Dead! Houston saw Medaine Robinette pass in the distance, and his eyes
followed her until she had rounded the curve by the dead aspens,--the
eyes of lost hope. For it was upon life that he had planned and
dreamed; that the woman of the lonely cabin would stand by her promise
made in a time of stress and right at least some of the wrongs which
had been his burden. But now--
"She--she didn't tell you anything before she went?"
Ba'tiste shook his head.
"She would not speak to me. Nothing would, she tell me. At first I go
alone--then yesterday, when the snow, he pack, I take Golemar. Then
she is unconscious. All day and night I stay beside the bed, but she
do not open her eye. Then, with the morning, she sigh, and peuff! She
is gone."
"Without a word." It spelled blackness for Houston where there had
been light. "I--I--suppose you've taken charge of everything."
"_Oui_! But I have look at nothing--if that is what you mean."
"No--I just had something here that you ought to have," Houston fumbled
in his pockets. "She would want it around her neck, I feel sure, I
when she is----."
But the sudden glare in Ba'tiste's eyes stopped him as he brought forth
the crucifix and its tangled chain. The giant's hands raised. His big
lips twisted. A lunge and he had come forward, savage, almost
beast-like.
"You!" He bellowed. "Where you get that? Hear me, where you get
that?"
"From her. She--"
"Then come! Come--quick with me!" He almost dragged the younger man
away, hurrying him toward the sled and its broad-backed old horses.
"We must go to the cabin, _oui_--yes! Hurry--" Houston saw that he
was trembling. "Eet is the thing I look for--the thing I look for!"
"Ba'tiste! What do you mean?"
"My Julienne," came hoarsely. "Eet is my Julienne's!"
Already they were in the sled, the wolf-dog perched between them, and
hurrying along the mushy road, which followed the lesser raises of
snow, taking advantage of every windbreak and avoiding the greater
drifts of the highway itself. Two miles they went, the horses urged to
their greatest speed. Then, with a leap, Ba'tiste cleared the runners
and motioned to the man behind him.
"Come with me! Golemar! You shall stay behind. You shall fall in the
drift--" The old man was talking excitedly, almost childishly. "No?
Then come--Eet is your own self that must be careful. Ba'teese, he
cannot watch you. Come!"
At a run, he went forward, to thread his way through the pines, to
flounder where the snow had not melted, to go waist-deep at times, but
still to rush onward at a speed which taxed even Houston's younger
strength to keep him in sight. The wolf-dog buried itself in the snow,
Houston pulling it forth time after time, and lugging it at long
intervals. Then at last came the little clearing,--and the cabin.
Ba'tiste already was within.
Houston avoided the figure on the bed as he entered and dropped beside
the older man, already dragging forth the drawers of the bureau and
pawing excitedly among the trinkets there. He gasped and pulled forth
a string of beads, holding them trembling to the light, and veering
from his jumbled English to a stream of French. Then a watch, a ring,
and a locket with a curly strand of baby hair. The giant sobbed.
"My Pierre--eet was my Pierre!"
"What's that?" Houston had raised suddenly, was staring in the
direction of an old commode in the corner. At the door the wolf-dog
sniffed and snarled. Ba'tiste, bending among the lost trinkets that
once had been his wife's, did not hear. Houston grasped him by the
shoulder and shook him excitedly.
"Ba'tiste! Ba'tiste! There's some one hiding--over there in the
corner. I heard sounds--look at Golemar!"
"Hiding? No. There is no one here--no one but Ba'tiste and his
memories. No one--"
"I tell you I heard some one. The commode moved. I know!"
He rose, only to suddenly veer and flatten himself against the wall.
The yellow blaze of aimless revolver fire had spurted from the corner;
then the plunging form of a gnarled, gangling, limping man, who rushed
past Houston to the door, swerved there, and once more raised the
revolver. But he did not fire.
A furry, snarling thing had leaped at him, knocking the revolver from
his hand in its plunging ascent. Then a cry,--a gurgling growl. Teeth
had clenched at the throat of the man; together they rolled through the
door to the snow without, Golemar, his hold broken by the fall,
striving again for the death clutch, the man screaming in sudden
frantic fear.
"Take him off!" The voice of the thin-visaged Fred Thayer was shrill
now. "Take him off--I'll tell you about it--she did it--she did it!
Take him off!"
"Golemar!" Ba'tiste had appeared in the doorway. Below the dog
whirled in obedience to his command and edged back, teeth still bared,
eyes vigilant, waiting for the first movement of the man on the ground.
Houston went forward and stood peering down at the frightened, huddled
form of Thayer, wiping the blood from the fang wound in his neck.
"You'll tell about what?" came with sudden incisiveness.
The man stared, suddenly aware that he had spoken of a thing that had
been mentioned by neither Ba'tiste nor Houston. His lips worked
crookedly. He tried to smile, but it ended only in a misshapen snarl.
"I thought you fellows were looking for something. I--I--wanted to get
the dog off."
