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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Delafield Affair, by Florence Finch
+Kelly, Illustrated by Maynard Dixon
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Delafield Affair
+
+
+Author: Florence Finch Kelly
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 17, 2011  [eBook #34996]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR***
+
+
+E-text prepared by D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 34996-h.htm or 34996-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34996/34996-h/34996-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34996/34996-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/delafieldaffair00kelliala
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR
+
+by
+
+FLORENCE FINCH KELLY
+
+Author of "With Hoops of Steel," etc.
+
+With Four Illustrations in Color by Maynard Dixon
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chicago
+A. C. McClurg & Co.
+1909
+
+Copyright
+A. C. McClurg & Co.
+1909
+
+Published March 6, 1909
+
+THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "HE SMILED DOWN AT HER GLOWING YOUNG FACE, AND HIS
+EYES SHONE WITH ADMIRATION" [Page 26]]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                   PAGE
+
+     I. VENGEANCE AVOWED                                      9
+    II. THE EVIL THAT MEN DO                                 32
+   III. MISTAKE, OR BLUNDER?                                 39
+    IV. THE POWERS CONFER                                    52
+     V. CHASTISEMENT CONDIGN                                 64
+    VI. A STERN CHASE                                        78
+   VII. TALK OF MANY THINGS                                  90
+  VIII. SPECTRES OF THE PAST                                114
+    IX. PERILS IN THE NIGHT                                 136
+     X. BY A HAIR'S BREADTH                                 145
+    XI. BATTLING THE ELEMENTS                               160
+   XII. THE FIRST SHOT                                      177
+  XIII. THE SECOND SHOT                                     192
+   XIV. THREE LETTERS                                       210
+    XV. VILLAINY UNMASKED                                   221
+   XVI. A DOUBLE BLUFF                                      238
+  XVII. SENTENCE OF DEATH                                   256
+ XVIII. PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS                              278
+   XIX. THE WORD UNSPOKEN                                   299
+    XX. NARROWING THE QUEST                                 321
+   XXI. THE SILENT DUEL                                     345
+  XXII. REFLECTION AND REACTION                             360
+ XXIII. LOVE TO THE RESCUE                                  380
+  XXIV. THE HEAVENS OPEN                                    397
+   XXV. FULFILMENT OF THE LAW                               414
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+ "He smiled down at her glowing young face, and his
+ eyes shone with admiration"                     _Frontispiece_
+
+ "Upon man and beast the sand-storm beat bitterly"          168
+
+ "Like a flash José's arm swung back, ... and Curtis
+ sprang lightly aside as the knife struck deep into
+ the tree"                                                  308
+
+ "It had come, the question she had meant not to let
+ him ask"                                                   404
+
+
+
+
+THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+VENGEANCE AVOWED
+
+
+Curtis Conrad turned from superintending repairs on the adobe wall, and
+walked across the corral to the gate at the opposite side. As he filled
+his pipe he looked across the wide, greenish-gray New Mexican plateau
+stretching far to east and south and west. It was dotted here and
+there with little groups of grazing cattle, and he noted a straggling
+procession of the creatures, their figures wavering and distorted in the
+heat haze, coming down from the distant foot-hills. They were following
+a trail that cut across the plain in a straight line to the pond across
+the road from the house, beyond a grove of cottonwood trees.
+
+"Poor devils!" he thought. "They're tramping miles for a drink of
+water, and to-morrow they'll tramp back again for their breakfast. The
+Castletons are going to lose big money in dead cattle this Summer,
+unless there's more rain than there was last. It's awful to see the
+poor brutes dropping in their tracks. I'll begin looking for a job in a
+wetter country if this Summer doesn't bring more rain." He turned his
+attention to his pipe, sheltering bowl and match in his hollowed hand.
+"No use, in this wind," he muttered. "What a blast it's blowing to-day!
+Well, there's no sand in it."
+
+The plain stretched away from the ranch-house in low, rolling hills, so
+evenly sized that it gave the impression of a level surface. Up from one
+of the little valleys rose a horseman, as if he had sprung suddenly from
+the depths of the earth. Through the heat that wavered over the plain
+his horse's legs drew out into long, knobby sticks, and both man and
+steed became an absurd caricature of the sinewy pony and cowboy rider
+that presently cantered up to the gate with the mail for which Conrad
+had been waiting.
+
+"Three cow-brutes are down on the pond trail, just where it crosses the
+road. One of 'em's got a calf."
+
+"Are they dead?"
+
+"Mighty nigh--will be by night."
+
+"You and Red Jack go and skin them in the morning." Conrad turned toward
+the house, looking at his letters. His mind still lingered over the
+calf. "Poor little devil, it ought to have a chance," he was thinking,
+when his eye caught the name on one of the envelopes. He turned upon the
+cowboy a gaze suddenly grown preoccupied.
+
+"No, Peters," he said; "the calf won't go with the other cattle while
+its mother is alive, and I saw that gray wolf skulking along the draw
+this afternoon. You and Red Jack'd better go down now and put the cows
+out of their misery. Skin them and bring the calf into the corral till
+night, and then put it down by the pond with the other cow-brutes."
+
+His eyes quickly returned to the letter that had attracted his
+attention. "Tremper & Townsend!" he exclaimed with eager surprise. "Why,
+they were Delafield's attorneys!" He tore open the envelope with an
+impatient jerk and the rushing wind almost blew from his fingers the
+check it contained. As his eye ran quickly down the half-dozen lines of
+the letter his face lighted with satisfaction and amusement.
+
+The sound of a carriage distracted his attention. It turned in at his
+house-gate and he hastened forward, a lean, long-legged figure of a man,
+hat doffed and hand outstretched.
+
+"How are you, Bancroft? Glad to see you! And Miss Bancroft, too! Of
+course you're coming in. Thirsty? I'll bet you are! And you know we've
+got the best water in Silverside County here. How much better your
+daughter's looking, Aleck! If you keep on like this, Miss Bancroft,
+you'll soon forget you were ever ill."
+
+"Oh, I've forgotten that already, there's such magic in the winds you
+have here," the girl replied laughingly as he lifted her to the ground.
+"They're strong enough to blow the past out of your memory and make you
+forget even your own name!" Her father suddenly turned away and began to
+hitch the horses. He sent back a covert glance at her as she stood at
+Conrad's side, a slender figure, her face still thin from recent illness
+but aglow with the pink of returning health, the breeze fluttering the
+short brown curls that clustered over her bare head.
+
+"Oh, my hat, please!" she exclaimed, with sudden remembrance of the
+head-covering she had left hanging in the carriage top. Curtis took it
+down for her and looked on with undisguised admiration while she tied it
+with a big bow of ribbon under her chin. Bancroft came back, explaining
+that they had driven since mid-forenoon from the base of Mangan's Peak,
+and asking if Conrad did not think they had made pretty good time with
+their new team of horses. Curtis looked them over critically, praising
+their good points, and approving heartily when Bancroft told him they
+had been bought for both riding and driving, for he wanted Lucy, now
+that she was growing strong again, to become an expert horsewoman.
+
+A big cottonwood tree grew beside the gate, and a little plot of grass,
+enclosed on three sides by whitewashed adobe walls, made a square of
+welcome green. Lucy Bancroft exclaimed with delight as they entered the
+tiny yard, stepping mincingly across the grass with lifted gown, and
+smiling back at the two men, while fleeting dimples played hide-and-seek
+in her cheeks.
+
+"I'm so glad, Mr. Conrad," she laughed, "that you haven't any signs up
+to 'keep off the grass,' for I simply must walk on it. I never saw
+anything so lovely as this little lawn and this beautiful big green
+tree, after our long ride across the plain. It makes me think of that
+line in the Bible about 'the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.'"
+
+"Yes," replied Curtis as he threw open the door. "I never knew until I
+came to New Mexico how much comfort and pleasure there can be in a few
+blades of grass. When I come in from a long ride and look at this little
+checker-board square of turf I feel as if I uncurled a whole yard of
+wrinkles and squints from around my eyes."
+
+The Socorro Springs ranch-house was a rambling sequence of adobe rooms,
+so joined one to another that they formed the eastern and part of the
+northern side of the big square corral. It was low and flat-roofed, and
+struggling tufts of weeds and grass grew along the top and trailed over
+the edge, adding their chapter to Nature's endless tale of the unwearied
+determination of Life to evade and overcome Death. The rooms opened out
+of one another in a long row, all with outside doors looking toward the
+east and some with additional doors into the corral. A bare adobe yard
+sloping eastward was bordered by a trickling stream of water along which
+grew some willows and cottonwoods. Beyond it spread a golden-green field
+of young alfalfa, and beyond that the greenish-gray plain stretched to
+the far horizon. Across the front of the house was a narrow wooden
+porch, and house and porch, walls and sheds, were all a dazzling white
+that in the vivid sunshine smote the sight like a blow across the
+eyeballs. In the low, large room in front gayly colored Navajo rugs were
+spread on the floor, white muslin curtains hung at the windows, and
+rose-bedecked paper covered the walls and ceiling. Unpainted shelves of
+pine above a battered, flat-topped desk were filled with books, and the
+round table in the middle of the room was littered with newspapers,
+magazines, tobacco pouches, and pipes.
+
+The housekeeper, Mrs. Peters, brought a pitcher of water, and Conrad
+explained to Lucy that the springs from which the ranch took its
+appellation, _Los Ojos del Socorro_, "The Springs of Succor," had been
+so named nearly three hundred years before by a party of Spanish
+explorers, because they had come unexpectedly upon the pure waters when
+they were almost dead from thirst. At the housekeeper's suggestion Lucy
+went into the next room to lie down for a half-hour's rest before they
+should start for their home in Golden, twenty miles farther westward.
+The door, accidentally left ajar, swung part way open and she could hear
+plainly the voices of her father and Conrad as she lay with eyes closed
+and thoughts wandering, scarcely heeding what they said.
+
+The two men were absorbed in a discussion of local politics. "Dan
+Tillinghurst is all right," said Conrad. "He's made a good sheriff and
+he ought to have the office again. I shall do all I can to have him
+renominated and to help elect him afterwards. But Dellmey Baxter for
+Congress again! That's where I buck, and buck hard, and keep a-buckin'."
+
+"But he's the head of the party in the Territory," objected Bancroft.
+"He can bring out more votes than any other man we can put up. If we
+turn him down in the convention they'll beat us at the polls."
+
+"We'll deserve to be beaten if we nominate him, anyway. I can't stomach
+him any longer, Aleck, and I don't see how you can."
+
+"Oh, you're prejudiced, Curt," said the other, good-naturedly. "You know
+you can never see any good in a man you dislike, and you took a dislike
+to Baxter the first day you set foot in the Territory."
+
+"Maybe I am prejudiced; but in Dell Baxter's case there's ample reason
+to be, and I'd be ashamed of myself if I wasn't. I know he's a friend
+of yours, but that doesn't prevent him from being the worst scoundrel in
+the whole Territory. I tell you, Aleck, there's nothing that man
+wouldn't do, unless it was something square and honest."
+
+"Come, come, Curt, that's rank exaggeration. I've been associated with
+Dell Baxter financially ever since I located in this part of the
+country, and I've always found him strictly on the square."
+
+"Then it was because it was to his interest to be square. He'll do you
+up yet, if he gets the chance and thinks it worth while. He's had his
+finger in every crooked scheme that's been put through from Raton to El
+Paso, and his hands are as bloody as his pockets are dirty."
+
+"Don't you think it's going a little too far," asked Bancroft, smiling
+calmly, "to accuse a man in that wholesale way when you haven't any
+basis for your assertions but the merest idle gossip?"
+
+Conrad gave an indignant snort. "Oh, I'm not saying he's done the jobs
+himself. He thinks too much of that fat paunch of his to put that into
+any danger. But why does he keep those Mexican thugs hanging around him
+if it isn't to use them for things he wouldn't dare do himself? Why, I
+heard from Santa Fe only last week that he's taken into his pay that
+Mexican cutthroat, Liberato Herrara, whom he saved last Winter from
+conviction for the Paxton murder."
+
+"No, Aleck," he went on. "I buck when it comes to Dell Baxter for
+Congress again. If he gets the nomination and the other side puts up
+Johnny Martinez, as it's likely they will, I'm going to support Johnny."
+
+"But he's a Mexican."
+
+"I don't care what he is as long as he's a decent man. He won't be a
+disgrace to the Territory in Washington, and that's more than you can
+say of Baxter."
+
+Bancroft's impassive face lighted with a bantering smile. "There's no
+limit to your bad opinion of a man, is there, Curt, if he once gets into
+your disfavor? By the way, is it true that the Castletons are behind
+Johnny Martinez?"
+
+"I don't know, and I don't care. I'm their hired man here on the ranch,
+but my vote's my own, and so's what little influence I may have, and
+I'll do with both of 'em just what I damn please. And if it came to a
+show-down, I'd be perfectly willing to lose my job if that would keep
+Dell Baxter from going back to Congress."
+
+Bancroft laughed again. Conrad's eye, as he turned to his desk for more
+cigars, fell upon the little pile of letters and papers he had just
+received. On the top lay the Tremper & Townsend envelope. "By the way,
+Aleck, you're from Boston, ain't you?" he exclaimed impulsively.
+
+In the next room, Lucy, listening sleepily to the two voices, had been
+noting the difference in their quality. Conrad's was high and clear, his
+speech rapid and incisive. Her father's, lower and more deliberate, had
+in it a subtle, persuasive quality. "Dear daddy!" she whispered softly,
+her heart warm with affection. Then the new, sharp edge in Conrad's tone
+gripped her attention and sent her eyes flying open. Wide awake on the
+instant, she listened for the sound of her father's voice again. Had she
+been on the scene, she might have noted that he turned an instant's keen
+gaze upon his companion before he answered, carelessly enough:
+
+"Yes; originally. But I've come from so many other places since then
+that I almost forget it, unless somebody reminds me. I haven't been
+back there, or known much about the old place, for years."
+
+Conrad's boyish smile illuminated his face and twinkled in his blue
+eyes. "Yes," he said; "'most everybody out here is so everlastingly on
+the lope that it's no wonder some of 'em lose their names every once in
+a while and have to pick up 'most anything that comes handy. I'm no
+exception, though I've not yet forgotten 'what was my name back in the
+States.' But did you know anything about the Delafield affair in Boston,
+fifteen or sixteen years ago?"
+
+"I heard of it at the time, but it was after I left the city. It was so
+long ago that I forget the details. Skipped, didn't he, with a lot of
+funds? Or was he the one who defaulted and jumped into the Charles
+River?"
+
+Conrad had an eagerness of speech and manner that in a man of less vigor
+would have been accounted nervousness. Voice, face, and gesture were
+alive with it as he responded: "Jump nothing! except to get out of reach
+of his creditors! He's alive yet and making money somewhere, and I mean
+to find him! I've got a particular interest in that man, and when I come
+up with him he'll have a particular interest in me. For I'm going to
+give him such a song-and-dance as he's never had before."
+
+Bancroft listened calmly, his face and manner as impassive as usual, but
+his eyes narrowed as they met his companion's excited gaze. Smiling
+slightly, he replied, "What has he done to stir you up so? You must have
+been too young to be interested in financial investments then."
+
+"So I was, directly. Nevertheless, it happens, Aleck, that the Delafield
+affair has influenced me and my life more than any other one thing.
+My father lost everything he had in Sumner L. Delafield's smash-up.
+I was fifteen years old then, and getting ready to go to Michigan
+University--afterward I was to study law and be a prominent citizen. My
+father met Delafield first during a business trip to Boston--we lived in
+central Illinois, and father was well-to-do--and, just like everybody
+else, he gave the man his entire confidence. You remember, of course,
+how Delafield came to the top as a regular young Napoleon of business,
+and soon made a reputation as one of the big financiers. When he turned
+up missing one fine morning, and it was found that the bottom had
+dropped out of everything, most people believed he had killed himself.
+But he hadn't, I happen to know, and he's still alive. Well, my father
+had been so influenced by Delafield--the fellow must have been a
+persuasive cuss--that he had put everything he could raise into the
+man's schemes, and had even mortgaged our home. He had a weak heart, and
+when he read the news of Delafield's default and disappearance he fell
+out of his chair dead. The sudden shock of it all prostrated my mother,
+and she died in giving premature birth to a child. So there was I, a
+fifteen-year-old boy, suddenly dropped to the bottom of poverty, with
+two younger sisters and a little brother to take care of.
+
+"I tell you, I swore vengeance on that man. I promised myself I'd hunt
+him down if it took a lifetime. I'm on his trail now, and I'm not going
+to leave it until I run him into his hole. Then I'm going to stand him
+up and call him to his face all he deserves; and give him a gun, so he
+can have a fair chance for his worthless life, and take one myself; and
+then I'll put a bullet through his scoundrel brain if I have to hang for
+it afterward!"
+
+In the adjoining room Lucy Bancroft, with wide eyes and heightened
+color, was listening to Conrad's story. The thrill of keen-edged
+purpose in his tense and eager tones had set her nerves to vibrating
+until her body was a-tremble. At his last sentence Curtis brought his
+fist down on the table with a crash that almost startled her into
+outcry. A moment of silence followed, and then she heard her father's
+cool and even voice, "But suppose he should put one through yours
+first?"
+
+"Oh, he's welcome to do that if he can draw quicker or shoot straighter
+than I can. He'll get one through his head before the _baile_ is over,
+and that's all I care about. The round-up's coming, and I reckon he
+knows it. For to-day I got a letter from Tremper & Townsend of Boston,
+who settled up his affairs after his disappearance, enclosing a check
+for five hundred dollars, saying he wished it sent to me as the first
+instalment of the amount he owed my father, which he hopes, before long,
+to be able to pay in full."
+
+Bancroft flicked the ash from his cigar with unusual care, looked at it
+with contemplative interest, and drew a whiff or two before he spoke.
+Turning to Conrad with a quizzical smile, he said: "Well, Curt, doesn't
+that rather take the edge off your purpose? Why are you still shaking
+your gory locks and roaring like a wounded bull at him when he's
+evidently doing the square thing by you? Why don't you let up on your
+chase and give him a chance?"
+
+"Not on your life," was Conrad's emphatic rejoinder. "It's too late in
+the game for me to take repentance and an honest purpose on the hoof!
+He's found out that I'm getting hot on the scent and he wants to buy me
+off--that's all that check means. It's not the loss of the money that
+sticks in my craw; it's the deviltry he worked years ago. Whenever I
+find that he's discharging his debts to all his other creditors, who
+aren't after him hot-foot, then I'll consent to wait for my parley until
+he has settled the whole score."
+
+Lucy arose from the bed depressed with a vague sense of trouble. The
+longing seized her to be out-of-doors again, alone with her father on
+the wide plain, with the wind smiting her face and filling her lungs and
+making her forget everything but her own joy in being alive. She rubbed
+her eyes, smoothed her face, and forced herself to smile at the
+reflection in the mirror until her agitation was subdued. And presently,
+smiling and self-possessed, she opened the door into the front room,
+just as her father was finishing some friendly advice to Conrad.
+
+"Well, Curt, it's your affair," he had said, "and if you are so dead-set
+on getting that kind of revenge I suppose you'll go ahead and get it.
+But you'd better be careful; if this man is desperate he might try to
+head you off by the same means. And you couldn't exactly blame him for
+objecting to being shot in his tracks, or for taking measures to keep
+you from doing it. For my part, I never thought revenge was a paying
+investment, and I still believe you're foolish to waste your time,
+energy, and money in that sort of business.
+
+"Ah, Lucy, is that you?" he went on, as she opened the door. "Come in,
+dear. Have you had a nap, and do you feel better?"
+
+"Yes, thank you, I've rested beautifully, and I'm ready to start
+whenever you wish," she replied.
+
+Conrad produced a bottle of port wine, telling them as he filled their
+glasses that it had been sent him by a friend in California in whose
+cellars it had lain for twenty years, and that it would be a good tonic
+for Miss Bancroft. The friend had promised to send him more, and with
+her permission he would take a bottle to her the next time he went to
+Golden.
+
+As they stepped out of the house Lucy looked toward the west, whence the
+wind came, and as it struck her full in the face she gasped for breath
+and her slender body swayed in its rushing current. She grasped her wide
+hat brim with both hands and held it down so that it made a frame for
+her face. Laughing with joy she turned to Curtis.
+
+"Oh, I love these winds, Mr. Conrad! I know they blow sand into your
+eyes and pelt your face with gravel, but they make you feel so good! I
+always want to dance when I've been out in a wind like this for a minute
+or two." She took half a dozen dancing steps across the little lawn.
+"And they are so pure and sweet," she went on more seriously, "and make
+you feel so--so right that it seems as if they ought to blow all the
+wickedness out of one's mind."
+
+"Jiminy! I wonder if she heard what I said in there!" thought Conrad
+with inward panic. But he smiled down at her glowing young face and his
+eyes shone with admiration as he replied: "That is a beautiful theory,
+Miss Bancroft, but I'm afraid it doesn't pan out much in practice. It
+rather seems to me that most people who come to New Mexico have that
+sort of thing blown into them instead of out of them. As for myself,"
+and he grinned broadly, "I can't say that I feel any increase in
+righteousness, no matter how much I waltz around in these zephyrs."
+
+"And you must have given them a fair trial, too!" she laughed back. "But
+you may make all the fun you like of my little pet theory, Mr. Conrad. I
+shall believe in it just the same, and like the country just as much."
+
+"No; she didn't hear, and, besides, she said she'd been asleep, so it's
+all right," thought Curtis with much relief, as he went on eagerly: "I'm
+glad you're pleased with us and our winds, so that you'll want to stay.
+I assure you, Miss Bancroft, you can't find such a superior quality of
+wind anywhere else in the United States."
+
+"Oh, I'm going to stay, not on account of the wind, but on account of my
+father, who, I assure you, Mr. Conrad, is the most superior quality of
+father to be found anywhere in the United States! I've been away from
+him so much that now I'm perfectly happy to be with him all the time.
+You see, when my dear mother died five years ago, father put me in a
+boarding-school, and afterward sent me to Chicago for a year to study
+music, and there I had that attack of typhoid fever that came so near to
+killing me. But I'm here with him at last, and I mean to stay. And I'm
+learning to ride now, Mr. Conrad, and father thinks I'm getting on very
+well; don't you, daddy?" She turned to her father, as he came beside
+them at the carriage wheel, with a fond smile and a touch of her hand
+upon his arm.
+
+"Oh, yes," he answered, returning her smile and patting her shoulder;
+"you are doing bravely, Lucy. You'll soon be scouring the plain like the
+heroine of a dime novel."
+
+"No New Mexican girl," said Conrad as he helped her into the carriage,
+"thinks she can really ride until she can rope a steer. If you're going
+to be such an enthusiastic New Mexican you'll have to learn tricks of
+that sort. Get your father to bring you out here some day, and I'll give
+you lessons in cowboy riding."
+
+"Agreed! that would be great fun!" she exclaimed, smiling down at him,
+her eyes twinkling and the dimples dancing in and out of her cheeks.
+"We'll come out, won't we, daddy, after Miss Dent comes. I shall
+remember your promise, Mr. Conrad."
+
+Curtis waved a last good-bye as they turned the corner of his corral,
+and went back to his desk and his interrupted mail. "A mighty good
+fellow Aleck Bancroft is," he said in a half-aloud tone. "He doesn't
+palaver a lot, but he makes you feel he's your friend. I wonder if I
+said too much about Delafield. That check had wound me up and I sure
+talked more than I meant to." Long hours of solitude out-of-doors with
+only a silent plain around him and a silent sky above are likely to make
+a man so yearn for the sound of a human voice, though it be only his
+own, that he falls into the habit of thinking aloud. Conrad had the
+social temperament and it had not taken the wide and silent spaces of
+earth and air long to engender in him the habit of making companionship
+out of his own speech.
+
+He pulled thoughtfully at his sunburned moustache for a moment as he
+considered the matter. "It might have been just as well if I hadn't said
+so much," he went on aloud, "but he's close-mouthed and a good friend of
+mine. No, she didn't hear me--that's sure. How pretty she is when her
+eyes twinkle and her dimples come and go! I hope that wine will come in
+time for me to take her a bottle the next time I go to Golden. Well, I
+can call on her, anyway, and apologize because it hasn't. Hello! Here's
+a letter from Littleton! Has he got hold of something new about
+Delafield?"
+
+    "I was down in the northern part of your Territory last week on
+    other business," he read, "and I happened to meet a man who is, I
+    think, on the trail of the very same person we're after, though he's
+    been working it from the other end. If I'm right about it, the man
+    we want is now some prominent and respected citizen of New Mexico,
+    and maybe some good friend--or enemy--of yours at this moment. The
+    man I met is Rutherford W. Jenkins, of Las Vegas. You probably know
+    him--"
+
+"Sure! And know him to be a skunk!" Conrad exclaimed with a contemptuous
+snort.
+
+    "I couldn't get much out of him," the letter went on, "although I
+    gave him a tip about the trail we're on and a little of Delafield's
+    history as a bait. He snapped at it, and then began to dissemble his
+    satisfaction, so I'm sure it is of value to him. But not even
+    firewater would make him give up anything more. However, I feel
+    pretty sure that he either knows already who Delafield is or
+    expects soon to find out. I think he's working at it with an eye to
+    the possibilities of blackmail of one sort or another. Perhaps if
+    you see him yourself you can get something out of him."
+
+Conrad's face glowed with satisfaction as he finished the letter. "The
+birds won't get a chance to make any nests in my hair this trip! I'll
+sashay up the line this very night and I'll find out who Delafield is
+from Jenkins, if I have to choke the life out of him to do it. God!"
+His vengeful desire glowed like a blue flame in his eyes. He jumped to
+his feet, stretched out his arms, and clenched his fists. "Sumner L.
+Delafield, it's getting time for you to say your prayers!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EVIL THAT MEN DO
+
+
+Lucy Bancroft and her father were unusually silent as they drove toward
+home. After an effort to chatter gayly she grew quiet--to her father's
+surprise, for she was ordinarily a vivacious companion. Speculating
+uneasily whether or not she had heard Conrad's story, and reassuring
+himself that it could mean nothing to her in any event, he made several
+efforts to draw her into speech. But she answered with her mind so
+evidently intent elsewhere that he gave up the attempt. The fear grew on
+him that she had overheard the conversation and that it had left an
+undue impression on her mind.
+
+A mirage of singularly perfect illusion lay across the plain to their
+left, and he drew her attention to its silvery surface, the trees
+bordering its unreal banks, the cattle standing knee-deep in its waters,
+and the steamboat puffing across its breast. Lucy admired and wondered
+for a moment, then turned the other way and looked back at the green
+tree clusters and white buildings of the ranch they had left. Her gaze
+lingered there until they crossed the hill, and its summit hid the scene
+from view.
+
+Bancroft sought to reassure himself. Did she not say she had been
+asleep? And the door was shut. Surely she could not have heard! Even if
+she had why should she care about it? Nevertheless, her silence made him
+anxious. It annoyed him to think that her mind was intent upon Conrad's
+story. He made another effort to draw her out of her abstraction by
+asking how soon she expected their friend, Louise Dent, who was coming
+to spend the Summer with them. Lucy showed interest in this and they
+discussed plans for her entertainment. But presently she fell silent
+again, looking straight ahead with a little frown on her brow.
+
+The conviction gripped Bancroft's mind that she had overheard the
+cattleman's recital of his wrongs. Alarm stirred in his heart as
+he tried to imagine what impression it had made upon her. Would
+she sympathize with Conrad? For the moment he forgot everything
+else--business deals and political contests, friendships and enmities,
+in his desire to know what had been the effect upon the girl beside him
+of Conrad's outburst. But much as he wished to know, he feared still
+more the surety of what her feeling might be, and he could not bring
+himself to ask the questions that would draw her out.
+
+Presently Lucy's voice broke suddenly upon their silence. "I wonder what
+became of his sisters!" Her color rose as she spoke and she gazed with
+exaggerated interest at a tall, yellow-flowered cactus beside the road.
+
+"Whose sisters, Lucy?" her father asked carelessly, flicking the horses
+to a faster pace. But his heart sank as he thought, "She did hear it
+all!"
+
+"Why, Mr. Conrad's. You know he said he was left when he was only
+fifteen with two younger sisters and a little brother to take care of."
+
+"Oh--Conrad--I don't know. They are probably married by this time. That
+was a long time ago. I've heard him mention his sisters before, I think.
+Yes; I recall now that he has told me they are both married and
+prosperous somewhere in Illinois or Iowa."
+
+"And his younger brother?"
+
+"Oh, he's just a young fellow, and Curtis is putting him through
+college. Conrad banks with me, and I've noticed his checks sometimes
+when they come back."
+
+"How good he is to them! It must have been very hard on him," Lucy's
+tone was sympathetic, but her father replied briskly:
+
+"Oh, I don't know! Responsibility is sometimes just the thing to bring
+out all the good there is in a young fellow and show what sort of stuff
+he's made of."
+
+"I suppose that's why he's never married," Lucy went on, following her
+own line of thought, her voice still sounding the sympathetic note,
+"because he had to take care of the others."
+
+"I don't suppose that's a fault in your eyes, my dear."
+
+"Of course not, daddy!" Lucy flashed back, smiling and dimpling. "Of
+course a girl likes a young man better because he's more interesting and
+can pay her more attention. You would yourself, daddy, if you were a
+girl."
+
+"Very likely, my dear. But I like Curtis Conrad well enough, even if I'm
+not as young as you are and of your sex. I was disappointed in him
+to-day, though, and surprised as well. You must have heard what he said;
+how did it strike you to hear a young man boast of his intention to
+commit murder?"
+
+He spoke so earnestly and the persuasive quality in his voice was so
+insistent that Lucy turned upon him a quick look of surprise and
+question. Then her eyes fell as a sudden rush of emotion, coming she
+knew not whence or why, almost choked her utterance.
+
+"I don't know," she began tremulously, "perhaps he wouldn't really do
+it--I don't believe he would--he seems too good and kind to be really
+wicked or cruel." She stopped a moment, only to break out abruptly:
+
+"And it was such a wicked thing that man Delafield did! Oh, he must have
+been a villain! As wicked and cruel--oh, as bad as he could be! I can't
+blame Mr. Conrad for feeling as he does. I know it seems an awful thing
+for me to say, but I really can't blame him, daddy, when I think what
+that man made him suffer--and he was only one; there must have been many
+others. I might even feel the same way if I were in his place and it had
+been you that was killed!" There was a thrill in her voice that seemed
+in her father's ears to be the echo of that which had vibrated through
+Curtis Conrad's words when he so passionately declared his purpose. Her
+words were as knife-thrusts in his heart as she went on, "Oh, how I
+should hate him! I know I should hate him with all my strength!"
+
+He made no immediate reply, leaning forward to tap the horses with the
+whip-lash. Lucy choked down a sob or two, turned, threw her arms around
+his neck, and burst into tears. He put his arm about her with a sudden
+close pressure, and she, with her eyes hidden against his shoulder,
+could not see that his face had gone suddenly white and that underneath
+his brown moustache and pointed beard his lips were pale and tense.
+
+"Well, well, Lucy," he said presently, his voice calm and caressing,
+"there's no need to be tragic over it. Is it any of our affair, even if
+Conrad is our good friend? Possibly Delafield wasn't as bad as he
+says--it's likely Curt exaggerates about him--he usually does when he
+dislikes anybody. And perhaps Delafield suffered as much as--the others.
+Come, dear, brace up and don't be hysterical."
+
+Lucy straightened up and gave her father a wavering, wistful smile. "It
+was silly of me, wasn't it, daddy, to act like that! I'm ashamed of
+myself. I don't know why I cried--I guess it was because I am tired."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MISTAKE, OR BLUNDER?
+
+
+With eager pleasure Conrad gazed from his car window the next morning at
+the narrow bright ribbon of verdure with which the Rio Grande pranks
+itself on its southward course through New Mexico. The unkempt fields,
+the orchards and meadows, and the softened and caressing sunlight were
+as balm to his eyes, accustomed to the pale, grim southern plain and its
+fierce white sunshine. As the train rushed northward along the banks of
+the muddy stream, he looked at the little adobe houses, wondering how
+long these peaceful Mexican homes could withstand the pressure of the
+dominant American. He became aware that the men behind him were
+discussing the same question.
+
+"It will be only a few years," one of them was saying, "until this rich
+valley with all this water for irrigation will be in American hands."
+
+"The greasers are safe enough," said his companion, "until they begin to
+borrow on mortgages. Then their fate is settled."
+
+"I heard the other day," responded the first, "that Dell Baxter's been
+corralling a lot of mortgages on the land hereabouts."
+
+The other chuckled. "You bet. Dell ain't the man to let a little chance
+like this slip by him. These _paisanos_ look on him as a sort of 'little
+father' and borrow money of him with utter heedlessness of the day of
+reckoning. He jollies them along and tells 'em they're good fellows and
+hard workers, and he's sure they'll be able to pay when the time comes.
+Of course they never pay back a blessed _peso_, and Baxter gets the
+ranch. I'll bet it won't be long till he'll be exploiting a big land
+improvement company and selling these 'doby farms for ten times what
+they cost him."
+
+The talk of the two men drifted into politics, and presently Conrad
+heard them discussing Bancroft's loyal support of Baxter for Congress.
+"He's got to do it," said one of them. "Dell's been loaning him money
+and taking mortgages until Bancroft couldn't do anything else if he
+wanted to. Dell knows that Bancroft's support is a mighty important
+asset on account of the confidence people have in him, and Dell's been
+careful to cinch it good and tight."
+
+As Curtis bought an Albuquerque morning paper from the train-boy he
+thought indignantly, "That's all poppycock! Aleck's got too much grit to
+let anybody throttle him with a few dirty _pesos_. Hullo! What's this
+about Jenkins?" His eye had caught the name of the man he wished to see
+in a column of local news. As he read, "Rutherford W. Jenkins came down
+from Las Vegas yesterday and is stopping at the Metropolitan," his face
+shone with satisfaction. "Good luck!" he thought. "We'll be in
+Albuquerque in half an hour, and I'll go for my man like a steer on the
+prod!"
+
+At the hotel he found Jenkins, with a number of other men, smoking and
+talking on the porch. He did not expect to be remembered, for they had
+met only once, months before. But Jenkins came forward with his hand
+outstretched in greeting. "How do you do, Mr. Conrad! You don't get up
+to this part of the Territory very often; but we're always glad to see
+you."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. I've come this time especially to see you, and
+as soon as you have a moment or two to spare I'd like a private
+conversation."
+
+"Certainly! With pleasure! Just excuse me for a minute, will you, till I
+finish up the business I have with these men, and then we'll go up to my
+room."
+
+Conrad waited, tense and expectant, the quite apparent fact that Jenkins
+was engaged in mere desultory chat and story-telling increasing his
+irritation at the delay. He had jumped to the conclusion that Jenkins
+knew who Delafield was, and his breath came short and chokingly at the
+thought that in a few minutes he, too, would know. To know would be to
+act. His revolver was in his hip-pocket, and he intended to go straight
+from the interview to that meeting which for half his years had been the
+one goal of his thought. He glanced at Jenkins, saying to himself, "He
+looks like a weasel, and I reckon he is just enough of one to have
+wormed around and worked this thing out." Jenkins was tall, slender, and
+slightly stooped, his face long and thin, with its salient features
+crowded too close together. "I reckon he knows, all right," Conrad's
+thought went on, "and he'll tell me if I make the inducement big
+enough--he'd do anything for money!"
+
+Under cover of the conversation Jenkins had been doing his share of
+rapid thinking, prolonging the talk for that very purpose. He was
+putting together, with the acumen of a man in whom detective processes
+are a natural endowment, enough facts to convince him of the reason for
+Conrad's visit, considering the while just what he should do. He felt
+sure that he must expect a direct question about Delafield's identity,
+but he put off decision upon his response until he should hear the
+inquiry.
+
+"Now, Mr. Conrad, we'll go straight up to my room," he said cordially,
+laying a familiar hand upon the other's shoulder. Curtis shrank back a
+little, falling behind with a promptitude that left no doubt of his
+intention to keep the interview entirely formal. Jenkins licked his lips
+with an unwholesome smile, and led the way in silence. As the door
+closed behind them, Conrad became aware of an increase of repugnance
+toward this man so great that the necessity of dealing with him was an
+irritation.
+
+"Well, Mr. Conrad," said Jenkins, cheerfully, giving the other no time
+to state his mission, "I hear you are putting in some good licks for
+Johnny Martinez down in Silverside. What do you think of his chances
+down there? Pretty good, aren't they?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," Curtis replied curtly; and plunged into his own
+affair. "I have understood, Mr. Jenkins, from my friend Mr. Littleton,
+of Chicago, whom you met last week, that you are interested in a matter
+of prime importance to me, and that you have some information I want to
+get hold of."
+
+"Oh, yes; I remember meeting Littleton last week," Jenkins broke in. "A
+good fellow, too. So he's a friend of yours, is he? Yes; he and I
+scraped up quite a friendship and had a good time together. But say,
+Conrad, the amount of throat varnish that man can stand is something
+amazing!"
+
+Curtis straightened himself in his chair impatiently. "He wrote me that
+he had some conversation with you about Sumner L. Delafield, formerly of
+Boston, but now, I have reason to believe, living here in New Mexico
+under an assumed name."
+
+"Yes; I believe we did have a little talk about Delafield," Jenkins
+interrupted again. "But I'll have to confess," he went on jocularly,
+"that my mental condition wasn't perfectly clear and it's likely my
+remarks were a little foggy too. But I recall that we did have some
+conversation about the Delafield affair. Littleton had some personal
+interest in Delafield's failure, didn't he?"
+
+"No; all the work he has done on the case has been for me. I have
+considerable interest in it."
+
+"Have you, indeed? Now, this is a coincidence! For some time past I've
+been a good deal interested in that matter myself. I suppose you were
+roped into some of his schemes?"
+
+For a moment Curtis took counsel with himself upon what and how much he
+should say, only to thrust back his repulsion against saying anything at
+all to this man and plunge frankly into his narrative. With the utmost
+brevity he told of his father's ruin and of his own trailing of the
+culprit through so many years. Of his motives he said nothing, and of
+his work in tracking Delafield no more than was necessary. Few, even of
+his best friends, knew anything about the secret scheme of vengeance he
+had nursed from boyhood. Even Littleton, the detective who had aided him
+in the quest, did not know that he wanted to face Delafield for any
+reason other than to demand restitution.
+
+Having briefly outlined his story, Conrad went on to say that Littleton
+had led him to think that Jenkins must be engaged in the same search,
+and suggested that an exchange of their discoveries might be for their
+mutual benefit.
+
+Jenkins listened with evident interest, asking questions here and there
+concerning certain points in the other's long chase of the fugitive.
+"Yes; you've done very well, Conrad," he said, admiration in his voice,
+"very well indeed. That was a damned crooked trail and you've done a
+fine piece of work in following it through."
+
+Curtis gnawed his moustache and frowned. Jenkins's evasive speeches were
+increasing his irritation and repugnance almost beyond his control. "The
+amount of the matter is," he burst out, "I've got the notion that you
+know who Delafield is, and I'm willing to pay you for the information. I
+shall undoubtedly be able to find out for myself if I keep at it a
+little longer, but it happens that I want to know at once. If you know
+positively who he is, I am willing to pay you three hundred dollars for
+the knowledge."
+
+Jenkins walked to the window and stood there silently. He was weighing
+one thing against another, and deciding whether he should tell the
+whole truth, a part of it, or none at all. Presently he said to himself
+that a bird in the hand to-day is worth a whole flock that may be in the
+bush to-morrow.
+
+"Before I decide about your offer, Mr. Conrad," he began cautiously,
+"there are two or three things I would like to know. You are doing some
+good work for Martinez for Congress, I understand."
+
+"The best I can," answered Curtis with surprise.
+
+"Well, as you know, I am warmly in his favor myself. I want to get him
+the support of as many leading men in the Territory as possible. This
+man Delafield is one of Baxter's influential lieutenants, and I
+particularly want to win him over to Martinez. You, I happen to know,
+have some influence with him."
+
+A nervous start betrayed the strain Conrad was under, and an eager look
+lighted his face. Jenkins saw it, smiled blandly, and inwardly decided
+to demand another hundred dollars. "It has occurred to me," he went on,
+"that you might be able to influence him when I couldn't. Combine this
+leverage with your friendship, and I believe almost anything is
+possible. If I let you have this information will you agree to use it
+and your influence in such a way as to induce him to join in with Johnny
+Martinez?"
+
+The look that blazed in Conrad's eyes, coupled with the same involuntary
+shrinking movement that he had made in escaping Jenkins's hand at the
+foot of the stairway, showed the rapid ebbing of his self-control.
+Jenkins noticed both look and movement, and a gleam of angry resentment
+flashed into his dark eyes. But it was quickly repressed, as he suavely
+asked, "Well, what do you say?"
+
+"I don't know that I can promise," said Curtis, stiffly, "that my
+influence would count as much as that. Possibly it will be enough to
+keep him from supporting Dellmey Baxter. Yes," he went on with a grim
+look, "I think I can assure you he will be neutral through the rest of
+this campaign."
+
+"That might perhaps be satisfactory," said Jenkins meditatively,
+inwardly deciding to raise the price another hundred dollars in lieu of
+the aid for Martinez. "But if that is all you're sure of doing I shall
+have to ask more money for the information. It has cost me a great deal
+of time and effort, and if I can't bring about this result with it I
+must repay myself some other way. I will tell you what you want to
+know, Mr. Conrad, if you will give me five hundred dollars and your
+promise to do your best to get him to support Martinez."
+
+"That is what I said I could not do; and you are asking more money
+because I could not promise it."
+
+"Well, then, if you will promise to induce him to remain neutral during
+this campaign."
+
+"Yes; I will promise that, and I will give you the five hundred
+dollars."
+
+"Very well; it's a bargain."
+
+Curtis wrote his check for that sum on the First National Bank of
+Golden. Jenkins examined the bit of paper, folded it away in his
+pocket-book, rubbed his hands, and smiled at Conrad.
+
+"You will be surprised," he said, "when you hear the man's name. He is
+well known to you, and he is universally regarded, all over New Mexico,
+as a model citizen, as square and honest as any man in the
+Territory--and much more so than most of them."
+
+"Yes?" said Conrad, rising and reaching for his hat.
+
+"Yes, you will be astonished, I promise you," Jenkins went on, rising
+and facing Curtis, still smiling and rubbing his hands together in
+satisfaction. "For Sumner L. Delafield, the fugitive from justice,"--he
+began speaking slowly and impressively,--"the absconding defaulter, the
+man who sank the fortunes of hundreds of people, the man who had to hide
+in Canada and slink around in out-of-the-way places for so many years,
+is now known as"--there was a brief pause to give his revelation its
+fullest dramatic effect--"is now known in New Mexico as Alexander
+Bancroft, president of the bank on which your check is drawn."
+
+Conrad started, and his attitude of eager attention stiffened. For an
+instant half a dozen Jenkinses seemed to be whirling about the room. Out
+of the repugnance, contempt, and anger boiling in his veins shot a
+definite idea,--the desire to choke the man who had said this thing
+about his best friend. He leaped forward, seized Jenkins by the collar,
+and shook him as if he had been a ten-year-old boy. Although his arms
+were flying hither and yon Jenkins grabbed wildly for the pistol in his
+pocket. Curtis saw the movement, and with his left hand seized the butt.
+As he pulled it out Jenkins caught its barrel; but with a twist of his
+right arm and a jerk with his left Conrad wrested the gun from the
+other's hand and threw it under the bed.
+
+His face white and his eyes blazing, he grasped Jenkins by the shoulders
+and jammed him against the wall until the windows rattled. With two
+quick, backward strides he gained the door. Opening it with a hand
+stretched behind him, Curtis spoke with deliberate emphasis, pointing
+his words with a menacing forefinger:
+
+"Rutherford Jenkins, you are the damnedest liar and vilest skunk that
+ever made tracks in New Mexico, and if you ever tell that lie about
+Bancroft to another living soul I'll wring your neck!"
+
+Jenkins sprang toward the door, but as it closed from without he
+stooped, shook himself together, and swore under his breath. He took out
+the check, and chuckled. "I'll get it cashed before he changes his
+mind," he thought. Then a wave of anger and resentment rolled over him
+and he shook an impotent fist at the closed door. "Damn him!" he said
+aloud, "I'll get even with him yet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE POWERS CONFER
+
+
+Lucy Bancroft bade a smiling good-bye to her father at the door of the
+First National Bank, and crossed the street to a store on the corner
+opposite. Lingering in the doorway for her turn to be waited upon, she
+watched him with admiring eyes. "What a handsome man daddy is," she was
+thinking; "I like a man to be tall and straight and broad-shouldered;
+and I'm glad he's always so well groomed; I'd love him just as much if
+he wasn't, but I couldn't be quite so proud of him."
+
+Another man was coming up the street toward her father, and Lucy smiled
+as her eyes fell upon him. "There's Congressman Baxter," her thought ran
+on. "How slouchy and dumpy he seems beside daddy! They say he's one of
+the smartest men in the Territory; but I'm sure daddy is just as smart
+as he is, and he's certainly a great deal handsomer and nicer looking.
+And he's just as nice as he looks, too, my dear daddy!"
+
+Bancroft appeared the man of substance and of consequence, confident
+alike in himself and in the regard of the community, as he stood in the
+door of his bank and met the Congressman with friendly greeting. "Glad
+to see you, Baxter! Come in! I want to have a talk with you."
+
+Dellmey Baxter shook hands cordially, pleasure at the meeting fairly
+radiating from his round, sunburned face, even his cold gray eyes
+borrowing warmth from his gratified and shining countenance. One of
+these eyes was set at an angle slightly oblique, its peculiarity made
+more prominent by the loose hanging of the upper lid from the outer
+corner. The expression of cunning thus given to the upper part of his
+face was curiously at variance with his jovial look and manner.
+
+In Bancroft's private office Baxter's first question was if the other
+had yet visited the mine at the base of Mangan's Peak, concerning which
+they had had correspondence.
+
+"Yes; I was there this week. The man who owns it hasn't _sabe_ enough
+about mines to know what a good proposition he's got. He'll sell
+cheap for cash, for he needs the money. I think it's a first-class
+investment, and we'd better snap it up. Shall we make it half and half?"
+
+"I don't know about going in as a partner, Aleck. I'm getting too much
+tied up in all kinds of enterprises, and I don't want to have more on my
+hands than I can attend to. But if it's a good thing I'd like to help
+you get hold of it; I know you'd hustle its development and make all
+there is in it tell for the reputation of New Mexico. I've got too many
+other things on hand to go in as a partner, but if you haven't the
+ready cash to buy it yourself I'll advance you what you need and take
+a mortgage on the property."
+
+In the persuasive tones of Bancroft's reply there was no hint of the
+reluctance and disappointment he inwardly felt at this prospect of
+having to increase his indebtedness to Baxter, concerning which he
+already felt some anxiety.
+
+"That hardly seems fair, Dell. You gave me the hint about the mine,
+and you ought to make more than that out of it. I'm satisfied it's an
+almighty good proposition and can be made to pay for itself and for
+the money needed in initial development inside the first year."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," Baxter responded heartily. "I'm glad to let the
+chance come your way, because you've got more _sabe_ and more hustle
+than any other man I know, and you'll do something worth while with it.
+Think about it, and we'll talk it over again before I go back. I'm down
+here now mainly for politics. You know Silverside County as well as any
+man in it--how do things look?"
+
+"Well, it's always a close county, you know. But you'll probably get the
+delegates to the convention, and I reckon you'll stand as good a chance
+on election day as Johnny Martinez."
+
+The other chuckled. "Well, I rather guess! Why, he's got no money to put
+into the fight!"
+
+"No; but there are the Castletons."
+
+"I heard that their superintendent at Socorro Springs ranch--what's his
+name?--Conrad?--had come out strong in his favor. What do they care
+about it? Neither one of 'em spends two weeks out of the year in the
+Territory."
+
+"Oh, if they really have any interest in it I suppose it's that
+everlasting 'cousin' business of the Mexicans. You know Ned Castleton
+married a first cousin of Johnny's, although she's half American."
+
+Baxter looked thoughtful. "If he's got the Castleton money back of him,"
+he began doubtfully, but broke off with an opposing idea: "I've heard
+that the wives of the two brothers fight each other to the limit on
+every proposition that comes along, and I reckon if Turner's wife found
+out that Ned's wife wanted Martinez boosted into Congress she'd see to
+it that Turner blocked the game if he could."
+
+"If Ned Castleton should back up Martinez with a bagful or two of his
+loose cash it would make mighty hard sledding for us," observed
+Bancroft.
+
+Baxter pursed his lips and whistled softly. "I reckon it would!" he
+said, with an air of taking the other into his innermost counsels. Then
+he broke out warmly: "That was damn good of you, Aleck, to come out for
+me as squarely as you did in the Albuquerque _Leader_ the other day!
+It's a good thing for me, all over the Territory, to have people know
+that Alexander Bancroft is supporting me. They've got confidence in you,
+Aleck. I appreciate it, I tell you, and I won't forget it, either."
+
+Baxter had already served two terms in Congress, and some members of his
+party thought he should be willing to stand aside and give some one else
+the prize. This made him anxious about the outcome of the approaching
+convention, and set him to interrogating the banker regarding the
+intentions of this, that, and the other man of local consequence. At
+last he came back to the subject of the Castletons.
+
+"Do you really think, Aleck, that Ned Castleton's money is behind
+Martinez? If it is, that would explain Conrad's attitude."
+
+Bancroft saw that the Congressman was worried by the possibility of such
+effective opposition. On the instant an idea was projected into his
+mind, born of his own secret anxiety and his knowledge of Baxter's
+reputation. It came so suddenly and so vividly that it took him
+unawares, sending a telltale light into his eyes and across his usually
+impassive countenance. His lids were quickly lowered, but Baxter had
+already seen the revealing flash and was wondering what it might mean.
+The banker hesitated for a moment, his thoughts confused by the force of
+the bolt which had shot into his mind.
+
+"Of course I don't know anything about it," he went on cautiously, the
+other watching him for signs of self-betrayal, "but it looks to me as if
+Conrad might be acting as Ned Castleton's agent, so that Ned won't have
+to be mixed up in it. That would take away the chance of Mrs. Turner's
+trying to make her husband block the game. And Conrad is violently
+opposed to you. He handles you without gloves, and is doing all he can
+against your nomination. He says he'll bolt you if you get it, and that
+if the other side puts up Martinez he'll jump in and fight for him with
+both feet and his spurs on."
+
+The smile faded from Baxter's face, and his left eyelid drooped lower
+than usual--a sign that his mind was busy with some knotty problem. But
+he was not considering the pros and cons of the Castleton money. He was
+wondering why that sudden purpose had flashed in Bancroft's eyes, why he
+had shown that momentary discomposure, and why he was now dwelling so
+much more strongly on the fact of Conrad's opposition. He drew his chair
+nearer and in confidential tones began to inquire about the young
+cattleman: "Has Conrad got much influence?"
+
+"Yes; a good deal. He's a bright, energetic fellow, and he's made lots
+of friends."
+
+"Know anything about him, Aleck?"
+
+"Not much. Ned Castleton ran across him in San Francisco, I believe,
+where he was agent for one of the big cattle ranches in southern
+California. He's been their superintendent at Socorro Springs for two
+years, and he's put the ranch in better shape and made it pay better, in
+spite of the drought, than anybody else they've had since their father
+died."
+
+"But where'd he come from before Castleton got him?"
+
+"I don't know, except in a general way. I guess he's mostly run along
+with the cattle business in Colorado and California and New Mexico."
+
+"You really think his opposition to me down here is important?"
+
+"There's no doubt about it, Dell," Bancroft rejoined, his manner
+becoming more earnest and his tones more persuasive as he went on.
+"Curt Conrad is a fighter from the word 'go,' and he seems to have
+started out with the intention of doing you up. He'll sure do you a
+lot of damage if you can't find some way of making him change his mind.
+He's popular,--the sort that everybody likes, you know,--and he's always
+enthusiastic and cocksure, so that he has a good deal of influence of
+his own, whether or not he's acting for Ned Castleton. And as people
+generally believe he is it amounts to the same thing."
+
+"We must get at him some way," said Baxter earnestly, his cold eyes
+watchful of his companion's manner and expression. "Hasn't he done
+something that would give us a hold on him?"
+
+"No, there's nothing in that lead. I've tried argument, and you might as
+well talk to a cyclone."
+
+"How about money?"
+
+Bancroft shook his head decisively. "That would be the worst mistake you
+could make. He wouldn't touch it and he'd roar about it everywhere. The
+fact is, Dell, we'll have to get rid of his opposition some way. I've
+done everything I can, and now I'll have to put it up to you."
+
+"Well, I'll think it over," said Baxter, rising and looking at his
+watch. "I'll see you again about that mine business, while I'm here, and
+I want to talk with you about a _paisano_ ranch, up above Socorro,
+there's a chance of our getting. I think we'll be able to get our
+development company going in less than a year. When it's organized,
+Aleck, I want you to be president of it."
+
+"I don't know about that," Bancroft replied slowly, an uneasy
+recollection of some of Lucy's freely expressed ideas coming into his
+mind. "I may prefer to stay in the background, as a silent partner, as
+our arrangement is now."
+
+"It would be good for the company to have you at its head; your
+reputation would be an asset," Baxter objected persuasively.
+
+"By the way, Dell, did you foreclose on a man named Melgares, José Maria
+Melgares, a month or two ago?"
+
+"Melgares? Yes; and I was especially easy on him; let him have three
+months' extra time. But I had to come down on him finally. Why?"
+
+"He's here in Golden now, and he's been roaring about it. He came down
+here from the Mogollons, where it's likely he'd been doing some
+horse-stealing. And I guess he's been lifting chickens and things out of
+people's back-yards since he's been here."
+
+"Next thing he'll be getting arrested," Baxter chuckled, "and I'll have
+to defend him--for nothing. These greasers all seem to think I'm a
+heaven-sent protector for 'em all, no matter what they do. So long,
+Aleck; I'll see you again before I leave town."
+
+Baxter lounged down the street, greeting one acquaintance after another
+with a jovial laugh, a hearty handshake, or a slap on the shoulder, his
+round, red face aglow with good fellowship. But his gray eyes were cold
+and preoccupied. At the court-house door he stopped to talk with Dan
+Tillinghurst, the sheriff, and Little Jack Wilder, his deputy.
+
+"Say, Jack," said the sheriff, as the Congressman went on up the street,
+"what sort o' hell do you-all reckon Dell Baxter's cookin' up now? He's
+too jolly not to have somethin' on hand. The louder he laughs the more
+sulphur you can bet he's got in his pockets."
+
+"Be careful, Dan," warned Jack, "or that nomination for sheriff will
+miss fire."
+
+"Don't you worry about that--Dell an' me's all right; you-all just worry
+about the fellow that's made his eyes look like a dead fish's. Dell's
+sure got somethin' on his mind."
+
+There was something on Baxter's mind. He was still wondering why
+Alexander Bancroft had insisted so strongly upon the importance of young
+Conrad's opposition, which the Congressman did not believe was of much
+consequence. He chuckled and his left lid drooped lower as he finally
+decided: "I reckon he wants me to pull some chestnut or other out of the
+fire for him. I'll just let him think I'm taking it all in. I'd like to
+know what it is, though, for if I don't keep a good hold on Aleck he's
+likely to get heady and try to step into my shoes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CHASTISEMENT CONDIGN
+
+
+Dan Tillinghurst and Little Jack Wilder sat under the big cottonwood in
+front of the court-house, commenting upon things in general, and,
+presently, more particularly upon Curtis Conrad and his mare, Brown
+Betty, when they espied him talking with the landlord in front of the
+hotel across the stream. The town of Golden lay in a gulch among the
+foot-hills. It had been a thriving silver camp in the older days.
+Discovered in the heyday of the pale metal, it had yielded so richly
+that the men flocking thither, in sheer, exultant contempt of the value
+of its yellow brother, had named the camp "Golden Gulch." The mines had
+been in the bottom of the gulch, and near them, along the banks of the
+stream, had been built all the houses of the mining days. The earliest
+roads had run along each side of the water, and these were still the
+main streets of the town. Facing one another across the two streets and
+the bed of the creek were all the public buildings and business houses,
+the two hotels, some of the best residences, and many of the poorer
+ones. The Mexican quarter, called "Doby Town" by the Americans,
+straggled along these thoroughfares and up the hillsides just beyond the
+heart of the town. Down their entire length cottonwoods of notable girth
+and majesty spread their branches.
+
+One of the largest and finest of these trees shaded the court-house
+corner where the Sheriff and his deputy were sprawling their legs
+and waiting for something to happen. The Sheriff was burly and
+broad-shouldered, although his legs had not quite been able to keep pace
+with the growing massiveness of his torso. The occasions were rare when
+his blue eyes were not twinkling with good humor, while his mouth
+beneath its absurd little moustache curved in a smile as habitual as his
+cheerful kindliness and universal optimism. Little Jack Wilder, who owed
+his descriptive title to his six feet three of height, was slender and
+lithe. He wasted neither words in talk nor bullets in pistol fights, and
+he had the reputation of being one of the best shots in the Southwest,
+as good even as Emerson Mead, over at Las Plumas in the adjoining
+county.
+
+Curtis Conrad walked across the bridge that spanned the stream, Brown
+Betty at his heels, and met their "Hello, Curt!" with "Hello! Anything
+new?"
+
+"Yes," said Wilder, "anyway, there's likely to be."
+
+"What sort?"
+
+"That's what we'd like to know," said Tillinghurst. "Jack's been
+sashaying around Doby Town for the last two days with his eye on a
+Mexican horse thief, waitin' for him to do something he can be arrested
+for; and the darn' fool won't do a thing! He just sits around
+respectable and behaves himself. Jack's gettin' all out of patience with
+him."
+
+Little Jack growled a corroborative oath, and took a chew of tobacco.
+
+"Well, if you know he's a horse thief, why don't you arrest him?" asked
+Conrad.
+
+"We know it all right," said Jack; "but he ain't lifted no critters yet
+in this county. He's been doin' some chicken-thieving and that sort o'
+thing around town the last week, but we ain't goin' to arrest him for
+that."
+
+Wilder shut his jaws with a determined snap, while Tillinghurst went on
+to explain in answer to Conrad's look of surprise: "If we arrest him
+for that he'd be taken before a justice of the peace; and you-all know
+what kind of a mess Diego Vigil would make of it. He'd likely fine the
+man whose chicken-coop had been raided because he didn't have more stuff
+in his back-yard to be stolen, and he'd discharge José Maria Melgares
+with a warning not to wake people up o' nights by letting the chickens
+squawk!"
+
+The Sheriff's smile broadened and ran down his throat in a chuckle.
+Little Jack Wilder burst explosively into brief and profane speech that
+showed his opinion of Mexicans, and especially of Mexican justices of
+the peace, to be most contemptuous.
+
+"Then why do you give them the office?" Curtis demanded. "Both parties
+do it, all over the Territory, though you all know that every time they
+get a chance they make justice look like a bobtailed horse. Up north
+last week one of 'em fined a man five dollars for committing murder and
+warned him not to do it again or he'd have to make it ten next time. You
+folks all knew what you might expect from Vigil when you gave him the
+place."
+
+"Oh, well, Curt, you-all ain't run for office yet. When you do, you'll
+appreciate the fact that the greasers have got to be put where they'll
+do the most good. I'm willin' to give 'em that much, and I'm only too
+thankful old Vigil and his friends don't strike for the Sheriff's place."
+
+Tillinghurst chuckled, while Wilder smiled grimly and profanely reckoned
+he wouldn't serve under Vigil or any other Mexican. "Mebbe that
+pock-marked Melgares has been up to some mischief by this time," he
+added. "I hain't set eyes on him for nigh two hours. Let's go down to
+the Blue Front, have a drink, and find out if anything's happened."
+
+They went down the street together, Brown Betty following with the
+bridle over her neck. A block farther down stream, a good-looking
+Mexican came out of the First National Bank and passed them. The Sheriff
+turned a second keen glance upon him. "That looks like Liberato
+Herrara," he said to his deputy in a hasty aside. Raising his voice he
+accosted the man in Spanish.
+
+The Mexican turned and replied in precise English with grave courtesy,
+"Did the señor speak to me?"
+
+"Yes; ain't you Liberato Herrara?"
+
+"No, señor. My name is José Gonzalez."
+
+The Sheriff apologized, and the other bowed politely, fell behind, and
+crossed to the other side of the stream. Conrad asked Tillinghurst if he
+did not believe Herrara guilty of the murder of which he had been
+acquitted several months before.
+
+"Of course he was. And it's likely that ain't the only one either. I'm
+glad this man ain't him. If he was down here it would be on some
+business for Baxter, and it wouldn't do for me to find out too much
+about it."
+
+Conrad snorted contemptuously, and Wilder said, "Dan, you're talkin' too
+damn much."
+
+"Oh, Curt's all right," replied the Sheriff, placidly. "He couldn't hate
+Baxter any more than he does if he tried, but he don't go back on his
+friends. This man Melgares," he went on, "that we're hopin' will make up
+his mind to do somethin' worth while, tells a queer yarn. He says he
+used to have a good ranch in the Rio Grande valley, between Socorro and
+Albuquerque, but he borrowed money on it from Baxter. Of course he
+couldn't pay, Dell foreclosed, and Melgares had to get out."
+
+"Yes; I heard the other day about Baxter's operations up there," Conrad
+broke in hotly. "I understand he's got hold of a lot of land in just
+that way. It's a cursed, low-down, dirty piece of business."
+
+"Oh, well, better men than Baxter have done the same sort of thing," the
+Sheriff responded. "From all I can find out about Melgares I reckon he
+was honest enough up to that time; but he's been goin' it pretty lively
+ever since. I think he's aimin' to work down to the border, where he can
+do the crisscross act."
+
+Conrad turned with an exclamation of sudden remembrance. "By the way!
+Bill Williams told me just now that Rutherford Jenkins is here, at his
+hotel. Have you seen him? Do you know what he's here for?"
+
+"I haven't talked with him, but I reckon he's here on some deal for
+Johnny Martinez."
+
+Curtis tied the mare to the hitching-post on the corner. "I've heard,"
+he said cautiously, "that he has a venomous tongue and uses it
+recklessly. Do you know whether he's been doing any outrageous talking
+lately?"
+
+"Well, I reckon nobody would believe anything Jenkins said, anyway. But
+I haven't heard anything. Have you, Jack?"
+
+Some other men came along, and they all stopped to talk together. Curtis
+leaned against the mare and stroked her glossy neck. She poked her nose
+into his coat pocket and found a lump of sugar, which she ate with much
+dainty tossing of her head. It was some minutes before they entered the
+saloon.
+
+The "Blue Front" was a two-roomed shanty on the edge of the Mexican
+quarter. Gambling games of various sorts occupied the back room; and
+there, too, political deals were arranged and votes bargained and paid
+for between the American politicians and the leaders of the Mexicans.
+When Conrad and his friends came down the street a number of men were in
+the rear room, some talking and others busy at cards. At a table near a
+side window men of both races were engaged in a poker game. One of the
+players, a pock-marked Mexican with a defective eye, frequently glanced
+down the street. When he saw the Sheriff and his two companions
+approach, he rose and watched them. The others wanted to know what he
+was looking at, and he asked who was the man with the brown mare. A
+tall, dark American, with slightly stooping shoulders, looked up with
+interest as he heard them give Conrad's name, and joined the group at
+the window. Several of the men spoke with enthusiasm about Brown Betty,
+and one, who said he had once worked at Socorro Springs ranch, told them
+that Conrad thought more of her than of anything else he owned. When the
+men in front entered the saloon, the pock-marked Mexican cashed in his
+chips and slipped out through the rear door.
+
+The sound of Conrad's voice in the bar-room caught the attention of the
+tall, dark American. An angry flush reddened his face, his beady eyes
+snapped, and the tip of his tongue licked his lips. Then something
+amusing seemed to occur to him, for his features relaxed into a smile
+and he glanced briskly around the room.
+
+"See if you can find Melgares, will you?" he asked the Mexican with whom
+he had been talking. "Tell him I'll wait for him outside the back door."
+
+He stepped out into the bright sunshine, smiling and rubbing his hands
+together. Back of the shanty was a high adobe wall surrounding the
+corral of the Mexican houses fronting on the next street. A wooden door
+in the wall opened cautiously, and the pock-marked face looked out.
+
+"You sent for me, Señor Jenkins?" the Mexican asked.
+
+"Yes. It's all right. You needn't be afraid. I want you to do something,
+Melgares."
+
+They stepped inside the corral and Melgares bolted the door. "You saw
+Conrad's mare just now?" Jenkins began. "Fine creature, isn't she?"
+
+"Splendid, señor. The finest I have seen in a long time."
+
+"I'll warrant it! I never saw a better myself. Looks like a good
+traveller, doesn't she?"
+
+"Si, señor."
+
+"And a stayer, too, I guess! It wouldn't be hard to get to the Mexican
+border on her back, would it?"
+
+Melgares grinned, then shook his head. "But my family--I could not take
+them with me."
+
+"Well--see here, Melgares. Here's fifty dollars. If you'll get away with
+Conrad's mare you can have it for your trouble. It will take your family
+down there all right."
+
+"But you, señor,--where do you come in?" He looked suspiciously at
+Jenkins.
+
+"Oh, never mind me. Conrad did me a bad turn a while ago, and I'm
+evening up the score. That's all I want out of it."
+
+"But now, señor?"
+
+"Yes; now's your chance. He's in the saloon, and the mare's tied at the
+corner."
+
+"The Sheriff is in there, too. The risk is great."
+
+"Well, I'll go in and keep them busy. I'll raise excitement enough
+inside so that nobody will even look out of the windows. Get out there
+in five minutes, be quick about it, and ride off down the valley road."
+
+"Give me the money, señor. I'll take the chance."
+
+Jenkins returned, and entered the bar-room with his former companion
+without attracting the attention of Conrad and his friends. The other
+spoke of the report about the Castleton money and mentioned Curtis
+Conrad's name. Jenkins raised his voice in angry reply:
+
+"Oh, damn Conrad! Martinez don't want his help!"
+
+Curtis heard the words and turned sharply around, his face flushing.
+Jenkins appeared not to see him, and went on:
+
+"The Castletons are all right, but Conrad's help would be a disgrace to
+any party. Martinez don't want it!" His voice rang loud and shrill
+above the silence that had fallen suddenly upon the room.
+
+Curtis's face paled, even under its ruddy tan, and his eyes blazed. With
+head up he strode forward. "Jenkins," he said, without raising his
+voice, although it shook with a warning tremor, "I advise you to be
+careful. You may have your opinion about me, as I have mine about
+you--and you know what that is. But don't you say that again, nor
+anything else of the sort!"
+
+Jenkins turned toward him with an ugly sneer. Recollection of former
+indignities at Conrad's tongue and hands blazed up in his heart and
+carried him farther than he had meant to go. With an oath and a vile
+name he flung his glass in Conrad's face. In an instant the young man's
+arms were around his body. The others crowded in and tried to stop the
+quarrel.
+
+"Let us alone!" shouted Curtis, pushing his way toward the back room.
+"Wilder, take his gun, will you? Get mine out of my pocket, too. This
+won't be a gun play."
+
+Tillinghurst took Conrad's pistol, and Wilder succeeded in getting
+Jenkins's revolver, at the cost of a kick on the shin, which he repaid
+in kind. With Jenkins almost helpless in his grasp, Curtis struggled
+into the rear room. The others were all crowding after him. He turned
+back a face still pale and set with anger, although a twinkle of
+amusement was creeping into his eyes.
+
+"Dan," he called, "shut that door and keep out the crowd!"
+
+Instantly there were cries of disapproval.
+
+"Fair play!" "You're bigger than him!" "We want to see it's on the
+square!"
+
+Curtis scowled. "If any of you think it won't be on the square, just
+wait for me till I get through with him," he shouted.
+
+The Sheriff slammed the door, and set his bulk against it, saying with
+smiling cheerfulness: "Well, gentlemen, I reckon Mr. Jenkins won't get
+any more than is comin' to him, and as Sheriff I call on all of you to
+keep the peace and not interfere."
+
+Alone in the back room with his prisoner, Conrad dropped into a chair,
+dragged the other over his knees, face downward, then threw out one
+sinewy leg and caught under it Jenkins's two unruly limbs. Still keeping
+a firm grip with his left arm, he raised his right hand.
+
+"Now," he said grimly, "you're going to get the sort of spanking your
+mother didn't give you enough of."
+
+One after another the resounding smacks came down, while Jenkins, his
+strength spent in futile struggle, could do nothing but writhe
+helplessly under the smarting blows. The sound of them penetrated to the
+front room. As the men there realized what was happening they broke into
+laughter so uproarious that it smote upon Jenkins's ears and forced a
+hysterical shriek from between his gritted teeth. In Conrad's heart it
+inspired compassion and he desisted.
+
+"I guess that'll do for this time," he said, releasing his hold and
+standing the culprit on his feet. "I don't want to have to hurt you, but
+let me tell you, you damned skunk," and he seized Jenkins's shoulders
+and gave him a vigorous shake, "if you ever dare talk about me again in
+that way, or tell another human being what you told me about Bancroft,
+I'll make you wish you'd never been born."
+
+With a parting shake he let Jenkins fall back into the chair, sobbing
+aloud. Then he stalked to the door, not even doing his enemy the slight
+honor of going out backward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A STERN CHASE
+
+
+As the shout which greeted Conrad's entrance died away the Sheriff
+called out, "Now, gentlemen, you must all have one with me," and every
+one lined up at the bar. A rollicking din of chaff and laughter filled
+the room, and no one except Little Jack Wilder noticed the entrance of a
+Mexican at the street door. He heard the step, turned quickly, and
+recognized the man who had told Tillinghurst that he was not Liberato
+Herrara. Glancing along the line of backs at the bar, the Mexican
+singled out Conrad and touched his arm.
+
+"I beg your pardon, señor, but did you send some one to ride your mare?"
+
+"To ride my mare? No; what do you mean?"
+
+Before he could answer Wilder sprang forward demanding, "Is she gone?"
+and Conrad started for the door.
+
+"A man has just ridden her away on the run," the Mexican said
+excitedly, and every one in the room rushed for the street.
+
+"She's gone!" shouted Conrad.
+
+"Did you see him? What was he like?" demanded the Sheriff.
+
+"A pock-marked greaser with a bad eye?" yelled Wilder, towering
+threateningly above the bearer of the news.
+
+Gonzalez threw back his head, folded his arms across his breast, and
+answered deliberately, "He was a Mexican, señor, he was pock-marked, and
+he was blind in one eye."
+
+"Melgares! He's done it at last! Hooray!" shouted Wilder.
+
+Far down the street, beyond the last cottonwood, against the gray,
+sun-flooded road, they could see a dark object, distorted by the heat
+haze, but still showing the form of a man on a galloping horse.
+
+Tillinghurst's smile became an eager grin as he started up the street on
+a run. "Everybody come that wants to," he called over his shoulder.
+Wilder and Conrad were already half a block ahead of him, and several
+others quickly followed.
+
+When they presently came pelting back, their horses at top speed, a
+crowd of men still stood on the sidewalk, where the Blue Front made a
+splash of brilliant color against the sombre grays and browns of the
+surrounding adobes. Wilder's tall, thin figure was in the lead, bending
+forward in the saddle like a sapling in a gale, the wide, limp brim of
+his sombrero flapping in the wind. Conrad and Tillinghurst were pressing
+him close, and half a dozen others were pounding along behind these
+three, while a stout man, who rode awkwardly, trailed along in the rear.
+
+The crowd at the Blue Front shouted encouragingly as they clattered
+past, and made bets on the chances of catching the fugitive. The
+Mexican, Gonzalez, watched Conrad closely as he sped by, and said
+carelessly to the man beside him, "Señor Conrad is a good rider, the
+best of them all. I hope he will get back his fine mare."
+
+The horsemen swept down the street past the last straggling houses, and
+out into the open plain. Fleeing down the road, perhaps two miles ahead
+of them, galloped the Mexican. Tillinghurst measured the distance with a
+careful eye, and said to Conrad, "He's our meat. We can get him easy."
+He glanced backward, chuckled, then turned in his saddle, and called
+loudly, "Come along there, Pendy! Don't get discouraged!"
+
+Another of the party turned his head and yelled, "You're all right,
+Pendy! You'll get there before Dan does!"
+
+The stout man who brought up the rear had made sure of his gray slouch
+hat by tying it on with a red bandanna handkerchief. He was gripping his
+bridle with both hands and bouncing in his saddle like a bag of meal.
+"Don't you worry about me!" he yelled back good-naturedly; "you can't
+lose me if you try."
+
+"Who is he?" asked Curtis.
+
+"Pendy? Oh, he's a tenderfoot. Blew in from the East two or three weeks
+ago. Somethin' wrong with his bellows--or likely to be, though you-all
+wouldn't think it, considerin' his fat. He's grit clear through, though!
+Just look at the way he rides!"
+
+Conrad glanced back, laughed, and replied, "Oh, it'll be good for his
+liver!" Then he went on seriously, "Dan, do you think there's any truth
+in the story that this man Melgares began horse-stealing because Dell
+Baxter did him out of his ranch?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know! Baxter got his ranch all right, but the greaser
+didn't have to go to stealin' horses on that account. Chickens are
+safer; and _chilis_ don't even squawk. I reckon likely he steals horses
+because he'd ruther."
+
+"Well, anyway, Dan, all I want out of this is to get Brown Betty back. I
+shall not make any complaint against him. So, if he gives up the mare,
+I'd rather you let him go."
+
+"Huh," grunted the Sheriff, with an apprehensive glance at Wilder, a
+full length ahead. "For God's sake, Curt, don't let Jack hear you say
+that! He'd be so disgusted he'd turn tail and go straight back to
+Golden!"
+
+The fugitive kept his distance well; it seemed to Conrad's eye that he
+even gained a little. Now and again they could see him look back, and
+with spur and quirt urge the mare to a fresh burst of speed.
+
+"Brown Betty's a stayer," said Curtis, bringing his horse beside
+Tillinghurst's again, "and she's fast. I don't believe we'll catch him
+unless something happens to her."
+
+The Sheriff turned a smiling face and said confidently, "If we get a
+little nearer I reckon somethin''s likely to happen to _him_. Hello,
+Pendleton!" he exclaimed as the stout man came up on the other side.
+"That noble steed of yours is sure gettin' a gait on him, ain't he? If
+you-all don't wait for the rest of us there'll be trouble, I'm tellin'
+you!"
+
+"Say, Sheriff," called Pendleton between his gasps and grunts as he
+bounced up and down, "are you going to keep up this pace all day?"
+
+Tillinghurst eyed him benignly. "As long as he does," he said, nodding
+toward the fleeing spot of black down the road. "Say, Pendy," he went on
+in a kindly tone, "it's a pretty stiff gait for you-all, and unless
+you're anxious to take your meals standin' for the next month you'd
+better drop out and go back. It's likely to be an all-day job."
+
+"Not much! You can't lose me till the fun's over!"
+
+"Hooray for Pendy! He's all right!" yelled a man behind, giving
+Pendleton's horse a sharp cut across the flank with his whip. The beast
+jumped, and its rider lurched to one side, fell forward, and saved
+himself by grabbing the mane with both hands. The men shouted with
+merriment as Pendleton righted himself, turned a laughing face and shook
+his fist at the man who had played the joke on him. "Just wait till I
+get you where I want you, Jack Gaines," he called, "and you'll be sorry
+you ever played tricks on a tenderfoot."
+
+The gulch spread out into a wide, shallow valley--a draw, they called
+it--and the waters of the stream disappeared, sucked up by the thirsty
+earth. The valley curved to the east, the road climbing over its rim and
+holding straight toward the south. The figure of Melgares, mounted on
+Brown Betty as on a pedestal, stood out boldly for a moment against the
+turquoise sky as he crossed the summit, then sank out of sight beyond
+the hill. The party galloped on, and as they crossed the ridge and saw
+him on the top of a smaller hill beyond, Conrad's eye swept the distance
+lying between and he exclaimed, "We've gained on him!"
+
+At the same moment Little Jack Wilder, who had been watching the road
+intently, shouted joyously, the first words he had spoken since leaving
+the town, "She's cast a shoe! Now it's a cinch!"
+
+Tillinghurst turned his head and shouted, "Get your gun ready, Pendy!
+your chance is comin'."
+
+Jack Gaines, riding neck and neck with the Sheriff, looked back and
+yelled, "Come a-runnin', Pendy! The greaser can't wait for you all
+day!"
+
+They were gaining rapidly on Melgares and, as they swept over the top of
+a little hill and saw him cross the next low rise, Conrad exclaimed,
+"She's limping, damn him! If he hurts Brown Betty--"
+
+"You won't mind so much if we hurt him," quietly put in the Sheriff, who
+was riding on his lee. Curtis spurred his horse to Wilder's stirrup.
+
+"Jack," he said, "I don't want the fellow hurt. If he'll give up my mare
+I'm willing to let him go."
+
+Little Jack grunted contemptuously without replying.
+
+"I want you to understand," Conrad went on, "that if you take him I
+shall make no complaint against him, provided I get Betty unhurt."
+
+"You don't have to make no complaint," Jack growled; "I'll do that
+myself."
+
+They gained steadily on the fugitive, and presently Curtis curved his
+hands about his mouth and called, "Betty! Betty B!" They could see the
+mare check her speed, and the faint sound of her whinny reached their
+ears. Conrad called again; and the mare wheeled in her tracks. The
+Mexican jerked her back, lashed her furiously, and set her forward again
+at a gallop. Curtis called again and again, and every time they could
+see Melgares using whip and spur to force her on. But presently the mare
+dropped tail and head, arched her back, and, stiff-legged, began to jump
+up and down.
+
+Conrad laughed joyously and slapped his thigh. "Bully for Betty B! I
+never knew her to buck before."
+
+They urged on their horses and pounded down the hill toward the small
+circus Brown Betty was making of herself. She cavorted, shook herself,
+humped her back, jumped up and down, stood on her front feet and almost
+sat on her tail, and did everything that equine intelligence could
+devise to rid herself of the masterful hand on her bridle. But the
+Mexican kept his seat and his grip upon the rein. With spur and quirt
+and compelling voice he finally forced her into submission. As she
+quieted down they were facing the pursuing posse and Melgares had just
+turned the mare's head in another desperate attempt at escape when
+Conrad's voice rang out once more, and Brown Betty refused to move. She
+tossed her head, laid back her ears, and whinnied, but would not lift a
+hoof. The Mexican drew his revolver and shouted, "Stop!"
+
+The horsemen, not more than a hundred yards distant, drew rein at the
+word--all except Pendleton, who came pounding and bouncing to the front,
+his horse still on the gallop. Gaines, just behind Tillinghurst and
+Wilder, called out laughingly, "Hooray for Pendy! Go on and get him,
+Pendy!"
+
+Pendleton had been too much occupied with keeping his seat to try to
+stop his horse, and as it went on half a length in advance of the rest
+Gaines leaned forward and gave it a cut across the flank with his quirt.
+It leaped forward smartly and Pendleton, taken unawares again, bobbed
+down on its neck and grabbed for its mane. Melgares saw the horse start
+forward and instantly his revolver flashed. The bullet left a singed
+streak across the back of Pendleton's coat, whistled on, and found
+refuge in Gaines's side.
+
+Wilder's gun was out and cocked. He saw Pendleton lying on his horse's
+neck, and heard Gaines cry out, "I'm hit!" as he fell forward across his
+pommel. "Stop that!" he called. "Fire again and you're a dead man!"
+
+Melgares leaped from the mare's back and ran at full speed down the
+valley, away from the road. Brown Betty came trotting to Conrad's side,
+whinnying joyfully. Pendleton sat upright, calling out, "Say, fellows,
+is there any blood on my back?" They told him no and as he climbed down
+from his saddle clumsily he grinned and said:
+
+"Well, I can still die of consumption, then!"
+
+Tillinghurst, Wilder, and several of the others were galloping after
+Melgares, who was running for his life down the valley toward a clump of
+cactus and juniper.
+
+"Wing him, Jack!" called the Sheriff. "There's a crack in the ground
+down there where he can hide and pick us off as he pleases."
+
+Little Jack brought his horse to a sudden stop, aimed low, and the
+Mexican reeled and fell, the blood gushing from a wound in the calf of
+his leg. He scrambled to his feet, and fired his second shot. The bullet
+nicked the brim of the Sheriff's hat. There was another flash, and
+Wilder heard the bullet sing past his ear.
+
+"Stop it, you damned greaser!" he yelled, "or I'll let daylight through
+your head." In quick succession he put two holes through the Mexican's
+sombrero. "The next one is for your other eye!" he called, and Melgares
+dropped his weapon.
+
+Wilder leaped to the ground and ran toward him. He glanced at the group
+of horsemen, each with revolver drawn, and at Wilder coming with his gun
+at cock, then threw back his head with his own pistol at his temple.
+Little Jack grabbed his arm, but Melgares fought desperately. The others
+came running to Wilder's assistance, and it was not until they had taken
+his revolver, put handcuffs upon him, and taken from his clothing
+another pistol, a knife, and a belt full of cartridges, that he gave up
+his struggles.
+
+They put him on the horse that Conrad had ridden, with his feet tied
+under its belly. Tillinghurst and Wilder, revolvers in hand, rode on
+either side of him. Conrad, mounted on his own mare, and another were
+side by side with Jack Gaines laid across their laps. Two more went on
+at a gallop to bring out a doctor and a carriage for the wounded man.
+The rest rode slowly back through the hot sunlight and the high wind,
+guarding their captive and carrying his victim.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TALK OF MANY THINGS
+
+
+Golden prided itself upon being "the most American town in the
+Territory," but for all its energy and progressiveness it had not
+developed an ordinary regard for its own safety. After the mines which
+had given it birth had been worked out, it became the depot of supplies
+for the widespread miles of cattle country in the plains below, the
+mining regions in the mountains above, and the ranches scattered along
+the streams within a radius of fifty miles. As its importance increased
+a railway sought it out, the honor of being the county seat came
+to it, and the ruthless Anglo-Saxon arrived in such numbers and so
+energetically that its few contented and improvident Mexicans, thrust to
+one side, sank into hopeless nonentity. When Lucy Bancroft first set
+upon it the pleased eyes of youthful interest and filial affection, it
+was a busy, prosperous place of several thousand souls.
+
+But it still clung to the gulch wherein had been the beginning of its
+life and fortune. All the houses of its infancy had been built along the
+stream that sparkled down from the mountains, and there the town had
+tried to stay, regardless of the floods that occasionally swept down the
+canyon during the Summer rains. At first its growth had been up and down
+the creek; afterward cross streets had been extended far out on either
+side, especially where gradual hill slopes gave easy grades, and roads
+had also been made lengthwise along the hillsides and even on their
+crests, where now a goodly number of homes looked out over the plains
+and down upon the town-filled valley at their feet.
+
+Newcomers gazed curiously at the high sidewalks, raised on posts
+above the level of the thoroughfares, asking why, if there was such
+possibility of flood, the people continued to live and do business along
+the bottom of the gulch. The residents thought the walled sidewalks
+rather a good joke, a humorous distinction, and laughed at the idea of
+danger.
+
+Lucy Bancroft's eyes grew wide and solemn as she listened to the tale
+Dan Tillinghurst told her of the first year he was in Golden, years
+before, when a mighty torrent roared down the gulch, carried away most
+of the houses, and drowned a dozen souls. "But the very next day," he
+added proudly, "the people began rebuildin' their houses on the
+identical sites from which they had been swept."
+
+"Why didn't they rebuild on higher ground?" Lucy asked. "And aren't you
+afraid there will be another flood that will destroy all these houses
+and perhaps kill a great many people?"
+
+"Oh, there's no danger now," he assured her confidently. "The climate's
+changin'. There's not nearly so much rain as there used to be. The creek
+is dry half the time nowadays, and in my first years here it never went
+dry at all. Just look at these flood-marks," and he pointed out to her
+on the side of the brick building that housed her father's bank the
+lines to which had risen the high waters of each Summer. She saw that
+those of recent years were all very low. "Yes," he assured her, "the
+climate's changin', there's no doubt of that. There won't be any more
+floods."
+
+Between Lucy and the Sheriff a mutual admiration and good-fellowship had
+arisen, such as might exist between an elephant and a robin. The day
+after her arrival Tillinghurst had told Bancroft that his daughter was
+"the prettiest piece of dry goods that had ever come to Golden, and if
+he ever let her pull her freight he'd sure deserve nothin' less than
+tarrin' and featherin' at the hands of an outraged community."
+
+Notwithstanding her confidence in the big Sheriff, Lucy did not like
+the idea of living in the gulch, and persuaded her father to build
+their home on the brow of the _mesa_ overlooking the town from the west.
+She had no definite fear of the floods nor, after her first few weeks in
+the place, did she so much as think of danger from such a source. She
+liked the site on the _mesa_, although it was new and raw and treeless,
+because it commanded a far-reaching view, to the mountains on the west
+and north and, in front, across the town and the valley to the wide gray
+level of the plains.
+
+She sat on the veranda of her new home with Miss Louise Dent, telling
+her friend what pleasure she was taking in its arrangement and
+direction. "At first daddy didn't want me to do it. He thought it would
+be too much care and responsibility for me, and that we'd better board.
+But I said if a girl eighteen years old wasn't old enough and big
+enough to begin to take care of her father she never would be, and so he
+gave up. And now! Well, you'll see how he enjoys our home! He just beams
+with happiness every time he comes into the house. And I'm perfectly
+happy. Daddy is so good, and it's such a pleasure to make things nice
+and comfortable for him!"
+
+"I'm so glad," Miss Dent replied, "that you are happy here with him. He
+has had so many years of lonely wandering. And I know that he has long
+been looking forward to the time when you and he could have a home
+together. Your father hasn't had an easy life, dear. You could never
+guess all that he has been through. But he is a strong and determined
+man, and he's finally won success--just as I always knew he would.
+That's what I admire in him so much--that he never would give up." She
+stopped, a faint flush mounting to her brow. Lucy threw both arms around
+her neck and kissed her.
+
+"Of course, Dearie," she exclaimed, "you must appreciate my father, for
+you've known him so long; but it makes me love you all the more to hear
+you say so--and oh, Dearie, I'm going to make such a beautiful home out
+of this place!" Lucy looked about, her girlish face glowing with proud
+and pleased proprietorship. "I know how new and barren it looks now, but
+just wait till I've been at work at it for a year!"
+
+She went on to speak of her plans, asking Miss Dent's advice. In the
+back-yard the gaunt wings of a big windmill gave a touch of ultra modern
+picturesqueness and promised the fulfilment of the girl's hope of a lawn
+and flowers, trees and shrubbery, in the near future. A little
+conservatory jutted from the southern side of the house, while a deep
+veranda ran halfway across the eastern front and around the other two
+sides. The neutral, gray-green color of the structure melted into the
+hue of the hills and the surrounding _mesa_, leaving its barren newness
+less aggressive.
+
+As they talked Lucy now and then cast a lingering glance down the street
+that climbed the hill from the town below, and Miss Dent thought that
+sometimes a shade of disappointment dimmed the bright face for an
+instant. She was twenty years Lucy's senior, although both looks and
+manner gave the lie to the fact. The loving friendship between them was
+one of those unusual ties between a younger and an older woman which,
+when they do occur, are apt to be marked by an overflowing measure of
+enthusiasm and loyalty. Louise Dent had been the intimate friend of
+Lucy's mother and, after her death, had given the bereaved girl such
+love and care and sympathy as had won her instant and ardent devotion,
+and the relationship thus established had grown stronger and closer
+as the years passed and Lucy matured into womanhood. The girl's
+enthusiastic affection had enabled her to find in Louise Dent intimate
+friend, elder sister, and mother combined. This complicated feeling
+making it impossible for her to address the elder woman by either formal
+title or first name, she had soon settled upon "Dearie" as a substantive
+term expressing their relationship, and "Dearie" Miss Dent had been to
+her ever since, whether between themselves or among her own intimate
+friends.
+
+As the shadows grew longer and the hot white sunlight became less vivid,
+Lucy seemed to grow restless. She rose and moved about the veranda, or
+ran down into the yard and back upon some trivial errand, each time
+stopping on the steps to send an inquiring eye down the street.
+Standing there, when the afternoon was far spent and the fierce westerly
+wind had ebbed into a gentle breeze, she pointed out to Louise the
+statuesque sapphire mass of Mangan's Peak against the turquoise blue of
+the eastern sky, and told her of the drive thither and back she and her
+father had taken a fortnight before, and of their call at Socorro
+Springs ranch. "It's an interesting place," she went on; "such a huge
+ranch! Why, its grazing rights extend more than a hundred miles south,
+away across the Mexican border. Father knows the superintendent very
+well, and we'll get him to drive us out there some day." A higher color
+rose in her cheeks; she quickly turned away, drew her chair well back,
+and sat down. "There's Mr. Conrad, the superintendent, coming up the
+hill now!" she exclaimed. "Daddy told me at luncheon that he was in
+town."
+
+Lucy bore her new role of hostess with a dignity so easy and gracious
+that it surprised Louise, and made Conrad think her more attractive than
+ever. Bancroft came a little later, and Curtis was urged to stay to
+dinner. Lucy showed him in her conservatory the collection of cactus
+plants she had begun to make and listened with eager interest while he
+gave her information about the growth of the species she already had,
+and told her where she could find others less common. She was anxious to
+have his opinion whether it would be possible to make a hedge of
+mesquite to replace the wooden paling around the yard; he did not know,
+but offered to help her try the experiment.
+
+They dined on the side veranda, where Lucy, with the help of a screen or
+two and some plants from her green-house, had contrived an out-of-doors
+dining-room. The high spirits of the two younger people dominated the
+conversation, as they jested and bantered, laughed, and crossed wits in
+little wordy sword-plays that called forth applause and encouragement
+from the others. Lucy sparkled and dimpled, and her color rose, while
+Curtis's eyes darkened and flashed. Miss Dent, watching them, realized
+what an attractive young woman Lucy had grown to be, and how much she
+had blossomed out even in the few months since their last parting. "She
+will have plenty of admirers," the older woman thought, with a little
+twinge at her heart. Still, she was very young, and it would be a long
+time yet before she would think of marriage. But--if she were to marry
+and leave her father--he would be very lonely--perhaps--and then she
+felt her cheeks grow warmer, and hastened to resume her part in the
+conversation.
+
+Louise was pleased with Conrad's face. It seemed full of character, with
+its broad brow, tanned cheeks, large nose, and well-set chin. She noted
+especially the strong, firm jaw and chin, saying to herself that they
+betokened a strength of will and constancy of purpose that foretold
+success in whatever he might undertake. He was amusing them with an
+account of the feud between the wives of the Castleton brothers.
+
+"But don't the men take up the quarrels of their wives," Louise asked,
+"or allow any feeling to come between them?"
+
+"Not in the least; nor does there seem to be any ill-feeling between the
+ladies. They are always good friends, and the men look upon the whole
+thing as a good joke. If Mrs. Turner, for instance, cooks up some new
+scheme for getting the better of Mrs. Ned, she tells her husband about
+it, he tells Ned, and they laugh over it and make bets about which will
+win."
+
+Lucy was interested in the Castleton ladies. Conrad said that Mrs.
+Turner Castleton was considered a great beauty, but that he liked Mrs.
+Ned, who was half Mexican, much the better and thought her the more
+interesting and charming. She asked if they ever visited the ranch.
+"Yes," said Curtis; "Ned and his wife come up for a few days every
+Spring. This year they'll be there after the round-up is over and the
+cattle shipped. Would you like to meet them? All right, we'll arrange
+it. While they are there I'll get up a barbecue and a _baile_, and ask
+some people. You and Miss Dent and your father must all come."
+
+The American in the Southwest, arrogant and contemptuous as the
+Anglo-Saxon always is when brought face to face with a difference in
+race, a difference in ideals, or a difference in speech, regards the
+Spanish language with frank disdain and ordinarily refuses to learn it.
+But where the Mexicans are present in large numbers, as in New Mexico,
+he adopts from the other's language a good many words which soon
+supplant their English equivalents. An evening party of any sort,
+whether a public dance in the town hall, a select affair in the house of
+a prominent resident, or a gathering in the Mexican quarter, is always
+a "_baile_," a thriftless, insignificant person of either race a
+"_paisano_," while upon "_coyote_" the American has seized with ready
+tongue, applying it to any creature, human or other, for which he wishes
+to express supreme contempt.
+
+Miss Dent had to have _baile_ explained to her, and their talk drifted
+to the subject of the Mexican people. Bancroft told her the story of the
+bold theft of Conrad's mare, the chase and capture of Melgares, and the
+wounding of Gaines. "It is thought that poor Jack cannot live," he said
+in conclusion, "and the Mexican is held in jail to await the result. If
+he dies the fellow will be tried for murder."
+
+"I've heard a queer story about Melgares," said Conrad, and went on to
+tell how the Mexican had lost his little ranch. Lucy listened
+attentively, with indignant eyes fixed on Curtis's face.
+
+"How shameful!" she broke out. "What a detestable way of getting money!
+The poor Mexicans! Just think of their being turned out of their homes
+in that way, with nothing to fall back on! I don't wonder poor Melgares
+became a thief--but he ought to have gone to Santa Fe and stolen Mr.
+Baxter's horses!"
+
+Bancroft's eyes were fixed on his plate. Had the others been watching
+him closely they would have seen no more than a flicker of his eyelids
+as his face took on a stony impassiveness. But they were looking at Lucy
+who, with head erect, face flushed, and eyes sparkling, made a pretty
+picture.
+
+"I'm glad you feel that way, Miss Bancroft," Curtis exclaimed, his face
+alight with approval and admiration. "I think myself it's about as
+despicable a way of getting money legally as man ever devised. Baxter
+knows when he loans the money that the poor wretches will never be able
+to pay back a cent of it. He wouldn't loan it to them if he thought they
+could, for it's their land he's after. I've heard that he's getting
+control in this way of a big tract in the Rio Grande valley and that he
+intends to form a company, advertise it through the East, and sell the
+land, which is really valuable, at big prices."
+
+"Well, I think it's a shameful piece of business, and I'm surprised that
+Mr. Baxter is engaged in it!" said Lucy with decision.
+
+"Before you condemn him so severely, daughter," interposed Bancroft, his
+eyes still lowered, "you should remember that the business of the loan
+mortgage companies has the full sanction of law and custom, and that
+many of the most reputable business men of the United States have
+engaged in it."
+
+"I can't help it, daddy, if all the Congressmen and lawyers and business
+men, and preachers too, in the United States are engaged in it--that
+doesn't make it right. Somehow it seems a different matter with these
+poor Mexicans, they are so helpless. Why, it's almost like stealing
+their homes. I'm sorry, daddy, to speak so about Mr. Baxter, but that's
+really the way I feel about it; I suppose he doesn't realize what an
+injury he's doing them. Oh, daddy," and she leaned forward eagerly, her
+face flushing, "you and he are such good friends, maybe you could tell
+him what harm he's doing and persuade him to give up that part of his
+business!"
+
+Conrad smiled grimly. "It's plain, Miss Bancroft," he said, without
+waiting for her father to reply, "that you are not intimately acquainted
+with Dell Baxter. I'm sorry about this Melgares business, for I can't
+help feeling a sort of responsibility. If the fellow is hung his family
+will be left destitute. Yes, he has a wife and four children," he
+continued in answer to Miss Dent. "I had a talk with him about the
+affair, and he asked me to send for his family for him. He had money
+with which to pay their fares, though where he got it probably wouldn't
+bear too close an inquiry."
+
+Lucy was looking at him eagerly, her face full of sympathy. "The poor
+things!" she exclaimed. "When they come you must let me know, Mr.
+Conrad."
+
+Bancroft abruptly changed the subject, and presently the talk drifted to
+a story that had just come out about the postmaster at Randall. "It's a
+characteristic New Mexican tale," said Curtis, turning to the ladies.
+"You'll soon find out, Miss Bancroft, if you don't know it already, that
+the cowboy song of 'What was your name in the States?' can often be
+applied in earnest."
+
+"Confound the fellow," thought Bancroft irritably, "why is he always
+harping on that subject!"
+
+"This is a particularly audacious case, though--don't you think so,
+Aleck?" Curtis went on. "Here this man has been living for several years
+in Randall, a respected citizen, holding office, with influence in the
+community, when, behold, it is discovered that just before coming here
+he had skipped from some town in Missouri, where he was postmaster, with
+all the money in his office and another man's wife. But his sin has
+finally found him out."
+
+"It always does," observed Lucy coolly.
+
+Louise Dent was conscious of a fluttering in her throat and realized
+that her heart was beating loudly. The moment's pause that followed
+seemed to her so long that she rushed into speech, without thought of
+what she said: "I'm afraid it does."
+
+"Why do you say 'afraid,' Dearie?" asked Lucy, with surprise. "Isn't it
+right that it should?"
+
+Louise made brief and noncommittal reply and Bancroft hurriedly asked
+Curtis how the round-up was getting on.
+
+"Well, we've got the thing started, and are ready to move the cattle on
+the north part of the range toward Pelham. We'll begin shipping within
+two or three weeks. But something seems to have struck the cowboy market
+this year; I've been short of hands all the Spring."
+
+"Perhaps I can give you some help," said Bancroft. "A Mexican from up
+North has been to me looking for work. He came the day you had the
+chase after Melgares and was in again to-day. He has worked for Baxter,
+and Dell says he is an expert cowboy and sure to give satisfaction."
+
+"He must be an unusual sort of greaser if he's looking for work,"
+laughed Conrad. "If he's that sort, I guess he'll strike my gait."
+
+They found the Mexican sitting on the steps of the front veranda when
+they finished dinner.
+
+"Why," exclaimed Curtis with hearty interest, "he's the same chap that
+told me my mare was stolen. I hope you can ride and throw a rope; I'm
+obliged to you already, and I'd like to do you a good turn. I'll meet
+you down town presently, and if you know anything about the business
+I'll take you behind me on my mare to the ranch to-night, and you can go
+to work in the morning."
+
+The moon had just risen, and its huge white disk seemed to be resting on
+the plain only a little way beyond the town. Its brilliant silvery light
+was already working weird transformations in the landscape.
+
+"Oh, are you going to ride home to-night, through this wonderful
+moonlight!" Lucy exclaimed. "How I envy you!"
+
+"Yes," he answered, lowering his voice and speaking in a tone different
+from any she had before heard from his lips; "and it is indeed a
+wonderful ride! I don't know anything more impressive than the landscape
+of this country under a marvellous moon, like that over there. I hope we
+can have a ride by moonlight together, some time, when the moon is full.
+Does Miss Dent ride?" His voice went back to its usual tone. "I know
+your father is a fine rider. Perhaps we can make up a party some night,
+when I don't have to hurry home. I expect my brother here this Summer,
+to spend his vacation with me. You and Miss Dent will like him, I'm
+sure, for he's a fine lad. I hope we can all have some pleasant
+excursions together."
+
+At the sound of his softened voice Lucy felt herself swept by sudden
+emotion, and hastily put her hands behind her lest he should see that
+they were trembling. And later that night, when she looked out from her
+window at the white moon floating in the violet sky, suddenly her nerves
+went a-quiver again and her eyes sought the far, dim plain as she softly
+whispered, "Under a marvellous moon, like that over there!"
+
+The Mexican asked Bancroft how to reach the place where Conrad was to
+meet him, and the banker walked to the gate and pointed out the streets
+he was to follow. As he finished Gonzalez bent a keen gaze upon him and
+asked, significantly, "Has the señor further instructions for me?"
+
+Bancroft's start and the shade of annoyance that crossed his face as he
+realized that it had been noticed were not lost upon the man, whose
+searching look was still on him. His equanimity had been well tried
+already that evening, and this sudden touch upon a half-formed and most
+secret desire startled him for an instant out of his usual self-control.
+Heretofore he had merely dallied with the thought that Conrad's removal
+would mean his own safety, for the rest of his life. It had appeared to
+him merely as something the consequences of which would be desirable.
+His hand could not be concerned in it, he wished to know nothing about
+it--but if Baxter thought best--to further his own ends--why had the
+Mexican come to him with this impudent question?
+
+"I'm not hiring you," was his curt answer.
+
+"Certainly not, señor," the man answered calmly, his head erect, his
+arms folded, and one foot advanced. The trio on the veranda noted and
+laughed over his attitude. Lucy said he looked like a hero of melodrama
+taking the limelight. Miss Dent added that he was handsome enough for a
+matinee idol, and Conrad declared that there was no telling how many
+señoritas' hearts he had already broken. Bancroft turned to go back to
+the house, but paused an instant, and the Mexican quickly went on in a
+softly insinuating voice: "But if the señor should wish to say anything
+particular? Don Dellmey thought it might be possible."
+
+Bancroft lingered, flicking the ashes from his cigar. "I--I know nothing
+about it," he blurted out, uncertainly. "If Don Dellmey had anything to
+say to you I suppose he said it."
+
+As he turned away he heard the man say gently, "Thank you, Señor
+Bancroft. I shall not forget our talk." There was no reply, and the
+Mexican, whistling a Spanish love tune, disappeared down the hill in the
+weird mixed lights of the fading day and the brilliant moon.
+
+Alone on the veranda, Alexander Bancroft walked restlessly to and fro,
+stopping now and again as if to listen to the music from within, which
+he did not hear, or to look at the moonlit landscape, which he did not
+see. Over and over he was saying to himself that he had no idea what
+Dellmey Baxter had said to this Mexican, and, whatever it was, he had
+distinctly told the creature that he knew nothing about it. The man had
+come to him recommended as an expert cowboy, he had passed the
+recommendation on to Conrad, and that was all there was about it.
+
+Nevertheless, he knew he had reason to believe--the Congressman had
+intimated as much in his letter--that the man who called himself José
+Gonzalez was in reality Liberato Herrara, guilty of at least one murder
+and probably of others, whom Baxter's legal skill had saved from the
+gallows. Curtis had said that he should carry the man behind him to the
+ranch that night. Before Bancroft's inward eye a sudden vision opened:
+wide miles of silent plain, a great white moon hanging low in the sky, a
+long stretch of deserted road, and then two men on a single horse--and
+the light gleaming on a long knife! He shuddered as the blade flashed,
+and turned his face away from the plain. Then, as there came to him a
+sudden sense of tremendous relief, with breath and thought suspended he
+turned slowly, fascinatedly, and with greedy eyes searched the distant
+plain, as if eager to find in it some proof, at last, of his own safety.
+
+Lucy's voice rose in a gay little song above the piano and fell upon his
+ears. With a deep, long-drawn breath his thought leaped out and seized
+upon all that freedom from Curtis Conrad's pursuit would mean for him.
+José Gonzalez would sink out of sight, and Liberato Herrara would be
+back in his own home, unsuspected and silent. Some excitement would
+follow, search would be made, a body would be found in a mesquite
+thicket,--and then the interest would die out, and there would be only
+another grewsome tale of mystery to be added to the hundreds already
+told through the Southwest. And he--Alexander Bancroft--would be
+safe--secure in fortune and reputation and the love and honor of his
+daughter as long as they should live.
+
+The music within ceased and Lucy's voice rippled out in girlish
+laughter. His heart sank as he seemed to hear again her hot denunciation
+of Baxter's loan and mortgage operations. "I'll sell out to Dell and
+she'll never know I've had anything to do with it," he thought. Then
+there came ringing through his memory, as he had heard them so many
+times since they rode home from the Socorro Springs ranch, her
+passionate words, "He must have been a wicked man," and "I should hate
+him, with all my strength," and again his longing face turned
+impulsively toward the plain.
+
+"I'd kill him myself, rather than let her find out," he whispered, with
+teeth set. "And a man has got to protect himself out here!" his urgent
+thought went on. "I'll be a fool if I don't stop him before he gets his
+chance at me!" With a sudden stirring of conscience he remembered that
+this man whose death he was so ardently desiring was his friend and
+trusted his friendship. "I--I don't want him stuck in the back," he
+muttered. "I might warn him. He may not have started yet."
+
+He walked uncertainly toward the veranda steps. There was a flutter of
+white drapery and Lucy was laying an affectionate hand on his arm. "Oh,
+daddy dear," she coaxed, "won't you come in and try this duet with us?
+Dearie will play the accompaniment for us to sing. She brought it to me,
+and I'm dying to try it."
+
+"Yes, if you wish it, daughter," the banker replied, hesitation in his
+voice, "but I was thinking of going down town." He saw the shade of
+disappointment that crossed her face, and drew her hand into his arm.
+"It doesn't matter," he went on, "and I would rather stay at home." To
+himself he said as they moved to the door, "Conrad has gone by this
+time, and, anyway, I've no reason to think this Mexican intends to do
+him any harm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SPECTRES OF THE PAST
+
+
+Restless was the night that followed for Alexander Bancroft; his sleep
+was troubled by many a dream in which one friend after another moved
+swiftly on to violent death. With the coming of dawn he arose to look
+out from the eastern windows of his room. The sky was a dome of rosy
+light and below lay the vast plain, dim but colorful, its gray-green
+mottled with vague bands and patches of opalescent lights and shadows
+and dotted with little islands of vivid green. His eyes clung to these
+darker spots, which he knew to be thickets of mesquite; piercing their
+shade his inner vision showed him the still body of his friend. So real
+was the mental picture that he turned pale about the lips and abruptly
+left the window.
+
+If anything had happened, he kept reassuring himself, it had been at
+Dellmey Baxter's instigation. He himself had had nothing to do with it.
+If Baxter had decided that his affairs would go more smoothly with
+Conrad out of the way, why should he, Alexander Bancroft, trouble
+himself further? And if--anything had happened--again he felt the
+loosening of mental strain and his spirits rose in exultation at the
+prospect of freedom and safety. Life was more attractive than ever with
+that menacing figure no longer threatening him with disclosure,
+disgrace, and death. He could go on with his plans for the accumulation
+of fortune and the enjoyment of life. He could still hold Lucy's love
+and honor, travel with her, marry again, work his way to a commanding
+place in the world of business. The future opened before him as easy and
+inviting as the stairs down which he went to breakfast.
+
+Lucy ran to meet him with a good-morning kiss and a rose for his
+buttonhole. "It's the prettiest I could find in my conservatory," she
+smiled at him; "but it isn't half nice enough for my daddy dear. You
+don't look well this morning, daddy," she went on anxiously. "Is
+anything the matter?"
+
+His hand slipped caressingly down over her curls and drew her to his
+breast in a quick embrace, instinct with the native impulse of the
+animal to protect its offspring. "She shall never know," was the
+thought in his mind.
+
+"Daddy! What a bear hug that was!" she laughed, "like those you used to
+give me when I was a little girl. It didn't feel as if you were ill."
+
+"I'm not," he answered lightly, kissing her pink cheek. "I guess I
+smoked too much yesterday, and so didn't sleep very well. Yes; I
+promise; I'll be more careful to-day."
+
+At breakfast his eyes dwelt much upon Louise Dent's face, gentle and
+pleasant. He had always liked her, and since her coming on this visit
+she had seemed very attractive. He knew she had strength and poise of
+character and a nature refined and cheerful. These qualities in her,
+with a certain genial, unobtrusive companionableness, had long ago won
+his warm friendship. But was there not in her steady gray eyes a hint of
+passionate depths he had never thought of before? It stirred him so
+deeply that for a little while, as they lingered over the breakfast
+table, he forgot the other facts of life, noting the faint rose flush in
+her cheeks, the graceful turn of her wrists, and the soft whiteness of
+her throat as she threw back her head and laughed. And Lucy loved her so
+devotedly! If she were willing to marry him their household would
+surely be harmonious and happy.
+
+Lucy fluttered beside him to the gate, her arm in his, as she chattered
+to him of the funny things her Chinese cook had been saying and doing.
+She lingered there, her eyes following his figure, until he turned, half
+a block away, to wave his hat in response to her farewell handkerchief.
+
+By the time he reached the foot of the hill Bancroft's mind was once
+more engrossed with the need of knowing whether or not he was at last
+secure from ignominious exposure. He no longer disguised from himself
+the fact that news of Conrad's death would be most welcome. He looked
+eagerly up and down the main streets; there was no sign of excitement.
+Had nothing happened, then? But it was still early; moreover, news of
+the affair might not reach the town for a day or two. The sound of
+horses' feet coming at a swift trot down the street on the other side of
+the stream made his heart beat quickly. He lingered at the door of his
+bank until the horseman came into view under the big cottonwoods at the
+next corner. It was Red Jack from the Socorro Springs ranch. At once his
+heart leaped to certainty. He turned to enter the bank, but stopped and
+looked back, undecidedly. Red Jack had not dismounted, but had drawn
+rein in front of the court-house at the next corner, and was sitting
+there quietly, looking up and down the road as if expecting somebody. He
+led a saddled horse. Perhaps he was to take a physician back with him.
+But he seemed in no haste, and in his manner there was neither
+excitement nor anxiety. Bancroft could wait no longer to learn what had
+happened. With hands in pockets he sauntered down the street.
+
+"Hello, Jack," he said indifferently to the waiting horseman. "You're in
+town early this morning."
+
+"I sure hiked along from the ranch early enough," the cowboy replied.
+"The boss hired a new man last night; and I had to come over this
+morning after him."
+
+Bancroft's eyes were on the cigar he was taking from his pocket, which
+he handed to the cowboy, saying idly, "Why, he intended last night to
+carry the man behind him. Did he change his mind? The man was a Mexican,
+wasn't he?"
+
+"Y-e-s; a measly coyote! The boss didn't bring him last night because he
+thought it would be too hard on Brown Betty to carry double. I wonder if
+mebbe that ain't my man comin' down the street right now! I've done
+forgot his name; do you happen to know it, Mr. Bancroft?"
+
+"I think it's José Gonzalez. He came here from Dellmey Baxter, who
+recommended him to me as a first-rate cowboy."
+
+"Well, he'll have to be a peach if he strikes the boss's gait," Red Jack
+rejoined, motioning to the Mexican.
+
+Bancroft walked back to his place of business with brows knitted and
+mouth drawn into grim lines. His mind was acting rapidly and ruthlessly.
+The sudden collapse of his house of cards, the knowledge that danger was
+still as imminent as ever, left him savage with desire for Curtis
+Conrad's death, or, rather, for the delectable land that lay beyond it.
+Nobody but this young hothead with his insensate desire for revenge knew
+or cared anything about that old affair now. With him out of the way
+there would be no danger from anybody or anything. Why wasn't the man
+sensible enough to take the money he was willing to pay, and be
+satisfied? Perhaps the receipt of another check or two would soften his
+purpose; it was worth trying. And--there was still the Mexican! Baxter
+had surely said something to him, and the fellow seemed to understand
+that he, also--but he had said nothing about it, and whatever the
+creature suspected was his own inference. Evidently the Mexican did
+suspect something and had some purpose in his mind. With Conrad so
+intent upon his destruction had he not every right to protect himself
+and his child? Of course he had, he told himself fiercely, and what
+means he might use were his own affair.
+
+At the door of the bank Rutherford Jenkins met him with a smiling
+salutation: "Good-morning, Mr. Bancroft; this is lucky! I was waiting
+for you here, but I've got so much to do that I'd begun to be afraid I
+wouldn't be able to see you before I go back."
+
+Bancroft greeted him pleasantly. "What do you mean, Jenkins," he went
+on, "by deserting to Martinez? Hadn't you better think again about that?
+We need you on our side."
+
+"That's exactly what I want to see you about," said Jenkins in a
+confidential tone. "Can't you come over with me to Bill Williams's hotel
+for a few minutes? I want to have a talk with you."
+
+They went back together, Bancroft wondering if Jenkins, who was regarded
+as a desirable ally by both parties, notwithstanding his character, was
+about to make overtures to him for deserting the Martinez fold and
+coming back to Baxter's. "Perhaps that spanking Curt gave him has set
+him against the whole Martinez following," he thought. "Baxter will be
+mighty glad to get him back, and I'll do my best to cinch the bargain so
+he can't crawl."
+
+When they entered the hotel room Jenkins moved leisurely about, got out
+a bottle of whiskey, and hunted up some cigars, talking all the time
+glibly about other matters and jumping inconsequently from one subject
+to another. Bancroft made several attempts to bring the conversation to
+the point, but each time Jenkins either blandly ignored or skilfully
+evaded his leading. Finally Bancroft said, looking at his watch: "Well,
+Jenkins, I've got to be at the bank very soon, and if there's anything
+particular you want to say suppose we get down to business."
+
+"Yes, yes, certainly," Jenkins replied unconcernedly. "That's what I'm
+coming to right now." He gave Bancroft a cigar, lighted one himself,
+made some jokes as he bustled aimlessly around the room, and at last sat
+down on the foot of the bed, facing the banker, who occupied the only
+chair in the little room. He ceased speaking, and Bancroft, looking up
+suddenly, caught in his face an expression of expectant triumph. The tip
+of his tongue was darting over his lips, and his small dark eyes were
+fixed on his guest with a look of malicious satisfaction. Instantly
+Bancroft's nerves were alert with the sense of coming danger. He blew
+out a whiff of smoke and calmly returned the other's gaze. Their eyes
+met thus, the one gloating, the other outwardly unmoved but inwardly
+astart with sudden alarm. Then Jenkins began, in a blandly insinuating
+tone:
+
+"Before we come to that matter about Martinez, I want to ask you,
+Mr.--ah--Mr. Dela--ah, I beg your pardon, Mr. Bancroft--I thought I
+would ask you--you've poked about a good deal, out here in the West--and
+in out-of-the-way places, too--and I've been wondering--I thought
+I'd ask you--if you've ever run across a gentleman of the name
+of--of--Dela--Dela--let me see--yes, Delafield--that's it--Sumner L.
+Delafield, of Boston. Do you remember whether or not you've ever met
+him?"
+
+Bancroft did not blanch nor flinch. For so many years he had schooled
+himself to such constant watchfulness and incessant self-control that an
+impassive countenance and manner had become a habit. Lucy, with her
+uncompromising moral decisions and her swift, unsparing condemnations,
+could come nearer to unnerving him than could any bolt from the blue
+like this. He flicked the ash from his cigar, hesitating a moment as if
+searching his memory, but really wondering whether Jenkins knew anything
+or was merely guessing and trying to draw him out. The latter seemed
+much the more likely.
+
+"I can't say on the instant whether I ever met such a man or not. As you
+say, I have gone about a good deal and, as my business most of the time
+has been that of mining and trading in mines, it has often taken me into
+out-of-the-way places, and I have met a great many people. At this
+moment I don't recall the name."
+
+"Don't you? I'm sorry, for I thought perhaps you could verify for me a
+curious story about the man that has just come to my knowledge. You know
+I'm always picking up information about people--I find it comes in handy
+now and then. Well, if you've never met him, have you ever, in the
+course of your Western travels, run across a man--he was a mining man,
+too--a mining man named Hardy--John Mason Hardy? There's a curious
+story about him, too, or, rather, about a man who was associated with
+him in a mining enterprise down in old Mexico. The other man's name was
+Smith--a very serviceable name is Smith; sort of like a black derby hat;
+no distinguishing mark about it and easy to exchange by mistake if you'd
+rather have some other man's."
+
+Bancroft rose and looked at his watch. "If there's anything of
+particular interest or importance in this, Mr. Jenkins, I'll be very
+glad to listen to it some other time; but I can't stay any longer this
+morning. I ought to have been at my desk half an hour ago."
+
+Jenkins sat still and waved him back with insistent politeness. "One
+moment more, Mr. Bancroft, if you please. I'm coming to the point right
+away. This story is of some consequence to me, and I'd like to know if
+you can verify it. Have another drink."
+
+Bancroft swallowed the whiskey at a gulp and Jenkins noticed that his
+fingers trembled as he took the glass. He was thinking, "I'd better stay
+and find out exactly how much he knows." Jenkins smiled under his hand
+as he smoothed his straggling moustache and watched Bancroft wipe the
+sweat from his forehead.
+
+"This man Smith," Jenkins continued, "John was his name, too--John Smith
+and John Mason Hardy were partners in a mining enterprise down in
+Mexico. One of them died down there--died, you know, in a quiet, private
+sort of way, and the one that came up to the States again was named
+Hardy, but it wasn't the same Hardy that had gone down there. You might
+guess, if you wanted to, that Smith killed Hardy and took his name--"
+
+He stopped and drew back suddenly, for Bancroft had sprung forward with
+a white, angry face and was shaking a trembling fist under his nose.
+
+"Stop there, you liar!" he exclaimed in low, tense tones. "I didn't do
+that. He died a natural death--of fever--and I took care of him and did
+my best to save his life."
+
+Jenkins recovered his self-possession first. "Oh; then you know all
+about it!" he said dryly, with a malicious smile.
+
+Bancroft sank back in his chair drawing his hand across his eyes and
+wondering why his self-control had so suddenly gone to pieces. He had
+thought himself proof against any surprise, but this man's sudden blow
+and persistent baiting had screwed his nerve tension to the snapping
+point. But he told himself that it probably did not matter anyway, as
+Jenkins evidently knew the whole story. With a desperate, defiant look
+he turned upon his tormentor.
+
+"Well, what do you want?" he demanded sharply. "Why have you raked up
+this old story?"
+
+"Oh, I found it interesting," Jenkins responded in a leisurely way, "as
+an instance of the way things are done on the frontier and, as I told
+you at first, I thought you might be able to verify it. For I was
+inclined not to believe it, especially as it was about one of the most
+prominent and respected citizens of New Mexico. But since you've
+confessed its truth yourself--well, I've got to believe it now.
+It has been a very blind trail I've followed, crooked and well
+hidden--wonderfully well hidden, Mr. Bancroft--and the number of names
+you've hoisted along its course has been bewildering. But I've managed
+to track you through 'em all, and to discover in Alexander Bancroft, the
+upright, honored, public-spirited citizen of New Mexico, the identical
+person of Sumner L. Delafield, the defaulting and absconding financier
+of Boston."
+
+Bancroft looked Jenkins sullenly in the eye. "Well, now that you have it
+all, what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"Pardon me, Mr. Bancroft," said Jenkins with exaggerated suavity, "ah,
+excuse me, I mean Mr. Delafield--that is for you to say."
+
+The banker considered for a moment only. Evidently this man knew exactly
+what he was about and exactly what he wanted, so that it would be of no
+use to beat around the bush. "Will you please say precisely what you
+mean?" was his answer.
+
+"That is just what I have been doing, Mr. Delafield."
+
+"Excuse me, Jenkins, but my name is Bancroft, not Delafield. I have a
+legal right to the name of Bancroft, given me by the legislature of
+Arizona. You will oblige me by addressing me in that way."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know that; and a lot of trouble I had with this chase until
+I found it out! But I thought you might like to hear yourself called
+Delafield once more--sort of like meeting an old friend, you know. Won't
+you have another cigar, Mr. Bancroft? No? Well, then, let's have another
+drink." He poured out two glasses of whiskey. Bancroft drank his
+without demur, but Jenkins barely touched his glass to his lips.
+
+"Well, now, Mr. Bancroft," Jenkins went on affably, smiling and rubbing
+his hands together, "let's get down to the practical side of this
+romantic story from real life. You are getting on so well here under
+your present name, and you have a young daughter--" he saw his listener
+wince at this, and then carefully repeated his words--"and you have such
+a beautiful and charming young daughter, who, as the heiress of a father
+who is making a fortune with clean hands and no cloud on his past, can
+be taken about the world and can make a good marriage some of these
+days; considering all this, I take it for granted that you would prefer
+to have this story buried too deep for resurrection. And it is for you
+to say whether it shall be buried or not."
+
+Bancroft sat in silence for a full minute, glaring at the man opposite,
+his lips set in a livid line. Jenkins grew nervous in the dead stillness
+of the room, and began to fidget. He cautiously rested his right hand on
+the bed close by his pistol pocket, and kept his eyes on the banker,
+watchful for the first hostile movement. There was need of wariness,
+for Bancroft was debating with himself whether it would be better to go
+on to the dreary end of this business and leave the room with a
+blackmailer's noose around his neck, or to whip out his gun, put a
+bullet through this man's brain, and another through his own.
+
+But the fragrance of life rose sweet to his nostrils, and his innate
+virility spurred him on to keep up the fight. Apparently he had brought
+up against a stone wall, but he had fought too long and too desperately
+to be willing to confess himself beaten until he could struggle no
+longer. He felt sure that money would keep Jenkins quiet, and after a
+while he might find some other means of stopping the man's mouth for
+good. The fellow was always in some dirty job or other, and before long
+doubtless some hold on him would become possible. There was Conrad still
+to be reckoned with--but that could wait, at least until this man was
+silenced.
+
+"Well," he said quietly, "what do you want? For God's sake, come to the
+point!"
+
+Jenkins drew a breath of relief. "Well, Mr. Bancroft, I'm interested
+this year in the success of Johnny Martinez. It's a matter of the first
+importance to me for him to be elected. But I'm afraid he hasn't got
+much chance if Silverside County and the rest of the South should go
+against him. Now, you've got more influence down here than anybody else,
+and you can swing it for him if you want to. That's what I want you to
+do."
+
+Bancroft looked up in sudden dismay. He had not expected anything of
+this sort. "You know I'm committed to Baxter," he said.
+
+"Oh, yes; I know. But that's nothing. In New Mexico it's not difficult
+to change your politics. Why, I thought of coming out for Baxter myself
+at first; but I'm solid for Martinez now."
+
+Bancroft rose and began pacing the half-dozen steps to and fro that the
+room afforded, seeking some loophole of escape from his obligations to
+Baxter. There were mortgages the Congressman could foreclose that would
+balk some of the banker's most promising plans should he attempt
+political treachery. He could, and undoubtedly would, reveal his
+associate's connection with the loan and mortgage operations in the Rio
+Grande valley; and Bancroft winced as he thought of this coming to
+Lucy's ears. And in that matter of Curtis Conrad and José Gonzalez--had
+he not put himself at Baxter's mercy? In this moment of supreme
+necessity the naked truth came before him; and he knew it to be true
+that he was primarily responsible for any harm that might come to the
+young cattleman through Gonzalez. If he did not keep faith with Baxter
+the Congressman would tell Curtis who it was that desired his death; and
+then Conrad would know where to find Delafield. In short, he knew that
+Baxter would stop at nothing to compel his loyalty or punish his
+treason. Having contemplated no course except that of fidelity in his
+business and political relations with Baxter, the closeness of their
+alliance had heretofore given him little uneasiness; and now, in this
+crisis, he found himself wholly in the other's power. He flung himself
+into his chair, his face pallid and the perspiration standing in great
+drops on his forehead. His breath came hard and his voice was thick as
+he asked:
+
+"Is there no alternative?"
+
+"Well, no; none that I can accept," Jenkins replied meditatively. "You
+see, it's a very important matter for me to be able to make this present
+to Johnny. If he wins this fight there'll be something big in it for me.
+No; I'll have to insist upon this as the first condition."
+
+Bancroft's lips moved soundlessly as he stared at the man sitting on the
+edge of the bed, nursing his knee and showing his white teeth in a
+triumphant smile. Then, suddenly, without a word of warning, the banker
+leaped forward and seized his companion around the throat. Jenkins,
+taken entirely off his guard, succeeded only in grasping his assailant's
+coat as they went down on the bed together in a noiseless scuffle.
+Bancroft's hands closed around his tormentor's throat, and a savage,
+elemental satisfaction thrilled in him and goaded him on. More and more
+tightly his fingers clutched as Jenkins struggled under his grip.
+Neither of them uttered a sound, and the silence of the room was broken
+only by the creaking of the bed or the occasional knocking of a foot
+against the chair.
+
+Bancroft's face was snarled like that of a wild beast as he watched
+Jenkins's visage grow livid and his struggles weaken. Of a sudden reason
+returned to him. If this man were to die under his hand there would be
+grewsome consequences--and he had enough to deal with already. He stood
+up, trembling, and looked anxiously at the still form on the bed.
+
+"You--you're not dead, Jenkins, are you?" he stammered awkwardly.
+
+Jenkins stirred a little, opened his eyes, put his hand to his throat,
+and got up, looking warily at his assailant. "It's no thanks to you that
+I'm not," he responded sullenly.
+
+"I didn't mean to kill you--but you--you struck me too hard--it drove me
+wild--and for a minute I didn't know what I was doing." Jenkins scowled,
+rubbed his throat again, and drank a glass of whiskey. Bancroft helped
+himself likewise, following it with a copious draught of water. As they
+faced each other again Jenkins edged away suspiciously toward the door;
+but Bancroft went back at once to the unsettled question.
+
+"It would ruin me, financially and in every other way, to go back on
+Baxter. You might just as well kill me outright as insist upon that."
+
+"But I'm going to insist upon it," was Jenkins's sullen answer.
+
+Bancroft made a despairing gesture. "But I tell you, Jenkins, the
+thing's impossible! It would ruin me just as surely as for you to tell
+all you know. You'll have to be satisfied with something else."
+
+Jenkins leaned against the bed and stared angrily at Bancroft. Physical
+pain had made him obstinate and determined him to press his point, more
+to return injury for injury than because he wanted that particular
+thing.
+
+"I tell you now," Bancroft went on, "that I'd rather take the last way
+out than try to go back on Baxter. It wouldn't be the healthiest thing
+in the world for you if I should kill myself shut up in this room with
+you, would it?"
+
+"Well, I'll waive that for the present," Jenkins replied unwillingly;
+"but, mind you, it's only for the present. We'll talk about it again,
+later in the season. For the present I want a good, big sum before you
+leave this room, and hereafter I've got to have a regular monthly
+payment, a check on the first of every month when I don't come after the
+cash myself."
+
+Bancroft considered for only a moment. His dilemma was clear: he must
+either buy this haltered freedom from Jenkins or kill him in his tracks.
+This latter alternative was not to be considered; and doubtless before
+long it would be possible to turn the tables on the creature and escape
+from his clutches.
+
+Jenkins folded away in his pocket-book a check and a roll of bills and
+smiled as he looked at Bancroft's haggard face. "I hope, Mr. Dela--ah,
+pardon me,--Mr. Bancroft, that I have not kept you too long from your
+affairs at the bank." As his eyes followed the banker's disappearing
+figure with a gleam of satisfaction, he patted his breast pocket and
+whispered:
+
+"Now for the other score!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PERILS IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+Red Jack and José Gonzalez joined the forces of the Socorro Springs
+ranch while the cattle of the morning's round-up were being driven to
+the watering-place near the ranch house. Across the road from the house
+stood a large grove of cottonwoods; a little beyond that, in the valley,
+a deep pond had been dug, into which flowed the outlets from the several
+springs. The cattle from a score of miles roundabout were accustomed to
+come to this pond, with its circling belt of trees, for water and for
+midday rest in the shade.
+
+Here the round-up was in progress, and Conrad galloped out to meet the
+new hand and give him instructions. As he rode off toward the hills
+after a bunch of straggling cattle Curtis looked after him with an
+approving eye. "He knows how to fork a horse, at least," he thought. In
+the afternoon José was set to work cutting out and bunching the two-
+and three-year-old steers and later at helping with the branding. Conrad
+watched his handling of the branding irons, and he and all the rest
+stopped their work to follow his movements with critical eyes as he
+roped and brought to the ground a belligerent steer. The superintendent
+was well satisfied. "At last I've got a man who knows the business and
+has some _sabe_," he thought. "If he goes on as well as he begins I'll
+keep him after the shipping is done."
+
+The next day the round-up crept slowly southward, accompanied by
+the chuck-wagon and a drove of fresh horses. At noon the cattle
+gathered during the morning were bunched at Adobe Springs, the next
+watering-place toward the Mexican border. Gonzalez was the only Mexican
+among the cowboys, the rest being Americans of one sort or another--from
+Texas, Colorado, the Northwest, and the Middle West. All felt toward
+him the contemptuous scorn born of difference in race and consequent
+conviction of superior merit. They had no scruples about making known
+their prejudice, and more than once his face flushed and his hand darted
+toward the knife hidden in his bosom. Yet, as the day wore on and they
+saw that he excelled the best of them in handling the lasso and in the
+cunning of his movements when cutting out the steers from the herd, they
+began to show him the respect that skill of any sort inspires in those
+who know with what effort it is acquired.
+
+After supper, when they gathered about the campfire, smoking, and
+scoffing good-naturedly at one another's tales of wondrous experiences,
+and talking over the events of the day just gone, they received him upon
+an equality with themselves which was only slightly grudged. He told
+them, in English more precise than any of them could speak, of Conrad's
+encounter with Rutherford Jenkins in the Blue Front, and their
+appreciation of the tale completed the work which his skill as a cowboy
+had begun. Thereafter they looked upon José as a comrade and a good
+fellow.
+
+Three small adobe houses, of one room each, with flat roofs and earthen
+floors, had been built here, as the large and never-failing springs made
+the spot a sure rendezvous for every round-up. The locality was infested
+by skunks, and the cowboys, who greatly feared midnight bites from the
+prowling animals, believing hydrophobia a sure consequence, usually
+preferred to sleep inside the houses, on bunks filled with alfalfa hay.
+If they ventured to sleep out-of-doors, they kept small cans of coal oil
+ready and, whenever a wakeful man saw one of the small creatures near, a
+quick turn of the wrist drenched its fur with the fluid and a brand from
+the smouldering campfire tossed after it sent a squealing pillar of
+flame flying up the hill and saved them from further disturbance that
+night.
+
+A board nailed across a corner of the largest house served Conrad as a
+desk. He kept there a lamp, writing materials, and a few books. While
+the men sprawled around the campfire and the last gleams of dusky red
+faded from the west and the moon bounded up from behind the eastern
+hills, he made his memoranda, wrote a letter to be sent to the
+post-office by the first chance comer, and lost himself for an hour in a
+volume of Shakespeare. When he went outside the men were walking about,
+yawning and stretching, ready for sleep. Curtis's imagination was still
+astir from his reading, and the presence of any other human being seemed
+an impertinence. But he said, genially:
+
+"Well, boys, you begin to look as if you wanted to turn in. Take
+whatever bunks you like, if you want to go inside. I'm going to sleep
+out here."
+
+"Better have a tin of ile handy," said Red Jack. "The polecats are sure
+likely to nibble your toes if you don't. The night I slept here last
+week I never saw the cusses so bad; durned if one of the critters didn't
+get inside and wake me up smellin' of my ear. I was some skeered of him
+stinkin' up the place so it couldn't be slept in for a year, so I jest
+had to lay low and wait for him to go outside, and then I doused him
+good with ile and throwed the candle at him. I sure reckon he's holed up
+somewhere now, waitin' till he can afford a new sealskin sacque before
+he shows hisself in good sassiety ag'in."
+
+"I don't think they'll bother me to-night," Curtis responded. At that
+moment he felt that nothing could disturb him, if only he could be left
+alone with the moonlight and the plain. "I'll sleep with my boots on,
+and my cheeks are not as fat as yours, Jack, so there'll be no
+temptation. Where do you want to bunk, José? You can sleep outside or
+in, just as you like."
+
+Gonzalez replied respectfully that he would rather go in. But presently
+he came out again with his blanket and chose a spot against the wall of
+one of the houses. Conrad had gone out to the herd to speak with the man
+on patrol and to make sure that all was well. When he returned the men
+had disappeared. "Good!" he said to himself. "They've all gone inside
+and I've got the universe to myself." He did not see the still form in
+its gray blanket close against the wall.
+
+Curtis took the red bandanna from his neck and tied it over his ears, to
+keep out the tiny things that crawl o' nights, and couched himself in
+his blanket on the gently rising ground with his saddle for a pillow. He
+lay down with his face to the east, where the dim and mellow sky,
+flooded with moonlight, seemed to recede far back, to the very limits of
+space, and leave the huge white globe suspended there in brooding
+majesty just above the plain. With long legs outstretched and muscles
+relaxed, he lay as still as if asleep, his eyes on its glowing disk. He
+knew all that science had discovered or guessed about the moon's
+character and history. But it had companioned him on so many a silent
+ride across long miles of dimly gleaming plain, and on so many nights
+like this as he lay upon the earth it had gathered his thoughts into its
+great white bosom, that he could not image it to himself as a mere dead
+and barren satellite of the earth. More easily could he understand how
+the living Cynthia had once leaped earthward and been welcomed with
+belief and love.
+
+Conrad's mind busied itself at first with the play he had just been
+reading, but presently wandered to his own affairs and the purpose that
+had been the dominant influence of half his life. He chuckled softly as
+he remembered the check he had recently received. "I've got him on the
+run," he thought, "and I'm bound to lay him out sooner or later. Lord,
+but it will be a satisfaction to face him finally! And he'll not get the
+drop on me first, either, unless Providence takes as good care of
+rascals as they say it does of fools." He recalled himself now and then
+to listen to the sounds from the sleeping herd, to the hoof-beats of the
+horse as the cowboy on watch rode round and round the bunch, and to his
+voice singing in a lulling monotone. But gradually thought and will and
+sense sank back toward the verge of that great gulf out of which they
+spring.
+
+When next he opened his eyes the moon was dropping toward the western
+horizon, but he had turned in his sleep and its light was still upon
+his face. Lying motionless, Curtis listened to the sounds from the herd,
+his first thought being that something unusual there must have awakened
+him. The coyotes were yelping at one another from hill and plain, but
+through their barking he could hear the snorting sigh of a steer turning
+in its sleep, the tramp of the horse, and the cowboy's lullaby. He
+recognized the voice as that of Peters, who was to have the third watch,
+and so knew that it must be well on toward morning. He was about to sink
+into slumber again when his gaze fell upon a small black and white
+animal nosing among some rocks near by. "Poor little devil! If it wakens
+any of the boys it will get a taste of hell out of proportion to its
+sins," he thought, and decided that he would drive it away before any
+one else discovered it. But the languor of sleep still held him and not
+a muscle moved as his eyelids began to droop. Then, through his
+half-shut eyes, he became conscious that something was moving, over
+against one of the houses, among the shadows. His eyelids lifted again
+and he saw the Mexican rise out of his blanket, look about, and in a
+crouching posture move stealthily toward him. Something in his hand
+glittered in the moonlight.
+
+"It's José," thought Conrad. "He's coming for the skunk with a can of
+oil. Quick, or I'll be too late!" He sprang to a sitting posture and
+flung out one arm. As he did so he noticed with sleepy surprise that
+José was not facing toward the animal but was coming toward him. Then,
+before he had time to speak, the Mexican turned, a flying something
+shone in the moonlight like an electric flash, and Conrad's eyes,
+following the gleam, saw the little creature pinned to the ground with a
+long knife through its neck and the gray sand darkening with its blood.
+
+"Why, José, that was a wonderful throw!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, señor," the man replied quietly, as he stooped to draw out the
+knife and wipe it on the sand, "I am rather good at that sort of thing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BY A HAIR'S BREADTH
+
+
+Curtis Conrad rode to the farther side of a hill sloping gently
+northeast of the houses as the outfit was getting under way the next
+morning. He remembered having seen there a rather uncommon species of
+cactus, and he thought to make sure of it in order to secure a specimen
+for Lucy Bancroft's collection when next he should pass that way on a
+homeward trip. José Gonzalez noted his action and presently, when a
+steer broke wildly from the herd and ran back, it was José who dashed
+after it. But, instead of heading it off and driving it back, he so
+manoeuvred that he contrived to get it around the hill behind which he
+had seen Conrad disappear. The superintendent was digging busily in the
+ground with his pocket-knife, having decided to take up the plant and
+leave it in the house in readiness for his return journey.
+
+Assured that the rest of the outfit was out of sight beyond the hill,
+Gonzalez left the steer to its own devices and galloped straight toward
+and behind the kneeling figure, his long knife drawn but concealed
+against his leg. Conrad's attention was engrossed in what he was doing
+and his thoughts were all of Lucy Bancroft, of how pleased she would be
+to get this rare specimen, and of how necessary it would be for him to
+help her plant it. José checked his horse into a walk and leaned
+forward, his eyes fastened on the other's back, his knife lying half
+hidden in his palm. On the soft ground the hoof-beats of the horse made
+little sound and their faint, unresounding thud was masked by the noises
+from the moving herd.
+
+Gonzalez drew rein within a few yards of his object and lifted his arm,
+with the knife balanced in his hand. At that instant the steer bellowed,
+and Curtis leaped to his feet, on the alert at once lest something had
+gone wrong with the herd. He saw the single steer and, wheeling around
+to look for others, his glance took in the Mexican, swerving his horse
+down the hill and deftly returning the knife to his belt. "Are you after
+the steer, José?" he called. "Is that the only one loose?"
+
+"Yes, señor. The rest are all right. This one has given me a chase, but
+I'll have him back right away."
+
+"Stop a minute, José. Would you mind letting me use your knife? Mine's
+too short and I haven't anything else."
+
+Gonzalez rode up, dismounted, and held out the knife with a courteous
+smile. As he stood back with one leg forward, arms folded, and head held
+high, Curtis thought him an image of dashing, picturesque, masculine
+comeliness. "José," he said, "how did you get such skill in throwing the
+knife? I never saw anybody do the trick better than you did it last
+night. I shouldn't like to have you," and he smiled as he returned the
+weapon, "aim this thing at me as you did at that polecat."
+
+An answering smile flashed over José's dark face, lighting up his eyes
+and showing a row of white teeth beneath his moustache. "I have
+practised it much, señor. It is not easy."
+
+The next day, Conrad, Gonzalez, and several others were getting
+together some cattle in the foot-hills when three of the largest steers
+broke away and raced wildly back toward their grazing grounds. The
+superintendent called the Mexican to help him, and told the others to
+take the remainder of the cattle, with all they might find on the way,
+back to the day herd.
+
+Two gallant figures they made as they galloped across the plain, the
+wind blowing up the wide brims of their hats, the grace and freedom of
+strength and skill in every movement of body and limb. Lariats were at
+their saddle horns, and Curtis carried a six-shooter in his belt, but
+Gonzalez had only his knife, thrust into his boot leg. They circled and
+headed off the steers, which eluded and dashed past them again and
+again, until presently Conrad noticed that the largest of the three
+acted as a sort of leader. "Rope him, José," he called, "and then we can
+manage the others."
+
+As Gonzalez in response came galloping toward the animal from one side,
+Curtis rushed past it on the other to prevent it from getting away and
+giving another chase. He glanced at the loop that came whirring through
+the air and his heart gave a bound of vexation. "The fool greaser is
+throwing too far," he muttered. With an instinct of sudden peril he dug
+in his spurs and his horse made a quick, long leap. He whirled about in
+time to see the snakey noose fall on the spot whence they had jumped.
+
+"What's the matter with you, José?" he shouted. "You nearly roped me
+instead of the steer! Try it again." Gonzalez coiled his rope and
+galloped after the steer and half an hour later the two men rode into
+the round-up, driving the panting and humbled animals.
+
+One of the younger and less experienced men, Billy Black, generally
+known as "Billy Kid," happened to lame his horse and bruise himself that
+day, and was ordered to stay in camp to nurse his knee. At Rock Springs,
+where they made camp next day, a man who gave his name as Andy Miller
+rode up and asked for a job. He explained that he had been working on a
+little ranch over toward Randall but had got tired of the place and was
+pushing for the railroad. Hampered by Billy Black's accident, Conrad was
+glad of the opportunity and tested his skill with horse and rope.
+
+"You'll do," he said. "I'm short of hands, and you can stay with us
+until we get to the railroad if you like."
+
+The new man was stockily built, and looked strong and agile. Around the
+campfire that night he won his way at once into the good graces of the
+other men, cracking jokes, telling stories, and roaring out cowboy songs
+until bedtime. They were so hilarious that Conrad joined their circle,
+smoked his after-supper pipe with them, and laughed at Miller's jokes
+and yarns.
+
+The Rock Springs watering-hole was in a hilly region, broken here and
+there by stony gulches. The outflow from the springs ran through a
+ravine which furrowed the hillside to its foot, turned abruptly
+westward, and widened out into a goodly pool, where the cattle waded
+and drank. The camp lay on the hillside above the springs, and the
+cattle were bunched over its brow on the other side.
+
+Conrad wakened early and an inviting image came to him of that pool,
+lying still and clear in the dim gray light, untroubled by the miring
+hoofs of the cattle. No one else, except the Chinese cook, busy with his
+breakfast fire, seemed to be awake, and no one stirred as Curtis moved
+down the hill, past the springs, and over the rise beyond. But Gonzalez,
+motionless in his blanket, watched his departure. And presently, when
+the cook had disappeared in the chuck-wagon, José rose, cast a cautious
+glance over the sleeping camp, and followed Conrad, taking advantage of
+occasional boulders, clumps of mesquite, greasewood, and yucca to
+conceal his movements. At the springs he turned down the gulch,
+following its course to the basin of the drinking hole, where he hid
+behind a great boulder, barely ten feet from the bank where lay the
+other's clothing.
+
+With wary eyes he watched while the superintendent waded out to the
+deepest part of the pool, ducked and splashed, swam a little, and
+presently returned to the shore. Through the brightening air the lean
+and sinewy body with its swelling muscles gleamed like rose-tinted
+marble below the tanned face and neck. Behind the boulder José crouched
+closer and drew the knife from his belt, while his body grew tense as
+he watched Conrad rub himself down and put on his clothes.
+
+"Will he never keep still a second?" Gonzalez asked himself impatiently,
+as he poised his knife. Curtis sat down on a flat stone and reached for
+his shoes and stockings, whistling a gay little melody from the last
+comic opera he had heard in San Francisco.
+
+A sound of shouting and the muffled noise of rushing cattle broke
+through the morning air, which had been as still and untroubled as the
+surface of the pool. Conrad, his music silenced and nerves alert, faced
+quickly toward the camp, turning his body from the waist upward and
+giving Gonzalez a fair three-quarters view of his torso.
+
+The Mexican, ready and waiting, seized an instant of arrested motion,
+and sent the poised weapon straight for his heart. As it left José's
+hand, the stone on which Curtis sat, yielding to the twisting motion of
+his body, slipped under him, and he threw out his left arm to preserve
+his balance. He was aware of something bright cleaving the air, of a
+sudden pain in his arm, and a stinging point in his side. But before his
+brain could realize what had happened, he saw José Gonzalez leap from
+behind the boulder and rush toward him, befouling the air with a string
+of Spanish oaths.
+
+Conrad sprang to his feet and wheeled, with right fist ready to meet the
+attack, before José could reach him. The Mexican flew at him with both
+arms outstretched, meaning to seize his throat and throttle him before
+he could comprehend his danger. Curtis saw the open guard and landed a
+blow on his chest which sent him staggering backward. But he returned at
+once, with left arm raised in defence and right hand ready to seize the
+other's shirt collar and choke him senseless.
+
+For a moment only was Conrad at a disadvantage by reason of the
+suddenness of the assault. But with the knife still bedded in his
+bleeding and helpless left arm, his only weapon was his right fist,
+which he must use for both defence and attack. The Mexican's eyes were
+fired with the passion of combat, and the other, ignorant of why they
+were fighting, knew only, by his blanched face and set jaws, that his
+purpose was deadly.
+
+Gonzalez, after that first blow upon his chest, was wary. He danced
+around Conrad, making feints and trying to get inside his guard. But
+Curtis, whose brain was working in lightning-like flashes, did not waste
+his strength pounding the air. He kept his assailant eluding his feints
+and jumping to escape pretended charges, thinking to wear him out in
+that way. He soon saw that he was the superior in boxing skill, as well
+as being both taller and heavier than his foe, and he began to feel
+assured of final victory, notwithstanding his useless hand and disabled
+arm.
+
+José's effort was constantly toward Conrad's left side, and Curtis
+guessed that he was trying to get possession of the knife still
+sticking in his arm. He knew that if Gonzalez recovered that weapon his
+chance of life would be small indeed. His bare feet were bleeding from
+the sharp little stones on the bank of the pool, but he was conscious
+neither of that nor of pain in arm or side, though the blood from his
+wound was making a red streak down his shirt and trousers. But he
+continued to hear, with a kind of divided consciousness, the sound of
+shouts, the rushing of cattle, and the hoofs of galloping horses. In the
+back of his brain he knew that there had been a stampede of the herd,
+and with attention absorbed in his fight for life, the thought that he
+was needed at the camp spurred him on to more desperate effort.
+
+José made a dash for his left side, but Curtis turned and with all his
+force sent a blow which caught the Mexican, intent on the knife, with
+shoulder unguarded. Gonzalez spun half round and reeled backward. Conrad
+had planted one foot on a rounding stone, and as he delivered the blow
+it slipped and sent him headlong. He was up again in an instant, barely
+in time to save himself from José's fingers, which clutched at his
+throat. But Gonzalez had got inside his guard and they gripped, the one
+with one arm and the other with two, for what each felt must be the
+final struggle. The American caught José's left arm between their two
+bodies and, reaching around him, grasped the other wrist in his right
+hand. They swayed back and forth, José exerting all the strength of his
+muscles to free his arms, while Conrad, gripping him close, used all the
+remnant of his strength to throw him down.
+
+By this time the Mexican's eyes were gleaming with an ugly light and
+his olive cheeks were flushed with anger. Whatever the purpose that
+had moved him at first, Curtis saw that he was fighting now with the
+aboriginal rage of conflict, with the fierce hate born of the blows
+he had received. He kicked wildly at the superintendent's shins and
+accidentally planted the heel of his boot squarely upon the other's bare
+foot. Conrad's face twitched with the hurt, and with a snarling grin
+Gonzalez lifted the other for similar purpose, forgetting shrewd tactics
+of battle in the lust of giving pain to his opponent. But Curtis caught
+the momentary advantage of unstable balance and with a twist and a lunge
+they came down together, Conrad's left shoulder striking against a stone
+beside which the Mexican fell. Thrilling with the surety of triumph,
+his enemy pinned to the ground, Curtis was barely conscious of a
+snapping in his shoulder and a sharp pain in his collar bone. With one
+knee on Gonzalez's chest, he pulled the knife from his left arm, broke
+it across the boulder, and threw the bloodstained pieces far out into
+the pond. His assailant was at his mercy now and the heat and anger of
+combat ebbed from his veins as he looked down at the Mexican's
+unresisting figure.
+
+"You have bested me this time, Don Curtis," said Gonzalez quietly.
+
+"Get up, José," replied Conrad rising, and the two men, panting from
+their conflict, faced each other. José stood with his arms folded and
+head erect and looked at his employer with unafraid eyes, in which
+smouldered only the traces of his recent rage. Conrad surveyed him
+thoughtfully for a moment before he spoke.
+
+"José, what did you do it for?"
+
+The Mexican smiled but made no reply.
+
+"Have you got anything against me?" Conrad persisted. "Do you think I've
+mistreated you or injured you in any way?"
+
+"No, señor, I have nothing against you."
+
+"Then what--by God, are you one of Dell Baxter's thugs? Has he sent you
+down here to stick me in the back?" Impelled by the flash of sudden
+conviction, Conrad thrust his face close to the other's and glared into
+his eyes. Gonzalez stepped back a pace and looked gravely across the
+hill at the reddening sky. His composed face and closely shut lips
+showed that he did not intend to answer.
+
+"Oh, all right!" Curtis exclaimed. "I don't expect you to peach on your
+pal. But I reckon I've sure struck the right trail this time. And look
+here, José! Was it me you were after when you stuck your knife in that
+skunk?"
+
+The Mexican's eyes fell and his black brows met in a frown. He was
+thinking how much trouble this man had given him by springing up so
+unexpectedly that night. But for that it would all have been so easy and
+simple!
+
+"I reckon it was!" Conrad went on hotly. "And I reckon it was me instead
+of the steer you rode after the next morning, with your knife ready when
+I looked up. And I reckon it was me instead of the steer you tried to
+rope when you made that remarkable miss. I've been a fool to trust a
+damned greaser, even when he was in plain sight. But look here, José
+Gonzalez!" Conrad stopped and glared into the Mexican's sombre and
+inscrutable eyes. Holding his bleeding left arm in his right hand he
+leaned forward, head thrust out and eyes blazing.
+
+"Just you look here, José Gonzalez!" he repeated. "I'm onto your little
+game now, and if I can't be a match for any greaser that ever tried to
+stick a man in the back, I'll deserve all I'll get! Just come on and try
+it again whenever you like! Keep at work with the round-up if you want
+to--I'm not going to give you your time for this. But I am going to
+write to Dell Baxter that I'm onto his scheme and that the minute you
+make another crack at me there'll be a bullet in your brain--and another
+in his as soon as I can get to Santa Fe to put it there, and that he'd
+better call you off if he wants to save his own skin. But if you can get
+me without my catching on first you're welcome, that's all!"
+
+The rush of running cattle swept across their preoccupied ears, and both
+men turned to see a dozen steers sweep past the other end of the pond
+and up the hill.
+
+"Quick, José! Help me head them off and turn them into the pond!" Conrad
+exclaimed as he started off in his bare feet. His long strides covered
+the distance quickly, and with hoots and yells and waving arm he soon
+turned their course down the hillside toward the water. Gonzalez was
+close behind, and together they manoeuvred the frightened beasts to
+the pond, where the animals forgot their panic, waded in quietly, and
+began to drink.
+
+"José," said the superintendent, as he sat down at the water's edge and
+began to bathe his muddy, bleeding feet, "I shall not mention this
+affair to any one here. I'll say that a steer horned me just now. I've
+broken my collar bone, I think, and I've got this cut in my arm, and
+I'll have to go to Golden at once to get patched up. When I come back I
+want you to remember what I just told you about getting daylight through
+your skull if you try any of your tricks on me again. There comes Red
+Jack after these cattle. Go and help drive them back to camp."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+BATTLING THE ELEMENTS
+
+
+The shadows of the little rolling hills still sprawled across the
+intervening valleys when Curtis Conrad started back at a gallop over the
+road which his outfit had been slowly traversing for four days. To his
+foreman, Hank Peters, he had said that he had been thrown and gored by a
+steer and must go to Golden to have his collar bone set, and ordered him
+to stay where he was, cutting out and branding, that day and night, and
+camp the day after at Five Cottonwoods, where he would rejoin them.
+
+The men puzzled and gossiped about the accident to their employer. "I
+don't see how it was possible," said Peters, "for such a thing to happen
+to a man that's got the boss's gumption about cow-brutes."
+
+"None of 'em was on the prod when I got to the pond," Red Jack declared.
+"José, you was with him. Did you see the scrimmage?"
+
+"I did not see the boss when he was down," Gonzalez replied in his
+precise, slightly accented English. "I was at the spring and heard him
+yell and I ran down to the pond at once, for I thought he needed help. I
+stumbled and fell and sprained my shoulder--it hurts me yet--so that
+when I reached the pond he was on his feet again and trying to drive the
+cattle into the water. I helped him and then we went back to where his
+shoes were. That was where Jack saw us. His arm bled a good deal there."
+
+"Somethin' happened," observed Hank Peters, "and if the boss says it was
+a steer on the prod, I sure reckon it was. But the thing that's
+troublin' me most is what started them critters off. I didn't see or
+hear a blamed thing likely to set 'em goin'. Did any of you?"
+
+"I didn't," Texas Bill spoke up; "but Andy was there first. Did you see
+what it was, Andy?"
+
+Andy Miller, the new hand, stopped to draw several deep whiffs from his
+newly lighted pipe before he replied. "No; I couldn't make out anything,
+and I was right at the edge of 'em, too. They jumped and started all at
+once, as crazy as I ever see a bunch of critters."
+
+"Mebbe you skeered 'em some, they not bein' used to you," suggested
+Billy Kid.
+
+Andy grinned. "Well, I sure ain't boastin' none about the beauty of my
+phiz, but no gal ain't told me yet that I was ugly enough to stampede a
+herd of cow-brutes," and the subject was dropped with the laugh that
+followed.
+
+Conrad's mare, larger and of better breed than the cow ponies, put the
+ground rapidly under her feet throughout the early morning. Though never
+trained for range work and used only for riding, he always took her on
+the round-up, in readiness for emergencies. His habit of talking to
+himself, engendered by much solitary riding, was often varied by
+one-sided conversations with the mare, and whatever the subject which
+occupied his thoughts and found fragmentary utterance in speech, his
+sentences were interspersed with frequent remarks to Brown Betty.
+Apparently she found this custom as companionable as he did, for she was
+sure to protest at a long period of silence.
+
+"So, ho, my pretty Brown B.," said Conrad gently, as he patted the
+mare's sleek neck, "that's the pace to give 'em!" A sharp twinge in his
+shoulder set his lips together, and an oath, having Congressman Baxter
+as its objective, came from between his teeth. "I'll write that damned
+Baxter a letter," he broke out savagely, "that will singe his eyelashes
+when he reads it!"
+
+His thoughts went back to the subject which so frequently occupied
+them--his lifelong, vengeful quest of the man who had despoiled his
+father, wrought destruction upon their home, and changed the current of
+his own life. His heart waxed hot as he recalled his interview with
+Rutherford Jenkins. Never for an instant had he doubted that Jenkins's
+statement was a deliberate lie. Smiling grimly, he stroked the mare's
+mane. "I was a fool, wasn't I, Betty, to suppose I'd get straight goods
+out of him. It cost me five hundred dollars to find out that he's a
+skunk,--which I knew before. I deserved all I got, didn't I, Betty, for
+not having more gumption."
+
+The frontiersman's caution, which grows almost instinctive in one who
+rides much alone over plain and mountain, sent his eyes now and again to
+search the long stretch of road that trailed its faint gray band across
+the hills behind and before him and to scan the sun-flooded reach from
+horizon to horizon. A red stain accentuated the meeting line of sky and
+plain in the west.
+
+"Betty Brown, do you see that red mark yonder?" he said, gently pulling
+her ear. "That means a sand-storm, and we've got to hike along at a
+pretty stiff pace while we can. What do you think about it, my lady?"
+The mare raised her head and gave a little snort. "Smell it, don't you?"
+he went on as he patted her approvingly. "Well, that's where you're
+smarter than I am, for I reckon I shan't be able to do that for another
+hour."
+
+He fell silent again, thinking of the Delafield matter and Jenkins's
+assertion that Bancroft was Delafield. "He sure knows who Delafield is,"
+was his conclusion, announced aloud, "but he's not going to tell. He's
+probably blackmailing the man, whoever he is, and he won't take any
+chances that would be likely to spoil his income. Well, that proves that
+Delafield is somebody in New Mexico rich enough and prominent enough to
+make it worth while for Jenkins to keep his knowledge to himself. I've
+got that much for my five hundred, anyway. Lord, Betty, wasn't I a
+tenderfoot!" and he swore under his breath, half angrily, half amusedly,
+as he turned again to study the road and the plain. The heat haze was
+rising, and the clear white sunlight was master of earth and sky. Far to
+one side he noted the silvery lake of a mirage. But the red line had
+mounted higher, and become a low, dirty-red wall that seemed to fence
+the western expanse from north to south. "It sure looks like a bad one,
+Betty, and I'm afraid we shan't be able to get home to-night after all.
+But we'll make Adobe Springs anyway, if it doesn't catch us too soon."
+
+The pain in his shoulder brought his mind back to the conviction that
+Baxter had instigated the assault upon him, and he began searching for
+the motive. Did the Congressman think his political opposition important
+enough to make his taking off desirable? Suddenly he slapped his thigh
+and broke out aloud: "Lord! what if Baxter should be Delafield! He
+sure ought to be if there's anything in the eternal fitness of things.
+If he should be--ah-h," and he broke off with a hard, unmirthful
+laugh. Ransacking his memory for all he knew of Baxter's life he
+presently shook his head regretfully. "No; the facts are against it.
+There's nothing in that lead. It's a pity, though, for it would be a
+satisfaction--to say nothing of the public benefit--to knock 'em both
+off the roost at one pop." His mind busied itself with conjectures about
+Delafield's identity, as he considered first one and then another of the
+more prominent men in the Territory. He was silent so long that the mare
+tossed her head impatiently and whinnied. Curtis smiled and stroked her
+mane.
+
+"Hello, old girl!" he said aloud, "getting lonesome, are you, and you
+want to be talked to. Oh, you're spoiled, Betty B., that's what you are.
+We'll go up the hill and see Miss Bancroft, won't we, Betty, while we're
+in Golden; and we'll take that cactus to her, and help her plant it. And
+she'll come out to the fence to see you, Betty; and she'll give you a
+lump of sugar, and pat your nose, and look as sweet as a pink rose with
+brown velvet eyes. She's a bully fine girl and we like her, don't we,
+Betty Brown? The way she sticks by her father is great; he couldn't help
+being a first-class fellow, could he, B. B., with such a daughter as
+that?"
+
+The red wall was rising in the sky, devouring its sunlit blue and
+spreading out into smoky-red, angry-looking clouds. A high wind, hot
+and dry, swept across the plain from the west. All the cattle within
+Conrad's range of vision had turned their heads to the east and,
+although they were still grazing, moved only in that direction. Seeing a
+herd of antelope headed the same way, Curtis took the red bandanna from
+his neck and waved it toward them. As the bright signal floated in the
+wind their leader turned, stared, and began to walk back, the whole herd
+following with raised heads and gaze fixed in fascinated interest. He
+flaunted the red square and they came steadily on, until presently the
+warning of danger in the hot wind and the odor of the approaching storm
+overcame the compulsion of curiosity, and they wheeled again, away from
+the threatened peril.
+
+The small life of the plain was fleeing before the furnace-like breath
+of those red, surging clouds. Jackrabbits leaped across the road on
+fleet legs, and occasionally Conrad saw coyotes, singly or in packs,
+running eastward as for their lives. Fat carrion crows hurried their
+unwieldy flight and, higher in the air, a frequent lone hawk sailed out
+of the west, while now and then a road-runner cut across his path with
+hasting feet.
+
+"It's going to be a bad one, I guess," Curtis muttered, jamming his
+soft hat down closer on his head. The mare seemed to be trying of her
+own accord to escape the storm, and her swinging lope was steadily
+leaving the miles behind. "Keep it up, Betty, keep it up," he said
+encouragingly. "I want to reach Adobe Springs and get this message to
+Baxter off my mind. My shoulder's aching, old girl, but it ain't aching
+a bit more than I am to tell him what I think of him."
+
+Soon the sand-storm was upon them, concealing the landscape and covering
+the sky with its clouds. Upon man and beast it beat as bitterly as a
+sand-blast. It pelted and stung Conrad's face and neck, and filled his
+eyes and ears and nostrils until he was forced now and again to pull his
+hat over his face for a moment's respite in which to draw a less choking
+breath. "It looks as if all Arizona had got up and dusted, and was
+hell-bent to get out of here," he jested grimly, as he bent over the
+mare's neck and encouraged her with voice and gentle stroke. "That shows
+good sense, Betty, though it's mighty hard on us. Come right along, old
+girl; we must get to Adobe Springs."
+
+[Illustration: "UPON MAN AND BEAST THE SAND-STORM BEAT BITTERLY"]
+
+As the air grew thicker there shone from the sky, instead of the vivid
+white sunshine of a few hours before, only a dim, diffused, lurid
+light. Even to Curtis, sitting quartering in the saddle with his back
+twisted toward the wind, Brown Betty's ears were barely visible. For a
+while he allowed the mare to follow the road herself, until he found
+that her sense of duty must be supplemented by authority. For, under the
+discomfort of the belaboring wind and stinging sand, she began to yield
+to her instinct to turn tail and drift before the storm. Then he knew
+that he must keep a firm hand on the bridle, and his attention at the
+highest pitch, or they would soon be wandering helplessly over the
+plain. He walked long distances beside the mare, with his body shielding
+her head and with speech and caress keeping up her courage. Their
+progress was slow, for the force of the storm was so great that, though
+it beat against them from the side, they could struggle through it only
+at a walk.
+
+Hour after hour went by, and the only sign of its passage was that a
+dim, yellowish centre of illumination, that had once been the sun, crept
+slowly across the sky. As the day grew older Conrad's pain from his
+injury became more acute. Most of the time he felt it only as an
+insistent background to the keen outward discomfort of stinging sand and
+pounding wind. But when an occasional sharper twinge brought it more
+vividly to his consciousness he swore a little between his teeth, and
+thought of the letter he was going to write to Dellmey Baxter. The
+particles of sand filled his hair and encrusted his face and neck until
+they were of a uniform brick-red. Constant effort and encouragement were
+necessary to keep Brown Betty in the road, and finally he was compelled
+to walk at her head most of the time and with a guiding hand on her
+bridle counteract the unflagging urge of her instinct to drift before
+the blast.
+
+Thus they battled their way through the hot, beating wind and
+suffocating sand, while that vague core of light moved athwart the dirty
+heavens, dropped slowly down the western sky, and was swallowed up in
+the denser banks of dusk above the horizon. It had been too dark before
+for the discernment of objects, but a yellowish glare had filtered
+through the sand-laden air, lending a lurid, semi-translucence to the
+atmosphere. Now even that was gone, leaving a desert enveloped in pitchy
+darkness, while the wind roared about the ears of the travellers and
+pounded their bodies as with cudgels and the sand pelted their skins.
+
+Most of the time Curtis depended upon the feel of the road under his
+feet to maintain his direction, but now and then it was necessary for
+him to get down on his hands and knees in order to recover the track
+from which they had begun to stray. Once his fingers came in contact
+with a small feathered body. The bird tried to start up under his hand.
