ACROSS THE SEA.
Mr. Randolph was at dinner when the servant came in and said that young
Mr. Tunstall wished to speak to him; he was in the library, and begged
the lawyer to give him two minutes' conversation. Hugh was walking up
and down the little room when he entered. The old lawyer saw at once
that something was wrong.
"What is it, Hugh, what is the matter, lad?"
"A good deal is the matter, Mr. Randolph; but I don't want you to ask
me. I am sure you will be glad afterwards that you didn't know. You
were a friend of my father's, sir. You have been always very kind to
me. Will you give me fifty pounds without asking why I want it?"
"Certainly I will, lad; but in heaven's name don't do anything rash."
"Anything that was to be done is done, Mr. Randolph; please let me have
the money at once. You don't know how important it is. You will know
soon enough."
Mr. Randolph unlocked his desk without a word, and handed him ten
five-pound notes. Then he said: "By the way, I have gold, if you would
rather have it. There were some rents paid in this afternoon."
"I would much rather have gold."
Mr. Randolph put the notes in the desk, and then unlocked the safe.
"Would you rather have a hundred?"
"Yes, sir, if you will let me have them."
The lawyer handed him a small canvas bag.
"God bless you, sir!" the lad said; "remember, please, whatever you
hear, it was done in self-defence."
Then without another word he opened the door and was gone.
"Why, what is the matter, my dear?" Mrs. Randolph exclaimed, as her
husband returned to the dining-room. "Why, you are as pale as death."
"I don't know what is the matter exactly," he said. "Hugh has borrowed
a hundred pounds of me, and has gone."
"Gone! Where has he gone to?"
"I don't know, my dear. I hope, I sincerely hope he is going out of the
country, and can get away before they lay hands on him."
"Why, what has happened?"
"I don't know what has happened. I know things haven't been going on
well for some time at Byrneside. I am afraid there has been a terrible
quarrel. He begged me to ask him no questions, and I was glad not to
do so. The less one knows, the better; but I am afraid there has been
a scuffle. All he said was, just as he went out: 'Whatever you hear,
remember I did it in self-defence.'"
"But, goodness gracious, Thomas, you don't mean to say that he has
killed his uncle?"
"I don't mean anything," the lawyer said. "Those were his words. I
am afraid it won't be long before we hear what he meant. If they come
to ask me questions, fortunately I know nothing. I shall say no word
except before a magistrate, and then my story is simple enough. He came
and asked me to let me have £100, and as I was his trustee, and have
the rents of his estate for the past five years in my hands, I let him
have it as a matter of course. I did not ask him why he wanted it. I
saw that he was agitated, and from his manner, and from my knowledge
that he and his uncle did not get on very well together, I judged
there had been a quarrel, and that he intended to leave home for a
while. It was only when he was leaving the room that I gathered there
had been any personal fracas, and then from his words, 'It was done
in self-defence,' I judged that his uncle had struck him, and that he
had probably struck him in return. I hope that is all, my dear. I pray
heaven that it may be all."
Hugh had dismounted just outside the town, opened a gate leading
into a field, taken off his horse's bridle, and turned the horse in
and closed the gate behind it. Then he had turned up the collar of
his coat, pulled his hat down over his eyes, and made his way to the
lawyer's. He had cooled down now, but still felt no regret for what had
passed. "He would have killed me," he said to himself, "and I had no
thought of killing him when I knocked him down; anyhow, he brought it
on himself. If he is dead, and I am pretty sure he is, I have no one to
prove that it was done in self-defence; but if he is not dead, he will
give his own version of it when he recovers. I know he is a liar, and
in his quiet manner he would be able to make everyone believe that I
had attacked him without the least provocation. He might even say that
I fired the pistol, that he knocked it out of my hand, and that then I
sprang on him and struck him down with his head against that cabinet.
Either way I shall get years of imprisonment if I am caught; but I
don't mean to be caught if I can help it."
On leaving Mr. Randolph's he proceeded to the railway-station,
consulted the time-tables, and then took a third-class ticket to
Glasgow. He bought a Bradshaw, and sitting down on a bench under a
light, turned to the advertisements of the sailing of steamers. By the
time he had done that the train came in. It was a slow one, stopping at
every station. He got out at the first station and paid the fare from
Carlisle, then walked back to the town, and took a second-class ticket
by the night mail for London. Arriving at Euston, he walked across to
the docks, whence he had found that a steamer started for Hamburg at
eight o'clock, and he would catch a trans-Atlantic steamer that started
the next day. On his arrival at Hamburg he went to the steam-boat
office and took a second-class ticket to New York. Having done this, he
bought at a shop near the wharves a supply of clothes for the voyage,
placed them in a cheap German trunk, and walked on board the steamer.