"We were. We've found it. Ba'tiste," and Houston forced back the
tigerish form of the big French-Canadian. "You walk in front of us.
I'm--I'm afraid to trust you right now. And don't turn back. Do you
promise?"
The big hands worked convulsively. The eyes took on a newer, fiercer
glare.
"He is the man, eh? His conscience, eet speak when there is no one to
ask the question. He--"
"Go on, Ba'tiste. Please." Houston's voice was that of a pleading
son. Once more the big muscles knotted, the arms churned; the giant's
teeth showed between furled lips in a sudden beast-like expression.
"Ba'tiste! Do you want to add murder to murder? This is out of our
hands now; it's a matter of law. Now, go ahead--for me."
With an effort the Canadian obeyed, the wolf-dog trotting beside him,
Houston following, one hand locked about the buckle of the thinner
man's belt, the other half supporting him as he limped and reeled
through the snow.
"It's my hip--" The man's mind had gone to trivial things. "I
sprained it--about ten days ago. I'd been living over here with her up
till the storm. Then I had to be at camp. I--"
"That was your child, then?"
Fred Thayer was silent. Barry Houston repeated the question
commandingly. There could be no secrecy now; events had gone too far.
For a third time the accusation came and the man beside him turned
angrily.
"Whose would you think it was?"
Houston did not answer. They stumbled on through the snow-drifted
woods, finally to reach the open space leading to the sleigh. Thayer
drew back.
"What's the use of taking me into town?" he begged. "She's dead and
gone; you can't harm her now."
"We're not inquiring about her."
"But she's the one that did it. She told me--when she first got sick.
Those are her things in there. They're--"
"Have I asked you about anything?" Houston bit the words at him.
Again the man was silent. They reached the sled, and Ba'tiste pointed
to the seat.
"In there," he ordered. "Ba'teese will walk. Ba'teese afraid--too
close." And then, in silence, the trip to town was made, at last to
draw up in front of the boarding house. Houston called to a bystander.
"Is the 'phone working--to Montview?"
"Yeh. Think it is. Got it opened up yesterday."
"Then call up over there and tell the sheriff we want him. It has to
do with the Renaud murder."
The loafer sprang to the street and veered across, shouting the news as
he went, while Ba'tiste made hurried arrangements regarding the silent
form of the lonely cabin. A few moments later, the makeshift
boarding-house lobby was crowded, while Barry Houston, reverting to the
bitter lessons he had learned during the days of his own
cross-examinations, took his place in front of the accused man.
"In the first place, Thayer," he commanded. "You might as well know
one thing. You're caught. The goods are on you. You're going up if
for nothing else than an attempt to murder Ba'tiste Renaud and myself."
"I--I thought you were robbers."
"You know that's a lie. But that's a matter for the court room. There
are greater things. In the first place--"
"About that other--" Still he clung to his one shred of a story, his
only possibility of hope. Conscience had prompted the first outcry;
now there was nothing to do but follow the lead. "I don't know
anything. She told me--that's all. And she's dead now."
"Ah, _oui_!" Ba'tiste had edged forward. "She is dead. And because
she is dead--because she have suffer and die, you would lay to her door
murder! Eet is the lie! Where then is the ten thousand dollar she
took--if she kill my Julienne? Eh? Where is the gun with which she
shot her? Ah, you cringe! For why you do that--for why do you not
look at Ba'teese when he talk about his Julienne! Eh? Is eet that you
are afraid? Is eet that your teeth are on your tongue, to keep eet
from the truth? _Oui_! You are the man--you are the man!"
"I don't know anything about it. She told me she did it--that those
were Mrs. Renaud's things."
"Ah! Then you have nev' see that ring, which my Julienne, she wore on
her finger. Ah, no? You have nev' see, in all the time that you come
to Ba'teese house, the string of bead about her neck. _Oui_! Eet is
the lie, you tell. You have see them--eet is the lie!"
And thus the battle progressed, the old man storming, the frowning,
sullen captive in the chair replying in monosyllables, or refusing to
answer at all. An hour passed, while Tabernacle crowded the little
lobby and overflowed to the street. One by one Ba'tiste brought forth
the trinkets and laid them before the thin-faced man. He forced them
into his hands. He demanded that he explain why he had said nothing of
their presence in the lonely cabin, when he had known them, every one,
from having seen them time after time in the home of Renaud. The
afternoon grew old. The sheriff arrived,--and still the contest went
on. Then, with a sudden shifting of the head, a sudden break of
reserve, Thayer leaned forward and rubbed his gnarled hands, one
against the other.
"All right!" he snapped. "Have it your way. No use in trying to lay
it on the woman--you could prove an alibi for her. You're right. I
killed them both."
"Both?" They stared at him. Thayer nodded, still looking at the
floor, his tongue licking suddenly dry lips.
"Yeh, both of 'em. One brought on the other. Mrs. Renaud and John
Corbin--they called him Tom Langdon back East."