"You bet he is," responded Lize, "and here he'll stay."
Joe added: "And you'd better take the lady's advice, pop. She has the drop
on you."
The old rancher muttered a fierce curse while Ross explained the
situation. "I'm as eager to get rid of these culprits as any one can be,
but they must be taken by proper authority. Bring a writ from the
magistrate and you may have them and welcome."
Gregg went away without further word, and Lize said: "He'll find Higley if
he's in town; and he _is_ in town, for I saw him this afternoon. He's
hiding out to save himself trouble."
Lee Virginia, with an understanding of what the ranger had endured, asked:
"Can't I get you something to eat? Would you like some coffee?"
"I would, indeed," he answered, and his tone pleased her.
She hurried away to get it while Cavanagh disposed his prisoners behind a
couple of tables in the corner. "I guess you're in for a night of it," he
remarked, grimly. "So make yourselves as comfortable as you can. Perhaps
your experience may be a discouragement to others of your kind."
Lee returned soon with a pot of fresh coffee and some sandwiches, the
sight of which roused young Gregg to impudent remark. "Well, notice that!
And we're left out!" But Edwards shrank into the shadow, as if the light
hurt him.
Ross thanked Lee formally, but there was more than gratitude in his
glance, and she turned away to hide her face from other eyes. Strange
place it was for the blooming of love's roses, but they were in her cheeks
as she faced her mother; and Lize, with fresh acknowledgment of her
beauty, broke out again: "Well, this settles it. I'm going to get out of
this town, dearie. I'm done. This ends the cattle country for me. I don't
know how I've put up with these yapps all these years. I've been robbed
and insulted and spit upon just long enough. I won't have you dragged into
this mess. I ought to have turned you back the day you landed here."
The old man in the corner was listening, straining his attention in order
to catch every word she uttered, and Ross again caught a gleam in his eyes
which puzzled him. Before he had time to turn his wonder over in his mind
they all caught the sound of feet along the walk, but this time the sound
was sedate and regular, like the movement of police.
Both prisoners rose to their feet as Cavanagh again stood alert. The feet
halted; a sharp rap sounded on the door.
"Who's there?" demanded Lize.
"The law!" replied a wheezy voice. "Open in the name of the law!"
"It's old Higley," announced Lize. "Open the door, Ross."
"Come in, Law," she called, ironically, as the justice appeared. "You look
kind of mice-eaten, but you're all the law this blame town can sport. Come
in and do your duty."
Higley (a tall man, with a rusty brown beard, very much on his dignity)
entered the room, followed by a short, bullet-headed citizen in a rumpled
blue suit with a big star on his breast. Behind on the sidewalk Ballard
and a dozen of his gang could be seen. Sam Gregg, the moving cause of this
resurrection of law and order, followed the constable, bursting out big
curses upon his son. "You fool," he began, "I warned you not to monkey
with them sheep. You--"
Higley had the grace to stop that. "Let up on the cuss-words, Sam; there
are ladies present," said he, nodding toward Lee. Then he opened upon
Cavanagh. "Well, sir, what's all this row? What's your charge against
these men?"
"Killing mountain sheep. I caught them with the head of a big ram upon
their pack."
"Make him show his commission," shouted Gregg. "He's never been
commissioned. He's no game warden."
Higley hemmed. "I--ah--Oh, his authority is all right, Sam; I've seen it.
If he can prove that these men killed the sheep, we'll have to act."
Cavanagh briefly related how he had captured the men on the trail. "The
head of the ram is at the livery barn with my horse."
"How about that?" asked Higley, turning to Joe.
"I guess that's right," replied the insolent youth. "We killed the sheep
all right."
Higley was in a corner. He didn't like to offend Gregg, and yet the case
was plain. He met the issue blandly. "Marshal, take these men into
custody!" Then to Ross: "We'll relieve you of their care, Mr. Cavanagh.
You may appear to-morrow at nine."
It was a farcical ending to a very arduous thirty-six-hour campaign, and
Ross, feeling like a man who, having rolled a huge stone to the top of a
hill, has been ordered to drop it, said, "I insist on the maximum penalty
of the law, Justice Higley, especially for this man!" He indicated Joe
Gregg.
"No more sneaking, Higley," added Lize, uttering her distrust in blunt
phrase. "You put these men through or I'll make you trouble."
Higley turned, and with unsteady solemnity saluted. "Fear not my
government, madam," said he, and so made exit.
After the door had closed behind them, Cavanagh bitterly complained. "I've
delivered my prisoners over into the hands of their friends. I feel like a
fool. What assurance have I that they will ever be punished?"
"You have Higley's word," retorted Lize, with ironic inflection. "He'll
fine 'em as much as ten dollars apiece, and confiscate the head, which is
worth fifty."
"No matter what happens now, you've done your duty," added Lee Virginia,
with intent to comfort him.
Lize, now that the stress of the battle was over, fell a-tremble. "I
reckon I'll have to go to bed," she admitted. "I'm all in. This night
service is wearing."
Ross was alarmed at the sudden droop of her head. "Lean on me," he said,
"it's my turn to be useful."
She apologized. "I can't stand what I could once," she confessed, as he
aided her into the hotel part of the building. "It's my nerve--seem's like
it's all gone. I go to pieces like a sick girl."
She did, indeed, resemble the wreck of a woman as she lay out upon her
bed, her hands twitching, her eyes closed, and Ross was profoundly
alarmed. "You need the doctor," he urged. "Let me bring him."
"No," she said, huskily, but with decision, "I'm only tired--I'll be all
right soon. Send the people away; tell 'em to go to bed."
For half an hour Cavanagh remained in the room waiting to see if the
doctor's services would be required, but at the end of that time, as she
had apparently fallen asleep, he rose and tiptoed out into the hall.
Lee followed, and they faced each other in such intimacy as the
shipwrecked feel after the rescue. The house was still astir with the feet
of those to whom the noises of the night had been a terror or a lure, and
their presence, so far from being a comfort, a protection, filled the
girl's heart with fear and disgust. The ranger explained the outcome of
the turmoil, and sent the excited folk to their beds with the assurance
that all was quiet and that their landlady was asleep.
When they were quite alone Lee said: "You must not go out into the streets
to-night."
"There's no danger. These hoodlums would not dare to attack me."
"Nevertheless, you shall not go!" she declared. "Wait a moment," she
commanded, and reentered her mother's room.
As he stood there at Lize Wetherford's door, and his mind went back over
her brave deed, which had gone far to atone for her vulgarity, his respect
for her deepened. Her resolute insistence upon law showed a complete
change of front. "There is more good in her than I thought," he admitted,
and it gave him pleasure, for it made Lee Virginia's character just that
much more dependable. He thrilled with a new and wistful tenderness as the
girl opened the door and stepped out, close beside him.
"Her breathing is quieter," she whispered. "I think she's going to sleep.
It's been a terrible night! You must be horribly tired. I will find you
some place to sleep."
"It has been a strenuous campaign," he admitted. "I've been practically
without sleep for three nights, but that's all in my job. I won't mind if
Higley will 'soak' those fellows properly."
She looked troubled. "I don't know what to do about a bed for you;
everything is taken--except the couch in the front room."
"Don't trouble, I beg of you. I can pitch down anywhere. I'm used to hard
beds. I must be up early to-morrow, anyway."
"Please don't go till after breakfast," she smiled, wanly, "I may need
you."