"How fur is thisyer camp, an' where?" Husky asked, with an air of disbelief.
"I have no idea," she replied. "It took us a day to get back to Deadwood, but we started in the dark, and did not know the direction. Also, it was rough country and I fear I am a poor walker."
"You were with Green allatime?" a voice inquired sneeringly.
"I have said so," she returned, her face white and cold as marble. "Mister Green told me they had taken his hat, chaps and guns. He could not understand why, but it is clear enough now." Husky scratched his head. "He's wearin' 'em," he said, and she had to explain how Sudden had regained his property.
The sneering voice from the middle of the throng spoke again.
"Oh, she's got it all pat, or-timer. I told you his friends would lie him out of it." Wild Bill's narrow eyes swept the gathering. "Who said that?" he thundered. "Let him step forward; I'd like to see him." There was no response; evidently the speaker had no desire to gratify the gunman's curiosity. Wild Bill looked at Husky. "Well?" he said impatiently.
The miner made a last effort. "Why didn't you tell us 'bout Miss Lesurge?" he asked the prisoner.
"Why the devil should I?" the puncher retorted. "It was none o' yore business." The man grimaced. "I'm allowin' it was yore neck," he said. "An' yu wouldn't have listened either," Sudden told him. "Yu ain't believin' it now."
"He'd better," Hickok exploded. "Husky, do I have to tell yu again to set Green free?" The man removed the rope. "I guess we'll hold him till we search out that camp," he said.
Wild Bill boiled over. "I--guess--yu--will--not," he grated. "Cut those bonds an' be damned quick about it." He drew himself up and surveyed the swarm of upturned, sullen faces. "Is there anyone here who wants to call this lady a liar?" he demanded. Silence followed the challenge, and he turned sardonically to the miner. "Yu 'pear to be the on'y one," he said. "Now, get this; Green won't run away; if he does, yu can swing me in his stead." There was a laugh at this. With the mercurial quality of a mob, many of those present now believed in the innocence of the accused. Hickok's reputation as straight was generally conceded, Paul Lesurge was a figure in the town, and the Westerner--rough as he might he--was usually chivalrous to any women.
Without waiting for a reply, the gunman jumped lightly from the vehicle and stretching up his long arms, swung the lady to the ground, and bowed to her, hat in hand.
"I compliment yu on yore courage, ma'am," he said.
"Coming from you I must even believe it, sir," she smiled, and turned to greet the cowboy, her face grave again.
"I don't know whether to thank or scold you," she began. "By good fortune we came in time--it would have been a horrible memory ... Why didn't you tell them about me?"
"It wouldn't have helped," he told her. "Things looked bad; friend Hank had it figured pretty neat." Lesurge joined them. "Green, I owe you a great deal for getting my sister out of that mess," he said, but there was no cordiality in his tone.
"I was gettin' myself out," the cowboy replied, "an' Miss Lesurge has more'n evened the score." The lady shook her head. "My part was easy." At this moment Gerry appeared, with Rogers and his partners, all carrying rifles. The young man whooped when he saw his friend.
"Saw I couldn't do nothin' so I slipped away to round up the boys," he explained. "Hoped we'd be in time to try some-thin'."
"I'm obliged," Sudden said gravely. "Thanks to Miss Lesurge an' Mister Hickok ..."
"She turned the trick," the gunman cut in, with an admiring glance at Lora. "I should have failed but for her testimony. All I did was to make 'em listen, an' I'm very glad yore friend Jacob routed me out."
"I wondered where the of boy had gone," Gerry remarked. "He vanished when they collared yu." Snowy sidled up to the puncher. "I've heard how you wouldn't split about the mine, Jim," he whispered. "I'm not forgettin' that."
"Yeah," Sudden smiled, "an' I rememberin' that if yu hadn't fetched Miss Lesurge my friends would now be tellin' each other what a good fella I was." When Paul and his sister had gone, Hickok turned to the others and said, "I don't use liquor much, but Bizet fixes a mint-julep that pleases even me. Let's irrigate." The little Frenchman welcomed them with a broad smile, but wagged a finger at Sudden. "My fren', fortune she is fickle; one time she will fail you."
"I've been sayin' the same, Bizet," Wild Bill said. "He's playin' his luck too hard." And to the cowboy, "Yu remember what I told yu?"
"Yu said for me to keep clear o' the women," Sudden grinned. "An' a woman has saved me." The big man laughed. "That's a score to yu, but I'm repeatin' the advice," he said. "Someone is after yore ha'r; who is it?"
"Yu can search me," the cowboy replied.
In truth, he was puzzled. Paul Lesurge was antagonistic, he knew, and might have contrived the kidnapping in order to steal the mine from under Snowy's nose, but his men would not have touched Lora. The faintly familiar voice in the crowd recurred to him; it had reminded him of Hank. It was probable that he and his men had come to Deadwood, since they would have to leave their hide-out in the hills. This latter proved to be the case, for when Husky and his companions found the place, it was deserted. On their way back, following Sudden's directions, they came across the skeletons of a man and two horses in front of the ridge where the cowboy had made his stand. The big miner was game enough to come and apologize.
"You was right an' we was wrong," he said. "I'm sorry, butit shore seemed an open an' shut case. No hard feelin's, I hope?"
"I'm forgettin' it," Sudden told him. "But give the next fella a chance."
CHAPTER XV
In a dilapidated shanty, built with becoming modesty away from the street, five men were drinking and smoking. The wavering light of a couple of tallow dips dimly revealing their forbidding faces. They had just finished weighing and dividing a bag of gold-dust.
"An' that's the finish, I s'pose," Berg said sourly. "Hank, you've managed to spoil as pretty a plan as ever I made, damn you." The black-haired fellow who had attracted Sudden's notice at the attempted lynching looked up. "How the devil could I help it?" he asked angrily.
"We had the game in our hands," was the rejoinder. "You shouldn't 'a' touched the Lesurge woman; it was lunacy."
"I couldn't do nothin' else when she found I wasn't Sudden," Hank argued. "It was a fair give-away."
"An' havin' made the mistake o' carryin' her off you put another to it by lettin' her get loose."
"How in hell was I to know she had a sticker?"
"You oughta--she advertised it, not so long back."
"Yo're all so damn clever, ain't you?" Hank sneered. "Well do the risky work yoreselves an' I'll keep under cover an' collect my share, like some o' you." A new voice chimed in, that of a rodent-faced youth, one of whose cheeks bore a jagged, half-healed wound. "Whatsa use scrappin'? If anybody's got a squeal comin' it's me"--he jerked a thumb at his injury--"an' you ain't heard me yap any."
"That's the way to talk, Lem," Bandy Rodd supported. "When pals fall out, trouble comes in, an' you can put yore pile on that."
"The trouble's in a'ready," Berg said. "The old game's too risky now--we'll have to find another way." So far Fagan had been silent, but now he spoke: "We gotta get that mine. It's big, or Lesurge wouldn't be after it--he ain't no piker."
"Him an' Reub Stark is gettin' mighty strong in the town," Bandy observed. "He won't be needin' yu much longer." Fagan spat contemptuously. "He dasn't turn me off--I know too much. We're pardners."
"An' yo're tryin' to double-cross him?" Hank fleered.
"Why not? He'll do it to me if I give him a chance," was the candid answer.
Hank, still sore from the wigging he had received, laughed scornfully. "Well, we know what to expect from you," he said. "Damn you!" Fagan roared. "I'll "