+He knew it must be disabled and placed it inside his shirt. Thus they
+plodded on through the night and the storm, the pain in his shoulder
+growing keener and the torture of the wind and sand ever more
+nerve-racking.
+
+At last the mare raised her head and gave a long whinny. Conrad felt
+sure that she was announcing their near approach to the food and shelter
+within the adobe houses. "What is it, Betty? Do you know where we are?"
+he asked, and she rubbed her nose against his face, nickered, and pulled
+at the bridle with the evident desire to turn from the direction they
+were pursuing. Curtis knew they were in a little hollow, and thought it
+might be that into which the road dipped after leaving the houses.
+
+"All right, Betty," he said. "I'll follow your lead a little way, but be
+cautious, old girl, and don't tie up to any lying hunches." He
+slackened his hold on the bridle, and the mare started off eagerly. They
+climbed a hill, and presently Conrad was aware of a black mass before
+him. Putting out his hand he felt an adobe wall. The mare crowded close
+against it, and stopped. She had left the road, which took the hill at a
+long sloping angle from the foot of the rise, and had climbed straight
+up the steep incline. He felt his way around the corner, unfastened the
+door, and entered. An emphatic "Whew!" gave vent to his feeling of
+relief. The mare, close at his heels, snorted in response, and Curtis,
+smiling in the dark, threw his arm across her neck in fellowship and
+said, "Feels good, doesn't it, Betty B., to get out of that hurricane
+from hell?"
+
+By the light of a lantern he led the mare to the spring, stabling her
+afterward in one of the houses. "In the best society, Betty Brown," he
+explained, "it's not considered good form for horses to sleep in men's
+houses. But you deserve the best I can give you to-night, blest if you
+don't, old girl, and you shall have it, too." He gathered together, for
+her food and her bed, the alfalfa hay from several of the bunks, and
+found for her also a small measure of oats. Then, having attended to
+her wants, he looked about for something to stay his own hunger.
+
+It was his custom to keep some canned provisions in the place, as the
+station was much used by his men. On a little smouldering fire in one
+corner of the room, he made some tea in a tin can. A frying-pan hung
+against the wall, and in it, awkwardly fumbling with his one useful
+hand, he contrived to warm a stew of tinned _chile con carne_ and pilot
+bread. Fine sand drifted in and settled in a red dust over the food as
+he ate, and he could feel its grit between his teeth.
+
+The bird he had carried in his bosom he found to be a Southwestern
+tanager. Its pinkish-red plumage shone with a silvery radiance in the
+lamplight. One of its legs was broken, and one wing had been injured.
+"I'll take it to Miss Bancroft," he said aloud, "and she'll care for it
+till it can shift for itself again, poor little devil!"
+
+With intense satisfaction Conrad at last sat down to the letter in which
+he had all day been longing to express his feelings. "I wonder," he
+thought, "if Dellmey Baxter did it because he don't like the things I
+say about him. Well, he'll have to get used to it, then, for I'm not
+going to quit." There was a grim smile on his face as he wrote:
+
+     "I consider it the square thing to tell you that I am onto the game
+     of your man, José Gonzalez. We had our first set-to this morning,
+     in which he winged me, but I got the best of him. I could have
+     killed him if I had wanted to, but he is such a good cowboy I hated
+     to do him up. I am going to keep him in my employ, but I want you
+     to understand, distinctly, that if he makes another crack at me I
+     shall go to Santa Fe as quick as I can get there and make a
+     Christmas gift of you to the devil before you know what's
+     happening.
+
+               "Yours truly,
+                    "CURTIS CONRAD.
+
+     "P. S. I am still shouting for Johnny Martinez for Congress. C. C."
+
+"There!" he exclaimed, as he sealed the envelope and threw it down
+contemptuously; "I sure reckon he won't be so anxious for me to turn up
+my toes with my boots on after he reads that."
+
+The pain in Conrad's arm and shoulder had become so keen that he could
+not sleep. He lay in his bunk listening to the rattling of the door and
+the rage of the wind against the house, seeking to keep his mind from
+the stabbing pain long enough to sink into unconsciousness. But no
+sooner did his eyelids begin to close down heavily than a fresh throb
+made him start up again wide awake. This irritated him more than did the
+other suffering, and finally he jumped up angrily, found a copy of
+Lecky's "History of European Morals," and, with the muttered comment,
+"This is about what I need to-night," settled himself on an empty
+cracker box and read the night away. Toward morning he became aware that
+the wind was abating, and a little later that less sand was drifting
+into his retreat.
+
+Breakfast was eaten and Brown Betty cared for by lamplight and with the
+first dim rays of morning he set out once more upon the road. The bird
+was again in his bosom, and the cactus, wrapped in old newspapers,
+rested at the back of his saddle. The storm had passed, but the air was
+still full of dust particles through which the sun shone, red and smoky.
+Curtis knew that these would settle gradually with the passing hours and
+the sky become as clear as usual. Already he could see the road for
+several rods in front of him, and that was all he needed to keep it
+flying under Brown Betty's feet.
+
+At the ranch house Mrs. Peters told him that a man had been there
+looking for work and described his appearance. "Yes; he overtook us at
+Rock Springs, and I hired him," Conrad said. Then, remembering the
+account Andy Miller had given of his previous situation, he asked her if
+the man had said where he came from.
+
+"No," she replied; "he didn't say where he'd been working; but he came
+from toward Golden."
+
+The superintendent thought the discrepancy rather curious, but decided
+it was nothing more than a not unusual cowboy eccentricity of statement.
+He resumed his journey with no misgivings, and mid-afternoon found him
+arguing with the physician at Golden that he might just as well start
+back to the round-up that same night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE FIRST SHOT
+
+
+Alexander Bancroft sat in his private room with Curtis Conrad's return
+checks before him. They were not many: one in favor of his brother at
+the University of Michigan, one for a mail order house in Chicago, a
+small one to a New York publishing concern,--and his eyes fell upon the
+name of Rutherford Jenkins and the amount,--five hundred dollars. He
+stared at the slip of paper for a moment, conviction rushing to his mind
+that his pursuer knew the truth; then he took his revolver from his
+pocket and examined its chambers. "I may have to do him up myself!" he
+thought, his lips tightening. But sudden hesitation gripped his heart.
+Until within a few weeks he had considered Curtis one of his best
+friends, had liked the young cattleman whole-heartedly, admiring and
+enjoying his impulsiveness, his geniality, his ardent loyalty to his
+friends, and his equally ardent hostility to those he disliked. Now the
+good-fellowship he had been accustomed to feel stopped his hand. "Can it
+be possible," he asked himself for the hundredth time, "that this
+eager-hearted, companionable fellow will really carry out his deadly
+purpose?" He recalled the intensity with which Conrad had spoken of his
+long quest for revenge, his vehemence toward his enemies, his
+impetuosity. Again conviction grew strong upon him that, when the man
+knew, the end would come. The frontier code by which he had lived so
+long nerved his heart, and he muttered, "He shan't smash things--now!
+I'll smash him before I'll let him do that!"
+
+He swung the revolver into position and took sight. As his eye glanced
+down the barrel he saw that it was pointing at Lucy's pictured face,
+smiling down from the top of his desk; his hand shook as he laid down
+the weapon. There was a knock at the door, and he made sudden pretence
+of close attention to the papers before him. The door partly opened and
+he heard Conrad's voice outside. Surety of imminent peril seized
+Bancroft's mind. The instinct of self-defence sent his hand to his
+revolver, and he sprang up, pulling the trigger. Curtis rushed in at the
+report, calling out, "What's the matter, Aleck?" The banker had just
+time to stay his finger at sight of the friendly face and solicitous
+manner.
+
+"I didn't hurt you, did I, Curt?" he asked anxiously, sinking back in
+his chair and looking at Conrad's arm, helpless in a sling. The bullet,
+they found, had nicked the top of the door and buried itself in the
+ceiling. "I was looking my revolver over when you knocked," Bancroft
+explained, "and had just been aiming at that spot on the wall. My finger
+must have pulled the trigger unconsciously. The thing's set to a hair,
+anyway. I must have it fixed. What's the matter with your arm, Curt?"
+
+In the revulsion of feeling that swept over him as he realized that the
+cattleman was as friendly as ever and that therefore his secret was
+still safe, he felt genuinely thankful that his bullet had gone wild.
+
+Conrad told of his fight with José Gonzalez. "You're getting the truth
+about it, Aleck," he went on; "but to everybody else I'm saying that I
+got horned by a steer, knocked over, and my collar bone cracked. I'm
+convinced it's some of Dell Baxter's work. I reckon I've been saying out
+loud just what he is too often to please him. But the letter I've sent
+him will buffalo him quick enough. José's a good cowboy, and I'm going
+to keep him. But I don't want the boys to know anything about our little
+scrap. So I'm saying it was a steer on the prod that did it."
+
+Bancroft's thoughts were active as he lighted his cigar. That check--it
+must have been Castleton money, to be handled for Johnny Martinez.
+Perhaps security might still be compassed without bloodshed. In
+thankfulness that he had not killed the man who was still his friend he
+revolted against the purpose of the Mexican, to which he knew in his
+soul he had given tacit consent. He did not want this cordial,
+confiding, good fellow struck down--if his own safety could be otherwise
+secured.
+
+"You'd better give the Mexican his time, Curt. He's locoed probably;
+when you get back you may find he's killed half your men."
+
+"Well, if he tries running a-muck in that gang," the superintendent
+responded cheerfully, "he'll never do anybody else any harm. Anyway,
+I've settled him for the present; I busted his knife and threw the
+pieces into the pond. No; he's in Dell's pay; that's all there is to it;
+and when Dell reads my letter he'll hike to call his man off. I don't
+expect any more trouble from José."
+
+Bancroft made no reply and Conrad went on: "By the way, Aleck, for a
+full minute yesterday I thought Baxter must be my man--the man I'm
+after, you know--Delafield. I've found out that he's somebody rich and
+respectable here in New Mexico, and when I felt that Baxter must be
+responsible for this attack on me, I lit on him for my meat. But it was
+too good to be true; as soon as I thought it over I saw that Baxter
+couldn't be Delafield. But they're two of a kind all right. Both of 'em
+have got their freight loaded ready to pull out for hell at the drop of
+a hat. Baxter will have to pull his in less than three jumps of a
+bucking horse if he doesn't call off his man. And Delafield will be
+pulling his mighty soon anyway."
+
+Bancroft made a gesture of annoyance. "Curt, you talk too easily about
+killing. You'd make a stranger think you're a bad man of the border,
+instead of the decent citizen you are. For Heaven's sake, man, why don't
+you come to your senses, and see what an ass you'll be making of
+yourself if you try to carry out this fool scheme of revenge that's got
+hold of you? Why don't you accept his offer to pay back the money as
+fast as he can? Let him make restitution, and keep a whole skin; perhaps
+you'll save your own scalp in the bargain."
+
+The seeker after vengeance laughed blithely.
+
+"Aleck, you've no idea what this thing means to me. Why, man, you talk
+as if giving up that plan would be no more than changing my coat! You
+don't know, Aleck--why, to get the drop on Delafield and hold him while
+I tell him what he is in language that will scald him from head to foot,
+and then deal out to him the death he deserves--that's the one thing
+I've lived for all these fifteen years! I'm obliged to you for your
+advice, Aleck; but I know what I'm about."
+
+Bancroft shrank away a little as Curtis talked. His lips tightened as he
+picked up the revolver and sighted it at a calendar on the wall. After a
+moment's silence he looked the other full in the eye and said,
+impressively:
+
+"You forget one thing, Curt. If this man Delafield knows what you are
+doing--and you seem to feel sure he does--he'll be prepared for your
+attack, and you're not likely to have things your own way. Unless he's a
+fool or a coward he'll defend himself, even if he has to kill you doing
+it. And if he has any _sabe_ at all he'll be loaded for you when you get
+there, and have the drop on you before you can say a word."
+
+"Chances of war," Conrad replied serenely. "He's welcome to all he can
+get. But I'm betting my last dollar, and my scalp in the bargain, that
+he can't draw as quick as I can, nor shoot as straight. You bet your
+life, Aleck, when that circus comes off I'll be the star performer."
+
+"Well," said Bancroft slowly, "if you won't listen to reason I suppose
+you'll have to go on, hell-bent, in the gait you've struck--and take the
+consequences. But you're a fool to do it, and I hate to see you making
+such a blind ass of yourself."
+
+Curtis laughed, undisturbed. "That's all right, Aleck. I don't expect
+you to get the joy out of this business that I shall."
+
+He went over to Bancroft's desk and picked up the revolver, examining
+its sights. "They're not right, Aleck," he said. "When I get the use of
+my arm again I'll fix them for you. And you don't use your gun right
+when you want to take quick aim: you don't swing it up quickly and
+steadily, as if you were used to it. You ought to practise, Aleck. Out
+here a man never knows when he may have to defend himself. I've got to
+stay here several days, the doctor says; and while I'm here I'll show
+you a few tricks."
+
+"All right, if you like," Bancroft replied, adding, as he pocketed his
+revolver, "I'm not a very good shot and, as you say, out here a man
+never knows when he may have to defend himself."
+
+Conrad, turning to go, lingered awkwardly. "By the way, Aleck," he
+blurted out, "it has occurred to me that perhaps you are getting tied up
+with Dell Baxter too tight for comfort. I don't want to seem curious
+about your affairs, you know, and I haven't got any big pile--you know
+what my balance is; but whatever I have got you're welcome to, any time,
+if you want to cut loose from Baxter and it will help any."
+
+Bancroft hid a grim smile behind the hand at his moustache as he thought
+of sundry checks of his own making their way toward Conrad's balance.
+"Thank you, Curt; it's very kind and thoughtful of you to make the
+offer, and I appreciate it. But I don't need anything. Baxter and I are
+in partnership in a number of enterprises, but it's all straight
+sailing."
+
+"That's good, and I'm glad to hear it. I was afraid he'd got you under
+his thumb. But remember, Aleck, that my small pile is at your disposal
+any time it will be of use to you."
+
+As the young man left the bank he saw Lucy Bancroft turn the corner
+toward the Mexican quarter and was quickly at her side, relieving her of
+the little bundle she carried. She was going to Señora Melgares, she
+explained, who could wash laces and embroideries and all kinds of dainty
+things beautifully with _amole_ root. She was taking her some of Miss
+Dent's and her own fineries, and hoped to get her a great deal of work
+from others. "The poor thing!" said Lucy earnestly, her eyes wide and
+soft with sympathy. "She is so heartbroken over the affair! You've
+heard? Mr. Gaines died the other day, and Melgares has been indicted for
+murder. My father says he'll surely be found guilty and will probably be
+hanged. The poor señora!"
+
+When they reached the little adobe house Lucy asked Curtis to go in with
+her, saying, "I'm not very sure of my Spanish, and I'd be glad to have
+you come in and help me out." They found Señora Melgares sitting with
+her head buried in her arms, her hair dishevelled, and her face, when
+she raised it, eloquent of grief and despair. But she greeted them with
+grave and gracious courtesy. Lucy impulsively took her hand and held it
+in both her own while she presented Señor Conrad. At the name the woman
+drew her slight figure together with a convulsive movement, her dark
+face lighting with interest.
+
+"Don Curtis? Señor Don Curtis Conrad?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"The same, señora," he answered in Spanish, bowing gravely.
+
+"The same whose mare--?" she began, her expressive countenance finishing
+the query. Conrad bowed again. The woman sank down in her chair, her
+face in her hands, swaying back and forth as she moaned and sobbed. Lucy
+knelt by her side to comfort her, while Curtis bent over the girlish
+figure and spoke in a low, changed tone that the girl barely recognized,
+so different was it from his usual brisk utterance. It set her nerves
+vibrating in quick, half-conscious conviction of a depth and quality of
+feeling in harmony with her own.
+
+"I am afraid I made a mistake by coming in, Miss Bancroft," he said. "It
+did not occur to me that she would connect me with her husband's
+trouble. Won't you please tell her, when she is quieter, that I am very
+sorry about the whole affair, that I have no feeling against him, and
+that I'll gladly do for him whatever I can. I think I'd better go now,
+but I'll wait outside for you, and if I can be of any use you must call
+me."
+
+When Lucy joined him a little later her face showed signs of tears, and
+as they walked back she was preoccupied and perturbed. She wished to see
+her father, so Curtis left her at the door of the bank.
+
+"Daddy!" Lucy exclaimed as she rushed to his side, her eyes shining and
+her face aglow. "Oh, daddy, Señora Melgares has just told me the
+strangest thing! Mr. Conrad was with me, but he went out because she
+cried so, and he didn't hear what she said. I tried to quiet and comfort
+her, and finally she told me that her husband had been persuaded and
+paid to steal Mr. Conrad's horse by a man who said he wanted to get even
+with him for something. She told me his name--you and Mr. Tillinghurst
+and Judge Banks were talking about him the other day--Mr. Jenkins--Don
+Rutherford Jenkins, she called him."
+
+Anticipation warmed Bancroft's heart as she spoke. If the story was true
+it might give him just the hold on Jenkins that he wanted. He made her
+repeat the details of her conversation with the Mexican woman. "Did you
+say anything about it to Conrad?" he asked in conclusion.
+
+"No, daddy; I thought I ought to tell you about it first."
+
+"Quite right, Lucy. You were very prudent. And don't mention it now, to
+him or to anybody."
+
+"No, of course not. But, daddy, won't that make it better for poor José
+Maria? Mr. Jenkins is the one that ought to be punished--he and Mr.
+Baxter; and poor ignorant Melgares ought to be let off very easily.
+Don't you think so, daddy?"
+
+One of her hands rested on his shoulder. He took the other in both of
+his as he smiled at her indulgently. Her news had so heartened him that
+he hardly noticed her connection of Baxter with the affair. "I don't
+know about that, daughter. It isn't likely to have any effect, because
+his indictment is for murder--you know he killed Gaines while resisting
+arrest--and his motive in stealing the horse has no connection with that
+crime. I'm glad you told me about it, dear. I'll talk with Melgares
+myself, and see what can be done. I suppose his wife must be having a
+hard time. You might give her some money. And ask her," he said as he
+handed Lucy some bills, "not to speak about this Jenkins matter to any
+one else. Be sure you impress that upon her. It's a pretty bad case, but
+you can tell his wife that everything possible will be done for him.
+Dell Baxter is coming down to undertake his defence; he does it for
+nothing. So you mustn't think so badly of him hereafter, when you see
+how willing he is to make what amends he can to the poor fellow."
+
+Lucy threw her arms about his neck and kissed his forehead. "Daddy,
+you're awfully good and kind--the best man in the world! About Mr.
+Baxter, though--" she paused to toss her head, and a little sparkle
+shone in her eyes--"well, I'm glad he has the decency to do it, but it's
+no more than he ought; and before I think much better of him I'll wait
+to see if he drives any more of the poor Mexicans out of their homes."
+
+Bancroft began to plan hopefully. He would see Melgares and get the
+exact facts. If this story was true it would be just the sword he
+needed to hang over Jenkins. Evidently he had told Conrad nothing;
+therefore that check must have been campaign money from Ned Castleton to
+be used for the benefit of Martinez. Jenkins would not be likely to
+talk: it would ruin his chance of making money out of it himself. As for
+Curtis--perhaps, after all, he would not be unreasonable about the offer
+to make restitution. Another check would reach him soon, with assurance
+of more to follow speedily. Surely the man was too sensible to cast
+aside such a start in life as this money would give him, just to carry
+out a crazy notion that would end in his own ruin.
+
+"But if he will go on, he'll have nobody but himself to blame for
+whatever happens," he thought. "I've given him fair warning."
+
+The encouragement he felt turned his thoughts toward Louise Dent. In the
+intimacy of their daily life since she had been Lucy's visitor he had
+found her ever more lovable. He began to think, as he looked into her
+eyes and felt the restrained sweetness of her manner, that when he
+should be free to speak she would welcome his feeling, and have for it
+an intoxicating return. But he could say nothing until the settlement
+of this affair left no further danger of discovery and disgrace.
+
+"She must not know--neither she nor Lucy shall know--never--never a word
+or hint," he thought desperately. True, Louise was not so unsparing in
+her moral judgments as Lucy; she was older, and, with more knowledge of
+the world, had more tolerance for the conditions under which men lived
+and worked. But if all that past, the past that he had believed buried
+beyond resurrection, should suddenly confront him, she and Lucy would be
+horrified. They would despise him. The respect, honor, and love for
+which he hungered would die; if they stayed beside him it would only be
+for compassion's sake. In the fierce mood that possessed him as he
+thought of going down again into dishonor he was ready to strike out at
+anybody's pity. This thing must not be. He had won his way back to
+position, power, affluence; he held the love and honor of his daughter
+and of the woman he hoped to make his wife; what he had won he would
+keep. His lips whitened as he struck the desk with his clenched fist.
+
+"The past is dead, and it's got to stay dead," he muttered. "I'll win
+out yet, by God!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SECOND SHOT
+
+
+Four days later the physician gave Conrad dubious permission to return
+to the round-up. "Well, I may as well say you can go," he surrendered,
+"since you are determined to go anyway. But don't blame me if your
+wounds get worse."
+
+Most of this time the cattleman spent at the Bancrofts', where Lucy and
+Miss Dent tried to make an invalid of him, and all three enjoyed the
+comradeship that straightway sprang up among them. Between Lucy and
+Curtis there was much bantering gayety, but when alone their talk was
+sure to flow into serious channels. They had many long conversations,
+wherein each was deeply interested in everything the other said. They
+had much music also, Miss Dent playing and the others singing duets.
+Lucy was very happy. She beamed and sparkled, with glowing eyes and
+dimpling smiles, and her manner, the whole being of her, expanded into
+maturer womanliness. Between Miss Dent and Conrad there was from the
+first a mutual liking, which quickly developed into confidential
+friendship. On his last day in town, while helping Lucy water the plants
+in her conservatory, he spoke to her admiringly of Miss Dent.
+
+"I'm so glad you like my Dearie!" she responded warmly, looking up at
+him with a glow of pleasure. "She's the dearest, sweetest woman! And you
+always feel you can depend on her. If you put your hand out you always
+know just where you can find Louise Dent, and you know she'll be as firm
+as a rock. She's been so good to me! And she's always so restful and
+calm--she has so much poise. But, do you know--" she hesitated as she
+stopped in front of the cage that held the tanager Curtis had brought
+for her care. His physician had splinted its broken leg and bound its
+injured wing, and together they were anxiously watching its recovery.
+"It's been eating, Mr. Conrad!" she broke off joyously. "Let's give it
+more seeds and fresh water!" As they ministered to the bird's needs
+Curtis went on about Miss Dent.
+
+"Yes; she seems to have a calm sort of nature, but when I look at her I
+find myself wondering if that is because she has never been moved very
+deeply, or because she keeps things hidden deep down. Her eyes are set
+rather close together, which generally means, you know, an ability to
+get on the prod if necessary; and sometimes there is a look in them that
+makes you feel as if she might break out into something unexpected."
+
+Lucy was looking up at him with the keenest interest in her face. The
+southwestern sun had kissed her skin into rich browns and reds, and she
+carried gracefully her slender girlish figure. Her head, with its
+covering of short brown curls, always held alertly, gave to her aspect a
+savor of piquant charm. Curtis looked down into her upturned face and
+eager eyes with admiration in his own. Under her absorption in the
+subject of their talk she felt herself thrill with sweet, vague
+happiness.
+
+"Do you know, I've been feeling that very same thing about Dearie," she
+said in confidential tones. "She seems more restless lately, although I
+know she's perfectly happy here with us. She has just the same quiet,
+gentle manner, but it seems as if there might be a volcano under it--not
+really, you know, but as if there might be if--if--I don't quite know
+how to say it--if things just got ready for it to be a volcano!"
+
+"Do you think anybody would know it," asked Conrad, "even if it was
+really there?"
+
+"I know what you mean--yes, she has wonderful self-control--I never saw
+anybody who could hide her feelings as she can, and always does. I've
+been thinking lately that if Dearie were in love--" Lucy hesitated a
+moment while a deeper glow stained her cheek--"she's just the sort of
+woman to do anything, anything at all, for the sake of it."
+
+"Yes; and not get excited over it, either," added Curtis.
+
+When Lucy went to attend to some household duties, Conrad sauntered out
+to the veranda, where he found Miss Dent with her sewing. He happened to
+refer to his boyhood; and she asked some questions that led him to speak
+of his youthful struggles. She was interested, and wanted to know the
+cause of his father's financial ruin. He hesitated before replying, the
+matter touched so nearly the secret core of his life and thought. Few,
+even among his intimates, knew anything about the vengeful purpose that
+had motived half his life, and he disliked ordinarily to say anything
+about the cause of his early misfortunes. But the habit of close and
+friendly speech into which he and Louise had fallen, coupled perhaps
+with a softening of feeling toward her sex that had been going on within
+him, moved him to openness. "It won't matter," he thought. "She's such a
+level-headed woman; and I've told Aleck already."
+
+"I don't often speak about it," he said, "but I don't mind telling you,
+for you are such a good friend of the Bancrofts, and Aleck knows the
+story. Of course, you'll understand that I don't care to have it
+discussed generally. My father's disasters all came from his getting
+caught in a specious financial scheme engineered by one Sumner L.
+Delafield of Boston."
+
+An indrawn breath, sharp and sudden, made him look quickly at his
+companion. "Have you hurt yourself?" he asked solicitously.
+
+"Oh, I jabbed my needle under my thumb nail. Such an awkward thing to
+do! It gave me a little shock, that's all. Go on, please. What sort of a
+scheme was it?"
+
+He told her briefly the story of his father's ruin and death, and
+outlined the transactions that led to Delafield's failure. As he spoke
+his heart waxed hot against the man who had caused the tragedy, as it
+always did when he thought long upon the subject, and he went on
+impulsively to tell her of his long-cherished purpose of revenge. She
+listened with drooped eyelids, and when she spoke, at his first pause,
+there was a slight quaver in her voice.
+
+"You don't mean that you really intend to kill the man?"
+
+"I do, that very thing. What's more, it's my notion that killing is too
+gentle for his deserts. For, of course, my case is only one out of many.
+And any man who would deliberately bring ruin and death into so many
+households--don't you think yourself he's worse than any murderer?"
+
+She forced herself to raise her eyes and, once she had met his gaze, her
+own was cool and steady. But if Curtis had not been so absorbed in their
+discussion he might have seen that her face was paler than usual and her
+manner nervous, as she replied earnestly:
+
+"But you forget, Mr. Conrad, that the man had no intention of doing
+these things, and that probably he involved himself in as much financial
+disaster as he did others. I've heard of the case before; I knew some
+people once who--were concerned in it--who lost money by it--and I've
+always understood that the failure was due more to Delafield's sanguine
+temperament and over-confidence in his plans than to any deliberate
+wrongdoing. Don't you think, Mr. Conrad, that killing is a rather severe
+punishment for mistakes of judgment?"
+
+He answered with the rapid speech and quick gestures he was wont to use
+when under the stress of strong feeling. "I can't take that lenient view
+of the case, Miss Dent. My conviction is that he got some money out of
+the affair, though not as much as he is generally supposed to have
+taken, and ran away with it. I've studied the case pretty thoroughly,
+and I've trailed him along from one place to another for years. I'm hot
+on his tracks now; and he knows it. I've followed him into New Mexico,
+and I know he's somebody in this Territory, prosperous and respectable.
+He can't escape me much longer."
+
+She had been thinking intently as she studied the expression of his
+face. "It's not worth while to try argument or persuasion with him;
+opposition would only make him obstinate," was her conclusion. Her
+manner was as composed as usual, and only her eyes showed a trace of
+anxiety as she spoke, slowly and thoughtfully, her gaze searching his
+countenance:
+
+"Well, if you say you are going to take revenge upon him in this savage
+way I suppose you will do it--if that chin of yours means anything. You
+haven't asked my opinion, but I'm going to tell you anyway that it seems
+to me unwise and unjust and most unworthy of you to allow such an idea
+to become the obsession that this one has. But I want to know how you
+managed to keep your family together. That was a wonderful thing for a
+boy of fifteen to do."
+
+"Oh, I don't deserve so much credit for it. Of course, I couldn't have
+done it without help. Our guardian wanted to distribute us children
+around among the relatives; but I wouldn't have it that way, and begged
+so hard that at last he gave in. Two of my father's cousins lent money
+enough to pay off the mortgage on our home, on our guardian's
+representation that he should be able to save enough out of the wreck to
+pay it back in time. He did so; and we children kept a roof over our
+heads.
+
+"A cousin of my mother's, a widow without children, offered to live with
+us and keep house. We rented part of the place and lived in close
+quarters in what was left. I worked like a Turk at anything and
+everything that brought in a penny; and so, all together, we had enough
+to eat and wear, and I was able to keep the girls and Homer in school. I
+went to night school and sat up reading anything I could get my hands on
+when I ought to have been in bed. It was hard sledding sometimes, but we
+pulled through. And I had good friends who saw that I was never out of a
+job of some sort.
+
+"After a while our cousin married again and left us; but by that time my
+sisters were old enough to take charge of the housekeeping, and we got
+on very well. Ten years ago they both married, and I said to Homer:
+'Let's sell the house and give the money to the girls; you and I can
+shift for ourselves, and we don't want them to go to their husbands with
+nothing at all.' The kid was game, and so we sold the place and divided
+the money between Helen and Jeannette. Then I put Homer in school and
+struck out for myself. I've sent him to college, and he'll be graduated
+next year. But he's worked right along, and helped himself a heap.
+There's sure good stuff in the lad.
+
+"This Summer I'm not going to let him work; the rest of the way is
+clear enough now, and I want him to come down here with me, and learn to
+rope a steer and bust a bronco and go camping, and have a good out-doors
+time of it for his last college vacation."
+
+As she listened with her eyes fixed upon his face, Miss Dent's attention
+had been half upon his story and half upon the man behind it, searching
+out his character through his words. The conviction settled in her mind
+that his vengeful intention was rooted deep, and that the more he talked
+of it the more set would he become in his purpose.
+
+"I like your story," she said. "It is one of those tales of human effort
+that make one have more faith in human nature. But the climax you intend
+to put upon it is--horrible!" He noticed the slight movement of
+repulsion with which she spoke the word. "But that's your affair," she
+went on. "Did I understand you--did you say--" In spite of her
+self-control she was stumbling over the question. She masked her
+momentary confusion with an absorbed interest in getting her sewing
+together. "Did you say that Mr. Bancroft knows--that you have told him
+this story?"
+
+"Yes; I told him the outlines of it a little while ago, apropos of a
+check I had from Delafield. The rascal thinks he can buy me off that
+way. That shows he's buffaloed. But he'll find out I'm not that sort."
+
+"No; I shouldn't think you were. But Lucy--does she know anything about
+it?"
+
+He looked up in surprise. "Why, no; of course not."
+
+Bancroft was coming through the gate, bringing Judge Banks with him; and
+Lucy joined them a moment later. The talk turned on the coming trial of
+José Maria Melgares, the narrow escape of Pendleton from Melgares'
+bullet, and the death of Gaines as the result of his own foolhardy
+horse-play. They spoke of Little Jack Wilder's skill with the revolver,
+and Conrad reminded Bancroft of their agreement to do some target
+practice together.
+
+"Let's all go out in the back yard now," Lucy exclaimed, "and Miss Dent
+and I will shoot too! Wouldn't you like it, Dearie? Come on! it will be
+such fun!"
+
+While they were setting up the target Sheriff Tillinghurst came to speak
+to Judge Banks upon an official matter; and Lucy asked him to stay and
+help her shoot.
+
+"You-all use my gun, Miss Lucy, and then you'll be sure to have good
+luck," he replied, drawing his revolver from his pocket. It was a small
+pearl-handled six-shooter, which the ladies admired, and the men jibed
+at for its daintiness.
+
+"That's all right," he answered good-naturedly. "This gun don't stack up
+much beside a cannon for size, but I can pervade and pester with it a
+right smart heap if I want to. It's a peach of a shooter, and it don't
+show in my clothes. I never have anything on me but that, and I've never
+seen the gun play yet where I got the worst of it. You-all try it, Miss
+Lucy."
+
+Lucy took the revolver, telling him that now she would be his deputy,
+and, with plentiful instruction from Curtis, placed herself in position
+and fired. She hit the bull's-eye and won much applause, until she
+explained that she had fired with both eyes shut and that, if she had
+made a good shot, it was because she couldn't help it with such a
+splendid gun as Mr. Tillinghurst's. Miss Dent took careful aim and,
+without lowering her arm, emptied the remaining chambers, making an
+excellent score. She, too, won a round of applause, to which she replied
+calmly, "Oh, I've known how to shoot for years, and when I am in
+practice I do fairly well."
+
+"You two fellows shoot a match," said Tillinghurst to Bancroft and
+Conrad. "The judge'll be umpire, and each fellow use his own gun at
+thirty paces."
+
+Louise and Lucy stood at one side, where the Sheriff and Judge Banks
+joined them, leaving Bancroft and Conrad to begin their match. Beneath
+her calm exterior Miss Dent's thoughts were in a tumult, and fierce
+resentment against the cattleman was rising in her heart. Had not Aleck
+suffered enough already? Why should he be hunted down like this when he
+was willing to make restitution, even after all these years? Oh, cruel!
+to beat him down again, when he had won success and respect once more!
+This man was a savage in his implacable desire for revenge.
+
+Curtis raised his revolver. With both eyes open and without pausing to
+take aim, he sent a bullet through the bull's-eye. "Delafield won't have
+much chance against a man who can do that!" he exclaimed in a triumphant
+undertone to Bancroft.
+
+As the test of skill went on, it developed that the banker excelled if
+he took time to aim accurately, while he of Socorro Springs was the
+superior at quick shooting.
+
+"It's my specialty in the shooting line," said Curtis. "You'd better
+practise it, Aleck. It's the thing that counts most if you get into a
+scrimmage."
+
+He handed his hat, a wide-brimmed, gray felt, to Judge Banks, asking him
+to throw it up, adding, "I'd do it myself if my left arm wasn't in dry
+dock." He raised his revolver as the hat left the judge's hand; there
+were three quick reports, and he sprang forward and caught the
+descending sombrero on the muzzle of his pistol. The three perforations
+in the crown of the hat were so close together that a silver dollar
+covered them.
+
+"Bravo!" exclaimed the judge. "I don't know but two other men who can do
+that. Little Jack Wilder never misses the trick, and Emerson Mead, over
+at Las Plumas, does it as if he were a machine and couldn't miss. If you
+ever get a grudge against me, Mr. Conrad, I'll engage the undertaker and
+order my tombstone at once!"
+
+Bancroft turned away quickly. He swung his arm upward, fired, and found
+that his bullet had hardly nicked the outer rim of the target.
+
+"Don't pay any attention to your gun," Curtis admonished him. "Keep both
+eyes open, look at the bull's-eye, and unconsciously you'll aim right at
+it. If you get into a gun play, where it's a choice between giving up
+the ghost yourself or getting the other fellow's, you want to fasten
+your eyes on his most accessible part, point your gun that way, and
+shoot on the wink. Between the eyes is a good place, for then you can
+hold him with your own. That's the way I shall fix Delafield," he added,
+dropping his voice.
+
+Cold anger seized upon Bancroft as the picture of that gun muzzle close
+to his own forehead came vividly into his imagination. Until now Conrad
+had not mentioned the subject of Delafield to him since the day of his
+return to town, and the banker's friendly feelings had renewed
+themselves with the growth of his own confidence and with his desire to
+compass what he wished without violence. But Curtis had only to speak of
+his purpose in this cold-blooded manner for the banker to know that he,
+too, was rapidly becoming as implacable as his pursuer.
+
+Judge Banks was talking to Miss Dent about the view and the New Mexican
+climate, and quoting Wordsworth on "the witchery of the soft blue sky."
+She was compelling an expression of smiling interest, while her thoughts
+were with Bancroft and his danger. The desire possessed her to stand
+near him, to hover about him, as if her mere presence would protect him
+from peril. The friendly revolver practice between the two men made her
+sick at heart, and she was waiting with inward impatience for the moment
+when she could propose returning to the veranda.
+
+Lucy and Sheriff Tillinghurst were laughing and talking together in a
+running game of playful coquetry on her part and admiring badinage on
+his. "Now, Miss Lucy," he was saying, "if you-all are going to be my
+deputy, you'll have to learn to shoot with at least one eye open. I
+can't have my deputy shootin' around promiscuous with both eyes shut. It
+might be used against me in the campaign."
+
+"Oh, I'll keep both eyes open, just as Mr. Conrad says," she exclaimed,
+taking the Sheriff's revolver from his hand. "Just like this," she went
+on gayly, pointing the pistol straight at Curtis's face as he came
+toward them, saying, "Now you must have another chance, Miss Bancroft."
+
+Tillinghurst sprang forward as he saw her level the revolver and struck
+it up with his hand. Her pressure on the trigger had been light, but the
+contraction of her finger as the Sheriff knocked it upward discharged
+the weapon. The bullet sang through the air; and she paled and staggered
+backward, looking wildly from one to the other as she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, I was sure it wasn't loaded!"
+
+"A gentleman's gun is always loaded, Miss Lucy," said the Sheriff, mild
+reproof in his tone.
+
+Lucy leaned, trembling, against Miss Dent's supporting arm. "I--I was
+sure we shot out all the bullets," she stammered, looking wistfully at
+Conrad. "I'll never, never touch a gun again."
+
+"Don't feel so worried, Miss Bancroft," urged Curtis, gently. "You
+weren't pressing the trigger, and I'd have ducked if you had, for I was
+watching your hand. I wasn't in the least danger, and you mustn't think
+about it again. It'll be your turn next, Miss Dent," he added jocosely.
+"Aleck had his the other day, and sent a bullet into the wall just above
+my head."
+
+"And you still have confidence in us, you reckless man!" Louise
+exclaimed with a little effort at gayety, but with eyes on the ground.
+
+"Perhaps he thinks he'll be in less danger if he teaches you-all how to
+handle your guns," the Sheriff commented, as Miss Dent led the way back
+to the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THREE LETTERS
+
+
+"Hello, Curt! When are you going back to the ranch?"
+
+Pendleton, the invalid from the East, accosted Conrad as he emerged from
+the physician's office, where he had gone for a last dressing of his
+wounds before returning to the round-up.
+
+"Right now, Mr. Pendleton. Anything I can do for you?"
+
+"Say, Curt, I've been wondering if I couldn't flirt gravel along with
+your bunch for a while. I want to take in everything that's going while
+I'm here. I've never been on a ranch, or seen a round-up, or a steer on
+the prod; and I'd like to see how things are done. Would a tenderfoot be
+in your way?"
+
+"Not a bit of it! Come right along, Pendy, if you think you can stand
+it. You'll have to rough it, you know; sleep on the ground with your
+saddle for a pillow, ride hard, and eat what comes."
+
+"Oh, I can stand whatever the rest of you do. I don't fork a horse as
+well as a cowboy or a circus rider, but I can stick on, and I can get
+there 'most as soon as anybody--I mighty near got there too soon when we
+went after Melgares, didn't I?"
+
+"All right, Pendleton! If you think you can stand it, come right along
+with me this morning. I'm going to ride the rest of the day and most of
+the night; but if that's too much for you you can stop over at the ranch
+to-night, and catch up with us to-morrow."
+
+"I reckon I'll take it all in along with you, and I'll meet you in half
+an hour in front of the court-house," and Pendleton bustled off. Conrad
+went after his mare, dropping into Bancroft's office for a last word.
+
+The president of the First National Bank was reading his morning's mail.
+He frowned over a note from Rutherford Jenkins reminding him that the
+first of the month was approaching, and warning him not to forget the
+remittance due on that day. He looked at the calendar. No; he could not
+take time before the first to go to Las Vegas and crack the whip he was
+preparing over Jenkins's head; he would have to make this payment. Next
+he opened a letter from Dellmey Baxter:
+
+     "MY DEAR BANCROFT:--I think you'd better correct young Conrad's
+     curious notion that I had anything to do with José Gonzalez's
+     attack upon him, or with José's going down there. If you don't he
+     might turn his suspicions in some other direction. Of course,
+     there's nothing in it but that greaser's bad temper. But he thinks
+     there is, and he's just hot-headed enough to make it uncomfortable
+     for anybody he happens to suspect. I didn't send José to him and
+     so, naturally, I can't do anything about it, even if the fellow
+     does get angry and act like the devil.
+
+     "I'm sorry I can't help you in your desire to retire from our Rio
+     Grande valley land business. I'm tied up so that I've got no ready
+     money with which to buy you out. Of course, if you are determined
+     to get out, you might find a purchaser elsewhere. But as a friend I
+     advise you not to sell. There's going to be big money in it, and we
+     can probably launch the enterprise within the next six months.
+     You'll make a great mistake if you quit. If you decide to stay in
+     I'm willing for you to keep on as a silent partner, just as we have
+     done so far."
+
+The banker scowled, swearing softly to himself as he read the first
+paragraph. "Didn't send him, didn't he," he grumbled. "Then who did? I
+didn't, that's sure. He recommended the fellow as a good cowboy, and
+Conrad engaged him. I had nothing to do with it." He was silent again as
+he studied the second part of the letter. A suspicion rose in his mind
+that Baxter was purposely making it difficult, almost impossible, for
+him to get out of the land scheme. What was his purpose in so doing? Did
+the Congressman wish to keep a hold on him to hamper, perhaps even to
+control, his movements? "I wonder," Bancroft thought, "if Dell is afraid
+I'll try to cut him out politically before he's ready to step down. I'd
+like his place well enough if--but that's something out of my reckoning
+for a long time yet, even if everything goes right." The surmise that
+Baxter wished to have such a bridle upon him left him uneasy. Well, he
+would have to let this thing go on as it was. If he tried to sell to any
+one else knowledge of his connection with it might leak out and reach
+Lucy's ears. He winced as he thought of her feeling toward Baxter
+because of this business. And the investment promised well; rich returns
+might be expected from it soon. Nobody knew of his part in it except
+Dell, and if he stayed in and kept quiet it was unlikely that anybody
+else would find it out. That might be the safer plan, after all.
+
+Conrad came to the door, and after a few minutes' talk Bancroft said to
+him, remembering Baxter's injunction, "Well, Curt, I hope you won't find
+that your crazy Mexican has been trying to kill off all your men."
+
+Curtis laughed. "Oh, José will be all right; and he's the best cow-punch
+I've got on the ranch. Dell Baxter will attend to him."
+
+"That's an absurd notion of yours that Baxter had anything to do with
+it," replied Bancroft, the Congressman's letter still in his mind.
+"You're not reasonable about Dell. Why should he want you assassinated?"
+
+"The only reason I can see is that I've been talking pretty plain about
+him. But if he doesn't like the kind of things I say he'll have to get
+used to it, or else reform."
+
+"Nonsense, Curt. And even if he does think you're handling the Castleton
+money against--"
+
+Curtis made a gesture of impatience. "I hope you don't take any stock in
+that talk, Aleck. The Castletons don't care a hang about this campaign,
+and Dell knows it. They're not putting up a cent, or, if Ned is doing
+anything for his wife's sake, he's dealing with Johnny Martinez direct."
+
+Bancroft looked at him narrowly. "Is that right, Curt? Are you sure of
+it?"
+
+"As sure as I am of anything," the cattleman responded with emphasis.
+"They've never mentioned the subject to me."
+
+After Conrad had gone the banker walked the floor in anxious thought.
+What, then, did that five-hundred-dollar check mean that Curtis had
+given to Jenkins? Perhaps he was holding the young man off, saying he
+was not yet sure of Delafield's identity and needed money to carry on
+his investigation, intending to give up his secret if he should find
+that he could bleed Bancroft no longer. That would be like Jenkins, he
+decided. As soon as he could get away he would go to Las Vegas and see
+if the fellow could be cowed by the knowledge that had come to him so
+opportunely. As for Conrad, it would be better to wait until he could
+learn whether those checks would produce the effect desired.
+
+In front of the court-house the ranchman met Tillinghurst and Little
+Jack Wilder. The Sheriff had a subpoena commanding him to appear as a
+witness for the State in the Melgares trial, set for June. Curtis
+remarked, as they talked of the case: "I reckon you'll have Pendleton as
+a witness; he'll want to take in the whole thing. Have you seen
+anything of him? He promised to meet me here. He's going back with me;
+says he wants to take in a round-up and see a steer on the prod. I sure
+reckon I'll have my hands full if I keep the boys from taking him in."
+
+"Let 'em run him, Curt, let 'em run him," said the Sheriff. "He's
+good-natured, and he'll soon strike their gait. He was never outside of
+New England before, and he's tryin' mighty hard to be tougher than
+anybody else on the border. He's been in town three weeks, and he calls
+everybody by their first names, from Judge Banks down to my Mexican
+stable-boy. He writes down all the slang he hears every day, sits up
+nights to study it, and the next day slings it around as free and easy
+as an old-timer. Is that him comin' yonder? Say, Curt, he'll stampede
+every cow-brute you've got on the range!"
+
+Pendleton, short, stout, and large of girth, had dressed himself for
+roughing it according to his own idea of custom and comfort. He wore a
+Mexican straw sombrero tied down over his ears with a red bandanna, a
+red flannel shirt, a long linen coat, huge spurs, and sheepskin
+_chaparejos_.
+
+"Oh, where did you get that coat?" the three men sang out as he came
+within hearing distance. Pendleton caught the tails in his finger tips
+and danced some sidewise steps.
+
+"Ain't she a beaut?" he shouted. "I found it in a store down in
+Dobytown."
+
+"Say, Pendy," called the Sheriff, "if you go pervadin' and pesterin'
+around among Curt's steers in those duds I'll have to send Jack down
+there to arrest you for breach of the peace."
+
+"All right, Tilly! I'm here for my health, but I'm takin' in on the side
+everything that comes my way!"
+
+Conrad found a letter at the ranch addressed to José Gonzalez, in his
+care, and grinned with satisfaction as he recognized Baxter's
+handwriting. "He's buffaloed all right and is calling off his man," he
+thought as he opened with eager curiosity a missive from Baxter for
+himself:
+
+     "MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND:--I assure you that you are barking up the
+     wrong tree when you try to connect me with any attack the Mexican,
+     José Gonzalez, may have made upon you. In fact, it is so much up
+     the wrong tree that I feel pretty sure there isn't any tree there
+     at all! His assault was probably the result of sudden anger. The
+     man has worked for me a good deal, and I know that such is his
+     character. I have some influence with him, and I shall write him at
+     once and give him a lecture on the necessity of controlling his
+     temper. I have had occasion to do this several times in the past,
+     not without effect. I shall tell him that you are a man of your
+     word, and a crack shot, and that if he doesn't keep cool he's
+     likely to die with his boots on. Nobody could blame you, my dear
+     Mr. Conrad, if you should shoot him under such a necessity of
+     self-defence. I take it ill, however, that you should connect me
+     with this greaser's outrageous temper and crazy actions. I assure
+     you again that you are entirely mistaken in your assumption, which,
+     permit me to say, is what might very well be called gratuitous.
+
+     "I congratulate Johnny Martinez upon having the support of a
+     gentleman so energetic, influential, and enthusiastic as yourself,
+     and I remain,
+
+               "Yours very cordially,
+                    "DELLMEY BAXTER."
+
+Conrad laughed aloud over the letter, exclaiming as he finished it,
+"He's a slick one, he is!"
+
+Another letter bore the imprint of Tremper & Townsend, and contained a
+check for five hundred dollars and a brief note saying that their
+client, Sumner L. Delafield, wished them to send him this money as a
+second instalment of the amount due his father's estate, and to add
+that like sums would follow in rapid succession. Conrad scowled and
+gnawed his moustache as he read the letter the second time. He was
+considering whether he had any right to accept the money and continue
+his quest of vengeance. Delafield evidently meant to buy him off with it
+and, if he accepted, did he not tacitly accept that condition?
+
+"I'll send it back to him," was his first thought, as he reached for a
+pen. But another idea stayed his hand. The former check he had divided
+between his brother and sisters, and, as they knew nothing of his scheme
+of revenge, this also ought to go to them. But Delafield must know upon
+what terms he accepted the money. With a grim look on his face he wrote
+to the Boston attorneys:
+
+     "I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a second check for
+     five hundred dollars from your client, Sumner L. Delafield. I am
+     reasonably grateful that an unexpected sense of remorse has led him
+     to loose his purse-strings, even at this late day, and on behalf of
+     my brother and sisters will ask you to send him their thanks. As
+     for myself, you may tell him that I hope the sending of the money
+     has eased his conscience, for it will procure him no other benefit.
+     Every cent of money he sees fit to send me I shall turn over to my
+     father's other children, while I shall find entire satisfaction in
+     following out my revenge. What that is he doubtless knows, for the
+     sending of these checks convinces me that he is moved, not by the
+     honest wish to do what he can toward righting a dastardly wrong,
+     but by the desire to save his own skin. Please tell him, from me,
+     that he cannot buy immunity from my purpose, even though he should
+     send me the whole of the debt three times over."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+VILLAINY UNMASKED
+
+
+Pendleton, bouncing in his saddle as they galloped southward, bent
+admiring glances upon the erect figure of his companion, whose seat was
+as steady as if horse and rider had been welded together. "Say, Curt,"
+he finally called out, "how do you do it? I'd give my bad lung if I
+could ride like you."
+
+Conrad gave him some instruction, and Pendleton turned all his attention
+toward learning how to bring his body into rhythmic accord with the
+movements of his horse. The cattleman, pounding along in silence,
+thought with satisfaction of the progress his search for Delafield was
+making and planned how he should carry it on after the round-up, when he
+would have more leisure. He would make a list of the men in New Mexico
+rich and prominent enough to come under suspicion, investigate their
+records, one by one, and so by elimination discover the person he
+wanted. Then would come the meeting!
+
+His thoughts full of the climax of his search, he rode on in a sort of
+exaltation, unconsciously humming a song he and Lucy Bancroft had been
+practising. Presently, through the silence, the sound entered his
+conscious hearing, and took his thoughts back to the pleasant hour he
+and she had spent over it. But a vague uneasiness stirred his feelings
+as the image of Lucy floated past the background of that grisly,
+dominating purpose. The thought of her persisted; as it clung there,
+along the edge of his absorption, it brought a sharp and curious
+suggestion of the maimed bird he had carried in his bosom. He was
+suddenly conscious of discomfort, as if he had hurt some helpless thing,
+when his reverie was broken by a series of wild yells from his
+companion. Pendleton had been lagging behind, but he now came dashing
+forward, giving vent to his delight because he had so far mastered the
+art of riding that he no longer bounced all over the horse's back nor
+fell forward and seized its mane at each change of gait.
+
+A spring welled alluringly from a dimple in the hillside. Pendleton
+dismounted, saying he was thirsty. "Don't drink from that spring,
+Pendy," Conrad admonished him. "It's alkali, and you'll wish you
+hadn't."
+
+"It looks all right, and it's cool," said the tenderfoot, dipping his
+hand in the water. "My throat's as hot and dry as that road. What harm
+will it do?"
+
+"Well, pretty soon you'll think you're chewing cotton; and it may make
+you sick, though this spring isn't strong enough of alkali to do you
+much harm."
+
+"I'll risk it," Pendleton declared, scooping up some water in his
+hat-brim. "It's wet when it goes down, anyway. And I reckon I might as
+well take in an alkali spring, too, while I've got the chance.
+Everything goes!" An hour later he galloped alongside of Conrad, working
+his jaws and licking his lips. "Say, Curt," he mumbled, "I know a fellow
+back home who'd give a thousand dollars for such a thirst as I've got!"
+
+It was midnight when they passed Rock Springs, where the superintendent
+had left his outfit. Two hours later, when Brown Betty put out her nose
+and neighed, an answering whinny came back from beyond the next hill.
+"That's only Five Cottonwoods," thought Curtis. "It can't be they've got
+no farther than that!" They gained the top of the hill and below them,
+in the light of the waning moon, they saw the white top of the
+chuck-wagon, the dark patch of sleeping cattle patrolled by a single
+horseman, and the figures of the men sprawled on the ground around the
+dying coals of their evening fire.
+
+"Here we are, Pendy!" said Curtis. "I thought they would have got
+farther than this, and that we'd have at least two hours more of travel.
+Now we'll have time for a little sleep before you begin busting those
+broncs."
+
+They stretched themselves on the ground and almost instantly fell
+asleep. But it was not long before Conrad, rousing suddenly, sprang to
+his feet, realizing even before he was fairly awake that the cattle were
+stampeding. From down the hill came a thundering, rushing sound, the
+noise of hundreds of hoofs pounding the ground. He called his foreman,
+seized his saddle, and rushed to the bunch of tethered cow-ponies,
+Peters, Texas Bill, Red Jack, and José Gonzalez close behind. As they
+dashed after the flying herd Curtis could see in the dim light the
+figure of the cowboy who had been patrolling the sleeping cattle. He was
+following the stampede at what his employer thought a leisurely pace.
+
+"Who was riding herd?" he yelled to Peters, who replied, "Andy Miller."
+
+"Is he trying to drive them farther away?" Conrad muttered angrily,
+pressing home his spur.
+
+The cattle tore wildly down the hill, but at its foot their leaders
+turned up the course of the dry shallow valley instead of pressing up
+the other side. The men saw the movement, and by cutting across the
+hillside gained rapidly upon the fleeing animals. As they passed Andy
+Miller, Curtis shouted to him that he might return to the camp, as they
+should not need him. The draw soon began to grow deeper and narrower,
+and the dense mass of cattle was forced to lessen its pace. Conrad
+remembered that farther on the valley came to an abrupt end against a
+steep rise. If the brutes stayed in it a little longer they would not be
+able to get out, and when they came to the end of this blind alley of
+the hills they would have to stop. So he and his companions galloped
+easily along beside the shadowy stream of moving backs with its spray of
+tossing horns that filled the draw, and presently found the leaders,
+their heads to the bluff, chewing their cuds as quietly as if they had
+never been frightened in all their lives.
+
+As they rode back to camp behind the staidly moving herd, Conrad asked
+Peters if he knew what caused the stampede. The foreman did not know, he
+had been sound asleep when it began. But he went on to tell an excited
+tale of mysterious accidents that had followed close upon one another
+ever since the morning of the superintendent's departure. Only the edge
+of the sand-storm through which he had ridden touched them, though it
+had kept them in camp all day. Nevertheless, there had been two
+stampedes, and they had had much trouble getting the brutes together
+again. Every day since there had been at least one stampede of the herd.
+He and the others had been kept busy gathering in the flying cattle.
+This was why they had got no farther than Five Cottonwoods. It seemed as
+if the devil himself had taken possession of every cow-brute on the
+range; never in all his years as a cow-puncher had he had such a time.
+
+"Don't you know what starts them?"
+
+"That's the mischief of it. Nobody ever knows. The darned critters just
+get up and hike. Some of the boys are gettin' skeery about it, and
+they're likely to pull their freight if it keeps up. They're tellin'
+ghost stories now after supper, and Andy Miller has been reelin' off
+the whoppin'est yarns ever you heard. Between the ghost stories and the
+way the cow-brutes act the boys are gettin' plumb fidgety, and I'm
+mighty glad you've got back."
+
+"How does Andy get on with the work? Does he _sabe_?"
+
+"Yes; he's first rate; the best we've got, except José. But Andy does
+have main bad luck with the cow-brutes. This makes four times they've
+stampeded under him."
+
+Promise of day was flushing the eastern sky and faintly warming the gray
+semi-darkness when Pendleton's eyes flew open, to instant conviction of
+illness. From head to foot he ached with weariness, and he felt
+wretchedly sick. For a moment he kept quiet, feeling that it would be
+more comfortable to lie still and die than to try to move. But presently
+he thought, "I'll never live to die of consumption if I don't get up
+quick and find my whiskey!"
+
+He scrambled to his feet and looked around. Not nearly so many men were
+stretched on the ground as he had expected to see, and his friend was
+not in sight. He looked for his saddle-bags, where he kept his flask.
+Conrad had taken them from the horse when they unsaddled, and Pendleton
+had not noticed what he did with them. He could not find the bags,
+everybody left in camp was sound asleep, and Curtis had disappeared.
+Wrapped in his blanket he was wandering around forlornly, squirming with
+pain, when he saw some one moving in the group of horses farther down
+the hill. He started in that direction and saw the man stoop beside
+Conrad's mare, Brown Betty.
+
+"Hello, pard! Where's Curt?" Pendleton called loudly. The man
+straightened up quickly, and put away a knife. He looked at the curious
+figure coming toward him, and burst into a loud guffaw. "Gee whillikens,
+stranger! where'd you drop from?" he shouted back.
+
+Pendleton explained, and asked the other to help him find his
+saddle-bags. They were discovered in the chuck-wagon, and the invalid
+offered his flask, with a cordial admonition to "drink hearty, pard."
+The cowboy responded literally, and made several other visits to the
+saddle-bags before breakfast. By that time he was good-naturedly
+obstreperous, and had the camp in an uproar with his horse-play and
+noisy pranks. Conrad asked Peters where Andy got his whiskey. The
+foreman did not know, and said that this was the first time he had shown
+any signs of drink. The superintendent went to Pendleton.
+
+"Has Andy Miller been taking a pull at your flask?"
+
+"The cow-punch that's feeling so happy? Sure, Curt. He helped me find my
+saddle-bags, and I thought I'd be sociable with him. I told him to drink
+hearty; and by thunder, Curt! you ought to have seen him. He sure had a
+worse thirst on him than I had yesterday."
+
+"I'll have to ask you not to do it again with any of them. And you'd
+better let me put your flask in a locked box I have in the chuck-wagon,
+if you don't carry it in your pocket, or you may not have any left by
+night."
+
+Gonzalez came up with a question, and Conrad remembered the letter he
+had for him. The Mexican took it with an unconcerned face, and went off
+behind the chuck-wagon. "I don't need to see the inside of it," thought
+Curtis; "but I'd like to all the same. Well, he'll be all right now, and
+I'm glad of it, for I'd hate to have to kill as good a roper as he is."
+
+
+A few minutes later José strolled toward the cook's fire, twisting the
+letter in his fingers. He was about to thrust it into the coals when
+Andy Miller jumped at him with a yell, and caught his hand. "Here, boys;
+José's got a love letter! Let's read it!" he shouted. Gonzalez resisted;
+Miller bore him down; and they rolled, struggling, over the ground.
+José's dark face was pale with anger and his teeth were set as he
+gripped the bit of paper in one fist and pummelled Andy's face with the
+other. Miller tried to shield himself from the blows with his arms,
+while he bent his energies to getting possession of the letter.
+
+"You're fightin', Andy; don't fergit to punch!" yelled Nosey Ike from
+the group of cowboys looking on. Miller was the stronger of the two, and
+almost had the Mexican in his power when Conrad came beside them,
+saying, "If you want the letter burned, José, give it to me."
+
+Gonzalez cast at him one doubtful, desperate look, and threw the twisted
+paper toward him. The superintendent thrust it in the fire, and he and
+Peters separated the two men. Gonzalez flashed at him a look of
+gratitude and walked away without a word.
+
+"Andy," said Conrad, "you're making too much trouble this morning. If
+you want to work with this outfit you've got to keep straight. If you
+don't want to do that you can pull your freight right now."
+
+The man turned away sullenly. "I'm not ready to pull my freight yet," he
+muttered. The other cowboys were saddling their ponies and making ready
+to begin the day's work. The bunched cattle, with the red rays of the
+morning sun warm upon their backs, were quietly grazing a little way
+down the hillside. Andy Miller started toward his horse, but turned and
+ran rapidly at the cattle. No one noticed what he was doing until, in a
+moment more, he was jumping, yelling, and swinging his hat at the edge
+of the herd. Snorting with sudden surprise and fright, the beasts were
+away again as though fiends were at their tails. Conrad rushed for his
+horse, but Peters, already mounted, yelled that they would not need him;
+and the foreman, with half a dozen others, dashed after the stampede.
+
+Andy Miller was coming slowly back, now and then stopping to smite his
+thigh and laugh. Curtis walked out to meet him. "Andy," he said, "I
+reckon I don't need you any longer. You can take your time this morning.
+Here's your money."
+
+The cowboy looked up, grinning, and thrust the bills in his pocket.
+Then, as quickly and lightly as a cat, he sprang upon the superintendent
+and pulled him down. Conrad, taken completely by surprise, with his left
+arm in a sling and at something less than his best of strength, for a
+moment could do nothing but struggle in the other's grasp. Miller was
+holding him, face downward, across one advanced leg, when Pendleton,
+still wrapped in his blanket, bustled up to see what was happening. With
+upraised hand, Miller yelled:
+
+"Now, then, you'll get it back, every darn' spank, an' more too! Jenkins
+ain't big enough to spank you himself, but I can do it for him!" His
+hand descended, but into an enveloping blanket suddenly thrown over him
+from behind, muffling head, body, and arms.
+
+"I've got him, Curt! Get up, quick, and we'll do him up!" shouted the
+tenderfoot as he twisted the blanket around Andy's struggling figure.
+
+Conrad wrenched himself free and sprang up, his face white. "Let him up,
+Pendy," he said, drawing his revolver. The other unwound the blanket,
+and Miller scrambled out, blinking and cursing. "You make tracks out of
+this camp as fast as you can go," said Curtis, "and don't let me catch
+you within gunshot of this outfit again! Clear out, this minute, damn
+you!"
+
+Miller walked away in silence toward his staked horse, the two men
+following him part way down the hill.
+
+"He'd better clear out before the boys get back, if he wants to keep a
+sound neck," said Conrad, his revolver in hand and his eyes on the
+retreating cowboy. "I understand it all now. And it was a lucky thing,
+Pendy, that you gave him that whiskey this morning; it got him just
+drunk enough to show his hand. If it hadn't been for that I might not
+have caught on till he'd done the Lord knows how much mischief. It's
+just like that damned skunk, Jenkins, to go at it in this sneaking,
+underhand way. He's not through with me yet!"
+
+They watched while Miller saddled his horse, hung his rope at the
+saddle-horn, and mounted. Then they turned back toward the camp, but
+presently, at a whinny from Brown Betty, Curtis faced about. Miller had
+ridden to where she was standing, a little apart from the other horses,
+had leaped to the ground, and was making toward her hind-quarters. His
+body was in profile, and as he stretched out his arm Conrad saw the
+flash of sunlight upon a knife blade. Instantly his arm swung upward,
+and there was an answering flash from the muzzle of his revolver. The
+report boomed across the valley, and Andy's right arm dropped. He rushed
+toward them, yelling foul names, but halted when he saw the pistol
+levelled at his breast.
+
+"No more tricks, Andy," called the superintendent, "or it'll be through
+your heart next time. Git, right now!"
+
+From up the valley came the shouts of the men. They had turned the
+cattle and were hurrying them back to camp. Miller cast one quick glance
+in their direction, and leaped to his saddle. He made a wide detour, the
+tail of his eye on Conrad's gun, and galloped away on the road over
+which the outfit had come. The others trooped up where Curtis and
+Pendleton, at the top of the hill, were watching his lessening figure.
+
+"Boys," said the ranchman, "that's the chap that's been stampeding the
+cattle!" Peters swore a mouth-filling oath and smote his thigh. "He was
+just on the point of ham-stringing Brown Betty," Curtis went on, his
+eyes blazing, "and I put a bullet through his arm barely in time to
+prevent it."
+
+A light broke upon Pendleton. "Darn my skin, if that wasn't the trick
+the critter was up to this morning, when he saw me and stopped!"
+
+"Let's go after him, boys!" shouted Peters. The group of riders shot
+forward, like racers starting at the word, and thundered down the road
+after the culprit. Conrad looked after them grimly, his eyes flashing
+blue fire, and Pendleton, wrapped in his blanket again, danced about and
+yelled, "Go it, boys, go it! I wish I was with you!"
+
+For an hour they chased him. He, knowing what his fate would be if he
+fell into their hands, put spurs to his horse until he brought out its
+utmost speed. Having so much the start he kept well in the lead, and
+finally they gave it up and returned to camp.
+
+With his left arm still in a sling and his shoulder bandaged, Conrad
+kept at the head of the round-up, which went on without further
+accident. He was too busy to think of the pain, except at night, when it
+often kept him awake. At such times his mind was sure to busy itself,
+sooner or later, with the trailing of Delafield, reaching out in every
+direction for some clew to guide his next step. By some trick of
+subconscious mental action, thoughts of Lucy Bancroft began to intrude
+upon his mind when it was thus engaged. It pleased him well enough to
+think of Lucy at other times, of her bright, piquant face, of the
+positive opinions she was in the habit of pronouncing with that
+independent little toss of her curly head, and of her dimpling smiles.
+But it annoyed him that the thought of her should come into conflict
+with his one absorbing idea. And, just because he had been consciously
+disturbed by it twice or thrice, association of ideas brought back the
+image more and more frequently. Once, when he had been vainly wooing
+sleep for an hour, he caught himself wondering what Lucy would say about
+the Delafield affair. He muttered an angry oath at himself, and with a
+mighty effort put both subjects out of his mind. It was not until they
+reached Pelham, the railway station whence the cattle were to be
+shipped, that his shoulder became free enough from pain for him to sink
+into sleep as soon as he lay down; and thereafter his mind forbore its
+irritating trick.
+
+During all that time, although Conrad did not believe he had anything to
+fear from José Gonzalez, he never left his revolver out of easy reach,
+and never turned his back upon the Mexican. But Gonzalez kept on his way
+as calmly and apparently as unconsciously as if he had had no part in
+that episode beside the pool at Rock Springs. Near the end of the
+shipping Curtis asked him if he would like steady work at the ranch.
+
+The Mexican gave a little astonished start and cast at the
+superintendent a glance of suspicion. Conrad frowned and his eyes
+flashed. Then he grinned good-naturedly, showing his strong white teeth
+under his sunburned moustache. "That's all right, José. I'm not that
+sort. As long as you behave yourself I'm your friend. If you don't, I've
+told you what will happen. You've struck my gait in the cow business,
+and I want to keep you. If you want to stay you can understand right now
+that you run no risks, unless you make 'em yourself."
+
+Gonzalez threw at him a keen glance. "You know I have nothing against
+you, Don Curtis," he began, hesitating a moment before he went on; "I
+like to work for you very well, señor, and I will stay."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A DOUBLE BLUFF
+
+
+Alexander Bancroft read Conrad's defiant letter, duly forwarded by his
+Boston attorneys, with a nearer approach to desperation than he had
+known in years. He had hoped so much from that money; and it had been
+thrown away! The man was inflexible, and to attempt to turn him from his
+deadly purpose by peaceful means would be a waste of time. And time was
+precious, for, now that he and his detective knew so much, one clew that
+they might discover any day would throw the door wide open. He must be
+foiled before he had time to make another move. Bancroft laid on his
+desk the letter he had been reading, feeling to the bottom of his heart
+that he would be justified in taking any course that would halt the feet
+of his pursuer.
+
+A clerk came to ask his presence in the outer room, and he went out
+hastily, intending to return at once. But a man with business in which
+both were interested awaited him, and after a moment's conversation they
+went to find a third who was concerned in the same matter.
+
+They had only just gone when Lucy came in and asked for her father. She
+looked sweet and dainty in a white gown with a wide white hat tied under
+her chin, her curls clustering around a face all aglow with warm browns
+and rich reds. The clerk who pressed forward with pleased alacrity to
+answer her question was one of her ardent admirers. Mr. Bancroft had
+just gone out, probably for only a few minutes; wouldn't she wait? It
+was of no consequence, she said; she only wished to see if he had any
+mail for her. But she looked disappointed, and the clerk suggested that
+as he had left his office door unlocked she might go in and wait. She
+saw a pile of unopened letters on her father's desk and glanced through
+it, finding two for Miss Dent and one for herself. "I'll just sit here
+and read mine," she thought, "and maybe daddy will be back by that
+time."
+
+A little gust of wind came through the open window, blowing a sheet of
+paper from the desk to the floor. Her eye caught the signature as she
+picked it up. "Curtis Conrad!" she read. "Oh, how like him his writing
+looks!" she exclaimed, a wave of color surging into her cheeks. "Why, it
+seems as if I just knew it would be like this! How easy it is to read!"
+She was looking at the letter, her attention absorbed in the fact that
+it had come from Conrad's own hand, when Delafield's name stood out from
+the other words.
+
+"Delafield! Sumner L. Delafield! I remember that name. It's the name of
+the man that ruined his father--why, it's a receipt for that money! How
+does daddy happen to have it?" Her eyes ran eagerly along the lines.
+"It's just like him! I'm glad he wouldn't take the money! What a horrid,
+wicked man that Delafield must be! I wonder how daddy happens to have
+this letter, when it was written to Tremper & Townsend, in Boston!" Her
+glance fell on the torn envelope bearing the imprint of the Boston firm,
+addressed to her father, and thence to their letter beside it. With mind
+intent upon the bewildering problem her eyes rushed over the brief
+missive:
+
+     "As you requested, we deposited your check for five hundred dollars
+     to our account, and forwarded our check for the same amount to Mr.
+     Curtis Conrad. We enclose his letter in receipt, which he evidently
+     wishes sent on to you."
+
+Lucy dropped the sheet of paper and sprang to her feet, her mind awhirl
+with protest. No, no! this could not be meant for her father--he was not
+Delafield--it was impossible! But--something clutched at her throat, and
+her head swam. She must go home; she must think out the puzzle. Sudden
+unwillingness to meet her father seized her. He must not know she had
+been there, that she had seen anything. She was not yet thinking
+coherently, only feeling that she had thoughtlessly surprised some
+secret, which had sprung out at her like a jack-in-the-box, and that she
+must give no sign of having seen its face.
+
+She sped homeward, her brain in a turmoil, and it was not until she had
+shut herself in her room that she began to think clearly. A troop of
+recollections, disjointed, half-forgotten bits and ends of things
+swarmed upon her. The shock had roused her mind to unusual activity, and
+little things long past, forgotten for years, again came vividly into
+her memory.
+
+So suddenly that it made her catch her breath there flashed upon her the
+recollection of how once, when she was a tiny child, some one had halted
+beside her mother and herself in a city street and exclaimed "Mrs.
+Delafield!" Her mother had hurried on without noticing the salutation,
+and had satisfied her curiosity afterward by explaining that the person
+was a stranger who had mistaken her for somebody else. But Lucy had
+thought the name a pretty one and used it in her play, pretending that
+she had a little playmate so called. Their wanderings during her
+childhood came back to her, when they had gone often from one place to
+another, at first in Canada, afterward always in the West. Much of the
+time she and her mother were alone, but her father came occasionally to
+spend with them a few days or weeks. Her devotion to him dated from
+those early years, when she thought so much about him during his long
+absences, wished so ardently for his return, and enjoyed his visits with
+unalloyed delight.
+
+With new significance came the recollection of the beginning for them of
+the name of Bancroft. While she was still a little girl her mother had
+told her their name would no longer be Brown, but Bancroft, because they
+had been allowed to change it. She had liked the new name much better,
+had accepted it with the unquestioning acquiescence of childhood, and
+the old name had soon become but a dim memory.
+
+Like a blow at her heart, because of the conviction it brought, the
+remembrance rushed upon her of an occasion not long after the change of
+name. She had wakened in the night and, drowsily floating in and out of
+sleep, had heard snatches of talk between her parents. Something
+regarding danger to her father had won her attention. He had replied
+that it would be quite safe, because only when he visited them would he
+be known as Bancroft, and that henceforth he would probably be able to
+spend more time with them. Her mother had feared and questioned, but he
+had reassured her and insisted that Lucy must be kept more steadily in
+school and that both mother and daughter must have a settled home. She
+could not remember all that he said, but meaningful scraps came back
+which had impressed her because they were concerned with that vague
+peril which her mother seemed to fear. He had said something about there
+being "no danger now," "nobody would recognize him," "everybody had
+forgotten it by this time"; finally, her childish anxiety assured that
+he was not really in jeopardy, she had sunk back happily into sleep and
+thought little more about it. After that she and her mother lived part
+of the time in Denver and part in San Francisco, and her father was with
+them more than before.
+
+Every recollection that emerged from that dubious past strengthened the
+fear that had gripped her heart with the reading of the letters. One by
+one she was forced to give up the suppositions with which she tried to
+account for her father's possession of those letters. With all her
+strength she fought against the one evident conclusion. But at last the
+conviction fell upon her with chill certainty that they were on her
+father's desk because they were meant for him, and that he was the
+Sumner L. Delafield of that long past, disgraceful affair.
+
+With hands clenched against her heart, which was aching with the
+soreness of bruised flesh, she whispered, "To take the money of all
+those people, and ruin them; and it killed some--oh, daddy, daddy, it
+was you who did it!" All the world had suddenly become one great,
+enveloping pain that wrung her heart anew with every recurring
+realization that her adored father had been so wicked--to her mind so
+abominably wicked. It was significant of her youth and inexperience, and
+also of her moral quality, that she did not attempt to palliate or
+excuse his offence. He was guilty of wrongdoing, as Dellmey Baxter was
+guilty, but in a far worse measure, and the fact that he was her father
+would never temper her condemnation of his sin. In the midst of her
+anguish she grew conscious that her feeling toward him had changed, and
+knew that the life had gone out of her old honoring, adoring love. It
+was as if half her heart had been violently torn away. For the first
+time sobs shook her, as she moaned, "Daddy, daddy, I loved you so!"
+Forlorn and anguished, her longing turned back to the dead mother with
+imperious need of sympathy, understanding, and companionship.
+
+Then came the thought that her mother had known this dreadful truth, and
+yet had stanchly held by him and shared its consequences. The sense of
+duty arose within her, trembling, apprehensive, but insistent. It seemed
+almost as if her mother had bequeathed this secret to her keeping that
+she might the better fill her place beside him with daughterly
+solicitude. The idea crystallized into whispered words as she tossed
+back her head and dried her eyes, "My mother stood by him, and so shall
+I!"
+
+He must never even suspect that she knew this horrible thing; she felt
+instinctively that it would cut him to the heart to learn that she had
+discovered his secret. For a moment she broke down again and moaned,
+"Why did I go into his office this morning! I wish I hadn't, I wish I
+hadn't! And then I wouldn't have had to know!" She quickly put aside
+this useless repining, to face the grim, painful fact once more. No; he
+must never guess that she knew he was other than he seemed, and he must
+never feel any change in her manner toward him. She must hide the secret
+deep, deep down in her heart, and she must keep their mutual life as it
+had always been. And there was Dearie--but she must know nothing of it;
+oh, no, never in the world must Dearie learn the least thing about this
+trouble!
+
+Lucy felt very much alone, quite shut off, in her poignant need, from
+every one who might give her help, advice, or sympathy. As she sat
+there, encompassed by her loneliness and pain, her thoughts turned half
+unconsciously toward Curtis Conrad with instinctive longing for his
+protecting care and strength. Then she remembered. With a sharp flash
+that made her wince it came back to her that he meant to have revenge
+on Delafield; that she had heard him say he was on the man's trail, and
+would track him down and kill him! For a moment it staggered her, with a
+fierce new pain that struck through the keen ache in her breast, making
+her catch her breath in a gasping sob. But all her heart rose in quick
+denial. A faint smile held her trembling lip for an instant as she
+thought:
+
+"Oh, no; he wouldn't! He wouldn't hurt daddy; and he wouldn't kill
+anybody! I know he wouldn't!"
+
+She almost feared to meet her household; it seemed as if this awful
+knowledge which had come to her must be writ large upon her countenance.
+Would it be possible to take up the daily life again as if nothing had
+happened? A chasm so horrible had riven it, since the morning, that
+surely it could never be the same again. But when she finally summoned
+her resolution and went down to take up her daily duties, she found it
+not so hard as she had feared. That benign routine of daily, commonplace
+life, with its hourly demands upon thought and feeling and attention,
+which has saved so many hearts from breaking, met her at the very door
+of her room. She quickly learned to lean upon it, even to multiply its
+demands. At the outset it gave her the strength and courage to pass
+through her ordeal steadfastly; and after the first day it was not so
+hard. She began to feel pity for her father and a new tenderness as she
+thought of the years through which he had lived, knowing who he was and
+what he had done, and dreading always to be found out. But all her pity,
+tenderness, affection, and the old habit of lovingness that she was
+resolute to sustain were not always sufficient to overcome the revulsion
+that sometimes seized her.
+
+One of these moments of revolt came to her as they lingered over the
+breakfast table a few days after her discovery. She made an excuse to
+attend to something in the kitchen, and hastily left the room. Her
+father had told them at the table that he was going to Las Vegas that
+morning. He waited, expecting her to return and go with him to the gate,
+and wave a last good-bye as he looked back on his way down the hill. She
+did not reappear, and at last he told Miss Dent that he would have to go
+or lose his train. Louise watched him from the window with yearning eyes
+that would not lift themselves from his figure until it disappeared
+from her view.
+
+As he waited at the station Lucy rushed breathlessly to his side. "I was
+so afraid I should be too late!" she panted as she slipped her hand
+through his arm, "I ran all the way down the hill."
+
+She clung so affectionately to him and looked up into his face with an
+appeal so wistful that he was touched, thinking only that she was
+sorrowing over his going away. It was the first time he had been
+separated from her since she had come to make her home with him. The
+conductor called, "All aboard!" and he kissed her tenderly, saying,
+"I'll be back day after to-morrow, little daughter."
+
+She went home with that "little daughter" ringing in her ears and her
+heart. It brought back a wealth of memories of those childish, happy,
+longed-for times when her father came, so glad to see his "little
+daughter" that the days were not long enough to hold all the pleasures
+he wished to give her. It filled her breast with tenderness and a sort
+of yearning affection, more maternal than filial in quality, and made
+more ardent her desire to stand by him with perfect loyalty. But the
+old, joyous love that had been rooted deep in admiration, esteem, and
+honor no longer stirred within her. She knew that it would never fill
+her life again with its warmth and gladness, and that now and again she
+would have to struggle with that same aversion which had sent her that
+morning to hide herself in her room against his accustomed affectionate
+farewell. Nevertheless, she was pleased that a returning tide of
+tenderness, which was almost remorse, had swept over her in time for her
+to join him at the station.
+
+Lucy's breathless rush to overtake him and the appealing tenderness of
+her manner during their moment together were sweet thoughts in
+Bancroft's mind as the train bore him northward. Dear little daughter!
+she grew dearer every day, and so did his pride and happiness in her. He
+longed to give her all the pleasures that his money could buy, just as
+he used to fill his pockets for her delight when she was a little girl.
+Once past these threatening dangers, they should have good times
+together. All his business enterprises were promising well; it would not
+be long before money would be plenty. Then, with clear sailing ahead and
+no ominous clouds, he could ask Louise to marry him.
+
+They would have to give up Lucy some time, but not for many a day. She
+was the sort of girl that is always attractive to men--why, half the
+young fellows in Golden were already dancing devoted attendance!--but
+she was very young; he and Louise still had many years in which to enjoy
+her, to travel with her and show her the world. Once past these
+threatening dangers, how fair was the world beyond! He would vanquish
+them yet, by whatever means might come to his hand! Each day's anxiety
+for the present and its longing for the fair future made his heart more
+desperate and reckless. He was hopeful that this coming interview with
+Rutherford Jenkins would make things easier for him in that quarter.
+Money would always keep Jenkins quiet, but to give up money to a
+blackmailer was like pouring it down a rat hole; if he kept it up the
+process was sure to cripple him in time.
+
+Jenkins received him with smiling cordiality. "I'm very glad to see you,
+Mr. Delafield--oh, I beg your pardon!--Mr. Bancroft. I always think of
+you as--ah, by the other name--and I sometimes forget in speaking."
+
+"You'd better not forget again," Bancroft interposed. "And, speaking of
+forgetting, there is a little matter concerning you that I'm willing to
+let drop out of my memory. You know, of course, about the case of José
+Maria Melgares. Doubtless you know, also, how Melgares happened to steal
+Curtis Conrad's horse; and you could tell to a cent--to a jury, if
+necessary--how much money was given to Melgares in the rear of the Blue
+Front saloon to induce him to undertake the theft. I take it, however,
+that you would not care to have it brought into court, as a conviction
+on a charge of conspiracy would be sure to follow. I have all the
+evidence in my possession--quite enough to convict. I got it from
+Melgares' wife in the first place, and I have since secured his
+affidavit. But I have stopped her mouth, and his, and nobody else knows
+anything about it. I am quite willing to forget it myself if you will
+show equal courtesy concerning--certain other matters."
+
+Jenkins grinned and licked his lips. "Really, my dear Mr.
+Delafield--excuse me--my dear Mr. Bancroft--I don't know what you are
+driving at! I suppose you mean that Melgares has been saying that I
+hired him to steal Conrad's horse. The thing is as false as it is
+absurd. If it were to come into court I should deny it absolutely,
+exactly as I do now. And the word of Rutherford Jenkins would stand for
+considerably more with a jury than that of a Mexican horse-thief."
+
+"You are probably the only man in the Territory, Mr. Jenkins, who holds
+that opinion. Unless you take a more reasonable view of the matter I
+shall feel it my duty to see the district attorney as soon as I get
+home."
+
+"See him, and be damned!" Jenkins broke out. "If you do, Curtis Conrad
+shall know before the week is out that you are Sumner L. Delafield."
+
+Bancroft's eyes fell, but his reply came quickly enough: "Well, and what
+is that to me?"
+
+"I guess you know what it will mean to you," Jenkins answered with a
+sneer. He did not know himself what it would mean to the banker, but he
+felt sure that it would answer quite as well to make pretence of
+knowledge. He watched his antagonist furtively in the momentary silence
+that followed.
+
+"You don't seem to understand the full significance of the attitude you
+are taking," Bancroft presently went on. "Of course, I do not wish, just
+now, to have Conrad, or any one else, know all the events of my past
+life. I have been living an honorable life in this Territory, and you
+can very well comprehend that I do not wish my reputation and business
+success smashed--by you or anybody else. That is the only reason why I
+was willing to enter into an understanding with you. But my affairs are
+getting in such shape that I can soon snap my fingers at you or any one
+who tries to disclose my identity. At best, you'll be able to get little
+more out of me, and I am amazed that you should be willing to risk this
+trial, with its certain disgrace, conviction, and sentence to the
+penitentiary, for the sake of the few hundred dollars of--blackmail--let
+us call it by its right name--that you may be able to extort from me."
+
+"I am quite willing to take whatever risk there is," Jenkins interposed,
+"especially as my counsel could readily bring out the fact that you had
+tried to--blackmail--let us call it by its right name--to blackmail me
+before you gave the information. Do as you please about going to the
+district attorney; I don't care a damn whether you do or not. But, if
+you do, you'll have to settle with Curt Conrad before the week is out!"
+
+Bancroft arose, perceiving acutely that the only course left for him
+was to make a strong bluff and retreat. "Very well," he said, with an
+indifference he was far from feeling, "do as you like about that. Only
+don't delude yourself by supposing that Curt Conrad's knowing about that
+old affair will mean any more to me than anybody else's knowledge. When
+you think this proposal of mine over carefully I'm sure you'll change
+your mind, and I shall expect to hear from you to that effect."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SENTENCE OF DEATH
+
+
+As the Spring days passed, in unbroken procession of rosy dawns,
+cloudless and glowing noons, and gorgeous sunsets, Louise Dent's
+resentment against Curtis Conrad grew keen and bitter. She saw the lines
+of worry appearing in Bancroft's face, and surprised now and then in his
+eyes an anxious abstraction; and in her heart she stormed against the
+man she supposed to be the sole cause of it all. Dreading his next visit
+lest she might betray her feeling, she longed to drive him from the
+house, when he should come, with burning, shaming words. But Bancroft,
+who knew as much of his intention as she did, was on terms of cordial
+friendship with him, and she must take her cue from her friend and host.
+
+Toward Bancroft himself her heart grew more tenderly solicitous as her
+womanly instincts divined his feeling toward her. A thousand unconscious
+touches of tone and manner had already revealed his love, and she
+surmised that he would not speak because of the imminence of this sore
+danger. She longed to give him her open sympathy, to counsel with him,
+to lock hands with him so that they might face the trouble together. Yet
+she was stopped from word or action by the necessity of seeming to know
+nothing. The fact of Bancroft's identity had been disclosed to her by
+his wife, her dear and intimate friend, who, at point of death, had told
+her, under solemn promise of secrecy, the whole story, that she might
+the better shield Lucy should disclosure ever threaten. Now, her heart
+melting with pity, love, and sympathy for her friend, and burning with
+angry resentment against his foe, she must perforce sit in apparent
+ignorance of it all, be calm and cheerful toward Bancroft, and smile
+pleased welcome upon Conrad. That hidden volcano in her breast, whose
+possibility Lucy and Curtis had half seriously discussed, had become a
+reality, and the concealment of it demanded all her self-control.
+
+The only relief she dared give herself was occasional disapproval of the
+young cattleman in her talks with Lucy. Louise was surprised and puzzled
+by the varying moods in which the girl received these criticisms.
+Sometimes she kept silence or quickly changed the subject. Rarely she
+tossed her head and joined in the condemnation with an angry sparkle of
+the eye. Or, again, with flushing cheek, she defended him from Miss
+Dent's aspersions. Louise decided, with a fond smile, that her vagaries
+of mood were due to pique at the lack of more constant attentions from
+Conrad. For the young woman, to her father's and Miss Dent's loving
+amusement, was proving herself adept in the art of queening it over a
+court of masculine admirers. What with walks over the _mesa_, rides and
+picnics up the canyon, music of evenings, and Sunday afternoon calls,
+Lucy was leading a gay life, and Louise, as her chaperon, a busy one.
+Being a normal, buoyant-hearted girl, Lucy enjoyed the gayety and the
+attention and admiration showered upon her in such copious measure for
+their own sake, and she was glad of them also because, together with her
+household cares, they kept her too well occupied for sad thoughts.
+
+So the days passed until mid-June was at hand and the time come for the
+trial of José Maria Melgares. Curtis Conrad was in Golden as one of the
+principal witnesses for the prosecution--his first visit to the town
+since the Spring round-up. Lucy, glancing frequently down the street,
+was trying to interest herself in Miss Dent's conversation as they sat
+together on the veranda. They spoke of the trial, and Lucy said she had
+seen Mr. Conrad on his way to the court-house when she went down town to
+market.
+
+"I've been disappointed in Mr. Conrad," said Louise; "I don't understand
+how he can talk so recklessly about people needing to be killed. To me
+it is very repellent. You know how he speaks about Mr. Baxter."
+
+Lucy's head went up. "But Mr. Baxter is a very bad man!" she exclaimed.
+"He has been responsible for a great deal of suffering. Just think of
+Melgares and his poor wife! But for Mr. Baxter they might still be
+living happily on their little ranch. And he's done many other things
+just as wicked and unjust. Oh, he's a very bad man, and I can't blame
+Mr. Conrad for feeling that way about him." She broke off, flushing to
+her brows, then went on more quietly: "But I don't think, Dearie, that
+Mr. Conrad means half he says when he talks that way; it's just his way
+of feeling how brave he is."
+
+"If he does not mean it, he should not speak so recklessly of serious
+matters," Louise responded with decision. "He must have a cruel nature,
+or he would not harbor such ideas."
+
+Lucy leaned forward, her face aglow. "Indeed, no, Dearie! Mr. Conrad
+isn't cruel; he's really very tender-hearted--just think of the way he
+carried that wounded bird all the way to Golden to have its leg fixed.
+And one day when we were walking on the _mesa_, he was so distressed
+because he accidentally stepped on a little horned toad. It's unjust to
+call him cruel, Dearie!"
+
+Her glance darted down the street again, and she saw Curtis nearing her
+gate. His quick, energetic stride and eager face were like a trumpet
+call to her youth and her womanhood. Forgetting all but the fact of his
+presence, she felt her heart leap to meet him with joyful welcome. But
+instantly came remembrance and reaction, and she greeted him with
+unusual gravity of manner.
+
+Conrad wanted them at the ranch for the Fourth of July. "We are to have
+a big barbecue and _baile_," he said. "Both the Castletons are coming
+this year to look things over, and I wrote Ned that if Mrs. Ned was
+coming with him perhaps it would amuse her if we did something of the
+sort. The idea seemed to just strike his gait, and he wrote back at once
+to go ahead and whoop it up for all I'm worth. Mrs. Ned and Mrs. Turner
+are both coming, and I'm asking a lot of people from all over the
+Territory. I want you two ladies and Mr. Bancroft to be sure to come out
+the day before the Fourth and stay at least until the day after, and as
+much longer as you find convenient. My brother Homer is coming on next
+week for the rest of the Summer, and he'll be there too."
+
+Lucy was delighted, clapped her hands, and declared it would be great
+fun--of course they would go. Repugnant to the idea but knowing that
+only one course was seemly, Miss Dent gave smiling acquiescence. As they
+talked, Curtis telling them of the great wealth of the Castleton
+brothers, the rivalry of the two ladies, the dash and beauty and vogue
+of Mrs. Turner, and the Spanish ancestry of Mrs. Ned, Lucy's eyes
+continually sought his face. Her spirits began to rise, and soon they
+were gayly tilting at each other after their usual custom, she all
+smiles and dimples and animation, and he beaming with admiration. They
+went to the conservatory to see the tanager and presently brought it
+back with them, telling Miss Dent that they were going to set it free.
+Lucy stood beside him as they watched it soar away through the sunlight,
+a flash of silvery pink flame, and it seemed to her that their mutual
+interest in the little creature had made a bond between them and given
+her an understanding of his character deeper and truer than any one else
+could have.
+
+Conrad went down the hill, whistling softly a merry little tune, his
+thoughts dwelling tenderly upon Lucy. He wished her to enjoy the
+barbecue and _baile_ even more than she expected--it was to be her first
+experience of that sort--and he began to plan little details that might
+add to her pleasure. So absorbed was he and so pleasant his thoughts
+that for a time he quite forgot the Delafield affair. But it came to
+mind again when Bancroft asked him, as they talked together at the door
+of the bank, if he had had any more trouble with José Gonzalez.
+
+"Oh, no; José's all right. He's the best cowboy I've got and as docile
+as a yearling. He's agreed to stay right on at the ranch with me. I'm
+glad to have such a smart, competent fellow to leave under Peters, for
+after the Fourth I expect to be away a good deal. I'll have some time
+for myself then and I'm going into this hunt after Delafield for all I'm
+worth; I don't think it will take me long to run him down now."
+
+Bancroft hesitated a moment, then, laying his hand on Conrad's arm he
+spoke earnestly: "For God's sake, Curt, give up this fool notion of
+yours. If you don't, you'll never get through alive. No sane man is
+going to let you get the drop on him, as you seem to think you can. He's
+undoubtedly watching you right along, ready to put an end to the
+business as soon as he thinks you're really dangerous. Let him pay you
+if he will; but stop this foolishness."
+
+Conrad laughed heartily and slapped Bancroft's shoulder. "Why, Aleck,"
+said he, "the most satisfaction I've ever had comes out of knowing that
+I'm so hot on his tracks that I've got him buffaloed. Give it up? Not
+much! I'm going to lope down that trail at a two-minute gait, and Sumner
+L. Delafield is mighty soon going to wish he'd never been born."
+
+Bancroft turned half away, with a tightening of his lips under his
+brown moustache. "Very well. I'll not trouble you with any more advice
+on the subject. But when you meet with disaster, as you undoubtedly
+will, you must remember that you've got nobody but yourself to blame.
+How's the trial going?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"Pretty fast; the case will go to the jury to-morrow. It won't take them
+more than ten minutes to reach a verdict. You ought to come in and hear
+Judge Banks's charge, Aleck. Dan tells me it's sure to be interesting.
+He says you never can tell whether Banks will deliver an original poem
+or make up his charge out of quotations from Shakespeare."
+
+As the banker went up the hill to his home he remembered that he had
+heard Rutherford Jenkins was in town. To-morrow he must see the man and
+try again to induce him to consider the dangers of an indictment for
+conspiracy. At any rate, he would hold that affidavit of Melgares' up
+his sleeve, and the time might come when it would be efficacious, even
+should Jenkins still scoff at it now. Conrad--he had given Conrad
+another warning, as plain as day, and if the man would rush on
+recklessly he must take the consequences. José Gonzalez was still at
+Socorro Springs--an accident could happen--and there was no time to
+lose!
+
+Lucy saw her father coming when he was a block away and, instead of
+running to the gate to meet him, pretended not to have noticed him, and
+hastened into the house. Louise Dent remained on the veranda, pushing
+forward a lounging chair for him as he mounted the steps. She saw that
+he looked paler and more haggard than usual, and she longed to put her
+arms about him, as a mother might around a suffering child, and charm
+away his trouble and wretchedness. In her maiden life the innate
+mother-longing had found little appeasement; and so, when this youthful
+love came into her enriched and mellowed heart of middle life, it
+gathered into itself the repressed yearning of her nature, and the
+maternal side of it was strong and fierce. She neither condoned nor
+belittled the sins of the man she loved. For his wrongdoing and the
+suffering he had caused she felt sorrow, pity, remorse--remorse almost
+as keen as if she herself had been the guilty one. But her love enfolded
+him in spite of his sins, and even included them. For she told herself
+that if he had not been guilty she might never have known him, their
+paths might never have crossed.
+
+In gentle, unobtrusive ways she ministered to his comfort; then, sitting
+beside him, her calm brow and steady eyes giving no sign of the tumult
+in her heart, she talked with sympathy and interest, gradually leading
+his thoughts away from the present into happy plans for the future. With
+keen satisfaction she saw the weary, desperate look fade from his face
+and eyes, giving place to one of comfort and content, and the assurance
+that she had made him forget his troubles, even for a little while,
+filled her heart with pleasure.
+
+Lucy, sitting in her room, heard the murmur of their voices through her
+open windows. Her high spirits of the hour before were gone, and she sat
+dejected, her face mournful, and her head hanging like a flower broken
+on its stem. Presently she slipped down to the conservatory, took the
+pot of cactus Conrad had given her, ran across the back-yard, and threw
+it over the fence. Then she joined her father and Louise, seating
+herself on the arm of his chair and throwing her arm around his neck as
+she asked with loving concern about his welfare, told him he had not
+been looking well of late, and that he was working too hard and ought
+to have a rest. But that evening, after dinner, she rushed across the
+yard and out of the gate, and gathered up the cactus pot in her arms as
+if it were some small animal she had hurt. She returned it to its place
+in the conservatory, pressing her hands around it until its spines
+brought little drops of blood.
+
+"I can't help it!" she exclaimed in a vehement whisper. "I have to like
+him, and I shan't try any more not to! He wouldn't hurt daddy, I know he
+wouldn't--because--because he wouldn't--and because--he loves me!" A
+tiny smile curved her lips as she touched the plant caressingly and
+presently her whisper went on: "If I could only tell daddy that he
+needn't be afraid or worried! Oh, I wish I could! But he mustn't guess I
+know." Her lips ceased moving and she stared unseeingly at the cactus,
+as her thought slowly took shape: "It's worrying daddy awfully, and I
+mustn't let it go on any longer. I'll tell Mr. Conrad who Delafield
+is and he'll stop right then--I know he will. He'll despise us
+afterward--oh, he won't love me after that!--but--poor daddy! he won't
+be worried any more."
+
+Bancroft and Miss Dent were alike convinced that his pursuer would be
+ruthless in the fulfilment of revenge. Arguing from their knowledge of
+men, their experience of the world, and their observation of his
+character, each had come to the fixed conclusion that no softening of
+heart or staying of hand could be expected from him when he knew the
+truth. Lucy, having neither knowledge of men nor experience of the world
+to guide her, had not reasoned about the matter at all. She had jumped
+at once to her conclusion, as soon as she knew her father's identity,
+that he had nothing to fear from Curtis. Her decision was partly due to
+her own temperament, which she instinctively felt to be somewhat akin
+to Conrad's, and partly to her knowledge of a side of his character
+of which Louise knew little and her father still less. It was further
+strengthened by her intuition that he loved her--something the young man
+himself had not yet realized. Other than this belief in his love she
+could have offered no reason for her assurance that he would give over
+his purpose as soon as he learned to whose door his quest was leading
+him. But neither her father nor Louise, had it been possible for them to
+argue with her, could have shaken her conviction.
+
+The next day Bancroft, Conrad, and Pendleton went together to the
+court-house to see the closing scenes of the Melgares trial. The leading
+men of the town were there, as well as the usual hangers-on of a
+court-room, and a few women, both Mexican and American, sat in a little
+railed space at one side. Every seat was filled, and a standing line of
+late comers fringed the walls. Across the room Bancroft saw Rutherford
+Jenkins. The crowd was disappointed by the judge's charge to the jury,
+which was brief, simple, and confined to bare statements of law and
+fact. So it sat still and waited after the jury had filed out, feeling
+sure that the deliberation would not be long, and that something
+interesting might be expected afterward from the judge; for he had the
+reputation of doing and saying whimsical things. He was a bookish man,
+who studied his law volumes much, but for relaxation turned often to
+romance and poetry. He had a knack for making jingles himself, and his
+pronouncements from the bench, whether he was charging a jury, calling
+for order, sentencing a prisoner, or making peace between warring
+attorneys, were as likely as not to be in rhyme of his own improvisation
+or in aptly applied quotations from the words of the mighty.
+
+The jury came back presently with a verdict of murder in the first
+degree. Judge Banks asked the prisoner if he knew of any reason why the
+court should not sustain the finding of the jury. Melgares said nothing,
+and Dellmey Baxter, his counsel, who had made the best fight for the
+Mexican that he could, shook his head; he had given his services, and
+cared to take no further trouble. All that now stood between the
+prisoner and the gallows was a little space of time. The judge looked
+out of the window into the trembling green depths of the cottonwoods
+beside the court-house, and for a moment there was silence in the room.
+He was a slight man, with dreamy blue eyes, and a square, fine face,
+framed by side-whiskers, short and thin. It was quite like him to be
+trying to realize, in that brief moment, just how it would seem to have
+the gallows looming in one's path so short a way ahead.
+
+He ordered the prisoner to stand. Sheriff Tillinghurst, his usual smile
+absent from his kindly face, helped Melgares to his feet. The Mexican's
+wife, who had been seated beside him, drooped forward, her breast shaken
+with sobs and her lips moving in whispers of prayer.
+
+"José Maria Melgares, you have heard the finding of the jury," began the
+judge, and waited for the sonorous voice of the court interpreter to
+send the words rolling in musical Spanish over the room, "and it is now
+necessary for me to pronounce upon you the sentence of this court. The
+rains will soon be here, José Maria Melgares, the grass will spring
+forth, the flowers bloom, and all the plains and hillsides grow green
+and luxuriant. But you will not be here to see and enjoy their beauty,
+José Maria Melgares. The rains of Summer, the golden days of October,
+the storms of Winter, will all alike pass unknown and unheeded over your
+head. Spring will come again with its new life, and the lambs will
+frolic beside their mothers and the little calves bleat in the valleys.
+But your eyes will not see the sights, nor your ears hear the sounds,
+José Maria Melgares. It will not matter to you that the skies of New
+Mexico bend blue and beautiful above your head. The stars will march
+across the midnight heavens, proclaiming that God is good, and that He
+holds the universe in the hollow of His hand. Day after day the sun will
+rise in his fiery might and blazon forth upon earth and sky the goodness
+and the glory of the Almighty. The moon will swim across the violet
+skies of night, wax from slender crescent to fair white disk, and wane
+again. But to you, José Maria Melgares, it will all be as nothing. For
+you, life is a tale that has been told; there is nothing more for you
+now, José Maria Melgares, save the moral, and even that is no longer of
+interest to you. For you have been guilty of a heinous crime, José Maria
+Melgares; you have taken the life of your fellow-man, and therefore your
+life is forfeit. It is the sentence of this court, José Maria Melgares,
+that you be hanged by the neck until dead. And may God have mercy upon
+your soul!"
+
+The last melodious syllables of the interpreter's voice resounded
+through the room, and died in sudden silence. Then the moment's hush was
+broken by a shriek as Señora Melgares sprang to her feet, stretching her
+arms out wildly to the judge.
+
+"No, no, Señor Judge! It is not right that my husband should die," she
+cried out in Spanish. "He was made to steal the mare, and the man who
+hired him to do it and brought all this trouble upon us--he is the one
+who should die! There he sits over there! Señor Jenkins, Don Rutherford
+Jenkins! He is the one who made my husband steal the mare, who gave him
+money to do it, because he had a grudge against Señor Conrad; and he is
+the one--"
+
+Sheriff Tillinghurst, his hand on her shoulder, was urging her to sit
+down, her husband was ordering her to stop, and there was a sudden
+hubbub all over the room. The judge rapped on his desk and threatened to
+have the room cleared. Jenkins sat quite still, glaring wrathfully at
+Bancroft. Conrad clenched his fist, his blue eyes blazing as he exploded
+an oath into Pendleton's ear; it was his first intimation that the man
+from Las Vegas had been behind the attempted theft of his mare.
+
+Jenkins was waiting for Bancroft at the door of the bank. "I want to see
+you at once, in private," he said curtly, and without a word the banker
+led the way to his office. "A nice trick you played me," Jenkins began,
+his voice hot and sneering. "I thought of going straight to Conrad; and
+that's what I ought to have done, to serve you right."
+
+"Well, why didn't you?" Bancroft asked, impassively.
+
+Jenkins took quick alarm. Had the young ranchman, with his impetuous
+loyalty, told his friend what had happened in the Albuquerque hotel?
+But perhaps Bancroft was only bluffing, in which case he himself could
+bluff as well as another. "I didn't because I thought it would be the
+square thing to see you first, and find out if you have any explanation
+to offer of that woman's performance. Unless you can satisfy me you had
+nothing to do with it, I shall see Conrad and tell him everything he
+doesn't know about you before I leave town to-night."
+
+Bancroft reflected. If Jenkins approached Curtis in that young man's
+present mood there was ample likelihood that the blackmailer would never
+trouble him again. Yet there was the chance that he might say in time to
+save himself the word that would stay Conrad's hand. He dared not take
+the chance.
+
+"I advise you," he said slowly, "if you value a whole skin, not to go
+near Curt Conrad while he is in the state of mind in which I just left
+him. As for Señora Melgares, are you crazy enough to suppose I had
+anything to do with that?"
+
+"It's evident, Bancroft, that you put her up to something you were
+afraid to do yourself. You wanted to put me in a hole, and you got her
+to do it for you."
+
+Bancroft made a gesture of annoyance. "Oh, well, if you've got no more
+_sabe_ than that--" he began, but went on quietly, "I give you my word
+of honor--"
+
+"The word of honor of Sumner L. Delafield!" Jenkins sneered.
+
+The banker's eyes flashed as he made an impulsive start, but he went on
+with quiet emphasis: "I give you my word of honor that I knew no more
+than you what the Melgares woman was going to say when she jumped up.
+You ought to see yourself that it would have been to my advantage to
+keep this knowledge entirely in my own hands."
+
+"Nevertheless," Jenkins replied sullenly, "you could have prevented her
+outbreak if you'd wanted to; and if there are any legal proceedings
+started against me because of what she said I expect you and Dell Baxter
+to stop them at once. And I want you to give me, before I leave this
+room, a sum of money or a check equal to what I receive on the first of
+every month. And understand that this has no connection with that
+payment, which will come on the first of next month, as agreed. It's
+little enough, after this outrage."
+
+Bancroft glared at his companion for a moment; Jenkins sat up with a
+defiant look and glared back. The banker turned to his desk and wrote
+the check without a word. "And the woman's charge?" the other asked
+threateningly, as he took it.
+
+"If any action is begun I'll do my best to stop it."
+
+Well satisfied with the result, Jenkins hastened down the street,
+intending to cross over to his hotel at the next bridge and wait in the
+privacy of his room until train time. As he approached the court-house
+corner Sheriff Tillinghurst, Little Jack Wilder, Pendleton, and Conrad
+came out of the building. Curtis saw the hurrying figure, and the light
+of battle leaped into his eyes. He rushed past the others, and before
+Jenkins had time to draw his revolver was upon him and had pinioned his
+arms.
+
+Pendleton ran forward, shouting, "Give it to him, Curt! He deserves it!"
+
+"Jack," smiled the sheriff, "I reckon this is goin' to be a sure good
+scrap, but we don't need to see it. We'd better hike." And they
+disappeared up the side street.
+
+Jenkins was vainly struggling to reach his hip pocket. Conrad got him
+down, set one knee on his chest, plucked forth the gun, and threw it to
+Pendleton. "Now, you damned skunk," he exclaimed, "you're going to get
+every lick that's coming to you! I won't dirty powder by using my gun on
+you, but I'm sure going to set the standard for lickings in this town."
+
+And to this day, in the city of Golden, the pummelling that Rutherford
+Jenkins forthwith received is spoken of as the utmost measure of
+punishment that a man may take and live. At the end Conrad took the limp
+body under one arm and carried it to the physician's office. "Here,
+Doc," he said, "is some work for you. Send the bill to me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS
+
+
+Fourth of July was at hand, and Lucy Bancroft made ready for their stay
+at the Socorro Springs ranch with a resolve in her heart. Some time
+during their two days' visit she would tell Curtis Conrad the truth
+about her father. Of course, many people would be there, and the
+superintendent would be busy, but she expected to see a good deal of
+him--he was sure to show her much attention--and it would not be hard to
+find the few minutes of privacy in which to impart the secret. She was
+quite sure that the knowledge would bring to a harmless end his long
+quest of vengeance, and that at once he would cease his pursuit of
+Delafield. But she was equally sure that he would no longer love her or
+be friendly with her father. "He can't respect either of us after that,"
+she mused. "He'll feel toward us just as he does toward Mr. Baxter; and
+I can't blame him, for we're worse than Mr. Baxter is." Her heart
+pleaded eagerly for a little period of grace in which to feel his love
+and live it, to take delight in his favor and admiration. She need not
+tell him at the outset.
+
+While Lucy was considering and deciding upon her action, on the morning
+before the Fourth, Mrs. Ned Castleton was saying to her husband in the
+privacy of the great, empty plain across which they were taking an early
+gallop:
+
+"I know why Lena was so willing to come down here with Turner and us.
+You'd never guess, Ned."
+
+"Of course I couldn't, Francisquita. So you'll have to tell me."
+
+"I know I shall have to, for you'd never discover it yourself, until too
+late to do anything about it. She didn't come because she wanted to see
+the place,--though she's never been here before, you know,--nor because
+she thought it would be something unusual to do, nor because she cares
+any more about Turner's affairs than she did last year, nor even because
+she wanted to keep track of me, nor because--"
+
+"Never mind the didn'ts, Fanny! Let's skip ahead to why she did."
+
+"That's just like you, Ned. You never can understand what a flavor it
+gives to something that really _is_ to consider first all the things
+that it _isn't_."
+
+"Well, you've had the flavor, now you can give me the fact. I've
+wondered myself why she was so gracious about coming with us."
+
+"Yes; wasn't it surprising? It puzzled me so that I couldn't give up
+thinking about it until I solved the mystery."
+
+"And aren't you going to let me into the secret?"
+
+"Of course I am, Ned; that's what I'm doing right now! I studied about
+it on the way here, and I managed to find out a lot of things it wasn't.
+But I didn't discover what it was till after we reached the ranch."
+
+"Well, what did you find out then?"
+
+"Why, Ned, I'm telling you just as fast as I can! Although I think I
+know Lena pretty well, and am quite accustomed to her doing things that
+nobody else would think of, really, Ned, I was so surprised at this
+freak that you could have knocked me down with a feather!"
+
+Ned Castleton looked caressingly at the slender, graceful figure of his
+wife, erect upon her horse, and smiled broadly. "Fanny, I'm in that
+condition right now, from unassuaged curiosity. Please knock me down
+with a feather and then go on and tell me this deep, dark secret."
+
+She tickled his cheek with her quirt. "Why, Ned, I've been telling you
+all about it for the last five minutes, but you won't understand what I
+mean. It's all because she's immensely taken with your handsome
+superintendent, and she's deeply interested in the cattle business
+because she wants him to explain it to her!"
+
+Castleton gave an incredulous laugh. "Nonsense, Francisquita! You are a
+clever woman, my dear, especially when it comes to divining what your
+dearly beloved sister-in-law is planning to do year after next. But you
+two women do get most remarkable notions about each other sometimes."
+
+Mrs. Castleton shrugged her shoulders, tapped her horse, and bounded
+ahead. They raced for a mile before she allowed him to regain his place
+at her side. "Granting that you're right, Francisquita," he said, "what
+makes you think so?"
+
+"Why, Ned, it's perfectly plain. I've seen Lena pave the way for too
+many flirtations not to know exactly what she's doing now. And she's
+preparing to have a perfectly furious affair with Mr. Conrad."
+
+Castleton kept discreet silence for some moments and studied the
+horizon. When he turned again to his wife he asked, "Well, dear, what
+are you going to do about it?"
+
+Francisquita Castleton was half Mexican, and on her mother's side could
+trace descent through a long line of dons back to a valiant governor and
+captain-general of the province who had done great deeds nearly two
+hundred years before. Her heritage had dowered her well with the
+instinctive coquetry, the supple, unconscious grace, the feminine,
+artless art that are the birthright of the women of Spanish blood. All
+of it was in the movement of her arm, the turn of her neck, and the
+poise of her head as she raised her veil and lifted her face toward her
+husband. Her voice was as soft as velvet and as caressing as an infant's
+palm as she exclaimed:
+
+"Do anything? I? Why, Ned Castleton, how you surprise me! Why should I
+interfere with Lena's whims?"
+
+Castleton laughed. "Ask me something easy, Fanny! I'm sure I don't know
+why you should, but I've noticed that Lena's plans sometimes shrivel up
+like a stuck balloon. Of course, it may be mere chance."
+
+"No, Ned; it isn't chance at all. It's only because Lena doesn't plan
+carefully enough."
+
+He took time for reflection. "I say, Francisquita," he presently broke
+out, "if you're right about this--and I must admit you don't often miss
+it about Lena--it may be a serious matter."
+
+"Of course I'm right, Ned. You'll soon see for yourself just how things
+are going. You know Lena likes admiration and she likes having her own
+way and she dearly loves making Turner jealous and she's positively
+unhappy if every man in sight isn't prancing along in her train. Mr.
+Conrad is a fine-looking young man, and he made a very good appearance
+when she saw him in San Francisco last year. I suppose she thought he
+didn't yield to her fascinations as he should, so she decided to come
+down here and gather him in. She knows she'll be awfully bored unless
+she can make her flirtation with him--well--ardent enough to keep her
+interested. I know enough about Lena to see that she's planning to have
+an affair that will keep her and Turner and Mr. Conrad simply sizzling
+as long as we stay."
+
+Castleton gave a long, low whistle. "Turner gets more jealous with every
+flirtation Lena has, and this whim of hers may prove serious. Conrad is
+the best superintendent this ranch ever had, and we want to keep him.
+But if Turner gets jealous he'll have to go--and mighty quick, too. And
+if he doesn't promptly succumb to Lena's fascinations--well, she's just
+vain enough to carry some story about him to Turner, so that we'd have
+to let him out for the sake of peace. We can't afford to lose Conrad,
+Fanny. I'll propose to Turner that we cut our stay short and go the day
+after the Fourth. We'll have to be here for the barbecue, of course."
+
+"Really, Ned, that's just like a man! Don't you know Lena can't be
+managed that way? She'd suspect at once that I was at the bottom of it
+and wanted to get her away from here, and then nothing could induce her
+to go. And you know, Ned, she always winds Turner around her finger as
+if he were a piece of silk. I can't understand why American wives take
+so much pleasure in managing their husbands; we Mexican women don't care
+to do that sort of thing." It was a prim little figure that pronounced
+the last sentence--save for the coquettish turn of the head and a
+melting glance of dark eyes that flashed for a moment upon her husband.
+
+He bent toward her a lover's face. "But you know how to manage just the
+same, Francisquita, _mi corazon_. Can't you think of some way to head
+Lena off and get her away before she does any mischief?"
+
+Francisquita turned a contemplative eye upon the forest of
+crimson-flowered cactus through which they were riding. "Well, I don't
+know that I can do anything--still, Lena's methods are always so--broad!
+I suppose I might try, if you'd like me to. It might have some effect if
+I stepped in right away--you wouldn't mind it, would you, Ned?--and did
+a little flirting with Mr. Conrad on my own account; not very much, you
+know; but I could manage to keep him busy about things--oh, you
+understand!--just make it pleasant for him to be with me. Really, Ned,
+Lena hasn't much chance if I start even with her; we've tried it
+before--you remember--I told you all about it at the time--and I think
+she'll quit right away and want to go home, or somewhere, as soon as she
+sees what I'm doing."
+
+Castleton laughed aloud. "And poor Conrad! What's to become of him in
+the midst of all these sighs and glances?"
+
+She threw him a smiling glance, and broke into a little, low laugh. "Oh,
+he won't mind! He's no silly! And he doesn't care anything about the
+ladies, anyway."
+
+"But suppose, Fanny," her husband teased, "that he should prefer Lena's
+methods after all, and cast himself at her feet instead of yours?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and turned toward him with a smile trembling
+at the corners of her mouth. "Oh, in that case he would quite deserve to
+lose his position."
+
+"But what about me? Should I deserve to lose him?"
+
+She tapped her horse and darted ahead, throwing back a laughing retort:
+"Of course you would, for not having married a more attractive wife!"
+
+Later in the day Mrs. Ned Castleton was busily engaged with Curtis
+Conrad and his brother Homer in the grove of cottonwoods across the road
+from the ranch house, showing them where to hang the last of the
+Japanese lanterns. Many people had already arrived and were scattered
+through the grove, or were wandering about the corral. Others were in
+the stockade behind the house, where Red Jack, Nosey Ike, and José
+Gonzalez were quartering the steer for the barbecue, and Hank Peters and
+Texas Bill were heaping wood on the fire where it was to be roasted. In
+the grove long tables had been made of planks and a floor laid for
+dancing. The lanterns hung in festoons around the platform and depended
+from the branches of the trees. Conrad saw Bancroft, Lucy, and Miss Dent
+driving up, and went to meet them.
+
+Mrs. Ned Castleton beckoned to her husband. "I'm sure Lena is going to
+do something perfectly outrageous," she said softly as they went to
+greet the arrivals, "something that will fairly knock us off our feet.
+She has looked so indifferent and so innocent all day and has been so
+sweet to me that I'm expecting a thunder clap every minute. I hope it
+won't be anything disgraceful."
+
+It was one of Mrs. Ned's important occupations, and she considered it
+her chief duty, for the sake, as she often told her husband, "of
+preserving at least a shred of the Castleton reputation," to discover
+the daring whims of her sister-in-law and nip them in the bud before
+they were ready to blossom upon the world. Francisquita knew also that
+Mrs. Turner enjoyed saying and doing audacious things, quite as much
+because they shocked Mrs. Ned as because they gave her a piquant vogue
+in San Francisco society. "I wonder what it is going to be," she
+repeated in a whisper to her husband as they came back with Conrad and
+the Bancroft party and went in search of Mrs. Turner. They found her
+sitting beside one of the tables, the centre of a group of men. Lucy,
+looking with interest, saw a large, golden-haired woman in a blue linen
+gown, that fitted perfectly her well corseted figure, and a blue picture
+hat, that matched the hue of her eyes. Her complexion of exquisite
+fairness and delicacy of coloring, and features of perfect regularity
+and proportion, made Lucy own to herself that she deserved her
+reputation as "the beautiful Mrs. Castleton."
+
+"What are we going to do all the rest of the day?" Mrs. Turner presently
+said, hiding a little yawn behind diamond-decked fingers. "It isn't
+three o'clock yet, and it seems as if it ought to be the day after
+to-morrow. Let's go in the house and play I'm a barber. Mr. Conrad, will
+you let me shave you?"
+
+A thrill of shocked astonishment went through the group. Lucy dropped
+her eyes and felt her cheeks burn and Miss Dent turned uneasily away.
+Some of the men looked at one another and grinned; others caught their
+breath and avoided their neighbors' eyes. Conrad masked a moment's
+hesitation with a gay laugh.
+
+"I would, with pleasure, Mrs. Castleton, if I had time; but just now I'm
+pretty busy. Here's a lot of fellows with nothing to do, who'll be
+delighted to help you amuse yourself."
+
+Mrs. Castleton glanced up at the men with a confiding smile. "I believe
+it's really because he's afraid; and he needn't be, for I do it very
+well--don't I, Ned?" Her brother-in-law gave gallant, if vague,
+confirmation, and she went on: "And he knows, for I shave him every time
+he comes to our house. But there's too much wind out here, it would dry
+the lather too quickly; let's go in the house." She rose, and one of the
+men hastened to open her sunshade, another picked up her fan, a third
+her handkerchief, and the statuesque blue figure with its group of
+satellites left the grove.
+
+"What does it mean, Fanny? Is this a new fad?" Ned Castleton asked his
+wife. "I never heard of it before, and she took my breath away when she
+told those people she always shaved me."
+
+"You backed her up splendidly, Ned; and I think you'd better go in now
+and let her shave you along with the others."
+
+"Fanny! I'd as soon allow her to black my boots!"
+
+"But if she wants to, Ned! And I don't think she'd hurt you much,
+because she's been practising on their butler for a month--so her maid
+told mine, though I'd forgotten all about it. As Turner's brother I
+really think you ought to go in and seem to join in the fun, so it won't
+look quite so bad."
+
+"If Lena doesn't care about the looks of it, why should I, or you?"
+
+"But you ought to care on Turner's account. It would be dear of you,
+Ned, if you would go in, for Turner's sake, and lend your countenance to
+the affair."
+
+"My countenance, Francisquita, but not my face. Since you're so anxious,
+dear, I'll go in and chaperon this shaving party if you'll tell me the
+real reason why you want me to do it. Is it a bargain?"
+
+She leaned toward him with a delighted little chuckle. "Don't you see,
+Ned, that if you go in and I stay out she'll think that I'm keeping Mr.
+Conrad out-of-doors, and she will be so angry about it that it will make
+her nervous, so she will cut their faces dreadfully, and that will make
+her freak such a failure that she'll have to drop it. Do go along, Ned;
+for I'm going to keep your manager busy for the next two hours. And, by
+the way, dear, if you should come out and not see me anywhere, it's
+likely to be because he's asked me to drive to the post-office with
+him."
+
+She sauntered through the grove toward the pond where a group of people
+had gathered under a big tree. She knew that Curtis was there, with the
+Bancrofts. Her cousin Juan--"Johnny"--Martinez was with them, and so was
+Dellmey Baxter. Dan Tillinghurst leaned against the tree, and beside him
+were Emerson Mead and his young wife, from Las Plumas. Judge Harlan and
+Colonel Whittaker, the former with his wife and the latter with his
+daughter, had also come from Las Plumas, where a political peace of
+unusual length and stability enabled them to leave town at the same
+time, and together.
+
+Mrs. Castleton came smiling down the hill and joined in the general
+talk. But in five minutes the assemblage had broken into little groups
+of two or three, of which she, her cousin, and Conrad made one. She sent
+Martinez to do some small service for Miss Whittaker, and began to tell
+Curtis that she feared there were not lanterns enough. Would he come and
+look at them? As they went back to the grove she suggested that they
+might get paper bags from the store at White Rock, fill each half full
+of sand, put a candle in it, and set them in rows wherever there was
+room for them. She had often seen her native town illuminated in this
+way on _festa_ nights, and the effect was really very beautiful. He
+thought it a good idea and asked if she would mind driving over to White
+Rock with him to help select the best sizes and colors. Five minutes
+later Lucy watched them driving away. "I saw how Mrs. Castleton was
+manoeuvring," she thought with an angry throb of the heart. "But it
+doesn't matter the least bit. I can have quite as good a time with
+anybody else."
+
+Presently she seemed greatly pleased when Homer Conrad asked if she and
+Miss Dent would like to see the horses. They made the round of the
+stables, and went to see the angora goats in their enclosure beyond the
+corral, and the dog kennels, and the chicken yard. They walked across
+the alfalfa field, and amused themselves in the prairie dog village on
+the hillside beyond. Lucy was so interested in everything, and said so
+many bright and pleasant things, and was so vivacious, and looked so
+pretty with her dimples and her color coming and going and her big brown
+eyes sparkling, that Homer thought her quite the nicest, jolliest girl
+he had seen in a long time. He was much like his brother in build,
+though less sinewy and a trifle fleshier in body; while in manner he was
+slower and less eager and alert. His eyes showed the same bright blue
+tint, but their expression was mild and trustful, while his brother's
+had always a dauntless look, as if challenging the world. His face was
+of the same general type, but the features were not so strongly marked,
+although he had the same firm mouth and strong chin. His countenance
+gave the impression of a character phlegmatic but forceful.
+
+That evening Lucy told Miss Dent that she liked Don Homer very much,
+adding, "And he's been more polite and pleasant to us this afternoon
+than Mr. Conrad himself." Mrs. Ned Castleton had applied the Spanish
+title to the younger Conrad to distinguish him from his brother, and
+the rest had followed her example. Louise was secretly pleased at this
+dissatisfaction with Curtis, for her aversion to him was so great that
+she disliked even to see them together. But she reminded the girl that
+with so many people there he could not pay much attention to special
+ones. Lucy tossed her head and replied, "He had plenty of time for Mrs.
+Ned Castleton."
+
+Evening came, and with it a huge white moon that poured upon earth and
+air and sky a flood of silvery white radiance in which the illuminations
+at the ranch shone with a mellow, golden glow. Mrs. Ned Castleton sat on
+the edge of the porch, her guitar in her lap, looking with satisfaction
+at the rows of paper bags, each containing a lighted candle in its bed
+of sand, set thickly upon the window-sills, the adobe walls, and the
+tables in the grove. They were not only effective, but they had enabled
+her to keep Curtis Conrad out of the hands of her sister-in-law the
+entire afternoon. Mrs. Turner had only just gone across to the grove, in
+the belief, subtly engendered by Francisquita, that the superintendent
+was to be found there, where most of the company had gathered and the
+dancing was about to begin. She knew, however, that he was overseeing
+the stowing of some cases of beer in the ice house in the back-yard. And
+she had not forgotten that when he was at their house in San Francisco
+he had been much pleased by her rendering of Spanish airs on the guitar.
+"He doesn't need to appear in the grove," she thought, "until Lena has
+had time to engage several dances." She began to play "La Golondrina,"
+and as the sweetly plaintive notes rose higher, Lucy, looking houseward,
+saw a tall figure vault the wall around the grass plot and disappear in
+the shadows of the porch, whence came the strains of Mrs. Ned's guitar.
+A little later she saw them come across the road together, and at once
+became deeply interested in the talk of Don Homer, her partner, as they
+made their way to the dancing floor. Lucy danced twice with him, once
+with Martinez, and once with Emerson Mead before she made it possible
+for Curtis to speak with her. She knew he had been hovering near more
+than once, but she would not see him, and appeared always to be gayly
+interested with her partner.
+
+She gave him only one dance during the evening. But, noting his
+movements, she had seen with much bitterness of heart that he danced
+frequently with Mrs. Ned Castleton. She began to wonder, with chill
+doubt in her breast, if she had deceived herself in thinking he cared
+for her. She had expected to see so much of him; and yet, except for the
+first half-hour after their arrival, he seemed to have ignored her. She
+began to realize that she had depended much on her belief in his love
+when she resolved to tell him the secret of her father's identity. She
+still had confidence that her words would turn him from his purpose--but
+it was going to be a hard thing to do!
+
+"Mrs. Ned is just amusing herself," she thought angrily. "She ought to
+be ashamed--married woman flirting like that! Well--he's not the only
+one!" And before the evening was over Homer Conrad had neither eyes nor
+ears for any one but Lucy Bancroft.
+
+The house was given over to the ladies for the night. The men had a
+blanket apiece, and all the wide out-doors in which to couch themselves.
+Some climbed to the flat adobe roof of the house, or to the brush thatch
+of the stables, while others declared the ground in the grove good
+enough for them. It was decided by unanimous outcry that the dancing
+platform should be turned over to Dellmey Baxter and Johnny Martinez,
+the opposing candidates for Congress.
+
+First they all went trooping, each with his blanket stringing over his
+shoulder, to the kitchen door, where Conrad and the two Castletons
+dispensed nightcaps of varied concoction. The women heard them talking,
+story-telling, laughing, and now and then singing a snatch from some
+rollicking song. When the last light disappeared from within the house,
+a group of men began singing "Good-Night, Ladies." A round of vigorous
+applause from the darkened windows rewarded them, and they went on with
+"Annie Laurie," "Comin' through the Rye," and "How Can I Bear to Leave
+Thee." Johnny Martinez sang a Spanish love song in a falsetto voice, and
+received much applause from within.
+
+The men sang their way along the windows, up one side of the long,
+rambling house, across the front, and down the other side. They climbed
+to the roof, and serenaded the men who were trying to sleep there,
+varying the line or two of song accorded to each with much chaffing and
+guying. When the last straggling half-dozen of singers finally went off
+to seek their own resting-places in the grove, they marched in single
+file round and round the dancing floor, where Baxter and Martinez had
+already stretched themselves, and sang in a solemn croak: "John Brown
+had one little, two little Indian boys; one went to Congress, the other
+stayed at home."
+
+When peace settled at last over the Socorro Springs ranch house it was
+near the dawn of another day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE WORD UNSPOKEN
+
+
+The sun was high in the brilliant blue heavens and blazing hot upon the
+gray-green plain when the company came together in the grove the next
+morning to listen to speeches. One or another well-known resident of the
+Territory was called forth, with applause and cheers, to mount an
+improvised rostrum, where he complimented the ladies, chaffed the men,
+told funny stories, submitted to guying from the audience and repaid it
+in kind, until he was able to turn a joke upon some one else so deftly
+that he could retreat under cover of the hand-clapping and laughter and
+the calls for the other man to step up and defend himself.
+
+At dinner they spent a jovial hour. Half a dozen cowboys carried the big
+platters of roasted meat to the tables, where they were flanked by
+smoking dishes of _frijoles_ and _chile con carne_, platters of bread,
+and piles of roasted potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Pails of lemonade
+and bottles of beer, just brought from the ice house, were scattered
+down the tables, and steaming pots of coffee and tea passed from hand to
+hand. Everybody was in the highest spirits; every jest or bit of fun was
+caught, bandied back and forth, and passed on with new trimmings. As
+they gathered around the tables, Conrad asked Lucy Bancroft to save a
+seat for him beside her. She smiled at him without replying; but when
+Homer presently came and asked for the vacant place she gave him a
+gracious welcome.
+
+Conrad, much occupied with his duties as host, soon saw that his brother
+was at her side, paying her devoted attention, and that apparently she
+was quite happy. "It's all right," he thought. "He'll have time to look
+out for her better than I could, anyway; she seems to be having a good
+time, and that's the main thing." Yet he was conscious of keen
+disappointment; he had seen so little of her--much less, he was suddenly
+aware, than he wished. But he had been very busy. Notwithstanding the
+planning beforehand, something new had been constantly cropping up and
+demanding his attention. But Homer had been taking good care of her,
+and she seemed to be enjoying everything. That evening, after the
+fireworks, he could surely let things go for a little while, and ask her
+to walk with him in the moonlight to the top of the hill.
+
+At that moment he was passing Mrs. Turner Castleton. With an inviting
+smile she made room for him beside her. He sat down, poured her a glass
+of lemonade, and then, noticing that Emerson Mead and his wife were not
+comfortably seated, went off to look after them. Mrs. Ned, who had seen
+her sister-in-law's manoeuvre, asked him to go into the house with her
+to see how the lemons were holding out. When they came out she protested
+that she was starving, that he must be too, and couldn't they sit right
+down and have something to eat? The seats she chose were at some
+distance from Mrs. Turner, though directly in range of her eye. They
+chanced also to be in plain sight from where Lucy was sitting. She,
+seeing them dining together on such friendly, jolly terms, was more
+charming than ever to Homer Conrad. Her pique made the task she had set
+herself no easier; but she held to her determination, telling herself
+that, even if Curtis did not show her some attention that afternoon,
+she would try to see him in the evening. For they were to go home in the
+morning.
+
+After dinner the games began. Cowboys of the ranch and others from small
+neighboring ranches gave exhibitions of quick roping and throwing and of
+broncho busting. Curtis Conrad and Emerson Mead had a riding and
+shooting match. José Gonzalez, dressed in Mexican holiday attire of
+straw sombrero, braided jacket, and close-fitting trousers, showed his
+skill as an expert lasso thrower. He made a picturesque figure as he
+stood in the roadway, striking graceful attitudes and making his rope
+leap, run, circle, and swirl about him as if it were alive. The visitors
+crowded to the edge of the grove, watching and admiring.
+
+"He's a sure peach at the fancy racket," said Dan Tillinghurst, "but I
+reckon Emerson Mead can flirt gravel faster than he can when it comes to
+the real practical business. Say, Emerson," he called, "can't you give
+us an imitation of the way you slipped out of Antone Colorow's rope and
+broke his wrists before he had time to draw his noose? I reckon that was
+a show sure worth seeing."
+
+Those who knew the story added their voices, "Yes, Mead; show us how
+you did it!" Others who had never heard of the incident wanted to know
+about it; and soon everybody was talking about how a cowboy once tried
+to rope Emerson Mead. Mrs. Turner Castleton was standing beside Curtis.
+
+"Really, Mr. Conrad," she said, "is it true that they ever rope men? And
+why do the men allow it?"
+
+"Sometimes, Mrs. Castleton, when the men who are roped can't help it."
+With a sudden smile he threw back his head and his eyes flashed. "We'll
+show you the game," he went on; "José shall try to rope me, and I'll see
+if I can keep out of his way. Come, José, get your horse, and bring
+mine, and then do your best."
+
+The Mexican stooped to coil his rope. As he rose his glance darted
+across the faces of the crowd under the trees until it met the eyes of
+Alexander Bancroft, standing beside Dellmey Baxter, at the end of the
+long group. Baxter saw the two pairs of eyes meet and hold each other
+for an instant, and his curiosity was aroused. But he seemed to notice
+nothing, and saying, "Come, Aleck, let's go and see what they're up to
+now," he led the way to the upper end of the grove.
+
+The two horsemen cantered out into the open and began their
+manoeuvres. The people crowded along at the edge of the shade, and
+some of the men stepped out into the sunlight to get a better view.
+Emerson Mead was much interested and walked out farther than the rest.
+The snakey rings and lengths of the Mexican's rope were whistling
+through the air, and the two men were wheeling, stopping, rushing
+forward, jumping sidewise, in graceful evolutions. The noose circled
+through the space between them, poised over Conrad's head, and darted
+downward like some voracious bird of prey. An exclamation ran through
+the intent crowd, "He's got him! He's got him this time!" But the
+superintendent jerked his horse to its hind legs, swung it to one side,
+galloped a little way, and came back laughing. "Good! that was first
+rate!" Emerson Mead called out.
+
+José wound his rope for another trial, and cantered leisurely back and
+forth, making sudden feints of throwing and watching his employer's
+movements of evasion. Suddenly he wheeled, charged, and threw the loop
+from a distance of only a few paces. He had calculated on the other's
+spurring forward to escape; instead Conrad brought his horse to a
+standstill, and the noose fell over its ears. A cheer went up from the
+grove, and Curtis turned to wave his broad-brimmed hat. In the one swift
+glance he was aware of Lucy, watching so eagerly that she had stepped
+forward into the sunshine, and of his brother, raising a sunshade over
+her head.
+
+Gonzalez also waved his sombrero to the company, and coiled his rope
+anew. It darted out like a serpent's tongue, and this time it caught
+Conrad unawares; he had thought his antagonist would not throw so soon
+and for the instant was off his guard. The noose fell over his head just
+as his horse was at mid-bound. He heard it whistle as it dropped past
+his ears, and as quick as a flash jerked his pony backward to a sudden
+stop. Apparently José had expected the horse to leap forward, for, as he
+felt the slacking of the rope, there was a dextrous turn of his wrist,
+and a dig of his spur that sent his pony dancing to one side. The noose
+tightened around Curtis's neck. Instinctively he clutched it, and his
+fingers, caught against his windpipe, ground into his own throat.
+
+"The greaser did that on purpose!" exclaimed Emerson Mead in a hard,
+swift undertone, as his hand gripped the revolver at his waistband. But
+Gonzalez was already beside Conrad, and lifting the noose from his neck.
+The American choked and gasped for breath once or twice.
+
+"You--you caught me square that time, José," he said.
+
+"We are even now, señor," replied the Mexican; "you gave me my life
+once, and now I give you yours. It would have been only a second more;
+and it was plainly an accident; nobody would have known. I have paid my
+debt."
+
+The people were cheering. Both men faced toward the grove and waved
+their hats. "You damned impudent coyote!" said Curtis through his teeth.
+Then he grinned, and added, "But I like your nerve, though."
+
+At the grove side the manager threw his bridle to the Mexican, but
+turned impulsively and called, "Here, José, wait a minute. I want you to
+show these people how you can throw the knife." A stride or two took him
+to José's side. "And I'll be your target, damn you!" he added in an
+undertone. He walked back where Lucy, Miss Dent, and his brother were
+standing, humming a stave or two from a comic opera under his breath.
+Homer noticed that his face was rather pale and that his eyes were
+blazing, but thought it due to his annoyance at having been roped.
+
+Gonzalez came back from the corral, carefully testing with his finger
+the edge and point of his knife. Conrad, his head held high, a smile on
+his face and exhilaration in his manner, was telling the company to
+stand a little to one side, to make sure they were out of the way of the
+knife. As Gonzalez came up, he stepped in front of the nearest tree,
+with the Mexican facing him ten or twelve paces distant. Judge Banks
+called to him to watch out for the knife himself, and he turned a
+smiling face for an instant as he answered gayly, "Oh, I'm all right!"
+In the same tone he called, "Start her up, José! And remember, you're to
+do your level best."
+
+José's teeth shone in a gleaming smile as he replied significantly, "I
+shall, Don Curtis!" He took an alert, graceful posture, one foot set
+back and head thrust slightly forward. The muscles of his arm were still
+relaxed as his knife slid along his wrist and nestled into place. Conrad
+drew himself up tensely and his eyes narrowed as he fixed them upon the
+Mexican's. For an instant they eyed each other; then, like a flash,
+José's arm swung back.
+
+Not until that moment did any member of the company understand that
+Curtis was deliberately making himself a target; even then many did not
+realize the significance of the game with death he had set himself to
+play. Ned Castleton's face went white, and his voice died in his throat
+as he tried to call to José to stop. Alexander Bancroft stared with
+devouring eyes, his breath coming hard. The overmastering desire for
+freedom and safety was upon him, and he could not take his gaze from the
+Mexican's poised figure. Louise Dent, beside him, drew one gasping
+breath and covered her face with her hands. Afterward she knew that she
+had not done this so much to shut from her eyes the next moment's
+expected sight as to hide from her soul's vision the glimpse she had
+caught of the desire springing to life in her own heart.
+
+[Illustration: "LIKE A FLASH JOSÉ'S ARM SWUNG BACK, ... AND CURTIS
+SPRANG LIGHTLY ASIDE AS THE KNIFE STRUCK DEEP INTO THE TREE"]
+
+Homer Conrad, sitting beside Lucy, his attention fixed upon some small
+damage to her fan which he was trying to repair, did not see what was
+going on until a sudden stiffening of her attitude and a sharp, indrawn
+breath made him look up. She was leaning forward, with face white and
+eyes staring and hands clenched against her breast. He followed her
+gaze and saw the knife flash from José's hand. His heart went sick and
+he sat powerless to move as his eyes marked the long blade, dark against
+the sunshine, but with little sparkles on its edge, through what seemed
+an interminable flight.
+
+Then Curtis sprang lightly aside as the knife struck deep into the tree
+at the level of his throat, pulled the weapon out, waved it at Gonzalez,
+and called out triumphantly, "Try again, José; and be quicker next
+time!"
+
+Ned Castleton sprang forward, with Turner close behind, and grasped his
+arm. "Are you crazy, Curt?" he exclaimed. "This is fool's play! We don't
+want any more of it!"
+
+"There's no danger," Conrad replied jauntily. "I knew I could jump
+quicker than he could throw, and I wanted to prove it to him. There's
+not a bit of danger; I can do it every time. But if you don't like it
+we'll have something else. Hello, kid!" he said as Homer rushed up and
+seized his arm; the young man's face was pale and tears stood in his
+eyes. "You've no reason to be frightened," Curtis went on easily. "All I
+had to do was to watch his eyes. If there had been any real danger I
+wouldn't have tried it."
+
+Lucy Bancroft sat quite still for a few moments, her eyes on the ground,
+but presently she started toward the house, contriving to pass Conrad
+when there was no one beside him. She touched his arm and he wheeled
+toward her as if he had felt an electric shock. "It was a most foolish
+thing to do," she said in a low voice, "but--you are the bravest man I
+ever saw," and hastened on without giving him time to reply.
+
+At night there were fireworks and dancing. After the knife-throwing
+episode Curtis tried again and again to have speech with Lucy, but
+whenever he came near she seemed not to see him, and was so interested
+in conversation with her admirer of the moment that he could find no
+opportunity. Homer attended her like her own shadow. The hours hurried
+past, and still, piqued and wilful, she postponed making the opportunity
+for her revelation.
+
+Conrad was master of the fireworks; while he was busy setting off
+sky-rockets and mines Lucy and Homer called to him that they were going
+to the top of the hill beyond the alfalfa field to see how the display
+looked from there. It was the very walk Curtis had intended to ask her
+to take with him, and he glanced after them, keenly disappointed. But
+he said to himself that as soon as he could get the fireworks out of the
+way there would be nothing to demand his attention for the rest of the
+evening, and then he could surely get a little time with her.
+
+Half an hour later he saw her, through a glare of red fire, setting off
+fire-crackers with his brother and Pendleton. Dan Tillinghurst had just
+joined them, and she turned to him with a laughing threat, a lighted
+cracker in her hand. He called to Pendleton, whose pockets were bulging
+with packs of the crackers, to see fair play and give him weapons of
+defence. The cool night wind was tossing her brown curls, her bright
+face was full of animation, and the red light enveloped her in a rosy
+sheen. He looked at her, his face aglow with admiration, then turned
+back to the sky-rockets. As he stooped over the box he heard a scream in
+a girlish voice, followed by the stern command, "Sit down! Sit down!" in
+Dan Tillinghurst's heavy tones. Springing up, he saw a white heap
+sinking to the ground amid leaping tongues of flame and the three men
+stripping off their coats and beating the fire. He rushed forward,
+taking off his coat as he ran, and in a moment they had whipped the
+flames down to a ring of charred muslin and flickering sparks. A dozen
+others had hurried to the spot, but it was Curtis's outstretched hand
+that Lucy took as he bent anxiously over her, his arm upon which she
+leaned as she staggered to her feet. She went at once into the house
+with Miss Dent, and did not reappear that evening. When Louise returned
+she explained that Lucy had gone to bed, but that, except for the
+nervous shock, she had suffered no harm.
+
+Curtis Conrad went on sending off sky-rockets and Roman candles in the
+amaze of a new knowledge. That moment of Lucy's peril, brief as it was,
+had revealed to him the love that, unconsciously to himself, had been
+bourgeoning in his heart throughout the Spring. So absorbed had he been
+in his own grim purpose that he had not realized the meaning of his
+liking for Lucy and his enjoyment of her society. But in the light of
+the flames by which he had seen her circled her dearness had flashed
+upon him its real significance. When she leaned upon him as she arose,
+it had demanded all his self-control to keep from taking her in his
+arms. His nerves were thrilling yet with the slight pressure of her
+body upon his arm as she regained her footing. So sudden and forceful
+was the rush of his emotion that it swept him from his accustomed
+moorings, and filled heart and mind to the exclusion of every other
+idea. Lucy--Lucy--Lucy--he said her name over and over in his innermost
+thought, even while he danced with Mrs. Turner, strolled with Miss
+Whittaker to the hilltop,--as he had wished to do with Lucy,--talked
+with Martinez, or listened to Judge Harlan's stories. The thought of her
+was constantly with him, enveloped in a wonderful tenderness; his memory
+was incessantly recalling images of her as she looked leaning against
+this tree, seated beside that table, walking across the road. He hovered
+around Miss Dent until she, to escape from his attention and his
+solicitude about Lucy, which intensified the aversion and resentment she
+already felt, retired to the house early in the evening.
+
+But, when all the merrymakers had gone to bed and quiet had settled upon
+the ranch, Conrad began to feel a violent wrenching of his heart. When
+he stretched himself upon the roof of the house and gazed into the
+silvery violet sky his lifelong purpose reasserted itself. For so many
+years it had been his habit, as he composed himself for sleep, to think
+over his plans for the pursuit of Delafield and feed his heart with the
+desire for revenge that he quickly felt its tyranny. For a moment all
+emotion ceased and his mind stood back, aghast at itself, bewildered.
+Then the old idea took possession again, and he said to himself, almost
+with anger, "What business have I to fall in love?" To think of Lucy in
+connection with his own dark and bloody aims was repellent, and his
+thoughts turned away in quick reaction. Then came the remembrance of
+Homer's devotion to her and of how welcome, apparently, had been his
+attentions. So, for that time at least, Lucy and love were turned out of
+his heart and his last waking thoughts were of his plan to go to
+Albuquerque and Santa Fe within a few days, there to run down the clews
+that promised most.
+
+Because of all that had gone on in his mind and heart as he lay on the
+roof that night Conrad's manner toward Lucy the next morning was graver
+and more restrained than usual. He was keenly alive to the magic of her
+presence, but for that he rebuked himself and went near her no oftener
+than he could help. Lucy tried in vain to find an opportunity for
+private speech with him. And so the time came for their departure and
+the fateful words had not been said. "Well," she consoled herself, "he
+will come to see us in Golden before long, and I will tell him then."
+
+As they drove away the house was filled with the bustle of leave-taking.
+The guests who had come by rail were being driven to the station at
+White Rock to catch the forenoon train. Others were leaving by horse or
+carriage for Golden or Randall. As the dust from the last of the
+departing vehicles rose in thin gray stains against the vivid blue of
+the sky Ned Castleton called to his wife from the shade of the tree
+beside the gate. She had been saying good-bye to the Bancrofts and had
+stopped in the sun beside the adobe wall to play with a horned toad that
+Gonzalez had caught for her.
+
+"Fanny," he said, "I know I haven't got horns, but if you'll come here
+in the shade I'll prove that I can be just as interesting as that toad."
+
+She came, holding the weird little creature on her palm. "Look at him,
+Ned! Isn't he cunning? He's the dearest thing I ever saw--except you."
+
+"Oh, thanks; it's kind of you not to put me in the same class. As a
+reward I'll tell you some news. Your little scheme for balking Lena's
+designs on Conrad has succeeded perfectly. Turner has just told me that
+she has suddenly decided she wants to go to Santa Barbara at once, and
+they're leaving this afternoon. I told him to go ahead, and I'd stay
+here a few days longer and finish things up with Curt."
+
+"That's just splendid, Ned! We'll have some lovely rides, won't we? And
+it will be such a rest not to have to keep an eye on Lena. I felt sure
+last night that she was going to give up the game and pretend she hadn't
+been playing, because she suddenly lost all interest in the cattle
+business."
+
+"Of course you know, Francisquita, that you have been behaving
+shamelessly; but I'll forgive you, because you've saved our model
+superintendent for us."
+
+"Ned, you know very well that I didn't do a thing but just help Mr.
+Conrad make it pleasant for all the people--except, perhaps, Lena. I'm
+afraid she'd have had a better time if I hadn't been here. But I've been
+thinking this morning, Ned, that maybe it wasn't necessary for me to
+help quite as hard as I did. What do you think about it?"
+
+"I think I don't know what you're talking about. As the cowboys say,
+you've flung gravel along the road a little too fast for my gait."
+
+"Ned, you're the blindest thing! What could I mean except that Mr.
+Conrad didn't need to be distracted from Lena, especially as her methods
+are so broad?"
+
+"Well, go on, dear. We'll get there after a while."
+
+"Go on! Why, Ned, that's all! Isn't that enough? Why should a man want
+more than one pretty girl to protect him from the designs of a lady
+who--well--who wants to shave him? You never needed anybody but me."
+
+"True, Fanny! But you always were equal to an army in yourself, and now
+you are equal to two--which is only another way of saying that you grow
+more fascinating every day. And now I think you might be gracious enough
+to tell me what you're talking about."
+
+"Why, Ned, I'm afraid Miss Bancroft didn't enjoy it any more than Lena.
+I wasn't quite sure of it until this morning; but I really think, Ned,
+that Lena would have been left out in the cold just the same if I
+hadn't--hadn't helped Mr. Conrad entertain the people quite so much."
+
+Castleton laughed. "Oh, I begin to see! You are feeling the pangs of
+remorse because you've been putting snags in the course of true love.
+But you needn't worry, dear. Curt isn't the sort of man, if he cares
+anything about her, to let a little thing like that make any
+difference."
+
+"But he'll be too busy with you to go over to Golden and see her again
+for a long time, won't he?"
+
+"Oh, we can get through this week, I think."
+
+"Good! Then we can leave on Saturday, and on Sunday he can gallop over
+to Golden, and by that time she'll want awfully to see him and she'll be
+very sorry she flirted so outrageously with Don Homer. And next Fall
+we'll send them a wedding present, and they'll come to see us on their
+wedding journey,--she's a dear, sweet girl, Ned, and I like her,--and
+I'll explain to her why I--why I helped Mr. Conrad make things pleasant
+at the barbecue, and we'll have a jolly laugh over it. There he is now,
+Ned! Do go right along and begin your work, so we'll be sure to leave on
+Saturday."
+
+When Conrad bade the Castletons good-bye at the railway station at the
+end of the week, Francisquita said to him:
+
+"When you see that pretty Miss Bancroft again--" here she gave him a
+significant glance and then demurely lowered her eyes--"please tell her
+that I hope to see her again, and that if she ever comes to San
+Francisco she must let me know--you can give her our address. We'd be
+delighted, Ned and I, to help her have a good time. She's a dear, lovely
+girl and I'd really like to know her better."
+
+Curtis drove home, declaring to himself that Mrs. Ned was one of the
+most charming women he knew. He would ride over to Golden to-morrow
+afternoon and deliver her message. He lingered fondly over the image of
+Lucy's slender figure standing at the top of her veranda steps and
+smiling upon him a gay and gracious welcome, and a strong desire rose in
+his heart to know just how glad she really would be to see him. But the
+recollection of his plans for the ensuing week came crashing through his
+pleasant thoughts like a runaway horse through a flower garden. For a
+moment the purpose that held his life in thrall seemed strangely
+unworthy. But presently he jammed his hat down on his head and, with
+compressed lips, said savagely to himself:
+
+"No; the Delafield affair is my first love, and I'll stay with it." As
+he thought over his plans and hopes for the immediate future his heart
+grew hot again with the old indignation over all that ruin and struggle,
+and the old purpose regained its accustomed vigor.
+
+After a little, nevertheless, he decided that he would ride over to the
+Bancrofts' the next day and deliver Mrs. Castleton's message. It would
+do no harm for him to see Lucy occasionally, in the friendly way in
+which they had always met.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+NARROWING THE QUEST
+
+
+That evening, while they sat and smoked on the little porch, Curtis
+Conrad told Homer of his lifelong quest. It was the younger man's first
+knowledge of the motive that had been so potent in his brother's life.
+He listened in silence while his pipe went out, and sat quite still
+after the other ceased. "Well, Curt," he said at last, with a little
+tremor in his voice, "this yarn of yours knocks me silly. I can't say
+I'm pleased with it, at least at first view. It doesn't seem sensible."
+
+Curtis laughed good-naturedly. "Very likely, Homer; I didn't expect it
+to appeal forcibly to a sensible, practical chap like you. I haven't
+told you before because there was no use bothering your young head with
+it when the round-up seemed so far away; but I'm mighty near the end of
+the trail now, and you've come to a man's age and ways of thinking; so I
+thought it best to tell you. There's a possibility, of course, that
+I'll get the worst of it when the mix-up does come; and in that case I'd
+like you to know what it was all about. But I'm not considering that
+sort of chance as likely to happen."
+
+"But what do you expect to gain by it, Curt, and why do you want to kill
+the man?"
+
+Curtis slowly lighted a fresh cigar. "Well, Homer, if you don't see why,
+it's no use for me to explain."
+
+"I know there's a big difference between us temperamentally; but I don't
+believe that would keep me from appreciating your motive if it had any
+basis in right or expediency. Good God, Curt, look at the thing
+sensibly! Suppose you kill the man when you find him. What earthly good
+will that do you? You'd probably hang for it, or go to the penitentiary
+for years. And it seems to me the chance is all the other way. Whoever
+the man is, he must know you're after him; and you'll find him ready and
+loaded. If you're not killed you're likely to be badly wounded--perhaps
+lose an eye or a leg--and what can you gain by it? Bless me if I can see
+any use or sense or right in the whole business."
+
+Curtis Conrad rose and walked slowly and with bent head the length of
+the porch and back, his hand resting for an instant on his brother's
+shoulder as he passed. He stood regarding abstractedly the lightning
+that was playing among some low-lying clouds above the Hatchet
+Mountains, far to the southwest. "One night, soon after father and
+mother died," he began, in a tone so low that Homer could barely catch
+his words, "I lay awake almost all night, thinking. You were a little
+shaver barely out of kilts, the girls were young things with their
+dresses half way to their knees, and I was only fifteen. I had taken you
+into bed with me because I was afraid you'd wake up in the night and
+feel lonesome--and, perhaps, because I didn't want to feel quite so
+lonesome myself. I made plans for hours about how we could get along and
+the things I meant to do. You tossed in your sleep, and threw one of
+your hands against mine. My fingers closed over it, and you gripped one
+of them fast. Somehow, that grip went to my heart, and I promised myself
+and you that I would do all I could to make up to you the loss we had
+suffered. I thought of what father had planned for me; and I knew that I
+should have to give all that up. As I thought of the man who had robbed
+us of everything--money, opportunity, father and mother--I trembled with
+anger.
+
+"I had never used an oath until that night. But I sat on the side of my
+bed, when I couldn't lie still any longer, and clenched my fists and
+cursed him, mildly at first and under my breath, then aloud and in the
+reddest language I could think of. As I damned his soul to the hottest
+corner of hell it seemed to me that he ought to be made to suffer in
+this life, too, and I said aloud, 'I would like to kill you!' The words
+sounded so plain that they frightened me. But I said them over again,
+and the next moment the thought leaped up, 'And I will, too, if I live!'
+That was how the idea was born in my mind. It struck root and grew, and
+I've held to it ever since."
+
+Homer nodded. "Yes; I can understand how you would hold to a thing you'd
+made up your mind to do; I'd hold on just the same way. We've both got
+the bull-dog grip; it's one of the Conrad characteristics. But even a
+bull-dog can let go when he knows he shouldn't hold on any longer."
+
+Curtis smiled grimly. "Not always; sometimes you have to pry his jaws
+loose. Nevertheless, I could let go if I wanted to. But I don't want
+to, and I don't propose to. The thing has become part of my life, of me,
+of my very blood."
+
+"Have you been working at it all this time, Curt?"
+
+"Oh, of course I couldn't do much while I was a boy except to think and
+brood over it. But during that time I learned all I could about
+Delafield, his schemes, and his personality. I read every newspaper I
+could lay hold of that had anything in it about him; I've got them all
+yet. But I didn't do much in the way of actually chasing him down until
+after the girls were married ten years ago. After that I earned and
+saved more money, and was free to go about as I wanted. Since then I've
+spent all the time and money I could spare in hunting him.
+
+"I had a schoolmate named Littleton who became a detective when he grew
+up. We were good friends, and when he happened to find out that I was
+nosing around in my own way he offered to help me. I was to pay him what
+I could, and he would put in time on this when he had nothing else to
+do. Between us we tracked Delafield all over the West and into Canada,
+back and forth, and under nearly a dozen different names. I don't think
+he got as much money out of his Boston smash as he was charged with
+taking, but he got a good lot; and he's since made and lost two or three
+good-sized fortunes. Most of the time he has been a mining expert, and
+has owned and dealt in mines; the fact that he's stuck pretty close to
+that business has made it easier to follow him. Once, in Arizona, we
+lost the trail completely. It was as if the earth had opened and
+swallowed him; for a while we thought he must be dead. Later we
+discovered his tracks in Utah, under a new name. Since then there have
+been several gaps of that sort; but we've always managed to light on him
+again after a while.
+
+"My last knowledge of him is that he is living somewhere in this
+Territory, a well-to-do and respected citizen, prominent in politics,
+and a supporter of Dellmey Baxter for Congress. The rest of it will be
+easy; there'll be a quick chase and an early show-down before there's
+time for another deal. I've got my eye on two men, both of whom fit that
+description. They live up North, and I'm going up to Albuquerque and
+Santa Fe next week to look up their records. If it's either one of
+them, Delafield will meet his deserts before he's many days older."
+
+Silence fell upon them. Curtis leaned against a pillar of the porch and
+watched the clouds rising higher over the mountains. "It looks as if the
+rainy season is about to begin at last," he said in a matter-of-fact
+way. Homer rose and stood with a hand on his shoulder. They looked so
+much alike in the moonlight that at a little distance it would have been
+difficult to say which was the younger and which the elder brother.
+
+"I don't need to tell you, Curt," he said in a tone rich with earnest
+feeling, "how grateful I am for all you've done for me, nor how well I
+know at what cost to yourself you've done it. You've been father and
+mother and brother and best friend to me all in one. If I ever do
+anything worth while the credit will be yours quite as much as mine. You
+know I'm not ungrateful or unappreciative, don't you, Curt? I can
+understand how this thing has come to obsess you, since you've explained
+how it took root in your mind before your ethical ideas were settled.
+But I can't sympathize with you in this search after vengeance, and I
+can't approve of what you are planning to do. It seems to me you ought
+to be able to see things straight by this time and shake off your
+obsession. If you want to find the man and hand him over to the proper
+authorities--that's all right; I'd help you in that myself; it's right
+that he should be punished and made to give up what he has to his
+creditors. But to take revenge into your own hands, Curt, and to take it
+at the cost of everything desirable for yourself--why, the thing is so
+mad that it bewilders me to think it's you that's doing it. I wish I
+could persuade you to give it up."
+
+Curtis shook his head emphatically. "You needn't waste your breath,
+Homer. I rather hoped you'd understand better how I feel about it, and
+see the whole affair a little more as it looks to me. But you're
+different; and if you can't, you can't, and that's all there is about
+it. But it's useless to try to persuade me to give up my plans. A thing
+that you've thought about and dreamt about and planned and worked for
+through fifteen years gets to be part of your very blood, my boy, and
+it's not so easily cast aside."
+
+"Well," said Homer, "you are you; and if you've got to do this thing I
+suppose it can't be helped." He paused, thinking intently. "But when
+you go North next week--if one of those men proves to be Delafield--you
+won't--at once--" He stumbled over his words, unable to put his
+brother's purpose into plain speech.
+
+Curtis took up his meaning. "No; not immediately. I've got to come home
+again first."
+
+"Then you'll be back here before you do anything? That's sure, is it,
+Curt?" asked Homer, relief in his voice.
+
+"Yes; sure. I've got some important business that I promised the
+Castletons I'd attend to the week after, and I'll take no chances till I
+get that fixed up for them."
+
+The next morning there was a promise of rain in the air and the sky. A
+dome of pale, bright gray, resting on murky supports of cloud, had taken
+the place of the usual heaven of vivid blue. But the wind, blowing warm
+and strong from the west, bore little moisture upon its wings, and the
+air was laden with an electric tingle that stretched and jarred
+unaccustomed nerves.
+
+Hank Peters and José Gonzalez were working in the corral when Curtis
+Conrad came across from the door of his room to give them some
+directions. Presently he asked if they or any of the boys had seen
+anything lately of the gray wolf that had skulked about the neighborhood
+earlier in the season. Nosey Ike, they said, had seen it only the day
+before in the second draw on the road toward Golden.
+
+"He did?" exclaimed Curtis. "I'm going to Golden to-day, and perhaps I
+can get a crack at it. I'll be home by six o'clock, Peters, and I want
+to talk with you to-night about some work at Adobe Springs to-morrow.
+But to-day's Sunday, boys, and we've come finally where we can stop and
+take breath once a week. You fellows can do anything you like to-day."
+
+Peters thought he'd sleep all day, for he hadn't caught up since the
+barbecue; but José wanted to visit a Mexican family who had a little
+ranch beside a spring on the road to Golden.
+
+"All right," said the superintendent. "Take whichever one of the ponies
+you want, but be sure to get back to-night."
+
+"Curt," said Homer when they sat down to breakfast, "if you're not going
+to use Brown Betty to-day, would you mind if I rode her over to Golden?
+Or wouldn't you like to go with me? I'm going to call at the Bancrofts'
+to see if Miss Bancroft has recovered from the shock she had the other
+night."
+
+Curtis hesitated a moment as he poured their coffee, his own plan rising
+before him invitingly. But he remembered how pleased the two young
+people had seemed to be with each other and recalled his own resolution:
+"Let the lad have a fair field," he thought.
+
+"Brown Betty? Certainly, Homer," was his reply. "I'll see that she's
+ready for you. I can't go because I must ride down to Adobe Springs to
+see about some work the boys must do there to-morrow. Give my regards to
+the Bancrofts. By the way, Mrs. Ned Castleton gave me a message for Miss
+Bancroft that I'll let you deliver."
+
+As Homer mounted for his journey he cast an anxious glance at the
+wet-looking clouds against which rose the purple-blue, statuesque masses
+of the Mogollon Mountains, and asked, "Is it going to rain?"
+
+"It will sure rain in the mountains," replied his brother, "if it isn't
+pouring down by the bucketful there already. There may be a shower in
+Golden, but the creek will get on the rampage anyway, and maybe carry
+away some of the bridges. We shan't get any here right away, but it's
+coming, thank God! I tell you, Homer, it's been a cruel thing to see the
+cattle dying like flies on account of the drouth. For a while last
+Spring I thought of throwing up this job, I hated so to see the
+suffering of the poor brutes."
+
+For a while all the man in Curtis Conrad clamored in revolt as he
+galloped southward across the silent, empty plain and thought of Lucy
+smiling a welcome from her veranda steps--and not upon him. His love
+called imperiously, demanding that he make trial of its strength. Should
+he give up the girl he loved without an effort, even though his rival be
+his brother? The primeval man in him was quick with the desire to take
+her in his arms and bear her away from all the world. But it was not
+long until he was saying grimly to himself, "What have I to do with
+love-making and winning a wife? The Delafield affair is my business, and
+I'd better stick to it."
+
+He pondered over the conversation with his brother on the previous
+evening, feeling more keenly Homer's condemnation of his purpose. He
+remembered that every one with whom he had spoken about the matter had
+sought to dissuade him. Bancroft disapproved, and had begged him many
+times to desist. Miss Dent called it unworthy of him. Now his brother,
+upon whose sympathy he had counted, condemned both his feeling and his
+intention. Nevertheless, he was surely right. It was easy for them to
+talk, for they had not suffered from the man's crimes, they had not
+struggled as he had, and they had not spent years in the effort to find
+Delafield and cast his sins in his face. But still, his cherished
+purpose had lost a little of its savor. He thought of his journey
+northward, which he so ardently hoped would consummate his years of
+effort and desire, and there was not quite the usual pleasure in his
+mental forecast. He put the thought of Lucy behind him and went over
+once more that early struggle and the birth of his purpose, brought more
+vividly to mind by the talk with Homer, and soon the old ideas and
+intentions recovered their accustomed sway. By the time he galloped
+homeward in the late afternoon his indignation was once more hot and
+seething and his mind full of zest for his approaching journey.
+
+He found Homer in the corral unsaddling Brown Betty and humming a
+college tune. "Say, Curt, I think I'll go hunting to-morrow," said the
+young man as they walked across to the house. "I want to see if I can't
+get a shot at that gray wolf you've been telling me about. As I was
+coming home your Mexican cowboy had sighted it not far from the road, in
+that valley beyond the hill yonder, and was just about to shoot when I
+had the bad luck to come along and scare the thing away."
+
+Curtis looked up with quick interest. "José? What was he doing? Did he
+shoot?"
+
+"He jumped from his hiding-place just as I came along, so suddenly that
+the mare shied and nearly threw me. He was just ready to shoot--he said
+the beast was only a little way down the draw--and saw me barely in time
+to throw up his revolver and send it off at the sky. By that time, of
+course, the wolf was out of sight. I'm going back there at daybreak
+to-morrow to see if I can get a crack at it."
+
+Just then Gonzalez came riding into the corral, and Curtis moved his
+chair to the doorway, in front of his brother. "All right, Homer, I wish
+you would," he said; "it would be just a tenderfoot's luck, you know, if
+you should get it." He was rolling a cigarette, but keeping one eye on
+José, who was caring for his horse. "Was there much rain in Golden
+to-day?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; quite a storm, with lots of fireworks; I never saw such lightning
+or heard such thunder in my life. There must have been a flood farther
+up in the mountains, for the creek came down that ravine fairly booming,
+just as you said it would. It swept away one of the bridges and washed
+out parts of the foundations of two or three houses. But it soon went
+down again."
+
+"Was the bank building injured?" Curtis asked, still following with
+narrowed eyes the movements of Gonzalez. "It's in a dangerous spot if a
+really bad flood ever does come down that valley."
