Her guard spoke no word as the wagon rolled slowly onward, but she
judged that he leaned back against the bow supporting the canvas in an
effort to make himself as comfortable as possible. She could see
nothing of the fellow in the darkness, but had formed an impression
that he was of medium size, his face covered with a scraggly beard.
The driver sat bundled up in formless perspective against the line of
sky, but she knew from his voice that he was the man who had first
accosted her. In small measure this knowledge afforded some degree of
courage, for he had then appeared less brutal, more approachable than
the others. Perhaps she might lead him to talk, once they were alone
together, and thus learn the purpose of this outrage.
Yet deep down in her mind she felt little doubt of the object in view,
or who were involved. Excited as she was, and frightened, the girl was
still composed enough to grasp the nature of her surroundings, and she
had time now, as the wagon rumbled forward, to think over all that had
been said, and fit it into the circumstances.
Moreover she had recognised another voice--although the speaker had
kept out of sight, and spoken only in disguised, rumbling tones--that
of Ned Beaton. The fact of his presence alone served to make the
affair reasonably clear. The telegram stolen from her room by Miss La
Rue had led to this action. They had suspected her before, but that
had served to confirm their suspicions, and as soon as it had been
shown to Enright, he had determined to place her where she would be
helpless to interfere with their plans.
But what did they propose doing with her? The question caused her
blood to run cold. That these people were desperate she had every
reason to believe; they were battling for big stakes: not even murder
had hitherto stood in their way? Why then, should they hesitate to
take her life, if they actually deemed it necessary to the final
success of their plans? She remembered what Beaton had said about her
room--the condition in which it had been left. It was not all clear,
yet it was clear enough, that they had taken every precaution to make
her sudden disappearance appear natural. They had removed all her
things, and left a note behind in womanly handwriting to explain her
hurried departure. There was a master criminal mind, watchful of every
detail, behind this conspiracy. He was guarding against every
possibility of rescue.
The driver began to use his whip and urge the team forward, the wagon
pounding along over the rough road at a rate which compelled the girl
to hang on closely to keep her seat. The man beside her bounced about,
and swore, but made no effort to touch her, or open conversation. The
uncertainty, the fear engendered by her thought, the drear silence
almost caused her to scream. She conquered this, yet could remain
speechless no longer.
"Where are you taking me?" she asked suddenly.
There was no reply, and she stared toward her silent companion, unable
to even perceive his outlines. His silence sent a thrill of anger
through her, and she lost control. Her hand gripped the coarse
shirt-sleeve in determination to compel him to speak.
"Answer me or I'll scream!"
He chuckled grimly, not in the least alarmed.
"Little good that'll do yer now, young woman," he said gruffly, and the
driver turned his head at the sound, "unless yer voice will carry five
miles or so; where are we now, Matt?"
"Comin' down ter the Big Slough," answered the other, expectorating
over the wheel, and flickering a horse with his whip-lash. "'Twouldn't
do no harm now ter fasten back the canvas, Joe; maybe she'd feel a bit
more ter home that away."
There was a good-natured drawl to the voice which had a tendency to
hearten the girl. The driver seemed human, sympathetic: perhaps he
would respond to questioning. The other merely grunted, and began to
unloosen the cover. She leaned forward, and addressed the rounded back
of the fellow in front.
"Are you Mr. Moore?"
He wheeled partly about, surprised into acknowledgment.
"Well, I ain't heered the mister part fer some time, but my name's Matt
Moore, though, how the hell did you know it?"
"The other man called you by name--don't you remember? Besides I had
heard about you before."
"Well, I'll be damned. Do yer hear that, Joe? Who told yer 'bout me?"
"Mr. Westcott; he mentioned you as being one of the men who attacked
him in the hotel office yesterday. He said you were one of Lacy's men.
So when I heard your name mentioned to-night I knew in whose hands I
had fallen. Was the brute who ordered you about Bill Lacy?"
"I reckon it was, miss," doubtfully. "It don't make no difference,
does it, Joe?"
"Not as I kin see," growled the other. "Leastwise, her knowin' thet
much. 'Tain't likely to do her no good, whichever way the cat jumps.
I reckon I'll have a smoke, Matt; I'm dry as a fish."
"Same here; 'bout an hour till daylight, I reckon, Joe; pass the
terbacco after yer light up."
The glow of the match gave her swift view of the man's face; it was
strange and by no means reassuring, showing hard, repulsive, the
complexion as dark as an Indian's, the eyes bold and a bit bloodshot
from drink. Meeting her glance, he grinned unpleasantly.
"I don't pose fer no lady's man, like Matt," he said sneeringly, the
match flaring between his fingers. "That's what Bill sent me 'long
fer, 'cause he know'd I'd 'tend ter business, an' not talk too much."
"Your name is Joe?"
