APPEAL TO THE LAW
For some moments Sautee stood in the darkened doorway staring up the
moonlit street. The echoes of Rathburn's flight had died away. The
town was still. Sautee did not cry out, although he had recovered a
considerable measure of his composure. He listened intently and
finally grunted with satisfaction.
"Up the road," he muttered. "That means he is making for the pass over
the mountains."
He walked hurriedly through his office into the living room. There he
stood for a spell beside the table on which burned the lamp. His brows
were knit into a heavy frown. He seemed debating a question in his
mind. He tapped with nervous fingers on the table top.
"Pshaw," he said aloud, his face darkening. "He's an outlaw."
He put on his coat and dropped an automatic pistol into a side pocket.
After another moment of hesitation he blew out the light and walked
quickly out of the place, locking the door after him.
He hurried up the street to the jail. He found the jailer dozing in
the little front office and did not attempt to disturb him. From the
jail he hurried another short distance up the street and turned in at
a little house located some distance back from the sidewalk. He
knocked loudly on the door, and after a brief wait repeated the
performance.
A light showed, and the front door opened. Mannix, the deputy, looked
out.
"Let me in," said Sautee briefly. "There's been another robbery."
Mannix swung the door wide and stepped aside. He wore an ulster over
his night clothes, and his bare feet were thrust into slippers. He
scowled at the mines manager as he shut the door.
"More of the company's money gone?" he asked with a touch of sarcasm
in his voice.
Sautee nodded. "Some twenty-odd thousand," he said soberly; "and I
believe the man that got it is responsible for the holdups that have
been pulled off around here."
"Who got it?" Mannix asked quickly.
"Rathburn," Sautee announced.
Mannix smiled in undisgusted contempt. "Your own fault," he pointed
out. "Wouldn't give me a chance to investigate. Said you had a scheme
that would show him up one way or the other. Wouldn't let me in on it,
an' I was fool enough to let you have a try, although I don't believe
I could have held him anyhow."
"Just it," said Sautee. "Wouldn't have done any good to keep him in
jail, and I thought I had a two-way scheme that would either show him
up, as you say, or get me an excellent messenger. I intrusted Rathburn
with a package to carry to the mines office. He's a gunman, a
desperado, probably a killer, and I thought it would appeal to him to
be put in a place of trust. If he fell down--then I figured you'd be
able to get him like you said you could."
Mannix snorted. "After tryin' a fool scheme you want to shift the
business on _my_ shoulders, eh? Well, Sautee, you've never shown much
confidence in my ability, an' you don't have to show any now. It looks
to me as if the finishing of this play is all up to you."
"Oh, no, it isn't," said Sautee confidently. "You'll be most mighty
glad to take out after him."
"Suppose you wait an' see how quick I start," Mannix retorted angrily.
"What's the matter? Didn't he carry out your orders? I suppose you
gave him a bundle of money to make off with. Sautee, I believe you're
a fool!"
The mines manager winced and then frowned. "I gave him the money to
carry to the mine," he confessed without flinching. "He came back with
a story about being held up, and when he saw that I didn't believe him
and intended to turn him back to you, he pulled a gun on me and made
his get-away. He lit out through town for the road to the hogback and
the pass over the mountains."
Mannix laughed harshly. "You're clever, Sautee; there's no getting
away from how clever you are. Now you want me to go chasing up to the
hogback to head him off. Well, I'm tellin' you that I don't know where
he's gone, an' I ain't starting out after him at any two o'clock in
the morning. If you'd have kept your nose out of this he'd still be
all safe an' quiet in jail. That's final, so you might as well clear
out an' give me a chance to get some sleep."
Sautee merely smiled after this speech from the disgusted deputy.
"Since I intrusted Rathburn with that job I've found out something
about him which takes the case out of my hands entirely," he said with
a smirk. "I don't care if you don't start after him till day after
to-morrow. But if your chief--the sheriff--finds out that you didn't
hit the trail to-night he'll likely ask you for your badge!"
"Are you threatening me?" Mannix demanded loudly.
"No, I'm only stating facts," Sautee replied stoutly. "That man who
calls himself Rathburn is The Coyote!"
Mannix didn't start. He appeared hardly interested. Only the keen,
penetrating quality of the steady gaze he directed at the mines
manager betrayed the fact that his faculties were aroused.
"The Coyote hit back for Arizona after that deal he was mixed up in
over in Dry Lake, across the range," he said with conviction.
"Oh, he did?" Sautee sneered openly. "Well, you had him in jail last
night, and you can probably get him again, if you start right out
after him."
"What makes you think this fellow Rathburn is The Coyote?" demanded
Mannix.
"Carlisle knows him by sight, and he told me."
"Then why didn't you tell me?" the deputy asked sternly.
"Because Carlisle didn't tell me until after I told him what I'd
done," Sautee evaded. "Then I didn't have the--ah--nerve, under the
circumstances, to come to you with the news. At that, I thought he
might go through with it."
Mannix swore softly. "Giving a pay-roll messenger's job to a man who's
got a price on his head a mile long!" he exclaimed savagely. "Why
didn't Carlisle come to me?"
Sautee shrugged. "I'm not responsible for Carlisle. Maybe he didn't
feel sure of it, and maybe he's just naturally jealous of The Coyote
and wants to bring him in himself. Carlisle is a gunman, as you know,
and a good one."
"I know it," snapped out Mannix; "and I know both Carlisle an' you are
a pair of bunglers. I guess you wanted to show me up, but you've gone
about it in a way that won't get you anything nor hurt me, I'll see to
that."
Sautee smiled as the deputy hurried out of the room.
In a few minutes Mannix returned fully dressed and carrying a rifle.
The deputy's face was severe, and his eyes burned with the fire of the
man hunt. He signaled impatiently to the mine manager to follow him.
As they walked across the little porch and around to the rear of the
house where Mannix kept his car the deputy talked fast.
"I'm goin' up to the hogback. He ain't had start enough to get up
there yet on a horse, an' I'll beat him to it. It'll be daylight in
about two hours, an' I'll be there till daylight. If you think you can
do it, get out some of the men an' cover the trails to the mine on
horses. He might try to get over that way. Then you better take your
car and go up to the mine by the road as fast as you can to tell 'em
to be on the lookout. Watch out on the hogback, for I'll be up there,
parked with my lights out."
He had reached his small garage when he finished giving his
instructions, and Sautee, with a promise to do as he had been told as
quickly as possible, ran down the street toward the Red Feather, where
a light still shone.
The news that The Coyote and Rathburn were one and the same, and that
he had robbed the mining company that night and was probably
responsible for the other holdups, created an immediate sensation
among the few gamblers in the resort. Sautee added to the excitement
by quoting rewards at random, and the forming of two posses to comb
the trails to the mine and beyond was under way at once.
Sautee ran to his office and got out his small car. He stopped at the
Red Feather and took one of the men from the mine with him. He
stopped again when he reached the Carlisle cabin, pounded on the
doors, and looked in the windows. But the place was deserted, and
Sautee's features were wreathed in perplexity as he went back to his
car.
"That's queer," he said as he climbed into his seat.
"What's that?" asked the man beside him.
But Sautee's answer was drowned in the roar of the motor as he sped up
the road toward the hogback and the mine.