+
+"The First National? That's Bancroft's bank, isn't it? Yes; it lost some
+bricks out of the foundation, and the ground was washed away a little.
+Nothing of consequence."
+
+"Well, that has happened several times already; some of these days it
+will happen once too often. Long ago, I'm told, the street and sidewalk
+had to be moved to the other side of the houses for a block or two along
+there. You remember the creek elbows toward the bank. If a great mass of
+water ever comes down that canyon it will rush straight against the
+side of the building--and the lives of whoever happens to be inside
+won't be worth two switches of a cow's tail."
+
+"I talked with Mr. Bancroft about that possibility to-day," said Homer,
+"and he doesn't think the situation is dangerous."
+
+"Yes; nobody in Golden believes there's any danger. And they may be
+right. They say there isn't as much rain now as there used to be, and
+that cloud-bursts of any consequence are as rare as six-legged calves.
+It will all depend on the weather."
+
+The next morning José Gonzalez was hitching up to drive the men to Adobe
+Springs when Conrad walked up, leaned carelessly against the wheel, and
+looked him in the eye. The Mexican returned the gaze unflinchingly but
+respectfully. "José," said Curtis in a low tone, "you made a mistake
+about that wolf last night, didn't you? It wasn't the wolf you thought
+it was when you made ready to shoot, was it?"
+
+An amused gleam lighted for an instant José's sombre eyes. "It might
+have been as you say, Don Curtis," he answered cautiously.
+
+"I don't want any might-have-beens; I want to know if you are making war
+on my brother as well as on me. It's all right about me, but I won't
+have anything of the sort where he's concerned. I want the truth, José.
+Is anything of the kind going to happen again?"
+
+Gonzalez looked at Conrad squarely as he earnestly replied: "It was a
+mistake, Don Curtis; I swear to you it was a mistake. Your brother looks
+much like you, it was your mare, and you had said you would be back from
+Golden about that hour. I saw it was Don Homer barely in time. After
+this I shall be more careful."
+
+Conrad grinned at the closing sentence, and the Mexican scarcely
+repressed an answering smile. "Well, I am going away to-day," said
+Curtis, "to be gone for several days. So it won't be necessary for you
+to make any mistakes while I'm gone."
+
+José looked up in quick alarm. "You are not going to Don Dellmey?" he
+exclaimed. "He is not the one who wishes your death!"
+
+"What do you say, José?" the other demanded, starting forward eagerly.
+
+"I swear to you by the Mother of God, Don Curtis," said the Mexican,
+with voice intense and manner most earnest, "that it is not Señor Baxter
+who desires your death."
+
+"Are you speaking the truth, José?"
+
+"I will swear it on the crucifix, Don Curtis!"
+
+Conrad gazed at him steadfastly, and the conviction entered his mind
+that Gonzalez was speaking the truth. A look of puzzled wonder
+overspread his face. "In the name of God, then, who is it?" he said,
+half aloud. The Mexican shrugged a shoulder and turned away.
+
+"Who can it be?" the manager repeated, to himself, but still loud enough
+for the other to hear. "It must be Delafield!" he exclaimed. José's ear
+caught the words, and he listened as his employer went on: "He knows I'm
+after him, and he's trying to kill me first. If I could only make this
+_coyote_ greaser tell me who his _patron_ is, I'd know who Delafield is.
+I'd like to choke it out of you, you son of perdition!" He looked so
+fiercely at Gonzalez that the Mexican took a threatening step forward.
+
+"You needn't worry," Conrad exclaimed contemptuously. "I know you
+wouldn't tell, even if I choked the life out of you trying to make you
+peach. It's your _patron_ I'm after." José stooped to hitch the traces,
+and Curtis broke out impulsively: "I say, José, what makes you do this
+sort of thing? You're as square as they make 'em in most things; why do
+you go into this damned rattlesnake business?"
+
+Gonzalez looked up with a confiding smile.
+
+"The _patron_ wishes it; and why not? If I kill a man he gets me off if
+he can, and then that is all right. If he can't, I pay for it in
+prison--and that is fair."
+
+"Huh!" grunted the superintendent as he walked away. "So you think you
+are going to pay for me that way, do you? Well, I guess not!"
+
+The same train that carried Conrad northward to Santa Fe carried also a
+brief and hurried letter to Dellmey Baxter which José Gonzalez had found
+time to write before he and the rest started for Adobe Springs, mailing
+it as they passed White Rock station.
+
+"You will see Señor Conrad in Santa Fe," the Congressman read in his
+office the next morning, "but you need not be anxious. I have sworn to
+him that it is not you who desires his death, and he believes me. I
+heard him speak to himself, and he said it must be Delafeel who wishes
+him dead. He said he would like to choke out of me who my _patron_ is,
+for then he would know who Delafeel is. Don Curtis is a very brave man.
+I like him much."
+
+Baxter chuckled over the closing sentences as he tore the letter into
+bits. Poking them musingly with a fat forefinger he thought: "It's a
+sure bet that his _patron_ just now is Aleck Bancroft; and that makes it
+look as if Aleck might be this mysterious Delafeel--I'll have to find
+out who Delafeel is and what he's done some time or other; then I sure
+reckon I'll have a cinch on Aleck that will keep him from trying to step
+into my shoes as long as I want him to keep out." He looked out of his
+window into the little tree-filled plaza, cool and green in the morning
+sunlight, and saw Curtis Conrad walking across it from the hotel on the
+other side. He took a six-shooter from his pocket, made sure of its
+cartridges, and replaced it. From a drawer in his desk he took another,
+examined its chambers, and laid it on his desk, under an open newspaper.
+A moment later he was rising from his chair with outstretched hand and
+beaming smile.
+
+"Why, how do you do, Mr. Conrad! I'm sure glad to see you. How did you
+leave things down in old Silverside? That was a high old time we had at
+the barbecue, wasn't it? Have the Castletons gone yet? A fine figure of
+a woman is Mrs. Turner Castleton! And I tell you right now it was a
+great shave she gave me!" The Honorable Dellmey Baxter rubbed his cheek,
+and chuckled. But his right hand rested on his desk, close beside the
+newspaper which he had apparently just thrown down.
+
+"Mr. Baxter," said Conrad, ignoring the stream of questions and remarks,
+"some weeks ago I wrote you, saying frankly that I believed you
+responsible for attempts against my life, made by a Mexican who had come
+from you to me. I find myself mistaken, and I have come to apologize to
+you for my suspicions."
+
+"That's all right, Curt, that's all right!" Baxter broke in, relief
+apparent in his countenance. "I'll admit I felt hurt by your
+insinuations, but as long as you've found out you were wrong and are
+willing to do me the justice of saying so, it's not worth speaking of
+again."
+
+"Understand," Curtis went on, "that I'm not taking back or apologizing
+for anything else I've said about you, and I'm still shouting for Johnny
+Martinez for Congress."
+
+"Johnny is to be congratulated for having your support," Baxter
+rejoined genially; "I wish I could get it away from him. Has that measly
+greaser made any more attempts on your life, my dear Conrad? You're too
+good a citizen for the Territory to lose in that way."
+
+Curtis smiled carelessly. "I don't think my life is in any danger. No
+damned greaser will get the chance to stick me in the back when I've got
+both eyes shut and one foot tucked up in my feathers, if I'm onto his
+game. I don't care anything about José; it's his _patron_ I'm after."
+
+"His _patron_!" exclaimed Baxter in apparent surprise. "You don't mean
+to say that José's got a _patron_ in that business!" His visitor nodded
+and the Congressman went on: "You don't say so! I didn't suppose you had
+an enemy in the Territory. This is interesting! We must get at the
+bottom of this, Mr. Conrad, for we can't afford to lose you. Have you
+any idea who's behind the greaser?"
+
+Curtis considered a moment. He might get some information from Baxter
+that would help him; it would do no harm to speak cautiously. "Yes, and
+no, Mr. Baxter. I know who he used to be, but I don't know who he is
+now. His name used to be Delafield, back in the States."
+
+"Delafield--Delafield," mused Baxter. He had got the conversation where
+he wanted it. "I don't remember having heard that name in New Mexico."
+
+"That hasn't been his name for a good many years. Don't you remember the
+Delafield affair in Boston, some fifteen years ago--Sumner L. Delafield,
+who made a big spread in the financial world, defaulted, and ran away?"
+
+"Why, of course!" The Congressman brought his fat fist down on the table
+with a thump. "The Delafield affair! Yes; I remember it, and how
+Delafield slid out and covered up his tracks completely. And you say
+he's living in New Mexico now?"
+
+"Yes; he's a rich, prominent, and respected citizen of New Mexico. But I
+haven't discovered which one of 'em, and he doesn't want me to find out.
+My father lost all he had in the smash."
+
+They talked a little longer, and Curtis learned enough about the history
+of the two men he had in mind to be satisfied that neither of them was
+the one he sought.
+
+After Conrad went away, Baxter leaned back and folded his hands across
+his waist-coat, his left eyelid drooping and his face beaming with
+smiles. "Now," he thought, "I've got Aleck Bancroft exactly where he can
+do me the most good!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE SILENT DUEL
+
+
+As July sped on Homer Conrad's visits to Golden grew more and more
+frequent. When Curtis returned from his northern journey, still ignorant
+of Delafield's identity, Homer was greatly relieved, and tried once more
+to dissuade his brother. "Anyway, Curt," he urged, "don't do anything
+more about it now. Let it rest a while, and think about it more coolly
+and carefully; you'll see how foolish it is if you do that." As Curtis
+did not mention the subject again, he concluded that his advice had been
+taken and that there was no reason for immediate anxiety. His mind at
+rest on that score, he devoted himself more than ever to Lucy Bancroft.
+He talked of her so much to his brother that Curtis soon saw how
+complete was his absorption. "I guess they're hitting it off together
+all right," he concluded.
+
+Curtis Conrad tried to accustom himself to the idea of Lucy as his
+brother's wife. It cost him many a painful twinge, and once the
+rebellious thought came into his mind, "If it hadn't been for the
+Delafield affair I might--" But a little shock, as if he had fallen away
+from some ideal or been guilty of an irreverence, stopped the notion.
+Now and then, too, he had misgivings as to what Lucy would think of him
+if she knew. He shrank from the feeling that her condemnation would be
+as unsparing as his brother's, with more of horror and disgust. For the
+first time he began to think about what might lie beyond that longed-for
+meeting with Delafield. One day, musing upon Homer and Lucy, he had a
+sudden vision of himself as a commiserated kinsman, and smiled grimly as
+he reflected, "It might be a good thing for them if I got my quietus in
+the scrimmage."
+
+These signs of a change slowly going on within him sometimes came as a
+flash of feeling, while again the thoughts induced held him for hours.
+The emotion that had so powerfully rushed over him when he first
+realized his love for Lucy had jarred his grip upon his purpose; and
+afterward intimate daily association with his brother and knowledge of
+the young man's severe disapproval united to move him now and then from
+his old point of view and to give him brief visitations of more
+wholesome feeling. If his love for Lucy, so suddenly realized, had met
+with no check, it alone might have been enough in time to turn him from
+his plans. A man of his temperament cannot be fired by two enthusiasms
+at the same time. He must give himself wholly to his absorbing desire.
+Since at the core Conrad's nature was sound and sweet, it is likely
+that after a little his love would have overmastered his desire for
+revenge. But Lucy's flirtation with his brother, induced by pique and
+disappointment at his constant association with Mrs. Ned Castleton, and
+Homer's prompt infatuation had led him to believe that the two younger
+people were in love with each other. Consequently he did his best to
+restrain his own feelings, and so limited their check upon the older
+sentiment. Francisquita little knew, or would ever guess, what grave
+consequences were flowing from her innocent effort to keep her
+sister-in-law within bounds. But for that the outcome of the Delafield
+affair would have been "another story."
+
+Conrad returned from Santa Fe much disappointed by the failure of the
+clews that had promised so much. He debated whether it would be worth
+while to try to compel Gonzalez to disclose the name of his employer
+should the Mexican attack him again. He was doubtful of the success of
+such a plan, for he believed José as likely to give up his life as his
+secret. Nevertheless, he decided it would be worth trying. For several
+weeks after his return it chanced that whenever he went from home it was
+with Peters or some of the men, while there was always somebody about
+the corral and the house. He knew Gonzalez was watching him constantly,
+awaiting the moment when they should be alone. Toward the end of July he
+made up his mind to provide the opportunity and bring matters to a
+focus.
+
+On the day he reached this decision his brother returned from Golden
+looking dejected. "They've quarrelled," was Curtis's inward comment. He
+said nothing, nor did Homer mention Lucy's name, contrary to his custom
+of talking much about her after a day in her society. He was also
+less talkative than usual upon other subjects. During the evening,
+while Curtis read, Homer sat by the open door and smoked in gloomy
+silence, listening to the pouring rain and the rolling and echoing
+thunder. He was wondering, half in lover's anger and half in lover's
+downheartedness, why Lucy had been so unreasonable that day, and why
+she had acted as if she did not care whether he came or stayed away.
+Well, he would not trouble her with his company again very soon. He
+and Pendleton had been talking about a camping and hunting trip in the
+Mogollon Mountains, and he would see if they couldn't get up the party
+and go at once.
+
+The next morning a sky of pure, deep, brilliant blue shone over a
+freshening, greening plain. Homer rose from the breakfast table and
+walked out into the corral, throwing back his shoulders and breathing
+deeply of the dry, cool, exhilarating air. It seemed a different world
+from that of yesterday. There was no hurry about the camping trip, after
+all. "I think I'll ride over to Golden," he said to his brother, "and
+see if that storm last night did much damage. It looked black in the
+mountains when I was coming home in the afternoon, and a bad flood may
+have come down the ravine."
+
+Curtis smiled quizzically. A certain eager masterfulness in the young
+man's air brought to his mind conviction of the real purport of his
+brother's errand, and he felt no doubt of its result. "A good idea," he
+assented. "It was a bad storm and may have done a lot of harm. But I'll
+have to use Brown Betty myself to-day. You can have your pick of the
+others."
+
+He stood by and called out, "Good luck, old fellow!" as Homer mounted
+his horse, and laughed and swung his sombrero as the other turned away a
+blushing face. Curtis gazed after him, a swift vision filling his mind
+of the look that countenance would wear when he returned to tell him
+proudly that he had won Lucy's promise to be his wife. "And by that time
+I'm going to know who Delafield is," he thought, his lips compressed, as
+he turned quickly into the corral.
+
+"José," he called, "I want you to go to Adobe Springs this morning and
+see if any of the cattle are mired in the overflow from the storm last
+night. Then deepen the outlet so the water will all be carried away.
+You'd better start at once. I'll come after you in about half an hour
+and show you about digging out the outlet."
+
+As Gonzalez mounted his horse at the corral gate he looked back and saw
+Conrad standing beside his mare, making her hunt through his pockets for
+sugar. "A brave man is Don Curtis," his thoughts ran. "He is so brave
+it does not seem right that he must die. But--" and he shrugged his
+shoulders with the air of one who says, "What would you?"
+
+When José was well out of sight Conrad started after him, at first at a
+slower pace than usual. His mind was not upon the expected encounter,
+with its doubtful issue, nor upon the information, so long and ardently
+desired, that he hoped to extort from the Mexican. A month previous he
+would have been intent on that one thing, his thoughts absorbed in it,
+and his heart on fire with anticipation. Now he dwelt upon the idea of
+marriage between Lucy and Homer. "The lad's a better man than I," he was
+thinking. "There's more in him, and ten years from now I shan't be able
+to stack up alongside of him and make any showing at all--even if I'm
+not in prison or hanged by the neck until dead long before."
+
+He bared his brow, curiously white above the rest of his sunburned face,
+to the south wind. His lips tightened and his eyes glowed as he looked
+out over the gray road stretching before him, while his inward vision
+flashed down the grim and lonely path that led into the future. It was
+the way he had chosen, the one he had travelled with eager feet for
+fifteen years, and he must follow it to the end. A few miles farther on
+that gray track, perhaps just beyond that next hill, the longed-for
+knowledge was awaiting him. He would force it from Gonzalez, and
+then--Delafield! The thought fired his heart once more and his eyes
+blazed with the old indignation as his mind went back to the grief and
+loss of his early years, to that lonely night of hate and anger when his
+deadly purpose was born. He touched Brown Betty with his spur,
+quickening her pace to a smart gallop as he searched the road and plain
+with ardent eyes. His heart was bounding forward with anticipation, the
+savor of longed-for vengeance once more strong in his throat. In front
+of him lay a wide, shallow valley, with steep, storm-torn rims and brows
+shaggy with mesquite.
+
+"I reckon, Betty B.," he said aloud, "it's about time to be looking for
+José, and this draw seems a likely sort of place for him."
+
+He drew his revolver, glanced at its chambers, held it across the pommel
+in his right hand, and made sure of the handful of cartridges he had put
+in his pocket on leaving home. Brown Betty cantered across the bottom of
+the valley and, as she climbed the steep bank on the other side, lifted
+her head and neighed. From somewhere in the distance came an answering
+whinny. "It's one of our horses," thought Conrad.
+
+At the hilltop he carefully searched the plain; a little way down the
+road, beside a clump of bushes, he saw a riderless horse. He chuckled.
+"José's sure hiding out around there somewhere," was his instant
+conviction. His head was high, his eyes flashing, and his face set in
+hard lines as he started the mare forward at a brisk trot. His gaze
+travelled toward the other horse, studying every bunch of mesquite and
+questioning every clump of amole and yucca that grew between.
+
+His eye caught the motion of branches in a tall, spreading thicket of
+mesquite a hundred yards away, not far from the road. They swayed
+against the wind for a moment, trembled back and forth, and then bent
+before the breeze like their fellows. The growth was dense, but behind
+it he could distinguish the outlines of a darker mass, and an instant
+later he saw a tiny flash of light reflected from some small, bright
+object. "That must be the sun on his gun-sight," said Curtis, "and I
+reckon it's time to prepare for war."
+
+Dismounting, he threw the mare's bridle over her neck. "No; she'll
+follow me," he thought, "and she doesn't need to mix up in the Delafield
+affair."
+
+His eye still on the suspicious clump of bushes, Conrad fastened the
+mare to an outreaching mesquite limb at the roadside. "This is a better
+place for you, Brown Betty, nice old girl," he said, reaching back to
+pat her neck as she nickered after him.
+
+His pistol in his hand and his vision holding the dark object behind the
+feathery green plumes of the mesquite, he went on briskly until he had
+covered half the distance between them. Then he saw the object move
+cautiously a little to one side, where the leaves were not so thick.
+Plainly visible now were the straw sombrero, the dusky face below it,
+the outline of the body, and the revolver held steadily between the
+branches.
+
+Half a dozen strides more, and he fixed his eyes upon those of Gonzalez,
+dark and brilliant, gleaming through the scant, fern-like foliage like
+two coals of brown fire. Conrad's six-shooter pointed straight between
+them as he walked slowly toward the bush. He knew that José's was
+levelled at his breast. Revolver cocked and finger at trigger he came
+on, his eyes holding those of the Mexican. José's pistol hand he
+disregarded, trusting to his perception of the change, the instant's
+flash of decision, that would light Gonzalez's face when he pulled the
+trigger. He knew that, should he stumble or miss his footing and so give
+advantage, or should any hesitation show in face or eye, that second
+would the Mexican's bullet fly for his heart.
+
+It was Curtis's intention not to hurt José unless the need became
+imperative. Therefore he did not fire, but came silently on, and
+Gonzalez stood, silent and still, behind the sheltering bush, each with
+pistol cocked and held at steady aim, the gaze of each holding
+insistently that of the other. It was a silent duel of eyes, of wills
+behind the eyes, of purposes behind the wills, and of temperament behind
+the purposes.
+
+"Will he never shoot?" Conrad asked himself once and again as he
+approached.
+
+"A brave man! A brave man!" was José's thought as he watched that steady
+advance, secure in his own advantage.
+
+Curtis came on with resolute step--fifteen yards, a dozen yards, ten
+yards. Barely a score of feet separated the muzzles of the two
+revolvers, and still the blue eyes and the brown stared into each other
+with dauntless challenge.
+
+"Why doesn't he shoot?" thought José. "A brave, bold man! It is a pity
+to kill him."
+
+"A moment more, and I'll have him!" exulted Conrad. Fifteen feet, twelve
+feet, ten feet--still the space between them lessened, and still the
+silence was unbroken and their guns at unchanging aim.
+
+Another step, and Curtis saw José's eyes waver; another, and heard him
+draw a little, gasping breath. He saw irresolution flash across the
+Mexican's face, saw his finger leave the trigger, his right arm tremble,
+and drop to his side.
+
+Conrad felt cold sweat break out over his body and there was a loud
+buzzing in his ears. Yet neither in face nor eyes was there a sign that
+he had seen any change. With his gaze still fixed on the other's
+downcast lids, he moved sidewise around the bush, and stood beside
+Gonzalez.
+
+"Give me your gun, butt first," he commanded in a low, tense voice. José
+raised his eyes to meet the muzzle of the gun looking blankly between
+his brows.
+
+"You can take it if you like, Don Curtis," he said unsteadily. "I am
+not going to shoot you. Here it is."
+
+"Now," said Curtis, pointing both guns at José's head, "tell me the name
+of the man who hired you to kill me."
+
+The Mexican started in surprise. He shrugged his shoulders, looked at
+the guns again, shuffled his feet uneasily. "Don Curtis, how can I?" he
+exclaimed in a reproachful tone. "You should not ask that question. It
+is not fair."
+
+"Neither was it fair for you to try to stick me in the back before I was
+onto your game. So we're even now, as you told me once before. You've
+got to tell! I don't want to kill you, José; but, by God! I will, if you
+don't give up that man's name. I'll give you one minute to think it
+over; and if you don't speak out then, I'll blow your head off."
+
+Gonzalez sent one searching glance into Conrad's set face, and dropped
+sullen eyes to the ground. He knew there was only one thing to do if he
+wished to live. For half the minute he stared downward, then looked
+blankly up at Curtis. "Fifteen seconds more," said the stern voice. His
+face worked, his lips opened and closed again. Then he seemed to gather
+himself together for the unwilling effort, and the words fairly rushed
+from his mouth:
+
+"It is your friend, Señor Bancroft."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Curtis, in a voice that had sunk back into his throat.
+
+Gonzalez repeated his words. Conrad leaned forward, white with anger,
+and thrust the two revolvers close to the other's face. "José," he said
+slowly, in hard, sharp tones, "a little while ago a man told me that. I
+shook him as if he'd been a dog and told him that he lied. I ask you
+once more, the last time, who is it?"
+
+Gonzalez threw back his head, crossed his arms, and looked his
+antagonist angrily in the eye. "I am not a liar, Don Curtis," he said
+proudly. "I may kill sometimes, if my _patron_ wishes. But I do not
+lie." He placed the muzzle of one of the pistols against his heart. "I
+have told you the truth, Señor Conrad," he went on. "I swear to you, by
+the Mother of God, that I could not say different if you pulled that
+trigger now."
+
+Conrad trembled and his white face went suddenly crimson. "It is hard to
+believe," he said; but he lowered the pistols. "I know you are not a
+liar, José, and you seem to be speaking the truth. You understand, don't
+you," he added in a tone almost apologetic, "that it is hard for me to
+believe what you say?"
+
+"It is the truth, señor."
+
+Curtis put his own pistol away, and looked thoughtfully at the other.
+"José," he said, "I shall have to think about this thing. In the
+meantime I'm going to keep your gun."
+
+"As you like, Don Curtis," replied Gonzalez, indifferently. "I shall do
+nothing more. To-morrow I shall ask for my time."
+
+Conrad eyed him keenly. "Well, then, here's your gun. Go on to Adobe
+Springs and do the work, as I told you. To-morrow morning, if you want
+it, you can have your time."
+
+José took the gun, turned the cylinder, and one by one dropped the
+bullets to the ground.
+
+"It is ended, Don Curtis," he said. Mounting his horse, he galloped down
+the road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+REFLECTION AND REACTION
+
+
+Conrad stood still and stared at the Mexican's lessening figure,
+galloping down the road. Presently he walked across to his mare, stroked
+her nose, and said softly, "By God! Betty B.!" For some minutes he gazed
+at her abstractedly, swearing under his breath, and now and then
+muttering, "Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!" Coherent thought was not yet
+possible. He felt that José had told him the truth, and yet he could not
+believe it; between the opposing convictions his mind lay dazed and
+inactive. He mounted and turned Brown Betty's nose toward home, riding
+at a foot-pace with his head down and his attention all indrawn. For a
+mile or two the mare plodded on quietly. At last, resenting the lack of
+the companionable attentions her master was accustomed to bestow upon
+her when they rode alone, she snorted several times and switched her
+tail vigorously, flicking his legs. There was no response. She whinnied
+softly, waited a little, and tried it again. Still her rider was silent.
+So she stopped, lifted her head, and neighed loudly. Conrad aroused
+himself. "What is it, Betty?" he said, looking searchingly around the
+plain. Nothing was in sight save its usual silent habitants. He
+dismounted, and examined her anxiously. She nipped him playfully,
+nickered gently, and poked her nose into his coat pocket.
+
+"Betty B., you're a rogue!" he exclaimed, pulling her ear. "You're just
+lonesome and want me to talk to you! My, but you're spoiled!" He stroked
+her neck affectionately, then suddenly leaned against her, buried his
+face in her mane, and a single deep breath that was half a sob shook his
+body. "Betty!" he muttered, "to find that your best friend is the
+damnedest villain that ever went unhung!"
+
+The little episode with the mare broke up the paralysis that staggering
+surprise had set upon both thought and feeling. As he mounted again his
+heart was hot and his mind working rapidly. "The damned villain!" he
+exclaimed savagely, "to be pretending such friendship with me when he
+knew what he had done!"
+
+He spurred Brown Betty to a gallop. The tyrannous habit of mind
+engendered by long-wonted thought and desire urged him on to face at
+once the man who had despoiled his father and deprived him of his
+birthright. The old anger and hate surged over him, and his pulses beat
+swift and hard. For a while he forgot the personality of the enemy he
+had run to earth at last. Through his set teeth came whispered curses of
+hatred and contempt, and his tongue clung to the shameful epithets he
+longed to throw in the fellow's face. Not fast enough could he ride to
+keep pace with his desire. Revenge, so long fed with hope and promise,
+was calling to be sated. "Faster, Betty, faster!" he called to the mare,
+spurring her on.
+
+But the very violence of his mood presently induced the beginning of
+reaction. He remembered who it was that he was riding so fast to expose
+and strike down. "Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!" he murmured, and slowed the
+mare's racing feet. The tenderness and loyalty of friendship raised
+still, small voices in his heart. Once again the thing staggered him. It
+seemed incredible. In the depths of his heart was conviction that José
+Gonzalez had told him the truth. But could he go to his best friend with
+such a charge, to taunt, insult, and challenge to death, on the word of
+a Mexican assassin? The idea repelled him. And he was glad of the
+misgiving, unwilling to believe that the quest he had followed with such
+eager determination was leading him to the door of Alexander Bancroft.
+"I ought--I ought to have confirmation, I suppose," he said to himself,
+uncertainly. And so, still undecided, feeling that it was truth and yet
+unwilling to believe, he came to the gate of his own corral. After he
+had unsaddled and stabled Brown Betty, he went through the kitchen for a
+drink of water from the big _olla_, wrapped in a wet coffee sack, that
+stood always in the drying wind and the shade of a tree beside the door.
+
+Mrs. Peters came in from the store-room with a panful of potatoes. "Hank
+had to go to White Rock this morning," she said, "and he brought some
+mail for you. It's on your desk."
+
+Conrad passed through the series of rooms, opening one out of another,
+to the front. On his desk lay some papers and a single letter.
+"Littleton!" he exclaimed as he hastily tore it open. He read:
+
+     "MY DEAR CURT:--I have at last got for you the information we've
+     been searching for so long."
+
+His eyes eagerly rushed over the next few lines.
+
+     "I have satisfied myself that the man we've been trailing all these
+     years is Alexander Bancroft, a banker and prominent man in New
+     Mexico, who lives at Golden,--is that place anywhere near you?--and
+     for a number of years has been considered one of the most solid,
+     upright, and influential citizens of your Territory."
+
+The letter dropped from Curtis's fingers and his heart gave a great
+thump that sent the blood in a crimson wave over his face. "My God,
+then, it's true!" he said aloud, and sat for a moment gazing at the
+letter in the same stupefied way he had looked after Gonzalez's
+retreating figure. A grim smile twisted the corners of his mouth as he
+read on.
+
+     "You may know him. Delafield's history as we've got it now makes
+     his case one of those curious romances of detective work whose
+     equal could hardly be found in fiction. We missed long ago the clew
+     that would have led us to success, in those gaps in his trail we
+     never tried to fill, because we came upon his tracks again so
+     easily a little later. While working on another case recently I had
+     occasion to look through an omnibus bill passed years ago by an
+     Arizona legislature. It contained an astonishing ruck of things,
+     and among them was a section authorizing William J. Brown to change
+     his name to Alexander Bancroft. I knew that William J. Brown was
+     one of the names under which Delafield had once traded in mines
+     down there, and that, when we next found him after he had dropped
+     that name, it was as John Smith, when he went down into old Mexico
+     with John Mason Hardy. This name of Bancroft, sandwiched in there,
+     and with such pains to legalize it, when we had found no track of
+     it elsewhere, made me prick up my ears. I looked deeper into the
+     matter and found that he had used this name of Bancroft only when
+     he went to visit his wife and daughter, who lived most of the time
+     in San Francisco or Denver, and were known by that name. When last
+     we had track of the man, before I ran across Rutherford Jenkins, it
+     was, you will remember, as Henry C. Williams, and then we lost all
+     trace of him. That was because he went then on a visit to his wife
+     and daughter in Denver and stayed there for some months. He had
+     made a good clean-up about that time and increased it by some lucky
+     trading on the Denver stock exchange. Then he went to New Mexico,
+     kept the name of Bancroft, engaged in other business as well as
+     mining, and settled down to be a permanent citizen.
+
+     "I congratulate you upon the successful termination of our long
+     chase. I understand Bancroft is a man of considerable property and
+     I hope you will be able to make him disgorge some of the goods he
+     stole so long ago. I have written this much hurriedly, just to give
+     you an outline of my discoveries at once. But I have all the
+     necessary proofs, and whenever you want to bring the case to trial
+     they are at your service."
+
+Conrad folded the letter carefully, and put it in his pocket. He sat
+quite still, whispering "Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!" Presently his face went
+red again and starting up he hurried into the corral and threw the
+saddle again upon Brown Betty. Outside the gate, scarcely looking which
+way he went, he headed the mare toward Golden and galloped away, across
+the hills, and into the distance. He never knew just where or how far he
+rode that day. Afterward he remembered that sometimes he had galloped
+along a road and sometimes across the trackless plain, that sometimes he
+had found himself urging Betty to her utmost speed and again had
+traversed miles at a walk or had stood for a long time stock-still.
+
+When he left the house the old idea that had enthralled him so long was
+clamoring in his heart. That may have been why, unconsciously, he rode
+at first down the road toward Golden. "It was not enough for him to
+take all my father had, life as well as money, and to make me drudge
+through my youth, but now he must set a hired killer upon me to stick me
+in the back!" So galloped his angry thought as Brown Betty's hoofs sped
+over the ground toward Bancroft's home. "Why didn't he come out in the
+open like a man and tell me who he was, and let us fight it out on the
+square? To send a man to live under my roof, and hire him to rope me, or
+stick me, or shoot me from ambush! And to pretend to be my good friend
+all the time! Coward! Thief! Murderer!"
+
+Then, somehow, through his seething mind, for the first time came the
+remembrance of Lucy, and quickly followed the idea that perhaps Bancroft
+had gone about it in this secret way to save her from all knowledge of
+his disgraceful past. He checked Brown Betty's gallop to a walk. "He
+knew I was after him, hot-foot," now ran Curtis's thought, "and he sure
+had the right to head me off if he could. But he ought to have done it
+on the square!" He remembered the warnings Bancroft had given him about
+Gonzalez and about the danger of pursuing Delafield, and chuckled
+unmirthfully. "I reckon he was squaring himself to his own conscience,"
+he said aloud.
+
+Conrad looked about him and saw that he was on the road to Golden. Then
+came the flashing idea that he was on his way to kill Lucy's father.
+Instantly his feeling revolted. Whirling the mare's head he struck off
+across the plain to the eastward and after some miles struck the road to
+Randall. By that time he was pondering painfully the matter of Lucy and
+Homer. That evening, without doubt, Homer would come home, proud and
+happy, and tell him that he and Lucy were engaged. And this would be his
+wedding present to the girl he loved and the brother he had cared for
+almost since babyhood--the dead body of her father!
+
+Then came pelting back the memory of his own wrongs, and Brown Betty was
+sent scudding down the road as remembrance and habit again lashed his
+heart. He turned about and raced back along the road toward Golden, hot
+with the old memories and sore with the newly discovered duplicity of
+his friend. "Even if I don't kill him," he thought, "I'll tell him what
+he is! I'll throw his villainy and his cowardice in his face! I'll
+tell him he's a sneak and a coward, and to draw if he dares!" His
+imagination rushed on through the scene and showed him, at the end,
+Bancroft's bleeding body at his feet.
+
+With a shudder he wheeled the mare abruptly, turned from the road, and
+went galloping across the plain to the south. He began to understand
+that he could not kill Lucy's father. A sudden bright recollection came
+to him of how she looked that Spring afternoon when she and Bancroft had
+stopped at the ranch; how she turned to him in the wind, holding her
+wide hat down beside her face, and said gayly, "I assure you, Mr.
+Conrad, the most superior quality of father to be found anywhere in the
+United States!" And Bancroft seemed as fond of her as she was of him.
+Yes; there was unusual love and devotion between them. Brown Betty was
+walking more slowly now; and after a while Curtis realized that she was
+standing still in the middle of the plain with the road nowhere in
+sight. And at the same time it was borne in upon him that he did not
+wish to kill Lucy's father, that the idea had become repugnant to him.
+
+He turned to seek the road, saying to himself, "What, then, shall I do?"
+The wish was still strong within him to make Delafield suffer
+punishment for his misdeeds, to make him atone by his own suffering for
+all that Conrad himself had suffered. There was still the law. "Homer
+said he would help me if I wanted to go at it that way," thought Curtis.
+That recollection helped his self-justification for a moment, then his
+thoughts went on: "But of course he wouldn't do anything of the sort
+now; and he wouldn't want me to, either." It occurred to him that such a
+course as that would bring to Lucy as much pain as would her father's
+death. She was so proud of him and believed in him so thoroughly. "It
+would break her heart if she knew all this about his past," he decided.
+Homer, too, how deeply hurt he would be to have Lucy's father disgraced
+and Lucy herself made utterly wretched! "The lad would never forgive
+me," he muttered. Presently he was telling himself that Lucy must never
+be made to suffer the shame and unhappiness of such a disclosure. Nor
+should Homer ever know the truth about Delafield's identity. He must be
+able to love and respect his wife's father.
+
+With a loving smile Conrad recalled some of Lucy's indignant remarks
+about Baxter's dealings with the Mexicans of the Rio Grande valley, and
+saw again her winsome look as she tossed her curly head and her brown
+eyes sparkled. Then quickly came the self-questioning: What would she
+think of him if she knew the purpose that had been animating him all his
+life? Whether it was her father he had tracked or another, how horrified
+she would be if she knew she had made such a man her friend! He blushed
+crimson, and pricked the mare to a faster pace. The old longing for
+revenge, the old belief in the rightfulness of his course, the old sense
+of satisfaction in his purpose--it was all dying hard, but he had come
+to where he could see it as it looked to others. He began to feel
+ashamed.
+
+Still, it was difficult to give up the feeling that Delafield should be
+made to suffer some sort of retaliation for the wrongs he had inflicted
+upon others. Conrad pondered it as he rode aimlessly about, still
+smarting under the thought of Bancroft's deception during the last few
+months. He might go to the banker and have it all out by word of mouth.
+But as he considered that course with cool mind he reached a pretty firm
+conviction that shots from one or the other, or both, would end the
+interview. Bancroft was not likely to submit tamely to insult from him.
+And much shame and sorrow for Lucy and Homer would result. He did not
+want them to suffer. His head lifted and his lips tightened. "I'll give
+up the whole thing before I'll let it cloud their happiness," he said
+aloud. Then he fell to thinking why Bancroft had tried to strike him
+down secretly.
+
+"I reckon he was doing his best to head me off in a way that would save
+him from disclosure and prevent Lucy from knowing anything about it," he
+thought. "Well, I can't blame him for wanting to keep it dark, at this
+stage of the game. But--why didn't he come and tell me, like a man!"
+Suddenly he began to recall the sort of things about Delafield and his
+own expectations that he had been accustomed to say to Bancroft, and
+smiled grimly.
+
+"Lord! I think likely I've given him some pretty bad minutes! And I
+reckon what I said didn't invite his confidence. Good God, what a life
+the man must have lived all these years! It must have been plain hell
+since he's known I was on his track and has had to listen to the things
+I've said!"
+
+Compassion for the man he had hounded and, all unknowingly, had so often
+reviled to his face, began to soften Curtis's heart. He thought of all
+the years of wandering, the frequent change of name, the ups and downs
+of fortune, the devious and sometimes crooked ways through which he had
+traced Delafield, and again he exclaimed aloud: "Good God, what a life!
+He must all the time have been wanting to get back where he could be
+settled and respectable! But he didn't dare try it while he was afraid
+of detection and punishment. And finally he believed he'd got there, I
+reckon, and was preparing to be happy with his daughter--and then I came
+along!" Again he mused, for a long time, while the mare took her own
+pace. At last he lifted his head and said aloud:
+
+"I guess he's had his share of punishment after all; and I've been
+responsible for a lot of it. Sumner L. Delafield, we'll call it quits!"
+
+Brown Betty was standing still in the middle of the road. The sun was
+dropping down the west, toward masses of sparkling, fleecy white clouds
+that piled the horizon high. Ten miles away he could see the green
+groves of Socorro Springs and the white glimmer of the buildings. He
+drew a long breath and looked alertly about. The load he had carried so
+many years had slipped from his back. No longer had he any desire for
+revenge, and in his heart glowed compassion rather than hatred for the
+man he had tracked with such determination. He felt a curious
+exhilaration as he sat there looking about him, while the mare shifted
+her weight from one foot to another.
+
+"Well, Betty B.," he said, patting her neck, "you and I have had a devil
+of a time to-day, haven't we, old girl? But we've come through all
+right, thank God! And nobody is ever going to know a word about it,
+Betty; so don't you give it away. We're going home now, and you shall
+have the best supper we can find."
+
+At the ranch his first inquiry was for Homer. The young man had returned
+an hour before. Surprised that he was not in beaming evidence, Curtis
+went in search of him and found him in his own room, bending over his
+trunk, his belongings scattered about as if a cyclone had been swirling
+within the four walls.
+
+"Why, Homer," exclaimed Curtis, stopping in astonishment at the door,
+"what are you doing?"
+
+Homer lifted a dismal face. "I'm packing up. I'm going away."
+
+"Why, lad, what's the matter? I thought--" Curtis stopped, hesitating
+and embarrassed.
+
+Homer energetically jammed some books into a corner of the trunk, and
+from its depths took up the unfinished sentence. "Yes; so did I. That
+is--I hoped. But it wasn't so. She--she says she's never going to leave
+her father--that he needs her--that she's always going to stay with
+him."
+
+"Yes," said Curtis, lamely; "I know she's very devoted to him." He
+stopped; Homer went on with his packing. "I--I suppose, lad," the elder
+brother stumbled on, in kindly tone, "it hurts now, but--you'll get over
+it after a while." There was silence again while Homer threw a litter of
+neckties, collars, and handkerchiefs into his trunk. "I'd like you to
+stay here all Summer with me," Conrad went on presently, "but if you
+think you'd be more comfortable somewhere else, it's all right. I
+understand."
+
+Homer looked up. "I'm going to Denver. I've got a classmate up there
+whose father I know will give me a job till college opens next Fall."
+
+Curtis walked out into the corral and leaned upon the gate. Would there
+be a chance for him, then? Likely not, for she had surely shown more
+favor to his brother than to him. But he would try. His heart rose at
+the possibility. Yes, he would try. He looked at his brown, sinewy hands
+and thought of Lucy's little white ones lying in them. "Thank God,
+they're free from blood!" he said to himself with solemn gladness. Then
+the crimson dyed his face. Even if Lucy cared for him, which he hardly
+dared to hope, would she marry a man who had so long guided his life by
+such purposes as he had cherished? "But I'll tell her," he thought with
+grim determination, "just how bloody-minded I've been. It will likely
+spoil my chance--if I have any--but she must first know just what I am.
+I'll tell her all about it, without giving a hint of who the man is that
+I've followed. And after that--well, I'll feel that I've been square
+about it, anyway."
+
+The sun was setting, and the whole sky was ablaze with its glory. The
+fleecy white clouds of two hours before, which had mounted higher and
+multiplied themselves many times, had become mountains of glowing color,
+masses of sea-shell tints, wide expanses of pink and pearly gray,
+hearts and beckoning hands of flame. Curtis gazed at the glowing
+kaleidoscope of the heavens, feeling its gorgeous beauty mingle with the
+thankfulness that filled his heart. It was good to be done with all
+those old ideas and feelings and to have come out of it without ruining
+anybody else's life.
+
+Through the crimson and purple lights and shadows that enveloped the
+plain he saw Gonzalez galloping up the road, a fine, graceful,
+centaur-like figure.
+
+"José," said Conrad as Gonzalez entered the corral, and his tone struck
+the Mexican as being unusually gentle, "I know that you spoke the truth
+to me this morning. But what you told me shall go no further. Mr.
+Bancroft shall never know that you told me, and neither he nor anybody
+else shall suffer harm because of it. There is no longer any need of a
+feud between you and me, and I wish you would stay and work for me. It
+isn't every day that I can get hold of a cowboy that knows enough to hit
+the ground with his hat in three throws."
+
+José smiled, and shook his head. "No, Don Curtis. I like you much, and
+you are a very brave man. You are a braver man than I am. But to-morrow
+I am going back to Santa Fe."
+
+"Well, then, if you won't stay I'll give you your time whenever you want
+it. But, I say, José, why don't you give up this rattlesnake business?
+You're on the level every other way; and you're too good a fellow to
+discredit all your race with this sort of work when you could be a
+first-class cowboy if you wanted to."
+
+The Mexican looked at him with a wondering smile, shook his head, and
+went on into the corral. Conrad strolled to the little porch at his
+front door, stood there a moment watching the sunset colors; then, with
+his head in the air, went inside and sat down at his desk. He began a
+letter to Rutherford Jenkins:
+
+     "I have found that you told me the truth in that interview we had
+     in your room in the hotel at Albuquerque some months ago. I do not
+     know by what mysterious dispensation of Providence this strange
+     thing happened, but I acknowledge now that it was the truth. I
+     still maintain, however, that my final remark to you on that
+     occasion was absolutely correct.
+
+     "I suppose you have been using this information about Mr.
+     Bancroft's previous life to blackmail him. I advise you to stop it
+     and to let him alone hereafter. If you don't, I tell you right now
+     that you will surely wish you had. I shall take pains to find out
+     whether or not you heed my warning, and if you don't I promise you
+     that you will soon be able to sympathize with a skunk after a
+     cowboy has thrown at it a can of oil and a blazing stick.
+              "Yours truly,
+                    "CURTIS CONRAD."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+LOVE TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+A clerk brought the morning mail, and as Alexander Bancroft took the
+handful of letters, his eye caught the handwriting of Rutherford
+Jenkins. Apprehension seized him. Had that creature found some new screw
+he could turn? His hand trembled as he tore open the envelope. For a
+moment he felt distinct relief when he found nothing more than a demand
+for additional money. Jenkins reminded him that the first of August was
+approaching, and added that he was obliged to ask for double the amount
+he had previously received on the first of the month. The feeling of
+thankfulness that the letter contained nothing worse passed quickly, as
+he realized that he would be afraid to refuse the demand, that he would
+not dare to refuse anything Jenkins might ask. The full weight of his
+chains was upon him, and he swore between set teeth as he tore the
+letter angrily into bits and dashed them into the waste-basket.
+Impotent rebellion was still smouldering in his eyes when a knock came
+at his door and Dellmey Baxter entered. The Congressman's round, smooth
+face was beaming and his fat hand grasped Bancroft's with hearty
+greeting. But the droop of his left eyelid was marked and his gray eyes
+were cold and hard. They had a prolonged conference about the various
+enterprises in which they were jointly interested, and about the
+progress and prospects of Baxter's campaign in the southern part of the
+Territory, where Bancroft was his chief lieutenant.
+
+"I tell you, Aleck, you're handling it fine," said Baxter finally, with
+friendly enthusiasm. "You're bringing Silverside and the whole south
+right into line in great shape! I'm free to say, Aleck, that you're
+doing better for me than I could do for myself. You have a remarkable
+knack for handling people, and everybody has confidence in you. We've
+got the party in this Territory where we want it now, and if I decide to
+quit Congress after another term or two, as it's likely I shall, I'll
+see to it, Aleck, that you step into my shoes if you want to." He went
+on to ask what certain of his supporters and his opponents were doing,
+and presently inquired:
+
+"And your young friend Conrad--does he still think I have horns and
+hoofs? He came to see me in Santa Fe recently, and apologized for having
+accused me of being at the bottom of that Mexican's attack on him. From
+what he said to me," the Congressman went on, regarding Bancroft
+attentively, "I think it's likely the greaser will get the worst of it
+if he keeps up that racket."
+
+The banker moved uneasily, then took cigars from the box on top of his
+desk. "By the way, Aleck," said Baxter carelessly between whiffs of
+smoke, "you've been around this Territory considerably and mixed with
+mining men a good deal." His cold eyes were watching his companion from
+under their shaggy brows. "Do you remember ever running across a chap
+named Delafield?"
+
+The time had been when Bancroft could hear that name without the quiver
+of a lash or the tremble of a nerve. But those days of cool self-control
+and impassive seeming had gone by. For many weeks he had been on the
+rack of constant apprehension, the nervous strain of conflicting
+emotions concerning Conrad had been great, and recently the fear of
+sudden exposure had grown into a secret, abiding terror. He started,
+dropped his cigar, and his face paled.
+
+"Delafield?" he repeated in a low voice. "I do not remember the
+name--and I have a pretty good memory for names, too." The desire seized
+him to know whether Baxter was speaking out of knowledge or ignorance.
+"What about him?" he went on. "Is he supposed to be living here?"
+
+"I don't know much about it," Baxter rejoined, "but I believe the people
+who are trying to locate him make the guess that he is. A party asked me
+about him not long ago, but I wasn't able to place the name, although it
+has a familiar sound. I told him it wasn't any use looking for his man
+under that name--it's too easy to pick up a new one out here for anybody
+to keep an old one that's got dirty."
+
+When the door closed upon the portly figure and cherubic smile of the
+Congressman, Bancroft sat still and stared dully at the wall. "Dell
+knows," was the conviction that had gone straight to his wretched heart.
+"Dell knows. He knows the whole story. And now I've got to do whatever
+he says." Apprehension leaped quickly forward. If Baxter knew, was the
+story out? Was it already going from mouth to mouth? Second thought
+brought reassurance. No; for in that case Baxter would not have so
+discreetly veiled his hint. But how had he found out? Could Jenkins--no,
+not likely, for Jenkins was making too good a thing out of it as a
+secret. Baxter said Conrad had been to see him--then did Curtis know by
+this time? His heart took quick alarm, and he had a moment of
+desperation. Then he recalled the young man's repeated declaration that
+he meant to lose no time in facing Delafield after learning the man's
+identity. He soon decided that a little time was still left to him
+before that encounter could take place and--Gonzalez was yet at the
+ranch. Doubtless Conrad had talked with Baxter about the case, perhaps
+told him of his own search and asked for information about the men he
+suspected. Finally, knowing well the Congressman's mental habits, he
+came to the conclusion that Baxter had put things together and made a
+shrewd guess.
+
+"But he knows, all right," Bancroft owned to himself in impotent anger,
+"and that means another chain on me." Another obstacle had risen in his
+path that would have to be overcome, one way or another, before he could
+reach that longed-for security. A little before, safety had seemed so
+near, and now it was further away than ever! He should have to fight for
+it, that was plain--and fight he would, to the last inch, Conrad and
+Jenkins and Baxter. They had pushed him to the wall, but that should not
+be the end. He would not let them wreck everything if--no matter now
+what he might have to do to protect himself.
+
+He spent an anxious forenoon, unable to keep his mind off his own
+troubles and impending dangers, thinking and scheming, trying to work
+out effective means of defence and counter-attack. When he left the bank
+for luncheon at home, it was with a lively sense of how restful and
+pleasing he should find its atmosphere of love, respect, and confidence.
+He bought a box of candy for Lucy and a magazine for Louise, and
+hastened up the hill.
+
+Never before had home seemed to him so delightful. Lucy was gay of
+spirit, piquant, rosy of cheek and bright of eye, lovingly solicitous
+for his comfort. Louise was paler than usual, with a touch of
+wistfulness in her manner. Lucy explained that she had a bad headache,
+and they agreed that it was probably due to the day's peculiar
+atmospheric conditions. It was hot and still; a thin, gray, luminous
+haze veiled the sky and made the sunshine, usually clear and white, look
+palely yellow; the air was charged with electricity, whose jangling
+effect upon the nerves only the soundest could withstand. Louise said
+she felt it acutely. As always, she was gentle and sympathetic, and
+Bancroft felt her influence at once. Her presence never failed to
+soothe, tranquillize, and encourage him.
+
+She saw the anxiety in his eyes, and at once divined a new cause for
+trouble. With renewed alarm and indignation in her heart her thoughts
+turned to Conrad. Had there been some new development? The fires of love
+and solicitude for her friend and of hatred for his enemy were burning
+brightly in her secret thoughts and shone now and then in her eyes.
+Bancroft caught their glow, and his heart rose to be warmed in it. What
+a sweet woman she was, how adorable! His arms ached with the longing to
+enfold her and press her dearness to his breast. But no!--with such
+dangers thickening about him, he must not think of it. It angered him
+the more that he must thus repress the feeling which was struggling to
+make itself understood, which he felt certain she would welcome. For
+half an hour after luncheon they lingered on the veranda. As if drawn
+irresistibly by secret cords of feeling, Bancroft and Miss Dent kept
+constantly near each other; once, when she accidentally touched his
+hand, his fingers closed quickly upon hers in a moment's warm grasp.
+
+After he had gone, Louise walked restlessly up and down, her nerves
+strung to the highest tension by her love and anxiety for Bancroft and
+her hatred of Conrad. Her headache grew rapidly worse, and her heart was
+beating like a trip-hammer. She and Lucy agreed that the electrical
+condition of the atmosphere had become more trying. The sunshine, too,
+was more dingily yellowish. They noticed that heavy, dark clouds, like
+huge, sleeping beasts, were lying behind the summits of the Mogollon
+Mountains.
+
+"My head is throbbing so I can hardly see," said Louise finally, "and I
+think I'll go to my room, pull down the shades, and lie down for a
+while. No; thank you, dear, you can't do anything. Just leave me alone
+for an hour or two in the quiet and the dark."
+
+Lucy sat on the veranda with the magazine and the box of candy her
+father had brought; but one lay unopened in her lap and the other
+untouched on the table beside her, while her eyes wandered across the
+tree-embowered streets of the town and far over the plain, where, beyond
+the horizon, were the green groves of the Socorro Springs ranch.
+
+"I've got to do it," she whispered to herself, decision in her wrinkling
+brow. "There's no other way, and I must. Daddy is looking wretched--I've
+never seen him look so anxious and disturbed as he does to-day. I've got
+to do it, right away."
+
+She had not seen Curtis Conrad since the barbecue. Daily had she watched
+for him, hoping always to see him climbing the hill, longing greatly to
+look upon his face, and feeling that she must reveal her secret and so
+put an end, as she firmly believed she could, to her father's trouble.
+But he came not; instead, Homer's visits increased in length and
+frequency, and she, still hurt and angered by the memory of Curtis's
+attentions to Mrs. Ned Castleton at the barbecue, recklessly continued
+her flirtation with Homer, plunging him more and more deeply in love.
+She did all this without thought of what was going on in Homer's breast,
+wishing only to dull the pain in her own aching heart. Finally, when she
+realized what was happening, she changed her demeanor in sudden
+girl-panic, only to precipitate the young man's proposal, by which she
+had been both surprised and vexed.
+
+She was quite sure, by this time, that Curtis Conrad did not care for
+her at all, and she had ceased expecting him to come to their house. Yet
+she never went out upon the veranda without letting her eyes wander
+wishfully down the street. They were there now, scanning the long, steep
+hill. But they saw only a little, bare-legged Mexican boy toiling slowly
+up the grade. No, she decided, only one thing was left for her to do:
+she would have to write and ask him to come and see her. Her heart
+rebelled at first, and she unconsciously tossed her head and her eyes
+flashed. "But it's for daddy," she presently told herself, "and there's
+no other way. I've got to do it." Of course, it would be a humiliation;
+but so was the whole hateful business, and what was one little thing
+more or less?
+
+Looking toward the street again she saw that the little Mexican lad was
+coming to her gate. His baggy, ragged overalls were held by a single
+strap over his shoulder, and his small, brown face, under his miniature,
+torn sombrero, was hot and dirty. He peered at her through the palings,
+and she exclaimed, "Why, it's little Pablo Melgares!" She went down to
+the gate, saying in Spanish, "Do you want anything, Pablo?"
+
+Gravely and silently he gave her a letter he had been carrying in his
+hat. Although she had seen the handwriting but once before, her heart
+leaped and a delicious thrill ran through her veins as she read the
+address.
+
+"Is there an answer?" she asked, tremulously.
+
+"_Si, señorita_," said the boy.
+
+"Then you sit down here on the steps and eat candy until I come back,"
+she said as she poured the contents of her box into the child's
+sombrero.
+
+She ran lightly up the stairs to her room and closed the door before
+opening the note. It said only:
+
+     "Will you go to ride with me this afternoon up the canyon? I have
+     something particular I want to say. Please send me word by the boy
+     if I may come up at once."
+
+She devoured it with shining eyes, and pressed it to her face, her lips,
+her heart. Her woman's instinct divined what the "something particular"
+must be, and she laughed softly and joyously, while the color mounted to
+her brow. But presently, as she donned her riding habit, her look grew
+serious and grave. For a few minutes she had forgotten what it was she
+had to do.
+
+"I must tell him," she thought, "and then that will be the end of
+everything." The brown eyes filled with tears, and she choked back a
+little sob. "But I've got to do it," she repeated with determination.
+"He won't love me then, but poor daddy will be safe. And I wouldn't
+marry him anyway, because I'm not going to marry anybody. I won't let
+him say anything to me about--about anything; I'll tell him about daddy
+before he has a chance. But I won't have to tell him right away--when we
+are coming back, maybe." Her fingers were busy with her collar in front
+of the mirror. "Dear me, I'm dreadfully tanned! But he told me once he
+liked the healthy brown skins the girls all get down here. No; I shall
+not let him have the least idea that I care anything about him; but--"
+and the smiles and dimples were chasing each other across her face as
+she started down the stairs. On her way she slipped softly into Miss
+Dent's darkened room. Louise was awake, and Lucy stood beside her bed,
+stroking her forehead with affectionate fingers.
+
+"Poor Dearie! Can't I do something for you before I go out? Do you think
+you can sleep? Then you won't mind my going, will you? Mr. Conrad has
+come to take me to ride. We are going up the canyon. Wasn't it jolly of
+him to think of it this stupid, yellow afternoon?"
+
+"Yes; certainly, dear, I'm glad you're going, and I hope you'll have a
+delightful ride. Don Homer is always so thoughtful."
+
+Lucy was settling her hat in front of the mirror. "Oh, it isn't Don
+Homer! It's his brother."
+
+Miss Dent started up. "Curtis Conrad! You're not going with him!"
+
+Lucy looked at her with surprise. "Why, yes, Dearie. Why not?"
+
+"Lucy, darling! You must not go!"
+
+Louise was sitting up now, her hands at her temples. Lucy bent over her
+with an arm about her neck. "You surprise me very much, Dearie. I
+thought you liked him."
+
+"Yes; of course. But you must not go with him this afternoon. It will
+not do."
+
+The girl sat down on the bed beside her. "But I've said I would, Dearie,
+and he's already here, waiting for me with the horses. And I must go,
+Dearie. It would be awfully rude and horrid to try to get out of it
+now."
+
+Sudden apprehension filled Miss Dent's mind. It was not like Lucy to
+hold so persistently to anything that was against her wish. Her intense
+feeling against Curtis Conrad swept over her excited, tingling nerves
+and filled her mind with the conviction that she must keep Lucy away
+from him. Things jigged and swam before her eyes, as her thoughts
+whirled dizzily through her brain. "Lucy, dear child!" she exclaimed, "I
+wish you would not go. Indeed, you must not go!"
+
+Lucy arose, clad in a new womanly dignity that sent a half-realized
+dismay through the turmoil of Miss Dent's mind. Vaguely, with an aching
+sense of loss, she felt that Lucy had become a woman who would
+henceforth direct her life for herself. With her hands holding her
+throbbing head, through which excruciating pains were darting, Louise
+strove to steady her thoughts.
+
+"I don't understand," said Lucy, gently, "why you speak in this way, or
+why you wish me to be rude to Mr. Conrad. If there is any good reason
+why I should not go to ride with him this afternoon, and you will tell
+me what it is, so that I can judge for myself, I can beg him to excuse
+me, because you are not well--and--ask him to stay to dinner instead."
+
+New alarm seized Miss Dent. In her excitement she tried to rise, only to
+drop back trembling upon the bed. For the moment her one thought was
+that this man must be kept out of the house. "Lucy," she pleaded,
+despair in her voice, "you do not understand. He is not our friend now.
+He is your father's enemy--and is trying to kill him."
+
+She stopped in sudden panic at having said so much, and Lucy started
+back amazed.
+
+"Oh, Dearie--you don't know, do you--and daddy--you don't know about
+daddy?"
+
+Louise looked up, her face white and drawn, astonishment veiling the
+pain in her eyes.
+
+"Lucy, Lucy! Do you know--about your father--and this man--and yet you
+will go with him?"
+
+Lucy's curly head was high as she answered deliberately: "Yes, Dearie! I
+am going so that I can save daddy from any further trouble. I shall tell
+Mr. Conrad who daddy is."
+
+Miss Dent gasped and her mouth worked for a moment before she could
+speak. "Oh, child, you don't know what you are doing! I beg of you,
+Lucy, don't go--don't do it! If you love me, if you love your father,
+don't tell him! He will kill--"
+
+The girl drew herself up proudly. "Indeed, Dearie, you don't know Curtis
+Conrad as well as I do, if you think he will do the least thing to hurt
+daddy, after he knows. That's why I'm going to tell him--to save daddy.
+I love him, Dearie, but I shall not let him know that I do. And I want
+to hear him say, just once, that he loves me--and then I shall tell
+him--who I am and who daddy is." She turned half away, then rushed back
+to throw her arms around her friend's neck. "Darling Dearie, I know I am
+hurting you! But won't you trust me about this, and love me just the
+same? I know I am doing the best thing for daddy--and--after to-day,
+I'm never going to see Curtis Conrad again!"
+
+Louise fell back, exhausted, as Lucy kissed her forehead and ran from
+the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE HEAVENS OPEN
+
+
+Conrad and Lucy rode along a street skirting the brow of the _mesa_
+until the houses of the town in the valley below became few and
+straggling. Down the last roadway cut across the sides of the canyon
+they descended to the bottom of the ravine. Thence upward it was so
+narrow that the bed of the creek and the road left only scant margins of
+rocky soil. In these grew cottonwoods, willows, and a few other trees,
+whose overarching branches made a green and pleasant vista. The creek
+wound crookedly down the valley, frequently crossing the road, while
+here and there the walls of the gulch drew so close together that the
+track was forced into the bed of the stream. Notwithstanding the recent
+rains, the water was too shallow to reach above their horses' knees.
+
+The way was quite deserted, and after leaving the town they saw no other
+travellers. A cool, damp wind came down the ravine and Lucy took off
+her hat and let it toss back her brown curls. They had grown longer
+since the early Spring, and now clustered in soft rings around her ears
+and neck. A touch of sadness lingered upon her spirits, because of the
+distressing scene with Miss Dent. It was the first difference that had
+ever arisen between them. A poignant longing filled her heart, also,
+because this was to be her final interview with the man she loved. The
+painful duty she had set herself filled the background of her
+consciousness and laid upon her manner an unusual reserve.
+
+But these more sombre emotions mingled with the gladness of the
+knowledge that she was beloved, and all combined to invest her with a
+new maturity of womanliness, a sweet dignity that sent filtering through
+Conrad's eager love a sensation of wonder and reverence. It could not be
+possible that this lovely, this adorable being would receive his homage,
+would consent to love him! But he would try. She was willing to ride
+with him, and there was hope in that. And, yes, he would not forget that
+he must tell her about his unworthy life--he must tell her even before
+he asked her to marry him. But oh, how beautiful she was, how sweet!
+Every movement of her head, her arm, her body, every twinkling smile,
+every fleeting dimple, poured fresh wine into his blood. A torrent of
+love and admiration was sweeping through him, and from it were
+constantly breaking off and flowing over their friendly talk little
+cascades of compliment, of admiring speech, of sentences glowing with
+hints of his feeling.
+
+But Lucy quickly caught the trend of every one and turned it back with
+laughing retort and merry speech. He could not get within her guard, and
+every deft turn of her jesting, foiling replies made him only the more
+eager. He forgot that he was going to make confession, forgot to watch
+the dark clouds that were rising above the mountain tops, forgot
+everything but this alluring creature, who grew more alluring every
+moment, and yet would not let him loose the torrents of loving speech.
+And Lucy, in the sweet excitement of letting him say a little, and again
+a little, and then a little more, yet keeping up her guard and never
+letting him reach the danger point, Lucy also forgot what she had meant
+to keep constantly in mind. Now and then duty put out a warning hand.
+But--the exhilaration of the present moment, the precious consciousness
+of his love, the thrilling pleasure of this Cupid's dance--she could not
+give it up so quickly. Presently she would tell him.
+
+Thus has it been Love's habit, ever since Love came to live in this
+world, to dance with happy and forgetful foot over volcanoes ready to
+engulf him in their fires, beneath clouds ready to drown him with their
+pouring sorrows. No matter what the dangers, when the maid lures and the
+man pursues, Love knows only his own delight. So went Lucy and Curtis up
+the beautiful canyon road, thrilling with the happiness that can be but
+once,--before the first kiss has brushed away the exquisite bloom of
+love,--forgetting alike the bonds they had put upon themselves and the
+dangers that lurked in the threatening storm.
+
+At last the darkening atmosphere caused Conrad to notice how high the
+clouds had risen. "I'm afraid there's going to be a bad storm, Miss
+Bancroft," he said, "and perhaps we'd better turn back. When we started
+I didn't think it would rain before night, but those clouds are piling
+up fast and they look as if they meant business. I'm sorry, for a little
+ways above here there's a beautiful place, where the walls of the canyon
+spread out and you get a splendid view. I wanted to take you there, and
+tell you--" It was not so easy after all, to loose the torrents of
+speech, and for a bare instant he hesitated. It was enough to give Lucy
+her chance.
+
+She shot at him a single sparkling glance, and broke in with, "Oh, I'll
+race you there!" As she spoke she touched her horse and darted ahead,
+leaving him alone in the middle of the road at the very beginning of his
+declaration. The wind blew her curls into a tangled frame for her
+laughing face as she looked back over her shoulder. He quickly spurred
+Brown Betty forward, but she had got so much the start that it was some
+moments before he was again at her side.
+
+"You took me by surprise," he said as they slowed their horses at the
+foot of a steeper incline, "and handicapped me, or you wouldn't have got
+so far away. When we go back I'll race you all the way down the canyon,
+if you like."
+
+"Agreed!" she laughed. "Wouldn't it be jolly to go at a gallop all the
+way down the canyon, from the mountains to Golden? But the poor horses!"
+
+"I think we'd better turn back, Miss Bancroft. I don't like the look of
+those clouds. It's going to be a regular deluge, I'm afraid. But first,
+I want to tell you--"
+
+"Oh, my hat! I've dropped it!" she exclaimed. Curtis leaned over easily,
+picked it up, and hung it on his own pommel. Her eyes were twinkling and
+the dimples were playing hide-and-seek with a wilful little smile that
+hovered around her mouth. "So awkward of me," she said apologetically,
+"and how readily you picked it up! I wish I could do that! Do you know,
+Mr. Conrad, you've never given me those lessons in the cowboy's art,
+roping and riding and all that, you promised ever so long ago."
+
+"We'll begin them whenever you say the word. After I tell you--"
+
+"About that beautiful place? Oh, yes! Can't we go that far? I'd love to
+see it!" She was bounding ahead again, but he was quickly beside her. A
+quizzical look was on his face and a touch of mastery in his manner as
+he leaned toward her and rested his hand upon her horse's neck.
+
+"Now, if you try to run away again," he said banteringly, "it's you who
+will have the handicap!" She gathered up her bridle and with a touch of
+her quirt wheeled her horse half way around and away from his detaining
+hand. The whim had seized her to start flying back down the road, "just
+a little way," she thought, "just to tease him." But as she turned she
+met a glowing look that checked her impulse.
+
+"Lucy!" he was saying, and his voice lingered over her name like a soft
+and warm caress, "Lucy! I love you. Will you be my wife?"
+
+It had come, the question she had meant not to let him ask, and at once
+it sobered her spirits and brought back the remembrance of what she must
+tell him. Her head drooped until her brown curls half hid her crimsoning
+face, and her voice was low and troubled. "Indeed, Mr. Conrad, I can
+never be any man's wife. My father needs me. I shall never marry, and I
+shall stay with him as long as he lives."
+
+"I know how devoted you are to your father, Lucy--" he stopped, and
+repeated her name as if he loved the sound of it it--"Lucy, and it is so
+sweet and beautiful that it makes me love you even more. Tell me, Lucy,
+do you love me?"
+
+The question took her unawares, and he saw her hand tremble. She
+hesitated for a moment before replying, with dignity: "I have told you
+I could not marry you. Isn't that enough?" Unconsciously they had again
+headed their horses toward the mountains and were walking slowly up the
+canyon.
+
+"No, Lucy; it isn't enough!" he exclaimed eagerly. "Something tells me
+that perhaps you do care a little for me, and if you do I want to know
+it--I must know it!"
+
+"I shall never see you again after to-day. You must be satisfied with
+that," she replied, tossing her head and turning her face away from his
+shining and pleading eyes.
+
+"How can I be satisfied--" he began, and the wind blew her hair as she
+turned her head away and showed one little pink-tinted ear nestling
+among the curls. His gaze devoured it. "How can I," he went on, "when
+you--when you have such a beautiful ear!"
+
+"What difference does it make when we can never see each other again?"
+Her manner was evasive and her speech hesitating, for she was trying
+hard to bring herself to the point of telling him the fateful secret.
+
+"All the difference in the world! Lucy, sweetheart! Tell me if you
+care!" He leaned toward her and took her wrist in his hand.
+
+[Illustration: "IT HAD COME, THIS QUESTION SHE HAD NOT MEANT TO LET HIM
+ASK"]
+
+"You've no right to ask that question again! I shall say no more than
+I have said already." She made an effort to release her arm, but he
+would not relax his firm, though gentle and caressing, grasp.
+
+"Lucy, I would never beg for a woman's love, nor ask her to try to care
+for me, if she didn't love me, of herself. But when the woman I love
+with all my heart won't deny that she loves me, then I must hear her say
+in her own sweet voice that she does. Lucy, darling, tell me that you
+love me!"
+
+She was trembling from head to foot, but she drew herself together with
+fresh determination and held her head up proudly as she answered,
+looking straight ahead: "I have told you that I shall never marry, and
+that after to-day I shall never see you again. That must be enough, for
+I shall say no more."
+
+He let go her wrist, and she tapped her horse to a faster pace. She was
+thinking intently, trying to frame in her mind the best words in which
+to make her confession. Suddenly, over the top of a steep incline, they
+came upon a wide and splendid view. The sides of the canyon seemed to
+melt and flow back, giving far-ranging sight of the sombre purple
+mountains towering toward heaven and of the hills dwindling down into
+the plain.
+
+"Lucy," he exclaimed, "here is the beautiful place of which I told you.
+I wanted to bring you here to tell you of my love, because this is the
+most beautiful spot I know. Lucy, darling, I love you with all my heart,
+and if you cannot deny that you love me, then it is my right, the right
+of my love, to hear you say that you do. Never mind about not leaving
+your father and meaning never to marry. We'll talk about that
+afterward. Won't you tell me now that you do love me?"
+
+Her eyes dropped from the high and wide horizon to her horse's mane. She
+tried to say, "I do not love you," but her heart rose in rebellion and
+forbade the untruth. She opened her lips, but no sound came from them.
+Curtis bent toward her, trying to take her hand, but she drew it away.
+With all her strength she was contending for her determination against
+both him and the traitor within her own heart. He leaned nearer,
+pleading in tones that were half loving command and half loving
+entreaty, "Lucy! Lucy, love! Look up! Let me see your eyes, your dear,
+beautiful eyes!"
+
+Lucy clasped her hands together hard and bowed her head. He was bending
+over her, his shoulder touching hers. She heard his voice, soft and
+rich with love, whispering, "Lucy, darling!" And suddenly, scarcely
+knowing what she did, she lifted her head and looked into his eyes.
+Instantly his arms were about her, and he heard her murmuring, "I do
+love you! Oh, I do love you!" He bent his ardent face to hers, but
+before their lips met she started away, freeing herself from his
+encircling arms.
+
+"Stop!" she cried, putting out a forbidding hand, as she moved her horse
+away. "You have made me tell you, against my will, that I love you. Now
+you must listen while I tell you who I am." There was a suggestion of
+defiance in the poise of her head and in the flashing of her eyes as
+they looked squarely into his.
+
+"And you must understand," she went on, "that after I tell you this I
+want you to forget everything that has passed between us this afternoon,
+just as I shall do. For I am the daughter of Sumner L. Delafield!"
+
+In an instant his arms were about her again. "Lucy, dearest, you've told
+me no news! I've known it since yesterday."
+
+She struggled to free herself. "But my father--you hate him--you--you
+wish to kill him--I heard what you said to him that day at your ranch,
+last Spring--and afterward I happened to find out who he is."
+
+A wave of crimson deepened the color of his sunbrowned face. "All that
+is dead and buried," he said, "and I am ashamed of it, now. I want you
+to help me forget that I allowed such base thoughts to master me so
+long. I'm going to your father this afternoon to tell him that I have
+forgiven the old debt, and everything else, and to ask him to forgive
+me. My poor little girl! I never dreamed your dear heart was being
+worried by that affair!"
+
+She let him fold her in his caress, whispering happily, "I knew all the
+time you wouldn't do it--I knew you wouldn't hurt daddy, or anybody."
+
+A loud clap of thunder rolled and echoed over the mountains, and a
+splash of raindrops fell on their faces. Conrad looked at the dense
+black clouds and at the gray veil dropping athwart the mountains, and
+turned to Lucy with alarm in his face. "We must start back at once and
+ride down that canyon for all we're worth! This storm is going to be a
+corker, but maybe we can beat the worst of it. I've done wrong to bring
+you so far--but I can't regret it now, sweetheart!"
+
+They started at a gallop down the long canyon road. The patter of big
+drops that had given them warning quickly increased to a steady, beating
+downpour that drenched them to the skin. An almost tangible darkness was
+sifting through the atmosphere. It filled the sky overhead, drifted down
+the ravine, and seemed to settle, making a thick twilight under the
+arching trees. Blinding zigzags of lightning slashed the clouds and
+played through the middle air, and a terrific roar and boom and rattle
+of thunder kept up in the mountains behind them and echoed back and
+forth between the walls of the gulch.
+
+The creek was already rising, and each time they had to cross it they
+found its muddy torrent swifter and higher. The road was rocky, and in
+many places had been made slippery by the rain, and there were frequent
+steep inclines down which they dared not go at a rapid gait. They had
+put behind them hardly more than a third of the distance when Conrad,
+looking backward, saw a cloud of inky blackness settle and drop upon the
+earth. A deep, booming sound mingled with a deafening clap of thunder.
+The ground trembled. The horses quivered with fright and darted forward
+at a faster pace. Lucy saw Curtis's face blench in the half darkness.
+
+"What is it?" she asked, glancing backward anxiously.
+
+"That was a cloudburst," he answered in a tone that thrilled with
+comprehension. "It struck back there, just this side of our beautiful
+spot, and a mountain of water will soon come tearing down behind us.
+We've got to ride like the wind! Perhaps we can make the first road that
+crosses the ravine, and you can go up there while I ride on and warn the
+town."
+
+"No! I'll ride on with you."
+
+"I can't let you do that," was his swift reply. "Are you frightened,
+dearest?"
+
+"No," she answered in a steady tone; "I'm not frightened at all. And I'm
+going to ride on with you. It would be easy to die with you, if we
+must--but I couldn't live without you, now."
+
+He bent toward her and touched her arm with loving reverence as they
+galloped on at the swiftest speed possible. The horses needed neither
+whip nor spur, but with ears laid back and necks outstretched were
+fleeing down the dim canyon for their lives. As they bounded up a low
+bank, where the road crossed the creek bed again, Lucy's horse
+stumbled, slipped, and fell with his forelegs doubled under him. He gave
+a scream of pain and terror. Lucy, freeing her foot from the stirrup as
+he fell, jumped to one side. Curtis checked Brown Betty, leaned over,
+and grasped the girl around the waist. She helped him with an upward
+spring, and as he lifted her to the saddle he shifted his own seat to
+the back, and they galloped on, leaving the crippled horse to his
+certain fate.
+
+Behind them they could hear the booming, rattling roar of the avalanche
+of water that was sweeping down between the canyon walls. And presently,
+piercing through even its rumbling tumult and the crashing thunder, they
+heard the death cry of the horse they had left behind, and knew that he
+had been engulfed in the mountainous wave that was rushing toward them
+at a speed they could not hope to equal. Lucy trembled at the sound and
+nestled her head against Conrad's shoulder.
+
+As they neared the first road cutting across the gulch Curtis lowered
+his head to Lucy's ear: "Sweetheart, we are almost at the first road
+out. I can put you off and you can run up there and be safe."
+
+"No," she whispered back; "don't stop for an instant. Every second will
+mean many lives. I'm going with you to whatever end there is, and I'm
+not afraid."
+
+Brown Betty's flanks were steaming. The froth from her mouth flecked her
+neck and legs and body, to be quickly washed off by the drenching rain.
+Behind them they could hear, coming nearer and nearer, the fateful roar
+of the rushing waters. The canyon walls opened out, and, looming vaguely
+in the dim light, they could see the first houses of the town. With full
+lungs Conrad shouted at the top of his voice:
+
+"Run! A cloudburst! A cloudburst is coming! Run for your lives!"
+
+They dashed on, and the houses became more frequent. There were lights
+in the windows, though it was little past mid-afternoon. Curtis,
+shouting his warning over and over, put the bridle in Lucy's hands and
+drew his revolver. They were rushing down the main street, through the
+most thickly built portion of the town. Pointing upward, he added the
+noise of pistol shots to his clamor. Men and women came to their doors,
+caught the meaning of his cries, heard the roar of the coming flood, and
+rushed out and up the side streets, shouting warnings as they ran.
+
+"My father--the bank--can we go so far?" asked Lucy breathlessly.
+
+"Yes--we'll call him," Conrad assured her, glancing back over his
+shoulder. Behind them rose a din of shouts and yells and screams of
+terror, mingling with the peals of thunder and the roar of the waters.
+The street was full of people running this way and that. And a little
+farther back, through the dusky light, he saw a brown, foaming wall of
+water, its crest topping the roofs of the houses, its front a mass of
+half-engulfed trees and houses and pieces of lumber and arms and legs
+and bodies of men and animals that boiled up from its foot, tossed and
+whirled a moment on its breast, and sank into the flood.
+
+Curtis ground his teeth together. They were still three blocks from the
+bank. "We'll never make it," he thought; "but we'll try!" His arm
+gathered Lucy closer to his breast, his spur touched Brown Betty's
+heaving flank, and with another loud shout of warning and an encouraging
+cry to the mare they darted on with a fresh burst of speed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+FULFILMENT OF THE LAW
+
+
+Louise Dent sank back upon her pillows as Lucy hurried from the room,
+too amazed and horrified for speech by the girl's declaration of her
+love for Curtis Conrad and her determination to reveal to him her
+father's identity. Ill in body, distracted in mind almost to the point
+of irresponsibility, her thoughts tossed about and took wild shapes in
+her fevered brain. The one idea looming constantly before her was that
+Bancroft was in deadly, imminent peril. Her bitter resentment against
+Conrad and the hate and anger she had nursed so long in secret distorted
+all her conception of his character. Now, as her thoughts pounded back
+and forth through her dizzy, aching head, he seemed to her to be capable
+of any monstrous deed. He would learn from Lucy the secret of her
+father's identity, and then nothing would prevent him from rushing
+forthwith to get his fill of bloody vengeance.
+
+She rose and staggered to the window. Dark clouds were overspreading the
+sky. It would rain soon, they would turn back from their ride, and he
+would bring her home. Then he would hasten to the bank, and into Aleck's
+room--and she covered her eyes as if to conceal what her mental vision
+insisted on seeing. If Aleck only knew that Curtis had learned the
+truth, if he could be warned in time, he might conceal himself until it
+would be possible for him to go away. Leave the town he must, and go
+far, far away, where there would be no fear of discovery.
+
+She alone knew his danger. But could she tell him that she was aware of
+his secret? She shrank from making him suffer that humiliation.
+Furthermore, could she do it without betraying her own secret, without
+laying bare the love that burned in her heart? Yet--what mattered the
+rest if she could save his life and, perhaps, his future? She followed
+with her eye the line of the canyon. Where were they now? The clouds
+were black and lowering and a gray veil of rain hid the purple of the
+distant mountains and spread an advancing blur over their slopes. If she
+was to save Aleck she must go--at once.
+
+Her loud and hurried knocking at the door of Bancroft's private office
+sent to his heart the quick apprehension to which he had become an easy
+prey. He sprang to his feet with his hand upon the revolver that of late
+lay always ready upon his desk. Not only was it a relief to find that it
+was nobody but Louise, but the very sight of her was so welcome and so
+easeful to his overwrought and desperate mind that unconsciously he
+addressed her by her Christian name. Her wild eyes and distraught face
+alarmed him.
+
+"Louise! What is the matter? You have come in all this rain? How wet you
+are! Has anything happened?"
+
+"No; not now; not yet! Wait, let me get my breath--I will tell you.
+Aleck, how pale you are! Has anything happened to you?" In their
+excitement neither of them noticed that she also used his Christian
+name.
+
+"No; nothing has happened to me--no more than usual. I am in deep
+trouble, Louise."
+
+"I know, I know," she cried, coming close to him. "I know what it is--I
+have come to warn you. Curtis Conrad--"
+
+"What about him?" Bancroft exclaimed, starting back. "What do you know
+about him?"
+
+"What you know, Aleck--that he means to kill you. He is coming here this
+very afternoon--he will be here soon--he will kill you. You must hide
+from him!"
+
+He drew back as she spoke, and then turned sharply upon her. "Do you
+know why? Are you another who knows?"
+
+She moved a step aside and dropped her gaze, but her voice was tender
+and compassionate as she replied, "Yes, Aleck; I know."
+
+He looked at her with astonished eyes. "How did you find it out? How
+long have you known?"
+
+"For years," she said softly, stretching her hand impulsively toward
+him. "Josephine told me when she died, so I could guard Lucy against all
+knowledge of it. I have kept it as secret as the grave. Nobody has ever
+had from me any suspicion of the truth. It has made no difference to me,
+Aleck! I have only respected you the more, because you could begin over
+again and build up a new name and a new life."
+
+He took her hand. It was wet and cold, and he folded it in his, and as
+she went on drew her closer to his side. He felt the soothing comfort
+of her words and manner, but his eyes were on the floor as he muttered,
+"I thought nobody knew; I thought it was hidden so well!"
+
+The room had grown dark and darker. Outside, the rain was coming down in
+gray sheets, and dazzling flashes of lightning flooded the heavens. Peal
+upon peal of thunder smote their ears. She thought, "They are at home by
+this time; he will be here soon." Laying her other hand upon Bancroft's
+arm she hurried on, in broken, pleading speech: "Aleck, you must not
+stay here! You must hide somewhere, where he cannot find you! Conrad--I
+came to warn you--he knows, by this time--who you are. He will be here
+soon."
+
+"Conrad! Does he know? Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes. They went to ride up the canyon, he and Lucy. She said she was
+going to tell him. Aleck, you must not stay here! He may come any
+minute!"
+
+He dropped her hand and started back. "Lucy!" he cried, and again,
+"Lucy! Does she know, too?" He sank into his chair and buried his face
+in his arms. Louise stood beside him, her hand upon his shoulder, her
+voice soft with loving compassion.
+
+"I don't know how she knew, nor how long she has known. Until this
+afternoon I had no idea that she, or any one, knew anything about it.
+But she came to my room and told me that she was going to ride with him,
+that she loved him, and that she was going to tell him who you are."
+
+He made no answer; but she guessed by his troubled breathing with what
+shame and despair he was struggling. She bent over him, her arm across
+his shoulder, her cheek upon his hair. Above the pealing, echoing
+thunder and the rattling boom of some sound which in their absorption
+they had scarcely noted, there came into the room the sudden din of
+cries and shouts and pistol shots.
+
+"It's Conrad! He's coming!" cried Louise, running to the window, her
+excited mind still dominated by the single idea. Bancroft grasped the
+pistol. Looking back, she saw him point it at his own temple. Springing
+to his side, she seized it with both hands, crying out, "Aleck, don't do
+that! Don't give up! Give it to me!"
+
+His grasp relaxed and she took the weapon from his hand.
+
+"Aleck! Bancroft! Aleck!" they heard from outside, in Conrad's voice.
+More words followed, but through the noise of the shouting and the
+thunder and that rattling roar, now grown louder and nearer, they could
+distinguish only, "your life!" A galloping horse rushed near the window,
+there was a pistol shot without, and an answering shot from within.
+
+A shriek pierced the clamor, and Bancroft cried, "That was Lucy's
+voice!" By a flash of lightning which rent for an instant the gray
+darkness, they saw the horse wheel into the hill street, and saw Lucy in
+Conrad's arms.
+
+The pistol dropped from Louise's hand as she cried out in a passion of
+grief, "Oh, Aleck! Our little girl! Have I killed her?"
+
+He leaned toward her with compassionate arms.
+
+Conrad glanced over his shoulder as he wheeled his mare into the cross
+street, and saw the towering wall of water at their very heels. Brown
+Betty was staggering under her burden, but with shout and spur he drove
+her on up the steep incline. A grinding crash mingled with the roar of
+the flood, and another backward glance let him see the bank building
+toppling, collapsing, embosomed in the awful avalanche of water. A great
+wave rushed after them and swept Brown Betty from her feet. Had the
+mare been less sturdy of spirit they would have been carried back on its
+retreating current. But Conrad's persuading, encouraging calls were in
+her ears and she struck out bravely, swimming against the force of the
+waves that swirled about them and buffeted her with the debris they
+carried. But the waters that spread up the cross street soon lost their
+force, and she regained her footing. Curtis bent over Lucy, saying, "We
+are safe now, sweetheart!" Blood was dripping over her garments, and she
+lay white and still upon his arm.
+
+At last they reached the door of the Bancroft home, and Curtis carried
+Lucy, still unconscious, within, and went in search of Miss Dent. But
+the house was deserted. Alone, he ministered to the girl's needs. He
+located the injury, and found that a bullet, as to whose source and
+intention he made his own secret guess, had pierced her arm, but had
+left merely a flesh wound. Recovered from her swoon, he carried her
+up-stairs and left her to change her wet clothing while he went in
+search of blankets. Wrapped in these, with her arm bandaged, he left her
+in bed while he hastened down the hill, hoping to find news of her
+father and Miss Dent with which to relieve her anxiety.
+
+The rain had ceased and the flood had passed, leaving in its wake the
+wreck of a ruined town. Where the bank building had stood were tottering
+walls and a shapeless heap of brick and timbers. Beneath the wreckage,
+where had been the president's office, they found the bodies of Bancroft
+and Louise, enfolded in each other's arms.
+
+The sky cleared and only in the east did some low-lying clouds, still
+wet and angry, give any hint of the storm which had swept over the town
+and left desolation in its track. As Conrad climbed the hill to tell
+Lucy of her double bereavement, in the tenderest words his love could
+make possible, he faced the glories of a setting sun whose resplendent
+pageant filled the sky and touched with its glowing colors the pitiful
+devastation of the little valley.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR***
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1" />
+<title>The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Delafield Affair, by Florence Finch Kelly</title>
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+<body>
+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Delafield Affair, by Florence Finch
+Kelly, Illustrated by Maynard Dixon</h1>
+<pre>
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: The Delafield Affair</p>
+<p>Author: Florence Finch Kelly</p>
+<p>Release Date: January 17, 2011  [eBook #34996]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h4>E-text prepared by D Alexander<br />
+    and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.pgdp.net">http://www.pgdp.net</a>)<br />
+    from page images generously made available by<br />
+    Internet Archive<br />
+    (<a href="http://www.archive.org/">http://www.archive.org</a>)</h4>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<table border="0" style="background-color: #ccccff;margin: 0 auto;" cellpadding="10">
+  <tr>
+    <td class="pg">
+      Note:
+    </td>
+    <td>
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      <a href="http://www.archive.org/details/delafieldaffair00kelliala">
+      http://www.archive.org/details/delafieldaffair00kelliala</a>
+	</td>
+  </tr>
+</table>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 308px;">
+<img src="images/icover.jpg" width="308" height="500" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<h1>THE<br />
+DELAFIELD AFFAIR</h1>
+
+<h4>BY</h4>
+
+<h2>FLORENCE FINCH KELLY</h2>
+
+<p class="center"><i>Author of &#8220;<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/28585">With Hoops of Steel</a>,&#8221; etc.</i></p>
+
+<h4>WITH FOUR ILLUSTRATIONS IN COLOR<br />BY MAYNARD DIXON</h4>
+
+<p class="smallergap">&#160;</p>
+
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 81px;">
+<img src="images/i001.jpg" width="81" height="80" alt="" title="" />
+</div>
+
+<p class="smallergap">&#160;</p>
+
+<h3>CHICAGO</h3>
+
+<h2>A. C. McCLURG &amp; CO.</h2>
+
+<h3>1909</h3>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<p class="center">COPYRIGHT<br />
+A. C. <span class="smcap">McClurg &amp; Co.</span><br />
+1909</p>
+
+<hr class="tiny" />
+
+<p class="center">Published March 6, 1909</p>
+
+<p class="smallgap">&#160;</p>
+
+<p class="center">THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+
+<p><a name="Frontispiece" id="Frontispiece"></a></p><div class="figcenter" style="width: 318px;">
+<img src="images/i003.jpg" class="ispace jpg" width="318" height="500" alt="&#8220;He smiled down at her glowing young face, and his eyes
+shone with admiration&#8221;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&#8220;<span class="smcap">He smiled down at her glowing young face, and his eyes
+shone with admiration</span>&#8221; [Page <a href="#Page_26">26</a>]</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h2>CONTENTS</h2>
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="CONTENTS">
+
+<tr><td align="right"><span class="smcap"><small>Chapter</small></span></td>
+<td align="left">&nbsp;</td>
+<td align="right"><span class="smcap"><small>Page</small></span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">I.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Vengeance Avowed</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_9">9</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">II.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Evil that Men do</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_32">32</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">III.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Mistake, or Blunder?</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_39">39</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">IV.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Powers Confer</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_52">52</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">V.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Chastisement Condign</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_64">64</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">VI.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Stern Chase</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_78">78</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">VII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Talk of Many Things</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_90">90</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">VIII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Spectres of the Past</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_114">114</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">IX.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Perils in the Night</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_136">136</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">X.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">By a Hair&#8217;s Breadth</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_145">145</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XI.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Battling the Elements</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_160">160</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The First Shot</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_177">177</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XIII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Second Shot</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_192">192</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XIV.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Three Letters</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_210">210</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XV.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Villainy Unmasked</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_221">221</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XVI.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">A Double Bluff</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_238">238</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XVII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Sentence of Death</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_256">256</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XVIII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Plots and Counterplots</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_278">278</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XIX.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Word Unspoken</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_299">299</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XX.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Narrowing the Quest</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_321">321</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XXI.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Silent Duel</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_345">345</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XXII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Reflection and Reaction</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_360">360</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XXIII.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Love to the Rescue</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_380">380</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XXIV.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">The Heavens Open</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_397">397</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="right">XXV.</td>
+<td align="left"><span class="smcap">Fulfilment of the Law</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Page_414">414</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="large" />
+<h2>ILLUSTRATIONS</h2>
+<div class="centered">
+<table border="0" width="70%" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="1" summary="ILLUSTRATIONS">
+
+<tr><td>&#160;</td>
+<td align="right"><span class="smcap"><small>Page</small></span></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left">&#8220;He smiled down at her glowing young face, and his<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">eyes shone with admiration&#8221;</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Frontispiece"><i>Frontispiece</i></a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left">&#8220;Upon man and beast the sand-storm beat bitterly&#8221;</td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Illo2">168</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left"><p>&#8220;Like a flash Jos&eacute;&#8217;s arm swung back, ... and Curtis<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">sprang lightly aside as the knife struck deep into</span><br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">the tree&#8221;</span></p></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Illo3">308</a></td></tr>
+
+<tr><td align="left">&#8220;It had come, the question she had meant not to let<br />
+<span style="margin-left: 1em;">him ask&#8221;</span></td>
+<td align="right"><a href="#Illo4">404</a></td></tr>
+</table></div>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">[Pg 9]</a></span></p>
+<h1>THE<br />
+DELAFIELD AFFAIR</h1>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_I" id="CHAPTER_I"></a>CHAPTER I</h2>
+
+<h3>VENGEANCE AVOWED</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">C</span>urtis Conrad turned from superintending repairs on the adobe wall, and
+walked across the corral to the gate at the opposite side. As he filled
+his pipe he looked across the wide, greenish-gray New Mexican plateau
+stretching far to east and south and west. It was dotted here and
+there with little groups of grazing cattle, and he noted a straggling
+procession of the creatures, their figures wavering and distorted in the
+heat haze, coming down from the distant foot-hills. They were following
+a trail that cut across the plain in a straight line to the pond across
+the road from the house, beyond a grove of cottonwood trees.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Poor devils!&#8221; he thought. &#8220;They&#8217;re tramping miles for a drink of
+water, and to-morrow they&#8217;ll tramp back again for their breakfast. The
+Castletons are going to lose big money in dead cattle this Summer,
+unless <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">[Pg 10]</a></span>there&#8217;s more rain than there was last. It&#8217;s awful to see the
+poor brutes dropping in their tracks. I&#8217;ll begin looking for a job in a
+wetter country if this Summer doesn&#8217;t bring more rain.&#8221; He turned his
+attention to his pipe, sheltering bowl and match in his hollowed hand.
+&#8220;No use, in this wind,&#8221; he muttered. &#8220;What a blast it&#8217;s blowing to-day!
+Well, there&#8217;s no sand in it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The plain stretched away from the ranch-house in low, rolling hills, so
+evenly sized that it gave the impression of a level surface. Up from one
+of the little valleys rose a horseman, as if he had sprung suddenly from
+the depths of the earth. Through the heat that wavered over the plain
+his horse&#8217;s legs drew out into long, knobby sticks, and both man and
+steed became an absurd caricature of the sinewy pony and cowboy rider
+that presently cantered up to the gate with the mail for which Conrad
+had been waiting.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Three cow-brutes are down on the pond trail, just where it crosses the
+road. One of &#8217;em&#8217;s got a calf.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Are they dead?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mighty nigh&mdash;will be by night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You and Red Jack go and skin them in the morning.&#8221; Conrad turned toward
+the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">[Pg 11]</a></span>house, looking at his letters. His mind still lingered over the
+calf. &#8220;Poor little devil, it ought to have a chance,&#8221; he was thinking,
+when his eye caught the name on one of the envelopes. He turned upon the
+cowboy a gaze suddenly grown preoccupied.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Peters,&#8221; he said; &#8220;the calf won&#8217;t go with the other cattle while
+its mother is alive, and I saw that gray wolf skulking along the draw
+this afternoon. You and Red Jack&#8217;d better go down now and put the cows
+out of their misery. Skin them and bring the calf into the corral till
+night, and then put it down by the pond with the other cow-brutes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His eyes quickly returned to the letter that had attracted his
+attention. &#8220;Tremper &amp; Townsend!&#8221; he exclaimed with eager surprise. &#8220;Why,
+they were Delafield&#8217;s attorneys!&#8221; He tore open the envelope with an
+impatient jerk and the rushing wind almost blew from his fingers the
+check it contained. As his eye ran quickly down the half-dozen lines of
+the letter his face lighted with satisfaction and amusement.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of a carriage distracted his attention. It turned in at his
+house-gate and he hastened forward, a lean, long-legged figure of a man,
+hat doffed and hand outstretched.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">[Pg 12]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;How are you, Bancroft? Glad to see you! And Miss Bancroft, too! Of
+course you&#8217;re coming in. Thirsty? I&#8217;ll bet you are! And you know we&#8217;ve
+got the best water in Silverside County here. How much better your
+daughter&#8217;s looking, Aleck! If you keep on like this, Miss Bancroft,
+you&#8217;ll soon forget you were ever ill.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;ve forgotten that already, there&#8217;s such magic in the winds you
+have here,&#8221; the girl replied laughingly as he lifted her to the ground.
+&#8220;They&#8217;re strong enough to blow the past out of your memory and make you
+forget even your own name!&#8221; Her father suddenly turned away and began to
+hitch the horses. He sent back a covert glance at her as she stood at
+Conrad&#8217;s side, a slender figure, her face still thin from recent illness
+but aglow with the pink of returning health, the breeze fluttering the
+short brown curls that clustered over her bare head.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, my hat, please!&#8221; she exclaimed, with sudden remembrance of the
+head-covering she had left hanging in the carriage top. Curtis took it
+down for her and looked on with undisguised admiration while she tied it
+with a big bow of ribbon under her chin. Bancroft came back, explaining
+that they had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">[Pg 13]</a></span>driven since mid-forenoon from the base of Mangan&#8217;s Peak,
+and asking if Conrad did not think they had made pretty good time with
+their new team of horses. Curtis looked them over critically, praising
+their good points, and approving heartily when Bancroft told him they
+had been bought for both riding and driving, for he wanted Lucy, now
+that she was growing strong again, to become an expert horsewoman.</p>
+
+<p>A big cottonwood tree grew beside the gate, and a little plot of grass,
+enclosed on three sides by whitewashed adobe walls, made a square of
+welcome green. Lucy Bancroft exclaimed with delight as they entered the
+tiny yard, stepping mincingly across the grass with lifted gown, and
+smiling back at the two men, while fleeting dimples played hide-and-seek
+in her cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m so glad, Mr. Conrad,&#8221; she laughed, &#8220;that you haven&#8217;t any signs up
+to &#8216;keep off the grass,&#8217; for I simply must walk on it. I never saw
+anything so lovely as this little lawn and this beautiful big green
+tree, after our long ride across the plain. It makes me think of that
+line in the Bible about &#8216;the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.&#8217;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; replied Curtis as he threw open the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">[Pg 14]</a></span>door. &#8220;I never knew until I
+came to New Mexico how much comfort and pleasure there can be in a few
+blades of grass. When I come in from a long ride and look at this little
+checker-board square of turf I feel as if I uncurled a whole yard of
+wrinkles and squints from around my eyes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Socorro Springs ranch-house was a rambling sequence of adobe rooms,
+so joined one to another that they formed the eastern and part of the
+northern side of the big square corral. It was low and flat-roofed, and
+struggling tufts of weeds and grass grew along the top and trailed over
+the edge, adding their chapter to Nature&#8217;s endless tale of the unwearied
+determination of Life to evade and overcome Death. The rooms opened out
+of one another in a long row, all with outside doors looking toward the
+east and some with additional doors into the corral. A bare adobe yard
+sloping eastward was bordered by a trickling stream of water along which
+grew some willows and cottonwoods. Beyond it spread a golden-green field
+of young alfalfa, and beyond that the greenish-gray plain stretched to
+the far horizon. Across the front of the house was a narrow wooden
+porch, and house and porch, walls and sheds, were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">[Pg 15]</a></span>all a dazzling white
+that in the vivid sunshine smote the sight like a blow across the
+eyeballs. In the low, large room in front gayly colored Navajo rugs were
+spread on the floor, white muslin curtains hung at the windows, and
+rose-bedecked paper covered the walls and ceiling. Unpainted shelves of
+pine above a battered, flat-topped desk were filled with books, and the
+round table in the middle of the room was littered with newspapers,
+magazines, tobacco pouches, and pipes.</p>
+
+<p>The housekeeper, Mrs. Peters, brought a pitcher of water, and Conrad
+explained to Lucy that the springs from which the ranch took its
+appellation, <i>Los Ojos del Socorro</i>, &#8220;The Springs of Succor,&#8221; had been
+so named nearly three hundred years before by a party of Spanish
+explorers, because they had come unexpectedly upon the pure waters when
+they were almost dead from thirst. At the housekeeper&#8217;s suggestion Lucy
+went into the next room to lie down for a half-hour&#8217;s rest before they
+should start for their home in Golden, twenty miles farther westward.
+The door, accidentally left ajar, swung part way open and she could hear
+plainly the voices of her father and Conrad as she lay with eyes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">[Pg 16]</a></span>closed
+and thoughts wandering, scarcely heeding what they said.</p>
+
+<p>The two men were absorbed in a discussion of local politics. &#8220;Dan
+Tillinghurst is all right,&#8221; said Conrad. &#8220;He&#8217;s made a good sheriff and
+he ought to have the office again. I shall do all I can to have him
+renominated and to help elect him afterwards. But Dellmey Baxter for
+Congress again! That&#8217;s where I buck, and buck hard, and keep a-buckin&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But he&#8217;s the head of the party in the Territory,&#8221; objected Bancroft.
+&#8220;He can bring out more votes than any other man we can put up. If we
+turn him down in the convention they&#8217;ll beat us at the polls.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll deserve to be beaten if we nominate him, anyway. I can&#8217;t stomach
+him any longer, Aleck, and I don&#8217;t see how you can.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, you&#8217;re prejudiced, Curt,&#8221; said the other, good-naturedly. &#8220;You know
+you can never see any good in a man you dislike, and you took a dislike
+to Baxter the first day you set foot in the Territory.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Maybe I am prejudiced; but in Dell Baxter&#8217;s case there&#8217;s ample reason
+to be, and I&#8217;d be ashamed of myself if I wasn&#8217;t. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">[Pg 17]</a></span>know he&#8217;s a friend
+of yours, but that doesn&#8217;t prevent him from being the worst scoundrel in
+the whole Territory. I tell you, Aleck, there&#8217;s nothing that man
+wouldn&#8217;t do, unless it was something square and honest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Come, come, Curt, that&#8217;s rank exaggeration. I&#8217;ve been associated with
+Dell Baxter financially ever since I located in this part of the
+country, and I&#8217;ve always found him strictly on the square.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then it was because it was to his interest to be square. He&#8217;ll do you
+up yet, if he gets the chance and thinks it worth while. He&#8217;s had his
+finger in every crooked scheme that&#8217;s been put through from Raton to El
+Paso, and his hands are as bloody as his pockets are dirty.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you think it&#8217;s going a little too far,&#8221; asked Bancroft, smiling
+calmly, &#8220;to accuse a man in that wholesale way when you haven&#8217;t any
+basis for your assertions but the merest idle gossip?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad gave an indignant snort. &#8220;Oh, I&#8217;m not saying he&#8217;s done the jobs
+himself. He thinks too much of that fat paunch of his to put that into
+any danger. But why does he keep those Mexican thugs hanging <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">[Pg 18]</a></span>around him
+if it isn&#8217;t to use them for things he wouldn&#8217;t dare do himself? Why, I
+heard from Santa Fe only last week that he&#8217;s taken into his pay that
+Mexican cutthroat, Liberato Herrara, whom he saved last Winter from
+conviction for the Paxton murder.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Aleck,&#8221; he went on. &#8220;I buck when it comes to Dell Baxter for
+Congress again. If he gets the nomination and the other side puts up
+Johnny Martinez, as it&#8217;s likely they will, I&#8217;m going to support Johnny.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But he&#8217;s a Mexican.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t care what he is as long as he&#8217;s a decent man. He won&#8217;t be a
+disgrace to the Territory in Washington, and that&#8217;s more than you can
+say of Baxter.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft&#8217;s impassive face lighted with a bantering smile. &#8220;There&#8217;s no
+limit to your bad opinion of a man, is there, Curt, if he once gets into
+your disfavor? By the way, is it true that the Castletons are behind
+Johnny Martinez?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know, and I don&#8217;t care. I&#8217;m their hired man here on the ranch,
+but my vote&#8217;s my own, and so&#8217;s what little influence I may have, and
+I&#8217;ll do with both of &#8217;em just what I damn please. And if it came to a
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">[Pg 19]</a></span>show-down, I&#8217;d be perfectly willing to lose my job if that would keep
+Dell Baxter from going back to Congress.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft laughed again. Conrad&#8217;s eye, as he turned to his desk for more
+cigars, fell upon the little pile of letters and papers he had just
+received. On the top lay the Tremper &amp; Townsend envelope. &#8220;By the way,
+Aleck, you&#8217;re from Boston, ain&#8217;t you?&#8221; he exclaimed impulsively.</p>
+
+<p>In the next room, Lucy, listening sleepily to the two voices, had been
+noting the difference in their quality. Conrad&#8217;s was high and clear, his
+speech rapid and incisive. Her father&#8217;s, lower and more deliberate, had
+in it a subtle, persuasive quality. &#8220;Dear daddy!&#8221; she whispered softly,
+her heart warm with affection. Then the new, sharp edge in Conrad&#8217;s tone
+gripped her attention and sent her eyes flying open. Wide awake on the
+instant, she listened for the sound of her father&#8217;s voice again. Had she
+been on the scene, she might have noted that he turned an instant&#8217;s keen
+gaze upon his companion before he answered, carelessly enough:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; originally. But I&#8217;ve come from so many other places since then
+that I almost forget it, unless somebody reminds me. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">[Pg 20]</a></span>haven&#8217;t been
+back there, or known much about the old place, for years.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad&#8217;s boyish smile illuminated his face and twinkled in his blue
+eyes. &#8220;Yes,&#8221; he said; &#8220;&#8217;most everybody out here is so everlastingly on
+the lope that it&#8217;s no wonder some of &#8217;em lose their names every once in
+a while and have to pick up &#8217;most anything that comes handy. I&#8217;m no
+exception, though I&#8217;ve not yet forgotten &#8216;what was my name back in the
+States.&#8217; But did you know anything about the Delafield affair in Boston,
+fifteen or sixteen years ago?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I heard of it at the time, but it was after I left the city. It was so
+long ago that I forget the details. Skipped, didn&#8217;t he, with a lot of
+funds? Or was he the one who defaulted and jumped into the Charles
+River?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad had an eagerness of speech and manner that in a man of less vigor
+would have been accounted nervousness. Voice, face, and gesture were
+alive with it as he responded: &#8220;Jump nothing! except to get out of reach
+of his creditors! He&#8217;s alive yet and making money somewhere, and I mean
+to find him! I&#8217;ve got a particular interest in that man, and when I come
+up with him he&#8217;ll have a particular interest in me. For I&#8217;m going <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">[Pg 21]</a></span>to
+give him such a song-and-dance as he&#8217;s never had before.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft listened calmly, his face and manner as impassive as usual, but
+his eyes narrowed as they met his companion&#8217;s excited gaze. Smiling
+slightly, he replied, &#8220;What has he done to stir you up so? You must have
+been too young to be interested in financial investments then.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So I was, directly. Nevertheless, it happens, Aleck, that the Delafield
+affair has influenced me and my life more than any other one thing. My
+father lost everything he had in Sumner L. Delafield&#8217;s smash-up. I was
+fifteen years old then, and getting ready to go to Michigan
+University&mdash;afterward I was to study law and be a prominent citizen. My
+father met Delafield first during a business trip to Boston&mdash;we lived in
+central Illinois, and father was well-to-do&mdash;and, just like everybody
+else, he gave the man his entire confidence. You remember, of course,
+how Delafield came to the top as a regular young Napoleon of business,
+and soon made a reputation as one of the big financiers. When he turned
+up missing one fine morning, and it was found that the bottom had
+dropped out of everything, most people believed he had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">[Pg 22]</a></span>killed himself.
+But he hadn&#8217;t, I happen to know, and he&#8217;s still alive. Well, my father
+had been so influenced by Delafield&mdash;the fellow must have been a
+persuasive cuss&mdash;that he had put everything he could raise into the
+man&#8217;s schemes, and had even mortgaged our home. He had a weak heart, and
+when he read the news of Delafield&#8217;s default and disappearance he fell
+out of his chair dead. The sudden shock of it all prostrated my mother,
+and she died in giving premature birth to a child. So there was I, a
+fifteen-year-old boy, suddenly dropped to the bottom of poverty, with
+two younger sisters and a little brother to take care of.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I tell you, I swore vengeance on that man. I promised myself I&#8217;d hunt
+him down if it took a lifetime. I&#8217;m on his trail now, and I&#8217;m not going
+to leave it until I run him into his hole. Then I&#8217;m going to stand him
+up and call him to his face all he deserves; and give him a gun, so he
+can have a fair chance for his worthless life, and take one myself; and
+then I&#8217;ll put a bullet through his scoundrel brain if I have to hang for
+it afterward!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the adjoining room Lucy Bancroft, with wide eyes and heightened
+color, was listening <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">[Pg 23]</a></span>to Conrad&#8217;s story. The thrill of keen-edged
+purpose in his tense and eager tones had set her nerves to vibrating
+until her body was a-tremble. At his last sentence Curtis brought his
+fist down on the table with a crash that almost startled her into
+outcry. A moment of silence followed, and then she heard her father&#8217;s
+cool and even voice, &#8220;But suppose he should put one through yours
+first?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, he&#8217;s welcome to do that if he can draw quicker or shoot straighter
+than I can. He&#8217;ll get one through his head before the <i>baile</i> is over,
+and that&#8217;s all I care about. The round-up&#8217;s coming, and I reckon he
+knows it. For to-day I got a letter from Tremper &amp; Townsend of Boston,
+who settled up his affairs after his disappearance, enclosing a check
+for five hundred dollars, saying he wished it sent to me as the first
+instalment of the amount he owed my father, which he hopes, before long,
+to be able to pay in full.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft flicked the ash from his cigar with unusual care, looked at it
+with contemplative interest, and drew a whiff or two before he spoke.
+Turning to Conrad with a quizzical smile, he said: &#8220;Well, Curt, doesn&#8217;t
+that rather take the edge off your purpose? Why are you still shaking
+your gory locks and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">[Pg 24]</a></span>roaring like a wounded bull at him when he&#8217;s
+evidently doing the square thing by you? Why don&#8217;t you let up on your
+chase and give him a chance?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not on your life,&#8221; was Conrad&#8217;s emphatic rejoinder. &#8220;It&#8217;s too late in
+the game for me to take repentance and an honest purpose on the hoof!
+He&#8217;s found out that I&#8217;m getting hot on the scent and he wants to buy me
+off&mdash;that&#8217;s all that check means. It&#8217;s not the loss of the money that
+sticks in my craw; it&#8217;s the deviltry he worked years ago. Whenever I
+find that he&#8217;s discharging his debts to all his other creditors, who
+aren&#8217;t after him hot-foot, then I&#8217;ll consent to wait for my parley until
+he has settled the whole score.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy arose from the bed depressed with a vague sense of trouble. The
+longing seized her to be out-of-doors again, alone with her father on
+the wide plain, with the wind smiting her face and filling her lungs and
+making her forget everything but her own joy in being alive. She rubbed
+her eyes, smoothed her face, and forced herself to smile at the
+reflection in the mirror until her agitation was subdued. And presently,
+smiling and self-possessed, she opened the door into the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</a></span>front room,
+just as her father was finishing some friendly advice to Conrad.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Curt, it&#8217;s your affair,&#8221; he had said, &#8220;and if you are so dead-set
+on getting that kind of revenge I suppose you&#8217;ll go ahead and get it.
+But you&#8217;d better be careful; if this man is desperate he might try to
+head you off by the same means. And you couldn&#8217;t exactly blame him for
+objecting to being shot in his tracks, or for taking measures to keep
+you from doing it. For my part, I never thought revenge was a paying
+investment, and I still believe you&#8217;re foolish to waste your time,
+energy, and money in that sort of business.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ah, Lucy, is that you?&#8221; he went on, as she opened the door. &#8220;Come in,
+dear. Have you had a nap, and do you feel better?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, thank you, I&#8217;ve rested beautifully, and I&#8217;m ready to start
+whenever you wish,&#8221; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad produced a bottle of port wine, telling them as he filled their
+glasses that it had been sent him by a friend in California in whose
+cellars it had lain for twenty years, and that it would be a good tonic
+for Miss Bancroft. The friend had promised to send him more, and with
+her permission he would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">[Pg 26]</a></span>take a bottle to her the next time he went to
+Golden.</p>
+
+<p>As they stepped out of the house Lucy looked toward the west, whence the
+wind came, and as it struck her full in the face she gasped for breath
+and her slender body swayed in its rushing current. She grasped her wide
+hat brim with both hands and held it down so that it made a frame for
+her face. Laughing with joy she turned to Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I love these winds, Mr. Conrad! I know they blow sand into your
+eyes and pelt your face with gravel, but they make you feel so good! I
+always want to dance when I&#8217;ve been out in a wind like this for a minute
+or two.&#8221; She took half a dozen dancing steps across the little lawn.
+&#8220;And they are so pure and sweet,&#8221; she went on more seriously, &#8220;and make
+you feel so&mdash;so right that it seems as if they ought to blow all the
+wickedness out of one&#8217;s mind.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jiminy! I wonder if she heard what I said in there!&#8221; thought Conrad
+with inward panic. But he smiled down at her glowing young face and his
+eyes shone with admiration as he replied: &#8220;That is a beautiful theory,
+Miss Bancroft, but I&#8217;m afraid it doesn&#8217;t pan out much in practice. It
+rather seems <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">[Pg 27]</a></span>to me that most people who come to New Mexico have that
+sort of thing blown into them instead of out of them. As for myself,&#8221;
+and he grinned broadly, &#8220;I can&#8217;t say that I feel any increase in
+righteousness, no matter how much I waltz around in these zephyrs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you must have given them a fair trial, too!&#8221; she laughed back. &#8220;But
+you may make all the fun you like of my little pet theory, Mr. Conrad. I
+shall believe in it just the same, and like the country just as much.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No; she didn&#8217;t hear, and, besides, she said she&#8217;d been asleep, so it&#8217;s
+all right,&#8221; thought Curtis with much relief, as he went on eagerly: &#8220;I&#8217;m
+glad you&#8217;re pleased with us and our winds, so that you&#8217;ll want to stay.
+I assure you, Miss Bancroft, you can&#8217;t find such a superior quality of
+wind anywhere else in the United States.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;m going to stay, not on account of the wind, but on account of my
+father, who, I assure you, Mr. Conrad, is the most superior quality of
+father to be found anywhere in the United States! I&#8217;ve been away from
+him so much that now I&#8217;m perfectly happy to be with him all the time.
+You see, when my dear mother died five years ago, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">[Pg 28]</a></span>father put me in a
+boarding-school, and afterward sent me to Chicago for a year to study
+music, and there I had that attack of typhoid fever that came so near to
+killing me. But I&#8217;m here with him at last, and I mean to stay. And I&#8217;m
+learning to ride now, Mr. Conrad, and father thinks I&#8217;m getting on very
+well; don&#8217;t you, daddy?&#8221; She turned to her father, as he came beside
+them at the carriage wheel, with a fond smile and a touch of her hand
+upon his arm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes,&#8221; he answered, returning her smile and patting her shoulder;
+&#8220;you are doing bravely, Lucy. You&#8217;ll soon be scouring the plain like the
+heroine of a dime novel.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No New Mexican girl,&#8221; said Conrad as he helped her into the carriage,
+&#8220;thinks she can really ride until she can rope a steer. If you&#8217;re going
+to be such an enthusiastic New Mexican you&#8217;ll have to learn tricks of
+that sort. Get your father to bring you out here some day, and I&#8217;ll give
+you lessons in cowboy riding.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Agreed! that would be great fun!&#8221; she exclaimed, smiling down at him,
+her eyes twinkling and the dimples dancing in and out of her cheeks.
+&#8220;We&#8217;ll come out, won&#8217;t we, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">[Pg 29]</a></span>daddy, after Miss Dent comes. I shall
+remember your promise, Mr. Conrad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis waved a last good-bye as they turned the corner of his corral,
+and went back to his desk and his interrupted mail. &#8220;A mighty good
+fellow Aleck Bancroft is,&#8221; he said in a half-aloud tone. &#8220;He doesn&#8217;t
+palaver a lot, but he makes you feel he&#8217;s your friend. I wonder if I
+said too much about Delafield. That check had wound me up and I sure
+talked more than I meant to.&#8221; Long hours of solitude out-of-doors with
+only a silent plain around him and a silent sky above are likely to make
+a man so yearn for the sound of a human voice, though it be only his
+own, that he falls into the habit of thinking aloud. Conrad had the
+social temperament and it had not taken the wide and silent spaces of
+earth and air long to engender in him the habit of making companionship
+out of his own speech.</p>
+
+<p>He pulled thoughtfully at his sunburned moustache for a moment as he
+considered the matter. &#8220;It might have been just as well if I hadn&#8217;t said
+so much,&#8221; he went on aloud, &#8220;but he&#8217;s close-mouthed and a good friend of
+mine. No, she didn&#8217;t hear me&mdash;that&#8217;s sure. How pretty she is when her
+eyes twinkle and her dimples come and go! I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">[Pg 30]</a></span>hope that wine will come in
+time for me to take her a bottle the next time I go to Golden. Well, I
+can call on her, anyway, and apologize because it hasn&#8217;t. Hello! Here&#8217;s
+a letter from Littleton! Has he got hold of something new about
+Delafield?&#8221;</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I was down in the northern part of your Territory last week on other
+business,&#8221; he read, &#8220;and I happened to meet a man who is, I think, on
+the trail of the very same person we&#8217;re after, though he&#8217;s been working
+it from the other end. If I&#8217;m right about it, the man we want is now
+some prominent and respected citizen of New Mexico, and maybe some good
+friend&mdash;or enemy&mdash;of yours at this moment. The man I met is Rutherford
+W. Jenkins, of Las Vegas. You probably know him&mdash;&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sure! And know him to be a skunk!&#8221; Conrad exclaimed with a contemptuous
+snort.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I couldn&#8217;t get much out of him,&#8221; the letter went on, &#8220;although I gave
+him a tip about the trail we&#8217;re on and a little of Delafield&#8217;s history
+as a bait. He snapped at it, and then began to dissemble his
+satisfaction, so I&#8217;m sure it is of value to him. But not even firewater
+would make him give up anything more. However, I feel pretty sure that
+he either <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">[Pg 31]</a></span>knows already who Delafield is or expects soon to find out. I
+think he&#8217;s working at it with an eye to the possibilities of blackmail
+of one sort or another. Perhaps if you see him yourself you can get
+something out of him.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Conrad&#8217;s face glowed with satisfaction as he finished the letter. &#8220;The
+birds won&#8217;t get a chance to make any nests in my hair this trip! I&#8217;ll
+sashay up the line this very night and I&#8217;ll find out who Delafield is
+from Jenkins, if I have to choke the life out of him to do it. God!&#8221; His
+vengeful desire glowed like a blue flame in his eyes. He jumped to his
+feet, stretched out his arms, and clenched his fists. &#8220;Sumner L.
+Delafield, it&#8217;s getting time for you to say your prayers!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">[Pg 32]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_II" id="CHAPTER_II"></a>CHAPTER II</h2>
+
+<h3>THE EVIL THAT MEN DO</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">L</span>ucy Bancroft and her father were unusually silent as they drove toward
+home. After an effort to chatter gayly she grew quiet&mdash;to her father&#8217;s
+surprise, for she was ordinarily a vivacious companion. Speculating
+uneasily whether or not she had heard Conrad&#8217;s story, and reassuring
+himself that it could mean nothing to her in any event, he made several
+efforts to draw her into speech. But she answered with her mind so
+evidently intent elsewhere that he gave up the attempt. The fear grew on
+him that she had overheard the conversation and that it had left an
+undue impression on her mind.</p>
+
+<p>A mirage of singularly perfect illusion lay across the plain to their
+left, and he drew her attention to its silvery surface, the trees
+bordering its unreal banks, the cattle standing knee-deep in its waters,
+and the steamboat puffing across its breast. Lucy admired <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">[Pg 33]</a></span>and wondered
+for a moment, then turned the other way and looked back at the green
+tree clusters and white buildings of the ranch they had left. Her gaze
+lingered there until they crossed the hill, and its summit hid the scene
+from view.</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft sought to reassure himself. Did she not say she had been
+asleep? And the door was shut. Surely she could not have heard! Even if
+she had why should she care about it? Nevertheless, her silence made him
+anxious. It annoyed him to think that her mind was intent upon Conrad&#8217;s
+story. He made another effort to draw her out of her abstraction by
+asking how soon she expected their friend, Louise Dent, who was coming
+to spend the Summer with them. Lucy showed interest in this and they
+discussed plans for her entertainment. But presently she fell silent
+again, looking straight ahead with a little frown on her brow.</p>
+
+<p>The conviction gripped Bancroft&#8217;s mind that she had overheard the
+cattleman&#8217;s recital of his wrongs. Alarm stirred in his heart as he
+tried to imagine what impression it had made upon her. Would she
+sympathize with Conrad? For the moment he forgot everything
+else&mdash;business deals and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">[Pg 34]</a></span>political contests, friendships and enmities,
+in his desire to know what had been the effect upon the girl beside him
+of Conrad&#8217;s outburst. But much as he wished to know, he feared still
+more the surety of what her feeling might be, and he could not bring
+himself to ask the questions that would draw her out.</p>
+
+<p>Presently Lucy&#8217;s voice broke suddenly upon their silence. &#8220;I wonder what
+became of his sisters!&#8221; Her color rose as she spoke and she gazed with
+exaggerated interest at a tall, yellow-flowered cactus beside the road.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Whose sisters, Lucy?&#8221; her father asked carelessly, flicking the horses
+to a faster pace. But his heart sank as he thought, &#8220;She did hear it
+all!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Mr. Conrad&#8217;s. You know he said he was left when he was only
+fifteen with two younger sisters and a little brother to take care of.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh&mdash;Conrad&mdash;I don&#8217;t know. They are probably married by this time. That
+was a long time ago. I&#8217;ve heard him mention his sisters before, I think.
+Yes; I recall now that he has told me they are both married and
+prosperous somewhere in Illinois or Iowa.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">[Pg 35]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;And his younger brother?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, he&#8217;s just a young fellow, and Curtis is putting him through
+college. Conrad banks with me, and I&#8217;ve noticed his checks sometimes
+when they come back.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How good he is to them! It must have been very hard on him,&#8221; Lucy&#8217;s
+tone was sympathetic, but her father replied briskly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I don&#8217;t know! Responsibility is sometimes just the thing to bring
+out all the good there is in a young fellow and show what sort of stuff
+he&#8217;s made of.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose that&#8217;s why he&#8217;s never married,&#8221; Lucy went on, following her
+own line of thought, her voice still sounding the sympathetic note,
+&#8220;because he had to take care of the others.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t suppose that&#8217;s a fault in your eyes, my dear.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course not, daddy!&#8221; Lucy flashed back, smiling and dimpling. &#8220;Of
+course a girl likes a young man better because he&#8217;s more interesting and
+can pay her more attention. You would yourself, daddy, if you were a
+girl.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very likely, my dear. But I like Curtis Conrad well enough, even if I&#8217;m
+not as young as you are and of your sex. I was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">[Pg 36]</a></span>disappointed in him
+to-day, though, and surprised as well. You must have heard what he said;
+how did it strike you to hear a young man boast of his intention to
+commit murder?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He spoke so earnestly and the persuasive quality in his voice was so
+insistent that Lucy turned upon him a quick look of surprise and
+question. Then her eyes fell as a sudden rush of emotion, coming she
+knew not whence or why, almost choked her utterance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; she began tremulously, &#8220;perhaps he wouldn&#8217;t really do
+it&mdash;I don&#8217;t believe he would&mdash;he seems too good and kind to be really
+wicked or cruel.&#8221; She stopped a moment, only to break out abruptly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And it was such a wicked thing that man Delafield did! Oh, he must have
+been a villain! As wicked and cruel&mdash;oh, as bad as he could be! I can&#8217;t
+blame Mr. Conrad for feeling as he does. I know it seems an awful thing
+for me to say, but I really can&#8217;t blame him, daddy, when I think what
+that man made him suffer&mdash;and he was only one; there must have been many
+others. I might even feel the same way if I were in his place and it had
+been you that was killed!&#8221; There <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">[Pg 37]</a></span>was a thrill in her voice that seemed
+in her father&#8217;s ears to be the echo of that which had vibrated through
+Curtis Conrad&#8217;s words when he so passionately declared his purpose. Her
+words were as knife-thrusts in his heart as she went on, &#8220;Oh, how I
+should hate him! I know I should hate him with all my strength!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He made no immediate reply, leaning forward to tap the horses with the
+whip-lash. Lucy choked down a sob or two, turned, threw her arms around
+his neck, and burst into tears. He put his arm about her with a sudden
+close pressure, and she, with her eyes hidden against his shoulder,
+could not see that his face had gone suddenly white and that underneath
+his brown moustache and pointed beard his lips were pale and tense.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, well, Lucy,&#8221; he said presently, his voice calm and caressing,
+&#8220;there&#8217;s no need to be tragic over it. Is it any of our affair, even if
+Conrad is our good friend? Possibly Delafield wasn&#8217;t as bad as he
+says&mdash;it&#8217;s likely Curt exaggerates about him&mdash;he usually does when he
+dislikes anybody. And perhaps Delafield suffered as much as&mdash;the others.
+Come, dear, brace up and don&#8217;t be hysterical.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">[Pg 38]</a></span></p><p>Lucy straightened up and gave her father a wavering, wistful smile. &#8220;It
+was silly of me, wasn&#8217;t it, daddy, to act like that! I&#8217;m ashamed of
+myself. I don&#8217;t know why I cried&mdash;I guess it was because I am tired.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">[Pg 39]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_III" id="CHAPTER_III"></a>CHAPTER III</h2>
+
+<h3>MISTAKE, OR BLUNDER?</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">W</span>ith eager pleasure Conrad gazed from his car window the next morning at
+the narrow bright ribbon of verdure with which the Rio Grande pranks
+itself on its southward course through New Mexico. The unkempt fields,
+the orchards and meadows, and the softened and caressing sunlight were
+as balm to his eyes, accustomed to the pale, grim southern plain and its
+fierce white sunshine. As the train rushed northward along the banks of
+the muddy stream, he looked at the little adobe houses, wondering how
+long these peaceful Mexican homes could withstand the pressure of the
+dominant American. He became aware that the men behind him were
+discussing the same question.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It will be only a few years,&#8221; one of them was saying, &#8220;until this rich
+valley with all this water for irrigation will be in American hands.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">[Pg 40]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;The greasers are safe enough,&#8221; said his companion, &#8220;until they begin to
+borrow on mortgages. Then their fate is settled.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I heard the other day,&#8221; responded the first, &#8220;that Dell Baxter&#8217;s been
+corralling a lot of mortgages on the land hereabouts.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The other chuckled. &#8220;You bet. Dell ain&#8217;t the man to let a little chance
+like this slip by him. These <i>paisanos</i> look on him as a sort of &#8216;little
+father&#8217; and borrow money of him with utter heedlessness of the day of
+reckoning. He jollies them along and tells &#8217;em they&#8217;re good fellows and
+hard workers, and he&#8217;s sure they&#8217;ll be able to pay when the time comes.
+Of course they never pay back a blessed <i>peso</i>, and Baxter gets the
+ranch. I&#8217;ll bet it won&#8217;t be long till he&#8217;ll be exploiting a big land
+improvement company and selling these &#8217;doby farms for ten times what
+they cost him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The talk of the two men drifted into politics, and presently Conrad
+heard them discussing Bancroft&#8217;s loyal support of Baxter for Congress.
+&#8220;He&#8217;s got to do it,&#8221; said one of them. &#8220;Dell&#8217;s been loaning him money
+and taking mortgages until Bancroft couldn&#8217;t do anything else if he
+wanted to. Dell knows that Bancroft&#8217;s support is a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">[Pg 41]</a></span>mighty important
+asset on account of the confidence people have in him, and Dell&#8217;s been
+careful to cinch it good and tight.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As Curtis bought an Albuquerque morning paper from the train-boy he
+thought indignantly, &#8220;That&#8217;s all poppycock! Aleck&#8217;s got too much grit to
+let anybody throttle him with a few dirty <i>pesos</i>. Hullo! What&#8217;s this
+about Jenkins?&#8221; His eye had caught the name of the man he wished to see
+in a column of local news. As he read, &#8220;Rutherford W. Jenkins came down
+from Las Vegas yesterday and is stopping at the Metropolitan,&#8221; his face
+shone with satisfaction. &#8220;Good luck!&#8221; he thought. &#8220;We&#8217;ll be in
+Albuquerque in half an hour, and I&#8217;ll go for my man like a steer on the
+prod!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the hotel he found Jenkins, with a number of other men, smoking and
+talking on the porch. He did not expect to be remembered, for they had
+met only once, months before. But Jenkins came forward with his hand
+outstretched in greeting. &#8220;How do you do, Mr. Conrad! You don&#8217;t get up
+to this part of the Territory very often; but we&#8217;re always glad to see
+you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. I&#8217;ve come this time especially to see you, and
+as soon as you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">[Pg 42]</a></span>have a moment or two to spare I&#8217;d like a private
+conversation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Certainly! With pleasure! Just excuse me for a minute, will you, till I
+finish up the business I have with these men, and then we&#8217;ll go up to my
+room.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad waited, tense and expectant, the quite apparent fact that Jenkins
+was engaged in mere desultory chat and story-telling increasing his
+irritation at the delay. He had jumped to the conclusion that Jenkins
+knew who Delafield was, and his breath came short and chokingly at the
+thought that in a few minutes he, too, would know. To know would be to
+act. His revolver was in his hip-pocket, and he intended to go straight
+from the interview to that meeting which for half his years had been the
+one goal of his thought. He glanced at Jenkins, saying to himself, &#8220;He
+looks like a weasel, and I reckon he is just enough of one to have
+wormed around and worked this thing out.&#8221; Jenkins was tall, slender, and
+slightly stooped, his face long and thin, with its salient features
+crowded too close together. &#8220;I reckon he knows, all right,&#8221; Conrad&#8217;s
+thought went on, &#8220;and he&#8217;ll tell me if I make the inducement big
+enough&mdash;he&#8217;d do anything for money!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">[Pg 43]</a></span></p><p>Under cover of the conversation Jenkins had been doing his share of
+rapid thinking, prolonging the talk for that very purpose. He was
+putting together, with the acumen of a man in whom detective processes
+are a natural endowment, enough facts to convince him of the reason for
+Conrad&#8217;s visit, considering the while just what he should do. He felt
+sure that he must expect a direct question about Delafield&#8217;s identity,
+but he put off decision upon his response until he should hear the
+inquiry.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, Mr. Conrad, we&#8217;ll go straight up to my room,&#8221; he said cordially,
+laying a familiar hand upon the other&#8217;s shoulder. Curtis shrank back a
+little, falling behind with a promptitude that left no doubt of his
+intention to keep the interview entirely formal. Jenkins licked his lips
+with an unwholesome smile, and led the way in silence. As the door
+closed behind them, Conrad became aware of an increase of repugnance
+toward this man so great that the necessity of dealing with him was an
+irritation.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Mr. Conrad,&#8221; said Jenkins, cheerfully, giving the other no time
+to state his mission, &#8220;I hear you are putting in some good licks for
+Johnny Martinez down in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">[Pg 44]</a></span>Silverside. What do you think of his chances
+down there? Pretty good, aren&#8217;t they?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, I think so,&#8221; Curtis replied curtly; and plunged into his own
+affair. &#8220;I have understood, Mr. Jenkins, from my friend Mr. Littleton,
+of Chicago, whom you met last week, that you are interested in a matter
+of prime importance to me, and that you have some information I want to
+get hold of.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes; I remember meeting Littleton last week,&#8221; Jenkins broke in. &#8220;A
+good fellow, too. So he&#8217;s a friend of yours, is he? Yes; he and I
+scraped up quite a friendship and had a good time together. But say,
+Conrad, the amount of throat varnish that man can stand is something
+amazing!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis straightened himself in his chair impatiently. &#8220;He wrote me that
+he had some conversation with you about Sumner L. Delafield, formerly of
+Boston, but now, I have reason to believe, living here in New Mexico
+under an assumed name.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; I believe we did have a little talk about Delafield,&#8221; Jenkins
+interrupted again. &#8220;But I&#8217;ll have to confess,&#8221; he went on jocularly,
+&#8220;that my mental condition wasn&#8217;t perfectly clear and it&#8217;s likely my
+remarks were a little foggy too. But I recall that we did <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">[Pg 45]</a></span>have some
+conversation about the Delafield affair. Littleton had some personal
+interest in Delafield&#8217;s failure, didn&#8217;t he?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No; all the work he has done on the case has been for me. I have
+considerable interest in it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you, indeed? Now, this is a coincidence! For some time past I&#8217;ve
+been a good deal interested in that matter myself. I suppose you were
+roped into some of his schemes?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Curtis took counsel with himself upon what and how much he
+should say, only to thrust back his repulsion against saying anything at
+all to this man and plunge frankly into his narrative. With the utmost
+brevity he told of his father&#8217;s ruin and of his own trailing of the
+culprit through so many years. Of his motives he said nothing, and of
+his work in tracking Delafield no more than was necessary. Few, even of
+his best friends, knew anything about the secret scheme of vengeance he
+had nursed from boyhood. Even Littleton, the detective who had aided him
+in the quest, did not know that he wanted to face Delafield for any
+reason other than to demand restitution.</p>
+
+<p>Having briefly outlined his story, Conrad <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">[Pg 46]</a></span>went on to say that Littleton
+had led him to think that Jenkins must be engaged in the same search,
+and suggested that an exchange of their discoveries might be for their
+mutual benefit.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins listened with evident interest, asking questions here and there
+concerning certain points in the other&#8217;s long chase of the fugitive.
+&#8220;Yes; you&#8217;ve done very well, Conrad,&#8221; he said, admiration in his voice,
+&#8220;very well indeed. That was a damned crooked trail and you&#8217;ve done a
+fine piece of work in following it through.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis gnawed his moustache and frowned. Jenkins&#8217;s evasive speeches were
+increasing his irritation and repugnance almost beyond his control. &#8220;The
+amount of the matter is,&#8221; he burst out, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got the notion that you
+know who Delafield is, and I&#8217;m willing to pay you for the information. I
+shall undoubtedly be able to find out for myself if I keep at it a
+little longer, but it happens that I want to know at once. If you know
+positively who he is, I am willing to pay you three hundred dollars for
+the knowledge.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins walked to the window and stood there silently. He was weighing
+one thing against another, and deciding whether he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">[Pg 47]</a></span>should tell the
+whole truth, a part of it, or none at all. Presently he said to himself
+that a bird in the hand to-day is worth a whole flock that may be in the
+bush to-morrow.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Before I decide about your offer, Mr. Conrad,&#8221; he began cautiously,
+&#8220;there are two or three things I would like to know. You are doing some
+good work for Martinez for Congress, I understand.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The best I can,&#8221; answered Curtis with surprise.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, as you know, I am warmly in his favor myself. I want to get him
+the support of as many leading men in the Territory as possible. This
+man Delafield is one of Baxter&#8217;s influential lieutenants, and I
+particularly want to win him over to Martinez. You, I happen to know,
+have some influence with him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A nervous start betrayed the strain Conrad was under, and an eager look
+lighted his face. Jenkins saw it, smiled blandly, and inwardly decided
+to demand another hundred dollars. &#8220;It has occurred to me,&#8221; he went on,
+&#8220;that you might be able to influence him when I couldn&#8217;t. Combine this
+leverage with your friendship, and I believe almost anything is
+possible. If I let you have this <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">[Pg 48]</a></span>information will you agree to use it
+and your influence in such a way as to induce him to join in with Johnny
+Martinez?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The look that blazed in Conrad&#8217;s eyes, coupled with the same involuntary
+shrinking movement that he had made in escaping Jenkins&#8217;s hand at the
+foot of the stairway, showed the rapid ebbing of his self-control.
+Jenkins noticed both look and movement, and a gleam of angry resentment
+flashed into his dark eyes. But it was quickly repressed, as he suavely
+asked, &#8220;Well, what do you say?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know that I can promise,&#8221; said Curtis, stiffly, &#8220;that my
+influence would count as much as that. Possibly it will be enough to
+keep him from supporting Dellmey Baxter. Yes,&#8221; he went on with a grim
+look, &#8220;I think I can assure you he will be neutral through the rest of
+this campaign.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That might perhaps be satisfactory,&#8221; said Jenkins meditatively,
+inwardly deciding to raise the price another hundred dollars in lieu of
+the aid for Martinez. &#8220;But if that is all you&#8217;re sure of doing I shall
+have to ask more money for the information. It has cost me a great deal
+of time and effort, and if I can&#8217;t bring about this result with it I
+must repay myself some other way. I will tell you what <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">[Pg 49]</a></span>you want to
+know, Mr. Conrad, if you will give me five hundred dollars and your
+promise to do your best to get him to support Martinez.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is what I said I could not do; and you are asking more money
+because I could not promise it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, then, if you will promise to induce him to remain neutral during
+this campaign.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; I will promise that, and I will give you the five hundred
+dollars.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Very well; it&#8217;s a bargain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis wrote his check for that sum on the First National Bank of
+Golden. Jenkins examined the bit of paper, folded it away in his
+pocket-book, rubbed his hands, and smiled at Conrad.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will be surprised,&#8221; he said, &#8220;when you hear the man&#8217;s name. He is
+well known to you, and he is universally regarded, all over New Mexico,
+as a model citizen, as square and honest as any man in the
+Territory&mdash;and much more so than most of them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes?&#8221; said Conrad, rising and reaching for his hat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, you will be astonished, I promise you,&#8221; Jenkins went on, rising
+and facing <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">[Pg 50]</a></span>Curtis, still smiling and rubbing his hands together in
+satisfaction. &#8220;For Sumner L. Delafield, the fugitive from justice,&#8221;&mdash;he
+began speaking slowly and impressively,&mdash;&#8220;the absconding defaulter, the
+man who sank the fortunes of hundreds of people, the man who had to hide
+in Canada and slink around in out-of-the-way places for so many years,
+is now known as&#8221;&mdash;there was a brief pause to give his revelation its
+fullest dramatic effect&mdash;&#8220;is now known in New Mexico as Alexander
+Bancroft, president of the bank on which your check is drawn.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad started, and his attitude of eager attention stiffened. For an
+instant half a dozen Jenkinses seemed to be whirling about the room. Out
+of the repugnance, contempt, and anger boiling in his veins shot a
+definite idea,&mdash;the desire to choke the man who had said this thing
+about his best friend. He leaped forward, seized Jenkins by the collar,
+and shook him as if he had been a ten-year-old boy. Although his arms
+were flying hither and yon Jenkins grabbed wildly for the pistol in his
+pocket. Curtis saw the movement, and with his left hand seized the butt.
+As he pulled it out Jenkins caught its barrel; but with a twist of his
+right arm and a jerk with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">[Pg 51]</a></span>his left Conrad wrested the gun from the
+other&#8217;s hand and threw it under the bed.</p>
+
+<p>His face white and his eyes blazing, he grasped Jenkins by the shoulders
+and jammed him against the wall until the windows rattled. With two
+quick, backward strides he gained the door. Opening it with a hand
+stretched behind him, Curtis spoke with deliberate emphasis, pointing
+his words with a menacing forefinger:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Rutherford Jenkins, you are the damnedest liar and vilest skunk that
+ever made tracks in New Mexico, and if you ever tell that lie about
+Bancroft to another living soul I&#8217;ll wring your neck!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins sprang toward the door, but as it closed from without he
+stooped, shook himself together, and swore under his breath. He took out
+the check, and chuckled. &#8220;I&#8217;ll get it cashed before he changes his
+mind,&#8221; he thought. Then a wave of anger and resentment rolled over him
+and he shook an impotent fist at the closed door. &#8220;Damn him!&#8221; he said
+aloud, &#8220;I&#8217;ll get even with him yet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">[Pg 52]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IV" id="CHAPTER_IV"></a>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE POWERS CONFER</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">L</span>ucy Bancroft bade a smiling good-bye to her father at the door of the
+First National Bank, and crossed the street to a store on the corner
+opposite. Lingering in the doorway for her turn to be waited upon, she
+watched him with admiring eyes. &#8220;What a handsome man daddy is,&#8221; she was
+thinking; &#8220;I like a man to be tall and straight and broad-shouldered;
+and I&#8217;m glad he&#8217;s always so well groomed; I&#8217;d love him just as much if
+he wasn&#8217;t, but I couldn&#8217;t be quite so proud of him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Another man was coming up the street toward her father, and Lucy smiled
+as her eyes fell upon him. &#8220;There&#8217;s Congressman Baxter,&#8221; her thought ran
+on. &#8220;How slouchy and dumpy he seems beside daddy! They say he&#8217;s one of
+the smartest men in the Territory; but I&#8217;m sure daddy is just as smart
+as he is, and he&#8217;s certainly a great deal <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">[Pg 53]</a></span>handsomer and nicer looking.
+And he&#8217;s just as nice as he looks, too, my dear daddy!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft appeared the man of substance and of consequence, confident
+alike in himself and in the regard of the community, as he stood in the
+door of his bank and met the Congressman with friendly greeting. &#8220;Glad
+to see you, Baxter! Come in! I want to have a talk with you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Dellmey Baxter shook hands cordially, pleasure at the meeting fairly
+radiating from his round, sunburned face, even his cold gray eyes
+borrowing warmth from his gratified and shining countenance. One of
+these eyes was set at an angle slightly oblique, its peculiarity made
+more prominent by the loose hanging of the upper lid from the outer
+corner. The expression of cunning thus given to the upper part of his
+face was curiously at variance with his jovial look and manner.</p>
+
+<p>In Bancroft&#8217;s private office Baxter&#8217;s first question was if the other
+had yet visited the mine at the base of Mangan&#8217;s Peak, concerning which
+they had had correspondence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; I was there this week. The man who owns it hasn&#8217;t <i>sabe</i> enough
+about mines to know what a good proposition he&#8217;s got. He&#8217;ll sell cheap
+for cash, for he needs the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">[Pg 54]</a></span>money. I think it&#8217;s a first-class
+investment, and we&#8217;d better snap it up. Shall we make it half and half?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know about going in as a partner, Aleck. I&#8217;m getting too much
+tied up in all kinds of enterprises, and I don&#8217;t want to have more on my
+hands than I can attend to. But if it&#8217;s a good thing I&#8217;d like to help
+you get hold of it; I know you&#8217;d hustle its development and make all
+there is in it tell for the reputation of New Mexico. I&#8217;ve got too many
+other things on hand to go in as a partner, but if you haven&#8217;t the ready
+cash to buy it yourself I&#8217;ll advance you what you need and take a
+mortgage on the property.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the persuasive tones of Bancroft&#8217;s reply there was no hint of the
+reluctance and disappointment he inwardly felt at this prospect of
+having to increase his indebtedness to Baxter, concerning which he
+already felt some anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That hardly seems fair, Dell. You gave me the hint about the mine, and
+you ought to make more than that out of it. I&#8217;m satisfied it&#8217;s an
+almighty good proposition and can be made to pay for itself and for the
+money needed in initial development inside the first year.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">[Pg 55]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Oh, that&#8217;s all right,&#8221; Baxter responded heartily. &#8220;I&#8217;m glad to let the
+chance come your way, because you&#8217;ve got more <i>sabe</i> and more hustle
+than any other man I know, and you&#8217;ll do something worth while with it.
+Think about it, and we&#8217;ll talk it over again before I go back. I&#8217;m down
+here now mainly for politics. You know Silverside County as well as any
+man in it&mdash;how do things look?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, it&#8217;s always a close county, you know. But you&#8217;ll probably get the
+delegates to the convention, and I reckon you&#8217;ll stand as good a chance
+on election day as Johnny Martinez.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The other chuckled. &#8220;Well, I rather guess! Why, he&#8217;s got no money to put
+into the fight!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No; but there are the Castletons.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I heard that their superintendent at Socorro Springs ranch&mdash;what&#8217;s his
+name?&mdash;Conrad?&mdash;had come out strong in his favor. What do they care
+about it? Neither one of &#8217;em spends two weeks out of the year in the
+Territory.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, if they really have any interest in it I suppose it&#8217;s that
+everlasting &#8216;cousin&#8217; business of the Mexicans. You know Ned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">[Pg 56]</a></span>Castleton
+married a first cousin of Johnny&#8217;s, although she&#8217;s half American.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Baxter looked thoughtful. &#8220;If he&#8217;s got the Castleton money back of him,&#8221;
+he began doubtfully, but broke off with an opposing idea: &#8220;I&#8217;ve heard
+that the wives of the two brothers fight each other to the limit on
+every proposition that comes along, and I reckon if Turner&#8217;s wife found
+out that Ned&#8217;s wife wanted Martinez boosted into Congress she&#8217;d see to
+it that Turner blocked the game if he could.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If Ned Castleton should back up Martinez with a bagful or two of his
+loose cash it would make mighty hard sledding for us,&#8221; observed
+Bancroft.</p>
+
+<p>Baxter pursed his lips and whistled softly. &#8220;I reckon it would!&#8221; he
+said, with an air of taking the other into his innermost counsels. Then
+he broke out warmly: &#8220;That was damn good of you, Aleck, to come out for
+me as squarely as you did in the Albuquerque <i>Leader</i> the other day!
+It&#8217;s a good thing for me, all over the Territory, to have people know
+that Alexander Bancroft is supporting me. They&#8217;ve got confidence in you,
+Aleck. I appreciate it, I tell you, and I won&#8217;t forget it, either.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">[Pg 57]</a></span></p><p>Baxter had already served two terms in Congress, and some members of his
+party thought he should be willing to stand aside and give some one else
+the prize. This made him anxious about the outcome of the approaching
+convention, and set him to interrogating the banker regarding the
+intentions of this, that, and the other man of local consequence. At
+last he came back to the subject of the Castletons.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you really think, Aleck, that Ned Castleton&#8217;s money is behind
+Martinez? If it is, that would explain Conrad&#8217;s attitude.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft saw that the Congressman was worried by the possibility of such
+effective opposition. On the instant an idea was projected into his
+mind, born of his own secret anxiety and his knowledge of Baxter&#8217;s
+reputation. It came so suddenly and so vividly that it took him
+unawares, sending a telltale light into his eyes and across his usually
+impassive countenance. His lids were quickly lowered, but Baxter had
+already seen the revealing flash and was wondering what it might mean.
+The banker hesitated for a moment, his thoughts confused by the force of
+the bolt which had shot into his mind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course I don&#8217;t know anything about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">[Pg 58]</a></span>it,&#8221; he went on cautiously, the
+other watching him for signs of self-betrayal, &#8220;but it looks to me as if
+Conrad might be acting as Ned Castleton&#8217;s agent, so that Ned won&#8217;t have
+to be mixed up in it. That would take away the chance of Mrs. Turner&#8217;s
+trying to make her husband block the game. And Conrad is violently
+opposed to you. He handles you without gloves, and is doing all he can
+against your nomination. He says he&#8217;ll bolt you if you get it, and that
+if the other side puts up Martinez he&#8217;ll jump in and fight for him with
+both feet and his spurs on.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The smile faded from Baxter&#8217;s face, and his left eyelid drooped lower
+than usual&mdash;a sign that his mind was busy with some knotty problem. But
+he was not considering the pros and cons of the Castleton money. He was
+wondering why that sudden purpose had flashed in Bancroft&#8217;s eyes, why he
+had shown that momentary discomposure, and why he was now dwelling so
+much more strongly on the fact of Conrad&#8217;s opposition. He drew his chair
+nearer and in confidential tones began to inquire about the young
+cattleman: &#8220;Has Conrad got much influence?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; a good deal. He&#8217;s a bright, energetic fellow, and he&#8217;s made lots
+of friends.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">[Pg 59]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Know anything about him, Aleck?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not much. Ned Castleton ran across him in San Francisco, I believe,
+where he was agent for one of the big cattle ranches in southern
+California. He&#8217;s been their superintendent at Socorro Springs for two
+years, and he&#8217;s put the ranch in better shape and made it pay better, in
+spite of the drought, than anybody else they&#8217;ve had since their father
+died.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But where&#8217;d he come from before Castleton got him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know, except in a general way. I guess he&#8217;s mostly run along
+with the cattle business in Colorado and California and New Mexico.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You really think his opposition to me down here is important?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no doubt about it, Dell,&#8221; Bancroft rejoined, his manner
+becoming more earnest and his tones more persuasive as he went on. &#8220;Curt
+Conrad is a fighter from the word &#8216;go,&#8217; and he seems to have started out
+with the intention of doing you up. He&#8217;ll sure do you a lot of damage if
+you can&#8217;t find some way of making him change his mind. He&#8217;s
+popular,&mdash;the sort that everybody likes, you know,&mdash;and he&#8217;s always
+enthusiastic and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">[Pg 60]</a></span>cocksure, so that he has a good deal of influence of
+his own, whether or not he&#8217;s acting for Ned Castleton. And as people
+generally believe he is it amounts to the same thing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We must get at him some way,&#8221; said Baxter earnestly, his cold eyes
+watchful of his companion&#8217;s manner and expression. &#8220;Hasn&#8217;t he done
+something that would give us a hold on him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, there&#8217;s nothing in that lead. I&#8217;ve tried argument, and you might as
+well talk to a cyclone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How about money?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft shook his head decisively. &#8220;That would be the worst mistake you
+could make. He wouldn&#8217;t touch it and he&#8217;d roar about it everywhere. The
+fact is, Dell, we&#8217;ll have to get rid of his opposition some way. I&#8217;ve
+done everything I can, and now I&#8217;ll have to put it up to you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll think it over,&#8221; said Baxter, rising and looking at his
+watch. &#8220;I&#8217;ll see you again about that mine business, while I&#8217;m here, and
+I want to talk with you about a <i>paisano</i> ranch, up above Socorro,
+there&#8217;s a chance of our getting. I think we&#8217;ll be able to get our
+development company going <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">[Pg 61]</a></span>in less than a year. When it&#8217;s organized,
+Aleck, I want you to be president of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know about that,&#8221; Bancroft replied slowly, an uneasy
+recollection of some of Lucy&#8217;s freely expressed ideas coming into his
+mind. &#8220;I may prefer to stay in the background, as a silent partner, as
+our arrangement is now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It would be good for the company to have you at its head; your
+reputation would be an asset,&#8221; Baxter objected persuasively.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;By the way, Dell, did you foreclose on a man named Melgares, Jos&eacute; Maria
+Melgares, a month or two ago?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Melgares? Yes; and I was especially easy on him; let him have three
+months&#8217; extra time. But I had to come down on him finally. Why?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s here in Golden now, and he&#8217;s been roaring about it. He came down
+here from the Mogollons, where it&#8217;s likely he&#8217;d been doing some
+horse-stealing. And I guess he&#8217;s been lifting chickens and things out of
+people&#8217;s back-yards since he&#8217;s been here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Next thing he&#8217;ll be getting arrested,&#8221; Baxter chuckled, &#8220;and I&#8217;ll have
+to defend him&mdash;for nothing. These greasers all seem to think I&#8217;m a
+heaven-sent protector for &#8217;em <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">[Pg 62]</a></span>all, no matter what they do. So long,
+Aleck; I&#8217;ll see you again before I leave town.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Baxter lounged down the street, greeting one acquaintance after another
+with a jovial laugh, a hearty handshake, or a slap on the shoulder, his
+round, red face aglow with good fellowship. But his gray eyes were cold
+and preoccupied. At the court-house door he stopped to talk with Dan
+Tillinghurst, the sheriff, and Little Jack Wilder, his deputy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, Jack,&#8221; said the sheriff, as the Congressman went on up the street,
+&#8220;what sort o&#8217; hell do you-all reckon Dell Baxter&#8217;s cookin&#8217; up now? He&#8217;s
+too jolly not to have somethin&#8217; on hand. The louder he laughs the more
+sulphur you can bet he&#8217;s got in his pockets.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Be careful, Dan,&#8221; warned Jack, &#8220;or that nomination for sheriff will
+miss fire.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you worry about that&mdash;Dell an&#8217; me&#8217;s all right; you-all just worry
+about the fellow that&#8217;s made his eyes look like a dead fish&#8217;s. Dell&#8217;s
+sure got somethin&#8217; on his mind.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>There was something on Baxter&#8217;s mind. He was still wondering why
+Alexander Bancroft had insisted so strongly upon the importance of young
+Conrad&#8217;s opposition, which the Congressman did not believe was of much
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">[Pg 63]</a></span>consequence. He chuckled and his left lid drooped lower as he finally
+decided: &#8220;I reckon he wants me to pull some chestnut or other out of the
+fire for him. I&#8217;ll just let him think I&#8217;m taking it all in. I&#8217;d like to
+know what it is, though, for if I don&#8217;t keep a good hold on Aleck he&#8217;s
+likely to get heady and try to step into my shoes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">[Pg 64]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_V" id="CHAPTER_V"></a>CHAPTER V</h2>
+
+<h3>CHASTISEMENT CONDIGN</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">D</span>an Tillinghurst and Little Jack Wilder sat under the big cottonwood in
+front of the court-house, commenting upon things in general, and,
+presently, more particularly upon Curtis Conrad and his mare, Brown
+Betty, when they espied him talking with the landlord in front of the
+hotel across the stream. The town of Golden lay in a gulch among the
+foot-hills. It had been a thriving silver camp in the older days.
+Discovered in the heyday of the pale metal, it had yielded so richly
+that the men flocking thither, in sheer, exultant contempt of the value
+of its yellow brother, had named the camp &#8220;Golden Gulch.&#8221; The mines had
+been in the bottom of the gulch, and near them, along the banks of the
+stream, had been built all the houses of the mining days. The earliest
+roads had run along each side of the water, and these were still the
+main streets of the town. Facing one another across <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">[Pg 65]</a></span>the two streets and
+the bed of the creek were all the public buildings and business houses,
+the two hotels, some of the best residences, and many of the poorer
+ones. The Mexican quarter, called &#8220;Doby Town&#8221; by the Americans,
+straggled along these thoroughfares and up the hillsides just beyond the
+heart of the town. Down their entire length cottonwoods of notable girth
+and majesty spread their branches.</p>
+
+<p>One of the largest and finest of these trees shaded the court-house
+corner where the Sheriff and his deputy were sprawling their legs and
+waiting for something to happen. The Sheriff was burly and
+broad-shouldered, although his legs had not quite been able to keep pace
+with the growing massiveness of his torso. The occasions were rare when
+his blue eyes were not twinkling with good humor, while his mouth
+beneath its absurd little moustache curved in a smile as habitual as his
+cheerful kindliness and universal optimism. Little Jack Wilder, who owed
+his descriptive title to his six feet three of height, was slender and
+lithe. He wasted neither words in talk nor bullets in pistol fights, and
+he had the reputation of being one of the best shots in the Southwest,
+as good even as <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">[Pg 66]</a></span>Emerson Mead, over at Las Plumas in the adjoining
+county.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis Conrad walked across the bridge that spanned the stream, Brown
+Betty at his heels, and met their &#8220;Hello, Curt!&#8221; with &#8220;Hello! Anything
+new?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said Wilder, &#8220;anyway, there&#8217;s likely to be.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What sort?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s what we&#8217;d like to know,&#8221; said Tillinghurst. &#8220;Jack&#8217;s been
+sashaying around Doby Town for the last two days with his eye on a
+Mexican horse thief, waitin&#8217; for him to do something he can be arrested
+for; and the darn&#8217; fool won&#8217;t do a thing! He just sits around
+respectable and behaves himself. Jack&#8217;s gettin&#8217; all out of patience with
+him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Little Jack growled a corroborative oath, and took a chew of tobacco.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if you know he&#8217;s a horse thief, why don&#8217;t you arrest him?&#8221; asked
+Conrad.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We know it all right,&#8221; said Jack; &#8220;but he ain&#8217;t lifted no critters yet
+in this county. He&#8217;s been doin&#8217; some chicken-thieving and that sort o&#8217;
+thing around town the last week, but we ain&#8217;t goin&#8217; to arrest him for
+that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Wilder shut his jaws with a determined snap, while Tillinghurst went on
+to explain <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">[Pg 67]</a></span>in answer to Conrad&#8217;s look of surprise: &#8220;If we arrest him
+for that he&#8217;d be taken before a justice of the peace; and you-all know
+what kind of a mess Diego Vigil would make of it. He&#8217;d likely fine the
+man whose chicken-coop had been raided because he didn&#8217;t have more stuff
+in his back-yard to be stolen, and he&#8217;d discharge Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares
+with a warning not to wake people up o&#8217; nights by letting the chickens
+squawk!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sheriff&#8217;s smile broadened and ran down his throat in a chuckle.
+Little Jack Wilder burst explosively into brief and profane speech that
+showed his opinion of Mexicans, and especially of Mexican justices of
+the peace, to be most contemptuous.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then why do you give them the office?&#8221; Curtis demanded. &#8220;Both parties
+do it, all over the Territory, though you all know that every time they
+get a chance they make justice look like a bobtailed horse. Up north
+last week one of &#8217;em fined a man five dollars for committing murder and
+warned him not to do it again or he&#8217;d have to make it ten next time. You
+folks all knew what you might expect from Vigil when you gave him the
+place.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, well, Curt, you-all ain&#8217;t run for office <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">[Pg 68]</a></span>yet. When you do, you&#8217;ll
+appreciate the fact that the greasers have got to be put where they&#8217;ll
+do the most good. I&#8217;m willin&#8217; to give &#8217;em that much, and I&#8217;m only too
+thankful old Vigil and his friends don&#8217;t strike for the Sheriff&#8217;s place.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Tillinghurst chuckled, while Wilder smiled grimly and profanely reckoned
+he wouldn&#8217;t serve under Vigil or any other Mexican. &#8220;Mebbe that
+pock-marked Melgares has been up to some mischief by this time,&#8221; he
+added. &#8220;I hain&#8217;t set eyes on him for nigh two hours. Let&#8217;s go down to
+the Blue Front, have a drink, and find out if anything&#8217;s happened.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They went down the street together, Brown Betty following with the
+bridle over her neck. A block farther down stream, a good-looking
+Mexican came out of the First National Bank and passed them. The Sheriff
+turned a second keen glance upon him. &#8220;That looks like Liberato
+Herrara,&#8221; he said to his deputy in a hasty aside. Raising his voice he
+accosted the man in Spanish.</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican turned and replied in precise English with grave courtesy,
+&#8220;Did the se&ntilde;or speak to me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; ain&#8217;t you Liberato Herrara?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, se&ntilde;or. My name is Jos&eacute; Gonzalez.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">[Pg 69]</a></span></p><p>The Sheriff apologized, and the other bowed politely, fell behind, and
+crossed to the other side of the stream. Conrad asked Tillinghurst if he
+did not believe Herrara guilty of the murder of which he had been
+acquitted several months before.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course he was. And it&#8217;s likely that ain&#8217;t the only one either. I&#8217;m
+glad this man ain&#8217;t him. If he was down here it would be on some
+business for Baxter, and it wouldn&#8217;t do for me to find out too much
+about it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad snorted contemptuously, and Wilder said, &#8220;Dan, you&#8217;re talkin&#8217; too
+damn much.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Curt&#8217;s all right,&#8221; replied the Sheriff, placidly. &#8220;He couldn&#8217;t hate
+Baxter any more than he does if he tried, but he don&#8217;t go back on his
+friends. This man Melgares,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;that we&#8217;re hopin&#8217; will make up
+his mind to do somethin&#8217; worth while, tells a queer yarn. He says he
+used to have a good ranch in the Rio Grande valley, between Socorro and
+Albuquerque, but he borrowed money on it from Baxter. Of course he
+couldn&#8217;t pay, Dell foreclosed, and Melgares had to get out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; I heard the other day about Baxter&#8217;s operations up there,&#8221; Conrad
+broke in hotly. &#8220;I understand he&#8217;s got hold of a lot <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">[Pg 70]</a></span>of land in just
+that way. It&#8217;s a cursed, low-down, dirty piece of business.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, well, better men than Baxter have done the same sort of thing,&#8221; the
+Sheriff responded. &#8220;From all I can find out about Melgares I reckon he
+was honest enough up to that time; but he&#8217;s been goin&#8217; it pretty lively
+ever since. I think he&#8217;s aimin&#8217; to work down to the border, where he can
+do the crisscross act.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad turned with an exclamation of sudden remembrance. &#8220;By the way!
+Bill Williams told me just now that Rutherford Jenkins is here, at his
+hotel. Have you seen him? Do you know what he&#8217;s here for?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I haven&#8217;t talked with him, but I reckon he&#8217;s here on some deal for
+Johnny Martinez.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis tied the mare to the hitching-post on the corner. &#8220;I&#8217;ve heard,&#8221;
+he said cautiously, &#8220;that he has a venomous tongue and uses it
+recklessly. Do you know whether he&#8217;s been doing any outrageous talking
+lately?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I reckon nobody would believe anything Jenkins said, anyway. But
+I haven&#8217;t heard anything. Have you, Jack?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Some other men came along, and they all stopped to talk together. Curtis
+leaned against the mare and stroked her glossy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">[Pg 71]</a></span>neck. She poked her nose
+into his coat pocket and found a lump of sugar, which she ate with much
+dainty tossing of her head. It was some minutes before they entered the
+saloon.</p>
+
+<p>The &#8220;Blue Front&#8221; was a two-roomed shanty on the edge of the Mexican
+quarter. Gambling games of various sorts occupied the back room; and
+there, too, political deals were arranged and votes bargained and paid
+for between the American politicians and the leaders of the Mexicans.
+When Conrad and his friends came down the street a number of men were in
+the rear room, some talking and others busy at cards. At a table near a
+side window men of both races were engaged in a poker game. One of the
+players, a pock-marked Mexican with a defective eye, frequently glanced
+down the street. When he saw the Sheriff and his two companions
+approach, he rose and watched them. The others wanted to know what he
+was looking at, and he asked who was the man with the brown mare. A
+tall, dark American, with slightly stooping shoulders, looked up with
+interest as he heard them give Conrad&#8217;s name, and joined the group at
+the window. Several of the men spoke with enthusiasm about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">[Pg 72]</a></span>Brown Betty,
+and one, who said he had once worked at Socorro Springs ranch, told them
+that Conrad thought more of her than of anything else he owned. When the
+men in front entered the saloon, the pock-marked Mexican cashed in his
+chips and slipped out through the rear door.</p>
+
+<p>The sound of Conrad&#8217;s voice in the bar-room caught the attention of the
+tall, dark American. An angry flush reddened his face, his beady eyes
+snapped, and the tip of his tongue licked his lips. Then something
+amusing seemed to occur to him, for his features relaxed into a smile
+and he glanced briskly around the room.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;See if you can find Melgares, will you?&#8221; he asked the Mexican with whom
+he had been talking. &#8220;Tell him I&#8217;ll wait for him outside the back door.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He stepped out into the bright sunshine, smiling and rubbing his hands
+together. Back of the shanty was a high adobe wall surrounding the
+corral of the Mexican houses fronting on the next street. A wooden door
+in the wall opened cautiously, and the pock-marked face looked out.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You sent for me, Se&ntilde;or Jenkins?&#8221; the Mexican asked.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">[Pg 73]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yes. It&#8217;s all right. You needn&#8217;t be afraid. I want you to do something,
+Melgares.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They stepped inside the corral and Melgares bolted the door. &#8220;You saw
+Conrad&#8217;s mare just now?&#8221; Jenkins began. &#8220;Fine creature, isn&#8217;t she?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Splendid, se&ntilde;or. The finest I have seen in a long time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll warrant it! I never saw a better myself. Looks like a good
+traveller, doesn&#8217;t she?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Si, se&ntilde;or.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And a stayer, too, I guess! It wouldn&#8217;t be hard to get to the Mexican
+border on her back, would it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Melgares grinned, then shook his head. &#8220;But my family&mdash;I could not take
+them with me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well&mdash;see here, Melgares. Here&#8217;s fifty dollars. If you&#8217;ll get away with
+Conrad&#8217;s mare you can have it for your trouble. It will take your family
+down there all right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But you, se&ntilde;or,&mdash;where do you come in?&#8221; He looked suspiciously at
+Jenkins.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, never mind me. Conrad did me a bad turn a while ago, and I&#8217;m
+evening up the score. That&#8217;s all I want out of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">[Pg 74]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;But now, se&ntilde;or?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; now&#8217;s your chance. He&#8217;s in the saloon, and the mare&#8217;s tied at the
+corner.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Sheriff is in there, too. The risk is great.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll go in and keep them busy. I&#8217;ll raise excitement enough
+inside so that nobody will even look out of the windows. Get out there
+in five minutes, be quick about it, and ride off down the valley road.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Give me the money, se&ntilde;or. I&#8217;ll take the chance.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins returned, and entered the bar-room with his former companion
+without attracting the attention of Conrad and his friends. The other
+spoke of the report about the Castleton money and mentioned Curtis
+Conrad&#8217;s name. Jenkins raised his voice in angry reply:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, damn Conrad! Martinez don&#8217;t want his help!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis heard the words and turned sharply around, his face flushing.
