THE TEST UNDER THE STARS.
The shades of evening deepened.
Merle Macray and Belle Demona made preparations to meet the threatened
attack, and watches were placed under their own supervision.
Old Broadbrim, as Roland Riggs, the trusted man of the new recruits,
was stationed in the vicinity of the sheep sheds, and this just suited
him.
He could see if Merle would carry out his threat to fire them, and thus
deprive Stareyes of a hiding place, and, at the same time, prevent the
robbers of the ranches from using them to cover their advance.
The night that settled down over the scene was a bright starlit one.
The sheep had been corralled to prevent them from being killed by
Blacklocks and his men, and the cattle had been driven to pens and
secured there.
Within the walls of the ranch house stood Merle and the ranch queen.
They were alone.
"Now tell me your suspicions," said Merle, looking at the beautiful
creature near the table.
"I suspect Riggs."
As the answer fell from her lips the man started, and then smiled.
"This morning you trusted him!" he cried.
"That is true, but one can change one's opinion."
"Yes, but----"
"Listen to me. Riggs is playing a double hand. I feel it. Didn't you
notice while he talked last night that he avoided references to his
life in America?"
"I did not."
"I showed him the treasure in order to stimulate him to stand by us,
and he drank in the sight with eyes of greed."
"Which proves nothing," laughed Merle. "That treasure is enough to move
the best of them."
"Besides this, he has been to the sheep sheds, and I watched him from
the house to-day with the glass."
"Suspicious, eh?"
"Like all my sex!" cried Belle Demona. "I trained the glass on the
sheds, and am sure I saw some one in there with him."
"Can it be?" exclaimed Merle. "I did see footprints in the dust there."
"They were his."
"Wait!" cried he, and he left the room to come back in a moment. "I
remember now that he seemed to start a little when I told him about the
marks in the dust. But if he is a spy he is a cool one."
"It behooves him to be cool here," was the reply. "If this man is a spy
or a detective he dies to-night."
The queen of Ranch Robin stamped the floor and her eyes took on a
burning light.
"It shall be found out. The test shall be made."
"How?"
"Leave that to me," said Merle. "He is near the sheep sheds. I
threatened to fire them before daylight."
"Why?"
"To keep them from screening Blacklocks and his toughs. I know how to
surprise Riggs."
"Don't make a mistake."
"I never do," and Merle looked away.
Down by the sheds stood the detective, acting as guard over the very
man he had tracked across the sea.
The night was still.
He looked toward the sheds, and wondered if Stareyes was still there.
He wanted to tell the girl of the rancher's threat to fire her retreat,
but he did not dare to quit his post.
Perhaps she had seen them station him there, and if so she might slip
over to him in the darkness and give him the chance he wanted.
His back was turned toward the ranch and he did not see the figure that
glided through the grass toward him.
It had the movements of a serpent and the noiselessness of a jungle
tiger.
There was a belt of high grass just behind the guard and there the
creeper dropped.
For half a minute all was still as before and then a name was
distinctly spoken.
"Roger Reef!"
It was the name under which Old Broadbrim had crossed the sea after the
murderer of Custer Kipp, the millionaire.
It fell upon the ear of the detective, but he did not start.
He merely looked toward the grass and then seemed to bend toward the
spot as if to inspect it more closely.
The name was uttered again.
In another instant the detective threw his repeating rifle to his
shoulder and covered the clump of grass.
"Come out!" he commanded.
Silence was the answer and the barrel seemed to reflect the light of
the few stars that shone in the vault of heaven.
"Come out or die!" he said again, and the next moment a figure arose
before him.
It was Merle Macray!
"What did you call me?" asked Old Broadbrim, coolly.
The other laughed.
"I called you Roger Reef just to try you," was the answer. "But you're
not the man. Pardon me, Riggs, no harm done, I hope."
The stern face of the detective did not soften.
"Who is Roger Reef?" he asked.
"A man who used to look like you, but I see now that you're Riggs and
no one else. All's well out here, I suppose?"
"Yes, but, Captain Merle, if I am suspected of sailing under an alias
here, let me mount my horse and turn my face at once toward Perth."
