THE LETTERS
"But what was yore idea in coming to Marysville a-tall?"
"To get that release Father signed--I thought it might be in his
safe."
"Anybody give you the idea it might be?"
She shook her head. "Nobody."
"You've got more brains than I have, for a fact. But how were you
figuring on getting into the safe?"
"Oh, I brought a bunch of keys along. What are you laughing at? I
thought one might fit."
"Keys for a safe! Say, don't you know you don't open safes with keys?
They've got combinations, safes have."
"I didn't know it. How could I? I never saw a safe in my life till
I saw this one to-night. I thought they had locks like any other
ordinary--Oh, I think you're horrid to laugh!"
"I'm not laughing. Lean over, and I'll show you.... There, I ain't
laughing, am I?"
"Not now, but you were.... Not another one, Racey. Sit back where you
belong, will you? You can hold my hand if you like. But I wasn't such
a fool as you seem to think, Racey. I brought an extra key along in
case the others didn't fit."
"Extra key?"
"Surely--seven sticks of dynamite, caps, and fuse. Chuck had a lot he
was using for blowing stumps, so I borrowed some from his barn. He
didn't know I took it."
"I should hope not," Racey declared, fervently. "You leave dynamite
alone, do you hear? Where is it now?"
"Oh, I left it on the floor in Tweezy's house when I found I didn't
need it any longer."
"Thank God!" breathed Racey, whose hair had begun to rise at the bare
idea of the explosives still being somewhere on her person. "What was
yore motive in hold in' up Jack Harpe and Jakey Pooley?"
"Was that who they were? I couldn't see their faces. Well, when I had
broken the lock and opened the back window and crawled through, I went
into the front room where I thought likely the safe would be, and I
was just going to strike a match when I heard a snap at the front
window as the lock broke. Maybe I wasn't good and scared. I paddled
into the other front room by mistake. Got turned around in the dark, I
suppose. And before I could open a window and get out I heard two men
in the front room I'd just left. I didn't dare open a window then.
They'd have heard me surely, so I just knelt down behind a bed. And
after a while, when one man was busy at the safe, the fat man came
into my room and sat down on a chair inside the door. Lordy, I hardly
dared breathe. It's a wonder my hair didn't turn white. Once I thought
they must have heard me--the time the fat man said 'rats'. Honestly, I
was so scared I was almost sick."
"But you have nerve enough to try and hold them up."
"I had to. When I found out they were going to rob the safe, I had to
do something. Why, they might have taken the very paper I wanted, and
somehow later Tweezy might have gotten it back. I couldn't allow that.
I knew that I must get at what was inside the safe before they did. I
just had to, so when the fat man got up from his chair and stood in
the doorway with his back to me, I just gritted my teeth and stood up
and said 'Hands up.'"
"My Gawd, girl, you might 'a' been shot!"
"I had a sixshooter," she said, tranquilly. "But I wouldn't have shot
first," she added, reflectively.
Willy-nilly then he took her in his arms and held her tightly.
"But I don't see why," he said after an interval, "you had to go off
on a wild-goose chase thisaway. Didn't I tell you I was going to fix
it up for you? Couldn't you 'a' trusted me enough to lemme do it my
own way?"
"We had that--that quarrel in the kitchen, and I thought you didn't
like me any more, and--and wouldn't have any more to do with me and
that it was my job to do something to help out the family.... Please!
Racey! I can't breathe!"
Another interval, and she resolutely pushed his arms down and held him
away from her with both hands on his shoulders.
"Tell me," said she, her blue eyes plumbing the very depths of his
soul, "tell me you don't love anybody else."
He told her.
Later. "There was a time once when I thought you liked Luke Tweezy,"
he observed, lazily.
"How horrible," she murmured with a slight shudder as she snuggled
closer.
And that was that.
"I think, dearest," said Molly, raising her head from his shoulder
some twenty minutes later, "that it's light enough now to see what's
in the sack."
So, in the brightness of a splendid dawn, snugly hidden on the
tree-covered flank of one of the Frying Pan Mountains, they opened the
bran sack and went through every paper it contained.
There were deeds, mortgages, legal documents of every description.
They found the Dale mortgage, but they did not find the release
alleged to have been signed by Dale immediately prior to his death.
"Of course that mortgage is recorded," said Racey, dolefully, staring
at the pile of papers, "so destroyin' that won't help us any. The
release he's carrying with him, and I don't see anything--"
"Here's one we missed," said Molly Dale in a hopeless tone, picking up
a slip of paper from where it had fallen behind a saddle. The slip
of paper was folded several times. She opened it and spread it out
against her knee. "Why, how queer," she muttered.
"Huh?" In an instant Racey was looking over her shoulder.
When both had thoroughly digested the meaning of the writing on that
piece of paper they sat back and regarded each other with wide eyes.
"This ought to fix things," breathed Molly.
"Fix things!" cried Racey. "Cinch! We've got him like that."
He snapped his fingers joyfully.
Molly reached for the bran sack. "You only shook it out," she said.
"I'm going to turn it inside out. Maybe we'll find something else."
They did find something else. They found a document caught in the end
seam. They read it with care and great interest.
