Collected Works of Zane Grey

by Zane Grey

  Randolph turned bewildered with a voiceless query.

  “There was an understanding between my son and Miss Endicott,” replied Mrs. Durland. “No formal announcement, but all their friends knew.”

  Randolph seemed stunned.

  “Look here, Randolph,” spoke up Bert, suddenly. “Are you a married man?”

  “Certainly not,” replied Randolph, surprised into the truth.

  “So! That’s it!” shouted Bert, triumphantly. “I’ve a hunch you’re a damned villain. Wait until I find that girl!” He rushed to and fro, and finally disappeared round the corner.

  “Mrs. Durland, don’t you think I had better stop him?” queried Randolph, in real concern. “This canyon is a big place. He could get lost or fall off a cliff. He’s so slim he could almost slip down into a gopher hole.”

  “I don’t care what happens,” complained Mrs. Durland. “I’m overcome at this shocking turn of affairs. I’m beginning to think Janey Endicott was here. The fools men make of themselves over that girl!... I wish I’d never come to your miserable old ruin. I’ll crumble myself before I get away.”

  “Courage, Madam. All is not lost!”

  “Stop calling me Madam,” replied the woman, testily. “My name is Mrs. Durland.”

  “Pardon... Shall I endeavor to locate your son before he...”

  Bert hove in sight at that moment high up on the shelving rock. Janey had caught sight of him before the others, and she tried to melt into the niche. But she was a little too substantial. Part of her protruded and young Durland saw it.

  “Aha!” he shouted, leaping down the slope. Janey wanted at least to show her face, because she was fighting a wild laugh, but as soon as Bert laid rough hands on her, she blazed with wrath.

  “Here you are. Come out of it,” he said, exultantly. “Hey, you down there. I’ve found her.”

  “Let go of me, you — you...” cried Janey.

  “You shameless thing! No wonder you can’t face me... Out you come!”

  “Let go! — Philip!” shrieked Janey, as Bert dragged her out. She wrenched free to glare at him.

  “Durland, I’ll knock your head off,” called Randolph, loudly.

  “So he is your party?” sneered Bert, in jealous contempt. “I’m on to you, Janey Endicott. This beats any stunt you ever pulled back East. Came out West for a real kick, eh? Well! Won’t it sound sweet back home?”

  “Yes, and you’ll be just about the kind to blab about it,” retorted Janey.

  “Come on down here. You’ve got to face them,” he said, snatching at her.

  Durland did not release her even when they reached a level. In fact, he dragged her in a most undignified, if not actually brutal way, toward his mother.

  “Phil!” cried Janey, in pain and mortification.

  Randolph intercepted Durland and gave him a resounding slap that was certainly equivalent to a blow. Durland went down in a heap. His grand sombrero rolled in the dust.

  “You blackguard!” screamed Mrs. Durland. “To strike my son! You’ll suffer for this.”

  Bert got tangled up in his long spurs and with difficulty restored his equilibrium.

  “Say, you young jackass,” declared Randolph, coolly. “If you touch this young lady again, I’ll take a real poke at you.”

  “Don’t hit him, Phil,” interposed Janey, trying to recover her humor. “I don’t want his death on our hands.”

  Then ensued an awkward silence. Bert went from white to red. He brushed the dust from his immaculate riding breeches, and picked up the huge velvet sombrero. Meanwhile Mrs. Durland was staring in wide-eyed recognition at Janey.

  “Well, Mother, do you know the young lady? Was I right or wrong?”

  “Right, Bertrand,” snapped Mrs. Durland. Whereupon Bert turned to the others. “Janey, I’ve got the goods on you,” he said. “You needn’t take the trouble to keep up the farce any longer. What I can’t understand is that your father should tell us you were here.”

  “I can’t understand that, either,” replied Janey, soberly.

  “He must have guessed it and hoped I’d rescue you,” went on Bert. “Or else he saw you gone beyond redemption.”

  “That probably is it, Bert,” said Janey, with sweet meekness.

  Randolph appeared the most uncomfortable of the four, although Mrs. Durland was getting ready to explode.

  “Anyway, it’s too late,” concluded Durland, with bitterness.

  “Randolph, you told me you were not married. ‘Certainly not,’ you said.”