"Out yere--yes; Joe Sikes, if it pleases yer eny ter know. Yer might
call me Mr. Sikes, if yer want ter be real polite."
He passed the tobacco-bag up to Moore, who thrust the reins under him
while deliberately filling his pipe, the team trotting quietly along
what seemed to be a hard road. The wagon lurched occasionally, as the
wheels struck a stone, but the night was still so dark, the girl could
perceive little of their surroundings in spite of the looped-up
curtains. There seemed to be a high ridge of earth to their right,
crowned by a fringe of low trees, but everything appeared indistinct
and desolate. Outside the rumble of their own progress the silence was
profound.
"And you will not tell me where we are going?" she insisted, "or what
you propose doing with me?"
The pipe-glow revealed Sikes's evil countenance; Moore resumed his
reins, and there was the sharp swish of a whip lash.
"'Twouldn't mean nuthin' ter yer if I did," said the former finally,
after apparently turning the matter over slowly in his mind. "Yer
don't know nuthin' 'bout this country. 'Tain't no place a tenderfoot
like you kin find yer way back frum; so, as fer as I see, thar ain't
nuthin' fer yer to do but just naturally wait till we takes yer back."
"I am to be held a prisoner--indefinitely?"
"I reckon so; not that I knows enything 'bout the programme, miss; but
that's 'bout the understandin' that Matt an' I has--ain't it, Matt?"
The driver turned his head, and nodded.
"Sure; we're just ter take keer of yer till he comes."
"Lacy?"
"Er--some word from him, miss. It might not be safe for him to come
himself. Yer see," apologetically, "I don't just know what the game
is, and Bill might want to skip out before you was turned loose. I
knowed wunst when he was gone eight months, an' nobody knowed where he
was--do yer mind thet time, Joe, after he shot up Medicine Lodge?
Well, I reckon thar must be some big money in this job, an' he won't
take no chance of gettin' pinched. That seems to be the trouble,
miss--you've sorter stuck yerself in whar it warn't none o' yer
business. Thet's what got Lacy down on yer."
"Yes; but what is it to you, and--and Mr. Sikes, here?"
Matt grinned.
"Nuthin' much ter me, or ter--ter Mr. Sikes--how's it sound,
Joe?--'cept maybe a slice o' coin. Still there's reason fer us both
ter jump when Bill Lacy whistles. Enyhow thar ain't no use a talkin'
'bout it, fer we've got ter do what we're told. So let's shut up."
"You say you do not know what this all means?"
"No, an' what's more, we don't give a damn."
"But if I told you it was robbery and murder---that you were aiding in
the commission of crime!"
"It wouldn't make a plum bit o' difference, ma'm," said Sikes
deliberately, "we never reckoned it wus enything else--so yer might
just as well stop hollerin', fer yer goin' whar we take yer, an' ye'll
stay thar till Bill Lacy says yer ter go. Hit 'em up, Matt; I'm plum'
tired of talkin'."
The grey dawn came at last, spectral and ghastly, gradually yielding
glimpse of the surroundings. They were travelling steadily south, the
horses beginning to exhibit traces of weariness, yet still keeping up a
dogged trot. All about extended a wild, desolate scene of rock and
sand, bounded on every horizon by barren ridges. The only vegetation
was sage brush, while the trail, scarcely visible to the eye, would
circle here and there among grotesque formations, and occasionally
seemed to disappear altogether. Nowhere was there slightest sign of
life--no bird, no beast, no snake even, crossed their path. All was
dead, silent, stricken with desolation. The spires and chimneys of
rock, ugly and distorted in form, assumed strange shapes in the grey
dusk. It was all grey wherever the eyes turned; grey of all shades,
grey sand, grey rocks, grey over-arching sky, relieved only by the soft
purple of the sage--a picture of utter loneliness, of intense
desolation, which was a horror. The eye found nothing to rest upon--no
landmark, no distant tree, no gleam of water, no flash of colour--only
that dull monotony of drab, motionless, and with no apparent end.
Stella stared about at it, and closed her eyes, unable to bear the
sight; her head drooped wearily, every nerve giving away before the
depressing scene outspread in every direction. Sikes, watching her
slightest movement, seemed to sense the meaning of the action.
"Hell, ain't it?" he said expressively. "You know whar we are?"
"No; but I never before dreamed any spot could be so terrible."
"This is the Shoshone desert; thar ain't nobody ever comes in yere
'cept wunst in a while a prospector, maybe, er a band o' cattle
rustlers. Even the Injuns keep out."
She lifted her eyes again, shuddering as they swept about over the
dismal waste.
"But there is a trail; you could not become lost?"
"Well, yer might call it a trail, tho' thar ain't much left of it after
a sand storm. I reckon thar ain't so many as could follow it any time
o' year, but Matt knows the way all right--you don't need to worry none
about that. He's drove many a load along yere--hey, Matt?"