"Well," said Racey, when he came to the signatures, "no wonder Jack
Harpe and Jakey Pooley wanted to get into the safe. No wonder. If we
don't get the whole gang now we're no good."
"And to think we never thought of such a thing."
"I was took in. I never thought anything else. And it does lie just
right for a cow ranch."
"Of course it does. You couldn't help being fooled. None of us had any
idea--"
"I'd oughta worked it out," he grumbled. "There ain't any excuse for
my swallowing what Jack Harpe told me. Lordy, I was easy."
"What do you care now? Everything's all right, and you've got me,
haven't you?" And here she leaned across the bran sack to kiss him.
She could not understand why his return kiss lacked warmth.
* * * * *
"Sun's been up two hours," he announced. "And the hosses have had a
good rest. We'd better be goin'."
"What are you climbing the tree for, then?" she demanded.
"I want to look over our back trail," he told her, clambering into the
branches of a tall cedar. "I know we covered a whole heap of ground
last night, but you never can tell."
Apparently you never could tell. For, when he arrived near the top of
the cedar and looked out across a sea of treetops to the flat at the
base of the mountain, he saw that which made him catch his breath and
slide earthward in a hurry.
"What is it?" asked Molly in alarm at his expression.
"They picked up our trail somehow," he answered, whipping up a blanket
and saddle and throwing both on her horse. "They're about three miles
back on the flat just a-burnin' the ground."
"Saddle your own horse," she cried, running to his side. "I'll attend
to mine."
"You stuff all the papers back in the sack. That's yore job. Hustle,
now. I'll get you out of this. Don't worry."
"I'm not worrying--not a worry," she said, cheerfully, both hands busy
with Luke Tweezy's papers. "I'd like to know how they picked up the
trail after our riding up that creek for six miles."
"I dunno," said he, his head under an upflung saddle-fender. "I shore
thought we'd lost 'em."
She stopped tying the sack and looked at him. "How silly we are!"
she cried. "All we have to do is show these two letters to the posse
an'--"
"S'pose now the posse is led by Jack Harpe and Jakey Pooley," said he,
not ceasing to pass the cinch strap.
Her face fell. "I never thought of that," she admitted. "But there
must be some honest men in the bunch."
"It takes a whole lot to convince an honest man when he's part of a
posse," Racey declared, reaching for the bran sack. "They don't stop
to reason, a posse don't, and this lot of Marysville gents wouldn't
give us time to explain these two letters, and before they got us back
to town, the two letters would disappear, and then where would we be?
We'd be in jail, and like to stay awhile."
"Let's get out of here," exclaimed Molly, crawling her horse even
quicker than Racey did his.
Racey led the way along the mountain side for three or four miles.
Most of the time they rode at a gallop and all the time they took care
to keep under cover of the trees. This necessitated frequent zigzags,
for the trees grew sparsely in spots.
"There's a slide ahead a ways," Racey shouted to the girl. "She's
nearly a quarter-mile wide, and over two miles long, so we'll have to
take a chance and cross it."
Molly nodded her wind-whipped head and Racey snatched a wistful glance
at the face he loved. Renunciation was in his eyes, for that second
letter found caught in the bran sack's seam had changed things. He
could not marry her. No, not now. And yet he loved her more than ever.
She looked at him and smiled, and he smiled back--crookedly.
"What's the matter?" she cried above the drum of the flying hoofs.
"Nothing," he shouted back.
He hoped she believed him. And bitter almonds were not as bitter as
that hope.
Then the wide expanse of the slide was before them. Now some slides
have trails across their unstable backs, and some have not. Some are
utterly unsafe to cross and others can be crossed with small risk.
There was no trail across this particular slide, and it did not
present a dangerous appearance. Neither does quicksand--till you step
on it.
Racey dismounted at the edge and started across, leading his horse.
Twenty yards in the rear Molly Dale followed in like manner. At every
step the footing gave a little. Once a rounded rock dislodged by the
forefoot of Racey's horse bounded away down the long slope.
The slither of a started rock behind him made him turn his head with a
jerk. Molly's horse was down on its knees.
"Easy, boy, easy," soothed Molly, coaxingly, keeping the bridle reins
taut.
The horse scrambled up and plunged forward, and almost overran Molly.
She seized it short by the rein-chains. The horse pawed nervously and
tried to rear. More rocks skidded downward under the shove of the hind
hoofs. To Racey's imagination the whole slide seemed to tremble.
Molly's face when the horse finally quieted and she turned around was
pale and drawn. Which was not surprising.
"It's all right, it's all right, it's all right," Racey found himself
repeating with stiff lips.
"Of course it is," nodded Molly, bravely. "There's no danger!"
"No," said Racey. "Better not hold him so short. Don't wind that rein
round yore wrist! S'pose he goes down you'd go, too. Here, you lemme
take him. I'll manage him all right."
"I'll manage him all right myself!" snapped Molly, up in arms
immediately at this slur upon her horsemanship. "You go on."
Racey turned and went on. It was not more than a hundred yards to
where the grass grew on firm ground. Racey and his horse reached solid
earth without incident. Then--a scramble, a scraping, and a clattering
followed in a breath by the indescribable sound of a mass of rocks in
motion.