+Jenkins appeared not to see him, and went on:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The Castletons are all right, but Conrad&#8217;s help would be a disgrace to
+any party. Martinez don&#8217;t want it!&#8221; His voice rang loud and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">[Pg 75]</a></span>shrill
+above the silence that had fallen suddenly upon the room.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis&#8217;s face paled, even under its ruddy tan, and his eyes blazed. With
+head up he strode forward. &#8220;Jenkins,&#8221; he said, without raising his
+voice, although it shook with a warning tremor, &#8220;I advise you to be
+careful. You may have your opinion about me, as I have mine about
+you&mdash;and you know what that is. But don&#8217;t you say that again, nor
+anything else of the sort!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins turned toward him with an ugly sneer. Recollection of former
+indignities at Conrad&#8217;s tongue and hands blazed up in his heart and
+carried him farther than he had meant to go. With an oath and a vile
+name he flung his glass in Conrad&#8217;s face. In an instant the young man&#8217;s
+arms were around his body. The others crowded in and tried to stop the
+quarrel.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let us alone!&#8221; shouted Curtis, pushing his way toward the back room.
+&#8220;Wilder, take his gun, will you? Get mine out of my pocket, too. This
+won&#8217;t be a gun play.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Tillinghurst took Conrad&#8217;s pistol, and Wilder succeeded in getting
+Jenkins&#8217;s revolver, at the cost of a kick on the shin, which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">[Pg 76]</a></span>he repaid
+in kind. With Jenkins almost helpless in his grasp, Curtis struggled
+into the rear room. The others were all crowding after him. He turned
+back a face still pale and set with anger, although a twinkle of
+amusement was creeping into his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Dan,&#8221; he called, &#8220;shut that door and keep out the crowd!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Instantly there were cries of disapproval.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fair play!&#8221; &#8220;You&#8217;re bigger than him!&#8221; &#8220;We want to see it&#8217;s on the
+square!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis scowled. &#8220;If any of you think it won&#8217;t be on the square, just
+wait for me till I get through with him,&#8221; he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>The Sheriff slammed the door, and set his bulk against it, saying with
+smiling cheerfulness: &#8220;Well, gentlemen, I reckon Mr. Jenkins won&#8217;t get
+any more than is comin&#8217; to him, and as Sheriff I call on all of you to
+keep the peace and not interfere.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Alone in the back room with his prisoner, Conrad dropped into a chair,
+dragged the other over his knees, face downward, then threw out one
+sinewy leg and caught under it Jenkins&#8217;s two unruly limbs. Still keeping
+a firm grip with his left arm, he raised his right hand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now,&#8221; he said grimly, &#8220;you&#8217;re going to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">[Pg 77]</a></span>get the sort of spanking your
+mother didn&#8217;t give you enough of.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One after another the resounding smacks came down, while Jenkins, his
+strength spent in futile struggle, could do nothing but writhe
+helplessly under the smarting blows. The sound of them penetrated to the
+front room. As the men there realized what was happening they broke into
+laughter so uproarious that it smote upon Jenkins&#8217;s ears and forced a
+hysterical shriek from between his gritted teeth. In Conrad&#8217;s heart it
+inspired compassion and he desisted.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess that&#8217;ll do for this time,&#8221; he said, releasing his hold and
+standing the culprit on his feet. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want to have to hurt you, but
+let me tell you, you damned skunk,&#8221; and he seized Jenkins&#8217;s shoulders
+and gave him a vigorous shake, &#8220;if you ever dare talk about me again in
+that way, or tell another human being what you told me about Bancroft,
+I&#8217;ll make you wish you&#8217;d never been born.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With a parting shake he let Jenkins fall back into the chair, sobbing
+aloud. Then he stalked to the door, not even doing his enemy the slight
+honor of going out backward.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">[Pg 78]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VI" id="CHAPTER_VI"></a>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+
+<h3>A STERN CHASE</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>s the shout which greeted Conrad&#8217;s entrance died away the Sheriff
+called out, &#8220;Now, gentlemen, you must all have one with me,&#8221; and every
+one lined up at the bar. A rollicking din of chaff and laughter filled
+the room, and no one except Little Jack Wilder noticed the entrance of a
+Mexican at the street door. He heard the step, turned quickly, and
+recognized the man who had told Tillinghurst that he was not Liberato
+Herrara. Glancing along the line of backs at the bar, the Mexican
+singled out Conrad and touched his arm.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I beg your pardon, se&ntilde;or, but did you send some one to ride your mare?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;To ride my mare? No; what do you mean?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Before he could answer Wilder sprang forward demanding, &#8220;Is she gone?&#8221;
+and Conrad started for the door.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A man has just ridden her away on the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">[Pg 79]</a></span>run,&#8221; the Mexican said
+excitedly, and every one in the room rushed for the street.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s gone!&#8221; shouted Conrad.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Did you see him? What was he like?&#8221; demanded the Sheriff.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A pock-marked greaser with a bad eye?&#8221; yelled Wilder, towering
+threateningly above the bearer of the news.</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez threw back his head, folded his arms across his breast, and
+answered deliberately, &#8220;He was a Mexican, se&ntilde;or, he was pock-marked, and
+he was blind in one eye.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Melgares! He&#8217;s done it at last! Hooray!&#8221; shouted Wilder.</p>
+
+<p>Far down the street, beyond the last cottonwood, against the gray,
+sun-flooded road, they could see a dark object, distorted by the heat
+haze, but still showing the form of a man on a galloping horse.</p>
+
+<p>Tillinghurst&#8217;s smile became an eager grin as he started up the street on
+a run. &#8220;Everybody come that wants to,&#8221; he called over his shoulder.
+Wilder and Conrad were already half a block ahead of him, and several
+others quickly followed.</p>
+
+<p>When they presently came pelting back, their horses at top speed, a
+crowd of men still stood on the sidewalk, where the Blue <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">[Pg 80]</a></span>Front made a
+splash of brilliant color against the sombre grays and browns of the
+surrounding adobes. Wilder&#8217;s tall, thin figure was in the lead, bending
+forward in the saddle like a sapling in a gale, the wide, limp brim of
+his sombrero flapping in the wind. Conrad and Tillinghurst were pressing
+him close, and half a dozen others were pounding along behind these
+three, while a stout man, who rode awkwardly, trailed along in the rear.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd at the Blue Front shouted encouragingly as they clattered
+past, and made bets on the chances of catching the fugitive. The
+Mexican, Gonzalez, watched Conrad closely as he sped by, and said
+carelessly to the man beside him, &#8220;Se&ntilde;or Conrad is a good rider, the
+best of them all. I hope he will get back his fine mare.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The horsemen swept down the street past the last straggling houses, and
+out into the open plain. Fleeing down the road, perhaps two miles ahead
+of them, galloped the Mexican. Tillinghurst measured the distance with a
+careful eye, and said to Conrad, &#8220;He&#8217;s our meat. We can get him easy.&#8221;
+He glanced backward, chuckled, then turned in his saddle, and called
+loudly, &#8220;Come along there, Pendy! Don&#8217;t get discouraged!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">[Pg 81]</a></span></p><p>Another of the party turned his head and yelled, &#8220;You&#8217;re all right,
+Pendy! You&#8217;ll get there before Dan does!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The stout man who brought up the rear had made sure of his gray slouch
+hat by tying it on with a red bandanna handkerchief. He was gripping his
+bridle with both hands and bouncing in his saddle like a bag of meal.
+&#8220;Don&#8217;t you worry about me!&#8221; he yelled back good-naturedly; &#8220;you can&#8217;t
+lose me if you try.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who is he?&#8221; asked Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pendy? Oh, he&#8217;s a tenderfoot. Blew in from the East two or three weeks
+ago. Somethin&#8217; wrong with his bellows&mdash;or likely to be, though you-all
+wouldn&#8217;t think it, considerin&#8217; his fat. He&#8217;s grit clear through, though!
+Just look at the way he rides!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad glanced back, laughed, and replied, &#8220;Oh, it&#8217;ll be good for his
+liver!&#8221; Then he went on seriously, &#8220;Dan, do you think there&#8217;s any truth
+in the story that this man Melgares began horse-stealing because Dell
+Baxter did him out of his ranch?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I don&#8217;t know! Baxter got his ranch all right, but the greaser
+didn&#8217;t have to go to stealin&#8217; horses on that account. Chickens are
+safer; and <i>chilis</i> don&#8217;t even squawk. I <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">[Pg 82]</a></span>reckon likely he steals horses
+because he&#8217;d ruther.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, anyway, Dan, all I want out of this is to get Brown Betty back. I
+shall not make any complaint against him. So, if he gives up the mare,
+I&#8217;d rather you let him go.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Huh,&#8221; grunted the Sheriff, with an apprehensive glance at Wilder, a
+full length ahead. &#8220;For God&#8217;s sake, Curt, don&#8217;t let Jack hear you say
+that! He&#8217;d be so disgusted he&#8217;d turn tail and go straight back to
+Golden!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The fugitive kept his distance well; it seemed to Conrad&#8217;s eye that he
+even gained a little. Now and again they could see him look back, and
+with spur and quirt urge the mare to a fresh burst of speed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Brown Betty&#8217;s a stayer,&#8221; said Curtis, bringing his horse beside
+Tillinghurst&#8217;s again, &#8220;and she&#8217;s fast. I don&#8217;t believe we&#8217;ll catch him
+unless something happens to her.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Sheriff turned a smiling face and said confidently, &#8220;If we get a
+little nearer I reckon somethin&#8217;s likely to happen to <i>him</i>. Hello,
+Pendleton!&#8221; he exclaimed as the stout man came up on the other side.
+&#8220;That noble steed of yours is sure gettin&#8217; a gait on him, ain&#8217;t <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">[Pg 83]</a></span>he? If
+you-all don&#8217;t wait for the rest of us there&#8217;ll be trouble, I&#8217;m tellin&#8217;
+you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, Sheriff,&#8221; called Pendleton between his gasps and grunts as he
+bounced up and down, &#8220;are you going to keep up this pace all day?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Tillinghurst eyed him benignly. &#8220;As long as he does,&#8221; he said, nodding
+toward the fleeing spot of black down the road. &#8220;Say, Pendy,&#8221; he went on
+in a kindly tone, &#8220;it&#8217;s a pretty stiff gait for you-all, and unless
+you&#8217;re anxious to take your meals standin&#8217; for the next month you&#8217;d
+better drop out and go back. It&#8217;s likely to be an all-day job.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not much! You can&#8217;t lose me till the fun&#8217;s over!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hooray for Pendy! He&#8217;s all right!&#8221; yelled a man behind, giving
+Pendleton&#8217;s horse a sharp cut across the flank with his whip. The beast
+jumped, and its rider lurched to one side, fell forward, and saved
+himself by grabbing the mane with both hands. The men shouted with
+merriment as Pendleton righted himself, turned a laughing face and shook
+his fist at the man who had played the joke on him. &#8220;Just wait till I
+get you where I want you, Jack Gaines,&#8221; he called, &#8220;and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">[Pg 84]</a></span>you&#8217;ll be sorry
+you ever played tricks on a tenderfoot.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The gulch spread out into a wide, shallow valley&mdash;a draw, they called
+it&mdash;and the waters of the stream disappeared, sucked up by the thirsty
+earth. The valley curved to the east, the road climbing over its rim and
+holding straight toward the south. The figure of Melgares, mounted on
+Brown Betty as on a pedestal, stood out boldly for a moment against the
+turquoise sky as he crossed the summit, then sank out of sight beyond
+the hill. The party galloped on, and as they crossed the ridge and saw
+him on the top of a smaller hill beyond, Conrad&#8217;s eye swept the distance
+lying between and he exclaimed, &#8220;We&#8217;ve gained on him!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the same moment Little Jack Wilder, who had been watching the road
+intently, shouted joyously, the first words he had spoken since leaving
+the town, &#8220;She&#8217;s cast a shoe! Now it&#8217;s a cinch!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Tillinghurst turned his head and shouted, &#8220;Get your gun ready, Pendy!
+your chance is comin&#8217;.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jack Gaines, riding neck and neck with the Sheriff, looked back and
+yelled, &#8220;Come <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">[Pg 85]</a></span>a-runnin&#8217;, Pendy! The greaser can&#8217;t wait for you all
+day!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They were gaining rapidly on Melgares and, as they swept over the top of
+a little hill and saw him cross the next low rise, Conrad exclaimed,
+&#8220;She&#8217;s limping, damn him! If he hurts Brown Betty&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You won&#8217;t mind so much if we hurt him,&#8221; quietly put in the Sheriff, who
+was riding on his lee. Curtis spurred his horse to Wilder&#8217;s stirrup.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jack,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I don&#8217;t want the fellow hurt. If he&#8217;ll give up my mare
+I&#8217;m willing to let him go.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Little Jack grunted contemptuously without replying.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I want you to understand,&#8221; Conrad went on, &#8220;that if you take him I
+shall make no complaint against him, provided I get Betty unhurt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t have to make no complaint,&#8221; Jack growled; &#8220;I&#8217;ll do that
+myself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They gained steadily on the fugitive, and presently Curtis curved his
+hands about his mouth and called, &#8220;Betty! Betty B!&#8221; They could see the
+mare check her speed, and the faint sound of her whinny reached their
+ears. Conrad called again; and the mare wheeled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">[Pg 86]</a></span>in her tracks. The
+Mexican jerked her back, lashed her furiously, and set her forward again
+at a gallop. Curtis called again and again, and every time they could
+see Melgares using whip and spur to force her on. But presently the mare
+dropped tail and head, arched her back, and, stiff-legged, began to jump
+up and down.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad laughed joyously and slapped his thigh. &#8220;Bully for Betty B! I
+never knew her to buck before.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They urged on their horses and pounded down the hill toward the small
+circus Brown Betty was making of herself. She cavorted, shook herself,
+humped her back, jumped up and down, stood on her front feet and almost
+sat on her tail, and did everything that equine intelligence could
+devise to rid herself of the masterful hand on her bridle. But the
+Mexican kept his seat and his grip upon the rein. With spur and quirt
+and compelling voice he finally forced her into submission. As she
+quieted down they were facing the pursuing posse and Melgares had just
+turned the mare&#8217;s head in another desperate attempt at escape when
+Conrad&#8217;s voice rang out once more, and Brown Betty refused to move. She
+tossed her head, laid back her ears, and whinnied, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">[Pg 87]</a></span>but would not lift a
+hoof. The Mexican drew his revolver and shouted, &#8220;Stop!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The horsemen, not more than a hundred yards distant, drew rein at the
+word&mdash;all except Pendleton, who came pounding and bouncing to the front,
+his horse still on the gallop. Gaines, just behind Tillinghurst and
+Wilder, called out laughingly, &#8220;Hooray for Pendy! Go on and get him,
+Pendy!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Pendleton had been too much occupied with keeping his seat to try to
+stop his horse, and as it went on half a length in advance of the rest
+Gaines leaned forward and gave it a cut across the flank with his quirt.
+It leaped forward smartly and Pendleton, taken unawares again, bobbed
+down on its neck and grabbed for its mane. Melgares saw the horse start
+forward and instantly his revolver flashed. The bullet left a singed
+streak across the back of Pendleton&#8217;s coat, whistled on, and found
+refuge in Gaines&#8217;s side.</p>
+
+<p>Wilder&#8217;s gun was out and cocked. He saw Pendleton lying on his horse&#8217;s
+neck, and heard Gaines cry out, &#8220;I&#8217;m hit!&#8221; as he fell forward across his
+pommel. &#8220;Stop that!&#8221; he called. &#8220;Fire again and you&#8217;re a dead man!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Melgares leaped from the mare&#8217;s back and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span>ran at full speed down the
+valley, away from the road. Brown Betty came trotting to Conrad&#8217;s side,
+whinnying joyfully. Pendleton sat upright, calling out, &#8220;Say, fellows,
+is there any blood on my back?&#8221; They told him no and as he climbed down
+from his saddle clumsily he grinned and said:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I can still die of consumption, then!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Tillinghurst, Wilder, and several of the others were galloping after
+Melgares, who was running for his life down the valley toward a clump of
+cactus and juniper.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Wing him, Jack!&#8221; called the Sheriff. &#8220;There&#8217;s a crack in the ground
+down there where he can hide and pick us off as he pleases.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Little Jack brought his horse to a sudden stop, aimed low, and the
+Mexican reeled and fell, the blood gushing from a wound in the calf of
+his leg. He scrambled to his feet, and fired his second shot. The bullet
+nicked the brim of the Sheriff&#8217;s hat. There was another flash, and
+Wilder heard the bullet sing past his ear.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stop it, you damned greaser!&#8221; he yelled, &#8220;or I&#8217;ll let daylight through
+your head.&#8221; In quick succession he put two holes through the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span>Mexican&#8217;s
+sombrero. &#8220;The next one is for your other eye!&#8221; he called, and Melgares
+dropped his weapon.</p>
+
+<p>Wilder leaped to the ground and ran toward him. He glanced at the group
+of horsemen, each with revolver drawn, and at Wilder coming with his gun
+at cock, then threw back his head with his own pistol at his temple.
+Little Jack grabbed his arm, but Melgares fought desperately. The others
+came running to Wilder&#8217;s assistance, and it was not until they had taken
+his revolver, put handcuffs upon him, and taken from his clothing
+another pistol, a knife, and a belt full of cartridges, that he gave up
+his struggles.</p>
+
+<p>They put him on the horse that Conrad had ridden, with his feet tied
+under its belly. Tillinghurst and Wilder, revolvers in hand, rode on
+either side of him. Conrad, mounted on his own mare, and another were
+side by side with Jack Gaines laid across their laps. Two more went on
+at a gallop to bring out a doctor and a carriage for the wounded man.
+The rest rode slowly back through the hot sunlight and the high wind,
+guarding their captive and carrying his victim.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VII" id="CHAPTER_VII"></a>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+
+<h3>TALK OF MANY THINGS</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">G</span>olden prided itself upon being &#8220;the most American town in the
+Territory,&#8221; but for all its energy and progressiveness it had not
+developed an ordinary regard for its own safety. After the mines which
+had given it birth had been worked out, it became the depot of supplies
+for the widespread miles of cattle country in the plains below, the
+mining regions in the mountains above, and the ranches scattered along
+the streams within a radius of fifty miles. As its importance increased
+a railway sought it out, the honor of being the county seat came to it,
+and the ruthless Anglo-Saxon arrived in such numbers and so
+energetically that its few contented and improvident Mexicans, thrust to
+one side, sank into hopeless nonentity. When Lucy Bancroft first set
+upon it the pleased eyes of youthful interest and filial affection, it
+was a busy, prosperous place of several thousand souls.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span></p><p>But it still clung to the gulch wherein had been the beginning of its
+life and fortune. All the houses of its infancy had been built along the
+stream that sparkled down from the mountains, and there the town had
+tried to stay, regardless of the floods that occasionally swept down the
+canyon during the Summer rains. At first its growth had been up and down
+the creek; afterward cross streets had been extended far out on either
+side, especially where gradual hill slopes gave easy grades, and roads
+had also been made lengthwise along the hillsides and even on their
+crests, where now a goodly number of homes looked out over the plains
+and down upon the town-filled valley at their feet.</p>
+
+<p>Newcomers gazed curiously at the high sidewalks, raised on posts above
+the level of the thoroughfares, asking why, if there was such
+possibility of flood, the people continued to live and do business along
+the bottom of the gulch. The residents thought the walled sidewalks
+rather a good joke, a humorous distinction, and laughed at the idea of
+danger.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy Bancroft&#8217;s eyes grew wide and solemn as she listened to the tale
+Dan Tillinghurst told her of the first year he was in Golden, years
+before, when a mighty torrent roared <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span>down the gulch, carried away most
+of the houses, and drowned a dozen souls. &#8220;But the very next day,&#8221; he
+added proudly, &#8220;the people began rebuildin&#8217; their houses on the
+identical sites from which they had been swept.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why didn&#8217;t they rebuild on higher ground?&#8221; Lucy asked. &#8220;And aren&#8217;t you
+afraid there will be another flood that will destroy all these houses
+and perhaps kill a great many people?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, there&#8217;s no danger now,&#8221; he assured her confidently. &#8220;The climate&#8217;s
+changin&#8217;. There&#8217;s not nearly so much rain as there used to be. The creek
+is dry half the time nowadays, and in my first years here it never went
+dry at all. Just look at these flood-marks,&#8221; and he pointed out to her
+on the side of the brick building that housed her father&#8217;s bank the
+lines to which had risen the high waters of each Summer. She saw that
+those of recent years were all very low. &#8220;Yes,&#8221; he assured her, &#8220;the
+climate&#8217;s changin&#8217;, there&#8217;s no doubt of that. There won&#8217;t be any more
+floods.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Between Lucy and the Sheriff a mutual admiration and good-fellowship had
+arisen, such as might exist between an elephant and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_93" id="Page_93">[Pg 93]</a></span>a robin. The day
+after her arrival Tillinghurst had told Bancroft that his daughter was
+&#8220;the prettiest piece of dry goods that had ever come to Golden, and if
+he ever let her pull her freight he&#8217;d sure deserve nothin&#8217; less than
+tarrin&#8217; and featherin&#8217; at the hands of an outraged community.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Notwithstanding her confidence in the big Sheriff, Lucy did not like the
+idea of living in the gulch, and persuaded her father to build their
+home on the brow of the <i>mesa</i> overlooking the town from the west. She
+had no definite fear of the floods nor, after her first few weeks in the
+place, did she so much as think of danger from such a source. She liked
+the site on the <i>mesa</i>, although it was new and raw and treeless,
+because it commanded a far-reaching view, to the mountains on the west
+and north and, in front, across the town and the valley to the wide gray
+level of the plains.</p>
+
+<p>She sat on the veranda of her new home with Miss Louise Dent, telling
+her friend what pleasure she was taking in its arrangement and
+direction. &#8220;At first daddy didn&#8217;t want me to do it. He thought it would
+be too much care and responsibility for me, and that we&#8217;d better board.
+But I said if a girl <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_94" id="Page_94">[Pg 94]</a></span>eighteen years old wasn&#8217;t old enough and big
+enough to begin to take care of her father she never would be, and so he
+gave up. And now! Well, you&#8217;ll see how he enjoys our home! He just beams
+with happiness every time he comes into the house. And I&#8217;m perfectly
+happy. Daddy is so good, and it&#8217;s such a pleasure to make things nice
+and comfortable for him!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m so glad,&#8221; Miss Dent replied, &#8220;that you are happy here with him. He
+has had so many years of lonely wandering. And I know that he has long
+been looking forward to the time when you and he could have a home
+together. Your father hasn&#8217;t had an easy life, dear. You could never
+guess all that he has been through. But he is a strong and determined
+man, and he&#8217;s finally won success&mdash;just as I always knew he would.
+That&#8217;s what I admire in him so much&mdash;that he never would give up.&#8221; She
+stopped, a faint flush mounting to her brow. Lucy threw both arms around
+her neck and kissed her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course, Dearie,&#8221; she exclaimed, &#8220;you must appreciate my father, for
+you&#8217;ve known him so long; but it makes me love you all the more to hear
+you say so&mdash;and oh, Dearie, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_95" id="Page_95">[Pg 95]</a></span>I&#8217;m going to make such a beautiful home out
+of this place!&#8221; Lucy looked about, her girlish face glowing with proud
+and pleased proprietorship. &#8220;I know how new and barren it looks now, but
+just wait till I&#8217;ve been at work at it for a year!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She went on to speak of her plans, asking Miss Dent&#8217;s advice. In the
+back-yard the gaunt wings of a big windmill gave a touch of ultra modern
+picturesqueness and promised the fulfilment of the girl&#8217;s hope of a lawn
+and flowers, trees and shrubbery, in the near future. A little
+conservatory jutted from the southern side of the house, while a deep
+veranda ran halfway across the eastern front and around the other two
+sides. The neutral, gray-green color of the structure melted into the
+hue of the hills and the surrounding <i>mesa</i>, leaving its barren newness
+less aggressive.</p>
+
+<p>As they talked Lucy now and then cast a lingering glance down the street
+that climbed the hill from the town below, and Miss Dent thought that
+sometimes a shade of disappointment dimmed the bright face for an
+instant. She was twenty years Lucy&#8217;s senior, although both looks and
+manner gave the lie to the fact. The loving friendship between <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_96" id="Page_96">[Pg 96]</a></span>them was
+one of those unusual ties between a younger and an older woman which,
+when they do occur, are apt to be marked by an overflowing measure of
+enthusiasm and loyalty. Louise Dent had been the intimate friend of
+Lucy&#8217;s mother and, after her death, had given the bereaved girl such
+love and care and sympathy as had won her instant and ardent devotion,
+and the relationship thus established had grown stronger and closer as
+the years passed and Lucy matured into womanhood. The girl&#8217;s
+enthusiastic affection had enabled her to find in Louise Dent intimate
+friend, elder sister, and mother combined. This complicated feeling
+making it impossible for her to address the elder woman by either formal
+title or first name, she had soon settled upon &#8220;Dearie&#8221; as a substantive
+term expressing their relationship, and &#8220;Dearie&#8221; Miss Dent had been to
+her ever since, whether between themselves or among her own intimate
+friends.</p>
+
+<p>As the shadows grew longer and the hot white sunlight became less vivid,
+Lucy seemed to grow restless. She rose and moved about the veranda, or
+ran down into the yard and back upon some trivial errand, each time
+stopping on the steps to send an inquiring <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_97" id="Page_97">[Pg 97]</a></span>eye down the street.
+Standing there, when the afternoon was far spent and the fierce westerly
+wind had ebbed into a gentle breeze, she pointed out to Louise the
+statuesque sapphire mass of Mangan&#8217;s Peak against the turquoise blue of
+the eastern sky, and told her of the drive thither and back she and her
+father had taken a fortnight before, and of their call at Socorro
+Springs ranch. &#8220;It&#8217;s an interesting place,&#8221; she went on; &#8220;such a huge
+ranch! Why, its grazing rights extend more than a hundred miles south,
+away across the Mexican border. Father knows the superintendent very
+well, and we&#8217;ll get him to drive us out there some day.&#8221; A higher color
+rose in her cheeks; she quickly turned away, drew her chair well back,
+and sat down. &#8220;There&#8217;s Mr. Conrad, the superintendent, coming up the
+hill now!&#8221; she exclaimed. &#8220;Daddy told me at luncheon that he was in
+town.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy bore her new role of hostess with a dignity so easy and gracious
+that it surprised Louise, and made Conrad think her more attractive than
+ever. Bancroft came a little later, and Curtis was urged to stay to
+dinner. Lucy showed him in her conservatory the collection of cactus
+plants she had begun to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_98" id="Page_98">[Pg 98]</a></span>make and listened with eager interest while he
+gave her information about the growth of the species she already had,
+and told her where she could find others less common. She was anxious to
+have his opinion whether it would be possible to make a hedge of
+mesquite to replace the wooden paling around the yard; he did not know,
+but offered to help her try the experiment.</p>
+
+<p>They dined on the side veranda, where Lucy, with the help of a screen or
+two and some plants from her green-house, had contrived an out-of-doors
+dining-room. The high spirits of the two younger people dominated the
+conversation, as they jested and bantered, laughed, and crossed wits in
+little wordy sword-plays that called forth applause and encouragement
+from the others. Lucy sparkled and dimpled, and her color rose, while
+Curtis&#8217;s eyes darkened and flashed. Miss Dent, watching them, realized
+what an attractive young woman Lucy had grown to be, and how much she
+had blossomed out even in the few months since their last parting. &#8220;She
+will have plenty of admirers,&#8221; the older woman thought, with a little
+twinge at her heart. Still, she was very young, and it would be a long
+time yet before she would think of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_99" id="Page_99">[Pg 99]</a></span>marriage. But&mdash;if she were to marry
+and leave her father&mdash;he would be very lonely&mdash;perhaps&mdash;and then she
+felt her cheeks grow warmer, and hastened to resume her part in the
+conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Louise was pleased with Conrad&#8217;s face. It seemed full of character, with
+its broad brow, tanned cheeks, large nose, and well-set chin. She noted
+especially the strong, firm jaw and chin, saying to herself that they
+betokened a strength of will and constancy of purpose that foretold
+success in whatever he might undertake. He was amusing them with an
+account of the feud between the wives of the Castleton brothers.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But don&#8217;t the men take up the quarrels of their wives,&#8221; Louise asked,
+&#8220;or allow any feeling to come between them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not in the least; nor does there seem to be any ill-feeling between the
+ladies. They are always good friends, and the men look upon the whole
+thing as a good joke. If Mrs. Turner, for instance, cooks up some new
+scheme for getting the better of Mrs. Ned, she tells her husband about
+it, he tells Ned, and they laugh over it and make bets about which will
+win.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_100" id="Page_100">[Pg 100]</a></span></p><p>Lucy was interested in the Castleton ladies. Conrad said that Mrs.
+Turner Castleton was considered a great beauty, but that he liked Mrs.
+Ned, who was half Mexican, much the better and thought her the more
+interesting and charming. She asked if they ever visited the ranch.
+&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said Curtis; &#8220;Ned and his wife come up for a few days every
+Spring. This year they&#8217;ll be there after the round-up is over and the
+cattle shipped. Would you like to meet them? All right, we&#8217;ll arrange
+it. While they are there I&#8217;ll get up a barbecue and a <i>baile</i>, and ask
+some people. You and Miss Dent and your father must all come.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The American in the Southwest, arrogant and contemptuous as the
+Anglo-Saxon always is when brought face to face with a difference in
+race, a difference in ideals, or a difference in speech, regards the
+Spanish language with frank disdain and ordinarily refuses to learn it.
+But where the Mexicans are present in large numbers, as in New Mexico,
+he adopts from the other&#8217;s language a good many words which soon
+supplant their English equivalents. An evening party of any sort,
+whether a public dance in the town hall, a select affair in the house of
+a prominent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_101" id="Page_101">[Pg 101]</a></span>resident, or a gathering in the Mexican quarter, is always
+a &#8220;<i>baile</i>,&#8221; a thriftless, insignificant person of either race a
+&#8220;<i>paisano</i>,&#8221; while upon &#8220;<i>coyote</i>&#8221; the American has seized with ready
+tongue, applying it to any creature, human or other, for which he wishes
+to express supreme contempt.</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dent had to have <i>baile</i> explained to her, and their talk drifted
+to the subject of the Mexican people. Bancroft told her the story of the
+bold theft of Conrad&#8217;s mare, the chase and capture of Melgares, and the
+wounding of Gaines. &#8220;It is thought that poor Jack cannot live,&#8221; he said
+in conclusion, &#8220;and the Mexican is held in jail to await the result. If
+he dies the fellow will be tried for murder.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard a queer story about Melgares,&#8221; said Conrad, and went on to
+tell how the Mexican had lost his little ranch. Lucy listened
+attentively, with indignant eyes fixed on Curtis&#8217;s face.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How shameful!&#8221; she broke out. &#8220;What a detestable way of getting money!
+The poor Mexicans! Just think of their being turned out of their homes
+in that way, with nothing to fall back on! I don&#8217;t wonder poor Melgares
+became a thief&mdash;but he ought to have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_102" id="Page_102">[Pg 102]</a></span>gone to Santa Fe and stolen Mr.
+Baxter&#8217;s horses!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft&#8217;s eyes were fixed on his plate. Had the others been watching
+him closely they would have seen no more than a flicker of his eyelids
+as his face took on a stony impassiveness. But they were looking at Lucy
+who, with head erect, face flushed, and eyes sparkling, made a pretty
+picture.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m glad you feel that way, Miss Bancroft,&#8221; Curtis exclaimed, his face
+alight with approval and admiration. &#8220;I think myself it&#8217;s about as
+despicable a way of getting money legally as man ever devised. Baxter
+knows when he loans the money that the poor wretches will never be able
+to pay back a cent of it. He wouldn&#8217;t loan it to them if he thought they
+could, for it&#8217;s their land he&#8217;s after. I&#8217;ve heard that he&#8217;s getting
+control in this way of a big tract in the Rio Grande valley and that he
+intends to form a company, advertise it through the East, and sell the
+land, which is really valuable, at big prices.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I think it&#8217;s a shameful piece of business, and I&#8217;m surprised that
+Mr. Baxter is engaged in it!&#8221; said Lucy with decision.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Before you condemn him so severely, daughter,&#8221; interposed Bancroft, his
+eyes still <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_103" id="Page_103">[Pg 103]</a></span>lowered, &#8220;you should remember that the business of the loan
+mortgage companies has the full sanction of law and custom, and that
+many of the most reputable business men of the United States have
+engaged in it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t help it, daddy, if all the Congressmen and lawyers and business
+men, and preachers too, in the United States are engaged in it&mdash;that
+doesn&#8217;t make it right. Somehow it seems a different matter with these
+poor Mexicans, they are so helpless. Why, it&#8217;s almost like stealing
+their homes. I&#8217;m sorry, daddy, to speak so about Mr. Baxter, but that&#8217;s
+really the way I feel about it; I suppose he doesn&#8217;t realize what an
+injury he&#8217;s doing them. Oh, daddy,&#8221; and she leaned forward eagerly, her
+face flushing, &#8220;you and he are such good friends, maybe you could tell
+him what harm he&#8217;s doing and persuade him to give up that part of his
+business!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad smiled grimly. &#8220;It&#8217;s plain, Miss Bancroft,&#8221; he said, without
+waiting for her father to reply, &#8220;that you are not intimately acquainted
+with Dell Baxter. I&#8217;m sorry about this Melgares business, for I can&#8217;t
+help feeling a sort of responsibility. If the fellow is hung his family
+will be left destitute. Yes, he has a wife and four children,&#8221; he
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_104" id="Page_104">[Pg 104]</a></span>continued in answer to Miss Dent. &#8220;I had a talk with him about the
+affair, and he asked me to send for his family for him. He had money
+with which to pay their fares, though where he got it probably wouldn&#8217;t
+bear too close an inquiry.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy was looking at him eagerly, her face full of sympathy. &#8220;The poor
+things!&#8221; she exclaimed. &#8220;When they come you must let me know, Mr.
+Conrad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft abruptly changed the subject, and presently the talk drifted to
+a story that had just come out about the postmaster at Randall. &#8220;It&#8217;s a
+characteristic New Mexican tale,&#8221; said Curtis, turning to the ladies.
+&#8220;You&#8217;ll soon find out, Miss Bancroft, if you don&#8217;t know it already, that
+the cowboy song of &#8216;What was your name in the States?&#8217; can often be
+applied in earnest.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Confound the fellow,&#8221; thought Bancroft irritably, &#8220;why is he always
+harping on that subject!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This is a particularly audacious case, though&mdash;don&#8217;t you think so,
+Aleck?&#8221; Curtis went on. &#8220;Here this man has been living for several years
+in Randall, a respected citizen, holding office, with influence in the
+community, when, behold, it is discovered that just <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_105" id="Page_105">[Pg 105]</a></span>before coming here
+he had skipped from some town in Missouri, where he was postmaster, with
+all the money in his office and another man&#8217;s wife. But his sin has
+finally found him out.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It always does,&#8221; observed Lucy coolly.</p>
+
+<p>Louise Dent was conscious of a fluttering in her throat and realized
+that her heart was beating loudly. The moment&#8217;s pause that followed
+seemed to her so long that she rushed into speech, without thought of
+what she said: &#8220;I&#8217;m afraid it does.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why do you say &#8216;afraid,&#8217; Dearie?&#8221; asked Lucy, with surprise. &#8220;Isn&#8217;t it
+right that it should?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Louise made brief and noncommittal reply and Bancroft hurriedly asked
+Curtis how the round-up was getting on.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, we&#8217;ve got the thing started, and are ready to move the cattle on
+the north part of the range toward Pelham. We&#8217;ll begin shipping within
+two or three weeks. But something seems to have struck the cowboy market
+this year; I&#8217;ve been short of hands all the Spring.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps I can give you some help,&#8221; said Bancroft. &#8220;A Mexican from up
+North has been to me looking for work. He came the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_106" id="Page_106">[Pg 106]</a></span>day you had the
+chase after Melgares and was in again to-day. He has worked for Baxter,
+and Dell says he is an expert cowboy and sure to give satisfaction.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He must be an unusual sort of greaser if he&#8217;s looking for work,&#8221;
+laughed Conrad. &#8220;If he&#8217;s that sort, I guess he&#8217;ll strike my gait.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They found the Mexican sitting on the steps of the front veranda when
+they finished dinner.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why,&#8221; exclaimed Curtis with hearty interest, &#8220;he&#8217;s the same chap that
+told me my mare was stolen. I hope you can ride and throw a rope; I&#8217;m
+obliged to you already, and I&#8217;d like to do you a good turn. I&#8217;ll meet
+you down town presently, and if you know anything about the business
+I&#8217;ll take you behind me on my mare to the ranch to-night, and you can go
+to work in the morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The moon had just risen, and its huge white disk seemed to be resting on
+the plain only a little way beyond the town. Its brilliant silvery light
+was already working weird transformations in the landscape.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, are you going to ride home to-night, through this wonderful
+moonlight!&#8221; Lucy exclaimed. &#8220;How I envy you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_107" id="Page_107">[Pg 107]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; he answered, lowering his voice and speaking in a tone different
+from any she had before heard from his lips; &#8220;and it is indeed a
+wonderful ride! I don&#8217;t know anything more impressive than the landscape
+of this country under a marvellous moon, like that over there. I hope we
+can have a ride by moonlight together, some time, when the moon is full.
+Does Miss Dent ride?&#8221; His voice went back to its usual tone. &#8220;I know
+your father is a fine rider. Perhaps we can make up a party some night,
+when I don&#8217;t have to hurry home. I expect my brother here this Summer,
+to spend his vacation with me. You and Miss Dent will like him, I&#8217;m
+sure, for he&#8217;s a fine lad. I hope we can all have some pleasant
+excursions together.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the sound of his softened voice Lucy felt herself swept by sudden
+emotion, and hastily put her hands behind her lest he should see that
+they were trembling. And later that night, when she looked out from her
+window at the white moon floating in the violet sky, suddenly her nerves
+went a-quiver again and her eyes sought the far, dim plain as she softly
+whispered, &#8220;Under a marvellous moon, like that over there!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican asked Bancroft how to reach <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_108" id="Page_108">[Pg 108]</a></span>the place where Conrad was to
+meet him, and the banker walked to the gate and pointed out the streets
+he was to follow. As he finished Gonzalez bent a keen gaze upon him and
+asked, significantly, &#8220;Has the se&ntilde;or further instructions for me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft&#8217;s start and the shade of annoyance that crossed his face as he
+realized that it had been noticed were not lost upon the man, whose
+searching look was still on him. His equanimity had been well tried
+already that evening, and this sudden touch upon a half-formed and most
+secret desire startled him for an instant out of his usual self-control.
+Heretofore he had merely dallied with the thought that Conrad&#8217;s removal
+would mean his own safety, for the rest of his life. It had appeared to
+him merely as something the consequences of which would be desirable.
+His hand could not be concerned in it, he wished to know nothing about
+it&mdash;but if Baxter thought best&mdash;to further his own ends&mdash;why had the
+Mexican come to him with this impudent question?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not hiring you,&#8221; was his curt answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Certainly not, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; the man answered calmly, his head erect, his
+arms folded, and one foot advanced. The trio on the veranda <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_109" id="Page_109">[Pg 109]</a></span>noted and
+laughed over his attitude. Lucy said he looked like a hero of melodrama
+taking the limelight. Miss Dent added that he was handsome enough for a
+matinee idol, and Conrad declared that there was no telling how many
+se&ntilde;oritas&#8217; hearts he had already broken. Bancroft turned to go back to
+the house, but paused an instant, and the Mexican quickly went on in a
+softly insinuating voice: &#8220;But if the se&ntilde;or should wish to say anything
+particular? Don Dellmey thought it might be possible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft lingered, flicking the ashes from his cigar. &#8220;I&mdash;I know nothing
+about it,&#8221; he blurted out, uncertainly. &#8220;If Don Dellmey had anything to
+say to you I suppose he said it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As he turned away he heard the man say gently, &#8220;Thank you, Se&ntilde;or
+Bancroft. I shall not forget our talk.&#8221; There was no reply, and the
+Mexican, whistling a Spanish love tune, disappeared down the hill in the
+weird mixed lights of the fading day and the brilliant moon.</p>
+
+<p>Alone on the veranda, Alexander Bancroft walked restlessly to and fro,
+stopping now and again as if to listen to the music from within, which
+he did not hear, or to look at the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_110" id="Page_110">[Pg 110]</a></span>moonlit landscape, which he did not
+see. Over and over he was saying to himself that he had no idea what
+Dellmey Baxter had said to this Mexican, and, whatever it was, he had
+distinctly told the creature that he knew nothing about it. The man had
+come to him recommended as an expert cowboy, he had passed the
+recommendation on to Conrad, and that was all there was about it.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless, he knew he had reason to believe&mdash;the Congressman had
+intimated as much in his letter&mdash;that the man who called himself Jos&eacute;
+Gonzalez was in reality Liberato Herrara, guilty of at least one murder
+and probably of others, whom Baxter&#8217;s legal skill had saved from the
+gallows. Curtis had said that he should carry the man behind him to the
+ranch that night. Before Bancroft&#8217;s inward eye a sudden vision opened:
+wide miles of silent plain, a great white moon hanging low in the sky, a
+long stretch of deserted road, and then two men on a single horse&mdash;and
+the light gleaming on a long knife! He shuddered as the blade flashed,
+and turned his face away from the plain. Then, as there came to him a
+sudden sense of tremendous relief, with breath and thought suspended he
+turned slowly, fascinatedly, and with greedy <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_111" id="Page_111">[Pg 111]</a></span>eyes searched the distant
+plain, as if eager to find in it some proof, at last, of his own safety.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy&#8217;s voice rose in a gay little song above the piano and fell upon his
+ears. With a deep, long-drawn breath his thought leaped out and seized
+upon all that freedom from Curtis Conrad&#8217;s pursuit would mean for him.
+Jos&eacute; Gonzalez would sink out of sight, and Liberato Herrara would be
+back in his own home, unsuspected and silent. Some excitement would
+follow, search would be made, a body would be found in a mesquite
+thicket,&mdash;and then the interest would die out, and there would be only
+another grewsome tale of mystery to be added to the hundreds already
+told through the Southwest. And he&mdash;Alexander Bancroft&mdash;would be
+safe&mdash;secure in fortune and reputation and the love and honor of his
+daughter as long as they should live.</p>
+
+<p>The music within ceased and Lucy&#8217;s voice rippled out in girlish
+laughter. His heart sank as he seemed to hear again her hot denunciation
+of Baxter&#8217;s loan and mortgage operations. &#8220;I&#8217;ll sell out to Dell and
+she&#8217;ll never know I&#8217;ve had anything to do with it,&#8221; he thought. Then
+there came ringing through his memory, as he had heard them so many
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_112" id="Page_112">[Pg 112]</a></span>times since they rode home from the Socorro Springs ranch, her
+passionate words, &#8220;He must have been a wicked man,&#8221; and &#8220;I should hate
+him, with all my strength,&#8221; and again his longing face turned
+impulsively toward the plain.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d kill him myself, rather than let her find out,&#8221; he whispered, with
+teeth set. &#8220;And a man has got to protect himself out here!&#8221; his urgent
+thought went on. &#8220;I&#8217;ll be a fool if I don&#8217;t stop him before he gets his
+chance at me!&#8221; With a sudden stirring of conscience he remembered that
+this man whose death he was so ardently desiring was his friend and
+trusted his friendship. &#8220;I&mdash;I don&#8217;t want him stuck in the back,&#8221; he
+muttered. &#8220;I might warn him. He may not have started yet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He walked uncertainly toward the veranda steps. There was a flutter of
+white drapery and Lucy was laying an affectionate hand on his arm. &#8220;Oh,
+daddy dear,&#8221; she coaxed, &#8220;won&#8217;t you come in and try this duet with us?
+Dearie will play the accompaniment for us to sing. She brought it to me,
+and I&#8217;m dying to try it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, if you wish it, daughter,&#8221; the banker replied, hesitation in his
+voice, &#8220;but I was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_113" id="Page_113">[Pg 113]</a></span>thinking of going down town.&#8221; He saw the shade of
+disappointment that crossed her face, and drew her hand into his arm.
+&#8220;It doesn&#8217;t matter,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;and I would rather stay at home.&#8221; To
+himself he said as they moved to the door, &#8220;Conrad has gone by this
+time, and, anyway, I&#8217;ve no reason to think this Mexican intends to do
+him any harm.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_114" id="Page_114">[Pg 114]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_VIII" id="CHAPTER_VIII"></a>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+
+<h3>SPECTRES OF THE PAST</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">R</span>estless was the night that followed for Alexander Bancroft; his sleep
+was troubled by many a dream in which one friend after another moved
+swiftly on to violent death. With the coming of dawn he arose to look
+out from the eastern windows of his room. The sky was a dome of rosy
+light and below lay the vast plain, dim but colorful, its gray-green
+mottled with vague bands and patches of opalescent lights and shadows
+and dotted with little islands of vivid green. His eyes clung to these
+darker spots, which he knew to be thickets of mesquite; piercing their
+shade his inner vision showed him the still body of his friend. So real
+was the mental picture that he turned pale about the lips and abruptly
+left the window.</p>
+
+<p>If anything had happened, he kept reassuring himself, it had been at
+Dellmey Baxter&#8217;s instigation. He himself had had nothing to do with it.
+If Baxter had decided that his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_115" id="Page_115">[Pg 115]</a></span>affairs would go more smoothly with
+Conrad out of the way, why should he, Alexander Bancroft, trouble
+himself further? And if&mdash;anything had happened&mdash;again he felt the
+loosening of mental strain and his spirits rose in exultation at the
+prospect of freedom and safety. Life was more attractive than ever with
+that menacing figure no longer threatening him with disclosure,
+disgrace, and death. He could go on with his plans for the accumulation
+of fortune and the enjoyment of life. He could still hold Lucy&#8217;s love
+and honor, travel with her, marry again, work his way to a commanding
+place in the world of business. The future opened before him as easy and
+inviting as the stairs down which he went to breakfast.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy ran to meet him with a good-morning kiss and a rose for his
+buttonhole. &#8220;It&#8217;s the prettiest I could find in my conservatory,&#8221; she
+smiled at him; &#8220;but it isn&#8217;t half nice enough for my daddy dear. You
+don&#8217;t look well this morning, daddy,&#8221; she went on anxiously. &#8220;Is
+anything the matter?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His hand slipped caressingly down over her curls and drew her to his
+breast in a quick embrace, instinct with the native impulse of the
+animal to protect its offspring. &#8220;She <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_116" id="Page_116">[Pg 116]</a></span>shall never know,&#8221; was the
+thought in his mind.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Daddy! What a bear hug that was!&#8221; she laughed, &#8220;like those you used to
+give me when I was a little girl. It didn&#8217;t feel as if you were ill.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not,&#8221; he answered lightly, kissing her pink cheek. &#8220;I guess I
+smoked too much yesterday, and so didn&#8217;t sleep very well. Yes; I
+promise; I&#8217;ll be more careful to-day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At breakfast his eyes dwelt much upon Louise Dent&#8217;s face, gentle and
+pleasant. He had always liked her, and since her coming on this visit
+she had seemed very attractive. He knew she had strength and poise of
+character and a nature refined and cheerful. These qualities in her,
+with a certain genial, unobtrusive companionableness, had long ago won
+his warm friendship. But was there not in her steady gray eyes a hint of
+passionate depths he had never thought of before? It stirred him so
+deeply that for a little while, as they lingered over the breakfast
+table, he forgot the other facts of life, noting the faint rose flush in
+her cheeks, the graceful turn of her wrists, and the soft whiteness of
+her throat as she threw back her head and laughed. And Lucy loved her so
+devotedly! If she were <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_117" id="Page_117">[Pg 117]</a></span>willing to marry him their household would
+surely be harmonious and happy.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy fluttered beside him to the gate, her arm in his, as she chattered
+to him of the funny things her Chinese cook had been saying and doing.
+She lingered there, her eyes following his figure, until he turned, half
+a block away, to wave his hat in response to her farewell handkerchief.</p>
+
+<p>By the time he reached the foot of the hill Bancroft&#8217;s mind was once
+more engrossed with the need of knowing whether or not he was at last
+secure from ignominious exposure. He no longer disguised from himself
+the fact that news of Conrad&#8217;s death would be most welcome. He looked
+eagerly up and down the main streets; there was no sign of excitement.
+Had nothing happened, then? But it was still early; moreover, news of
+the affair might not reach the town for a day or two. The sound of
+horses&#8217; feet coming at a swift trot down the street on the other side of
+the stream made his heart beat quickly. He lingered at the door of his
+bank until the horseman came into view under the big cottonwoods at the
+next corner. It was Red Jack from the Socorro Springs ranch. At once his
+heart leaped to certainty. He turned to enter the bank, but stopped and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_118" id="Page_118">[Pg 118]</a></span>looked back, undecidedly. Red Jack had not dismounted, but had drawn
+rein in front of the court-house at the next corner, and was sitting
+there quietly, looking up and down the road as if expecting somebody. He
+led a saddled horse. Perhaps he was to take a physician back with him.
+But he seemed in no haste, and in his manner there was neither
+excitement nor anxiety. Bancroft could wait no longer to learn what had
+happened. With hands in pockets he sauntered down the street.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello, Jack,&#8221; he said indifferently to the waiting horseman. &#8220;You&#8217;re in
+town early this morning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I sure hiked along from the ranch early enough,&#8221; the cowboy replied.
+&#8220;The boss hired a new man last night; and I had to come over this
+morning after him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft&#8217;s eyes were on the cigar he was taking from his pocket, which
+he handed to the cowboy, saying idly, &#8220;Why, he intended last night to
+carry the man behind him. Did he change his mind? The man was a Mexican,
+wasn&#8217;t he?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Y-e-s; a measly coyote! The boss didn&#8217;t bring him last night because he
+thought it would be too hard on Brown Betty to carry double. I wonder if
+mebbe that ain&#8217;t my man <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_119" id="Page_119">[Pg 119]</a></span>comin&#8217; down the street right now! I&#8217;ve done
+forgot his name; do you happen to know it, Mr. Bancroft?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think it&#8217;s Jos&eacute; Gonzalez. He came here from Dellmey Baxter, who
+recommended him to me as a first-rate cowboy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, he&#8217;ll have to be a peach if he strikes the boss&#8217;s gait,&#8221; Red Jack
+rejoined, motioning to the Mexican.</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft walked back to his place of business with brows knitted and
+mouth drawn into grim lines. His mind was acting rapidly and ruthlessly.
+The sudden collapse of his house of cards, the knowledge that danger was
+still as imminent as ever, left him savage with desire for Curtis
+Conrad&#8217;s death, or, rather, for the delectable land that lay beyond it.
+Nobody but this young hothead with his insensate desire for revenge knew
+or cared anything about that old affair now. With him out of the way
+there would be no danger from anybody or anything. Why wasn&#8217;t the man
+sensible enough to take the money he was willing to pay, and be
+satisfied? Perhaps the receipt of another check or two would soften his
+purpose; it was worth trying. And&mdash;there was still the Mexican! Baxter
+had surely said something to him, and the fellow seemed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_120" id="Page_120">[Pg 120]</a></span>to understand
+that he, also&mdash;but he had said nothing about it, and whatever the
+creature suspected was his own inference. Evidently the Mexican did
+suspect something and had some purpose in his mind. With Conrad so
+intent upon his destruction had he not every right to protect himself
+and his child? Of course he had, he told himself fiercely, and what
+means he might use were his own affair.</p>
+
+<p>At the door of the bank Rutherford Jenkins met him with a smiling
+salutation: &#8220;Good-morning, Mr. Bancroft; this is lucky! I was waiting
+for you here, but I&#8217;ve got so much to do that I&#8217;d begun to be afraid I
+wouldn&#8217;t be able to see you before I go back.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft greeted him pleasantly. &#8220;What do you mean, Jenkins,&#8221; he went
+on, &#8220;by deserting to Martinez? Hadn&#8217;t you better think again about that?
+We need you on our side.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s exactly what I want to see you about,&#8221; said Jenkins in a
+confidential tone. &#8220;Can&#8217;t you come over with me to Bill Williams&#8217;s hotel
+for a few minutes? I want to have a talk with you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They went back together, Bancroft wondering if Jenkins, who was regarded
+as a desirable ally by both parties, notwithstanding his character, was
+about to make overtures to him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_121" id="Page_121">[Pg 121]</a></span>for deserting the Martinez fold and
+coming back to Baxter&#8217;s. &#8220;Perhaps that spanking Curt gave him has set
+him against the whole Martinez following,&#8221; he thought. &#8220;Baxter will be
+mighty glad to get him back, and I&#8217;ll do my best to cinch the bargain so
+he can&#8217;t crawl.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When they entered the hotel room Jenkins moved leisurely about, got out
+a bottle of whiskey, and hunted up some cigars, talking all the time
+glibly about other matters and jumping inconsequently from one subject
+to another. Bancroft made several attempts to bring the conversation to
+the point, but each time Jenkins either blandly ignored or skilfully
+evaded his leading. Finally Bancroft said, looking at his watch: &#8220;Well,
+Jenkins, I&#8217;ve got to be at the bank very soon, and if there&#8217;s anything
+particular you want to say suppose we get down to business.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, yes, certainly,&#8221; Jenkins replied unconcernedly. &#8220;That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m
+coming to right now.&#8221; He gave Bancroft a cigar, lighted one himself,
+made some jokes as he bustled aimlessly around the room, and at last sat
+down on the foot of the bed, facing the banker, who occupied the only
+chair in the little room. He ceased speaking, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_122" id="Page_122">[Pg 122]</a></span>Bancroft, looking up
+suddenly, caught in his face an expression of expectant triumph. The tip
+of his tongue was darting over his lips, and his small dark eyes were
+fixed on his guest with a look of malicious satisfaction. Instantly
+Bancroft&#8217;s nerves were alert with the sense of coming danger. He blew
+out a whiff of smoke and calmly returned the other&#8217;s gaze. Their eyes
+met thus, the one gloating, the other outwardly unmoved but inwardly
+astart with sudden alarm. Then Jenkins began, in a blandly insinuating
+tone:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Before we come to that matter about Martinez, I want to ask you,
+Mr.&mdash;ah&mdash;Mr. Dela&mdash;ah, I beg your pardon, Mr. Bancroft&mdash;I thought I
+would ask you&mdash;you&#8217;ve poked about a good deal, out here in the West&mdash;and
+in out-of-the-way places, too&mdash;and I&#8217;ve been wondering&mdash;I thought I&#8217;d
+ask you&mdash;if you&#8217;ve ever run across a gentleman of the name
+of&mdash;of&mdash;Dela&mdash;Dela&mdash;let me see&mdash;yes, Delafield&mdash;that&#8217;s it&mdash;Sumner L.
+Delafield, of Boston. Do you remember whether or not you&#8217;ve ever met
+him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft did not blanch nor flinch. For so many years he had schooled
+himself to such constant watchfulness and incessant self-control that an
+impassive countenance <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_123" id="Page_123">[Pg 123]</a></span>and manner had become a habit. Lucy, with her
+uncompromising moral decisions and her swift, unsparing condemnations,
+could come nearer to unnerving him than could any bolt from the blue
+like this. He flicked the ash from his cigar, hesitating a moment as if
+searching his memory, but really wondering whether Jenkins knew anything
+or was merely guessing and trying to draw him out. The latter seemed
+much the more likely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t say on the instant whether I ever met such a man or not. As you
+say, I have gone about a good deal and, as my business most of the time
+has been that of mining and trading in mines, it has often taken me into
+out-of-the-way places, and I have met a great many people. At this
+moment I don&#8217;t recall the name.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you? I&#8217;m sorry, for I thought perhaps you could verify for me a
+curious story about the man that has just come to my knowledge. You know
+I&#8217;m always picking up information about people&mdash;I find it comes in handy
+now and then. Well, if you&#8217;ve never met him, have you ever, in the
+course of your Western travels, run across a man&mdash;he was a mining man,
+too&mdash;a mining man named Hardy&mdash;John Mason Hardy? <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_124" id="Page_124">[Pg 124]</a></span>There&#8217;s a curious
+story about him, too, or, rather, about a man who was associated with
+him in a mining enterprise down in old Mexico. The other man&#8217;s name was
+Smith&mdash;a very serviceable name is Smith; sort of like a black derby hat;
+no distinguishing mark about it and easy to exchange by mistake if you&#8217;d
+rather have some other man&#8217;s.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft rose and looked at his watch. &#8220;If there&#8217;s anything of
+particular interest or importance in this, Mr. Jenkins, I&#8217;ll be very
+glad to listen to it some other time; but I can&#8217;t stay any longer this
+morning. I ought to have been at my desk half an hour ago.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins sat still and waved him back with insistent politeness. &#8220;One
+moment more, Mr. Bancroft, if you please. I&#8217;m coming to the point right
+away. This story is of some consequence to me, and I&#8217;d like to know if
+you can verify it. Have another drink.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft swallowed the whiskey at a gulp and Jenkins noticed that his
+fingers trembled as he took the glass. He was thinking, &#8220;I&#8217;d better stay
+and find out exactly how much he knows.&#8221; Jenkins smiled under his hand
+as he smoothed his straggling moustache and watched Bancroft wipe the
+sweat from his forehead.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_125" id="Page_125">[Pg 125]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;This man Smith,&#8221; Jenkins continued, &#8220;John was his name, too&mdash;John Smith
+and John Mason Hardy were partners in a mining enterprise down in
+Mexico. One of them died down there&mdash;died, you know, in a quiet, private
+sort of way, and the one that came up to the States again was named
+Hardy, but it wasn&#8217;t the same Hardy that had gone down there. You might
+guess, if you wanted to, that Smith killed Hardy and took his name&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He stopped and drew back suddenly, for Bancroft had sprung forward with
+a white, angry face and was shaking a trembling fist under his nose.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stop there, you liar!&#8221; he exclaimed in low, tense tones. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t do
+that. He died a natural death&mdash;of fever&mdash;and I took care of him and did
+my best to save his life.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins recovered his self-possession first. &#8220;Oh; then you know all
+about it!&#8221; he said dryly, with a malicious smile.</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft sank back in his chair drawing his hand across his eyes and
+wondering why his self-control had so suddenly gone to pieces. He had
+thought himself proof against any surprise, but this man&#8217;s sudden blow
+and persistent baiting had screwed his nerve tension to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_126" id="Page_126">[Pg 126]</a></span>the snapping
+point. But he told himself that it probably did not matter anyway, as
+Jenkins evidently knew the whole story. With a desperate, defiant look
+he turned upon his tormentor.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, what do you want?&#8221; he demanded sharply. &#8220;Why have you raked up
+this old story?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I found it interesting,&#8221; Jenkins responded in a leisurely way, &#8220;as
+an instance of the way things are done on the frontier and, as I told
+you at first, I thought you might be able to verify it. For I was
+inclined not to believe it, especially as it was about one of the most
+prominent and respected citizens of New Mexico. But since you&#8217;ve
+confessed its truth yourself&mdash;well, I&#8217;ve got to believe it now. It has
+been a very blind trail I&#8217;ve followed, crooked and well
+hidden&mdash;wonderfully well hidden, Mr. Bancroft&mdash;and the number of names
+you&#8217;ve hoisted along its course has been bewildering. But I&#8217;ve managed
+to track you through &#8217;em all, and to discover in Alexander Bancroft, the
+upright, honored, public-spirited citizen of New Mexico, the identical
+person of Sumner L. Delafield, the defaulting and absconding financier
+of Boston.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_127" id="Page_127">[Pg 127]</a></span></p><p>Bancroft looked Jenkins sullenly in the eye. &#8220;Well, now that you have it
+all, what are you going to do about it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pardon me, Mr. Bancroft,&#8221; said Jenkins with exaggerated suavity, &#8220;ah,
+excuse me, I mean Mr. Delafield&mdash;that is for you to say.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The banker considered for a moment only. Evidently this man knew exactly
+what he was about and exactly what he wanted, so that it would be of no
+use to beat around the bush. &#8220;Will you please say precisely what you
+mean?&#8221; was his answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That is just what I have been doing, Mr. Delafield.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Excuse me, Jenkins, but my name is Bancroft, not Delafield. I have a
+legal right to the name of Bancroft, given me by the legislature of
+Arizona. You will oblige me by addressing me in that way.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes; I know that; and a lot of trouble I had with this chase until
+I found it out! But I thought you might like to hear yourself called
+Delafield once more&mdash;sort of like meeting an old friend, you know. Won&#8217;t
+you have another cigar, Mr. Bancroft? No? Well, then, let&#8217;s have another
+drink.&#8221; He poured out two glasses of whiskey. Bancroft <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_128" id="Page_128">[Pg 128]</a></span>drank his
+without demur, but Jenkins barely touched his glass to his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, now, Mr. Bancroft,&#8221; Jenkins went on affably, smiling and rubbing
+his hands together, &#8220;let&#8217;s get down to the practical side of this
+romantic story from real life. You are getting on so well here under
+your present name, and you have a young daughter&mdash;&#8221; he saw his listener
+wince at this, and then carefully repeated his words&mdash;&#8220;and you have such
+a beautiful and charming young daughter, who, as the heiress of a father
+who is making a fortune with clean hands and no cloud on his past, can
+be taken about the world and can make a good marriage some of these
+days; considering all this, I take it for granted that you would prefer
+to have this story buried too deep for resurrection. And it is for you
+to say whether it shall be buried or not.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft sat in silence for a full minute, glaring at the man opposite,
+his lips set in a livid line. Jenkins grew nervous in the dead stillness
+of the room, and began to fidget. He cautiously rested his right hand on
+the bed close by his pistol pocket, and kept his eyes on the banker,
+watchful for the first hostile movement. There was need of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_129" id="Page_129">[Pg 129]</a></span>wariness,
+for Bancroft was debating with himself whether it would be better to go
+on to the dreary end of this business and leave the room with a
+blackmailer&#8217;s noose around his neck, or to whip out his gun, put a
+bullet through this man&#8217;s brain, and another through his own.</p>
+
+<p>But the fragrance of life rose sweet to his nostrils, and his innate
+virility spurred him on to keep up the fight. Apparently he had brought
+up against a stone wall, but he had fought too long and too desperately
+to be willing to confess himself beaten until he could struggle no
+longer. He felt sure that money would keep Jenkins quiet, and after a
+while he might find some other means of stopping the man&#8217;s mouth for
+good. The fellow was always in some dirty job or other, and before long
+doubtless some hold on him would become possible. There was Conrad still
+to be reckoned with&mdash;but that could wait, at least until this man was
+silenced.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; he said quietly, &#8220;what do you want? For God&#8217;s sake, come to the
+point!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins drew a breath of relief. &#8220;Well, Mr. Bancroft, I&#8217;m interested
+this year in the success of Johnny Martinez. It&#8217;s a matter of the first
+importance to me for him to be <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_130" id="Page_130">[Pg 130]</a></span>elected. But I&#8217;m afraid he hasn&#8217;t got
+much chance if Silverside County and the rest of the South should go
+against him. Now, you&#8217;ve got more influence down here than anybody else,
+and you can swing it for him if you want to. That&#8217;s what I want you to
+do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft looked up in sudden dismay. He had not expected anything of
+this sort. &#8220;You know I&#8217;m committed to Baxter,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, yes; I know. But that&#8217;s nothing. In New Mexico it&#8217;s not difficult
+to change your politics. Why, I thought of coming out for Baxter myself
+at first; but I&#8217;m solid for Martinez now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft rose and began pacing the half-dozen steps to and fro that the
+room afforded, seeking some loophole of escape from his obligations to
+Baxter. There were mortgages the Congressman could foreclose that would
+balk some of the banker&#8217;s most promising plans should he attempt
+political treachery. He could, and undoubtedly would, reveal his
+associate&#8217;s connection with the loan and mortgage operations in the Rio
+Grande valley; and Bancroft winced as he thought of this coming to
+Lucy&#8217;s ears. And in that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_131" id="Page_131">[Pg 131]</a></span>matter of Curtis Conrad and Jos&eacute; Gonzalez&mdash;had
+he not put himself at Baxter&#8217;s mercy? In this moment of supreme
+necessity the naked truth came before him; and he knew it to be true
+that he was primarily responsible for any harm that might come to the
+young cattleman through Gonzalez. If he did not keep faith with Baxter
+the Congressman would tell Curtis who it was that desired his death; and
+then Conrad would know where to find Delafield. In short, he knew that
+Baxter would stop at nothing to compel his loyalty or punish his
+treason. Having contemplated no course except that of fidelity in his
+business and political relations with Baxter, the closeness of their
+alliance had heretofore given him little uneasiness; and now, in this
+crisis, he found himself wholly in the other&#8217;s power. He flung himself
+into his chair, his face pallid and the perspiration standing in great
+drops on his forehead. His breath came hard and his voice was thick as
+he asked:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is there no alternative?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, no; none that I can accept,&#8221; Jenkins replied meditatively. &#8220;You
+see, it&#8217;s a very important matter for me to be able to make this present
+to Johnny. If he wins this fight there&#8217;ll be something big in it for me.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_132" id="Page_132">[Pg 132]</a></span>No; I&#8217;ll have to insist upon this as the first condition.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft&#8217;s lips moved soundlessly as he stared at the man sitting on the
+edge of the bed, nursing his knee and showing his white teeth in a
+triumphant smile. Then, suddenly, without a word of warning, the banker
+leaped forward and seized his companion around the throat. Jenkins,
+taken entirely off his guard, succeeded only in grasping his assailant&#8217;s
+coat as they went down on the bed together in a noiseless scuffle.
+Bancroft&#8217;s hands closed around his tormentor&#8217;s throat, and a savage,
+elemental satisfaction thrilled in him and goaded him on. More and more
+tightly his fingers clutched as Jenkins struggled under his grip.
+Neither of them uttered a sound, and the silence of the room was broken
+only by the creaking of the bed or the occasional knocking of a foot
+against the chair.</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft&#8217;s face was snarled like that of a wild beast as he watched
+Jenkins&#8217;s visage grow livid and his struggles weaken. Of a sudden reason
+returned to him. If this man were to die under his hand there would be
+grewsome consequences&mdash;and he had enough to deal with already. He stood
+up, trembling, and looked anxiously at the still form on the bed.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_133" id="Page_133">[Pg 133]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;You&mdash;you&#8217;re not dead, Jenkins, are you?&#8221; he stammered awkwardly.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins stirred a little, opened his eyes, put his hand to his throat,
+and got up, looking warily at his assailant. &#8220;It&#8217;s no thanks to you that
+I&#8217;m not,&#8221; he responded sullenly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t mean to kill you&mdash;but you&mdash;you struck me too hard&mdash;it drove me
+wild&mdash;and for a minute I didn&#8217;t know what I was doing.&#8221; Jenkins scowled,
+rubbed his throat again, and drank a glass of whiskey. Bancroft helped
+himself likewise, following it with a copious draught of water. As they
+faced each other again Jenkins edged away suspiciously toward the door;
+but Bancroft went back at once to the unsettled question.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It would ruin me, financially and in every other way, to go back on
+Baxter. You might just as well kill me outright as insist upon that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But I&#8217;m going to insist upon it,&#8221; was Jenkins&#8217;s sullen answer.</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft made a despairing gesture. &#8220;But I tell you, Jenkins, the
+thing&#8217;s impossible! It would ruin me just as surely as for you to tell
+all you know. You&#8217;ll have to be satisfied with something else.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins leaned against the bed and stared <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_134" id="Page_134">[Pg 134]</a></span>angrily at Bancroft. Physical
+pain had made him obstinate and determined him to press his point, more
+to return injury for injury than because he wanted that particular
+thing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I tell you now,&#8221; Bancroft went on, &#8220;that I&#8217;d rather take the last way
+out than try to go back on Baxter. It wouldn&#8217;t be the healthiest thing
+in the world for you if I should kill myself shut up in this room with
+you, would it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, I&#8217;ll waive that for the present,&#8221; Jenkins replied unwillingly;
+&#8220;but, mind you, it&#8217;s only for the present. We&#8217;ll talk about it again,
+later in the season. For the present I want a good, big sum before you
+leave this room, and hereafter I&#8217;ve got to have a regular monthly
+payment, a check on the first of every month when I don&#8217;t come after the
+cash myself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft considered for only a moment. His dilemma was clear: he must
+either buy this haltered freedom from Jenkins or kill him in his tracks.
+This latter alternative was not to be considered; and doubtless before
+long it would be possible to turn the tables on the creature and escape
+from his clutches.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins folded away in his pocket-book a check and a roll of bills and
+smiled as he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_135" id="Page_135">[Pg 135]</a></span>looked at Bancroft&#8217;s haggard face. &#8220;I hope, Mr. Dela&mdash;ah,
+pardon me,&mdash;Mr. Bancroft, that I have not kept you too long from your
+affairs at the bank.&#8221; As his eyes followed the banker&#8217;s disappearing
+figure with a gleam of satisfaction, he patted his breast pocket and
+whispered:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now for the other score!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_136" id="Page_136">[Pg 136]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_IX" id="CHAPTER_IX"></a>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+
+<h3>PERILS IN THE NIGHT</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">R</span>ed Jack and Jos&eacute; Gonzalez joined the forces of the Socorro Springs
+ranch while the cattle of the morning&#8217;s round-up were being driven to
+the watering-place near the ranch house. Across the road from the house
+stood a large grove of cottonwoods; a little beyond that, in the valley,
+a deep pond had been dug, into which flowed the outlets from the several
+springs. The cattle from a score of miles roundabout were accustomed to
+come to this pond, with its circling belt of trees, for water and for
+midday rest in the shade.</p>
+
+<p>Here the round-up was in progress, and Conrad galloped out to meet the
+new hand and give him instructions. As he rode off toward the hills
+after a bunch of straggling cattle Curtis looked after him with an
+approving eye. &#8220;He knows how to fork a horse, at least,&#8221; he thought. In
+the afternoon Jos&eacute; was set to work cutting out and bunching the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_137" id="Page_137">[Pg 137]</a></span>two-
+and three-year-old steers and later at helping with the branding. Conrad
+watched his handling of the branding irons, and he and all the rest
+stopped their work to follow his movements with critical eyes as he
+roped and brought to the ground a belligerent steer. The superintendent
+was well satisfied. &#8220;At last I&#8217;ve got a man who knows the business and
+has some <i>sabe</i>,&#8221; he thought. &#8220;If he goes on as well as he begins I&#8217;ll
+keep him after the shipping is done.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The next day the round-up crept slowly southward, accompanied by the
+chuck-wagon and a drove of fresh horses. At noon the cattle gathered
+during the morning were bunched at Adobe Springs, the next
+watering-place toward the Mexican border. Gonzalez was the only Mexican
+among the cowboys, the rest being Americans of one sort or another&mdash;from
+Texas, Colorado, the Northwest, and the Middle West. All felt toward him
+the contemptuous scorn born of difference in race and consequent
+conviction of superior merit. They had no scruples about making known
+their prejudice, and more than once his face flushed and his hand darted
+toward the knife hidden in his bosom. Yet, as the day wore on and they
+saw that he excelled the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_138" id="Page_138">[Pg 138]</a></span>best of them in handling the lasso and in the
+cunning of his movements when cutting out the steers from the herd, they
+began to show him the respect that skill of any sort inspires in those
+who know with what effort it is acquired.</p>
+
+<p>After supper, when they gathered about the campfire, smoking, and
+scoffing good-naturedly at one another&#8217;s tales of wondrous experiences,
+and talking over the events of the day just gone, they received him upon
+an equality with themselves which was only slightly grudged. He told
+them, in English more precise than any of them could speak, of Conrad&#8217;s
+encounter with Rutherford Jenkins in the Blue Front, and their
+appreciation of the tale completed the work which his skill as a cowboy
+had begun. Thereafter they looked upon Jos&eacute; as a comrade and a good
+fellow.</p>
+
+<p>Three small adobe houses, of one room each, with flat roofs and earthen
+floors, had been built here, as the large and never-failing springs made
+the spot a sure rendezvous for every round-up. The locality was infested
+by skunks, and the cowboys, who greatly feared midnight bites from the
+prowling animals, believing hydrophobia a sure consequence, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_139" id="Page_139">[Pg 139]</a></span>usually
+preferred to sleep inside the houses, on bunks filled with alfalfa hay.
+If they ventured to sleep out-of-doors, they kept small cans of coal oil
+ready and, whenever a wakeful man saw one of the small creatures near, a
+quick turn of the wrist drenched its fur with the fluid and a brand from
+the smouldering campfire tossed after it sent a squealing pillar of
+flame flying up the hill and saved them from further disturbance that
+night.</p>
+
+<p>A board nailed across a corner of the largest house served Conrad as a
+desk. He kept there a lamp, writing materials, and a few books. While
+the men sprawled around the campfire and the last gleams of dusky red
+faded from the west and the moon bounded up from behind the eastern
+hills, he made his memoranda, wrote a letter to be sent to the
+post-office by the first chance comer, and lost himself for an hour in a
+volume of Shakespeare. When he went outside the men were walking about,
+yawning and stretching, ready for sleep. Curtis&#8217;s imagination was still
+astir from his reading, and the presence of any other human being seemed
+an impertinence. But he said, genially:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, boys, you begin to look as if you wanted to turn in. Take
+whatever bunks you <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_140" id="Page_140">[Pg 140]</a></span>like, if you want to go inside. I&#8217;m going to sleep
+out here.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Better have a tin of ile handy,&#8221; said Red Jack. &#8220;The polecats are sure
+likely to nibble your toes if you don&#8217;t. The night I slept here last
+week I never saw the cusses so bad; durned if one of the critters didn&#8217;t
+get inside and wake me up smellin&#8217; of my ear. I was some skeered of him
+stinkin&#8217; up the place so it couldn&#8217;t be slept in for a year, so I jest
+had to lay low and wait for him to go outside, and then I doused him
+good with ile and throwed the candle at him. I sure reckon he&#8217;s holed up
+somewhere now, waitin&#8217; till he can afford a new sealskin sacque before
+he shows hisself in good sassiety ag&#8217;in.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t think they&#8217;ll bother me to-night,&#8221; Curtis responded. At that
+moment he felt that nothing could disturb him, if only he could be left
+alone with the moonlight and the plain. &#8220;I&#8217;ll sleep with my boots on,
+and my cheeks are not as fat as yours, Jack, so there&#8217;ll be no
+temptation. Where do you want to bunk, Jos&eacute;? You can sleep outside or
+in, just as you like.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez replied respectfully that he would rather go in. But presently
+he came out again with his blanket and chose a spot against the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_141" id="Page_141">[Pg 141]</a></span>wall of
+one of the houses. Conrad had gone out to the herd to speak with the man
+on patrol and to make sure that all was well. When he returned the men
+had disappeared. &#8220;Good!&#8221; he said to himself. &#8220;They&#8217;ve all gone inside
+and I&#8217;ve got the universe to myself.&#8221; He did not see the still form in
+its gray blanket close against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis took the red bandanna from his neck and tied it over his ears, to
+keep out the tiny things that crawl o&#8217; nights, and couched himself in
+his blanket on the gently rising ground with his saddle for a pillow. He
+lay down with his face to the east, where the dim and mellow sky,
+flooded with moonlight, seemed to recede far back, to the very limits of
+space, and leave the huge white globe suspended there in brooding
+majesty just above the plain. With long legs outstretched and muscles
+relaxed, he lay as still as if asleep, his eyes on its glowing disk. He
+knew all that science had discovered or guessed about the moon&#8217;s
+character and history. But it had companioned him on so many a silent
+ride across long miles of dimly gleaming plain, and on so many nights
+like this as he lay upon the earth it had gathered his thoughts into its
+great white bosom, that he could not image <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_142" id="Page_142">[Pg 142]</a></span>it to himself as a mere dead
+and barren satellite of the earth. More easily could he understand how
+the living Cynthia had once leaped earthward and been welcomed with
+belief and love.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad&#8217;s mind busied itself at first with the play he had just been
+reading, but presently wandered to his own affairs and the purpose that
+had been the dominant influence of half his life. He chuckled softly as
+he remembered the check he had recently received. &#8220;I&#8217;ve got him on the
+run,&#8221; he thought, &#8220;and I&#8217;m bound to lay him out sooner or later. Lord,
+but it will be a satisfaction to face him finally! And he&#8217;ll not get the
+drop on me first, either, unless Providence takes as good care of
+rascals as they say it does of fools.&#8221; He recalled himself now and then
+to listen to the sounds from the sleeping herd, to the hoof-beats of the
+horse as the cowboy on watch rode round and round the bunch, and to his
+voice singing in a lulling monotone. But gradually thought and will and
+sense sank back toward the verge of that great gulf out of which they
+spring.</p>
+
+<p>When next he opened his eyes the moon was dropping toward the western
+horizon, but he had turned in his sleep and its light <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_143" id="Page_143">[Pg 143]</a></span>was still upon
+his face. Lying motionless, Curtis listened to the sounds from the herd,
+his first thought being that something unusual there must have awakened
+him. The coyotes were yelping at one another from hill and plain, but
+through their barking he could hear the snorting sigh of a steer turning
+in its sleep, the tramp of the horse, and the cowboy&#8217;s lullaby. He
+recognized the voice as that of Peters, who was to have the third watch,
+and so knew that it must be well on toward morning. He was about to sink
+into slumber again when his gaze fell upon a small black and white
+animal nosing among some rocks near by. &#8220;Poor little devil! If it wakens
+any of the boys it will get a taste of hell out of proportion to its
+sins,&#8221; he thought, and decided that he would drive it away before any
+one else discovered it. But the languor of sleep still held him and not
+a muscle moved as his eyelids began to droop. Then, through his
+half-shut eyes, he became conscious that something was moving, over
+against one of the houses, among the shadows. His eyelids lifted again
+and he saw the Mexican rise out of his blanket, look about, and in a
+crouching posture move stealthily toward him. Something in his hand
+glittered in the moonlight.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_144" id="Page_144">[Pg 144]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s Jos&eacute;,&#8221; thought Conrad. &#8220;He&#8217;s coming for the skunk with a can of
+oil. Quick, or I&#8217;ll be too late!&#8221; He sprang to a sitting posture and
+flung out one arm. As he did so he noticed with sleepy surprise that
+Jos&eacute; was not facing toward the animal but was coming toward him. Then,
+before he had time to speak, the Mexican turned, a flying something
+shone in the moonlight like an electric flash, and Conrad&#8217;s eyes,
+following the gleam, saw the little creature pinned to the ground with a
+long knife through its neck and the gray sand darkening with its blood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Jos&eacute;, that was a wonderful throw!&#8221; he exclaimed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; the man replied quietly, as he stooped to draw out the
+knife and wipe it on the sand, &#8220;I am rather good at that sort of thing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_145" id="Page_145">[Pg 145]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_X" id="CHAPTER_X"></a>CHAPTER X</h2>
+
+<h3>BY A HAIR&#8217;S BREADTH</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">C</span>urtis Conrad rode to the farther side of a hill sloping gently
+northeast of the houses as the outfit was getting under way the next
+morning. He remembered having seen there a rather uncommon species of
+cactus, and he thought to make sure of it in order to secure a specimen
+for Lucy Bancroft&#8217;s collection when next he should pass that way on a
+homeward trip. Jos&eacute; Gonzalez noted his action and presently, when a
+steer broke wildly from the herd and ran back, it was Jos&eacute; who dashed
+after it. But, instead of heading it off and driving it back, he so
+man&oelig;uvred that he contrived to get it around the hill behind which he
+had seen Conrad disappear. The superintendent was digging busily in the
+ground with his pocket-knife, having decided to take up the plant and
+leave it in the house in readiness for his return journey.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_146" id="Page_146">[Pg 146]</a></span></p><p>Assured that the rest of the outfit was out of sight beyond the hill,
+Gonzalez left the steer to its own devices and galloped straight toward
+and behind the kneeling figure, his long knife drawn but concealed
+against his leg. Conrad&#8217;s attention was engrossed in what he was doing
+and his thoughts were all of Lucy Bancroft, of how pleased she would be
+to get this rare specimen, and of how necessary it would be for him to
+help her plant it. Jos&eacute; checked his horse into a walk and leaned
+forward, his eyes fastened on the other&#8217;s back, his knife lying half
+hidden in his palm. On the soft ground the hoof-beats of the horse made
+little sound and their faint, unresounding thud was masked by the noises
+from the moving herd.</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez drew rein within a few yards of his object and lifted his arm,
+with the knife balanced in his hand. At that instant the steer bellowed,
+and Curtis leaped to his feet, on the alert at once lest something had
+gone wrong with the herd. He saw the single steer and, wheeling around
+to look for others, his glance took in the Mexican, swerving his horse
+down the hill and deftly returning the knife to his belt. &#8220;Are you after
+the steer, Jos&eacute;?&#8221; he called. &#8220;Is that the only one loose?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_147" id="Page_147">[Pg 147]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yes, se&ntilde;or. The rest are all right. This one has given me a chase, but
+I&#8217;ll have him back right away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stop a minute, Jos&eacute;. Would you mind letting me use your knife? Mine&#8217;s
+too short and I haven&#8217;t anything else.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez rode up, dismounted, and held out the knife with a courteous
+smile. As he stood back with one leg forward, arms folded, and head held
+high, Curtis thought him an image of dashing, picturesque, masculine
+comeliness. &#8220;Jos&eacute;,&#8221; he said, &#8220;how did you get such skill in throwing the
+knife? I never saw anybody do the trick better than you did it last
+night. I shouldn&#8217;t like to have you,&#8221; and he smiled as he returned the
+weapon, &#8220;aim this thing at me as you did at that polecat.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>An answering smile flashed over Jos&eacute;&#8217;s dark face, lighting up his eyes
+and showing a row of white teeth beneath his moustache. &#8220;I have
+practised it much, se&ntilde;or. It is not easy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The next day, Conrad, Gonzalez, and several others were getting together
+some cattle in the foot-hills when three of the largest steers broke
+away and raced wildly back toward their grazing grounds. The
+superintendent <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_148" id="Page_148">[Pg 148]</a></span>called the Mexican to help him, and told the others to
+take the remainder of the cattle, with all they might find on the way,
+back to the day herd.</p>
+
+<p>Two gallant figures they made as they galloped across the plain, the
+wind blowing up the wide brims of their hats, the grace and freedom of
+strength and skill in every movement of body and limb. Lariats were at
+their saddle horns, and Curtis carried a six-shooter in his belt, but
+Gonzalez had only his knife, thrust into his boot leg. They circled and
+headed off the steers, which eluded and dashed past them again and
+again, until presently Conrad noticed that the largest of the three
+acted as a sort of leader. &#8220;Rope him, Jos&eacute;,&#8221; he called, &#8220;and then we can
+manage the others.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As Gonzalez in response came galloping toward the animal from one side,
+Curtis rushed past it on the other to prevent it from getting away and
+giving another chase. He glanced at the loop that came whirring through
+the air and his heart gave a bound of vexation. &#8220;The fool greaser is
+throwing too far,&#8221; he muttered. With an instinct of sudden peril he dug
+in his spurs and his horse made a quick, long leap. He whirled about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_149" id="Page_149">[Pg 149]</a></span>in
+time to see the snakey noose fall on the spot whence they had jumped.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s the matter with you, Jos&eacute;?&#8221; he shouted. &#8220;You nearly roped me
+instead of the steer! Try it again.&#8221; Gonzalez coiled his rope and
+galloped after the steer and half an hour later the two men rode into
+the round-up, driving the panting and humbled animals.</p>
+
+<p>One of the younger and less experienced men, Billy Black, generally
+known as &#8220;Billy Kid,&#8221; happened to lame his horse and bruise himself that
+day, and was ordered to stay in camp to nurse his knee. At Rock Springs,
+where they made camp next day, a man who gave his name as Andy Miller
+rode up and asked for a job. He explained that he had been working on a
+little ranch over toward Randall but had got tired of the place and was
+pushing for the railroad. Hampered by Billy Black&#8217;s accident, Conrad was
+glad of the opportunity and tested his skill with horse and rope.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll do,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;m short of hands, and you can stay with us
+until we get to the railroad if you like.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The new man was stockily built, and looked strong and agile. Around the
+campfire that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_150" id="Page_150">[Pg 150]</a></span>night he won his way at once into the good graces of the
+other men, cracking jokes, telling stories, and roaring out cowboy songs
+until bedtime. They were so hilarious that Conrad joined their circle,
+smoked his after-supper pipe with them, and laughed at Miller&#8217;s jokes
+and yarns.</p>
+
+<p>The Rock Springs watering-hole was in a hilly region, broken here and
+there by stony gulches. The outflow from the springs ran through a
+ravine which furrowed the hillside to its foot, turned abruptly
+westward, and widened out into a goodly pool, where the cattle waded and
+drank. The camp lay on the hillside above the springs, and the cattle
+were bunched over its brow on the other side.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad wakened early and an inviting image came to him of that pool,
+lying still and clear in the dim gray light, untroubled by the miring
+hoofs of the cattle. No one else, except the Chinese cook, busy with his
+breakfast fire, seemed to be awake, and no one stirred as Curtis moved
+down the hill, past the springs, and over the rise beyond. But Gonzalez,
+motionless in his blanket, watched his departure. And presently, when
+the cook had disappeared in the chuck-wagon, Jos&eacute; rose, cast a cautious
+glance over the sleeping camp, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_151" id="Page_151">[Pg 151]</a></span>and followed Conrad, taking advantage of
+occasional boulders, clumps of mesquite, greasewood, and yucca to
+conceal his movements. At the springs he turned down the gulch,
+following its course to the basin of the drinking hole, where he hid
+behind a great boulder, barely ten feet from the bank where lay the
+other&#8217;s clothing.</p>
+
+<p>With wary eyes he watched while the superintendent waded out to the
+deepest part of the pool, ducked and splashed, swam a little, and
+presently returned to the shore. Through the brightening air the lean
+and sinewy body with its swelling muscles gleamed like rose-tinted
+marble below the tanned face and neck. Behind the boulder Jos&eacute; crouched
+closer and drew the knife from his belt, while his body grew tense as he
+watched Conrad rub himself down and put on his clothes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will he never keep still a second?&#8221; Gonzalez asked himself impatiently,
+as he poised his knife. Curtis sat down on a flat stone and reached for
+his shoes and stockings, whistling a gay little melody from the last
+comic opera he had heard in San Francisco.</p>
+
+<p>A sound of shouting and the muffled noise of rushing cattle broke
+through the morning air, which had been as still and untroubled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_152" id="Page_152">[Pg 152]</a></span>as the
+surface of the pool. Conrad, his music silenced and nerves alert, faced
+quickly toward the camp, turning his body from the waist upward and
+giving Gonzalez a fair three-quarters view of his torso.</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican, ready and waiting, seized an instant of arrested motion,
+and sent the poised weapon straight for his heart. As it left Jos&eacute;&#8217;s
+hand, the stone on which Curtis sat, yielding to the twisting motion of
+his body, slipped under him, and he threw out his left arm to preserve
+his balance. He was aware of something bright cleaving the air, of a
+sudden pain in his arm, and a stinging point in his side. But before his
+brain could realize what had happened, he saw Jos&eacute; Gonzalez leap from
+behind the boulder and rush toward him, befouling the air with a string
+of Spanish oaths.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad sprang to his feet and wheeled, with right fist ready to meet the
+attack, before Jos&eacute; could reach him. The Mexican flew at him with both
+arms outstretched, meaning to seize his throat and throttle him before
+he could comprehend his danger. Curtis saw the open guard and landed a
+blow on his chest which sent him staggering backward. But he returned at
+once, with left arm raised <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_153" id="Page_153">[Pg 153]</a></span>in defence and right hand ready to seize the
+other&#8217;s shirt collar and choke him senseless.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment only was Conrad at a disadvantage by reason of the
+suddenness of the assault. But with the knife still bedded in his
+bleeding and helpless left arm, his only weapon was his right fist,
+which he must use for both defence and attack. The Mexican&#8217;s eyes were
+fired with the passion of combat, and the other, ignorant of why they
+were fighting, knew only, by his blanched face and set jaws, that his
+purpose was deadly.</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez, after that first blow upon his chest, was wary. He danced
+around Conrad, making feints and trying to get inside his guard. But
+Curtis, whose brain was working in lightning-like flashes, did not waste
+his strength pounding the air. He kept his assailant eluding his feints
+and jumping to escape pretended charges, thinking to wear him out in
+that way. He soon saw that he was the superior in boxing skill, as well
+as being both taller and heavier than his foe, and he began to feel
+assured of final victory, notwithstanding his useless hand and disabled
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>Jos&eacute;&#8217;s effort was constantly toward Conrad&#8217;s left side, and Curtis
+guessed that he was <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_154" id="Page_154">[Pg 154]</a></span>trying to get possession of the knife still
+sticking in his arm. He knew that if Gonzalez recovered that weapon his
+chance of life would be small indeed. His bare feet were bleeding from
+the sharp little stones on the bank of the pool, but he was conscious
+neither of that nor of pain in arm or side, though the blood from his
+wound was making a red streak down his shirt and trousers. But he
+continued to hear, with a kind of divided consciousness, the sound of
+shouts, the rushing of cattle, and the hoofs of galloping horses. In the
+back of his brain he knew that there had been a stampede of the herd,
+and with attention absorbed in his fight for life, the thought that he
+was needed at the camp spurred him on to more desperate effort.</p>
+
+<p>Jos&eacute; made a dash for his left side, but Curtis turned and with all his
+force sent a blow which caught the Mexican, intent on the knife, with
+shoulder unguarded. Gonzalez spun half round and reeled backward. Conrad
+had planted one foot on a rounding stone, and as he delivered the blow
+it slipped and sent him headlong. He was up again in an instant, barely
+in time to save himself from Jos&eacute;&#8217;s fingers, which clutched at his
+throat. But Gonzalez had got inside his guard and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_155" id="Page_155">[Pg 155]</a></span>they gripped, the one
+with one arm and the other with two, for what each felt must be the
+final struggle. The American caught Jos&eacute;&#8217;s left arm between their two
+bodies and, reaching around him, grasped the other wrist in his right
+hand. They swayed back and forth, Jos&eacute; exerting all the strength of his
+muscles to free his arms, while Conrad, gripping him close, used all the
+remnant of his strength to throw him down.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the Mexican&#8217;s eyes were gleaming with an ugly light and his
+olive cheeks were flushed with anger. Whatever the purpose that had
+moved him at first, Curtis saw that he was fighting now with the
+aboriginal rage of conflict, with the fierce hate born of the blows he
+had received. He kicked wildly at the superintendent&#8217;s shins and
+accidentally planted the heel of his boot squarely upon the other&#8217;s bare
+foot. Conrad&#8217;s face twitched with the hurt, and with a snarling grin
+Gonzalez lifted the other for similar purpose, forgetting shrewd tactics
+of battle in the lust of giving pain to his opponent. But Curtis caught
+the momentary advantage of unstable balance and with a twist and a lunge
+they came down together, Conrad&#8217;s left shoulder striking against a stone
+beside which <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_156" id="Page_156">[Pg 156]</a></span>the Mexican fell. Thrilling with the surety of triumph,
+his enemy pinned to the ground, Curtis was barely conscious of a
+snapping in his shoulder and a sharp pain in his collar bone. With one
+knee on Gonzalez&#8217;s chest, he pulled the knife from his left arm, broke
+it across the boulder, and threw the bloodstained pieces far out into
+the pond. His assailant was at his mercy now and the heat and anger of
+combat ebbed from his veins as he looked down at the Mexican&#8217;s
+unresisting figure.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You have bested me this time, Don Curtis,&#8221; said Gonzalez quietly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Get up, Jos&eacute;,&#8221; replied Conrad rising, and the two men, panting from
+their conflict, faced each other. Jos&eacute; stood with his arms folded and
+head erect and looked at his employer with unafraid eyes, in which
+smouldered only the traces of his recent rage. Conrad surveyed him
+thoughtfully for a moment before he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jos&eacute;, what did you do it for?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican smiled but made no reply.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you got anything against me?&#8221; Conrad persisted. &#8220;Do you think I&#8217;ve
+mistreated you or injured you in any way?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, se&ntilde;or, I have nothing against you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_157" id="Page_157">[Pg 157]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Then what&mdash;by God, are you one of Dell Baxter&#8217;s thugs? Has he sent you
+down here to stick me in the back?&#8221; Impelled by the flash of sudden
+conviction, Conrad thrust his face close to the other&#8217;s and glared into
+his eyes. Gonzalez stepped back a pace and looked gravely across the
+hill at the reddening sky. His composed face and closely shut lips
+showed that he did not intend to answer.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, all right!&#8221; Curtis exclaimed. &#8220;I don&#8217;t expect you to peach on your
+pal. But I reckon I&#8217;ve sure struck the right trail this time. And look
+here, Jos&eacute;! Was it me you were after when you stuck your knife in that
+skunk?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican&#8217;s eyes fell and his black brows met in a frown. He was
+thinking how much trouble this man had given him by springing up so
+unexpectedly that night. But for that it would all have been so easy and
+simple!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I reckon it was!&#8221; Conrad went on hotly. &#8220;And I reckon it was me instead
+of the steer you rode after the next morning, with your knife ready when
+I looked up. And I reckon it was me instead of the steer you tried to
+rope when you made that remarkable miss. I&#8217;ve been a fool to trust a
+damned greaser, even when he was in plain sight. But look <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_158" id="Page_158">[Pg 158]</a></span>here, Jos&eacute;
+Gonzalez!&#8221; Conrad stopped and glared into the Mexican&#8217;s sombre and
+inscrutable eyes. Holding his bleeding left arm in his right hand he
+leaned forward, head thrust out and eyes blazing.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Just you look here, Jos&eacute; Gonzalez!&#8221; he repeated. &#8220;I&#8217;m onto your little
+game now, and if I can&#8217;t be a match for any greaser that ever tried to
+stick a man in the back, I&#8217;ll deserve all I&#8217;ll get! Just come on and try
+it again whenever you like! Keep at work with the round-up if you want
+to&mdash;I&#8217;m not going to give you your time for this. But I am going to
+write to Dell Baxter that I&#8217;m onto his scheme and that the minute you
+make another crack at me there&#8217;ll be a bullet in your brain&mdash;and another
+in his as soon as I can get to Santa Fe to put it there, and that he&#8217;d
+better call you off if he wants to save his own skin. But if you can get
+me without my catching on first you&#8217;re welcome, that&#8217;s all!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The rush of running cattle swept across their preoccupied ears, and both
+men turned to see a dozen steers sweep past the other end of the pond
+and up the hill.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Quick, Jos&eacute;! Help me head them off and turn them into the pond!&#8221; Conrad
+exclaimed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_159" id="Page_159">[Pg 159]</a></span>as he started off in his bare feet. His long strides covered
+the distance quickly, and with hoots and yells and waving arm he soon
+turned their course down the hillside toward the water. Gonzalez was
+close behind, and together they man&oelig;uvred the frightened beasts to
+the pond, where the animals forgot their panic, waded in quietly, and
+began to drink.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jos&eacute;,&#8221; said the superintendent, as he sat down at the water&#8217;s edge and
+began to bathe his muddy, bleeding feet, &#8220;I shall not mention this
+affair to any one here. I&#8217;ll say that a steer horned me just now. I&#8217;ve
+broken my collar bone, I think, and I&#8217;ve got this cut in my arm, and
+I&#8217;ll have to go to Golden at once to get patched up. When I come back I
+want you to remember what I just told you about getting daylight through
+your skull if you try any of your tricks on me again. There comes Red
+Jack after these cattle. Go and help drive them back to camp.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_160" id="Page_160">[Pg 160]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XI" id="CHAPTER_XI"></a>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+
+<h3>BATTLING THE ELEMENTS</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he shadows of the little rolling hills still sprawled across the
+intervening valleys when Curtis Conrad started back at a gallop over the
+road which his outfit had been slowly traversing for four days. To his
+foreman, Hank Peters, he had said that he had been thrown and gored by a
+steer and must go to Golden to have his collar bone set, and ordered him
+to stay where he was, cutting out and branding, that day and night, and
+camp the day after at Five Cottonwoods, where he would rejoin them.</p>
+
+<p>The men puzzled and gossiped about the accident to their employer. &#8220;I
+don&#8217;t see how it was possible,&#8221; said Peters, &#8220;for such a thing to happen
+to a man that&#8217;s got the boss&#8217;s gumption about cow-brutes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;None of &#8217;em was on the prod when I got to the pond,&#8221; Red Jack declared.
+&#8220;Jos&eacute;, you was with him. Did you see the scrimmage?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_161" id="Page_161">[Pg 161]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I did not see the boss when he was down,&#8221; Gonzalez replied in his
+precise, slightly accented English. &#8220;I was at the spring and heard him
+yell and I ran down to the pond at once, for I thought he needed help. I
+stumbled and fell and sprained my shoulder&mdash;it hurts me yet&mdash;so that
+when I reached the pond he was on his feet again and trying to drive the
+cattle into the water. I helped him and then we went back to where his
+shoes were. That was where Jack saw us. His arm bled a good deal there.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Somethin&#8217; happened,&#8221; observed Hank Peters, &#8220;and if the boss says it was
+a steer on the prod, I sure reckon it was. But the thing that&#8217;s
+troublin&#8217; me most is what started them critters off. I didn&#8217;t see or
+hear a blamed thing likely to set &#8217;em goin&#8217;. Did any of you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t,&#8221; Texas Bill spoke up; &#8220;but Andy was there first. Did you see
+what it was, Andy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Andy Miller, the new hand, stopped to draw several deep whiffs from his
+newly lighted pipe before he replied. &#8220;No; I couldn&#8217;t make out anything,
+and I was right at the edge of &#8217;em, too. They jumped and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_162" id="Page_162">[Pg 162]</a></span>started all at
+once, as crazy as I ever see a bunch of critters.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mebbe you skeered &#8217;em some, they not bein&#8217; used to you,&#8221; suggested
+Billy Kid.</p>
+
+<p>Andy grinned. &#8220;Well, I sure ain&#8217;t boastin&#8217; none about the beauty of my
+phiz, but no gal ain&#8217;t told me yet that I was ugly enough to stampede a
+herd of cow-brutes,&#8221; and the subject was dropped with the laugh that
+followed.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad&#8217;s mare, larger and of better breed than the cow ponies, put the
+ground rapidly under her feet throughout the early morning. Though never
+trained for range work and used only for riding, he always took her on
+the round-up, in readiness for emergencies. His habit of talking to
+himself, engendered by much solitary riding, was often varied by
+one-sided conversations with the mare, and whatever the subject which
+occupied his thoughts and found fragmentary utterance in speech, his
+sentences were interspersed with frequent remarks to Brown Betty.
+Apparently she found this custom as companionable as he did, for she was
+sure to protest at a long period of silence.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;So, ho, my pretty Brown B.,&#8221; said Conrad gently, as he patted the
+mare&#8217;s sleek neck, &#8220;that&#8217;s the pace to give &#8217;em!&#8221; A sharp <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_163" id="Page_163">[Pg 163]</a></span>twinge in his
+shoulder set his lips together, and an oath, having Congressman Baxter
+as its objective, came from between his teeth. &#8220;I&#8217;ll write that damned
+Baxter a letter,&#8221; he broke out savagely, &#8220;that will singe his eyelashes
+when he reads it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His thoughts went back to the subject which so frequently occupied
+them&mdash;his lifelong, vengeful quest of the man who had despoiled his
+father, wrought destruction upon their home, and changed the current of
+his own life. His heart waxed hot as he recalled his interview with
+Rutherford Jenkins. Never for an instant had he doubted that Jenkins&#8217;s
+statement was a deliberate lie. Smiling grimly, he stroked the mare&#8217;s
+mane. &#8220;I was a fool, wasn&#8217;t I, Betty, to suppose I&#8217;d get straight goods
+out of him. It cost me five hundred dollars to find out that he&#8217;s a
+skunk,&mdash;which I knew before. I deserved all I got, didn&#8217;t I, Betty, for
+not having more gumption.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The frontiersman&#8217;s caution, which grows almost instinctive in one who
+rides much alone over plain and mountain, sent his eyes now and again to
+search the long stretch of road that trailed its faint gray band across
+the hills behind and before him and to scan <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_164" id="Page_164">[Pg 164]</a></span>the sun-flooded reach from
+horizon to horizon. A red stain accentuated the meeting line of sky and
+plain in the west.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Betty Brown, do you see that red mark yonder?&#8221; he said, gently pulling
+her ear. &#8220;That means a sand-storm, and we&#8217;ve got to hike along at a
+pretty stiff pace while we can. What do you think about it, my lady?&#8221;
+The mare raised her head and gave a little snort. &#8220;Smell it, don&#8217;t you?&#8221;
+he went on as he patted her approvingly. &#8220;Well, that&#8217;s where you&#8217;re
+smarter than I am, for I reckon I shan&#8217;t be able to do that for another
+hour.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He fell silent again, thinking of the Delafield matter and Jenkins&#8217;s
+assertion that Bancroft was Delafield. &#8220;He sure knows who Delafield is,&#8221;
+was his conclusion, announced aloud, &#8220;but he&#8217;s not going to tell. He&#8217;s
+probably blackmailing the man, whoever he is, and he won&#8217;t take any
+chances that would be likely to spoil his income. Well, that proves that
+Delafield is somebody in New Mexico rich enough and prominent enough to
+make it worth while for Jenkins to keep his knowledge to himself. I&#8217;ve
+got that much for my five hundred, anyway. Lord, Betty, wasn&#8217;t I a
+tenderfoot!&#8221; and he swore under his breath, half angrily, half amusedly,
+as he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_165" id="Page_165">[Pg 165]</a></span>turned again to study the road and the plain. The heat haze was
+rising, and the clear white sunlight was master of earth and sky. Far to
+one side he noted the silvery lake of a mirage. But the red line had
+mounted higher, and become a low, dirty-red wall that seemed to fence
+the western expanse from north to south. &#8220;It sure looks like a bad one,
+Betty, and I&#8217;m afraid we shan&#8217;t be able to get home to-night after all.
+But we&#8217;ll make Adobe Springs anyway, if it doesn&#8217;t catch us too soon.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The pain in his shoulder brought his mind back to the conviction that
+Baxter had instigated the assault upon him, and he began searching for
+the motive. Did the Congressman think his political opposition important
+enough to make his taking off desirable? Suddenly he slapped his thigh
+and broke out aloud: &#8220;Lord! what if Baxter should be Delafield! He sure
+ought to be if there&#8217;s anything in the eternal fitness of things. If he
+should be&mdash;ah-h,&#8221; and he broke off with a hard, unmirthful laugh.
+Ransacking his memory for all he knew of Baxter&#8217;s life he presently
+shook his head regretfully. &#8220;No; the facts are against it. There&#8217;s
+nothing in that lead. It&#8217;s a pity, though, for it would <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_166" id="Page_166">[Pg 166]</a></span>be a
+satisfaction&mdash;to say nothing of the public benefit&mdash;to knock &#8217;em both
+off the roost at one pop.&#8221; His mind busied itself with conjectures about
+Delafield&#8217;s identity, as he considered first one and then another of the
+more prominent men in the Territory. He was silent so long that the mare
+tossed her head impatiently and whinnied. Curtis smiled and stroked her
+mane.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello, old girl!&#8221; he said aloud, &#8220;getting lonesome, are you, and you
+want to be talked to. Oh, you&#8217;re spoiled, Betty B., that&#8217;s what you are.
+We&#8217;ll go up the hill and see Miss Bancroft, won&#8217;t we, Betty, while we&#8217;re
+in Golden; and we&#8217;ll take that cactus to her, and help her plant it. And
+she&#8217;ll come out to the fence to see you, Betty; and she&#8217;ll give you a
+lump of sugar, and pat your nose, and look as sweet as a pink rose with
+brown velvet eyes. She&#8217;s a bully fine girl and we like her, don&#8217;t we,
+Betty Brown? The way she sticks by her father is great; he couldn&#8217;t help
+being a first-class fellow, could he, B. B., with such a daughter as
+that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The red wall was rising in the sky, devouring its sunlit blue and
+spreading out into smoky-red, angry-looking clouds. A high wind, hot and
+dry, swept across the plain <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_167" id="Page_167">[Pg 167]</a></span>from the west. All the cattle within
+Conrad&#8217;s range of vision had turned their heads to the east and,
+although they were still grazing, moved only in that direction. Seeing a
+herd of antelope headed the same way, Curtis took the red bandanna from
+his neck and waved it toward them. As the bright signal floated in the
+wind their leader turned, stared, and began to walk back, the whole herd
+following with raised heads and gaze fixed in fascinated interest. He
+flaunted the red square and they came steadily on, until presently the
+warning of danger in the hot wind and the odor of the approaching storm
+overcame the compulsion of curiosity, and they wheeled again, away from
+the threatened peril.</p>
+
+<p>The small life of the plain was fleeing before the furnace-like breath
+of those red, surging clouds. Jackrabbits leaped across the road on
+fleet legs, and occasionally Conrad saw coyotes, singly or in packs,
+running eastward as for their lives. Fat carrion crows hurried their
+unwieldy flight and, higher in the air, a frequent lone hawk sailed out
+of the west, while now and then a road-runner cut across his path with
+hasting feet.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going to be a bad one, I guess,&#8221; Curtis muttered, jamming his soft
+hat down <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_168" id="Page_168">[Pg 168]</a></span>closer on his head. The mare seemed to be trying of her own
+accord to escape the storm, and her swinging lope was steadily leaving
+the miles behind. &#8220;Keep it up, Betty, keep it up,&#8221; he said
+encouragingly. &#8220;I want to reach Adobe Springs and get this message to
+Baxter off my mind. My shoulder&#8217;s aching, old girl, but it ain&#8217;t aching
+a bit more than I am to tell him what I think of him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Soon the sand-storm was upon them, concealing the landscape and covering
+the sky with its clouds. Upon man and beast it beat as bitterly as a
+sand-blast. It pelted and stung Conrad&#8217;s face and neck, and filled his
+eyes and ears and nostrils until he was forced now and again to pull his
+hat over his face for a moment&#8217;s respite in which to draw a less choking
+breath. &#8220;It looks as if all Arizona had got up and dusted, and was
+hell-bent to get out of here,&#8221; he jested grimly, as he bent over the
+mare&#8217;s neck and encouraged her with voice and gentle stroke. &#8220;That shows
+good sense, Betty, though it&#8217;s mighty hard on us. Come right along, old
+girl; we must get to Adobe Springs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><a name="Illo2" id="Illo2"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 319px;">
+<img src="images/i167.jpg" class="jpg ispace" width="319" height="500" alt="&#8220;Upon man and beast the sand-storm beat bitterly&#8221;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Upon man and beast the sand-storm beat bitterly</span>&#8221;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>As the air grew thicker there shone from the sky, instead of the vivid
+white sunshine of a few hours before, only a dim, diffused, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_169" id="Page_169">[Pg 169]</a></span>lurid light. Even to Curtis, sitting quartering in the saddle with his
+back twisted toward the wind, Brown Betty&#8217;s ears were barely visible.
+For a while he allowed the mare to follow the road herself, until he
+found that her sense of duty must be supplemented by authority. For,
+under the discomfort of the belaboring wind and stinging sand, she began
+to yield to her instinct to turn tail and drift before the storm. Then
+he knew that he must keep a firm hand on the bridle, and his attention
+at the highest pitch, or they would soon be wandering helplessly over
+the plain. He walked long distances beside the mare, with his body
+shielding her head and with speech and caress keeping up her courage.
+Their progress was slow, for the force of the storm was so great that,
+though it beat against them from the side, they could struggle through
+it only at a walk.</p>
+
+<p>Hour after hour went by, and the only sign of its passage was that a
+dim, yellowish centre of illumination, that had once been the sun, crept
+slowly across the sky. As the day grew older Conrad&#8217;s pain from his
+injury became more acute. Most of the time he felt it only as an
+insistent background to the keen outward discomfort of stinging sand and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_170" id="Page_170">[Pg 170]</a></span>pounding wind. But when an occasional sharper twinge brought it more
+vividly to his consciousness he swore a little between his teeth, and
+thought of the letter he was going to write to Dellmey Baxter. The
+particles of sand filled his hair and encrusted his face and neck until
+they were of a uniform brick-red. Constant effort and encouragement were
+necessary to keep Brown Betty in the road, and finally he was compelled
+to walk at her head most of the time and with a guiding hand on her
+bridle counteract the unflagging urge of her instinct to drift before
+the blast.</p>
+
+<p>Thus they battled their way through the hot, beating wind and
+suffocating sand, while that vague core of light moved athwart the dirty
+heavens, dropped slowly down the western sky, and was swallowed up in
+the denser banks of dusk above the horizon. It had been too dark before
+for the discernment of objects, but a yellowish glare had filtered
+through the sand-laden air, lending a lurid, semi-translucence to the
+atmosphere. Now even that was gone, leaving a desert enveloped in pitchy
+darkness, while the wind roared about the ears of the travellers and
+pounded their bodies as with cudgels and the sand pelted their skins.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_171" id="Page_171">[Pg 171]</a></span></p><p>Most of the time Curtis depended upon the feel of the road under his
+feet to maintain his direction, but now and then it was necessary for
+him to get down on his hands and knees in order to recover the track
+from which they had begun to stray. Once his fingers came in contact
+with a small feathered body. The bird tried to start up under his hand.
+He knew it must be disabled and placed it inside his shirt. Thus they
+plodded on through the night and the storm, the pain in his shoulder
+growing keener and the torture of the wind and sand ever more
+nerve-racking.</p>
+
+<p>At last the mare raised her head and gave a long whinny. Conrad felt
+sure that she was announcing their near approach to the food and shelter
+within the adobe houses. &#8220;What is it, Betty? Do you know where we are?&#8221;
+he asked, and she rubbed her nose against his face, nickered, and pulled
+at the bridle with the evident desire to turn from the direction they
+were pursuing. Curtis knew they were in a little hollow, and thought it
+might be that into which the road dipped after leaving the houses.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right, Betty,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ll follow your lead a little way, but be
+cautious, old girl, and don&#8217;t tie up to any lying hunches.&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_172" id="Page_172">[Pg 172]</a></span>He
+slackened his hold on the bridle, and the mare started off eagerly. They
+climbed a hill, and presently Conrad was aware of a black mass before
+him. Putting out his hand he felt an adobe wall. The mare crowded close
+against it, and stopped. She had left the road, which took the hill at a
+long sloping angle from the foot of the rise, and had climbed straight
+up the steep incline. He felt his way around the corner, unfastened the
+door, and entered. An emphatic &#8220;Whew!&#8221; gave vent to his feeling of
+relief. The mare, close at his heels, snorted in response, and Curtis,
+smiling in the dark, threw his arm across her neck in fellowship and
+said, &#8220;Feels good, doesn&#8217;t it, Betty B., to get out of that hurricane
+from hell?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>By the light of a lantern he led the mare to the spring, stabling her
+afterward in one of the houses. &#8220;In the best society, Betty Brown,&#8221; he
+explained, &#8220;it&#8217;s not considered good form for horses to sleep in men&#8217;s
+houses. But you deserve the best I can give you to-night, blest if you
+don&#8217;t, old girl, and you shall have it, too.&#8221; He gathered together, for
+her food and her bed, the alfalfa hay from several of the bunks, and
+found for her also a small measure of oats. Then, having <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_173" id="Page_173">[Pg 173]</a></span>attended to
+her wants, he looked about for something to stay his own hunger.</p>
+
+<p>It was his custom to keep some canned provisions in the place, as the
+station was much used by his men. On a little smouldering fire in one
+corner of the room, he made some tea in a tin can. A frying-pan hung
+against the wall, and in it, awkwardly fumbling with his one useful
+hand, he contrived to warm a stew of tinned <i>chile con carne</i> and pilot
+bread. Fine sand drifted in and settled in a red dust over the food as
+he ate, and he could feel its grit between his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>The bird he had carried in his bosom he found to be a Southwestern
+tanager. Its pinkish-red plumage shone with a silvery radiance in the
+lamplight. One of its legs was broken, and one wing had been injured.
+&#8220;I&#8217;ll take it to Miss Bancroft,&#8221; he said aloud, &#8220;and she&#8217;ll care for it
+till it can shift for itself again, poor little devil!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>With intense satisfaction Conrad at last sat down to the letter in which
+he had all day been longing to express his feelings. &#8220;I wonder,&#8221; he
+thought, &#8220;if Dellmey Baxter did it because he don&#8217;t like the things I
+say about him. Well, he&#8217;ll have to get used to it, then, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_174" id="Page_174">[Pg 174]</a></span>for I&#8217;m not
+going to quit.&#8221; There was a grim smile on his face as he wrote:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I consider it the square thing to tell you that I am onto the game
+of your man, Jos&eacute; Gonzalez. We had our first set-to this morning,
+in which he winged me, but I got the best of him. I could have
+killed him if I had wanted to, but he is such a good cowboy I hated
+to do him up. I am going to keep him in my employ, but I want you
+to understand, distinctly, that if he makes another crack at me I
+shall go to Santa Fe as quick as I can get there and make a
+Christmas gift of you to the devil before you know what&#8217;s
+happening.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 5em;">&#8220;Yours truly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 1.5em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Curtis Conrad.</span></span></p>
+
+<p>&#8220;P. S. I am still shouting for Johnny Martinez for Congress. C. C.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>&#8220;There!&#8221; he exclaimed, as he sealed the envelope and threw it down
+contemptuously; &#8220;I sure reckon he won&#8217;t be so anxious for me to turn up
+my toes with my boots on after he reads that.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The pain in Conrad&#8217;s arm and shoulder had become so keen that he could
+not sleep. He lay in his bunk listening to the rattling of the door and
+the rage of the wind against the house, seeking to keep his mind from
+the stabbing pain long enough to sink into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_175" id="Page_175">[Pg 175]</a></span>unconsciousness. But no
+sooner did his eyelids begin to close down heavily than a fresh throb
+made him start up again wide awake. This irritated him more than did the
+other suffering, and finally he jumped up angrily, found a copy of
+Lecky&#8217;s &#8220;History of European Morals,&#8221; and, with the muttered comment,
+&#8220;This is about what I need to-night,&#8221; settled himself on an empty
+cracker box and read the night away. Toward morning he became aware that
+the wind was abating, and a little later that less sand was drifting
+into his retreat.</p>
+
+<p>Breakfast was eaten and Brown Betty cared for by lamplight and with the
+first dim rays of morning he set out once more upon the road. The bird
+was again in his bosom, and the cactus, wrapped in old newspapers,
+rested at the back of his saddle. The storm had passed, but the air was
+still full of dust particles through which the sun shone, red and smoky.
+Curtis knew that these would settle gradually with the passing hours and
+the sky become as clear as usual. Already he could see the road for
+several rods in front of him, and that was all he needed to keep it
+flying under Brown Betty&#8217;s feet.</p>
+
+<p>At the ranch house Mrs. Peters told him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_176" id="Page_176">[Pg 176]</a></span>that a man had been there
+looking for work and described his appearance. &#8220;Yes; he overtook us at
+Rock Springs, and I hired him,&#8221; Conrad said. Then, remembering the
+account Andy Miller had given of his previous situation, he asked her if
+the man had said where he came from.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; she replied; &#8220;he didn&#8217;t say where he&#8217;d been working; but he came
+from toward Golden.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The superintendent thought the discrepancy rather curious, but decided
+it was nothing more than a not unusual cowboy eccentricity of statement.
+He resumed his journey with no misgivings, and mid-afternoon found him
+arguing with the physician at Golden that he might just as well start
+back to the round-up that same night.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_177" id="Page_177">[Pg 177]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XII" id="CHAPTER_XII"></a>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE FIRST SHOT</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>lexander Bancroft sat in his private room with Curtis Conrad&#8217;s return
+checks before him. They were not many: one in favor of his brother at
+the University of Michigan, one for a mail order house in Chicago, a
+small one to a New York publishing concern,&mdash;and his eyes fell upon the
+name of Rutherford Jenkins and the amount,&mdash;five hundred dollars. He
+stared at the slip of paper for a moment, conviction rushing to his mind
+that his pursuer knew the truth; then he took his revolver from his
+pocket and examined its chambers. &#8220;I may have to do him up myself!&#8221; he
+thought, his lips tightening. But sudden hesitation gripped his heart.
+Until within a few weeks he had considered Curtis one of his best
+friends, had liked the young cattleman whole-heartedly, admiring and
+enjoying his impulsiveness, his geniality, his ardent loyalty to his
+friends, and his equally ardent hostility to those he disliked. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_178" id="Page_178">[Pg 178]</a></span>Now the
+good-fellowship he had been accustomed to feel stopped his hand. &#8220;Can it
+be possible,&#8221; he asked himself for the hundredth time, &#8220;that this
+eager-hearted, companionable fellow will really carry out his deadly
+purpose?&#8221; He recalled the intensity with which Conrad had spoken of his
+long quest for revenge, his vehemence toward his enemies, his
+impetuosity. Again conviction grew strong upon him that, when the man
+knew, the end would come. The frontier code by which he had lived so
+long nerved his heart, and he muttered, &#8220;He shan&#8217;t smash things&mdash;now!
+I&#8217;ll smash him before I&#8217;ll let him do that!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He swung the revolver into position and took sight. As his eye glanced
+down the barrel he saw that it was pointing at Lucy&#8217;s pictured face,
+smiling down from the top of his desk; his hand shook as he laid down
+the weapon. There was a knock at the door, and he made sudden pretence
+of close attention to the papers before him. The door partly opened and
+he heard Conrad&#8217;s voice outside. Surety of imminent peril seized
+Bancroft&#8217;s mind. The instinct of self-defence sent his hand to his
+revolver, and he sprang up, pulling the trigger. Curtis rushed in at the
+report, calling out, &#8220;What&#8217;s the matter, Aleck?&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_179" id="Page_179">[Pg 179]</a></span>The banker had just
+time to stay his finger at sight of the friendly face and solicitous
+manner.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t hurt you, did I, Curt?&#8221; he asked anxiously, sinking back in
+his chair and looking at Conrad&#8217;s arm, helpless in a sling. The bullet,
+they found, had nicked the top of the door and buried itself in the
+ceiling. &#8220;I was looking my revolver over when you knocked,&#8221; Bancroft
+explained, &#8220;and had just been aiming at that spot on the wall. My finger
+must have pulled the trigger unconsciously. The thing&#8217;s set to a hair,
+anyway. I must have it fixed. What&#8217;s the matter with your arm, Curt?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In the revulsion of feeling that swept over him as he realized that the
+cattleman was as friendly as ever and that therefore his secret was
+still safe, he felt genuinely thankful that his bullet had gone wild.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad told of his fight with Jos&eacute; Gonzalez. &#8220;You&#8217;re getting the truth
+about it, Aleck,&#8221; he went on; &#8220;but to everybody else I&#8217;m saying that I
+got horned by a steer, knocked over, and my collar bone cracked. I&#8217;m
+convinced it&#8217;s some of Dell Baxter&#8217;s work. I reckon I&#8217;ve been saying out
+loud just what he is too often to please him. But the letter I&#8217;ve sent
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_180" id="Page_180">[Pg 180]</a></span>him will buffalo him quick enough. Jos&eacute;&#8217;s a good cowboy, and I&#8217;m going
+to keep him. But I don&#8217;t want the boys to know anything about our little
+scrap. So I&#8217;m saying it was a steer on the prod that did it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft&#8217;s thoughts were active as he lighted his cigar. That check&mdash;it
+must have been Castleton money, to be handled for Johnny Martinez.
+Perhaps security might still be compassed without bloodshed. In
+thankfulness that he had not killed the man who was still his friend he
+revolted against the purpose of the Mexican, to which he knew in his
+soul he had given tacit consent. He did not want this cordial,
+confiding, good fellow struck down&mdash;if his own safety could be otherwise
+secured.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d better give the Mexican his time, Curt. He&#8217;s locoed probably;
+when you get back you may find he&#8217;s killed half your men.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if he tries running a-muck in that gang,&#8221; the superintendent
+responded cheerfully, &#8220;he&#8217;ll never do anybody else any harm. Anyway,
+I&#8217;ve settled him for the present; I busted his knife and threw the
+pieces into the pond. No; he&#8217;s in Dell&#8217;s pay; that&#8217;s all there is to it;
+and when Dell reads my letter <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_181" id="Page_181">[Pg 181]</a></span>he&#8217;ll hike to call his man off. I don&#8217;t
+expect any more trouble from Jos&eacute;.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft made no reply and Conrad went on: &#8220;By the way, Aleck, for a
+full minute yesterday I thought Baxter must be my man&mdash;the man I&#8217;m
+after, you know&mdash;Delafield. I&#8217;ve found out that he&#8217;s somebody rich and
+respectable here in New Mexico, and when I felt that Baxter must be
+responsible for this attack on me, I lit on him for my meat. But it was
+too good to be true; as soon as I thought it over I saw that Baxter
+couldn&#8217;t be Delafield. But they&#8217;re two of a kind all right. Both of &#8217;em
+have got their freight loaded ready to pull out for hell at the drop of
+a hat. Baxter will have to pull his in less than three jumps of a
+bucking horse if he doesn&#8217;t call off his man. And Delafield will be
+pulling his mighty soon anyway.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft made a gesture of annoyance. &#8220;Curt, you talk too easily about
+killing. You&#8217;d make a stranger think you&#8217;re a bad man of the border,
+instead of the decent citizen you are. For Heaven&#8217;s sake, man, why don&#8217;t
+you come to your senses, and see what an ass you&#8217;ll be making of
+yourself if you try to carry out this fool scheme of revenge that&#8217;s got
+hold of you? Why don&#8217;t you accept his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_182" id="Page_182">[Pg 182]</a></span>offer to pay back the money as
+fast as he can? Let him make restitution, and keep a whole skin; perhaps
+you&#8217;ll save your own scalp in the bargain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The seeker after vengeance laughed blithely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Aleck, you&#8217;ve no idea what this thing means to me. Why, man, you talk
+as if giving up that plan would be no more than changing my coat! You
+don&#8217;t know, Aleck&mdash;why, to get the drop on Delafield and hold him while
+I tell him what he is in language that will scald him from head to foot,
+and then deal out to him the death he deserves&mdash;that&#8217;s the one thing
+I&#8217;ve lived for all these fifteen years! I&#8217;m obliged to you for your
+advice, Aleck; but I know what I&#8217;m about.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft shrank away a little as Curtis talked. His lips tightened as he
+picked up the revolver and sighted it at a calendar on the wall. After a
+moment&#8217;s silence he looked the other full in the eye and said,
+impressively:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You forget one thing, Curt. If this man Delafield knows what you are
+doing&mdash;and you seem to feel sure he does&mdash;he&#8217;ll be prepared for your
+attack, and you&#8217;re not likely to have things your own way. Unless he&#8217;s a
+fool or a coward he&#8217;ll defend himself, even <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_183" id="Page_183">[Pg 183]</a></span>if he has to kill you doing
+it. And if he has any <i>sabe</i> at all he&#8217;ll be loaded for you when you get
+there, and have the drop on you before you can say a word.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Chances of war,&#8221; Conrad replied serenely. &#8220;He&#8217;s welcome to all he can
+get. But I&#8217;m betting my last dollar, and my scalp in the bargain, that
+he can&#8217;t draw as quick as I can, nor shoot as straight. You bet your
+life, Aleck, when that circus comes off I&#8217;ll be the star performer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; said Bancroft slowly, &#8220;if you won&#8217;t listen to reason I suppose
+you&#8217;ll have to go on, hell-bent, in the gait you&#8217;ve struck&mdash;and take the
+consequences. But you&#8217;re a fool to do it, and I hate to see you making
+such a blind ass of yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis laughed, undisturbed. &#8220;That&#8217;s all right, Aleck. I don&#8217;t expect
+you to get the joy out of this business that I shall.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He went over to Bancroft&#8217;s desk and picked up the revolver, examining
+its sights. &#8220;They&#8217;re not right, Aleck,&#8221; he said. &#8220;When I get the use of
+my arm again I&#8217;ll fix them for you. And you don&#8217;t use your gun right
+when you want to take quick aim: you don&#8217;t swing it up quickly and
+steadily, as if you were used to it. You ought to practise, Aleck. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_184" id="Page_184">[Pg 184]</a></span>Out
+here a man never knows when he may have to defend himself. I&#8217;ve got to
+stay here several days, the doctor says; and while I&#8217;m here I&#8217;ll show
+you a few tricks.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right, if you like,&#8221; Bancroft replied, adding, as he pocketed his
+revolver, &#8220;I&#8217;m not a very good shot and, as you say, out here a man
+never knows when he may have to defend himself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad, turning to go, lingered awkwardly. &#8220;By the way, Aleck,&#8221; he
+blurted out, &#8220;it has occurred to me that perhaps you are getting tied up
+with Dell Baxter too tight for comfort. I don&#8217;t want to seem curious
+about your affairs, you know, and I haven&#8217;t got any big pile&mdash;you know
+what my balance is; but whatever I have got you&#8217;re welcome to, any time,
+if you want to cut loose from Baxter and it will help any.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft hid a grim smile behind the hand at his moustache as he thought
+of sundry checks of his own making their way toward Conrad&#8217;s balance.
+&#8220;Thank you, Curt; it&#8217;s very kind and thoughtful of you to make the
+offer, and I appreciate it. But I don&#8217;t need anything. Baxter and I are
+in partnership in a number of enterprises, but it&#8217;s all straight
+sailing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_185" id="Page_185">[Pg 185]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;That&#8217;s good, and I&#8217;m glad to hear it. I was afraid he&#8217;d got you under
+his thumb. But remember, Aleck, that my small pile is at your disposal
+any time it will be of use to you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As the young man left the bank he saw Lucy Bancroft turn the corner
+toward the Mexican quarter and was quickly at her side, relieving her of
+the little bundle she carried. She was going to Se&ntilde;ora Melgares, she
+explained, who could wash laces and embroideries and all kinds of dainty
+things beautifully with <i>amole</i> root. She was taking her some of Miss
+Dent&#8217;s and her own fineries, and hoped to get her a great deal of work
+from others. &#8220;The poor thing!&#8221; said Lucy earnestly, her eyes wide and
+soft with sympathy. &#8220;She is so heartbroken over the affair! You&#8217;ve
+heard? Mr. Gaines died the other day, and Melgares has been indicted for
+murder. My father says he&#8217;ll surely be found guilty and will probably be
+hanged. The poor se&ntilde;ora!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When they reached the little adobe house Lucy asked Curtis to go in with
+her, saying, &#8220;I&#8217;m not very sure of my Spanish, and I&#8217;d be glad to have
+you come in and help me out.&#8221; They found Se&ntilde;ora Melgares sitting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_186" id="Page_186">[Pg 186]</a></span>with
+her head buried in her arms, her hair dishevelled, and her face, when
+she raised it, eloquent of grief and despair. But she greeted them with
+grave and gracious courtesy. Lucy impulsively took her hand and held it
+in both her own while she presented Se&ntilde;or Conrad. At the name the woman
+drew her slight figure together with a convulsive movement, her dark
+face lighting with interest.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don Curtis? Se&ntilde;or Don Curtis Conrad?&#8221; she asked eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The same, se&ntilde;ora,&#8221; he answered in Spanish, bowing gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The same whose mare&mdash;?&#8221; she began, her expressive countenance finishing
+the query. Conrad bowed again. The woman sank down in her chair, her
+face in her hands, swaying back and forth as she moaned and sobbed. Lucy
+knelt by her side to comfort her, while Curtis bent over the girlish
+figure and spoke in a low, changed tone that the girl barely recognized,
+so different was it from his usual brisk utterance. It set her nerves
+vibrating in quick, half-conscious conviction of a depth and quality of
+feeling in harmony with her own.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am afraid I made a mistake by coming in, Miss Bancroft,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It
+did not occur <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_187" id="Page_187">[Pg 187]</a></span>to me that she would connect me with her husband&#8217;s
+trouble. Won&#8217;t you please tell her, when she is quieter, that I am very
+sorry about the whole affair, that I have no feeling against him, and
+that I&#8217;ll gladly do for him whatever I can. I think I&#8217;d better go now,
+but I&#8217;ll wait outside for you, and if I can be of any use you must call
+me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When Lucy joined him a little later her face showed signs of tears, and
+as they walked back she was preoccupied and perturbed. She wished to see
+her father, so Curtis left her at the door of the bank.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Daddy!&#8221; Lucy exclaimed as she rushed to his side, her eyes shining and
+her face aglow. &#8220;Oh, daddy, Se&ntilde;ora Melgares has just told me the
+strangest thing! Mr. Conrad was with me, but he went out because she
+cried so, and he didn&#8217;t hear what she said. I tried to quiet and comfort
+her, and finally she told me that her husband had been persuaded and
+paid to steal Mr. Conrad&#8217;s horse by a man who said he wanted to get even
+with him for something. She told me his name&mdash;you and Mr. Tillinghurst
+and Judge Banks were talking about him the other day&mdash;Mr. Jenkins&mdash;Don
+Rutherford Jenkins, she called him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_188" id="Page_188">[Pg 188]</a></span></p><p>Anticipation warmed Bancroft&#8217;s heart as she spoke. If the story was true
+it might give him just the hold on Jenkins that he wanted. He made her
+repeat the details of her conversation with the Mexican woman. &#8220;Did you
+say anything about it to Conrad?&#8221; he asked in conclusion.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, daddy; I thought I ought to tell you about it first.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Quite right, Lucy. You were very prudent. And don&#8217;t mention it now, to
+him or to anybody.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, of course not. But, daddy, won&#8217;t that make it better for poor Jos&eacute;
+Maria? Mr. Jenkins is the one that ought to be punished&mdash;he and Mr.
+Baxter; and poor ignorant Melgares ought to be let off very easily.
+Don&#8217;t you think so, daddy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>One of her hands rested on his shoulder. He took the other in both of
+his as he smiled at her indulgently. Her news had so heartened him that
+he hardly noticed her connection of Baxter with the affair. &#8220;I don&#8217;t
+know about that, daughter. It isn&#8217;t likely to have any effect, because
+his indictment is for murder&mdash;you know he killed Gaines while resisting
+arrest&mdash;and his motive in stealing the horse has no connection with that
+crime. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_189" id="Page_189">[Pg 189]</a></span>I&#8217;m glad you told me about it, dear. I&#8217;ll talk with Melgares
+myself, and see what can be done. I suppose his wife must be having a
+hard time. You might give her some money. And ask her,&#8221; he said as he
+handed Lucy some bills, &#8220;not to speak about this Jenkins matter to any
+one else. Be sure you impress that upon her. It&#8217;s a pretty bad case, but
+you can tell his wife that everything possible will be done for him.
+Dell Baxter is coming down to undertake his defence; he does it for
+nothing. So you mustn&#8217;t think so badly of him hereafter, when you see
+how willing he is to make what amends he can to the poor fellow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy threw her arms about his neck and kissed his forehead. &#8220;Daddy,
+you&#8217;re awfully good and kind&mdash;the best man in the world! About Mr.
+Baxter, though&mdash;&#8221; she paused to toss her head, and a little sparkle
+shone in her eyes&mdash;&#8220;well, I&#8217;m glad he has the decency to do it, but it&#8217;s
+no more than he ought; and before I think much better of him I&#8217;ll wait
+to see if he drives any more of the poor Mexicans out of their homes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft began to plan hopefully. He would see Melgares and get the
+exact facts. If this story was true it would be just the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_190" id="Page_190">[Pg 190]</a></span>sword he
+needed to hang over Jenkins. Evidently he had told Conrad nothing;
+therefore that check must have been campaign money from Ned Castleton to
+be used for the benefit of Martinez. Jenkins would not be likely to
+talk: it would ruin his chance of making money out of it himself. As for
+Curtis&mdash;perhaps, after all, he would not be unreasonable about the offer
+to make restitution. Another check would reach him soon, with assurance
+of more to follow speedily. Surely the man was too sensible to cast
+aside such a start in life as this money would give him, just to carry
+out a crazy notion that would end in his own ruin.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But if he will go on, he&#8217;ll have nobody but himself to blame for
+whatever happens,&#8221; he thought. &#8220;I&#8217;ve given him fair warning.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The encouragement he felt turned his thoughts toward Louise Dent. In the
+intimacy of their daily life since she had been Lucy&#8217;s visitor he had
+found her ever more lovable. He began to think, as he looked into her
+eyes and felt the restrained sweetness of her manner, that when he
+should be free to speak she would welcome his feeling, and have for it
+an intoxicating return. But he could say <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_191" id="Page_191">[Pg 191]</a></span>nothing until the settlement
+of this affair left no further danger of discovery and disgrace.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;She must not know&mdash;neither she nor Lucy shall know&mdash;never&mdash;never a word
+or hint,&#8221; he thought desperately. True, Louise was not so unsparing in
+her moral judgments as Lucy; she was older, and, with more knowledge of
+the world, had more tolerance for the conditions under which men lived
+and worked. But if all that past, the past that he had believed buried
+beyond resurrection, should suddenly confront him, she and Lucy would be
+horrified. They would despise him. The respect, honor, and love for
+which he hungered would die; if they stayed beside him it would only be
+for compassion&#8217;s sake. In the fierce mood that possessed him as he
+thought of going down again into dishonor he was ready to strike out at
+anybody&#8217;s pity. This thing must not be. He had won his way back to
+position, power, affluence; he held the love and honor of his daughter
+and of the woman he hoped to make his wife; what he had won he would
+keep. His lips whitened as he struck the desk with his clenched fist.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The past is dead, and it&#8217;s got to stay dead,&#8221; he muttered. &#8220;I&#8217;ll win
+out yet, by God!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_192" id="Page_192">[Pg 192]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIII" id="CHAPTER_XIII"></a>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SECOND SHOT</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">F</span>our days later the physician gave Conrad dubious permission to return
+to the round-up. &#8220;Well, I may as well say you can go,&#8221; he surrendered,
+&#8220;since you are determined to go anyway. But don&#8217;t blame me if your
+wounds get worse.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Most of this time the cattleman spent at the Bancrofts&#8217;, where Lucy and
+Miss Dent tried to make an invalid of him, and all three enjoyed the
+comradeship that straightway sprang up among them. Between Lucy and
+Curtis there was much bantering gayety, but when alone their talk was
+sure to flow into serious channels. They had many long conversations,
+wherein each was deeply interested in everything the other said. They
+had much music also, Miss Dent playing and the others singing duets.
+Lucy was very happy. She beamed and sparkled, with glowing eyes and
+dimpling smiles, and her manner, the whole being of her, expanded into
+maturer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_193" id="Page_193">[Pg 193]</a></span>womanliness. Between Miss Dent and Conrad there was from the
+first a mutual liking, which quickly developed into confidential
+friendship. On his last day in town, while helping Lucy water the plants
+in her conservatory, he spoke to her admiringly of Miss Dent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m so glad you like my Dearie!&#8221; she responded warmly, looking up at
+him with a glow of pleasure. &#8220;She&#8217;s the dearest, sweetest woman! And you
+always feel you can depend on her. If you put your hand out you always
+know just where you can find Louise Dent, and you know she&#8217;ll be as firm
+as a rock. She&#8217;s been so good to me! And she&#8217;s always so restful and
+calm&mdash;she has so much poise. But, do you know&mdash;&#8221; she hesitated as she
+stopped in front of the cage that held the tanager Curtis had brought
+for her care. His physician had splinted its broken leg and bound its
+injured wing, and together they were anxiously watching its recovery.
+&#8220;It&#8217;s been eating, Mr. Conrad!&#8221; she broke off joyously. &#8220;Let&#8217;s give it
+more seeds and fresh water!&#8221; As they ministered to the bird&#8217;s needs
+Curtis went on about Miss Dent.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; she seems to have a calm sort of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_194" id="Page_194">[Pg 194]</a></span>nature, but when I look at her I
+find myself wondering if that is because she has never been moved very
+deeply, or because she keeps things hidden deep down. Her eyes are set
+rather close together, which generally means, you know, an ability to
+get on the prod if necessary; and sometimes there is a look in them that
+makes you feel as if she might break out into something unexpected.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy was looking up at him with the keenest interest in her face. The
+southwestern sun had kissed her skin into rich browns and reds, and she
+carried gracefully her slender girlish figure. Her head, with its
+covering of short brown curls, always held alertly, gave to her aspect a
+savor of piquant charm. Curtis looked down into her upturned face and
+eager eyes with admiration in his own. Under her absorption in the
+subject of their talk she felt herself thrill with sweet, vague
+happiness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you know, I&#8217;ve been feeling that very same thing about Dearie,&#8221; she
+said in confidential tones. &#8220;She seems more restless lately, although I
+know she&#8217;s perfectly happy here with us. She has just the same quiet,
+gentle manner, but it seems as if there might be a volcano under it&mdash;not
+really, you know, but as if there might be if&mdash;if&mdash;I don&#8217;t <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_195" id="Page_195">[Pg 195]</a></span>quite know
+how to say it&mdash;if things just got ready for it to be a volcano!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do you think anybody would know it,&#8221; asked Conrad, &#8220;even if it was
+really there?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know what you mean&mdash;yes, she has wonderful self-control&mdash;I never saw
+anybody who could hide her feelings as she can, and always does. I&#8217;ve
+been thinking lately that if Dearie were in love&mdash;&#8221; Lucy hesitated a
+moment while a deeper glow stained her cheek&mdash;&#8220;she&#8217;s just the sort of
+woman to do anything, anything at all, for the sake of it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; and not get excited over it, either,&#8221; added Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>When Lucy went to attend to some household duties, Conrad sauntered out
+to the veranda, where he found Miss Dent with her sewing. He happened to
+refer to his boyhood; and she asked some questions that led him to speak
+of his youthful struggles. She was interested, and wanted to know the
+cause of his father&#8217;s financial ruin. He hesitated before replying, the
+matter touched so nearly the secret core of his life and thought. Few,
+even among his intimates, knew anything about the vengeful purpose that
+had motived half his life, and he disliked ordinarily to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_196" id="Page_196">[Pg 196]</a></span>say anything
+about the cause of his early misfortunes. But the habit of close and
+friendly speech into which he and Louise had fallen, coupled perhaps
+with a softening of feeling toward her sex that had been going on within
+him, moved him to openness. &#8220;It won&#8217;t matter,&#8221; he thought. &#8220;She&#8217;s such a
+level-headed woman; and I&#8217;ve told Aleck already.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t often speak about it,&#8221; he said, &#8220;but I don&#8217;t mind telling you,
+for you are such a good friend of the Bancrofts, and Aleck knows the
+story. Of course, you&#8217;ll understand that I don&#8217;t care to have it
+discussed generally. My father&#8217;s disasters all came from his getting
+caught in a specious financial scheme engineered by one Sumner L.
+Delafield of Boston.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>An indrawn breath, sharp and sudden, made him look quickly at his
+companion. &#8220;Have you hurt yourself?&#8221; he asked solicitously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I jabbed my needle under my thumb nail. Such an awkward thing to
+do! It gave me a little shock, that&#8217;s all. Go on, please. What sort of a
+scheme was it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He told her briefly the story of his father&#8217;s ruin and death, and
+outlined the transactions that led to Delafield&#8217;s failure. As he spoke
+his heart waxed hot against the man who had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_197" id="Page_197">[Pg 197]</a></span>caused the tragedy, as it
+always did when he thought long upon the subject, and he went on
+impulsively to tell her of his long-cherished purpose of revenge. She
+listened with drooped eyelids, and when she spoke, at his first pause,
+there was a slight quaver in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t mean that you really intend to kill the man?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I do, that very thing. What&#8217;s more, it&#8217;s my notion that killing is too
+gentle for his deserts. For, of course, my case is only one out of many.
+And any man who would deliberately bring ruin and death into so many
+households&mdash;don&#8217;t you think yourself he&#8217;s worse than any murderer?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She forced herself to raise her eyes and, once she had met his gaze, her
+own was cool and steady. But if Curtis had not been so absorbed in their
+discussion he might have seen that her face was paler than usual and her
+manner nervous, as she replied earnestly:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But you forget, Mr. Conrad, that the man had no intention of doing
+these things, and that probably he involved himself in as much financial
+disaster as he did others. I&#8217;ve heard of the case before; I knew some
+people once who&mdash;were concerned in it&mdash;who lost money <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_198" id="Page_198">[Pg 198]</a></span>by it&mdash;and I&#8217;ve
+always understood that the failure was due more to Delafield&#8217;s sanguine
+temperament and over-confidence in his plans than to any deliberate
+wrongdoing. Don&#8217;t you think, Mr. Conrad, that killing is a rather severe
+punishment for mistakes of judgment?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He answered with the rapid speech and quick gestures he was wont to use
+when under the stress of strong feeling. &#8220;I can&#8217;t take that lenient view
+of the case, Miss Dent. My conviction is that he got some money out of
+the affair, though not as much as he is generally supposed to have
+taken, and ran away with it. I&#8217;ve studied the case pretty thoroughly,
+and I&#8217;ve trailed him along from one place to another for years. I&#8217;m hot
+on his tracks now; and he knows it. I&#8217;ve followed him into New Mexico,
+and I know he&#8217;s somebody in this Territory, prosperous and respectable.
+He can&#8217;t escape me much longer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She had been thinking intently as she studied the expression of his
+face. &#8220;It&#8217;s not worth while to try argument or persuasion with him;
+opposition would only make him obstinate,&#8221; was her conclusion. Her
+manner was as composed as usual, and only her eyes showed a trace of
+anxiety as she spoke, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_199" id="Page_199">[Pg 199]</a></span>slowly and thoughtfully, her gaze searching his
+countenance:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, if you say you are going to take revenge upon him in this savage
+way I suppose you will do it&mdash;if that chin of yours means anything. You
+haven&#8217;t asked my opinion, but I&#8217;m going to tell you anyway that it seems
+to me unwise and unjust and most unworthy of you to allow such an idea
+to become the obsession that this one has. But I want to know how you
+managed to keep your family together. That was a wonderful thing for a
+boy of fifteen to do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I don&#8217;t deserve so much credit for it. Of course, I couldn&#8217;t have
+done it without help. Our guardian wanted to distribute us children
+around among the relatives; but I wouldn&#8217;t have it that way, and begged
+so hard that at last he gave in. Two of my father&#8217;s cousins lent money
+enough to pay off the mortgage on our home, on our guardian&#8217;s
+representation that he should be able to save enough out of the wreck to
+pay it back in time. He did so; and we children kept a roof over our
+heads.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A cousin of my mother&#8217;s, a widow without children, offered to live with
+us and keep house. We rented part of the place and lived <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_200" id="Page_200">[Pg 200]</a></span>in close
+quarters in what was left. I worked like a Turk at anything and
+everything that brought in a penny; and so, all together, we had enough
+to eat and wear, and I was able to keep the girls and Homer in school. I
+went to night school and sat up reading anything I could get my hands on
+when I ought to have been in bed. It was hard sledding sometimes, but we
+pulled through. And I had good friends who saw that I was never out of a
+job of some sort.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;After a while our cousin married again and left us; but by that time my
+sisters were old enough to take charge of the housekeeping, and we got
+on very well. Ten years ago they both married, and I said to Homer:
+&#8216;Let&#8217;s sell the house and give the money to the girls; you and I can
+shift for ourselves, and we don&#8217;t want them to go to their husbands with
+nothing at all.&#8217; The kid was game, and so we sold the place and divided
+the money between Helen and Jeannette. Then I put Homer in school and
+struck out for myself. I&#8217;ve sent him to college, and he&#8217;ll be graduated
+next year. But he&#8217;s worked right along, and helped himself a heap.
+There&#8217;s sure good stuff in the lad.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;This Summer I&#8217;m not going to let him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_201" id="Page_201">[Pg 201]</a></span>work; the rest of the way is
+clear enough now, and I want him to come down here with me, and learn to
+rope a steer and bust a bronco and go camping, and have a good out-doors
+time of it for his last college vacation.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As she listened with her eyes fixed upon his face, Miss Dent&#8217;s attention
+had been half upon his story and half upon the man behind it, searching
+out his character through his words. The conviction settled in her mind
+that his vengeful intention was rooted deep, and that the more he talked
+of it the more set would he become in his purpose.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I like your story,&#8221; she said. &#8220;It is one of those tales of human effort
+that make one have more faith in human nature. But the climax you intend
+to put upon it is&mdash;horrible!&#8221; He noticed the slight movement of
+repulsion with which she spoke the word. &#8220;But that&#8217;s your affair,&#8221; she
+went on. &#8220;Did I understand you&mdash;did you say&mdash;&#8221; In spite of her
+self-control she was stumbling over the question. She masked her
+momentary confusion with an absorbed interest in getting her sewing
+together. &#8220;Did you say that Mr. Bancroft knows&mdash;that you have told him
+this story?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_202" id="Page_202">[Pg 202]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Yes; I told him the outlines of it a little while ago, apropos of a
+check I had from Delafield. The rascal thinks he can buy me off that
+way. That shows he&#8217;s buffaloed. But he&#8217;ll find out I&#8217;m not that sort.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No; I shouldn&#8217;t think you were. But Lucy&mdash;does she know anything about
+it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He looked up in surprise. &#8220;Why, no; of course not.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft was coming through the gate, bringing Judge Banks with him; and
+Lucy joined them a moment later. The talk turned on the coming trial of
+Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares, the narrow escape of Pendleton from Melgares&#8217;
+bullet, and the death of Gaines as the result of his own foolhardy
+horse-play. They spoke of Little Jack Wilder&#8217;s skill with the revolver,
+and Conrad reminded Bancroft of their agreement to do some target
+practice together.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s all go out in the back yard now,&#8221; Lucy exclaimed, &#8220;and Miss Dent
+and I will shoot too! Wouldn&#8217;t you like it, Dearie? Come on! it will be
+such fun!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>While they were setting up the target Sheriff Tillinghurst came to speak
+to Judge Banks upon an official matter; and Lucy asked him to stay and
+help her shoot.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_203" id="Page_203">[Pg 203]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;You-all use my gun, Miss Lucy, and then you&#8217;ll be sure to have good
+luck,&#8221; he replied, drawing his revolver from his pocket. It was a small
+pearl-handled six-shooter, which the ladies admired, and the men jibed
+at for its daintiness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all right,&#8221; he answered good-naturedly. &#8220;This gun don&#8217;t stack up
+much beside a cannon for size, but I can pervade and pester with it a
+right smart heap if I want to. It&#8217;s a peach of a shooter, and it don&#8217;t
+show in my clothes. I never have anything on me but that, and I&#8217;ve never
+seen the gun play yet where I got the worst of it. You-all try it, Miss
+Lucy.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy took the revolver, telling him that now she would be his deputy,
+and, with plentiful instruction from Curtis, placed herself in position
+and fired. She hit the bull&#8217;s-eye and won much applause, until she
+explained that she had fired with both eyes shut and that, if she had
+made a good shot, it was because she couldn&#8217;t help it with such a
+splendid gun as Mr. Tillinghurst&#8217;s. Miss Dent took careful aim and,
+without lowering her arm, emptied the remaining chambers, making an
+excellent score. She, too, won a round of applause, to which she replied
+calmly, &#8220;Oh, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_204" id="Page_204">[Pg 204]</a></span>I&#8217;ve known how to shoot for years, and when I am in
+practice I do fairly well.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You two fellows shoot a match,&#8221; said Tillinghurst to Bancroft and
+Conrad. &#8220;The judge&#8217;ll be umpire, and each fellow use his own gun at
+thirty paces.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Louise and Lucy stood at one side, where the Sheriff and Judge Banks
+joined them, leaving Bancroft and Conrad to begin their match. Beneath
+her calm exterior Miss Dent&#8217;s thoughts were in a tumult, and fierce
+resentment against the cattleman was rising in her heart. Had not Aleck
+suffered enough already? Why should he be hunted down like this when he
+was willing to make restitution, even after all these years? Oh, cruel!
+to beat him down again, when he had won success and respect once more!
+This man was a savage in his implacable desire for revenge.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis raised his revolver. With both eyes open and without pausing to
+take aim, he sent a bullet through the bull&#8217;s-eye. &#8220;Delafield won&#8217;t have
+much chance against a man who can do that!&#8221; he exclaimed in a triumphant
+undertone to Bancroft.</p>
+
+<p>As the test of skill went on, it developed that the banker excelled if
+he took time to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_205" id="Page_205">[Pg 205]</a></span>aim accurately, while he of Socorro Springs was the
+superior at quick shooting.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s my specialty in the shooting line,&#8221; said Curtis. &#8220;You&#8217;d better
+practise it, Aleck. It&#8217;s the thing that counts most if you get into a
+scrimmage.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He handed his hat, a wide-brimmed, gray felt, to Judge Banks, asking him
+to throw it up, adding, &#8220;I&#8217;d do it myself if my left arm wasn&#8217;t in dry
+dock.&#8221; He raised his revolver as the hat left the judge&#8217;s hand; there
+were three quick reports, and he sprang forward and caught the
+descending sombrero on the muzzle of his pistol. The three perforations
+in the crown of the hat were so close together that a silver dollar
+covered them.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Bravo!&#8221; exclaimed the judge. &#8220;I don&#8217;t know but two other men who can do
+that. Little Jack Wilder never misses the trick, and Emerson Mead, over
+at Las Plumas, does it as if he were a machine and couldn&#8217;t miss. If you
+ever get a grudge against me, Mr. Conrad, I&#8217;ll engage the undertaker and
+order my tombstone at once!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft turned away quickly. He swung his arm upward, fired, and found
+that his bullet had hardly nicked the outer rim of the target.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_206" id="Page_206">[Pg 206]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t pay any attention to your gun,&#8221; Curtis admonished him. &#8220;Keep both
+eyes open, look at the bull&#8217;s-eye, and unconsciously you&#8217;ll aim right at
+it. If you get into a gun play, where it&#8217;s a choice between giving up
+the ghost yourself or getting the other fellow&#8217;s, you want to fasten
+your eyes on his most accessible part, point your gun that way, and
+shoot on the wink. Between the eyes is a good place, for then you can
+hold him with your own. That&#8217;s the way I shall fix Delafield,&#8221; he added,
+dropping his voice.</p>
+
+<p>Cold anger seized upon Bancroft as the picture of that gun muzzle close
+to his own forehead came vividly into his imagination. Until now Conrad
+had not mentioned the subject of Delafield to him since the day of his
+return to town, and the banker&#8217;s friendly feelings had renewed
+themselves with the growth of his own confidence and with his desire to
+compass what he wished without violence. But Curtis had only to speak of
+his purpose in this cold-blooded manner for the banker to know that he,
+too, was rapidly becoming as implacable as his pursuer.</p>
+
+<p>Judge Banks was talking to Miss Dent about the view and the New Mexican
+climate, and quoting Wordsworth on &#8220;the witchery of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_207" id="Page_207">[Pg 207]</a></span>the soft blue sky.&#8221;
+She was compelling an expression of smiling interest, while her thoughts
+were with Bancroft and his danger. The desire possessed her to stand
+near him, to hover about him, as if her mere presence would protect him
+from peril. The friendly revolver practice between the two men made her
+sick at heart, and she was waiting with inward impatience for the moment
+when she could propose returning to the veranda.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy and Sheriff Tillinghurst were laughing and talking together in a
+running game of playful coquetry on her part and admiring badinage on
+his. &#8220;Now, Miss Lucy,&#8221; he was saying, &#8220;if you-all are going to be my
+deputy, you&#8217;ll have to learn to shoot with at least one eye open. I
+can&#8217;t have my deputy shootin&#8217; around promiscuous with both eyes shut. It
+might be used against me in the campaign.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I&#8217;ll keep both eyes open, just as Mr. Conrad says,&#8221; she exclaimed,
+taking the Sheriff&#8217;s revolver from his hand. &#8220;Just like this,&#8221; she went
+on gayly, pointing the pistol straight at Curtis&#8217;s face as he came
+toward them, saying, &#8220;Now you must have another chance, Miss Bancroft.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Tillinghurst sprang forward as he saw her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_208" id="Page_208">[Pg 208]</a></span>level the revolver and struck
+it up with his hand. Her pressure on the trigger had been light, but the
+contraction of her finger as the Sheriff knocked it upward discharged
+the weapon. The bullet sang through the air; and she paled and staggered
+backward, looking wildly from one to the other as she exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, I was sure it wasn&#8217;t loaded!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A gentleman&#8217;s gun is always loaded, Miss Lucy,&#8221; said the Sheriff, mild
+reproof in his tone.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy leaned, trembling, against Miss Dent&#8217;s supporting arm. &#8220;I&mdash;I was
+sure we shot out all the bullets,&#8221; she stammered, looking wistfully at
+Conrad. &#8220;I&#8217;ll never, never touch a gun again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t feel so worried, Miss Bancroft,&#8221; urged Curtis, gently. &#8220;You
+weren&#8217;t pressing the trigger, and I&#8217;d have ducked if you had, for I was
+watching your hand. I wasn&#8217;t in the least danger, and you mustn&#8217;t think
+about it again. It&#8217;ll be your turn next, Miss Dent,&#8221; he added jocosely.
+&#8220;Aleck had his the other day, and sent a bullet into the wall just above
+my head.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you still have confidence in us, you reckless man!&#8221; Louise
+exclaimed with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_209" id="Page_209">[Pg 209]</a></span>a little effort at gayety, but with eyes on the ground.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Perhaps he thinks he&#8217;ll be in less danger if he teaches you-all how to
+handle your guns,&#8221; the Sheriff commented, as Miss Dent led the way back
+to the house.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_210" id="Page_210">[Pg 210]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIV" id="CHAPTER_XIV"></a>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THREE LETTERS</h3>
+
+<p style="float: left; font-size: 100%; line-height: 80%; margin-top: 0;">&#8220;</p><p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">H</span>ello, Curt! When are you going back to the ranch?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Pendleton, the invalid from the East, accosted Conrad as he emerged from
+the physician&#8217;s office, where he had gone for a last dressing of his
+wounds before returning to the round-up.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Right now, Mr. Pendleton. Anything I can do for you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, Curt, I&#8217;ve been wondering if I couldn&#8217;t flirt gravel along with
+your bunch for a while. I want to take in everything that&#8217;s going while
+I&#8217;m here. I&#8217;ve never been on a ranch, or seen a round-up, or a steer on
+the prod; and I&#8217;d like to see how things are done. Would a tenderfoot be
+in your way?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Not a bit of it! Come right along, Pendy, if you think you can stand
+it. You&#8217;ll have to rough it, you know; sleep on the ground with your
+saddle for a pillow, ride hard, and eat what comes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_211" id="Page_211">[Pg 211]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Oh, I can stand whatever the rest of you do. I don&#8217;t fork a horse as
+well as a cowboy or a circus rider, but I can stick on, and I can get
+there &#8217;most as soon as anybody&mdash;I mighty near got there too soon when we
+went after Melgares, didn&#8217;t I?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right, Pendleton! If you think you can stand it, come right along
+with me this morning. I&#8217;m going to ride the rest of the day and most of
+the night; but if that&#8217;s too much for you you can stop over at the ranch
+to-night, and catch up with us to-morrow.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I reckon I&#8217;ll take it all in along with you, and I&#8217;ll meet you in half
+an hour in front of the court-house,&#8221; and Pendleton bustled off. Conrad
+went after his mare, dropping into Bancroft&#8217;s office for a last word.</p>
+
+<p>The president of the First National Bank was reading his morning&#8217;s mail.
+He frowned over a note from Rutherford Jenkins reminding him that the
+first of the month was approaching, and warning him not to forget the
+remittance due on that day. He looked at the calendar. No; he could not
+take time before the first to go to Las Vegas and crack the whip he was
+preparing over Jenkins&#8217;s head; he would have to make this payment. Next
+he opened a letter from Dellmey Baxter:</p>
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_212" id="Page_212">[Pg 212]</a></span></p>
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">My dear Bancroft</span>:&mdash;I think you&#8217;d better correct young Conrad&#8217;s
+curious notion that I had anything to do with Jos&eacute; Gonzalez&#8217;s
+attack upon him, or with Jos&eacute;&#8217;s going down there. If you don&#8217;t he
+might turn his suspicions in some other direction. Of course,
+there&#8217;s nothing in it but that greaser&#8217;s bad temper. But he thinks
+there is, and he&#8217;s just hot-headed enough to make it uncomfortable
+for anybody he happens to suspect. I didn&#8217;t send Jos&eacute; to him and
+so, naturally, I can&#8217;t do anything about it, even if the fellow
+does get angry and act like the devil.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sorry I can&#8217;t help you in your desire to retire from our Rio
+Grande valley land business. I&#8217;m tied up so that I&#8217;ve got no ready
+money with which to buy you out. Of course, if you are determined
+to get out, you might find a purchaser elsewhere. But as a friend I
+advise you not to sell. There&#8217;s going to be big money in it, and we
+can probably launch the enterprise within the next six months.
+You&#8217;ll make a great mistake if you quit. If you decide to stay in
+I&#8217;m willing for you to keep on as a silent partner, just as we have
+done so far.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>The banker scowled, swearing softly to himself as he read the first
+paragraph. &#8220;Didn&#8217;t send him, didn&#8217;t he,&#8221; he grumbled. &#8220;Then who did? I
+didn&#8217;t, that&#8217;s sure. He recommended the fellow as a good cowboy, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_213" id="Page_213">[Pg 213]</a></span>and
+Conrad engaged him. I had nothing to do with it.&#8221; He was silent again as
+he studied the second part of the letter. A suspicion rose in his mind
+that Baxter was purposely making it difficult, almost impossible, for
+him to get out of the land scheme. What was his purpose in so doing? Did
+the Congressman wish to keep a hold on him to hamper, perhaps even to
+control, his movements? &#8220;I wonder,&#8221; Bancroft thought, &#8220;if Dell is afraid
+I&#8217;ll try to cut him out politically before he&#8217;s ready to step down. I&#8217;d
+like his place well enough if&mdash;but that&#8217;s something out of my reckoning
+for a long time yet, even if everything goes right.&#8221; The surmise that
+Baxter wished to have such a bridle upon him left him uneasy. Well, he
+would have to let this thing go on as it was. If he tried to sell to any
+one else knowledge of his connection with it might leak out and reach
+Lucy&#8217;s ears. He winced as he thought of her feeling toward Baxter
+because of this business. And the investment promised well; rich returns
+might be expected from it soon. Nobody knew of his part in it except
+Dell, and if he stayed in and kept quiet it was unlikely that anybody
+else would find it out. That might be the safer plan, after all.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_214" id="Page_214">[Pg 214]</a></span></p><p>Conrad came to the door, and after a few minutes&#8217; talk Bancroft said to
+him, remembering Baxter&#8217;s injunction, &#8220;Well, Curt, I hope you won&#8217;t find
+that your crazy Mexican has been trying to kill off all your men.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis laughed. &#8220;Oh, Jos&eacute; will be all right; and he&#8217;s the best cow-punch
+I&#8217;ve got on the ranch. Dell Baxter will attend to him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s an absurd notion of yours that Baxter had anything to do with
+it,&#8221; replied Bancroft, the Congressman&#8217;s letter still in his mind.
+&#8220;You&#8217;re not reasonable about Dell. Why should he want you assassinated?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The only reason I can see is that I&#8217;ve been talking pretty plain about
+him. But if he doesn&#8217;t like the kind of things I say he&#8217;ll have to get
+used to it, or else reform.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense, Curt. And even if he does think you&#8217;re handling the Castleton
+money against&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis made a gesture of impatience. &#8220;I hope you don&#8217;t take any stock in
+that talk, Aleck. The Castletons don&#8217;t care a hang about this campaign,
+and Dell knows it. They&#8217;re not putting up a cent, or, if Ned is doing
+anything for his wife&#8217;s sake, he&#8217;s dealing with Johnny Martinez direct.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_215" id="Page_215">[Pg 215]</a></span></p><p>Bancroft looked at him narrowly. &#8220;Is that right, Curt? Are you sure of
+it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As sure as I am of anything,&#8221; the cattleman responded with emphasis.
+&#8220;They&#8217;ve never mentioned the subject to me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>After Conrad had gone the banker walked the floor in anxious thought.
