To Simon, the night had seemingly ended in triumph after all. It had
looked dark for a while. The bolt of lightning, setting fire to the
pine, had deranged all of his plans. His men had been thrown from their
horses, the blazing pine tree had left them exposed to fire from the
house, and they had not yet caught their mounts and rallied. Young Bill
and himself, however, had tied their horses before the lightning had
struck and had lingered in the thickets in front of the house for just
such a chance as had been given them.
He hadn't understood why Bruce had not opened fire on the fleeing
Turners. He wondered if his enemy were out of ammunition. The tragedy of
the Sentinel Pine had had no meaning for him; and he had held his rifle
cocked and ready for the instant that Bruce had shown himself.
Young Bill had heard his little exultant gasp when Linda and Bruce had
come out into the firelight. Plainly they had kept track of all the
attacking party that had been visible, and supposed that all their
enemies had gone. He felt the movement of Simon's strong arms as he
raised the rifle. Those arms were never steadier. In the darkness the
younger man could not see his face, but his own fancy pictured it with
entire clearness. The eyes were narrowed and red, the lines cut deep
about the bloodhound lips, and mercy was as far from him as from the
Killer who hunted on the distant ridge.
But Simon didn't fire at once. The two were coming steadily toward him,
and the nearer they were the better his chance of success in the
unsteady light. He sat as breathless, as wholly free from telltale
motion as a puma who waits in ambush for an approaching deer. He meant
to take careful aim. It was his big chance, and he intended to make the
most of it.
The two had halted beside the ruined pine, but for a moment he held his
fire. They stood rather close together; he wanted to wait until Bruce
offered a clear target. And at that instant Bruce had drawn the leather
wallet from the tree.
Curiosity alone stayed Simon's finger as Bruce had opened it. He saw the
gleam of the white paper in the dim light; and then he understood.
Simon was a man of rigid, unwavering self-control; and his usual way was
to look a long time between the sights before he fired. Yet the sight of
that document--the missing Folger-Ross agreement on which had hung
victory or defeat--sent a violent impulse through all his nervous
system. For the first time in his memory his reflexes got away from him.
It had meant too much; and his finger pressed back involuntarily against
the trigger. He hadn't taken his usual deliberate aim, although he had
seen Brace's figure clearly between the sights the instant before he had
fired. Simon was a rifle-man, bred in the bone, and he had no reason to
think that the hasty aim meant a complete miss. He did realize, however,
the difficulties of night shooting--a realization that all men who have
lingered after dusk in the duck blind experience sooner or later--and he
looked up over his sights to see the result of his shot. His
self-control had completely returned to him; and he was perfectly cold
about the whole matter.
From the first second he knew he hadn't completely missed. He raised his
rifle to shoot again.
But Bruce's body was no longer revealed. Linda stood in the way. It
looked as if she had deliberately thrown her own body as a shield
between.
Simon spoke then,--a single, terrible oath of hatred and jealousy. But
in a second more he saw his triumph. Bruce swayed, reeled, and fell in
Linda's arms, and he saw her half-drag him into the house.
He stood shivering, but not from the cold that the storm had brought.
"Come on," he ordered Young Bill. "I think we've downed him for good,
but we've got to get that paper."
* * * * *
But Simon did not see all things clearly. He had little real knowledge
of the little drama that had followed his shot from ambush.
Human nature is full of odd quirks and twists, and among other things,
symptoms are misleading. There is an accepted way for men to act when
they are struck with a rifle bullet. They are expected to reel, to
throw their arms wide, and usually to cry out. The only trouble with
these actions, as most men who have been in French battle-fields know
very well, is that they do not usually happen in real life.
Bruce, with Linda's eyes upon him, took one rather long, troubled
breath. And he did look somewhat puzzled. Then he looked down at his
shoulder.
"I'm hit, Linda," he said in a quiet way. "I think just a scratch."
The tremendous shock of any kind of wound from a thirty-forty caliber
bullet had not seemingly affected him outwardly at all. Linda's response
was rather curious. Some hours were to pass before he completely
understood. The truth was that the shock of that rifle bullet,
ordinarily striking a blow of a half-ton, had cost him for the moment an
ability to make any logical interpretation of events. The girl moved
swiftly, yet without giving an impression of leaping, and stood very
close and in front of him. In one lightning movement she had made of her
own body a shield for his, in case the assassin in the covert should
shoot again.
She was trained to mountain ways, and instantly she regained a perfect
mastery of herself. Her arms went about and seized his shoulders.
"Stagger," she whispered quickly. "Pretend to fall. It's the one chance
to save you."
He dispelled the mists in his own brain and obeyed her. He swayed, and
her arms went about him. Then he fell forward.
Her strong arms encircled his waist and with all her magnificent young
strength she dragged him to the door. It was noticeable, however--to all
eyes except Bruce's--that she kept her own body as much as she could
between him and the ambush. In an instant they were in the darkened
room. Bruce stood up, once more wholly master of himself.
"You're not hurt bad?" she asked quickly.
"No. Just a deep scratch in the arm muscle near the shoulder. Bullet
just must have grazed me. But it's bleeding pretty bad."
"Then there's no time to be lost." Her hands in her eagerness went again
to his shoulder. "Don't you see--he'll be here in a minute. We'll steal
out the back door and try to ride down to the courts before they can
overtake us--"
In one instant he had grasped the idea; and he laughed softly in the
gloom. "I know. I'll snatch two blankets and the food. You get the
horse."
