NIGHT AND A HEADER
For John Lefever the rainy night promised to be a busy one; darkness
and the storm would, he felt, give Laramie a chance to get Hawk safely
into town; but to do this successfully would call for precaution.
The rain had hardly begun to fall that afternoon--to the discomfiture
of Kate and her undoing with Belle--before Lefever began to cheer up in
speculating on what might be done. He found Laramie at the hotel and
set out to round up Sawdy. The rendezvous was set at Kitchen's barn
and half an hour later the three men were shut up in the old harness
room back of the office to talk the venture over.
Laramie made no effort to discourage John concerning the project; it
had become a pet one with the big fellow; but he did not give the idea
strong endorsement. "You're too blamed pessimistic, Jim," growled
Lefever.
"No, John," protested Laramie evenly, "I'm only trying to see things as
they stand. Don't figure we are going to pull this thing without
trouble. Harry Van Horn's got a good guess that Dave is pretty well
shot up; and that he's hiding out. He knows a man can't hide out
without friends."
"I grant you that," interrupted John. "But if you can get him across
the Crazy Woman, Jim, it's a cinch to run him into town."
"Don't figure that every mile of that road isn't watched, for it is. I
ride it oftener than you and I see plenty of sign. And Harry knows
what a rainy night means just as well as we do. He'll be on the job
with his men--that's all I'm saying. Now, go ahead. You want Abe
brought in--that's your business. I'm here to bring him in--that's my
business. Shoot."
Laramie and Lefever arranged things. Number Seventy-eight, the through
fast freight, would be due to leave Sleepy Cat for Medicine Bend at
4:32 in the morning. The crew were friendly. Could Laramie make it
with Abe, starting by midnight? He could. It was impossible to meet
Laramie outside town because no one could tell which trail he might
have to choose to come in on. But Sawdy and Lefever could look for him
out on the plateau at the head of Fort Street. Henry Sawdy, his heavy
mustaches sweeping his thick lips, and his bloodshot eyes moving from
one to the other of the two faces before him only stared and listened.
"Why don't you say something, Henry?" demanded Lefever, exasperated.
Sawdy turned a reproachful look on his lively partner: "When you're
talking, John, there ain't no chance to say anything. When Jim's
talking, I don't want to say anything."
Laramie ordered his horse, got into oilskins, and riding out the back
way of the stable started for the Falling Wall. The day was spent and
the rain had turned soft and misty. He rode fast and with a little
watchfulness, exercised before reaching the Crazy Woman, satisfied
himself that he had not been followed out of town.
What had actually happened was that he rode north not long after Kate
herself started for home. But Laramie followed old trails out of
town--even at the price of rounding fences and at times dodging through
wire gates for short cuts. Night was upon him when he reached the
bluffs of the creek. Between showers the sky had lightened, but the
north was overcast, and Laramie knew what to look forward to. When he
had got up the long hill, and reached the northern bluffs, it was
raining steadily again, and night had spread over mountain and valley.
Abating something of his usual precaution in riding to reach Hawk's
hiding place, Laramie went slowly into the bad lands by a route less
dangerous than that he usually followed. As the night deepened, the
wind rising brought a heavier rain. The trail became increasingly
difficult to follow; rough at best, it was now almost impassable.
Sheets of water trickled over stretches of rock causing the horse to
slip and flounder. In other places rivulets shooting out of crevices
cut the loose earth from under the horse's feet. Leg-tired, the horse
finally resented being headed into the driving rain and went forward
slipping, hesitating and groping like a man on hands and knees.
When Laramie got him to the old bridge, the pony was all in. Laramie
found shelter for him under a ledge and rifle in hand clambered along
the side of the canyon toward the abutment. Close to the entrance he
set his rifle against the rock, listened carefully, as always, felt
down at his feet for the few chips of rock he had so placed that they
would be disturbed if trodden by an enemy, listened again carefully,
and with his revolver cocked in his right hand, and the muzzle lying
across his left forearm, Laramie slowly zigzagged his way to the
inside. Once there, he stood perfectly still in the darkness and
called a greeting to Hawk. He failed to receive the usual gruff
answer. This never before had happened, and without trying for a
light, Laramie moved slowly and with much caution over to the recess
within which Hawk lay. There he could hear the cowboy's labored, but
regular breathing as he slept. The storm, waking the water crevices of
the mountains into a noisy chorus, had lulled the hunted man into an
untroubled sleep.
Laramie shook his oilskins in a heap on the floor, cautiously lighted a
candle and set it on the board that served as a table. In spite of his
slickers he was wet through. He hung his hat on the end of a broken
timber and laid his revolver beside the candle. Bethinking himself,
however, of his rifle, he picked up the six-shooter again, stepped
outside the entrance, brought in his rifle, wiped it, stood it in a
convenient corner and turned toward Hawk.
The candle, burning at moments steadily and at moments flickering,
threw its uncertain rays into the recess where the wounded rustler lay.
They lighted the sallow pallor of the sleeping man's face, fell across
his sunken eyes and drew the black of his long beard out of the gloom
below it. Laramie seated himself on a projecting ledge and looked
thoughtfully at his charge. He was failing; of that there could be no
doubt. Steel-willed and hard-sinewed though he was, the wounds that
would long ago have put an ordinary man out of action, were undermining
his great vitality and Laramie, in a study, felt it.
Yet such was the younger man's natural stubbornness that left to his
own devices he would have fought out the battle against death right
where the failing man lay; only the judgment of Lefever and Carpy
swayed him in the circumstances.
