"Two women and a Turk, by ----." The blank is mine.
"Lizzie," said Tish sternly, as all of them, including the girl, held
their hands up, "just give me your weapon and go over them."
"Go over them?" I said, not understanding.
"Search them," said Tish. "Take everything out of their pockets. And
don't move," she ordered them sternly. "One motion, and I fire. Go on,
Lizzie."
Now I have never searched a man's pockets, and the idea was repugnant to
me. I am a woman of delicate instincts. But Tish's face was stern. I did
as commanded, therefore, the total result being:--
Four revolvers.
Two large knives.
One small knife.
One bunch of keys.
One plug of chewing-tobacco.
Four cartridge belts.
Two old pipes.
Mr. Ostermaier's cigar-case, which I recognized at once, being the one
we had presented to him.
Mrs. Ostermaier's wedding-ring and gold bracelet, which her sister gave
her on her last birthday.
A diamond solitaire, unknown, as Mrs. Ostermaier never owned one,
preferring instead earrings as more showy.
And a considerable sum of money, which I kept but did not count.
There were other small articles, of no value.
"Is that all the loot you secured during the infamous scene on Piegan
Pass?" Tish demanded. "You need not hide anything from us. We know the
facts, and the whole story will soon be public."
"That's all, lady," whined one of the men. "Except a few boxes of lunch,
and that's gone. Lady, lemme take my hands down. I've got a stiff
shoulder, and I--"
"Keep them up," Tish snapped. "Aggie, see that they keep them up."
Until that time we had been too occupied to observe the girl, who merely
stood and watched in a disdainful sort of way. But now Tish turned and
eyed her sternly.
"Search her, Lizzie," she commanded.
"Search me!" the girl exclaimed indignantly. "Certainly not!"
"Lizzie," said Tish in her sternest manner, "go over that girl. Look in
her riding-boots. I haven't come across Mrs. Ostermaier's earrings yet."
At that the girl changed color and backed off.
"It's an outrage," she said. "Surely I have suffered enough."
"Not as much," Tish observed, "as you are going to suffer. Go over her,
Lizzie."
While I searched her, Tish was lecturing her.
"You come from a good home, I understand," she said, "and you ought
to know better. Not content with breaking an honest heart, you join a
moving-picture outfit and frighten a prominent divine--for Mr. Ostermaier
is well known--into what may be an illness. You cannot deny," she
accused her, "that it was you who coaxed them to the pass. At least you
needn't. We heard you."
"How was I to know--" the girl began sullenly.
But at that moment I found Mrs. Ostermaier's chamois bag thrust into her
riding-boot, and she suddenly went pale.
Tish held it up before her accusingly. "I dare say you will not deny
this," she exclaimed, and took Mrs. Ostermaier's earrings out of it.
The men muttered, but Aggie was equal to the occasion. "Silence!" she
said, and pointed the revolver at each in turn.
The girl started to speak. Then she shrugged her shoulders. "I could
explain," she said, "but I won't. If you think I stole those hideous
earrings you're welcome to."
"Of course not," said Tish sarcastically. "No doubt she gave them to
you--although I never knew her to give anything away before."
The girl stood still, thinking. Suddenly she said "There's another one,
you know. Another man."
"We have him. He will give no further trouble," Tish observed grimly. "I
think we have you all, except your Mr. Oliver."
"He is not my Mr. Oliver," said the girl. "I never want to see him
again. I--I hate him."
"You haven't got much mind or you couldn't change it so quickly."
She looked sulky again, and said she'd thank us for the ring, which was
hers and she could prove it.
But Tish sternly refused. "It's my private opinion," she observed, "that
it is Mrs. Ostermaier's, and she has not worn it openly because of the
congregation talking quite considerably about her earrings, and not
caring for jewelry on the minister's wife. That's what I think."
Shortly after that we heard a horse loping along the road. It came
nearer, and then left the trail and came toward the fire. Tish picked up
one of the extra revolvers and pointed it. It was Mr. Oliver!
"Throw up your hands!" Tish called. And he did it. He turned a sort of
blue color, too, when he saw us, and all the men with their hands up.
But he looked relieved when he saw the girl.
"Thank Heaven!" he said. "The way I've been riding this country--"
"You rode hard enough away from the pass," she replied coldly.
We took a revolver away from him and lined him up with the others. All
the time he was paying little attention to us and none at all to the
other men. But he was pleading with the girl.
"Honestly," he said, "I thought I could do better for everybody by doing
what I did. How did I know," he pleaded, "that you were going to do such
a crazy thing as this?"
But she only stared at him as if she hated the very ground he stood on.
"It's a pity," Tish observed, "that you haven't got your camera along.
This would make a very nice picture. But I dare say you could hardly
turn the crank with your hands in the air."
We searched him carefully, but he had only a gold watch and some money.
On the chance, however, that the watch was Mr. Ostermaier's, although
unlikely, we took it.
I must say he was very disagreeable, referring to us as highwaymen and
using uncomplimentary language. But, as Tish observed, we might as well
be thorough while we were about it.
For the nonce we had forgotten the other man. But now I noticed that the
pseudo-bandits wore a watchful and not unhopeful air. And suddenly one
of them whistled--a thin, shrill note that had, as Tish later remarked,
great penetrative power without being noisy.
"That's enough of that," she said. "Aggie, take another of these guns
and point them both at these gentlemen. If they whistle again, shoot.
As to the other man, he will not reply, nor will he come to your
assistance. He is gagged and tied, and into the bargain may become at
any time the victim of wild beasts."
The moment she had said it, Tish realized that it was but too true, and
she grew thoughtful. Aggie, too, was far from comfortable. She said
later that she was uncertain what to do. Tish had said to fire if they
whistled again. The question in her mind was, had it been said purely
for effect or did Tish mean it? After all, the men were not real
bandits, she reflected, although guilty of theft, even if only for
advertising purposes. She was greatly disturbed, and as agitation always
causes a return of her hay fever, she began to sneeze violently.
Until then the men had been quiet, if furious. But now they fell into
abject terror, imploring Tish, whom they easily recognized as the
leader, to take the revolvers from her.
But Tish only said: "No fatalities, Aggie, please. Point at an arm or a
leg until the spasm subsides."
Her tone was quite gentle.
Heretofore this has been a plain narrative, dull, I fear, in many
places. But I come now to a not unexciting incident--which for a time
placed Tish and myself in an unpleasant position.