"Look!" said the soft voice of Coravel Tio. "Look up at the skyline!"
Mrs. Crump tore herself free from that restraining hand--but she looked.
She looked up, beyond Abel Dorales, above Abel Dorales, at the line of
the hogback that cleaved across the hot blue sky. She stood thus,
looking, wonder upon her.
There, clear-cut and sharp against the quivering blue sky, appeared
three figures. They were the figures of a horse and two men; one of the
men carried a bundle in his arms. This last figure sank again from sight
almost instantly, as did that of the horse. The figure of the other man
came down the steep slope, came down swiftly and eagerly.
Abel Dorales saw Mrs. Crump look upward. He saw the others follow her
gaze, saw the startled and wondering surmise that filled their eyes. He
turned, catlike, and looked. He stared at that tall figure, whose
clothes were torn and dishevelled, whose forehead was streaked by the
raw, red brand of a hot bullet. He stared at that figure, which was
coming down the hillside rapidly toward him.
"_Dios!_" he whispered, throatily. "_Jesus Maria!_"
He crossed himself; the gesture was made in terrible, spasmodic haste.
His arms flung out wide, palms backward as though in search of some
support. He took a retreating step, and another, as that tall figure
strode down at him; he backed against a bowlder and stood thus, staring.
His brown face became ghastly pale, his mouth opened in slavering
horror.
In his madness there was reason. He had come here quickly, very quickly,
after shooting Thady Shea and seeing him topple into that gully; he knew
that no other man could walk here and arrive so soon after he had
arrived himself. He knew that this tall figure with the raw, red brand
across the brow could be no living man.
"_Que quiere?_" he cried, huskily, with a great effort forcing his vocal
chords to do their work. "_Que quiere?_ What do you want, hell dweller?"
Mrs. Crump, who did not believe in ghosts, and who was not easily shaken
off her balance, satisfied herself that it was really Thady Shea who
approached. Then she slipped to the doorway of the shack and picked up
the blacksnake whip which she had tossed away. She stood at the corner
of the shack, waiting, watching Abel Dorales, her lips grimly clenched
into a thin line. She was quite content to let Thady Shea settle his own
score with the man.
Thady came forward, wordless, his gaze fastened upon Dorales, deep anger
gleaming in those intensely black eyes. Abel Dorales, ashen white, edged
around the side of the bowlder. His hand drifted to his pocket; it
flashed up again with a revolver.
But as Abel Dorales swung down that revolver, as he drew down on Thady
Shea for a desperate ghost-quelling shot, something snaked out through
the air--something that seemed to leap from the expert arm of Mehitabel
Crump. It curled about the wrist of Abel Dorales, it curled and clung
with vicious snap about his hand and fingers; as the head of a
rattlesnake is snapped and tugged from his body with one whipcrack, so
the revolver was torn from the hand of Dorales and sent flying out upon
the stones.
Thady Shea flung himself upon Dorales.
As has been previously seen, Thady Shea knew nothing about the science
and art of fighting. His was a blind, primitive, untutored lust for
vengeance. He had heard that resonant voice telling the story of his
death; he had heard, lifting to him above the crest of the hogback, that
false tale designed to blacken his memory, and now he plunged headlong
at Abel Dorales, angered as he had never been angered in his life.
Stricken and all unstrung by what he had taken to be an apparition, Abel
Dorales tried to stumble away, cowering. But in a moment the furious,
clumsy blows of Thady Shea proved that here was real flesh and blood;
Shea landed one smash that all but stove in the ribs of his enemy. In
his arms was terrific strength, had he but known how to use it. Perhaps
it was as well that the knowledge was lacking, else Dorales had died
very brutally and quickly.
Still retreating, Dorales gathered himself together and faced the storm.
He saw that this was no ghost, but a man of flesh and blood--a man very
weary, very terrible, a man whose consuming anger swept away all sense
of bodily hurt and weariness. Dorales blocked the furious blows, then,
most incautiously, allowed Thady Shea to clinch.
That was near to being the death of Dorales, for now the terrific
strength of Thady Shea poured forth like a flood. The two men locked,
reeled back and forth, went plunging down to the stones. They rolled
down the hillside; they fought with utter madness--yet ever the steel
arms were tightening about the body of Dorales, ever the ribs of Dorales
were cracking and giving inward.
In that primitive and sickening struggle, neither man saw or gave heed
to anything else than the face of his foe. Neither man observed that, as
they upheaved and rolled again, they had come upon something that
gleamed like needles in the sunlight; something wide and gaping that lay
there unseen and inconspicuous among the stones.
Desperate, feeling the very life wrenching out of him, Abel Dorales
flung loose one arm and attempted to clutch a stone, wherewith to batter
at the deadly face above him. The two men writhed again, heaved upward,
fell heavily in a twisted mass. Something thin and piercing, something
that gleamed like white needles in the sunlight, ripped the skin of
Dorales' outflung arm. Upon that arm fell all the plunging weight of
Thady Shea, grinding it down upon the stones, grinding with it the
gaping jaws of that rattler's head, grinding arm and jaws until the
skin, from wrist to elbow, was burst and ripped asunder as cloth is
ripped before a knife.
