The two girls clung closely to one another, after the manner of
frightened womankind, striving vainly to abstract a grain of courage
from a united fear--in the eyes of each a growing terror.
"We must find Milt and give him warning!" gasped Sally faintly to her
companion, at last gaining courage and voice as the two men went slowly
down the ravine, their voices dropping lower and lower until they grew
but a dull, unintelligible murmur to the attentive ears bent keenly to
catch their meaning.
"Yes," agreed Sophronia, "without delay. Is Steve Judson the man you
overheard talking to the Squire?"
"The very one. I recollected his voice the minute he begun to speak."
"A pretty pair of villains they are,--him an' Jade, too!"
Sally was already busied with her plans for her sweetheart's safety.
"I'll try to beat 'em at their very own game," she said determinedly.
"The first thing to be done is to see Milt."
"Yes, we must find him at once," agreed her companion.
"Let's go straight home, get our horses, and ride over to Mr. Pepper's
where Milt works. We must see Milt himself, not trust to a message."
"He can't be badly wounded, else they wouldn't expect to try him
tonight," said Sally thoughtfully, hope springing anew in her breast.
"Neither Jade, nor Steve talked like he was hurt at all. Perhaps he
isn't."
As the girls talked and planned, beset by many fears and uncertainties,
they walked hurriedly across the fields, keeping pace with their nimble
tongues, and when Mr. Saunders' house was reached, they quickly saddled
the horses, and set out forthwith on their quest.
Disappointment awaited them at their journey's end, for when they came
to Mr. Pepper's place, they learned that Milt had gone across country to
attend to some business for his employer, and it was uncertain at what
hour he would return. Sophronia and Sally looked at one another in dire
perplexity.
"Want to leave a message?" asked Mr. Pepper.
"If Mr. Derr comes any hour before midnight, tell him to ride over to my
house," said Sophronia. "I have a very important message for him." They
turned away. "He evidently isn't wounded, an' likely he won't get back
in time to be summoned by the raiders," she added hopefully, as she and
her companion rode homeward. "Now, what's to be done in the meantime?"
"I'm goin' straight home," declared Sally, "an' keep a sharp look-out at
the gate. Mr. Pepper said Milt might come back by way of town. I can
trump up some excuse to mother about not staying all night with you, as
I intended. If Milt comes back to Mr. Pepper's you'll get to see an'
warn him, an' if he comes by the gate--I'll get to do it. That's all we
can do."
"Suppose we both fail?"
"Then I'll go to the old quarry tonight," answered Sally.
"No!" cried her companion aghast.
"Indeed, I will," insisted Sally, coolly, "I'll not only go, but I'll
see that Milt's not convicted on the false words of those two lying
villains."
"You're really not in earnest, Sally Brown!" cried Sophronia, half in
astonishment, half in admiration at the daring announcement.
"But I am, I mean every word of it." The girl had inherited from her
forbears a touch of that intrepid spirit that prevailed amid the hills.
"I wouldn't go for worlds!" cried Sophronia shuddering.
"I guess you would, if it was _your_ sweetheart that was in danger."
"I don't believe I could go, even then," admitted Sophronia. "They'll
kill you!" she declared in growing terror.
"Not when I tell them I sent a warning to the band by Milt, and point
out the very man that did betray them."
"But remember, the leader of the night-raiders is Jade Beddow. He will
surely do you an' Milt all the injury he can. Oh, Sally, don't think
of running such a risk! Let's find Billy West an' ask him to go."
[Illustration: "YOU'RE REALLY NOT IN EARNEST, SALLY BROWN!"]
"It wouldn't be as safe as for me to go," demurred Sally. "I'm not
afraid. They're not goin' to hurt me. Let me have your father's pistol
when we get back. I'll take it along, an' use it, too, if there's need."
As the two girls excitedly discussed the situation, Sally decided that
she would not go back home as she had first intended. There were too
many chances of missing her sweetheart by so doing. Besides, if the two
girls separated, Sally would not know whether her friend had seen Milt
or not. This was a point they had both overlooked.
It was agreed, then, that the safer plan would be for Sally to remain at
Mr. Saunders' until late bedtime, then, if Milt had not come, she would
manage, with Sophronia's help, to slip quietly out of the house, saddle
Joe and go direct to the old abandoned quarry where the farce of a trial
would be held.
When bedtime came, and no sign of Derr, the two girls succeeded in
slipping out of the house without detection, when they quickly saddled
the patient Joe, and later parted in the darkness, Sophronia still
urging her companion to think once again before starting forth on so
perilous a journey.
