"This to the crowd--speak bitter, proud and high,
But simply to your friend--she loves you not!"
--_Le Bret--who scolds._
The five pursuers rode swiftly, with inquiry at several farms about
the man on the blue horse. Some had seen him; some had not. He had
been riding slowly and he had kept the main road to Greenhorn. They
took the Greenhorn Island ford and found good swimming. The quarry had
passed through Donahue's an hour and a half before, taking the road to
Arrey. They pushed on furiously. See and Lull fell behind a little.
"Say, this is a rotten deal!" said Charlie. "That man ain't running
away. Not on your life. He no more killed Adam Forbes than I did. You
know how long ago we met him. If he was the man that built that
branding fire, how does it happen the ashes were still hot when these
fellows found it? By their tell and our timing that was near three
hours later. We met him about three; if he made that fire it couldn't
have been later than two o'clock, by the looks of his horse. And he's
keeping the same steady gait, and going straight for Hillsboro, just
as he told us. We're gaining on him right along. He's not trying to
get away. Either he's innocent or he's got the devil's own nerve."
"Innocent. Pete thinks so, too. This crowd tells a fishy story. Did
you notice how prompt Caney was to explain why they was there, and why
they went down Redgate, and why the stranger shot Adam, and how Adam
gave him a chance to shoot him in the back? Always Caney! Say, Hob,
that man was too willing by half!"
"And that excitement. I wasn't surprised at Jody, and I don't know
this man Hales--but wouldn't you think Ed Caney had seen enough men
killed not to fight his head like that? He didn't have much use for
Adam, either. Adam backed him down once. It was kept quiet, but
Anastacio told me, on the dead. It tickled Anastacio. No, sir--those
three fellows acted like they might be wishin' to start a stampede.
I'm not satisfied a little bit."
"A grudge? But if one of these ducks is in, they're all in. This is
something else. Or of course it may have been some other person
altogether, and these people may have merely lost their heads. Do you
reckon that placer hunt of Adam's might have had anything to do with
it? Poor old Adam! We'll find time to grieve for him after we get the
man that rubbed him out."
"I can't hardly realize it. It won't come home to us till we've seen
him, I expect. I keep saying it over to myself--'Adam's dead'--but I
don't believe it. And only last night Edith sang that nightingale song
after him--poor kid! Say--look at that, will you? You'd think Caney
didn't dare trust us to talk together."
Caney dropped back to them.
"Can't you two get any action out of them horses of yourn?" he
snarled. "It'll soon be dark on us. Your horses are enough sight
fresher than ours."
Charlie See jumped his horse up and reined him to his haunches beside
Caney, eye to eye; he cocked his hat athwart.
"Now, Mr. Ed Caney," he said sweetly, "any time you're not just
satisfied with the way I behave you know what you can do. This place
is here and this time is now. Fly to it!"
"Why, what's eating you, Charlie? This
spitfire-wildcat-wolf-and-my-night-to-howl thing is a new lay, isn't
it? I always gave you credit for some sense."
"Your mistake," said Charlie. "You ride on. I don't like deputy
sheriffs much; especially deputies from Dona Ana; and most extra
special and particular, tall deputies from Dona Ana with their faces
pitted with smallpox, going by the name of Ed Caney, and butting into
my private conversation. Me and old Stargazer will be in at the
finish, and we don't need anybody to tell us how fast to go or nothing
like that at all. So what are you going to do about it?"
"I'm going to ride on--that's what!" said Caney. "You can come along
or you can go to hell--I don't care."
"It's a cruel world," said Charlie. "I've heard people call you a
fool, but I know better, now. Don't you worry about us not keeping
up."
Caney drove home the spurs and drew ahead.
They galloped into Arrey.
Yes, they had seen a man on a blue horse. "Filled his canteen here.
Peart pair!... Which way? Oh, right up the big road to Hillsb'ro--him
singin' and the horse dancin'.... Oh, maybe half an hour ago. He
stayed here quite some time--admirin' the mountains, I judge, and
fillin' his canteen--him and Josie. Better stay to supper, you-all;
looks mighty like rain over yonder."
They turned squarely from the river valley and pushed up the staircase
road. The track was clear and plain, three old shoes and a new one.
They climbed the first bench-land step, and saw the long gray road
blank before them in the last flame-red of sun. Swift dusk dropped
like a curtain as they climbed the next step and saw a slow black
speck far ahead in the dim loneliness.
"Got him!" said Jody. "Here, one can trail along behind, while two of
us take the right and two go on the left, keeping cover in little
draws and behind ridges. We'll have him surrounded before he knows
we're after him. Way he's riding, we can head him off long before he
gets to the Percha."
"Fine!" said Hobby Lull. "Fine! He rides into an ambush at dark.
Guilty--he fights of course. Innocent--of course he fights! Any man
with a bone in his spinal column would fight. First-rate scheme,
except that Charlie See and me won't have it. Innocent, it isn't
hospitable; guilty, we won't have him shot. The man that killed Adam
Forbes has got to hang."
Leaping, Charlie See's horse whirled on a pivot and faced the others.
"Speed up, Hobby, and tell that man we're holding all strangers, him
most of all. I'll hold this bunch. Beat it!"
His voice was low and drawling; he barred the way with quiet steady
eyes. The storm-drenched wind blew out his saddle strings, the fringed
edges of his gauntlets, the kerchief at his neck, the long tapideros
at his feet; it beat back his hat's broad brim, Stargazer's mane
snapped loose and level; horse and man framed against coming night and
coming storm in poised wild energy, centered, strong and tense.
"You darned little meddlesome whiffet!" snarled Jody Weir savagely, as
Lull galloped away.
See's gun hand lay at his thigh. "Talk all you like, but don't get
restless with your hands. I'm telling you! Meddlesome? That's me. Matt
is my middle name. Don't let that worry you any. I've got three good
reasons for meddling. I know two of you, and I don't know the other
one. I don't like waylaying--and I don't like you. Besides, I love to
meddle. Always did. Everybody's business is my business. You three
birds keep still and look sulky. Be wise, now! Me and a rattlesnake
has got the same motto: You touch the button and I'll do the rest."
Black above and furnace flame below, the tumbling clouds came rushing
from the hills with a mutter of far-off thunder. A glimmer of
twilight lingered, and sudden stars blazed across the half sky to
eastward, unclouded yet.