The pain of this unseen, blind hurt fired Dorales into frantic efforts.
He flung Shea backward; he hammered in one blow and another, rocking
back Shea's head and blinding him. Dorales gained his feet once more,
writhing free, panting. He was freed of Shea's grip. His arm was
dripping blood. Dorales looked down at Thady Shea, who was weakly rising
to throw himself forward anew--then Abel Dorales turned. He turned and
ran, bounding and sliding to the canon floor in great leaps, running
wildly and blindly past the two automobiles, running from the vengeance
of the man whom he had tried to murder, the man who now seemed to be
more than man. But Thady Shea did not pursue, for now weakness and
dizziness had come upon him, and after two steps Shea fell forward.
From the doorway of the shack came a sharp report; a fleck of dust
lifted, slightly to one side of the running figure of Dorales. There
came a second report, and a fleck of dust lifted from between the
running feet of Dorales. Mrs. Crump was throwing down for the third and
final shot when Coravel Tio wrenched her arm aside.
"For the love of Heaven, stop!" cried Coravel Tio. "No murder, senora!
Go and look after Shea--quick!"
He tore the revolver away from her; then he watched Abel Dorales until
the half-breed turned a bend in the canon and was lost to sight.
Gilbert and Lewis had run to lift Thady Shea, and Mrs. Crump joined
them. Tears shone upon her cheeks as Thady Shea came to his feet and
faintly smiled at her. His lips moved, and a panting whisper reached her
ears.
"The baby--look after--her! I--knew--you wouldn't mind----"
"Carry him into the shack, ye galoots!" snapped Mrs. Crump, crisply, one
hand dabbing the tears from her eyes. "Can't you see his mind's
wanderin'? Hurry up, now!"
Despite Shea's protest, they obeyed her mandate. She followed them as
far as the shack doorway, then paused. Another man had come down from
the hogback, had suddenly appeared from nowhere, and was talking with
Coravel Tio; another man, tall and swarthy of face, behind whom followed
a saddled pony. The pony was very weary.
It was not the man at whom Mrs. Crump looked, however. It was the bundle
in his arms which drew her startled attention--that bundle was
unmistakably a baby! She realized that Thady Shea had not been wandering
in his mind after all. It was a baby, a little brown baby who was cooing
and laughing in the face of Coravel Tio.
Hastily, Mrs. Crump stepped forward, Coravel Tio turned to meet her.
"Senora, this is my friend Thomas Twofork, of whom I told you. He has
been following those gods of the San Marcos, and now he has found them."
Coravel Tio gestured toward the earth, where lay the seven stone gods
sprawled in grotesque attitudes, one alone being upright, grinning
stonily. But Mrs. Crump paid no heed to him or to the smiling Thomas
Twofork. From the latter's infolding arms she seized the baby with a
sudden and fierce gesture.
"Where'd ye get it? Where'd Thady Shea get it?" she demanded, sharply.
Thomas Twofork, standing there in the sunlight, told his story, while
Mrs. Crump fondled the baby with admiration and kindliness growing in
her keen blue eyes.
Thomas Twofork had located that battered yellow suitcase at the Hotel
Aragon, had seen Thady Shea depart with it--and had found the fan belt
on his own car broken. While repairing it, he had become aware that
Dorales was also on the trail of Shea. Dorales had started westward, and
after him, Twofork.
Dorales had not gone on to St. Johns, but had followed the tracks of
Murray's car when it turned off on the trail to Old Fort Tularosa and
Aragon. He had met Murray's car returning without Thady Shea, and had
hastened on into Aragon; by the time he discovered that Shea had not
been here, and had exchanged his car for a horse, much time was lost.
Dorales had gone back along the trail, had picked up Shea's track at
daybreak, and had followed; after Dorales had gone Thomas Twofork,
patiently unhurrying. Both men had met the ranger returning to town with
the murderer, Garcia, and had learned Shea's route.
When Dorales had fired that shot in the night, Twofork had been waiting,
had seen the act too late to prevent it. Dorales had at once taken the
yellow suitcase, pushing forward without delay. Thomas Twofork had found
Thady Shea in the gully, creased by the bullet, but unwounded, battered
by the fall but sound of wind and limb. With Shea in the saddle, holding
the baby, Thomas Twofork had followed the trail of Dorales quickly and
unerringly.
The remainder was briefly told. Knowing that the hogback hid all the
country beyond the view of those in the canon, Thady Shea had waited
until Dorales had ridden down into the canon, then had come on with
Thomas Twofork. Unseen, the two men had arrived, had waited; at the
right moment, Thady Shea had made his appearance. As Thomas Twofork told
it, the whole story was very simple, all very prosaic. But to those who
had waited by the shack in the canon, it had not been simple or prosaic.
It had been very tragic and very terrible.
"So work the gods!" Coravel Tio tossed away his cigarette. "Thomas
Twofork, here are the gods of your fathers; they are yours to take back
to Cochiti. They have brought disaster upon Mackintavers and Dorales;
they have brought us good blessings. And presently will come the real
Premble, senora, to buy this mine of ours."