+What, then, did that five-hundred-dollar check mean that Curtis had
+given to Jenkins? Perhaps he was holding the young man off, saying he
+was not yet sure of Delafield&#8217;s identity and needed money to carry on
+his investigation, intending to give up his secret if he should find
+that he could bleed Bancroft no longer. That would be like Jenkins, he
+decided. As soon as he could get away he would go to Las Vegas and see
+if the fellow could be cowed by the knowledge that had come to him so
+opportunely. As for Conrad, it would be better to wait until he could
+learn whether those checks would produce the effect desired.</p>
+
+<p>In front of the court-house the ranchman met Tillinghurst and Little
+Jack Wilder. The Sheriff had a subp&oelig;na commanding him to appear as a
+witness for the State in the Melgares trial, set for June. Curtis
+remarked, as they talked of the case: &#8220;I reckon you&#8217;ll have Pendleton as
+a witness; he&#8217;ll want to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_216" id="Page_216">[Pg 216]</a></span>take in the whole thing. Have you seen
+anything of him? He promised to meet me here. He&#8217;s going back with me;
+says he wants to take in a round-up and see a steer on the prod. I sure
+reckon I&#8217;ll have my hands full if I keep the boys from taking him in.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let &#8217;em run him, Curt, let &#8217;em run him,&#8221; said the Sheriff. &#8220;He&#8217;s
+good-natured, and he&#8217;ll soon strike their gait. He was never outside of
+New England before, and he&#8217;s tryin&#8217; mighty hard to be tougher than
+anybody else on the border. He&#8217;s been in town three weeks, and he calls
+everybody by their first names, from Judge Banks down to my Mexican
+stable-boy. He writes down all the slang he hears every day, sits up
+nights to study it, and the next day slings it around as free and easy
+as an old-timer. Is that him comin&#8217; yonder? Say, Curt, he&#8217;ll stampede
+every cow-brute you&#8217;ve got on the range!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Pendleton, short, stout, and large of girth, had dressed himself for
+roughing it according to his own idea of custom and comfort. He wore a
+Mexican straw sombrero tied down over his ears with a red bandanna, a
+red flannel shirt, a long linen coat, huge spurs, and sheepskin
+<i>chaparejos</i>.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, where did you get that coat?&#8221; the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_217" id="Page_217">[Pg 217]</a></span>three men sang out as he came
+within hearing distance. Pendleton caught the tails in his finger tips
+and danced some sidewise steps.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ain&#8217;t she a beaut?&#8221; he shouted. &#8220;I found it in a store down in
+Dobytown.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Say, Pendy,&#8221; called the Sheriff, &#8220;if you go pervadin&#8217; and pesterin&#8217;
+around among Curt&#8217;s steers in those duds I&#8217;ll have to send Jack down
+there to arrest you for breach of the peace.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right, Tilly! I&#8217;m here for my health, but I&#8217;m takin&#8217; in on the side
+everything that comes my way!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad found a letter at the ranch addressed to Jos&eacute; Gonzalez, in his
+care, and grinned with satisfaction as he recognized Baxter&#8217;s
+handwriting. &#8220;He&#8217;s buffaloed all right and is calling off his man,&#8221; he
+thought as he opened with eager curiosity a missive from Baxter for
+himself:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">My dear young friend</span>:&mdash;I assure you that you are barking up the
+wrong tree when you try to connect me with any attack the Mexican,
+Jos&eacute; Gonzalez, may have made upon you. In fact, it is so much up
+the wrong tree that I feel pretty sure there isn&#8217;t any tree there
+at all! His assault was probably the result of sudden anger. The
+man has worked for me a good deal, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_218" id="Page_218">[Pg 218]</a></span>and I know that such is his
+character. I have some influence with him, and I shall write him at
+once and give him a lecture on the necessity of controlling his
+temper. I have had occasion to do this several times in the past,
+not without effect. I shall tell him that you are a man of your
+word, and a crack shot, and that if he doesn&#8217;t keep cool he&#8217;s
+likely to die with his boots on. Nobody could blame you, my dear
+Mr. Conrad, if you should shoot him under such a necessity of
+self-defence. I take it ill, however, that you should connect me
+with this greaser&#8217;s outrageous temper and crazy actions. I assure
+you again that you are entirely mistaken in your assumption, which,
+permit me to say, is what might very well be called gratuitous.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I congratulate Johnny Martinez upon having the support of a
+gentleman so energetic, influential, and enthusiastic as yourself,
+and I remain,</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 5em;">&#8220;Yours very cordially,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 1.5em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Dellmey Baxter.</span>&#8221;</span></p></div>
+
+<p>Conrad laughed aloud over the letter, exclaiming as he finished it,
+&#8220;He&#8217;s a slick one, he is!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Another letter bore the imprint of Tremper &amp; Townsend, and contained a
+check for five hundred dollars and a brief note saying that their
+client, Sumner L. Delafield, wished them to send him this money as a
+second instalment of the amount due his father&#8217;s estate, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_219" id="Page_219">[Pg 219]</a></span>and to add
+that like sums would follow in rapid succession. Conrad scowled and
+gnawed his moustache as he read the letter the second time. He was
+considering whether he had any right to accept the money and continue
+his quest of vengeance. Delafield evidently meant to buy him off with it
+and, if he accepted, did he not tacitly accept that condition?</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll send it back to him,&#8221; was his first thought, as he reached for a
+pen. But another idea stayed his hand. The former check he had divided
+between his brother and sisters, and, as they knew nothing of his scheme
+of revenge, this also ought to go to them. But Delafield must know upon
+what terms he accepted the money. With a grim look on his face he wrote
+to the Boston attorneys:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a second check for
+five hundred dollars from your client, Sumner L. Delafield. I am
+reasonably grateful that an unexpected sense of remorse has led him
+to loose his purse-strings, even at this late day, and on behalf of
+my brother and sisters will ask you to send him their thanks. As
+for myself, you may tell him that I hope the sending of the money
+has eased his conscience, for it will procure him no other benefit.
+Every cent of money he sees fit to send me I shall turn over to my
+father&#8217;s other <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_220" id="Page_220">[Pg 220]</a></span>children, while I shall find entire satisfaction in
+following out my revenge. What that is he doubtless knows, for the
+sending of these checks convinces me that he is moved, not by the
+honest wish to do what he can toward righting a dastardly wrong,
+but by the desire to save his own skin. Please tell him, from me,
+that he cannot buy immunity from my purpose, even though he should
+send me the whole of the debt three times over.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_221" id="Page_221">[Pg 221]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XV" id="CHAPTER_XV"></a>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+
+<h3>VILLAINY UNMASKED</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">P</span>endleton, bouncing in his saddle as they galloped southward, bent
+admiring glances upon the erect figure of his companion, whose seat was
+as steady as if horse and rider had been welded together. &#8220;Say, Curt,&#8221;
+he finally called out, &#8220;how do you do it? I&#8217;d give my bad lung if I
+could ride like you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad gave him some instruction, and Pendleton turned all his attention
+toward learning how to bring his body into rhythmic accord with the
+movements of his horse. The cattleman, pounding along in silence,
+thought with satisfaction of the progress his search for Delafield was
+making and planned how he should carry it on after the round-up, when he
+would have more leisure. He would make a list of the men in New Mexico
+rich and prominent enough to come under suspicion, investigate their
+records, one by one, and so by elimination discover the person he
+wanted. Then would come the meeting!</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_222" id="Page_222">[Pg 222]</a></span></p><p>His thoughts full of the climax of his search, he rode on in a sort of
+exaltation, unconsciously humming a song he and Lucy Bancroft had been
+practising. Presently, through the silence, the sound entered his
+conscious hearing, and took his thoughts back to the pleasant hour he
+and she had spent over it. But a vague uneasiness stirred his feelings
+as the image of Lucy floated past the background of that grisly,
+dominating purpose. The thought of her persisted; as it clung there,
+along the edge of his absorption, it brought a sharp and curious
+suggestion of the maimed bird he had carried in his bosom. He was
+suddenly conscious of discomfort, as if he had hurt some helpless thing,
+when his reverie was broken by a series of wild yells from his
+companion. Pendleton had been lagging behind, but he now came dashing
+forward, giving vent to his delight because he had so far mastered the
+art of riding that he no longer bounced all over the horse&#8217;s back nor
+fell forward and seized its mane at each change of gait.</p>
+
+<p>A spring welled alluringly from a dimple in the hillside. Pendleton
+dismounted, saying he was thirsty. &#8220;Don&#8217;t drink from that spring,
+Pendy,&#8221; Conrad admonished <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_223" id="Page_223">[Pg 223]</a></span>him. &#8220;It&#8217;s alkali, and you&#8217;ll wish you
+hadn&#8217;t.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It looks all right, and it&#8217;s cool,&#8221; said the tenderfoot, dipping his
+hand in the water. &#8220;My throat&#8217;s as hot and dry as that road. What harm
+will it do?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, pretty soon you&#8217;ll think you&#8217;re chewing cotton; and it may make
+you sick, though this spring isn&#8217;t strong enough of alkali to do you
+much harm.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll risk it,&#8221; Pendleton declared, scooping up some water in his
+hat-brim. &#8220;It&#8217;s wet when it goes down, anyway. And I reckon I might as
+well take in an alkali spring, too, while I&#8217;ve got the chance.
+Everything goes!&#8221; An hour later he galloped alongside of Conrad, working
+his jaws and licking his lips. &#8220;Say, Curt,&#8221; he mumbled, &#8220;I know a fellow
+back home who&#8217;d give a thousand dollars for such a thirst as I&#8217;ve got!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was midnight when they passed Rock Springs, where the superintendent
+had left his outfit. Two hours later, when Brown Betty put out her nose
+and neighed, an answering whinny came back from beyond the next hill.
+&#8220;That&#8217;s only Five Cottonwoods,&#8221; thought Curtis. &#8220;It can&#8217;t be they&#8217;ve got
+no farther than that!&#8221; They gained the top of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_224" id="Page_224">[Pg 224]</a></span>the hill and below them,
+in the light of the waning moon, they saw the white top of the
+chuck-wagon, the dark patch of sleeping cattle patrolled by a single
+horseman, and the figures of the men sprawled on the ground around the
+dying coals of their evening fire.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Here we are, Pendy!&#8221; said Curtis. &#8220;I thought they would have got
+farther than this, and that we&#8217;d have at least two hours more of travel.
+Now we&#8217;ll have time for a little sleep before you begin busting those
+broncs.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They stretched themselves on the ground and almost instantly fell
+asleep. But it was not long before Conrad, rousing suddenly, sprang to
+his feet, realizing even before he was fairly awake that the cattle were
+stampeding. From down the hill came a thundering, rushing sound, the
+noise of hundreds of hoofs pounding the ground. He called his foreman,
+seized his saddle, and rushed to the bunch of tethered cow-ponies,
+Peters, Texas Bill, Red Jack, and Jos&eacute; Gonzalez close behind. As they
+dashed after the flying herd Curtis could see in the dim light the
+figure of the cowboy who had been patrolling the sleeping cattle. He was
+following the stampede at what his employer thought a leisurely pace.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_225" id="Page_225">[Pg 225]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Who was riding herd?&#8221; he yelled to Peters, who replied, &#8220;Andy Miller.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is he trying to drive them farther away?&#8221; Conrad muttered angrily,
+pressing home his spur.</p>
+
+<p>The cattle tore wildly down the hill, but at its foot their leaders
+turned up the course of the dry shallow valley instead of pressing up
+the other side. The men saw the movement, and by cutting across the
+hillside gained rapidly upon the fleeing animals. As they passed Andy
+Miller, Curtis shouted to him that he might return to the camp, as they
+should not need him. The draw soon began to grow deeper and narrower,
+and the dense mass of cattle was forced to lessen its pace. Conrad
+remembered that farther on the valley came to an abrupt end against a
+steep rise. If the brutes stayed in it a little longer they would not be
+able to get out, and when they came to the end of this blind alley of
+the hills they would have to stop. So he and his companions galloped
+easily along beside the shadowy stream of moving backs with its spray of
+tossing horns that filled the draw, and presently found the leaders,
+their heads to the bluff, chewing their cuds as quietly as if they had
+never been frightened in all their lives.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_226" id="Page_226">[Pg 226]</a></span></p><p>As they rode back to camp behind the staidly moving herd, Conrad asked
+Peters if he knew what caused the stampede. The foreman did not know, he
+had been sound asleep when it began. But he went on to tell an excited
+tale of mysterious accidents that had followed close upon one another
+ever since the morning of the superintendent&#8217;s departure. Only the edge
+of the sand-storm through which he had ridden touched them, though it
+had kept them in camp all day. Nevertheless, there had been two
+stampedes, and they had had much trouble getting the brutes together
+again. Every day since there had been at least one stampede of the herd.
+He and the others had been kept busy gathering in the flying cattle.
+This was why they had got no farther than Five Cottonwoods. It seemed as
+if the devil himself had taken possession of every cow-brute on the
+range; never in all his years as a cow-puncher had he had such a time.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t you know what starts them?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the mischief of it. Nobody ever knows. The darned critters just
+get up and hike. Some of the boys are gettin&#8217; skeery about it, and
+they&#8217;re likely to pull their freight if it keeps up. They&#8217;re tellin&#8217;
+ghost stories <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_227" id="Page_227">[Pg 227]</a></span>now after supper, and Andy Miller has been reelin&#8217; off
+the whoppin&#8217;est yarns ever you heard. Between the ghost stories and the
+way the cow-brutes act the boys are gettin&#8217; plumb fidgety, and I&#8217;m
+mighty glad you&#8217;ve got back.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How does Andy get on with the work? Does he <i>sabe</i>?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; he&#8217;s first rate; the best we&#8217;ve got, except Jos&eacute;. But Andy does
+have main bad luck with the cow-brutes. This makes four times they&#8217;ve
+stampeded under him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Promise of day was flushing the eastern sky and faintly warming the gray
+semi-darkness when Pendleton&#8217;s eyes flew open, to instant conviction of
+illness. From head to foot he ached with weariness, and he felt
+wretchedly sick. For a moment he kept quiet, feeling that it would be
+more comfortable to lie still and die than to try to move. But presently
+he thought, &#8220;I&#8217;ll never live to die of consumption if I don&#8217;t get up
+quick and find my whiskey!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He scrambled to his feet and looked around. Not nearly so many men were
+stretched on the ground as he had expected to see, and his friend was
+not in sight. He looked for his saddle-bags, where he kept his flask.
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_228" id="Page_228">[Pg 228]</a></span>Conrad had taken them from the horse when they unsaddled, and Pendleton
+had not noticed what he did with them. He could not find the bags,
+everybody left in camp was sound asleep, and Curtis had disappeared.
+Wrapped in his blanket he was wandering around forlornly, squirming with
+pain, when he saw some one moving in the group of horses farther down
+the hill. He started in that direction and saw the man stoop beside
+Conrad&#8217;s mare, Brown Betty.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Hello, pard! Where&#8217;s Curt?&#8221; Pendleton called loudly. The man
+straightened up quickly, and put away a knife. He looked at the curious
+figure coming toward him, and burst into a loud guffaw. &#8220;Gee whillikens,
+stranger! where&#8217;d you drop from?&#8221; he shouted back.</p>
+
+<p>Pendleton explained, and asked the other to help him find his
+saddle-bags. They were discovered in the chuck-wagon, and the invalid
+offered his flask, with a cordial admonition to &#8220;drink hearty, pard.&#8221;
+The cowboy responded literally, and made several other visits to the
+saddle-bags before breakfast. By that time he was good-naturedly
+obstreperous, and had the camp in an uproar with his horse-play and
+noisy pranks. Conrad asked <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_229" id="Page_229">[Pg 229]</a></span>Peters where Andy got his whiskey. The
+foreman did not know, and said that this was the first time he had shown
+any signs of drink. The superintendent went to Pendleton.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Has Andy Miller been taking a pull at your flask?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The cow-punch that&#8217;s feeling so happy? Sure, Curt. He helped me find my
+saddle-bags, and I thought I&#8217;d be sociable with him. I told him to drink
+hearty; and by thunder, Curt! you ought to have seen him. He sure had a
+worse thirst on him than I had yesterday.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll have to ask you not to do it again with any of them. And you&#8217;d
+better let me put your flask in a locked box I have in the chuck-wagon,
+if you don&#8217;t carry it in your pocket, or you may not have any left by
+night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez came up with a question, and Conrad remembered the letter he
+had for him. The Mexican took it with an unconcerned face, and went off
+behind the chuck-wagon. &#8220;I don&#8217;t need to see the inside of it,&#8221; thought
+Curtis; &#8220;but I&#8217;d like to all the same. Well, he&#8217;ll be all right now, and
+I&#8217;m glad of it, for I&#8217;d hate to have to kill as good a roper as he is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_230" id="Page_230">[Pg 230]</a></span></p><p>A few minutes later Jos&eacute; strolled toward the cook&#8217;s fire, twisting the
+letter in his fingers. He was about to thrust it into the coals when
+Andy Miller jumped at him with a yell, and caught his hand. &#8220;Here, boys;
+Jos&eacute;&#8217;s got a love letter! Let&#8217;s read it!&#8221; he shouted. Gonzalez resisted;
+Miller bore him down; and they rolled, struggling, over the ground.
+Jos&eacute;&#8217;s dark face was pale with anger and his teeth were set as he
+gripped the bit of paper in one fist and pummelled Andy&#8217;s face with the
+other. Miller tried to shield himself from the blows with his arms,
+while he bent his energies to getting possession of the letter.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re fightin&#8217;, Andy; don&#8217;t fergit to punch!&#8221; yelled Nosey Ike from
+the group of cowboys looking on. Miller was the stronger of the two, and
+almost had the Mexican in his power when Conrad came beside them,
+saying, &#8220;If you want the letter burned, Jos&eacute;, give it to me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez cast at him one doubtful, desperate look, and threw the twisted
+paper toward him. The superintendent thrust it in the fire, and he and
+Peters separated the two men. Gonzalez flashed at him a look of
+gratitude and walked away without a word.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Andy,&#8221; said Conrad, &#8220;you&#8217;re making too <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_231" id="Page_231">[Pg 231]</a></span>much trouble this morning. If
+you want to work with this outfit you&#8217;ve got to keep straight. If you
+don&#8217;t want to do that you can pull your freight right now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The man turned away sullenly. &#8220;I&#8217;m not ready to pull my freight yet,&#8221; he
+muttered. The other cowboys were saddling their ponies and making ready
+to begin the day&#8217;s work. The bunched cattle, with the red rays of the
+morning sun warm upon their backs, were quietly grazing a little way
+down the hillside. Andy Miller started toward his horse, but turned and
+ran rapidly at the cattle. No one noticed what he was doing until, in a
+moment more, he was jumping, yelling, and swinging his hat at the edge
+of the herd. Snorting with sudden surprise and fright, the beasts were
+away again as though fiends were at their tails. Conrad rushed for his
+horse, but Peters, already mounted, yelled that they would not need him;
+and the foreman, with half a dozen others, dashed after the stampede.</p>
+
+<p>Andy Miller was coming slowly back, now and then stopping to smite his
+thigh and laugh. Curtis walked out to meet him. &#8220;Andy,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I
+reckon I don&#8217;t need you any longer. You can take your time this morning.
+Here&#8217;s your money.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_232" id="Page_232">[Pg 232]</a></span></p><p>The cowboy looked up, grinning, and thrust the bills in his pocket.
+Then, as quickly and lightly as a cat, he sprang upon the superintendent
+and pulled him down. Conrad, taken completely by surprise, with his left
+arm in a sling and at something less than his best of strength, for a
+moment could do nothing but struggle in the other&#8217;s grasp. Miller was
+holding him, face downward, across one advanced leg, when Pendleton,
+still wrapped in his blanket, bustled up to see what was happening. With
+upraised hand, Miller yelled:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, then, you&#8217;ll get it back, every darn&#8217; spank, an&#8217; more too! Jenkins
+ain&#8217;t big enough to spank you himself, but I can do it for him!&#8221; His
+hand descended, but into an enveloping blanket suddenly thrown over him
+from behind, muffling head, body, and arms.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got him, Curt! Get up, quick, and we&#8217;ll do him up!&#8221; shouted the
+tenderfoot as he twisted the blanket around Andy&#8217;s struggling figure.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad wrenched himself free and sprang up, his face white. &#8220;Let him up,
+Pendy,&#8221; he said, drawing his revolver. The other unwound the blanket,
+and Miller scrambled <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_233" id="Page_233">[Pg 233]</a></span>out, blinking and cursing. &#8220;You make tracks out of
+this camp as fast as you can go,&#8221; said Curtis, &#8220;and don&#8217;t let me catch
+you within gunshot of this outfit again! Clear out, this minute, damn
+you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Miller walked away in silence toward his staked horse, the two men
+following him part way down the hill.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;d better clear out before the boys get back, if he wants to keep a
+sound neck,&#8221; said Conrad, his revolver in hand and his eyes on the
+retreating cowboy. &#8220;I understand it all now. And it was a lucky thing,
+Pendy, that you gave him that whiskey this morning; it got him just
+drunk enough to show his hand. If it hadn&#8217;t been for that I might not
+have caught on till he&#8217;d done the Lord knows how much mischief. It&#8217;s
+just like that damned skunk, Jenkins, to go at it in this sneaking,
+underhand way. He&#8217;s not through with me yet!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They watched while Miller saddled his horse, hung his rope at the
+saddle-horn, and mounted. Then they turned back toward the camp, but
+presently, at a whinny from Brown Betty, Curtis faced about. Miller had
+ridden to where she was standing, a little apart from the other horses,
+had leaped to the ground, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_234" id="Page_234">[Pg 234]</a></span>and was making toward her hind-quarters. His
+body was in profile, and as he stretched out his arm Conrad saw the
+flash of sunlight upon a knife blade. Instantly his arm swung upward,
+and there was an answering flash from the muzzle of his revolver. The
+report boomed across the valley, and Andy&#8217;s right arm dropped. He rushed
+toward them, yelling foul names, but halted when he saw the pistol
+levelled at his breast.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No more tricks, Andy,&#8221; called the superintendent, &#8220;or it&#8217;ll be through
+your heart next time. Git, right now!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>From up the valley came the shouts of the men. They had turned the
+cattle and were hurrying them back to camp. Miller cast one quick glance
+in their direction, and leaped to his saddle. He made a wide detour, the
+tail of his eye on Conrad&#8217;s gun, and galloped away on the road over
+which the outfit had come. The others trooped up where Curtis and
+Pendleton, at the top of the hill, were watching his lessening figure.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Boys,&#8221; said the ranchman, &#8220;that&#8217;s the chap that&#8217;s been stampeding the
+cattle!&#8221; Peters swore a mouth-filling oath and smote his thigh. &#8220;He was
+just on the point of ham-stringing Brown Betty,&#8221; Curtis went on, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_235" id="Page_235">[Pg 235]</a></span>his
+eyes blazing, &#8220;and I put a bullet through his arm barely in time to
+prevent it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A light broke upon Pendleton. &#8220;Darn my skin, if that wasn&#8217;t the trick
+the critter was up to this morning, when he saw me and stopped!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Let&#8217;s go after him, boys!&#8221; shouted Peters. The group of riders shot
+forward, like racers starting at the word, and thundered down the road
+after the culprit. Conrad looked after them grimly, his eyes flashing
+blue fire, and Pendleton, wrapped in his blanket again, danced about and
+yelled, &#8220;Go it, boys, go it! I wish I was with you!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For an hour they chased him. He, knowing what his fate would be if he
+fell into their hands, put spurs to his horse until he brought out its
+utmost speed. Having so much the start he kept well in the lead, and
+finally they gave it up and returned to camp.</p>
+
+<p>With his left arm still in a sling and his shoulder bandaged, Conrad
+kept at the head of the round-up, which went on without further
+accident. He was too busy to think of the pain, except at night, when it
+often kept him awake. At such times his mind was sure to busy itself,
+sooner or later, with the trailing of Delafield, reaching out in every
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_236" id="Page_236">[Pg 236]</a></span>direction for some clew to guide his next step. By some trick of
+subconscious mental action, thoughts of Lucy Bancroft began to intrude
+upon his mind when it was thus engaged. It pleased him well enough to
+think of Lucy at other times, of her bright, piquant face, of the
+positive opinions she was in the habit of pronouncing with that
+independent little toss of her curly head, and of her dimpling smiles.
+But it annoyed him that the thought of her should come into conflict
+with his one absorbing idea. And, just because he had been consciously
+disturbed by it twice or thrice, association of ideas brought back the
+image more and more frequently. Once, when he had been vainly wooing
+sleep for an hour, he caught himself wondering what Lucy would say about
+the Delafield affair. He muttered an angry oath at himself, and with a
+mighty effort put both subjects out of his mind. It was not until they
+reached Pelham, the railway station whence the cattle were to be
+shipped, that his shoulder became free enough from pain for him to sink
+into sleep as soon as he lay down; and thereafter his mind forbore its
+irritating trick.</p>
+
+<p>During all that time, although Conrad did not believe he had anything to
+fear from <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_237" id="Page_237">[Pg 237]</a></span>Jos&eacute; Gonzalez, he never left his revolver out of easy reach,
+and never turned his back upon the Mexican. But Gonzalez kept on his way
+as calmly and apparently as unconsciously as if he had had no part in
+that episode beside the pool at Rock Springs. Near the end of the
+shipping Curtis asked him if he would like steady work at the ranch.</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican gave a little astonished start and cast at the
+superintendent a glance of suspicion. Conrad frowned and his eyes
+flashed. Then he grinned good-naturedly, showing his strong white teeth
+under his sunburned moustache. &#8220;That&#8217;s all right, Jos&eacute;. I&#8217;m not that
+sort. As long as you behave yourself I&#8217;m your friend. If you don&#8217;t, I&#8217;ve
+told you what will happen. You&#8217;ve struck my gait in the cow business,
+and I want to keep you. If you want to stay you can understand right now
+that you run no risks, unless you make &#8217;em yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez threw at him a keen glance. &#8220;You know I have nothing against
+you, Don Curtis,&#8221; he began, hesitating a moment before he went on; &#8220;I
+like to work for you very well, se&ntilde;or, and I will stay.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_238" id="Page_238">[Pg 238]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVI" id="CHAPTER_XVI"></a>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+
+<h3>A DOUBLE BLUFF</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>lexander Bancroft read Conrad&#8217;s defiant letter, duly forwarded by his
+Boston attorneys, with a nearer approach to desperation than he had
+known in years. He had hoped so much from that money; and it had been
+thrown away! The man was inflexible, and to attempt to turn him from his
+deadly purpose by peaceful means would be a waste of time. And time was
+precious, for, now that he and his detective knew so much, one clew that
+they might discover any day would throw the door wide open. He must be
+foiled before he had time to make another move. Bancroft laid on his
+desk the letter he had been reading, feeling to the bottom of his heart
+that he would be justified in taking any course that would halt the feet
+of his pursuer.</p>
+
+<p>A clerk came to ask his presence in the outer room, and he went out
+hastily, intending to return at once. But a man with business <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_239" id="Page_239">[Pg 239]</a></span>in which
+both were interested awaited him, and after a moment&#8217;s conversation they
+went to find a third who was concerned in the same matter.</p>
+
+<p>They had only just gone when Lucy came in and asked for her father. She
+looked sweet and dainty in a white gown with a wide white hat tied under
+her chin, her curls clustering around a face all aglow with warm browns
+and rich reds. The clerk who pressed forward with pleased alacrity to
+answer her question was one of her ardent admirers. Mr. Bancroft had
+just gone out, probably for only a few minutes; wouldn&#8217;t she wait? It
+was of no consequence, she said; she only wished to see if he had any
+mail for her. But she looked disappointed, and the clerk suggested that
+as he had left his office door unlocked she might go in and wait. She
+saw a pile of unopened letters on her father&#8217;s desk and glanced through
+it, finding two for Miss Dent and one for herself. &#8220;I&#8217;ll just sit here
+and read mine,&#8221; she thought, &#8220;and maybe daddy will be back by that
+time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A little gust of wind came through the open window, blowing a sheet of
+paper from the desk to the floor. Her eye caught the signature as she
+picked it up. &#8220;Curtis Conrad!&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_240" id="Page_240">[Pg 240]</a></span>she read. &#8220;Oh, how like him his writing
+looks!&#8221; she exclaimed, a wave of color surging into her cheeks. &#8220;Why, it
+seems as if I just knew it would be like this! How easy it is to read!&#8221;
+She was looking at the letter, her attention absorbed in the fact that
+it had come from Conrad&#8217;s own hand, when Delafield&#8217;s name stood out from
+the other words.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Delafield! Sumner L. Delafield! I remember that name. It&#8217;s the name of
+the man that ruined his father&mdash;why, it&#8217;s a receipt for that money! How
+does daddy happen to have it?&#8221; Her eyes ran eagerly along the lines.
+&#8220;It&#8217;s just like him! I&#8217;m glad he wouldn&#8217;t take the money! What a horrid,
+wicked man that Delafield must be! I wonder how daddy happens to have
+this letter, when it was written to Tremper &amp; Townsend, in Boston!&#8221; Her
+glance fell on the torn envelope bearing the imprint of the Boston firm,
+addressed to her father, and thence to their letter beside it. With mind
+intent upon the bewildering problem her eyes rushed over the brief
+missive:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;As you requested, we deposited your check for five hundred dollars
+to our account, and forwarded our check for the same amount to Mr.
+Curtis Conrad. We enclose his letter in receipt, which he evidently
+wishes sent on to you.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_241" id="Page_241">[Pg 241]</a></span></p><p>Lucy dropped the sheet of paper and sprang to her feet, her mind awhirl
+with protest. No, no! this could not be meant for her father&mdash;he was not
+Delafield&mdash;it was impossible! But&mdash;something clutched at her throat, and
+her head swam. She must go home; she must think out the puzzle. Sudden
+unwillingness to meet her father seized her. He must not know she had
+been there, that she had seen anything. She was not yet thinking
+coherently, only feeling that she had thoughtlessly surprised some
+secret, which had sprung out at her like a jack-in-the-box, and that she
+must give no sign of having seen its face.</p>
+
+<p>She sped homeward, her brain in a turmoil, and it was not until she had
+shut herself in her room that she began to think clearly. A troop of
+recollections, disjointed, half-forgotten bits and ends of things
+swarmed upon her. The shock had roused her mind to unusual activity, and
+little things long past, forgotten for years, again came vividly into
+her memory.</p>
+
+<p>So suddenly that it made her catch her breath there flashed upon her the
+recollection of how once, when she was a tiny child, some one had halted
+beside her mother and herself in a city <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_242" id="Page_242">[Pg 242]</a></span>street and exclaimed &#8220;Mrs.
+Delafield!&#8221; Her mother had hurried on without noticing the salutation,
+and had satisfied her curiosity afterward by explaining that the person
+was a stranger who had mistaken her for somebody else. But Lucy had
+thought the name a pretty one and used it in her play, pretending that
+she had a little playmate so called. Their wanderings during her
+childhood came back to her, when they had gone often from one place to
+another, at first in Canada, afterward always in the West. Much of the
+time she and her mother were alone, but her father came occasionally to
+spend with them a few days or weeks. Her devotion to him dated from
+those early years, when she thought so much about him during his long
+absences, wished so ardently for his return, and enjoyed his visits with
+unalloyed delight.</p>
+
+<p>With new significance came the recollection of the beginning for them of
+the name of Bancroft. While she was still a little girl her mother had
+told her their name would no longer be Brown, but Bancroft, because they
+had been allowed to change it. She had liked the new name much better,
+had accepted it with the unquestioning acquiescence of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_243" id="Page_243">[Pg 243]</a></span>childhood, and
+the old name had soon become but a dim memory.</p>
+
+<p>Like a blow at her heart, because of the conviction it brought, the
+remembrance rushed upon her of an occasion not long after the change of
+name. She had wakened in the night and, drowsily floating in and out of
+sleep, had heard snatches of talk between her parents. Something
+regarding danger to her father had won her attention. He had replied
+that it would be quite safe, because only when he visited them would he
+be known as Bancroft, and that henceforth he would probably be able to
+spend more time with them. Her mother had feared and questioned, but he
+had reassured her and insisted that Lucy must be kept more steadily in
+school and that both mother and daughter must have a settled home. She
+could not remember all that he said, but meaningful scraps came back
+which had impressed her because they were concerned with that vague
+peril which her mother seemed to fear. He had said something about there
+being &#8220;no danger now,&#8221; &#8220;nobody would recognize him,&#8221; &#8220;everybody had
+forgotten it by this time&#8221;; finally, her childish anxiety assured that
+he was not really in jeopardy, she had sunk back happily into <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_244" id="Page_244">[Pg 244]</a></span>sleep and
+thought little more about it. After that she and her mother lived part
+of the time in Denver and part in San Francisco, and her father was with
+them more than before.</p>
+
+<p>Every recollection that emerged from that dubious past strengthened the
+fear that had gripped her heart with the reading of the letters. One by
+one she was forced to give up the suppositions with which she tried to
+account for her father&#8217;s possession of those letters. With all her
+strength she fought against the one evident conclusion. But at last the
+conviction fell upon her with chill certainty that they were on her
+father&#8217;s desk because they were meant for him, and that he was the
+Sumner L. Delafield of that long past, disgraceful affair.</p>
+
+<p>With hands clenched against her heart, which was aching with the
+soreness of bruised flesh, she whispered, &#8220;To take the money of all
+those people, and ruin them; and it killed some&mdash;oh, daddy, daddy, it
+was you who did it!&#8221; All the world had suddenly become one great,
+enveloping pain that wrung her heart anew with every recurring
+realization that her adored father had been so wicked&mdash;to her mind so
+abominably wicked. It was significant of her youth and inexperience, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_245" id="Page_245">[Pg 245]</a></span>also of her moral quality, that she did not attempt to palliate or
+excuse his offence. He was guilty of wrongdoing, as Dellmey Baxter was
+guilty, but in a far worse measure, and the fact that he was her father
+would never temper her condemnation of his sin. In the midst of her
+anguish she grew conscious that her feeling toward him had changed, and
+knew that the life had gone out of her old honoring, adoring love. It
+was as if half her heart had been violently torn away. For the first
+time sobs shook her, as she moaned, &#8220;Daddy, daddy, I loved you so!&#8221;
+Forlorn and anguished, her longing turned back to the dead mother with
+imperious need of sympathy, understanding, and companionship.</p>
+
+<p>Then came the thought that her mother had known this dreadful truth, and
+yet had stanchly held by him and shared its consequences. The sense of
+duty arose within her, trembling, apprehensive, but insistent. It seemed
+almost as if her mother had bequeathed this secret to her keeping that
+she might the better fill her place beside him with daughterly
+solicitude. The idea crystallized into whispered words as she tossed
+back her head and dried her eyes, &#8220;My mother stood by him, and so shall
+I!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_246" id="Page_246">[Pg 246]</a></span></p><p>He must never even suspect that she knew this horrible thing; she felt
+instinctively that it would cut him to the heart to learn that she had
+discovered his secret. For a moment she broke down again and moaned,
+&#8220;Why did I go into his office this morning! I wish I hadn&#8217;t, I wish I
+hadn&#8217;t! And then I wouldn&#8217;t have had to know!&#8221; She quickly put aside
+this useless repining, to face the grim, painful fact once more. No; he
+must never guess that she knew he was other than he seemed, and he must
+never feel any change in her manner toward him. She must hide the secret
+deep, deep down in her heart, and she must keep their mutual life as it
+had always been. And there was Dearie&mdash;but she must know nothing of it;
+oh, no, never in the world must Dearie learn the least thing about this
+trouble!</p>
+
+<p>Lucy felt very much alone, quite shut off, in her poignant need, from
+every one who might give her help, advice, or sympathy. As she sat
+there, encompassed by her loneliness and pain, her thoughts turned half
+unconsciously toward Curtis Conrad with instinctive longing for his
+protecting care and strength. Then she remembered. With a sharp flash
+that made her wince it came back <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_247" id="Page_247">[Pg 247]</a></span>to her that he meant to have revenge
+on Delafield; that she had heard him say he was on the man&#8217;s trail, and
+would track him down and kill him! For a moment it staggered her, with a
+fierce new pain that struck through the keen ache in her breast, making
+her catch her breath in a gasping sob. But all her heart rose in quick
+denial. A faint smile held her trembling lip for an instant as she
+thought:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no; he wouldn&#8217;t! He wouldn&#8217;t hurt daddy; and he wouldn&#8217;t kill
+anybody! I know he wouldn&#8217;t!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She almost feared to meet her household; it seemed as if this awful
+knowledge which had come to her must be writ large upon her countenance.
+Would it be possible to take up the daily life again as if nothing had
+happened? A chasm so horrible had riven it, since the morning, that
+surely it could never be the same again. But when she finally summoned
+her resolution and went down to take up her daily duties, she found it
+not so hard as she had feared. That benign routine of daily, commonplace
+life, with its hourly demands upon thought and feeling and attention,
+which has saved so many hearts from breaking, met her at the very door
+of her <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_248" id="Page_248">[Pg 248]</a></span>room. She quickly learned to lean upon it, even to multiply its
+demands. At the outset it gave her the strength and courage to pass
+through her ordeal steadfastly; and after the first day it was not so
+hard. She began to feel pity for her father and a new tenderness as she
+thought of the years through which he had lived, knowing who he was and
+what he had done, and dreading always to be found out. But all her pity,
+tenderness, affection, and the old habit of lovingness that she was
+resolute to sustain were not always sufficient to overcome the revulsion
+that sometimes seized her.</p>
+
+<p>One of these moments of revolt came to her as they lingered over the
+breakfast table a few days after her discovery. She made an excuse to
+attend to something in the kitchen, and hastily left the room. Her
+father had told them at the table that he was going to Las Vegas that
+morning. He waited, expecting her to return and go with him to the gate,
+and wave a last good-bye as he looked back on his way down the hill. She
+did not reappear, and at last he told Miss Dent that he would have to go
+or lose his train. Louise watched him from the window with yearning eyes
+that would not lift themselves <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_249" id="Page_249">[Pg 249]</a></span>from his figure until it disappeared
+from her view.</p>
+
+<p>As he waited at the station Lucy rushed breathlessly to his side. &#8220;I was
+so afraid I should be too late!&#8221; she panted as she slipped her hand
+through his arm, &#8220;I ran all the way down the hill.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She clung so affectionately to him and looked up into his face with an
+appeal so wistful that he was touched, thinking only that she was
+sorrowing over his going away. It was the first time he had been
+separated from her since she had come to make her home with him. The
+conductor called, &#8220;All aboard!&#8221; and he kissed her tenderly, saying,
+&#8220;I&#8217;ll be back day after to-morrow, little daughter.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She went home with that &#8220;little daughter&#8221; ringing in her ears and her
+heart. It brought back a wealth of memories of those childish, happy,
+longed-for times when her father came, so glad to see his &#8220;little
+daughter&#8221; that the days were not long enough to hold all the pleasures
+he wished to give her. It filled her breast with tenderness and a sort
+of yearning affection, more maternal than filial in quality, and made
+more ardent her desire to stand by him with perfect loyalty. But the
+old, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_250" id="Page_250">[Pg 250]</a></span>joyous love that had been rooted deep in admiration, esteem, and
+honor no longer stirred within her. She knew that it would never fill
+her life again with its warmth and gladness, and that now and again she
+would have to struggle with that same aversion which had sent her that
+morning to hide herself in her room against his accustomed affectionate
+farewell. Nevertheless, she was pleased that a returning tide of
+tenderness, which was almost remorse, had swept over her in time for her
+to join him at the station.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy&#8217;s breathless rush to overtake him and the appealing tenderness of
+her manner during their moment together were sweet thoughts in
+Bancroft&#8217;s mind as the train bore him northward. Dear little daughter!
+she grew dearer every day, and so did his pride and happiness in her. He
+longed to give her all the pleasures that his money could buy, just as
+he used to fill his pockets for her delight when she was a little girl.
+Once past these threatening dangers, they should have good times
+together. All his business enterprises were promising well; it would not
+be long before money would be plenty. Then, with clear sailing ahead and
+no ominous clouds, he could ask Louise to marry him.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_251" id="Page_251">[Pg 251]</a></span></p><p>They would have to give up Lucy some time, but not for many a day. She
+was the sort of girl that is always attractive to men&mdash;why, half the
+young fellows in Golden were already dancing devoted attendance!&mdash;but
+she was very young; he and Louise still had many years in which to enjoy
+her, to travel with her and show her the world. Once past these
+threatening dangers, how fair was the world beyond! He would vanquish
+them yet, by whatever means might come to his hand! Each day&#8217;s anxiety
+for the present and its longing for the fair future made his heart more
+desperate and reckless. He was hopeful that this coming interview with
+Rutherford Jenkins would make things easier for him in that quarter.
+Money would always keep Jenkins quiet, but to give up money to a
+blackmailer was like pouring it down a rat hole; if he kept it up the
+process was sure to cripple him in time.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins received him with smiling cordiality. &#8220;I&#8217;m very glad to see you,
+Mr. Delafield&mdash;oh, I beg your pardon!&mdash;Mr. Bancroft. I always think of
+you as&mdash;ah, by the other name&mdash;and I sometimes forget in speaking.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;d better not forget again,&#8221; Bancroft interposed. &#8220;And, speaking of
+forgetting, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_252" id="Page_252">[Pg 252]</a></span>there is a little matter concerning you that I&#8217;m willing to
+let drop out of my memory. You know, of course, about the case of Jos&eacute;
+Maria Melgares. Doubtless you know, also, how Melgares happened to steal
+Curtis Conrad&#8217;s horse; and you could tell to a cent&mdash;to a jury, if
+necessary&mdash;how much money was given to Melgares in the rear of the Blue
+Front saloon to induce him to undertake the theft. I take it, however,
+that you would not care to have it brought into court, as a conviction
+on a charge of conspiracy would be sure to follow. I have all the
+evidence in my possession&mdash;quite enough to convict. I got it from
+Melgares&#8217; wife in the first place, and I have since secured his
+affidavit. But I have stopped her mouth, and his, and nobody else knows
+anything about it. I am quite willing to forget it myself if you will
+show equal courtesy concerning&mdash;certain other matters.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins grinned and licked his lips. &#8220;Really, my dear Mr.
+Delafield&mdash;excuse me&mdash;my dear Mr. Bancroft&mdash;I don&#8217;t know what you are
+driving at! I suppose you mean that Melgares has been saying that I
+hired him to steal Conrad&#8217;s horse. The thing is as false as it is
+absurd. If it were to come into court <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_253" id="Page_253">[Pg 253]</a></span>I should deny it absolutely,
+exactly as I do now. And the word of Rutherford Jenkins would stand for
+considerably more with a jury than that of a Mexican horse-thief.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You are probably the only man in the Territory, Mr. Jenkins, who holds
+that opinion. Unless you take a more reasonable view of the matter I
+shall feel it my duty to see the district attorney as soon as I get
+home.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;See him, and be damned!&#8221; Jenkins broke out. &#8220;If you do, Curtis Conrad
+shall know before the week is out that you are Sumner L. Delafield.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft&#8217;s eyes fell, but his reply came quickly enough: &#8220;Well, and what
+is that to me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess you know what it will mean to you,&#8221; Jenkins answered with a
+sneer. He did not know himself what it would mean to the banker, but he
+felt sure that it would answer quite as well to make pretence of
+knowledge. He watched his antagonist furtively in the momentary silence
+that followed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t seem to understand the full significance of the attitude you
+are taking,&#8221; Bancroft presently went on. &#8220;Of course, I do not wish, just
+now, to have Conrad, or any one else, know all the events of my past
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_254" id="Page_254">[Pg 254]</a></span>life. I have been living an honorable life in this Territory, and you
+can very well comprehend that I do not wish my reputation and business
+success smashed&mdash;by you or anybody else. That is the only reason why I
+was willing to enter into an understanding with you. But my affairs are
+getting in such shape that I can soon snap my fingers at you or any one
+who tries to disclose my identity. At best, you&#8217;ll be able to get little
+more out of me, and I am amazed that you should be willing to risk this
+trial, with its certain disgrace, conviction, and sentence to the
+penitentiary, for the sake of the few hundred dollars of&mdash;blackmail&mdash;let
+us call it by its right name&mdash;that you may be able to extort from me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I am quite willing to take whatever risk there is,&#8221; Jenkins interposed,
+&#8220;especially as my counsel could readily bring out the fact that you had
+tried to&mdash;blackmail&mdash;let us call it by its right name&mdash;to blackmail me
+before you gave the information. Do as you please about going to the
+district attorney; I don&#8217;t care a damn whether you do or not. But, if
+you do, you&#8217;ll have to settle with Curt Conrad before the week is out!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft arose, perceiving acutely that the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_255" id="Page_255">[Pg 255]</a></span>only course left for him
+was to make a strong bluff and retreat. &#8220;Very well,&#8221; he said, with an
+indifference he was far from feeling, &#8220;do as you like about that. Only
+don&#8217;t delude yourself by supposing that Curt Conrad&#8217;s knowing about that
+old affair will mean any more to me than anybody else&#8217;s knowledge. When
+you think this proposal of mine over carefully I&#8217;m sure you&#8217;ll change
+your mind, and I shall expect to hear from you to that effect.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_256" id="Page_256">[Pg 256]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVII" id="CHAPTER_XVII"></a>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+
+<h3>SENTENCE OF DEATH</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>s the Spring days passed, in unbroken procession of rosy dawns,
+cloudless and glowing noons, and gorgeous sunsets, Louise Dent&#8217;s
+resentment against Curtis Conrad grew keen and bitter. She saw the lines
+of worry appearing in Bancroft&#8217;s face, and surprised now and then in his
+eyes an anxious abstraction; and in her heart she stormed against the
+man she supposed to be the sole cause of it all. Dreading his next visit
+lest she might betray her feeling, she longed to drive him from the
+house, when he should come, with burning, shaming words. But Bancroft,
+who knew as much of his intention as she did, was on terms of cordial
+friendship with him, and she must take her cue from her friend and host.</p>
+
+<p>Toward Bancroft himself her heart grew more tenderly solicitous as her
+womanly instincts divined his feeling toward her. A thousand unconscious
+touches of tone and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_257" id="Page_257">[Pg 257]</a></span>manner had already revealed his love, and she
+surmised that he would not speak because of the imminence of this sore
+danger. She longed to give him her open sympathy, to counsel with him,
+to lock hands with him so that they might face the trouble together. Yet
+she was stopped from word or action by the necessity of seeming to know
+nothing. The fact of Bancroft&#8217;s identity had been disclosed to her by
+his wife, her dear and intimate friend, who, at point of death, had told
+her, under solemn promise of secrecy, the whole story, that she might
+the better shield Lucy should disclosure ever threaten. Now, her heart
+melting with pity, love, and sympathy for her friend, and burning with
+angry resentment against his foe, she must perforce sit in apparent
+ignorance of it all, be calm and cheerful toward Bancroft, and smile
+pleased welcome upon Conrad. That hidden volcano in her breast, whose
+possibility Lucy and Curtis had half seriously discussed, had become a
+reality, and the concealment of it demanded all her self-control.</p>
+
+<p>The only relief she dared give herself was occasional disapproval of the
+young cattleman in her talks with Lucy. Louise was surprised and puzzled
+by the varying moods <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_258" id="Page_258">[Pg 258]</a></span>in which the girl received these criticisms.
+Sometimes she kept silence or quickly changed the subject. Rarely she
+tossed her head and joined in the condemnation with an angry sparkle of
+the eye. Or, again, with flushing cheek, she defended him from Miss
+Dent&#8217;s aspersions. Louise decided, with a fond smile, that her vagaries
+of mood were due to pique at the lack of more constant attentions from
+Conrad. For the young woman, to her father&#8217;s and Miss Dent&#8217;s loving
+amusement, was proving herself adept in the art of queening it over a
+court of masculine admirers. What with walks over the <i>mesa</i>, rides and
+picnics up the canyon, music of evenings, and Sunday afternoon calls,
+Lucy was leading a gay life, and Louise, as her chaperon, a busy one.
+Being a normal, buoyant-hearted girl, Lucy enjoyed the gayety and the
+attention and admiration showered upon her in such copious measure for
+their own sake, and she was glad of them also because, together with her
+household cares, they kept her too well occupied for sad thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>So the days passed until mid-June was at hand and the time come for the
+trial of Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares. Curtis Conrad was in Golden as one of the
+principal witnesses for the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_259" id="Page_259">[Pg 259]</a></span>prosecution&mdash;his first visit to the town
+since the Spring round-up. Lucy, glancing frequently down the street,
+was trying to interest herself in Miss Dent&#8217;s conversation as they sat
+together on the veranda. They spoke of the trial, and Lucy said she had
+seen Mr. Conrad on his way to the court-house when she went down town to
+market.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been disappointed in Mr. Conrad,&#8221; said Louise; &#8220;I don&#8217;t understand
+how he can talk so recklessly about people needing to be killed. To me
+it is very repellent. You know how he speaks about Mr. Baxter.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy&#8217;s head went up. &#8220;But Mr. Baxter is a very bad man!&#8221; she exclaimed.
+&#8220;He has been responsible for a great deal of suffering. Just think of
+Melgares and his poor wife! But for Mr. Baxter they might still be
+living happily on their little ranch. And he&#8217;s done many other things
+just as wicked and unjust. Oh, he&#8217;s a very bad man, and I can&#8217;t blame
+Mr. Conrad for feeling that way about him.&#8221; She broke off, flushing to
+her brows, then went on more quietly: &#8220;But I don&#8217;t think, Dearie, that
+Mr. Conrad means half he says when he talks that way; it&#8217;s just his way
+of feeling how brave he is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If he does not mean it, he should not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_260" id="Page_260">[Pg 260]</a></span>speak so recklessly of serious
+matters,&#8221; Louise responded with decision. &#8220;He must have a cruel nature,
+or he would not harbor such ideas.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy leaned forward, her face aglow. &#8220;Indeed, no, Dearie! Mr. Conrad
+isn&#8217;t cruel; he&#8217;s really very tender-hearted&mdash;just think of the way he
+carried that wounded bird all the way to Golden to have its leg fixed.
+And one day when we were walking on the <i>mesa</i>, he was so distressed
+because he accidentally stepped on a little horned toad. It&#8217;s unjust to
+call him cruel, Dearie!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Her glance darted down the street again, and she saw Curtis nearing her
+gate. His quick, energetic stride and eager face were like a trumpet
+call to her youth and her womanhood. Forgetting all but the fact of his
+presence, she felt her heart leap to meet him with joyful welcome. But
+instantly came remembrance and reaction, and she greeted him with
+unusual gravity of manner.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad wanted them at the ranch for the Fourth of July. &#8220;We are to have
+a big barbecue and <i>baile</i>,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Both the Castletons are coming
+this year to look things over, and I wrote Ned that if Mrs. Ned was
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_261" id="Page_261">[Pg 261]</a></span>coming with him perhaps it would amuse her if we did something of the
+sort. The idea seemed to just strike his gait, and he wrote back at once
+to go ahead and whoop it up for all I&#8217;m worth. Mrs. Ned and Mrs. Turner
+are both coming, and I&#8217;m asking a lot of people from all over the
+Territory. I want you two ladies and Mr. Bancroft to be sure to come out
+the day before the Fourth and stay at least until the day after, and as
+much longer as you find convenient. My brother Homer is coming on next
+week for the rest of the Summer, and he&#8217;ll be there too.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy was delighted, clapped her hands, and declared it would be great
+fun&mdash;of course they would go. Repugnant to the idea but knowing that
+only one course was seemly, Miss Dent gave smiling acquiescence. As they
+talked, Curtis telling them of the great wealth of the Castleton
+brothers, the rivalry of the two ladies, the dash and beauty and vogue
+of Mrs. Turner, and the Spanish ancestry of Mrs. Ned, Lucy&#8217;s eyes
+continually sought his face. Her spirits began to rise, and soon they
+were gayly tilting at each other after their usual custom, she all
+smiles and dimples and animation, and he beaming with <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_262" id="Page_262">[Pg 262]</a></span>admiration. They
+went to the conservatory to see the tanager and presently brought it
+back with them, telling Miss Dent that they were going to set it free.
+Lucy stood beside him as they watched it soar away through the sunlight,
+a flash of silvery pink flame, and it seemed to her that their mutual
+interest in the little creature had made a bond between them and given
+her an understanding of his character deeper and truer than any one else
+could have.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad went down the hill, whistling softly a merry little tune, his
+thoughts dwelling tenderly upon Lucy. He wished her to enjoy the
+barbecue and <i>baile</i> even more than she expected&mdash;it was to be her first
+experience of that sort&mdash;and he began to plan little details that might
+add to her pleasure. So absorbed was he and so pleasant his thoughts
+that for a time he quite forgot the Delafield affair. But it came to
+mind again when Bancroft asked him, as they talked together at the door
+of the bank, if he had had any more trouble with Jos&eacute; Gonzalez.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, no; Jos&eacute;&#8217;s all right. He&#8217;s the best cowboy I&#8217;ve got and as docile
+as a yearling. He&#8217;s agreed to stay right on at the ranch with me. I&#8217;m
+glad to have such a smart, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_263" id="Page_263">[Pg 263]</a></span>competent fellow to leave under Peters, for
+after the Fourth I expect to be away a good deal. I&#8217;ll have some time
+for myself then and I&#8217;m going into this hunt after Delafield for all I&#8217;m
+worth; I don&#8217;t think it will take me long to run him down now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft hesitated a moment, then, laying his hand on Conrad&#8217;s arm he
+spoke earnestly: &#8220;For God&#8217;s sake, Curt, give up this fool notion of
+yours. If you don&#8217;t, you&#8217;ll never get through alive. No sane man is
+going to let you get the drop on him, as you seem to think you can. He&#8217;s
+undoubtedly watching you right along, ready to put an end to the
+business as soon as he thinks you&#8217;re really dangerous. Let him pay you
+if he will; but stop this foolishness.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad laughed heartily and slapped Bancroft&#8217;s shoulder. &#8220;Why, Aleck,&#8221;
+said he, &#8220;the most satisfaction I&#8217;ve ever had comes out of knowing that
+I&#8217;m so hot on his tracks that I&#8217;ve got him buffaloed. Give it up? Not
+much! I&#8217;m going to lope down that trail at a two-minute gait, and Sumner
+L. Delafield is mighty soon going to wish he&#8217;d never been born.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft turned half away, with a tightening <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_264" id="Page_264">[Pg 264]</a></span>of his lips under his
+brown moustache. &#8220;Very well. I&#8217;ll not trouble you with any more advice
+on the subject. But when you meet with disaster, as you undoubtedly
+will, you must remember that you&#8217;ve got nobody but yourself to blame.
+How&#8217;s the trial going?&#8221; he asked abruptly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Pretty fast; the case will go to the jury to-morrow. It won&#8217;t take them
+more than ten minutes to reach a verdict. You ought to come in and hear
+Judge Banks&#8217;s charge, Aleck. Dan tells me it&#8217;s sure to be interesting.
+He says you never can tell whether Banks will deliver an original poem
+or make up his charge out of quotations from Shakespeare.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As the banker went up the hill to his home he remembered that he had
+heard Rutherford Jenkins was in town. To-morrow he must see the man and
+try again to induce him to consider the dangers of an indictment for
+conspiracy. At any rate, he would hold that affidavit of Melgares&#8217; up
+his sleeve, and the time might come when it would be efficacious, even
+should Jenkins still scoff at it now. Conrad&mdash;he had given Conrad
+another warning, as plain as day, and if the man would rush on
+recklessly he must take the consequences. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_265" id="Page_265">[Pg 265]</a></span>Jos&eacute; Gonzalez was still at
+Socorro Springs&mdash;an accident could happen&mdash;and there was no time to
+lose!</p>
+
+<p>Lucy saw her father coming when he was a block away and, instead of
+running to the gate to meet him, pretended not to have noticed him, and
+hastened into the house. Louise Dent remained on the veranda, pushing
+forward a lounging chair for him as he mounted the steps. She saw that
+he looked paler and more haggard than usual, and she longed to put her
+arms about him, as a mother might around a suffering child, and charm
+away his trouble and wretchedness. In her maiden life the innate
+mother-longing had found little appeasement; and so, when this youthful
+love came into her enriched and mellowed heart of middle life, it
+gathered into itself the repressed yearning of her nature, and the
+maternal side of it was strong and fierce. She neither condoned nor
+belittled the sins of the man she loved. For his wrongdoing and the
+suffering he had caused she felt sorrow, pity, remorse&mdash;remorse almost
+as keen as if she herself had been the guilty one. But her love enfolded
+him in spite of his sins, and even included them. For she told herself
+that if he had not been guilty she might never have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_266" id="Page_266">[Pg 266]</a></span>known him, their
+paths might never have crossed.</p>
+
+<p>In gentle, unobtrusive ways she ministered to his comfort; then, sitting
+beside him, her calm brow and steady eyes giving no sign of the tumult
+in her heart, she talked with sympathy and interest, gradually leading
+his thoughts away from the present into happy plans for the future. With
+keen satisfaction she saw the weary, desperate look fade from his face
+and eyes, giving place to one of comfort and content, and the assurance
+that she had made him forget his troubles, even for a little while,
+filled her heart with pleasure.</p>
+
+<p>Lucy, sitting in her room, heard the murmur of their voices through her
+open windows. Her high spirits of the hour before were gone, and she sat
+dejected, her face mournful, and her head hanging like a flower broken
+on its stem. Presently she slipped down to the conservatory, took the
+pot of cactus Conrad had given her, ran across the back-yard, and threw
+it over the fence. Then she joined her father and Louise, seating
+herself on the arm of his chair and throwing her arm around his neck as
+she asked with loving concern about his welfare, told him he had not
+been looking well of late, and that he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_267" id="Page_267">[Pg 267]</a></span>was working too hard and ought
+to have a rest. But that evening, after dinner, she rushed across the
+yard and out of the gate, and gathered up the cactus pot in her arms as
+if it were some small animal she had hurt. She returned it to its place
+in the conservatory, pressing her hands around it until its spines
+brought little drops of blood.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t help it!&#8221; she exclaimed in a vehement whisper. &#8220;I have to like
+him, and I shan&#8217;t try any more not to! He wouldn&#8217;t hurt daddy, I know he
+wouldn&#8217;t&mdash;because&mdash;because he wouldn&#8217;t&mdash;and because&mdash;he loves me!&#8221; A
+tiny smile curved her lips as she touched the plant caressingly and
+presently her whisper went on: &#8220;If I could only tell daddy that he
+needn&#8217;t be afraid or worried! Oh, I wish I could! But he mustn&#8217;t guess I
+know.&#8221; Her lips ceased moving and she stared unseeingly at the cactus,
+as her thought slowly took shape: &#8220;It&#8217;s worrying daddy awfully, and I
+mustn&#8217;t let it go on any longer. I&#8217;ll tell Mr. Conrad who Delafield is
+and he&#8217;ll stop right then&mdash;I know he will. He&#8217;ll despise us
+afterward&mdash;oh, he won&#8217;t love me after that!&mdash;but&mdash;poor daddy! he won&#8217;t
+be worried any more.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_268" id="Page_268">[Pg 268]</a></span></p><p>Bancroft and Miss Dent were alike convinced that his pursuer would be
+ruthless in the fulfilment of revenge. Arguing from their knowledge of
+men, their experience of the world, and their observation of his
+character, each had come to the fixed conclusion that no softening of
+heart or staying of hand could be expected from him when he knew the
+truth. Lucy, having neither knowledge of men nor experience of the world
+to guide her, had not reasoned about the matter at all. She had jumped
+at once to her conclusion, as soon as she knew her father&#8217;s identity,
+that he had nothing to fear from Curtis. Her decision was partly due to
+her own temperament, which she instinctively felt to be somewhat akin to
+Conrad&#8217;s, and partly to her knowledge of a side of his character of
+which Louise knew little and her father still less. It was further
+strengthened by her intuition that he loved her&mdash;something the young man
+himself had not yet realized. Other than this belief in his love she
+could have offered no reason for her assurance that he would give over
+his purpose as soon as he learned to whose door his quest was leading
+him. But neither her father nor Louise, had it been possible for them to
+argue with her, could have shaken her conviction.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_269" id="Page_269">[Pg 269]</a></span></p><p>The next day Bancroft, Conrad, and Pendleton went together to the
+court-house to see the closing scenes of the Melgares trial. The leading
+men of the town were there, as well as the usual hangers-on of a
+court-room, and a few women, both Mexican and American, sat in a little
+railed space at one side. Every seat was filled, and a standing line of
+late comers fringed the walls. Across the room Bancroft saw Rutherford
+Jenkins. The crowd was disappointed by the judge&#8217;s charge to the jury,
+which was brief, simple, and confined to bare statements of law and
+fact. So it sat still and waited after the jury had filed out, feeling
+sure that the deliberation would not be long, and that something
+interesting might be expected afterward from the judge; for he had the
+reputation of doing and saying whimsical things. He was a bookish man,
+who studied his law volumes much, but for relaxation turned often to
+romance and poetry. He had a knack for making jingles himself, and his
+pronouncements from the bench, whether he was charging a jury, calling
+for order, sentencing a prisoner, or making peace between warring
+attorneys, were as likely as not to be in rhyme of his own improvisation
+or in aptly applied quotations from the words of the mighty.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_270" id="Page_270">[Pg 270]</a></span></p><p>The jury came back presently with a verdict of murder in the first
+degree. Judge Banks asked the prisoner if he knew of any reason why the
+court should not sustain the finding of the jury. Melgares said nothing,
+and Dellmey Baxter, his counsel, who had made the best fight for the
+Mexican that he could, shook his head; he had given his services, and
+cared to take no further trouble. All that now stood between the
+prisoner and the gallows was a little space of time. The judge looked
+out of the window into the trembling green depths of the cottonwoods
+beside the court-house, and for a moment there was silence in the room.
+He was a slight man, with dreamy blue eyes, and a square, fine face,
+framed by side-whiskers, short and thin. It was quite like him to be
+trying to realize, in that brief moment, just how it would seem to have
+the gallows looming in one&#8217;s path so short a way ahead.</p>
+
+<p>He ordered the prisoner to stand. Sheriff Tillinghurst, his usual smile
+absent from his kindly face, helped Melgares to his feet. The Mexican&#8217;s
+wife, who had been seated beside him, drooped forward, her breast shaken
+with sobs and her lips moving in whispers of prayer.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_271" id="Page_271">[Pg 271]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares, you have heard the finding of the jury,&#8221; began the
+judge, and waited for the sonorous voice of the court interpreter to
+send the words rolling in musical Spanish over the room, &#8220;and it is now
+necessary for me to pronounce upon you the sentence of this court. The
+rains will soon be here, Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares, the grass will spring
+forth, the flowers bloom, and all the plains and hillsides grow green
+and luxuriant. But you will not be here to see and enjoy their beauty,
+Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares. The rains of Summer, the golden days of October,
+the storms of Winter, will all alike pass unknown and unheeded over your
+head. Spring will come again with its new life, and the lambs will
+frolic beside their mothers and the little calves bleat in the valleys.
+But your eyes will not see the sights, nor your ears hear the sounds,
+Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares. It will not matter to you that the skies of New
+Mexico bend blue and beautiful above your head. The stars will march
+across the midnight heavens, proclaiming that God is good, and that He
+holds the universe in the hollow of His hand. Day after day the sun will
+rise in his fiery might and blazon forth upon earth and sky the goodness
+and the glory of the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_272" id="Page_272">[Pg 272]</a></span>Almighty. The moon will swim across the violet
+skies of night, wax from slender crescent to fair white disk, and wane
+again. But to you, Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares, it will all be as nothing. For
+you, life is a tale that has been told; there is nothing more for you
+now, Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares, save the moral, and even that is no longer of
+interest to you. For you have been guilty of a heinous crime, Jos&eacute; Maria
+Melgares; you have taken the life of your fellow-man, and therefore your
+life is forfeit. It is the sentence of this court, Jos&eacute; Maria Melgares,
+that you be hanged by the neck until dead. And may God have mercy upon
+your soul!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The last melodious syllables of the interpreter&#8217;s voice resounded
+through the room, and died in sudden silence. Then the moment&#8217;s hush was
+broken by a shriek as Se&ntilde;ora Melgares sprang to her feet, stretching her
+arms out wildly to the judge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, no, Se&ntilde;or Judge! It is not right that my husband should die,&#8221; she
+cried out in Spanish. &#8220;He was made to steal the mare, and the man who
+hired him to do it and brought all this trouble upon us&mdash;he is the one
+who should die! There he sits over there! Se&ntilde;or Jenkins, Don Rutherford
+Jenkins! He <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_273" id="Page_273">[Pg 273]</a></span>is the one who made my husband steal the mare, who gave him
+money to do it, because he had a grudge against Se&ntilde;or Conrad; and he is
+the one&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sheriff Tillinghurst, his hand on her shoulder, was urging her to sit
+down, her husband was ordering her to stop, and there was a sudden
+hubbub all over the room. The judge rapped on his desk and threatened to
+have the room cleared. Jenkins sat quite still, glaring wrathfully at
+Bancroft. Conrad clenched his fist, his blue eyes blazing as he exploded
+an oath into Pendleton&#8217;s ear; it was his first intimation that the man
+from Las Vegas had been behind the attempted theft of his mare.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins was waiting for Bancroft at the door of the bank. &#8220;I want to see
+you at once, in private,&#8221; he said curtly, and without a word the banker
+led the way to his office. &#8220;A nice trick you played me,&#8221; Jenkins began,
+his voice hot and sneering. &#8220;I thought of going straight to Conrad; and
+that&#8217;s what I ought to have done, to serve you right.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, why didn&#8217;t you?&#8221; Bancroft asked, impassively.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins took quick alarm. Had the young ranchman, with his impetuous
+loyalty, told his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_274" id="Page_274">[Pg 274]</a></span>friend what had happened in the Albuquerque hotel?
+But perhaps Bancroft was only bluffing, in which case he himself could
+bluff as well as another. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t because I thought it would be the
+square thing to see you first, and find out if you have any explanation
+to offer of that woman&#8217;s performance. Unless you can satisfy me you had
+nothing to do with it, I shall see Conrad and tell him everything he
+doesn&#8217;t know about you before I leave town to-night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft reflected. If Jenkins approached Curtis in that young man&#8217;s
+present mood there was ample likelihood that the blackmailer would never
+trouble him again. Yet there was the chance that he might say in time to
+save himself the word that would stay Conrad&#8217;s hand. He dared not take
+the chance.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I advise you,&#8221; he said slowly, &#8220;if you value a whole skin, not to go
+near Curt Conrad while he is in the state of mind in which I just left
+him. As for Se&ntilde;ora Melgares, are you crazy enough to suppose I had
+anything to do with that?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s evident, Bancroft, that you put her up to something you were
+afraid to do yourself. You wanted to put me in a hole, and you got her
+to do it for you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_275" id="Page_275">[Pg 275]</a></span></p><p>Bancroft made a gesture of annoyance. &#8220;Oh, well, if you&#8217;ve got no more
+<i>sabe</i> than that&mdash;&#8221; he began, but went on quietly, &#8220;I give you my word
+of honor&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The word of honor of Sumner L. Delafield!&#8221; Jenkins sneered.</p>
+
+<p>The banker&#8217;s eyes flashed as he made an impulsive start, but he went on
+with quiet emphasis: &#8220;I give you my word of honor that I knew no more
+than you what the Melgares woman was going to say when she jumped up.
+You ought to see yourself that it would have been to my advantage to
+keep this knowledge entirely in my own hands.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Nevertheless,&#8221; Jenkins replied sullenly, &#8220;you could have prevented her
+outbreak if you&#8217;d wanted to; and if there are any legal proceedings
+started against me because of what she said I expect you and Dell Baxter
+to stop them at once. And I want you to give me, before I leave this
+room, a sum of money or a check equal to what I receive on the first of
+every month. And understand that this has no connection with that
+payment, which will come on the first of next month, as agreed. It&#8217;s
+little enough, after this outrage.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Bancroft glared at his companion for a <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_276" id="Page_276">[Pg 276]</a></span>moment; Jenkins sat up with a
+defiant look and glared back. The banker turned to his desk and wrote
+the check without a word. &#8220;And the woman&#8217;s charge?&#8221; the other asked
+threateningly, as he took it.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If any action is begun I&#8217;ll do my best to stop it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Well satisfied with the result, Jenkins hastened down the street,
+intending to cross over to his hotel at the next bridge and wait in the
+privacy of his room until train time. As he approached the court-house
+corner Sheriff Tillinghurst, Little Jack Wilder, Pendleton, and Conrad
+came out of the building. Curtis saw the hurrying figure, and the light
+of battle leaped into his eyes. He rushed past the others, and before
+Jenkins had time to draw his revolver was upon him and had pinioned his
+arms.</p>
+
+<p>Pendleton ran forward, shouting, &#8220;Give it to him, Curt! He deserves it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jack,&#8221; smiled the sheriff, &#8220;I reckon this is goin&#8217; to be a sure good
+scrap, but we don&#8217;t need to see it. We&#8217;d better hike.&#8221; And they
+disappeared up the side street.</p>
+
+<p>Jenkins was vainly struggling to reach his hip pocket. Conrad got him
+down, set one knee on his chest, plucked forth the gun, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_277" id="Page_277">[Pg 277]</a></span>threw it to
+Pendleton. &#8220;Now, you damned skunk,&#8221; he exclaimed, &#8220;you&#8217;re going to get
+every lick that&#8217;s coming to you! I won&#8217;t dirty powder by using my gun on
+you, but I&#8217;m sure going to set the standard for lickings in this town.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>And to this day, in the city of Golden, the pummelling that Rutherford
+Jenkins forthwith received is spoken of as the utmost measure of
+punishment that a man may take and live. At the end Conrad took the limp
+body under one arm and carried it to the physician&#8217;s office. &#8220;Here,
+Doc,&#8221; he said, &#8220;is some work for you. Send the bill to me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_278" id="Page_278">[Pg 278]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XVIII" id="CHAPTER_XVIII"></a>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+
+<h3>PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">F</span>ourth of July was at hand, and Lucy Bancroft made ready for their stay
+at the Socorro Springs ranch with a resolve in her heart. Some time
+during their two days&#8217; visit she would tell Curtis Conrad the truth
+about her father. Of course, many people would be there, and the
+superintendent would be busy, but she expected to see a good deal of
+him&mdash;he was sure to show her much attention&mdash;and it would not be hard to
+find the few minutes of privacy in which to impart the secret. She was
+quite sure that the knowledge would bring to a harmless end his long
+quest of vengeance, and that at once he would cease his pursuit of
+Delafield. But she was equally sure that he would no longer love her or
+be friendly with her father. &#8220;He can&#8217;t respect either of us after that,&#8221;
+she mused. &#8220;He&#8217;ll feel toward us just as he does toward Mr. Baxter; and
+I can&#8217;t blame him, for we&#8217;re worse than Mr. Baxter is.&#8221; Her heart
+pleaded <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_279" id="Page_279">[Pg 279]</a></span>eagerly for a little period of grace in which to feel his love
+and live it, to take delight in his favor and admiration. She need not
+tell him at the outset.</p>
+
+<p>While Lucy was considering and deciding upon her action, on the morning
+before the Fourth, Mrs. Ned Castleton was saying to her husband in the
+privacy of the great, empty plain across which they were taking an early
+gallop:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know why Lena was so willing to come down here with Turner and us.
+You&#8217;d never guess, Ned.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course I couldn&#8217;t, Francisquita. So you&#8217;ll have to tell me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know I shall have to, for you&#8217;d never discover it yourself, until too
+late to do anything about it. She didn&#8217;t come because she wanted to see
+the place,&mdash;though she&#8217;s never been here before, you know,&mdash;nor because
+she thought it would be something unusual to do, nor because she cares
+any more about Turner&#8217;s affairs than she did last year, nor even because
+she wanted to keep track of me, nor because&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Never mind the didn&#8217;ts, Fanny! Let&#8217;s skip ahead to why she did.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s just like you, Ned. You never <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_280" id="Page_280">[Pg 280]</a></span>can understand what a flavor it
+gives to something that really <i>is</i> to consider first all the things
+that it <i>isn&#8217;t</i>.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, you&#8217;ve had the flavor, now you can give me the fact. I&#8217;ve
+wondered myself why she was so gracious about coming with us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; wasn&#8217;t it surprising? It puzzled me so that I couldn&#8217;t give up
+thinking about it until I solved the mystery.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And aren&#8217;t you going to let me into the secret?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course I am, Ned; that&#8217;s what I&#8217;m doing right now! I studied about
+it on the way here, and I managed to find out a lot of things it wasn&#8217;t.
+But I didn&#8217;t discover what it was till after we reached the ranch.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, what did you find out then?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Ned, I&#8217;m telling you just as fast as I can! Although I think I
+know Lena pretty well, and am quite accustomed to her doing things that
+nobody else would think of, really, Ned, I was so surprised at this
+freak that you could have knocked me down with a feather!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ned Castleton looked caressingly at the slender, graceful figure of his
+wife, erect upon her horse, and smiled broadly. &#8220;Fanny, I&#8217;m <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_281" id="Page_281">[Pg 281]</a></span>in that
+condition right now, from unassuaged curiosity. Please knock me down
+with a feather and then go on and tell me this deep, dark secret.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She tickled his cheek with her quirt. &#8220;Why, Ned, I&#8217;ve been telling you
+all about it for the last five minutes, but you won&#8217;t understand what I
+mean. It&#8217;s all because she&#8217;s immensely taken with your handsome
+superintendent, and she&#8217;s deeply interested in the cattle business
+because she wants him to explain it to her!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Castleton gave an incredulous laugh. &#8220;Nonsense, Francisquita! You are a
+clever woman, my dear, especially when it comes to divining what your
+dearly beloved sister-in-law is planning to do year after next. But you
+two women do get most remarkable notions about each other sometimes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Castleton shrugged her shoulders, tapped her horse, and bounded
+ahead. They raced for a mile before she allowed him to regain his place
+at her side. &#8220;Granting that you&#8217;re right, Francisquita,&#8221; he said, &#8220;what
+makes you think so?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Ned, it&#8217;s perfectly plain. I&#8217;ve seen Lena pave the way for too
+many flirtations not to know exactly what she&#8217;s doing now. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_282" id="Page_282">[Pg 282]</a></span>And she&#8217;s
+preparing to have a perfectly furious affair with Mr. Conrad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Castleton kept discreet silence for some moments and studied the
+horizon. When he turned again to his wife he asked, &#8220;Well, dear, what
+are you going to do about it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Francisquita Castleton was half Mexican, and on her mother&#8217;s side could
+trace descent through a long line of dons back to a valiant governor and
+captain-general of the province who had done great deeds nearly two
+hundred years before. Her heritage had dowered her well with the
+instinctive coquetry, the supple, unconscious grace, the feminine,
+artless art that are the birthright of the women of Spanish blood. All
+of it was in the movement of her arm, the turn of her neck, and the
+poise of her head as she raised her veil and lifted her face toward her
+husband. Her voice was as soft as velvet and as caressing as an infant&#8217;s
+palm as she exclaimed:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Do anything? I? Why, Ned Castleton, how you surprise me! Why should I
+interfere with Lena&#8217;s whims?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Castleton laughed. &#8220;Ask me something easy, Fanny! I&#8217;m sure I don&#8217;t know
+why you should, but I&#8217;ve noticed that Lena&#8217;s plans <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_283" id="Page_283">[Pg 283]</a></span>sometimes shrivel up
+like a stuck balloon. Of course, it may be mere chance.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Ned; it isn&#8217;t chance at all. It&#8217;s only because Lena doesn&#8217;t plan
+carefully enough.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He took time for reflection. &#8220;I say, Francisquita,&#8221; he presently broke
+out, &#8220;if you&#8217;re right about this&mdash;and I must admit you don&#8217;t often miss
+it about Lena&mdash;it may be a serious matter.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course I&#8217;m right, Ned. You&#8217;ll soon see for yourself just how things
+are going. You know Lena likes admiration and she likes having her own
+way and she dearly loves making Turner jealous and she&#8217;s positively
+unhappy if every man in sight isn&#8217;t prancing along in her train. Mr.
+Conrad is a fine-looking young man, and he made a very good appearance
+when she saw him in San Francisco last year. I suppose she thought he
+didn&#8217;t yield to her fascinations as he should, so she decided to come
+down here and gather him in. She knows she&#8217;ll be awfully bored unless
+she can make her flirtation with him&mdash;well&mdash;ardent enough to keep her
+interested. I know enough about Lena to see that she&#8217;s planning to have
+an affair that will keep her and Turner and Mr. Conrad simply sizzling
+as long as we stay.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_284" id="Page_284">[Pg 284]</a></span></p><p>Castleton gave a long, low whistle. &#8220;Turner gets more jealous with every
+flirtation Lena has, and this whim of hers may prove serious. Conrad is
+the best superintendent this ranch ever had, and we want to keep him.
+But if Turner gets jealous he&#8217;ll have to go&mdash;and mighty quick, too. And
+if he doesn&#8217;t promptly succumb to Lena&#8217;s fascinations&mdash;well, she&#8217;s just
+vain enough to carry some story about him to Turner, so that we&#8217;d have
+to let him out for the sake of peace. We can&#8217;t afford to lose Conrad,
+Fanny. I&#8217;ll propose to Turner that we cut our stay short and go the day
+after the Fourth. We&#8217;ll have to be here for the barbecue, of course.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Really, Ned, that&#8217;s just like a man! Don&#8217;t you know Lena can&#8217;t be
+managed that way? She&#8217;d suspect at once that I was at the bottom of it
+and wanted to get her away from here, and then nothing could induce her
+to go. And you know, Ned, she always winds Turner around her finger as
+if he were a piece of silk. I can&#8217;t understand why American wives take
+so much pleasure in managing their husbands; we Mexican women don&#8217;t care
+to do that sort of thing.&#8221; It was a prim little figure that pronounced
+the last sentence<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_285" id="Page_285">[Pg 285]</a></span>&mdash;save for the coquettish turn of the head and a
+melting glance of dark eyes that flashed for a moment upon her husband.</p>
+
+<p>He bent toward her a lover&#8217;s face. &#8220;But you know how to manage just the
+same, Francisquita, <i>mi corazon</i>. Can&#8217;t you think of some way to head
+Lena off and get her away before she does any mischief?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Francisquita turned a contemplative eye upon the forest of
+crimson-flowered cactus through which they were riding. &#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t
+know that I can do anything&mdash;still, Lena&#8217;s methods are always so&mdash;broad!
+I suppose I might try, if you&#8217;d like me to. It might have some effect if
+I stepped in right away&mdash;you wouldn&#8217;t mind it, would you, Ned?&mdash;and did
+a little flirting with Mr. Conrad on my own account; not very much, you
+know; but I could manage to keep him busy about things&mdash;oh, you
+understand!&mdash;just make it pleasant for him to be with me. Really, Ned,
+Lena hasn&#8217;t much chance if I start even with her; we&#8217;ve tried it
+before&mdash;you remember&mdash;I told you all about it at the time&mdash;and I think
+she&#8217;ll quit right away and want to go home, or somewhere, as soon as she
+sees what I&#8217;m doing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_286" id="Page_286">[Pg 286]</a></span></p><p>Castleton laughed aloud. &#8220;And poor Conrad! What&#8217;s to become of him in
+the midst of all these sighs and glances?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She threw him a smiling glance, and broke into a little, low laugh. &#8220;Oh,
+he won&#8217;t mind! He&#8217;s no silly! And he doesn&#8217;t care anything about the
+ladies, anyway.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But suppose, Fanny,&#8221; her husband teased, &#8220;that he should prefer Lena&#8217;s
+methods after all, and cast himself at her feet instead of yours?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders and turned toward him with a smile trembling
+at the corners of her mouth. &#8220;Oh, in that case he would quite deserve to
+lose his position.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But what about me? Should I deserve to lose him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She tapped her horse and darted ahead, throwing back a laughing retort:
+&#8220;Of course you would, for not having married a more attractive wife!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Later in the day Mrs. Ned Castleton was busily engaged with Curtis
+Conrad and his brother Homer in the grove of cottonwoods across the road
+from the ranch house, showing them where to hang the last of the
+Japanese lanterns. Many people had already arrived and were scattered
+through the grove, or were wandering about the corral. Others <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_287" id="Page_287">[Pg 287]</a></span>were in
+the stockade behind the house, where Red Jack, Nosey Ike, and Jos&eacute;
+Gonzalez were quartering the steer for the barbecue, and Hank Peters and
+Texas Bill were heaping wood on the fire where it was to be roasted. In
+the grove long tables had been made of planks and a floor laid for
+dancing. The lanterns hung in festoons around the platform and depended
+from the branches of the trees. Conrad saw Bancroft, Lucy, and Miss Dent
+driving up, and went to meet them.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Ned Castleton beckoned to her husband. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure Lena is going to
+do something perfectly outrageous,&#8221; she said softly as they went to
+greet the arrivals, &#8220;something that will fairly knock us off our feet.
+She has looked so indifferent and so innocent all day and has been so
+sweet to me that I&#8217;m expecting a thunder clap every minute. I hope it
+won&#8217;t be anything disgraceful.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It was one of Mrs. Ned&#8217;s important occupations, and she considered it
+her chief duty, for the sake, as she often told her husband, &#8220;of
+preserving at least a shred of the Castleton reputation,&#8221; to discover
+the daring whims of her sister-in-law and nip them in the bud before
+they were ready to blossom upon the world. Francisquita knew also that
+Mrs. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_288" id="Page_288">[Pg 288]</a></span>Turner enjoyed saying and doing audacious things, quite as much
+because they shocked Mrs. Ned as because they gave her a piquant vogue
+in San Francisco society. &#8220;I wonder what it is going to be,&#8221; she
+repeated in a whisper to her husband as they came back with Conrad and
+the Bancroft party and went in search of Mrs. Turner. They found her
+sitting beside one of the tables, the centre of a group of men. Lucy,
+looking with interest, saw a large, golden-haired woman in a blue linen
+gown, that fitted perfectly her well corseted figure, and a blue picture
+hat, that matched the hue of her eyes. Her complexion of exquisite
+fairness and delicacy of coloring, and features of perfect regularity
+and proportion, made Lucy own to herself that she deserved her
+reputation as &#8220;the beautiful Mrs. Castleton.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What are we going to do all the rest of the day?&#8221; Mrs. Turner presently
+said, hiding a little yawn behind diamond-decked fingers. &#8220;It isn&#8217;t
+three o&#8217;clock yet, and it seems as if it ought to be the day after
+to-morrow. Let&#8217;s go in the house and play I&#8217;m a barber. Mr. Conrad, will
+you let me shave you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A thrill of shocked astonishment went through the group. Lucy dropped
+her eyes <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_289" id="Page_289">[Pg 289]</a></span>and felt her cheeks burn and Miss Dent turned uneasily away.
+Some of the men looked at one another and grinned; others caught their
+breath and avoided their neighbors&#8217; eyes. Conrad masked a moment&#8217;s
+hesitation with a gay laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I would, with pleasure, Mrs. Castleton, if I had time; but just now I&#8217;m
+pretty busy. Here&#8217;s a lot of fellows with nothing to do, who&#8217;ll be
+delighted to help you amuse yourself.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Castleton glanced up at the men with a confiding smile. &#8220;I believe
+it&#8217;s really because he&#8217;s afraid; and he needn&#8217;t be, for I do it very
+well&mdash;don&#8217;t I, Ned?&#8221; Her brother-in-law gave gallant, if vague,
+confirmation, and she went on: &#8220;And he knows, for I shave him every time
+he comes to our house. But there&#8217;s too much wind out here, it would dry
+the lather too quickly; let&#8217;s go in the house.&#8221; She rose, and one of the
+men hastened to open her sunshade, another picked up her fan, a third
+her handkerchief, and the statuesque blue figure with its group of
+satellites left the grove.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What does it mean, Fanny? Is this a new fad?&#8221; Ned Castleton asked his
+wife. &#8220;I never heard of it before, and she took my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_290" id="Page_290">[Pg 290]</a></span>breath away when she
+told those people she always shaved me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You backed her up splendidly, Ned; and I think you&#8217;d better go in now
+and let her shave you along with the others.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fanny! I&#8217;d as soon allow her to black my boots!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But if she wants to, Ned! And I don&#8217;t think she&#8217;d hurt you much,
+because she&#8217;s been practising on their butler for a month&mdash;so her maid
+told mine, though I&#8217;d forgotten all about it. As Turner&#8217;s brother I
+really think you ought to go in and seem to join in the fun, so it won&#8217;t
+look quite so bad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;If Lena doesn&#8217;t care about the looks of it, why should I, or you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But you ought to care on Turner&#8217;s account. It would be dear of you,
+Ned, if you would go in, for Turner&#8217;s sake, and lend your countenance to
+the affair.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My countenance, Francisquita, but not my face. Since you&#8217;re so anxious,
+dear, I&#8217;ll go in and chaperon this shaving party if you&#8217;ll tell me the
+real reason why you want me to do it. Is it a bargain?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She leaned toward him with a delighted little chuckle. &#8220;Don&#8217;t you see,
+Ned, that if you go in and I stay out she&#8217;ll think that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_291" id="Page_291">[Pg 291]</a></span>I&#8217;m keeping Mr.
+Conrad out-of-doors, and she will be so angry about it that it will make
+her nervous, so she will cut their faces dreadfully, and that will make
+her freak such a failure that she&#8217;ll have to drop it. Do go along, Ned;
+for I&#8217;m going to keep your manager busy for the next two hours. And, by
+the way, dear, if you should come out and not see me anywhere, it&#8217;s
+likely to be because he&#8217;s asked me to drive to the post-office with
+him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She sauntered through the grove toward the pond where a group of people
+had gathered under a big tree. She knew that Curtis was there, with the
+Bancrofts. Her cousin Juan&mdash;&#8220;Johnny&#8221;&mdash;Martinez was with them, and so was
+Dellmey Baxter. Dan Tillinghurst leaned against the tree, and beside him
+were Emerson Mead and his young wife, from Las Plumas. Judge Harlan and
+Colonel Whittaker, the former with his wife and the latter with his
+daughter, had also come from Las Plumas, where a political peace of
+unusual length and stability enabled them to leave town at the same
+time, and together.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Castleton came smiling down the hill and joined in the general
+talk. But in five minutes the assemblage had broken into little <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_292" id="Page_292">[Pg 292]</a></span>groups
+of two or three, of which she, her cousin, and Conrad made one. She sent
+Martinez to do some small service for Miss Whittaker, and began to tell
+Curtis that she feared there were not lanterns enough. Would he come and
+look at them? As they went back to the grove she suggested that they
+might get paper bags from the store at White Rock, fill each half full
+of sand, put a candle in it, and set them in rows wherever there was
+room for them. She had often seen her native town illuminated in this
+way on <i>festa</i> nights, and the effect was really very beautiful. He
+thought it a good idea and asked if she would mind driving over to White
+Rock with him to help select the best sizes and colors. Five minutes
+later Lucy watched them driving away. &#8220;I saw how Mrs. Castleton was
+man&oelig;uvring,&#8221; she thought with an angry throb of the heart. &#8220;But it
+doesn&#8217;t matter the least bit. I can have quite as good a time with
+anybody else.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Presently she seemed greatly pleased when Homer Conrad asked if she and
+Miss Dent would like to see the horses. They made the round of the
+stables, and went to see the angora goats in their enclosure beyond the
+corral, and the dog kennels, and the chicken <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_293" id="Page_293">[Pg 293]</a></span>yard. They walked across
+the alfalfa field, and amused themselves in the prairie dog village on
+the hillside beyond. Lucy was so interested in everything, and said so
+many bright and pleasant things, and was so vivacious, and looked so
+pretty with her dimples and her color coming and going and her big brown
+eyes sparkling, that Homer thought her quite the nicest, jolliest girl
+he had seen in a long time. He was much like his brother in build,
+though less sinewy and a trifle fleshier in body; while in manner he was
+slower and less eager and alert. His eyes showed the same bright blue
+tint, but their expression was mild and trustful, while his brother&#8217;s
+had always a dauntless look, as if challenging the world. His face was
+of the same general type, but the features were not so strongly marked,
+although he had the same firm mouth and strong chin. His countenance
+gave the impression of a character phlegmatic but forceful.</p>
+
+<p>That evening Lucy told Miss Dent that she liked Don Homer very much,
+adding, &#8220;And he&#8217;s been more polite and pleasant to us this afternoon
+than Mr. Conrad himself.&#8221; Mrs. Ned Castleton had applied the Spanish
+title to the younger Conrad to distinguish him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_294" id="Page_294">[Pg 294]</a></span>from his brother, and
+the rest had followed her example. Louise was secretly pleased at this
+dissatisfaction with Curtis, for her aversion to him was so great that
+she disliked even to see them together. But she reminded the girl that
+with so many people there he could not pay much attention to special
+ones. Lucy tossed her head and replied, &#8220;He had plenty of time for Mrs.
+Ned Castleton.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Evening came, and with it a huge white moon that poured upon earth and
+air and sky a flood of silvery white radiance in which the illuminations
+at the ranch shone with a mellow, golden glow. Mrs. Ned Castleton sat on
+the edge of the porch, her guitar in her lap, looking with satisfaction
+at the rows of paper bags, each containing a lighted candle in its bed
+of sand, set thickly upon the window-sills, the adobe walls, and the
+tables in the grove. They were not only effective, but they had enabled
+her to keep Curtis Conrad out of the hands of her sister-in-law the
+entire afternoon. Mrs. Turner had only just gone across to the grove, in
+the belief, subtly engendered by Francisquita, that the superintendent
+was to be found there, where most of the company had gathered and the
+dancing was about to begin. She knew, however, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_295" id="Page_295">[Pg 295]</a></span>that he was overseeing
+the stowing of some cases of beer in the ice house in the back-yard. And
+she had not forgotten that when he was at their house in San Francisco
+he had been much pleased by her rendering of Spanish airs on the guitar.
+&#8220;He doesn&#8217;t need to appear in the grove,&#8221; she thought, &#8220;until Lena has
+had time to engage several dances.&#8221; She began to play &#8220;La Golondrina,&#8221;
+and as the sweetly plaintive notes rose higher, Lucy, looking houseward,
+saw a tall figure vault the wall around the grass plot and disappear in
+the shadows of the porch, whence came the strains of Mrs. Ned&#8217;s guitar.
+A little later she saw them come across the road together, and at once
+became deeply interested in the talk of Don Homer, her partner, as they
+made their way to the dancing floor. Lucy danced twice with him, once
+with Martinez, and once with Emerson Mead before she made it possible
+for Curtis to speak with her. She knew he had been hovering near more
+than once, but she would not see him, and appeared always to be gayly
+interested with her partner.</p>
+
+<p>She gave him only one dance during the evening. But, noting his
+movements, she had seen with much bitterness of heart that he danced
+frequently with Mrs. Ned Castleton. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_296" id="Page_296">[Pg 296]</a></span>She began to wonder, with chill
+doubt in her breast, if she had deceived herself in thinking he cared
+for her. She had expected to see so much of him; and yet, except for the
+first half-hour after their arrival, he seemed to have ignored her. She
+began to realize that she had depended much on her belief in his love
+when she resolved to tell him the secret of her father&#8217;s identity. She
+still had confidence that her words would turn him from his purpose&mdash;but
+it was going to be a hard thing to do!</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mrs. Ned is just amusing herself,&#8221; she thought angrily. &#8220;She ought to
+be ashamed&mdash;married woman flirting like that! Well&mdash;he&#8217;s not the only
+one!&#8221; And before the evening was over Homer Conrad had neither eyes nor
+ears for any one but Lucy Bancroft.</p>
+
+<p>The house was given over to the ladies for the night. The men had a
+blanket apiece, and all the wide out-doors in which to couch themselves.
+Some climbed to the flat adobe roof of the house, or to the brush thatch
+of the stables, while others declared the ground in the grove good
+enough for them. It was decided by unanimous outcry that the dancing
+platform should be turned over to Dellmey <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_297" id="Page_297">[Pg 297]</a></span>Baxter and Johnny Martinez,
+the opposing candidates for Congress.</p>
+
+<p>First they all went trooping, each with his blanket stringing over his
+shoulder, to the kitchen door, where Conrad and the two Castletons
+dispensed nightcaps of varied concoction. The women heard them talking,
+story-telling, laughing, and now and then singing a snatch from some
+rollicking song. When the last light disappeared from within the house,
+a group of men began singing &#8220;Good-Night, Ladies.&#8221; A round of vigorous
+applause from the darkened windows rewarded them, and they went on with
+&#8220;Annie Laurie,&#8221; &#8220;Comin&#8217; through the Rye,&#8221; and &#8220;How Can I Bear to Leave
+Thee.&#8221; Johnny Martinez sang a Spanish love song in a falsetto voice, and
+received much applause from within.</p>
+
+<p>The men sang their way along the windows, up one side of the long,
+rambling house, across the front, and down the other side. They climbed
+to the roof, and serenaded the men who were trying to sleep there,
+varying the line or two of song accorded to each with much chaffing and
+guying. When the last straggling half-dozen of singers finally went off
+to seek their own resting-places in the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_298" id="Page_298">[Pg 298]</a></span>grove, they marched in single
+file round and round the dancing floor, where Baxter and Martinez had
+already stretched themselves, and sang in a solemn croak: &#8220;John Brown
+had one little, two little Indian boys; one went to Congress, the other
+stayed at home.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When peace settled at last over the Socorro Springs ranch house it was
+near the dawn of another day.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_299" id="Page_299">[Pg 299]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XIX" id="CHAPTER_XIX"></a>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+
+<h3>THE WORD UNSPOKEN</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>he sun was high in the brilliant blue heavens and blazing hot upon the
+gray-green plain when the company came together in the grove the next
+morning to listen to speeches. One or another well-known resident of the
+Territory was called forth, with applause and cheers, to mount an
+improvised rostrum, where he complimented the ladies, chaffed the men,
+told funny stories, submitted to guying from the audience and repaid it
+in kind, until he was able to turn a joke upon some one else so deftly
+that he could retreat under cover of the hand-clapping and laughter and
+the calls for the other man to step up and defend himself.</p>
+
+<p>At dinner they spent a jovial hour. Half a dozen cowboys carried the big
+platters of roasted meat to the tables, where they were flanked by
+smoking dishes of <i>frijoles</i> and <i>chile con carne</i>, platters of bread,
+and piles of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_300" id="Page_300">[Pg 300]</a></span>roasted potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Pails of lemonade
+and bottles of beer, just brought from the ice house, were scattered
+down the tables, and steaming pots of coffee and tea passed from hand to
+hand. Everybody was in the highest spirits; every jest or bit of fun was
+caught, bandied back and forth, and passed on with new trimmings. As
+they gathered around the tables, Conrad asked Lucy Bancroft to save a
+seat for him beside her. She smiled at him without replying; but when
+Homer presently came and asked for the vacant place she gave him a
+gracious welcome.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad, much occupied with his duties as host, soon saw that his brother
+was at her side, paying her devoted attention, and that apparently she
+was quite happy. &#8220;It&#8217;s all right,&#8221; he thought. &#8220;He&#8217;ll have time to look
+out for her better than I could, anyway; she seems to be having a good
+time, and that&#8217;s the main thing.&#8221; Yet he was conscious of keen
+disappointment; he had seen so little of her&mdash;much less, he was suddenly
+aware, than he wished. But he had been very busy. Notwithstanding the
+planning beforehand, something new had been constantly cropping up and
+demanding his attention. But Homer <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_301" id="Page_301">[Pg 301]</a></span>had been taking good care of her,
+and she seemed to be enjoying everything. That evening, after the
+fireworks, he could surely let things go for a little while, and ask her
+to walk with him in the moonlight to the top of the hill.</p>
+
+<p>At that moment he was passing Mrs. Turner Castleton. With an inviting
+smile she made room for him beside her. He sat down, poured her a glass
+of lemonade, and then, noticing that Emerson Mead and his wife were not
+comfortably seated, went off to look after them. Mrs. Ned, who had seen
+her sister-in-law&#8217;s man&oelig;uvre, asked him to go into the house with her
+to see how the lemons were holding out. When they came out she protested
+that she was starving, that he must be too, and couldn&#8217;t they sit right
+down and have something to eat? The seats she chose were at some
+distance from Mrs. Turner, though directly in range of her eye. They
+chanced also to be in plain sight from where Lucy was sitting. She,
+seeing them dining together on such friendly, jolly terms, was more
+charming than ever to Homer Conrad. Her pique made the task she had set
+herself no easier; but she held to her determination, telling herself
+that, even if Curtis did not <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_302" id="Page_302">[Pg 302]</a></span>show her some attention that afternoon,
+she would try to see him in the evening. For they were to go home in the
+morning.</p>
+
+<p>After dinner the games began. Cowboys of the ranch and others from small
+neighboring ranches gave exhibitions of quick roping and throwing and of
+broncho busting. Curtis Conrad and Emerson Mead had a riding and
+shooting match. Jos&eacute; Gonzalez, dressed in Mexican holiday attire of
+straw sombrero, braided jacket, and close-fitting trousers, showed his
+skill as an expert lasso thrower. He made a picturesque figure as he
+stood in the roadway, striking graceful attitudes and making his rope
+leap, run, circle, and swirl about him as if it were alive. The visitors
+crowded to the edge of the grove, watching and admiring.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a sure peach at the fancy racket,&#8221; said Dan Tillinghurst, &#8220;but I
+reckon Emerson Mead can flirt gravel faster than he can when it comes to
+the real practical business. Say, Emerson,&#8221; he called, &#8220;can&#8217;t you give
+us an imitation of the way you slipped out of Antone Colorow&#8217;s rope and
+broke his wrists before he had time to draw his noose? I reckon that was
+a show sure worth seeing.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Those who knew the story added their <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_303" id="Page_303">[Pg 303]</a></span>voices, &#8220;Yes, Mead; show us how
+you did it!&#8221; Others who had never heard of the incident wanted to know
+about it; and soon everybody was talking about how a cowboy once tried
+to rope Emerson Mead. Mrs. Turner Castleton was standing beside Curtis.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Really, Mr. Conrad,&#8221; she said, &#8220;is it true that they ever rope men? And
+why do the men allow it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Sometimes, Mrs. Castleton, when the men who are roped can&#8217;t help it.&#8221;
+With a sudden smile he threw back his head and his eyes flashed. &#8220;We&#8217;ll
+show you the game,&#8221; he went on; &#8220;Jos&eacute; shall try to rope me, and I&#8217;ll see
+if I can keep out of his way. Come, Jos&eacute;, get your horse, and bring
+mine, and then do your best.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican stooped to coil his rope. As he rose his glance darted
+across the faces of the crowd under the trees until it met the eyes of
+Alexander Bancroft, standing beside Dellmey Baxter, at the end of the
+long group. Baxter saw the two pairs of eyes meet and hold each other
+for an instant, and his curiosity was aroused. But he seemed to notice
+nothing, and saying, &#8220;Come, Aleck, let&#8217;s go and see what they&#8217;re up to
+now,&#8221; he led the way to the upper end of the grove.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_304" id="Page_304">[Pg 304]</a></span></p><p>The two horsemen cantered out into the open and began their
+man&oelig;uvres. The people crowded along at the edge of the shade, and
+some of the men stepped out into the sunlight to get a better view.
+Emerson Mead was much interested and walked out farther than the rest.
+The snakey rings and lengths of the Mexican&#8217;s rope were whistling
+through the air, and the two men were wheeling, stopping, rushing
+forward, jumping sidewise, in graceful evolutions. The noose circled
+through the space between them, poised over Conrad&#8217;s head, and darted
+downward like some voracious bird of prey. An exclamation ran through
+the intent crowd, &#8220;He&#8217;s got him! He&#8217;s got him this time!&#8221; But the
+superintendent jerked his horse to its hind legs, swung it to one side,
+galloped a little way, and came back laughing. &#8220;Good! that was first
+rate!&#8221; Emerson Mead called out.</p>
+
+<p>Jos&eacute; wound his rope for another trial, and cantered leisurely back and
+forth, making sudden feints of throwing and watching his employer&#8217;s
+movements of evasion. Suddenly he wheeled, charged, and threw the loop
+from a distance of only a few paces. He had calculated on the other&#8217;s
+spurring forward to escape; instead Conrad brought his horse to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_305" id="Page_305">[Pg 305]</a></span>a
+standstill, and the noose fell over its ears. A cheer went up from the
+grove, and Curtis turned to wave his broad-brimmed hat. In the one swift
+glance he was aware of Lucy, watching so eagerly that she had stepped
+forward into the sunshine, and of his brother, raising a sunshade over
+her head.</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez also waved his sombrero to the company, and coiled his rope
+anew. It darted out like a serpent&#8217;s tongue, and this time it caught
+Conrad unawares; he had thought his antagonist would not throw so soon
+and for the instant was off his guard. The noose fell over his head just
+as his horse was at mid-bound. He heard it whistle as it dropped past
+his ears, and as quick as a flash jerked his pony backward to a sudden
+stop. Apparently Jos&eacute; had expected the horse to leap forward, for, as he
+felt the slacking of the rope, there was a dextrous turn of his wrist,
+and a dig of his spur that sent his pony dancing to one side. The noose
+tightened around Curtis&#8217;s neck. Instinctively he clutched it, and his
+fingers, caught against his windpipe, ground into his own throat.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The greaser did that on purpose!&#8221; exclaimed Emerson Mead in a hard,
+swift undertone, as his hand gripped the revolver at his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_306" id="Page_306">[Pg 306]</a></span>waistband. But
+Gonzalez was already beside Conrad, and lifting the noose from his neck.
+The American choked and gasped for breath once or twice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&mdash;you caught me square that time, Jos&eacute;,&#8221; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We are even now, se&ntilde;or,&#8221; replied the Mexican; &#8220;you gave me my life
+once, and now I give you yours. It would have been only a second more;
+and it was plainly an accident; nobody would have known. I have paid my
+debt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The people were cheering. Both men faced toward the grove and waved
+their hats. &#8220;You damned impudent coyote!&#8221; said Curtis through his teeth.
+Then he grinned, and added, &#8220;But I like your nerve, though.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the grove side the manager threw his bridle to the Mexican, but
+turned impulsively and called, &#8220;Here, Jos&eacute;, wait a minute. I want you to
+show these people how you can throw the knife.&#8221; A stride or two took him
+to Jos&eacute;&#8217;s side. &#8220;And I&#8217;ll be your target, damn you!&#8221; he added in an
+undertone. He walked back where Lucy, Miss Dent, and his brother were
+standing, humming a stave or two from a comic opera under his breath.
+Homer noticed that his face was rather pale <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_307" id="Page_307">[Pg 307]</a></span>and that his eyes were
+blazing, but thought it due to his annoyance at having been roped.</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez came back from the corral, carefully testing with his finger
+the edge and point of his knife. Conrad, his head held high, a smile on
+his face and exhilaration in his manner, was telling the company to
+stand a little to one side, to make sure they were out of the way of the
+knife. As Gonzalez came up, he stepped in front of the nearest tree,
+with the Mexican facing him ten or twelve paces distant. Judge Banks
+called to him to watch out for the knife himself, and he turned a
+smiling face for an instant as he answered gayly, &#8220;Oh, I&#8217;m all right!&#8221;
+In the same tone he called, &#8220;Start her up, Jos&eacute;! And remember, you&#8217;re to
+do your level best.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jos&eacute;&#8217;s teeth shone in a gleaming smile as he replied significantly, &#8220;I
+shall, Don Curtis!&#8221; He took an alert, graceful posture, one foot set
+back and head thrust slightly forward. The muscles of his arm were still
+relaxed as his knife slid along his wrist and nestled into place. Conrad
+drew himself up tensely and his eyes narrowed as he fixed them upon the
+Mexican&#8217;s. For an instant they eyed each <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_308" id="Page_308">[Pg 308]</a></span>other; then, like a flash,
+Jos&eacute;&#8217;s arm swung back.</p>
+
+<p>Not until that moment did any member of the company understand that
+Curtis was deliberately making himself a target; even then many did not
+realize the significance of the game with death he had set himself to
+play. Ned Castleton&#8217;s face went white, and his voice died in his throat
+as he tried to call to Jos&eacute; to stop. Alexander Bancroft stared with
+devouring eyes, his breath coming hard. The overmastering desire for
+freedom and safety was upon him, and he could not take his gaze from the
+Mexican&#8217;s poised figure. Louise Dent, beside him, drew one gasping
+breath and covered her face with her hands. Afterward she knew that she
+had not done this so much to shut from her eyes the next moment&#8217;s
+expected sight as to hide from her soul&#8217;s vision the glimpse she had
+caught of the desire springing to life in her own heart.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Illo3" id="Illo3"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 322px;">
+<img src="images/i308.jpg" class="ispace jpg" width="322" height="500" alt="&#8220;Like a flash Jos&eacute;&#8217;s arm swung back, ... and Curtis
+sprang lightly aside as the knife struck deep into the tree&#8221;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Like a flash Jos&eacute;&#8217;s arm swung back, ... and Curtis
+sprang lightly aside as the knife struck deep into the tree</span>&#8221;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>Homer Conrad, sitting beside Lucy, his attention fixed upon some small
+damage to her fan which he was trying to repair, did not see what was
+going on until a sudden stiffening of her attitude and a sharp, indrawn
+breath made him look up. She was leaning forward, with face white and
+eyes staring and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_309" id="Page_309">[Pg 309]</a></span>hands clenched against her breast. He followed her gaze and saw the
+knife flash from Jos&eacute;&#8217;s hand. His heart went sick and he sat powerless
+to move as his eyes marked the long blade, dark against the sunshine,
+but with little sparkles on its edge, through what seemed an
+interminable flight.</p>
+
+<p>Then Curtis sprang lightly aside as the knife struck deep into the tree
+at the level of his throat, pulled the weapon out, waved it at Gonzalez,
+and called out triumphantly, &#8220;Try again, Jos&eacute;; and be quicker next
+time!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Ned Castleton sprang forward, with Turner close behind, and grasped his
+arm. &#8220;Are you crazy, Curt?&#8221; he exclaimed. &#8220;This is fool&#8217;s play! We don&#8217;t
+want any more of it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no danger,&#8221; Conrad replied jauntily. &#8220;I knew I could jump
+quicker than he could throw, and I wanted to prove it to him. There&#8217;s
+not a bit of danger; I can do it every time. But if you don&#8217;t like it
+we&#8217;ll have something else. Hello, kid!&#8221; he said as Homer rushed up and
+seized his arm; the young man&#8217;s face was pale and tears stood in his
+eyes. &#8220;You&#8217;ve no reason to be frightened,&#8221; Curtis went on easily. &#8220;All I
+had to do was to watch his eyes. If there had been any real danger I
+wouldn&#8217;t have tried it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_310" id="Page_310">[Pg 310]</a></span></p><p>Lucy Bancroft sat quite still for a few moments, her eyes on the ground,
+but presently she started toward the house, contriving to pass Conrad
+when there was no one beside him. She touched his arm and he wheeled
+toward her as if he had felt an electric shock. &#8220;It was a most foolish
+thing to do,&#8221; she said in a low voice, &#8220;but&mdash;you are the bravest man I
+ever saw,&#8221; and hastened on without giving him time to reply.</p>
+
+<p>At night there were fireworks and dancing. After the knife-throwing
+episode Curtis tried again and again to have speech with Lucy, but
+whenever he came near she seemed not to see him, and was so interested
+in conversation with her admirer of the moment that he could find no
+opportunity. Homer attended her like her own shadow. The hours hurried
+past, and still, piqued and wilful, she postponed making the opportunity
+for her revelation.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad was master of the fireworks; while he was busy setting off
+sky-rockets and mines Lucy and Homer called to him that they were going
+to the top of the hill beyond the alfalfa field to see how the display
+looked from there. It was the very walk Curtis had intended to ask her
+to take with him, and he <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_311" id="Page_311">[Pg 311]</a></span>glanced after them, keenly disappointed. But
+he said to himself that as soon as he could get the fireworks out of the
+way there would be nothing to demand his attention for the rest of the
+evening, and then he could surely get a little time with her.</p>
+
+<p>Half an hour later he saw her, through a glare of red fire, setting off
+fire-crackers with his brother and Pendleton. Dan Tillinghurst had just
+joined them, and she turned to him with a laughing threat, a lighted
+cracker in her hand. He called to Pendleton, whose pockets were bulging
+with packs of the crackers, to see fair play and give him weapons of
+defence. The cool night wind was tossing her brown curls, her bright
+face was full of animation, and the red light enveloped her in a rosy
+sheen. He looked at her, his face aglow with admiration, then turned
+back to the sky-rockets. As he stooped over the box he heard a scream in
+a girlish voice, followed by the stern command, &#8220;Sit down! Sit down!&#8221; in
+Dan Tillinghurst&#8217;s heavy tones. Springing up, he saw a white heap
+sinking to the ground amid leaping tongues of flame and the three men
+stripping off their coats and beating the fire. He rushed forward,
+taking off his coat as he ran, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_312" id="Page_312">[Pg 312]</a></span>and in a moment they had whipped the
+flames down to a ring of charred muslin and flickering sparks. A dozen
+others had hurried to the spot, but it was Curtis&#8217;s outstretched hand
+that Lucy took as he bent anxiously over her, his arm upon which she
+leaned as she staggered to her feet. She went at once into the house
+with Miss Dent, and did not reappear that evening. When Louise returned
+she explained that Lucy had gone to bed, but that, except for the
+nervous shock, she had suffered no harm.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis Conrad went on sending off sky-rockets and Roman candles in the
+amaze of a new knowledge. That moment of Lucy&#8217;s peril, brief as it was,
+had revealed to him the love that, unconsciously to himself, had been
+bourgeoning in his heart throughout the Spring. So absorbed had he been
+in his own grim purpose that he had not realized the meaning of his
+liking for Lucy and his enjoyment of her society. But in the light of
+the flames by which he had seen her circled her dearness had flashed
+upon him its real significance. When she leaned upon him as she arose,
+it had demanded all his self-control to keep from taking her in his
+arms. His nerves were thrilling yet with the slight <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_313" id="Page_313">[Pg 313]</a></span>pressure of her
+body upon his arm as she regained her footing. So sudden and forceful
+was the rush of his emotion that it swept him from his accustomed
+moorings, and filled heart and mind to the exclusion of every other
+idea. Lucy&mdash;Lucy&mdash;Lucy&mdash;he said her name over and over in his innermost
+thought, even while he danced with Mrs. Turner, strolled with Miss
+Whittaker to the hilltop,&mdash;as he had wished to do with Lucy,&mdash;talked
+with Martinez, or listened to Judge Harlan&#8217;s stories. The thought of her
+was constantly with him, enveloped in a wonderful tenderness; his memory
+was incessantly recalling images of her as she looked leaning against
+this tree, seated beside that table, walking across the road. He hovered
+around Miss Dent until she, to escape from his attention and his
+solicitude about Lucy, which intensified the aversion and resentment she
+already felt, retired to the house early in the evening.</p>
+
+<p>But, when all the merrymakers had gone to bed and quiet had settled upon
+the ranch, Conrad began to feel a violent wrenching of his heart. When
+he stretched himself upon the roof of the house and gazed into the
+silvery violet sky his lifelong purpose reasserted itself. For so many
+years it had been his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_314" id="Page_314">[Pg 314]</a></span>habit, as he composed himself for sleep, to think
+over his plans for the pursuit of Delafield and feed his heart with the
+desire for revenge that he quickly felt its tyranny. For a moment all
+emotion ceased and his mind stood back, aghast at itself, bewildered.
+Then the old idea took possession again, and he said to himself, almost
+with anger, &#8220;What business have I to fall in love?&#8221; To think of Lucy in
+connection with his own dark and bloody aims was repellent, and his
+thoughts turned away in quick reaction. Then came the remembrance of
+Homer&#8217;s devotion to her and of how welcome, apparently, had been his
+attentions. So, for that time at least, Lucy and love were turned out of
+his heart and his last waking thoughts were of his plan to go to
+Albuquerque and Santa Fe within a few days, there to run down the clews
+that promised most.</p>
+
+<p>Because of all that had gone on in his mind and heart as he lay on the
+roof that night Conrad&#8217;s manner toward Lucy the next morning was graver
+and more restrained than usual. He was keenly alive to the magic of her
+presence, but for that he rebuked himself and went near her no oftener
+than he could help. Lucy tried in vain to find an opportunity for
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_315" id="Page_315">[Pg 315]</a></span>private speech with him. And so the time came for their departure and
+the fateful words had not been said. &#8220;Well,&#8221; she consoled herself, &#8220;he
+will come to see us in Golden before long, and I will tell him then.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As they drove away the house was filled with the bustle of leave-taking.
+The guests who had come by rail were being driven to the station at
+White Rock to catch the forenoon train. Others were leaving by horse or
+carriage for Golden or Randall. As the dust from the last of the
+departing vehicles rose in thin gray stains against the vivid blue of
+the sky Ned Castleton called to his wife from the shade of the tree
+beside the gate. She had been saying good-bye to the Bancrofts and had
+stopped in the sun beside the adobe wall to play with a horned toad that
+Gonzalez had caught for her.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Fanny,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I know I haven&#8217;t got horns, but if you&#8217;ll come here
+in the shade I&#8217;ll prove that I can be just as interesting as that toad.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She came, holding the weird little creature on her palm. &#8220;Look at him,
+Ned! Isn&#8217;t he cunning? He&#8217;s the dearest thing I ever saw&mdash;except you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, thanks; it&#8217;s kind of you not to put <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_316" id="Page_316">[Pg 316]</a></span>me in the same class. As a
+reward I&#8217;ll tell you some news. Your little scheme for balking Lena&#8217;s
+designs on Conrad has succeeded perfectly. Turner has just told me that
+she has suddenly decided she wants to go to Santa Barbara at once, and
+they&#8217;re leaving this afternoon. I told him to go ahead, and I&#8217;d stay
+here a few days longer and finish things up with Curt.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s just splendid, Ned! We&#8217;ll have some lovely rides, won&#8217;t we? And
+it will be such a rest not to have to keep an eye on Lena. I felt sure
+last night that she was going to give up the game and pretend she hadn&#8217;t
+been playing, because she suddenly lost all interest in the cattle
+business.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Of course you know, Francisquita, that you have been behaving
+shamelessly; but I&#8217;ll forgive you, because you&#8217;ve saved our model
+superintendent for us.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ned, you know very well that I didn&#8217;t do a thing but just help Mr.
+Conrad make it pleasant for all the people&mdash;except, perhaps, Lena. I&#8217;m
+afraid she&#8217;d have had a better time if I hadn&#8217;t been here. But I&#8217;ve been
+thinking this morning, Ned, that maybe it wasn&#8217;t necessary for me to
+help quite as hard as I did. What do you think about it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_317" id="Page_317">[Pg 317]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I think I don&#8217;t know what you&#8217;re talking about. As the cowboys say,
+you&#8217;ve flung gravel along the road a little too fast for my gait.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Ned, you&#8217;re the blindest thing! What could I mean except that Mr.
+Conrad didn&#8217;t need to be distracted from Lena, especially as her methods
+are so broad?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, go on, dear. We&#8217;ll get there after a while.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Go on! Why, Ned, that&#8217;s all! Isn&#8217;t that enough? Why should a man want
+more than one pretty girl to protect him from the designs of a lady
+who&mdash;well&mdash;who wants to shave him? You never needed anybody but me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;True, Fanny! But you always were equal to an army in yourself, and now
+you are equal to two&mdash;which is only another way of saying that you grow
+more fascinating every day. And now I think you might be gracious enough
+to tell me what you&#8217;re talking about.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Ned, I&#8217;m afraid Miss Bancroft didn&#8217;t enjoy it any more than Lena.
+I wasn&#8217;t quite sure of it until this morning; but I really think, Ned,
+that Lena would have been left out in the cold just the same if I
+hadn&#8217;t<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_318" id="Page_318">[Pg 318]</a></span>&mdash;hadn&#8217;t helped Mr. Conrad entertain the people quite so much.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Castleton laughed. &#8220;Oh, I begin to see! You are feeling the pangs of
+remorse because you&#8217;ve been putting snags in the course of true love.
+But you needn&#8217;t worry, dear. Curt isn&#8217;t the sort of man, if he cares
+anything about her, to let a little thing like that make any
+difference.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But he&#8217;ll be too busy with you to go over to Golden and see her again
+for a long time, won&#8217;t he?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, we can get through this week, I think.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Good! Then we can leave on Saturday, and on Sunday he can gallop over
+to Golden, and by that time she&#8217;ll want awfully to see him and she&#8217;ll be
+very sorry she flirted so outrageously with Don Homer. And next Fall
+we&#8217;ll send them a wedding present, and they&#8217;ll come to see us on their
+wedding journey,&mdash;she&#8217;s a dear, sweet girl, Ned, and I like her,&mdash;and
+I&#8217;ll explain to her why I&mdash;why I helped Mr. Conrad make things pleasant
+at the barbecue, and we&#8217;ll have a jolly laugh over it. There he is now,
+Ned! Do go right along and begin your work, so we&#8217;ll be sure to leave on
+Saturday.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_319" id="Page_319">[Pg 319]</a></span></p><p>When Conrad bade the Castletons good-bye at the railway station at the
+end of the week, Francisquita said to him:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;When you see that pretty Miss Bancroft again&mdash;&#8221; here she gave him a
+significant glance and then demurely lowered her eyes&mdash;&#8220;please tell her
+that I hope to see her again, and that if she ever comes to San
+Francisco she must let me know&mdash;you can give her our address. We&#8217;d be
+delighted, Ned and I, to help her have a good time. She&#8217;s a dear, lovely
+girl and I&#8217;d really like to know her better.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis drove home, declaring to himself that Mrs. Ned was one of the
+most charming women he knew. He would ride over to Golden to-morrow
+afternoon and deliver her message. He lingered fondly over the image of
+Lucy&#8217;s slender figure standing at the top of her veranda steps and
+smiling upon him a gay and gracious welcome, and a strong desire rose in
+his heart to know just how glad she really would be to see him. But the
+recollection of his plans for the ensuing week came crashing through his
+pleasant thoughts like a runaway horse through a flower garden. For a
+moment the purpose that held his life in thrall seemed strangely
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_320" id="Page_320">[Pg 320]</a></span>unworthy. But presently he jammed his hat down on his head and, with
+compressed lips, said savagely to himself:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No; the Delafield affair is my first love, and I&#8217;ll stay with it.&#8221; As
+he thought over his plans and hopes for the immediate future his heart
+grew hot again with the old indignation over all that ruin and struggle,
+and the old purpose regained its accustomed vigor.</p>
+
+<p>After a little, nevertheless, he decided that he would ride over to the
+Bancrofts&#8217; the next day and deliver Mrs. Castleton&#8217;s message. It would
+do no harm for him to see Lucy occasionally, in the friendly way in
+which they had always met.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_321" id="Page_321">[Pg 321]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XX" id="CHAPTER_XX"></a>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+
+<h3>NARROWING THE QUEST</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">T</span>hat evening, while they sat and smoked on the little porch, Curtis
+Conrad told Homer of his lifelong quest. It was the younger man&#8217;s first
+knowledge of the motive that had been so potent in his brother&#8217;s life.
+He listened in silence while his pipe went out, and sat quite still
+after the other ceased. &#8220;Well, Curt,&#8221; he said at last, with a little
+tremor in his voice, &#8220;this yarn of yours knocks me silly. I can&#8217;t say
+I&#8217;m pleased with it, at least at first view. It doesn&#8217;t seem sensible.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis laughed good-naturedly. &#8220;Very likely, Homer; I didn&#8217;t expect it
+to appeal forcibly to a sensible, practical chap like you. I haven&#8217;t
+told you before because there was no use bothering your young head with
+it when the round-up seemed so far away; but I&#8217;m mighty near the end of
+the trail now, and you&#8217;ve come to a man&#8217;s age and ways of thinking; so I
+thought it best to tell you. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_322" id="Page_322">[Pg 322]</a></span>There&#8217;s a possibility, of course, that
+I&#8217;ll get the worst of it when the mix-up does come; and in that case I&#8217;d
+like you to know what it was all about. But I&#8217;m not considering that
+sort of chance as likely to happen.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But what do you expect to gain by it, Curt, and why do you want to kill
+the man?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis slowly lighted a fresh cigar. &#8220;Well, Homer, if you don&#8217;t see why,
+it&#8217;s no use for me to explain.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know there&#8217;s a big difference between us temperamentally; but I don&#8217;t
+believe that would keep me from appreciating your motive if it had any
+basis in right or expediency. Good God, Curt, look at the thing
+sensibly! Suppose you kill the man when you find him. What earthly good
+will that do you? You&#8217;d probably hang for it, or go to the penitentiary
+for years. And it seems to me the chance is all the other way. Whoever
+the man is, he must know you&#8217;re after him; and you&#8217;ll find him ready and
+loaded. If you&#8217;re not killed you&#8217;re likely to be badly wounded&mdash;perhaps
+lose an eye or a leg&mdash;and what can you gain by it? Bless me if I can see
+any use or sense or right in the whole business.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis Conrad rose and walked slowly and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_323" id="Page_323">[Pg 323]</a></span>with bent head the length of
+the porch and back, his hand resting for an instant on his brother&#8217;s
+shoulder as he passed. He stood regarding abstractedly the lightning
+that was playing among some low-lying clouds above the Hatchet
+Mountains, far to the southwest. &#8220;One night, soon after father and
+mother died,&#8221; he began, in a tone so low that Homer could barely catch
+his words, &#8220;I lay awake almost all night, thinking. You were a little
+shaver barely out of kilts, the girls were young things with their
+dresses half way to their knees, and I was only fifteen. I had taken you
+into bed with me because I was afraid you&#8217;d wake up in the night and
+feel lonesome&mdash;and, perhaps, because I didn&#8217;t want to feel quite so
+lonesome myself. I made plans for hours about how we could get along and
+the things I meant to do. You tossed in your sleep, and threw one of
+your hands against mine. My fingers closed over it, and you gripped one
+of them fast. Somehow, that grip went to my heart, and I promised myself
+and you that I would do all I could to make up to you the loss we had
+suffered. I thought of what father had planned for me; and I knew that I
+should have to give all that up. As I thought of the man <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_324" id="Page_324">[Pg 324]</a></span>who had robbed
+us of everything&mdash;money, opportunity, father and mother&mdash;I trembled with
+anger.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I had never used an oath until that night. But I sat on the side of my
+bed, when I couldn&#8217;t lie still any longer, and clenched my fists and
+cursed him, mildly at first and under my breath, then aloud and in the
+reddest language I could think of. As I damned his soul to the hottest
+corner of hell it seemed to me that he ought to be made to suffer in
+this life, too, and I said aloud, &#8216;I would like to kill you!&#8217; The words
+sounded so plain that they frightened me. But I said them over again,
+and the next moment the thought leaped up, &#8216;And I will, too, if I live!&#8217;
+That was how the idea was born in my mind. It struck root and grew, and
+I&#8217;ve held to it ever since.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Homer nodded. &#8220;Yes; I can understand how you would hold to a thing you&#8217;d
+made up your mind to do; I&#8217;d hold on just the same way. We&#8217;ve both got
+the bull-dog grip; it&#8217;s one of the Conrad characteristics. But even a
+bull-dog can let go when he knows he shouldn&#8217;t hold on any longer.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled grimly. &#8220;Not always; sometimes you have to pry his jaws
+loose. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_325" id="Page_325">[Pg 325]</a></span>Nevertheless, I could let go if I wanted to. But I don&#8217;t want
+to, and I don&#8217;t propose to. The thing has become part of my life, of me,
+of my very blood.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Have you been working at it all this time, Curt?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, of course I couldn&#8217;t do much while I was a boy except to think and
+brood over it. But during that time I learned all I could about
+Delafield, his schemes, and his personality. I read every newspaper I
+could lay hold of that had anything in it about him; I&#8217;ve got them all
+yet. But I didn&#8217;t do much in the way of actually chasing him down until
+after the girls were married ten years ago. After that I earned and
+saved more money, and was free to go about as I wanted. Since then I&#8217;ve
+spent all the time and money I could spare in hunting him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I had a schoolmate named Littleton who became a detective when he grew
+up. We were good friends, and when he happened to find out that I was
+nosing around in my own way he offered to help me. I was to pay him what
+I could, and he would put in time on this when he had nothing else to
+do. Between us we tracked Delafield all over the West and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_326" id="Page_326">[Pg 326]</a></span>into Canada,
+back and forth, and under nearly a dozen different names. I don&#8217;t think
+he got as much money out of his Boston smash as he was charged with
+taking, but he got a good lot; and he&#8217;s since made and lost two or three
+good-sized fortunes. Most of the time he has been a mining expert, and
+has owned and dealt in mines; the fact that he&#8217;s stuck pretty close to
+that business has made it easier to follow him. Once, in Arizona, we
+lost the trail completely. It was as if the earth had opened and
+swallowed him; for a while we thought he must be dead. Later we
+discovered his tracks in Utah, under a new name. Since then there have
+been several gaps of that sort; but we&#8217;ve always managed to light on him
+again after a while.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My last knowledge of him is that he is living somewhere in this
+Territory, a well-to-do and respected citizen, prominent in politics,
+and a supporter of Dellmey Baxter for Congress. The rest of it will be
+easy; there&#8217;ll be a quick chase and an early show-down before there&#8217;s
+time for another deal. I&#8217;ve got my eye on two men, both of whom fit that
+description. They live up North, and I&#8217;m going up to Albuquerque and
+Santa Fe next week to look up their records. If it&#8217;s either <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_327" id="Page_327">[Pg 327]</a></span>one of
+them, Delafield will meet his deserts before he&#8217;s many days older.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Silence fell upon them. Curtis leaned against a pillar of the porch and
+watched the clouds rising higher over the mountains. &#8220;It looks as if the
+rainy season is about to begin at last,&#8221; he said in a matter-of-fact
+way. Homer rose and stood with a hand on his shoulder. They looked so
+much alike in the moonlight that at a little distance it would have been
+difficult to say which was the younger and which the elder brother.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t need to tell you, Curt,&#8221; he said in a tone rich with earnest
+feeling, &#8220;how grateful I am for all you&#8217;ve done for me, nor how well I
+know at what cost to yourself you&#8217;ve done it. You&#8217;ve been father and
+mother and brother and best friend to me all in one. If I ever do
+anything worth while the credit will be yours quite as much as mine. You
+know I&#8217;m not ungrateful or unappreciative, don&#8217;t you, Curt? I can
+understand how this thing has come to obsess you, since you&#8217;ve explained
+how it took root in your mind before your ethical ideas were settled.
+But I can&#8217;t sympathize with you in this search after vengeance, and I
+can&#8217;t approve of what you are planning to do. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_328" id="Page_328">[Pg 328]</a></span>seems to me you ought
+to be able to see things straight by this time and shake off your
+obsession. If you want to find the man and hand him over to the proper
+authorities&mdash;that&#8217;s all right; I&#8217;d help you in that myself; it&#8217;s right
+that he should be punished and made to give up what he has to his
+creditors. But to take revenge into your own hands, Curt, and to take it
+at the cost of everything desirable for yourself&mdash;why, the thing is so
+mad that it bewilders me to think it&#8217;s you that&#8217;s doing it. I wish I
+could persuade you to give it up.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis shook his head emphatically. &#8220;You needn&#8217;t waste your breath,
+Homer. I rather hoped you&#8217;d understand better how I feel about it, and
+see the whole affair a little more as it looks to me. But you&#8217;re
+different; and if you can&#8217;t, you can&#8217;t, and that&#8217;s all there is about
+it. But it&#8217;s useless to try to persuade me to give up my plans. A thing
+that you&#8217;ve thought about and dreamt about and planned and worked for
+through fifteen years gets to be part of your very blood, my boy, and
+it&#8217;s not so easily cast aside.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; said Homer, &#8220;you are you; and if you&#8217;ve got to do this thing I
+suppose it can&#8217;t be helped.&#8221; He paused, thinking <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_329" id="Page_329">[Pg 329]</a></span>intently. &#8220;But when
+you go North next week&mdash;if one of those men proves to be Delafield&mdash;you
+won&#8217;t&mdash;at once&mdash;&#8221; He stumbled over his words, unable to put his
+brother&#8217;s purpose into plain speech.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis took up his meaning. &#8220;No; not immediately. I&#8217;ve got to come home
+again first.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then you&#8217;ll be back here before you do anything? That&#8217;s sure, is it,
+Curt?&#8221; asked Homer, relief in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; sure. I&#8217;ve got some important business that I promised the
+Castletons I&#8217;d attend to the week after, and I&#8217;ll take no chances till I
+get that fixed up for them.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The next morning there was a promise of rain in the air and the sky. A
+dome of pale, bright gray, resting on murky supports of cloud, had taken
+the place of the usual heaven of vivid blue. But the wind, blowing warm
+and strong from the west, bore little moisture upon its wings, and the
+air was laden with an electric tingle that stretched and jarred
+unaccustomed nerves.</p>
+
+<p>Hank Peters and Jos&eacute; Gonzalez were working in the corral when Curtis
+Conrad came across from the door of his room to give them some
+directions. Presently he asked if they <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_330" id="Page_330">[Pg 330]</a></span>or any of the boys had seen
+anything lately of the gray wolf that had skulked about the neighborhood
+earlier in the season. Nosey Ike, they said, had seen it only the day
+before in the second draw on the road toward Golden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He did?&#8221; exclaimed Curtis. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to Golden to-day, and perhaps I
+can get a crack at it. I&#8217;ll be home by six o&#8217;clock, Peters, and I want
+to talk with you to-night about some work at Adobe Springs to-morrow.
+But to-day&#8217;s Sunday, boys, and we&#8217;ve come finally where we can stop and
+take breath once a week. You fellows can do anything you like to-day.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Peters thought he&#8217;d sleep all day, for he hadn&#8217;t caught up since the
+barbecue; but Jos&eacute; wanted to visit a Mexican family who had a little
+ranch beside a spring on the road to Golden.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All right,&#8221; said the superintendent. &#8220;Take whichever one of the ponies
+you want, but be sure to get back to-night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Curt,&#8221; said Homer when they sat down to breakfast, &#8220;if you&#8217;re not going
+to use Brown Betty to-day, would you mind if I rode her over to Golden?
+Or wouldn&#8217;t you like to go with me? I&#8217;m going to call at the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_331" id="Page_331">[Pg 331]</a></span>Bancrofts&#8217;
+to see if Miss Bancroft has recovered from the shock she had the other
+night.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis hesitated a moment as he poured their coffee, his own plan rising
+before him invitingly. But he remembered how pleased the two young
+people had seemed to be with each other and recalled his own resolution:
+&#8220;Let the lad have a fair field,&#8221; he thought.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Brown Betty? Certainly, Homer,&#8221; was his reply. &#8220;I&#8217;ll see that she&#8217;s
+ready for you. I can&#8217;t go because I must ride down to Adobe Springs to
+see about some work the boys must do there to-morrow. Give my regards to
+the Bancrofts. By the way, Mrs. Ned Castleton gave me a message for Miss
+Bancroft that I&#8217;ll let you deliver.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As Homer mounted for his journey he cast an anxious glance at the
+wet-looking clouds against which rose the purple-blue, statuesque masses
+of the Mogollon Mountains, and asked, &#8220;Is it going to rain?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It will sure rain in the mountains,&#8221; replied his brother, &#8220;if it isn&#8217;t
+pouring down by the bucketful there already. There may be a shower in
+Golden, but the creek will get on the rampage anyway, and maybe carry
+away some of the bridges. We shan&#8217;t get <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_332" id="Page_332">[Pg 332]</a></span>any here right away, but it&#8217;s
+coming, thank God! I tell you, Homer, it&#8217;s been a cruel thing to see the
+cattle dying like flies on account of the drouth. For a while last
+Spring I thought of throwing up this job, I hated so to see the
+suffering of the poor brutes.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>For a while all the man in Curtis Conrad clamored in revolt as he
+galloped southward across the silent, empty plain and thought of Lucy
+smiling a welcome from her veranda steps&mdash;and not upon him. His love
+called imperiously, demanding that he make trial of its strength. Should
+he give up the girl he loved without an effort, even though his rival be
+his brother? The primeval man in him was quick with the desire to take
+her in his arms and bear her away from all the world. But it was not
+long until he was saying grimly to himself, &#8220;What have I to do with
+love-making and winning a wife? The Delafield affair is my business, and
+I&#8217;d better stick to it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He pondered over the conversation with his brother on the previous
+evening, feeling more keenly Homer&#8217;s condemnation of his purpose. He
+remembered that every one with whom he had spoken about the matter had
+sought to dissuade him. Bancroft disapproved, and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_333" id="Page_333">[Pg 333]</a></span>had begged him many
+times to desist. Miss Dent called it unworthy of him. Now his brother,
+upon whose sympathy he had counted, condemned both his feeling and his
+intention. Nevertheless, he was surely right. It was easy for them to
+talk, for they had not suffered from the man&#8217;s crimes, they had not
+struggled as he had, and they had not spent years in the effort to find
+Delafield and cast his sins in his face. But still, his cherished
+purpose had lost a little of its savor. He thought of his journey
+northward, which he so ardently hoped would consummate his years of
+effort and desire, and there was not quite the usual pleasure in his
+mental forecast. He put the thought of Lucy behind him and went over
+once more that early struggle and the birth of his purpose, brought more
+vividly to mind by the talk with Homer, and soon the old ideas and
+intentions recovered their accustomed sway. By the time he galloped
+homeward in the late afternoon his indignation was once more hot and
+seething and his mind full of zest for his approaching journey.</p>
+
+<p>He found Homer in the corral unsaddling Brown Betty and humming a
+college tune. &#8220;Say, Curt, I think I&#8217;ll go hunting <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_334" id="Page_334">[Pg 334]</a></span>to-morrow,&#8221; said the
+young man as they walked across to the house. &#8220;I want to see if I can&#8217;t
+get a shot at that gray wolf you&#8217;ve been telling me about. As I was
+coming home your Mexican cowboy had sighted it not far from the road, in
+that valley beyond the hill yonder, and was just about to shoot when I
+had the bad luck to come along and scare the thing away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis looked up with quick interest. &#8220;Jos&eacute;? What was he doing? Did he
+shoot?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;He jumped from his hiding-place just as I came along, so suddenly that
+the mare shied and nearly threw me. He was just ready to shoot&mdash;he said
+the beast was only a little way down the draw&mdash;and saw me barely in time
+to throw up his revolver and send it off at the sky. By that time, of
+course, the wolf was out of sight. I&#8217;m going back there at daybreak
+to-morrow to see if I can get a crack at it.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Just then Gonzalez came riding into the corral, and Curtis moved his
+chair to the doorway, in front of his brother. &#8220;All right, Homer, I wish
+you would,&#8221; he said; &#8220;it would be just a tenderfoot&#8217;s luck, you know, if
+you should get it.&#8221; He was rolling a cigarette, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_335" id="Page_335">[Pg 335]</a></span>but keeping one eye on
+Jos&eacute;, who was caring for his horse. &#8220;Was there much rain in Golden
+to-day?&#8221; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; quite a storm, with lots of fireworks; I never saw such lightning
+or heard such thunder in my life. There must have been a flood farther
+up in the mountains, for the creek came down that ravine fairly booming,
+just as you said it would. It swept away one of the bridges and washed
+out parts of the foundations of two or three houses. But it soon went
+down again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Was the bank building injured?&#8221; Curtis asked, still following with
+narrowed eyes the movements of Gonzalez. &#8220;It&#8217;s in a dangerous spot if a
+really bad flood ever does come down that valley.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The First National? That&#8217;s Bancroft&#8217;s bank, isn&#8217;t it? Yes; it lost some
+bricks out of the foundation, and the ground was washed away a little.
+Nothing of consequence.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, that has happened several times already; some of these days it
+will happen once too often. Long ago, I&#8217;m told, the street and sidewalk
+had to be moved to the other side of the houses for a block or two along
+there. You remember the creek elbows toward the bank. If a great mass of
+water <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_336" id="Page_336">[Pg 336]</a></span>ever comes down that canyon it will rush straight against the
+side of the building&mdash;and the lives of whoever happens to be inside
+won&#8217;t be worth two switches of a cow&#8217;s tail.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I talked with Mr. Bancroft about that possibility to-day,&#8221; said Homer,
+&#8220;and he doesn&#8217;t think the situation is dangerous.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; nobody in Golden believes there&#8217;s any danger. And they may be
+right. They say there isn&#8217;t as much rain now as there used to be, and
+that cloud-bursts of any consequence are as rare as six-legged calves.
+It will all depend on the weather.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The next morning Jos&eacute; Gonzalez was hitching up to drive the men to Adobe
+Springs when Conrad walked up, leaned carelessly against the wheel, and
+looked him in the eye. The Mexican returned the gaze unflinchingly but
+respectfully. &#8220;Jos&eacute;,&#8221; said Curtis in a low tone, &#8220;you made a mistake
+about that wolf last night, didn&#8217;t you? It wasn&#8217;t the wolf you thought
+it was when you made ready to shoot, was it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>An amused gleam lighted for an instant Jos&eacute;&#8217;s sombre eyes. &#8220;It might
+have been as you say, Don Curtis,&#8221; he answered cautiously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want any might-have-beens; I want to know if you are making war
+on my <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_337" id="Page_337">[Pg 337]</a></span>brother as well as on me. It&#8217;s all right about me, but I won&#8217;t
+have anything of the sort where he&#8217;s concerned. I want the truth, Jos&eacute;.
+Is anything of the kind going to happen again?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez looked at Conrad squarely as he earnestly replied: &#8220;It was a
+mistake, Don Curtis; I swear to you it was a mistake. Your brother looks
+much like you, it was your mare, and you had said you would be back from
+Golden about that hour. I saw it was Don Homer barely in time. After
+this I shall be more careful.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad grinned at the closing sentence, and the Mexican scarcely
+repressed an answering smile. &#8220;Well, I am going away to-day,&#8221; said
+Curtis, &#8220;to be gone for several days. So it won&#8217;t be necessary for you
+to make any mistakes while I&#8217;m gone.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jos&eacute; looked up in quick alarm. &#8220;You are not going to Don Dellmey?&#8221; he
+exclaimed. &#8220;He is not the one who wishes your death!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What do you say, Jos&eacute;?&#8221; the other demanded, starting forward eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I swear to you by the Mother of God, Don Curtis,&#8221; said the Mexican,
+with voice intense and manner most earnest, &#8220;that it is not Se&ntilde;or Baxter
+who desires your death.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_338" id="Page_338">[Pg 338]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Are you speaking the truth, Jos&eacute;?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I will swear it on the crucifix, Don Curtis!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad gazed at him steadfastly, and the conviction entered his mind
+that Gonzalez was speaking the truth. A look of puzzled wonder
+overspread his face. &#8220;In the name of God, then, who is it?&#8221; he said,
+half aloud. The Mexican shrugged a shoulder and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Who can it be?&#8221; the manager repeated, to himself, but still loud enough
+for the other to hear. &#8220;It must be Delafield!&#8221; he exclaimed. Jos&eacute;&#8217;s ear
+caught the words, and he listened as his employer went on: &#8220;He knows I&#8217;m
+after him, and he&#8217;s trying to kill me first. If I could only make this
+<i>coyote</i> greaser tell me who his <i>patron</i> is, I&#8217;d know who Delafield is.
+I&#8217;d like to choke it out of you, you son of perdition!&#8221; He looked so
+fiercely at Gonzalez that the Mexican took a threatening step forward.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You needn&#8217;t worry,&#8221; Conrad exclaimed contemptuously. &#8220;I know you
+wouldn&#8217;t tell, even if I choked the life out of you trying to make you
+peach. It&#8217;s your <i>patron</i> I&#8217;m after.&#8221; Jos&eacute; stooped to hitch the traces,
+and Curtis broke out impulsively: &#8220;I say, Jos&eacute;, what <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_339" id="Page_339">[Pg 339]</a></span>makes you do this
+sort of thing? You&#8217;re as square as they make &#8217;em in most things; why do
+you go into this damned rattlesnake business?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez looked up with a confiding smile.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;The <i>patron</i> wishes it; and why not? If I kill a man he gets me off if
+he can, and then that is all right. If he can&#8217;t, I pay for it in
+prison&mdash;and that is fair.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Huh!&#8221; grunted the superintendent as he walked away. &#8220;So you think you
+are going to pay for me that way, do you? Well, I guess not!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The same train that carried Conrad northward to Santa Fe carried also a
+brief and hurried letter to Dellmey Baxter which Jos&eacute; Gonzalez had found
+time to write before he and the rest started for Adobe Springs, mailing
+it as they passed White Rock station.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You will see Se&ntilde;or Conrad in Santa Fe,&#8221; the Congressman read in his
+office the next morning, &#8220;but you need not be anxious. I have sworn to
+him that it is not you who desires his death, and he believes me. I
+heard him speak to himself, and he said it must be Delafeel who wishes
+him dead. He said he would like to choke out of me who my <i>patron</i> is,
+for then he would know who Delafeel is. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_340" id="Page_340">[Pg 340]</a></span>Don Curtis is a very brave man.
+I like him much.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Baxter chuckled over the closing sentences as he tore the letter into
+bits. Poking them musingly with a fat forefinger he thought: &#8220;It&#8217;s a
+sure bet that his <i>patron</i> just now is Aleck Bancroft; and that makes it
+look as if Aleck might be this mysterious Delafeel&mdash;I&#8217;ll have to find
+out who Delafeel is and what he&#8217;s done some time or other; then I sure
+reckon I&#8217;ll have a cinch on Aleck that will keep him from trying to step
+into my shoes as long as I want him to keep out.&#8221; He looked out of his
+window into the little tree-filled plaza, cool and green in the morning
+sunlight, and saw Curtis Conrad walking across it from the hotel on the
+other side. He took a six-shooter from his pocket, made sure of its
+cartridges, and replaced it. From a drawer in his desk he took another,
+examined its chambers, and laid it on his desk, under an open newspaper.
+A moment later he was rising from his chair with outstretched hand and
+beaming smile.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, how do you do, Mr. Conrad! I&#8217;m sure glad to see you. How did you
+leave things down in old Silverside? That was a high old time we had at
+the barbecue, wasn&#8217;t <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_341" id="Page_341">[Pg 341]</a></span>it? Have the Castletons gone yet? A fine figure of
+a woman is Mrs. Turner Castleton! And I tell you right now it was a
+great shave she gave me!&#8221; The Honorable Dellmey Baxter rubbed his cheek,
+and chuckled. But his right hand rested on his desk, close beside the
+newspaper which he had apparently just thrown down.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Baxter,&#8221; said Conrad, ignoring the stream of questions and remarks,
+&#8220;some weeks ago I wrote you, saying frankly that I believed you
+responsible for attempts against my life, made by a Mexican who had come
+from you to me. I find myself mistaken, and I have come to apologize to
+you for my suspicions.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s all right, Curt, that&#8217;s all right!&#8221; Baxter broke in, relief
+apparent in his countenance. &#8220;I&#8217;ll admit I felt hurt by your
+insinuations, but as long as you&#8217;ve found out you were wrong and are
+willing to do me the justice of saying so, it&#8217;s not worth speaking of
+again.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Understand,&#8221; Curtis went on, &#8220;that I&#8217;m not taking back or apologizing
+for anything else I&#8217;ve said about you, and I&#8217;m still shouting for Johnny
+Martinez for Congress.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Johnny is to be congratulated for having <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_342" id="Page_342">[Pg 342]</a></span>your support,&#8221; Baxter
+rejoined genially; &#8220;I wish I could get it away from him. Has that measly
+greaser made any more attempts on your life, my dear Conrad? You&#8217;re too
+good a citizen for the Territory to lose in that way.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled carelessly. &#8220;I don&#8217;t think my life is in any danger. No
+damned greaser will get the chance to stick me in the back when I&#8217;ve got
+both eyes shut and one foot tucked up in my feathers, if I&#8217;m onto his
+game. I don&#8217;t care anything about Jos&eacute;; it&#8217;s his <i>patron</i> I&#8217;m after.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;His <i>patron</i>!&#8221; exclaimed Baxter in apparent surprise. &#8220;You don&#8217;t mean
+to say that Jos&eacute;&#8217;s got a <i>patron</i> in that business!&#8221; His visitor nodded
+and the Congressman went on: &#8220;You don&#8217;t say so! I didn&#8217;t suppose you had
+an enemy in the Territory. This is interesting! We must get at the
+bottom of this, Mr. Conrad, for we can&#8217;t afford to lose you. Have you
+any idea who&#8217;s behind the greaser?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis considered a moment. He might get some information from Baxter
+that would help him; it would do no harm to speak cautiously. &#8220;Yes, and
+no, Mr. Baxter. I know who he used to be, but I don&#8217;t know <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_343" id="Page_343">[Pg 343]</a></span>who he is
+now. His name used to be Delafield, back in the States.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Delafield&mdash;Delafield,&#8221; mused Baxter. He had got the conversation where
+he wanted it. &#8220;I don&#8217;t remember having heard that name in New Mexico.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That hasn&#8217;t been his name for a good many years. Don&#8217;t you remember the
+Delafield affair in Boston, some fifteen years ago&mdash;Sumner L. Delafield,
+who made a big spread in the financial world, defaulted, and ran away?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, of course!&#8221; The Congressman brought his fat fist down on the table
+with a thump. &#8220;The Delafield affair! Yes; I remember it, and how
+Delafield slid out and covered up his tracks completely. And you say
+he&#8217;s living in New Mexico now?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; he&#8217;s a rich, prominent, and respected citizen of New Mexico. But I
+haven&#8217;t discovered which one of &#8217;em, and he doesn&#8217;t want me to find out.
+My father lost all he had in the smash.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They talked a little longer, and Curtis learned enough about the history
+of the two men he had in mind to be satisfied that neither of them was
+the one he sought.</p>
+
+<p>After Conrad went away, Baxter leaned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_344" id="Page_344">[Pg 344]</a></span>back and folded his hands across
+his waist-coat, his left eyelid drooping and his face beaming with
+smiles. &#8220;Now,&#8221; he thought, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got Aleck Bancroft exactly where he can
+do me the most good!&#8221;</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_345" id="Page_345">[Pg 345]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXI" id="CHAPTER_XXI"></a>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+
+<h3>THE SILENT DUEL</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span>s July sped on Homer Conrad&#8217;s visits to Golden grew more and more
+frequent. When Curtis returned from his northern journey, still ignorant
+of Delafield&#8217;s identity, Homer was greatly relieved, and tried once more
+to dissuade his brother. &#8220;Anyway, Curt,&#8221; he urged, &#8220;don&#8217;t do anything
+more about it now. Let it rest a while, and think about it more coolly
+and carefully; you&#8217;ll see how foolish it is if you do that.&#8221; As Curtis
+did not mention the subject again, he concluded that his advice had been
+taken and that there was no reason for immediate anxiety. His mind at
+rest on that score, he devoted himself more than ever to Lucy Bancroft.
+He talked of her so much to his brother that Curtis soon saw how
+complete was his absorption. &#8220;I guess they&#8217;re hitting it off together
+all right,&#8221; he concluded.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis Conrad tried to accustom himself to the idea of Lucy as his
+brother&#8217;s wife. It <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_346" id="Page_346">[Pg 346]</a></span>cost him many a painful twinge, and once the
+rebellious thought came into his mind, &#8220;If it hadn&#8217;t been for the
+Delafield affair I might&mdash;&#8221; But a little shock, as if he had fallen away
+from some ideal or been guilty of an irreverence, stopped the notion.
+Now and then, too, he had misgivings as to what Lucy would think of him
+if she knew. He shrank from the feeling that her condemnation would be
+as unsparing as his brother&#8217;s, with more of horror and disgust. For the
+first time he began to think about what might lie beyond that longed-for
+meeting with Delafield. One day, musing upon Homer and Lucy, he had a
+sudden vision of himself as a commiserated kinsman, and smiled grimly as
+he reflected, &#8220;It might be a good thing for them if I got my quietus in
+the scrimmage.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>These signs of a change slowly going on within him sometimes came as a
+flash of feeling, while again the thoughts induced held him for hours.
+The emotion that had so powerfully rushed over him when he first
+realized his love for Lucy had jarred his grip upon his purpose; and
+afterward intimate daily association with his brother and knowledge of
+the young man&#8217;s severe disapproval united to move him now and then from
+his old point <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_347" id="Page_347">[Pg 347]</a></span>of view and to give him brief visitations of more
+wholesome feeling. If his love for Lucy, so suddenly realized, had met
+with no check, it alone might have been enough in time to turn him from
+his plans. A man of his temperament cannot be fired by two enthusiasms
+at the same time. He must give himself wholly to his absorbing desire.
+Since at the core Conrad&#8217;s nature was sound and sweet, it is likely that
+after a little his love would have overmastered his desire for revenge.
+But Lucy&#8217;s flirtation with his brother, induced by pique and
+disappointment at his constant association with Mrs. Ned Castleton, and
+Homer&#8217;s prompt infatuation had led him to believe that the two younger
+people were in love with each other. Consequently he did his best to
+restrain his own feelings, and so limited their check upon the older
+sentiment. Francisquita little knew, or would ever guess, what grave
+consequences were flowing from her innocent effort to keep her
+sister-in-law within bounds. But for that the outcome of the Delafield
+affair would have been &#8220;another story.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad returned from Santa Fe much disappointed by the failure of the
+clews that had promised so much. He debated whether it <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_348" id="Page_348">[Pg 348]</a></span>would be worth
+while to try to compel Gonzalez to disclose the name of his employer
+should the Mexican attack him again. He was doubtful of the success of
+such a plan, for he believed Jos&eacute; as likely to give up his life as his
+secret. Nevertheless, he decided it would be worth trying. For several
+weeks after his return it chanced that whenever he went from home it was
+with Peters or some of the men, while there was always somebody about
+the corral and the house. He knew Gonzalez was watching him constantly,
+awaiting the moment when they should be alone. Toward the end of July he
+made up his mind to provide the opportunity and bring matters to a
+focus.</p>
+
+<p>On the day he reached this decision his brother returned from Golden
+looking dejected. &#8220;They&#8217;ve quarrelled,&#8221; was Curtis&#8217;s inward comment. He
+said nothing, nor did Homer mention Lucy&#8217;s name, contrary to his custom
+of talking much about her after a day in her society. He was also less
+talkative than usual upon other subjects. During the evening, while
+Curtis read, Homer sat by the open door and smoked in gloomy silence,
+listening to the pouring rain and the rolling and echoing thunder. He
+was wondering, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_349" id="Page_349">[Pg 349]</a></span>half in lover&#8217;s anger and half in lover&#8217;s
+downheartedness, why Lucy had been so unreasonable that day, and why she
+had acted as if she did not care whether he came or stayed away. Well,
+he would not trouble her with his company again very soon. He and
+Pendleton had been talking about a camping and hunting trip in the
+Mogollon Mountains, and he would see if they couldn&#8217;t get up the party
+and go at once.</p>
+
+<p>The next morning a sky of pure, deep, brilliant blue shone over a
+freshening, greening plain. Homer rose from the breakfast table and
+walked out into the corral, throwing back his shoulders and breathing
+deeply of the dry, cool, exhilarating air. It seemed a different world
+from that of yesterday. There was no hurry about the camping trip, after
+all. &#8220;I think I&#8217;ll ride over to Golden,&#8221; he said to his brother, &#8220;and
+see if that storm last night did much damage. It looked black in the
+mountains when I was coming home in the afternoon, and a bad flood may
+have come down the ravine.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis smiled quizzically. A certain eager masterfulness in the young
+man&#8217;s air brought to his mind conviction of the real purport of his
+brother&#8217;s errand, and he felt no doubt of <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_350" id="Page_350">[Pg 350]</a></span>its result. &#8220;A good idea,&#8221; he
+assented. &#8220;It was a bad storm and may have done a lot of harm. But I&#8217;ll
+have to use Brown Betty myself to-day. You can have your pick of the
+others.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He stood by and called out, &#8220;Good luck, old fellow!&#8221; as Homer mounted
+his horse, and laughed and swung his sombrero as the other turned away a
+blushing face. Curtis gazed after him, a swift vision filling his mind
+of the look that countenance would wear when he returned to tell him
+proudly that he had won Lucy&#8217;s promise to be his wife. &#8220;And by that time
+I&#8217;m going to know who Delafield is,&#8221; he thought, his lips compressed, as
+he turned quickly into the corral.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jos&eacute;,&#8221; he called, &#8220;I want you to go to Adobe Springs this morning and
+see if any of the cattle are mired in the overflow from the storm last
+night. Then deepen the outlet so the water will all be carried away.
+You&#8217;d better start at once. I&#8217;ll come after you in about half an hour
+and show you about digging out the outlet.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>As Gonzalez mounted his horse at the corral gate he looked back and saw
+Conrad standing beside his mare, making her hunt through his pockets for
+sugar. &#8220;A brave man is Don <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_351" id="Page_351">[Pg 351]</a></span>Curtis,&#8221; his thoughts ran. &#8220;He is so brave
+it does not seem right that he must die. But&mdash;&#8221; and he shrugged his
+shoulders with the air of one who says, &#8220;What would you?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When Jos&eacute; was well out of sight Conrad started after him, at first at a
+slower pace than usual. His mind was not upon the expected encounter,
+with its doubtful issue, nor upon the information, so long and ardently
+desired, that he hoped to extort from the Mexican. A month previous he
+would have been intent on that one thing, his thoughts absorbed in it,
+and his heart on fire with anticipation. Now he dwelt upon the idea of
+marriage between Lucy and Homer. &#8220;The lad&#8217;s a better man than I,&#8221; he was
+thinking. &#8220;There&#8217;s more in him, and ten years from now I shan&#8217;t be able
+to stack up alongside of him and make any showing at all&mdash;even if I&#8217;m
+not in prison or hanged by the neck until dead long before.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He bared his brow, curiously white above the rest of his sunburned face,
+to the south wind. His lips tightened and his eyes glowed as he looked
+out over the gray road stretching before him, while his inward vision
+flashed down the grim and lonely path that led into the future. It was
+the way he had chosen, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_352" id="Page_352">[Pg 352]</a></span>the one he had travelled with eager feet for
+fifteen years, and he must follow it to the end. A few miles farther on
+that gray track, perhaps just beyond that next hill, the longed-for
+knowledge was awaiting him. He would force it from Gonzalez, and
+then&mdash;Delafield! The thought fired his heart once more and his eyes
+blazed with the old indignation as his mind went back to the grief and
+loss of his early years, to that lonely night of hate and anger when his
+deadly purpose was born. He touched Brown Betty with his spur,
+quickening her pace to a smart gallop as he searched the road and plain
+with ardent eyes. His heart was bounding forward with anticipation, the
+savor of longed-for vengeance once more strong in his throat. In front
+of him lay a wide, shallow valley, with steep, storm-torn rims and brows
+shaggy with mesquite.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I reckon, Betty B.,&#8221; he said aloud, &#8220;it&#8217;s about time to be looking for
+Jos&eacute;, and this draw seems a likely sort of place for him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He drew his revolver, glanced at its chambers, held it across the pommel
+in his right hand, and made sure of the handful of cartridges he had put
+in his pocket on leaving home. Brown Betty cantered across the bottom of
+the valley and, as she climbed the steep <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_353" id="Page_353">[Pg 353]</a></span>bank on the other side, lifted
+her head and neighed. From somewhere in the distance came an answering
+whinny. &#8220;It&#8217;s one of our horses,&#8221; thought Conrad.</p>
+
+<p>At the hilltop he carefully searched the plain; a little way down the
+road, beside a clump of bushes, he saw a riderless horse. He chuckled.
+&#8220;Jos&eacute;&#8217;s sure hiding out around there somewhere,&#8221; was his instant
+conviction. His head was high, his eyes flashing, and his face set in
+hard lines as he started the mare forward at a brisk trot. His gaze
+travelled toward the other horse, studying every bunch of mesquite and
+questioning every clump of amole and yucca that grew between.</p>
+
+<p>His eye caught the motion of branches in a tall, spreading thicket of
+mesquite a hundred yards away, not far from the road. They swayed
+against the wind for a moment, trembled back and forth, and then bent
+before the breeze like their fellows. The growth was dense, but behind
+it he could distinguish the outlines of a darker mass, and an instant
+later he saw a tiny flash of light reflected from some small, bright
+object. &#8220;That must be the sun on his gun-sight,&#8221; said Curtis, &#8220;and I
+reckon it&#8217;s time to prepare for war.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_354" id="Page_354">[Pg 354]</a></span></p><p>Dismounting, he threw the mare&#8217;s bridle over her neck. &#8220;No; she&#8217;ll
+follow me,&#8221; he thought, &#8220;and she doesn&#8217;t need to mix up in the Delafield
+affair.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His eye still on the suspicious clump of bushes, Conrad fastened the
+mare to an outreaching mesquite limb at the roadside. &#8220;This is a better
+place for you, Brown Betty, nice old girl,&#8221; he said, reaching back to
+pat her neck as she nickered after him.</p>
+
+<p>His pistol in his hand and his vision holding the dark object behind the
+feathery green plumes of the mesquite, he went on briskly until he had
+covered half the distance between them. Then he saw the object move
+cautiously a little to one side, where the leaves were not so thick.
+Plainly visible now were the straw sombrero, the dusky face below it,
+the outline of the body, and the revolver held steadily between the
+branches.</p>
+
+<p>Half a dozen strides more, and he fixed his eyes upon those of Gonzalez,
+dark and brilliant, gleaming through the scant, fern-like foliage like
+two coals of brown fire. Conrad&#8217;s six-shooter pointed straight between
+them as he walked slowly toward the bush. He knew that Jos&eacute;&#8217;s was
+levelled at his breast. Revolver cocked and finger at trigger he came
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_355" id="Page_355">[Pg 355]</a></span>on, his eyes holding those of the Mexican. Jos&eacute;&#8217;s pistol hand he
+disregarded, trusting to his perception of the change, the instant&#8217;s
+flash of decision, that would light Gonzalez&#8217;s face when he pulled the
+trigger. He knew that, should he stumble or miss his footing and so give
+advantage, or should any hesitation show in face or eye, that second
+would the Mexican&#8217;s bullet fly for his heart.</p>
+
+<p>It was Curtis&#8217;s intention not to hurt Jos&eacute; unless the need became
+imperative. Therefore he did not fire, but came silently on, and
+Gonzalez stood, silent and still, behind the sheltering bush, each with
+pistol cocked and held at steady aim, the gaze of each holding
+insistently that of the other. It was a silent duel of eyes, of wills
+behind the eyes, of purposes behind the wills, and of temperament behind
+the purposes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Will he never shoot?&#8221; Conrad asked himself once and again as he
+approached.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A brave man! A brave man!&#8221; was Jos&eacute;&#8217;s thought as he watched that steady
+advance, secure in his own advantage.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis came on with resolute step&mdash;fifteen yards, a dozen yards, ten
+yards. Barely a score of feet separated the muzzles of the two
+revolvers, and still the blue eyes and the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_356" id="Page_356">[Pg 356]</a></span>brown stared into each other
+with dauntless challenge.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why doesn&#8217;t he shoot?&#8221; thought Jos&eacute;. &#8220;A brave, bold man! It is a pity
+to kill him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;A moment more, and I&#8217;ll have him!&#8221; exulted Conrad. Fifteen feet, twelve
+feet, ten feet&mdash;still the space between them lessened, and still the
+silence was unbroken and their guns at unchanging aim.</p>
+
+<p>Another step, and Curtis saw Jos&eacute;&#8217;s eyes waver; another, and heard him
+draw a little, gasping breath. He saw irresolution flash across the
+Mexican&#8217;s face, saw his finger leave the trigger, his right arm tremble,
+and drop to his side.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad felt cold sweat break out over his body and there was a loud
+buzzing in his ears. Yet neither in face nor eyes was there a sign that
+he had seen any change. With his gaze still fixed on the other&#8217;s
+downcast lids, he moved sidewise around the bush, and stood beside
+Gonzalez.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Give me your gun, butt first,&#8221; he commanded in a low, tense voice. Jos&eacute;
+raised his eyes to meet the muzzle of the gun looking blankly between
+his brows.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You can take it if you like, Don Curtis,&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_357" id="Page_357">[Pg 357]</a></span>he said unsteadily. &#8220;I am
+not going to shoot you. Here it is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now,&#8221; said Curtis, pointing both guns at Jos&eacute;&#8217;s head, &#8220;tell me the name
+of the man who hired you to kill me.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican started in surprise. He shrugged his shoulders, looked at
+the guns again, shuffled his feet uneasily. &#8220;Don Curtis, how can I?&#8221; he
+exclaimed in a reproachful tone. &#8220;You should not ask that question. It
+is not fair.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Neither was it fair for you to try to stick me in the back before I was
+onto your game. So we&#8217;re even now, as you told me once before. You&#8217;ve
+got to tell! I don&#8217;t want to kill you, Jos&eacute;; but, by God! I will, if you
+don&#8217;t give up that man&#8217;s name. I&#8217;ll give you one minute to think it
+over; and if you don&#8217;t speak out then, I&#8217;ll blow your head off.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez sent one searching glance into Conrad&#8217;s set face, and dropped
+sullen eyes to the ground. He knew there was only one thing to do if he
+wished to live. For half the minute he stared downward, then looked
+blankly up at Curtis. &#8220;Fifteen seconds more,&#8221; said the stern voice. His
+face worked, his lips opened and closed again. Then he seemed to gather
+himself together for the unwilling <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_358" id="Page_358">[Pg 358]</a></span>effort, and the words fairly rushed
+from his mouth:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is your friend, Se&ntilde;or Bancroft.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What!&#8221; exclaimed Curtis, in a voice that had sunk back into his throat.</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez repeated his words. Conrad leaned forward, white with anger,
+and thrust the two revolvers close to the other&#8217;s face. &#8220;Jos&eacute;,&#8221; he said
+slowly, in hard, sharp tones, &#8220;a little while ago a man told me that. I
+shook him as if he&#8217;d been a dog and told him that he lied. I ask you
+once more, the last time, who is it?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gonzalez threw back his head, crossed his arms, and looked his
+antagonist angrily in the eye. &#8220;I am not a liar, Don Curtis,&#8221; he said
+proudly. &#8220;I may kill sometimes, if my <i>patron</i> wishes. But I do not
+lie.&#8221; He placed the muzzle of one of the pistols against his heart. &#8220;I
+have told you the truth, Se&ntilde;or Conrad,&#8221; he went on. &#8220;I swear to you, by
+the Mother of God, that I could not say different if you pulled that
+trigger now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad trembled and his white face went suddenly crimson. &#8220;It is hard to
+believe,&#8221; he said; but he lowered the pistols. &#8220;I know you are not a
+liar, Jos&eacute;, and you seem to be speaking the truth. You understand, don&#8217;t
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_359" id="Page_359">[Pg 359]</a></span>you,&#8221; he added in a tone almost apologetic, &#8220;that it is hard for me to
+believe what you say?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is the truth, se&ntilde;or.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis put his own pistol away, and looked thoughtfully at the other.
