For some time they smoked in silence. The purple twilight drifted over the hills, and the breeze freshened in welcome relief to the heat of the day.
“Joe, I just had to come back,” said Rathburn softly. “Something’s wrong with me. You wouldn’t think I’d get homesick this way, after all the trouble I’ve had here, would you?”
The old man removed his pipe. “Anybody here in particular you want to see?” he asked slowly.
Rathburn shrugged. “You’re always gettin’ right down to cases first hand off an’ running,” he complained. “Of course there’s folks I want to see. I want to see you, for instance.”
“I don’t reckon you’d be ridin’ any terrible great distance an’ takin’ chances by the handful just to see me, boy,” said Price. “But I ain’t tryin’ to pry into your affairs. You don’t have to answer any of the fool questions I ask you––you know that. I’m an old man an’ gettin’ childish.”
Rathburn laughed. “I can believe that when I find you still putterin’ around up here where there ain’t even a sign of mineral,” he chided.
“There’s gold right under your feet,” said the old man stoutly. “I’ll have a payin’ vein opened up here in less’n three months.”
“I hope so, Joe. There’s nobody I’d like more to see make a big strike than you. You were my dad’s friend, an’ you’ve been mine. I haven’t got many friends, Joe.”
“But them you’ve got is good ones,” said Price quickly. “How long you been away?”
“About eight months,” Rathburn replied with a frown.
“It’s hard to get away from the desert,” mused the old man. “It’s in your blood. If you leave here for good you’ve just naturally got to take something along with you from here––something that’s a part of the desert, you might say.”
Rathburn looked keenly at the face of his friend. But the old man was regarding his pipe, as if he had never until that moment seen it.
“I ran into a posse chasin’ a gang that robbed a stage on the way over here this noon,” Rathburn said presently.
Price’s interest quickened, but he made no sign. “They saw you?” he asked.
“Couldn’t help it,” Rathburn grumbled. “Took after me. I had to drop one of ’em with a bullet in the shoulder to slow ’em up in the long cañon over on the other side.”
“Know any of the gang?” Price asked.
“Met one. Threw down my gun on him. He told me Mike Eagen was runnin’ the works.”
Price nodded. “I reckon Mike’s been pullin’ quite a few stunts while you been away.”
“An’ I’ve been gettin’ the blame for ’em more’n likely,” said Rathburn in indignation.
Price nodded again. “Might be so,” he commented.
Rathburn looked up at him in understanding. “They’ll have me mixed up with this stage holdup,” he said earnestly. “From what I gathered they killed the driver, an’ they’ll say that was my part.”
“That’s the trouble, boy,” said the old miner. “If a fellow’s handy with his gun somebody’s sure to get jealous of him an’ make him draw. If he gets his man because he has to, he’s a killer. When he’s known as a killer he ain’t got a chance. You had to drop the two men you dropped aroun’ here, boy; but they ain’t forgettin’ it.”
“Bob Long was headin’ that posse,” said Rathburn thoughtfully.
“An’ Bob Long’s a sticker when he hits out on a man’s trail,” said Price. “Still, I guess you’d be safe in here for a while. There ain’t many knows this place.”
“I don’t figure on stayin’ here long, Joe,” said Rathburn.
“I didn’t think you did,” said Price.
“I’ll have to get goin’––hit for new country an’ never know when I may run up against the law in a quarter where I ain’t expecting it; always sneaking along––like the coyote. It was Mike Eagen who gave me that name, Joe.”
Rathburn’s voice was low and vibrant, and the old man felt the menacing quality in it.
“What’s more,” Rathburn went on, “I’m always remembering that he’s back here, getting away with his dirty tricks, shoving the blame off on me, some way or other, when the chase gets too hot.”
For some time the old man was silent. When he spoke he put an arm about Rathburn’s shoulder.
“Boy, before you get worse mixed up than you are, there’s a place you ought to visit aroun’ here,” he said in a fatherly tone.