He was now, he thought, fairly safe from pursuit. The hour at which
he would arrive at the station at Carlisle would be known, and as the
northern train was nearly due, and someone answering to his description
had taken a ticket to Glasgow, it would be at once suspected that
he intended to sail by a steamer from that port. No pursuit could be
set on foot before the morning. Indeed, it was probable that before
the police took the matter fairly in hand it would be late in the
afternoon. It might then be another day before they picked up the clue
that he had gone to Glasgow, and followed him there.
If a steamer had happened to start that morning or the day before,
it would be supposed that he had gone by it, and they might telegraph
across, and search the ship for him when it arrived at New York. If no
steamer had started, and they could obtain no clue to him in Glasgow,
they would think that he had gone back to Liverpool, and would make
search there, watching all the steamers sailing. They would in any case
hardly suspect that he could have gone up to London, across to Hamburg,
and caught the steamer sailing from there. Indeed, it would not have
been possible for him to do so had he first gone up to Glasgow as they
would believe he had done.
As soon as the vessel was fairly under way Hugh looked round. On
deck there was no distinction made between second-class emigrants
and steerage, but it was easy to distinguish the two classes. The
second-class kept somewhat together near the companion leading to their
portion of the ship, while the steerage passengers were well forward.
The number of the latter was not very large, for the emigrant traffic
across the Atlantic was still carried principally in sailing ships.
The second-class were composed chiefly of substantial-looking Germans,
for the most part farmers going out with a small amount of capital to
settle in the West.
There were two or three other young Englishmen, and with one of these,
named Luscombe, Hugh struck up an acquaintance before he had been
many hours on board. He was a young man of about twenty, and Hugh soon
learned from him that he was the son of a large landed proprietor in
Norfolk. He had for a few months been in a crack regiment of Hussars,
but had gone, as he expressed it, a fearful mucker. His father had
paid the greater portion of his debts, but had refused to settle some
that he considered debts of honour. Luscombe, therefore, sold out, and
was now, as he expressed it, going over to knock about for a bit in
the States, till his father took a "sensible view of things." "It was
rough on him," he said, "for I had run him up a pretty heavy bill twice
before. However, I think it is all for the best. I should never have
got out of that line if I had stopped in the regiment. Two or three
years knocking about, and hard work, won't do me any harm; and by that
time the governor will be prepared to receive the prodigal son with
open arms."
Hugh was slower in giving his confidence. But before the voyage was
over he had told Luscombe why he had left England.
"Well, you did quite right, of course," Luscombe said, "in knocking
that brute of a fellow down, and if you did split his skull and make
your aunt a widow you have nothing to reproach yourself with. Still,
I agree with you that it will be more pleasant for you if he gets
round, as I daresay he will, or else it will be a long while before
you can show up at home. Well, you will know by the time we have been
in New York a few days. If the papers the next mail brings out don't
say anything about it you may be sure he has got over it. 'A gentleman
killed by his nephew' would be a startling heading, and if it is not
there, you may go about your work with a light heart."
The voyage was marked by no incident whatever. On arriving at New York
Luscombe and Hugh put up at a good hotel for a few days before making
a start west. They had agreed to keep together, at any rate for a time.
Luscombe was several years older than Hugh, but he saw that the lad had
plenty of good sense and a fund of resolution, and knew that he himself
was more likely to stick to work in such companionship than he should
be by himself. Luscombe's light-hearted carelessness amused Hugh, and
though he did not think that his companion was likely to stick very
long to anything he took up, he was very glad to have his companionship
for a time. Hugh was thankful indeed when the next mail brought a batch
of papers of a date a week later than that of his leaving Cumberland,
and when a careful examination of the file disclosed no allusion
whatever to the event at Byrneside.
"Well, I congratulate you, Hugh," Luscombe said when he told him.
"I expected it would be all right. If he had been a good old man you
would have killed him, no doubt, but bad men have always wonderfully
thick skulls. Well, now you are ready, I suppose, to make our start
to-morrow."
"Quite ready, Luscombe. We are only throwing away our money here."
They had already made many inquiries, and had settled that they would
in the first place go down to Texas, and would there take the first
job of any kind that offered itself, keeping it until they had time to
look round and see what would suit them best. Luscombe, however, said
frankly that he thought it probable that sooner or later he should
enlist in the cavalry out west.