"What was that ye threatened Sandy about?" demanded Mrs. Crump, looking
up from the baby for the first time. "That information ye mentioned?"
"Oh, that!" Coravel Tio laughed gently. "The grand jury is sitting at
Santa Fe. I arranged a few things; a few affidavits, chief among them
that of Senor Cota, one of our native legislators. I am confident that
by this time Sandy Mackintavers has been indicted for bribery and other
things. When he reaches Magdalena, he will find officers waiting for
him. That is all. He paid too much attention to the gods of the San
Marcos, and not enough attention to business. Ah, yes! Now, I am very
curious to find what made so much blood upon the arm of Abel Dorales. I
wonder, now!"
He beckoned to Thomas Twofork. The two men walked away, their eyes
intent upon the stony ground of the hillside.
Mrs. Crump went into the cabin, bearing the baby. Somewhat to her
surprise, she found Thady Shea sitting at the table, enjoying a hearty
meal by the aid of Gilbert and Lewis.
"My land, Thady. I thought ye was plumb laid out. So ye've come back at
last, huh? Well, set steady a while till I get some water on the
stove--got to fix this here baby up a bit. Pore little critter! Don't
know when I've seen a baby chortle like this here one."
Presently she had disposed the baby upon her own bunk, and found that
the two men had gone. She was alone in the shack with Thady Shea and the
baby. She went to the table and extended her hand.
"Thady," she said, her blue eyes moist, "have--have ye forgiven me that
blow?"
He stood awkwardly, gripping her hand, a glow spreading over his face as
he read the message in her eyes. Seldom had he seen her eyes look so
tender, so womanly.
"What blow? I don't--oh! Why, I had really forgotten it."
"I ain't. It's sore mem'ry," said Mrs. Crump, bluntly. "Thady, when that
varmint told that yarn about you bein' dead and so on, I was fixin' to
kill him--yes, I was! In another minute I'd ha' done it, too. And now,"
suddenly her voice became crisp and harsh, defiantly harsh, "what ye
mean bringin' that baby around here? D'you reckon I got time and room to
take care o' babies?"
A look of pained astonishment came to the man's eye.
"Why--why, I intended to take care of that baby myself! She seemed to
like me----"
"Who wouldn't, ye blunderin' big heart of a man!" she returned, softly.
"Yes, I reckon that baby is goin' to stay right here, Thady Shea. I just
wanted to see the idea in your mind, and now I reckon I know. Yes, sir!
I reckon I know."
"You don't know--at least not all of it." Thady Shea was smiling now,
smiling down into her eyes. "That baby is dependent on me; I'm going to
make her happy! And she isn't all, either. I'm an old man and pretty
useless, but--but I found a big purpose that has drawn me back
here--and--and I want to tell you----"
Out upon the stony hillside, out in the blinding white sunlight, Coravel
Tio and Thomas Twofork were standing together. In his hand the Indian
held something--something fragmentary and crushed, something that
glittered like broken needles in the sunlight.
"It was the head of a rattlesnake," said Thomas Twofork, meditatively,
"and not long dead. You see? The fangs caught in his arm. The two men
fell and ground into the stones the arm and fang together; the fangs
were ripped along his arm----"
"Ah, yes! It is very wonderful." Coravel Tio began to roll a cigarette.
He gazed down the canon where the running figure of Abel Dorales had
disappeared, and speculation filled his dreamy dark eyes.
"Was there any poison in the fangs? Very likely, Thomas Twofork. Perhaps
it had been there in the moment of death; beyond doubt, it had been
there. Was it dried up, too dried up to take effect? Well, we do not
know. Soon, in a day or two, we shall know. One thing I do know,
however--I know that _I_ would never meddle with the gods of the San
Marcos. Eh?"
Thomas Twofork was a college graduate, but he was first an Indian. To
this last word of his companion he nodded solemn affirmation. The two
men turned and started toward the shack; but a few yards from the
doorway, they halted and glanced at each other. From the building had
come a sudden low sound of a woman softly sobbing. Into the eyes of
Thomas Twofork leaped a mute question. Coravel Tio answered with a
gesture, and the two men changed their course and came to a halt near
the automobiles.
"Well?" asked the Indian a moment later. "Why does she cry, Coravel Tio?
Has that man Shea harmed her?"
Coravel Tio struck a match, lighted his cigarette, broke the match in
two, and gracefully tossed away the fragments.
"No, he has not harmed her," he said, gently. "Yet she is sobbing; so,
perhaps, is he. You do not understand these things, Thomas Twofork, but
I am a philosopher. I understand everything! I have expected to hear the
senora sob, thus, for some time past. Now it has happened. All is well."
"Eh?" The Indian scrutinized him in perplexity. "But what does it mean?"
"It means," and Coravel Tio smiled, "that the senora is very happy! She
has found both a husband and a child. _Adios!_"
THE END
THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS
GARDEN CITY, N. Y.