Rathburn shrugged and stared up at the night sky which was blossoming with stars.
“It would be a right smart risk,” Price went on, “for they’d maybe think to drop aroun’ that way on a lookout for you; but I reckon before you do much more, you better drop in at the Mallory place.”
Rathburn rose abruptly. “I guess that’s what I came up here to hear you say,” he said irritably. “But I don’t reckon it can be done, Joe. I haven’t any business there.”
“How do you know, boy? Maybe you ain’t bein’ right fair.”
“Seems to me it would look better for me to stay away.”
“They don’t have to see you,” urged the old man. “The Mallory place is a good fifteen miles from Hope, close up against the mountains. Boy, don’t you think you better make sure?”
The wistful, yearning look was back in Rathburn’s eyes. His right hand rested upon the butt of his gun. The other held his forgotten cigarette. He turned and looked into the old man’s eyes.
“Joe, you said something about takin’ something from the desert if I left it. You’re right. But it can’t be, Joe. This thing has killed my chances!”
The gun seemed to leap from its holster into his hand at his hip of its own accord. The old miner’s brows lifted in astonishment at the draw.
“If I was you I wouldn’t be much scared who I met on the way down to the Mallory place if I didn’t meet too many of ’em at once,” he said with a smile.
“I––I couldn’t wear it––there,” Rathburn faltered.
“Well, leave it hangin’ on a handy peg, boy,” said the old man cheerfully.
Rathburn jammed the gun back into its holster and walked around to his horse. He led the animal down to drink and then returned and saddled.
“You goin’ on to-night?” asked Price casually.
“I’m takin’ a ride,” Rathburn confessed.
“You ain’t takin’ my advice at the same time, are you?” asked Price, pretending to be greatly concerned.
Rathburn mounted and looked down upon him in the faint light of the stars.
“Joe Price, you’re a wise old desert rat, an’ I’m a young fool,” he said with a twinkle in his gray eyes. “If Bob Long happens this way give him my regards an’ tell him they got the reward notices over in California all right, for I saw ’em stuck up over there. So long.”
The old miner called out after him and watched him ride down the cañon and disappear in the shadows. Nor was he the only watcher; for, high on the ridge above, another man touched his horse with his spurs and started down the west side of the range, as Rathburn vanished.
* * *
CHAPTER XXVIII
A NIGHT SUMMONS
In two hours Rathburn came to a fence about a small ranch. Cattle were grazing on the sparse feed within the inclosure, and he saw a clump of trees marking the site of a house.
He rode around the fence until he came to a gate. There was a light shining from two of the windows of the house. He passed through the gate, and, as he approached the house from the side, he saw two figures on the porch. He halted in the shelter of the trees, and, as one of the figures crossed the beam of light which shone out the door, he saw that it was a man. He obtained a fleeting look at the man’s face. He was comparatively young, not bad looking, with blue eyes and a small, close-cropped, sandy mustache.
Rathburn scratched his head in an effort to place the man. He seemed vaguely familiar. Rathburn was sure he had seen him somewhere. But he gave up the futile effort to identify him when he s
aw that the other figure on the porch was that of a girl.
Dismounting, he led his horse around to the rear and put him in a corral near the barn. He surmised that it was about ten o’clock. As he walked toward the front of the house, again he heard the sputtering of a small motor car; then he saw the path of light from its headlights go streaking across the desert in the direction of the town to southward. The front door closed, and all was still.
Rathburn hesitated for several moments, then he stamped up the porch steps and knocked at the door. It was opened by a girl. She held a lighted lamp in her hand. When she saw Rathburn standing, hat in hand, before her, her dark eyes widened, and she nearly dropped the lamp. He stepped forward quickly and took it from her.
“Roger!” she exclaimed breathlessly. “You––here?”
“I’m here, Laura,” he said quietly. “I’m home on a––a visit.”
