by Harold Titus
CHAPTER XXII
Tables Turn; and Turn Again
A young chap from the East who was in Clear River County because of hislungs named her Delilah when she was only a little girl--Delilah Gomez.She cooked now for the Double Six Ranch, the buildings of whichclustered within a stone's throw of the Ranger post office. And thatnight as she sat looking from her window she thought, as she did muchof the time, about the smiling Julio with his guitar--the handsomefellow who lived with Senor Rhues and did no work, but wore such finechaps and kerchiefs!
She sighed, then started to her feet as she saw him come through thegate and up the path, and hastened to open the door for him.
Julio took off his hat.
"It is late," he said, flashing his teeth. "I come to ask you to dosomething for me, Delilah."
"What is it--now--so late?" she asked breathlessly.
"In the old house across the road"--he pointed--"is a horse. It is thehorse of a friend. A friend, also, of Senor Rhues. He is now in thesaloon. He is drunk. Will you take the horse away? To the place ofSenor Rhues? And put him in the barn? And be sure to fasten the door sohe will not get out?"
Delilah was puzzled a moment.
"But why," she asked, "why so late?"
Julio bowed profoundly again.
"We go--Senor Rhues, Senor Matson, and I, Julio, to take our friendaway from the saloon. We are busy. Senor Rhues offers this."
He pressed a dollar into her palm. And for the dollar and a flash ofJulio's teeth, Delilah went forth upon her commission.
The three men watched her go.
"That devil'd tear a man to pieces," Rhues muttered. "Any woman canhandle him, though. Git him locked up, an' th' ---- tenderfoot can'tmake it away! He'll have to stay an' take what's comin'!"
The girl led the Captain down the road, past the Double Six Ranch, onto the cramped little barn behind the cabin where lived Rhues and histwo companions.
It was not an easy task. The Captain did not want to go. He keptstopping and looking back. But the girl talked to him kindly andstroked his nose and--VB himself had taught him to respect women. Thiswoman talked softly and petted him much, for she remembered the greathorse she had seen ridden by the tall young fellow. Besides, the dollarwas still in her hand. She led him into the cramped little barn, lefthim standing and came out, closing the doors behind her. Then she setout for home, clasping the dollar and thinking of Julio's smile.
The first shot attracted her. The second alarmed, and those thatfollowed terrified the girl. She ran from the road and hovered in theshadow of a huge bowlder, watching fearfully, uttering little moans offright.
She heard everything. Some men ran past her in the direction of Rhues'scabin, and she thought one of them must be Julio. But she was toofrightened to stir, to try to determine; too frightened to do anythingbut make for her own home.
The girl moved stealthily through the night, facing the moon that swunglow, unclouded again, making all radiant. She wanted to run for home,where she could hide under blankets, but caution and fear held her to awalk. She did not cry out when she stumbled over the body; merelycowered, holding both hands over her lips.
For a long time she stood by it, looking down, not daring to stoop, notdaring to go away. Then the hand that sprawled on the dirt raiseditself fell back; the lips parted, a moan escaped, and the head rolledfrom one side to the other.
The fear of dead things that had been on her passed. She saw only ahuman being who was hurt. She dropped to her knees and took the head inher lap.
"Oh, _por Dios_! It is the _senor_ who rode the horse!" she muttered,and looked quickly over her shoulder at the Rhues cabin.
"They left him; they thought he was dead," she went on aloud. "Theyshould know; he should be with them. They were going for him when theshooting began!"
She looked closer into VB's face and he moaned again. His eyes opened.The girl asked a sharp question in Spanish.
"Is the _senor_ much hurt?" she repeated in the language he understood.
"Oh, Captain!" he moaned. "Why? Why did you--quit?"
She lifted him up then and he struggled sluggishly to help himself.
Once he muttered: "Oh, Gail! It hurts so!"
She strained to the limits of her lithe strength until she had him onhis feet. Then she drew one of his arms about her neck, bracing herselfto support his lagging weight.
"Come," she said comfortingly. "We will go--to them."
