When he got there, he would probably set the bucket down while he studied the back trail and made sure he hadn’t been seen.” Waitt nodded, his interest aroused.
“Good reasoning, man. Let’s see.” They walked to the clump of trees, and after a few minutes of search, Waitt found the same kind of icy frozen place just under the thin skimming of snow.
“Where do we go from here?” he asked. i Rafe hesitated, studying the trees. A man would automatically follow the line of easiest travel, and there was an opening between the trees. He started on and then stopped. “This is right. See? There’s not so much snow on this branch. There’s a good chance he brushed it off in passin’.” It was mostly guesswork, he knew. Yet after they had gone three hundred yards Rafe looked up and saw the cliff pushing its rocky shoulder in among the trees. At its base was a tumbled cluster of gigantic boulders and broken slabs.
He led off for the rocks, and almost the first thing he saw was a fragment of loose hark lying on the snow and a few crumbs of dust such as is sometimes found between bark and tree. He pointed it out to Waitt.
“He carried wood this way.” They paused there, and Rafe sniffed the air. There was no smell of woodsmoke. were thev dead? Had cold done what rifle bullets couldn’t do? No, he decided, Johnny Gill knew too well how to take care of himself.
Rafe walked between the rocks, turning where it felt natural to turn. Suddenly, he saw a tipped-up slab of granite leaning against a larger boulder. It looked dry underneath. He stooped and glanced in. It was dark and silent, yet some instinct seemed to tell him it was not so empty as it appeared.
He crouched in the opening, leaving light from outside to come in first along one wall, then another. His keen eyes picked out a damp spot on the leaves. There was no place for a leak, and the wind had been in the wrong direction to blow in here.
“Snow,” he said. “Probably fell off a boot.” They moved into the cave, bending over to walk.
Yet it was not really a cave at first, merely a slab of rock offering partial shelter.
About fifteen feet further along, the slab ended under a thick growth of pine boughs and brush that formed a canopy overhead, which offered almost as solid shelter as the stone itself. Then, in the rock face of the cliff; they saw a cave, a place gouged by wind and water long since, and completely obscured behind the boulders and brush from any view but where they stood.
They walked up to the entrance. The overhang of the cliff offered a shelter that was all of fifty feet deep, running along one wall of a diagonal gash in the cliff that was invisible from outside. They stepped in on the dry sand and had taken only a step when they smelled wood smoke. At almost the same instant, Johnny Gill spoke.
“Hi, Rafe!” He stepped down from behind a heap of debris against one wall of the rock fissure.
“I couldn’t see who you were till now. I had my rifle ready so’s if you was the wrong one I could plumb discourage you.” His face looked drawn and tired. “He’s over here, Doc,” Gill continued, “and he’s been delirious all night.” While Waitt was busy over the wounded man, Gill walked back up the cave with Rafe.
“What’s happened?” Gill asked.
“I thought they’d got Y.”. “No, they haven’t, but I don’t know much of what’s been goin” on.
Ann’s at the fort with Barkow. Says she’s goin’ to marry him.” “What about Tex?” Gill asked quickly.
Rafe shook his head, scowling. “No sign of him. I don’t know what’s come off at Painted Rock. I’m leavin’ for there as soon as I’ve told the Lieutenant and his patrol where Doc is.
You’ll have to stick here because the Doc has to get back to the fort. his “You goin’ to Painted Rock?” “Yes. I’m goin’ to kill Dan Shute.” “I’d like to see that,” Gill said grimly, “but watch yourself!” The little cowhand looked at him seriously. “Boss, what about that girl?” Rafe’s lips tightened, and he stared at the bare wall of the cave.
“I don’t know,” he said grimly. was I tried to talk her out of it, but I guess I wasn’t what you’d call tactful.” Gill stuck his thumbs in his belt. “Tell her you’re in love with her yourself?” Caradec stared at him. “Where’d you get that idea?” “Readin’ sign. You ain’t been the same since you ran into her the first time. She’s vour kind of people, Boss.” “Maybe. But looks like she reckoned she wasn’t. Never would listen to me give the straight story on her father. Both of us flew off the handle this time.” “Well, I ain’t no hand at ridin’ herd on womenfolks, but I’ve seen a thing or two, Boss. The chances are if you’d have told her you’re in love with her, she’d never have gone with Bruce Barkow.” Rafe was remembering those words when he rode down the trail toward Painted Rock. What lay ahead of him could not be planned. He had no idea when or where he would encounter Dan Shute. He knew only that he must find him. After reporting to Bryson so he wouldn’t worry about the doctor, Rafe had hit the trail for Painted Rock alone. By now he knew that mountain trail well, and even the steady fall of snow failed to make him change his mind about making the ride.
He was burning up inside. The old, driving recklessness was in him, the urge to be in and shooting.
His enemies were in the clear, and all the cards were on the table in plain sight.
Barkow he discounted. Dan Shute was the man to get, and Pod Goner the man to watch. What he intended to do was high-handed, as high-handed in its way as what Shute and Barkow had attempted, but in Rafe’s case the cause was just. .
Mullaney had stopped in a wooden draw short of the hills. He stopped for a short rest just before daybreak on that fatal second morning. The single rider had turned off from the trail and was no longer with the patrol. Both he and the girl needed rest, aside from the horses. He kicked snow away from the grass and then swept some of it clear with a branch.
In most places it was alreadv much too thick for that. After he made coffee and they had eaten, he got up.
“Get ready,” he said, “and I’ll get the horses.” All night he had been thinking of what he would do when he found Barkow. He had seen the man draw on Penn, and he was not fast. That made it an even break, for Mullaney knew that he was not fast himself When he found the horses missing, he stopped.
Evidently they had pulled their picket pins and wandered off. He started on, keeping in their tracks.
He did not see the big man in the heavy coat who stood in the brush and watched him go.
Dan Shiite threaded his way down to the campfire. When Ann looked up at his approach, she thought it was Mullaney, and then she saw Shute. Eyes wide, she came to her feet.
“Why, hello! What are you doing here?” He smiled at her, his eves sleepy and yet wary.
“Huntin’ you. Reckoned this was you. When I seen Barkow I reckoned somethin’ had gone wrong.” “You saw Bruce? Where?” “North a ways. He won’t bother you none.” Shute smiled. “Barkow was spineless. Thought he was smart. He never was half as smart as that Caradec, nor as tough as me.” “What happened?” Ann’s heart was pounding.
Mullaney should be coming now. He would hear their voices and be warned.
“I killed him.” Shute was grinning cynically.
“He wasn’t much good.” Shute smiled. “Don’t be wonderin’ about that hombre with you. I led his horses off and turned “em adrift. He’ll be hours catchin” “em, if he ever does. However, he might come back, so we’d better drift.” “No,” Ann said. “I’ll wait.” He smiled again. “Better come quiet.
If he came back, I’d have to kill him. You don’t want him killed, do you?” She hesitated only a moment. This man would stop at nothing. He was going to take her if he had to knock her out and tie her. Better anything than that. If she appeared to play along, she might have a chance. “I’ll go,” she said simply. “You have a horse?” “I kept yours,” he said. “Mount up.”
By the time Rafe Caradec was en route to Painted Rock, Dan Shute was riding with his prisoner into the ranch yard of his place near Painted Rock. Far to the south and west, Rock Mullaney long since had come up to the place where Shute had finally turned his horse loose and ridden on, leading the other.