“I heard you were back,” she faltered. “Mr. Doane––that is––a gentleman from town told me he had heard you were back. But–––”
She scanned his face closely and peered beyond him into the shadows with visible concern.
“Roger, come in quickly,” she invited, stepping back from the door.
With a faint smile he entered and closed the door after him. He put the lamp down on the table in what was evidently the sitting room of the small house. He looked about him with the air of one who sees familiar surroundings, but is embarrassed by them.
“Some one been tellin’ you the details of my arrival?” he asked with an effort to appear casual.
“I heard you were in some trouble, Roger.” The girl continued to stare at him with a queer expression in her fine eyes––part sorrow, part concern, part gladness.
“I’m not a stranger to trouble these days, Laura,” he said soberly.
There was a sob in the girl’s throat, but she recovered herself at once.
“Have you eaten?” she asked quickly.
“Up at Joe Price’s place,” he replied. “All fed and chipper.”
There was not much confidence in his tone or manner. As the girl lowered her gaze, he looked at her hungrily; his eyes feasted on the coils of dark hair, her long, black lashes, the curve of her cheek and her delicate color, the full, ruby lips, and the small, quivering chin. She was in the throes of a strong emotion.
“I’m sorry, Laura, if––you didn’t want me to come,” he said unsteadily.
“Oh, Roger! Of course we want you to come. It’s been so long since we saw you. And you’ve––you’ve gone through so much.”
She raised her eyes, and the expression which he saw in their depths caused him to look away and to bite his lips.
“There’s a lot of it I wish I could undo, Laura; an’ there’s a lot more of it I couldn’t help, an’ maybe some I––I––wasn’t–––” He paused. He couldn’t bring himself to say anything in extenuation of himself and his acts in the presence of this girl. It might sound as if he were playing for her sympathy, he thought to himself.
“Roger, I know you haven’t done all the things I’ve heard about,” she said bravely. “And there’s always a chance. You’re a man. You can find a way out. If the trails seem all twisted and tangled, you can use a compass––your own conscience, Roger. You still have that.”
“How did you happen to mention the trails bein’ all mixed up like that?” he asked curiously.
“Why––I don’t know. Isn’t that the way it seems?”
Rathburn looked away with a frown. “You come near hittin’ the nail on the head, Laura.”
“Oh, then you are beginning to think!” she said eagerly.
“I’ve done nothing but think for months,” Rathburn confessed.
She looked at him searchingly. Then her eyes dropped to the black butt of the gun in the holster strapped to his right thigh. She shuddered slightly.
“You came from the west, Roger?” she asked.
“Yes,” he replied shortly. “From where there’s water an’ timber an’ flowers an’ grass––but they had my number there, just the same as they’ve got it here. I’m a marked man, Laura Mallory.”
She leaned upon the table with one hand; the other she held upon her breast.
“Are––are they––after you, Roger?” she asked in a low, anxious tone.
“As usual,” he answered with a vague laugh. “Laura, I didn’t come here to bother you with my troubles; I come here just to see you.”
The girl colored. “I know, Roger. We’ve known each other a long time––since we were children. You wouldn’t like it for me not to show any concern over your troubles, would you?”
“I wish we could talk about something else,” said Rathburn. “I can’t stay long.”
Laura Mallory looked worried. “May I ask where you plan to go, Roger?”
“I’m not sure. I only know I wanted to come back, an’ I came. I hadn’t any fixed plans, an’ I wasn’t expecting the reception I got.” His face clouded. Then he looked straight into the girl’s eyes. “I hit this country this morning,” he said steadily. “The first folks I saw was some men ridin’ in my direction up between the lava hills and the range. Then things began to happen.”
She nodded brightly. “I believe you,” she said simply.
Rathburn smiled. “You aways did that, Laura, an’ I ain’t never been much of a hand at lying.”
“Roger,” she said quickly, “if they all knew you as well as I think I know you–––”
“They wouldn’t believe,” he interrupted. “They call me The Coyote, an’ they’ll have me live up to the name whether I want to or not,” he added bitterly.