"I know I shall never stick to hard work very long, Hugh. I have not
got my fortune to make, and I only want to pass away the time for a
year or two until the old lady and the girls get the governor into a
charitable state of mind again. He is a first-rate fellow, and I am
not surprised that he cut up rough at last. I expect a few months will
bring him round, but I should not know what to do if I went back. I
will give myself three years anyhow."
"I am very much in the same position, Luscombe. I sha'n't go back until
I come of age. Then I can snap my fingers at my uncle. I have got a
very good trustee, who will look after the estate. I will write to him
to-night and let him know that I am all right and very glad to find
that uncle has not been killed, and that he may expect me when I come
of age, but not before."
On the following morning they took their places in the train, and
travelled west, and proceeded to what was then the nearest terminus
to their destination--Northern Texas. Travelling sometimes by
stage-waggons, sometimes on foot, they arrived at M'Kinney, which they
had been told was a young place, but growing fast.
"Well, here we are at last," Luscombe said as they alighted at a
one-storied building, on which was a board roughly painted, "The Empire
Hotel." "At any rate the scenery is better than it has been for the
last two or three hundred miles. There are some good-sized hills. Some
of those across the country ahead might almost claim to be mountains,
and that is a relief to the eyes after those dreary flats. Well, let
us go in and have a meal first, then we will look round. The place has
certainly not an imposing aspect."
The meals here, as at the other places where they had stopped,
consisted of fried steak, which, although tough, was eatable, and
abundance of potatoes and cabbages, followed by stewed fruit. They
had arrived just at the dinner-hour, and seven or eight men in their
shirt-sleeves came in and sat down with them. The tea was somewhat
better than that they had hitherto obtained, and there was, in
addition, the luxury of milk. Scarcely a word was spoken during the
meal. It was evidently considered a serious business, and the chief
duty of each man was to eat as much as possible in the shortest
possible time. After the meal was over, and the other diners had gone
out, the landlord, who had taken his seat at the top of the table,
opened the conversation.
"Are you thinking of making a stay here, gentlemen?"
"Yes, if we can get any work to suit us," Luscombe said.
"It is a rising place," the landlord said as he lit his pipe. "There
are two stores and eight houses being built now. This town has a great
future before it." Luscombe and Hugh had some difficulty in preserving
their gravity.
"It is the chief town of the county," the landlord went on. "They
are going to set about the court-house in a month or two. Our sheriff
is a pretty spry man, and doesn't stand nonsense. We have an orderly
population, sir. We had only two men shot here last week."
"That is satisfactory," Luscombe said dryly. "We are peaceable
characters ourselves. And is two about your average?"
"Well, I can't say that," the landlord said; "that would be too much to
expect. The week before last Buck Harris with three of his gang came in
and set up the town."
"What do you mean by set up?" Luscombe asked. The landlord looked
surprised at the question.
"Oh, to set up a town is to ride into it, and to clear out the saloons,
and to shoot at anyone seen outside their doors, and to ride about and
fire through the windows. They had done it three or four times before,
and as four or five men had been killed the citizens became annoyed."
"I am not surprised at that," Hugh put in.
"The sheriff got a few men together, and the citizens began to shoot
out of their windows. Buck Harris and two of his gang were killed and
four of the citizens. Since then we have had quiet. And what sort of
work do you want, gentlemen? Perhaps I could put you in the way of
getting it."
"Well, we wanted to get work among horses," Luscombe said.
The landlord shook his head. "You want to go further south among the
big ranches for that. This is not much of a horse country. If you had
been carpenters now there would have been no difficulty. A good workman
can get his four dollars a-day. Then there is James Pawson's woodyard.
I reckon you might get a job there. One of his hands got shot in that
affair with Buck Harris, and another broke his leg last week. I should
say there was room for you there. Madden, that's the man who was shot,
used to board here."
"What is your charge for boarding, landlord?"
"Seventy-five cents a-day for three square meals; a dollar a-day if
you lodge as well. But I could not lodge you at present. I must keep a
couple of rooms for travellers, and the others are full. But you will
have no difficulty in getting lodgings in the town. You can get a room
for about a dollar a-week."
"Well, let us try the woodyard, Luscombe."
"All right!" Luscombe said. "There is a certain sense of novelty about
a woodyard. Well, landlord, if we agree with this Mr. Pawson, we will
arrange to board with you, at any rate for the present."
They went down the straggling street until they came to a lot on which
was piled a quantity of sawn timber of various dimensions. The name
Pawson was painted in large letters on the fence. A man and a boy were
moving planks.
