TREACHERY DISCLOSED.
Nomad’s first impression of Dell of the Double D was undergoing a
change.
“How do you happen to be so far from the mine without a mount of your
own, Golightly?” the girl inquired, as they traveled.
“Bedad,” answered the Irishman, “th’ two blackguards that was chasin’
yerself could have tould yez.”
He scowled, looked back along the trail, and shook his clenched fist.
“Here’s mystery,” said Dell, “and it must be serious to get your
Irish up like that. However did those two men who were chasing me
have anything to do with you?”
“They snaked him off’n er buckboard an’ put him inter a b’ar-trap,”
guffawed Nomad. “He was yellin’ ter git out while I was passin’
through ther basin, an’ arter a spell o’ lookin’ I managed ter locate
him.”
“In a bear-trap!” cried Dell. “Did they rob you, Golightly?”
“Sorry a thing did Oi have about me that was worth th’ takin’,”
answered Golightly, “barrin’ th’ ould man’s team an’ buckboard.”
“Why did they take that?”
“Ask me somethin’ aisy.”
“Were you going to Phœnix?”
“Oi was. Oi got as far as th’ basin, an’ shpent th’ rest av th’ toime
in that bear-thrap!”
“Ah!” exclaimed the girl, straightening suddenly in her saddle, while
a look of alarm crossed her face. “Were you going to meet Annie?”
“Nawthin’ ilse! Now, begorry, Oi’ll bet she’s waitin’ in th’ hotel
wondherin’ where th’ blazes is Golightly.”
“Were the star-faced cayuses at the pole of the buckboard?” demanded
the girl, a smoldering excitement shining from the depths of her blue
eyes.
“They were that. A hunnerd an’ sixty dollar team they were, an’ th’
buckboard was worth a hunnerd more. Och, wurra, but it’s me day f’r
throuble!”
“What erbout et, Dell?” queried Nomad, his speculative glance on the
girl. “Ye’ve got somethin’ in yer head thet lies er b’arin’ on ther
sitiwation. Out with et. Thar’s er nigger in this hyar wood-pile, an’
we’re arter locatin’ him.”
“First off,” answered the girl, her attitude one of alert attention,
“I want to know something about what recently happened at the
Three-ply. The superintendent, Bernritter, and the cyanid expert,
Jacobs, were mixed up in an attempt to steal the bullion from the
mill clean-up, weren’t they? And Buffalo Bill and his pards jumped
in, saved the bullion, stood off an attack of Apaches, and helped in
the capture of Jacobs?”
“Thet’s erbout ther way o’ et,” returned Nomad. “A white tinhorn
named Bascomb led the Apaches. He an’ Bernritter, an’ most o’ ther
Apaches, got erway. Ther sher’f come out from Phœnix, last night,
an’ took Jacobs back ter town. Buffler, an’ me, an’ Leetle Cayuse
was goin’ ter foller ther sher’f on ther way ter Phœnix, bound fer
Fort Apache, but McGowan asked us ter stay over. I had started ahead
o’ Buffler an’ Cayuse, when I found Golightly in ther trap. I’m now
givin’ him er lift back, ter make his report.”
“Then at the present time,” said Dell, “this fellow, Bascomb, and
Bernritter, and a few red renegades, are loose in the hills?”
“Thet’s ther how o’ et. But I don’t reckon they’re loose eround hyar.
Ef I figgers et right, Bascomb an’ Bernritter took er runnin’ start
fer ther Mexican border.”
“That may be,” continued Dell reflectively; “then, on the other hand,
they may be hiding out in this vicinity, laying their plans to play
even with Buffalo Bill and his pards, and McGowan.”
“Ye don’t think et was Bascomb an’ Bernritter thet chased you, do ye?”
“I know Bernritter wasn’t one of the two,” flashed the girl. “No mask
could keep me from knowing _him_. This Bascomb I don’t know anything
about.”
“I do,” scowled Nomad, “an’ I could tell ther whelp with er without
er mask, as fur as I could see him. He wasn’t one o’ ther two as
chased you, Dell. Now, aside from Jacobs, thar was on’y two whites
with ther Apaches when the Three-ply Mine was set upon. So these
hyar two thet was chasin’ ye, bein’ neither Bascomb ner Bernritter,
couldn’t hev had nothin’ ter do with ther trouble at ther Three-ply.
Golightly says, too, thet ther men who was makin’ arter you was two
o’ ther three thet put him in ther b’ar-trap and hiked out with ther
buckboard. Mebbyso ther third man might hev been Bernritter.”
“Faith,” spoke up Golightly, who had been intently listening, “Oi’ll
take me oath it wasn’t. Oi know Bernritter some mesilf.”
“Then,” said Nomad finally, “none of these three trouble-makers had
anythin’ ter do with ther Three-ply business.”
“They may be in the hire of Bascomb and Bernritter,” said Dell.
“Le’me tell ye, gal,” averred Nomad, “them two false-alarms aire on
the run, an’ they ain’t goin’ ter stop runnin’ ter hire three pizen
varmints ter do any underhand business eround hyar. Take my word fer
it.”