No light showed from the Rhues cabin, but the girl was sure the menwere there, or would come soon. Loyal to Julio for the dollar and thememory of his graciousness, she worked with the heart of a goodSamaritan, guiding the unconscious steps of the muttering man towardthe little dark blot of houses.
It was a floundering progress. Twice in the first few rods the man wentdown and she was sorely put to get him on his feet again. But themoving about seemed to bring back his strength, and gradually he becamebetter able to help himself.
They crossed the road and passed through the gap in the fence by thecabin. VB kept muttering wildly, calling the girl Gail, calling for theCaptain in a plaintive voice.
"There they are now! See the light?" she whispered. "It is not much.They have covered the window. Yes."
"What?" VB asked, drawing a hand across his eyes.
She repeated her assertion that the men were in the cabin and hehalted, refusing drunkenly to go on.
"No," he said, shaking his head. "I'm unarmed--they--"
But she tugged at him and forced him to go beside her. They progressedslowly, painfully, quietly. There was no sound, except VB's hardbreathing, for they trod in dust. They approached the house and thegirl put out a hand to help her along with the burden.
A thin streak of light came from a window. It seemed to slash deeplyinto the staggering man, bringing him back to himself. Then a sound,the low, worried nickering of a horse! The Mexican girl felt the armabout her neck tighten and tremble.
"The Captain!" VB muttered, looking about wildly.
He opened his lips to cry out to the horse as the events of the nightpoured back into his consciousness, to cry his questioning and hissorrow, to put into words the mourning for a faith, but that cry nevercame from his throat.
The nickering of the stallion and the flood of memory had brought himto a clear understanding of the situation; a sudden glare of light fromthe abruptly uncovered window before which he and the girl stoodprovoked an alertness which was abnormally keen, that played with thesubjective rather than the more cumbersome objective. He stooped withthe quickness of a drop and scuttled into the shadows, cautious, thefirst law of man athrob.
The man who had brushed away the blanket that had screened the windowburst into irritated talk. VB recognized him as Matson. Back in theshadows of the room he saw the Mexican standing.
A table was close to the window, so close that in crowding behind itMatson had torn down the blanket that had done service as a curtain. Alamp burned on the table, its wick so high that smoke streamed upwardthrough the cracked chimney. And close beside the lamp, eyesglittering, cruel cunning in every line, the flush of anger smearingit, was the face of Rhues!
VB, crouching there, saw then that Matson's finger was leveled at Rhues.
"It ain't good money!"
That was the declaration Matson had made as the blanket slipped downand disclosed the scene. He repeated it, and his voice rose to a snarl.
Delilah started to rise but VB jerked her back with a vehemence thatshot a new fear through the girl, that made her breathe quickly andloudly. For the first time he turned and looked at the girl, not todiscover who this might be that had brought him to the nest of thosewho sought his life, but to threaten.
"You stay here," he whispered sharply. "If you make a sound,I'll--you'll never forget it!"
His face was close to hers and he wagged his head to emphasize thewarning.
Where she had expected to find a friend the Mexican girl realized thatshe had encountered a foe. Where she had, from the fullness of h
erheart and for a dollar and the admiration of Julio, sought to help, sheknew now that she had wronged. His intensity filled her with thisknowledge and sent her shrinking against the wall of the cabin, a handhalf raised to her cheek, trembling, wanting to whimper for mercy.
"Keep still!" he warned again, and, stretching one hand toward her asthough to do sentry duty, ready to throttle any sound, to stay anyflight, to bolster his commands, he crept closer to the window.
"Why ain't it good?" Rhues was asking in a voice that carried no greatconviction, as though he merely stalled for time.
VB saw him stretch a bill close to the lamp and Matson lean low besidehim. The light fell on the piece of currency, not six feet from VB'sfever-bright eyes. He saw that they were inspecting a fifty-dollar billissued by the Confederate States of America! And Rhues said grudgingly:"Well, if that ain't good, they's only six hunderd 'n all!"
Up came the buried memories, struggling through all the welded eventsin the furnace consciousness of the man who pressed his face so closeto the window's crinkly glass. His eyes sought aimlessly for someobject that might suggest a solution for the slipping thought he triedto grasp. They found it--found it in a rumpled, coiled contrivance ofleather that lay beside the lamp. It was a money belt. The money beltthat Kelly, the horse buyer, had worn!
