LAWLESS STRATEGY.
Black John was no fool. In fact, he was both shrewd and clever, and
possessed a foxlike instinct that stood him in good stead now.
When he discovered that Buffalo Bill and three other men were near
and coming on rapidly, he rode swiftly out of the valley, with
the girl before him, telling her that he had sighted Indians. His
frightened manner and frantic haste made her believe he told the
truth.
She had no desire to fall again into the hands of Indians. Her
experience with Lightfoot was vivid in her memory, causing her to
shudder at the recollection. Much as she detested her captor, to be
Lightfoot’s prisoner again would be worse; and now that Black John
was promising to convey her to her friends without delay, she was
beginning to believe in his sincerity. She did not, therefore, make
objection when he bore her away in front of him on the pony.
He turned into the gorge after a sharp run. His manner in doing it
would have shown her that the country there was familiar to him, if
she had been experienced in judging of such things.
When he had ridden at top speed some distance into the gorge, over
rocky ground which left no hoofprints, he drew rein and leaped down.
“We can baffle ’em, I think,” he said, lifting her from the horse,
“if we move lively now. Redskins aire purty hard ter fool, but I
think I can fool these red gentlemen handsome.”
He looked about a moment, then pulled a leaf of thorny cactus and
thrust it under the saddle girth.
The pain of the cactus caused the horse to rear and plunge. “Go on
with ye now!” he said. “Git!” He gave it a heavy slap, which started
it along the trail. The pricking of the cactus caused it to continue
on at a headlong gallop.
“Quick, now!” he said, taking the girl by the hand.
She yielded her hand willingly. She was trembling, frightened, and
almost breathless, and her limbs were quaking under her, so that she
could hardly stand.
“I’ll help ye!” he said encouragingly, pulling her along, up the
rocky slope.
When she stumbled, as she did, now and then, his hand sustained her
from falling; and when places were reached which she was too weak to
surmount he lifted her in his arms.
Ordinarily she would not have submitted in this way without taking
pains to verify his statements; but she had suffered so much
physically and mentally that she had lost the faculty of clear
judgment. Fear ruled her now more than anything else.
The iron frame of Black John seemed impervious to fatigue. He scaled
the rocky slope as sure-footed as a mountain goat. At times he almost
ran, even though he carried the girl and the rocks were formidable.
Before Buffalo Bill and his party reached the pony and discovered
that it had been abandoned. Black John was over the high ridge out
of sight, and descending rapidly toward a valley of which he knew.
In his work as a mustanger, and also long before, he had been all
through that region; so that he knew every hole and corner of it. He
headed now toward a deep gorge, which he followed up some distance,
and which led him by and by into a cozy nest, between green hills.
Here there was a small cave, in which more than once he had spent a
night, and below this cave, and not distant, was a spring of water.
“If we had somethin’ to eat,” he said, when they had gained this
hiding place, “we could lay by here a week, until them redskins git
tired and clear out of the country. I don’t think they’ll find us
here. The way we come was so rocky that a bloodhound couldn’t hit the
trail and stick to it.”
He laughed with cool assurance.
As for the girl, she sank down in the cave, tired out and again
hopeless.
If they should be cooped up there by Indians any length of time, she
fancied that the chance of meeting or finding Buffalo Bill and his
companions would be small. And as for Bruce--she shivered when she
thought of his possible fate, for she could not rid herself of the
fear that he had fallen into the hands of the Indians.
During the night which followed, Black John lay with his rifle out
beyond the mouth of the cave, watching for the coming of his enemies,
not daring to sleep.
He believed he was safe, but he was not sure of it. Buffalo Bill was
a hard man to shake off, when once he set out to run any one down.
During that wakeful night Black John amused and occupied himself
by planning his future with the girl whom he now believed he could
deceive. He fancied he had gained her confidence, and that she was
beginning to like him, and that promised well. He thought, too, that
the girl was soundly sleeping throughout the night; but in this he
was mistaken, for she slept very little. At the first faint light of
day she had crept to the cave entrance and looked out.
