely to notice where you left the Paloma trail, wouldthey?" Buck asked, after a brief retrospective silence.
"Not unless they're a whole lot better trackers than I think for," Jessupassured him. "I picked a rocky place this side of the gully, an' cutaround the north end of middle pasture, where the land slopes down a bit,an' yuh can't be seen from the south more 'n a quarter of a mile. I keptmy eyes peeled, believe me! an' didn't glimpse a soul all the way. Iwouldn't fret none about their followin' me here."
"I reckon it is foolish," admitted Stratton. "But lying around not able todo anything makes a fellow think up all kinds of trouble. Lynch isn't afool, and there's no doubt when you didn't come back that night he'd beginto smell a rat right off."
"Sure. An' next day he likely sent in to town, where he'd find out fromold Pop that I never showed up there at all. After that, accordin' to myfiggerin', he'd be up against it hard. Yuh can bank on Miss Mary playin'the game, an' registerin' surprise an' worry an' all the rest of it. Thereain't a chance in the world of his thinkin' to look for me here."
"I reckon that's true. Of course we've got to remember that so far as heknows I'm out of the way for good."
Bud took up coffee-pot and stew-pan and set them down beside Stratton,where the rest of the meal was spread.
"Sure," he chuckled, dropping down against the ledge. "Officially, you'rea corpse. That's yore strong point, old-timer. By golly!" he added, with asudden, fierce revulsion of spirit. "I only hope I'll be on hand when hegets what's comin' to him, the damn', cowardly skunk!"
"Maybe you will," commented Buck grimly. "Well, let's eat. Seems like I donothing but eat and sleep and loaf around. I've a good notion to bust upthe monotony," he added, after a few minutes had passed in the silentconsumption of food, "and take that trip to north pasture to-morrow."
"Don't be loco," Bud told him hastily. "Yuh ain't fit for nothin' likethat yet."
"I did it a few days ago," Stratton reminded him, "and I'm feeling ahundred per cent. better now."
"Mebbe so; but what's the use in takin' chances? We got plenty of time."
"I'm not so sure of that," Buck said seriously. "You say that Lynch thinksI'm dead and out of the way. Well, maybe he does; but unless he's a lotbigger fool than I think for, he's not going to leave a body around inplain sight for anybody to find. He'll be slipping down into that gulchone of these days to get rid of it, and when he finds there ain't anybody--then what?"
"He'll begin to see he's got into one hell of a mess, I reckon," commentedJessup.
"Right. And he'll be willing to do anything on earth to crawl out safe.Like enough he'll connect your disappearance with the business, and thatwould worry him more than ever. He might even get scared enough to throwup the whole game and beat it; and believe me, that wouldn't suit me atall."
"Yuh said a mouthful!" snarled Jessup. "If that hellion should getaway--Say, Buck, why couldn't yuh get him for attempted murder?"
"I might, but the witnesses are all on his side, and there'd be a goodchance of his slipping out. Besides, I'm set on finding out first what hisgame is. I'm dead certain now it's connected somehow with the northpasture, and I've an idea it's something big. That car I told you about,and everything--Well, there's no sense guessing any longer when we canmake a stab at finding out. We'll start the first thing to-morrow."
Bud made no further protest, and at dawn next morning they left camp andset out northward through the hills. It was a slow journey, and toward theend of it Buck felt rather seedy. But this was only natural, he toldhimself, after lying around and doing nothing; and he even wished he hadmade the move sooner.
Both he and Jessup were conscious of a growing excitement as they nearedthe goal from which circumstances had held them back so long. Were theygoing to find out something definite at last? Or would fate thrust anotherunexpected obstacle in their way? Above all, if fortune proved kind, whatwould be the character of their discovery?
Immensely intrigued and curious, Bud chattered constantly throughout theride, suggesting all sorts of solutions of the problem, some of which wererather far-fetched. Gold was his favorite--as it has been the favoritelure for adventurers all down the ages--and he drew an entrancing pictureof desert sands sprinkled with the yellow dust. He thought of otherprecious metals, too, and even gave a passing consideration to a depositof diamonds or some other precious or semi-precious stones. Once heswitched off oddly on the subject of prehistoric remains, and Stratton'ssurprised inquiry revealed the fact that three years ago he had worked fora party of scientific excavators in Montana.
"Them bones and skeletons as big as houses bring a pile of money, believeme!" he assured his companion. "The country up there ain't a mitedifferent from this, neither."
Buck himself was unusually silent and abstracted. During the last ten daysof enforced idleness he had considered the subject for hours at a time andfrom every conceivable angle, with the result that a certain possibilityoccurred to him and persisted in lingering in his mind, in spite of itsseeming improbability. It was so vague and unlikely that he said nothingabout it to Bud; but now, mounting the steep trail, the thought of it cameback with gathering strength, and he wondered whether it could possibly betrue.
Advancing with every possible precaution, they gained the summit andpassed on down the other side. Before them lay the desert, glittering andglowing in the morning sun, without a sign of alien presence. Keeping asharp lookout, they reached the little, half-circular recess in the cliffsthat formed the end of the trail, and paused.
No rain had fallen in the last ten days and the print of motor-tires wasalmost as clear and unmist
akable as the day it had been made. They couldmake out easily where the car had been driven in, the footprints about it,and the marks left by its turning; and with equal lack of difficulty theypicked out the track made as it departed.
The latter headed north, but Stratton was not interested in it. Withouthesitation he selected the incoming trail, and the two followed it outinto the desert. For a few hundred yards they rode almost due east. Thenthe wheel-marks turned abruptly to the south, and a little further on Bucknoted the prints of a galloping horse beside them.
"Lynch, I reckon," he commented, pointing them out to his companion. "Whenhe saw me up on the cliffs down yonder, he must have hustled to catch upwith the car."
Neither of them spoke again until they reached the spot where Buck hadseen the car stop and the men get out and walk about. Here they dismountedand followed the footprints with careful scrutiny. Bud saw nothingsignificant, and when they had covered the ground thoroughly, he expressedhis disappointment freely. Stratton merely shrugged his shoulders.
"We'll follow the back track and see where else they stopped," he saidcurtly.
His voice was a little hoarse, and there was an odd gleam in his eyes.When they were in the saddle again, he urged his horse forward at a speedwhich presently brought a protest from Jessup.
"Yuh better take it easy, old man," he cautioned. "If that cayuse steps ina hole, you're apt to get a jolt that'll put you out of business."
"I don't guess it'll hurt me," returned Stratton with preoccupiedbrevity.
Bud gave a resigned shrug, and for ten minutes the silence remainedunbroken. Then all at once Buck gave a muttered exclamation and pulledhis horse up with a jerk.
They were on the rim of a wide, shallow depression in the sand. There wasnothing remarkable about it at first sight, save, perhaps, the totalabsence of desert vegetation for some distance all around. But Strattonslid hastily out of his saddle, flung the reins over Pete's head, andwalked swiftly forward. Thrilled with a sudden excitement and suspense,Bud followed.
"What is it?" he questioned eagerly, as Buck bent down to scoop up ahandful of the trampled sand. "What have yuh--"
He broke off abruptly as Stratton turned suddenly on him, eyes dilated anda spot of vivid color glowing on each cheek-bone.
"Don't you see?" he demanded, thrusting his hand toward the boy. "Don'tyou understand?"
Staring at the open palm, Jessup's eyes widened and his jaw dropped.
"Good Lord!" he gasped. "You don't mean that it--it's--"
He paused incredulously, and Buck nodded.
"I'm sure of it," he stated crisply.
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