  “Yes, I — did,” returned Randolph, haltingly, as if his mind was not working.

  “There! Janey, you swore you were Mrs. Phillip Randolph, didn’t you?” went on the accuser, bolder as he recognized he had the whip hand.

  “Yes, I — did,” returned Janey, bending terrible eyes upon Phillip.

  “Miss Endicott!” burst out Mrs. Durland, in accents of horror. “You’re here with this man alone?”

  “Yes, but not willingly, Mrs. Durland,” answered Janey, with profound sorrow. “He kidnaped me.”

  “Kidnaped you? Good heavens! Then he isn’t what he pretends to be?”

  “Indeed he isn’t.”

  “Desperado — Wild West villain sort of man?” she whispered, huskily.

  “Worse than that.”

  Durland had turned pale at this revelation. His distended eyes, fast upon Randolph, denoted both fear and anger.

  “Your name isn’t Randolph?” he queried, apprehensively.

  “Looks as if my name is mud,” returned Randolph, coming out of his stupefaction.

  “Bert, the truth is he is Black Dick, a notorious character hereabouts,” explained Janey.

  “Black Dick! I — heard about him from the driver,” rejoined Durland, apprehensively. “But, Janey, why did you try to deceive me about yourself? Why didn’t you tell me in the first place who this man was?”

  “It was the shame — the ignominy of it all, Bert,” she said, enjoying Randolph’s discomfort. “I knew he’d drive you off and I thought I could get away with that story. I’d rather have died out here than have — anyone know.”

  “And he actually kidnaped you?”

  “Well, I just guess he did. Ambushed me when I was in camp with friends on the way here. He caught me alone. Seems he followed all the way from the post where he’d been watching me for days. He grabbed me. I fought with all my might. But he was too much for me. Tied me on a horse. Oh, it was awful! Look at these black-and-blue marks. These are nothing to others I have that I — I can’t very well show you. I had to ride a whole day and night in the most terrible storm. When we got here I was more dead than alive.”

  “By heaven, it’s like a book!” ejaculated Durland. “Kidnaped you for ransom? Heard about your dad’s wealth, of course?”

  “No, Bert, it isn’t money he’s after,” declared Janey. “I imagined that at first. And I offered to give him everything from ten to a hundred thousand dollars. But the brute would only laugh and kiss me again. Swears the minute he saw me at the post he went mad over me.”

  Bert’s consternation and fright were strong, but he laughed — hysterically — nonetheless. He rocked to and fro.

  “Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! It was coming to you — Janey Endicott! Drove him mad? Ha! Ha! He’s only one of many. Prefers making love to you to a hundred thousand bucks!... By golly, you’ve finally got the kick you were always longing for!”

  “Bert, I deserve all I’m getting,” rejoined Janey, sadly resigned.

  “Why didn’t your father get word of this? What is the matter with your friends?”

  “I think they must have been captured by Black Dick’s outfit and are being held.”

  “My God! And — and where is Randolph, the archaeologist? They said he was here.”

  Janey managed a convincing moan. “There was a Mr. Randolph, a wonderful man, but now he’s — he’s gone, and there’s nobody but this vicious desperado left.”

  Bert turned white. “You mean


  “Hush!” Janey almost screamed. “Don’t remind me!”

  All this time Randolph had been standing near gazing at them and absorbing the fantastic dialogue. He had assumed a most ferocious aspect; and Janey, after a second glance, thought it was genuine. Then, the Indian guide who had brought the Durlands, appeared riding through the cedars. Randolph strode to intercept him and spoke some Indian words in very loud and authoritative tones. The rider wheeled his horse and disappeared the way he had come.

  “Look!” whispered Janey. “I told you. He’s driven off your guide.”

  “Janey, I’ll beat it and fetch a horse back to save you,” whispered Bert, breathless with the excitement of the idea, and he made for his horse.

  “Bertrand! Don’t leave me!” screamed Mrs. Durland, who had been listening, pale and mute up to this minute.

  Randolph also spotted Durland, and vigorously called him to come back. But Bert only went the faster. Whereupon Randolph pulled his gun and fired in the air. Bang! Bang!

  “Come hyar,” roared Randolph, “or I’ll make a sieve out of you!”