+&#8220;Jos&eacute;,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I shall have to think about this thing. In the
+meantime I&#8217;m going to keep your gun.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;As you like, Don Curtis,&#8221; replied Gonzalez, indifferently. &#8220;I shall do
+nothing more. To-morrow I shall ask for my time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad eyed him keenly. &#8220;Well, then, here&#8217;s your gun. Go on to Adobe
+Springs and do the work, as I told you. To-morrow morning, if you want
+it, you can have your time.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jos&eacute; took the gun, turned the cylinder, and one by one dropped the
+bullets to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It is ended, Don Curtis,&#8221; he said. Mounting his horse, he galloped down
+the road.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_360" id="Page_360">[Pg 360]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXII" id="CHAPTER_XXII"></a>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+
+<h3>REFLECTION AND REACTION</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">C</span>onrad stood still and stared at the Mexican&#8217;s lessening figure,
+galloping down the road. Presently he walked across to his mare, stroked
+her nose, and said softly, &#8220;By God! Betty B.!&#8221; For some minutes he gazed
+at her abstractedly, swearing under his breath, and now and then
+muttering, &#8220;Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!&#8221; Coherent thought was not yet
+possible. He felt that Jos&eacute; had told him the truth, and yet he could not
+believe it; between the opposing convictions his mind lay dazed and
+inactive. He mounted and turned Brown Betty&#8217;s nose toward home, riding
+at a foot-pace with his head down and his attention all indrawn. For a
+mile or two the mare plodded on quietly. At last, resenting the lack of
+the companionable attentions her master was accustomed to bestow upon
+her when they rode alone, she snorted several times and switched her
+tail vigorously, flicking his legs. There was no <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_361" id="Page_361">[Pg 361]</a></span>response. She whinnied
+softly, waited a little, and tried it again. Still her rider was silent.
+So she stopped, lifted her head, and neighed loudly. Conrad aroused
+himself. &#8220;What is it, Betty?&#8221; he said, looking searchingly around the
+plain. Nothing was in sight save its usual silent habitants. He
+dismounted, and examined her anxiously. She nipped him playfully,
+nickered gently, and poked her nose into his coat pocket.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Betty B., you&#8217;re a rogue!&#8221; he exclaimed, pulling her ear. &#8220;You&#8217;re just
+lonesome and want me to talk to you! My, but you&#8217;re spoiled!&#8221; He stroked
+her neck affectionately, then suddenly leaned against her, buried his
+face in her mane, and a single deep breath that was half a sob shook his
+body. &#8220;Betty!&#8221; he muttered, &#8220;to find that your best friend is the
+damnedest villain that ever went unhung!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The little episode with the mare broke up the paralysis that staggering
+surprise had set upon both thought and feeling. As he mounted again his
+heart was hot and his mind working rapidly. &#8220;The damned villain!&#8221; he
+exclaimed savagely, &#8220;to be pretending such friendship with me when he
+knew what he had done!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He spurred Brown Betty to a gallop. The <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_362" id="Page_362">[Pg 362]</a></span>tyrannous habit of mind
+engendered by long-wonted thought and desire urged him on to face at
+once the man who had despoiled his father and deprived him of his
+birthright. The old anger and hate surged over him, and his pulses beat
+swift and hard. For a while he forgot the personality of the enemy he
+had run to earth at last. Through his set teeth came whispered curses of
+hatred and contempt, and his tongue clung to the shameful epithets he
+longed to throw in the fellow&#8217;s face. Not fast enough could he ride to
+keep pace with his desire. Revenge, so long fed with hope and promise,
+was calling to be sated. &#8220;Faster, Betty, faster!&#8221; he called to the mare,
+spurring her on.</p>
+
+<p>But the very violence of his mood presently induced the beginning of
+reaction. He remembered who it was that he was riding so fast to expose
+and strike down. &#8220;Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!&#8221; he murmured, and slowed the
+mare&#8217;s racing feet. The tenderness and loyalty of friendship raised
+still, small voices in his heart. Once again the thing staggered him. It
+seemed incredible. In the depths of his heart was conviction that Jos&eacute;
+Gonzalez had told him the truth. But could he go to his best friend with
+such a charge, to taunt, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_363" id="Page_363">[Pg 363]</a></span>insult, and challenge to death, on the word of
+a Mexican assassin? The idea repelled him. And he was glad of the
+misgiving, unwilling to believe that the quest he had followed with such
+eager determination was leading him to the door of Alexander Bancroft.
+&#8220;I ought&mdash;I ought to have confirmation, I suppose,&#8221; he said to himself,
+uncertainly. And so, still undecided, feeling that it was truth and yet
+unwilling to believe, he came to the gate of his own corral. After he
+had unsaddled and stabled Brown Betty, he went through the kitchen for a
+drink of water from the big <i>olla</i>, wrapped in a wet coffee sack, that
+stood always in the drying wind and the shade of a tree beside the door.</p>
+
+<p>Mrs. Peters came in from the store-room with a panful of potatoes. &#8220;Hank
+had to go to White Rock this morning,&#8221; she said, &#8220;and he brought some
+mail for you. It&#8217;s on your desk.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Conrad passed through the series of rooms, opening one out of another,
+to the front. On his desk lay some papers and a single letter.
+&#8220;Littleton!&#8221; he exclaimed as he hastily tore it open. He read:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;<span class="smcap">My dear Curt</span>:&mdash;I have at last got for you the information we&#8217;ve
+been searching for so long.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_364" id="Page_364">[Pg 364]</a></span></p><p>His eyes eagerly rushed over the next few lines.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I have satisfied myself that the man we&#8217;ve been trailing all these
+years is Alexander Bancroft, a banker and prominent man in New
+Mexico, who lives at Golden,&mdash;is that place anywhere near you?&mdash;and
+for a number of years has been considered one of the most solid,
+upright, and influential citizens of your Territory.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>The letter dropped from Curtis&#8217;s fingers and his heart gave a great
+thump that sent the blood in a crimson wave over his face. &#8220;My God,
+then, it&#8217;s true!&#8221; he said aloud, and sat for a moment gazing at the
+letter in the same stupefied way he had looked after Gonzalez&#8217;s
+retreating figure. A grim smile twisted the corners of his mouth as he
+read on.</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;You may know him. Delafield&#8217;s history as we&#8217;ve got it now makes
+his case one of those curious romances of detective work whose
+equal could hardly be found in fiction. We missed long ago the clew
+that would have led us to success, in those gaps in his trail we
+never tried to fill, because we came upon his tracks again so
+easily a little later. While working on another case recently I had
+occasion to look through an omnibus bill passed years ago by an
+Arizona legislature. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_365" id="Page_365">[Pg 365]</a></span>It contained an astonishing ruck of things,
+and among them was a section authorizing William J. Brown to change
+his name to Alexander Bancroft. I knew that William J. Brown was
+one of the names under which Delafield had once traded in mines
+down there, and that, when we next found him after he had dropped
+that name, it was as John Smith, when he went down into old Mexico
+with John Mason Hardy. This name of Bancroft, sandwiched in there,
+and with such pains to legalize it, when we had found no track of
+it elsewhere, made me prick up my ears. I looked deeper into the
+matter and found that he had used this name of Bancroft only when
+he went to visit his wife and daughter, who lived most of the time
+in San Francisco or Denver, and were known by that name. When last
+we had track of the man, before I ran across Rutherford Jenkins, it
+was, you will remember, as Henry C. Williams, and then we lost all
+trace of him. That was because he went then on a visit to his wife
+and daughter in Denver and stayed there for some months. He had
+made a good clean-up about that time and increased it by some lucky
+trading on the Denver stock exchange. Then he went to New Mexico,
+kept the name of Bancroft, engaged in other business as well as
+mining, and settled down to be a permanent citizen.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I congratulate you upon the successful termination of our long
+chase. I understand Bancroft <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_366" id="Page_366">[Pg 366]</a></span>is a man of considerable property and
+I hope you will be able to make him disgorge some of the goods he
+stole so long ago. I have written this much hurriedly, just to give
+you an outline of my discoveries at once. But I have all the
+necessary proofs, and whenever you want to bring the case to trial
+they are at your service.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>Conrad folded the letter carefully, and put it in his pocket. He sat
+quite still, whispering &#8220;Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!&#8221; Presently his face went
+red again and starting up he hurried into the corral and threw the
+saddle again upon Brown Betty. Outside the gate, scarcely looking which
+way he went, he headed the mare toward Golden and galloped away, across
+the hills, and into the distance. He never knew just where or how far he
+rode that day. Afterward he remembered that sometimes he had galloped
+along a road and sometimes across the trackless plain, that sometimes he
+had found himself urging Betty to her utmost speed and again had
+traversed miles at a walk or had stood for a long time stock-still.</p>
+
+<p>When he left the house the old idea that had enthralled him so long was
+clamoring in his heart. That may have been why, unconsciously, he rode
+at first down the road <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_367" id="Page_367">[Pg 367]</a></span>toward Golden. &#8220;It was not enough for him to
+take all my father had, life as well as money, and to make me drudge
+through my youth, but now he must set a hired killer upon me to stick me
+in the back!&#8221; So galloped his angry thought as Brown Betty&#8217;s hoofs sped
+over the ground toward Bancroft&#8217;s home. &#8220;Why didn&#8217;t he come out in the
+open like a man and tell me who he was, and let us fight it out on the
+square? To send a man to live under my roof, and hire him to rope me, or
+stick me, or shoot me from ambush! And to pretend to be my good friend
+all the time! Coward! Thief! Murderer!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Then, somehow, through his seething mind, for the first time came the
+remembrance of Lucy, and quickly followed the idea that perhaps Bancroft
+had gone about it in this secret way to save her from all knowledge of
+his disgraceful past. He checked Brown Betty&#8217;s gallop to a walk. &#8220;He
+knew I was after him, hot-foot,&#8221; now ran Curtis&#8217;s thought, &#8220;and he sure
+had the right to head me off if he could. But he ought to have done it
+on the square!&#8221; He remembered the warnings Bancroft had given him about
+Gonzalez and about the danger of pursuing Delafield, and chuckled
+unmirthfully. &#8220;I reckon he was squaring <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_368" id="Page_368">[Pg 368]</a></span>himself to his own conscience,&#8221;
+he said aloud.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad looked about him and saw that he was on the road to Golden. Then
+came the flashing idea that he was on his way to kill Lucy&#8217;s father.
+Instantly his feeling revolted. Whirling the mare&#8217;s head he struck off
+across the plain to the eastward and after some miles struck the road to
+Randall. By that time he was pondering painfully the matter of Lucy and
+Homer. That evening, without doubt, Homer would come home, proud and
+happy, and tell him that he and Lucy were engaged. And this would be his
+wedding present to the girl he loved and the brother he had cared for
+almost since babyhood&mdash;the dead body of her father!</p>
+
+<p>Then came pelting back the memory of his own wrongs, and Brown Betty was
+sent scudding down the road as remembrance and habit again lashed his
+heart. He turned about and raced back along the road toward Golden, hot
+with the old memories and sore with the newly discovered duplicity of
+his friend. &#8220;Even if I don&#8217;t kill him,&#8221; he thought, &#8220;I&#8217;ll tell him what
+he is! I&#8217;ll throw his villainy and his cowardice in his face! I&#8217;ll tell
+him he&#8217;s a sneak and a coward, and to draw if <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_369" id="Page_369">[Pg 369]</a></span>he dares!&#8221; His
+imagination rushed on through the scene and showed him, at the end,
+Bancroft&#8217;s bleeding body at his feet.</p>
+
+<p>With a shudder he wheeled the mare abruptly, turned from the road, and
+went galloping across the plain to the south. He began to understand
+that he could not kill Lucy&#8217;s father. A sudden bright recollection came
+to him of how she looked that Spring afternoon when she and Bancroft had
+stopped at the ranch; how she turned to him in the wind, holding her
+wide hat down beside her face, and said gayly, &#8220;I assure you, Mr.
+Conrad, the most superior quality of father to be found anywhere in the
+United States!&#8221; And Bancroft seemed as fond of her as she was of him.
+Yes; there was unusual love and devotion between them. Brown Betty was
+walking more slowly now; and after a while Curtis realized that she was
+standing still in the middle of the plain with the road nowhere in
+sight. And at the same time it was borne in upon him that he did not
+wish to kill Lucy&#8217;s father, that the idea had become repugnant to him.</p>
+
+<p>He turned to seek the road, saying to himself, &#8220;What, then, shall I do?&#8221;
+The wish was still strong within him to make Delafield <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_370" id="Page_370">[Pg 370]</a></span>suffer
+punishment for his misdeeds, to make him atone by his own suffering for
+all that Conrad himself had suffered. There was still the law. &#8220;Homer
+said he would help me if I wanted to go at it that way,&#8221; thought Curtis.
+That recollection helped his self-justification for a moment, then his
+thoughts went on: &#8220;But of course he wouldn&#8217;t do anything of the sort
+now; and he wouldn&#8217;t want me to, either.&#8221; It occurred to him that such a
+course as that would bring to Lucy as much pain as would her father&#8217;s
+death. She was so proud of him and believed in him so thoroughly. &#8220;It
+would break her heart if she knew all this about his past,&#8221; he decided.
+Homer, too, how deeply hurt he would be to have Lucy&#8217;s father disgraced
+and Lucy herself made utterly wretched! &#8220;The lad would never forgive
+me,&#8221; he muttered. Presently he was telling himself that Lucy must never
+be made to suffer the shame and unhappiness of such a disclosure. Nor
+should Homer ever know the truth about Delafield&#8217;s identity. He must be
+able to love and respect his wife&#8217;s father.</p>
+
+<p>With a loving smile Conrad recalled some of Lucy&#8217;s indignant remarks
+about Baxter&#8217;s dealings with the Mexicans of the Rio Grande <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_371" id="Page_371">[Pg 371]</a></span>valley, and
+saw again her winsome look as she tossed her curly head and her brown
+eyes sparkled. Then quickly came the self-questioning: What would she
+think of him if she knew the purpose that had been animating him all his
+life? Whether it was her father he had tracked or another, how horrified
+she would be if she knew she had made such a man her friend! He blushed
+crimson, and pricked the mare to a faster pace. The old longing for
+revenge, the old belief in the rightfulness of his course, the old sense
+of satisfaction in his purpose&mdash;it was all dying hard, but he had come
+to where he could see it as it looked to others. He began to feel
+ashamed.</p>
+
+<p>Still, it was difficult to give up the feeling that Delafield should be
+made to suffer some sort of retaliation for the wrongs he had inflicted
+upon others. Conrad pondered it as he rode aimlessly about, still
+smarting under the thought of Bancroft&#8217;s deception during the last few
+months. He might go to the banker and have it all out by word of mouth.
+But as he considered that course with cool mind he reached a pretty firm
+conviction that shots from one or the other, or both, would end the
+interview. Bancroft was not likely <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_372" id="Page_372">[Pg 372]</a></span>to submit tamely to insult from him.
+And much shame and sorrow for Lucy and Homer would result. He did not
+want them to suffer. His head lifted and his lips tightened. &#8220;I&#8217;ll give
+up the whole thing before I&#8217;ll let it cloud their happiness,&#8221; he said
+aloud. Then he fell to thinking why Bancroft had tried to strike him
+down secretly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I reckon he was doing his best to head me off in a way that would save
+him from disclosure and prevent Lucy from knowing anything about it,&#8221; he
+thought. &#8220;Well, I can&#8217;t blame him for wanting to keep it dark, at this
+stage of the game. But&mdash;why didn&#8217;t he come and tell me, like a man!&#8221;
+Suddenly he began to recall the sort of things about Delafield and his
+own expectations that he had been accustomed to say to Bancroft, and
+smiled grimly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lord! I think likely I&#8217;ve given him some pretty bad minutes! And I
+reckon what I said didn&#8217;t invite his confidence. Good God, what a life
+the man must have lived all these years! It must have been plain hell
+since he&#8217;s known I was on his track and has had to listen to the things
+I&#8217;ve said!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Compassion for the man he had hounded and, all unknowingly, had so often
+reviled to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_373" id="Page_373">[Pg 373]</a></span>his face, began to soften Curtis&#8217;s heart. He thought of all
+the years of wandering, the frequent change of name, the ups and downs
+of fortune, the devious and sometimes crooked ways through which he had
+traced Delafield, and again he exclaimed aloud: &#8220;Good God, what a life!
+He must all the time have been wanting to get back where he could be
+settled and respectable! But he didn&#8217;t dare try it while he was afraid
+of detection and punishment. And finally he believed he&#8217;d got there, I
+reckon, and was preparing to be happy with his daughter&mdash;and then I came
+along!&#8221; Again he mused, for a long time, while the mare took her own
+pace. At last he lifted his head and said aloud:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I guess he&#8217;s had his share of punishment after all; and I&#8217;ve been
+responsible for a lot of it. Sumner L. Delafield, we&#8217;ll call it quits!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Brown Betty was standing still in the middle of the road. The sun was
+dropping down the west, toward masses of sparkling, fleecy white clouds
+that piled the horizon high. Ten miles away he could see the green
+groves of Socorro Springs and the white glimmer of the buildings. He
+drew a long breath and looked alertly about. The load he had carried so
+many years had slipped from his back. No <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_374" id="Page_374">[Pg 374]</a></span>longer had he any desire for
+revenge, and in his heart glowed compassion rather than hatred for the
+man he had tracked with such determination. He felt a curious
+exhilaration as he sat there looking about him, while the mare shifted
+her weight from one foot to another.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, Betty B.,&#8221; he said, patting her neck, &#8220;you and I have had a devil
+of a time to-day, haven&#8217;t we, old girl? But we&#8217;ve come through all
+right, thank God! And nobody is ever going to know a word about it,
+Betty; so don&#8217;t you give it away. We&#8217;re going home now, and you shall
+have the best supper we can find.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>At the ranch his first inquiry was for Homer. The young man had returned
+an hour before. Surprised that he was not in beaming evidence, Curtis
+went in search of him and found him in his own room, bending over his
+trunk, his belongings scattered about as if a cyclone had been swirling
+within the four walls.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Why, Homer,&#8221; exclaimed Curtis, stopping in astonishment at the door,
+&#8220;what are you doing?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Homer lifted a dismal face. &#8220;I&#8217;m packing up. I&#8217;m going away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_375" id="Page_375">[Pg 375]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Why, lad, what&#8217;s the matter? I thought&mdash;&#8221; Curtis stopped, hesitating
+and embarrassed.</p>
+
+<p>Homer energetically jammed some books into a corner of the trunk, and
+from its depths took up the unfinished sentence. &#8220;Yes; so did I. That
+is&mdash;I hoped. But it wasn&#8217;t so. She&mdash;she says she&#8217;s never going to leave
+her father&mdash;that he needs her&mdash;that she&#8217;s always going to stay with
+him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; said Curtis, lamely; &#8220;I know she&#8217;s very devoted to him.&#8221; He
+stopped; Homer went on with his packing. &#8220;I&mdash;I suppose, lad,&#8221; the elder
+brother stumbled on, in kindly tone, &#8220;it hurts now, but&mdash;you&#8217;ll get over
+it after a while.&#8221; There was silence again while Homer threw a litter of
+neckties, collars, and handkerchiefs into his trunk. &#8220;I&#8217;d like you to
+stay here all Summer with me,&#8221; Conrad went on presently, &#8220;but if you
+think you&#8217;d be more comfortable somewhere else, it&#8217;s all right. I
+understand.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Homer looked up. &#8220;I&#8217;m going to Denver. I&#8217;ve got a classmate up there
+whose father I know will give me a job till college opens next Fall.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Curtis walked out into the corral and leaned <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_376" id="Page_376">[Pg 376]</a></span>upon the gate. Would there
+be a chance for him, then? Likely not, for she had surely shown more
+favor to his brother than to him. But he would try. His heart rose at
+the possibility. Yes, he would try. He looked at his brown, sinewy hands
+and thought of Lucy&#8217;s little white ones lying in them. &#8220;Thank God,
+they&#8217;re free from blood!&#8221; he said to himself with solemn gladness. Then
+the crimson dyed his face. Even if Lucy cared for him, which he hardly
+dared to hope, would she marry a man who had so long guided his life by
+such purposes as he had cherished? &#8220;But I&#8217;ll tell her,&#8221; he thought with
+grim determination, &#8220;just how bloody-minded I&#8217;ve been. It will likely
+spoil my chance&mdash;if I have any&mdash;but she must first know just what I am.
+I&#8217;ll tell her all about it, without giving a hint of who the man is that
+I&#8217;ve followed. And after that&mdash;well, I&#8217;ll feel that I&#8217;ve been square
+about it, anyway.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The sun was setting, and the whole sky was ablaze with its glory. The
+fleecy white clouds of two hours before, which had mounted higher and
+multiplied themselves many times, had become mountains of glowing color,
+masses of sea-shell tints, wide <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_377" id="Page_377">[Pg 377]</a></span>expanses of pink and pearly gray,
+hearts and beckoning hands of flame. Curtis gazed at the glowing
+kaleidoscope of the heavens, feeling its gorgeous beauty mingle with the
+thankfulness that filled his heart. It was good to be done with all
+those old ideas and feelings and to have come out of it without ruining
+anybody else&#8217;s life.</p>
+
+<p>Through the crimson and purple lights and shadows that enveloped the
+plain he saw Gonzalez galloping up the road, a fine, graceful,
+centaur-like figure.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Jos&eacute;,&#8221; said Conrad as Gonzalez entered the corral, and his tone struck
+the Mexican as being unusually gentle, &#8220;I know that you spoke the truth
+to me this morning. But what you told me shall go no further. Mr.
+Bancroft shall never know that you told me, and neither he nor anybody
+else shall suffer harm because of it. There is no longer any need of a
+feud between you and me, and I wish you would stay and work for me. It
+isn&#8217;t every day that I can get hold of a cowboy that knows enough to hit
+the ground with his hat in three throws.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Jos&eacute; smiled, and shook his head. &#8220;No, Don Curtis. I like you much, and
+you are a very brave man. You are a braver man <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_378" id="Page_378">[Pg 378]</a></span>than I am. But to-morrow
+I am going back to Santa Fe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Well, then, if you won&#8217;t stay I&#8217;ll give you your time whenever you want
+it. But, I say, Jos&eacute;, why don&#8217;t you give up this rattlesnake business?
+You&#8217;re on the level every other way; and you&#8217;re too good a fellow to
+discredit all your race with this sort of work when you could be a
+first-class cowboy if you wanted to.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The Mexican looked at him with a wondering smile, shook his head, and
+went on into the corral. Conrad strolled to the little porch at his
+front door, stood there a moment watching the sunset colors; then, with
+his head in the air, went inside and sat down at his desk. He began a
+letter to Rutherford Jenkins:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;I have found that you told me the truth in that interview we had
+in your room in the hotel at Albuquerque some months ago. I do not
+know by what mysterious dispensation of Providence this strange
+thing happened, but I acknowledge now that it was the truth. I
+still maintain, however, that my final remark to you on that
+occasion was absolutely correct.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I suppose you have been using this information about Mr.
+Bancroft&#8217;s previous life to blackmail him. I advise you to stop it
+and to let him <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_379" id="Page_379">[Pg 379]</a></span>alone hereafter. If you don&#8217;t, I tell you right now
+that you will surely wish you had. I shall take pains to find out
+whether or not you heed my warning, and if you don&#8217;t I promise you
+that you will soon be able to sympathize with a skunk after a
+cowboy has thrown at it a can of oil and a blazing stick.</p>
+
+<p class="right"><span style="margin-right: 5em;">&#8220;Yours truly,</span><br />
+<span style="margin-right: 1.5em;">&#8220;<span class="smcap">Curtis Conrad.</span>&#8221;</span></p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_380" id="Page_380">[Pg 380]</a></span></p></div>
+
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIII" id="CHAPTER_XXIII"></a>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+
+<h3>LOVE TO THE RESCUE</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">A</span> clerk brought the morning mail, and as Alexander Bancroft took the
+handful of letters, his eye caught the handwriting of Rutherford
+Jenkins. Apprehension seized him. Had that creature found some new screw
+he could turn? His hand trembled as he tore open the envelope. For a
+moment he felt distinct relief when he found nothing more than a demand
+for additional money. Jenkins reminded him that the first of August was
+approaching, and added that he was obliged to ask for double the amount
+he had previously received on the first of the month. The feeling of
+thankfulness that the letter contained nothing worse passed quickly, as
+he realized that he would be afraid to refuse the demand, that he would
+not dare to refuse anything Jenkins might ask. The full weight of his
+chains was upon him, and he swore between set teeth as he tore the
+letter angrily into bits and dashed <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_381" id="Page_381">[Pg 381]</a></span>them into the waste-basket.
+Impotent rebellion was still smouldering in his eyes when a knock came
+at his door and Dellmey Baxter entered. The Congressman&#8217;s round, smooth
+face was beaming and his fat hand grasped Bancroft&#8217;s with hearty
+greeting. But the droop of his left eyelid was marked and his gray eyes
+were cold and hard. They had a prolonged conference about the various
+enterprises in which they were jointly interested, and about the
+progress and prospects of Baxter&#8217;s campaign in the southern part of the
+Territory, where Bancroft was his chief lieutenant.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I tell you, Aleck, you&#8217;re handling it fine,&#8221; said Baxter finally, with
+friendly enthusiasm. &#8220;You&#8217;re bringing Silverside and the whole south
+right into line in great shape! I&#8217;m free to say, Aleck, that you&#8217;re
+doing better for me than I could do for myself. You have a remarkable
+knack for handling people, and everybody has confidence in you. We&#8217;ve
+got the party in this Territory where we want it now, and if I decide to
+quit Congress after another term or two, as it&#8217;s likely I shall, I&#8217;ll
+see to it, Aleck, that you step into my shoes if you want to.&#8221; He went
+on to ask what certain of his supporters <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_382" id="Page_382">[Pg 382]</a></span>and his opponents were doing,
+and presently inquired:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And your young friend Conrad&mdash;does he still think I have horns and
+hoofs? He came to see me in Santa Fe recently, and apologized for having
+accused me of being at the bottom of that Mexican&#8217;s attack on him. From
+what he said to me,&#8221; the Congressman went on, regarding Bancroft
+attentively, &#8220;I think it&#8217;s likely the greaser will get the worst of it
+if he keeps up that racket.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The banker moved uneasily, then took cigars from the box on top of his
+desk. &#8220;By the way, Aleck,&#8221; said Baxter carelessly between whiffs of
+smoke, &#8220;you&#8217;ve been around this Territory considerably and mixed with
+mining men a good deal.&#8221; His cold eyes were watching his companion from
+under their shaggy brows. &#8220;Do you remember ever running across a chap
+named Delafield?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The time had been when Bancroft could hear that name without the quiver
+of a lash or the tremble of a nerve. But those days of cool self-control
+and impassive seeming had gone by. For many weeks he had been on the
+rack of constant apprehension, the nervous strain of conflicting
+emotions <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_383" id="Page_383">[Pg 383]</a></span>concerning Conrad had been great, and recently the fear of
+sudden exposure had grown into a secret, abiding terror. He started,
+dropped his cigar, and his face paled.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Delafield?&#8221; he repeated in a low voice. &#8220;I do not remember the
+name&mdash;and I have a pretty good memory for names, too.&#8221; The desire seized
+him to know whether Baxter was speaking out of knowledge or ignorance.
+&#8220;What about him?&#8221; he went on. &#8220;Is he supposed to be living here?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know much about it,&#8221; Baxter rejoined, &#8220;but I believe the people
+who are trying to locate him make the guess that he is. A party asked me
+about him not long ago, but I wasn&#8217;t able to place the name, although it
+has a familiar sound. I told him it wasn&#8217;t any use looking for his man
+under that name&mdash;it&#8217;s too easy to pick up a new one out here for anybody
+to keep an old one that&#8217;s got dirty.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>When the door closed upon the portly figure and cherubic smile of the
+Congressman, Bancroft sat still and stared dully at the wall. &#8220;Dell
+knows,&#8221; was the conviction that had gone straight to his wretched heart.
+&#8220;Dell knows. He knows the whole story. And now I&#8217;ve got to do whatever
+he says.&#8221; <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_384" id="Page_384">[Pg 384]</a></span>Apprehension leaped quickly forward. If Baxter knew, was the
+story out? Was it already going from mouth to mouth? Second thought
+brought reassurance. No; for in that case Baxter would not have so
+discreetly veiled his hint. But how had he found out? Could Jenkins&mdash;no,
+not likely, for Jenkins was making too good a thing out of it as a
+secret. Baxter said Conrad had been to see him&mdash;then did Curtis know by
+this time? His heart took quick alarm, and he had a moment of
+desperation. Then he recalled the young man&#8217;s repeated declaration that
+he meant to lose no time in facing Delafield after learning the man&#8217;s
+identity. He soon decided that a little time was still left to him
+before that encounter could take place and&mdash;Gonzalez was yet at the
+ranch. Doubtless Conrad had talked with Baxter about the case, perhaps
+told him of his own search and asked for information about the men he
+suspected. Finally, knowing well the Congressman&#8217;s mental habits, he
+came to the conclusion that Baxter had put things together and made a
+shrewd guess.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;But he knows, all right,&#8221; Bancroft owned to himself in impotent anger,
+&#8220;and that means another chain on me.&#8221; Another obstacle had <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_385" id="Page_385">[Pg 385]</a></span>risen in his
+path that would have to be overcome, one way or another, before he could
+reach that longed-for security. A little before, safety had seemed so
+near, and now it was further away than ever! He should have to fight for
+it, that was plain&mdash;and fight he would, to the last inch, Conrad and
+Jenkins and Baxter. They had pushed him to the wall, but that should not
+be the end. He would not let them wreck everything if&mdash;no matter now
+what he might have to do to protect himself.</p>
+
+<p>He spent an anxious forenoon, unable to keep his mind off his own
+troubles and impending dangers, thinking and scheming, trying to work
+out effective means of defence and counter-attack. When he left the bank
+for luncheon at home, it was with a lively sense of how restful and
+pleasing he should find its atmosphere of love, respect, and confidence.
+He bought a box of candy for Lucy and a magazine for Louise, and
+hastened up the hill.</p>
+
+<p>Never before had home seemed to him so delightful. Lucy was gay of
+spirit, piquant, rosy of cheek and bright of eye, lovingly solicitous
+for his comfort. Louise was paler than usual, with a touch of
+wistfulness in <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_386" id="Page_386">[Pg 386]</a></span>her manner. Lucy explained that she had a bad headache,
+and they agreed that it was probably due to the day&#8217;s peculiar
+atmospheric conditions. It was hot and still; a thin, gray, luminous
+haze veiled the sky and made the sunshine, usually clear and white, look
+palely yellow; the air was charged with electricity, whose jangling
+effect upon the nerves only the soundest could withstand. Louise said
+she felt it acutely. As always, she was gentle and sympathetic, and
+Bancroft felt her influence at once. Her presence never failed to
+soothe, tranquillize, and encourage him.</p>
+
+<p>She saw the anxiety in his eyes, and at once divined a new cause for
+trouble. With renewed alarm and indignation in her heart her thoughts
+turned to Conrad. Had there been some new development? The fires of love
+and solicitude for her friend and of hatred for his enemy were burning
+brightly in her secret thoughts and shone now and then in her eyes.
+Bancroft caught their glow, and his heart rose to be warmed in it. What
+a sweet woman she was, how adorable! His arms ached with the longing to
+enfold her and press her dearness to his breast. But no!&mdash;with such
+dangers thickening about <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_387" id="Page_387">[Pg 387]</a></span>him, he must not think of it. It angered him
+the more that he must thus repress the feeling which was struggling to
+make itself understood, which he felt certain she would welcome. For
+half an hour after luncheon they lingered on the veranda. As if drawn
+irresistibly by secret cords of feeling, Bancroft and Miss Dent kept
+constantly near each other; once, when she accidentally touched his
+hand, his fingers closed quickly upon hers in a moment&#8217;s warm grasp.</p>
+
+<p>After he had gone, Louise walked restlessly up and down, her nerves
+strung to the highest tension by her love and anxiety for Bancroft and
+her hatred of Conrad. Her headache grew rapidly worse, and her heart was
+beating like a trip-hammer. She and Lucy agreed that the electrical
+condition of the atmosphere had become more trying. The sunshine, too,
+was more dingily yellowish. They noticed that heavy, dark clouds, like
+huge, sleeping beasts, were lying behind the summits of the Mogollon
+Mountains.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My head is throbbing so I can hardly see,&#8221; said Louise finally, &#8220;and I
+think I&#8217;ll go to my room, pull down the shades, and lie down for a
+while. No; thank you, dear, you can&#8217;t do anything. Just leave me alone
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_388" id="Page_388">[Pg 388]</a></span>for an hour or two in the quiet and the dark.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy sat on the veranda with the magazine and the box of candy her
+father had brought; but one lay unopened in her lap and the other
+untouched on the table beside her, while her eyes wandered across the
+tree-embowered streets of the town and far over the plain, where, beyond
+the horizon, were the green groves of the Socorro Springs ranch.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to do it,&#8221; she whispered to herself, decision in her wrinkling
+brow. &#8220;There&#8217;s no other way, and I must. Daddy is looking wretched&mdash;I&#8217;ve
+never seen him look so anxious and disturbed as he does to-day. I&#8217;ve got
+to do it, right away.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She had not seen Curtis Conrad since the barbecue. Daily had she watched
+for him, hoping always to see him climbing the hill, longing greatly to
+look upon his face, and feeling that she must reveal her secret and so
+put an end, as she firmly believed she could, to her father&#8217;s trouble.
+But he came not; instead, Homer&#8217;s visits increased in length and
+frequency, and she, still hurt and angered by the memory of Curtis&#8217;s
+attentions to Mrs. Ned Castleton at the barbecue, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_389" id="Page_389">[Pg 389]</a></span>recklessly continued
+her flirtation with Homer, plunging him more and more deeply in love.
+She did all this without thought of what was going on in Homer&#8217;s breast,
+wishing only to dull the pain in her own aching heart. Finally, when she
+realized what was happening, she changed her demeanor in sudden
+girl-panic, only to precipitate the young man&#8217;s proposal, by which she
+had been both surprised and vexed.</p>
+
+<p>She was quite sure, by this time, that Curtis Conrad did not care for
+her at all, and she had ceased expecting him to come to their house. Yet
+she never went out upon the veranda without letting her eyes wander
+wishfully down the street. They were there now, scanning the long, steep
+hill. But they saw only a little, bare-legged Mexican boy toiling slowly
+up the grade. No, she decided, only one thing was left for her to do:
+she would have to write and ask him to come and see her. Her heart
+rebelled at first, and she unconsciously tossed her head and her eyes
+flashed. &#8220;But it&#8217;s for daddy,&#8221; she presently told herself, &#8220;and there&#8217;s
+no other way. I&#8217;ve got to do it.&#8221; Of course, it would be a humiliation;
+but so was the whole hateful business, and what was one little thing
+more or less?</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_390" id="Page_390">[Pg 390]</a></span></p><p>Looking toward the street again she saw that the little Mexican lad was
+coming to her gate. His baggy, ragged overalls were held by a single
+strap over his shoulder, and his small, brown face, under his miniature,
+torn sombrero, was hot and dirty. He peered at her through the palings,
+and she exclaimed, &#8220;Why, it&#8217;s little Pablo Melgares!&#8221; She went down to
+the gate, saying in Spanish, &#8220;Do you want anything, Pablo?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Gravely and silently he gave her a letter he had been carrying in his
+hat. Although she had seen the handwriting but once before, her heart
+leaped and a delicious thrill ran through her veins as she read the
+address.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Is there an answer?&#8221; she asked, tremulously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;<i>Si, se&ntilde;orita</i>,&#8221; said the boy.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Then you sit down here on the steps and eat candy until I come back,&#8221;
+she said as she poured the contents of her box into the child&#8217;s
+sombrero.</p>
+
+<p>She ran lightly up the stairs to her room and closed the door before
+opening the note. It said only:</p>
+
+<div class="blockquot"><p>&#8220;Will you go to ride with me this afternoon up the canyon? I have
+something particular I want to <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_391" id="Page_391">[Pg 391]</a></span>say. Please send me word by the boy
+if I may come up at once.&#8221;</p></div>
+
+<p>She devoured it with shining eyes, and pressed it to her face, her lips,
+her heart. Her woman&#8217;s instinct divined what the &#8220;something particular&#8221;
+must be, and she laughed softly and joyously, while the color mounted to
+her brow. But presently, as she donned her riding habit, her look grew
+serious and grave. For a few minutes she had forgotten what it was she
+had to do.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I must tell him,&#8221; she thought, &#8220;and then that will be the end of
+everything.&#8221; The brown eyes filled with tears, and she choked back a
+little sob. &#8220;But I&#8217;ve got to do it,&#8221; she repeated with determination.
+&#8220;He won&#8217;t love me then, but poor daddy will be safe. And I wouldn&#8217;t
+marry him anyway, because I&#8217;m not going to marry anybody. I won&#8217;t let
+him say anything to me about&mdash;about anything; I&#8217;ll tell him about daddy
+before he has a chance. But I won&#8217;t have to tell him right away&mdash;when we
+are coming back, maybe.&#8221; Her fingers were busy with her collar in front
+of the mirror. &#8220;Dear me, I&#8217;m dreadfully tanned! But he told me once he
+liked the healthy brown skins the girls all <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_392" id="Page_392">[Pg 392]</a></span>get down here. No; I shall
+not let him have the least idea that I care anything about him; but&mdash;&#8221;
+and the smiles and dimples were chasing each other across her face as
+she started down the stairs. On her way she slipped softly into Miss
+Dent&#8217;s darkened room. Louise was awake, and Lucy stood beside her bed,
+stroking her forehead with affectionate fingers.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Poor Dearie! Can&#8217;t I do something for you before I go out? Do you think
+you can sleep? Then you won&#8217;t mind my going, will you? Mr. Conrad has
+come to take me to ride. We are going up the canyon. Wasn&#8217;t it jolly of
+him to think of it this stupid, yellow afternoon?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; certainly, dear, I&#8217;m glad you&#8217;re going, and I hope you&#8217;ll have a
+delightful ride. Don Homer is always so thoughtful.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy was settling her hat in front of the mirror. &#8220;Oh, it isn&#8217;t Don
+Homer! It&#8217;s his brother.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dent started up. &#8220;Curtis Conrad! You&#8217;re not going with him!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy looked at her with surprise. &#8220;Why, yes, Dearie. Why not?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lucy, darling! You must not go!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Louise was sitting up now, her hands at <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_393" id="Page_393">[Pg 393]</a></span>her temples. Lucy bent over her
+with an arm about her neck. &#8220;You surprise me very much, Dearie. I
+thought you liked him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes; of course. But you must not go with him this afternoon. It will
+not do.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The girl sat down on the bed beside her. &#8220;But I&#8217;ve said I would, Dearie,
+and he&#8217;s already here, waiting for me with the horses. And I must go,
+Dearie. It would be awfully rude and horrid to try to get out of it
+now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Sudden apprehension filled Miss Dent&#8217;s mind. It was not like Lucy to
+hold so persistently to anything that was against her wish. Her intense
+feeling against Curtis Conrad swept over her excited, tingling nerves
+and filled her mind with the conviction that she must keep Lucy away
+from him. Things jigged and swam before her eyes, as her thoughts
+whirled dizzily through her brain. &#8220;Lucy, dear child!&#8221; she exclaimed, &#8220;I
+wish you would not go. Indeed, you must not go!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy arose, clad in a new womanly dignity that sent a half-realized
+dismay through the turmoil of Miss Dent&#8217;s mind. Vaguely, with an aching
+sense of loss, she felt that Lucy had become a woman who would
+henceforth <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_394" id="Page_394">[Pg 394]</a></span>direct her life for herself. With her hands holding her
+throbbing head, through which excruciating pains were darting, Louise
+strove to steady her thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t understand,&#8221; said Lucy, gently, &#8220;why you speak in this way, or
+why you wish me to be rude to Mr. Conrad. If there is any good reason
+why I should not go to ride with him this afternoon, and you will tell
+me what it is, so that I can judge for myself, I can beg him to excuse
+me, because you are not well&mdash;and&mdash;ask him to stay to dinner instead.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>New alarm seized Miss Dent. In her excitement she tried to rise, only to
+drop back trembling upon the bed. For the moment her one thought was
+that this man must be kept out of the house. &#8220;Lucy,&#8221; she pleaded,
+despair in her voice, &#8220;you do not understand. He is not our friend now.
+He is your father&#8217;s enemy&mdash;and is trying to kill him.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She stopped in sudden panic at having said so much, and Lucy started
+back amazed.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, Dearie&mdash;you don&#8217;t know, do you&mdash;and daddy&mdash;you don&#8217;t know about
+daddy?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Louise looked up, her face white and drawn, astonishment veiling the
+pain in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_395" id="Page_395">[Pg 395]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Lucy, Lucy! Do you know&mdash;about your father&mdash;and this man&mdash;and yet you
+will go with him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy&#8217;s curly head was high as she answered deliberately: &#8220;Yes, Dearie! I
+am going so that I can save daddy from any further trouble. I shall tell
+Mr. Conrad who daddy is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Miss Dent gasped and her mouth worked for a moment before she could
+speak. &#8220;Oh, child, you don&#8217;t know what you are doing! I beg of you,
+Lucy, don&#8217;t go&mdash;don&#8217;t do it! If you love me, if you love your father,
+don&#8217;t tell him! He will kill&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The girl drew herself up proudly. &#8220;Indeed, Dearie, you don&#8217;t know Curtis
+Conrad as well as I do, if you think he will do the least thing to hurt
+daddy, after he knows. That&#8217;s why I&#8217;m going to tell him&mdash;to save daddy.
+I love him, Dearie, but I shall not let him know that I do. And I want
+to hear him say, just once, that he loves me&mdash;and then I shall tell
+him&mdash;who I am and who daddy is.&#8221; She turned half away, then rushed back
+to throw her arms around her friend&#8217;s neck. &#8220;Darling Dearie, I know I am
+hurting you! But won&#8217;t you trust me about this, and love me just the
+same? I know I am <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_396" id="Page_396">[Pg 396]</a></span>doing the best thing for daddy&mdash;and&mdash;after to-day,
+I&#8217;m never going to see Curtis Conrad again!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Louise fell back, exhausted, as Lucy kissed her forehead and ran from
+the room.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_397" id="Page_397">[Pg 397]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXIV" id="CHAPTER_XXIV"></a>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+
+<h3>THE HEAVENS OPEN</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">C</span>onrad and Lucy rode along a street skirting the brow of the <i>mesa</i>
+until the houses of the town in the valley below became few and
+straggling. Down the last roadway cut across the sides of the canyon
+they descended to the bottom of the ravine. Thence upward it was so
+narrow that the bed of the creek and the road left only scant margins of
+rocky soil. In these grew cottonwoods, willows, and a few other trees,
+whose overarching branches made a green and pleasant vista. The creek
+wound crookedly down the valley, frequently crossing the road, while
+here and there the walls of the gulch drew so close together that the
+track was forced into the bed of the stream. Notwithstanding the recent
+rains, the water was too shallow to reach above their horses&#8217; knees.</p>
+
+<p>The way was quite deserted, and after leaving the town they saw no other
+travellers. A <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_398" id="Page_398">[Pg 398]</a></span>cool, damp wind came down the ravine and Lucy took off
+her hat and let it toss back her brown curls. They had grown longer
+since the early Spring, and now clustered in soft rings around her ears
+and neck. A touch of sadness lingered upon her spirits, because of the
+distressing scene with Miss Dent. It was the first difference that had
+ever arisen between them. A poignant longing filled her heart, also,
+because this was to be her final interview with the man she loved. The
+painful duty she had set herself filled the background of her
+consciousness and laid upon her manner an unusual reserve.</p>
+
+<p>But these more sombre emotions mingled with the gladness of the
+knowledge that she was beloved, and all combined to invest her with a
+new maturity of womanliness, a sweet dignity that sent filtering through
+Conrad&#8217;s eager love a sensation of wonder and reverence. It could not be
+possible that this lovely, this adorable being would receive his homage,
+would consent to love him! But he would try. She was willing to ride
+with him, and there was hope in that. And, yes, he would not forget that
+he must tell her about his unworthy life&mdash;he must tell her even before
+he asked her to marry him. But oh, how <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_399" id="Page_399">[Pg 399]</a></span>beautiful she was, how sweet!
+Every movement of her head, her arm, her body, every twinkling smile,
+every fleeting dimple, poured fresh wine into his blood. A torrent of
+love and admiration was sweeping through him, and from it were
+constantly breaking off and flowing over their friendly talk little
+cascades of compliment, of admiring speech, of sentences glowing with
+hints of his feeling.</p>
+
+<p>But Lucy quickly caught the trend of every one and turned it back with
+laughing retort and merry speech. He could not get within her guard, and
+every deft turn of her jesting, foiling replies made him only the more
+eager. He forgot that he was going to make confession, forgot to watch
+the dark clouds that were rising above the mountain tops, forgot
+everything but this alluring creature, who grew more alluring every
+moment, and yet would not let him loose the torrents of loving speech.
+And Lucy, in the sweet excitement of letting him say a little, and again
+a little, and then a little more, yet keeping up her guard and never
+letting him reach the danger point, Lucy also forgot what she had meant
+to keep constantly in mind. Now and then duty put out a warning hand.
+But&mdash;the exhilaration of the present moment, the precious <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_400" id="Page_400">[Pg 400]</a></span>consciousness
+of his love, the thrilling pleasure of this Cupid&#8217;s dance&mdash;she could not
+give it up so quickly. Presently she would tell him.</p>
+
+<p>Thus has it been Love&#8217;s habit, ever since Love came to live in this
+world, to dance with happy and forgetful foot over volcanoes ready to
+engulf him in their fires, beneath clouds ready to drown him with their
+pouring sorrows. No matter what the dangers, when the maid lures and the
+man pursues, Love knows only his own delight. So went Lucy and Curtis up
+the beautiful canyon road, thrilling with the happiness that can be but
+once,&mdash;before the first kiss has brushed away the exquisite bloom of
+love,&mdash;forgetting alike the bonds they had put upon themselves and the
+dangers that lurked in the threatening storm.</p>
+
+<p>At last the darkening atmosphere caused Conrad to notice how high the
+clouds had risen. &#8220;I&#8217;m afraid there&#8217;s going to be a bad storm, Miss
+Bancroft,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and perhaps we&#8217;d better turn back. When we started
+I didn&#8217;t think it would rain before night, but those clouds are piling
+up fast and they look as if they meant business. I&#8217;m sorry, for a little
+ways above here there&#8217;s a beautiful place, where the walls of the canyon
+spread out and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_401" id="Page_401">[Pg 401]</a></span>you get a splendid view. I wanted to take you there, and
+tell you&mdash;&#8221; It was not so easy after all, to loose the torrents of
+speech, and for a bare instant he hesitated. It was enough to give Lucy
+her chance.</p>
+
+<p>She shot at him a single sparkling glance, and broke in with, &#8220;Oh, I&#8217;ll
+race you there!&#8221; As she spoke she touched her horse and darted ahead,
+leaving him alone in the middle of the road at the very beginning of his
+declaration. The wind blew her curls into a tangled frame for her
+laughing face as she looked back over her shoulder. He quickly spurred
+Brown Betty forward, but she had got so much the start that it was some
+moments before he was again at her side.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;You took me by surprise,&#8221; he said as they slowed their horses at the
+foot of a steeper incline, &#8220;and handicapped me, or you wouldn&#8217;t have got
+so far away. When we go back I&#8217;ll race you all the way down the canyon,
+if you like.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Agreed!&#8221; she laughed. &#8220;Wouldn&#8217;t it be jolly to go at a gallop all the
+way down the canyon, from the mountains to Golden? But the poor horses!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I think we&#8217;d better turn back, Miss Bancroft. I don&#8217;t like the look of
+those clouds. <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_402" id="Page_402">[Pg 402]</a></span>It&#8217;s going to be a regular deluge, I&#8217;m afraid. But first,
+I want to tell you&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Oh, my hat! I&#8217;ve dropped it!&#8221; she exclaimed. Curtis leaned over easily,
+picked it up, and hung it on his own pommel. Her eyes were twinkling and
+the dimples were playing hide-and-seek with a wilful little smile that
+hovered around her mouth. &#8220;So awkward of me,&#8221; she said apologetically,
+&#8220;and how readily you picked it up! I wish I could do that! Do you know,
+Mr. Conrad, you&#8217;ve never given me those lessons in the cowboy&#8217;s art,
+roping and riding and all that, you promised ever so long ago.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll begin them whenever you say the word. After I tell you&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;About that beautiful place? Oh, yes! Can&#8217;t we go that far? I&#8217;d love to
+see it!&#8221; She was bounding ahead again, but he was quickly beside her. A
+quizzical look was on his face and a touch of mastery in his manner as
+he leaned toward her and rested his hand upon her horse&#8217;s neck.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Now, if you try to run away again,&#8221; he said banteringly, &#8220;it&#8217;s you who
+will have the handicap!&#8221; She gathered up her bridle and with a touch of
+her quirt wheeled her horse half way around and away from his detaining
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_403" id="Page_403">[Pg 403]</a></span>hand. The whim had seized her to start flying back down the road, &#8220;just
+a little way,&#8221; she thought, &#8220;just to tease him.&#8221; But as she turned she
+met a glowing look that checked her impulse.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lucy!&#8221; he was saying, and his voice lingered over her name like a soft
+and warm caress, &#8220;Lucy! I love you. Will you be my wife?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>It had come, the question she had meant not to let him ask, and at once
+it sobered her spirits and brought back the remembrance of what she must
+tell him. Her head drooped until her brown curls half hid her crimsoning
+face, and her voice was low and troubled. &#8220;Indeed, Mr. Conrad, I can
+never be any man&#8217;s wife. My father needs me. I shall never marry, and I
+shall stay with him as long as he lives.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know how devoted you are to your father, Lucy&mdash;&#8221; he stopped, and
+repeated her name as if he loved the sound of it it&mdash;&#8220;Lucy, and it is so
+sweet and beautiful that it makes me love you even more. Tell me, Lucy,
+do you love me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The question took her unawares, and he saw her hand tremble. She
+hesitated for a moment before replying, with dignity: &#8220;I have <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_404" id="Page_404">[Pg 404]</a></span>told you
+I could not marry you. Isn&#8217;t that enough?&#8221; Unconsciously they had again
+headed their horses toward the mountains and were walking slowly up the
+canyon.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No, Lucy; it isn&#8217;t enough!&#8221; he exclaimed eagerly. &#8220;Something tells me
+that perhaps you do care a little for me, and if you do I want to know
+it&mdash;I must know it!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I shall never see you again after to-day. You must be satisfied with
+that,&#8221; she replied, tossing her head and turning her face away from his
+shining and pleading eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;How can I be satisfied&mdash;&#8221; he began, and the wind blew her hair as she
+turned her head away and showed one little pink-tinted ear nestling
+among the curls. His gaze devoured it. &#8220;How can I,&#8221; he went on, &#8220;when
+you&mdash;when you have such a beautiful ear!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What difference does it make when we can never see each other again?&#8221;
+Her manner was evasive and her speech hesitating, for she was trying
+hard to bring herself to the point of telling him the fateful secret.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;All the difference in the world! Lucy, sweetheart! Tell me if you
+care!&#8221; He leaned toward her and took her wrist in his hand.</p>
+
+<p><a name="Illo4" id="Illo4"></a></p>
+<div class="figcenter" style="width: 316px;">
+<img src="images/i405.jpg" class="ispace jpg" width="316" height="500" alt="&#8220;It had come, this question she had not meant to let him
+ask&#8221;" title="" />
+<span class="caption">&#8220;<span class="smcap">It had come, this question she had not meant to let him
+ask</span>&#8221;</span>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve no right to ask that question again! I shall say no more than I
+have said <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_405" id="Page_405">[Pg 405]</a></span>already.&#8221; She made an effort to release her arm, but he would not relax
+his firm, though gentle and caressing, grasp.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Lucy, I would never beg for a woman&#8217;s love, nor ask her to try to care
+for me, if she didn&#8217;t love me, of herself. But when the woman I love
+with all my heart won&#8217;t deny that she loves me, then I must hear her say
+in her own sweet voice that she does. Lucy, darling, tell me that you
+love me!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She was trembling from head to foot, but she drew herself together with
+fresh determination and held her head up proudly as she answered,
+looking straight ahead: &#8220;I have told you that I shall never marry, and
+that after to-day I shall never see you again. That must be enough, for
+I shall say no more.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He let go her wrist, and she tapped her horse to a faster pace. She was
+thinking intently, trying to frame in her mind the best words in which
+to make her confession. Suddenly, over the top of a steep incline, they
+came upon a wide and splendid view. The sides of the canyon seemed to
+melt and flow back, giving far-ranging sight of the sombre purple
+mountains towering toward heaven and of the hills dwindling down into
+the plain.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_406" id="Page_406">[Pg 406]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;Lucy,&#8221; he exclaimed, &#8220;here is the beautiful place of which I told you.
+I wanted to bring you here to tell you of my love, because this is the
+most beautiful spot I know. Lucy, darling, I love you with all my heart,
+and if you cannot deny that you love me, then it is my right, the right
+of my love, to hear you say that you do. Never mind about not leaving
+your father and meaning never to marry. We&#8217;ll talk about that
+afterward. Won&#8217;t you tell me now that you do love me?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Her eyes dropped from the high and wide horizon to her horse&#8217;s mane. She
+tried to say, &#8220;I do not love you,&#8221; but her heart rose in rebellion and
+forbade the untruth. She opened her lips, but no sound came from them.
+Curtis bent toward her, trying to take her hand, but she drew it away.
+With all her strength she was contending for her determination against
+both him and the traitor within her own heart. He leaned nearer,
+pleading in tones that were half loving command and half loving
+entreaty, &#8220;Lucy! Lucy, love! Look up! Let me see your eyes, your dear,
+beautiful eyes!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Lucy clasped her hands together hard and bowed her head. He was bending
+over her, his shoulder touching hers. She heard his <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_407" id="Page_407">[Pg 407]</a></span>voice, soft and
+rich with love, whispering, &#8220;Lucy, darling!&#8221; And suddenly, scarcely
+knowing what she did, she lifted her head and looked into his eyes.
+Instantly his arms were about her, and he heard her murmuring, &#8220;I do
+love you! Oh, I do love you!&#8221; He bent his ardent face to hers, but
+before their lips met she started away, freeing herself from his
+encircling arms.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Stop!&#8221; she cried, putting out a forbidding hand, as she moved her horse
+away. &#8220;You have made me tell you, against my will, that I love you. Now
+you must listen while I tell you who I am.&#8221; There was a suggestion of
+defiance in the poise of her head and in the flashing of her eyes as
+they looked squarely into his.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;And you must understand,&#8221; she went on, &#8220;that after I tell you this I
+want you to forget everything that has passed between us this afternoon,
+just as I shall do. For I am the daughter of Sumner L. Delafield!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>In an instant his arms were about her again. &#8220;Lucy, dearest, you&#8217;ve told
+me no news! I&#8217;ve known it since yesterday.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She struggled to free herself. &#8220;But my father&mdash;you hate him&mdash;you&mdash;you
+wish to kill him&mdash;I heard what you said to him that <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_408" id="Page_408">[Pg 408]</a></span>day at your ranch,
+last Spring&mdash;and afterward I happened to find out who he is.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A wave of crimson deepened the color of his sunbrowned face. &#8220;All that
+is dead and buried,&#8221; he said, &#8220;and I am ashamed of it, now. I want you
+to help me forget that I allowed such base thoughts to master me so
+long. I&#8217;m going to your father this afternoon to tell him that I have
+forgiven the old debt, and everything else, and to ask him to forgive
+me. My poor little girl! I never dreamed your dear heart was being
+worried by that affair!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She let him fold her in his caress, whispering happily, &#8220;I knew all the
+time you wouldn&#8217;t do it&mdash;I knew you wouldn&#8217;t hurt daddy, or anybody.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>A loud clap of thunder rolled and echoed over the mountains, and a
+splash of raindrops fell on their faces. Conrad looked at the dense
+black clouds and at the gray veil dropping athwart the mountains, and
+turned to Lucy with alarm in his face. &#8220;We must start back at once and
+ride down that canyon for all we&#8217;re worth! This storm is going to be a
+corker, but maybe we can beat the worst of it. I&#8217;ve done wrong to bring
+you so far&mdash;but I can&#8217;t regret it now, sweetheart!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_409" id="Page_409">[Pg 409]</a></span></p><p>They started at a gallop down the long canyon road. The patter of big
+drops that had given them warning quickly increased to a steady, beating
+downpour that drenched them to the skin. An almost tangible darkness was
+sifting through the atmosphere. It filled the sky overhead, drifted down
+the ravine, and seemed to settle, making a thick twilight under the
+arching trees. Blinding zigzags of lightning slashed the clouds and
+played through the middle air, and a terrific roar and boom and rattle
+of thunder kept up in the mountains behind them and echoed back and
+forth between the walls of the gulch.</p>
+
+<p>The creek was already rising, and each time they had to cross it they
+found its muddy torrent swifter and higher. The road was rocky, and in
+many places had been made slippery by the rain, and there were frequent
+steep inclines down which they dared not go at a rapid gait. They had
+put behind them hardly more than a third of the distance when Conrad,
+looking backward, saw a cloud of inky blackness settle and drop upon the
+earth. A deep, booming sound mingled with a deafening clap of thunder.
+The ground trembled. The horses quivered with fright and darted <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_410" id="Page_410">[Pg 410]</a></span>forward
+at a faster pace. Lucy saw Curtis&#8217;s face blench in the half darkness.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What is it?&#8221; she asked, glancing backward anxiously.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;That was a cloudburst,&#8221; he answered in a tone that thrilled with
+comprehension. &#8220;It struck back there, just this side of our beautiful
+spot, and a mountain of water will soon come tearing down behind us.
+We&#8217;ve got to ride like the wind! Perhaps we can make the first road that
+crosses the ravine, and you can go up there while I ride on and warn the
+town.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No! I&#8217;ll ride on with you.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t let you do that,&#8221; was his swift reply. &#8220;Are you frightened,
+dearest?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; she answered in a steady tone; &#8220;I&#8217;m not frightened at all. And I&#8217;m
+going to ride on with you. It would be easy to die with you, if we
+must&mdash;but I couldn&#8217;t live without you, now.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He bent toward her and touched her arm with loving reverence as they
+galloped on at the swiftest speed possible. The horses needed neither
+whip nor spur, but with ears laid back and necks outstretched were
+fleeing down the dim canyon for their lives. As they bounded up a low
+bank, where the road crossed the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_411" id="Page_411">[Pg 411]</a></span>creek bed again, Lucy&#8217;s horse
+stumbled, slipped, and fell with his forelegs doubled under him. He gave
+a scream of pain and terror. Lucy, freeing her foot from the stirrup as
+he fell, jumped to one side. Curtis checked Brown Betty, leaned over,
+and grasped the girl around the waist. She helped him with an upward
+spring, and as he lifted her to the saddle he shifted his own seat to
+the back, and they galloped on, leaving the crippled horse to his
+certain fate.</p>
+
+<p>Behind them they could hear the booming, rattling roar of the avalanche
+of water that was sweeping down between the canyon walls. And presently,
+piercing through even its rumbling tumult and the crashing thunder, they
+heard the death cry of the horse they had left behind, and knew that he
+had been engulfed in the mountainous wave that was rushing toward them
+at a speed they could not hope to equal. Lucy trembled at the sound and
+nestled her head against Conrad&#8217;s shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>As they neared the first road cutting across the gulch Curtis lowered
+his head to Lucy&#8217;s ear: &#8220;Sweetheart, we are almost at the first road
+out. I can put you off and you can run up there and be safe.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_412" id="Page_412">[Pg 412]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;No,&#8221; she whispered back; &#8220;don&#8217;t stop for an instant. Every second will
+mean many lives. I&#8217;m going with you to whatever end there is, and I&#8217;m
+not afraid.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>Brown Betty&#8217;s flanks were steaming. The froth from her mouth flecked her
+neck and legs and body, to be quickly washed off by the drenching rain.
+Behind them they could hear, coming nearer and nearer, the fateful roar
+of the rushing waters. The canyon walls opened out, and, looming vaguely
+in the dim light, they could see the first houses of the town. With full
+lungs Conrad shouted at the top of his voice:</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Run! A cloudburst! A cloudburst is coming! Run for your lives!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>They dashed on, and the houses became more frequent. There were lights
+in the windows, though it was little past mid-afternoon. Curtis,
+shouting his warning over and over, put the bridle in Lucy&#8217;s hands and
+drew his revolver. They were rushing down the main street, through the
+most thickly built portion of the town. Pointing upward, he added the
+noise of pistol shots to his clamor. Men and women came to their doors,
+caught the meaning of his cries, heard the roar of the coming flood, and
+rushed out and <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_413" id="Page_413">[Pg 413]</a></span>up the side streets, shouting warnings as they ran.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;My father&mdash;the bank&mdash;can we go so far?&#8221; asked Lucy breathlessly.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;we&#8217;ll call him,&#8221; Conrad assured her, glancing back over his
+shoulder. Behind them rose a din of shouts and yells and screams of
+terror, mingling with the peals of thunder and the roar of the waters.
+The street was full of people running this way and that. And a little
+farther back, through the dusky light, he saw a brown, foaming wall of
+water, its crest topping the roofs of the houses, its front a mass of
+half-engulfed trees and houses and pieces of lumber and arms and legs
+and bodies of men and animals that boiled up from its foot, tossed and
+whirled a moment on its breast, and sank into the flood.</p>
+
+<p>Curtis ground his teeth together. They were still three blocks from the
+bank. &#8220;We&#8217;ll never make it,&#8221; he thought; &#8220;but we&#8217;ll try!&#8221; His arm
+gathered Lucy closer to his breast, his spur touched Brown Betty&#8217;s
+heaving flank, and with another loud shout of warning and an encouraging
+cry to the mare they darted on with a fresh burst of speed.</p>
+
+<hr class="large" /><p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_414" id="Page_414">[Pg 414]</a></span></p>
+<h2><a name="CHAPTER_XXV" id="CHAPTER_XXV"></a>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+
+<h3>FULFILMENT OF THE LAW</h3>
+
+<p class="n"><span style="float:left;font-size:40px;line-height:25px;padding-top:2px;padding-bottom:1px;">L</span>ouise Dent sank back upon her pillows as Lucy hurried from the room,
+too amazed and horrified for speech by the girl&#8217;s declaration of her
+love for Curtis Conrad and her determination to reveal to him her
+father&#8217;s identity. Ill in body, distracted in mind almost to the point
+of irresponsibility, her thoughts tossed about and took wild shapes in
+her fevered brain. The one idea looming constantly before her was that
+Bancroft was in deadly, imminent peril. Her bitter resentment against
+Conrad and the hate and anger she had nursed so long in secret distorted
+all her conception of his character. Now, as her thoughts pounded back
+and forth through her dizzy, aching head, he seemed to her to be capable
+of any monstrous deed. He would learn from Lucy the secret of her
+father&#8217;s identity, and then nothing would prevent him from rushing
+forthwith to get his fill of bloody vengeance.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_415" id="Page_415">[Pg 415]</a></span></p><p>She rose and staggered to the window. Dark clouds were overspreading the
+sky. It would rain soon, they would turn back from their ride, and he
+would bring her home. Then he would hasten to the bank, and into Aleck&#8217;s
+room&mdash;and she covered her eyes as if to conceal what her mental vision
+insisted on seeing. If Aleck only knew that Curtis had learned the
+truth, if he could be warned in time, he might conceal himself until it
+would be possible for him to go away. Leave the town he must, and go
+far, far away, where there would be no fear of discovery.</p>
+
+<p>She alone knew his danger. But could she tell him that she was aware of
+his secret? She shrank from making him suffer that humiliation.
+Furthermore, could she do it without betraying her own secret, without
+laying bare the love that burned in her heart? Yet&mdash;what mattered the
+rest if she could save his life and, perhaps, his future? She followed
+with her eye the line of the canyon. Where were they now? The clouds
+were black and lowering and a gray veil of rain hid the purple of the
+distant mountains and spread an advancing blur over their slopes. If she
+was to save Aleck she must go&mdash;at once.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_416" id="Page_416">[Pg 416]</a></span></p><p>Her loud and hurried knocking at the door of Bancroft&#8217;s private office
+sent to his heart the quick apprehension to which he had become an easy
+prey. He sprang to his feet with his hand upon the revolver that of late
+lay always ready upon his desk. Not only was it a relief to find that it
+was nobody but Louise, but the very sight of her was so welcome and so
+easeful to his overwrought and desperate mind that unconsciously he
+addressed her by her Christian name. Her wild eyes and distraught face
+alarmed him.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Louise! What is the matter? You have come in all this rain? How wet you
+are! Has anything happened?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No; not now; not yet! Wait, let me get my breath&mdash;I will tell you.
+Aleck, how pale you are! Has anything happened to you?&#8221; In their
+excitement neither of them noticed that she also used his Christian
+name.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;No; nothing has happened to me&mdash;no more than usual. I am in deep
+trouble, Louise.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;I know, I know,&#8221; she cried, coming close to him. &#8220;I know what it is&mdash;I
+have come to warn you. Curtis Conrad&mdash;&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What about him?&#8221; Bancroft exclaimed, <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_417" id="Page_417">[Pg 417]</a></span>starting back. &#8220;What do you know
+about him?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;What you know, Aleck&mdash;that he means to kill you. He is coming here this
+very afternoon&mdash;he will be here soon&mdash;he will kill you. You must hide
+from him!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He drew back as she spoke, and then turned sharply upon her. &#8220;Do you
+know why? Are you another who knows?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>She moved a step aside and dropped her gaze, but her voice was tender
+and compassionate as she replied, &#8220;Yes, Aleck; I know.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her with astonished eyes. &#8220;How did you find it out? How
+long have you known?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;For years,&#8221; she said softly, stretching her hand impulsively toward
+him. &#8220;Josephine told me when she died, so I could guard Lucy against all
+knowledge of it. I have kept it as secret as the grave. Nobody has ever
+had from me any suspicion of the truth. It has made no difference to me,
+Aleck! I have only respected you the more, because you could begin over
+again and build up a new name and a new life.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He took her hand. It was wet and cold, and he folded it in his, and as
+she went on drew her closer to his side. He felt the <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_418" id="Page_418">[Pg 418]</a></span>soothing comfort
+of her words and manner, but his eyes were on the floor as he muttered,
+&#8220;I thought nobody knew; I thought it was hidden so well!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>The room had grown dark and darker. Outside, the rain was coming down in
+gray sheets, and dazzling flashes of lightning flooded the heavens. Peal
+upon peal of thunder smote their ears. She thought, &#8220;They are at home by
+this time; he will be here soon.&#8221; Laying her other hand upon Bancroft&#8217;s
+arm she hurried on, in broken, pleading speech: &#8220;Aleck, you must not
+stay here! You must hide somewhere, where he cannot find you! Conrad&mdash;I
+came to warn you&mdash;he knows, by this time&mdash;who you are. He will be here
+soon.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Conrad! Does he know? Are you sure?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Yes. They went to ride up the canyon, he and Lucy. She said she was
+going to tell him. Aleck, you must not stay here! He may come any
+minute!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He dropped her hand and started back. &#8220;Lucy!&#8221; he cried, and again,
+&#8220;Lucy! Does she know, too?&#8221; He sank into his chair and buried his face
+in his arms. Louise stood beside him, her hand upon his shoulder, her
+voice soft with loving compassion.</p>
+
+<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_419" id="Page_419">[Pg 419]</a></span></p><p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know how she knew, nor how long she has known. Until this
+afternoon I had no idea that she, or any one, knew anything about it.
+But she came to my room and told me that she was going to ride with him,
+that she loved him, and that she was going to tell him who you are.&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He made no answer; but she guessed by his troubled breathing with what
+shame and despair he was struggling. She bent over him, her arm across
+his shoulder, her cheek upon his hair. Above the pealing, echoing
+thunder and the rattling boom of some sound which in their absorption
+they had scarcely noted, there came into the room the sudden din of
+cries and shouts and pistol shots.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s Conrad! He&#8217;s coming!&#8221; cried Louise, running to the window, her
+excited mind still dominated by the single idea. Bancroft grasped the
+pistol. Looking back, she saw him point it at his own temple. Springing
+to his side, she seized it with both hands, crying out, &#8220;Aleck, don&#8217;t do
+that! Don&#8217;t give up! Give it to me!&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>His grasp relaxed and she took the weapon from his hand.</p>
+
+<p>&#8220;Aleck! Bancroft! Aleck!&#8221; they heard from outside, in Conrad&#8217;s voice.
+More words <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_420" id="Page_420">[Pg 420]</a></span>followed, but through the noise of the shouting and the
+thunder and that rattling roar, now grown louder and nearer, they could
+distinguish only, &#8220;your life!&#8221; A galloping horse rushed near the window,
+there was a pistol shot without, and an answering shot from within.</p>
+
+<p>A shriek pierced the clamor, and Bancroft cried, &#8220;That was Lucy&#8217;s
+voice!&#8221; By a flash of lightning which rent for an instant the gray
+darkness, they saw the horse wheel into the hill street, and saw Lucy in
+Conrad&#8217;s arms.</p>
+
+<p>The pistol dropped from Louise&#8217;s hand as she cried out in a passion of
+grief, &#8220;Oh, Aleck! Our little girl! Have I killed her?&#8221;</p>
+
+<p>He leaned toward her with compassionate arms.</p>
+
+<p>Conrad glanced over his shoulder as he wheeled his mare into the cross
+street, and saw the towering wall of water at their very heels. Brown
+Betty was staggering under her burden, but with shout and spur he drove
+her on up the steep incline. A grinding crash mingled with the roar of
+the flood, and another backward glance let him see the bank building
+toppling, collapsing, embosomed in the awful avalanche of water. A great
+wave <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_421" id="Page_421">[Pg 421]</a></span>rushed after them and swept Brown Betty from her feet. Had the
+mare been less sturdy of spirit they would have been carried back on its
+retreating current. But Conrad&#8217;s persuading, encouraging calls were in
+her ears and she struck out bravely, swimming against the force of the
+waves that swirled about them and buffeted her with the debris they
+carried. But the waters that spread up the cross street soon lost their
+force, and she regained her footing. Curtis bent over Lucy, saying, &#8220;We
+are safe now, sweetheart!&#8221; Blood was dripping over her garments, and she
+lay white and still upon his arm.</p>
+
+<p>At last they reached the door of the Bancroft home, and Curtis carried
+Lucy, still unconscious, within, and went in search of Miss Dent. But
+the house was deserted. Alone, he ministered to the girl&#8217;s needs. He
+located the injury, and found that a bullet, as to whose source and
+intention he made his own secret guess, had pierced her arm, but had
+left merely a flesh wound. Recovered from her swoon, he carried her
+up-stairs and left her to change her wet clothing while he went in
+search of blankets. Wrapped in these, with her arm bandaged, he left her
+in bed while he hastened down the hill, hoping to find news <span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_422" id="Page_422">[Pg 422]</a></span>of her
+father and Miss Dent with which to relieve her anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>The rain had ceased and the flood had passed, leaving in its wake the
+wreck of a ruined town. Where the bank building had stood were tottering
+walls and a shapeless heap of brick and timbers. Beneath the wreckage,
+where had been the president&#8217;s office, they found the bodies of Bancroft
+and Louise, enfolded in each other&#8217;s arms.</p>
+
+<p>The sky cleared and only in the east did some low-lying clouds, still
+wet and angry, give any hint of the storm which had swept over the town
+and left desolation in its track. As Conrad climbed the hill to tell
+Lucy of her double bereavement, in the tenderest words his love could
+make possible, he faced the glories of a setting sun whose resplendent
+pageant filled the sky and touched with its glowing colors the pitiful
+devastation of the little valley.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="large" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3><span class="smcap">Transcriber&#8217;s Note:</span></h3>
+
+<p>Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters&#8217; errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author&#8217;s words and
+intent.</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR***</p>
+<p>******* This file should be named 34996-h.txt or 34996-h.zip *******</p>
+<p>This and all associated files of various formats will be found in:<br />
+<a href="http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/3/4/9/9/34996">http://www.gutenberg.org/3/4/9/9/34996</a></p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Delafield Affair, by Florence Finch
+Kelly, Illustrated by Maynard Dixon
+
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+
+
+
+Title: The Delafield Affair
+
+
+Author: Florence Finch Kelly
+
+
+
+Release Date: January 17, 2011  [eBook #34996]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR***
+
+
+E-text prepared by D Alexander and the Online Distributed Proofreading
+Team (http://www.pgdp.net) from page images generously made available by
+Internet Archive (http://www.archive.org)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustrations.
+      See 34996-h.htm or 34996-h.zip:
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34996/34996-h/34996-h.htm)
+      or
+      (http://www.gutenberg.org/files/34996/34996-h.zip)
+
+
+      Images of the original pages are available through
+      Internet Archive. See
+      http://www.archive.org/details/delafieldaffair00kelliala
+
+
+
+
+
+THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR
+
+by
+
+FLORENCE FINCH KELLY
+
+Author of "With Hoops of Steel," etc.
+
+With Four Illustrations in Color by Maynard Dixon
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+Chicago
+A. C. McClurg & Co.
+1909
+
+Copyright
+A. C. McClurg & Co.
+1909
+
+Published March 6, 1909
+
+THE UNIVERSITY PRESS, CAMBRIDGE, U.S.A.
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: "HE SMILED DOWN AT HER GLOWING YOUNG FACE, AND HIS
+EYES SHONE WITH ADMIRATION" [Page 26]]
+
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+
+  CHAPTER                                                   PAGE
+
+     I. VENGEANCE AVOWED                                      9
+    II. THE EVIL THAT MEN DO                                 32
+   III. MISTAKE, OR BLUNDER?                                 39
+    IV. THE POWERS CONFER                                    52
+     V. CHASTISEMENT CONDIGN                                 64
+    VI. A STERN CHASE                                        78
+   VII. TALK OF MANY THINGS                                  90
+  VIII. SPECTRES OF THE PAST                                114
+    IX. PERILS IN THE NIGHT                                 136
+     X. BY A HAIR'S BREADTH                                 145
+    XI. BATTLING THE ELEMENTS                               160
+   XII. THE FIRST SHOT                                      177
+  XIII. THE SECOND SHOT                                     192
+   XIV. THREE LETTERS                                       210
+    XV. VILLAINY UNMASKED                                   221
+   XVI. A DOUBLE BLUFF                                      238
+  XVII. SENTENCE OF DEATH                                   256
+ XVIII. PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS                              278
+   XIX. THE WORD UNSPOKEN                                   299
+    XX. NARROWING THE QUEST                                 321
+   XXI. THE SILENT DUEL                                     345
+  XXII. REFLECTION AND REACTION                             360
+ XXIII. LOVE TO THE RESCUE                                  380
+  XXIV. THE HEAVENS OPEN                                    397
+   XXV. FULFILMENT OF THE LAW                               414
+
+
+
+
+ILLUSTRATIONS
+
+
+                                                            PAGE
+
+ "He smiled down at her glowing young face, and his
+ eyes shone with admiration"                     _Frontispiece_
+
+ "Upon man and beast the sand-storm beat bitterly"          168
+
+ "Like a flash Jose's arm swung back, ... and Curtis
+ sprang lightly aside as the knife struck deep into
+ the tree"                                                  308
+
+ "It had come, the question she had meant not to let
+ him ask"                                                   404
+
+
+
+
+THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+VENGEANCE AVOWED
+
+
+Curtis Conrad turned from superintending repairs on the adobe wall, and
+walked across the corral to the gate at the opposite side. As he filled
+his pipe he looked across the wide, greenish-gray New Mexican plateau
+stretching far to east and south and west. It was dotted here and
+there with little groups of grazing cattle, and he noted a straggling
+procession of the creatures, their figures wavering and distorted in the
+heat haze, coming down from the distant foot-hills. They were following
+a trail that cut across the plain in a straight line to the pond across
+the road from the house, beyond a grove of cottonwood trees.
+
+"Poor devils!" he thought. "They're tramping miles for a drink of
+water, and to-morrow they'll tramp back again for their breakfast. The
+Castletons are going to lose big money in dead cattle this Summer,
+unless there's more rain than there was last. It's awful to see the
+poor brutes dropping in their tracks. I'll begin looking for a job in a
+wetter country if this Summer doesn't bring more rain." He turned his
+attention to his pipe, sheltering bowl and match in his hollowed hand.
+"No use, in this wind," he muttered. "What a blast it's blowing to-day!
+Well, there's no sand in it."
+
+The plain stretched away from the ranch-house in low, rolling hills, so
+evenly sized that it gave the impression of a level surface. Up from one
+of the little valleys rose a horseman, as if he had sprung suddenly from
+the depths of the earth. Through the heat that wavered over the plain
+his horse's legs drew out into long, knobby sticks, and both man and
+steed became an absurd caricature of the sinewy pony and cowboy rider
+that presently cantered up to the gate with the mail for which Conrad
+had been waiting.
+
+"Three cow-brutes are down on the pond trail, just where it crosses the
+road. One of 'em's got a calf."
+
+"Are they dead?"
+
+"Mighty nigh--will be by night."
+
+"You and Red Jack go and skin them in the morning." Conrad turned toward
+the house, looking at his letters. His mind still lingered over the
+calf. "Poor little devil, it ought to have a chance," he was thinking,
+when his eye caught the name on one of the envelopes. He turned upon the
+cowboy a gaze suddenly grown preoccupied.
+
+"No, Peters," he said; "the calf won't go with the other cattle while
+its mother is alive, and I saw that gray wolf skulking along the draw
+this afternoon. You and Red Jack'd better go down now and put the cows
+out of their misery. Skin them and bring the calf into the corral till
+night, and then put it down by the pond with the other cow-brutes."
+
+His eyes quickly returned to the letter that had attracted his
+attention. "Tremper & Townsend!" he exclaimed with eager surprise. "Why,
+they were Delafield's attorneys!" He tore open the envelope with an
+impatient jerk and the rushing wind almost blew from his fingers the
+check it contained. As his eye ran quickly down the half-dozen lines of
+the letter his face lighted with satisfaction and amusement.
+
+The sound of a carriage distracted his attention. It turned in at his
+house-gate and he hastened forward, a lean, long-legged figure of a man,
+hat doffed and hand outstretched.
+
+"How are you, Bancroft? Glad to see you! And Miss Bancroft, too! Of
+course you're coming in. Thirsty? I'll bet you are! And you know we've
+got the best water in Silverside County here. How much better your
+daughter's looking, Aleck! If you keep on like this, Miss Bancroft,
+you'll soon forget you were ever ill."
+
+"Oh, I've forgotten that already, there's such magic in the winds you
+have here," the girl replied laughingly as he lifted her to the ground.
+"They're strong enough to blow the past out of your memory and make you
+forget even your own name!" Her father suddenly turned away and began to
+hitch the horses. He sent back a covert glance at her as she stood at
+Conrad's side, a slender figure, her face still thin from recent illness
+but aglow with the pink of returning health, the breeze fluttering the
+short brown curls that clustered over her bare head.
+
+"Oh, my hat, please!" she exclaimed, with sudden remembrance of the
+head-covering she had left hanging in the carriage top. Curtis took it
+down for her and looked on with undisguised admiration while she tied it
+with a big bow of ribbon under her chin. Bancroft came back, explaining
+that they had driven since mid-forenoon from the base of Mangan's Peak,
+and asking if Conrad did not think they had made pretty good time with
+their new team of horses. Curtis looked them over critically, praising
+their good points, and approving heartily when Bancroft told him they
+had been bought for both riding and driving, for he wanted Lucy, now
+that she was growing strong again, to become an expert horsewoman.
+
+A big cottonwood tree grew beside the gate, and a little plot of grass,
+enclosed on three sides by whitewashed adobe walls, made a square of
+welcome green. Lucy Bancroft exclaimed with delight as they entered the
+tiny yard, stepping mincingly across the grass with lifted gown, and
+smiling back at the two men, while fleeting dimples played hide-and-seek
+in her cheeks.
+
+"I'm so glad, Mr. Conrad," she laughed, "that you haven't any signs up
+to 'keep off the grass,' for I simply must walk on it. I never saw
+anything so lovely as this little lawn and this beautiful big green
+tree, after our long ride across the plain. It makes me think of that
+line in the Bible about 'the shadow of a great rock in a weary land.'"
+
+"Yes," replied Curtis as he threw open the door. "I never knew until I
+came to New Mexico how much comfort and pleasure there can be in a few
+blades of grass. When I come in from a long ride and look at this little
+checker-board square of turf I feel as if I uncurled a whole yard of
+wrinkles and squints from around my eyes."
+
+The Socorro Springs ranch-house was a rambling sequence of adobe rooms,
+so joined one to another that they formed the eastern and part of the
+northern side of the big square corral. It was low and flat-roofed, and
+struggling tufts of weeds and grass grew along the top and trailed over
+the edge, adding their chapter to Nature's endless tale of the unwearied
+determination of Life to evade and overcome Death. The rooms opened out
+of one another in a long row, all with outside doors looking toward the
+east and some with additional doors into the corral. A bare adobe yard
+sloping eastward was bordered by a trickling stream of water along which
+grew some willows and cottonwoods. Beyond it spread a golden-green field
+of young alfalfa, and beyond that the greenish-gray plain stretched to
+the far horizon. Across the front of the house was a narrow wooden
+porch, and house and porch, walls and sheds, were all a dazzling white
+that in the vivid sunshine smote the sight like a blow across the
+eyeballs. In the low, large room in front gayly colored Navajo rugs were
+spread on the floor, white muslin curtains hung at the windows, and
+rose-bedecked paper covered the walls and ceiling. Unpainted shelves of
+pine above a battered, flat-topped desk were filled with books, and the
+round table in the middle of the room was littered with newspapers,
+magazines, tobacco pouches, and pipes.
+
+The housekeeper, Mrs. Peters, brought a pitcher of water, and Conrad
+explained to Lucy that the springs from which the ranch took its
+appellation, _Los Ojos del Socorro_, "The Springs of Succor," had been
+so named nearly three hundred years before by a party of Spanish
+explorers, because they had come unexpectedly upon the pure waters when
+they were almost dead from thirst. At the housekeeper's suggestion Lucy
+went into the next room to lie down for a half-hour's rest before they
+should start for their home in Golden, twenty miles farther westward.
+The door, accidentally left ajar, swung part way open and she could hear
+plainly the voices of her father and Conrad as she lay with eyes closed
+and thoughts wandering, scarcely heeding what they said.
+
+The two men were absorbed in a discussion of local politics. "Dan
+Tillinghurst is all right," said Conrad. "He's made a good sheriff and
+he ought to have the office again. I shall do all I can to have him
+renominated and to help elect him afterwards. But Dellmey Baxter for
+Congress again! That's where I buck, and buck hard, and keep a-buckin'."
+
+"But he's the head of the party in the Territory," objected Bancroft.
+"He can bring out more votes than any other man we can put up. If we
+turn him down in the convention they'll beat us at the polls."
+
+"We'll deserve to be beaten if we nominate him, anyway. I can't stomach
+him any longer, Aleck, and I don't see how you can."
+
+"Oh, you're prejudiced, Curt," said the other, good-naturedly. "You know
+you can never see any good in a man you dislike, and you took a dislike
+to Baxter the first day you set foot in the Territory."
+
+"Maybe I am prejudiced; but in Dell Baxter's case there's ample reason
+to be, and I'd be ashamed of myself if I wasn't. I know he's a friend
+of yours, but that doesn't prevent him from being the worst scoundrel in
+the whole Territory. I tell you, Aleck, there's nothing that man
+wouldn't do, unless it was something square and honest."
+
+"Come, come, Curt, that's rank exaggeration. I've been associated with
+Dell Baxter financially ever since I located in this part of the
+country, and I've always found him strictly on the square."
+
+"Then it was because it was to his interest to be square. He'll do you
+up yet, if he gets the chance and thinks it worth while. He's had his
+finger in every crooked scheme that's been put through from Raton to El
+Paso, and his hands are as bloody as his pockets are dirty."
+
+"Don't you think it's going a little too far," asked Bancroft, smiling
+calmly, "to accuse a man in that wholesale way when you haven't any
+basis for your assertions but the merest idle gossip?"
+
+Conrad gave an indignant snort. "Oh, I'm not saying he's done the jobs
+himself. He thinks too much of that fat paunch of his to put that into
+any danger. But why does he keep those Mexican thugs hanging around him
+if it isn't to use them for things he wouldn't dare do himself? Why, I
+heard from Santa Fe only last week that he's taken into his pay that
+Mexican cutthroat, Liberato Herrara, whom he saved last Winter from
+conviction for the Paxton murder."
+
+"No, Aleck," he went on. "I buck when it comes to Dell Baxter for
+Congress again. If he gets the nomination and the other side puts up
+Johnny Martinez, as it's likely they will, I'm going to support Johnny."
+
+"But he's a Mexican."
+
+"I don't care what he is as long as he's a decent man. He won't be a
+disgrace to the Territory in Washington, and that's more than you can
+say of Baxter."
+
+Bancroft's impassive face lighted with a bantering smile. "There's no
+limit to your bad opinion of a man, is there, Curt, if he once gets into
+your disfavor? By the way, is it true that the Castletons are behind
+Johnny Martinez?"
+
+"I don't know, and I don't care. I'm their hired man here on the ranch,
+but my vote's my own, and so's what little influence I may have, and
+I'll do with both of 'em just what I damn please. And if it came to a
+show-down, I'd be perfectly willing to lose my job if that would keep
+Dell Baxter from going back to Congress."
+
+Bancroft laughed again. Conrad's eye, as he turned to his desk for more
+cigars, fell upon the little pile of letters and papers he had just
+received. On the top lay the Tremper & Townsend envelope. "By the way,
+Aleck, you're from Boston, ain't you?" he exclaimed impulsively.
+
+In the next room, Lucy, listening sleepily to the two voices, had been
+noting the difference in their quality. Conrad's was high and clear, his
+speech rapid and incisive. Her father's, lower and more deliberate, had
+in it a subtle, persuasive quality. "Dear daddy!" she whispered softly,
+her heart warm with affection. Then the new, sharp edge in Conrad's tone
+gripped her attention and sent her eyes flying open. Wide awake on the
+instant, she listened for the sound of her father's voice again. Had she
+been on the scene, she might have noted that he turned an instant's keen
+gaze upon his companion before he answered, carelessly enough:
+
+"Yes; originally. But I've come from so many other places since then
+that I almost forget it, unless somebody reminds me. I haven't been
+back there, or known much about the old place, for years."
+
+Conrad's boyish smile illuminated his face and twinkled in his blue
+eyes. "Yes," he said; "'most everybody out here is so everlastingly on
+the lope that it's no wonder some of 'em lose their names every once in
+a while and have to pick up 'most anything that comes handy. I'm no
+exception, though I've not yet forgotten 'what was my name back in the
+States.' But did you know anything about the Delafield affair in Boston,
+fifteen or sixteen years ago?"
+
+"I heard of it at the time, but it was after I left the city. It was so
+long ago that I forget the details. Skipped, didn't he, with a lot of
+funds? Or was he the one who defaulted and jumped into the Charles
+River?"
+
+Conrad had an eagerness of speech and manner that in a man of less vigor
+would have been accounted nervousness. Voice, face, and gesture were
+alive with it as he responded: "Jump nothing! except to get out of reach
+of his creditors! He's alive yet and making money somewhere, and I mean
+to find him! I've got a particular interest in that man, and when I come
+up with him he'll have a particular interest in me. For I'm going to
+give him such a song-and-dance as he's never had before."
+
+Bancroft listened calmly, his face and manner as impassive as usual, but
+his eyes narrowed as they met his companion's excited gaze. Smiling
+slightly, he replied, "What has he done to stir you up so? You must have
+been too young to be interested in financial investments then."
+
+"So I was, directly. Nevertheless, it happens, Aleck, that the Delafield
+affair has influenced me and my life more than any other one thing.
+My father lost everything he had in Sumner L. Delafield's smash-up.
+I was fifteen years old then, and getting ready to go to Michigan
+University--afterward I was to study law and be a prominent citizen. My
+father met Delafield first during a business trip to Boston--we lived in
+central Illinois, and father was well-to-do--and, just like everybody
+else, he gave the man his entire confidence. You remember, of course,
+how Delafield came to the top as a regular young Napoleon of business,
+and soon made a reputation as one of the big financiers. When he turned
+up missing one fine morning, and it was found that the bottom had
+dropped out of everything, most people believed he had killed himself.
+But he hadn't, I happen to know, and he's still alive. Well, my father
+had been so influenced by Delafield--the fellow must have been a
+persuasive cuss--that he had put everything he could raise into the
+man's schemes, and had even mortgaged our home. He had a weak heart, and
+when he read the news of Delafield's default and disappearance he fell
+out of his chair dead. The sudden shock of it all prostrated my mother,
+and she died in giving premature birth to a child. So there was I, a
+fifteen-year-old boy, suddenly dropped to the bottom of poverty, with
+two younger sisters and a little brother to take care of.
+
+"I tell you, I swore vengeance on that man. I promised myself I'd hunt
+him down if it took a lifetime. I'm on his trail now, and I'm not going
+to leave it until I run him into his hole. Then I'm going to stand him
+up and call him to his face all he deserves; and give him a gun, so he
+can have a fair chance for his worthless life, and take one myself; and
+then I'll put a bullet through his scoundrel brain if I have to hang for
+it afterward!"
+
+In the adjoining room Lucy Bancroft, with wide eyes and heightened
+color, was listening to Conrad's story. The thrill of keen-edged
+purpose in his tense and eager tones had set her nerves to vibrating
+until her body was a-tremble. At his last sentence Curtis brought his
+fist down on the table with a crash that almost startled her into
+outcry. A moment of silence followed, and then she heard her father's
+cool and even voice, "But suppose he should put one through yours
+first?"
+
+"Oh, he's welcome to do that if he can draw quicker or shoot straighter
+than I can. He'll get one through his head before the _baile_ is over,
+and that's all I care about. The round-up's coming, and I reckon he
+knows it. For to-day I got a letter from Tremper & Townsend of Boston,
+who settled up his affairs after his disappearance, enclosing a check
+for five hundred dollars, saying he wished it sent to me as the first
+instalment of the amount he owed my father, which he hopes, before long,
+to be able to pay in full."
+
+Bancroft flicked the ash from his cigar with unusual care, looked at it
+with contemplative interest, and drew a whiff or two before he spoke.
+Turning to Conrad with a quizzical smile, he said: "Well, Curt, doesn't
+that rather take the edge off your purpose? Why are you still shaking
+your gory locks and roaring like a wounded bull at him when he's
+evidently doing the square thing by you? Why don't you let up on your
+chase and give him a chance?"
+
+"Not on your life," was Conrad's emphatic rejoinder. "It's too late in
+the game for me to take repentance and an honest purpose on the hoof!
+He's found out that I'm getting hot on the scent and he wants to buy me
+off--that's all that check means. It's not the loss of the money that
+sticks in my craw; it's the deviltry he worked years ago. Whenever I
+find that he's discharging his debts to all his other creditors, who
+aren't after him hot-foot, then I'll consent to wait for my parley until
+he has settled the whole score."
+
+Lucy arose from the bed depressed with a vague sense of trouble. The
+longing seized her to be out-of-doors again, alone with her father on
+the wide plain, with the wind smiting her face and filling her lungs and
+making her forget everything but her own joy in being alive. She rubbed
+her eyes, smoothed her face, and forced herself to smile at the
+reflection in the mirror until her agitation was subdued. And presently,
+smiling and self-possessed, she opened the door into the front room,
+just as her father was finishing some friendly advice to Conrad.
+
+"Well, Curt, it's your affair," he had said, "and if you are so dead-set
+on getting that kind of revenge I suppose you'll go ahead and get it.
+But you'd better be careful; if this man is desperate he might try to
+head you off by the same means. And you couldn't exactly blame him for
+objecting to being shot in his tracks, or for taking measures to keep
+you from doing it. For my part, I never thought revenge was a paying
+investment, and I still believe you're foolish to waste your time,
+energy, and money in that sort of business.
+
+"Ah, Lucy, is that you?" he went on, as she opened the door. "Come in,
+dear. Have you had a nap, and do you feel better?"
+
+"Yes, thank you, I've rested beautifully, and I'm ready to start
+whenever you wish," she replied.
+
+Conrad produced a bottle of port wine, telling them as he filled their
+glasses that it had been sent him by a friend in California in whose
+cellars it had lain for twenty years, and that it would be a good tonic
+for Miss Bancroft. The friend had promised to send him more, and with
+her permission he would take a bottle to her the next time he went to
+Golden.
+
+As they stepped out of the house Lucy looked toward the west, whence the
+wind came, and as it struck her full in the face she gasped for breath
+and her slender body swayed in its rushing current. She grasped her wide
+hat brim with both hands and held it down so that it made a frame for
+her face. Laughing with joy she turned to Curtis.
+
+"Oh, I love these winds, Mr. Conrad! I know they blow sand into your
+eyes and pelt your face with gravel, but they make you feel so good! I
+always want to dance when I've been out in a wind like this for a minute
+or two." She took half a dozen dancing steps across the little lawn.
+"And they are so pure and sweet," she went on more seriously, "and make
+you feel so--so right that it seems as if they ought to blow all the
+wickedness out of one's mind."
+
+"Jiminy! I wonder if she heard what I said in there!" thought Conrad
+with inward panic. But he smiled down at her glowing young face and his
+eyes shone with admiration as he replied: "That is a beautiful theory,
+Miss Bancroft, but I'm afraid it doesn't pan out much in practice. It
+rather seems to me that most people who come to New Mexico have that
+sort of thing blown into them instead of out of them. As for myself,"
+and he grinned broadly, "I can't say that I feel any increase in
+righteousness, no matter how much I waltz around in these zephyrs."
+
+"And you must have given them a fair trial, too!" she laughed back. "But
+you may make all the fun you like of my little pet theory, Mr. Conrad. I
+shall believe in it just the same, and like the country just as much."
+
+"No; she didn't hear, and, besides, she said she'd been asleep, so it's
+all right," thought Curtis with much relief, as he went on eagerly: "I'm
+glad you're pleased with us and our winds, so that you'll want to stay.
+I assure you, Miss Bancroft, you can't find such a superior quality of
+wind anywhere else in the United States."
+
+"Oh, I'm going to stay, not on account of the wind, but on account of my
+father, who, I assure you, Mr. Conrad, is the most superior quality of
+father to be found anywhere in the United States! I've been away from
+him so much that now I'm perfectly happy to be with him all the time.
+You see, when my dear mother died five years ago, father put me in a
+boarding-school, and afterward sent me to Chicago for a year to study
+music, and there I had that attack of typhoid fever that came so near to
+killing me. But I'm here with him at last, and I mean to stay. And I'm
+learning to ride now, Mr. Conrad, and father thinks I'm getting on very
+well; don't you, daddy?" She turned to her father, as he came beside
+them at the carriage wheel, with a fond smile and a touch of her hand
+upon his arm.
+
+"Oh, yes," he answered, returning her smile and patting her shoulder;
+"you are doing bravely, Lucy. You'll soon be scouring the plain like the
+heroine of a dime novel."
+
+"No New Mexican girl," said Conrad as he helped her into the carriage,
+"thinks she can really ride until she can rope a steer. If you're going
+to be such an enthusiastic New Mexican you'll have to learn tricks of
+that sort. Get your father to bring you out here some day, and I'll give
+you lessons in cowboy riding."
+
+"Agreed! that would be great fun!" she exclaimed, smiling down at him,
+her eyes twinkling and the dimples dancing in and out of her cheeks.
+"We'll come out, won't we, daddy, after Miss Dent comes. I shall
+remember your promise, Mr. Conrad."
+
+Curtis waved a last good-bye as they turned the corner of his corral,
+and went back to his desk and his interrupted mail. "A mighty good
+fellow Aleck Bancroft is," he said in a half-aloud tone. "He doesn't
+palaver a lot, but he makes you feel he's your friend. I wonder if I
+said too much about Delafield. That check had wound me up and I sure
+talked more than I meant to." Long hours of solitude out-of-doors with
+only a silent plain around him and a silent sky above are likely to make
+a man so yearn for the sound of a human voice, though it be only his
+own, that he falls into the habit of thinking aloud. Conrad had the
+social temperament and it had not taken the wide and silent spaces of
+earth and air long to engender in him the habit of making companionship
+out of his own speech.
+
+He pulled thoughtfully at his sunburned moustache for a moment as he
+considered the matter. "It might have been just as well if I hadn't said
+so much," he went on aloud, "but he's close-mouthed and a good friend of
+mine. No, she didn't hear me--that's sure. How pretty she is when her
+eyes twinkle and her dimples come and go! I hope that wine will come in
+time for me to take her a bottle the next time I go to Golden. Well, I
+can call on her, anyway, and apologize because it hasn't. Hello! Here's
+a letter from Littleton! Has he got hold of something new about
+Delafield?"
+
+    "I was down in the northern part of your Territory last week on
+    other business," he read, "and I happened to meet a man who is, I
+    think, on the trail of the very same person we're after, though he's
+    been working it from the other end. If I'm right about it, the man
+    we want is now some prominent and respected citizen of New Mexico,
+    and maybe some good friend--or enemy--of yours at this moment. The
+    man I met is Rutherford W. Jenkins, of Las Vegas. You probably know
+    him--"
+
+"Sure! And know him to be a skunk!" Conrad exclaimed with a contemptuous
+snort.
+
+    "I couldn't get much out of him," the letter went on, "although I
+    gave him a tip about the trail we're on and a little of Delafield's
+    history as a bait. He snapped at it, and then began to dissemble his
+    satisfaction, so I'm sure it is of value to him. But not even
+    firewater would make him give up anything more. However, I feel
+    pretty sure that he either knows already who Delafield is or
+    expects soon to find out. I think he's working at it with an eye to
+    the possibilities of blackmail of one sort or another. Perhaps if
+    you see him yourself you can get something out of him."
+
+Conrad's face glowed with satisfaction as he finished the letter. "The
+birds won't get a chance to make any nests in my hair this trip! I'll
+sashay up the line this very night and I'll find out who Delafield is
+from Jenkins, if I have to choke the life out of him to do it. God!"
+His vengeful desire glowed like a blue flame in his eyes. He jumped to
+his feet, stretched out his arms, and clenched his fists. "Sumner L.
+Delafield, it's getting time for you to say your prayers!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+THE EVIL THAT MEN DO
+
+
+Lucy Bancroft and her father were unusually silent as they drove toward
+home. After an effort to chatter gayly she grew quiet--to her father's
+surprise, for she was ordinarily a vivacious companion. Speculating
+uneasily whether or not she had heard Conrad's story, and reassuring
+himself that it could mean nothing to her in any event, he made several
+efforts to draw her into speech. But she answered with her mind so
+evidently intent elsewhere that he gave up the attempt. The fear grew on
+him that she had overheard the conversation and that it had left an
+undue impression on her mind.
+
+A mirage of singularly perfect illusion lay across the plain to their
+left, and he drew her attention to its silvery surface, the trees
+bordering its unreal banks, the cattle standing knee-deep in its waters,
+and the steamboat puffing across its breast. Lucy admired and wondered
+for a moment, then turned the other way and looked back at the green
+tree clusters and white buildings of the ranch they had left. Her gaze
+lingered there until they crossed the hill, and its summit hid the scene
+from view.
+
+Bancroft sought to reassure himself. Did she not say she had been
+asleep? And the door was shut. Surely she could not have heard! Even if
+she had why should she care about it? Nevertheless, her silence made him
+anxious. It annoyed him to think that her mind was intent upon Conrad's
+story. He made another effort to draw her out of her abstraction by
+asking how soon she expected their friend, Louise Dent, who was coming
+to spend the Summer with them. Lucy showed interest in this and they
+discussed plans for her entertainment. But presently she fell silent
+again, looking straight ahead with a little frown on her brow.
+
+The conviction gripped Bancroft's mind that she had overheard the
+cattleman's recital of his wrongs. Alarm stirred in his heart as
+he tried to imagine what impression it had made upon her. Would
+she sympathize with Conrad? For the moment he forgot everything
+else--business deals and political contests, friendships and enmities,
+in his desire to know what had been the effect upon the girl beside him
+of Conrad's outburst. But much as he wished to know, he feared still
+more the surety of what her feeling might be, and he could not bring
+himself to ask the questions that would draw her out.
+
+Presently Lucy's voice broke suddenly upon their silence. "I wonder what
+became of his sisters!" Her color rose as she spoke and she gazed with
+exaggerated interest at a tall, yellow-flowered cactus beside the road.
+
+"Whose sisters, Lucy?" her father asked carelessly, flicking the horses
+to a faster pace. But his heart sank as he thought, "She did hear it
+all!"
+
+"Why, Mr. Conrad's. You know he said he was left when he was only
+fifteen with two younger sisters and a little brother to take care of."
+
+"Oh--Conrad--I don't know. They are probably married by this time. That
+was a long time ago. I've heard him mention his sisters before, I think.
+Yes; I recall now that he has told me they are both married and
+prosperous somewhere in Illinois or Iowa."
+
+"And his younger brother?"
+
+"Oh, he's just a young fellow, and Curtis is putting him through
+college. Conrad banks with me, and I've noticed his checks sometimes
+when they come back."
+
+"How good he is to them! It must have been very hard on him," Lucy's
+tone was sympathetic, but her father replied briskly:
+
+"Oh, I don't know! Responsibility is sometimes just the thing to bring
+out all the good there is in a young fellow and show what sort of stuff
+he's made of."
+
+"I suppose that's why he's never married," Lucy went on, following her
+own line of thought, her voice still sounding the sympathetic note,
+"because he had to take care of the others."
+
+"I don't suppose that's a fault in your eyes, my dear."
+
+"Of course not, daddy!" Lucy flashed back, smiling and dimpling. "Of
+course a girl likes a young man better because he's more interesting and
+can pay her more attention. You would yourself, daddy, if you were a
+girl."
+
+"Very likely, my dear. But I like Curtis Conrad well enough, even if I'm
+not as young as you are and of your sex. I was disappointed in him
+to-day, though, and surprised as well. You must have heard what he said;
+how did it strike you to hear a young man boast of his intention to
+commit murder?"
+
+He spoke so earnestly and the persuasive quality in his voice was so
+insistent that Lucy turned upon him a quick look of surprise and
+question. Then her eyes fell as a sudden rush of emotion, coming she
+knew not whence or why, almost choked her utterance.
+
+"I don't know," she began tremulously, "perhaps he wouldn't really do
+it--I don't believe he would--he seems too good and kind to be really
+wicked or cruel." She stopped a moment, only to break out abruptly:
+
+"And it was such a wicked thing that man Delafield did! Oh, he must have
+been a villain! As wicked and cruel--oh, as bad as he could be! I can't
+blame Mr. Conrad for feeling as he does. I know it seems an awful thing
+for me to say, but I really can't blame him, daddy, when I think what
+that man made him suffer--and he was only one; there must have been many
+others. I might even feel the same way if I were in his place and it had
+been you that was killed!" There was a thrill in her voice that seemed
+in her father's ears to be the echo of that which had vibrated through
+Curtis Conrad's words when he so passionately declared his purpose. Her
+words were as knife-thrusts in his heart as she went on, "Oh, how I
+should hate him! I know I should hate him with all my strength!"
+
+He made no immediate reply, leaning forward to tap the horses with the
+whip-lash. Lucy choked down a sob or two, turned, threw her arms around
+his neck, and burst into tears. He put his arm about her with a sudden
+close pressure, and she, with her eyes hidden against his shoulder,
+could not see that his face had gone suddenly white and that underneath
+his brown moustache and pointed beard his lips were pale and tense.
+
+"Well, well, Lucy," he said presently, his voice calm and caressing,
+"there's no need to be tragic over it. Is it any of our affair, even if
+Conrad is our good friend? Possibly Delafield wasn't as bad as he
+says--it's likely Curt exaggerates about him--he usually does when he
+dislikes anybody. And perhaps Delafield suffered as much as--the others.
+Come, dear, brace up and don't be hysterical."
+
+Lucy straightened up and gave her father a wavering, wistful smile. "It
+was silly of me, wasn't it, daddy, to act like that! I'm ashamed of
+myself. I don't know why I cried--I guess it was because I am tired."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+MISTAKE, OR BLUNDER?
+
+
+With eager pleasure Conrad gazed from his car window the next morning at
+the narrow bright ribbon of verdure with which the Rio Grande pranks
+itself on its southward course through New Mexico. The unkempt fields,
+the orchards and meadows, and the softened and caressing sunlight were
+as balm to his eyes, accustomed to the pale, grim southern plain and its
+fierce white sunshine. As the train rushed northward along the banks of
+the muddy stream, he looked at the little adobe houses, wondering how
+long these peaceful Mexican homes could withstand the pressure of the
+dominant American. He became aware that the men behind him were
+discussing the same question.
+
+"It will be only a few years," one of them was saying, "until this rich
+valley with all this water for irrigation will be in American hands."
+
+"The greasers are safe enough," said his companion, "until they begin to
+borrow on mortgages. Then their fate is settled."
+
+"I heard the other day," responded the first, "that Dell Baxter's been
+corralling a lot of mortgages on the land hereabouts."
+
+The other chuckled. "You bet. Dell ain't the man to let a little chance
+like this slip by him. These _paisanos_ look on him as a sort of 'little
+father' and borrow money of him with utter heedlessness of the day of
+reckoning. He jollies them along and tells 'em they're good fellows and
+hard workers, and he's sure they'll be able to pay when the time comes.
+Of course they never pay back a blessed _peso_, and Baxter gets the
+ranch. I'll bet it won't be long till he'll be exploiting a big land
+improvement company and selling these 'doby farms for ten times what
+they cost him."
+
+The talk of the two men drifted into politics, and presently Conrad
+heard them discussing Bancroft's loyal support of Baxter for Congress.
+"He's got to do it," said one of them. "Dell's been loaning him money
+and taking mortgages until Bancroft couldn't do anything else if he
+wanted to. Dell knows that Bancroft's support is a mighty important
+asset on account of the confidence people have in him, and Dell's been
+careful to cinch it good and tight."
+
+As Curtis bought an Albuquerque morning paper from the train-boy he
+thought indignantly, "That's all poppycock! Aleck's got too much grit to
+let anybody throttle him with a few dirty _pesos_. Hullo! What's this
+about Jenkins?" His eye had caught the name of the man he wished to see
+in a column of local news. As he read, "Rutherford W. Jenkins came down
+from Las Vegas yesterday and is stopping at the Metropolitan," his face
+shone with satisfaction. "Good luck!" he thought. "We'll be in
+Albuquerque in half an hour, and I'll go for my man like a steer on the
+prod!"
+
+At the hotel he found Jenkins, with a number of other men, smoking and
+talking on the porch. He did not expect to be remembered, for they had
+met only once, months before. But Jenkins came forward with his hand
+outstretched in greeting. "How do you do, Mr. Conrad! You don't get up
+to this part of the Territory very often; but we're always glad to see
+you."
+
+"Thank you, Mr. Jenkins. I've come this time especially to see you, and
+as soon as you have a moment or two to spare I'd like a private
+conversation."
+
+"Certainly! With pleasure! Just excuse me for a minute, will you, till I
+finish up the business I have with these men, and then we'll go up to my
+room."
+
+Conrad waited, tense and expectant, the quite apparent fact that Jenkins
+was engaged in mere desultory chat and story-telling increasing his
+irritation at the delay. He had jumped to the conclusion that Jenkins
+knew who Delafield was, and his breath came short and chokingly at the
+thought that in a few minutes he, too, would know. To know would be to
+act. His revolver was in his hip-pocket, and he intended to go straight
+from the interview to that meeting which for half his years had been the
+one goal of his thought. He glanced at Jenkins, saying to himself, "He
+looks like a weasel, and I reckon he is just enough of one to have
+wormed around and worked this thing out." Jenkins was tall, slender, and
+slightly stooped, his face long and thin, with its salient features
+crowded too close together. "I reckon he knows, all right," Conrad's
+thought went on, "and he'll tell me if I make the inducement big
+enough--he'd do anything for money!"
+
+Under cover of the conversation Jenkins had been doing his share of
+rapid thinking, prolonging the talk for that very purpose. He was
+putting together, with the acumen of a man in whom detective processes
+are a natural endowment, enough facts to convince him of the reason for
+Conrad's visit, considering the while just what he should do. He felt
+sure that he must expect a direct question about Delafield's identity,
+but he put off decision upon his response until he should hear the
+inquiry.
+
+"Now, Mr. Conrad, we'll go straight up to my room," he said cordially,
+laying a familiar hand upon the other's shoulder. Curtis shrank back a
+little, falling behind with a promptitude that left no doubt of his
+intention to keep the interview entirely formal. Jenkins licked his lips
+with an unwholesome smile, and led the way in silence. As the door
+closed behind them, Conrad became aware of an increase of repugnance
+toward this man so great that the necessity of dealing with him was an
+irritation.
+
+"Well, Mr. Conrad," said Jenkins, cheerfully, giving the other no time
+to state his mission, "I hear you are putting in some good licks for
+Johnny Martinez down in Silverside. What do you think of his chances
+down there? Pretty good, aren't they?"
+
+"Yes, I think so," Curtis replied curtly; and plunged into his own
+affair. "I have understood, Mr. Jenkins, from my friend Mr. Littleton,
+of Chicago, whom you met last week, that you are interested in a matter
+of prime importance to me, and that you have some information I want to
+get hold of."
+
+"Oh, yes; I remember meeting Littleton last week," Jenkins broke in. "A
+good fellow, too. So he's a friend of yours, is he? Yes; he and I
+scraped up quite a friendship and had a good time together. But say,
+Conrad, the amount of throat varnish that man can stand is something
+amazing!"
+
+Curtis straightened himself in his chair impatiently. "He wrote me that
+he had some conversation with you about Sumner L. Delafield, formerly of
+Boston, but now, I have reason to believe, living here in New Mexico
+under an assumed name."
+
+"Yes; I believe we did have a little talk about Delafield," Jenkins
+interrupted again. "But I'll have to confess," he went on jocularly,
+"that my mental condition wasn't perfectly clear and it's likely my
+remarks were a little foggy too. But I recall that we did have some
+conversation about the Delafield affair. Littleton had some personal
+interest in Delafield's failure, didn't he?"
+
+"No; all the work he has done on the case has been for me. I have
+considerable interest in it."
+
+"Have you, indeed? Now, this is a coincidence! For some time past I've
+been a good deal interested in that matter myself. I suppose you were
+roped into some of his schemes?"
+
+For a moment Curtis took counsel with himself upon what and how much he
+should say, only to thrust back his repulsion against saying anything at
+all to this man and plunge frankly into his narrative. With the utmost
+brevity he told of his father's ruin and of his own trailing of the
+culprit through so many years. Of his motives he said nothing, and of
+his work in tracking Delafield no more than was necessary. Few, even of
+his best friends, knew anything about the secret scheme of vengeance he
+had nursed from boyhood. Even Littleton, the detective who had aided him
+in the quest, did not know that he wanted to face Delafield for any
+reason other than to demand restitution.
+
+Having briefly outlined his story, Conrad went on to say that Littleton
+had led him to think that Jenkins must be engaged in the same search,
+and suggested that an exchange of their discoveries might be for their
+mutual benefit.
+
+Jenkins listened with evident interest, asking questions here and there
+concerning certain points in the other's long chase of the fugitive.
+"Yes; you've done very well, Conrad," he said, admiration in his voice,
+"very well indeed. That was a damned crooked trail and you've done a
+fine piece of work in following it through."
+
+Curtis gnawed his moustache and frowned. Jenkins's evasive speeches were
+increasing his irritation and repugnance almost beyond his control. "The
+amount of the matter is," he burst out, "I've got the notion that you
+know who Delafield is, and I'm willing to pay you for the information. I
+shall undoubtedly be able to find out for myself if I keep at it a
+little longer, but it happens that I want to know at once. If you know
+positively who he is, I am willing to pay you three hundred dollars for
+the knowledge."
+
+Jenkins walked to the window and stood there silently. He was weighing
+one thing against another, and deciding whether he should tell the
+whole truth, a part of it, or none at all. Presently he said to himself
+that a bird in the hand to-day is worth a whole flock that may be in the
+bush to-morrow.
+
+"Before I decide about your offer, Mr. Conrad," he began cautiously,
+"there are two or three things I would like to know. You are doing some
+good work for Martinez for Congress, I understand."
+
+"The best I can," answered Curtis with surprise.
+
+"Well, as you know, I am warmly in his favor myself. I want to get him
+the support of as many leading men in the Territory as possible. This
+man Delafield is one of Baxter's influential lieutenants, and I
+particularly want to win him over to Martinez. You, I happen to know,
+have some influence with him."
+
+A nervous start betrayed the strain Conrad was under, and an eager look
+lighted his face. Jenkins saw it, smiled blandly, and inwardly decided
+to demand another hundred dollars. "It has occurred to me," he went on,
+"that you might be able to influence him when I couldn't. Combine this
+leverage with your friendship, and I believe almost anything is
+possible. If I let you have this information will you agree to use it
+and your influence in such a way as to induce him to join in with Johnny
+Martinez?"
+
+The look that blazed in Conrad's eyes, coupled with the same involuntary
+shrinking movement that he had made in escaping Jenkins's hand at the
+foot of the stairway, showed the rapid ebbing of his self-control.
+Jenkins noticed both look and movement, and a gleam of angry resentment
+flashed into his dark eyes. But it was quickly repressed, as he suavely
+asked, "Well, what do you say?"
+
+"I don't know that I can promise," said Curtis, stiffly, "that my
+influence would count as much as that. Possibly it will be enough to
+keep him from supporting Dellmey Baxter. Yes," he went on with a grim
+look, "I think I can assure you he will be neutral through the rest of
+this campaign."
+
+"That might perhaps be satisfactory," said Jenkins meditatively,
+inwardly deciding to raise the price another hundred dollars in lieu of
+the aid for Martinez. "But if that is all you're sure of doing I shall
+have to ask more money for the information. It has cost me a great deal
+of time and effort, and if I can't bring about this result with it I
+must repay myself some other way. I will tell you what you want to
+know, Mr. Conrad, if you will give me five hundred dollars and your
+promise to do your best to get him to support Martinez."
+
+"That is what I said I could not do; and you are asking more money
+because I could not promise it."
+
+"Well, then, if you will promise to induce him to remain neutral during
+this campaign."
+
+"Yes; I will promise that, and I will give you the five hundred
+dollars."
+
+"Very well; it's a bargain."
+
+Curtis wrote his check for that sum on the First National Bank of
+Golden. Jenkins examined the bit of paper, folded it away in his
+pocket-book, rubbed his hands, and smiled at Conrad.
+
+"You will be surprised," he said, "when you hear the man's name. He is
+well known to you, and he is universally regarded, all over New Mexico,
+as a model citizen, as square and honest as any man in the
+Territory--and much more so than most of them."
+
+"Yes?" said Conrad, rising and reaching for his hat.
+
+"Yes, you will be astonished, I promise you," Jenkins went on, rising
+and facing Curtis, still smiling and rubbing his hands together in
+satisfaction. "For Sumner L. Delafield, the fugitive from justice,"--he
+began speaking slowly and impressively,--"the absconding defaulter, the
+man who sank the fortunes of hundreds of people, the man who had to hide
+in Canada and slink around in out-of-the-way places for so many years,
+is now known as"--there was a brief pause to give his revelation its
+fullest dramatic effect--"is now known in New Mexico as Alexander
+Bancroft, president of the bank on which your check is drawn."
+
+Conrad started, and his attitude of eager attention stiffened. For an
+instant half a dozen Jenkinses seemed to be whirling about the room. Out
+of the repugnance, contempt, and anger boiling in his veins shot a
+definite idea,--the desire to choke the man who had said this thing
+about his best friend. He leaped forward, seized Jenkins by the collar,
+and shook him as if he had been a ten-year-old boy. Although his arms
+were flying hither and yon Jenkins grabbed wildly for the pistol in his
+pocket. Curtis saw the movement, and with his left hand seized the butt.
+As he pulled it out Jenkins caught its barrel; but with a twist of his
+right arm and a jerk with his left Conrad wrested the gun from the
+other's hand and threw it under the bed.
+
+His face white and his eyes blazing, he grasped Jenkins by the shoulders
+and jammed him against the wall until the windows rattled. With two
+quick, backward strides he gained the door. Opening it with a hand
+stretched behind him, Curtis spoke with deliberate emphasis, pointing
+his words with a menacing forefinger:
+
+"Rutherford Jenkins, you are the damnedest liar and vilest skunk that
+ever made tracks in New Mexico, and if you ever tell that lie about
+Bancroft to another living soul I'll wring your neck!"
+
+Jenkins sprang toward the door, but as it closed from without he
+stooped, shook himself together, and swore under his breath. He took out
+the check, and chuckled. "I'll get it cashed before he changes his
+mind," he thought. Then a wave of anger and resentment rolled over him
+and he shook an impotent fist at the closed door. "Damn him!" he said
+aloud, "I'll get even with him yet."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+THE POWERS CONFER
+
+
+Lucy Bancroft bade a smiling good-bye to her father at the door of the
+First National Bank, and crossed the street to a store on the corner
+opposite. Lingering in the doorway for her turn to be waited upon, she
+watched him with admiring eyes. "What a handsome man daddy is," she was
+thinking; "I like a man to be tall and straight and broad-shouldered;
+and I'm glad he's always so well groomed; I'd love him just as much if
+he wasn't, but I couldn't be quite so proud of him."
+
+Another man was coming up the street toward her father, and Lucy smiled
+as her eyes fell upon him. "There's Congressman Baxter," her thought ran
+on. "How slouchy and dumpy he seems beside daddy! They say he's one of
+the smartest men in the Territory; but I'm sure daddy is just as smart
+as he is, and he's certainly a great deal handsomer and nicer looking.
+And he's just as nice as he looks, too, my dear daddy!"
+
+Bancroft appeared the man of substance and of consequence, confident
+alike in himself and in the regard of the community, as he stood in the
+door of his bank and met the Congressman with friendly greeting. "Glad
+to see you, Baxter! Come in! I want to have a talk with you."
+
+Dellmey Baxter shook hands cordially, pleasure at the meeting fairly
+radiating from his round, sunburned face, even his cold gray eyes
+borrowing warmth from his gratified and shining countenance. One of
+these eyes was set at an angle slightly oblique, its peculiarity made
+more prominent by the loose hanging of the upper lid from the outer
+corner. The expression of cunning thus given to the upper part of his
+face was curiously at variance with his jovial look and manner.
+
+In Bancroft's private office Baxter's first question was if the other
+had yet visited the mine at the base of Mangan's Peak, concerning which
+they had had correspondence.
+
+"Yes; I was there this week. The man who owns it hasn't _sabe_ enough
+about mines to know what a good proposition he's got. He'll sell
+cheap for cash, for he needs the money. I think it's a first-class
+investment, and we'd better snap it up. Shall we make it half and half?"
+
+"I don't know about going in as a partner, Aleck. I'm getting too much
+tied up in all kinds of enterprises, and I don't want to have more on my
+hands than I can attend to. But if it's a good thing I'd like to help
+you get hold of it; I know you'd hustle its development and make all
+there is in it tell for the reputation of New Mexico. I've got too many
+other things on hand to go in as a partner, but if you haven't the
+ready cash to buy it yourself I'll advance you what you need and take
+a mortgage on the property."
+
+In the persuasive tones of Bancroft's reply there was no hint of the
+reluctance and disappointment he inwardly felt at this prospect of
+having to increase his indebtedness to Baxter, concerning which he
+already felt some anxiety.
+
+"That hardly seems fair, Dell. You gave me the hint about the mine,
+and you ought to make more than that out of it. I'm satisfied it's an
+almighty good proposition and can be made to pay for itself and for
+the money needed in initial development inside the first year."
+
+"Oh, that's all right," Baxter responded heartily. "I'm glad to let the
+chance come your way, because you've got more _sabe_ and more hustle
+than any other man I know, and you'll do something worth while with it.
+Think about it, and we'll talk it over again before I go back. I'm down
+here now mainly for politics. You know Silverside County as well as any
+man in it--how do things look?"
+
+"Well, it's always a close county, you know. But you'll probably get the
+delegates to the convention, and I reckon you'll stand as good a chance
+on election day as Johnny Martinez."
+
+The other chuckled. "Well, I rather guess! Why, he's got no money to put
+into the fight!"
+
+"No; but there are the Castletons."
+
+"I heard that their superintendent at Socorro Springs ranch--what's his
+name?--Conrad?--had come out strong in his favor. What do they care
+about it? Neither one of 'em spends two weeks out of the year in the
+Territory."
+
+"Oh, if they really have any interest in it I suppose it's that
+everlasting 'cousin' business of the Mexicans. You know Ned Castleton
+married a first cousin of Johnny's, although she's half American."
+
+Baxter looked thoughtful. "If he's got the Castleton money back of him,"
+he began doubtfully, but broke off with an opposing idea: "I've heard
+that the wives of the two brothers fight each other to the limit on
+every proposition that comes along, and I reckon if Turner's wife found
+out that Ned's wife wanted Martinez boosted into Congress she'd see to
+it that Turner blocked the game if he could."
+
+"If Ned Castleton should back up Martinez with a bagful or two of his
+loose cash it would make mighty hard sledding for us," observed
+Bancroft.
+
+Baxter pursed his lips and whistled softly. "I reckon it would!" he
+said, with an air of taking the other into his innermost counsels. Then
+he broke out warmly: "That was damn good of you, Aleck, to come out for
+me as squarely as you did in the Albuquerque _Leader_ the other day!
+It's a good thing for me, all over the Territory, to have people know
+that Alexander Bancroft is supporting me. They've got confidence in you,
+Aleck. I appreciate it, I tell you, and I won't forget it, either."
+
+Baxter had already served two terms in Congress, and some members of his
+party thought he should be willing to stand aside and give some one else
+the prize. This made him anxious about the outcome of the approaching
+convention, and set him to interrogating the banker regarding the
+intentions of this, that, and the other man of local consequence. At
+last he came back to the subject of the Castletons.
+
+"Do you really think, Aleck, that Ned Castleton's money is behind
+Martinez? If it is, that would explain Conrad's attitude."
+
+Bancroft saw that the Congressman was worried by the possibility of such
+effective opposition. On the instant an idea was projected into his
+mind, born of his own secret anxiety and his knowledge of Baxter's
+reputation. It came so suddenly and so vividly that it took him
+unawares, sending a telltale light into his eyes and across his usually
+impassive countenance. His lids were quickly lowered, but Baxter had
+already seen the revealing flash and was wondering what it might mean.
+The banker hesitated for a moment, his thoughts confused by the force of
+the bolt which had shot into his mind.
+
+"Of course I don't know anything about it," he went on cautiously, the
+other watching him for signs of self-betrayal, "but it looks to me as if
+Conrad might be acting as Ned Castleton's agent, so that Ned won't have
+to be mixed up in it. That would take away the chance of Mrs. Turner's
+trying to make her husband block the game. And Conrad is violently
+opposed to you. He handles you without gloves, and is doing all he can
+against your nomination. He says he'll bolt you if you get it, and that
+if the other side puts up Martinez he'll jump in and fight for him with
+both feet and his spurs on."
+
+The smile faded from Baxter's face, and his left eyelid drooped lower
+than usual--a sign that his mind was busy with some knotty problem. But
+he was not considering the pros and cons of the Castleton money. He was
+wondering why that sudden purpose had flashed in Bancroft's eyes, why he
+had shown that momentary discomposure, and why he was now dwelling so
+much more strongly on the fact of Conrad's opposition. He drew his chair
+nearer and in confidential tones began to inquire about the young
+cattleman: "Has Conrad got much influence?"
+
+"Yes; a good deal. He's a bright, energetic fellow, and he's made lots
+of friends."
+
+"Know anything about him, Aleck?"
+
+"Not much. Ned Castleton ran across him in San Francisco, I believe,
+where he was agent for one of the big cattle ranches in southern
+California. He's been their superintendent at Socorro Springs for two
+years, and he's put the ranch in better shape and made it pay better, in
+spite of the drought, than anybody else they've had since their father
+died."
+
+"But where'd he come from before Castleton got him?"
+
+"I don't know, except in a general way. I guess he's mostly run along
+with the cattle business in Colorado and California and New Mexico."
+
+"You really think his opposition to me down here is important?"
+
+"There's no doubt about it, Dell," Bancroft rejoined, his manner
+becoming more earnest and his tones more persuasive as he went on.
+"Curt Conrad is a fighter from the word 'go,' and he seems to have
+started out with the intention of doing you up. He'll sure do you a
+lot of damage if you can't find some way of making him change his mind.
+He's popular,--the sort that everybody likes, you know,--and he's always
+enthusiastic and cocksure, so that he has a good deal of influence of
+his own, whether or not he's acting for Ned Castleton. And as people
+generally believe he is it amounts to the same thing."
+
+"We must get at him some way," said Baxter earnestly, his cold eyes
+watchful of his companion's manner and expression. "Hasn't he done
+something that would give us a hold on him?"
+
+"No, there's nothing in that lead. I've tried argument, and you might as
+well talk to a cyclone."
+
+"How about money?"
+
+Bancroft shook his head decisively. "That would be the worst mistake you
+could make. He wouldn't touch it and he'd roar about it everywhere. The
+fact is, Dell, we'll have to get rid of his opposition some way. I've
+done everything I can, and now I'll have to put it up to you."
+
+"Well, I'll think it over," said Baxter, rising and looking at his
+watch. "I'll see you again about that mine business, while I'm here, and
+I want to talk with you about a _paisano_ ranch, up above Socorro,
+there's a chance of our getting. I think we'll be able to get our
+development company going in less than a year. When it's organized,
+Aleck, I want you to be president of it."
+
+"I don't know about that," Bancroft replied slowly, an uneasy
+recollection of some of Lucy's freely expressed ideas coming into his
+mind. "I may prefer to stay in the background, as a silent partner, as
+our arrangement is now."
+
+"It would be good for the company to have you at its head; your
+reputation would be an asset," Baxter objected persuasively.
+
+"By the way, Dell, did you foreclose on a man named Melgares, Jose Maria
+Melgares, a month or two ago?"
+
+"Melgares? Yes; and I was especially easy on him; let him have three
+months' extra time. But I had to come down on him finally. Why?"
+
+"He's here in Golden now, and he's been roaring about it. He came down
+here from the Mogollons, where it's likely he'd been doing some
+horse-stealing. And I guess he's been lifting chickens and things out of
+people's back-yards since he's been here."
+
+"Next thing he'll be getting arrested," Baxter chuckled, "and I'll have
+to defend him--for nothing. These greasers all seem to think I'm a
+heaven-sent protector for 'em all, no matter what they do. So long,
+Aleck; I'll see you again before I leave town."
+
+Baxter lounged down the street, greeting one acquaintance after another
+with a jovial laugh, a hearty handshake, or a slap on the shoulder, his
+round, red face aglow with good fellowship. But his gray eyes were cold
+and preoccupied. At the court-house door he stopped to talk with Dan
+Tillinghurst, the sheriff, and Little Jack Wilder, his deputy.
+
+"Say, Jack," said the sheriff, as the Congressman went on up the street,
+"what sort o' hell do you-all reckon Dell Baxter's cookin' up now? He's
+too jolly not to have somethin' on hand. The louder he laughs the more
+sulphur you can bet he's got in his pockets."
+
+"Be careful, Dan," warned Jack, "or that nomination for sheriff will
+miss fire."
+
+"Don't you worry about that--Dell an' me's all right; you-all just worry
+about the fellow that's made his eyes look like a dead fish's. Dell's
+sure got somethin' on his mind."
+
+There was something on Baxter's mind. He was still wondering why
+Alexander Bancroft had insisted so strongly upon the importance of young
+Conrad's opposition, which the Congressman did not believe was of much
+consequence. He chuckled and his left lid drooped lower as he finally
+decided: "I reckon he wants me to pull some chestnut or other out of the
+fire for him. I'll just let him think I'm taking it all in. I'd like to
+know what it is, though, for if I don't keep a good hold on Aleck he's
+likely to get heady and try to step into my shoes."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+CHASTISEMENT CONDIGN
+
+
+Dan Tillinghurst and Little Jack Wilder sat under the big cottonwood in
+front of the court-house, commenting upon things in general, and,
+presently, more particularly upon Curtis Conrad and his mare, Brown
+Betty, when they espied him talking with the landlord in front of the
+hotel across the stream. The town of Golden lay in a gulch among the
+foot-hills. It had been a thriving silver camp in the older days.
+Discovered in the heyday of the pale metal, it had yielded so richly
+that the men flocking thither, in sheer, exultant contempt of the value
+of its yellow brother, had named the camp "Golden Gulch." The mines had
+been in the bottom of the gulch, and near them, along the banks of the
+stream, had been built all the houses of the mining days. The earliest
+roads had run along each side of the water, and these were still the
+main streets of the town. Facing one another across the two streets and
+the bed of the creek were all the public buildings and business houses,
+the two hotels, some of the best residences, and many of the poorer
+ones. The Mexican quarter, called "Doby Town" by the Americans,
+straggled along these thoroughfares and up the hillsides just beyond the
+heart of the town. Down their entire length cottonwoods of notable girth
+and majesty spread their branches.
+
+One of the largest and finest of these trees shaded the court-house
+corner where the Sheriff and his deputy were sprawling their legs
+and waiting for something to happen. The Sheriff was burly and
+broad-shouldered, although his legs had not quite been able to keep pace
+with the growing massiveness of his torso. The occasions were rare when
+his blue eyes were not twinkling with good humor, while his mouth
+beneath its absurd little moustache curved in a smile as habitual as his
+cheerful kindliness and universal optimism. Little Jack Wilder, who owed
+his descriptive title to his six feet three of height, was slender and
+lithe. He wasted neither words in talk nor bullets in pistol fights, and
+he had the reputation of being one of the best shots in the Southwest,
+as good even as Emerson Mead, over at Las Plumas in the adjoining
+county.
+
+Curtis Conrad walked across the bridge that spanned the stream, Brown
+Betty at his heels, and met their "Hello, Curt!" with "Hello! Anything
+new?"
+
+"Yes," said Wilder, "anyway, there's likely to be."
+
+"What sort?"
+
+"That's what we'd like to know," said Tillinghurst. "Jack's been
+sashaying around Doby Town for the last two days with his eye on a
+Mexican horse thief, waitin' for him to do something he can be arrested
+for; and the darn' fool won't do a thing! He just sits around
+respectable and behaves himself. Jack's gettin' all out of patience with
+him."
+
+Little Jack growled a corroborative oath, and took a chew of tobacco.
+
+"Well, if you know he's a horse thief, why don't you arrest him?" asked
+Conrad.
+
+"We know it all right," said Jack; "but he ain't lifted no critters yet
+in this county. He's been doin' some chicken-thieving and that sort o'
+thing around town the last week, but we ain't goin' to arrest him for
+that."
+
+Wilder shut his jaws with a determined snap, while Tillinghurst went on
+to explain in answer to Conrad's look of surprise: "If we arrest him
+for that he'd be taken before a justice of the peace; and you-all know
+what kind of a mess Diego Vigil would make of it. He'd likely fine the
+man whose chicken-coop had been raided because he didn't have more stuff
+in his back-yard to be stolen, and he'd discharge Jose Maria Melgares
+with a warning not to wake people up o' nights by letting the chickens
+squawk!"
+
+The Sheriff's smile broadened and ran down his throat in a chuckle.
+Little Jack Wilder burst explosively into brief and profane speech that
+showed his opinion of Mexicans, and especially of Mexican justices of
+the peace, to be most contemptuous.
+
+"Then why do you give them the office?" Curtis demanded. "Both parties
+do it, all over the Territory, though you all know that every time they
+get a chance they make justice look like a bobtailed horse. Up north
+last week one of 'em fined a man five dollars for committing murder and
+warned him not to do it again or he'd have to make it ten next time. You
+folks all knew what you might expect from Vigil when you gave him the
+place."
+
+"Oh, well, Curt, you-all ain't run for office yet. When you do, you'll
+appreciate the fact that the greasers have got to be put where they'll
+do the most good. I'm willin' to give 'em that much, and I'm only too
+thankful old Vigil and his friends don't strike for the Sheriff's place."
+
+Tillinghurst chuckled, while Wilder smiled grimly and profanely reckoned
+he wouldn't serve under Vigil or any other Mexican. "Mebbe that
+pock-marked Melgares has been up to some mischief by this time," he
+added. "I hain't set eyes on him for nigh two hours. Let's go down to
+the Blue Front, have a drink, and find out if anything's happened."
+
+They went down the street together, Brown Betty following with the
+bridle over her neck. A block farther down stream, a good-looking
+Mexican came out of the First National Bank and passed them. The Sheriff
+turned a second keen glance upon him. "That looks like Liberato
+Herrara," he said to his deputy in a hasty aside. Raising his voice he
+accosted the man in Spanish.
+
+The Mexican turned and replied in precise English with grave courtesy,
+"Did the senor speak to me?"
+
+"Yes; ain't you Liberato Herrara?"
+
+"No, senor. My name is Jose Gonzalez."
+
+The Sheriff apologized, and the other bowed politely, fell behind, and
+crossed to the other side of the stream. Conrad asked Tillinghurst if he
+did not believe Herrara guilty of the murder of which he had been
+acquitted several months before.
+
+"Of course he was. And it's likely that ain't the only one either. I'm
+glad this man ain't him. If he was down here it would be on some
+business for Baxter, and it wouldn't do for me to find out too much
+about it."
+
+Conrad snorted contemptuously, and Wilder said, "Dan, you're talkin' too
+damn much."
+
+"Oh, Curt's all right," replied the Sheriff, placidly. "He couldn't hate
+Baxter any more than he does if he tried, but he don't go back on his
+friends. This man Melgares," he went on, "that we're hopin' will make up
+his mind to do somethin' worth while, tells a queer yarn. He says he
+used to have a good ranch in the Rio Grande valley, between Socorro and
+Albuquerque, but he borrowed money on it from Baxter. Of course he
+couldn't pay, Dell foreclosed, and Melgares had to get out."
+
+"Yes; I heard the other day about Baxter's operations up there," Conrad
+broke in hotly. "I understand he's got hold of a lot of land in just
+that way. It's a cursed, low-down, dirty piece of business."
+
+"Oh, well, better men than Baxter have done the same sort of thing," the
+Sheriff responded. "From all I can find out about Melgares I reckon he
+was honest enough up to that time; but he's been goin' it pretty lively
+ever since. I think he's aimin' to work down to the border, where he can
+do the crisscross act."
+
+Conrad turned with an exclamation of sudden remembrance. "By the way!
+Bill Williams told me just now that Rutherford Jenkins is here, at his
+hotel. Have you seen him? Do you know what he's here for?"
+
+"I haven't talked with him, but I reckon he's here on some deal for
+Johnny Martinez."
+
+Curtis tied the mare to the hitching-post on the corner. "I've heard,"
+he said cautiously, "that he has a venomous tongue and uses it
+recklessly. Do you know whether he's been doing any outrageous talking
+lately?"
+
+"Well, I reckon nobody would believe anything Jenkins said, anyway. But
+I haven't heard anything. Have you, Jack?"
+
+Some other men came along, and they all stopped to talk together. Curtis
+leaned against the mare and stroked her glossy neck. She poked her nose
+into his coat pocket and found a lump of sugar, which she ate with much
+dainty tossing of her head. It was some minutes before they entered the
+saloon.
+
+The "Blue Front" was a two-roomed shanty on the edge of the Mexican
+quarter. Gambling games of various sorts occupied the back room; and
+there, too, political deals were arranged and votes bargained and paid
+for between the American politicians and the leaders of the Mexicans.
+When Conrad and his friends came down the street a number of men were in
+the rear room, some talking and others busy at cards. At a table near a
+side window men of both races were engaged in a poker game. One of the
+players, a pock-marked Mexican with a defective eye, frequently glanced
+down the street. When he saw the Sheriff and his two companions
+approach, he rose and watched them. The others wanted to know what he
+was looking at, and he asked who was the man with the brown mare. A
+tall, dark American, with slightly stooping shoulders, looked up with
+interest as he heard them give Conrad's name, and joined the group at
+the window. Several of the men spoke with enthusiasm about Brown Betty,
+and one, who said he had once worked at Socorro Springs ranch, told them
+that Conrad thought more of her than of anything else he owned. When the
+men in front entered the saloon, the pock-marked Mexican cashed in his
+chips and slipped out through the rear door.
+
+The sound of Conrad's voice in the bar-room caught the attention of the
+tall, dark American. An angry flush reddened his face, his beady eyes
+snapped, and the tip of his tongue licked his lips. Then something
+amusing seemed to occur to him, for his features relaxed into a smile
+and he glanced briskly around the room.
+
+"See if you can find Melgares, will you?" he asked the Mexican with whom
+he had been talking. "Tell him I'll wait for him outside the back door."
+
+He stepped out into the bright sunshine, smiling and rubbing his hands
+together. Back of the shanty was a high adobe wall surrounding the
+corral of the Mexican houses fronting on the next street. A wooden door
+in the wall opened cautiously, and the pock-marked face looked out.
+
+"You sent for me, Senor Jenkins?" the Mexican asked.
+
+"Yes. It's all right. You needn't be afraid. I want you to do something,
+Melgares."
+
+They stepped inside the corral and Melgares bolted the door. "You saw
+Conrad's mare just now?" Jenkins began. "Fine creature, isn't she?"
+
+"Splendid, senor. The finest I have seen in a long time."
+
+"I'll warrant it! I never saw a better myself. Looks like a good
+traveller, doesn't she?"
+
+"Si, senor."
+
+"And a stayer, too, I guess! It wouldn't be hard to get to the Mexican
+border on her back, would it?"
+
+Melgares grinned, then shook his head. "But my family--I could not take
+them with me."
+
+"Well--see here, Melgares. Here's fifty dollars. If you'll get away with
+Conrad's mare you can have it for your trouble. It will take your family
+down there all right."
+
+"But you, senor,--where do you come in?" He looked suspiciously at
+Jenkins.
+
+"Oh, never mind me. Conrad did me a bad turn a while ago, and I'm
+evening up the score. That's all I want out of it."
+
+"But now, senor?"
+
+"Yes; now's your chance. He's in the saloon, and the mare's tied at the
+corner."
+
+"The Sheriff is in there, too. The risk is great."
+
+"Well, I'll go in and keep them busy. I'll raise excitement enough
+inside so that nobody will even look out of the windows. Get out there
+in five minutes, be quick about it, and ride off down the valley road."
+
+"Give me the money, senor. I'll take the chance."
+
+Jenkins returned, and entered the bar-room with his former companion
+without attracting the attention of Conrad and his friends. The other
+spoke of the report about the Castleton money and mentioned Curtis
+Conrad's name. Jenkins raised his voice in angry reply:
+
+"Oh, damn Conrad! Martinez don't want his help!"
+
+Curtis heard the words and turned sharply around, his face flushing.
+Jenkins appeared not to see him, and went on:
+
+"The Castletons are all right, but Conrad's help would be a disgrace to
+any party. Martinez don't want it!" His voice rang loud and shrill
+above the silence that had fallen suddenly upon the room.
+
+Curtis's face paled, even under its ruddy tan, and his eyes blazed. With
+head up he strode forward. "Jenkins," he said, without raising his
+voice, although it shook with a warning tremor, "I advise you to be
+careful. You may have your opinion about me, as I have mine about
+you--and you know what that is. But don't you say that again, nor
+anything else of the sort!"
+
+Jenkins turned toward him with an ugly sneer. Recollection of former
+indignities at Conrad's tongue and hands blazed up in his heart and
+carried him farther than he had meant to go. With an oath and a vile
+name he flung his glass in Conrad's face. In an instant the young man's
+arms were around his body. The others crowded in and tried to stop the
+quarrel.
+
+"Let us alone!" shouted Curtis, pushing his way toward the back room.
+"Wilder, take his gun, will you? Get mine out of my pocket, too. This
+won't be a gun play."
+
+Tillinghurst took Conrad's pistol, and Wilder succeeded in getting
+Jenkins's revolver, at the cost of a kick on the shin, which he repaid
+in kind. With Jenkins almost helpless in his grasp, Curtis struggled
+into the rear room. The others were all crowding after him. He turned
+back a face still pale and set with anger, although a twinkle of
+amusement was creeping into his eyes.
+
+"Dan," he called, "shut that door and keep out the crowd!"
+
+Instantly there were cries of disapproval.
+
+"Fair play!" "You're bigger than him!" "We want to see it's on the
+square!"
+
+Curtis scowled. "If any of you think it won't be on the square, just
+wait for me till I get through with him," he shouted.
+
+The Sheriff slammed the door, and set his bulk against it, saying with
+smiling cheerfulness: "Well, gentlemen, I reckon Mr. Jenkins won't get
+any more than is comin' to him, and as Sheriff I call on all of you to
+keep the peace and not interfere."
+
+Alone in the back room with his prisoner, Conrad dropped into a chair,
+dragged the other over his knees, face downward, then threw out one
+sinewy leg and caught under it Jenkins's two unruly limbs. Still keeping
+a firm grip with his left arm, he raised his right hand.
+
+"Now," he said grimly, "you're going to get the sort of spanking your
+mother didn't give you enough of."
+
+One after another the resounding smacks came down, while Jenkins, his
+strength spent in futile struggle, could do nothing but writhe
+helplessly under the smarting blows. The sound of them penetrated to the
+front room. As the men there realized what was happening they broke into
+laughter so uproarious that it smote upon Jenkins's ears and forced a
+hysterical shriek from between his gritted teeth. In Conrad's heart it
+inspired compassion and he desisted.
+
+"I guess that'll do for this time," he said, releasing his hold and
+standing the culprit on his feet. "I don't want to have to hurt you, but
+let me tell you, you damned skunk," and he seized Jenkins's shoulders
+and gave him a vigorous shake, "if you ever dare talk about me again in
+that way, or tell another human being what you told me about Bancroft,
+I'll make you wish you'd never been born."
+
+With a parting shake he let Jenkins fall back into the chair, sobbing
+aloud. Then he stalked to the door, not even doing his enemy the slight
+honor of going out backward.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+A STERN CHASE
+
+
+As the shout which greeted Conrad's entrance died away the Sheriff
+called out, "Now, gentlemen, you must all have one with me," and every
+one lined up at the bar. A rollicking din of chaff and laughter filled
+the room, and no one except Little Jack Wilder noticed the entrance of a
+Mexican at the street door. He heard the step, turned quickly, and
+recognized the man who had told Tillinghurst that he was not Liberato
+Herrara. Glancing along the line of backs at the bar, the Mexican
+singled out Conrad and touched his arm.
+
+"I beg your pardon, senor, but did you send some one to ride your mare?"
+
+"To ride my mare? No; what do you mean?"
+
+Before he could answer Wilder sprang forward demanding, "Is she gone?"
+and Conrad started for the door.
+
+"A man has just ridden her away on the run," the Mexican said
+excitedly, and every one in the room rushed for the street.
+
+"She's gone!" shouted Conrad.
+
+"Did you see him? What was he like?" demanded the Sheriff.
+
+"A pock-marked greaser with a bad eye?" yelled Wilder, towering
+threateningly above the bearer of the news.
+
+Gonzalez threw back his head, folded his arms across his breast, and
+answered deliberately, "He was a Mexican, senor, he was pock-marked, and
+he was blind in one eye."
+
+"Melgares! He's done it at last! Hooray!" shouted Wilder.
+
+Far down the street, beyond the last cottonwood, against the gray,
+sun-flooded road, they could see a dark object, distorted by the heat
+haze, but still showing the form of a man on a galloping horse.
+
+Tillinghurst's smile became an eager grin as he started up the street on
+a run. "Everybody come that wants to," he called over his shoulder.
+Wilder and Conrad were already half a block ahead of him, and several
+others quickly followed.
+
+When they presently came pelting back, their horses at top speed, a
+crowd of men still stood on the sidewalk, where the Blue Front made a
+splash of brilliant color against the sombre grays and browns of the
+surrounding adobes. Wilder's tall, thin figure was in the lead, bending
+forward in the saddle like a sapling in a gale, the wide, limp brim of
+his sombrero flapping in the wind. Conrad and Tillinghurst were pressing
+him close, and half a dozen others were pounding along behind these
+three, while a stout man, who rode awkwardly, trailed along in the rear.
+
+The crowd at the Blue Front shouted encouragingly as they clattered
+past, and made bets on the chances of catching the fugitive. The
+Mexican, Gonzalez, watched Conrad closely as he sped by, and said
+carelessly to the man beside him, "Senor Conrad is a good rider, the
+best of them all. I hope he will get back his fine mare."
+
+The horsemen swept down the street past the last straggling houses, and
+out into the open plain. Fleeing down the road, perhaps two miles ahead
+of them, galloped the Mexican. Tillinghurst measured the distance with a
+careful eye, and said to Conrad, "He's our meat. We can get him easy."
+He glanced backward, chuckled, then turned in his saddle, and called
+loudly, "Come along there, Pendy! Don't get discouraged!"
+
+Another of the party turned his head and yelled, "You're all right,
+Pendy! You'll get there before Dan does!"
+
+The stout man who brought up the rear had made sure of his gray slouch
+hat by tying it on with a red bandanna handkerchief. He was gripping his
+bridle with both hands and bouncing in his saddle like a bag of meal.
+"Don't you worry about me!" he yelled back good-naturedly; "you can't
+lose me if you try."
+
+"Who is he?" asked Curtis.
+
+"Pendy? Oh, he's a tenderfoot. Blew in from the East two or three weeks
+ago. Somethin' wrong with his bellows--or likely to be, though you-all
+wouldn't think it, considerin' his fat. He's grit clear through, though!
+Just look at the way he rides!"
+
+Conrad glanced back, laughed, and replied, "Oh, it'll be good for his
+liver!" Then he went on seriously, "Dan, do you think there's any truth
+in the story that this man Melgares began horse-stealing because Dell
+Baxter did him out of his ranch?"
+
+"Oh, I don't know! Baxter got his ranch all right, but the greaser
+didn't have to go to stealin' horses on that account. Chickens are
+safer; and _chilis_ don't even squawk. I reckon likely he steals horses
+because he'd ruther."
+
+"Well, anyway, Dan, all I want out of this is to get Brown Betty back. I
+shall not make any complaint against him. So, if he gives up the mare,
+I'd rather you let him go."
+
+"Huh," grunted the Sheriff, with an apprehensive glance at Wilder, a
+full length ahead. "For God's sake, Curt, don't let Jack hear you say
+that! He'd be so disgusted he'd turn tail and go straight back to
+Golden!"
+
+The fugitive kept his distance well; it seemed to Conrad's eye that he
+even gained a little. Now and again they could see him look back, and
+with spur and quirt urge the mare to a fresh burst of speed.
+
+"Brown Betty's a stayer," said Curtis, bringing his horse beside
+Tillinghurst's again, "and she's fast. I don't believe we'll catch him
+unless something happens to her."
+
+The Sheriff turned a smiling face and said confidently, "If we get a
+little nearer I reckon somethin''s likely to happen to _him_. Hello,
+Pendleton!" he exclaimed as the stout man came up on the other side.
+"That noble steed of yours is sure gettin' a gait on him, ain't he? If
+you-all don't wait for the rest of us there'll be trouble, I'm tellin'
+you!"
+
+"Say, Sheriff," called Pendleton between his gasps and grunts as he
+bounced up and down, "are you going to keep up this pace all day?"
+
+Tillinghurst eyed him benignly. "As long as he does," he said, nodding
+toward the fleeing spot of black down the road. "Say, Pendy," he went on
+in a kindly tone, "it's a pretty stiff gait for you-all, and unless
+you're anxious to take your meals standin' for the next month you'd
+better drop out and go back. It's likely to be an all-day job."
+
+"Not much! You can't lose me till the fun's over!"
+
+"Hooray for Pendy! He's all right!" yelled a man behind, giving
+Pendleton's horse a sharp cut across the flank with his whip. The beast
+jumped, and its rider lurched to one side, fell forward, and saved
+himself by grabbing the mane with both hands. The men shouted with
+merriment as Pendleton righted himself, turned a laughing face and shook
+his fist at the man who had played the joke on him. "Just wait till I
+get you where I want you, Jack Gaines," he called, "and you'll be sorry
+you ever played tricks on a tenderfoot."
+
+The gulch spread out into a wide, shallow valley--a draw, they called
+it--and the waters of the stream disappeared, sucked up by the thirsty
+earth. The valley curved to the east, the road climbing over its rim and
+holding straight toward the south. The figure of Melgares, mounted on
+Brown Betty as on a pedestal, stood out boldly for a moment against the
+turquoise sky as he crossed the summit, then sank out of sight beyond
+the hill. The party galloped on, and as they crossed the ridge and saw
+him on the top of a smaller hill beyond, Conrad's eye swept the distance
+lying between and he exclaimed, "We've gained on him!"
+
+At the same moment Little Jack Wilder, who had been watching the road
+intently, shouted joyously, the first words he had spoken since leaving
+the town, "She's cast a shoe! Now it's a cinch!"
+
+Tillinghurst turned his head and shouted, "Get your gun ready, Pendy!
+your chance is comin'."
+
+Jack Gaines, riding neck and neck with the Sheriff, looked back and
+yelled, "Come a-runnin', Pendy! The greaser can't wait for you all
+day!"
+
+They were gaining rapidly on Melgares and, as they swept over the top of
+a little hill and saw him cross the next low rise, Conrad exclaimed,
+"She's limping, damn him! If he hurts Brown Betty--"
+
+"You won't mind so much if we hurt him," quietly put in the Sheriff, who
+was riding on his lee. Curtis spurred his horse to Wilder's stirrup.
+
+"Jack," he said, "I don't want the fellow hurt. If he'll give up my mare
+I'm willing to let him go."
+
+Little Jack grunted contemptuously without replying.
+
+"I want you to understand," Conrad went on, "that if you take him I
+shall make no complaint against him, provided I get Betty unhurt."
+
+"You don't have to make no complaint," Jack growled; "I'll do that
+myself."
+
+They gained steadily on the fugitive, and presently Curtis curved his
+hands about his mouth and called, "Betty! Betty B!" They could see the
+mare check her speed, and the faint sound of her whinny reached their
+ears. Conrad called again; and the mare wheeled in her tracks. The
+Mexican jerked her back, lashed her furiously, and set her forward again
+at a gallop. Curtis called again and again, and every time they could
+see Melgares using whip and spur to force her on. But presently the mare
+dropped tail and head, arched her back, and, stiff-legged, began to jump
+up and down.
+
+Conrad laughed joyously and slapped his thigh. "Bully for Betty B! I
+never knew her to buck before."
+
+They urged on their horses and pounded down the hill toward the small
+circus Brown Betty was making of herself. She cavorted, shook herself,
+humped her back, jumped up and down, stood on her front feet and almost
+sat on her tail, and did everything that equine intelligence could
+devise to rid herself of the masterful hand on her bridle. But the
+Mexican kept his seat and his grip upon the rein. With spur and quirt
+and compelling voice he finally forced her into submission. As she
+quieted down they were facing the pursuing posse and Melgares had just
+turned the mare's head in another desperate attempt at escape when
+Conrad's voice rang out once more, and Brown Betty refused to move. She
+tossed her head, laid back her ears, and whinnied, but would not lift a
+hoof. The Mexican drew his revolver and shouted, "Stop!"
+
+The horsemen, not more than a hundred yards distant, drew rein at the
+word--all except Pendleton, who came pounding and bouncing to the front,
+his horse still on the gallop. Gaines, just behind Tillinghurst and
+Wilder, called out laughingly, "Hooray for Pendy! Go on and get him,
+Pendy!"
+
+Pendleton had been too much occupied with keeping his seat to try to
+stop his horse, and as it went on half a length in advance of the rest
+Gaines leaned forward and gave it a cut across the flank with his quirt.
+It leaped forward smartly and Pendleton, taken unawares again, bobbed
+down on its neck and grabbed for its mane. Melgares saw the horse start
+forward and instantly his revolver flashed. The bullet left a singed
+streak across the back of Pendleton's coat, whistled on, and found
+refuge in Gaines's side.
+
+Wilder's gun was out and cocked. He saw Pendleton lying on his horse's
+neck, and heard Gaines cry out, "I'm hit!" as he fell forward across his
+pommel. "Stop that!" he called. "Fire again and you're a dead man!"
+
+Melgares leaped from the mare's back and ran at full speed down the
+valley, away from the road. Brown Betty came trotting to Conrad's side,
+whinnying joyfully. Pendleton sat upright, calling out, "Say, fellows,
+is there any blood on my back?" They told him no and as he climbed down
+from his saddle clumsily he grinned and said:
+
+"Well, I can still die of consumption, then!"
+
+Tillinghurst, Wilder, and several of the others were galloping after
+Melgares, who was running for his life down the valley toward a clump of
+cactus and juniper.
+
+"Wing him, Jack!" called the Sheriff. "There's a crack in the ground
+down there where he can hide and pick us off as he pleases."
+
+Little Jack brought his horse to a sudden stop, aimed low, and the
+Mexican reeled and fell, the blood gushing from a wound in the calf of
+his leg. He scrambled to his feet, and fired his second shot. The bullet
+nicked the brim of the Sheriff's hat. There was another flash, and
+Wilder heard the bullet sing past his ear.
+
+"Stop it, you damned greaser!" he yelled, "or I'll let daylight through
+your head." In quick succession he put two holes through the Mexican's
+sombrero. "The next one is for your other eye!" he called, and Melgares
+dropped his weapon.
+
+Wilder leaped to the ground and ran toward him. He glanced at the group
+of horsemen, each with revolver drawn, and at Wilder coming with his gun
+at cock, then threw back his head with his own pistol at his temple.
+Little Jack grabbed his arm, but Melgares fought desperately. The others
+came running to Wilder's assistance, and it was not until they had taken
+his revolver, put handcuffs upon him, and taken from his clothing
+another pistol, a knife, and a belt full of cartridges, that he gave up
+his struggles.
+
+They put him on the horse that Conrad had ridden, with his feet tied
+under its belly. Tillinghurst and Wilder, revolvers in hand, rode on
+either side of him. Conrad, mounted on his own mare, and another were
+side by side with Jack Gaines laid across their laps. Two more went on
+at a gallop to bring out a doctor and a carriage for the wounded man.
+The rest rode slowly back through the hot sunlight and the high wind,
+guarding their captive and carrying his victim.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+TALK OF MANY THINGS
+
+
+Golden prided itself upon being "the most American town in the
+Territory," but for all its energy and progressiveness it had not
+developed an ordinary regard for its own safety. After the mines which
+had given it birth had been worked out, it became the depot of supplies
+for the widespread miles of cattle country in the plains below, the
+mining regions in the mountains above, and the ranches scattered along
+the streams within a radius of fifty miles. As its importance increased
+a railway sought it out, the honor of being the county seat came
+to it, and the ruthless Anglo-Saxon arrived in such numbers and so
+energetically that its few contented and improvident Mexicans, thrust to
+one side, sank into hopeless nonentity. When Lucy Bancroft first set
+upon it the pleased eyes of youthful interest and filial affection, it
+was a busy, prosperous place of several thousand souls.
+
+But it still clung to the gulch wherein had been the beginning of its
+life and fortune. All the houses of its infancy had been built along the
+stream that sparkled down from the mountains, and there the town had
+tried to stay, regardless of the floods that occasionally swept down the
+canyon during the Summer rains. At first its growth had been up and down
+the creek; afterward cross streets had been extended far out on either
+side, especially where gradual hill slopes gave easy grades, and roads
+had also been made lengthwise along the hillsides and even on their
+crests, where now a goodly number of homes looked out over the plains
+and down upon the town-filled valley at their feet.
+
+Newcomers gazed curiously at the high sidewalks, raised on posts
+above the level of the thoroughfares, asking why, if there was such
+possibility of flood, the people continued to live and do business along
+the bottom of the gulch. The residents thought the walled sidewalks
+rather a good joke, a humorous distinction, and laughed at the idea of
+danger.
+
+Lucy Bancroft's eyes grew wide and solemn as she listened to the tale
+Dan Tillinghurst told her of the first year he was in Golden, years
+before, when a mighty torrent roared down the gulch, carried away most
+of the houses, and drowned a dozen souls. "But the very next day," he
+added proudly, "the people began rebuildin' their houses on the
+identical sites from which they had been swept."
+
+"Why didn't they rebuild on higher ground?" Lucy asked. "And aren't you
+afraid there will be another flood that will destroy all these houses
+and perhaps kill a great many people?"
+
+"Oh, there's no danger now," he assured her confidently. "The climate's
+changin'. There's not nearly so much rain as there used to be. The creek
+is dry half the time nowadays, and in my first years here it never went
+dry at all. Just look at these flood-marks," and he pointed out to her
+on the side of the brick building that housed her father's bank the
+lines to which had risen the high waters of each Summer. She saw that
+those of recent years were all very low. "Yes," he assured her, "the
+climate's changin', there's no doubt of that. There won't be any more
+floods."
+
+Between Lucy and the Sheriff a mutual admiration and good-fellowship had
+arisen, such as might exist between an elephant and a robin. The day
+after her arrival Tillinghurst had told Bancroft that his daughter was
+"the prettiest piece of dry goods that had ever come to Golden, and if
+he ever let her pull her freight he'd sure deserve nothin' less than
+tarrin' and featherin' at the hands of an outraged community."
+
+Notwithstanding her confidence in the big Sheriff, Lucy did not like
+the idea of living in the gulch, and persuaded her father to build
+their home on the brow of the _mesa_ overlooking the town from the west.
+She had no definite fear of the floods nor, after her first few weeks in
+the place, did she so much as think of danger from such a source. She
+liked the site on the _mesa_, although it was new and raw and treeless,
+because it commanded a far-reaching view, to the mountains on the west
+and north and, in front, across the town and the valley to the wide gray
+level of the plains.
+
+She sat on the veranda of her new home with Miss Louise Dent, telling
+her friend what pleasure she was taking in its arrangement and
+direction. "At first daddy didn't want me to do it. He thought it would
+be too much care and responsibility for me, and that we'd better board.
+But I said if a girl eighteen years old wasn't old enough and big
+enough to begin to take care of her father she never would be, and so he
+gave up. And now! Well, you'll see how he enjoys our home! He just beams
+with happiness every time he comes into the house. And I'm perfectly
+happy. Daddy is so good, and it's such a pleasure to make things nice
+and comfortable for him!"
+
+"I'm so glad," Miss Dent replied, "that you are happy here with him. He
+has had so many years of lonely wandering. And I know that he has long
+been looking forward to the time when you and he could have a home
+together. Your father hasn't had an easy life, dear. You could never
+guess all that he has been through. But he is a strong and determined
+man, and he's finally won success--just as I always knew he would.
+That's what I admire in him so much--that he never would give up." She
+stopped, a faint flush mounting to her brow. Lucy threw both arms around
+her neck and kissed her.