Old Broadbrim handed his rifle to the rancher and started toward the
house, but the hand of Merle stopped him.
"Not for the world!" cried Merle. "We can't spare a man like you just
now. It's all right, Riggs. I call you by your true name, you see. It
was just a little whim of mine, for I knew that if you were Roger Reef
you would not stand like a post when the name was flashed behind you."
At that moment over by the sheds just a few yards away Old Broadbrim
caught sight of a figure that fell back beyond the door as he looked,
and the following moment Merle started toward them.
"I'll carry out my threat now," said he. "I'll fire the old sheds."
"Wait a little while," said Old Broadbrim. "Time enough yet. The
robbers won't come till after midnight, if they come at all, and
there's plenty of time for the fire."
"Better now than then," came back over Merle Macray's shoulder, and he
sprang toward the sheds.
Old Broadbrim was powerless to detain him, and in a short time he lost
sight of Merle.
Suddenly there rang out on the night air the agonized cry of some
person, and as it came from the sheds, the detective sprang thither and
passed the portal of the largest one.
As he entered he stumbled over a body in the doorway, and the next
moment he held his little lantern over the face of Merle.
"The viper stung me!" cried Merle, looking up into the detective's
face. "She was in the old nest here waiting for me and gave me the
dagger. Don't let her get away, Riggs. Catch and take her to Belle
Demona. Let the tigress of Ranch Robin finish her career."
The detective threw a hasty glance around but did not see Stareyes.
He picked Merle up and carried him from the sheepshed.
"Where have you been cut?" he asked.
"In the back--to death," came from the white lips. "Now, if they want
me, they will have to hunt me under the sod of Australia."
"If who want you, Merle?"
"Old Broadbrim, the American ferret. But I've escaped him anyhow!"
"You're not dead yet. You'll live to help us drive off Blacklocks and
his horde."
The detective now examined Merle's wound by lantern light, and said
that it was not dangerous.
The blade had been turned aside by a bit of steel beneath the man's
garments, and Merle was still worth a dozen dead men.
The detective helped his prey back to the house where Belle Demona's
face grew white when the story of the attack became known.
"Go back to the spot, Riggs," she commanded. "Find the girl--Stareyes,
and bring her to me."
Old Broadbrim turned away to obey, and at the door looked across the
room at her.
"Don't hurt her--I'll do that!" roared Belle Demona. "I am mistress
here and my hands can kill. Go, go, Riggs. She's of more importance to
me just now than Blacklocks and his band of midnight demons. Don't let
her escape."
Then, as the door closed upon Old Broadbrim she bounded to where Merle
sat in an armchair, and clutched his arm.
"Did you make the test?" she asked eagerly.
"I did, and it failed."
"What did you do?"
"I called him Roger Reef when he was not prepared for the name. He
never stirred."
"It was the right test. A spy would have started at his true name or
the one he has sailed under. It is marvelous what nerve that man has,
if he is a spy or a ferret."
"He must be plain Roland Riggs after all."
"We'll see. I'll find out for myself," and with this Belle Demona
turned away.
The eyes of Merle followed her, and rested for a while on her
well-formed person.
"If he is an American detective he will know something about Jason
Marrow, won't he?" she suddenly asked.
"He may."
"You didn't let Jason escape with the secret, I hope?"
"Why should I?" and the face of Merle flushed. "I didn't forget for one
moment why I was sent across the sea."
"There, don't go back to the commission and put everything on my
shoulders," cried Belle Demona. "I'll acknowledge to you that you were
sent to America by me, but you must not throw it into my teeth at every
opportunity."
"You made me your tool--you sent me across the ocean to carry out your
revenge."
"Of course I did. See here! if you don't like this place with the
protection it affords you you can go."
Merle sprang upon his feet and looked at her with the gleam of a thug
in his dark eyes.
"Beware, woman!" he cried. "Don't tempt me too far."
The hand of Belle Demona came up and paused only when it covered the
door leading upon the porch.
"Don't threaten me!" she thundered. "Remember, Merle Macray, that you
live only by my sufferance, and if you show your teeth in a snarl I'll
send you to Perth under guard."
Her voice died away and the man in the chair was silent.