"Here goes!" Luscombe said, and entered the gate.
"Want a job?" the man asked, looking up as they approached him.
"Yes. We are on the look-out for a job, and heard there might be a
chance here."
"I am James Pawson," the man said, "and I want hands. What wages do you
want?"
"As much as we can get," Luscombe replied.
Pawson looked them up and down. "Not much accustomed to hard work, I
reckon?"
"Not much," Luscombe said. "But we are both pretty strong, and ready to
do our best."
"Well, I tell you what," the man said. "I will give you a dollar and a
half a-day for a week, and at the end of that time, if you get through
your work well, I will raise it to two dollars."
Luscombe looked at Hugh, who nodded. "All right!" he said; "we will
try."
Pawson gave a sigh of relief, for hands were scarce. "Take off your
coats then," he said, "and set to work right here. There is a lot to be
done."
Luscombe and Hugh took off their coats, and were soon hard at work
moving and piling planks. Before they had been half an hour at it
there was a shout, and a waggon heavily laden with planks entered the
yard. James Pawson himself jumped up on to the wagon, and assisted the
teamster to throw down the planks, while the other two carried them
away and stacked them. Both of them had rolled up their sleeves to
have a freer use of their arms. The sun blazed hotly down, and they
were soon bathed in perspiration. They stuck to their work until six
o'clock, but by that time their backs were so stiff with stooping that
they could scarcely stand upright, and their hands were blistered with
the rough wood. Pawson was well satisfied with their work.
"Well," he said, "you move about pretty spry, you two do, and handle
the wood quicker'n most. I see you will suit me if I shall suit you;
so I will make it two dollars a-day at once. I ain't a man that stints
half a dollar when I see hands work willing."
"Well, that is not a bad beginning, Luscombe," Hugh said as they went
to put on their coats.
"We have earned a dollar, Hugh," Luscombe said, "and we have broken our
backs and blistered our hands, to say nothing of losing three or four
pounds of solid flesh."
"We did wrong to turn up our sleeves," Hugh said. "I had no idea that
the sun was so strong. Why, my arms are a mass of blisters."
"So are mine," Luscombe said ruefully, "and they are beginning to smart
furiously. They will be in a nice state to-morrow."
"Let us stay at the hotel tonight, Hugh. I feel so tired that I am sure
I could never set out to look for lodgings after supper."
The next morning their arms were literally raw. Before starting to
work they got some oil from the landlord and rubbed them. "It will be
some time before I turn up my sleeves to work again," Luscombe said. "I
have had my arms pretty bad sometimes after the first long day's row in
summer, but I have never had them like this."
They worked until dinner-time, and then Luscombe went up to Pawson
and pulled up his sleeve. "I think," he said, "you must let us both
knock off for the day. We are really not fit to work. We daren't turn
up our sleeves, and yet the flannel rubbing on them makes them smart
so that we can hardly work. Besides, as you said yesterday, we are
not accustomed to work. We are so stiff that we are not doing justice
either to ourselves or you. If you have any particular job you want
done, of course we will come after dinner and do it, but if not we
would rather be off altogether."
"Your arms are bad," Pawson said. "I thought yesterday when you were
working that, being new-comers, you would feel it a bit. Certainly you
can knock off. You ain't fit for it as you are. Take it easy, boys, for
a few days till you get accustomed to it. We ain't slave-drivers out
here, and I don't expect nothing beyond what is reasonable. I should
get my arms well rubbed with oil at once; then to-night wash the oil
off and give them a chance to harden, and in the morning powder them
well with flour."
As soon as they had had their dinner they went out and found a room
with two beds in it, and moved their small kits across there. Then
they took a stroll round the town, of which they had seen little, and
then lay down in the shade of a thick cactus hedge and dozed all the
afternoon. The next morning they felt all the better for their rest.
The inflammation of their arms had greatly abated, and they were able
to work briskly.
"What do you want with that revolver of an evening, Hugh, when you do
not wear it during the day?" Luscombe asked as he saw Hugh put his
revolver in his pocket when they went to their lodgings for a wash,
after work was over for the day.
"I take off my coat during the day, Luscombe, and whatever may be the
custom here I think it ridiculous to see a man at work in a woodyard
with a revolver stuck into his pocket at the back of his trousers. At
night it is different; the pistol is not noticed under the coat, and I
don't suppose there is a man here without one."
"I think one is just as safe without a pistol," Luscombe said. "Even
these rowdies would hardly shoot down an unarmed man."