Six hundred dollars! And a Confederate States fifty-dollar bill! Theywere quarreling over the spoils of that chill murder!
VB swayed unsteadily as he felt a rage swell in him, a rage thatnullified caution. He turned his eyes back to the Mexican girl cringingjust out of his reach and moved the extended hand up and down slowly tokeep his warning fresh upon her. He wanted time to think, just a momentto determine what action would be most advisable. His heart racedunevenly and he thought the hot edges of his wound were blistering.
"That's two hundred apiece, then," Rhues said, and straightened.
VB saw that the hand which had dropped the worthless piece of paperheld a roll of yellow-backed bills.
"Two hundred we all git," he growled. "You git it, Julio gits it, I gitit--an' I'm th' party what done th' work!"
VB stooped and grasped Delilah roughly by the arm. He held a finger tohis lips as he dragged the shaking girl out to where she could see.
"Watch!" he commanded, close in her ear. "Watch Rhues--and the others!"
Rhues counted slowly, wetting his thumb with hasty movements anddropping bills from the roll to the table top.
"Both you"--he looked up to indicate Matson and Julio--"gits 's much 'sme, an' I done th' work!"
"An' if we're snagged, we stand as good a chanct o' gettin' away asyou," Matson remarked, and laughed shortly.
Rhues looked up again and narrowed the red lids over his eyes.
"You said it!" he snarled. "That's why it's good to keep yer mouthsshut! That's why you got to dig out--with me.
"If I'm snagged--remember, they's plenty o' stories I could tell aboutyou two--an' I will, too, if I'm snagged 'cause o' you!"
He worked his shoulders in awkward gesture.
"An' that's why we want our share," Matson growled back. "An' want itquick! We watched th' road; you done th' killin'. We thought it wasjus' to settle things with that ----, but it wasn't. It was profitable."
He ended with another short laugh.
"Well, I said I'd git him, didn't I? An' I did, didn't I? An' if th'first time went wrong it was--profitable, wasn't it?"
"Yes, but queek, queeker!" the Mexican broke in. "They might come--now!"
"Well, quit snivelin'!" snapped Rhues. "It didn't go as we planned. Ihad to shoot 'fore I wanted to. But I got him, didn't I?"
Julio reached for the pile of bills Rhues shoved toward him; Matsontook his; Rhues pocketed the rest. And outside, VB relaxed his hold onthe girl's wrist, raising both hands upward and out, fingers stiff andclaw-like.
Kelly, good-natured, careless, likable, trusting Kelly, had gone out topay toll to this man's viciousness; had gone because he, VB, would notsubmit to Rhues's bullying! And now they laughed, and called it aprofitable mistake!
All his civilized, law-abiding nature rose in its might. All thatspirit which demands an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, whichmakes for statutes and courts and the driving of nations into fixedpaths, lifted VB above any caution that the circumstances could haveengendered. His whole nature cried out for the justice he had beentrained to respect; his single remaining impulse was to make this manRhues suffer for the act of which there was such ample evidence.
He struggled to find a way toward retribution, for in a moment it mightbe too late. He had no thought beyond the instant, no idea but topossess himself of something more, to make the case stronger forsociety. He had seen, he had heard, he had the girl beside him, but hewanted more evidence.
Matson moved away from the window and as he did so the sash saggedinward. It was a hinged casing!
His hands numb from excitement, VB forced his arms against it, shovingstoutly. The force of his effort precipitated his head and shouldersinto the room! He had a flash of the three men as they whirled andpoised, with oaths, but his mind did not linger on them. His fingersclutched the money belt, drew it to him, and as Rhues dropped a hand tohis hip VB staggered backward out of the window, stuffing the moneybelt inside his shirt, in against the hot wound, and stared about him.
For an instant, silence, as Rhues stood, gun drawn, shoulders forward,gazing at the empty window. Then upon them came a shrill, quavering,anxious cry--the call of the Captain.