+
+"Of course, Dearie," she exclaimed, "you must appreciate my father, for
+you've known him so long; but it makes me love you all the more to hear
+you say so--and oh, Dearie, I'm going to make such a beautiful home out
+of this place!" Lucy looked about, her girlish face glowing with proud
+and pleased proprietorship. "I know how new and barren it looks now, but
+just wait till I've been at work at it for a year!"
+
+She went on to speak of her plans, asking Miss Dent's advice. In the
+back-yard the gaunt wings of a big windmill gave a touch of ultra modern
+picturesqueness and promised the fulfilment of the girl's hope of a lawn
+and flowers, trees and shrubbery, in the near future. A little
+conservatory jutted from the southern side of the house, while a deep
+veranda ran halfway across the eastern front and around the other two
+sides. The neutral, gray-green color of the structure melted into the
+hue of the hills and the surrounding _mesa_, leaving its barren newness
+less aggressive.
+
+As they talked Lucy now and then cast a lingering glance down the street
+that climbed the hill from the town below, and Miss Dent thought that
+sometimes a shade of disappointment dimmed the bright face for an
+instant. She was twenty years Lucy's senior, although both looks and
+manner gave the lie to the fact. The loving friendship between them was
+one of those unusual ties between a younger and an older woman which,
+when they do occur, are apt to be marked by an overflowing measure of
+enthusiasm and loyalty. Louise Dent had been the intimate friend of
+Lucy's mother and, after her death, had given the bereaved girl such
+love and care and sympathy as had won her instant and ardent devotion,
+and the relationship thus established had grown stronger and closer
+as the years passed and Lucy matured into womanhood. The girl's
+enthusiastic affection had enabled her to find in Louise Dent intimate
+friend, elder sister, and mother combined. This complicated feeling
+making it impossible for her to address the elder woman by either formal
+title or first name, she had soon settled upon "Dearie" as a substantive
+term expressing their relationship, and "Dearie" Miss Dent had been to
+her ever since, whether between themselves or among her own intimate
+friends.
+
+As the shadows grew longer and the hot white sunlight became less vivid,
+Lucy seemed to grow restless. She rose and moved about the veranda, or
+ran down into the yard and back upon some trivial errand, each time
+stopping on the steps to send an inquiring eye down the street.
+Standing there, when the afternoon was far spent and the fierce westerly
+wind had ebbed into a gentle breeze, she pointed out to Louise the
+statuesque sapphire mass of Mangan's Peak against the turquoise blue of
+the eastern sky, and told her of the drive thither and back she and her
+father had taken a fortnight before, and of their call at Socorro
+Springs ranch. "It's an interesting place," she went on; "such a huge
+ranch! Why, its grazing rights extend more than a hundred miles south,
+away across the Mexican border. Father knows the superintendent very
+well, and we'll get him to drive us out there some day." A higher color
+rose in her cheeks; she quickly turned away, drew her chair well back,
+and sat down. "There's Mr. Conrad, the superintendent, coming up the
+hill now!" she exclaimed. "Daddy told me at luncheon that he was in
+town."
+
+Lucy bore her new role of hostess with a dignity so easy and gracious
+that it surprised Louise, and made Conrad think her more attractive than
+ever. Bancroft came a little later, and Curtis was urged to stay to
+dinner. Lucy showed him in her conservatory the collection of cactus
+plants she had begun to make and listened with eager interest while he
+gave her information about the growth of the species she already had,
+and told her where she could find others less common. She was anxious to
+have his opinion whether it would be possible to make a hedge of
+mesquite to replace the wooden paling around the yard; he did not know,
+but offered to help her try the experiment.
+
+They dined on the side veranda, where Lucy, with the help of a screen or
+two and some plants from her green-house, had contrived an out-of-doors
+dining-room. The high spirits of the two younger people dominated the
+conversation, as they jested and bantered, laughed, and crossed wits in
+little wordy sword-plays that called forth applause and encouragement
+from the others. Lucy sparkled and dimpled, and her color rose, while
+Curtis's eyes darkened and flashed. Miss Dent, watching them, realized
+what an attractive young woman Lucy had grown to be, and how much she
+had blossomed out even in the few months since their last parting. "She
+will have plenty of admirers," the older woman thought, with a little
+twinge at her heart. Still, she was very young, and it would be a long
+time yet before she would think of marriage. But--if she were to marry
+and leave her father--he would be very lonely--perhaps--and then she
+felt her cheeks grow warmer, and hastened to resume her part in the
+conversation.
+
+Louise was pleased with Conrad's face. It seemed full of character, with
+its broad brow, tanned cheeks, large nose, and well-set chin. She noted
+especially the strong, firm jaw and chin, saying to herself that they
+betokened a strength of will and constancy of purpose that foretold
+success in whatever he might undertake. He was amusing them with an
+account of the feud between the wives of the Castleton brothers.
+
+"But don't the men take up the quarrels of their wives," Louise asked,
+"or allow any feeling to come between them?"
+
+"Not in the least; nor does there seem to be any ill-feeling between the
+ladies. They are always good friends, and the men look upon the whole
+thing as a good joke. If Mrs. Turner, for instance, cooks up some new
+scheme for getting the better of Mrs. Ned, she tells her husband about
+it, he tells Ned, and they laugh over it and make bets about which will
+win."
+
+Lucy was interested in the Castleton ladies. Conrad said that Mrs.
+Turner Castleton was considered a great beauty, but that he liked Mrs.
+Ned, who was half Mexican, much the better and thought her the more
+interesting and charming. She asked if they ever visited the ranch.
+"Yes," said Curtis; "Ned and his wife come up for a few days every
+Spring. This year they'll be there after the round-up is over and the
+cattle shipped. Would you like to meet them? All right, we'll arrange
+it. While they are there I'll get up a barbecue and a _baile_, and ask
+some people. You and Miss Dent and your father must all come."
+
+The American in the Southwest, arrogant and contemptuous as the
+Anglo-Saxon always is when brought face to face with a difference in
+race, a difference in ideals, or a difference in speech, regards the
+Spanish language with frank disdain and ordinarily refuses to learn it.
+But where the Mexicans are present in large numbers, as in New Mexico,
+he adopts from the other's language a good many words which soon
+supplant their English equivalents. An evening party of any sort,
+whether a public dance in the town hall, a select affair in the house of
+a prominent resident, or a gathering in the Mexican quarter, is always
+a "_baile_," a thriftless, insignificant person of either race a
+"_paisano_," while upon "_coyote_" the American has seized with ready
+tongue, applying it to any creature, human or other, for which he wishes
+to express supreme contempt.
+
+Miss Dent had to have _baile_ explained to her, and their talk drifted
+to the subject of the Mexican people. Bancroft told her the story of the
+bold theft of Conrad's mare, the chase and capture of Melgares, and the
+wounding of Gaines. "It is thought that poor Jack cannot live," he said
+in conclusion, "and the Mexican is held in jail to await the result. If
+he dies the fellow will be tried for murder."
+
+"I've heard a queer story about Melgares," said Conrad, and went on to
+tell how the Mexican had lost his little ranch. Lucy listened
+attentively, with indignant eyes fixed on Curtis's face.
+
+"How shameful!" she broke out. "What a detestable way of getting money!
+The poor Mexicans! Just think of their being turned out of their homes
+in that way, with nothing to fall back on! I don't wonder poor Melgares
+became a thief--but he ought to have gone to Santa Fe and stolen Mr.
+Baxter's horses!"
+
+Bancroft's eyes were fixed on his plate. Had the others been watching
+him closely they would have seen no more than a flicker of his eyelids
+as his face took on a stony impassiveness. But they were looking at Lucy
+who, with head erect, face flushed, and eyes sparkling, made a pretty
+picture.
+
+"I'm glad you feel that way, Miss Bancroft," Curtis exclaimed, his face
+alight with approval and admiration. "I think myself it's about as
+despicable a way of getting money legally as man ever devised. Baxter
+knows when he loans the money that the poor wretches will never be able
+to pay back a cent of it. He wouldn't loan it to them if he thought they
+could, for it's their land he's after. I've heard that he's getting
+control in this way of a big tract in the Rio Grande valley and that he
+intends to form a company, advertise it through the East, and sell the
+land, which is really valuable, at big prices."
+
+"Well, I think it's a shameful piece of business, and I'm surprised that
+Mr. Baxter is engaged in it!" said Lucy with decision.
+
+"Before you condemn him so severely, daughter," interposed Bancroft, his
+eyes still lowered, "you should remember that the business of the loan
+mortgage companies has the full sanction of law and custom, and that
+many of the most reputable business men of the United States have
+engaged in it."
+
+"I can't help it, daddy, if all the Congressmen and lawyers and business
+men, and preachers too, in the United States are engaged in it--that
+doesn't make it right. Somehow it seems a different matter with these
+poor Mexicans, they are so helpless. Why, it's almost like stealing
+their homes. I'm sorry, daddy, to speak so about Mr. Baxter, but that's
+really the way I feel about it; I suppose he doesn't realize what an
+injury he's doing them. Oh, daddy," and she leaned forward eagerly, her
+face flushing, "you and he are such good friends, maybe you could tell
+him what harm he's doing and persuade him to give up that part of his
+business!"
+
+Conrad smiled grimly. "It's plain, Miss Bancroft," he said, without
+waiting for her father to reply, "that you are not intimately acquainted
+with Dell Baxter. I'm sorry about this Melgares business, for I can't
+help feeling a sort of responsibility. If the fellow is hung his family
+will be left destitute. Yes, he has a wife and four children," he
+continued in answer to Miss Dent. "I had a talk with him about the
+affair, and he asked me to send for his family for him. He had money
+with which to pay their fares, though where he got it probably wouldn't
+bear too close an inquiry."
+
+Lucy was looking at him eagerly, her face full of sympathy. "The poor
+things!" she exclaimed. "When they come you must let me know, Mr.
+Conrad."
+
+Bancroft abruptly changed the subject, and presently the talk drifted to
+a story that had just come out about the postmaster at Randall. "It's a
+characteristic New Mexican tale," said Curtis, turning to the ladies.
+"You'll soon find out, Miss Bancroft, if you don't know it already, that
+the cowboy song of 'What was your name in the States?' can often be
+applied in earnest."
+
+"Confound the fellow," thought Bancroft irritably, "why is he always
+harping on that subject!"
+
+"This is a particularly audacious case, though--don't you think so,
+Aleck?" Curtis went on. "Here this man has been living for several years
+in Randall, a respected citizen, holding office, with influence in the
+community, when, behold, it is discovered that just before coming here
+he had skipped from some town in Missouri, where he was postmaster, with
+all the money in his office and another man's wife. But his sin has
+finally found him out."
+
+"It always does," observed Lucy coolly.
+
+Louise Dent was conscious of a fluttering in her throat and realized
+that her heart was beating loudly. The moment's pause that followed
+seemed to her so long that she rushed into speech, without thought of
+what she said: "I'm afraid it does."
+
+"Why do you say 'afraid,' Dearie?" asked Lucy, with surprise. "Isn't it
+right that it should?"
+
+Louise made brief and noncommittal reply and Bancroft hurriedly asked
+Curtis how the round-up was getting on.
+
+"Well, we've got the thing started, and are ready to move the cattle on
+the north part of the range toward Pelham. We'll begin shipping within
+two or three weeks. But something seems to have struck the cowboy market
+this year; I've been short of hands all the Spring."
+
+"Perhaps I can give you some help," said Bancroft. "A Mexican from up
+North has been to me looking for work. He came the day you had the
+chase after Melgares and was in again to-day. He has worked for Baxter,
+and Dell says he is an expert cowboy and sure to give satisfaction."
+
+"He must be an unusual sort of greaser if he's looking for work,"
+laughed Conrad. "If he's that sort, I guess he'll strike my gait."
+
+They found the Mexican sitting on the steps of the front veranda when
+they finished dinner.
+
+"Why," exclaimed Curtis with hearty interest, "he's the same chap that
+told me my mare was stolen. I hope you can ride and throw a rope; I'm
+obliged to you already, and I'd like to do you a good turn. I'll meet
+you down town presently, and if you know anything about the business
+I'll take you behind me on my mare to the ranch to-night, and you can go
+to work in the morning."
+
+The moon had just risen, and its huge white disk seemed to be resting on
+the plain only a little way beyond the town. Its brilliant silvery light
+was already working weird transformations in the landscape.
+
+"Oh, are you going to ride home to-night, through this wonderful
+moonlight!" Lucy exclaimed. "How I envy you!"
+
+"Yes," he answered, lowering his voice and speaking in a tone different
+from any she had before heard from his lips; "and it is indeed a
+wonderful ride! I don't know anything more impressive than the landscape
+of this country under a marvellous moon, like that over there. I hope we
+can have a ride by moonlight together, some time, when the moon is full.
+Does Miss Dent ride?" His voice went back to its usual tone. "I know
+your father is a fine rider. Perhaps we can make up a party some night,
+when I don't have to hurry home. I expect my brother here this Summer,
+to spend his vacation with me. You and Miss Dent will like him, I'm
+sure, for he's a fine lad. I hope we can all have some pleasant
+excursions together."
+
+At the sound of his softened voice Lucy felt herself swept by sudden
+emotion, and hastily put her hands behind her lest he should see that
+they were trembling. And later that night, when she looked out from her
+window at the white moon floating in the violet sky, suddenly her nerves
+went a-quiver again and her eyes sought the far, dim plain as she softly
+whispered, "Under a marvellous moon, like that over there!"
+
+The Mexican asked Bancroft how to reach the place where Conrad was to
+meet him, and the banker walked to the gate and pointed out the streets
+he was to follow. As he finished Gonzalez bent a keen gaze upon him and
+asked, significantly, "Has the senor further instructions for me?"
+
+Bancroft's start and the shade of annoyance that crossed his face as he
+realized that it had been noticed were not lost upon the man, whose
+searching look was still on him. His equanimity had been well tried
+already that evening, and this sudden touch upon a half-formed and most
+secret desire startled him for an instant out of his usual self-control.
+Heretofore he had merely dallied with the thought that Conrad's removal
+would mean his own safety, for the rest of his life. It had appeared to
+him merely as something the consequences of which would be desirable.
+His hand could not be concerned in it, he wished to know nothing about
+it--but if Baxter thought best--to further his own ends--why had the
+Mexican come to him with this impudent question?
+
+"I'm not hiring you," was his curt answer.
+
+"Certainly not, senor," the man answered calmly, his head erect, his
+arms folded, and one foot advanced. The trio on the veranda noted and
+laughed over his attitude. Lucy said he looked like a hero of melodrama
+taking the limelight. Miss Dent added that he was handsome enough for a
+matinee idol, and Conrad declared that there was no telling how many
+senoritas' hearts he had already broken. Bancroft turned to go back to
+the house, but paused an instant, and the Mexican quickly went on in a
+softly insinuating voice: "But if the senor should wish to say anything
+particular? Don Dellmey thought it might be possible."
+
+Bancroft lingered, flicking the ashes from his cigar. "I--I know nothing
+about it," he blurted out, uncertainly. "If Don Dellmey had anything to
+say to you I suppose he said it."
+
+As he turned away he heard the man say gently, "Thank you, Senor
+Bancroft. I shall not forget our talk." There was no reply, and the
+Mexican, whistling a Spanish love tune, disappeared down the hill in the
+weird mixed lights of the fading day and the brilliant moon.
+
+Alone on the veranda, Alexander Bancroft walked restlessly to and fro,
+stopping now and again as if to listen to the music from within, which
+he did not hear, or to look at the moonlit landscape, which he did not
+see. Over and over he was saying to himself that he had no idea what
+Dellmey Baxter had said to this Mexican, and, whatever it was, he had
+distinctly told the creature that he knew nothing about it. The man had
+come to him recommended as an expert cowboy, he had passed the
+recommendation on to Conrad, and that was all there was about it.
+
+Nevertheless, he knew he had reason to believe--the Congressman had
+intimated as much in his letter--that the man who called himself Jose
+Gonzalez was in reality Liberato Herrara, guilty of at least one murder
+and probably of others, whom Baxter's legal skill had saved from the
+gallows. Curtis had said that he should carry the man behind him to the
+ranch that night. Before Bancroft's inward eye a sudden vision opened:
+wide miles of silent plain, a great white moon hanging low in the sky, a
+long stretch of deserted road, and then two men on a single horse--and
+the light gleaming on a long knife! He shuddered as the blade flashed,
+and turned his face away from the plain. Then, as there came to him a
+sudden sense of tremendous relief, with breath and thought suspended he
+turned slowly, fascinatedly, and with greedy eyes searched the distant
+plain, as if eager to find in it some proof, at last, of his own safety.
+
+Lucy's voice rose in a gay little song above the piano and fell upon his
+ears. With a deep, long-drawn breath his thought leaped out and seized
+upon all that freedom from Curtis Conrad's pursuit would mean for him.
+Jose Gonzalez would sink out of sight, and Liberato Herrara would be
+back in his own home, unsuspected and silent. Some excitement would
+follow, search would be made, a body would be found in a mesquite
+thicket,--and then the interest would die out, and there would be only
+another grewsome tale of mystery to be added to the hundreds already
+told through the Southwest. And he--Alexander Bancroft--would be
+safe--secure in fortune and reputation and the love and honor of his
+daughter as long as they should live.
+
+The music within ceased and Lucy's voice rippled out in girlish
+laughter. His heart sank as he seemed to hear again her hot denunciation
+of Baxter's loan and mortgage operations. "I'll sell out to Dell and
+she'll never know I've had anything to do with it," he thought. Then
+there came ringing through his memory, as he had heard them so many
+times since they rode home from the Socorro Springs ranch, her
+passionate words, "He must have been a wicked man," and "I should hate
+him, with all my strength," and again his longing face turned
+impulsively toward the plain.
+
+"I'd kill him myself, rather than let her find out," he whispered, with
+teeth set. "And a man has got to protect himself out here!" his urgent
+thought went on. "I'll be a fool if I don't stop him before he gets his
+chance at me!" With a sudden stirring of conscience he remembered that
+this man whose death he was so ardently desiring was his friend and
+trusted his friendship. "I--I don't want him stuck in the back," he
+muttered. "I might warn him. He may not have started yet."
+
+He walked uncertainly toward the veranda steps. There was a flutter of
+white drapery and Lucy was laying an affectionate hand on his arm. "Oh,
+daddy dear," she coaxed, "won't you come in and try this duet with us?
+Dearie will play the accompaniment for us to sing. She brought it to me,
+and I'm dying to try it."
+
+"Yes, if you wish it, daughter," the banker replied, hesitation in his
+voice, "but I was thinking of going down town." He saw the shade of
+disappointment that crossed her face, and drew her hand into his arm.
+"It doesn't matter," he went on, "and I would rather stay at home." To
+himself he said as they moved to the door, "Conrad has gone by this
+time, and, anyway, I've no reason to think this Mexican intends to do
+him any harm."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+SPECTRES OF THE PAST
+
+
+Restless was the night that followed for Alexander Bancroft; his sleep
+was troubled by many a dream in which one friend after another moved
+swiftly on to violent death. With the coming of dawn he arose to look
+out from the eastern windows of his room. The sky was a dome of rosy
+light and below lay the vast plain, dim but colorful, its gray-green
+mottled with vague bands and patches of opalescent lights and shadows
+and dotted with little islands of vivid green. His eyes clung to these
+darker spots, which he knew to be thickets of mesquite; piercing their
+shade his inner vision showed him the still body of his friend. So real
+was the mental picture that he turned pale about the lips and abruptly
+left the window.
+
+If anything had happened, he kept reassuring himself, it had been at
+Dellmey Baxter's instigation. He himself had had nothing to do with it.
+If Baxter had decided that his affairs would go more smoothly with
+Conrad out of the way, why should he, Alexander Bancroft, trouble
+himself further? And if--anything had happened--again he felt the
+loosening of mental strain and his spirits rose in exultation at the
+prospect of freedom and safety. Life was more attractive than ever with
+that menacing figure no longer threatening him with disclosure,
+disgrace, and death. He could go on with his plans for the accumulation
+of fortune and the enjoyment of life. He could still hold Lucy's love
+and honor, travel with her, marry again, work his way to a commanding
+place in the world of business. The future opened before him as easy and
+inviting as the stairs down which he went to breakfast.
+
+Lucy ran to meet him with a good-morning kiss and a rose for his
+buttonhole. "It's the prettiest I could find in my conservatory," she
+smiled at him; "but it isn't half nice enough for my daddy dear. You
+don't look well this morning, daddy," she went on anxiously. "Is
+anything the matter?"
+
+His hand slipped caressingly down over her curls and drew her to his
+breast in a quick embrace, instinct with the native impulse of the
+animal to protect its offspring. "She shall never know," was the
+thought in his mind.
+
+"Daddy! What a bear hug that was!" she laughed, "like those you used to
+give me when I was a little girl. It didn't feel as if you were ill."
+
+"I'm not," he answered lightly, kissing her pink cheek. "I guess I
+smoked too much yesterday, and so didn't sleep very well. Yes; I
+promise; I'll be more careful to-day."
+
+At breakfast his eyes dwelt much upon Louise Dent's face, gentle and
+pleasant. He had always liked her, and since her coming on this visit
+she had seemed very attractive. He knew she had strength and poise of
+character and a nature refined and cheerful. These qualities in her,
+with a certain genial, unobtrusive companionableness, had long ago won
+his warm friendship. But was there not in her steady gray eyes a hint of
+passionate depths he had never thought of before? It stirred him so
+deeply that for a little while, as they lingered over the breakfast
+table, he forgot the other facts of life, noting the faint rose flush in
+her cheeks, the graceful turn of her wrists, and the soft whiteness of
+her throat as she threw back her head and laughed. And Lucy loved her so
+devotedly! If she were willing to marry him their household would
+surely be harmonious and happy.
+
+Lucy fluttered beside him to the gate, her arm in his, as she chattered
+to him of the funny things her Chinese cook had been saying and doing.
+She lingered there, her eyes following his figure, until he turned, half
+a block away, to wave his hat in response to her farewell handkerchief.
+
+By the time he reached the foot of the hill Bancroft's mind was once
+more engrossed with the need of knowing whether or not he was at last
+secure from ignominious exposure. He no longer disguised from himself
+the fact that news of Conrad's death would be most welcome. He looked
+eagerly up and down the main streets; there was no sign of excitement.
+Had nothing happened, then? But it was still early; moreover, news of
+the affair might not reach the town for a day or two. The sound of
+horses' feet coming at a swift trot down the street on the other side of
+the stream made his heart beat quickly. He lingered at the door of his
+bank until the horseman came into view under the big cottonwoods at the
+next corner. It was Red Jack from the Socorro Springs ranch. At once his
+heart leaped to certainty. He turned to enter the bank, but stopped and
+looked back, undecidedly. Red Jack had not dismounted, but had drawn
+rein in front of the court-house at the next corner, and was sitting
+there quietly, looking up and down the road as if expecting somebody. He
+led a saddled horse. Perhaps he was to take a physician back with him.
+But he seemed in no haste, and in his manner there was neither
+excitement nor anxiety. Bancroft could wait no longer to learn what had
+happened. With hands in pockets he sauntered down the street.
+
+"Hello, Jack," he said indifferently to the waiting horseman. "You're in
+town early this morning."
+
+"I sure hiked along from the ranch early enough," the cowboy replied.
+"The boss hired a new man last night; and I had to come over this
+morning after him."
+
+Bancroft's eyes were on the cigar he was taking from his pocket, which
+he handed to the cowboy, saying idly, "Why, he intended last night to
+carry the man behind him. Did he change his mind? The man was a Mexican,
+wasn't he?"
+
+"Y-e-s; a measly coyote! The boss didn't bring him last night because he
+thought it would be too hard on Brown Betty to carry double. I wonder if
+mebbe that ain't my man comin' down the street right now! I've done
+forgot his name; do you happen to know it, Mr. Bancroft?"
+
+"I think it's Jose Gonzalez. He came here from Dellmey Baxter, who
+recommended him to me as a first-rate cowboy."
+
+"Well, he'll have to be a peach if he strikes the boss's gait," Red Jack
+rejoined, motioning to the Mexican.
+
+Bancroft walked back to his place of business with brows knitted and
+mouth drawn into grim lines. His mind was acting rapidly and ruthlessly.
+The sudden collapse of his house of cards, the knowledge that danger was
+still as imminent as ever, left him savage with desire for Curtis
+Conrad's death, or, rather, for the delectable land that lay beyond it.
+Nobody but this young hothead with his insensate desire for revenge knew
+or cared anything about that old affair now. With him out of the way
+there would be no danger from anybody or anything. Why wasn't the man
+sensible enough to take the money he was willing to pay, and be
+satisfied? Perhaps the receipt of another check or two would soften his
+purpose; it was worth trying. And--there was still the Mexican! Baxter
+had surely said something to him, and the fellow seemed to understand
+that he, also--but he had said nothing about it, and whatever the
+creature suspected was his own inference. Evidently the Mexican did
+suspect something and had some purpose in his mind. With Conrad so
+intent upon his destruction had he not every right to protect himself
+and his child? Of course he had, he told himself fiercely, and what
+means he might use were his own affair.
+
+At the door of the bank Rutherford Jenkins met him with a smiling
+salutation: "Good-morning, Mr. Bancroft; this is lucky! I was waiting
+for you here, but I've got so much to do that I'd begun to be afraid I
+wouldn't be able to see you before I go back."
+
+Bancroft greeted him pleasantly. "What do you mean, Jenkins," he went
+on, "by deserting to Martinez? Hadn't you better think again about that?
+We need you on our side."
+
+"That's exactly what I want to see you about," said Jenkins in a
+confidential tone. "Can't you come over with me to Bill Williams's hotel
+for a few minutes? I want to have a talk with you."
+
+They went back together, Bancroft wondering if Jenkins, who was regarded
+as a desirable ally by both parties, notwithstanding his character, was
+about to make overtures to him for deserting the Martinez fold and
+coming back to Baxter's. "Perhaps that spanking Curt gave him has set
+him against the whole Martinez following," he thought. "Baxter will be
+mighty glad to get him back, and I'll do my best to cinch the bargain so
+he can't crawl."
+
+When they entered the hotel room Jenkins moved leisurely about, got out
+a bottle of whiskey, and hunted up some cigars, talking all the time
+glibly about other matters and jumping inconsequently from one subject
+to another. Bancroft made several attempts to bring the conversation to
+the point, but each time Jenkins either blandly ignored or skilfully
+evaded his leading. Finally Bancroft said, looking at his watch: "Well,
+Jenkins, I've got to be at the bank very soon, and if there's anything
+particular you want to say suppose we get down to business."
+
+"Yes, yes, certainly," Jenkins replied unconcernedly. "That's what I'm
+coming to right now." He gave Bancroft a cigar, lighted one himself,
+made some jokes as he bustled aimlessly around the room, and at last sat
+down on the foot of the bed, facing the banker, who occupied the only
+chair in the little room. He ceased speaking, and Bancroft, looking up
+suddenly, caught in his face an expression of expectant triumph. The tip
+of his tongue was darting over his lips, and his small dark eyes were
+fixed on his guest with a look of malicious satisfaction. Instantly
+Bancroft's nerves were alert with the sense of coming danger. He blew
+out a whiff of smoke and calmly returned the other's gaze. Their eyes
+met thus, the one gloating, the other outwardly unmoved but inwardly
+astart with sudden alarm. Then Jenkins began, in a blandly insinuating
+tone:
+
+"Before we come to that matter about Martinez, I want to ask you,
+Mr.--ah--Mr. Dela--ah, I beg your pardon, Mr. Bancroft--I thought I
+would ask you--you've poked about a good deal, out here in the West--and
+in out-of-the-way places, too--and I've been wondering--I thought
+I'd ask you--if you've ever run across a gentleman of the name
+of--of--Dela--Dela--let me see--yes, Delafield--that's it--Sumner L.
+Delafield, of Boston. Do you remember whether or not you've ever met
+him?"
+
+Bancroft did not blanch nor flinch. For so many years he had schooled
+himself to such constant watchfulness and incessant self-control that an
+impassive countenance and manner had become a habit. Lucy, with her
+uncompromising moral decisions and her swift, unsparing condemnations,
+could come nearer to unnerving him than could any bolt from the blue
+like this. He flicked the ash from his cigar, hesitating a moment as if
+searching his memory, but really wondering whether Jenkins knew anything
+or was merely guessing and trying to draw him out. The latter seemed
+much the more likely.
+
+"I can't say on the instant whether I ever met such a man or not. As you
+say, I have gone about a good deal and, as my business most of the time
+has been that of mining and trading in mines, it has often taken me into
+out-of-the-way places, and I have met a great many people. At this
+moment I don't recall the name."
+
+"Don't you? I'm sorry, for I thought perhaps you could verify for me a
+curious story about the man that has just come to my knowledge. You know
+I'm always picking up information about people--I find it comes in handy
+now and then. Well, if you've never met him, have you ever, in the
+course of your Western travels, run across a man--he was a mining man,
+too--a mining man named Hardy--John Mason Hardy? There's a curious
+story about him, too, or, rather, about a man who was associated with
+him in a mining enterprise down in old Mexico. The other man's name was
+Smith--a very serviceable name is Smith; sort of like a black derby hat;
+no distinguishing mark about it and easy to exchange by mistake if you'd
+rather have some other man's."
+
+Bancroft rose and looked at his watch. "If there's anything of
+particular interest or importance in this, Mr. Jenkins, I'll be very
+glad to listen to it some other time; but I can't stay any longer this
+morning. I ought to have been at my desk half an hour ago."
+
+Jenkins sat still and waved him back with insistent politeness. "One
+moment more, Mr. Bancroft, if you please. I'm coming to the point right
+away. This story is of some consequence to me, and I'd like to know if
+you can verify it. Have another drink."
+
+Bancroft swallowed the whiskey at a gulp and Jenkins noticed that his
+fingers trembled as he took the glass. He was thinking, "I'd better stay
+and find out exactly how much he knows." Jenkins smiled under his hand
+as he smoothed his straggling moustache and watched Bancroft wipe the
+sweat from his forehead.
+
+"This man Smith," Jenkins continued, "John was his name, too--John Smith
+and John Mason Hardy were partners in a mining enterprise down in
+Mexico. One of them died down there--died, you know, in a quiet, private
+sort of way, and the one that came up to the States again was named
+Hardy, but it wasn't the same Hardy that had gone down there. You might
+guess, if you wanted to, that Smith killed Hardy and took his name--"
+
+He stopped and drew back suddenly, for Bancroft had sprung forward with
+a white, angry face and was shaking a trembling fist under his nose.
+
+"Stop there, you liar!" he exclaimed in low, tense tones. "I didn't do
+that. He died a natural death--of fever--and I took care of him and did
+my best to save his life."
+
+Jenkins recovered his self-possession first. "Oh; then you know all
+about it!" he said dryly, with a malicious smile.
+
+Bancroft sank back in his chair drawing his hand across his eyes and
+wondering why his self-control had so suddenly gone to pieces. He had
+thought himself proof against any surprise, but this man's sudden blow
+and persistent baiting had screwed his nerve tension to the snapping
+point. But he told himself that it probably did not matter anyway, as
+Jenkins evidently knew the whole story. With a desperate, defiant look
+he turned upon his tormentor.
+
+"Well, what do you want?" he demanded sharply. "Why have you raked up
+this old story?"
+
+"Oh, I found it interesting," Jenkins responded in a leisurely way, "as
+an instance of the way things are done on the frontier and, as I told
+you at first, I thought you might be able to verify it. For I was
+inclined not to believe it, especially as it was about one of the most
+prominent and respected citizens of New Mexico. But since you've
+confessed its truth yourself--well, I've got to believe it now.
+It has been a very blind trail I've followed, crooked and well
+hidden--wonderfully well hidden, Mr. Bancroft--and the number of names
+you've hoisted along its course has been bewildering. But I've managed
+to track you through 'em all, and to discover in Alexander Bancroft, the
+upright, honored, public-spirited citizen of New Mexico, the identical
+person of Sumner L. Delafield, the defaulting and absconding financier
+of Boston."
+
+Bancroft looked Jenkins sullenly in the eye. "Well, now that you have it
+all, what are you going to do about it?"
+
+"Pardon me, Mr. Bancroft," said Jenkins with exaggerated suavity, "ah,
+excuse me, I mean Mr. Delafield--that is for you to say."
+
+The banker considered for a moment only. Evidently this man knew exactly
+what he was about and exactly what he wanted, so that it would be of no
+use to beat around the bush. "Will you please say precisely what you
+mean?" was his answer.
+
+"That is just what I have been doing, Mr. Delafield."
+
+"Excuse me, Jenkins, but my name is Bancroft, not Delafield. I have a
+legal right to the name of Bancroft, given me by the legislature of
+Arizona. You will oblige me by addressing me in that way."
+
+"Oh, yes; I know that; and a lot of trouble I had with this chase until
+I found it out! But I thought you might like to hear yourself called
+Delafield once more--sort of like meeting an old friend, you know. Won't
+you have another cigar, Mr. Bancroft? No? Well, then, let's have another
+drink." He poured out two glasses of whiskey. Bancroft drank his
+without demur, but Jenkins barely touched his glass to his lips.
+
+"Well, now, Mr. Bancroft," Jenkins went on affably, smiling and rubbing
+his hands together, "let's get down to the practical side of this
+romantic story from real life. You are getting on so well here under
+your present name, and you have a young daughter--" he saw his listener
+wince at this, and then carefully repeated his words--"and you have such
+a beautiful and charming young daughter, who, as the heiress of a father
+who is making a fortune with clean hands and no cloud on his past, can
+be taken about the world and can make a good marriage some of these
+days; considering all this, I take it for granted that you would prefer
+to have this story buried too deep for resurrection. And it is for you
+to say whether it shall be buried or not."
+
+Bancroft sat in silence for a full minute, glaring at the man opposite,
+his lips set in a livid line. Jenkins grew nervous in the dead stillness
+of the room, and began to fidget. He cautiously rested his right hand on
+the bed close by his pistol pocket, and kept his eyes on the banker,
+watchful for the first hostile movement. There was need of wariness,
+for Bancroft was debating with himself whether it would be better to go
+on to the dreary end of this business and leave the room with a
+blackmailer's noose around his neck, or to whip out his gun, put a
+bullet through this man's brain, and another through his own.
+
+But the fragrance of life rose sweet to his nostrils, and his innate
+virility spurred him on to keep up the fight. Apparently he had brought
+up against a stone wall, but he had fought too long and too desperately
+to be willing to confess himself beaten until he could struggle no
+longer. He felt sure that money would keep Jenkins quiet, and after a
+while he might find some other means of stopping the man's mouth for
+good. The fellow was always in some dirty job or other, and before long
+doubtless some hold on him would become possible. There was Conrad still
+to be reckoned with--but that could wait, at least until this man was
+silenced.
+
+"Well," he said quietly, "what do you want? For God's sake, come to the
+point!"
+
+Jenkins drew a breath of relief. "Well, Mr. Bancroft, I'm interested
+this year in the success of Johnny Martinez. It's a matter of the first
+importance to me for him to be elected. But I'm afraid he hasn't got
+much chance if Silverside County and the rest of the South should go
+against him. Now, you've got more influence down here than anybody else,
+and you can swing it for him if you want to. That's what I want you to
+do."
+
+Bancroft looked up in sudden dismay. He had not expected anything of
+this sort. "You know I'm committed to Baxter," he said.
+
+"Oh, yes; I know. But that's nothing. In New Mexico it's not difficult
+to change your politics. Why, I thought of coming out for Baxter myself
+at first; but I'm solid for Martinez now."
+
+Bancroft rose and began pacing the half-dozen steps to and fro that the
+room afforded, seeking some loophole of escape from his obligations to
+Baxter. There were mortgages the Congressman could foreclose that would
+balk some of the banker's most promising plans should he attempt
+political treachery. He could, and undoubtedly would, reveal his
+associate's connection with the loan and mortgage operations in the Rio
+Grande valley; and Bancroft winced as he thought of this coming to
+Lucy's ears. And in that matter of Curtis Conrad and Jose Gonzalez--had
+he not put himself at Baxter's mercy? In this moment of supreme
+necessity the naked truth came before him; and he knew it to be true
+that he was primarily responsible for any harm that might come to the
+young cattleman through Gonzalez. If he did not keep faith with Baxter
+the Congressman would tell Curtis who it was that desired his death; and
+then Conrad would know where to find Delafield. In short, he knew that
+Baxter would stop at nothing to compel his loyalty or punish his
+treason. Having contemplated no course except that of fidelity in his
+business and political relations with Baxter, the closeness of their
+alliance had heretofore given him little uneasiness; and now, in this
+crisis, he found himself wholly in the other's power. He flung himself
+into his chair, his face pallid and the perspiration standing in great
+drops on his forehead. His breath came hard and his voice was thick as
+he asked:
+
+"Is there no alternative?"
+
+"Well, no; none that I can accept," Jenkins replied meditatively. "You
+see, it's a very important matter for me to be able to make this present
+to Johnny. If he wins this fight there'll be something big in it for me.
+No; I'll have to insist upon this as the first condition."
+
+Bancroft's lips moved soundlessly as he stared at the man sitting on the
+edge of the bed, nursing his knee and showing his white teeth in a
+triumphant smile. Then, suddenly, without a word of warning, the banker
+leaped forward and seized his companion around the throat. Jenkins,
+taken entirely off his guard, succeeded only in grasping his assailant's
+coat as they went down on the bed together in a noiseless scuffle.
+Bancroft's hands closed around his tormentor's throat, and a savage,
+elemental satisfaction thrilled in him and goaded him on. More and more
+tightly his fingers clutched as Jenkins struggled under his grip.
+Neither of them uttered a sound, and the silence of the room was broken
+only by the creaking of the bed or the occasional knocking of a foot
+against the chair.
+
+Bancroft's face was snarled like that of a wild beast as he watched
+Jenkins's visage grow livid and his struggles weaken. Of a sudden reason
+returned to him. If this man were to die under his hand there would be
+grewsome consequences--and he had enough to deal with already. He stood
+up, trembling, and looked anxiously at the still form on the bed.
+
+"You--you're not dead, Jenkins, are you?" he stammered awkwardly.
+
+Jenkins stirred a little, opened his eyes, put his hand to his throat,
+and got up, looking warily at his assailant. "It's no thanks to you that
+I'm not," he responded sullenly.
+
+"I didn't mean to kill you--but you--you struck me too hard--it drove me
+wild--and for a minute I didn't know what I was doing." Jenkins scowled,
+rubbed his throat again, and drank a glass of whiskey. Bancroft helped
+himself likewise, following it with a copious draught of water. As they
+faced each other again Jenkins edged away suspiciously toward the door;
+but Bancroft went back at once to the unsettled question.
+
+"It would ruin me, financially and in every other way, to go back on
+Baxter. You might just as well kill me outright as insist upon that."
+
+"But I'm going to insist upon it," was Jenkins's sullen answer.
+
+Bancroft made a despairing gesture. "But I tell you, Jenkins, the
+thing's impossible! It would ruin me just as surely as for you to tell
+all you know. You'll have to be satisfied with something else."
+
+Jenkins leaned against the bed and stared angrily at Bancroft. Physical
+pain had made him obstinate and determined him to press his point, more
+to return injury for injury than because he wanted that particular
+thing.
+
+"I tell you now," Bancroft went on, "that I'd rather take the last way
+out than try to go back on Baxter. It wouldn't be the healthiest thing
+in the world for you if I should kill myself shut up in this room with
+you, would it?"
+
+"Well, I'll waive that for the present," Jenkins replied unwillingly;
+"but, mind you, it's only for the present. We'll talk about it again,
+later in the season. For the present I want a good, big sum before you
+leave this room, and hereafter I've got to have a regular monthly
+payment, a check on the first of every month when I don't come after the
+cash myself."
+
+Bancroft considered for only a moment. His dilemma was clear: he must
+either buy this haltered freedom from Jenkins or kill him in his tracks.
+This latter alternative was not to be considered; and doubtless before
+long it would be possible to turn the tables on the creature and escape
+from his clutches.
+
+Jenkins folded away in his pocket-book a check and a roll of bills and
+smiled as he looked at Bancroft's haggard face. "I hope, Mr. Dela--ah,
+pardon me,--Mr. Bancroft, that I have not kept you too long from your
+affairs at the bank." As his eyes followed the banker's disappearing
+figure with a gleam of satisfaction, he patted his breast pocket and
+whispered:
+
+"Now for the other score!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+PERILS IN THE NIGHT
+
+
+Red Jack and Jose Gonzalez joined the forces of the Socorro Springs
+ranch while the cattle of the morning's round-up were being driven to
+the watering-place near the ranch house. Across the road from the house
+stood a large grove of cottonwoods; a little beyond that, in the valley,
+a deep pond had been dug, into which flowed the outlets from the several
+springs. The cattle from a score of miles roundabout were accustomed to
+come to this pond, with its circling belt of trees, for water and for
+midday rest in the shade.
+
+Here the round-up was in progress, and Conrad galloped out to meet the
+new hand and give him instructions. As he rode off toward the hills
+after a bunch of straggling cattle Curtis looked after him with an
+approving eye. "He knows how to fork a horse, at least," he thought. In
+the afternoon Jose was set to work cutting out and bunching the two-
+and three-year-old steers and later at helping with the branding. Conrad
+watched his handling of the branding irons, and he and all the rest
+stopped their work to follow his movements with critical eyes as he
+roped and brought to the ground a belligerent steer. The superintendent
+was well satisfied. "At last I've got a man who knows the business and
+has some _sabe_," he thought. "If he goes on as well as he begins I'll
+keep him after the shipping is done."
+
+The next day the round-up crept slowly southward, accompanied by
+the chuck-wagon and a drove of fresh horses. At noon the cattle
+gathered during the morning were bunched at Adobe Springs, the next
+watering-place toward the Mexican border. Gonzalez was the only Mexican
+among the cowboys, the rest being Americans of one sort or another--from
+Texas, Colorado, the Northwest, and the Middle West. All felt toward
+him the contemptuous scorn born of difference in race and consequent
+conviction of superior merit. They had no scruples about making known
+their prejudice, and more than once his face flushed and his hand darted
+toward the knife hidden in his bosom. Yet, as the day wore on and they
+saw that he excelled the best of them in handling the lasso and in the
+cunning of his movements when cutting out the steers from the herd, they
+began to show him the respect that skill of any sort inspires in those
+who know with what effort it is acquired.
+
+After supper, when they gathered about the campfire, smoking, and
+scoffing good-naturedly at one another's tales of wondrous experiences,
+and talking over the events of the day just gone, they received him upon
+an equality with themselves which was only slightly grudged. He told
+them, in English more precise than any of them could speak, of Conrad's
+encounter with Rutherford Jenkins in the Blue Front, and their
+appreciation of the tale completed the work which his skill as a cowboy
+had begun. Thereafter they looked upon Jose as a comrade and a good
+fellow.
+
+Three small adobe houses, of one room each, with flat roofs and earthen
+floors, had been built here, as the large and never-failing springs made
+the spot a sure rendezvous for every round-up. The locality was infested
+by skunks, and the cowboys, who greatly feared midnight bites from the
+prowling animals, believing hydrophobia a sure consequence, usually
+preferred to sleep inside the houses, on bunks filled with alfalfa hay.
+If they ventured to sleep out-of-doors, they kept small cans of coal oil
+ready and, whenever a wakeful man saw one of the small creatures near, a
+quick turn of the wrist drenched its fur with the fluid and a brand from
+the smouldering campfire tossed after it sent a squealing pillar of
+flame flying up the hill and saved them from further disturbance that
+night.
+
+A board nailed across a corner of the largest house served Conrad as a
+desk. He kept there a lamp, writing materials, and a few books. While
+the men sprawled around the campfire and the last gleams of dusky red
+faded from the west and the moon bounded up from behind the eastern
+hills, he made his memoranda, wrote a letter to be sent to the
+post-office by the first chance comer, and lost himself for an hour in a
+volume of Shakespeare. When he went outside the men were walking about,
+yawning and stretching, ready for sleep. Curtis's imagination was still
+astir from his reading, and the presence of any other human being seemed
+an impertinence. But he said, genially:
+
+"Well, boys, you begin to look as if you wanted to turn in. Take
+whatever bunks you like, if you want to go inside. I'm going to sleep
+out here."
+
+"Better have a tin of ile handy," said Red Jack. "The polecats are sure
+likely to nibble your toes if you don't. The night I slept here last
+week I never saw the cusses so bad; durned if one of the critters didn't
+get inside and wake me up smellin' of my ear. I was some skeered of him
+stinkin' up the place so it couldn't be slept in for a year, so I jest
+had to lay low and wait for him to go outside, and then I doused him
+good with ile and throwed the candle at him. I sure reckon he's holed up
+somewhere now, waitin' till he can afford a new sealskin sacque before
+he shows hisself in good sassiety ag'in."
+
+"I don't think they'll bother me to-night," Curtis responded. At that
+moment he felt that nothing could disturb him, if only he could be left
+alone with the moonlight and the plain. "I'll sleep with my boots on,
+and my cheeks are not as fat as yours, Jack, so there'll be no
+temptation. Where do you want to bunk, Jose? You can sleep outside or
+in, just as you like."
+
+Gonzalez replied respectfully that he would rather go in. But presently
+he came out again with his blanket and chose a spot against the wall of
+one of the houses. Conrad had gone out to the herd to speak with the man
+on patrol and to make sure that all was well. When he returned the men
+had disappeared. "Good!" he said to himself. "They've all gone inside
+and I've got the universe to myself." He did not see the still form in
+its gray blanket close against the wall.
+
+Curtis took the red bandanna from his neck and tied it over his ears, to
+keep out the tiny things that crawl o' nights, and couched himself in
+his blanket on the gently rising ground with his saddle for a pillow. He
+lay down with his face to the east, where the dim and mellow sky,
+flooded with moonlight, seemed to recede far back, to the very limits of
+space, and leave the huge white globe suspended there in brooding
+majesty just above the plain. With long legs outstretched and muscles
+relaxed, he lay as still as if asleep, his eyes on its glowing disk. He
+knew all that science had discovered or guessed about the moon's
+character and history. But it had companioned him on so many a silent
+ride across long miles of dimly gleaming plain, and on so many nights
+like this as he lay upon the earth it had gathered his thoughts into its
+great white bosom, that he could not image it to himself as a mere dead
+and barren satellite of the earth. More easily could he understand how
+the living Cynthia had once leaped earthward and been welcomed with
+belief and love.
+
+Conrad's mind busied itself at first with the play he had just been
+reading, but presently wandered to his own affairs and the purpose that
+had been the dominant influence of half his life. He chuckled softly as
+he remembered the check he had recently received. "I've got him on the
+run," he thought, "and I'm bound to lay him out sooner or later. Lord,
+but it will be a satisfaction to face him finally! And he'll not get the
+drop on me first, either, unless Providence takes as good care of
+rascals as they say it does of fools." He recalled himself now and then
+to listen to the sounds from the sleeping herd, to the hoof-beats of the
+horse as the cowboy on watch rode round and round the bunch, and to his
+voice singing in a lulling monotone. But gradually thought and will and
+sense sank back toward the verge of that great gulf out of which they
+spring.
+
+When next he opened his eyes the moon was dropping toward the western
+horizon, but he had turned in his sleep and its light was still upon
+his face. Lying motionless, Curtis listened to the sounds from the herd,
+his first thought being that something unusual there must have awakened
+him. The coyotes were yelping at one another from hill and plain, but
+through their barking he could hear the snorting sigh of a steer turning
+in its sleep, the tramp of the horse, and the cowboy's lullaby. He
+recognized the voice as that of Peters, who was to have the third watch,
+and so knew that it must be well on toward morning. He was about to sink
+into slumber again when his gaze fell upon a small black and white
+animal nosing among some rocks near by. "Poor little devil! If it wakens
+any of the boys it will get a taste of hell out of proportion to its
+sins," he thought, and decided that he would drive it away before any
+one else discovered it. But the languor of sleep still held him and not
+a muscle moved as his eyelids began to droop. Then, through his
+half-shut eyes, he became conscious that something was moving, over
+against one of the houses, among the shadows. His eyelids lifted again
+and he saw the Mexican rise out of his blanket, look about, and in a
+crouching posture move stealthily toward him. Something in his hand
+glittered in the moonlight.
+
+"It's Jose," thought Conrad. "He's coming for the skunk with a can of
+oil. Quick, or I'll be too late!" He sprang to a sitting posture and
+flung out one arm. As he did so he noticed with sleepy surprise that
+Jose was not facing toward the animal but was coming toward him. Then,
+before he had time to speak, the Mexican turned, a flying something
+shone in the moonlight like an electric flash, and Conrad's eyes,
+following the gleam, saw the little creature pinned to the ground with a
+long knife through its neck and the gray sand darkening with its blood.
+
+"Why, Jose, that was a wonderful throw!" he exclaimed.
+
+"Yes, senor," the man replied quietly, as he stooped to draw out the
+knife and wipe it on the sand, "I am rather good at that sort of thing."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+BY A HAIR'S BREADTH
+
+
+Curtis Conrad rode to the farther side of a hill sloping gently
+northeast of the houses as the outfit was getting under way the next
+morning. He remembered having seen there a rather uncommon species of
+cactus, and he thought to make sure of it in order to secure a specimen
+for Lucy Bancroft's collection when next he should pass that way on a
+homeward trip. Jose Gonzalez noted his action and presently, when a
+steer broke wildly from the herd and ran back, it was Jose who dashed
+after it. But, instead of heading it off and driving it back, he so
+manoeuvred that he contrived to get it around the hill behind which he
+had seen Conrad disappear. The superintendent was digging busily in the
+ground with his pocket-knife, having decided to take up the plant and
+leave it in the house in readiness for his return journey.
+
+Assured that the rest of the outfit was out of sight beyond the hill,
+Gonzalez left the steer to its own devices and galloped straight toward
+and behind the kneeling figure, his long knife drawn but concealed
+against his leg. Conrad's attention was engrossed in what he was doing
+and his thoughts were all of Lucy Bancroft, of how pleased she would be
+to get this rare specimen, and of how necessary it would be for him to
+help her plant it. Jose checked his horse into a walk and leaned
+forward, his eyes fastened on the other's back, his knife lying half
+hidden in his palm. On the soft ground the hoof-beats of the horse made
+little sound and their faint, unresounding thud was masked by the noises
+from the moving herd.
+
+Gonzalez drew rein within a few yards of his object and lifted his arm,
+with the knife balanced in his hand. At that instant the steer bellowed,
+and Curtis leaped to his feet, on the alert at once lest something had
+gone wrong with the herd. He saw the single steer and, wheeling around
+to look for others, his glance took in the Mexican, swerving his horse
+down the hill and deftly returning the knife to his belt. "Are you after
+the steer, Jose?" he called. "Is that the only one loose?"
+
+"Yes, senor. The rest are all right. This one has given me a chase, but
+I'll have him back right away."
+
+"Stop a minute, Jose. Would you mind letting me use your knife? Mine's
+too short and I haven't anything else."
+
+Gonzalez rode up, dismounted, and held out the knife with a courteous
+smile. As he stood back with one leg forward, arms folded, and head held
+high, Curtis thought him an image of dashing, picturesque, masculine
+comeliness. "Jose," he said, "how did you get such skill in throwing the
+knife? I never saw anybody do the trick better than you did it last
+night. I shouldn't like to have you," and he smiled as he returned the
+weapon, "aim this thing at me as you did at that polecat."
+
+An answering smile flashed over Jose's dark face, lighting up his eyes
+and showing a row of white teeth beneath his moustache. "I have
+practised it much, senor. It is not easy."
+
+The next day, Conrad, Gonzalez, and several others were getting
+together some cattle in the foot-hills when three of the largest steers
+broke away and raced wildly back toward their grazing grounds. The
+superintendent called the Mexican to help him, and told the others to
+take the remainder of the cattle, with all they might find on the way,
+back to the day herd.
+
+Two gallant figures they made as they galloped across the plain, the
+wind blowing up the wide brims of their hats, the grace and freedom of
+strength and skill in every movement of body and limb. Lariats were at
+their saddle horns, and Curtis carried a six-shooter in his belt, but
+Gonzalez had only his knife, thrust into his boot leg. They circled and
+headed off the steers, which eluded and dashed past them again and
+again, until presently Conrad noticed that the largest of the three
+acted as a sort of leader. "Rope him, Jose," he called, "and then we can
+manage the others."
+
+As Gonzalez in response came galloping toward the animal from one side,
+Curtis rushed past it on the other to prevent it from getting away and
+giving another chase. He glanced at the loop that came whirring through
+the air and his heart gave a bound of vexation. "The fool greaser is
+throwing too far," he muttered. With an instinct of sudden peril he dug
+in his spurs and his horse made a quick, long leap. He whirled about in
+time to see the snakey noose fall on the spot whence they had jumped.
+
+"What's the matter with you, Jose?" he shouted. "You nearly roped me
+instead of the steer! Try it again." Gonzalez coiled his rope and
+galloped after the steer and half an hour later the two men rode into
+the round-up, driving the panting and humbled animals.
+
+One of the younger and less experienced men, Billy Black, generally
+known as "Billy Kid," happened to lame his horse and bruise himself that
+day, and was ordered to stay in camp to nurse his knee. At Rock Springs,
+where they made camp next day, a man who gave his name as Andy Miller
+rode up and asked for a job. He explained that he had been working on a
+little ranch over toward Randall but had got tired of the place and was
+pushing for the railroad. Hampered by Billy Black's accident, Conrad was
+glad of the opportunity and tested his skill with horse and rope.
+
+"You'll do," he said. "I'm short of hands, and you can stay with us
+until we get to the railroad if you like."
+
+The new man was stockily built, and looked strong and agile. Around the
+campfire that night he won his way at once into the good graces of the
+other men, cracking jokes, telling stories, and roaring out cowboy songs
+until bedtime. They were so hilarious that Conrad joined their circle,
+smoked his after-supper pipe with them, and laughed at Miller's jokes
+and yarns.
+
+The Rock Springs watering-hole was in a hilly region, broken here and
+there by stony gulches. The outflow from the springs ran through a
+ravine which furrowed the hillside to its foot, turned abruptly
+westward, and widened out into a goodly pool, where the cattle waded
+and drank. The camp lay on the hillside above the springs, and the
+cattle were bunched over its brow on the other side.
+
+Conrad wakened early and an inviting image came to him of that pool,
+lying still and clear in the dim gray light, untroubled by the miring
+hoofs of the cattle. No one else, except the Chinese cook, busy with his
+breakfast fire, seemed to be awake, and no one stirred as Curtis moved
+down the hill, past the springs, and over the rise beyond. But Gonzalez,
+motionless in his blanket, watched his departure. And presently, when
+the cook had disappeared in the chuck-wagon, Jose rose, cast a cautious
+glance over the sleeping camp, and followed Conrad, taking advantage of
+occasional boulders, clumps of mesquite, greasewood, and yucca to
+conceal his movements. At the springs he turned down the gulch,
+following its course to the basin of the drinking hole, where he hid
+behind a great boulder, barely ten feet from the bank where lay the
+other's clothing.
+
+With wary eyes he watched while the superintendent waded out to the
+deepest part of the pool, ducked and splashed, swam a little, and
+presently returned to the shore. Through the brightening air the lean
+and sinewy body with its swelling muscles gleamed like rose-tinted
+marble below the tanned face and neck. Behind the boulder Jose crouched
+closer and drew the knife from his belt, while his body grew tense as
+he watched Conrad rub himself down and put on his clothes.
+
+"Will he never keep still a second?" Gonzalez asked himself impatiently,
+as he poised his knife. Curtis sat down on a flat stone and reached for
+his shoes and stockings, whistling a gay little melody from the last
+comic opera he had heard in San Francisco.
+
+A sound of shouting and the muffled noise of rushing cattle broke
+through the morning air, which had been as still and untroubled as the
+surface of the pool. Conrad, his music silenced and nerves alert, faced
+quickly toward the camp, turning his body from the waist upward and
+giving Gonzalez a fair three-quarters view of his torso.
+
+The Mexican, ready and waiting, seized an instant of arrested motion,
+and sent the poised weapon straight for his heart. As it left Jose's
+hand, the stone on which Curtis sat, yielding to the twisting motion of
+his body, slipped under him, and he threw out his left arm to preserve
+his balance. He was aware of something bright cleaving the air, of a
+sudden pain in his arm, and a stinging point in his side. But before his
+brain could realize what had happened, he saw Jose Gonzalez leap from
+behind the boulder and rush toward him, befouling the air with a string
+of Spanish oaths.
+
+Conrad sprang to his feet and wheeled, with right fist ready to meet the
+attack, before Jose could reach him. The Mexican flew at him with both
+arms outstretched, meaning to seize his throat and throttle him before
+he could comprehend his danger. Curtis saw the open guard and landed a
+blow on his chest which sent him staggering backward. But he returned at
+once, with left arm raised in defence and right hand ready to seize the
+other's shirt collar and choke him senseless.
+
+For a moment only was Conrad at a disadvantage by reason of the
+suddenness of the assault. But with the knife still bedded in his
+bleeding and helpless left arm, his only weapon was his right fist,
+which he must use for both defence and attack. The Mexican's eyes were
+fired with the passion of combat, and the other, ignorant of why they
+were fighting, knew only, by his blanched face and set jaws, that his
+purpose was deadly.
+
+Gonzalez, after that first blow upon his chest, was wary. He danced
+around Conrad, making feints and trying to get inside his guard. But
+Curtis, whose brain was working in lightning-like flashes, did not waste
+his strength pounding the air. He kept his assailant eluding his feints
+and jumping to escape pretended charges, thinking to wear him out in
+that way. He soon saw that he was the superior in boxing skill, as well
+as being both taller and heavier than his foe, and he began to feel
+assured of final victory, notwithstanding his useless hand and disabled
+arm.
+
+Jose's effort was constantly toward Conrad's left side, and Curtis
+guessed that he was trying to get possession of the knife still
+sticking in his arm. He knew that if Gonzalez recovered that weapon his
+chance of life would be small indeed. His bare feet were bleeding from
+the sharp little stones on the bank of the pool, but he was conscious
+neither of that nor of pain in arm or side, though the blood from his
+wound was making a red streak down his shirt and trousers. But he
+continued to hear, with a kind of divided consciousness, the sound of
+shouts, the rushing of cattle, and the hoofs of galloping horses. In the
+back of his brain he knew that there had been a stampede of the herd,
+and with attention absorbed in his fight for life, the thought that he
+was needed at the camp spurred him on to more desperate effort.
+
+Jose made a dash for his left side, but Curtis turned and with all his
+force sent a blow which caught the Mexican, intent on the knife, with
+shoulder unguarded. Gonzalez spun half round and reeled backward. Conrad
+had planted one foot on a rounding stone, and as he delivered the blow
+it slipped and sent him headlong. He was up again in an instant, barely
+in time to save himself from Jose's fingers, which clutched at his
+throat. But Gonzalez had got inside his guard and they gripped, the one
+with one arm and the other with two, for what each felt must be the
+final struggle. The American caught Jose's left arm between their two
+bodies and, reaching around him, grasped the other wrist in his right
+hand. They swayed back and forth, Jose exerting all the strength of his
+muscles to free his arms, while Conrad, gripping him close, used all the
+remnant of his strength to throw him down.
+
+By this time the Mexican's eyes were gleaming with an ugly light and
+his olive cheeks were flushed with anger. Whatever the purpose that
+had moved him at first, Curtis saw that he was fighting now with the
+aboriginal rage of conflict, with the fierce hate born of the blows
+he had received. He kicked wildly at the superintendent's shins and
+accidentally planted the heel of his boot squarely upon the other's bare
+foot. Conrad's face twitched with the hurt, and with a snarling grin
+Gonzalez lifted the other for similar purpose, forgetting shrewd tactics
+of battle in the lust of giving pain to his opponent. But Curtis caught
+the momentary advantage of unstable balance and with a twist and a lunge
+they came down together, Conrad's left shoulder striking against a stone
+beside which the Mexican fell. Thrilling with the surety of triumph,
+his enemy pinned to the ground, Curtis was barely conscious of a
+snapping in his shoulder and a sharp pain in his collar bone. With one
+knee on Gonzalez's chest, he pulled the knife from his left arm, broke
+it across the boulder, and threw the bloodstained pieces far out into
+the pond. His assailant was at his mercy now and the heat and anger of
+combat ebbed from his veins as he looked down at the Mexican's
+unresisting figure.
+
+"You have bested me this time, Don Curtis," said Gonzalez quietly.
+
+"Get up, Jose," replied Conrad rising, and the two men, panting from
+their conflict, faced each other. Jose stood with his arms folded and
+head erect and looked at his employer with unafraid eyes, in which
+smouldered only the traces of his recent rage. Conrad surveyed him
+thoughtfully for a moment before he spoke.
+
+"Jose, what did you do it for?"
+
+The Mexican smiled but made no reply.
+
+"Have you got anything against me?" Conrad persisted. "Do you think I've
+mistreated you or injured you in any way?"
+
+"No, senor, I have nothing against you."
+
+"Then what--by God, are you one of Dell Baxter's thugs? Has he sent you
+down here to stick me in the back?" Impelled by the flash of sudden
+conviction, Conrad thrust his face close to the other's and glared into
+his eyes. Gonzalez stepped back a pace and looked gravely across the
+hill at the reddening sky. His composed face and closely shut lips
+showed that he did not intend to answer.
+
+"Oh, all right!" Curtis exclaimed. "I don't expect you to peach on your
+pal. But I reckon I've sure struck the right trail this time. And look
+here, Jose! Was it me you were after when you stuck your knife in that
+skunk?"
+
+The Mexican's eyes fell and his black brows met in a frown. He was
+thinking how much trouble this man had given him by springing up so
+unexpectedly that night. But for that it would all have been so easy and
+simple!
+
+"I reckon it was!" Conrad went on hotly. "And I reckon it was me instead
+of the steer you rode after the next morning, with your knife ready when
+I looked up. And I reckon it was me instead of the steer you tried to
+rope when you made that remarkable miss. I've been a fool to trust a
+damned greaser, even when he was in plain sight. But look here, Jose
+Gonzalez!" Conrad stopped and glared into the Mexican's sombre and
+inscrutable eyes. Holding his bleeding left arm in his right hand he
+leaned forward, head thrust out and eyes blazing.
+
+"Just you look here, Jose Gonzalez!" he repeated. "I'm onto your little
+game now, and if I can't be a match for any greaser that ever tried to
+stick a man in the back, I'll deserve all I'll get! Just come on and try
+it again whenever you like! Keep at work with the round-up if you want
+to--I'm not going to give you your time for this. But I am going to
+write to Dell Baxter that I'm onto his scheme and that the minute you
+make another crack at me there'll be a bullet in your brain--and another
+in his as soon as I can get to Santa Fe to put it there, and that he'd
+better call you off if he wants to save his own skin. But if you can get
+me without my catching on first you're welcome, that's all!"
+
+The rush of running cattle swept across their preoccupied ears, and both
+men turned to see a dozen steers sweep past the other end of the pond
+and up the hill.
+
+"Quick, Jose! Help me head them off and turn them into the pond!" Conrad
+exclaimed as he started off in his bare feet. His long strides covered
+the distance quickly, and with hoots and yells and waving arm he soon
+turned their course down the hillside toward the water. Gonzalez was
+close behind, and together they manoeuvred the frightened beasts to
+the pond, where the animals forgot their panic, waded in quietly, and
+began to drink.
+
+"Jose," said the superintendent, as he sat down at the water's edge and
+began to bathe his muddy, bleeding feet, "I shall not mention this
+affair to any one here. I'll say that a steer horned me just now. I've
+broken my collar bone, I think, and I've got this cut in my arm, and
+I'll have to go to Golden at once to get patched up. When I come back I
+want you to remember what I just told you about getting daylight through
+your skull if you try any of your tricks on me again. There comes Red
+Jack after these cattle. Go and help drive them back to camp."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+BATTLING THE ELEMENTS
+
+
+The shadows of the little rolling hills still sprawled across the
+intervening valleys when Curtis Conrad started back at a gallop over the
+road which his outfit had been slowly traversing for four days. To his
+foreman, Hank Peters, he had said that he had been thrown and gored by a
+steer and must go to Golden to have his collar bone set, and ordered him
+to stay where he was, cutting out and branding, that day and night, and
+camp the day after at Five Cottonwoods, where he would rejoin them.
+
+The men puzzled and gossiped about the accident to their employer. "I
+don't see how it was possible," said Peters, "for such a thing to happen
+to a man that's got the boss's gumption about cow-brutes."
+
+"None of 'em was on the prod when I got to the pond," Red Jack declared.
+"Jose, you was with him. Did you see the scrimmage?"
+
+"I did not see the boss when he was down," Gonzalez replied in his
+precise, slightly accented English. "I was at the spring and heard him
+yell and I ran down to the pond at once, for I thought he needed help. I
+stumbled and fell and sprained my shoulder--it hurts me yet--so that
+when I reached the pond he was on his feet again and trying to drive the
+cattle into the water. I helped him and then we went back to where his
+shoes were. That was where Jack saw us. His arm bled a good deal there."
+
+"Somethin' happened," observed Hank Peters, "and if the boss says it was
+a steer on the prod, I sure reckon it was. But the thing that's
+troublin' me most is what started them critters off. I didn't see or
+hear a blamed thing likely to set 'em goin'. Did any of you?"
+
+"I didn't," Texas Bill spoke up; "but Andy was there first. Did you see
+what it was, Andy?"
+
+Andy Miller, the new hand, stopped to draw several deep whiffs from his
+newly lighted pipe before he replied. "No; I couldn't make out anything,
+and I was right at the edge of 'em, too. They jumped and started all at
+once, as crazy as I ever see a bunch of critters."
+
+"Mebbe you skeered 'em some, they not bein' used to you," suggested
+Billy Kid.
+
+Andy grinned. "Well, I sure ain't boastin' none about the beauty of my
+phiz, but no gal ain't told me yet that I was ugly enough to stampede a
+herd of cow-brutes," and the subject was dropped with the laugh that
+followed.
+
+Conrad's mare, larger and of better breed than the cow ponies, put the
+ground rapidly under her feet throughout the early morning. Though never
+trained for range work and used only for riding, he always took her on
+the round-up, in readiness for emergencies. His habit of talking to
+himself, engendered by much solitary riding, was often varied by
+one-sided conversations with the mare, and whatever the subject which
+occupied his thoughts and found fragmentary utterance in speech, his
+sentences were interspersed with frequent remarks to Brown Betty.
+Apparently she found this custom as companionable as he did, for she was
+sure to protest at a long period of silence.
+
+"So, ho, my pretty Brown B.," said Conrad gently, as he patted the
+mare's sleek neck, "that's the pace to give 'em!" A sharp twinge in his
+shoulder set his lips together, and an oath, having Congressman Baxter
+as its objective, came from between his teeth. "I'll write that damned
+Baxter a letter," he broke out savagely, "that will singe his eyelashes
+when he reads it!"
+
+His thoughts went back to the subject which so frequently occupied
+them--his lifelong, vengeful quest of the man who had despoiled his
+father, wrought destruction upon their home, and changed the current of
+his own life. His heart waxed hot as he recalled his interview with
+Rutherford Jenkins. Never for an instant had he doubted that Jenkins's
+statement was a deliberate lie. Smiling grimly, he stroked the mare's
+mane. "I was a fool, wasn't I, Betty, to suppose I'd get straight goods
+out of him. It cost me five hundred dollars to find out that he's a
+skunk,--which I knew before. I deserved all I got, didn't I, Betty, for
+not having more gumption."
+
+The frontiersman's caution, which grows almost instinctive in one who
+rides much alone over plain and mountain, sent his eyes now and again to
+search the long stretch of road that trailed its faint gray band across
+the hills behind and before him and to scan the sun-flooded reach from
+horizon to horizon. A red stain accentuated the meeting line of sky and
+plain in the west.
+
+"Betty Brown, do you see that red mark yonder?" he said, gently pulling
+her ear. "That means a sand-storm, and we've got to hike along at a
+pretty stiff pace while we can. What do you think about it, my lady?"
+The mare raised her head and gave a little snort. "Smell it, don't you?"
+he went on as he patted her approvingly. "Well, that's where you're
+smarter than I am, for I reckon I shan't be able to do that for another
+hour."
+
+He fell silent again, thinking of the Delafield matter and Jenkins's
+assertion that Bancroft was Delafield. "He sure knows who Delafield is,"
+was his conclusion, announced aloud, "but he's not going to tell. He's
+probably blackmailing the man, whoever he is, and he won't take any
+chances that would be likely to spoil his income. Well, that proves that
+Delafield is somebody in New Mexico rich enough and prominent enough to
+make it worth while for Jenkins to keep his knowledge to himself. I've
+got that much for my five hundred, anyway. Lord, Betty, wasn't I a
+tenderfoot!" and he swore under his breath, half angrily, half amusedly,
+as he turned again to study the road and the plain. The heat haze was
+rising, and the clear white sunlight was master of earth and sky. Far to
+one side he noted the silvery lake of a mirage. But the red line had
+mounted higher, and become a low, dirty-red wall that seemed to fence
+the western expanse from north to south. "It sure looks like a bad one,
+Betty, and I'm afraid we shan't be able to get home to-night after all.
+But we'll make Adobe Springs anyway, if it doesn't catch us too soon."
+
+The pain in his shoulder brought his mind back to the conviction that
+Baxter had instigated the assault upon him, and he began searching for
+the motive. Did the Congressman think his political opposition important
+enough to make his taking off desirable? Suddenly he slapped his thigh
+and broke out aloud: "Lord! what if Baxter should be Delafield! He
+sure ought to be if there's anything in the eternal fitness of things.
+If he should be--ah-h," and he broke off with a hard, unmirthful
+laugh. Ransacking his memory for all he knew of Baxter's life he
+presently shook his head regretfully. "No; the facts are against it.
+There's nothing in that lead. It's a pity, though, for it would be a
+satisfaction--to say nothing of the public benefit--to knock 'em both
+off the roost at one pop." His mind busied itself with conjectures about
+Delafield's identity, as he considered first one and then another of the
+more prominent men in the Territory. He was silent so long that the mare
+tossed her head impatiently and whinnied. Curtis smiled and stroked her
+mane.
+
+"Hello, old girl!" he said aloud, "getting lonesome, are you, and you
+want to be talked to. Oh, you're spoiled, Betty B., that's what you are.
+We'll go up the hill and see Miss Bancroft, won't we, Betty, while we're
+in Golden; and we'll take that cactus to her, and help her plant it. And
+she'll come out to the fence to see you, Betty; and she'll give you a
+lump of sugar, and pat your nose, and look as sweet as a pink rose with
+brown velvet eyes. She's a bully fine girl and we like her, don't we,
+Betty Brown? The way she sticks by her father is great; he couldn't help
+being a first-class fellow, could he, B. B., with such a daughter as
+that?"
+
+The red wall was rising in the sky, devouring its sunlit blue and
+spreading out into smoky-red, angry-looking clouds. A high wind, hot
+and dry, swept across the plain from the west. All the cattle within
+Conrad's range of vision had turned their heads to the east and,
+although they were still grazing, moved only in that direction. Seeing a
+herd of antelope headed the same way, Curtis took the red bandanna from
+his neck and waved it toward them. As the bright signal floated in the
+wind their leader turned, stared, and began to walk back, the whole herd
+following with raised heads and gaze fixed in fascinated interest. He
+flaunted the red square and they came steadily on, until presently the
+warning of danger in the hot wind and the odor of the approaching storm
+overcame the compulsion of curiosity, and they wheeled again, away from
+the threatened peril.
+
+The small life of the plain was fleeing before the furnace-like breath
+of those red, surging clouds. Jackrabbits leaped across the road on
+fleet legs, and occasionally Conrad saw coyotes, singly or in packs,
+running eastward as for their lives. Fat carrion crows hurried their
+unwieldy flight and, higher in the air, a frequent lone hawk sailed out
+of the west, while now and then a road-runner cut across his path with
+hasting feet.
+
+"It's going to be a bad one, I guess," Curtis muttered, jamming his
+soft hat down closer on his head. The mare seemed to be trying of her
+own accord to escape the storm, and her swinging lope was steadily
+leaving the miles behind. "Keep it up, Betty, keep it up," he said
+encouragingly. "I want to reach Adobe Springs and get this message to
+Baxter off my mind. My shoulder's aching, old girl, but it ain't aching
+a bit more than I am to tell him what I think of him."
+
+Soon the sand-storm was upon them, concealing the landscape and covering
+the sky with its clouds. Upon man and beast it beat as bitterly as a
+sand-blast. It pelted and stung Conrad's face and neck, and filled his
+eyes and ears and nostrils until he was forced now and again to pull his
+hat over his face for a moment's respite in which to draw a less choking
+breath. "It looks as if all Arizona had got up and dusted, and was
+hell-bent to get out of here," he jested grimly, as he bent over the
+mare's neck and encouraged her with voice and gentle stroke. "That shows
+good sense, Betty, though it's mighty hard on us. Come right along, old
+girl; we must get to Adobe Springs."
+
+[Illustration: "UPON MAN AND BEAST THE SAND-STORM BEAT BITTERLY"]
+
+As the air grew thicker there shone from the sky, instead of the vivid
+white sunshine of a few hours before, only a dim, diffused, lurid
+light. Even to Curtis, sitting quartering in the saddle with his back
+twisted toward the wind, Brown Betty's ears were barely visible. For a
+while he allowed the mare to follow the road herself, until he found
+that her sense of duty must be supplemented by authority. For, under the
+discomfort of the belaboring wind and stinging sand, she began to yield
+to her instinct to turn tail and drift before the storm. Then he knew
+that he must keep a firm hand on the bridle, and his attention at the
+highest pitch, or they would soon be wandering helplessly over the
+plain. He walked long distances beside the mare, with his body shielding
+her head and with speech and caress keeping up her courage. Their
+progress was slow, for the force of the storm was so great that, though
+it beat against them from the side, they could struggle through it only
+at a walk.
+
+Hour after hour went by, and the only sign of its passage was that a
+dim, yellowish centre of illumination, that had once been the sun, crept
+slowly across the sky. As the day grew older Conrad's pain from his
+injury became more acute. Most of the time he felt it only as an
+insistent background to the keen outward discomfort of stinging sand and
+pounding wind. But when an occasional sharper twinge brought it more
+vividly to his consciousness he swore a little between his teeth, and
+thought of the letter he was going to write to Dellmey Baxter. The
+particles of sand filled his hair and encrusted his face and neck until
+they were of a uniform brick-red. Constant effort and encouragement were
+necessary to keep Brown Betty in the road, and finally he was compelled
+to walk at her head most of the time and with a guiding hand on her
+bridle counteract the unflagging urge of her instinct to drift before
+the blast.
+
+Thus they battled their way through the hot, beating wind and
+suffocating sand, while that vague core of light moved athwart the dirty
+heavens, dropped slowly down the western sky, and was swallowed up in
+the denser banks of dusk above the horizon. It had been too dark before
+for the discernment of objects, but a yellowish glare had filtered
+through the sand-laden air, lending a lurid, semi-translucence to the
+atmosphere. Now even that was gone, leaving a desert enveloped in pitchy
+darkness, while the wind roared about the ears of the travellers and
+pounded their bodies as with cudgels and the sand pelted their skins.
+
+Most of the time Curtis depended upon the feel of the road under his
+feet to maintain his direction, but now and then it was necessary for
+him to get down on his hands and knees in order to recover the track
+from which they had begun to stray. Once his fingers came in contact
+with a small feathered body. The bird tried to start up under his hand.
+He knew it must be disabled and placed it inside his shirt. Thus they
+plodded on through the night and the storm, the pain in his shoulder
+growing keener and the torture of the wind and sand ever more
+nerve-racking.
+
+At last the mare raised her head and gave a long whinny. Conrad felt
+sure that she was announcing their near approach to the food and shelter
+within the adobe houses. "What is it, Betty? Do you know where we are?"
+he asked, and she rubbed her nose against his face, nickered, and pulled
+at the bridle with the evident desire to turn from the direction they
+were pursuing. Curtis knew they were in a little hollow, and thought it
+might be that into which the road dipped after leaving the houses.
+
+"All right, Betty," he said. "I'll follow your lead a little way, but be
+cautious, old girl, and don't tie up to any lying hunches." He
+slackened his hold on the bridle, and the mare started off eagerly. They
+climbed a hill, and presently Conrad was aware of a black mass before
+him. Putting out his hand he felt an adobe wall. The mare crowded close
+against it, and stopped. She had left the road, which took the hill at a
+long sloping angle from the foot of the rise, and had climbed straight
+up the steep incline. He felt his way around the corner, unfastened the
+door, and entered. An emphatic "Whew!" gave vent to his feeling of
+relief. The mare, close at his heels, snorted in response, and Curtis,
+smiling in the dark, threw his arm across her neck in fellowship and
+said, "Feels good, doesn't it, Betty B., to get out of that hurricane
+from hell?"
+
+By the light of a lantern he led the mare to the spring, stabling her
+afterward in one of the houses. "In the best society, Betty Brown," he
+explained, "it's not considered good form for horses to sleep in men's
+houses. But you deserve the best I can give you to-night, blest if you
+don't, old girl, and you shall have it, too." He gathered together, for
+her food and her bed, the alfalfa hay from several of the bunks, and
+found for her also a small measure of oats. Then, having attended to
+her wants, he looked about for something to stay his own hunger.
+
+It was his custom to keep some canned provisions in the place, as the
+station was much used by his men. On a little smouldering fire in one
+corner of the room, he made some tea in a tin can. A frying-pan hung
+against the wall, and in it, awkwardly fumbling with his one useful
+hand, he contrived to warm a stew of tinned _chile con carne_ and pilot
+bread. Fine sand drifted in and settled in a red dust over the food as
+he ate, and he could feel its grit between his teeth.
+
+The bird he had carried in his bosom he found to be a Southwestern
+tanager. Its pinkish-red plumage shone with a silvery radiance in the
+lamplight. One of its legs was broken, and one wing had been injured.
+"I'll take it to Miss Bancroft," he said aloud, "and she'll care for it
+till it can shift for itself again, poor little devil!"
+
+With intense satisfaction Conrad at last sat down to the letter in which
+he had all day been longing to express his feelings. "I wonder," he
+thought, "if Dellmey Baxter did it because he don't like the things I
+say about him. Well, he'll have to get used to it, then, for I'm not
+going to quit." There was a grim smile on his face as he wrote:
+
+     "I consider it the square thing to tell you that I am onto the game
+     of your man, Jose Gonzalez. We had our first set-to this morning,
+     in which he winged me, but I got the best of him. I could have
+     killed him if I had wanted to, but he is such a good cowboy I hated
+     to do him up. I am going to keep him in my employ, but I want you
+     to understand, distinctly, that if he makes another crack at me I
+     shall go to Santa Fe as quick as I can get there and make a
+     Christmas gift of you to the devil before you know what's
+     happening.
+
+               "Yours truly,
+                    "CURTIS CONRAD.
+
+     "P. S. I am still shouting for Johnny Martinez for Congress. C. C."
+
+"There!" he exclaimed, as he sealed the envelope and threw it down
+contemptuously; "I sure reckon he won't be so anxious for me to turn up
+my toes with my boots on after he reads that."
+
+The pain in Conrad's arm and shoulder had become so keen that he could
+not sleep. He lay in his bunk listening to the rattling of the door and
+the rage of the wind against the house, seeking to keep his mind from
+the stabbing pain long enough to sink into unconsciousness. But no
+sooner did his eyelids begin to close down heavily than a fresh throb
+made him start up again wide awake. This irritated him more than did the
+other suffering, and finally he jumped up angrily, found a copy of
+Lecky's "History of European Morals," and, with the muttered comment,
+"This is about what I need to-night," settled himself on an empty
+cracker box and read the night away. Toward morning he became aware that
+the wind was abating, and a little later that less sand was drifting
+into his retreat.
+
+Breakfast was eaten and Brown Betty cared for by lamplight and with the
+first dim rays of morning he set out once more upon the road. The bird
+was again in his bosom, and the cactus, wrapped in old newspapers,
+rested at the back of his saddle. The storm had passed, but the air was
+still full of dust particles through which the sun shone, red and smoky.
+Curtis knew that these would settle gradually with the passing hours and
+the sky become as clear as usual. Already he could see the road for
+several rods in front of him, and that was all he needed to keep it
+flying under Brown Betty's feet.
+
+At the ranch house Mrs. Peters told him that a man had been there
+looking for work and described his appearance. "Yes; he overtook us at
+Rock Springs, and I hired him," Conrad said. Then, remembering the
+account Andy Miller had given of his previous situation, he asked her if
+the man had said where he came from.
+
+"No," she replied; "he didn't say where he'd been working; but he came
+from toward Golden."
+
+The superintendent thought the discrepancy rather curious, but decided
+it was nothing more than a not unusual cowboy eccentricity of statement.
+He resumed his journey with no misgivings, and mid-afternoon found him
+arguing with the physician at Golden that he might just as well start
+back to the round-up that same night.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+THE FIRST SHOT
+
+
+Alexander Bancroft sat in his private room with Curtis Conrad's return
+checks before him. They were not many: one in favor of his brother at
+the University of Michigan, one for a mail order house in Chicago, a
+small one to a New York publishing concern,--and his eyes fell upon the
+name of Rutherford Jenkins and the amount,--five hundred dollars. He
+stared at the slip of paper for a moment, conviction rushing to his mind
+that his pursuer knew the truth; then he took his revolver from his
+pocket and examined its chambers. "I may have to do him up myself!" he
+thought, his lips tightening. But sudden hesitation gripped his heart.
+Until within a few weeks he had considered Curtis one of his best
+friends, had liked the young cattleman whole-heartedly, admiring and
+enjoying his impulsiveness, his geniality, his ardent loyalty to his
+friends, and his equally ardent hostility to those he disliked. Now the
+good-fellowship he had been accustomed to feel stopped his hand. "Can it
+be possible," he asked himself for the hundredth time, "that this
+eager-hearted, companionable fellow will really carry out his deadly
+purpose?" He recalled the intensity with which Conrad had spoken of his
+long quest for revenge, his vehemence toward his enemies, his
+impetuosity. Again conviction grew strong upon him that, when the man
+knew, the end would come. The frontier code by which he had lived so
+long nerved his heart, and he muttered, "He shan't smash things--now!
+I'll smash him before I'll let him do that!"
+
+He swung the revolver into position and took sight. As his eye glanced
+down the barrel he saw that it was pointing at Lucy's pictured face,
+smiling down from the top of his desk; his hand shook as he laid down
+the weapon. There was a knock at the door, and he made sudden pretence
+of close attention to the papers before him. The door partly opened and
+he heard Conrad's voice outside. Surety of imminent peril seized
+Bancroft's mind. The instinct of self-defence sent his hand to his
+revolver, and he sprang up, pulling the trigger. Curtis rushed in at the
+report, calling out, "What's the matter, Aleck?" The banker had just
+time to stay his finger at sight of the friendly face and solicitous
+manner.
+
+"I didn't hurt you, did I, Curt?" he asked anxiously, sinking back in
+his chair and looking at Conrad's arm, helpless in a sling. The bullet,
+they found, had nicked the top of the door and buried itself in the
+ceiling. "I was looking my revolver over when you knocked," Bancroft
+explained, "and had just been aiming at that spot on the wall. My finger
+must have pulled the trigger unconsciously. The thing's set to a hair,
+anyway. I must have it fixed. What's the matter with your arm, Curt?"
+
+In the revulsion of feeling that swept over him as he realized that the
+cattleman was as friendly as ever and that therefore his secret was
+still safe, he felt genuinely thankful that his bullet had gone wild.
+
+Conrad told of his fight with Jose Gonzalez. "You're getting the truth
+about it, Aleck," he went on; "but to everybody else I'm saying that I
+got horned by a steer, knocked over, and my collar bone cracked. I'm
+convinced it's some of Dell Baxter's work. I reckon I've been saying out
+loud just what he is too often to please him. But the letter I've sent
+him will buffalo him quick enough. Jose's a good cowboy, and I'm going
+to keep him. But I don't want the boys to know anything about our little
+scrap. So I'm saying it was a steer on the prod that did it."
+
+Bancroft's thoughts were active as he lighted his cigar. That check--it
+must have been Castleton money, to be handled for Johnny Martinez.
+Perhaps security might still be compassed without bloodshed. In
+thankfulness that he had not killed the man who was still his friend he
+revolted against the purpose of the Mexican, to which he knew in his
+soul he had given tacit consent. He did not want this cordial,
+confiding, good fellow struck down--if his own safety could be otherwise
+secured.
+
+"You'd better give the Mexican his time, Curt. He's locoed probably;
+when you get back you may find he's killed half your men."
+
+"Well, if he tries running a-muck in that gang," the superintendent
+responded cheerfully, "he'll never do anybody else any harm. Anyway,
+I've settled him for the present; I busted his knife and threw the
+pieces into the pond. No; he's in Dell's pay; that's all there is to it;
+and when Dell reads my letter he'll hike to call his man off. I don't
+expect any more trouble from Jose."
+
+Bancroft made no reply and Conrad went on: "By the way, Aleck, for a
+full minute yesterday I thought Baxter must be my man--the man I'm
+after, you know--Delafield. I've found out that he's somebody rich and
+respectable here in New Mexico, and when I felt that Baxter must be
+responsible for this attack on me, I lit on him for my meat. But it was
+too good to be true; as soon as I thought it over I saw that Baxter
+couldn't be Delafield. But they're two of a kind all right. Both of 'em
+have got their freight loaded ready to pull out for hell at the drop of
+a hat. Baxter will have to pull his in less than three jumps of a
+bucking horse if he doesn't call off his man. And Delafield will be
+pulling his mighty soon anyway."
+
+Bancroft made a gesture of annoyance. "Curt, you talk too easily about
+killing. You'd make a stranger think you're a bad man of the border,
+instead of the decent citizen you are. For Heaven's sake, man, why don't
+you come to your senses, and see what an ass you'll be making of
+yourself if you try to carry out this fool scheme of revenge that's got
+hold of you? Why don't you accept his offer to pay back the money as
+fast as he can? Let him make restitution, and keep a whole skin; perhaps
+you'll save your own scalp in the bargain."
+
+The seeker after vengeance laughed blithely.
+
+"Aleck, you've no idea what this thing means to me. Why, man, you talk
+as if giving up that plan would be no more than changing my coat! You
+don't know, Aleck--why, to get the drop on Delafield and hold him while
+I tell him what he is in language that will scald him from head to foot,
+and then deal out to him the death he deserves--that's the one thing
+I've lived for all these fifteen years! I'm obliged to you for your
+advice, Aleck; but I know what I'm about."
+
+Bancroft shrank away a little as Curtis talked. His lips tightened as he
+picked up the revolver and sighted it at a calendar on the wall. After a
+moment's silence he looked the other full in the eye and said,
+impressively:
+
+"You forget one thing, Curt. If this man Delafield knows what you are
+doing--and you seem to feel sure he does--he'll be prepared for your
+attack, and you're not likely to have things your own way. Unless he's a
+fool or a coward he'll defend himself, even if he has to kill you doing
+it. And if he has any _sabe_ at all he'll be loaded for you when you get
+there, and have the drop on you before you can say a word."
+
+"Chances of war," Conrad replied serenely. "He's welcome to all he can
+get. But I'm betting my last dollar, and my scalp in the bargain, that
+he can't draw as quick as I can, nor shoot as straight. You bet your
+life, Aleck, when that circus comes off I'll be the star performer."
+
+"Well," said Bancroft slowly, "if you won't listen to reason I suppose
+you'll have to go on, hell-bent, in the gait you've struck--and take the
+consequences. But you're a fool to do it, and I hate to see you making
+such a blind ass of yourself."
+
+Curtis laughed, undisturbed. "That's all right, Aleck. I don't expect
+you to get the joy out of this business that I shall."
+
+He went over to Bancroft's desk and picked up the revolver, examining
+its sights. "They're not right, Aleck," he said. "When I get the use of
+my arm again I'll fix them for you. And you don't use your gun right
+when you want to take quick aim: you don't swing it up quickly and
+steadily, as if you were used to it. You ought to practise, Aleck. Out
+here a man never knows when he may have to defend himself. I've got to
+stay here several days, the doctor says; and while I'm here I'll show
+you a few tricks."
+
+"All right, if you like," Bancroft replied, adding, as he pocketed his
+revolver, "I'm not a very good shot and, as you say, out here a man
+never knows when he may have to defend himself."
+
+Conrad, turning to go, lingered awkwardly. "By the way, Aleck," he
+blurted out, "it has occurred to me that perhaps you are getting tied up
+with Dell Baxter too tight for comfort. I don't want to seem curious
+about your affairs, you know, and I haven't got any big pile--you know
+what my balance is; but whatever I have got you're welcome to, any time,
+if you want to cut loose from Baxter and it will help any."
+
+Bancroft hid a grim smile behind the hand at his moustache as he thought
+of sundry checks of his own making their way toward Conrad's balance.
+"Thank you, Curt; it's very kind and thoughtful of you to make the
+offer, and I appreciate it. But I don't need anything. Baxter and I are
+in partnership in a number of enterprises, but it's all straight
+sailing."
+
+"That's good, and I'm glad to hear it. I was afraid he'd got you under
+his thumb. But remember, Aleck, that my small pile is at your disposal
+any time it will be of use to you."
+
+As the young man left the bank he saw Lucy Bancroft turn the corner
+toward the Mexican quarter and was quickly at her side, relieving her of
+the little bundle she carried. She was going to Senora Melgares, she
+explained, who could wash laces and embroideries and all kinds of dainty
+things beautifully with _amole_ root. She was taking her some of Miss
+Dent's and her own fineries, and hoped to get her a great deal of work
+from others. "The poor thing!" said Lucy earnestly, her eyes wide and
+soft with sympathy. "She is so heartbroken over the affair! You've
+heard? Mr. Gaines died the other day, and Melgares has been indicted for
+murder. My father says he'll surely be found guilty and will probably be
+hanged. The poor senora!"
+
+When they reached the little adobe house Lucy asked Curtis to go in with
+her, saying, "I'm not very sure of my Spanish, and I'd be glad to have
+you come in and help me out." They found Senora Melgares sitting with
+her head buried in her arms, her hair dishevelled, and her face, when
+she raised it, eloquent of grief and despair. But she greeted them with
+grave and gracious courtesy. Lucy impulsively took her hand and held it
+in both her own while she presented Senor Conrad. At the name the woman
+drew her slight figure together with a convulsive movement, her dark
+face lighting with interest.
+
+"Don Curtis? Senor Don Curtis Conrad?" she asked eagerly.
+
+"The same, senora," he answered in Spanish, bowing gravely.
+
+"The same whose mare--?" she began, her expressive countenance finishing
+the query. Conrad bowed again. The woman sank down in her chair, her
+face in her hands, swaying back and forth as she moaned and sobbed. Lucy
+knelt by her side to comfort her, while Curtis bent over the girlish
+figure and spoke in a low, changed tone that the girl barely recognized,
+so different was it from his usual brisk utterance. It set her nerves
+vibrating in quick, half-conscious conviction of a depth and quality of
+feeling in harmony with her own.
+
+"I am afraid I made a mistake by coming in, Miss Bancroft," he said. "It
+did not occur to me that she would connect me with her husband's
+trouble. Won't you please tell her, when she is quieter, that I am very
+sorry about the whole affair, that I have no feeling against him, and
+that I'll gladly do for him whatever I can. I think I'd better go now,
+but I'll wait outside for you, and if I can be of any use you must call
+me."
+
+When Lucy joined him a little later her face showed signs of tears, and
+as they walked back she was preoccupied and perturbed. She wished to see
+her father, so Curtis left her at the door of the bank.
+
+"Daddy!" Lucy exclaimed as she rushed to his side, her eyes shining and
+her face aglow. "Oh, daddy, Senora Melgares has just told me the
+strangest thing! Mr. Conrad was with me, but he went out because she
+cried so, and he didn't hear what she said. I tried to quiet and comfort
+her, and finally she told me that her husband had been persuaded and
+paid to steal Mr. Conrad's horse by a man who said he wanted to get even
+with him for something. She told me his name--you and Mr. Tillinghurst
+and Judge Banks were talking about him the other day--Mr. Jenkins--Don
+Rutherford Jenkins, she called him."
+
+Anticipation warmed Bancroft's heart as she spoke. If the story was true
+it might give him just the hold on Jenkins that he wanted. He made her
+repeat the details of her conversation with the Mexican woman. "Did you
+say anything about it to Conrad?" he asked in conclusion.
+
+"No, daddy; I thought I ought to tell you about it first."
+
+"Quite right, Lucy. You were very prudent. And don't mention it now, to
+him or to anybody."
+
+"No, of course not. But, daddy, won't that make it better for poor Jose
+Maria? Mr. Jenkins is the one that ought to be punished--he and Mr.
+Baxter; and poor ignorant Melgares ought to be let off very easily.
+Don't you think so, daddy?"
+
+One of her hands rested on his shoulder. He took the other in both of
+his as he smiled at her indulgently. Her news had so heartened him that
+he hardly noticed her connection of Baxter with the affair. "I don't
+know about that, daughter. It isn't likely to have any effect, because
+his indictment is for murder--you know he killed Gaines while resisting
+arrest--and his motive in stealing the horse has no connection with that
+crime. I'm glad you told me about it, dear. I'll talk with Melgares
+myself, and see what can be done. I suppose his wife must be having a
+hard time. You might give her some money. And ask her," he said as he
+handed Lucy some bills, "not to speak about this Jenkins matter to any
+one else. Be sure you impress that upon her. It's a pretty bad case, but
+you can tell his wife that everything possible will be done for him.
+Dell Baxter is coming down to undertake his defence; he does it for
+nothing. So you mustn't think so badly of him hereafter, when you see
+how willing he is to make what amends he can to the poor fellow."
+
+Lucy threw her arms about his neck and kissed his forehead. "Daddy,
+you're awfully good and kind--the best man in the world! About Mr.
+Baxter, though--" she paused to toss her head, and a little sparkle
+shone in her eyes--"well, I'm glad he has the decency to do it, but it's
+no more than he ought; and before I think much better of him I'll wait
+to see if he drives any more of the poor Mexicans out of their homes."
+
+Bancroft began to plan hopefully. He would see Melgares and get the
+exact facts. If this story was true it would be just the sword he
+needed to hang over Jenkins. Evidently he had told Conrad nothing;
+therefore that check must have been campaign money from Ned Castleton to
+be used for the benefit of Martinez. Jenkins would not be likely to
+talk: it would ruin his chance of making money out of it himself. As for
+Curtis--perhaps, after all, he would not be unreasonable about the offer
+to make restitution. Another check would reach him soon, with assurance
+of more to follow speedily. Surely the man was too sensible to cast
+aside such a start in life as this money would give him, just to carry
+out a crazy notion that would end in his own ruin.
+
+"But if he will go on, he'll have nobody but himself to blame for
+whatever happens," he thought. "I've given him fair warning."
+
+The encouragement he felt turned his thoughts toward Louise Dent. In the
+intimacy of their daily life since she had been Lucy's visitor he had
+found her ever more lovable. He began to think, as he looked into her
+eyes and felt the restrained sweetness of her manner, that when he
+should be free to speak she would welcome his feeling, and have for it
+an intoxicating return. But he could say nothing until the settlement
+of this affair left no further danger of discovery and disgrace.
+
+"She must not know--neither she nor Lucy shall know--never--never a word
+or hint," he thought desperately. True, Louise was not so unsparing in
+her moral judgments as Lucy; she was older, and, with more knowledge of
+the world, had more tolerance for the conditions under which men lived
+and worked. But if all that past, the past that he had believed buried
+beyond resurrection, should suddenly confront him, she and Lucy would be
+horrified. They would despise him. The respect, honor, and love for
+which he hungered would die; if they stayed beside him it would only be
+for compassion's sake. In the fierce mood that possessed him as he
+thought of going down again into dishonor he was ready to strike out at
+anybody's pity. This thing must not be. He had won his way back to
+position, power, affluence; he held the love and honor of his daughter
+and of the woman he hoped to make his wife; what he had won he would
+keep. His lips whitened as he struck the desk with his clenched fist.
+
+"The past is dead, and it's got to stay dead," he muttered. "I'll win
+out yet, by God!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+THE SECOND SHOT
+
+
+Four days later the physician gave Conrad dubious permission to return
+to the round-up. "Well, I may as well say you can go," he surrendered,
+"since you are determined to go anyway. But don't blame me if your
+wounds get worse."
+
+Most of this time the cattleman spent at the Bancrofts', where Lucy and
+Miss Dent tried to make an invalid of him, and all three enjoyed the
+comradeship that straightway sprang up among them. Between Lucy and
+Curtis there was much bantering gayety, but when alone their talk was
+sure to flow into serious channels. They had many long conversations,
+wherein each was deeply interested in everything the other said. They
+had much music also, Miss Dent playing and the others singing duets.
+Lucy was very happy. She beamed and sparkled, with glowing eyes and
+dimpling smiles, and her manner, the whole being of her, expanded into
+maturer womanliness. Between Miss Dent and Conrad there was from the
+first a mutual liking, which quickly developed into confidential
+friendship. On his last day in town, while helping Lucy water the plants
+in her conservatory, he spoke to her admiringly of Miss Dent.
+
+"I'm so glad you like my Dearie!" she responded warmly, looking up at
+him with a glow of pleasure. "She's the dearest, sweetest woman! And you
+always feel you can depend on her. If you put your hand out you always
+know just where you can find Louise Dent, and you know she'll be as firm
+as a rock. She's been so good to me! And she's always so restful and
+calm--she has so much poise. But, do you know--" she hesitated as she
+stopped in front of the cage that held the tanager Curtis had brought
+for her care. His physician had splinted its broken leg and bound its
+injured wing, and together they were anxiously watching its recovery.
+"It's been eating, Mr. Conrad!" she broke off joyously. "Let's give it
+more seeds and fresh water!" As they ministered to the bird's needs
+Curtis went on about Miss Dent.
+
+"Yes; she seems to have a calm sort of nature, but when I look at her I
+find myself wondering if that is because she has never been moved very
+deeply, or because she keeps things hidden deep down. Her eyes are set
+rather close together, which generally means, you know, an ability to
+get on the prod if necessary; and sometimes there is a look in them that
+makes you feel as if she might break out into something unexpected."
+
+Lucy was looking up at him with the keenest interest in her face. The
+southwestern sun had kissed her skin into rich browns and reds, and she
+carried gracefully her slender girlish figure. Her head, with its
+covering of short brown curls, always held alertly, gave to her aspect a
+savor of piquant charm. Curtis looked down into her upturned face and
+eager eyes with admiration in his own. Under her absorption in the
+subject of their talk she felt herself thrill with sweet, vague
+happiness.
+
+"Do you know, I've been feeling that very same thing about Dearie," she
+said in confidential tones. "She seems more restless lately, although I
+know she's perfectly happy here with us. She has just the same quiet,
+gentle manner, but it seems as if there might be a volcano under it--not
+really, you know, but as if there might be if--if--I don't quite know
+how to say it--if things just got ready for it to be a volcano!"
+
+"Do you think anybody would know it," asked Conrad, "even if it was
+really there?"
+
+"I know what you mean--yes, she has wonderful self-control--I never saw
+anybody who could hide her feelings as she can, and always does. I've
+been thinking lately that if Dearie were in love--" Lucy hesitated a
+moment while a deeper glow stained her cheek--"she's just the sort of
+woman to do anything, anything at all, for the sake of it."
+
+"Yes; and not get excited over it, either," added Curtis.
+
+When Lucy went to attend to some household duties, Conrad sauntered out
+to the veranda, where he found Miss Dent with her sewing. He happened to
+refer to his boyhood; and she asked some questions that led him to speak
+of his youthful struggles. She was interested, and wanted to know the
+cause of his father's financial ruin. He hesitated before replying, the
+matter touched so nearly the secret core of his life and thought. Few,
+even among his intimates, knew anything about the vengeful purpose that
+had motived half his life, and he disliked ordinarily to say anything
+about the cause of his early misfortunes. But the habit of close and
+friendly speech into which he and Louise had fallen, coupled perhaps
+with a softening of feeling toward her sex that had been going on within
+him, moved him to openness. "It won't matter," he thought. "She's such a
+level-headed woman; and I've told Aleck already."
+
+"I don't often speak about it," he said, "but I don't mind telling you,
+for you are such a good friend of the Bancrofts, and Aleck knows the
+story. Of course, you'll understand that I don't care to have it
+discussed generally. My father's disasters all came from his getting
+caught in a specious financial scheme engineered by one Sumner L.
+Delafield of Boston."
+
+An indrawn breath, sharp and sudden, made him look quickly at his
+companion. "Have you hurt yourself?" he asked solicitously.
+
+"Oh, I jabbed my needle under my thumb nail. Such an awkward thing to
+do! It gave me a little shock, that's all. Go on, please. What sort of a
+scheme was it?"
+
+He told her briefly the story of his father's ruin and death, and
+outlined the transactions that led to Delafield's failure. As he spoke
+his heart waxed hot against the man who had caused the tragedy, as it
+always did when he thought long upon the subject, and he went on
+impulsively to tell her of his long-cherished purpose of revenge. She
+listened with drooped eyelids, and when she spoke, at his first pause,
+there was a slight quaver in her voice.
+
+"You don't mean that you really intend to kill the man?"
+
+"I do, that very thing. What's more, it's my notion that killing is too
+gentle for his deserts. For, of course, my case is only one out of many.
+And any man who would deliberately bring ruin and death into so many
+households--don't you think yourself he's worse than any murderer?"
+
+She forced herself to raise her eyes and, once she had met his gaze, her
+own was cool and steady. But if Curtis had not been so absorbed in their
+discussion he might have seen that her face was paler than usual and her
+manner nervous, as she replied earnestly:
+
+"But you forget, Mr. Conrad, that the man had no intention of doing
+these things, and that probably he involved himself in as much financial
+disaster as he did others. I've heard of the case before; I knew some
+people once who--were concerned in it--who lost money by it--and I've
+always understood that the failure was due more to Delafield's sanguine
+temperament and over-confidence in his plans than to any deliberate
+wrongdoing. Don't you think, Mr. Conrad, that killing is a rather severe
+punishment for mistakes of judgment?"
+
+He answered with the rapid speech and quick gestures he was wont to use
+when under the stress of strong feeling. "I can't take that lenient view
+of the case, Miss Dent. My conviction is that he got some money out of
+the affair, though not as much as he is generally supposed to have
+taken, and ran away with it. I've studied the case pretty thoroughly,
+and I've trailed him along from one place to another for years. I'm hot
+on his tracks now; and he knows it. I've followed him into New Mexico,
+and I know he's somebody in this Territory, prosperous and respectable.
+He can't escape me much longer."
+
+She had been thinking intently as she studied the expression of his
+face. "It's not worth while to try argument or persuasion with him;
+opposition would only make him obstinate," was her conclusion. Her
+manner was as composed as usual, and only her eyes showed a trace of
+anxiety as she spoke, slowly and thoughtfully, her gaze searching his
+countenance:
+
+"Well, if you say you are going to take revenge upon him in this savage
+way I suppose you will do it--if that chin of yours means anything. You
+haven't asked my opinion, but I'm going to tell you anyway that it seems
+to me unwise and unjust and most unworthy of you to allow such an idea
+to become the obsession that this one has. But I want to know how you
+managed to keep your family together. That was a wonderful thing for a
+boy of fifteen to do."
+
+"Oh, I don't deserve so much credit for it. Of course, I couldn't have
+done it without help. Our guardian wanted to distribute us children
+around among the relatives; but I wouldn't have it that way, and begged
+so hard that at last he gave in. Two of my father's cousins lent money
+enough to pay off the mortgage on our home, on our guardian's
+representation that he should be able to save enough out of the wreck to
+pay it back in time. He did so; and we children kept a roof over our
+heads.
+
+"A cousin of my mother's, a widow without children, offered to live with
+us and keep house. We rented part of the place and lived in close
+quarters in what was left. I worked like a Turk at anything and
+everything that brought in a penny; and so, all together, we had enough
+to eat and wear, and I was able to keep the girls and Homer in school. I
+went to night school and sat up reading anything I could get my hands on
+when I ought to have been in bed. It was hard sledding sometimes, but we
+pulled through. And I had good friends who saw that I was never out of a
+job of some sort.
+
+"After a while our cousin married again and left us; but by that time my
+sisters were old enough to take charge of the housekeeping, and we got
+on very well. Ten years ago they both married, and I said to Homer:
+'Let's sell the house and give the money to the girls; you and I can
+shift for ourselves, and we don't want them to go to their husbands with
+nothing at all.' The kid was game, and so we sold the place and divided
+the money between Helen and Jeannette. Then I put Homer in school and
+struck out for myself. I've sent him to college, and he'll be graduated
+next year. But he's worked right along, and helped himself a heap.
+There's sure good stuff in the lad.
+
+"This Summer I'm not going to let him work; the rest of the way is
+clear enough now, and I want him to come down here with me, and learn to
+rope a steer and bust a bronco and go camping, and have a good out-doors
+time of it for his last college vacation."
+
+As she listened with her eyes fixed upon his face, Miss Dent's attention
+had been half upon his story and half upon the man behind it, searching
+out his character through his words. The conviction settled in her mind
+that his vengeful intention was rooted deep, and that the more he talked
+of it the more set would he become in his purpose.
+
+"I like your story," she said. "It is one of those tales of human effort
+that make one have more faith in human nature. But the climax you intend
+to put upon it is--horrible!" He noticed the slight movement of
+repulsion with which she spoke the word. "But that's your affair," she
+went on. "Did I understand you--did you say--" In spite of her
+self-control she was stumbling over the question. She masked her
+momentary confusion with an absorbed interest in getting her sewing
+together. "Did you say that Mr. Bancroft knows--that you have told him
+this story?"
+
+"Yes; I told him the outlines of it a little while ago, apropos of a
+check I had from Delafield. The rascal thinks he can buy me off that
+way. That shows he's buffaloed. But he'll find out I'm not that sort."
+
+"No; I shouldn't think you were. But Lucy--does she know anything about
+it?"
+
+He looked up in surprise. "Why, no; of course not."
+
+Bancroft was coming through the gate, bringing Judge Banks with him; and
+Lucy joined them a moment later. The talk turned on the coming trial of
+Jose Maria Melgares, the narrow escape of Pendleton from Melgares'
+bullet, and the death of Gaines as the result of his own foolhardy
+horse-play. They spoke of Little Jack Wilder's skill with the revolver,
+and Conrad reminded Bancroft of their agreement to do some target
+practice together.
+
+"Let's all go out in the back yard now," Lucy exclaimed, "and Miss Dent
+and I will shoot too! Wouldn't you like it, Dearie? Come on! it will be
+such fun!"
+
+While they were setting up the target Sheriff Tillinghurst came to speak
+to Judge Banks upon an official matter; and Lucy asked him to stay and
+help her shoot.
+
+"You-all use my gun, Miss Lucy, and then you'll be sure to have good
+luck," he replied, drawing his revolver from his pocket. It was a small
+pearl-handled six-shooter, which the ladies admired, and the men jibed
+at for its daintiness.
+
+"That's all right," he answered good-naturedly. "This gun don't stack up
+much beside a cannon for size, but I can pervade and pester with it a
+right smart heap if I want to. It's a peach of a shooter, and it don't
+show in my clothes. I never have anything on me but that, and I've never
+seen the gun play yet where I got the worst of it. You-all try it, Miss
+Lucy."
+
+Lucy took the revolver, telling him that now she would be his deputy,
+and, with plentiful instruction from Curtis, placed herself in position
+and fired. She hit the bull's-eye and won much applause, until she
+explained that she had fired with both eyes shut and that, if she had
+made a good shot, it was because she couldn't help it with such a
+splendid gun as Mr. Tillinghurst's. Miss Dent took careful aim and,
+without lowering her arm, emptied the remaining chambers, making an
+excellent score. She, too, won a round of applause, to which she replied
+calmly, "Oh, I've known how to shoot for years, and when I am in
+practice I do fairly well."
+
+"You two fellows shoot a match," said Tillinghurst to Bancroft and
+Conrad. "The judge'll be umpire, and each fellow use his own gun at
+thirty paces."
+
+Louise and Lucy stood at one side, where the Sheriff and Judge Banks
+joined them, leaving Bancroft and Conrad to begin their match. Beneath
+her calm exterior Miss Dent's thoughts were in a tumult, and fierce
+resentment against the cattleman was rising in her heart. Had not Aleck
+suffered enough already? Why should he be hunted down like this when he
+was willing to make restitution, even after all these years? Oh, cruel!
+to beat him down again, when he had won success and respect once more!
+This man was a savage in his implacable desire for revenge.
+
+Curtis raised his revolver. With both eyes open and without pausing to
+take aim, he sent a bullet through the bull's-eye. "Delafield won't have
+much chance against a man who can do that!" he exclaimed in a triumphant
+undertone to Bancroft.
+
+As the test of skill went on, it developed that the banker excelled if
+he took time to aim accurately, while he of Socorro Springs was the
+superior at quick shooting.
+
+"It's my specialty in the shooting line," said Curtis. "You'd better
+practise it, Aleck. It's the thing that counts most if you get into a
+scrimmage."
+
+He handed his hat, a wide-brimmed, gray felt, to Judge Banks, asking him
+to throw it up, adding, "I'd do it myself if my left arm wasn't in dry
+dock." He raised his revolver as the hat left the judge's hand; there
+were three quick reports, and he sprang forward and caught the
+descending sombrero on the muzzle of his pistol. The three perforations
+in the crown of the hat were so close together that a silver dollar
+covered them.
+
+"Bravo!" exclaimed the judge. "I don't know but two other men who can do
+that. Little Jack Wilder never misses the trick, and Emerson Mead, over
+at Las Plumas, does it as if he were a machine and couldn't miss. If you
+ever get a grudge against me, Mr. Conrad, I'll engage the undertaker and
+order my tombstone at once!"
+
+Bancroft turned away quickly. He swung his arm upward, fired, and found
+that his bullet had hardly nicked the outer rim of the target.
+
+"Don't pay any attention to your gun," Curtis admonished him. "Keep both
+eyes open, look at the bull's-eye, and unconsciously you'll aim right at
+it. If you get into a gun play, where it's a choice between giving up
+the ghost yourself or getting the other fellow's, you want to fasten
+your eyes on his most accessible part, point your gun that way, and
+shoot on the wink. Between the eyes is a good place, for then you can
+hold him with your own. That's the way I shall fix Delafield," he added,
+dropping his voice.
+
+Cold anger seized upon Bancroft as the picture of that gun muzzle close
+to his own forehead came vividly into his imagination. Until now Conrad
+had not mentioned the subject of Delafield to him since the day of his
+return to town, and the banker's friendly feelings had renewed
+themselves with the growth of his own confidence and with his desire to
+compass what he wished without violence. But Curtis had only to speak of
+his purpose in this cold-blooded manner for the banker to know that he,
+too, was rapidly becoming as implacable as his pursuer.
+
+Judge Banks was talking to Miss Dent about the view and the New Mexican
+climate, and quoting Wordsworth on "the witchery of the soft blue sky."
+She was compelling an expression of smiling interest, while her thoughts
+were with Bancroft and his danger. The desire possessed her to stand
+near him, to hover about him, as if her mere presence would protect him
+from peril. The friendly revolver practice between the two men made her
+sick at heart, and she was waiting with inward impatience for the moment
+when she could propose returning to the veranda.
+
+Lucy and Sheriff Tillinghurst were laughing and talking together in a
+running game of playful coquetry on her part and admiring badinage on
+his. "Now, Miss Lucy," he was saying, "if you-all are going to be my
+deputy, you'll have to learn to shoot with at least one eye open. I
+can't have my deputy shootin' around promiscuous with both eyes shut. It
+might be used against me in the campaign."
+
+"Oh, I'll keep both eyes open, just as Mr. Conrad says," she exclaimed,
+taking the Sheriff's revolver from his hand. "Just like this," she went
+on gayly, pointing the pistol straight at Curtis's face as he came
+toward them, saying, "Now you must have another chance, Miss Bancroft."
+
+Tillinghurst sprang forward as he saw her level the revolver and struck
+it up with his hand. Her pressure on the trigger had been light, but the
+contraction of her finger as the Sheriff knocked it upward discharged
+the weapon. The bullet sang through the air; and she paled and staggered
+backward, looking wildly from one to the other as she exclaimed:
+
+"Oh, I was sure it wasn't loaded!"
+
+"A gentleman's gun is always loaded, Miss Lucy," said the Sheriff, mild
+reproof in his tone.
+
+Lucy leaned, trembling, against Miss Dent's supporting arm. "I--I was
+sure we shot out all the bullets," she stammered, looking wistfully at
+Conrad. "I'll never, never touch a gun again."
+
+"Don't feel so worried, Miss Bancroft," urged Curtis, gently. "You
+weren't pressing the trigger, and I'd have ducked if you had, for I was
+watching your hand. I wasn't in the least danger, and you mustn't think
+about it again. It'll be your turn next, Miss Dent," he added jocosely.
+"Aleck had his the other day, and sent a bullet into the wall just above
+my head."
+
+"And you still have confidence in us, you reckless man!" Louise
+exclaimed with a little effort at gayety, but with eyes on the ground.
+
+"Perhaps he thinks he'll be in less danger if he teaches you-all how to
+handle your guns," the Sheriff commented, as Miss Dent led the way back
+to the house.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+THREE LETTERS
+
+
+"Hello, Curt! When are you going back to the ranch?"
+
+Pendleton, the invalid from the East, accosted Conrad as he emerged from
+the physician's office, where he had gone for a last dressing of his
+wounds before returning to the round-up.
+
+"Right now, Mr. Pendleton. Anything I can do for you?"
+
+"Say, Curt, I've been wondering if I couldn't flirt gravel along with
+your bunch for a while. I want to take in everything that's going while
+I'm here. I've never been on a ranch, or seen a round-up, or a steer on
+the prod; and I'd like to see how things are done. Would a tenderfoot be
+in your way?"
+
+"Not a bit of it! Come right along, Pendy, if you think you can stand
+it. You'll have to rough it, you know; sleep on the ground with your
+saddle for a pillow, ride hard, and eat what comes."
+
+"Oh, I can stand whatever the rest of you do. I don't fork a horse as
+well as a cowboy or a circus rider, but I can stick on, and I can get
+there 'most as soon as anybody--I mighty near got there too soon when we
+went after Melgares, didn't I?"
+
+"All right, Pendleton! If you think you can stand it, come right along
+with me this morning. I'm going to ride the rest of the day and most of
+the night; but if that's too much for you you can stop over at the ranch
+to-night, and catch up with us to-morrow."
+
+"I reckon I'll take it all in along with you, and I'll meet you in half
+an hour in front of the court-house," and Pendleton bustled off. Conrad
+went after his mare, dropping into Bancroft's office for a last word.
+
+The president of the First National Bank was reading his morning's mail.
+He frowned over a note from Rutherford Jenkins reminding him that the
+first of the month was approaching, and warning him not to forget the
+remittance due on that day. He looked at the calendar. No; he could not
+take time before the first to go to Las Vegas and crack the whip he was
+preparing over Jenkins's head; he would have to make this payment. Next
+he opened a letter from Dellmey Baxter:
+
+     "MY DEAR BANCROFT:--I think you'd better correct young Conrad's
+     curious notion that I had anything to do with Jose Gonzalez's
+     attack upon him, or with Jose's going down there. If you don't he
+     might turn his suspicions in some other direction. Of course,
+     there's nothing in it but that greaser's bad temper. But he thinks
+     there is, and he's just hot-headed enough to make it uncomfortable
+     for anybody he happens to suspect. I didn't send Jose to him and
+     so, naturally, I can't do anything about it, even if the fellow
+     does get angry and act like the devil.
+
+     "I'm sorry I can't help you in your desire to retire from our Rio
+     Grande valley land business. I'm tied up so that I've got no ready
+     money with which to buy you out. Of course, if you are determined
+     to get out, you might find a purchaser elsewhere. But as a friend I
+     advise you not to sell. There's going to be big money in it, and we
+     can probably launch the enterprise within the next six months.
+     You'll make a great mistake if you quit. If you decide to stay in
+     I'm willing for you to keep on as a silent partner, just as we have
+     done so far."
+
+The banker scowled, swearing softly to himself as he read the first
+paragraph. "Didn't send him, didn't he," he grumbled. "Then who did? I
+didn't, that's sure. He recommended the fellow as a good cowboy, and
+Conrad engaged him. I had nothing to do with it." He was silent again as
+he studied the second part of the letter. A suspicion rose in his mind
+that Baxter was purposely making it difficult, almost impossible, for
+him to get out of the land scheme. What was his purpose in so doing? Did
+the Congressman wish to keep a hold on him to hamper, perhaps even to
+control, his movements? "I wonder," Bancroft thought, "if Dell is afraid
+I'll try to cut him out politically before he's ready to step down. I'd
+like his place well enough if--but that's something out of my reckoning
+for a long time yet, even if everything goes right." The surmise that
+Baxter wished to have such a bridle upon him left him uneasy. Well, he
+would have to let this thing go on as it was. If he tried to sell to any
+one else knowledge of his connection with it might leak out and reach
+Lucy's ears. He winced as he thought of her feeling toward Baxter
+because of this business. And the investment promised well; rich returns
+might be expected from it soon. Nobody knew of his part in it except
+Dell, and if he stayed in and kept quiet it was unlikely that anybody
+else would find it out. That might be the safer plan, after all.
+
+Conrad came to the door, and after a few minutes' talk Bancroft said to
+him, remembering Baxter's injunction, "Well, Curt, I hope you won't find
+that your crazy Mexican has been trying to kill off all your men."
+
+Curtis laughed. "Oh, Jose will be all right; and he's the best cow-punch
+I've got on the ranch. Dell Baxter will attend to him."
+
+"That's an absurd notion of yours that Baxter had anything to do with
+it," replied Bancroft, the Congressman's letter still in his mind.
+"You're not reasonable about Dell. Why should he want you assassinated?"
+
+"The only reason I can see is that I've been talking pretty plain about
+him. But if he doesn't like the kind of things I say he'll have to get
+used to it, or else reform."
+
+"Nonsense, Curt. And even if he does think you're handling the Castleton
+money against--"
+
+Curtis made a gesture of impatience. "I hope you don't take any stock in
+that talk, Aleck. The Castletons don't care a hang about this campaign,
+and Dell knows it. They're not putting up a cent, or, if Ned is doing
+anything for his wife's sake, he's dealing with Johnny Martinez direct."
+
+Bancroft looked at him narrowly. "Is that right, Curt? Are you sure of
+it?"
+
+"As sure as I am of anything," the cattleman responded with emphasis.
+"They've never mentioned the subject to me."
+
+After Conrad had gone the banker walked the floor in anxious thought.
+What, then, did that five-hundred-dollar check mean that Curtis had
+given to Jenkins? Perhaps he was holding the young man off, saying he
+was not yet sure of Delafield's identity and needed money to carry on
+his investigation, intending to give up his secret if he should find
+that he could bleed Bancroft no longer. That would be like Jenkins, he
+decided. As soon as he could get away he would go to Las Vegas and see
+if the fellow could be cowed by the knowledge that had come to him so
+opportunely. As for Conrad, it would be better to wait until he could
+learn whether those checks would produce the effect desired.
+
+In front of the court-house the ranchman met Tillinghurst and Little
+Jack Wilder. The Sheriff had a subpoena commanding him to appear as a
+witness for the State in the Melgares trial, set for June. Curtis
+remarked, as they talked of the case: "I reckon you'll have Pendleton as
+a witness; he'll want to take in the whole thing. Have you seen
+anything of him? He promised to meet me here. He's going back with me;
+says he wants to take in a round-up and see a steer on the prod. I sure
+reckon I'll have my hands full if I keep the boys from taking him in."
+
+"Let 'em run him, Curt, let 'em run him," said the Sheriff. "He's
+good-natured, and he'll soon strike their gait. He was never outside of
+New England before, and he's tryin' mighty hard to be tougher than
+anybody else on the border. He's been in town three weeks, and he calls
+everybody by their first names, from Judge Banks down to my Mexican
+stable-boy. He writes down all the slang he hears every day, sits up
+nights to study it, and the next day slings it around as free and easy
+as an old-timer. Is that him comin' yonder? Say, Curt, he'll stampede
+every cow-brute you've got on the range!"
+
+Pendleton, short, stout, and large of girth, had dressed himself for
+roughing it according to his own idea of custom and comfort. He wore a
+Mexican straw sombrero tied down over his ears with a red bandanna, a
+red flannel shirt, a long linen coat, huge spurs, and sheepskin
+_chaparejos_.
+
+"Oh, where did you get that coat?" the three men sang out as he came
+within hearing distance. Pendleton caught the tails in his finger tips
+and danced some sidewise steps.
+
+"Ain't she a beaut?" he shouted. "I found it in a store down in
+Dobytown."
+
+"Say, Pendy," called the Sheriff, "if you go pervadin' and pesterin'
+around among Curt's steers in those duds I'll have to send Jack down
+there to arrest you for breach of the peace."
+
+"All right, Tilly! I'm here for my health, but I'm takin' in on the side
+everything that comes my way!"
+
+Conrad found a letter at the ranch addressed to Jose Gonzalez, in his
+care, and grinned with satisfaction as he recognized Baxter's
+handwriting. "He's buffaloed all right and is calling off his man," he
+thought as he opened with eager curiosity a missive from Baxter for
+himself:
+
+     "MY DEAR YOUNG FRIEND:--I assure you that you are barking up the
+     wrong tree when you try to connect me with any attack the Mexican,
+     Jose Gonzalez, may have made upon you. In fact, it is so much up
+     the wrong tree that I feel pretty sure there isn't any tree there
+     at all! His assault was probably the result of sudden anger. The
+     man has worked for me a good deal, and I know that such is his
+     character. I have some influence with him, and I shall write him at
+     once and give him a lecture on the necessity of controlling his
+     temper. I have had occasion to do this several times in the past,
+     not without effect. I shall tell him that you are a man of your
+     word, and a crack shot, and that if he doesn't keep cool he's
+     likely to die with his boots on. Nobody could blame you, my dear
+     Mr. Conrad, if you should shoot him under such a necessity of
+     self-defence. I take it ill, however, that you should connect me
+     with this greaser's outrageous temper and crazy actions. I assure
+     you again that you are entirely mistaken in your assumption, which,
+     permit me to say, is what might very well be called gratuitous.
+
+     "I congratulate Johnny Martinez upon having the support of a
+     gentleman so energetic, influential, and enthusiastic as yourself,
+     and I remain,
+
+               "Yours very cordially,
+                    "DELLMEY BAXTER."
+
+Conrad laughed aloud over the letter, exclaiming as he finished it,
+"He's a slick one, he is!"
+
+Another letter bore the imprint of Tremper & Townsend, and contained a
+check for five hundred dollars and a brief note saying that their
+client, Sumner L. Delafield, wished them to send him this money as a
+second instalment of the amount due his father's estate, and to add
+that like sums would follow in rapid succession. Conrad scowled and
+gnawed his moustache as he read the letter the second time. He was
+considering whether he had any right to accept the money and continue
+his quest of vengeance. Delafield evidently meant to buy him off with it
+and, if he accepted, did he not tacitly accept that condition?
+
+"I'll send it back to him," was his first thought, as he reached for a
+pen. But another idea stayed his hand. The former check he had divided
+between his brother and sisters, and, as they knew nothing of his scheme
+of revenge, this also ought to go to them. But Delafield must know upon
+what terms he accepted the money. With a grim look on his face he wrote
+to the Boston attorneys:
+
+     "I have the honor to acknowledge the receipt of a second check for
+     five hundred dollars from your client, Sumner L. Delafield. I am
+     reasonably grateful that an unexpected sense of remorse has led him
+     to loose his purse-strings, even at this late day, and on behalf of
+     my brother and sisters will ask you to send him their thanks. As
+     for myself, you may tell him that I hope the sending of the money
+     has eased his conscience, for it will procure him no other benefit.
+     Every cent of money he sees fit to send me I shall turn over to my
+     father's other children, while I shall find entire satisfaction in
+     following out my revenge. What that is he doubtless knows, for the
+     sending of these checks convinces me that he is moved, not by the
+     honest wish to do what he can toward righting a dastardly wrong,
+     but by the desire to save his own skin. Please tell him, from me,
+     that he cannot buy immunity from my purpose, even though he should
+     send me the whole of the debt three times over."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+VILLAINY UNMASKED
+
+
+Pendleton, bouncing in his saddle as they galloped southward, bent
+admiring glances upon the erect figure of his companion, whose seat was
+as steady as if horse and rider had been welded together. "Say, Curt,"
+he finally called out, "how do you do it? I'd give my bad lung if I
+could ride like you."
+
+Conrad gave him some instruction, and Pendleton turned all his attention
+toward learning how to bring his body into rhythmic accord with the
+movements of his horse. The cattleman, pounding along in silence,
+thought with satisfaction of the progress his search for Delafield was
+making and planned how he should carry it on after the round-up, when he
+would have more leisure. He would make a list of the men in New Mexico
+rich and prominent enough to come under suspicion, investigate their
+records, one by one, and so by elimination discover the person he
+wanted. Then would come the meeting!
+
+His thoughts full of the climax of his search, he rode on in a sort of
+exaltation, unconsciously humming a song he and Lucy Bancroft had been
+practising. Presently, through the silence, the sound entered his
+conscious hearing, and took his thoughts back to the pleasant hour he
+and she had spent over it. But a vague uneasiness stirred his feelings
+as the image of Lucy floated past the background of that grisly,
+dominating purpose. The thought of her persisted; as it clung there,
+along the edge of his absorption, it brought a sharp and curious
+suggestion of the maimed bird he had carried in his bosom. He was
+suddenly conscious of discomfort, as if he had hurt some helpless thing,
+when his reverie was broken by a series of wild yells from his
+companion. Pendleton had been lagging behind, but he now came dashing
+forward, giving vent to his delight because he had so far mastered the
+art of riding that he no longer bounced all over the horse's back nor
+fell forward and seized its mane at each change of gait.
+
+A spring welled alluringly from a dimple in the hillside. Pendleton
+dismounted, saying he was thirsty. "Don't drink from that spring,
+Pendy," Conrad admonished him. "It's alkali, and you'll wish you
+hadn't."
+
+"It looks all right, and it's cool," said the tenderfoot, dipping his
+hand in the water. "My throat's as hot and dry as that road. What harm
+will it do?"
+
+"Well, pretty soon you'll think you're chewing cotton; and it may make
+you sick, though this spring isn't strong enough of alkali to do you
+much harm."
+
+"I'll risk it," Pendleton declared, scooping up some water in his
+hat-brim. "It's wet when it goes down, anyway. And I reckon I might as
+well take in an alkali spring, too, while I've got the chance.
+Everything goes!" An hour later he galloped alongside of Conrad, working
+his jaws and licking his lips. "Say, Curt," he mumbled, "I know a fellow
+back home who'd give a thousand dollars for such a thirst as I've got!"
+
+It was midnight when they passed Rock Springs, where the superintendent
+had left his outfit. Two hours later, when Brown Betty put out her nose
+and neighed, an answering whinny came back from beyond the next hill.
+"That's only Five Cottonwoods," thought Curtis. "It can't be they've got
+no farther than that!" They gained the top of the hill and below them,
+in the light of the waning moon, they saw the white top of the
+chuck-wagon, the dark patch of sleeping cattle patrolled by a single
+horseman, and the figures of the men sprawled on the ground around the
+dying coals of their evening fire.
+
+"Here we are, Pendy!" said Curtis. "I thought they would have got
+farther than this, and that we'd have at least two hours more of travel.
+Now we'll have time for a little sleep before you begin busting those
+broncs."
+
+They stretched themselves on the ground and almost instantly fell
+asleep. But it was not long before Conrad, rousing suddenly, sprang to
+his feet, realizing even before he was fairly awake that the cattle were
+stampeding. From down the hill came a thundering, rushing sound, the
+noise of hundreds of hoofs pounding the ground. He called his foreman,
+seized his saddle, and rushed to the bunch of tethered cow-ponies,
+Peters, Texas Bill, Red Jack, and Jose Gonzalez close behind. As they
+dashed after the flying herd Curtis could see in the dim light the
+figure of the cowboy who had been patrolling the sleeping cattle. He was
+following the stampede at what his employer thought a leisurely pace.
+
+"Who was riding herd?" he yelled to Peters, who replied, "Andy Miller."
+
+"Is he trying to drive them farther away?" Conrad muttered angrily,
+pressing home his spur.
+
+The cattle tore wildly down the hill, but at its foot their leaders
+turned up the course of the dry shallow valley instead of pressing up
+the other side. The men saw the movement, and by cutting across the
+hillside gained rapidly upon the fleeing animals. As they passed Andy
+Miller, Curtis shouted to him that he might return to the camp, as they
+should not need him. The draw soon began to grow deeper and narrower,
+and the dense mass of cattle was forced to lessen its pace. Conrad
+remembered that farther on the valley came to an abrupt end against a
+steep rise. If the brutes stayed in it a little longer they would not be
+able to get out, and when they came to the end of this blind alley of
+the hills they would have to stop. So he and his companions galloped
+easily along beside the shadowy stream of moving backs with its spray of
+tossing horns that filled the draw, and presently found the leaders,
+their heads to the bluff, chewing their cuds as quietly as if they had
+never been frightened in all their lives.
+
+As they rode back to camp behind the staidly moving herd, Conrad asked
+Peters if he knew what caused the stampede. The foreman did not know, he
+had been sound asleep when it began. But he went on to tell an excited
+tale of mysterious accidents that had followed close upon one another
+ever since the morning of the superintendent's departure. Only the edge
+of the sand-storm through which he had ridden touched them, though it
+had kept them in camp all day. Nevertheless, there had been two
+stampedes, and they had had much trouble getting the brutes together
+again. Every day since there had been at least one stampede of the herd.
+He and the others had been kept busy gathering in the flying cattle.
+This was why they had got no farther than Five Cottonwoods. It seemed as
+if the devil himself had taken possession of every cow-brute on the
+range; never in all his years as a cow-puncher had he had such a time.
+
+"Don't you know what starts them?"
+
+"That's the mischief of it. Nobody ever knows. The darned critters just
+get up and hike. Some of the boys are gettin' skeery about it, and
+they're likely to pull their freight if it keeps up. They're tellin'
+ghost stories now after supper, and Andy Miller has been reelin' off
+the whoppin'est yarns ever you heard. Between the ghost stories and the
+way the cow-brutes act the boys are gettin' plumb fidgety, and I'm
+mighty glad you've got back."
+
+"How does Andy get on with the work? Does he _sabe_?"
+
+"Yes; he's first rate; the best we've got, except Jose. But Andy does
+have main bad luck with the cow-brutes. This makes four times they've
+stampeded under him."
+
+Promise of day was flushing the eastern sky and faintly warming the gray
+semi-darkness when Pendleton's eyes flew open, to instant conviction of
+illness. From head to foot he ached with weariness, and he felt
+wretchedly sick. For a moment he kept quiet, feeling that it would be
+more comfortable to lie still and die than to try to move. But presently
+he thought, "I'll never live to die of consumption if I don't get up
+quick and find my whiskey!"
+
+He scrambled to his feet and looked around. Not nearly so many men were
+stretched on the ground as he had expected to see, and his friend was
+not in sight. He looked for his saddle-bags, where he kept his flask.
+Conrad had taken them from the horse when they unsaddled, and Pendleton
+had not noticed what he did with them. He could not find the bags,
+everybody left in camp was sound asleep, and Curtis had disappeared.
+Wrapped in his blanket he was wandering around forlornly, squirming with
+pain, when he saw some one moving in the group of horses farther down
+the hill. He started in that direction and saw the man stoop beside
+Conrad's mare, Brown Betty.
+
+"Hello, pard! Where's Curt?" Pendleton called loudly. The man
+straightened up quickly, and put away a knife. He looked at the curious
+figure coming toward him, and burst into a loud guffaw. "Gee whillikens,
+stranger! where'd you drop from?" he shouted back.
+
+Pendleton explained, and asked the other to help him find his
+saddle-bags. They were discovered in the chuck-wagon, and the invalid
+offered his flask, with a cordial admonition to "drink hearty, pard."
+The cowboy responded literally, and made several other visits to the
+saddle-bags before breakfast. By that time he was good-naturedly
+obstreperous, and had the camp in an uproar with his horse-play and
+noisy pranks. Conrad asked Peters where Andy got his whiskey. The
+foreman did not know, and said that this was the first time he had shown
+any signs of drink. The superintendent went to Pendleton.
+
+"Has Andy Miller been taking a pull at your flask?"
+
+"The cow-punch that's feeling so happy? Sure, Curt. He helped me find my
+saddle-bags, and I thought I'd be sociable with him. I told him to drink
+hearty; and by thunder, Curt! you ought to have seen him. He sure had a
+worse thirst on him than I had yesterday."
+
+"I'll have to ask you not to do it again with any of them. And you'd
+better let me put your flask in a locked box I have in the chuck-wagon,
+if you don't carry it in your pocket, or you may not have any left by
+night."
+
+Gonzalez came up with a question, and Conrad remembered the letter he
+had for him. The Mexican took it with an unconcerned face, and went off
+behind the chuck-wagon. "I don't need to see the inside of it," thought
+Curtis; "but I'd like to all the same. Well, he'll be all right now, and
+I'm glad of it, for I'd hate to have to kill as good a roper as he is."
+
+
+A few minutes later Jose strolled toward the cook's fire, twisting the
+letter in his fingers. He was about to thrust it into the coals when
+Andy Miller jumped at him with a yell, and caught his hand. "Here, boys;
+Jose's got a love letter! Let's read it!" he shouted. Gonzalez resisted;
+Miller bore him down; and they rolled, struggling, over the ground.
+Jose's dark face was pale with anger and his teeth were set as he
+gripped the bit of paper in one fist and pummelled Andy's face with the
+other. Miller tried to shield himself from the blows with his arms,
+while he bent his energies to getting possession of the letter.
+
+"You're fightin', Andy; don't fergit to punch!" yelled Nosey Ike from
+the group of cowboys looking on. Miller was the stronger of the two, and
+almost had the Mexican in his power when Conrad came beside them,
+saying, "If you want the letter burned, Jose, give it to me."
+
+Gonzalez cast at him one doubtful, desperate look, and threw the twisted
+paper toward him. The superintendent thrust it in the fire, and he and
+Peters separated the two men. Gonzalez flashed at him a look of
+gratitude and walked away without a word.
+
+"Andy," said Conrad, "you're making too much trouble this morning. If
+you want to work with this outfit you've got to keep straight. If you
+don't want to do that you can pull your freight right now."
+
+The man turned away sullenly. "I'm not ready to pull my freight yet," he
+muttered. The other cowboys were saddling their ponies and making ready
+to begin the day's work. The bunched cattle, with the red rays of the
+morning sun warm upon their backs, were quietly grazing a little way
+down the hillside. Andy Miller started toward his horse, but turned and
+ran rapidly at the cattle. No one noticed what he was doing until, in a
+moment more, he was jumping, yelling, and swinging his hat at the edge
+of the herd. Snorting with sudden surprise and fright, the beasts were
+away again as though fiends were at their tails. Conrad rushed for his
+horse, but Peters, already mounted, yelled that they would not need him;
+and the foreman, with half a dozen others, dashed after the stampede.
+
+Andy Miller was coming slowly back, now and then stopping to smite his
+thigh and laugh. Curtis walked out to meet him. "Andy," he said, "I
+reckon I don't need you any longer. You can take your time this morning.
+Here's your money."
+
+The cowboy looked up, grinning, and thrust the bills in his pocket.
+Then, as quickly and lightly as a cat, he sprang upon the superintendent
+and pulled him down. Conrad, taken completely by surprise, with his left
+arm in a sling and at something less than his best of strength, for a
+moment could do nothing but struggle in the other's grasp. Miller was
+holding him, face downward, across one advanced leg, when Pendleton,
+still wrapped in his blanket, bustled up to see what was happening. With
+upraised hand, Miller yelled:
+
+"Now, then, you'll get it back, every darn' spank, an' more too! Jenkins
+ain't big enough to spank you himself, but I can do it for him!" His
+hand descended, but into an enveloping blanket suddenly thrown over him
+from behind, muffling head, body, and arms.
+
+"I've got him, Curt! Get up, quick, and we'll do him up!" shouted the
+tenderfoot as he twisted the blanket around Andy's struggling figure.
+
+Conrad wrenched himself free and sprang up, his face white. "Let him up,
+Pendy," he said, drawing his revolver. The other unwound the blanket,
+and Miller scrambled out, blinking and cursing. "You make tracks out of
+this camp as fast as you can go," said Curtis, "and don't let me catch
+you within gunshot of this outfit again! Clear out, this minute, damn
+you!"
+
+Miller walked away in silence toward his staked horse, the two men
+following him part way down the hill.
+
+"He'd better clear out before the boys get back, if he wants to keep a
+sound neck," said Conrad, his revolver in hand and his eyes on the
+retreating cowboy. "I understand it all now. And it was a lucky thing,
+Pendy, that you gave him that whiskey this morning; it got him just
+drunk enough to show his hand. If it hadn't been for that I might not
+have caught on till he'd done the Lord knows how much mischief. It's
+just like that damned skunk, Jenkins, to go at it in this sneaking,
+underhand way. He's not through with me yet!"
+
+They watched while Miller saddled his horse, hung his rope at the
+saddle-horn, and mounted. Then they turned back toward the camp, but
+presently, at a whinny from Brown Betty, Curtis faced about. Miller had
+ridden to where she was standing, a little apart from the other horses,
+had leaped to the ground, and was making toward her hind-quarters. His
+body was in profile, and as he stretched out his arm Conrad saw the
+flash of sunlight upon a knife blade. Instantly his arm swung upward,
+and there was an answering flash from the muzzle of his revolver. The
+report boomed across the valley, and Andy's right arm dropped. He rushed
+toward them, yelling foul names, but halted when he saw the pistol
+levelled at his breast.
+
+"No more tricks, Andy," called the superintendent, "or it'll be through
+your heart next time. Git, right now!"
+
+From up the valley came the shouts of the men. They had turned the
+cattle and were hurrying them back to camp. Miller cast one quick glance
+in their direction, and leaped to his saddle. He made a wide detour, the
+tail of his eye on Conrad's gun, and galloped away on the road over
+which the outfit had come. The others trooped up where Curtis and
+Pendleton, at the top of the hill, were watching his lessening figure.
+
+"Boys," said the ranchman, "that's the chap that's been stampeding the
+cattle!" Peters swore a mouth-filling oath and smote his thigh. "He was
+just on the point of ham-stringing Brown Betty," Curtis went on, his
+eyes blazing, "and I put a bullet through his arm barely in time to
+prevent it."
+
+A light broke upon Pendleton. "Darn my skin, if that wasn't the trick
+the critter was up to this morning, when he saw me and stopped!"
+
+"Let's go after him, boys!" shouted Peters. The group of riders shot
+forward, like racers starting at the word, and thundered down the road
+after the culprit. Conrad looked after them grimly, his eyes flashing
+blue fire, and Pendleton, wrapped in his blanket again, danced about and
+yelled, "Go it, boys, go it! I wish I was with you!"
+
+For an hour they chased him. He, knowing what his fate would be if he
+fell into their hands, put spurs to his horse until he brought out its
+utmost speed. Having so much the start he kept well in the lead, and
+finally they gave it up and returned to camp.
+
+With his left arm still in a sling and his shoulder bandaged, Conrad
+kept at the head of the round-up, which went on without further
+accident. He was too busy to think of the pain, except at night, when it
+often kept him awake. At such times his mind was sure to busy itself,
+sooner or later, with the trailing of Delafield, reaching out in every
+direction for some clew to guide his next step. By some trick of
+subconscious mental action, thoughts of Lucy Bancroft began to intrude
+upon his mind when it was thus engaged. It pleased him well enough to
+think of Lucy at other times, of her bright, piquant face, of the
+positive opinions she was in the habit of pronouncing with that
+independent little toss of her curly head, and of her dimpling smiles.
+But it annoyed him that the thought of her should come into conflict
+with his one absorbing idea. And, just because he had been consciously
+disturbed by it twice or thrice, association of ideas brought back the
+image more and more frequently. Once, when he had been vainly wooing
+sleep for an hour, he caught himself wondering what Lucy would say about
+the Delafield affair. He muttered an angry oath at himself, and with a
+mighty effort put both subjects out of his mind. It was not until they
+reached Pelham, the railway station whence the cattle were to be
+shipped, that his shoulder became free enough from pain for him to sink
+into sleep as soon as he lay down; and thereafter his mind forbore its
+irritating trick.
+
+During all that time, although Conrad did not believe he had anything to
+fear from Jose Gonzalez, he never left his revolver out of easy reach,
+and never turned his back upon the Mexican. But Gonzalez kept on his way
+as calmly and apparently as unconsciously as if he had had no part in
+that episode beside the pool at Rock Springs. Near the end of the
+shipping Curtis asked him if he would like steady work at the ranch.
+
+The Mexican gave a little astonished start and cast at the
+superintendent a glance of suspicion. Conrad frowned and his eyes
+flashed. Then he grinned good-naturedly, showing his strong white teeth
+under his sunburned moustache. "That's all right, Jose. I'm not that
+sort. As long as you behave yourself I'm your friend. If you don't, I've
+told you what will happen. You've struck my gait in the cow business,
+and I want to keep you. If you want to stay you can understand right now
+that you run no risks, unless you make 'em yourself."
+
+Gonzalez threw at him a keen glance. "You know I have nothing against
+you, Don Curtis," he began, hesitating a moment before he went on; "I
+like to work for you very well, senor, and I will stay."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+A DOUBLE BLUFF
+
+
+Alexander Bancroft read Conrad's defiant letter, duly forwarded by his
+Boston attorneys, with a nearer approach to desperation than he had
+known in years. He had hoped so much from that money; and it had been
+thrown away! The man was inflexible, and to attempt to turn him from his
+deadly purpose by peaceful means would be a waste of time. And time was
+precious, for, now that he and his detective knew so much, one clew that
+they might discover any day would throw the door wide open. He must be
+foiled before he had time to make another move. Bancroft laid on his
+desk the letter he had been reading, feeling to the bottom of his heart
+that he would be justified in taking any course that would halt the feet
+of his pursuer.
+
+A clerk came to ask his presence in the outer room, and he went out
+hastily, intending to return at once. But a man with business in which
+both were interested awaited him, and after a moment's conversation they
+went to find a third who was concerned in the same matter.
+
+They had only just gone when Lucy came in and asked for her father. She
+looked sweet and dainty in a white gown with a wide white hat tied under
+her chin, her curls clustering around a face all aglow with warm browns
+and rich reds. The clerk who pressed forward with pleased alacrity to
+answer her question was one of her ardent admirers. Mr. Bancroft had
+just gone out, probably for only a few minutes; wouldn't she wait? It
+was of no consequence, she said; she only wished to see if he had any
+mail for her. But she looked disappointed, and the clerk suggested that
+as he had left his office door unlocked she might go in and wait. She
+saw a pile of unopened letters on her father's desk and glanced through
+it, finding two for Miss Dent and one for herself. "I'll just sit here
+and read mine," she thought, "and maybe daddy will be back by that
+time."
+
+A little gust of wind came through the open window, blowing a sheet of
+paper from the desk to the floor. Her eye caught the signature as she
+picked it up. "Curtis Conrad!" she read. "Oh, how like him his writing
+looks!" she exclaimed, a wave of color surging into her cheeks. "Why, it
+seems as if I just knew it would be like this! How easy it is to read!"
+She was looking at the letter, her attention absorbed in the fact that
+it had come from Conrad's own hand, when Delafield's name stood out from
+the other words.
+
+"Delafield! Sumner L. Delafield! I remember that name. It's the name of
+the man that ruined his father--why, it's a receipt for that money! How
+does daddy happen to have it?" Her eyes ran eagerly along the lines.
+"It's just like him! I'm glad he wouldn't take the money! What a horrid,
+wicked man that Delafield must be! I wonder how daddy happens to have
+this letter, when it was written to Tremper & Townsend, in Boston!" Her
+glance fell on the torn envelope bearing the imprint of the Boston firm,
+addressed to her father, and thence to their letter beside it. With mind
+intent upon the bewildering problem her eyes rushed over the brief
+missive:
+
+     "As you requested, we deposited your check for five hundred dollars
+     to our account, and forwarded our check for the same amount to Mr.
+     Curtis Conrad. We enclose his letter in receipt, which he evidently
+     wishes sent on to you."
+
+Lucy dropped the sheet of paper and sprang to her feet, her mind awhirl
+with protest. No, no! this could not be meant for her father--he was not
+Delafield--it was impossible! But--something clutched at her throat, and
+her head swam. She must go home; she must think out the puzzle. Sudden
+unwillingness to meet her father seized her. He must not know she had
+been there, that she had seen anything. She was not yet thinking
+coherently, only feeling that she had thoughtlessly surprised some
+secret, which had sprung out at her like a jack-in-the-box, and that she
+must give no sign of having seen its face.
+
+She sped homeward, her brain in a turmoil, and it was not until she had
+shut herself in her room that she began to think clearly. A troop of
+recollections, disjointed, half-forgotten bits and ends of things
+swarmed upon her. The shock had roused her mind to unusual activity, and
+little things long past, forgotten for years, again came vividly into
+her memory.
+
+So suddenly that it made her catch her breath there flashed upon her the
+recollection of how once, when she was a tiny child, some one had halted
+beside her mother and herself in a city street and exclaimed "Mrs.
+Delafield!" Her mother had hurried on without noticing the salutation,
+and had satisfied her curiosity afterward by explaining that the person
+was a stranger who had mistaken her for somebody else. But Lucy had
+thought the name a pretty one and used it in her play, pretending that
+she had a little playmate so called. Their wanderings during her
+childhood came back to her, when they had gone often from one place to
+another, at first in Canada, afterward always in the West. Much of the
+time she and her mother were alone, but her father came occasionally to
+spend with them a few days or weeks. Her devotion to him dated from
+those early years, when she thought so much about him during his long
+absences, wished so ardently for his return, and enjoyed his visits with
+unalloyed delight.
+
+With new significance came the recollection of the beginning for them of
+the name of Bancroft. While she was still a little girl her mother had
+told her their name would no longer be Brown, but Bancroft, because they
+had been allowed to change it. She had liked the new name much better,
+had accepted it with the unquestioning acquiescence of childhood, and
+the old name had soon become but a dim memory.
+
+Like a blow at her heart, because of the conviction it brought, the
+remembrance rushed upon her of an occasion not long after the change of
+name. She had wakened in the night and, drowsily floating in and out of
+sleep, had heard snatches of talk between her parents. Something
+regarding danger to her father had won her attention. He had replied
+that it would be quite safe, because only when he visited them would he
+be known as Bancroft, and that henceforth he would probably be able to
+spend more time with them. Her mother had feared and questioned, but he
+had reassured her and insisted that Lucy must be kept more steadily in
+school and that both mother and daughter must have a settled home. She
+could not remember all that he said, but meaningful scraps came back
+which had impressed her because they were concerned with that vague
+peril which her mother seemed to fear. He had said something about there
+being "no danger now," "nobody would recognize him," "everybody had
+forgotten it by this time"; finally, her childish anxiety assured that
+he was not really in jeopardy, she had sunk back happily into sleep and
+thought little more about it. After that she and her mother lived part
+of the time in Denver and part in San Francisco, and her father was with
+them more than before.
+
+Every recollection that emerged from that dubious past strengthened the
+fear that had gripped her heart with the reading of the letters. One by
+one she was forced to give up the suppositions with which she tried to
+account for her father's possession of those letters. With all her
+strength she fought against the one evident conclusion. But at last the
+conviction fell upon her with chill certainty that they were on her
+father's desk because they were meant for him, and that he was the
+Sumner L. Delafield of that long past, disgraceful affair.
+
+With hands clenched against her heart, which was aching with the
+soreness of bruised flesh, she whispered, "To take the money of all
+those people, and ruin them; and it killed some--oh, daddy, daddy, it
+was you who did it!" All the world had suddenly become one great,
+enveloping pain that wrung her heart anew with every recurring
+realization that her adored father had been so wicked--to her mind so
+abominably wicked. It was significant of her youth and inexperience, and
+also of her moral quality, that she did not attempt to palliate or
+excuse his offence. He was guilty of wrongdoing, as Dellmey Baxter was
+guilty, but in a far worse measure, and the fact that he was her father
+would never temper her condemnation of his sin. In the midst of her
+anguish she grew conscious that her feeling toward him had changed, and
+knew that the life had gone out of her old honoring, adoring love. It
+was as if half her heart had been violently torn away. For the first
+time sobs shook her, as she moaned, "Daddy, daddy, I loved you so!"
+Forlorn and anguished, her longing turned back to the dead mother with
+imperious need of sympathy, understanding, and companionship.
+
+Then came the thought that her mother had known this dreadful truth, and
+yet had stanchly held by him and shared its consequences. The sense of
+duty arose within her, trembling, apprehensive, but insistent. It seemed
+almost as if her mother had bequeathed this secret to her keeping that
+she might the better fill her place beside him with daughterly
+solicitude. The idea crystallized into whispered words as she tossed
+back her head and dried her eyes, "My mother stood by him, and so shall
+I!"
+
+He must never even suspect that she knew this horrible thing; she felt
+instinctively that it would cut him to the heart to learn that she had
+discovered his secret. For a moment she broke down again and moaned,
+"Why did I go into his office this morning! I wish I hadn't, I wish I
+hadn't! And then I wouldn't have had to know!" She quickly put aside
+this useless repining, to face the grim, painful fact once more. No; he
+must never guess that she knew he was other than he seemed, and he must
+never feel any change in her manner toward him. She must hide the secret
+deep, deep down in her heart, and she must keep their mutual life as it
+had always been. And there was Dearie--but she must know nothing of it;
+oh, no, never in the world must Dearie learn the least thing about this
+trouble!
+
+Lucy felt very much alone, quite shut off, in her poignant need, from
+every one who might give her help, advice, or sympathy. As she sat
+there, encompassed by her loneliness and pain, her thoughts turned half
+unconsciously toward Curtis Conrad with instinctive longing for his
+protecting care and strength. Then she remembered. With a sharp flash
+that made her wince it came back to her that he meant to have revenge
+on Delafield; that she had heard him say he was on the man's trail, and
+would track him down and kill him! For a moment it staggered her, with a
+fierce new pain that struck through the keen ache in her breast, making
+her catch her breath in a gasping sob. But all her heart rose in quick
+denial. A faint smile held her trembling lip for an instant as she
+thought:
+
+"Oh, no; he wouldn't! He wouldn't hurt daddy; and he wouldn't kill
+anybody! I know he wouldn't!"
+
+She almost feared to meet her household; it seemed as if this awful
+knowledge which had come to her must be writ large upon her countenance.
+Would it be possible to take up the daily life again as if nothing had
+happened? A chasm so horrible had riven it, since the morning, that
+surely it could never be the same again. But when she finally summoned
+her resolution and went down to take up her daily duties, she found it
+not so hard as she had feared. That benign routine of daily, commonplace
+life, with its hourly demands upon thought and feeling and attention,
+which has saved so many hearts from breaking, met her at the very door
+of her room. She quickly learned to lean upon it, even to multiply its
+demands. At the outset it gave her the strength and courage to pass
+through her ordeal steadfastly; and after the first day it was not so
+hard. She began to feel pity for her father and a new tenderness as she
+thought of the years through which he had lived, knowing who he was and
+what he had done, and dreading always to be found out. But all her pity,
+tenderness, affection, and the old habit of lovingness that she was
+resolute to sustain were not always sufficient to overcome the revulsion
+that sometimes seized her.
+
+One of these moments of revolt came to her as they lingered over the
+breakfast table a few days after her discovery. She made an excuse to
+attend to something in the kitchen, and hastily left the room. Her
+father had told them at the table that he was going to Las Vegas that
+morning. He waited, expecting her to return and go with him to the gate,
+and wave a last good-bye as he looked back on his way down the hill. She
+did not reappear, and at last he told Miss Dent that he would have to go
+or lose his train. Louise watched him from the window with yearning eyes
+that would not lift themselves from his figure until it disappeared
+from her view.
+
+As he waited at the station Lucy rushed breathlessly to his side. "I was
+so afraid I should be too late!" she panted as she slipped her hand
+through his arm, "I ran all the way down the hill."
+
+She clung so affectionately to him and looked up into his face with an
+appeal so wistful that he was touched, thinking only that she was
+sorrowing over his going away. It was the first time he had been
+separated from her since she had come to make her home with him. The
+conductor called, "All aboard!" and he kissed her tenderly, saying,
+"I'll be back day after to-morrow, little daughter."
+
+She went home with that "little daughter" ringing in her ears and her
+heart. It brought back a wealth of memories of those childish, happy,
+longed-for times when her father came, so glad to see his "little
+daughter" that the days were not long enough to hold all the pleasures
+he wished to give her. It filled her breast with tenderness and a sort
+of yearning affection, more maternal than filial in quality, and made
+more ardent her desire to stand by him with perfect loyalty. But the
+old, joyous love that had been rooted deep in admiration, esteem, and
+honor no longer stirred within her. She knew that it would never fill
+her life again with its warmth and gladness, and that now and again she
+would have to struggle with that same aversion which had sent her that
+morning to hide herself in her room against his accustomed affectionate
+farewell. Nevertheless, she was pleased that a returning tide of
+tenderness, which was almost remorse, had swept over her in time for her
+to join him at the station.
+
+Lucy's breathless rush to overtake him and the appealing tenderness of
+her manner during their moment together were sweet thoughts in
+Bancroft's mind as the train bore him northward. Dear little daughter!
+she grew dearer every day, and so did his pride and happiness in her. He
+longed to give her all the pleasures that his money could buy, just as
+he used to fill his pockets for her delight when she was a little girl.
+Once past these threatening dangers, they should have good times
+together. All his business enterprises were promising well; it would not
+be long before money would be plenty. Then, with clear sailing ahead and
+no ominous clouds, he could ask Louise to marry him.
+
+They would have to give up Lucy some time, but not for many a day. She
+was the sort of girl that is always attractive to men--why, half the
+young fellows in Golden were already dancing devoted attendance!--but
+she was very young; he and Louise still had many years in which to enjoy
+her, to travel with her and show her the world. Once past these
+threatening dangers, how fair was the world beyond! He would vanquish
+them yet, by whatever means might come to his hand! Each day's anxiety
+for the present and its longing for the fair future made his heart more
+desperate and reckless. He was hopeful that this coming interview with
+Rutherford Jenkins would make things easier for him in that quarter.
+Money would always keep Jenkins quiet, but to give up money to a
+blackmailer was like pouring it down a rat hole; if he kept it up the
+process was sure to cripple him in time.
+
+Jenkins received him with smiling cordiality. "I'm very glad to see you,
+Mr. Delafield--oh, I beg your pardon!--Mr. Bancroft. I always think of
+you as--ah, by the other name--and I sometimes forget in speaking."
+
+"You'd better not forget again," Bancroft interposed. "And, speaking of
+forgetting, there is a little matter concerning you that I'm willing to
+let drop out of my memory. You know, of course, about the case of Jose
+Maria Melgares. Doubtless you know, also, how Melgares happened to steal
+Curtis Conrad's horse; and you could tell to a cent--to a jury, if
+necessary--how much money was given to Melgares in the rear of the Blue
+Front saloon to induce him to undertake the theft. I take it, however,
+that you would not care to have it brought into court, as a conviction
+on a charge of conspiracy would be sure to follow. I have all the
+evidence in my possession--quite enough to convict. I got it from
+Melgares' wife in the first place, and I have since secured his
+affidavit. But I have stopped her mouth, and his, and nobody else knows
+anything about it. I am quite willing to forget it myself if you will
+show equal courtesy concerning--certain other matters."
+
+Jenkins grinned and licked his lips. "Really, my dear Mr.
+Delafield--excuse me--my dear Mr. Bancroft--I don't know what you are
+driving at! I suppose you mean that Melgares has been saying that I
+hired him to steal Conrad's horse. The thing is as false as it is
+absurd. If it were to come into court I should deny it absolutely,
+exactly as I do now. And the word of Rutherford Jenkins would stand for
+considerably more with a jury than that of a Mexican horse-thief."
+
+"You are probably the only man in the Territory, Mr. Jenkins, who holds
+that opinion. Unless you take a more reasonable view of the matter I
+shall feel it my duty to see the district attorney as soon as I get
+home."
+
+"See him, and be damned!" Jenkins broke out. "If you do, Curtis Conrad
+shall know before the week is out that you are Sumner L. Delafield."
+
+Bancroft's eyes fell, but his reply came quickly enough: "Well, and what
+is that to me?"
+
+"I guess you know what it will mean to you," Jenkins answered with a
+sneer. He did not know himself what it would mean to the banker, but he
+felt sure that it would answer quite as well to make pretence of
+knowledge. He watched his antagonist furtively in the momentary silence
+that followed.
+
+"You don't seem to understand the full significance of the attitude you
+are taking," Bancroft presently went on. "Of course, I do not wish, just
+now, to have Conrad, or any one else, know all the events of my past
+life. I have been living an honorable life in this Territory, and you
+can very well comprehend that I do not wish my reputation and business
+success smashed--by you or anybody else. That is the only reason why I
+was willing to enter into an understanding with you. But my affairs are
+getting in such shape that I can soon snap my fingers at you or any one
+who tries to disclose my identity. At best, you'll be able to get little
+more out of me, and I am amazed that you should be willing to risk this
+trial, with its certain disgrace, conviction, and sentence to the
+penitentiary, for the sake of the few hundred dollars of--blackmail--let
+us call it by its right name--that you may be able to extort from me."
+
+"I am quite willing to take whatever risk there is," Jenkins interposed,
+"especially as my counsel could readily bring out the fact that you had
+tried to--blackmail--let us call it by its right name--to blackmail me
+before you gave the information. Do as you please about going to the
+district attorney; I don't care a damn whether you do or not. But, if
+you do, you'll have to settle with Curt Conrad before the week is out!"
+
+Bancroft arose, perceiving acutely that the only course left for him
+was to make a strong bluff and retreat. "Very well," he said, with an
+indifference he was far from feeling, "do as you like about that. Only
+don't delude yourself by supposing that Curt Conrad's knowing about that
+old affair will mean any more to me than anybody else's knowledge. When
+you think this proposal of mine over carefully I'm sure you'll change
+your mind, and I shall expect to hear from you to that effect."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+SENTENCE OF DEATH
+
+
+As the Spring days passed, in unbroken procession of rosy dawns,
+cloudless and glowing noons, and gorgeous sunsets, Louise Dent's
+resentment against Curtis Conrad grew keen and bitter. She saw the lines
+of worry appearing in Bancroft's face, and surprised now and then in his
+eyes an anxious abstraction; and in her heart she stormed against the
+man she supposed to be the sole cause of it all. Dreading his next visit
+lest she might betray her feeling, she longed to drive him from the
+house, when he should come, with burning, shaming words. But Bancroft,
+who knew as much of his intention as she did, was on terms of cordial
+friendship with him, and she must take her cue from her friend and host.
+
+Toward Bancroft himself her heart grew more tenderly solicitous as her
+womanly instincts divined his feeling toward her. A thousand unconscious
+touches of tone and manner had already revealed his love, and she
+surmised that he would not speak because of the imminence of this sore
+danger. She longed to give him her open sympathy, to counsel with him,
+to lock hands with him so that they might face the trouble together. Yet
+she was stopped from word or action by the necessity of seeming to know
+nothing. The fact of Bancroft's identity had been disclosed to her by
+his wife, her dear and intimate friend, who, at point of death, had told
+her, under solemn promise of secrecy, the whole story, that she might
+the better shield Lucy should disclosure ever threaten. Now, her heart
+melting with pity, love, and sympathy for her friend, and burning with
+angry resentment against his foe, she must perforce sit in apparent
+ignorance of it all, be calm and cheerful toward Bancroft, and smile
+pleased welcome upon Conrad. That hidden volcano in her breast, whose
+possibility Lucy and Curtis had half seriously discussed, had become a
+reality, and the concealment of it demanded all her self-control.
+
+The only relief she dared give herself was occasional disapproval of the
+young cattleman in her talks with Lucy. Louise was surprised and puzzled
+by the varying moods in which the girl received these criticisms.
+Sometimes she kept silence or quickly changed the subject. Rarely she
+tossed her head and joined in the condemnation with an angry sparkle of
+the eye. Or, again, with flushing cheek, she defended him from Miss
+Dent's aspersions. Louise decided, with a fond smile, that her vagaries
+of mood were due to pique at the lack of more constant attentions from
+Conrad. For the young woman, to her father's and Miss Dent's loving
+amusement, was proving herself adept in the art of queening it over a
+court of masculine admirers. What with walks over the _mesa_, rides and
+picnics up the canyon, music of evenings, and Sunday afternoon calls,
+Lucy was leading a gay life, and Louise, as her chaperon, a busy one.
+Being a normal, buoyant-hearted girl, Lucy enjoyed the gayety and the
+attention and admiration showered upon her in such copious measure for
+their own sake, and she was glad of them also because, together with her
+household cares, they kept her too well occupied for sad thoughts.