"They might not if they were sober," Hugh agreed; "but most of this
shooting is done when men are pretty nearly if not quite tipsy. I heard
my uncle say once 'A man may not often want to have a revolver on him;
when he does want a revolver he wants it pretty badly.'"
A few days later they heard at supper that three notorious ruffians had
just ridden into the place. "I believe one of them is a mate of Buck
Harris, who was shot here three weeks ago. I hear he has been in the
bar swaggering about, and swearing that he means to wipe out every man
in the place who had a hand in that business. The sheriff is away. He
went out yesterday with two men to search for a fellow who murdered a
man and his wife somewhere down south, and who has been seen down in
the swamps of the East Fork. He may be away two or three days, worse
luck. There is the under-sheriff, but he isn't much good by himself. He
can fight, Gilbert can, but he never likes going into a row on his own
account. He will back up the sheriff in anything he does, but he has
got no head to take a thing up by himself."
"But surely," Hugh said, "people are not going to let three men
terrorize the whole place and shoot and carry on just as they like."
"Well, mate, I don't suppose we like these things more than anyone
else; but I can tell you that when one of the three men is Dutch Sam,
and another is Wild Harvey, and the third is Black Jake, it is not the
sort of business as anyone takes to kindly, seeing that if there is one
thing more tarnal sartin than another, it is that each of them is good
to lay out five or six men before he goes under. When things are like
that one puts up with a goodish lot before one kicks. They are three
as ugly men as there are anywhere along this part of Texas. Any one of
them is game to set up a town by himself, and when it comes to three
of them together I tell you it would be a game in which I certainly
should not like to take a hand. You are new to these parts, mate, or
you wouldn't talk about it so lightly. When you have been out here for
a few months you will see that it is small blame to men if they get out
of the way when two or three fellows like this are on the war-path."
At this moment there was a sound of shouting and yelling with a clatter
of horses' hoofs outside. Then came the rapid discharge of firearms,
and the three upper panes of glass in the window were pierced almost
simultaneously with small round holes in the very centres. Every one
bent down over their plates. The next shot might come through the
second line of window panes, in which case they would have taken effect
among those sitting at the table. Then there was a yell of laughter,
and the horses were heard to gallop furiously away.
"That is only their fun at present," one of the men said. "It will be
more serious later on when they have drunk enough to be savage."
"I don't see much fun in firing through the windows of a house,"
Luscombe said.
"Oh, that is nothing!" another put in. "I have seen a score of
cow-boys come into a place, and half an hour afterwards there wasn't a
window-pane that hadn't a round hole in its middle. They will shoot the
hats off a score of men; that is one of their favourite amusements. In
the first place it shows their skill with the pistol, and in the next
it scares people pretty nigh to death, and I have seen the cow-boys
laugh until they have nearly tumbled off their horses to see a fellow
jump and make a straight line into a house. Nobody minds the cow-boys;
they are a good sort. They are reckless enough when they are on a
spree, but they don't really mean to do harm. They spend their money
freely, and they hate ruffians like those three fellows outside. If
it wasn't for cow-boys, the bad men, as we call them, would be pretty
well masters of Texas. But the cow-boys hunt them down like vermin, and
I have known them hang or shoot over a dozen murderers and gamblers
in one afternoon. They fight among themselves sometimes pretty hard.
Perhaps the men on two ranches will quarrel, and then if it happens
that a party from one ranch meets a party from the other down in a
town, there is sure to be trouble. I remember one battle in which there
were over twenty cow-boys killed, besides six or eight citizens who
happened to get in the way of their bullets."
Just as they had finished the meal a man ran in. "Have you heard
the news? Dutch Sam and his party have broken open the door of the
under-sheriff's house, pulled him out, and put a dozen bullets into
him."
There was an exclamation of indignation. "There," Hugh said, "if the
under-sheriff had done his duty and called upon every one to help him
to capture or shoot these fellows as soon as they came into the town
he wouldn't have lost his life, and I suppose it will have to be done
after all."
"The best thing we can do," one of the men said, "is to go round
from house to house and agree that every man shall take his rifle and
pistol, and take his stand at a window, then we will shoot them down as
they ride past."
"But that wouldn't be giving them a fair show," another objected.
"A fair show!" the other repeated scornfully. "Did they give the
under-sheriff a fair show? Do you think they give notice to a man
before they shoot him, and ask him to draw and be fairly 'heeled'
before they draw a trigger? Not a bit of it; and I say we ought to
clear them out."
