BELLE DEMONA'S MATCH.
"I have caged him!"
"You?"
"Yes, I have trapped him, but he refused to talk."
"Where is he now?"
"In the second pit."
Merle Macray, who listened to these words from the lips of Belle Demona
of Round Robin Ranch, turned a trifle pale, and then said:
"Is he dead?"
"I don't know, but I trust he is."
"I'll see."
He darted from the parlor and went to the door leading into the first
dungeon, into which Dick Waters had been thrust by the woman's command,
and crossed it to the wall.
There he found a secret door which he opened and held his dark lantern
above his head.
For a little while he saw nothing, and then he made out a human figure
on the ground.
"Waters?" he called, but the man did not stir.
Merle went over to the man and threw the bull's-eye light upon his face.
"What means this?" cried Waters, springing up. "She did it, and you
know why."
They stood face to face and looked at one another like wild beasts.
"And so do you, man," cried Merle. "He is in league with you, I mean
Riggs."
"Prove it."
"You have been seen together. You have held secret consultations on the
range and in the hut."
"That proves nothing. Riggs and I are friends."
Merle seemed baffled.
Was this man to beat him and come out of the affair victor after all?
"You are to perish here like a rat in a trap unless you make a full
confession," cried the hunted man. "The traps of Robin Ranch are as
deadly as the dungeons of Venice. There is no escaping from them, and
your doom is sealed."
Waters, who was a young athlete, looked the other over from head to
foot, and seemed to measure strength with him.
Merle retreated a step and laid his hand on his hip.
His eyes flashed with an angry light.
"I see. You are in league with Riggs, so called. Tell me the truth,
Waters. Who is he?"
But Waters was no traitor.
"You refuse, do you?"
There was no reply.
"Then rot where you are! When he comes back you will have a companion
in your misery."
"When who comes back?"
"Riggs; he will return to die with you. The fool has crossed the sea to
fall to pieces in the dungeons of the ranch."
Merle, a minute later, stood once more face to face with Belle Demona.
"You found him?" she said.
"Yes; it is true. There was a plot, and when Riggs comes back we spring
the trap on him."
"It shall be done! We must be entirely safe here."
"We shall be."
The shades of night had deepened over the landscape and the songs of
the birds in the bush had ceased.
Far across the pasture lands of the Australian ranch moved a line of
men and horses that gradually approached the ranch like robbers.
Their movements were almost noiseless, and their leader addressed his
followers in low tones.
Nothing told of the approach of the enemy, and the night winds did not
waft to the doomed ranch tidings of the swoop.
On a little rise not far from the sheep sheds the band halted, and
Blacklocks addressed his men.
He told them of the marvelous treasure in the secret vaults of the
ranch, and of the vengeance they would take.
When he concluded he gave the command to march on, and the column moved
again.
It neared the ranch.
The guards did not stop its march; indeed there were no guards in
sight, and everything seemed in readiness for the attack.
Suddenly the air rang with fierce shouts, and the rapid gallop of
horses was heard.
"The bandits! the bandits!" cried half a dozen voices, and then all was
confusion about the ranch buildings.
Down upon the houses swept the bandits, secure in their saddles, all
dark-faced ruffians, who had plundered more than one good ranch, and
left but misery and death in their train.
But this time there was to be a stubborn defense.
The bandits were suddenly checked by a sheet of flame that seemed to
burst from every window of the ranch-house.
Blacklocks and his demons fell back--recoiled with cries of fright and
agony.
The defenders of Round Robin Ranch had determined to fight to the last
extremity, and were firing accordingly.
Their bullets told; men reeled from the light saddles, and horses
pitched in every direction in the throes of death.
Volley after volley poured from the ranch, and whichever way the
bandits turned they met the same sheet of fire.
Blacklocks himself was unhorsed and struck down, but he led his men on
again.
At last the scoundrels gave way.
The defense was too much for them, and they had to fall back, carrying
with them nearly one-half of their men.
The repulse had been disastrous for the few defenders, for six lay on
the bloody floor of Ranch Robin, and of these four were dead.
The windows were shattered, and bullet marks scarred the house from
eaves to foundation.
Merle, with a bloody bandage around his forehead, stood in the middle
of the room looking like a demon of battle, and Belle Demona, holding a
carbine in her jeweled hands, stood near him triumphantly and happy.
The bandits rode back over the hills with threats of future attack and
vengeance, and the last shots had died away on the night air.
An hour later silence had come down over the old ranch, and all traces
of blood on the floor had vanished.
"If Riggs would only come back now," said Belle Demona, "I would finish
the work."
"He will come," answered Merle. "The trap is now set for the detective,
and we will soon be safe."
At this moment there crouched on the porch outside the slender figure
of a young girl.
Her eyes seemed ablaze with passion, and in her hand she clutched a
revolver.
Her figure was not seen for the vines, but she could see the couple in
the room beyond.
Stareyes had come back!
She watched Merle and Belle Demona with eager eyes, and felt her blood
course like molten lava through her veins.
"I failed before and he still lives," she hissed. "I see him with her,
and they have saved the ranch. But where is the detective? What has
become of Roland Riggs?"
In another moment Merle came toward the porch, and Belle Demona caught
his arm.
"Do you think the girl is here?" she cried. "Is Stareyes that witch in
the country."
"Ask me not."
"But she has been here. There have been tracks in the sheep sheds. She
lurks there. Fire them!"
"Wait till morning."
Belle Demona released him, and Stareyes saw him pass within a few feet
of her.
She could have struck him again, but she did not.
"Perhaps Riggs wants him more than I do," she muttered. "He is the
agent of justice, and has crossed the sea for this man. Truly he
belongs to him. You shall have him, Riggs, but, if you fail, he shall
die by Stareyes' hand!"
Stareyes slipped back over the path which led to the sheep sheds, and
entered one of these.
She crept up to her hidden bed in the hay, and lay down.
Presently she started and listened with her ear glued to the crevice
nearest her.
"They have come for me," she said, grasping the revolver and looking
down into the darkness.
Some one was beneath her.
She heard a stealthy step and then the labored breathing of a person
she could not see.
All at once there flashed up the tiny light of a match, and the girl in
the hay could hardly suppress the cry that bubbled to her lips.
It was not Merle, the rancher, but Belle Demona, who stood in the sheep
shed.
The burning match in her hand told her purpose.
She had come to fire the sheds and to burn her--Stareyes--out.
Madness and intense jealousy blazed in the ranch queen's eyes, and for
a moment she looked around upon the interior of the little shed as she
held the blazing match aloft.
"This will scorch the sleeping viper," Stareyes heard her hiss. "A
match and a little hay will avenge me."
Belle Demona threw some of the hay upon the floor, and then struck
another match.
Gloating over her demon work, she withdrew toward the door and looked
back.
In another second she had thrown the second match upon the hay, and it
caught immediately.
"That's it! She will burn now, and Stareyes will no longer prove the
curse of my life."
Larger and larger grew the flame, and Belle Demona turned away.
She did not see the lithe form that dropped from the hayloft to the
ground.
She did not note the nimble-footed girl who avoided the fire and sprang
from the hut.
Belle Demona went back to the house, with the flames of the burning
shed seeking the vault of heaven.
She looked back once from the porch, and saw the roof fall in with a
shower of sparks.
"It is over and the nest is destroyed! Pray Heaven the viper was in it!"
"What have you done?" said a voice behind her.
She turned and saw Merle.
"I've fired the sheds and killed the viper of Melbourne!" was the
reply. "Now no one remains but Riggs, the detective. Finish him, and
the secret is forever safe."
She went over to the piano and began to play a wild and merry tune.