"You bet; I've got it all marked out, the same as a pilot on the
Missouri. Ye see that sway-back ridge yonder?" pointing with his whip
into the distance ahead. "That's what I'm headin' for now an' when I
git thar a round rock will show up down a sorter gully. Furst time I
came over yere long with Lacy, I wrote all these yere things down."
Conversation ceased, the drear depression of the scene resting heavily
on the minds of all three. Moore sat humped shapelessly in his seat,
permitting the horses to toil on wearily, the wagon rumbling along
across the hard packed sand, the wheels leaving scarcely a mark behind.
Sikes stared gloomily out on his side, the rifle still between his
knees, his jaws working vigorously on a fresh chew of tobacco. Stella
looked at the two men, their faces now clearly revealed in the
brightening dawn, but the survey brought little comfort. Sikes was
evidently of wild blood--a half-breed, if his swarthy skin and high
cheek bones meant any characteristics of race--scarcely more than a
savage by nature, and rendered even more decadent by the ravages of
drink. He was sober enough now, but this only left him the more morose
and sullen, his bloodshot eyes ugly and malignant. The girl shrank
from him as a full realisation of what the man truly was came to her
with this first distinct view.
Moore was a much younger man, his face roughened, and tanned, to almost
the colour of mahogany, yet somehow retaining a youthful look. He was
not unprepossessing in a bold, daring way; a fellow who would seek
adventure, and meet danger with a laugh. He turned as she looked at
him, and grinned back at her, pointing humorously to a badly
discoloured eye.
"Friend o' yours gave me that," he admitted, quite as a matter of
course. "Did a good job, too."
"A friend of mine?" in surprise.
"Sure; you're a friend o' Jim Westcott, ain't yer? Lacy said so, and
Jim's the laddy-buck who whaled me."
"Mr. Westcott! When?"
"Last night. You see it was this way. I caught him hanging round the
office at La Rosita, an' we had a fight. I don't just know what I did
to him, but that's part o' what he did to me. I never knowed much
about him afore, but he's sure some scrapper; an' I had a knife in my
fist, too."
"Then--then," her breath choking her, "he got away?"
Moore laughed, no evidence of animosity in his actions.
"I reckon so, miss. I ain't seen nuthin' of him since, an' the way
Bill Lacy wus cussing when I got breathin' straight agin would 'a'
shocked a coyote. He'll git him, though."
"Get him?"
"Sure--Bill will. He always gets his man. I've seen more'n one fellow
try to put something over on Lacy, but it never worked in the end.
He's hell on the trigger, an' the next time he and Bill come together,
Westcott's bound to get his. Ain't that the truth, Joe?"
Sikes nodded his head, a gleam of appreciation in his eyes.
"I'd like fer to see the scrap," he said slowly. "They tell me
Westcott ain't so slow on the draw--but Bill will get him!"
The sun rose a red ball of fire, colouring the ridges of sand, and
painting the grotesque rocks with crimson streamers. As it ascended
higher into the pale blue of the sky the heat-waves began to sweep
across the sandy waste. In the shadow of a bald cliff the wagon was
halted briefly, and the two men brought forth materials from within,
making a hasty fire, and preparing breakfast. Water was given the team
also, before the journey was resumed; while during the brief halt the
girl was left to do as she pleased. Then they moved on again,
surrounded by the same drear landscape, the very depression of it
keeping them silent. Sikes nodded sleepily, his head against a wagon
bow. Once Moore roused up, pointing into the distance with one hand.
"What do yer make o' that out thar?" he asked sharply. "'Tain't a
human, is it?"
Sikes straightened up with a start, and stared blankly in the direction
indicated. Apparently he could perceive nothing clearly, for he
reached back into the wagon-box, and drew forth a battered field-glass,
quickly adjusting it to his eyes. Stella's keener vision made out a
black, indistinct figure moving against the yellow background of a far
away sand-ridge, and she stood up, clinging to Moore's seat, to gain a
better view. Sikes got the object in focus.
"Nothin' doing," he announced. "It's travellin' on four legs--a b'ar,
likely, although I never afore heard of a b'ar being in yere."
They settled down to the same monotony, mile after mile. The way
became rockier with less sand, but with no more evidence of life. A
high cliff rose menacingly to their right, bare of the slightest trace
of vegetation, while in the opposite direction the plain assumed a dead
level, mirages appearing occasionally in the far distance. Far away
ahead a strange buttress of rock rose into the sky resembling the
turret of a huge castle. The sun was directly overhead when Moore
turned his team suddenly to the left, and drove down a sharp declivity
leading into a ravine.
"Drop the canvas, Joe," he said shortly, "there's only 'bout a mile
more."