“Thin whoy th’ dickens did they take th’ buckboard?” demanded
Golightly. “Answer me that.”
Dell Dauntless faced about in her saddle.
“I can tell you,” said she, in a low, tense voice.
Her manner claimed the fullest attention of Nomad and Golightly. She
was about to tell them something of vital importance--the fact stood
out in her eyes.
“Don’t hang fire, gal,” urged Nomad. “Our ears aire wide open.”
“They took the buckboard and horses because the rig is known in
Phœnix as belonging to Mr. McGowan,” said Dell.
“Waal, what o’ thet? Arter stealin’ ther rig ther scoundrels wouldn’t
drive et inter Phœnix.”
“That is what they did, nevertheless,” was the girl’s surprising
statement; “what is more, one of them unmasked and drove the rig.”
“Did ye see et in ther town?”
“I did. I had to go to Phœnix on ranch business to-day, and, as Annie
McGowan is a friend of mine, and as I knew she was to arrive this
morning, I went to the railroad-station to meet her.”
“An’ she come?” queried Golightly.
“She did. I talked with her a few minutes on the station platform.”
“What did she say because no wan was there t’ meet her an’ bring her
t’ th’ moine? What hotel was she afther shtoppin’ at?”
“She did not go to any hotel,” returned Dell deliberately. “She was
met by a man who said he came from the mine for that purpose.”
Golightly nearly fell off the horse.
Nomad stiffened, and a look of astonishment quivered across his
sun-browned face.
“Glory be!” gasped Golightly, thunderstruck.
“I knowed thar was some kind of er hen on,” grunted Nomad.
“What’s more,” proceeded Dell, “the man who met Annie _had McGowan’s
rig_.”
“Cut an’ dried game ter git holt o’ ther ole man’s gal,” boomed
Nomad, “thet’s what et was. Did she drive off with thet feller in
ther rig?”
“Of course she drove off with him, bag and baggage,” answered Dell.
“Why shouldn’t she? He said he came from the mine for her, and that
her father was too busy to come himself. Then, too, don’t forget that
he had the star-faced cayuses and the mine buckboard. Annie knows
that rig as she knows her two hands. Why should she suspect that
anything was wrong? No, no! Those scheming villains laid their plans
too cleverly. Ah, if I had only known that Golightly had been sent
from the mine by Mr. McGowan!”
Dell clenched her small hands and a look of fiery indignation crossed
her face--indignation not unmixed with self-reproach and righteous
anger.
“Now,” she resumed, “for the rest of it. I called at the post-office
for mail. They had a letter there for Buffalo Bill, and it was marked
‘urgent.’ The postmaster knew that Buffalo Bill was at the Three-ply
Mine, and that the Double D Ranch was not a great way from the mine.
So he gave me the letter, and asked me to take it to the mining-camp
and deliver it. That is the errand that brought me in this direction.
And it may be that that letter is what those two masked men were
chasing me for, and trying to get. Who knows? It’s a guess, and it
may be a good one.”
“I’m all scrambled up erbout these hyar doin’s,” mumbled Nomad,
rubbing his chin perplexedly. “Whyever should thet feller want ter
run off with Annie McGowan?”
“Did you hear,” asked Dell, “that Annie was engaged to be married
to Bernritter? That she engaged herself to him before she went to
’Frisco?”
“I heerd thet, yes.”
“I always looked upon Bernritter as a scoundrel,” continued Dell,
“and always doubted his loyally and intentions. Annie doesn’t know
about how Bernritter has been unmasked during the last few days.
So it seems to me that this stealing of the buckboard _may_ have
been engineered by Bernritter, and that the man who met Annie at
the railroad-station _may_ have been executing his treachery on
Bernritter’s behalf.”
“Why?”
Dell pulled fiercely at one of her gauntlets.
“I don’t know,” she said, “but I’m going to find out; what’s more,
after I deliver Buffalo Bill’s letter, I’m going to take the trail
and find Annie and get her back. There’s a villainous plot of some
kind on foot, and I’ll bet something that Bernritter and Bascomb are
back of it.”
What the girl had said had had a tremendous effect upon Golightly and
Nick Nomad.
“Let me tell ye, gal,” said the old trapper, “ef things aire like ye
figger out, Buffler Bill an’ his pards’ll also hev er hand in ther
game. Don’t let thet git past yer guard fer a minit.”
The girl’s face brightened.
“Do you really think Buffalo Bill will help?” she asked.
“Thet’s Buffler, fer ye. Arter he hears yer story, take my word for
it, he’ll be as anxious as ye aire ter do somethin’ fer Miss McGowan.
Anyways”--and Nomad waved his hand toward a valley which lay in front
of them and contained the “plant” of the Three-ply Mine, “we’re clost
ter whar Buffler is now, an’ et won’t be long afore he’ll tell ye
hisself what he’ll do.”
Quickening their pace, the three riders hastened down among the mine
buildings and laid their course direct for the adobe office.