IN THE SCRUB
It seemed hours she stood thus, staring into those black, leering eyes.
Her damp garments struck a deadly chill to her very bones. Her knees
trembled so that she shook visibly, as her thoughts flashed back to that
night on the rim of the bench when this man had reached suddenly out and
dragged her from her horse. Her plight would have been bad enough had
she fallen into the hands of Long Bill Kearney--but Purdy!
At length the man spoke: "What's yer hurry? You sure wouldn't pull out
an' leave, after me savin' you from the river, would you?"
"The river," she repeated, dully, and her own voice sounded
strange--like a voice she had never heard. "Where--where's Tex?" The
question was not addressed to Purdy, it was merely the groping effort of
a numbed brain trying to piece together its sequence of events. She did
not know she had asked it. His answer brought her keenly alive to the
present. He laughed, harshly:
"He's drownded--fell out of the ferry, back there in the river--him an'
his horse both."
Alice did not know that the man was eyeing her keenly to detect
refutation by word or look. She did not know that he was lying. The
events of the night, to the moment of her plunge with the Texan into the
river at the end of the lariat line, stood out in her brain with vivid
distinctness. Purdy believed Tex to have drowned. She did not believe
it, for she knew that if he had not reached shore, she could not
possibly have reached shore. Her brain functioned rapidly. If Tex had
survived he would surely come to her rescue. And, if Purdy believed him
dead so much the better. She raised her hand and passed it across her
eyes:
"I remember," she said, slowly.
Again the man laughed: "Oh, you do, eh? I was only guessin'! I know'd if
I asked you you'd lie about it--but I know now! An' it makes things a
damn sight easier fer me."
"Stand aside and let me pass!" cried the girl, "I didn't say he drowned.
He'll be along here any minute--and my husband will be here, too!"
"Oh-ho, my thousan' dollar beauty!" sneered the man, "yer bluff comes in
too late! If you'd of got it in first off, as soon as I said he was
drownded, I might of b'lieved you--but there's nothin' doin' now. You
can't scare me with a ghost--an' as fer yer husband--he'd ought to got
me when he had the chanct." He advanced toward her, and the girl shrank
back against her horse's shoulder. "Surely, you ain't afraid of me," he
taunted, "why, it ain't only a year back sence you went ridin' with me.
Remember--Wolf River, in the moonlight on the rim of the bench, an' the
little lights a-twinklin' down in the valley? An' you remember how we
was interrupted then--the sound of hoofs thumpin' the trail--the pilgrim
come out of the dark an' shot 'fore I even know'd he had a gun. But it's
different this time. Here in the bad lands there ain't no one to butt
in. I've got you all to myself here. I love you now, same as I did
then--only a whole heap more. Women are scarce down here. You figgered
you wanted a change of men, or you wouldn't of be'n runnin' off with
Tex. Well, you've got it--only you've got me instead of him. We won't
hit it off so bad when you git used to my ways."
Every particle of blood receded from the girl's face and as she cowered
against her horse, her eyes widened with horror. Her lips moved stiffly:
"You--_you dog_!" she muttered hoarsely.
Purdy grinned: "Dog, eh? You ain't helpin' yer case none by callin' me
names. Ain't you got no thankfulness in you? Here I pulled you out of
the drink where you'd washed ashore--an' take you along safe an'
sound--an' yer callin' me a dog!"
"I would rather be dead, a thousand times, than to be here this
minute--with you!"
"Well, you ain't dead--an' you be here. An' if you don't go the limit
with me, yer goin' to wish a thousan' times more that you was a damn
sight deader than you ever will be! You know what I mean! An' you ain't
a damn bit better than what I be, either! If you was you wouldn't of
left yer man an' pulled out with Tex. I've got yer number, so you
might's well throw in with me an' save yerself a whole lot of hell. I've
got more'n what Tex has, anyhow--an' there's plenty more where I git
mine. You might's well know it now, as later--I'm an outlaw! I was
outlawed on account of you--an' it ain't no more'n right you should
share it with me. I've worked on horses up to now, but I'm a-goin' to
branch out! Banks an' railroad trains looks better to me! The name of
Purdy's goin' to be a big name in these parts--an' then all to onct it
won't be heard no more--an' you an' me'll be down in South America
rollin' 'em high!" The man's voice had raised with his boasting, and as
he finished, he pounded his chest with his fist.
During his speech the girl's heart shrivelled within her until it
touched the lowest depths of terror and despair. She cowered against the
horse, pressing her knuckles into her lips till the blood came--and,
suddenly, as he finished, she felt an insane desire to laugh. And she
did laugh, loudly and unnaturally--laughed and pointed a shaking
forefinger into the man's face: "You fool!" she screamed, hysterically,
"_you fool!_ I'm not afraid of you! You're not real! You can't be real!
You remind me of comic opera!"
For a moment the man stared in surprise, and then, with an oath he
grasped her roughly by the arm: "What are you laughin' at? I'm a fool,
be I? I ain't real? When I git through with you, you'll think I'm real
enough! An' I won't put you in mind of no comical opry neither! But,
first, I'm goin' to collect that reward."
"Reward?"
"Yes--reward," snarled the man, releasing her arm with a violent push
that whirled her half way around. Fumbling in his pocket he produced one
of the hand-bills that Long Bill had given him. "There it is--the reward
yer man stuck up for you--though what in hell he wants of you now is
more'n I know. It only says a thousan' there--but I raised it to five.
I'll jest hold you safe till I git my mitts on that five thousan', an'
then----"
"You'll hold me safe till you get the money?" asked the girl, a gleam of
hope lighting her eyes, "and then you'll turn me over to my husband? Is
that all you want--the money--five thousand dollars?"
The man laughed and again his eyes leered evilly into hers: "You know
what I want," he sneered, "an' what I want, I'll git--an' I'll git the
money, too! Things has broke my way at last! Tex is dead. When Long Bill
comes along to collect his share of the _dinero_ he'll foller Tex. An'
when the pilgrim rides into the bad lands with the money--well, it'll be
my turn, then. You'll be a widder, an' won't have only one man after
all--an' that man'll be me! An' they won't be no one a-huntin' you,
neither. They'll all think you drownded along with Tex."
"You devil! You fiend!" cried the girl, "surely if there's a God in
heaven, He will not let you live to do these things!"
"If there is, or if there ain't, it'll be the same," defied the man, "I
ain't afraid of Him! He won't lay no hand on _me_!" More terrible even
than his threats against her--more terrible than the open boast that he
would murder her husband, sounded the blasphemy of the man's words. She
felt suddenly weak and sick. Her knees swayed under her, and she sank
unconscious at the feet of her horse.
Staring down at her, Purdy laughed aloud, and securing his own horse and
the rope, lifted her into her saddle and bound her as before. Leading
the two animals, he made his way into the open where he mounted and
striking out at a right angle to his former course, headed for Cinnabar
Joe's.
As he disappeared around a bend in a coulee, a man who had been intently
watching all that transpired, rose to his feet. He was a squat man, with
ludicrously bowed legs. A tuft of hair protruded from a hole in the
crown of his hat. "I've seen considerable fools in my life, but when a
man gits to where he thinks he kin put over a whizzer on God A'mighty
an' git away with it--it's pretty close to cashin' in time fer him." He
stared for a moment at his six-gun before he returned it to its holster.
"There's them that's got a better right to him than me," he muttered,
"but at that, my finger was jest a-twitcherin' on the trigger."