  Mrs. Durland gave a loud squawk and promptly fainted. Bert ran back, very wobbly and livid.

  “D-don’t kill me — Mr. Dick,” he implored. Plain it was the two shots had brought him realization.

  “All right then, but no monkey business,” growled Randolph, flipping up the gun and returning it to his belt. “You better look after your mother. I reckon being strong-headed doesn’t run in the family.”

  Whereupon Randolph strode toward Janey. She saw him coming and went in the opposite direction. Randolph caught up with her at the corner of the wall.

  “Something of a mess, isn’t it?” he said, quietly, as he detained her.

  Janey sat down upon a flat rock and fastened solemn eyes upon him. There did not seem to be need of further pretense, for she was really distressed, yet she not only welcomed the facts of the case but also meant to keep on accentuating them.

  “Phillip, you have ruined me,” she said, tragically.

  “Oh, Janey, it can’t be as bad as all that,” he protested.

  “Why didn’t you acknowledge me as your wife?” she asked.

  “My God! I guess I just didn’t think about it. Durland asked me if I was married. And I said, ‘Certainly not.’ He suspected, of course, and I was fool enough to fall into his trap.”

  “Bert knows many of my friends. He will talk.”

  “But he said you were engaged to marry him!” ejaculated Randolph.

  “Nonsense! I never was. How could you believe it?”

  “I’m afraid I could believe almost anything of you,” he returned, in bitter doubt.

  “That has been evident all along,” she replied, aloof and cold. “But it does not mitigate your offense... It might be possible to keep Bert from talking. But not Mrs. Durland. She’s an old gossip. This little escapade of ours will kill her ambition to see me Bert’s wife. She will get it through her thick head that it always was impossible. And she’ll take her vindictiveness out on me. She’ll ruin my reputation.”

  “How can she?” asked Randolph, miserably. “I thought modern girls didn’t have reputations to lose.”

  “That’s an hallucination of yours and my father’s. Granted a certain freedom and license of modern life, it’s true all the same that there are still limits. In her eyes, we’ve transgressed the most vital one.”

  “Not you, Janey. I’m the one to blame.”

  “That’ll do me a lot of good, I don’t think,” rejoined Janey, dismally.

  “But maybe we can carry out this idea of me being Black Dick. He’s well known on the reservation. Travels round with a half-breed Piute. They’ve been known to hold up tourists. Perhaps I can carry the bluff through.”

  “You can try, surely. But in my opinion it’s a forlorn hope. Besides the cowboys will trail us. You heard what Mrs. Durland said. The cowboys evidently changed their plans.”

  “Your father — er — or something may put them off the track,” said Randolph, lamely.

  “Father! Why, he’ll send the cowboys after me,” exclaimed Janey. “I declare I don’t know where your wits are.”

  “If I ever had any they vanished when you appeared on my horizon. So did my peace! And now, I may add, my character, too, is gone.”

  “Nonsense! What is disgrace nowadays to a man?” retorted Janey, with supreme contempt. “You ran off with a girl!... It’ll never hurt you. It’d make you more attractive — after I divorce you!”

  “Divorce me?” echoed Randolph, feebly.

  “Certainly. You’ll have to marry me, at least, to make this stunt of yours halfway decent. Then I’ll get a divorce.”

  “But if the Black Dick bluff should go over?” he asked, hopefully.

  “Fine for the Durlands,” replied Janey. “But I was thinking of the cowboys and the Bennets after the Durlands go. We can’t fool those sharp-eyed Westerners. However, they may hang you. And I suppose that would save my reputation, if not the notoriety.”

  “Hang me! I wish to God they’d come and do it,” returned Randolph. “I’m surely at the end of a rope right now.”

  “No such luck!” sighed Janey. “You may come out of it scot-free. The woman pays.”

  “I — I’m most desperately sorry,” said Randolph, wringing his hands. “I’d like to have — somebody — here to choke... But it can’t be so bad. We’ll fool or muzzle these Durlands. As for the Westerners — well, they’re not so free at gossip and Arizona is a long way from New York. You will—”

  “Phillip, don’t fool yourself,” interposed Janey. “You’ve ruined me irretrievably.”