Believing sleep was the best preparative for the ordeal of the ride to
town, Laramie hesitated about waking Hawk--yet the hours were precious,
for the trip would be long and slow. Fortunately he had not long to
wait before Hawk woke.
Laramie was sitting a few feet away and silently looking at him when
Hawk opened his eyes. They wandered from one object to another in the
dim candle gloom, until they rested on Laramie's face; there they
stopped.
Laramie's features relaxed into as near a smile as he permitted himself
on duty: "How you coming, Abe?"
Hawk eyed him steadily: "What are you doing here tonight?"
Laramie answered with a question: "How about trying the gauntlet?"
"That what you want?"
"It's what Lefever and Carpy want."
"They running things?"
"They think you'd get well full as quick at a hospital."
"What do you think?"
"I guess you would."
"Tired taking care of me?"
"Not yet, Abe."
"Raining?"
"Hell bent."
"What's the other noise?"
"Thunder; and the river's up."
The roar of the waters was not new to the ears of the two men who
listened, however much it might have disturbed others unused to their
tearing fury.
Hawk listened thoughtfully: "Why didn't you pick a wet night?" he asked.
"We had to pick a dark one, Abe."
"Where's the horses?"
"Over at my place--what's that?"
The last words broke from Laramie's lips like the crack of a pistol.
He sprang to his feet. Hawk's hand shot out for his gun. Only
practised ears could have detected under the steady downpour of rain,
the deep roar of the canyon and the reverberation of the thunder, the
hoof beats of a stumbling horse. The next instant, they heard the
horse directly over their heads. Laramie, whipping out his revolver,
looked up. As he did so, a deafening crash blotted out the roar of the
storm--the roof overhead gave way and amid an avalanche of rock and
timbers, a horse plunged headlong into the refuge.
In the narrow quarters so amazingly invaded, darkness added to an
instant of frantic confusion. Laramie was knocked flat. In the midst
of the fallen timbers, the horse, mad with terror, struggled to get to
his feet. A suppressed groan betrayed the rider under him.
Laramie, where he lay, gun in hand, and Hawk, had but one thought:
their retreat had been discovered and attacked. It was no part of
their defense to reveal their presence by wild shooting. The enemy who
had plunged in on top of them was at their mercy, even though unseen.
He was caught under the horse, and to clap a revolver to his head and
blow the top off was simple; it could be done at any moment. Of much
greater import it was, carefully to await his companions when they rode
up, above, and pick them off as chance offered. Escape, if the raiding
party were properly organized, both men knew was for them
impossible--and they knew that Harry Van Horn organized well. The
alternative was to sell their lives as dearly as possible.
This was by no means a terrifying conclusion to men inured to affray.
And for the moment, at feast, the situation was in their hands, not in
the enemies'.
A deluge of wind and rain swept through the broken roof. Laramie,
stretching one arm through the debris, felt the shoulder of the rider,
flung in the violence of the fall close to him.
The prostrate horse renewed his struggles to get to his feet.
Laramie, exposed to the pouring rain, covered with mud, bruised by
broken rock still rolling down the open crater, and caught among rotten
timbers, struggled to right himself before his enemy should do so. He
raised himself by a violent effort to his elbow, freed his pistol arm
and reaching over, pushed his cocked revolver into the side of the
fallen horseman.
A bolt of lightning shot across the crater, leaving behind it an inky
blackness of rain and wind. The sudden onslaught from overhead might
well have confused his senses; but he had seen the lightning sweep
across a white, drawn face turned toward the angry sky--and in the
flash he had caught the features of Kate Doubleday.
Stunned though he was by the revelation, he knew his senses had not
tricked him. There was in his memory but one such riding cap as that
which shaded her closed eyes; for him, but one such coil of woman's
hair as that falling now in disarray on her neck. Completely unnerved,
he carefully drew away his revolver, averted the muzzle and spoke
angrily through the dark: "Who's here with you?"
There was no answer. He asked the question sternly again, listening
keenly the while for sounds of other riders above. Had she discovered
the retreat and led to it his enemies? Could it be possible that even
they would allow her with them on such an errand and on such a night?
He called her name. The roar of the canyon answered above the storm;
there was no sound else. Once more he stretched out his arm. His hand
rested on her breast and he was doubly sure his senses had not tricked
him. But she might be dying or dead. The fear struck home that she
was dead. Then her bosom rose in a hardly perceptible respiration.
A storm of emotion swept Laramie. He squirmed under the debris that
pinned him and got nearer to her. He listened still for sounds of an
enemy, of those who must be with her--where could they be? The
delicate breathing under his heavy hand came more regularly. Then a
moan of pain checked and, again, released it.
Feeling slowly in the stormy dark for obstructions that might have
caught her, Laramie freed one of her feet caught in the stirrup and by
pushing and lifting at the shoulder of the horse succeeded after much
exertion in freeing her other foot, caught under it. He felt his way
back to Kate's head and getting on his feet placed his hands under her
shoulders to draw her toward him.
As he did so, a sharp question of fear and confusion was flung at him:
"Where am I? Who are you?"
"Who are you?" echoed Laramie, pulling her away from the horse which
had begun to struggle again. "Who's here with you?" he demanded.
There was no answer.
"Who's here with you?" he repeated sternly. "Tell me the truth."
"I've lost my way. Where am I? Who are you?"
The truth in her manner was plain. Incredible as it seemed that she
could have strayed so far, all apprehension of an attack vanished with
her questions.
"You're a long way from home," he said, shortly.
She made no reply.
"Your horse took a header. You fainted. I suppose"--he hardly
hesitated in his words--"you know who is talking to you?"
In her silence he heard his answer.