She sprang out the kitchen door and he hurried into the bedrooms. He
snatched two of the warmest blankets from the beds and hurled them over
his shoulder. He hooked the camp ax on his belt, then hastened into the
little kitchen. He took up the little sack containing a few pounds of
jerked venison, spilled out a few pieces for Elmira, and carried
it--with a few pounds of flour--out to meet Linda. The horse still stood
saddled, and with deft hands they tied on their supplies and fastened
the blankets in a long roll in front of the saddle.
"Get on," she whispered. "I'll get up behind you."
She spoke in the utter darkness; he felt her breath against his cheek.
Then the lightning came dimly and showed him her face.
"No, Linda," he replied quietly. "You are going alone--"
She cut him off with a despairing cry. "Oh, please, Bruce--I won't. I'll
stay here then--"
"Don't you see?" he demanded. "You can make it out without me. I'm
wounded and bleeding, and can't tell how long I can keep up. We've only
got one horse, and without me to weigh him down you can get down to the
courts--"
"And leave you here to be murdered? Oh, don't waste the precious seconds
any more. I won't go without you. I mean it. If you stay here, I do too.
Believe me if you ever believed anything."
Once more the lightning revealed her face, and on it was the
determination of a zealot. He knew that she spoke the truth. He climbed
with some difficulty into the saddle. A moment more and she swung up
behind him.
The entire operation had taken an astonishingly short period of time.
Bruce had worked like mad, wholly disregarding his injured arm. The rain
had already changed to snow, and the wet flakes beat in his face, but he
did not heed them. Just beyond, Simon with ready rifle was creeping
toward the house.
"Which way?" Bruce asked.
"The out-trail--around the mountain," she whispered. "Simon will
overtake us on the other--he's got a magnificent horse. On the mountain
trail we'll have a better chance to keep out of his sight."
She spoke hurriedly, yet conveyed her message with entire clearness.
They knew what they had to face, these two. Simon and whoever of the
clan was with him would lose no time in springing in pursuit. They each
had a strong horse, they knew the trails, they carried long-range rifles
and would open fire at the first glimpse of the fugitives. Bruce was
wounded; slight as the injury was it would seriously handicap them in
such a test as this. Their one chance was to keep to the remote trails,
to lurk unseen in the thickets, and try to break through to safety. And
they knew that only by the doubtful mercy of the forest gods could they
ever succeed.
She took the reins and pulled out of the trail, then encircled a heavy
wall of brush. She didn't wish to take the risk of Simon seeing their
forms in the dimming lightning and opening fire so soon. Then she turned
back into the trail and headed into the storm.
* * * * *
Simon had clear enough memory of the rifle fire that Linda had opened
upon the clan to wish to approach the house with care. It would be
wholly typical of the girl to lay her lover on his bed, then go back to
the window to wait for a sight of his assassin. She could look straight
along a rifle barrel! A few moments were lost as Young Bill and himself
encircled the thickets, keeping out of the gleam of the smoldering tree.
Its light was almost gone; it hissed and glowed in the wet snow.
They crept up from the shadow, and holding their rifles ready, opened
the door. They were somewhat surprised to find it unlocked. The truth
was it had been left thus by design; Linda did not wish them to encircle
the house to the rear door and discover Bruce and herself in the act of
departure. The room was in darkness, and the two intruders rather
expected to find Bruce's body on the threshold.
These were mountain men; and they had been in rifle duels before. They
had the sure instincts of the beasts of prey in the hills without, and
among other things they knew it wasn't wise to stand long in an open
doorway with the firelight of the ruined pine behind them. They slipped
quickly into the darkness.
Then they stopped and listened. The room was deeply silent. They
couldn't hear the sound that both of them had so confidently
expected,--the faint breathing of a dying man. Simon struck a match. The
room was quite deserted.
"What's up?" Bill demanded.
Simon turned toward him with a scowl, and the match flickered and burned
out in his fingers. "Keep your rifle ready. He may be hiding
somewhere--still able to shoot."
They stole to the door of Linda's room and listened. Then they threw it
wide.
One of their foes was in this room--an implacable foe whose eyes were
glittering and strange in the matchlight. But it was neither Bruce nor
Linda. It was old Elmira, cold and sinister as a rattler in its lair.
Simon cursed her and hurried on.
At that instant both men began to move swiftly. Holding his rifle like a
club, Simon swung through into, Bruce's room, lighted another match,
then darted into the kitchen. In the dim matchlight the truth went home
to him.
He turned, eyes glittering. "They've gone--on Dave's horse," he said.
"Thank God they've only got one horse between 'em and can't go fast. You
ride like hell up the trail toward the store--they might have gone that
way. Keep close watch and shoot when you can make 'em out."
"You mean--" Bill's eyes widened.
"Mean! I mean do as I say. Shoot by sound, if you can't see them, and
don't lose another second or I'll shoot you too. Aim for the man if a
chance offers--but shoot, anyway. Don't stop hunting till you find
them--they'll duck off in the brush sure. If they get through,
everything is lost. I'll take the trail around the mountain."
They raced to their horses, untied them, and mounted swiftly. The
darkness swallowed them at once.