The bay pony trotted down the trail, then around a stand of lodgepole. Ann brought him up sharply on the lip of the ledge that had been her first goal.
Below her, a vast and magnificent panorama, lay the ranch her father had pioneered. The silver curve of the Crazy Woman lay below and east of her, and opposite her ledge was the mighty wall of the canyon. From below, a faint thread of smoke among the trees marked the cabin.
Turning her head she looked west and south into the upper canyon. Far away, she seemed to see a horseman moving and the black dot of a herd. Turning the bay she started west, riding fast. If they were working the upper canyon she still had a chance.
An hour later, the little bay showing signs of his rough traveling, she came down to the floor of the canyon. Not far away, she could see Rafe Caradec moving a bunch of cattle into the trees.
He looked around at her approach, and the black, flat-crowned hat came off his head. His dark wavy hair was plastered to his brow with sweat, and his eyes were gray and curious.
“Good mornin’!” he said. “This is a surprise!”
“Please!” she burst out. “This isn’t a social call! Dan Shute’s riding this way with twenty men or more. He’s going to wipe you out!”
Rafe’s eyes sharpened. “You sure?” She could see the quick wonder in his eyes at her warning, then he wheeled his horse and yelled, “Johnny! Johnny Gill! Come a-runnin’!”
Jerking his rifle from his boot, he looked at her again. He put his hand over hers suddenly, and she started at his touch.
“Thanks, Ann,” he said simply. “You’re regular!”
Then he was gone, and Johnny Gill was streaking after him. As Gill swept by, he lifted a hand and waved.
There they went. Below were twenty men, all armed.
Would they come through alive? She turned the bay and, letting the pony take his own time, started him back over the mountain trail.
Rafe Caradec gave no thought to Ann’s reason for warning him. There was no time for that. Tex Brisco and Bo Marsh were at the cabin. They were probably working outside, and their rifles would probably be in the cabin and beyond them. If they were cut off from their guns, the Shute riders would mow them down and kill them one by one at long range with rifle fire.
Rafe heard Gill coming up, and slacked off a little to let the little cowhand draw alongside. “Shute!” he said. “And about twenty men. I guess this is the payoff!”
“Yeah!” Gill yelled.
Rifle fire came to them suddenly. A burst of shots, then a shot that might have been from a pistol. Their horses rounded the entrance and raced down the main canyon toward the cabin on the Crazy Woman, running neck and neck. A column of smoke greeted them, and they could see riders circling and firing.
“The trees on the slope!” Rafe yelled and raced for them.
He reached the trees with the black at a dead run and hit the ground before the animal had ceased to move. He raced to the rocks at the edge of the trees. His rifle lifted, settled, his breath steadied, and the rifle spoke.
A man shouted and waved an arm, and at the same moment, Gill fired. A horse went down. Two men, or possibly three, lay sprawled in the clearing before the cabin.
Were Tex and Bo already down? Rafe steadied himself and squeezed off another shot. A saddle emptied He saw the fallen man lunge to his feet, then spill over on his face. Coolly then, taking their time, he and Gill began to fire. Another man went down, and rifle began to smoke in their direction. A bullet clipped the leaves overhead but too high.
Rafe knocked the. hat from a man’s head. As the fellow sprinted for shelter, he dropped him. Suddenly the attack broke. He saw the horses sweeping away from them in a ragged line. Mounting, Rafe and Gill rode cautiously toward the cabin.
There was no cabin. There was only a roaring inferno of flames. There were five sprawled bodies, and Rafe ran toward them. A Shute rider–another. Then he saw Bo.
The boy was lying on his face with a dark, spreading stain on the back of his shirt. There was no sign of Tex.
Rafe dropped to his knees and put a hand over the young cowhand’s heart. It was still beating!
Gently, with Johnny lending a hand, he turned the boy over. Then, working with the crude but efficient skill picked up in war and struggle in a half-dozen countries, he examined the wounds.
“Four times!” he said grimly. Suddenly, he felt something mount and swell within him, a tide of fierce, uncontrollable anger!
Around one bullet hole in the stomach the cloth of the cowhand’s shirt was smoldering!
“I seen that!” It was Tex Brisco, his face haggard and smoke grimed. “I seen it! I know who done it! He walked up while the kid was layin’ there and stuck a gun against his stomach and shot! He didn’t want the kid to go quick; he wanted him to die slow and hard!”
“Who done it?” Gill demanded fiercely. “I’ll git him now! Right now!”
Brisco’s eyes were red and inflamed. “Nobody gets him but me. This kid was your pard, but I seen it!” He turned abruptly on Rafe. “Boss, let me go to town. I want to kill me a man!”
“It won’t do, Tex,” Caradec said quietly. “I know how you feel, but the town will be full of ’em. They’ll be celebratin’. They burned our cabin, ran off some cattle, and they got Bo. It wouldn’t do!”
“Yeah,” Tex spat. “I know. But they won’t be expectin’ any trouble now. If you don’t let me go, I’ll quit!”
Rafe looked up from the wounded man. “All right, Tex, I told you I know how you feel. But if somethin’ should happen–who did it?”
“Tom Blazer! That big redhead. He always hated the kid. Shute shot the kid down and left him lay. I was out back in the woods lookin’ for a pole to cut. They rode up so fast the kid never had a chance. He was hit twice before he knew what was goin’ on. Hit again when he started toward the house. After the house was afire, Tom Blazer walked up, and the kid was conscious. Tom said somethin’ to Bo, shoved the gun against him, and pulled the trigger.”
He stared miserably at Bo. “I was out of pistol range. Took me a few minutes to get closer, then I got me two men before you rode up.” Wheeling, he headed toward the corral.
Rafe had stopped the flow of blood, and Johnny had returned with a blanket from a line back of the house. “Reckon we better get him over in the trees, Boss,” Gill said.
Easing the cowboy to the blanket with care, Rafe and Johnny carried Bo into the shade in a quiet place under the pines. Caradec glanced up as they put him down. Tex Brisco was riding out of the canyon. Johnny Gill watched him go.
“Boss,” Gill said, “I wanted like blazes to go, but I ain’t the man Brisco is. Rightly, I’m a quiet man. but that Texan is a wolf on the prowl. I’m some glad I’m not Tom Blazer right now!”
He looked down at Bo Marsh. The young cowhand’s face was flushed, his breathing hoarse.
“Will he live, Rafe?” Johnny asked softly.
Caradec shrugged. “I don’t know.” he said honestly. “He needs better care than I can give him.” He studied the situation thoughtfully. “Johnny,” he said, “you stay with him. Better take time to build a lean-to over him in case of rain or snow. Get some fuel, too.”
“What about you?” Johnny asked. “Where you goin’?”
“To the Fort. There’s an Army doctor there. I’ll go get him.”
“Reckon he’ll come this far?” Johnny asked doubtingly.
“He’ll come!”
Rafe Caradec mounted the black and rode slowly away into the dusk. It was a long ride to the Fort. Even if he got the doctor it might be too late. That was a chance he would have to take. There was small danger of an attack now.
Yet it was not a return of Dan Shute’s riders that disturbed him, but a subtle coolness in the air, a chill that was of more than autumn. Winters in this country could be bitterly cold. All the signs gave evidence this one would be the worst in years, and now they were without a cabin. He rode on toward the Fort, with a thought that Tex Brisco now must be nearing town.
Chapter X
It was growing late. Painted Rock lay swathed in velvety darkness when Tex Brisco walked his horse down to the edge of town. He stopped across the bend of the stream from town and left his horse among the trees there. He would have a better chance to escape from across the stream than from the street. By leaving town on foot, he could create some doubt as to his whereabouts.