  Janey wished to drive this point home. She appeared to be having fair success, for he swore under his breath, and sitting down he covered his face with his hands.

  “You’re a fine brave kidnaper and desperado,” said Janey. “Don’t let the Durlands see you look like that.”

  He took no heed of her banter. “I’ve ruined you — and — and what am I?... When Elliot’s word reaches headquarters I’ll be done for.”

  “Well, suppose you are fired. You can go on your own. Wouldn’t it be better for you to discover Beckyshibeta now than when you were employed by the government?”

  “You talk like a child,” he replied, wearily.

  “Why?” inquired Janey, in lofty surprise. “I think I’m pretty gracious, considering.”

  “What do I care about Beckyshibeta?” he burst out, with sullen passion. “When you step out of my life there will be nothing left.”

  “That is sad — if true,” she returned, with proper pity and constraint. “But you have only yourself to blame.”

  “Bah!”

  “I respected you once — liked you,” went on Janey, in merciless sweetness. “Now you have made me — hate you.”

  “I could expect nothing else,” he said, lifting his head with dignity. “I am not asking your pity — or even your forgiveness.”

  “Oh, as to that, of course I could never forgive. One thing you’ve done, an angel herself could not forgive — though I don’t quite fit into that category.”

  “Not quite,” he responded, dryly, and stood up, hard and stern. “But what’s to be done? We’re up against these confounded friends of yours.”

  “It’ll be best to keep them here,” replied Janey. “Until something turns up. Carry on the Black Dick bluff. Let’s see what an actor you can be.”

  “I’m no actor. I couldn’t deceive a child.”

  “You deceived me,” protested Janey. “I imagined you gentle, kind — the very opposite to what you are. Be natural now. Be a brute to me, like you were. I’ll play up to it. And make these Durlands pay for butting in on our — what shall I call it? — our canyon paradise... Be a monster to Mrs. Durland, and scare the everlasting daylights out of that fortune-hunting young Romeo.”

  “That last will be easy,” replied Randolph, grimly.

  CHAPTER 10

  RANDOLPH’S P
REOCCUPATION WITH himself interfered with his acting a part. But that very grim aloofness made him the more convincing and mysterious to the Easterners.

  Durland was a picture of astonishment when he saw Janey staggering into camp under a load of firewood.

  “Don’t you do it, Janey,” he begged. “I’ll get the wood.” And leaving his mother, who importuned him to stay, he started off with Janey.

  “Hyar, girl, don’t go traipsing out of my sight with that jackass,” growled Randolph, in so natural a tone that Janey knew he was not masquerading.

  Then while Bert went off alone, Janey approached Mrs. Durland.

  “I’ve money and jewelry on my person,” stated that lady, nervously. “Isn’t that ruffian liable to steal them?”

  “Sure. He’ll search you presently,” affirmed Janey.

  “Search me!” gasped Mrs. Durland.

  “I should smile,” replied Janey, cheerfully. “Has he searched you?”

  “Not yet. But anyone could see I couldn’t hide anything. I’ve so little on.”

  “If he does I’ll — I’ll expire in my tracks,” declared Mrs. Durland, and she looked it.

  Randolph yelled for Janey to come back to the fire.

  “Does he mean me, too?” asked Mrs. Durland.

  “You’ll know when he means you. And for heaven’s sake, obey him quick. He’s an awful brute. Nothing for him to give you a good sound kick!”

  “The unspeakable monster! Of all acts — to kick a lady. He should be flayed alive... He beats, too?”

  “Oh, often. I’ve learned to mind him promptly, and to keep my eye on him when he isn’t occupied.”

  “What a horrible situation!” exclaimed Mrs. Durland. “I see him eying me now.”

  “Girl, come hyar,” yelled Phil, loudly.

  Janey hurried back to Randolph, who continued still in a loud voice: “What’re you plotting with that old dame?”

  “I was only sympathizing with her,” replied Janey.

  Bert appeared, carefully carrying a few sticks of firewood, to avoid soiling his moleskin riding breeches. Randolph noted this and glared.

  “Huh! ‘Fraid of dirtying your pants,” he snorted, and he snatched up a blackened frying pan and wiped it brusquely on Bert’s breeches.