THE LOOT
In the heat of the threats and counterthreats which had been in
progress, none of the occupants of the room had heard the newest
arrival thunder up to the porch and leap from the saddle to the
steps.
Eagen was dumfounded by Rathburn's sudden appearance. He saw that the
girl was standing now in a front corner of the room, with her hands
crossed on her breast, a look of horror in her eyes. Slowly Eagen
recovered and loosed his hold on Doane, who staggered weakly to the
table and leaned upon it. Eagen's sneer returned to his thick lips,
and his narrowed gaze traveled quickly to a sack which Rathburn held
in his left hand. Eagen's eyes shone with fury.
"Come here to fix up the divvy!" he choked. "I knew it was a put-up
job between you an' Doane, an' I figured you'd maybe meet aroun' here
where Doane would be sure to come to try an' take this woman with
him."
Rathburn eyed him calmly. There was something of a deadly calm in his
very posture, as he stood just within the threshold. He looked past
Eagen to Doane. Then he tossed the sack on the table.
"Here's the money I took this morning, Doane," he said in matter-of-fact
tones. "I came here to turn it over to you."
With bulging eyes Doane stared at him.
Eagen laughed loudly. "That's rich! Tryin' to make me think you was
goin' to give it _all_ to him? Don't you figure, Mr. Coyote, that I
can throw my rope aroun' a simple scheme like you an' that shivering
rat over by the table cooked up? That's why you turned down my little
proposition last night. It was this same deal--only, _me_, an' Doane
there was goin' to put it over. You figured I'd cut you out of your
divvy, an' you figured right; he suspected I might double cross him,
an' maybe he was right, too. So he cooked it up with you to pull the
robbery, thinkin' you'd be more likely to go through an' give him his
end. But the pair of you figured too many points when you thought I
wouldn't catch on."
"That was what your proposition was to be, was it?" asked Rathburn
pleasantly. "Rob the bank? Why, I didn't need a gang to rob the bank,
Eagen, an' I didn't have anybody in with me. The trouble with you is
that you've got too much imagination."
The drawl in which Rathburn concluded his speech drove Eagen to a
frenzy.
"You lie, Rathburn!"
Rathburn smiled. "I might as well tell you that I intended to get away
with that money that's on the table, Eagen. That's what I took it for.
I'm making this little statement because something's liable to happen
to one, or both of us. I didn't know Doane was cashier of the bank
when I took it. I only recently learned that fact. Then I brought it
back to turn over to him, not so much on his account as on account of
Miss Mallory. I understand Doane is a very good friend of Miss
Mallory. I wouldn't want his bank hurt for that reason."
It was Laura Mallory who cried out at this. She walked toward
Rathburn, although he did not look at her.
"Why did you do it, Roger?" she asked in a trembling voice.
"I can't tell you _that_, ma'am," he said.
"But I know!" she cried. "I've guessed it. You saw Mr. Doane and me
together in Hope to-day and remembered he was at the ranch last night,
and----"
"Don't say any more, Laura!" Rathburn commanded sternly.
"Be still, daughter; it's best," said Mallory.
"Neither she, nor you, nor Doane, nor all of you together can talk me
out of it!" roared Eagen. "It was a frame-up!"
In the deadly stillness that followed, Laura Mallory shrank back from
the sight of two gunmen looking steadily into each other's eyes, their
hands ready for the lightning draw--each waiting for the merest
suggestion of the beginning of a move on the part of the other to get
his weapon into action. But the draws did not come. The pregnant
silence was broken by the thundering roll of many horses galloping
into the yard about the house.
"There!" yelled Eagen in a voice of triumph. "There's your sweet
little posse, Coyote!"
"I expected to see Bob Long when I came down here!" said Rathburn
coolly, looking at Laura Mallory for the first time.