OLD BROADBRIM AND THE FAIR AVENGER.
Old Broadbrim looked again at the face in the hay, and caught a gleam
of friendship in the eyes, despite the words Stareyes had just spoken.
She knew his secret.
In some manner the girl whom he had promised to remove for Merle Macray
had penetrated his disguise, and the secret he had guarded so well,
carrying it across the ocean, was in the hands of a creature whose
whole thought was revenge.
"We can be friends, Roland Riggs," continued Stareyes. "You have just
seen him--I saw both of you at the bridge--and you have given him a
promise."
"You know him?"
"Who has cause to know him better?" cried Stareyes. "I've known him
ever since he came out to Australia; and with her whom he serves he
plays a bold hand for money."
"Tell me about him."
The face came nearer, and the next moment the girl dropped deftly from
the hay and stood before the detective.
"They call me Stareyes," she went on. "I am an Australian. My father
died on a ranch years ago, and my mother--about her anon, perhaps. But
first tell me what fetches you out here? What made you quit your own
country? What did Merle Macray do there?"
Old Broadbrim hesitated.
Should he tell this girl of the crime on Fifth Avenue?
Would it be altogether wise to acquaint her with the real secret of his
mission?
"He committed a crime, didn't he, sir?" she exclaimed, laying her hand
on Old Broadbrim's arm. "And you have come out to take him away from
me. Why, sir, if I chose I could turn you in a moment over to death,
and you would never drag him from Round Robin Ranch. You saved his life
last night, and he does not dream that you did so in order to bring him
some day under the halter. What if he should discover this? Why, as
cool as you are and as brave, your life wouldn't be worth the sunbeams
on the grass."
"Let that go, girl. It is something I know already and I fear it not."
"I like brave men. But you have not answered me. What did he do in
America? She sent him away."
"Belle Demona?"
"Bella, the Demon," cried Stareyes. "She sent him off on the dark
mission across the sea. But for her he would not have gone and
committed the crime. I heard the bargain."
"You heard it, girl? When?"
"More than six months ago."
"Here?"
"In yonder house. I was a shadow on the porch underneath the window,
and but little of the bargain escaped me. He was to avenge her."
"Who had wronged her?"
"A nabob in New York."
"How?"
"He had dashed her hopes to earth at Monaco. Ah! this woman is hatred
personified. She swore revenge in the moonlit garden there. She
treasured her vengeance all this time in her heart. It was years ago,
when she was but a little chit with money and little reputation--the
prettiest adventuress in the swim.
"He was traveling on the Continent then, and her face charmed him. But
he was suddenly undeceived. He discovered that she was not the angel he
deemed her, and when he found it out he turned hater and spurned her at
Monaco.
"That is what made her hate him. Did she keep track of him all this
time? Partly so. He eluded her and kept out of her sight, but somehow
he turned up on her trail and the oath was renewed."
"And she sent Merle across the sea to kill him?"
"Did he do it?" cried Stareyes. "Did he find the doomed nabob in New
York, and did he carry out his promise to Belle Demona? That's why you
are here, is it? You've tracked him to the bush. You have entered the
lion's den, and now you are in my hands--in mine, sir!"
Once more the face before the detective assumed a mad look, but the
voice was as gentle as ever.
"Yes, sir," resumed Stareyes. "It must have been six months ago,
though, from what I have learned by playing spy here, the man who
crossed her path knew long ago that he was doomed. Perhaps he
treated it lightly, believing that he was safe from the hands of the
adventuress he had spurned, but he fell at last by her command."
"Then," said Old Broadbrim, looking down into the girl's eyes, "why
don't you let me take him?"
"What would I do for vengeance?" she cried.
"The same noose will avenge the murdered millionaire and you, too."
"No! I want to avenge myself."
"And cheat me?"
There was a smile on the detective's face, and for a moment it lingered
there while Stareyes watched it intently.
"Do you know what came in the letter last night?" she suddenly asked.
"In the one the boy brought from Perth?"
"Yes."
"I do not."
"He read it alone in the room. I heard him mutter its contents, for I
was his shadow even then. It told about the man who escaped from Old
Danny's pit."
"Indeed?"
"It was from Danny himself. He sent the letter post-haste here to
inform Merle that the detective--you, sir--was not in the well, but had
eluded the old wretch of Melbourne."
"And he will look for me here, eh?"