+
+So the days passed until mid-June was at hand and the time come for the
+trial of Jose Maria Melgares. Curtis Conrad was in Golden as one of the
+principal witnesses for the prosecution--his first visit to the town
+since the Spring round-up. Lucy, glancing frequently down the street,
+was trying to interest herself in Miss Dent's conversation as they sat
+together on the veranda. They spoke of the trial, and Lucy said she had
+seen Mr. Conrad on his way to the court-house when she went down town to
+market.
+
+"I've been disappointed in Mr. Conrad," said Louise; "I don't understand
+how he can talk so recklessly about people needing to be killed. To me
+it is very repellent. You know how he speaks about Mr. Baxter."
+
+Lucy's head went up. "But Mr. Baxter is a very bad man!" she exclaimed.
+"He has been responsible for a great deal of suffering. Just think of
+Melgares and his poor wife! But for Mr. Baxter they might still be
+living happily on their little ranch. And he's done many other things
+just as wicked and unjust. Oh, he's a very bad man, and I can't blame
+Mr. Conrad for feeling that way about him." She broke off, flushing to
+her brows, then went on more quietly: "But I don't think, Dearie, that
+Mr. Conrad means half he says when he talks that way; it's just his way
+of feeling how brave he is."
+
+"If he does not mean it, he should not speak so recklessly of serious
+matters," Louise responded with decision. "He must have a cruel nature,
+or he would not harbor such ideas."
+
+Lucy leaned forward, her face aglow. "Indeed, no, Dearie! Mr. Conrad
+isn't cruel; he's really very tender-hearted--just think of the way he
+carried that wounded bird all the way to Golden to have its leg fixed.
+And one day when we were walking on the _mesa_, he was so distressed
+because he accidentally stepped on a little horned toad. It's unjust to
+call him cruel, Dearie!"
+
+Her glance darted down the street again, and she saw Curtis nearing her
+gate. His quick, energetic stride and eager face were like a trumpet
+call to her youth and her womanhood. Forgetting all but the fact of his
+presence, she felt her heart leap to meet him with joyful welcome. But
+instantly came remembrance and reaction, and she greeted him with
+unusual gravity of manner.
+
+Conrad wanted them at the ranch for the Fourth of July. "We are to have
+a big barbecue and _baile_," he said. "Both the Castletons are coming
+this year to look things over, and I wrote Ned that if Mrs. Ned was
+coming with him perhaps it would amuse her if we did something of the
+sort. The idea seemed to just strike his gait, and he wrote back at once
+to go ahead and whoop it up for all I'm worth. Mrs. Ned and Mrs. Turner
+are both coming, and I'm asking a lot of people from all over the
+Territory. I want you two ladies and Mr. Bancroft to be sure to come out
+the day before the Fourth and stay at least until the day after, and as
+much longer as you find convenient. My brother Homer is coming on next
+week for the rest of the Summer, and he'll be there too."
+
+Lucy was delighted, clapped her hands, and declared it would be great
+fun--of course they would go. Repugnant to the idea but knowing that
+only one course was seemly, Miss Dent gave smiling acquiescence. As they
+talked, Curtis telling them of the great wealth of the Castleton
+brothers, the rivalry of the two ladies, the dash and beauty and vogue
+of Mrs. Turner, and the Spanish ancestry of Mrs. Ned, Lucy's eyes
+continually sought his face. Her spirits began to rise, and soon they
+were gayly tilting at each other after their usual custom, she all
+smiles and dimples and animation, and he beaming with admiration. They
+went to the conservatory to see the tanager and presently brought it
+back with them, telling Miss Dent that they were going to set it free.
+Lucy stood beside him as they watched it soar away through the sunlight,
+a flash of silvery pink flame, and it seemed to her that their mutual
+interest in the little creature had made a bond between them and given
+her an understanding of his character deeper and truer than any one else
+could have.
+
+Conrad went down the hill, whistling softly a merry little tune, his
+thoughts dwelling tenderly upon Lucy. He wished her to enjoy the
+barbecue and _baile_ even more than she expected--it was to be her first
+experience of that sort--and he began to plan little details that might
+add to her pleasure. So absorbed was he and so pleasant his thoughts
+that for a time he quite forgot the Delafield affair. But it came to
+mind again when Bancroft asked him, as they talked together at the door
+of the bank, if he had had any more trouble with Jose Gonzalez.
+
+"Oh, no; Jose's all right. He's the best cowboy I've got and as docile
+as a yearling. He's agreed to stay right on at the ranch with me. I'm
+glad to have such a smart, competent fellow to leave under Peters, for
+after the Fourth I expect to be away a good deal. I'll have some time
+for myself then and I'm going into this hunt after Delafield for all I'm
+worth; I don't think it will take me long to run him down now."
+
+Bancroft hesitated a moment, then, laying his hand on Conrad's arm he
+spoke earnestly: "For God's sake, Curt, give up this fool notion of
+yours. If you don't, you'll never get through alive. No sane man is
+going to let you get the drop on him, as you seem to think you can. He's
+undoubtedly watching you right along, ready to put an end to the
+business as soon as he thinks you're really dangerous. Let him pay you
+if he will; but stop this foolishness."
+
+Conrad laughed heartily and slapped Bancroft's shoulder. "Why, Aleck,"
+said he, "the most satisfaction I've ever had comes out of knowing that
+I'm so hot on his tracks that I've got him buffaloed. Give it up? Not
+much! I'm going to lope down that trail at a two-minute gait, and Sumner
+L. Delafield is mighty soon going to wish he'd never been born."
+
+Bancroft turned half away, with a tightening of his lips under his
+brown moustache. "Very well. I'll not trouble you with any more advice
+on the subject. But when you meet with disaster, as you undoubtedly
+will, you must remember that you've got nobody but yourself to blame.
+How's the trial going?" he asked abruptly.
+
+"Pretty fast; the case will go to the jury to-morrow. It won't take them
+more than ten minutes to reach a verdict. You ought to come in and hear
+Judge Banks's charge, Aleck. Dan tells me it's sure to be interesting.
+He says you never can tell whether Banks will deliver an original poem
+or make up his charge out of quotations from Shakespeare."
+
+As the banker went up the hill to his home he remembered that he had
+heard Rutherford Jenkins was in town. To-morrow he must see the man and
+try again to induce him to consider the dangers of an indictment for
+conspiracy. At any rate, he would hold that affidavit of Melgares' up
+his sleeve, and the time might come when it would be efficacious, even
+should Jenkins still scoff at it now. Conrad--he had given Conrad
+another warning, as plain as day, and if the man would rush on
+recklessly he must take the consequences. Jose Gonzalez was still at
+Socorro Springs--an accident could happen--and there was no time to
+lose!
+
+Lucy saw her father coming when he was a block away and, instead of
+running to the gate to meet him, pretended not to have noticed him, and
+hastened into the house. Louise Dent remained on the veranda, pushing
+forward a lounging chair for him as he mounted the steps. She saw that
+he looked paler and more haggard than usual, and she longed to put her
+arms about him, as a mother might around a suffering child, and charm
+away his trouble and wretchedness. In her maiden life the innate
+mother-longing had found little appeasement; and so, when this youthful
+love came into her enriched and mellowed heart of middle life, it
+gathered into itself the repressed yearning of her nature, and the
+maternal side of it was strong and fierce. She neither condoned nor
+belittled the sins of the man she loved. For his wrongdoing and the
+suffering he had caused she felt sorrow, pity, remorse--remorse almost
+as keen as if she herself had been the guilty one. But her love enfolded
+him in spite of his sins, and even included them. For she told herself
+that if he had not been guilty she might never have known him, their
+paths might never have crossed.
+
+In gentle, unobtrusive ways she ministered to his comfort; then, sitting
+beside him, her calm brow and steady eyes giving no sign of the tumult
+in her heart, she talked with sympathy and interest, gradually leading
+his thoughts away from the present into happy plans for the future. With
+keen satisfaction she saw the weary, desperate look fade from his face
+and eyes, giving place to one of comfort and content, and the assurance
+that she had made him forget his troubles, even for a little while,
+filled her heart with pleasure.
+
+Lucy, sitting in her room, heard the murmur of their voices through her
+open windows. Her high spirits of the hour before were gone, and she sat
+dejected, her face mournful, and her head hanging like a flower broken
+on its stem. Presently she slipped down to the conservatory, took the
+pot of cactus Conrad had given her, ran across the back-yard, and threw
+it over the fence. Then she joined her father and Louise, seating
+herself on the arm of his chair and throwing her arm around his neck as
+she asked with loving concern about his welfare, told him he had not
+been looking well of late, and that he was working too hard and ought
+to have a rest. But that evening, after dinner, she rushed across the
+yard and out of the gate, and gathered up the cactus pot in her arms as
+if it were some small animal she had hurt. She returned it to its place
+in the conservatory, pressing her hands around it until its spines
+brought little drops of blood.
+
+"I can't help it!" she exclaimed in a vehement whisper. "I have to like
+him, and I shan't try any more not to! He wouldn't hurt daddy, I know he
+wouldn't--because--because he wouldn't--and because--he loves me!" A
+tiny smile curved her lips as she touched the plant caressingly and
+presently her whisper went on: "If I could only tell daddy that he
+needn't be afraid or worried! Oh, I wish I could! But he mustn't guess I
+know." Her lips ceased moving and she stared unseeingly at the cactus,
+as her thought slowly took shape: "It's worrying daddy awfully, and I
+mustn't let it go on any longer. I'll tell Mr. Conrad who Delafield
+is and he'll stop right then--I know he will. He'll despise us
+afterward--oh, he won't love me after that!--but--poor daddy! he won't
+be worried any more."
+
+Bancroft and Miss Dent were alike convinced that his pursuer would be
+ruthless in the fulfilment of revenge. Arguing from their knowledge of
+men, their experience of the world, and their observation of his
+character, each had come to the fixed conclusion that no softening of
+heart or staying of hand could be expected from him when he knew the
+truth. Lucy, having neither knowledge of men nor experience of the world
+to guide her, had not reasoned about the matter at all. She had jumped
+at once to her conclusion, as soon as she knew her father's identity,
+that he had nothing to fear from Curtis. Her decision was partly due to
+her own temperament, which she instinctively felt to be somewhat akin
+to Conrad's, and partly to her knowledge of a side of his character
+of which Louise knew little and her father still less. It was further
+strengthened by her intuition that he loved her--something the young man
+himself had not yet realized. Other than this belief in his love she
+could have offered no reason for her assurance that he would give over
+his purpose as soon as he learned to whose door his quest was leading
+him. But neither her father nor Louise, had it been possible for them to
+argue with her, could have shaken her conviction.
+
+The next day Bancroft, Conrad, and Pendleton went together to the
+court-house to see the closing scenes of the Melgares trial. The leading
+men of the town were there, as well as the usual hangers-on of a
+court-room, and a few women, both Mexican and American, sat in a little
+railed space at one side. Every seat was filled, and a standing line of
+late comers fringed the walls. Across the room Bancroft saw Rutherford
+Jenkins. The crowd was disappointed by the judge's charge to the jury,
+which was brief, simple, and confined to bare statements of law and
+fact. So it sat still and waited after the jury had filed out, feeling
+sure that the deliberation would not be long, and that something
+interesting might be expected afterward from the judge; for he had the
+reputation of doing and saying whimsical things. He was a bookish man,
+who studied his law volumes much, but for relaxation turned often to
+romance and poetry. He had a knack for making jingles himself, and his
+pronouncements from the bench, whether he was charging a jury, calling
+for order, sentencing a prisoner, or making peace between warring
+attorneys, were as likely as not to be in rhyme of his own improvisation
+or in aptly applied quotations from the words of the mighty.
+
+The jury came back presently with a verdict of murder in the first
+degree. Judge Banks asked the prisoner if he knew of any reason why the
+court should not sustain the finding of the jury. Melgares said nothing,
+and Dellmey Baxter, his counsel, who had made the best fight for the
+Mexican that he could, shook his head; he had given his services, and
+cared to take no further trouble. All that now stood between the
+prisoner and the gallows was a little space of time. The judge looked
+out of the window into the trembling green depths of the cottonwoods
+beside the court-house, and for a moment there was silence in the room.
+He was a slight man, with dreamy blue eyes, and a square, fine face,
+framed by side-whiskers, short and thin. It was quite like him to be
+trying to realize, in that brief moment, just how it would seem to have
+the gallows looming in one's path so short a way ahead.
+
+He ordered the prisoner to stand. Sheriff Tillinghurst, his usual smile
+absent from his kindly face, helped Melgares to his feet. The Mexican's
+wife, who had been seated beside him, drooped forward, her breast shaken
+with sobs and her lips moving in whispers of prayer.
+
+"Jose Maria Melgares, you have heard the finding of the jury," began the
+judge, and waited for the sonorous voice of the court interpreter to
+send the words rolling in musical Spanish over the room, "and it is now
+necessary for me to pronounce upon you the sentence of this court. The
+rains will soon be here, Jose Maria Melgares, the grass will spring
+forth, the flowers bloom, and all the plains and hillsides grow green
+and luxuriant. But you will not be here to see and enjoy their beauty,
+Jose Maria Melgares. The rains of Summer, the golden days of October,
+the storms of Winter, will all alike pass unknown and unheeded over your
+head. Spring will come again with its new life, and the lambs will
+frolic beside their mothers and the little calves bleat in the valleys.
+But your eyes will not see the sights, nor your ears hear the sounds,
+Jose Maria Melgares. It will not matter to you that the skies of New
+Mexico bend blue and beautiful above your head. The stars will march
+across the midnight heavens, proclaiming that God is good, and that He
+holds the universe in the hollow of His hand. Day after day the sun will
+rise in his fiery might and blazon forth upon earth and sky the goodness
+and the glory of the Almighty. The moon will swim across the violet
+skies of night, wax from slender crescent to fair white disk, and wane
+again. But to you, Jose Maria Melgares, it will all be as nothing. For
+you, life is a tale that has been told; there is nothing more for you
+now, Jose Maria Melgares, save the moral, and even that is no longer of
+interest to you. For you have been guilty of a heinous crime, Jose Maria
+Melgares; you have taken the life of your fellow-man, and therefore your
+life is forfeit. It is the sentence of this court, Jose Maria Melgares,
+that you be hanged by the neck until dead. And may God have mercy upon
+your soul!"
+
+The last melodious syllables of the interpreter's voice resounded
+through the room, and died in sudden silence. Then the moment's hush was
+broken by a shriek as Senora Melgares sprang to her feet, stretching her
+arms out wildly to the judge.
+
+"No, no, Senor Judge! It is not right that my husband should die," she
+cried out in Spanish. "He was made to steal the mare, and the man who
+hired him to do it and brought all this trouble upon us--he is the one
+who should die! There he sits over there! Senor Jenkins, Don Rutherford
+Jenkins! He is the one who made my husband steal the mare, who gave him
+money to do it, because he had a grudge against Senor Conrad; and he is
+the one--"
+
+Sheriff Tillinghurst, his hand on her shoulder, was urging her to sit
+down, her husband was ordering her to stop, and there was a sudden
+hubbub all over the room. The judge rapped on his desk and threatened to
+have the room cleared. Jenkins sat quite still, glaring wrathfully at
+Bancroft. Conrad clenched his fist, his blue eyes blazing as he exploded
+an oath into Pendleton's ear; it was his first intimation that the man
+from Las Vegas had been behind the attempted theft of his mare.
+
+Jenkins was waiting for Bancroft at the door of the bank. "I want to see
+you at once, in private," he said curtly, and without a word the banker
+led the way to his office. "A nice trick you played me," Jenkins began,
+his voice hot and sneering. "I thought of going straight to Conrad; and
+that's what I ought to have done, to serve you right."
+
+"Well, why didn't you?" Bancroft asked, impassively.
+
+Jenkins took quick alarm. Had the young ranchman, with his impetuous
+loyalty, told his friend what had happened in the Albuquerque hotel?
+But perhaps Bancroft was only bluffing, in which case he himself could
+bluff as well as another. "I didn't because I thought it would be the
+square thing to see you first, and find out if you have any explanation
+to offer of that woman's performance. Unless you can satisfy me you had
+nothing to do with it, I shall see Conrad and tell him everything he
+doesn't know about you before I leave town to-night."
+
+Bancroft reflected. If Jenkins approached Curtis in that young man's
+present mood there was ample likelihood that the blackmailer would never
+trouble him again. Yet there was the chance that he might say in time to
+save himself the word that would stay Conrad's hand. He dared not take
+the chance.
+
+"I advise you," he said slowly, "if you value a whole skin, not to go
+near Curt Conrad while he is in the state of mind in which I just left
+him. As for Senora Melgares, are you crazy enough to suppose I had
+anything to do with that?"
+
+"It's evident, Bancroft, that you put her up to something you were
+afraid to do yourself. You wanted to put me in a hole, and you got her
+to do it for you."
+
+Bancroft made a gesture of annoyance. "Oh, well, if you've got no more
+_sabe_ than that--" he began, but went on quietly, "I give you my word
+of honor--"
+
+"The word of honor of Sumner L. Delafield!" Jenkins sneered.
+
+The banker's eyes flashed as he made an impulsive start, but he went on
+with quiet emphasis: "I give you my word of honor that I knew no more
+than you what the Melgares woman was going to say when she jumped up.
+You ought to see yourself that it would have been to my advantage to
+keep this knowledge entirely in my own hands."
+
+"Nevertheless," Jenkins replied sullenly, "you could have prevented her
+outbreak if you'd wanted to; and if there are any legal proceedings
+started against me because of what she said I expect you and Dell Baxter
+to stop them at once. And I want you to give me, before I leave this
+room, a sum of money or a check equal to what I receive on the first of
+every month. And understand that this has no connection with that
+payment, which will come on the first of next month, as agreed. It's
+little enough, after this outrage."
+
+Bancroft glared at his companion for a moment; Jenkins sat up with a
+defiant look and glared back. The banker turned to his desk and wrote
+the check without a word. "And the woman's charge?" the other asked
+threateningly, as he took it.
+
+"If any action is begun I'll do my best to stop it."
+
+Well satisfied with the result, Jenkins hastened down the street,
+intending to cross over to his hotel at the next bridge and wait in the
+privacy of his room until train time. As he approached the court-house
+corner Sheriff Tillinghurst, Little Jack Wilder, Pendleton, and Conrad
+came out of the building. Curtis saw the hurrying figure, and the light
+of battle leaped into his eyes. He rushed past the others, and before
+Jenkins had time to draw his revolver was upon him and had pinioned his
+arms.
+
+Pendleton ran forward, shouting, "Give it to him, Curt! He deserves it!"
+
+"Jack," smiled the sheriff, "I reckon this is goin' to be a sure good
+scrap, but we don't need to see it. We'd better hike." And they
+disappeared up the side street.
+
+Jenkins was vainly struggling to reach his hip pocket. Conrad got him
+down, set one knee on his chest, plucked forth the gun, and threw it to
+Pendleton. "Now, you damned skunk," he exclaimed, "you're going to get
+every lick that's coming to you! I won't dirty powder by using my gun on
+you, but I'm sure going to set the standard for lickings in this town."
+
+And to this day, in the city of Golden, the pummelling that Rutherford
+Jenkins forthwith received is spoken of as the utmost measure of
+punishment that a man may take and live. At the end Conrad took the limp
+body under one arm and carried it to the physician's office. "Here,
+Doc," he said, "is some work for you. Send the bill to me."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+PLOTS AND COUNTERPLOTS
+
+
+Fourth of July was at hand, and Lucy Bancroft made ready for their stay
+at the Socorro Springs ranch with a resolve in her heart. Some time
+during their two days' visit she would tell Curtis Conrad the truth
+about her father. Of course, many people would be there, and the
+superintendent would be busy, but she expected to see a good deal of
+him--he was sure to show her much attention--and it would not be hard to
+find the few minutes of privacy in which to impart the secret. She was
+quite sure that the knowledge would bring to a harmless end his long
+quest of vengeance, and that at once he would cease his pursuit of
+Delafield. But she was equally sure that he would no longer love her or
+be friendly with her father. "He can't respect either of us after that,"
+she mused. "He'll feel toward us just as he does toward Mr. Baxter; and
+I can't blame him, for we're worse than Mr. Baxter is." Her heart
+pleaded eagerly for a little period of grace in which to feel his love
+and live it, to take delight in his favor and admiration. She need not
+tell him at the outset.
+
+While Lucy was considering and deciding upon her action, on the morning
+before the Fourth, Mrs. Ned Castleton was saying to her husband in the
+privacy of the great, empty plain across which they were taking an early
+gallop:
+
+"I know why Lena was so willing to come down here with Turner and us.
+You'd never guess, Ned."
+
+"Of course I couldn't, Francisquita. So you'll have to tell me."
+
+"I know I shall have to, for you'd never discover it yourself, until too
+late to do anything about it. She didn't come because she wanted to see
+the place,--though she's never been here before, you know,--nor because
+she thought it would be something unusual to do, nor because she cares
+any more about Turner's affairs than she did last year, nor even because
+she wanted to keep track of me, nor because--"
+
+"Never mind the didn'ts, Fanny! Let's skip ahead to why she did."
+
+"That's just like you, Ned. You never can understand what a flavor it
+gives to something that really _is_ to consider first all the things
+that it _isn't_."
+
+"Well, you've had the flavor, now you can give me the fact. I've
+wondered myself why she was so gracious about coming with us."
+
+"Yes; wasn't it surprising? It puzzled me so that I couldn't give up
+thinking about it until I solved the mystery."
+
+"And aren't you going to let me into the secret?"
+
+"Of course I am, Ned; that's what I'm doing right now! I studied about
+it on the way here, and I managed to find out a lot of things it wasn't.
+But I didn't discover what it was till after we reached the ranch."
+
+"Well, what did you find out then?"
+
+"Why, Ned, I'm telling you just as fast as I can! Although I think I
+know Lena pretty well, and am quite accustomed to her doing things that
+nobody else would think of, really, Ned, I was so surprised at this
+freak that you could have knocked me down with a feather!"
+
+Ned Castleton looked caressingly at the slender, graceful figure of his
+wife, erect upon her horse, and smiled broadly. "Fanny, I'm in that
+condition right now, from unassuaged curiosity. Please knock me down
+with a feather and then go on and tell me this deep, dark secret."
+
+She tickled his cheek with her quirt. "Why, Ned, I've been telling you
+all about it for the last five minutes, but you won't understand what I
+mean. It's all because she's immensely taken with your handsome
+superintendent, and she's deeply interested in the cattle business
+because she wants him to explain it to her!"
+
+Castleton gave an incredulous laugh. "Nonsense, Francisquita! You are a
+clever woman, my dear, especially when it comes to divining what your
+dearly beloved sister-in-law is planning to do year after next. But you
+two women do get most remarkable notions about each other sometimes."
+
+Mrs. Castleton shrugged her shoulders, tapped her horse, and bounded
+ahead. They raced for a mile before she allowed him to regain his place
+at her side. "Granting that you're right, Francisquita," he said, "what
+makes you think so?"
+
+"Why, Ned, it's perfectly plain. I've seen Lena pave the way for too
+many flirtations not to know exactly what she's doing now. And she's
+preparing to have a perfectly furious affair with Mr. Conrad."
+
+Castleton kept discreet silence for some moments and studied the
+horizon. When he turned again to his wife he asked, "Well, dear, what
+are you going to do about it?"
+
+Francisquita Castleton was half Mexican, and on her mother's side could
+trace descent through a long line of dons back to a valiant governor and
+captain-general of the province who had done great deeds nearly two
+hundred years before. Her heritage had dowered her well with the
+instinctive coquetry, the supple, unconscious grace, the feminine,
+artless art that are the birthright of the women of Spanish blood. All
+of it was in the movement of her arm, the turn of her neck, and the
+poise of her head as she raised her veil and lifted her face toward her
+husband. Her voice was as soft as velvet and as caressing as an infant's
+palm as she exclaimed:
+
+"Do anything? I? Why, Ned Castleton, how you surprise me! Why should I
+interfere with Lena's whims?"
+
+Castleton laughed. "Ask me something easy, Fanny! I'm sure I don't know
+why you should, but I've noticed that Lena's plans sometimes shrivel up
+like a stuck balloon. Of course, it may be mere chance."
+
+"No, Ned; it isn't chance at all. It's only because Lena doesn't plan
+carefully enough."
+
+He took time for reflection. "I say, Francisquita," he presently broke
+out, "if you're right about this--and I must admit you don't often miss
+it about Lena--it may be a serious matter."
+
+"Of course I'm right, Ned. You'll soon see for yourself just how things
+are going. You know Lena likes admiration and she likes having her own
+way and she dearly loves making Turner jealous and she's positively
+unhappy if every man in sight isn't prancing along in her train. Mr.
+Conrad is a fine-looking young man, and he made a very good appearance
+when she saw him in San Francisco last year. I suppose she thought he
+didn't yield to her fascinations as he should, so she decided to come
+down here and gather him in. She knows she'll be awfully bored unless
+she can make her flirtation with him--well--ardent enough to keep her
+interested. I know enough about Lena to see that she's planning to have
+an affair that will keep her and Turner and Mr. Conrad simply sizzling
+as long as we stay."
+
+Castleton gave a long, low whistle. "Turner gets more jealous with every
+flirtation Lena has, and this whim of hers may prove serious. Conrad is
+the best superintendent this ranch ever had, and we want to keep him.
+But if Turner gets jealous he'll have to go--and mighty quick, too. And
+if he doesn't promptly succumb to Lena's fascinations--well, she's just
+vain enough to carry some story about him to Turner, so that we'd have
+to let him out for the sake of peace. We can't afford to lose Conrad,
+Fanny. I'll propose to Turner that we cut our stay short and go the day
+after the Fourth. We'll have to be here for the barbecue, of course."
+
+"Really, Ned, that's just like a man! Don't you know Lena can't be
+managed that way? She'd suspect at once that I was at the bottom of it
+and wanted to get her away from here, and then nothing could induce her
+to go. And you know, Ned, she always winds Turner around her finger as
+if he were a piece of silk. I can't understand why American wives take
+so much pleasure in managing their husbands; we Mexican women don't care
+to do that sort of thing." It was a prim little figure that pronounced
+the last sentence--save for the coquettish turn of the head and a
+melting glance of dark eyes that flashed for a moment upon her husband.
+
+He bent toward her a lover's face. "But you know how to manage just the
+same, Francisquita, _mi corazon_. Can't you think of some way to head
+Lena off and get her away before she does any mischief?"
+
+Francisquita turned a contemplative eye upon the forest of
+crimson-flowered cactus through which they were riding. "Well, I don't
+know that I can do anything--still, Lena's methods are always so--broad!
+I suppose I might try, if you'd like me to. It might have some effect if
+I stepped in right away--you wouldn't mind it, would you, Ned?--and did
+a little flirting with Mr. Conrad on my own account; not very much, you
+know; but I could manage to keep him busy about things--oh, you
+understand!--just make it pleasant for him to be with me. Really, Ned,
+Lena hasn't much chance if I start even with her; we've tried it
+before--you remember--I told you all about it at the time--and I think
+she'll quit right away and want to go home, or somewhere, as soon as she
+sees what I'm doing."
+
+Castleton laughed aloud. "And poor Conrad! What's to become of him in
+the midst of all these sighs and glances?"
+
+She threw him a smiling glance, and broke into a little, low laugh. "Oh,
+he won't mind! He's no silly! And he doesn't care anything about the
+ladies, anyway."
+
+"But suppose, Fanny," her husband teased, "that he should prefer Lena's
+methods after all, and cast himself at her feet instead of yours?"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders and turned toward him with a smile trembling
+at the corners of her mouth. "Oh, in that case he would quite deserve to
+lose his position."
+
+"But what about me? Should I deserve to lose him?"
+
+She tapped her horse and darted ahead, throwing back a laughing retort:
+"Of course you would, for not having married a more attractive wife!"
+
+Later in the day Mrs. Ned Castleton was busily engaged with Curtis
+Conrad and his brother Homer in the grove of cottonwoods across the road
+from the ranch house, showing them where to hang the last of the
+Japanese lanterns. Many people had already arrived and were scattered
+through the grove, or were wandering about the corral. Others were in
+the stockade behind the house, where Red Jack, Nosey Ike, and Jose
+Gonzalez were quartering the steer for the barbecue, and Hank Peters and
+Texas Bill were heaping wood on the fire where it was to be roasted. In
+the grove long tables had been made of planks and a floor laid for
+dancing. The lanterns hung in festoons around the platform and depended
+from the branches of the trees. Conrad saw Bancroft, Lucy, and Miss Dent
+driving up, and went to meet them.
+
+Mrs. Ned Castleton beckoned to her husband. "I'm sure Lena is going to
+do something perfectly outrageous," she said softly as they went to
+greet the arrivals, "something that will fairly knock us off our feet.
+She has looked so indifferent and so innocent all day and has been so
+sweet to me that I'm expecting a thunder clap every minute. I hope it
+won't be anything disgraceful."
+
+It was one of Mrs. Ned's important occupations, and she considered it
+her chief duty, for the sake, as she often told her husband, "of
+preserving at least a shred of the Castleton reputation," to discover
+the daring whims of her sister-in-law and nip them in the bud before
+they were ready to blossom upon the world. Francisquita knew also that
+Mrs. Turner enjoyed saying and doing audacious things, quite as much
+because they shocked Mrs. Ned as because they gave her a piquant vogue
+in San Francisco society. "I wonder what it is going to be," she
+repeated in a whisper to her husband as they came back with Conrad and
+the Bancroft party and went in search of Mrs. Turner. They found her
+sitting beside one of the tables, the centre of a group of men. Lucy,
+looking with interest, saw a large, golden-haired woman in a blue linen
+gown, that fitted perfectly her well corseted figure, and a blue picture
+hat, that matched the hue of her eyes. Her complexion of exquisite
+fairness and delicacy of coloring, and features of perfect regularity
+and proportion, made Lucy own to herself that she deserved her
+reputation as "the beautiful Mrs. Castleton."
+
+"What are we going to do all the rest of the day?" Mrs. Turner presently
+said, hiding a little yawn behind diamond-decked fingers. "It isn't
+three o'clock yet, and it seems as if it ought to be the day after
+to-morrow. Let's go in the house and play I'm a barber. Mr. Conrad, will
+you let me shave you?"
+
+A thrill of shocked astonishment went through the group. Lucy dropped
+her eyes and felt her cheeks burn and Miss Dent turned uneasily away.
+Some of the men looked at one another and grinned; others caught their
+breath and avoided their neighbors' eyes. Conrad masked a moment's
+hesitation with a gay laugh.
+
+"I would, with pleasure, Mrs. Castleton, if I had time; but just now I'm
+pretty busy. Here's a lot of fellows with nothing to do, who'll be
+delighted to help you amuse yourself."
+
+Mrs. Castleton glanced up at the men with a confiding smile. "I believe
+it's really because he's afraid; and he needn't be, for I do it very
+well--don't I, Ned?" Her brother-in-law gave gallant, if vague,
+confirmation, and she went on: "And he knows, for I shave him every time
+he comes to our house. But there's too much wind out here, it would dry
+the lather too quickly; let's go in the house." She rose, and one of the
+men hastened to open her sunshade, another picked up her fan, a third
+her handkerchief, and the statuesque blue figure with its group of
+satellites left the grove.
+
+"What does it mean, Fanny? Is this a new fad?" Ned Castleton asked his
+wife. "I never heard of it before, and she took my breath away when she
+told those people she always shaved me."
+
+"You backed her up splendidly, Ned; and I think you'd better go in now
+and let her shave you along with the others."
+
+"Fanny! I'd as soon allow her to black my boots!"
+
+"But if she wants to, Ned! And I don't think she'd hurt you much,
+because she's been practising on their butler for a month--so her maid
+told mine, though I'd forgotten all about it. As Turner's brother I
+really think you ought to go in and seem to join in the fun, so it won't
+look quite so bad."
+
+"If Lena doesn't care about the looks of it, why should I, or you?"
+
+"But you ought to care on Turner's account. It would be dear of you,
+Ned, if you would go in, for Turner's sake, and lend your countenance to
+the affair."
+
+"My countenance, Francisquita, but not my face. Since you're so anxious,
+dear, I'll go in and chaperon this shaving party if you'll tell me the
+real reason why you want me to do it. Is it a bargain?"
+
+She leaned toward him with a delighted little chuckle. "Don't you see,
+Ned, that if you go in and I stay out she'll think that I'm keeping Mr.
+Conrad out-of-doors, and she will be so angry about it that it will make
+her nervous, so she will cut their faces dreadfully, and that will make
+her freak such a failure that she'll have to drop it. Do go along, Ned;
+for I'm going to keep your manager busy for the next two hours. And, by
+the way, dear, if you should come out and not see me anywhere, it's
+likely to be because he's asked me to drive to the post-office with
+him."
+
+She sauntered through the grove toward the pond where a group of people
+had gathered under a big tree. She knew that Curtis was there, with the
+Bancrofts. Her cousin Juan--"Johnny"--Martinez was with them, and so was
+Dellmey Baxter. Dan Tillinghurst leaned against the tree, and beside him
+were Emerson Mead and his young wife, from Las Plumas. Judge Harlan and
+Colonel Whittaker, the former with his wife and the latter with his
+daughter, had also come from Las Plumas, where a political peace of
+unusual length and stability enabled them to leave town at the same
+time, and together.
+
+Mrs. Castleton came smiling down the hill and joined in the general
+talk. But in five minutes the assemblage had broken into little groups
+of two or three, of which she, her cousin, and Conrad made one. She sent
+Martinez to do some small service for Miss Whittaker, and began to tell
+Curtis that she feared there were not lanterns enough. Would he come and
+look at them? As they went back to the grove she suggested that they
+might get paper bags from the store at White Rock, fill each half full
+of sand, put a candle in it, and set them in rows wherever there was
+room for them. She had often seen her native town illuminated in this
+way on _festa_ nights, and the effect was really very beautiful. He
+thought it a good idea and asked if she would mind driving over to White
+Rock with him to help select the best sizes and colors. Five minutes
+later Lucy watched them driving away. "I saw how Mrs. Castleton was
+manoeuvring," she thought with an angry throb of the heart. "But it
+doesn't matter the least bit. I can have quite as good a time with
+anybody else."
+
+Presently she seemed greatly pleased when Homer Conrad asked if she and
+Miss Dent would like to see the horses. They made the round of the
+stables, and went to see the angora goats in their enclosure beyond the
+corral, and the dog kennels, and the chicken yard. They walked across
+the alfalfa field, and amused themselves in the prairie dog village on
+the hillside beyond. Lucy was so interested in everything, and said so
+many bright and pleasant things, and was so vivacious, and looked so
+pretty with her dimples and her color coming and going and her big brown
+eyes sparkling, that Homer thought her quite the nicest, jolliest girl
+he had seen in a long time. He was much like his brother in build,
+though less sinewy and a trifle fleshier in body; while in manner he was
+slower and less eager and alert. His eyes showed the same bright blue
+tint, but their expression was mild and trustful, while his brother's
+had always a dauntless look, as if challenging the world. His face was
+of the same general type, but the features were not so strongly marked,
+although he had the same firm mouth and strong chin. His countenance
+gave the impression of a character phlegmatic but forceful.
+
+That evening Lucy told Miss Dent that she liked Don Homer very much,
+adding, "And he's been more polite and pleasant to us this afternoon
+than Mr. Conrad himself." Mrs. Ned Castleton had applied the Spanish
+title to the younger Conrad to distinguish him from his brother, and
+the rest had followed her example. Louise was secretly pleased at this
+dissatisfaction with Curtis, for her aversion to him was so great that
+she disliked even to see them together. But she reminded the girl that
+with so many people there he could not pay much attention to special
+ones. Lucy tossed her head and replied, "He had plenty of time for Mrs.
+Ned Castleton."
+
+Evening came, and with it a huge white moon that poured upon earth and
+air and sky a flood of silvery white radiance in which the illuminations
+at the ranch shone with a mellow, golden glow. Mrs. Ned Castleton sat on
+the edge of the porch, her guitar in her lap, looking with satisfaction
+at the rows of paper bags, each containing a lighted candle in its bed
+of sand, set thickly upon the window-sills, the adobe walls, and the
+tables in the grove. They were not only effective, but they had enabled
+her to keep Curtis Conrad out of the hands of her sister-in-law the
+entire afternoon. Mrs. Turner had only just gone across to the grove, in
+the belief, subtly engendered by Francisquita, that the superintendent
+was to be found there, where most of the company had gathered and the
+dancing was about to begin. She knew, however, that he was overseeing
+the stowing of some cases of beer in the ice house in the back-yard. And
+she had not forgotten that when he was at their house in San Francisco
+he had been much pleased by her rendering of Spanish airs on the guitar.
+"He doesn't need to appear in the grove," she thought, "until Lena has
+had time to engage several dances." She began to play "La Golondrina,"
+and as the sweetly plaintive notes rose higher, Lucy, looking houseward,
+saw a tall figure vault the wall around the grass plot and disappear in
+the shadows of the porch, whence came the strains of Mrs. Ned's guitar.
+A little later she saw them come across the road together, and at once
+became deeply interested in the talk of Don Homer, her partner, as they
+made their way to the dancing floor. Lucy danced twice with him, once
+with Martinez, and once with Emerson Mead before she made it possible
+for Curtis to speak with her. She knew he had been hovering near more
+than once, but she would not see him, and appeared always to be gayly
+interested with her partner.
+
+She gave him only one dance during the evening. But, noting his
+movements, she had seen with much bitterness of heart that he danced
+frequently with Mrs. Ned Castleton. She began to wonder, with chill
+doubt in her breast, if she had deceived herself in thinking he cared
+for her. She had expected to see so much of him; and yet, except for the
+first half-hour after their arrival, he seemed to have ignored her. She
+began to realize that she had depended much on her belief in his love
+when she resolved to tell him the secret of her father's identity. She
+still had confidence that her words would turn him from his purpose--but
+it was going to be a hard thing to do!
+
+"Mrs. Ned is just amusing herself," she thought angrily. "She ought to
+be ashamed--married woman flirting like that! Well--he's not the only
+one!" And before the evening was over Homer Conrad had neither eyes nor
+ears for any one but Lucy Bancroft.
+
+The house was given over to the ladies for the night. The men had a
+blanket apiece, and all the wide out-doors in which to couch themselves.
+Some climbed to the flat adobe roof of the house, or to the brush thatch
+of the stables, while others declared the ground in the grove good
+enough for them. It was decided by unanimous outcry that the dancing
+platform should be turned over to Dellmey Baxter and Johnny Martinez,
+the opposing candidates for Congress.
+
+First they all went trooping, each with his blanket stringing over his
+shoulder, to the kitchen door, where Conrad and the two Castletons
+dispensed nightcaps of varied concoction. The women heard them talking,
+story-telling, laughing, and now and then singing a snatch from some
+rollicking song. When the last light disappeared from within the house,
+a group of men began singing "Good-Night, Ladies." A round of vigorous
+applause from the darkened windows rewarded them, and they went on with
+"Annie Laurie," "Comin' through the Rye," and "How Can I Bear to Leave
+Thee." Johnny Martinez sang a Spanish love song in a falsetto voice, and
+received much applause from within.
+
+The men sang their way along the windows, up one side of the long,
+rambling house, across the front, and down the other side. They climbed
+to the roof, and serenaded the men who were trying to sleep there,
+varying the line or two of song accorded to each with much chaffing and
+guying. When the last straggling half-dozen of singers finally went off
+to seek their own resting-places in the grove, they marched in single
+file round and round the dancing floor, where Baxter and Martinez had
+already stretched themselves, and sang in a solemn croak: "John Brown
+had one little, two little Indian boys; one went to Congress, the other
+stayed at home."
+
+When peace settled at last over the Socorro Springs ranch house it was
+near the dawn of another day.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+THE WORD UNSPOKEN
+
+
+The sun was high in the brilliant blue heavens and blazing hot upon the
+gray-green plain when the company came together in the grove the next
+morning to listen to speeches. One or another well-known resident of the
+Territory was called forth, with applause and cheers, to mount an
+improvised rostrum, where he complimented the ladies, chaffed the men,
+told funny stories, submitted to guying from the audience and repaid it
+in kind, until he was able to turn a joke upon some one else so deftly
+that he could retreat under cover of the hand-clapping and laughter and
+the calls for the other man to step up and defend himself.
+
+At dinner they spent a jovial hour. Half a dozen cowboys carried the big
+platters of roasted meat to the tables, where they were flanked by
+smoking dishes of _frijoles_ and _chile con carne_, platters of bread,
+and piles of roasted potatoes and hard-boiled eggs. Pails of lemonade
+and bottles of beer, just brought from the ice house, were scattered
+down the tables, and steaming pots of coffee and tea passed from hand to
+hand. Everybody was in the highest spirits; every jest or bit of fun was
+caught, bandied back and forth, and passed on with new trimmings. As
+they gathered around the tables, Conrad asked Lucy Bancroft to save a
+seat for him beside her. She smiled at him without replying; but when
+Homer presently came and asked for the vacant place she gave him a
+gracious welcome.
+
+Conrad, much occupied with his duties as host, soon saw that his brother
+was at her side, paying her devoted attention, and that apparently she
+was quite happy. "It's all right," he thought. "He'll have time to look
+out for her better than I could, anyway; she seems to be having a good
+time, and that's the main thing." Yet he was conscious of keen
+disappointment; he had seen so little of her--much less, he was suddenly
+aware, than he wished. But he had been very busy. Notwithstanding the
+planning beforehand, something new had been constantly cropping up and
+demanding his attention. But Homer had been taking good care of her,
+and she seemed to be enjoying everything. That evening, after the
+fireworks, he could surely let things go for a little while, and ask her
+to walk with him in the moonlight to the top of the hill.
+
+At that moment he was passing Mrs. Turner Castleton. With an inviting
+smile she made room for him beside her. He sat down, poured her a glass
+of lemonade, and then, noticing that Emerson Mead and his wife were not
+comfortably seated, went off to look after them. Mrs. Ned, who had seen
+her sister-in-law's manoeuvre, asked him to go into the house with her
+to see how the lemons were holding out. When they came out she protested
+that she was starving, that he must be too, and couldn't they sit right
+down and have something to eat? The seats she chose were at some
+distance from Mrs. Turner, though directly in range of her eye. They
+chanced also to be in plain sight from where Lucy was sitting. She,
+seeing them dining together on such friendly, jolly terms, was more
+charming than ever to Homer Conrad. Her pique made the task she had set
+herself no easier; but she held to her determination, telling herself
+that, even if Curtis did not show her some attention that afternoon,
+she would try to see him in the evening. For they were to go home in the
+morning.
+
+After dinner the games began. Cowboys of the ranch and others from small
+neighboring ranches gave exhibitions of quick roping and throwing and of
+broncho busting. Curtis Conrad and Emerson Mead had a riding and
+shooting match. Jose Gonzalez, dressed in Mexican holiday attire of
+straw sombrero, braided jacket, and close-fitting trousers, showed his
+skill as an expert lasso thrower. He made a picturesque figure as he
+stood in the roadway, striking graceful attitudes and making his rope
+leap, run, circle, and swirl about him as if it were alive. The visitors
+crowded to the edge of the grove, watching and admiring.
+
+"He's a sure peach at the fancy racket," said Dan Tillinghurst, "but I
+reckon Emerson Mead can flirt gravel faster than he can when it comes to
+the real practical business. Say, Emerson," he called, "can't you give
+us an imitation of the way you slipped out of Antone Colorow's rope and
+broke his wrists before he had time to draw his noose? I reckon that was
+a show sure worth seeing."
+
+Those who knew the story added their voices, "Yes, Mead; show us how
+you did it!" Others who had never heard of the incident wanted to know
+about it; and soon everybody was talking about how a cowboy once tried
+to rope Emerson Mead. Mrs. Turner Castleton was standing beside Curtis.
+
+"Really, Mr. Conrad," she said, "is it true that they ever rope men? And
+why do the men allow it?"
+
+"Sometimes, Mrs. Castleton, when the men who are roped can't help it."
+With a sudden smile he threw back his head and his eyes flashed. "We'll
+show you the game," he went on; "Jose shall try to rope me, and I'll see
+if I can keep out of his way. Come, Jose, get your horse, and bring
+mine, and then do your best."
+
+The Mexican stooped to coil his rope. As he rose his glance darted
+across the faces of the crowd under the trees until it met the eyes of
+Alexander Bancroft, standing beside Dellmey Baxter, at the end of the
+long group. Baxter saw the two pairs of eyes meet and hold each other
+for an instant, and his curiosity was aroused. But he seemed to notice
+nothing, and saying, "Come, Aleck, let's go and see what they're up to
+now," he led the way to the upper end of the grove.
+
+The two horsemen cantered out into the open and began their
+manoeuvres. The people crowded along at the edge of the shade, and
+some of the men stepped out into the sunlight to get a better view.
+Emerson Mead was much interested and walked out farther than the rest.
+The snakey rings and lengths of the Mexican's rope were whistling
+through the air, and the two men were wheeling, stopping, rushing
+forward, jumping sidewise, in graceful evolutions. The noose circled
+through the space between them, poised over Conrad's head, and darted
+downward like some voracious bird of prey. An exclamation ran through
+the intent crowd, "He's got him! He's got him this time!" But the
+superintendent jerked his horse to its hind legs, swung it to one side,
+galloped a little way, and came back laughing. "Good! that was first
+rate!" Emerson Mead called out.
+
+Jose wound his rope for another trial, and cantered leisurely back and
+forth, making sudden feints of throwing and watching his employer's
+movements of evasion. Suddenly he wheeled, charged, and threw the loop
+from a distance of only a few paces. He had calculated on the other's
+spurring forward to escape; instead Conrad brought his horse to a
+standstill, and the noose fell over its ears. A cheer went up from the
+grove, and Curtis turned to wave his broad-brimmed hat. In the one swift
+glance he was aware of Lucy, watching so eagerly that she had stepped
+forward into the sunshine, and of his brother, raising a sunshade over
+her head.
+
+Gonzalez also waved his sombrero to the company, and coiled his rope
+anew. It darted out like a serpent's tongue, and this time it caught
+Conrad unawares; he had thought his antagonist would not throw so soon
+and for the instant was off his guard. The noose fell over his head just
+as his horse was at mid-bound. He heard it whistle as it dropped past
+his ears, and as quick as a flash jerked his pony backward to a sudden
+stop. Apparently Jose had expected the horse to leap forward, for, as he
+felt the slacking of the rope, there was a dextrous turn of his wrist,
+and a dig of his spur that sent his pony dancing to one side. The noose
+tightened around Curtis's neck. Instinctively he clutched it, and his
+fingers, caught against his windpipe, ground into his own throat.
+
+"The greaser did that on purpose!" exclaimed Emerson Mead in a hard,
+swift undertone, as his hand gripped the revolver at his waistband. But
+Gonzalez was already beside Conrad, and lifting the noose from his neck.
+The American choked and gasped for breath once or twice.
+
+"You--you caught me square that time, Jose," he said.
+
+"We are even now, senor," replied the Mexican; "you gave me my life
+once, and now I give you yours. It would have been only a second more;
+and it was plainly an accident; nobody would have known. I have paid my
+debt."
+
+The people were cheering. Both men faced toward the grove and waved
+their hats. "You damned impudent coyote!" said Curtis through his teeth.
+Then he grinned, and added, "But I like your nerve, though."
+
+At the grove side the manager threw his bridle to the Mexican, but
+turned impulsively and called, "Here, Jose, wait a minute. I want you to
+show these people how you can throw the knife." A stride or two took him
+to Jose's side. "And I'll be your target, damn you!" he added in an
+undertone. He walked back where Lucy, Miss Dent, and his brother were
+standing, humming a stave or two from a comic opera under his breath.
+Homer noticed that his face was rather pale and that his eyes were
+blazing, but thought it due to his annoyance at having been roped.
+
+Gonzalez came back from the corral, carefully testing with his finger
+the edge and point of his knife. Conrad, his head held high, a smile on
+his face and exhilaration in his manner, was telling the company to
+stand a little to one side, to make sure they were out of the way of the
+knife. As Gonzalez came up, he stepped in front of the nearest tree,
+with the Mexican facing him ten or twelve paces distant. Judge Banks
+called to him to watch out for the knife himself, and he turned a
+smiling face for an instant as he answered gayly, "Oh, I'm all right!"
+In the same tone he called, "Start her up, Jose! And remember, you're to
+do your level best."
+
+Jose's teeth shone in a gleaming smile as he replied significantly, "I
+shall, Don Curtis!" He took an alert, graceful posture, one foot set
+back and head thrust slightly forward. The muscles of his arm were still
+relaxed as his knife slid along his wrist and nestled into place. Conrad
+drew himself up tensely and his eyes narrowed as he fixed them upon the
+Mexican's. For an instant they eyed each other; then, like a flash,
+Jose's arm swung back.
+
+Not until that moment did any member of the company understand that
+Curtis was deliberately making himself a target; even then many did not
+realize the significance of the game with death he had set himself to
+play. Ned Castleton's face went white, and his voice died in his throat
+as he tried to call to Jose to stop. Alexander Bancroft stared with
+devouring eyes, his breath coming hard. The overmastering desire for
+freedom and safety was upon him, and he could not take his gaze from the
+Mexican's poised figure. Louise Dent, beside him, drew one gasping
+breath and covered her face with her hands. Afterward she knew that she
+had not done this so much to shut from her eyes the next moment's
+expected sight as to hide from her soul's vision the glimpse she had
+caught of the desire springing to life in her own heart.
+
+[Illustration: "LIKE A FLASH JOSE'S ARM SWUNG BACK, ... AND CURTIS
+SPRANG LIGHTLY ASIDE AS THE KNIFE STRUCK DEEP INTO THE TREE"]
+
+Homer Conrad, sitting beside Lucy, his attention fixed upon some small
+damage to her fan which he was trying to repair, did not see what was
+going on until a sudden stiffening of her attitude and a sharp, indrawn
+breath made him look up. She was leaning forward, with face white and
+eyes staring and hands clenched against her breast. He followed her
+gaze and saw the knife flash from Jose's hand. His heart went sick and
+he sat powerless to move as his eyes marked the long blade, dark against
+the sunshine, but with little sparkles on its edge, through what seemed
+an interminable flight.
+
+Then Curtis sprang lightly aside as the knife struck deep into the tree
+at the level of his throat, pulled the weapon out, waved it at Gonzalez,
+and called out triumphantly, "Try again, Jose; and be quicker next
+time!"
+
+Ned Castleton sprang forward, with Turner close behind, and grasped his
+arm. "Are you crazy, Curt?" he exclaimed. "This is fool's play! We don't
+want any more of it!"
+
+"There's no danger," Conrad replied jauntily. "I knew I could jump
+quicker than he could throw, and I wanted to prove it to him. There's
+not a bit of danger; I can do it every time. But if you don't like it
+we'll have something else. Hello, kid!" he said as Homer rushed up and
+seized his arm; the young man's face was pale and tears stood in his
+eyes. "You've no reason to be frightened," Curtis went on easily. "All I
+had to do was to watch his eyes. If there had been any real danger I
+wouldn't have tried it."
+
+Lucy Bancroft sat quite still for a few moments, her eyes on the ground,
+but presently she started toward the house, contriving to pass Conrad
+when there was no one beside him. She touched his arm and he wheeled
+toward her as if he had felt an electric shock. "It was a most foolish
+thing to do," she said in a low voice, "but--you are the bravest man I
+ever saw," and hastened on without giving him time to reply.
+
+At night there were fireworks and dancing. After the knife-throwing
+episode Curtis tried again and again to have speech with Lucy, but
+whenever he came near she seemed not to see him, and was so interested
+in conversation with her admirer of the moment that he could find no
+opportunity. Homer attended her like her own shadow. The hours hurried
+past, and still, piqued and wilful, she postponed making the opportunity
+for her revelation.
+
+Conrad was master of the fireworks; while he was busy setting off
+sky-rockets and mines Lucy and Homer called to him that they were going
+to the top of the hill beyond the alfalfa field to see how the display
+looked from there. It was the very walk Curtis had intended to ask her
+to take with him, and he glanced after them, keenly disappointed. But
+he said to himself that as soon as he could get the fireworks out of the
+way there would be nothing to demand his attention for the rest of the
+evening, and then he could surely get a little time with her.
+
+Half an hour later he saw her, through a glare of red fire, setting off
+fire-crackers with his brother and Pendleton. Dan Tillinghurst had just
+joined them, and she turned to him with a laughing threat, a lighted
+cracker in her hand. He called to Pendleton, whose pockets were bulging
+with packs of the crackers, to see fair play and give him weapons of
+defence. The cool night wind was tossing her brown curls, her bright
+face was full of animation, and the red light enveloped her in a rosy
+sheen. He looked at her, his face aglow with admiration, then turned
+back to the sky-rockets. As he stooped over the box he heard a scream in
+a girlish voice, followed by the stern command, "Sit down! Sit down!" in
+Dan Tillinghurst's heavy tones. Springing up, he saw a white heap
+sinking to the ground amid leaping tongues of flame and the three men
+stripping off their coats and beating the fire. He rushed forward,
+taking off his coat as he ran, and in a moment they had whipped the
+flames down to a ring of charred muslin and flickering sparks. A dozen
+others had hurried to the spot, but it was Curtis's outstretched hand
+that Lucy took as he bent anxiously over her, his arm upon which she
+leaned as she staggered to her feet. She went at once into the house
+with Miss Dent, and did not reappear that evening. When Louise returned
+she explained that Lucy had gone to bed, but that, except for the
+nervous shock, she had suffered no harm.
+
+Curtis Conrad went on sending off sky-rockets and Roman candles in the
+amaze of a new knowledge. That moment of Lucy's peril, brief as it was,
+had revealed to him the love that, unconsciously to himself, had been
+bourgeoning in his heart throughout the Spring. So absorbed had he been
+in his own grim purpose that he had not realized the meaning of his
+liking for Lucy and his enjoyment of her society. But in the light of
+the flames by which he had seen her circled her dearness had flashed
+upon him its real significance. When she leaned upon him as she arose,
+it had demanded all his self-control to keep from taking her in his
+arms. His nerves were thrilling yet with the slight pressure of her
+body upon his arm as she regained her footing. So sudden and forceful
+was the rush of his emotion that it swept him from his accustomed
+moorings, and filled heart and mind to the exclusion of every other
+idea. Lucy--Lucy--Lucy--he said her name over and over in his innermost
+thought, even while he danced with Mrs. Turner, strolled with Miss
+Whittaker to the hilltop,--as he had wished to do with Lucy,--talked
+with Martinez, or listened to Judge Harlan's stories. The thought of her
+was constantly with him, enveloped in a wonderful tenderness; his memory
+was incessantly recalling images of her as she looked leaning against
+this tree, seated beside that table, walking across the road. He hovered
+around Miss Dent until she, to escape from his attention and his
+solicitude about Lucy, which intensified the aversion and resentment she
+already felt, retired to the house early in the evening.
+
+But, when all the merrymakers had gone to bed and quiet had settled upon
+the ranch, Conrad began to feel a violent wrenching of his heart. When
+he stretched himself upon the roof of the house and gazed into the
+silvery violet sky his lifelong purpose reasserted itself. For so many
+years it had been his habit, as he composed himself for sleep, to think
+over his plans for the pursuit of Delafield and feed his heart with the
+desire for revenge that he quickly felt its tyranny. For a moment all
+emotion ceased and his mind stood back, aghast at itself, bewildered.
+Then the old idea took possession again, and he said to himself, almost
+with anger, "What business have I to fall in love?" To think of Lucy in
+connection with his own dark and bloody aims was repellent, and his
+thoughts turned away in quick reaction. Then came the remembrance of
+Homer's devotion to her and of how welcome, apparently, had been his
+attentions. So, for that time at least, Lucy and love were turned out of
+his heart and his last waking thoughts were of his plan to go to
+Albuquerque and Santa Fe within a few days, there to run down the clews
+that promised most.
+
+Because of all that had gone on in his mind and heart as he lay on the
+roof that night Conrad's manner toward Lucy the next morning was graver
+and more restrained than usual. He was keenly alive to the magic of her
+presence, but for that he rebuked himself and went near her no oftener
+than he could help. Lucy tried in vain to find an opportunity for
+private speech with him. And so the time came for their departure and
+the fateful words had not been said. "Well," she consoled herself, "he
+will come to see us in Golden before long, and I will tell him then."
+
+As they drove away the house was filled with the bustle of leave-taking.
+The guests who had come by rail were being driven to the station at
+White Rock to catch the forenoon train. Others were leaving by horse or
+carriage for Golden or Randall. As the dust from the last of the
+departing vehicles rose in thin gray stains against the vivid blue of
+the sky Ned Castleton called to his wife from the shade of the tree
+beside the gate. She had been saying good-bye to the Bancrofts and had
+stopped in the sun beside the adobe wall to play with a horned toad that
+Gonzalez had caught for her.
+
+"Fanny," he said, "I know I haven't got horns, but if you'll come here
+in the shade I'll prove that I can be just as interesting as that toad."
+
+She came, holding the weird little creature on her palm. "Look at him,
+Ned! Isn't he cunning? He's the dearest thing I ever saw--except you."
+
+"Oh, thanks; it's kind of you not to put me in the same class. As a
+reward I'll tell you some news. Your little scheme for balking Lena's
+designs on Conrad has succeeded perfectly. Turner has just told me that
+she has suddenly decided she wants to go to Santa Barbara at once, and
+they're leaving this afternoon. I told him to go ahead, and I'd stay
+here a few days longer and finish things up with Curt."
+
+"That's just splendid, Ned! We'll have some lovely rides, won't we? And
+it will be such a rest not to have to keep an eye on Lena. I felt sure
+last night that she was going to give up the game and pretend she hadn't
+been playing, because she suddenly lost all interest in the cattle
+business."
+
+"Of course you know, Francisquita, that you have been behaving
+shamelessly; but I'll forgive you, because you've saved our model
+superintendent for us."
+
+"Ned, you know very well that I didn't do a thing but just help Mr.
+Conrad make it pleasant for all the people--except, perhaps, Lena. I'm
+afraid she'd have had a better time if I hadn't been here. But I've been
+thinking this morning, Ned, that maybe it wasn't necessary for me to
+help quite as hard as I did. What do you think about it?"
+
+"I think I don't know what you're talking about. As the cowboys say,
+you've flung gravel along the road a little too fast for my gait."
+
+"Ned, you're the blindest thing! What could I mean except that Mr.
+Conrad didn't need to be distracted from Lena, especially as her methods
+are so broad?"
+
+"Well, go on, dear. We'll get there after a while."
+
+"Go on! Why, Ned, that's all! Isn't that enough? Why should a man want
+more than one pretty girl to protect him from the designs of a lady
+who--well--who wants to shave him? You never needed anybody but me."
+
+"True, Fanny! But you always were equal to an army in yourself, and now
+you are equal to two--which is only another way of saying that you grow
+more fascinating every day. And now I think you might be gracious enough
+to tell me what you're talking about."
+
+"Why, Ned, I'm afraid Miss Bancroft didn't enjoy it any more than Lena.
+I wasn't quite sure of it until this morning; but I really think, Ned,
+that Lena would have been left out in the cold just the same if I
+hadn't--hadn't helped Mr. Conrad entertain the people quite so much."
+
+Castleton laughed. "Oh, I begin to see! You are feeling the pangs of
+remorse because you've been putting snags in the course of true love.
+But you needn't worry, dear. Curt isn't the sort of man, if he cares
+anything about her, to let a little thing like that make any
+difference."
+
+"But he'll be too busy with you to go over to Golden and see her again
+for a long time, won't he?"
+
+"Oh, we can get through this week, I think."
+
+"Good! Then we can leave on Saturday, and on Sunday he can gallop over
+to Golden, and by that time she'll want awfully to see him and she'll be
+very sorry she flirted so outrageously with Don Homer. And next Fall
+we'll send them a wedding present, and they'll come to see us on their
+wedding journey,--she's a dear, sweet girl, Ned, and I like her,--and
+I'll explain to her why I--why I helped Mr. Conrad make things pleasant
+at the barbecue, and we'll have a jolly laugh over it. There he is now,
+Ned! Do go right along and begin your work, so we'll be sure to leave on
+Saturday."
+
+When Conrad bade the Castletons good-bye at the railway station at the
+end of the week, Francisquita said to him:
+
+"When you see that pretty Miss Bancroft again--" here she gave him a
+significant glance and then demurely lowered her eyes--"please tell her
+that I hope to see her again, and that if she ever comes to San
+Francisco she must let me know--you can give her our address. We'd be
+delighted, Ned and I, to help her have a good time. She's a dear, lovely
+girl and I'd really like to know her better."
+
+Curtis drove home, declaring to himself that Mrs. Ned was one of the
+most charming women he knew. He would ride over to Golden to-morrow
+afternoon and deliver her message. He lingered fondly over the image of
+Lucy's slender figure standing at the top of her veranda steps and
+smiling upon him a gay and gracious welcome, and a strong desire rose in
+his heart to know just how glad she really would be to see him. But the
+recollection of his plans for the ensuing week came crashing through his
+pleasant thoughts like a runaway horse through a flower garden. For a
+moment the purpose that held his life in thrall seemed strangely
+unworthy. But presently he jammed his hat down on his head and, with
+compressed lips, said savagely to himself:
+
+"No; the Delafield affair is my first love, and I'll stay with it." As
+he thought over his plans and hopes for the immediate future his heart
+grew hot again with the old indignation over all that ruin and struggle,
+and the old purpose regained its accustomed vigor.
+
+After a little, nevertheless, he decided that he would ride over to the
+Bancrofts' the next day and deliver Mrs. Castleton's message. It would
+do no harm for him to see Lucy occasionally, in the friendly way in
+which they had always met.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+NARROWING THE QUEST
+
+
+That evening, while they sat and smoked on the little porch, Curtis
+Conrad told Homer of his lifelong quest. It was the younger man's first
+knowledge of the motive that had been so potent in his brother's life.
+He listened in silence while his pipe went out, and sat quite still
+after the other ceased. "Well, Curt," he said at last, with a little
+tremor in his voice, "this yarn of yours knocks me silly. I can't say
+I'm pleased with it, at least at first view. It doesn't seem sensible."
+
+Curtis laughed good-naturedly. "Very likely, Homer; I didn't expect it
+to appeal forcibly to a sensible, practical chap like you. I haven't
+told you before because there was no use bothering your young head with
+it when the round-up seemed so far away; but I'm mighty near the end of
+the trail now, and you've come to a man's age and ways of thinking; so I
+thought it best to tell you. There's a possibility, of course, that
+I'll get the worst of it when the mix-up does come; and in that case I'd
+like you to know what it was all about. But I'm not considering that
+sort of chance as likely to happen."
+
+"But what do you expect to gain by it, Curt, and why do you want to kill
+the man?"
+
+Curtis slowly lighted a fresh cigar. "Well, Homer, if you don't see why,
+it's no use for me to explain."
+
+"I know there's a big difference between us temperamentally; but I don't
+believe that would keep me from appreciating your motive if it had any
+basis in right or expediency. Good God, Curt, look at the thing
+sensibly! Suppose you kill the man when you find him. What earthly good
+will that do you? You'd probably hang for it, or go to the penitentiary
+for years. And it seems to me the chance is all the other way. Whoever
+the man is, he must know you're after him; and you'll find him ready and
+loaded. If you're not killed you're likely to be badly wounded--perhaps
+lose an eye or a leg--and what can you gain by it? Bless me if I can see
+any use or sense or right in the whole business."
+
+Curtis Conrad rose and walked slowly and with bent head the length of
+the porch and back, his hand resting for an instant on his brother's
+shoulder as he passed. He stood regarding abstractedly the lightning
+that was playing among some low-lying clouds above the Hatchet
+Mountains, far to the southwest. "One night, soon after father and
+mother died," he began, in a tone so low that Homer could barely catch
+his words, "I lay awake almost all night, thinking. You were a little
+shaver barely out of kilts, the girls were young things with their
+dresses half way to their knees, and I was only fifteen. I had taken you
+into bed with me because I was afraid you'd wake up in the night and
+feel lonesome--and, perhaps, because I didn't want to feel quite so
+lonesome myself. I made plans for hours about how we could get along and
+the things I meant to do. You tossed in your sleep, and threw one of
+your hands against mine. My fingers closed over it, and you gripped one
+of them fast. Somehow, that grip went to my heart, and I promised myself
+and you that I would do all I could to make up to you the loss we had
+suffered. I thought of what father had planned for me; and I knew that I
+should have to give all that up. As I thought of the man who had robbed
+us of everything--money, opportunity, father and mother--I trembled with
+anger.
+
+"I had never used an oath until that night. But I sat on the side of my
+bed, when I couldn't lie still any longer, and clenched my fists and
+cursed him, mildly at first and under my breath, then aloud and in the
+reddest language I could think of. As I damned his soul to the hottest
+corner of hell it seemed to me that he ought to be made to suffer in
+this life, too, and I said aloud, 'I would like to kill you!' The words
+sounded so plain that they frightened me. But I said them over again,
+and the next moment the thought leaped up, 'And I will, too, if I live!'
+That was how the idea was born in my mind. It struck root and grew, and
+I've held to it ever since."
+
+Homer nodded. "Yes; I can understand how you would hold to a thing you'd
+made up your mind to do; I'd hold on just the same way. We've both got
+the bull-dog grip; it's one of the Conrad characteristics. But even a
+bull-dog can let go when he knows he shouldn't hold on any longer."
+
+Curtis smiled grimly. "Not always; sometimes you have to pry his jaws
+loose. Nevertheless, I could let go if I wanted to. But I don't want
+to, and I don't propose to. The thing has become part of my life, of me,
+of my very blood."
+
+"Have you been working at it all this time, Curt?"
+
+"Oh, of course I couldn't do much while I was a boy except to think and
+brood over it. But during that time I learned all I could about
+Delafield, his schemes, and his personality. I read every newspaper I
+could lay hold of that had anything in it about him; I've got them all
+yet. But I didn't do much in the way of actually chasing him down until
+after the girls were married ten years ago. After that I earned and
+saved more money, and was free to go about as I wanted. Since then I've
+spent all the time and money I could spare in hunting him.
+
+"I had a schoolmate named Littleton who became a detective when he grew
+up. We were good friends, and when he happened to find out that I was
+nosing around in my own way he offered to help me. I was to pay him what
+I could, and he would put in time on this when he had nothing else to
+do. Between us we tracked Delafield all over the West and into Canada,
+back and forth, and under nearly a dozen different names. I don't think
+he got as much money out of his Boston smash as he was charged with
+taking, but he got a good lot; and he's since made and lost two or three
+good-sized fortunes. Most of the time he has been a mining expert, and
+has owned and dealt in mines; the fact that he's stuck pretty close to
+that business has made it easier to follow him. Once, in Arizona, we
+lost the trail completely. It was as if the earth had opened and
+swallowed him; for a while we thought he must be dead. Later we
+discovered his tracks in Utah, under a new name. Since then there have
+been several gaps of that sort; but we've always managed to light on him
+again after a while.
+
+"My last knowledge of him is that he is living somewhere in this
+Territory, a well-to-do and respected citizen, prominent in politics,
+and a supporter of Dellmey Baxter for Congress. The rest of it will be
+easy; there'll be a quick chase and an early show-down before there's
+time for another deal. I've got my eye on two men, both of whom fit that
+description. They live up North, and I'm going up to Albuquerque and
+Santa Fe next week to look up their records. If it's either one of
+them, Delafield will meet his deserts before he's many days older."
+
+Silence fell upon them. Curtis leaned against a pillar of the porch and
+watched the clouds rising higher over the mountains. "It looks as if the
+rainy season is about to begin at last," he said in a matter-of-fact
+way. Homer rose and stood with a hand on his shoulder. They looked so
+much alike in the moonlight that at a little distance it would have been
+difficult to say which was the younger and which the elder brother.
+
+"I don't need to tell you, Curt," he said in a tone rich with earnest
+feeling, "how grateful I am for all you've done for me, nor how well I
+know at what cost to yourself you've done it. You've been father and
+mother and brother and best friend to me all in one. If I ever do
+anything worth while the credit will be yours quite as much as mine. You
+know I'm not ungrateful or unappreciative, don't you, Curt? I can
+understand how this thing has come to obsess you, since you've explained
+how it took root in your mind before your ethical ideas were settled.
+But I can't sympathize with you in this search after vengeance, and I
+can't approve of what you are planning to do. It seems to me you ought
+to be able to see things straight by this time and shake off your
+obsession. If you want to find the man and hand him over to the proper
+authorities--that's all right; I'd help you in that myself; it's right
+that he should be punished and made to give up what he has to his
+creditors. But to take revenge into your own hands, Curt, and to take it
+at the cost of everything desirable for yourself--why, the thing is so
+mad that it bewilders me to think it's you that's doing it. I wish I
+could persuade you to give it up."
+
+Curtis shook his head emphatically. "You needn't waste your breath,
+Homer. I rather hoped you'd understand better how I feel about it, and
+see the whole affair a little more as it looks to me. But you're
+different; and if you can't, you can't, and that's all there is about
+it. But it's useless to try to persuade me to give up my plans. A thing
+that you've thought about and dreamt about and planned and worked for
+through fifteen years gets to be part of your very blood, my boy, and
+it's not so easily cast aside."
+
+"Well," said Homer, "you are you; and if you've got to do this thing I
+suppose it can't be helped." He paused, thinking intently. "But when
+you go North next week--if one of those men proves to be Delafield--you
+won't--at once--" He stumbled over his words, unable to put his
+brother's purpose into plain speech.
+
+Curtis took up his meaning. "No; not immediately. I've got to come home
+again first."
+
+"Then you'll be back here before you do anything? That's sure, is it,
+Curt?" asked Homer, relief in his voice.
+
+"Yes; sure. I've got some important business that I promised the
+Castletons I'd attend to the week after, and I'll take no chances till I
+get that fixed up for them."
+
+The next morning there was a promise of rain in the air and the sky. A
+dome of pale, bright gray, resting on murky supports of cloud, had taken
+the place of the usual heaven of vivid blue. But the wind, blowing warm
+and strong from the west, bore little moisture upon its wings, and the
+air was laden with an electric tingle that stretched and jarred
+unaccustomed nerves.
+
+Hank Peters and Jose Gonzalez were working in the corral when Curtis
+Conrad came across from the door of his room to give them some
+directions. Presently he asked if they or any of the boys had seen
+anything lately of the gray wolf that had skulked about the neighborhood
+earlier in the season. Nosey Ike, they said, had seen it only the day
+before in the second draw on the road toward Golden.
+
+"He did?" exclaimed Curtis. "I'm going to Golden to-day, and perhaps I
+can get a crack at it. I'll be home by six o'clock, Peters, and I want
+to talk with you to-night about some work at Adobe Springs to-morrow.
+But to-day's Sunday, boys, and we've come finally where we can stop and
+take breath once a week. You fellows can do anything you like to-day."
+
+Peters thought he'd sleep all day, for he hadn't caught up since the
+barbecue; but Jose wanted to visit a Mexican family who had a little
+ranch beside a spring on the road to Golden.
+
+"All right," said the superintendent. "Take whichever one of the ponies
+you want, but be sure to get back to-night."
+
+"Curt," said Homer when they sat down to breakfast, "if you're not going
+to use Brown Betty to-day, would you mind if I rode her over to Golden?
+Or wouldn't you like to go with me? I'm going to call at the Bancrofts'
+to see if Miss Bancroft has recovered from the shock she had the other
+night."
+
+Curtis hesitated a moment as he poured their coffee, his own plan rising
+before him invitingly. But he remembered how pleased the two young
+people had seemed to be with each other and recalled his own resolution:
+"Let the lad have a fair field," he thought.
+
+"Brown Betty? Certainly, Homer," was his reply. "I'll see that she's
+ready for you. I can't go because I must ride down to Adobe Springs to
+see about some work the boys must do there to-morrow. Give my regards to
+the Bancrofts. By the way, Mrs. Ned Castleton gave me a message for Miss
+Bancroft that I'll let you deliver."
+
+As Homer mounted for his journey he cast an anxious glance at the
+wet-looking clouds against which rose the purple-blue, statuesque masses
+of the Mogollon Mountains, and asked, "Is it going to rain?"
+
+"It will sure rain in the mountains," replied his brother, "if it isn't
+pouring down by the bucketful there already. There may be a shower in
+Golden, but the creek will get on the rampage anyway, and maybe carry
+away some of the bridges. We shan't get any here right away, but it's
+coming, thank God! I tell you, Homer, it's been a cruel thing to see the
+cattle dying like flies on account of the drouth. For a while last
+Spring I thought of throwing up this job, I hated so to see the
+suffering of the poor brutes."
+
+For a while all the man in Curtis Conrad clamored in revolt as he
+galloped southward across the silent, empty plain and thought of Lucy
+smiling a welcome from her veranda steps--and not upon him. His love
+called imperiously, demanding that he make trial of its strength. Should
+he give up the girl he loved without an effort, even though his rival be
+his brother? The primeval man in him was quick with the desire to take
+her in his arms and bear her away from all the world. But it was not
+long until he was saying grimly to himself, "What have I to do with
+love-making and winning a wife? The Delafield affair is my business, and
+I'd better stick to it."
+
+He pondered over the conversation with his brother on the previous
+evening, feeling more keenly Homer's condemnation of his purpose. He
+remembered that every one with whom he had spoken about the matter had
+sought to dissuade him. Bancroft disapproved, and had begged him many
+times to desist. Miss Dent called it unworthy of him. Now his brother,
+upon whose sympathy he had counted, condemned both his feeling and his
+intention. Nevertheless, he was surely right. It was easy for them to
+talk, for they had not suffered from the man's crimes, they had not
+struggled as he had, and they had not spent years in the effort to find
+Delafield and cast his sins in his face. But still, his cherished
+purpose had lost a little of its savor. He thought of his journey
+northward, which he so ardently hoped would consummate his years of
+effort and desire, and there was not quite the usual pleasure in his
+mental forecast. He put the thought of Lucy behind him and went over
+once more that early struggle and the birth of his purpose, brought more
+vividly to mind by the talk with Homer, and soon the old ideas and
+intentions recovered their accustomed sway. By the time he galloped
+homeward in the late afternoon his indignation was once more hot and
+seething and his mind full of zest for his approaching journey.
+
+He found Homer in the corral unsaddling Brown Betty and humming a
+college tune. "Say, Curt, I think I'll go hunting to-morrow," said the
+young man as they walked across to the house. "I want to see if I can't
+get a shot at that gray wolf you've been telling me about. As I was
+coming home your Mexican cowboy had sighted it not far from the road, in
+that valley beyond the hill yonder, and was just about to shoot when I
+had the bad luck to come along and scare the thing away."
+
+Curtis looked up with quick interest. "Jose? What was he doing? Did he
+shoot?"
+
+"He jumped from his hiding-place just as I came along, so suddenly that
+the mare shied and nearly threw me. He was just ready to shoot--he said
+the beast was only a little way down the draw--and saw me barely in time
+to throw up his revolver and send it off at the sky. By that time, of
+course, the wolf was out of sight. I'm going back there at daybreak
+to-morrow to see if I can get a crack at it."
+
+Just then Gonzalez came riding into the corral, and Curtis moved his
+chair to the doorway, in front of his brother. "All right, Homer, I wish
+you would," he said; "it would be just a tenderfoot's luck, you know, if
+you should get it." He was rolling a cigarette, but keeping one eye on
+Jose, who was caring for his horse. "Was there much rain in Golden
+to-day?" he asked.
+
+"Yes; quite a storm, with lots of fireworks; I never saw such lightning
+or heard such thunder in my life. There must have been a flood farther
+up in the mountains, for the creek came down that ravine fairly booming,
+just as you said it would. It swept away one of the bridges and washed
+out parts of the foundations of two or three houses. But it soon went
+down again."
+
+"Was the bank building injured?" Curtis asked, still following with
+narrowed eyes the movements of Gonzalez. "It's in a dangerous spot if a
+really bad flood ever does come down that valley."
+
+"The First National? That's Bancroft's bank, isn't it? Yes; it lost some
+bricks out of the foundation, and the ground was washed away a little.
+Nothing of consequence."
+
+"Well, that has happened several times already; some of these days it
+will happen once too often. Long ago, I'm told, the street and sidewalk
+had to be moved to the other side of the houses for a block or two along
+there. You remember the creek elbows toward the bank. If a great mass of
+water ever comes down that canyon it will rush straight against the
+side of the building--and the lives of whoever happens to be inside
+won't be worth two switches of a cow's tail."
+
+"I talked with Mr. Bancroft about that possibility to-day," said Homer,
+"and he doesn't think the situation is dangerous."
+
+"Yes; nobody in Golden believes there's any danger. And they may be
+right. They say there isn't as much rain now as there used to be, and
+that cloud-bursts of any consequence are as rare as six-legged calves.
+It will all depend on the weather."
+
+The next morning Jose Gonzalez was hitching up to drive the men to Adobe
+Springs when Conrad walked up, leaned carelessly against the wheel, and
+looked him in the eye. The Mexican returned the gaze unflinchingly but
+respectfully. "Jose," said Curtis in a low tone, "you made a mistake
+about that wolf last night, didn't you? It wasn't the wolf you thought
+it was when you made ready to shoot, was it?"
+
+An amused gleam lighted for an instant Jose's sombre eyes. "It might
+have been as you say, Don Curtis," he answered cautiously.
+
+"I don't want any might-have-beens; I want to know if you are making war
+on my brother as well as on me. It's all right about me, but I won't
+have anything of the sort where he's concerned. I want the truth, Jose.
+Is anything of the kind going to happen again?"
+
+Gonzalez looked at Conrad squarely as he earnestly replied: "It was a
+mistake, Don Curtis; I swear to you it was a mistake. Your brother looks
+much like you, it was your mare, and you had said you would be back from
+Golden about that hour. I saw it was Don Homer barely in time. After
+this I shall be more careful."
+
+Conrad grinned at the closing sentence, and the Mexican scarcely
+repressed an answering smile. "Well, I am going away to-day," said
+Curtis, "to be gone for several days. So it won't be necessary for you
+to make any mistakes while I'm gone."
+
+Jose looked up in quick alarm. "You are not going to Don Dellmey?" he
+exclaimed. "He is not the one who wishes your death!"
+
+"What do you say, Jose?" the other demanded, starting forward eagerly.
+
+"I swear to you by the Mother of God, Don Curtis," said the Mexican,
+with voice intense and manner most earnest, "that it is not Senor Baxter
+who desires your death."
+
+"Are you speaking the truth, Jose?"
+
+"I will swear it on the crucifix, Don Curtis!"
+
+Conrad gazed at him steadfastly, and the conviction entered his mind
+that Gonzalez was speaking the truth. A look of puzzled wonder
+overspread his face. "In the name of God, then, who is it?" he said,
+half aloud. The Mexican shrugged a shoulder and turned away.
+
+"Who can it be?" the manager repeated, to himself, but still loud enough
+for the other to hear. "It must be Delafield!" he exclaimed. Jose's ear
+caught the words, and he listened as his employer went on: "He knows I'm
+after him, and he's trying to kill me first. If I could only make this
+_coyote_ greaser tell me who his _patron_ is, I'd know who Delafield is.
+I'd like to choke it out of you, you son of perdition!" He looked so
+fiercely at Gonzalez that the Mexican took a threatening step forward.
+
+"You needn't worry," Conrad exclaimed contemptuously. "I know you
+wouldn't tell, even if I choked the life out of you trying to make you
+peach. It's your _patron_ I'm after." Jose stooped to hitch the traces,
+and Curtis broke out impulsively: "I say, Jose, what makes you do this
+sort of thing? You're as square as they make 'em in most things; why do
+you go into this damned rattlesnake business?"
+
+Gonzalez looked up with a confiding smile.
+
+"The _patron_ wishes it; and why not? If I kill a man he gets me off if
+he can, and then that is all right. If he can't, I pay for it in
+prison--and that is fair."
+
+"Huh!" grunted the superintendent as he walked away. "So you think you
+are going to pay for me that way, do you? Well, I guess not!"
+
+The same train that carried Conrad northward to Santa Fe carried also a
+brief and hurried letter to Dellmey Baxter which Jose Gonzalez had found
+time to write before he and the rest started for Adobe Springs, mailing
+it as they passed White Rock station.
+
+"You will see Senor Conrad in Santa Fe," the Congressman read in his
+office the next morning, "but you need not be anxious. I have sworn to
+him that it is not you who desires his death, and he believes me. I
+heard him speak to himself, and he said it must be Delafeel who wishes
+him dead. He said he would like to choke out of me who my _patron_ is,
+for then he would know who Delafeel is. Don Curtis is a very brave man.
+I like him much."
+
+Baxter chuckled over the closing sentences as he tore the letter into
+bits. Poking them musingly with a fat forefinger he thought: "It's a
+sure bet that his _patron_ just now is Aleck Bancroft; and that makes it
+look as if Aleck might be this mysterious Delafeel--I'll have to find
+out who Delafeel is and what he's done some time or other; then I sure
+reckon I'll have a cinch on Aleck that will keep him from trying to step
+into my shoes as long as I want him to keep out." He looked out of his
+window into the little tree-filled plaza, cool and green in the morning
+sunlight, and saw Curtis Conrad walking across it from the hotel on the
+other side. He took a six-shooter from his pocket, made sure of its
+cartridges, and replaced it. From a drawer in his desk he took another,
+examined its chambers, and laid it on his desk, under an open newspaper.
+A moment later he was rising from his chair with outstretched hand and
+beaming smile.
+
+"Why, how do you do, Mr. Conrad! I'm sure glad to see you. How did you
+leave things down in old Silverside? That was a high old time we had at
+the barbecue, wasn't it? Have the Castletons gone yet? A fine figure of
+a woman is Mrs. Turner Castleton! And I tell you right now it was a
+great shave she gave me!" The Honorable Dellmey Baxter rubbed his cheek,
+and chuckled. But his right hand rested on his desk, close beside the
+newspaper which he had apparently just thrown down.
+
+"Mr. Baxter," said Conrad, ignoring the stream of questions and remarks,
+"some weeks ago I wrote you, saying frankly that I believed you
+responsible for attempts against my life, made by a Mexican who had come
+from you to me. I find myself mistaken, and I have come to apologize to
+you for my suspicions."
+
+"That's all right, Curt, that's all right!" Baxter broke in, relief
+apparent in his countenance. "I'll admit I felt hurt by your
+insinuations, but as long as you've found out you were wrong and are
+willing to do me the justice of saying so, it's not worth speaking of
+again."
+
+"Understand," Curtis went on, "that I'm not taking back or apologizing
+for anything else I've said about you, and I'm still shouting for Johnny
+Martinez for Congress."
+
+"Johnny is to be congratulated for having your support," Baxter
+rejoined genially; "I wish I could get it away from him. Has that measly
+greaser made any more attempts on your life, my dear Conrad? You're too
+good a citizen for the Territory to lose in that way."
+
+Curtis smiled carelessly. "I don't think my life is in any danger. No
+damned greaser will get the chance to stick me in the back when I've got
+both eyes shut and one foot tucked up in my feathers, if I'm onto his
+game. I don't care anything about Jose; it's his _patron_ I'm after."
+
+"His _patron_!" exclaimed Baxter in apparent surprise. "You don't mean
+to say that Jose's got a _patron_ in that business!" His visitor nodded
+and the Congressman went on: "You don't say so! I didn't suppose you had
+an enemy in the Territory. This is interesting! We must get at the
+bottom of this, Mr. Conrad, for we can't afford to lose you. Have you
+any idea who's behind the greaser?"
+
+Curtis considered a moment. He might get some information from Baxter
+that would help him; it would do no harm to speak cautiously. "Yes, and
+no, Mr. Baxter. I know who he used to be, but I don't know who he is
+now. His name used to be Delafield, back in the States."
+
+"Delafield--Delafield," mused Baxter. He had got the conversation where
+he wanted it. "I don't remember having heard that name in New Mexico."
+
+"That hasn't been his name for a good many years. Don't you remember the
+Delafield affair in Boston, some fifteen years ago--Sumner L. Delafield,
+who made a big spread in the financial world, defaulted, and ran away?"
+
+"Why, of course!" The Congressman brought his fat fist down on the table
+with a thump. "The Delafield affair! Yes; I remember it, and how
+Delafield slid out and covered up his tracks completely. And you say
+he's living in New Mexico now?"
+
+"Yes; he's a rich, prominent, and respected citizen of New Mexico. But I
+haven't discovered which one of 'em, and he doesn't want me to find out.
+My father lost all he had in the smash."
+
+They talked a little longer, and Curtis learned enough about the history
+of the two men he had in mind to be satisfied that neither of them was
+the one he sought.
+
+After Conrad went away, Baxter leaned back and folded his hands across
+his waist-coat, his left eyelid drooping and his face beaming with
+smiles. "Now," he thought, "I've got Aleck Bancroft exactly where he can
+do me the most good!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE SILENT DUEL
+
+
+As July sped on Homer Conrad's visits to Golden grew more and more
+frequent. When Curtis returned from his northern journey, still ignorant
+of Delafield's identity, Homer was greatly relieved, and tried once more
+to dissuade his brother. "Anyway, Curt," he urged, "don't do anything
+more about it now. Let it rest a while, and think about it more coolly
+and carefully; you'll see how foolish it is if you do that." As Curtis
+did not mention the subject again, he concluded that his advice had been
+taken and that there was no reason for immediate anxiety. His mind at
+rest on that score, he devoted himself more than ever to Lucy Bancroft.
+He talked of her so much to his brother that Curtis soon saw how
+complete was his absorption. "I guess they're hitting it off together
+all right," he concluded.
+
+Curtis Conrad tried to accustom himself to the idea of Lucy as his
+brother's wife. It cost him many a painful twinge, and once the
+rebellious thought came into his mind, "If it hadn't been for the
+Delafield affair I might--" But a little shock, as if he had fallen away
+from some ideal or been guilty of an irreverence, stopped the notion.
+Now and then, too, he had misgivings as to what Lucy would think of him
+if she knew. He shrank from the feeling that her condemnation would be
+as unsparing as his brother's, with more of horror and disgust. For the
+first time he began to think about what might lie beyond that longed-for
+meeting with Delafield. One day, musing upon Homer and Lucy, he had a
+sudden vision of himself as a commiserated kinsman, and smiled grimly as
+he reflected, "It might be a good thing for them if I got my quietus in
+the scrimmage."
+
+These signs of a change slowly going on within him sometimes came as a
+flash of feeling, while again the thoughts induced held him for hours.
+The emotion that had so powerfully rushed over him when he first
+realized his love for Lucy had jarred his grip upon his purpose; and
+afterward intimate daily association with his brother and knowledge of
+the young man's severe disapproval united to move him now and then from
+his old point of view and to give him brief visitations of more
+wholesome feeling. If his love for Lucy, so suddenly realized, had met
+with no check, it alone might have been enough in time to turn him from
+his plans. A man of his temperament cannot be fired by two enthusiasms
+at the same time. He must give himself wholly to his absorbing desire.
+Since at the core Conrad's nature was sound and sweet, it is likely
+that after a little his love would have overmastered his desire for
+revenge. But Lucy's flirtation with his brother, induced by pique and
+disappointment at his constant association with Mrs. Ned Castleton, and
+Homer's prompt infatuation had led him to believe that the two younger
+people were in love with each other. Consequently he did his best to
+restrain his own feelings, and so limited their check upon the older
+sentiment. Francisquita little knew, or would ever guess, what grave
+consequences were flowing from her innocent effort to keep her
+sister-in-law within bounds. But for that the outcome of the Delafield
+affair would have been "another story."
+
+Conrad returned from Santa Fe much disappointed by the failure of the
+clews that had promised so much. He debated whether it would be worth
+while to try to compel Gonzalez to disclose the name of his employer
+should the Mexican attack him again. He was doubtful of the success of
+such a plan, for he believed Jose as likely to give up his life as his
+secret. Nevertheless, he decided it would be worth trying. For several
+weeks after his return it chanced that whenever he went from home it was
+with Peters or some of the men, while there was always somebody about
+the corral and the house. He knew Gonzalez was watching him constantly,
+awaiting the moment when they should be alone. Toward the end of July he
+made up his mind to provide the opportunity and bring matters to a
+focus.
+
+On the day he reached this decision his brother returned from Golden
+looking dejected. "They've quarrelled," was Curtis's inward comment. He
+said nothing, nor did Homer mention Lucy's name, contrary to his custom
+of talking much about her after a day in her society. He was also
+less talkative than usual upon other subjects. During the evening,
+while Curtis read, Homer sat by the open door and smoked in gloomy
+silence, listening to the pouring rain and the rolling and echoing
+thunder. He was wondering, half in lover's anger and half in lover's
+downheartedness, why Lucy had been so unreasonable that day, and why
+she had acted as if she did not care whether he came or stayed away.
+Well, he would not trouble her with his company again very soon. He
+and Pendleton had been talking about a camping and hunting trip in the
+Mogollon Mountains, and he would see if they couldn't get up the party
+and go at once.
+
+The next morning a sky of pure, deep, brilliant blue shone over a
+freshening, greening plain. Homer rose from the breakfast table and
+walked out into the corral, throwing back his shoulders and breathing
+deeply of the dry, cool, exhilarating air. It seemed a different world
+from that of yesterday. There was no hurry about the camping trip, after
+all. "I think I'll ride over to Golden," he said to his brother, "and
+see if that storm last night did much damage. It looked black in the
+mountains when I was coming home in the afternoon, and a bad flood may
+have come down the ravine."
+
+Curtis smiled quizzically. A certain eager masterfulness in the young
+man's air brought to his mind conviction of the real purport of his
+brother's errand, and he felt no doubt of its result. "A good idea," he
+assented. "It was a bad storm and may have done a lot of harm. But I'll
+have to use Brown Betty myself to-day. You can have your pick of the
+others."
+
+He stood by and called out, "Good luck, old fellow!" as Homer mounted
+his horse, and laughed and swung his sombrero as the other turned away a
+blushing face. Curtis gazed after him, a swift vision filling his mind
+of the look that countenance would wear when he returned to tell him
+proudly that he had won Lucy's promise to be his wife. "And by that time
+I'm going to know who Delafield is," he thought, his lips compressed, as
+he turned quickly into the corral.
+
+"Jose," he called, "I want you to go to Adobe Springs this morning and
+see if any of the cattle are mired in the overflow from the storm last
+night. Then deepen the outlet so the water will all be carried away.
+You'd better start at once. I'll come after you in about half an hour
+and show you about digging out the outlet."
+
+As Gonzalez mounted his horse at the corral gate he looked back and saw
+Conrad standing beside his mare, making her hunt through his pockets for
+sugar. "A brave man is Don Curtis," his thoughts ran. "He is so brave
+it does not seem right that he must die. But--" and he shrugged his
+shoulders with the air of one who says, "What would you?"
+
+When Jose was well out of sight Conrad started after him, at first at a
+slower pace than usual. His mind was not upon the expected encounter,
+with its doubtful issue, nor upon the information, so long and ardently
+desired, that he hoped to extort from the Mexican. A month previous he
+would have been intent on that one thing, his thoughts absorbed in it,
+and his heart on fire with anticipation. Now he dwelt upon the idea of
+marriage between Lucy and Homer. "The lad's a better man than I," he was
+thinking. "There's more in him, and ten years from now I shan't be able
+to stack up alongside of him and make any showing at all--even if I'm
+not in prison or hanged by the neck until dead long before."
+
+He bared his brow, curiously white above the rest of his sunburned face,
+to the south wind. His lips tightened and his eyes glowed as he looked
+out over the gray road stretching before him, while his inward vision
+flashed down the grim and lonely path that led into the future. It was
+the way he had chosen, the one he had travelled with eager feet for
+fifteen years, and he must follow it to the end. A few miles farther on
+that gray track, perhaps just beyond that next hill, the longed-for
+knowledge was awaiting him. He would force it from Gonzalez, and
+then--Delafield! The thought fired his heart once more and his eyes
+blazed with the old indignation as his mind went back to the grief and
+loss of his early years, to that lonely night of hate and anger when his
+deadly purpose was born. He touched Brown Betty with his spur,
+quickening her pace to a smart gallop as he searched the road and plain
+with ardent eyes. His heart was bounding forward with anticipation, the
+savor of longed-for vengeance once more strong in his throat. In front
+of him lay a wide, shallow valley, with steep, storm-torn rims and brows
+shaggy with mesquite.
+
+"I reckon, Betty B.," he said aloud, "it's about time to be looking for
+Jose, and this draw seems a likely sort of place for him."
+
+He drew his revolver, glanced at its chambers, held it across the pommel
+in his right hand, and made sure of the handful of cartridges he had put
+in his pocket on leaving home. Brown Betty cantered across the bottom of
+the valley and, as she climbed the steep bank on the other side, lifted
+her head and neighed. From somewhere in the distance came an answering
+whinny. "It's one of our horses," thought Conrad.
+
+At the hilltop he carefully searched the plain; a little way down the
+road, beside a clump of bushes, he saw a riderless horse. He chuckled.
+"Jose's sure hiding out around there somewhere," was his instant
+conviction. His head was high, his eyes flashing, and his face set in
+hard lines as he started the mare forward at a brisk trot. His gaze
+travelled toward the other horse, studying every bunch of mesquite and
+questioning every clump of amole and yucca that grew between.
+
+His eye caught the motion of branches in a tall, spreading thicket of
+mesquite a hundred yards away, not far from the road. They swayed
+against the wind for a moment, trembled back and forth, and then bent
+before the breeze like their fellows. The growth was dense, but behind
+it he could distinguish the outlines of a darker mass, and an instant
+later he saw a tiny flash of light reflected from some small, bright
+object. "That must be the sun on his gun-sight," said Curtis, "and I
+reckon it's time to prepare for war."
+
+Dismounting, he threw the mare's bridle over her neck. "No; she'll
+follow me," he thought, "and she doesn't need to mix up in the Delafield
+affair."
+
+His eye still on the suspicious clump of bushes, Conrad fastened the
+mare to an outreaching mesquite limb at the roadside. "This is a better
+place for you, Brown Betty, nice old girl," he said, reaching back to
+pat her neck as she nickered after him.
+
+His pistol in his hand and his vision holding the dark object behind the
+feathery green plumes of the mesquite, he went on briskly until he had
+covered half the distance between them. Then he saw the object move
+cautiously a little to one side, where the leaves were not so thick.
+Plainly visible now were the straw sombrero, the dusky face below it,
+the outline of the body, and the revolver held steadily between the
+branches.
+
+Half a dozen strides more, and he fixed his eyes upon those of Gonzalez,
+dark and brilliant, gleaming through the scant, fern-like foliage like
+two coals of brown fire. Conrad's six-shooter pointed straight between
+them as he walked slowly toward the bush. He knew that Jose's was
+levelled at his breast. Revolver cocked and finger at trigger he came
+on, his eyes holding those of the Mexican. Jose's pistol hand he
+disregarded, trusting to his perception of the change, the instant's
+flash of decision, that would light Gonzalez's face when he pulled the
+trigger. He knew that, should he stumble or miss his footing and so give
+advantage, or should any hesitation show in face or eye, that second
+would the Mexican's bullet fly for his heart.
+
+It was Curtis's intention not to hurt Jose unless the need became
+imperative. Therefore he did not fire, but came silently on, and
+Gonzalez stood, silent and still, behind the sheltering bush, each with
+pistol cocked and held at steady aim, the gaze of each holding
+insistently that of the other. It was a silent duel of eyes, of wills
+behind the eyes, of purposes behind the wills, and of temperament behind
+the purposes.
+
+"Will he never shoot?" Conrad asked himself once and again as he
+approached.
+
+"A brave man! A brave man!" was Jose's thought as he watched that steady
+advance, secure in his own advantage.
+
+Curtis came on with resolute step--fifteen yards, a dozen yards, ten
+yards. Barely a score of feet separated the muzzles of the two
+revolvers, and still the blue eyes and the brown stared into each other
+with dauntless challenge.
+
+"Why doesn't he shoot?" thought Jose. "A brave, bold man! It is a pity
+to kill him."
+
+"A moment more, and I'll have him!" exulted Conrad. Fifteen feet, twelve
+feet, ten feet--still the space between them lessened, and still the
+silence was unbroken and their guns at unchanging aim.
+
+Another step, and Curtis saw Jose's eyes waver; another, and heard him
+draw a little, gasping breath. He saw irresolution flash across the
+Mexican's face, saw his finger leave the trigger, his right arm tremble,
+and drop to his side.
+
+Conrad felt cold sweat break out over his body and there was a loud
+buzzing in his ears. Yet neither in face nor eyes was there a sign that
+he had seen any change. With his gaze still fixed on the other's
+downcast lids, he moved sidewise around the bush, and stood beside
+Gonzalez.
+
+"Give me your gun, butt first," he commanded in a low, tense voice. Jose
+raised his eyes to meet the muzzle of the gun looking blankly between
+his brows.
+
+"You can take it if you like, Don Curtis," he said unsteadily. "I am
+not going to shoot you. Here it is."
+
+"Now," said Curtis, pointing both guns at Jose's head, "tell me the name
+of the man who hired you to kill me."
+
+The Mexican started in surprise. He shrugged his shoulders, looked at
+the guns again, shuffled his feet uneasily. "Don Curtis, how can I?" he
+exclaimed in a reproachful tone. "You should not ask that question. It
+is not fair."
+
+"Neither was it fair for you to try to stick me in the back before I was
+onto your game. So we're even now, as you told me once before. You've
+got to tell! I don't want to kill you, Jose; but, by God! I will, if you
+don't give up that man's name. I'll give you one minute to think it
+over; and if you don't speak out then, I'll blow your head off."
+
+Gonzalez sent one searching glance into Conrad's set face, and dropped
+sullen eyes to the ground. He knew there was only one thing to do if he
+wished to live. For half the minute he stared downward, then looked
+blankly up at Curtis. "Fifteen seconds more," said the stern voice. His
+face worked, his lips opened and closed again. Then he seemed to gather
+himself together for the unwilling effort, and the words fairly rushed
+from his mouth:
+
+"It is your friend, Senor Bancroft."
+
+"What!" exclaimed Curtis, in a voice that had sunk back into his throat.
+
+Gonzalez repeated his words. Conrad leaned forward, white with anger,
+and thrust the two revolvers close to the other's face. "Jose," he said
+slowly, in hard, sharp tones, "a little while ago a man told me that. I
+shook him as if he'd been a dog and told him that he lied. I ask you
+once more, the last time, who is it?"
+
+Gonzalez threw back his head, crossed his arms, and looked his
+antagonist angrily in the eye. "I am not a liar, Don Curtis," he said
+proudly. "I may kill sometimes, if my _patron_ wishes. But I do not
+lie." He placed the muzzle of one of the pistols against his heart. "I
+have told you the truth, Senor Conrad," he went on. "I swear to you, by
+the Mother of God, that I could not say different if you pulled that
+trigger now."
+
+Conrad trembled and his white face went suddenly crimson. "It is hard to
+believe," he said; but he lowered the pistols. "I know you are not a
+liar, Jose, and you seem to be speaking the truth. You understand, don't
+you," he added in a tone almost apologetic, "that it is hard for me to
+believe what you say?"
+
+"It is the truth, senor."
+
+Curtis put his own pistol away, and looked thoughtfully at the other.
+"Jose," he said, "I shall have to think about this thing. In the
+meantime I'm going to keep your gun."
+
+"As you like, Don Curtis," replied Gonzalez, indifferently. "I shall do
+nothing more. To-morrow I shall ask for my time."
+
+Conrad eyed him keenly. "Well, then, here's your gun. Go on to Adobe
+Springs and do the work, as I told you. To-morrow morning, if you want
+it, you can have your time."
+
+Jose took the gun, turned the cylinder, and one by one dropped the
+bullets to the ground.
+
+"It is ended, Don Curtis," he said. Mounting his horse, he galloped down
+the road.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+REFLECTION AND REACTION
+
+
+Conrad stood still and stared at the Mexican's lessening figure,
+galloping down the road. Presently he walked across to his mare, stroked
+her nose, and said softly, "By God! Betty B.!" For some minutes he gazed
+at her abstractedly, swearing under his breath, and now and then
+muttering, "Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!" Coherent thought was not yet
+possible. He felt that Jose had told him the truth, and yet he could not
+believe it; between the opposing convictions his mind lay dazed and
+inactive. He mounted and turned Brown Betty's nose toward home, riding
+at a foot-pace with his head down and his attention all indrawn. For a
+mile or two the mare plodded on quietly. At last, resenting the lack of
+the companionable attentions her master was accustomed to bestow upon
+her when they rode alone, she snorted several times and switched her
+tail vigorously, flicking his legs. There was no response. She whinnied
+softly, waited a little, and tried it again. Still her rider was silent.
+So she stopped, lifted her head, and neighed loudly. Conrad aroused
+himself. "What is it, Betty?" he said, looking searchingly around the
+plain. Nothing was in sight save its usual silent habitants. He
+dismounted, and examined her anxiously. She nipped him playfully,
+nickered gently, and poked her nose into his coat pocket.
+
+"Betty B., you're a rogue!" he exclaimed, pulling her ear. "You're just
+lonesome and want me to talk to you! My, but you're spoiled!" He stroked
+her neck affectionately, then suddenly leaned against her, buried his
+face in her mane, and a single deep breath that was half a sob shook his
+body. "Betty!" he muttered, "to find that your best friend is the
+damnedest villain that ever went unhung!"
+
+The little episode with the mare broke up the paralysis that staggering
+surprise had set upon both thought and feeling. As he mounted again his
+heart was hot and his mind working rapidly. "The damned villain!" he
+exclaimed savagely, "to be pretending such friendship with me when he
+knew what he had done!"
+
+He spurred Brown Betty to a gallop. The tyrannous habit of mind
+engendered by long-wonted thought and desire urged him on to face at
+once the man who had despoiled his father and deprived him of his
+birthright. The old anger and hate surged over him, and his pulses beat
+swift and hard. For a while he forgot the personality of the enemy he
+had run to earth at last. Through his set teeth came whispered curses of
+hatred and contempt, and his tongue clung to the shameful epithets he
+longed to throw in the fellow's face. Not fast enough could he ride to
+keep pace with his desire. Revenge, so long fed with hope and promise,
+was calling to be sated. "Faster, Betty, faster!" he called to the mare,
+spurring her on.
+
+But the very violence of his mood presently induced the beginning of
+reaction. He remembered who it was that he was riding so fast to expose
+and strike down. "Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!" he murmured, and slowed the
+mare's racing feet. The tenderness and loyalty of friendship raised
+still, small voices in his heart. Once again the thing staggered him. It
+seemed incredible. In the depths of his heart was conviction that Jose
+Gonzalez had told him the truth. But could he go to his best friend with
+such a charge, to taunt, insult, and challenge to death, on the word of
+a Mexican assassin? The idea repelled him. And he was glad of the
+misgiving, unwilling to believe that the quest he had followed with such
+eager determination was leading him to the door of Alexander Bancroft.
+"I ought--I ought to have confirmation, I suppose," he said to himself,
+uncertainly. And so, still undecided, feeling that it was truth and yet
+unwilling to believe, he came to the gate of his own corral. After he
+had unsaddled and stabled Brown Betty, he went through the kitchen for a
+drink of water from the big _olla_, wrapped in a wet coffee sack, that
+stood always in the drying wind and the shade of a tree beside the door.
+
+Mrs. Peters came in from the store-room with a panful of potatoes. "Hank
+had to go to White Rock this morning," she said, "and he brought some
+mail for you. It's on your desk."
+
+Conrad passed through the series of rooms, opening one out of another,
+to the front. On his desk lay some papers and a single letter.
+"Littleton!" he exclaimed as he hastily tore it open. He read:
+
+     "MY DEAR CURT:--I have at last got for you the information we've
+     been searching for so long."
+
+His eyes eagerly rushed over the next few lines.
+
+     "I have satisfied myself that the man we've been trailing all these
+     years is Alexander Bancroft, a banker and prominent man in New
+     Mexico, who lives at Golden,--is that place anywhere near you?--and
+     for a number of years has been considered one of the most solid,
+     upright, and influential citizens of your Territory."
+
+The letter dropped from Curtis's fingers and his heart gave a great
+thump that sent the blood in a crimson wave over his face. "My God,
+then, it's true!" he said aloud, and sat for a moment gazing at the
+letter in the same stupefied way he had looked after Gonzalez's
+retreating figure. A grim smile twisted the corners of his mouth as he
+read on.
+
+     "You may know him. Delafield's history as we've got it now makes
+     his case one of those curious romances of detective work whose
+     equal could hardly be found in fiction. We missed long ago the clew
+     that would have led us to success, in those gaps in his trail we
+     never tried to fill, because we came upon his tracks again so
+     easily a little later. While working on another case recently I had
+     occasion to look through an omnibus bill passed years ago by an
+     Arizona legislature. It contained an astonishing ruck of things,
+     and among them was a section authorizing William J. Brown to change
+     his name to Alexander Bancroft. I knew that William J. Brown was
+     one of the names under which Delafield had once traded in mines
+     down there, and that, when we next found him after he had dropped
+     that name, it was as John Smith, when he went down into old Mexico
+     with John Mason Hardy. This name of Bancroft, sandwiched in there,
+     and with such pains to legalize it, when we had found no track of
+     it elsewhere, made me prick up my ears. I looked deeper into the
+     matter and found that he had used this name of Bancroft only when
+     he went to visit his wife and daughter, who lived most of the time
+     in San Francisco or Denver, and were known by that name. When last
+     we had track of the man, before I ran across Rutherford Jenkins, it
+     was, you will remember, as Henry C. Williams, and then we lost all
+     trace of him. That was because he went then on a visit to his wife
+     and daughter in Denver and stayed there for some months. He had
+     made a good clean-up about that time and increased it by some lucky
+     trading on the Denver stock exchange. Then he went to New Mexico,
+     kept the name of Bancroft, engaged in other business as well as
+     mining, and settled down to be a permanent citizen.
+
+     "I congratulate you upon the successful termination of our long
+     chase. I understand Bancroft is a man of considerable property and
+     I hope you will be able to make him disgorge some of the goods he
+     stole so long ago. I have written this much hurriedly, just to give
+     you an outline of my discoveries at once. But I have all the
+     necessary proofs, and whenever you want to bring the case to trial
+     they are at your service."
+
+Conrad folded the letter carefully, and put it in his pocket. He sat
+quite still, whispering "Aleck! Aleck Bancroft!" Presently his face went
+red again and starting up he hurried into the corral and threw the
+saddle again upon Brown Betty. Outside the gate, scarcely looking which
+way he went, he headed the mare toward Golden and galloped away, across
+the hills, and into the distance. He never knew just where or how far he
+rode that day. Afterward he remembered that sometimes he had galloped
+along a road and sometimes across the trackless plain, that sometimes he
+had found himself urging Betty to her utmost speed and again had
+traversed miles at a walk or had stood for a long time stock-still.
+
+When he left the house the old idea that had enthralled him so long was
+clamoring in his heart. That may have been why, unconsciously, he rode
+at first down the road toward Golden. "It was not enough for him to
+take all my father had, life as well as money, and to make me drudge
+through my youth, but now he must set a hired killer upon me to stick me
+in the back!" So galloped his angry thought as Brown Betty's hoofs sped
+over the ground toward Bancroft's home. "Why didn't he come out in the
+open like a man and tell me who he was, and let us fight it out on the
+square? To send a man to live under my roof, and hire him to rope me, or
+stick me, or shoot me from ambush! And to pretend to be my good friend
+all the time! Coward! Thief! Murderer!"
+
+Then, somehow, through his seething mind, for the first time came the
+remembrance of Lucy, and quickly followed the idea that perhaps Bancroft
+had gone about it in this secret way to save her from all knowledge of
+his disgraceful past. He checked Brown Betty's gallop to a walk. "He
+knew I was after him, hot-foot," now ran Curtis's thought, "and he sure
+had the right to head me off if he could. But he ought to have done it
+on the square!" He remembered the warnings Bancroft had given him about
+Gonzalez and about the danger of pursuing Delafield, and chuckled
+unmirthfully. "I reckon he was squaring himself to his own conscience,"
+he said aloud.
+
+Conrad looked about him and saw that he was on the road to Golden. Then
+came the flashing idea that he was on his way to kill Lucy's father.
+Instantly his feeling revolted. Whirling the mare's head he struck off
+across the plain to the eastward and after some miles struck the road to
+Randall. By that time he was pondering painfully the matter of Lucy and
+Homer. That evening, without doubt, Homer would come home, proud and
+happy, and tell him that he and Lucy were engaged. And this would be his
+wedding present to the girl he loved and the brother he had cared for
+almost since babyhood--the dead body of her father!
+
+Then came pelting back the memory of his own wrongs, and Brown Betty was
+sent scudding down the road as remembrance and habit again lashed his
+heart. He turned about and raced back along the road toward Golden, hot
+with the old memories and sore with the newly discovered duplicity of
+his friend. "Even if I don't kill him," he thought, "I'll tell him what
+he is! I'll throw his villainy and his cowardice in his face! I'll
+tell him he's a sneak and a coward, and to draw if he dares!" His
+imagination rushed on through the scene and showed him, at the end,
+Bancroft's bleeding body at his feet.
+
+With a shudder he wheeled the mare abruptly, turned from the road, and
+went galloping across the plain to the south. He began to understand
+that he could not kill Lucy's father. A sudden bright recollection came
+to him of how she looked that Spring afternoon when she and Bancroft had
+stopped at the ranch; how she turned to him in the wind, holding her
+wide hat down beside her face, and said gayly, "I assure you, Mr.
+Conrad, the most superior quality of father to be found anywhere in the
+United States!" And Bancroft seemed as fond of her as she was of him.
+Yes; there was unusual love and devotion between them. Brown Betty was
+walking more slowly now; and after a while Curtis realized that she was
+standing still in the middle of the plain with the road nowhere in
+sight. And at the same time it was borne in upon him that he did not
+wish to kill Lucy's father, that the idea had become repugnant to him.
+
+He turned to seek the road, saying to himself, "What, then, shall I do?"
+The wish was still strong within him to make Delafield suffer
+punishment for his misdeeds, to make him atone by his own suffering for
+all that Conrad himself had suffered. There was still the law. "Homer
+said he would help me if I wanted to go at it that way," thought Curtis.
+That recollection helped his self-justification for a moment, then his
+thoughts went on: "But of course he wouldn't do anything of the sort
+now; and he wouldn't want me to, either." It occurred to him that such a
+course as that would bring to Lucy as much pain as would her father's
+death. She was so proud of him and believed in him so thoroughly. "It
+would break her heart if she knew all this about his past," he decided.
+Homer, too, how deeply hurt he would be to have Lucy's father disgraced
+and Lucy herself made utterly wretched! "The lad would never forgive
+me," he muttered. Presently he was telling himself that Lucy must never
+be made to suffer the shame and unhappiness of such a disclosure. Nor
+should Homer ever know the truth about Delafield's identity. He must be
+able to love and respect his wife's father.
+
+With a loving smile Conrad recalled some of Lucy's indignant remarks
+about Baxter's dealings with the Mexicans of the Rio Grande valley, and
+saw again her winsome look as she tossed her curly head and her brown
+eyes sparkled. Then quickly came the self-questioning: What would she
+think of him if she knew the purpose that had been animating him all his
+life? Whether it was her father he had tracked or another, how horrified
+she would be if she knew she had made such a man her friend! He blushed
+crimson, and pricked the mare to a faster pace. The old longing for
+revenge, the old belief in the rightfulness of his course, the old sense
+of satisfaction in his purpose--it was all dying hard, but he had come
+to where he could see it as it looked to others. He began to feel
+ashamed.
+
+Still, it was difficult to give up the feeling that Delafield should be
+made to suffer some sort of retaliation for the wrongs he had inflicted
+upon others. Conrad pondered it as he rode aimlessly about, still
+smarting under the thought of Bancroft's deception during the last few
+months. He might go to the banker and have it all out by word of mouth.
+But as he considered that course with cool mind he reached a pretty firm
+conviction that shots from one or the other, or both, would end the
+interview. Bancroft was not likely to submit tamely to insult from him.
+And much shame and sorrow for Lucy and Homer would result. He did not
+want them to suffer. His head lifted and his lips tightened. "I'll give
+up the whole thing before I'll let it cloud their happiness," he said
+aloud. Then he fell to thinking why Bancroft had tried to strike him
+down secretly.
+
+"I reckon he was doing his best to head me off in a way that would save
+him from disclosure and prevent Lucy from knowing anything about it," he
+thought. "Well, I can't blame him for wanting to keep it dark, at this
+stage of the game. But--why didn't he come and tell me, like a man!"
+Suddenly he began to recall the sort of things about Delafield and his
+own expectations that he had been accustomed to say to Bancroft, and
+smiled grimly.
+
+"Lord! I think likely I've given him some pretty bad minutes! And I
+reckon what I said didn't invite his confidence. Good God, what a life
+the man must have lived all these years! It must have been plain hell
+since he's known I was on his track and has had to listen to the things
+I've said!"
+
+Compassion for the man he had hounded and, all unknowingly, had so often
+reviled to his face, began to soften Curtis's heart. He thought of all
+the years of wandering, the frequent change of name, the ups and downs
+of fortune, the devious and sometimes crooked ways through which he had
+traced Delafield, and again he exclaimed aloud: "Good God, what a life!
+He must all the time have been wanting to get back where he could be
+settled and respectable! But he didn't dare try it while he was afraid
+of detection and punishment. And finally he believed he'd got there, I
+reckon, and was preparing to be happy with his daughter--and then I came
+along!" Again he mused, for a long time, while the mare took her own
+pace. At last he lifted his head and said aloud:
+
+"I guess he's had his share of punishment after all; and I've been
+responsible for a lot of it. Sumner L. Delafield, we'll call it quits!"
+
+Brown Betty was standing still in the middle of the road. The sun was
+dropping down the west, toward masses of sparkling, fleecy white clouds
+that piled the horizon high. Ten miles away he could see the green
+groves of Socorro Springs and the white glimmer of the buildings. He
+drew a long breath and looked alertly about. The load he had carried so
+many years had slipped from his back. No longer had he any desire for
+revenge, and in his heart glowed compassion rather than hatred for the
+man he had tracked with such determination. He felt a curious
+exhilaration as he sat there looking about him, while the mare shifted
+her weight from one foot to another.
+
+"Well, Betty B.," he said, patting her neck, "you and I have had a devil
+of a time to-day, haven't we, old girl? But we've come through all
+right, thank God! And nobody is ever going to know a word about it,
+Betty; so don't you give it away. We're going home now, and you shall
+have the best supper we can find."
+
+At the ranch his first inquiry was for Homer. The young man had returned
+an hour before. Surprised that he was not in beaming evidence, Curtis
+went in search of him and found him in his own room, bending over his
+trunk, his belongings scattered about as if a cyclone had been swirling
+within the four walls.
+
+"Why, Homer," exclaimed Curtis, stopping in astonishment at the door,
+"what are you doing?"
+
+Homer lifted a dismal face. "I'm packing up. I'm going away."
+
+"Why, lad, what's the matter? I thought--" Curtis stopped, hesitating
+and embarrassed.
+
+Homer energetically jammed some books into a corner of the trunk, and
+from its depths took up the unfinished sentence. "Yes; so did I. That
+is--I hoped. But it wasn't so. She--she says she's never going to leave
+her father--that he needs her--that she's always going to stay with
+him."
+
+"Yes," said Curtis, lamely; "I know she's very devoted to him." He
+stopped; Homer went on with his packing. "I--I suppose, lad," the elder
+brother stumbled on, in kindly tone, "it hurts now, but--you'll get over
+it after a while." There was silence again while Homer threw a litter of
+neckties, collars, and handkerchiefs into his trunk. "I'd like you to
+stay here all Summer with me," Conrad went on presently, "but if you
+think you'd be more comfortable somewhere else, it's all right. I
+understand."
+
+Homer looked up. "I'm going to Denver. I've got a classmate up there
+whose father I know will give me a job till college opens next Fall."
+
+Curtis walked out into the corral and leaned upon the gate. Would there
+be a chance for him, then? Likely not, for she had surely shown more
+favor to his brother than to him. But he would try. His heart rose at
+the possibility. Yes, he would try. He looked at his brown, sinewy hands
+and thought of Lucy's little white ones lying in them. "Thank God,
+they're free from blood!" he said to himself with solemn gladness. Then
+the crimson dyed his face. Even if Lucy cared for him, which he hardly
+dared to hope, would she marry a man who had so long guided his life by
+such purposes as he had cherished? "But I'll tell her," he thought with
+grim determination, "just how bloody-minded I've been. It will likely
+spoil my chance--if I have any--but she must first know just what I am.
+I'll tell her all about it, without giving a hint of who the man is that
+I've followed. And after that--well, I'll feel that I've been square
+about it, anyway."
+
+The sun was setting, and the whole sky was ablaze with its glory. The
+fleecy white clouds of two hours before, which had mounted higher and
+multiplied themselves many times, had become mountains of glowing color,
+masses of sea-shell tints, wide expanses of pink and pearly gray,
+hearts and beckoning hands of flame. Curtis gazed at the glowing
+kaleidoscope of the heavens, feeling its gorgeous beauty mingle with the
+thankfulness that filled his heart. It was good to be done with all
+those old ideas and feelings and to have come out of it without ruining
+anybody else's life.
+
+Through the crimson and purple lights and shadows that enveloped the
+plain he saw Gonzalez galloping up the road, a fine, graceful,
+centaur-like figure.
+
+"Jose," said Conrad as Gonzalez entered the corral, and his tone struck
+the Mexican as being unusually gentle, "I know that you spoke the truth
+to me this morning. But what you told me shall go no further. Mr.
+Bancroft shall never know that you told me, and neither he nor anybody
+else shall suffer harm because of it. There is no longer any need of a
+feud between you and me, and I wish you would stay and work for me. It
+isn't every day that I can get hold of a cowboy that knows enough to hit
+the ground with his hat in three throws."
+
+Jose smiled, and shook his head. "No, Don Curtis. I like you much, and
+you are a very brave man. You are a braver man than I am. But to-morrow
+I am going back to Santa Fe."
+
+"Well, then, if you won't stay I'll give you your time whenever you want
+it. But, I say, Jose, why don't you give up this rattlesnake business?
+You're on the level every other way; and you're too good a fellow to
+discredit all your race with this sort of work when you could be a
+first-class cowboy if you wanted to."
+
+The Mexican looked at him with a wondering smile, shook his head, and
+went on into the corral. Conrad strolled to the little porch at his
+front door, stood there a moment watching the sunset colors; then, with
+his head in the air, went inside and sat down at his desk. He began a
+letter to Rutherford Jenkins:
+
+     "I have found that you told me the truth in that interview we had
+     in your room in the hotel at Albuquerque some months ago. I do not
+     know by what mysterious dispensation of Providence this strange
+     thing happened, but I acknowledge now that it was the truth. I
+     still maintain, however, that my final remark to you on that
+     occasion was absolutely correct.
+
+     "I suppose you have been using this information about Mr.
+     Bancroft's previous life to blackmail him. I advise you to stop it
+     and to let him alone hereafter. If you don't, I tell you right now
+     that you will surely wish you had. I shall take pains to find out
+     whether or not you heed my warning, and if you don't I promise you
+     that you will soon be able to sympathize with a skunk after a
+     cowboy has thrown at it a can of oil and a blazing stick.
+              "Yours truly,
+                    "CURTIS CONRAD."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+LOVE TO THE RESCUE
+
+
+A clerk brought the morning mail, and as Alexander Bancroft took the
+handful of letters, his eye caught the handwriting of Rutherford
+Jenkins. Apprehension seized him. Had that creature found some new screw
+he could turn? His hand trembled as he tore open the envelope. For a
+moment he felt distinct relief when he found nothing more than a demand
+for additional money. Jenkins reminded him that the first of August was
+approaching, and added that he was obliged to ask for double the amount
+he had previously received on the first of the month. The feeling of
+thankfulness that the letter contained nothing worse passed quickly, as
+he realized that he would be afraid to refuse the demand, that he would
+not dare to refuse anything Jenkins might ask. The full weight of his
+chains was upon him, and he swore between set teeth as he tore the
+letter angrily into bits and dashed them into the waste-basket.
+Impotent rebellion was still smouldering in his eyes when a knock came
+at his door and Dellmey Baxter entered. The Congressman's round, smooth
+face was beaming and his fat hand grasped Bancroft's with hearty
+greeting. But the droop of his left eyelid was marked and his gray eyes
+were cold and hard. They had a prolonged conference about the various
+enterprises in which they were jointly interested, and about the
+progress and prospects of Baxter's campaign in the southern part of the
+Territory, where Bancroft was his chief lieutenant.
+
+"I tell you, Aleck, you're handling it fine," said Baxter finally, with
+friendly enthusiasm. "You're bringing Silverside and the whole south
+right into line in great shape! I'm free to say, Aleck, that you're
+doing better for me than I could do for myself. You have a remarkable
+knack for handling people, and everybody has confidence in you. We've
+got the party in this Territory where we want it now, and if I decide to
+quit Congress after another term or two, as it's likely I shall, I'll
+see to it, Aleck, that you step into my shoes if you want to." He went
+on to ask what certain of his supporters and his opponents were doing,
+and presently inquired:
+
+"And your young friend Conrad--does he still think I have horns and
+hoofs? He came to see me in Santa Fe recently, and apologized for having
+accused me of being at the bottom of that Mexican's attack on him. From
+what he said to me," the Congressman went on, regarding Bancroft
+attentively, "I think it's likely the greaser will get the worst of it
+if he keeps up that racket."
+
+The banker moved uneasily, then took cigars from the box on top of his
+desk. "By the way, Aleck," said Baxter carelessly between whiffs of
+smoke, "you've been around this Territory considerably and mixed with
+mining men a good deal." His cold eyes were watching his companion from
+under their shaggy brows. "Do you remember ever running across a chap
+named Delafield?"
+
+The time had been when Bancroft could hear that name without the quiver
+of a lash or the tremble of a nerve. But those days of cool self-control
+and impassive seeming had gone by. For many weeks he had been on the
+rack of constant apprehension, the nervous strain of conflicting
+emotions concerning Conrad had been great, and recently the fear of
+sudden exposure had grown into a secret, abiding terror. He started,
+dropped his cigar, and his face paled.
+
+"Delafield?" he repeated in a low voice. "I do not remember the
+name--and I have a pretty good memory for names, too." The desire seized
+him to know whether Baxter was speaking out of knowledge or ignorance.
+"What about him?" he went on. "Is he supposed to be living here?"
+
+"I don't know much about it," Baxter rejoined, "but I believe the people
+who are trying to locate him make the guess that he is. A party asked me
+about him not long ago, but I wasn't able to place the name, although it
+has a familiar sound. I told him it wasn't any use looking for his man
+under that name--it's too easy to pick up a new one out here for anybody
+to keep an old one that's got dirty."
+
+When the door closed upon the portly figure and cherubic smile of the
+Congressman, Bancroft sat still and stared dully at the wall. "Dell
+knows," was the conviction that had gone straight to his wretched heart.
+"Dell knows. He knows the whole story. And now I've got to do whatever
+he says." Apprehension leaped quickly forward. If Baxter knew, was the
+story out? Was it already going from mouth to mouth? Second thought
+brought reassurance. No; for in that case Baxter would not have so
+discreetly veiled his hint. But how had he found out? Could Jenkins--no,
+not likely, for Jenkins was making too good a thing out of it as a
+secret. Baxter said Conrad had been to see him--then did Curtis know by
+this time? His heart took quick alarm, and he had a moment of
+desperation. Then he recalled the young man's repeated declaration that
+he meant to lose no time in facing Delafield after learning the man's
+identity. He soon decided that a little time was still left to him
+before that encounter could take place and--Gonzalez was yet at the
+ranch. Doubtless Conrad had talked with Baxter about the case, perhaps
+told him of his own search and asked for information about the men he
+suspected. Finally, knowing well the Congressman's mental habits, he
+came to the conclusion that Baxter had put things together and made a
+shrewd guess.
+
+"But he knows, all right," Bancroft owned to himself in impotent anger,
+"and that means another chain on me." Another obstacle had risen in his
+path that would have to be overcome, one way or another, before he could
+reach that longed-for security. A little before, safety had seemed so
+near, and now it was further away than ever! He should have to fight for
+it, that was plain--and fight he would, to the last inch, Conrad and
+Jenkins and Baxter. They had pushed him to the wall, but that should not
+be the end. He would not let them wreck everything if--no matter now
+what he might have to do to protect himself.
+
+He spent an anxious forenoon, unable to keep his mind off his own
+troubles and impending dangers, thinking and scheming, trying to work
+out effective means of defence and counter-attack. When he left the bank
+for luncheon at home, it was with a lively sense of how restful and
+pleasing he should find its atmosphere of love, respect, and confidence.
+He bought a box of candy for Lucy and a magazine for Louise, and
+hastened up the hill.
+
+Never before had home seemed to him so delightful. Lucy was gay of
+spirit, piquant, rosy of cheek and bright of eye, lovingly solicitous
+for his comfort. Louise was paler than usual, with a touch of
+wistfulness in her manner. Lucy explained that she had a bad headache,
+and they agreed that it was probably due to the day's peculiar
+atmospheric conditions. It was hot and still; a thin, gray, luminous
+haze veiled the sky and made the sunshine, usually clear and white, look
+palely yellow; the air was charged with electricity, whose jangling
+effect upon the nerves only the soundest could withstand. Louise said
+she felt it acutely. As always, she was gentle and sympathetic, and
+Bancroft felt her influence at once. Her presence never failed to
+soothe, tranquillize, and encourage him.
+
+She saw the anxiety in his eyes, and at once divined a new cause for
+trouble. With renewed alarm and indignation in her heart her thoughts
+turned to Conrad. Had there been some new development? The fires of love
+and solicitude for her friend and of hatred for his enemy were burning
+brightly in her secret thoughts and shone now and then in her eyes.
+Bancroft caught their glow, and his heart rose to be warmed in it. What
+a sweet woman she was, how adorable! His arms ached with the longing to
+enfold her and press her dearness to his breast. But no!--with such
+dangers thickening about him, he must not think of it. It angered him
+the more that he must thus repress the feeling which was struggling to
+make itself understood, which he felt certain she would welcome. For
+half an hour after luncheon they lingered on the veranda. As if drawn
+irresistibly by secret cords of feeling, Bancroft and Miss Dent kept
+constantly near each other; once, when she accidentally touched his
+hand, his fingers closed quickly upon hers in a moment's warm grasp.
+
+After he had gone, Louise walked restlessly up and down, her nerves
+strung to the highest tension by her love and anxiety for Bancroft and
+her hatred of Conrad. Her headache grew rapidly worse, and her heart was
+beating like a trip-hammer. She and Lucy agreed that the electrical
+condition of the atmosphere had become more trying. The sunshine, too,
+was more dingily yellowish. They noticed that heavy, dark clouds, like
+huge, sleeping beasts, were lying behind the summits of the Mogollon
+Mountains.
+
+"My head is throbbing so I can hardly see," said Louise finally, "and I
+think I'll go to my room, pull down the shades, and lie down for a
+while. No; thank you, dear, you can't do anything. Just leave me alone
+for an hour or two in the quiet and the dark."
+
+Lucy sat on the veranda with the magazine and the box of candy her
+father had brought; but one lay unopened in her lap and the other
+untouched on the table beside her, while her eyes wandered across the
+tree-embowered streets of the town and far over the plain, where, beyond
+the horizon, were the green groves of the Socorro Springs ranch.
+
+"I've got to do it," she whispered to herself, decision in her wrinkling
+brow. "There's no other way, and I must. Daddy is looking wretched--I've
+never seen him look so anxious and disturbed as he does to-day. I've got
+to do it, right away."
+
+She had not seen Curtis Conrad since the barbecue. Daily had she watched
+for him, hoping always to see him climbing the hill, longing greatly to
+look upon his face, and feeling that she must reveal her secret and so
+put an end, as she firmly believed she could, to her father's trouble.
+But he came not; instead, Homer's visits increased in length and
+frequency, and she, still hurt and angered by the memory of Curtis's
+attentions to Mrs. Ned Castleton at the barbecue, recklessly continued
+her flirtation with Homer, plunging him more and more deeply in love.
+She did all this without thought of what was going on in Homer's breast,
+wishing only to dull the pain in her own aching heart. Finally, when she
+realized what was happening, she changed her demeanor in sudden
+girl-panic, only to precipitate the young man's proposal, by which she
+had been both surprised and vexed.
+
+She was quite sure, by this time, that Curtis Conrad did not care for
+her at all, and she had ceased expecting him to come to their house. Yet
+she never went out upon the veranda without letting her eyes wander
+wishfully down the street. They were there now, scanning the long, steep
+hill. But they saw only a little, bare-legged Mexican boy toiling slowly
+up the grade. No, she decided, only one thing was left for her to do:
+she would have to write and ask him to come and see her. Her heart
+rebelled at first, and she unconsciously tossed her head and her eyes
+flashed. "But it's for daddy," she presently told herself, "and there's
+no other way. I've got to do it." Of course, it would be a humiliation;
+but so was the whole hateful business, and what was one little thing
+more or less?
+
+Looking toward the street again she saw that the little Mexican lad was
+coming to her gate. His baggy, ragged overalls were held by a single
+strap over his shoulder, and his small, brown face, under his miniature,
+torn sombrero, was hot and dirty. He peered at her through the palings,
+and she exclaimed, "Why, it's little Pablo Melgares!" She went down to
+the gate, saying in Spanish, "Do you want anything, Pablo?"
+
+Gravely and silently he gave her a letter he had been carrying in his
+hat. Although she had seen the handwriting but once before, her heart
+leaped and a delicious thrill ran through her veins as she read the
+address.
+
+"Is there an answer?" she asked, tremulously.
+
+"_Si, senorita_," said the boy.
+
+"Then you sit down here on the steps and eat candy until I come back,"
+she said as she poured the contents of her box into the child's
+sombrero.
+
+She ran lightly up the stairs to her room and closed the door before
+opening the note. It said only:
+
+     "Will you go to ride with me this afternoon up the canyon? I have
+     something particular I want to say. Please send me word by the boy
+     if I may come up at once."
+
+She devoured it with shining eyes, and pressed it to her face, her lips,
+her heart. Her woman's instinct divined what the "something particular"
+must be, and she laughed softly and joyously, while the color mounted to
+her brow. But presently, as she donned her riding habit, her look grew
+serious and grave. For a few minutes she had forgotten what it was she
+had to do.
+
+"I must tell him," she thought, "and then that will be the end of
+everything." The brown eyes filled with tears, and she choked back a
+little sob. "But I've got to do it," she repeated with determination.
+"He won't love me then, but poor daddy will be safe. And I wouldn't
+marry him anyway, because I'm not going to marry anybody. I won't let
+him say anything to me about--about anything; I'll tell him about daddy
+before he has a chance. But I won't have to tell him right away--when we
+are coming back, maybe." Her fingers were busy with her collar in front
+of the mirror. "Dear me, I'm dreadfully tanned! But he told me once he
+liked the healthy brown skins the girls all get down here. No; I shall
+not let him have the least idea that I care anything about him; but--"
+and the smiles and dimples were chasing each other across her face as
+she started down the stairs. On her way she slipped softly into Miss
+Dent's darkened room. Louise was awake, and Lucy stood beside her bed,
+stroking her forehead with affectionate fingers.
+
+"Poor Dearie! Can't I do something for you before I go out? Do you think
+you can sleep? Then you won't mind my going, will you? Mr. Conrad has
+come to take me to ride. We are going up the canyon. Wasn't it jolly of
+him to think of it this stupid, yellow afternoon?"
+
+"Yes; certainly, dear, I'm glad you're going, and I hope you'll have a
+delightful ride. Don Homer is always so thoughtful."
+
+Lucy was settling her hat in front of the mirror. "Oh, it isn't Don
+Homer! It's his brother."
+
+Miss Dent started up. "Curtis Conrad! You're not going with him!"
+
+Lucy looked at her with surprise. "Why, yes, Dearie. Why not?"
+
+"Lucy, darling! You must not go!"
+
+Louise was sitting up now, her hands at her temples. Lucy bent over her
+with an arm about her neck. "You surprise me very much, Dearie. I
+thought you liked him."
+
+"Yes; of course. But you must not go with him this afternoon. It will
+not do."
+
+The girl sat down on the bed beside her. "But I've said I would, Dearie,
+and he's already here, waiting for me with the horses. And I must go,
+Dearie. It would be awfully rude and horrid to try to get out of it
+now."
+
+Sudden apprehension filled Miss Dent's mind. It was not like Lucy to
+hold so persistently to anything that was against her wish. Her intense
+feeling against Curtis Conrad swept over her excited, tingling nerves
+and filled her mind with the conviction that she must keep Lucy away
+from him. Things jigged and swam before her eyes, as her thoughts
+whirled dizzily through her brain. "Lucy, dear child!" she exclaimed, "I
+wish you would not go. Indeed, you must not go!"
+
+Lucy arose, clad in a new womanly dignity that sent a half-realized
+dismay through the turmoil of Miss Dent's mind. Vaguely, with an aching
+sense of loss, she felt that Lucy had become a woman who would
+henceforth direct her life for herself. With her hands holding her
+throbbing head, through which excruciating pains were darting, Louise
+strove to steady her thoughts.
+
+"I don't understand," said Lucy, gently, "why you speak in this way, or
+why you wish me to be rude to Mr. Conrad. If there is any good reason
+why I should not go to ride with him this afternoon, and you will tell
+me what it is, so that I can judge for myself, I can beg him to excuse
+me, because you are not well--and--ask him to stay to dinner instead."
+
+New alarm seized Miss Dent. In her excitement she tried to rise, only to
+drop back trembling upon the bed. For the moment her one thought was
+that this man must be kept out of the house. "Lucy," she pleaded,
+despair in her voice, "you do not understand. He is not our friend now.
+He is your father's enemy--and is trying to kill him."
+
+She stopped in sudden panic at having said so much, and Lucy started
+back amazed.
+
+"Oh, Dearie--you don't know, do you--and daddy--you don't know about
+daddy?"
+
+Louise looked up, her face white and drawn, astonishment veiling the
+pain in her eyes.
+
+"Lucy, Lucy! Do you know--about your father--and this man--and yet you
+will go with him?"
+
+Lucy's curly head was high as she answered deliberately: "Yes, Dearie! I
+am going so that I can save daddy from any further trouble. I shall tell
+Mr. Conrad who daddy is."
+
+Miss Dent gasped and her mouth worked for a moment before she could
+speak. "Oh, child, you don't know what you are doing! I beg of you,
+Lucy, don't go--don't do it! If you love me, if you love your father,
+don't tell him! He will kill--"
+
+The girl drew herself up proudly. "Indeed, Dearie, you don't know Curtis
+Conrad as well as I do, if you think he will do the least thing to hurt
+daddy, after he knows. That's why I'm going to tell him--to save daddy.
+I love him, Dearie, but I shall not let him know that I do. And I want
+to hear him say, just once, that he loves me--and then I shall tell
+him--who I am and who daddy is." She turned half away, then rushed back
+to throw her arms around her friend's neck. "Darling Dearie, I know I am
+hurting you! But won't you trust me about this, and love me just the
+same? I know I am doing the best thing for daddy--and--after to-day,
+I'm never going to see Curtis Conrad again!"
+
+Louise fell back, exhausted, as Lucy kissed her forehead and ran from
+the room.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+THE HEAVENS OPEN
+
+
+Conrad and Lucy rode along a street skirting the brow of the _mesa_
+until the houses of the town in the valley below became few and
+straggling. Down the last roadway cut across the sides of the canyon
+they descended to the bottom of the ravine. Thence upward it was so
+narrow that the bed of the creek and the road left only scant margins of
+rocky soil. In these grew cottonwoods, willows, and a few other trees,
+whose overarching branches made a green and pleasant vista. The creek
+wound crookedly down the valley, frequently crossing the road, while
+here and there the walls of the gulch drew so close together that the
+track was forced into the bed of the stream. Notwithstanding the recent
+rains, the water was too shallow to reach above their horses' knees.
+
+The way was quite deserted, and after leaving the town they saw no other
+travellers. A cool, damp wind came down the ravine and Lucy took off
+her hat and let it toss back her brown curls. They had grown longer
+since the early Spring, and now clustered in soft rings around her ears
+and neck. A touch of sadness lingered upon her spirits, because of the
+distressing scene with Miss Dent. It was the first difference that had
+ever arisen between them. A poignant longing filled her heart, also,
+because this was to be her final interview with the man she loved. The
+painful duty she had set herself filled the background of her
+consciousness and laid upon her manner an unusual reserve.
+
+But these more sombre emotions mingled with the gladness of the
+knowledge that she was beloved, and all combined to invest her with a
+new maturity of womanliness, a sweet dignity that sent filtering through
+Conrad's eager love a sensation of wonder and reverence. It could not be
+possible that this lovely, this adorable being would receive his homage,
+would consent to love him! But he would try. She was willing to ride
+with him, and there was hope in that. And, yes, he would not forget that
+he must tell her about his unworthy life--he must tell her even before
+he asked her to marry him. But oh, how beautiful she was, how sweet!
+Every movement of her head, her arm, her body, every twinkling smile,
+every fleeting dimple, poured fresh wine into his blood. A torrent of
+love and admiration was sweeping through him, and from it were
+constantly breaking off and flowing over their friendly talk little
+cascades of compliment, of admiring speech, of sentences glowing with
+hints of his feeling.
+
+But Lucy quickly caught the trend of every one and turned it back with
+laughing retort and merry speech. He could not get within her guard, and
+every deft turn of her jesting, foiling replies made him only the more
+eager. He forgot that he was going to make confession, forgot to watch
+the dark clouds that were rising above the mountain tops, forgot
+everything but this alluring creature, who grew more alluring every
+moment, and yet would not let him loose the torrents of loving speech.
+And Lucy, in the sweet excitement of letting him say a little, and again
+a little, and then a little more, yet keeping up her guard and never
+letting him reach the danger point, Lucy also forgot what she had meant
+to keep constantly in mind. Now and then duty put out a warning hand.
+But--the exhilaration of the present moment, the precious consciousness
+of his love, the thrilling pleasure of this Cupid's dance--she could not
+give it up so quickly. Presently she would tell him.
+
+Thus has it been Love's habit, ever since Love came to live in this
+world, to dance with happy and forgetful foot over volcanoes ready to
+engulf him in their fires, beneath clouds ready to drown him with their
+pouring sorrows. No matter what the dangers, when the maid lures and the
+man pursues, Love knows only his own delight. So went Lucy and Curtis up
+the beautiful canyon road, thrilling with the happiness that can be but
+once,--before the first kiss has brushed away the exquisite bloom of
+love,--forgetting alike the bonds they had put upon themselves and the
+dangers that lurked in the threatening storm.
+
+At last the darkening atmosphere caused Conrad to notice how high the
+clouds had risen. "I'm afraid there's going to be a bad storm, Miss
+Bancroft," he said, "and perhaps we'd better turn back. When we started
+I didn't think it would rain before night, but those clouds are piling
+up fast and they look as if they meant business. I'm sorry, for a little
+ways above here there's a beautiful place, where the walls of the canyon
+spread out and you get a splendid view. I wanted to take you there, and
+tell you--" It was not so easy after all, to loose the torrents of
+speech, and for a bare instant he hesitated. It was enough to give Lucy
+her chance.
+
+She shot at him a single sparkling glance, and broke in with, "Oh, I'll
+race you there!" As she spoke she touched her horse and darted ahead,
+leaving him alone in the middle of the road at the very beginning of his
+declaration. The wind blew her curls into a tangled frame for her
+laughing face as she looked back over her shoulder. He quickly spurred
+Brown Betty forward, but she had got so much the start that it was some
+moments before he was again at her side.
+
+"You took me by surprise," he said as they slowed their horses at the
+foot of a steeper incline, "and handicapped me, or you wouldn't have got
+so far away. When we go back I'll race you all the way down the canyon,
+if you like."
+
+"Agreed!" she laughed. "Wouldn't it be jolly to go at a gallop all the
+way down the canyon, from the mountains to Golden? But the poor horses!"
+
+"I think we'd better turn back, Miss Bancroft. I don't like the look of
+those clouds. It's going to be a regular deluge, I'm afraid. But first,
+I want to tell you--"
+
+"Oh, my hat! I've dropped it!" she exclaimed. Curtis leaned over easily,
+picked it up, and hung it on his own pommel. Her eyes were twinkling and
+the dimples were playing hide-and-seek with a wilful little smile that
+hovered around her mouth. "So awkward of me," she said apologetically,
+"and how readily you picked it up! I wish I could do that! Do you know,
+Mr. Conrad, you've never given me those lessons in the cowboy's art,
+roping and riding and all that, you promised ever so long ago."
+
+"We'll begin them whenever you say the word. After I tell you--"
+
+"About that beautiful place? Oh, yes! Can't we go that far? I'd love to
+see it!" She was bounding ahead again, but he was quickly beside her. A
+quizzical look was on his face and a touch of mastery in his manner as
+he leaned toward her and rested his hand upon her horse's neck.
+
+"Now, if you try to run away again," he said banteringly, "it's you who
+will have the handicap!" She gathered up her bridle and with a touch of
+her quirt wheeled her horse half way around and away from his detaining
+hand. The whim had seized her to start flying back down the road, "just
+a little way," she thought, "just to tease him." But as she turned she
+met a glowing look that checked her impulse.
+
+"Lucy!" he was saying, and his voice lingered over her name like a soft
+and warm caress, "Lucy! I love you. Will you be my wife?"
+
+It had come, the question she had meant not to let him ask, and at once
+it sobered her spirits and brought back the remembrance of what she must
+tell him. Her head drooped until her brown curls half hid her crimsoning
+face, and her voice was low and troubled. "Indeed, Mr. Conrad, I can
+never be any man's wife. My father needs me. I shall never marry, and I
+shall stay with him as long as he lives."
+
+"I know how devoted you are to your father, Lucy--" he stopped, and
+repeated her name as if he loved the sound of it it--"Lucy, and it is so
+sweet and beautiful that it makes me love you even more. Tell me, Lucy,
+do you love me?"
+
+The question took her unawares, and he saw her hand tremble. She
+hesitated for a moment before replying, with dignity: "I have told you
+I could not marry you. Isn't that enough?" Unconsciously they had again
+headed their horses toward the mountains and were walking slowly up the
+canyon.
+
+"No, Lucy; it isn't enough!" he exclaimed eagerly. "Something tells me
+that perhaps you do care a little for me, and if you do I want to know
+it--I must know it!"
+
+"I shall never see you again after to-day. You must be satisfied with
+that," she replied, tossing her head and turning her face away from his
+shining and pleading eyes.
+
+"How can I be satisfied--" he began, and the wind blew her hair as she
+turned her head away and showed one little pink-tinted ear nestling
+among the curls. His gaze devoured it. "How can I," he went on, "when
+you--when you have such a beautiful ear!"
+
+"What difference does it make when we can never see each other again?"
+Her manner was evasive and her speech hesitating, for she was trying
+hard to bring herself to the point of telling him the fateful secret.
+
+"All the difference in the world! Lucy, sweetheart! Tell me if you
+care!" He leaned toward her and took her wrist in his hand.
+
+[Illustration: "IT HAD COME, THIS QUESTION SHE HAD NOT MEANT TO LET HIM
+ASK"]
+
+"You've no right to ask that question again! I shall say no more than
+I have said already." She made an effort to release her arm, but he
+would not relax his firm, though gentle and caressing, grasp.
+
+"Lucy, I would never beg for a woman's love, nor ask her to try to care
+for me, if she didn't love me, of herself. But when the woman I love
+with all my heart won't deny that she loves me, then I must hear her say
+in her own sweet voice that she does. Lucy, darling, tell me that you
+love me!"
+
+She was trembling from head to foot, but she drew herself together with
+fresh determination and held her head up proudly as she answered,
+looking straight ahead: "I have told you that I shall never marry, and
+that after to-day I shall never see you again. That must be enough, for
+I shall say no more."
+
+He let go her wrist, and she tapped her horse to a faster pace. She was
+thinking intently, trying to frame in her mind the best words in which
+to make her confession. Suddenly, over the top of a steep incline, they
+came upon a wide and splendid view. The sides of the canyon seemed to
+melt and flow back, giving far-ranging sight of the sombre purple
+mountains towering toward heaven and of the hills dwindling down into
+the plain.
+
+"Lucy," he exclaimed, "here is the beautiful place of which I told you.
+I wanted to bring you here to tell you of my love, because this is the
+most beautiful spot I know. Lucy, darling, I love you with all my heart,
+and if you cannot deny that you love me, then it is my right, the right
+of my love, to hear you say that you do. Never mind about not leaving
+your father and meaning never to marry. We'll talk about that
+afterward. Won't you tell me now that you do love me?"
+
+Her eyes dropped from the high and wide horizon to her horse's mane. She
+tried to say, "I do not love you," but her heart rose in rebellion and
+forbade the untruth. She opened her lips, but no sound came from them.
+Curtis bent toward her, trying to take her hand, but she drew it away.
+With all her strength she was contending for her determination against
+both him and the traitor within her own heart. He leaned nearer,
+pleading in tones that were half loving command and half loving
+entreaty, "Lucy! Lucy, love! Look up! Let me see your eyes, your dear,
+beautiful eyes!"
+
+Lucy clasped her hands together hard and bowed her head. He was bending
+over her, his shoulder touching hers. She heard his voice, soft and
+rich with love, whispering, "Lucy, darling!" And suddenly, scarcely
+knowing what she did, she lifted her head and looked into his eyes.
+Instantly his arms were about her, and he heard her murmuring, "I do
+love you! Oh, I do love you!" He bent his ardent face to hers, but
+before their lips met she started away, freeing herself from his
+encircling arms.
+
+"Stop!" she cried, putting out a forbidding hand, as she moved her horse
+away. "You have made me tell you, against my will, that I love you. Now
+you must listen while I tell you who I am." There was a suggestion of
+defiance in the poise of her head and in the flashing of her eyes as
+they looked squarely into his.
+
+"And you must understand," she went on, "that after I tell you this I
+want you to forget everything that has passed between us this afternoon,
+just as I shall do. For I am the daughter of Sumner L. Delafield!"
+
+In an instant his arms were about her again. "Lucy, dearest, you've told
+me no news! I've known it since yesterday."
+
+She struggled to free herself. "But my father--you hate him--you--you
+wish to kill him--I heard what you said to him that day at your ranch,
+last Spring--and afterward I happened to find out who he is."
+
+A wave of crimson deepened the color of his sunbrowned face. "All that
+is dead and buried," he said, "and I am ashamed of it, now. I want you
+to help me forget that I allowed such base thoughts to master me so
+long. I'm going to your father this afternoon to tell him that I have
+forgiven the old debt, and everything else, and to ask him to forgive
+me. My poor little girl! I never dreamed your dear heart was being
+worried by that affair!"
+
+She let him fold her in his caress, whispering happily, "I knew all the
+time you wouldn't do it--I knew you wouldn't hurt daddy, or anybody."
+
+A loud clap of thunder rolled and echoed over the mountains, and a
+splash of raindrops fell on their faces. Conrad looked at the dense
+black clouds and at the gray veil dropping athwart the mountains, and
+turned to Lucy with alarm in his face. "We must start back at once and
+ride down that canyon for all we're worth! This storm is going to be a
+corker, but maybe we can beat the worst of it. I've done wrong to bring
+you so far--but I can't regret it now, sweetheart!"
+
+They started at a gallop down the long canyon road. The patter of big
+drops that had given them warning quickly increased to a steady, beating
+downpour that drenched them to the skin. An almost tangible darkness was
+sifting through the atmosphere. It filled the sky overhead, drifted down
+the ravine, and seemed to settle, making a thick twilight under the
+arching trees. Blinding zigzags of lightning slashed the clouds and
+played through the middle air, and a terrific roar and boom and rattle
+of thunder kept up in the mountains behind them and echoed back and
+forth between the walls of the gulch.
+
+The creek was already rising, and each time they had to cross it they
+found its muddy torrent swifter and higher. The road was rocky, and in
+many places had been made slippery by the rain, and there were frequent
+steep inclines down which they dared not go at a rapid gait. They had
+put behind them hardly more than a third of the distance when Conrad,
+looking backward, saw a cloud of inky blackness settle and drop upon the
+earth. A deep, booming sound mingled with a deafening clap of thunder.
+The ground trembled. The horses quivered with fright and darted forward
+at a faster pace. Lucy saw Curtis's face blench in the half darkness.
+
+"What is it?" she asked, glancing backward anxiously.
+
+"That was a cloudburst," he answered in a tone that thrilled with
+comprehension. "It struck back there, just this side of our beautiful
+spot, and a mountain of water will soon come tearing down behind us.
+We've got to ride like the wind! Perhaps we can make the first road that
+crosses the ravine, and you can go up there while I ride on and warn the
+town."
+
+"No! I'll ride on with you."
+
+"I can't let you do that," was his swift reply. "Are you frightened,
+dearest?"
+
+"No," she answered in a steady tone; "I'm not frightened at all. And I'm
+going to ride on with you. It would be easy to die with you, if we
+must--but I couldn't live without you, now."
+
+He bent toward her and touched her arm with loving reverence as they
+galloped on at the swiftest speed possible. The horses needed neither
+whip nor spur, but with ears laid back and necks outstretched were
+fleeing down the dim canyon for their lives. As they bounded up a low
+bank, where the road crossed the creek bed again, Lucy's horse
+stumbled, slipped, and fell with his forelegs doubled under him. He gave
+a scream of pain and terror. Lucy, freeing her foot from the stirrup as
+he fell, jumped to one side. Curtis checked Brown Betty, leaned over,
+and grasped the girl around the waist. She helped him with an upward
+spring, and as he lifted her to the saddle he shifted his own seat to
+the back, and they galloped on, leaving the crippled horse to his
+certain fate.
+
+Behind them they could hear the booming, rattling roar of the avalanche
+of water that was sweeping down between the canyon walls. And presently,
+piercing through even its rumbling tumult and the crashing thunder, they
+heard the death cry of the horse they had left behind, and knew that he
+had been engulfed in the mountainous wave that was rushing toward them
+at a speed they could not hope to equal. Lucy trembled at the sound and
+nestled her head against Conrad's shoulder.
+
+As they neared the first road cutting across the gulch Curtis lowered
+his head to Lucy's ear: "Sweetheart, we are almost at the first road
+out. I can put you off and you can run up there and be safe."
+
+"No," she whispered back; "don't stop for an instant. Every second will
+mean many lives. I'm going with you to whatever end there is, and I'm
+not afraid."
+
+Brown Betty's flanks were steaming. The froth from her mouth flecked her
+neck and legs and body, to be quickly washed off by the drenching rain.
+Behind them they could hear, coming nearer and nearer, the fateful roar
+of the rushing waters. The canyon walls opened out, and, looming vaguely
+in the dim light, they could see the first houses of the town. With full
+lungs Conrad shouted at the top of his voice:
+
+"Run! A cloudburst! A cloudburst is coming! Run for your lives!"
+
+They dashed on, and the houses became more frequent. There were lights
+in the windows, though it was little past mid-afternoon. Curtis,
+shouting his warning over and over, put the bridle in Lucy's hands and
+drew his revolver. They were rushing down the main street, through the
+most thickly built portion of the town. Pointing upward, he added the
+noise of pistol shots to his clamor. Men and women came to their doors,
+caught the meaning of his cries, heard the roar of the coming flood, and
+rushed out and up the side streets, shouting warnings as they ran.
+
+"My father--the bank--can we go so far?" asked Lucy breathlessly.
+
+"Yes--we'll call him," Conrad assured her, glancing back over his
+shoulder. Behind them rose a din of shouts and yells and screams of
+terror, mingling with the peals of thunder and the roar of the waters.
+The street was full of people running this way and that. And a little
+farther back, through the dusky light, he saw a brown, foaming wall of
+water, its crest topping the roofs of the houses, its front a mass of
+half-engulfed trees and houses and pieces of lumber and arms and legs
+and bodies of men and animals that boiled up from its foot, tossed and
+whirled a moment on its breast, and sank into the flood.
+
+Curtis ground his teeth together. They were still three blocks from the
+bank. "We'll never make it," he thought; "but we'll try!" His arm
+gathered Lucy closer to his breast, his spur touched Brown Betty's
+heaving flank, and with another loud shout of warning and an encouraging
+cry to the mare they darted on with a fresh burst of speed.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+FULFILMENT OF THE LAW
+
+
+Louise Dent sank back upon her pillows as Lucy hurried from the room,
+too amazed and horrified for speech by the girl's declaration of her
+love for Curtis Conrad and her determination to reveal to him her
+father's identity. Ill in body, distracted in mind almost to the point
+of irresponsibility, her thoughts tossed about and took wild shapes in
+her fevered brain. The one idea looming constantly before her was that
+Bancroft was in deadly, imminent peril. Her bitter resentment against
+Conrad and the hate and anger she had nursed so long in secret distorted
+all her conception of his character. Now, as her thoughts pounded back
+and forth through her dizzy, aching head, he seemed to her to be capable
+of any monstrous deed. He would learn from Lucy the secret of her
+father's identity, and then nothing would prevent him from rushing
+forthwith to get his fill of bloody vengeance.
+
+She rose and staggered to the window. Dark clouds were overspreading the
+sky. It would rain soon, they would turn back from their ride, and he
+would bring her home. Then he would hasten to the bank, and into Aleck's
+room--and she covered her eyes as if to conceal what her mental vision
+insisted on seeing. If Aleck only knew that Curtis had learned the
+truth, if he could be warned in time, he might conceal himself until it
+would be possible for him to go away. Leave the town he must, and go
+far, far away, where there would be no fear of discovery.
+
+She alone knew his danger. But could she tell him that she was aware of
+his secret? She shrank from making him suffer that humiliation.
+Furthermore, could she do it without betraying her own secret, without
+laying bare the love that burned in her heart? Yet--what mattered the
+rest if she could save his life and, perhaps, his future? She followed
+with her eye the line of the canyon. Where were they now? The clouds
+were black and lowering and a gray veil of rain hid the purple of the
+distant mountains and spread an advancing blur over their slopes. If she
+was to save Aleck she must go--at once.
+
+Her loud and hurried knocking at the door of Bancroft's private office
+sent to his heart the quick apprehension to which he had become an easy
+prey. He sprang to his feet with his hand upon the revolver that of late
+lay always ready upon his desk. Not only was it a relief to find that it
+was nobody but Louise, but the very sight of her was so welcome and so
+easeful to his overwrought and desperate mind that unconsciously he
+addressed her by her Christian name. Her wild eyes and distraught face
+alarmed him.
+
+"Louise! What is the matter? You have come in all this rain? How wet you
+are! Has anything happened?"
+
+"No; not now; not yet! Wait, let me get my breath--I will tell you.
+Aleck, how pale you are! Has anything happened to you?" In their
+excitement neither of them noticed that she also used his Christian
+name.
+
+"No; nothing has happened to me--no more than usual. I am in deep
+trouble, Louise."
+
+"I know, I know," she cried, coming close to him. "I know what it is--I
+have come to warn you. Curtis Conrad--"
+
+"What about him?" Bancroft exclaimed, starting back. "What do you know
+about him?"
+
+"What you know, Aleck--that he means to kill you. He is coming here this
+very afternoon--he will be here soon--he will kill you. You must hide
+from him!"
+
+He drew back as she spoke, and then turned sharply upon her. "Do you
+know why? Are you another who knows?"
+
+She moved a step aside and dropped her gaze, but her voice was tender
+and compassionate as she replied, "Yes, Aleck; I know."
+
+He looked at her with astonished eyes. "How did you find it out? How
+long have you known?"
+
+"For years," she said softly, stretching her hand impulsively toward
+him. "Josephine told me when she died, so I could guard Lucy against all
+knowledge of it. I have kept it as secret as the grave. Nobody has ever
+had from me any suspicion of the truth. It has made no difference to me,
+Aleck! I have only respected you the more, because you could begin over
+again and build up a new name and a new life."
+
+He took her hand. It was wet and cold, and he folded it in his, and as
+she went on drew her closer to his side. He felt the soothing comfort
+of her words and manner, but his eyes were on the floor as he muttered,
+"I thought nobody knew; I thought it was hidden so well!"
+
+The room had grown dark and darker. Outside, the rain was coming down in
+gray sheets, and dazzling flashes of lightning flooded the heavens. Peal
+upon peal of thunder smote their ears. She thought, "They are at home by
+this time; he will be here soon." Laying her other hand upon Bancroft's
+arm she hurried on, in broken, pleading speech: "Aleck, you must not
+stay here! You must hide somewhere, where he cannot find you! Conrad--I
+came to warn you--he knows, by this time--who you are. He will be here
+soon."
+
+"Conrad! Does he know? Are you sure?"
+
+"Yes. They went to ride up the canyon, he and Lucy. She said she was
+going to tell him. Aleck, you must not stay here! He may come any
+minute!"
+
+He dropped her hand and started back. "Lucy!" he cried, and again,
+"Lucy! Does she know, too?" He sank into his chair and buried his face
+in his arms. Louise stood beside him, her hand upon his shoulder, her
+voice soft with loving compassion.
+
+"I don't know how she knew, nor how long she has known. Until this
+afternoon I had no idea that she, or any one, knew anything about it.
+But she came to my room and told me that she was going to ride with him,
+that she loved him, and that she was going to tell him who you are."
+
+He made no answer; but she guessed by his troubled breathing with what
+shame and despair he was struggling. She bent over him, her arm across
+his shoulder, her cheek upon his hair. Above the pealing, echoing
+thunder and the rattling boom of some sound which in their absorption
+they had scarcely noted, there came into the room the sudden din of
+cries and shouts and pistol shots.
+
+"It's Conrad! He's coming!" cried Louise, running to the window, her
+excited mind still dominated by the single idea. Bancroft grasped the
+pistol. Looking back, she saw him point it at his own temple. Springing
+to his side, she seized it with both hands, crying out, "Aleck, don't do
+that! Don't give up! Give it to me!"
+
+His grasp relaxed and she took the weapon from his hand.
+
+"Aleck! Bancroft! Aleck!" they heard from outside, in Conrad's voice.
+More words followed, but through the noise of the shouting and the
+thunder and that rattling roar, now grown louder and nearer, they could
+distinguish only, "your life!" A galloping horse rushed near the window,
+there was a pistol shot without, and an answering shot from within.
+
+A shriek pierced the clamor, and Bancroft cried, "That was Lucy's
+voice!" By a flash of lightning which rent for an instant the gray
+darkness, they saw the horse wheel into the hill street, and saw Lucy in
+Conrad's arms.
+
+The pistol dropped from Louise's hand as she cried out in a passion of
+grief, "Oh, Aleck! Our little girl! Have I killed her?"
+
+He leaned toward her with compassionate arms.
+
+Conrad glanced over his shoulder as he wheeled his mare into the cross
+street, and saw the towering wall of water at their very heels. Brown
+Betty was staggering under her burden, but with shout and spur he drove
+her on up the steep incline. A grinding crash mingled with the roar of
+the flood, and another backward glance let him see the bank building
+toppling, collapsing, embosomed in the awful avalanche of water. A great
+wave rushed after them and swept Brown Betty from her feet. Had the
+mare been less sturdy of spirit they would have been carried back on its
+retreating current. But Conrad's persuading, encouraging calls were in
+her ears and she struck out bravely, swimming against the force of the
+waves that swirled about them and buffeted her with the debris they
+carried. But the waters that spread up the cross street soon lost their
+force, and she regained her footing. Curtis bent over Lucy, saying, "We
+are safe now, sweetheart!" Blood was dripping over her garments, and she
+lay white and still upon his arm.
+
+At last they reached the door of the Bancroft home, and Curtis carried
+Lucy, still unconscious, within, and went in search of Miss Dent. But
+the house was deserted. Alone, he ministered to the girl's needs. He
+located the injury, and found that a bullet, as to whose source and
+intention he made his own secret guess, had pierced her arm, but had
+left merely a flesh wound. Recovered from her swoon, he carried her
+up-stairs and left her to change her wet clothing while he went in
+search of blankets. Wrapped in these, with her arm bandaged, he left her
+in bed while he hastened down the hill, hoping to find news of her
+father and Miss Dent with which to relieve her anxiety.
+
+The rain had ceased and the flood had passed, leaving in its wake the
+wreck of a ruined town. Where the bank building had stood were tottering
+walls and a shapeless heap of brick and timbers. Beneath the wreckage,
+where had been the president's office, they found the bodies of Bancroft
+and Louise, enfolded in each other's arms.
+
+The sky cleared and only in the east did some low-lying clouds, still
+wet and angry, give any hint of the storm which had swept over the town
+and left desolation in its track. As Conrad climbed the hill to tell
+Lucy of her double bereavement, in the tenderest words his love could
+make possible, he faced the glories of a setting sun whose resplendent
+pageant filled the sky and touched with its glowing colors the pitiful
+devastation of the little valley.
+
+
+
+
+      *      *      *      *      *
+
+
+
+
+Transcriber's note:
+
+Minor changes have been made to correct typesetters' errors; otherwise,
+every effort has been made to remain true to the author's words and
+intent.
+
+
+
+***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE DELAFIELD AFFAIR***
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