due for shipment, she’d take it herself on horseback. She’d take the short cut to Pine Junction alone. She’d get that gold through to the railroad office if it was the last thing she did.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” she shouted to Andy. “Let’s make tracks.”
She heard the whip crack, felt the horses spring into action and the next instant the coach was off in a cloud of dust.
She didn’t go to Ben this time and admit her failure. Rather he came to her. And it might have been her imagination but she thought she saw triumph written in bis handsome face.
“Look, Steve. For the last time, won’t you give up this nonsense? Marry me and forget about being a sheriff and concentrate on being a wife.” She felt the hard muscles of his body under his impeccably tailored’broadcloth jacket as he pulled her close.
“Give up?” she asked in astonishment. “Never; I’ll die first,” and frightened by her own remark, she pulled away from him and ran upstairs to her room.
* * * *
A few weeks later when the gold was due to be shipped once more, the stage left for Pine junction on schedule and beneath old Andy’s feet was an iron box. But there was no gold in it, only sand, and this amazing secret was known only to Steye.
An hour after the stage left, Steve mounted Star, her palimino, and sneaked out of town. Across her saddle was the iron chest containing the railroad’s’ gold. This time there would be no slip ups., She’d take a short cut to Pine Junction and with the iron box on the stage as decoy, she could carry the real chest to its destination without trouble.
But she was rnistaken! She hadn’t covered half the distance when a rider suddenly appeared from out of a tiny grove of trees and cut her off.
Oh, no! It couldn’t be I But it was. It was the red-headed bandit. This time he was without his mask but not without his gun. It remained pointed squarely at her until she obeyed his barked order to;drop her gun;
“Now get down off that horse,” he said sharply.
Steve started to protest but knowing it was useless, she shrugged and dismounted, dropping the chest to the ground before she did so.
WHEN SHE stood before him, defenseless and dismounted, the gunman replaced his gun in its holster and dropped down beside her. His freckled, pleasantly homely face was grim, and his blue eyes hard as he said, “I thought you’d pull something like this. You haven’t a grain of horse sense in that purty head of yours, have you?”
“Why, you— I don’t have to stand here and let you insult me,” Steve said, spluttering with rage.
“Well, you’re going to.” The man smiled, but it was a tight angry smile. “Do you know what you’ve been risking your neck for? Here, I’ll show you.” With one movement he shot the lock frcrin the iron chest and lifted the lid with the tip of his boot.:
Steve gazed down in stunned amazement. There was no gold in that box. Just a lot of old Iron.
“But, I don’t understand,” she gasped.
“Then I’ll explain it.” His voice softened a little. “Your boyfriend, Ben, has been shipping a box full of iron to the railroad instead of the gold he was supposed to ship. He had a couple of his boys hold up the stage each time the box was shipped so no one would find out about his crooked little game. That gold never left the bank; he kept it all nice and safe for himself.”
“But how do you fit in the picture?” Steve asked, ’her confusion growing by the minute.
“I’m an agent for the railroad,” he announced and seeing relief mingle with the’ surprise on her face, he grinned for the first time.
It was an engaging grin and Steve wasn’t sure whether the warmth that spread through her was relief at finding herself in the hands of a railroad agent instead of a bandit or something else.
“The railroad suspected there was dirty work afoot and sent me to find, out. I held up the stage and found iron in that box instead of gold. That gave: us all the evidence we needed. We’ve been waiting for the Federal authorities to come out to Red Rock and make the arrest. We got word they were arriving today. They’re probably making the arrests this very minute.”
“Bien—a crook?” Steve asked incredulously. She shook her head dazedly. “But why did you hold us up last time if you already had the evidence? And what are you doing here now?” This time the red-head’s grin threatened to split his face. “As for holding up the stage again, a little more evidence wouldn’t have hurt anything. Besides I wanted to keep an eye on you. That’s why I’m here now. You made it pretty plain you didn’t have sense enough to take care of yourself, so I decided to do it for you.” He reached out and pulled her into his arms. The next instant his mouth closed over hers and a wild searing flame which started at her mouth swept through her body. Her hands flattened against his back and pressed him even closer until she felt his heart beating against her like an untamed thing.
Finally he leaned back and asked, “Do I get the job?”
Steve shook her head to clear away the fog which enveloped it. “What job?” she asked faintly.
“The job of taking care of you, of making you give up this sheriff business and making you into a wife.”
“Why, sir, I don’t even know your name,” she replied coyly, making a nest of kisses under his ear.
He drew, back and gazed down at her a moment before declaring with an absolutely straight face, “My name’s Red.”
“Oh, no!” she cried and broke into peels of laughter that left her gasping. She just had time to catch her breath before Red’s grinning mouth claimed hers again and she knew beyond a question of a doubt that he got the job. But definitely!
Конец ознакомительного фрагмента.
Текст предоставлен ООО «ЛитРес».
Прочитайте эту книгу целиком, купив полную легальную версию на ЛитРес.
Безопасно оплатить книгу можно банковской картой Visa, MasterCard, Maestro, со счета мобильного телефона, с платежного терминала, в салоне МТС или Связной, через PayPal, WebMoney, Яндекс.Деньги, QIWI Кошелек, бонусными картами или другим удобным Вам способом.