Unshaken by her friend's forebodings, the toll-taker set out
courageously into the lonely night, bent on accomplishing her
sweetheart's release. She was familiar with the location of the dirt
lane, at which she must turn off in order to reach the quarry, yet, in
the haste of her mission and the perturbation of mind under which she
was laboring, she turned into the wrong lane, and had gone some distance
before discovering her mistake. By the time she had retraced her way
many valuable moments were lost.
The night was wearing on. In the hilly and sparsely settled region
through which she rode, it seemed already past midnight, and her road
was solitary and forbidding. Even the rocks, and trees and clumps of
bushes along the way took on grotesque and often threatening shapes to
her excited imagination as she passed them in the semi-darkness.
At times, these dimly defined forms became terrifying monsters of the
night, guarding the road along which she passed, like fabulous
creatures of fairy-land protecting the approach to some magic domain.
Vague, silent, mysterious, they loomed up on either hand--gigantic,
somber sentinels.
The chill of the night air, which lay heavily in the shadowy ravines,
between the uplifting hills, penetrated her clothing and seemed to reach
with its benumbing breath her very heart, yet she pressed on, undaunted.
She paused a brief moment at a small brook that crossed the road on the
way to the quarry, and as she listened there came the dull hoof-tread of
approaching horses--a cavalcade, it seemed, as she hearkened in sudden
nervous terror, for the raiders were evidently close at hand.
Were they coming from, or going to the quarry?
For the moment she could not decide whether the sound was behind or in
front of her. The reverberant hills seemed to be playing pranks with the
echoes, and as she sat motionless on her horse and listened, a feeling
of faintness came over her at the possibility of the sound's direction.
What if she were too late, and the raiders, returning from the old
quarry, had already wreaked their vengeance on the hapless victim? The
thought appalled her in its cruel suggestion, and her heart grew heavy
with forebodings; then close upon her terror and despair the glad fact
rushed to her relief that the horsemen were behind, not in front of her,
and there was yet time in which to state her lover's case.
The raiders' rendezvous lay beyond, some little distance up the road, as
she remembered its location in bygone days. There was scarcely time to
reach it before the hurrying horses. Perhaps it would be the better plan
to conceal herself somewhere amid the shadows along the road until the
cavalcade had passed, then quickly follow.
She recalled to mind that a little further down the brook was a thicket
of water willows, now a splotch of blackness in the vague landscape,
and, after a moment's hesitation, she turned her horse's head in this
direction.
Scarcely had the obscurity of the spot enfolded her, when the raiders
came sweeping by--an ominous shadowy band, crossing the shallow stream
at the place she had but recently quitted, then galloping rapidly along
the road which rose sharply toward the hill where lay the place of
meeting.
The quarry was hollowed out of the far side of the hill, around whose
base the stream wound lazily, and to go by way of the winding road was a
more circuitous route, while to climb the hill shortened the distance
greatly.
The girl decided on this latter route--she would climb the hill on foot.
It would take less time, and time was now most precious. Possibly the
raiders would place a sentry at the entrance of the quarry, so that she
might not be able to gain access, even if she should go around by the
road as she had at first intended.
Acting on this sudden decision, she quietly slipped from the saddle to
the ground, hurriedly tied the bridle to a bending willow, and, after
giving Joe a friendly, reassuring pat, started to climb the hill.
The way was rough and unfamiliar, and in the darkness, made yet more
dense by clumps of cedar trees and bushes that thickly clothed the
hillside, she was often compelled to grope her way along to keep from
stumbling over the knotted roots of the trees that crept out from
between crevices in the rocks, twisting over the ground like monster,
hideous serpents, guarding the approach to the rendezvous.
The ascent was slow and tedious. Finally the summit was reached, and
choosing her bearings from its commanding height, she began to descend
the opposite side toward the quarry, the long accumulation of fallen
cedar spines deadening the sound of her light footstep until she was
able to reach the very edge of the excavated portion of the hill without
detection, guided thither by a dim light below the surface that faintly
defined its rugged outline.
Spent of breath, she crouched down in the shadows behind a clump of
dwarfed cedar bushes fringing the ragged edge of broken rock, and peered
cautiously into the quarry.
A scant fire had been hastily kindled close against the rocky wall, and
in a semi-circle around it the raiders were now gathered. The
wide-brimmed, slouch hats they wore partly concealed the faces beneath,
and the girl's eager eyes traveled anxiously from one dark form to
another.
Finally they rested on the object sought. Standing almost beneath the
spot where she crouched in hiding was the accused, his head boldly
erect, his bearing defiant, as if he feared no man, and cared naught for
the two who had come to bear false witness against him, and to swear
away his life.