Racey had wasted no time in looking to see what had happened. He knew.
At the first sound of disaster he had snapped his rope strap, freed
his rope and taken two half hitches round the horn. Then he leaped
toward the slide, shaking out his rope as he went.
Twenty feet out and below him Molly Dale and her struggling horse were
sliding downward. If the horse had remained quiet--but the horse was
not remaining quiet and Molly's wrist was tangled in the bridle reins.
In the beginning the movement was slow, but as Racey reached the edge
of the slide an extra strong plunge of the horse drove both girl and
animal downward two yards in a breath. Molly turned a white face
upward.
"So long, Racey," she called, bravely, and waved her free hand.
But Racey was going down to her with his rope in one hand. With the
other hand and his teeth he was opening his pocket-knife. The loose
stones skittered round his ankles and turned under his boot soles. He
took tremendous steps and, with that white face below him, lived an
age between each step.
"Grab the rope above my hand!" he yelled, although by now she was not
a yard from him.
Racey was closer to the end of his rope than he realized. At the
instant that her free hand clutched at the rope it tightened with a
jerk as the cow pony at the other end, feeling the strain and knowing
his business, braced his legs and swayed backward. Molly's fingers
brushed the back of Racey's hand and swept down his arm. Well it was
for him that he had taken two turns round his wrist, for her forearm
went round his neck and almost the whole downward pull of girl and
horse exerted itself against the strength of Racey Dawson's arm and
shoulder muscles.
Molly's face and chin were pressed tightly against Racey's neck. Small
blame to her if her eyes were closed. The arm held fast by the bridle
was cruelly stretched and twisted. And where the rein was tight across
the back of her wrist, for he could reach no lower, Racey set the
blade of his pocket-knife and sawed desperately. It was not a sharp
knife and the leather was tough. The steel did not bite well. Racey
sawed all the harder. His left arm felt as if it were being wrenched
out of its socket. The sweat was pouring down his face. His hat jumped
from his head. He did not even wonder why. He must cut that bridle
rein in two. He must--he must.
Snap! Three parts cut, the leather parted, Molly's left arm and
Racey's right fell limply. Molly's horse went down the slide alone.
Neither of them saw it go. Molly had fainted, and Racey was too spent
to do more than catch her round the waist and hold her to him in time
to prevent her following the horse.
Smack! something small and hot sprinkled Racey's cheek. He looked
to the left. On a rock face close by was a splash of lead. Smack!
Zung-g-g diminuendo, as a bullet struck the side of a rock and buzzed
off at an angle.
Racey turned his head abruptly. At a place where trees grew thinly on
the opposite side of the slide and at a considerably lower altitude
than the spot where he and Molly hung at the end of their rope shreds
of gray smoke were dissolving into the atmosphere. The range was
possibly seven hundred yards. The hidden marksman was a good shot to
drive his bullets as close as he had at that distance.
Straight out from the place of gray smoke four men and four horses
were making their way across the slide. They were halfway across. But
they had stopped. The down rush of Molly's horse had apparently given
them pause. Now two men started ahead, one stood irresolute and
one started to retrace his steps. It is a true saying that he who
hesitates is lost. Straight over the irresolute man and his horse
rolled the dust cloud whose centre was Molly's horse. When the dust
cloud passed on it was much larger, and both the man and his horse had
disappeared.
The man who had started to retreat continued to retreat, and more
rapidly. The two who had held on did not cease to advance, but they
proceeded very slowly.
"If that feller with the Winchester don't get us we're all right for a
spell," Racey muttered.
He knew that on their side of the slide for a distance of several
hundred yards up and down the side of the mountain and for several
miles athwart it the underbrush was impenetrable for horses and wicked
travelling for men. There had been a forest fire four years before,
and everyone knows what happens after that.
In but one place, where a ridge of rock reared through the soil, was
it possible to cross the stretch of burned-over ground. Naturally
Racey had picked this one spot. Whether the posse had not known of
this rock ridge, or whether they had simply miscalculated its position
it is impossible to say.
"Those two will shore be out of luck when they get in among the
stubs," he thought to himself, as he waited for his strength to come
back.
But youth recovers quickly and Racey was young. It may be that
the lead that was being sent at him and Molly Dale was a potent
revivifier.
Certainly within three or four minutes after he had cut the bridle
Racey began to work his way up the rope to where his patient and
well-trained horse stood braced and steady as the proverbial boulder.
Monotonously the man behind the Winchester whipped bullet after bullet
into the rocky face of the slide in the immediate vicinity of Racey
Dawson and the senseless burden in the crook of his left arm.
Nevertheless, Racey took the time to work to the right and recover the
hat that a bullet had flicked from his head.
Then he resumed his slow journey upward.
Ages passed before he felt the good firm ground under his feet and
laid the still unconscious Molly on the grass behind a gray and
barkless windfall that had once been a hundred-foot fir.
Then he removed his horse farther back among the stubs where it could
not be seen, took his Winchester from the scabbard under the left
fender and went back to the edge of the slide to start a return
argument with the individual who had for the last ten minutes been
endeavouring to kill him.