“But, Roger, you’re forgetting what I said about the trails and the compass.”
“No, Laura, I’m not, but there’s another force besides the big lodestone that’s affectin’ that compass.”
“Roger, you’re thinking of an enemy!”
He did not answer her. His face appeared grim, almost haggard, in the yellow rays of the lamplight.
“Roger, you once promised me anything I might ask,” she said softly.
“An’ all you have to do is ask,” he answered, taking a step toward her.
“I’m going to ask you for something, Roger,” she said without looking at him. “Maybe you’ll think it’s––it’s too much that I ask.” She glanced up at him doubtfully.
“What is it, Laura?” he insisted.
“I want your gun, Roger,” she whispered.
He straightened and stared at her in startled wonder. “But, Laura––a man in my position––why––why––where would I be at?”
“Maybe if you gave it to me it would help you find a way out, Roger,” she pleaded earnestly.
Rathburn looked into her eyes and thrilled. Then without a word he unbuckled his cartridge belt which held his holstered gun, untied the strap about his thigh and laid the belt with the weapon upon the table.
“Roger!” said the girl. The sob again was in her voice. She reached out and placed a hand upon his arm.
An elderly man appeared in the doorway from the kitchen.
“Father, this is Roger,” said the girl hurriedly. “He’s back.”
“What’s that? Roger, eh? You mean Rathburn is here?”
The old man peered at the visitor from the doorway, his lean face twitching. He stroked his gray beard in indecision. His blue eyes looked long at Rathburn, then at the girl, and lastly at the gun and belt on the table.
“Well, hello, Rathburn,” he said finally, advancing into the room. He held out a hand which Rathburn grasped.
“Did you eat yet?” asked Mallory.
“In the hills with Joe Price,” replied Rathburn. “But I’m just as much obliged.”
“Yes, of course,” Mallory muttered. “With Joe, eh? He ain’t been down in months. How is he?”
“Looks good as a gold mine an’ thinks he’s found one,” said Rathburn, looking at the girl’s father curiously.
“That’s what keeps him
up,” Mallory asserted loudly. “He’ll never get old as long as he thinks he’s got a mine corralled. He ought to try stock raisin’ for a while. You look older, Rathburn––more filled out. Are you still cutting ’em high, wide, an’ handsome?”
Rathburn’s face clouded.
“Roger’s starting new, dad,” the girl interposed.
Mallory stared keenly at the younger man. He started to speak, but was interrupted by the sound of horses outside the house.
Rathburn whirled toward the door, took a step, and stopped in his tracks. The girl’s hands flew to the sides of her face, and her eyes widened with apprehension.
“I’ll go see who it is,” said Mallory with a quick look at Rathburn.
He hastened out into the kitchen, and a moment later they heard the kitchen door open. There was a murmur of voices. The girl stared at Rathburn breathlessly, while he tapped with his slim fingers upon the top of the table.
Then Mallory came in. “Somebody to see you,” he said to Rathburn.
Rathburn looked once at the white-faced girl and followed her father out into the kitchen. She heard them speak in an undertone, and then Rathburn came back into the room.
“I ain’t much elated over my visitor,” he said slowly. “I wish you hadn’t asked me what you did until––well, until this caller had come an’ gone.”
She looked straight into his eyes in an agony of dread.
“Who is it, Roger?” she asked, wetting her lips.
“Mike Eagen is out there,” he answered calmly.
She drew a quick breath, while he waited. Then he turned on his heel and started for the kitchen door.
“Roger!” she called.
He swung about and eyed her questioningly. She pointed at the heavy belt and gun on the table.
“Take it,” she whispered.
He buckled on the belt and tied down the end of the holster so it could not slip if he should draw the weapon within it. Then he made his way into the kitchen and out of the rear door. Laura Mallory sank into a chair, sobbing.
* * *
CHAPTER XXIX
The Coyote Page 16