"That's it! What made him take the lantern last night and enter the
guardhouse? Why with his keen eyes did he look over the sleeping men
there? He was already on the hunt!"
"I saw him."
"And escaped? What if he should discover that you are not Roland Riggs,
but the hunter from across the sea? It would be death."
"I know that, girl, but I am ready to face the worst."
"Then play fair with me. If I avenge myself you need not be troubled
with taking a man across the sea. Stand back, sir, and let Stareyes
take care of the inmates of Ranch Robin."
Old Broadbrim was not inclined to do this.
The girl should not baffle him nor throw him for a moment off the bush
trail.
"I understand. You don't intend to do it!" she cried. "You have made up
your mind that I am to be brushed aside, and treated like a viper which
one finds in one's path. You intend to dare me to do my worst. Beware,
sir!"
Her hand fell away from Old Broadbrim's arm, and she stepped back.
"I could betray you," ventured the detective. "They want to find you
and for them to discover you in the sheepsheds would be the beginning
of your end."
"Go out there and betray me!" cried Stareyes. "Go out and tell the pair
in this bush Eden that I am Stareyes, and that the old sheds shelter
me. I am here, but I am not defenseless."
She drew from her bosom a long-bladed knife with a black ebony hilt
which she gripped, and raised suddenly over her head.
"Stareyes did not come here unarmed. She is ready for the enemy. She
has taken an oath that the man who spurned her, and even heaped insults
upon her mother, shall die the death. All your cunning cannot save
him from Stareyes' blade. We are in the play, and a human life is the
stake. Go out and betray me if you care to, but remember that the lips
of Stareyes can utter truths which may seal the doom of the American
detective!"
It was a critical situation for the Quaker.
Stareyes was determined, and her bosom rose and fell like the ocean
tide while the threat passed her lips.
Her hands seemed to lose blood, and her eyes emitted sparks of light
akin to fire.
Old Broadbrim looked down into her face, and stepped back.
"You're safe," said he.
Her face did not change, but her knife was put away.
"I will not betray you, but you must not step between me and my quarry."
"I make no promises," haughtily said the girl.
The detective went to the door and looked over the landscape toward the
ranch house.
Her gaze followed his and she said suddenly:
"They're in a glass house, which is liable to be shattered. Captain
Blacklocks, the man who led the robbers last night, will have revenge.
You didn't kill the man, though his friends dragged him away. He will
come again, and some night, unless we strike soon, the ranch will
crumble before the flames, and Merle and Belle Demona will end their
careers in the light of the burning bush palace. These bandits of the
desert are men of purpose and demons without mercy. They will avenge
the battle of last night, and if they ever get hold of you as Roland
Riggs, the guardsman, you will never see the flag of your land again."
Old Broadbrim held out his hand, which the girl took.
"Keep out of sight," he said. "Don't play spy too often while you're
here. There are eyes about the ranch as keen as yours and you know that
Demon Belle hates you like a viper."
"On that score there's no love lost," laughed the girl from Perth.
"Wait till we stand face to face, as we will some day. Then you shall
see this proud woman, this adventuress, cower before me and beg for
mercy."
"The ranch queen? I don't know about that," smiled Old Broadbrim.
"Wait and see."
And with this the girl looked away, her face paling in the light and
her lips compressed.
In another moment the detective was walking from the scene of his
encounter with Stareyes.
He was known to her.
She was a strange creature and her revenge had turned her head.
He knew that he was in more danger than ever, for the girl in her
eagerness to get the best of Merle and Belle Demona would be likely to
precipitate matters and unmask him.
If she were out of the way all would be well, but she was now in his
path and the storm was on the eve of breaking out.
Back to the ranch house went the detective.
He came face to face with the ranch queen on the porch of vines and her
voice greeted him.
He entered the house at her suggestion and was waved to a seat.
"You're a brave fellow, Riggs," said she, looking at him. "I am glad
you came out to us, for we are in the shadow of a great event. But I
want to show you something. It will strengthen your loyalty to us."
She touched a button set in the wall, and a door opened slowly.
This disclosed a flight of steps, and the woman descended with the
detective at her heels.
At the bottom of the flight she struck a match and lit a lamp.
"Look!" she said, pointing away. "Behold something worth fighting for.
I feel that we can trust you, Riggs."
Old Broadbrim looked and uttered an exclamation of surprise.