She saw Black John lying on the ground by a rock, not far off. That
he was not asleep she observed by his occasional movement; so she
slipped out to where he was, intending to ask him some questions.
Before she reached him she stopped, stupefied with astonishment.
Black John had taken the buckskin bag from his inner pocket, poured
the emeralds on the ground, and was looking them over, hefting and
scanning them, and estimating their worth.
The cry of the girl aroused him.
She had crept forward until she was right at his elbow, and now she
jumped at the gems, and tried to heap them together in her hands. Her
voice and manner were hysterical.
“You scoundrel!” she gasped. “You lied to me! You said----”
He clutched her and pushed her back with an oath, and many of the
emeralds fell to the ground.
Her act, and the fact that his duplicity had been discovered, enraged
him. He threw her to the ground, and, drawing his revolver, seemed
on the point of shooting her; but he thought better of it, and began
to pick up the fallen emeralds. She still clutched and held a few of
them.
“Gimme them!” he commanded angrily.
“You lied to me!” she said.
“What if I did? Gimme them emeralds!”
“Where did you get them?”
“That’s none of your affair; give ’em to me.”
“I won’t. They’re mine, and not yours.”
“Then I’ll take ’em!” he cried, with another oath.
He sprang upon her, threw her down, and by sheer strength and brutal
roughness took the gems from her. Then he stood off regarding her.
Dropping the gems into the bag, he closed it, and thrust it into his
pocket.
“See here!” he said, in a harsh tone, “I’m taking care of you, and I
expect to pay myself by keepin’ these, and by keepin’ you!”
“What do you mean?” she gasped.
“I dunno as I could make the words plainer. I intend to keep these,
and to keep you.” He picked up his revolver. “So you might as well
understand it fust as last. There ain’t goin’ to be any cry-baby
bizness allowed here. I saved you from them Injuns, and----”
“I believe you lied to me in that, too!”
“Well, I didn’t! If I hadn’t hustled with you, and got away from ’em,
your purty scalp would be soon dryin’ in some Injun lodge; and that
wouldn’t be pleasant for you. Now see here!”
He stood before her, large, uncouth, malevolent; a very brute of a
man, whose sheer brutal strength was enough to overawe and reduce to
subjection even a reasonably strong man.
“Now see here! I ain’t goin’ to fool with you! You’re goin’ to do the
things I say. I’ve got these emeralds, and I’ve got you. Jes’ as soon
as it’s safe, I’m goin’ to make fer the Mexican line. Once across it,
I know plenty good hidin’ places. I’ll treat you well, if you’ll let
me; if you don’t let me treat ye well, that’s your own fault, not
mine. You’re goin’ to live with me from this on as my wife.”
She uttered a scream, and drew back.
He laughed; he knew she could not get away.
“Hurts yer feelin’s, does it? Well, it needn’t. I’ve seen
worse-lookin’ men than I am.”
“But never such a villain!”
“Yes; even worse villains. I ain’t sich a bad lot. I’ve taken a
likin’ to you. You’re good lookin’, and, of course, you know it.
We’ll go together into Mexico, where we’ll hide till it’s safe to git
out somewheres else. You’ll live with me as my wife, freely if you
will, but you’ll live with me jes’ the same. And I’ll treat you well.
These emeralds will be as much yourn as mine--that is, the things
they buy will. And they’ll make us independent. I’ve done some things
that will make me want to hide away from the law for a while. By
the time we can go forth and look the world in the eye--the Mexican
world, mind ye!--you’ll not be keerin’ much whether you’re married
to me or not; for by that time you’ll think I’m a purty good sort of
a feller. I know women. What they need is a good whalin’, whenever
they think they know it all and want to be boss of the ranch. The
Injuns have the right of it. Whale a squaw and she’s obedient. And I
reckon it’s the same with a white woman.”
“Never!” she cried, starting up. “Before I would be your wife--the
wife of such a scoundrel--I’d kill myself!”
“Ho, ho!” he said, with a roar of laughter. “A tantrum like that is
what I guess I’ll like to see occasionally; it makes you purtier than
any picture.”