your head it’ll be loaded with bullets? And when you go, I go, too! One man can’t hold two doors and a window. Ronicky, for both our sakes we got to play safe!”
Ronicky Doone, weak with rage and disappointment, submitted and stood leaning against the wall.
“They’ve got her,” he groaned. “And now they’ll ride off with her, Hugh. They’ve got her and most of the money that Cosslett buried. And now— Heaven knows what’ll happen! When I had that chance to fight Moon man to man, why didn’t I take it?” He added sadly: “Now I’ve lost everything!”
“She’ll come to no harm in their hands,” insisted the girl’s father.
“No harm?” said Ronicky. “They won’t lay a hand on her. I know that. But the main danger is that Moon has a chance to talk to her, the snake! And no one knows what he’ll be able to persuade her to!”
“After he’s sent a man to murder me? After he’s taken her and is keeping her away from me by force? After he’s set a siege to the cabin where I am? D’you think he can persuade away all those things?”
“He could persuade the angels that he was one of ‘em, if he had a chance,” said Ronicky gloomily. “Hush! There’s the devil himself calling to us.”
“Doone! Ronicky Doone!” called the voice of Jack Moon.
“I hear you,” answered Ronicky. “Talk out, Moon.”
“Do I get a truce?” said Moon. “If I come out to talk to you, Ronicky, will you and Hugh promise to gimme a chance to get back safe? I want to tell you—”
“Come out,” said Ronicky. “You know I won’t plug you. I wish I was the kind that would take an advantage. But I ain’t your brand of man, Jack Moon!”
Without waiting for a further assurance, Jack Moon appeared across the clearing at the door of the shack facing that of Ronicky and Hugh. He advanced until he was three paces from Ronicky, who remained in the shadow at the door.
“Stop there!” commanded Ronicky. “That’s close enough for talk.”
“If you don’t trust me,” said Moon, “right enough! But here I am one man against two, and yet you’re afraid.”
Ronicky answered indirectly.
“Watch the back of the house, Hugh,” he directed, “and watch sharp. If a head or a hand shows, take a potshot. They might try to rush from behind while Moon chats here in front. Now go on and talk, Moon. I suppose you want the body of Kent?”
“Was it Bud Kent you murdered, Ronicky?”
“Murdered? And you mean to say you didn’t send him? You didn’t send him to knife Hugh and get Hugh’s share of the stuff?”
“They ain’t no use trying to persuade you different,” said the leader gravely, “if you look at it that way. But use sense, Ronicky, and you’ll see that it didn’t mean anything to me to wipe Hugh out of the way! You know what means more to me than anything else, and that’s the good opinion of Jerry. Would I get that if I had her father killed?”
“You’d of talked her into thinking that you didn’t send Kent.”
“And I didn’t!”
“You lie, Moon. I saw you talking to him.”
“He was asking me for money. He lost all his share, and he wanted another stake to gamble with. I wouldn’t give him anything, and the dog came here to steal. Ronicky—and you, Dawn—I want you to listen to sense. The boys are red-hot for action. They want the scalps of both of you, and if they’s any more resistance, they’ll get your scalps! But you know the way I stand. I’ve got to get you off if I can, for the sake of the girl and what she’ll think. Boys, if you’ll come out with me and give yourselves up and trust me, I can get you scot-free, I think. Otherwise, you’re no better’n dead.”
“I trusted you once before,” said Hugh Dawn, “and near got my gullet opened for it. No more of that, Moon. I ain’t a plumb fool!”
“No use trying to argue you out of that,” said Moon, “if you’ve got your mind all set that way. But you’ll see how it comes out. The boys’ll roast you out of the shack. But that’s up to you. Meantime, give me Kent’s body, and I’ll take it back—and Heaven help you for what’s coming!”
Hugh Dawn raised the dead man and gave the burden to the waiting arms of the leader, who now turned his back and trudged slowly away, bearing his grisly load.
Then Dawn turned with a gray face to Ronicky. “I’d forgot the danger of fire,” he said. “D’you think he’ll use it?”
“He’ll use anything, if he can get at us. But we got to wait and see. How much water have we here?”
Hugh Dawn raised his canteen and shook it. There was a sound of water slushing inside the tin.
“One quart,” he said.
That was their total supply.
XXIII. MOON’S SINCERITY
Covered by the forest, three men watched the hut which was the fortress of Dawn and Ronicky. Eight remained to receive the leader and his burden, Bud Kent’s body. Behind the shelter of the shacks which cut them away from the sight and the guns of Ronicky and Dawn, the outlaws stood in a loosely formed circle and stared silently down into the face of Kent. There was no expression of sorrow from those fierce fellows. They had seen too many companions drop before. But there was a universal turning of eyes to the direction of hidden Ronicky and his companion.
Jerry Dawn, her face hidden in her hands, leaned almost fainting against a tree near by, with Silas Treat, her guard, close to her.
“Si,” ordered the commander, “take Miss Dawn away. Give her a walk through the trees.”
She submitted to Treat’s touch, and they disappeared among the forest’s shadows.
“Now, boys,” said Jack Moon, “you see the luck that’s followed us?”
A dead and ominous silence greeted his speech.
“Are you set on giving the house a rush?” he asked.
“Why not fire?” suggested the crafty Baldy McNair.
“Why not a torch and a signal fire to call everybody in the mountains this way?” the leader countered, with a sneer.
It was something the others had not thought of. But now Baldy returned on a different tack.
“We can get close to them in the shack that stands alongside of theirs. There won’t have to be no forest fire. We can throw burning sticks onto the roof of their house and rout them out that way, and then the rest of us can stand by and plug them when they try to run. Ain’t that simple enough?”
“Mighty