There was a general expression of approval, and after one of the party
had opened the door and looked out cautiously to see if the coast was
clear, and reported that none of the desperadoes were in sight, the
party at once scattered. Luscombe and Hugh stopped for half an hour
chatting with the landlord. The latter did not believe that the people
would attack the ruffians.
"If the sheriff had been here to take the lead," he said, "they might
have acted; but as he is away, I don't think it likely that anyone will
draw a bead upon them. You see, no one is sure of anyone else, and he
knows that if he were to kill or wound one of them the others would
both be upon him. If we had a regular street here with a row of houses
running along each side, so that a volley could be poured into them, it
would be a different thing; but you see the houses are separated, some
stand back from the road, some stand forward; they are all scattered
like, and I don't expect anyone will begin. They will be in here
presently," he said, "and they will drink my bar pretty well dry, and
I don't expect I shall get a dime for the liquor they drink; and that
is not the worst of it, they are like enough to begin popping at the
bottles, and smashing more than they drink."
"Well, it seems to me a disgraceful thing," Hugh said, "that a place
with something like a hundred men in it should be kept down by three."
"It sounds bad if you put it that way," the landlord agreed; "but you
must remember that each of these three men could hit every pip on a
card twenty yards away; they each carry two revolvers, that is to say,
they have got twelve men's lives in their belt, and they are so quick
with their weapons that they could fire the twelve shots before an
ordinary man could get out his revolver and cock it."
"Why not shut up your place for the night?" Luscombe asked. "Then they
couldn't come in and drink your spirits and wreck your bar."
"They couldn't, eh? Why, they would blow the door open with their
pistols, and if it was so barred they couldn't get in that way, they
would like enough burn the house about my ears. I have known such
things done many a time."
"Well, let us get home, Hugh," Luscombe said. "It seems to me the
sooner we are quietly in bed the better. As our room is at the back of
the house they may fire away as much as they like without a chance of
our being hit."
Hugh put on his hat, and the two started down the street. They had gone
but a short distance when the sound of a horse's hoofs was heard.
"Here is one of them!" a voice shouted from an upper window. "Run round
to the back of the house, the door is open there. I have heard two or
three pistol shots, and he will shoot you down to a certainty."
"Come on, Hugh," Luscombe said.
"You go round, Luscombe, you are unarmed. I am not going to run away
from anyone," Hugh said doggedly. "Go on, man, it is no use your
staying here, you have no pistol."
"I sha'n't leave you by yourself," Luscombe said quietly; "besides,
here he comes."
Hugh's hand had already slipped round to his back, and he now had his
pistol in his hand in the pocket of his coat. The horseman threw up his
arm as he came along, and Hugh saw the glitter of the moonlight on a
pistol barrel. Another instant the pistol cracked; but Hugh, the moment
he saw it bear on him, dropped on to one knee, and the ball struck the
wall just above his head. He lifted his arm and fired, while two other
shots rang out from the window. The man threw up his hands and fell
back over the crupper of his horse to the ground, and the well-trained
animal stopped instantaneously in his gallop, and turning stood still
by his side.
"Come on, Luscombe," Hugh said; "the sooner we are out of this the
better."
Before, however, they had gone twenty yards they heard the sound of two
horses coming up behind them.
"Let us get round the corner of that house, Luscombe. I don't suppose
they will pass those men at the windows; if they do, they will be
thinking of their own safety as they gallop past and won't notice us."
[Illustration: "WHEN THE COWBOY FIRED, HUGH DROPPED ON ONE KNEE."]
They had scarcely got round the corner when there was a discharge of
firearms, and the reports of the rifles were followed by the quick
sharp cracks of revolvers. Then a man dashed past them at a gallop. One
of his arms hung by his side, and the reins were loose on the horse's
neck.
"I suppose they have killed the other," Hugh said, "and this fellow is
evidently hit. Well, let us go on to bed."
Luscombe did not speak until they reached their room. Hugh struck a
match and lighted a candle.
"Well, you are a nice lad, Hugh," Luscombe said. "I thought you were
always against quarrels, and wanted nothing but to go on with your work
peaceably, and here you are throwing yourself into this and standing
the chance of being shot, as if you had been fighting ruffians all your
life."
"It was he attacked me," Hugh said. "I didn't fire first. I gave him
no provocation, and was not going to run away when I was armed. It is
you ought to be blamed, stopping there to be shot at when you had no
weapon. I call it the act of a madman. Well, there is nothing more to
say about it, so let us get into bed."
[Illustration]
[Illustration]