"Trust a woman's intuition and make him a friend, Jeff," she advised. "He has my confidence."
"I'd accept the Devil himself with that backing," he smiled, and slid from his saddle. "Reckon that bridle wants fixing." Busy with the task, he spared a moment to glance up at her. "By Christmas, it's good to see you again, Joan, and you're prettier than ever, which I wouldn't have believed possible," he blurted out.
A tell-tale flush suffused the girl's cheeks. She shook a finger at him. "Attend to your job, sir," she said, and then, "I have not thanked you for saving, perhaps, my life; this feather-brain was running straight for that horrible swamp."
"you don't ever have to thank me for anything," Keith said earnestly. "How comes it that you've nothing better than this half-broke beast to ride?"
She stroked the animal's neck. "He's not bad, just young, inexperienced, and apt to have notions--" She stopped at the sight of his rueful face. "Oh, I shouldn't have said that, Jeff, but I was thinking only of the horse, truly I was."
"Never mind. I deserve all that's coming to me. What happened?"
"A road-runner got up under our feet, raced on fifty yards or so and then looked round and waited, with the usual insulting, challenging air. Of course, an older horse would have taken no notice, but this greenhorn has visions of trampling that impudent bird in the dust. As a lesson, I let him try for a while, but the runner was always two or three jumps ahead and travelling easily. Then I saw we were heading for trouble, tried to pull up, and the rein gave."
"It's all right now," he said, and mounted again.
She asked where he was staying, and laughed when--forgetting the brand on his pony--he teasingly told her it was a secret.
"Give my love to Mart," she said.
"Hi, don't you be too free with it," he retorted. "One of these days some fellow will come along and want it all. Maybe you'll be riding this way again?"
"Maybe I will," she smiled.
He grasped the outstretched hand, stooped swiftly, and pressed his lips to it. She blushed anew as she murmured: "The same impulsive Jeff."
"No, not the same,"he cried. "Changed in every way--but one."
Abruptly he swung his horse round and spurred it across the plain. For a space she watched him and then turned homeward, a prayer on her lips, a song in her heart.
Chapter XXI
"Shore yu wasn't abroad yestiddy mornin'?" Lagley asked. "I have said so," Satan replied. "Why?"
"Fancied I saw yu, talkin' to Joan Keith, out on our range," the foreman explained. "The fella looked like yu, but he warn't masked nor ridin' a black."
"Was that all you could see?"
"Couldn't git close--it's pretty open round there, but he kissed her hand when they parted."
Fire flashed in the stony eyes for an instant. There was a brief silence and then Satan said harshly: "Does the Colonel still pay his visit to Dugout?"
"Shore, he's due there to-morrow mornin'," Lagley's expression was one of unease. "What yu aimin' to do--Jeff?"
The familiar address produced a glare which made him regret it. "When I wish you to know anything, I shall tell you--Judas," came the searing answer.
Lagley left, hating the man who never lost an opportunity of humiliating him, and cursing the day he had put himself in his power.
"His tongue's wuss'n his dad's, blast him," he raged. "But once he's in the saddle at the Double K he'll have to tower his tone some, or ..."
As he reached the street, he cannoned into a tall figure, and stepped quickly back when the half-light revealed the saturnine features of Sudden.
"Well, if it ain't my of friend, Lagley," the puncher exclaimed."Cut names out, yu fool," the foreman said hastily.
The other stiffened. "Yu cut that sort o' name out, too," he rasped. "yu ain't my foreman now, an' it sticks in my mind that the last time we met yu wanted to hang me."
The retort made Lagley uncomfortable. He remembered the lightning speed of this man's draw at their first meeting, the passing of Butch, and that they were in a lawless place.
"Hell, I had to obey orders," he said. "I was meanin' to fix it so yu could slide out durin' the night, but yu took charge."
"Yu bet I did--it was my neck," Sudden rejoined. "Mebbe the next world is better, but I ain't honin' to find out. Say, it was damn funny 'bout them cows; the Twin Diamond put one over on yu there, an' twisted Satan's tail for him good an' proper."
He had not troubled to lower his voice and the Double K man's perturbation was plain to see.
"For Gawd's sake, dry up," he urged. "He'll hear yu."
A guttural voice from the doorway interrupted: "Hey, Sudden, the Chief sez for you to come in when you've finished chin-waggin'."
"Damnation, what did I tell yu?" Lagley said.
The puncher laughed. "If he could hear us he'd 'a' gone on listenin'. Toddle back to the Double K an' be good, Steve; yu ain't got the nerve for this game."
Without waiting for a reply, he followed Silver, who was waiting for him at the door. The bandit's first question did not surprise him.
"What were you saying to Lagley?"
"Complimentin' him on havin' neighbours smart enough to fetch his cattle back for him," Sudden grinned.
"It amuses you to lose a considerable sum of money, eh?"
"The fella who can laugh at his losses will win out in the end," was the philosophical reply.
"A pretty sentiment, no doubt," Satan sneered, "but one can get tired of laughing. When are you going to justify your presence in Hell City?"
"I rustled the herd--yu told me so yoreself, an' yu can't blame me for losin' 'em again," Sudden retorted impudently. "An' I got Butch for yu."
"For yourself--to save your own life," came the correction. "Where is Lander?"
The puncher's face lost its jaunty expression. "I dunno," he confessed. "Can't pick up a trace of him nohow; I reckon he's flew the coop."
The bandit made a negative gesture. "A stranger was seen on the Double K range yesterday, talking with Joan Keith."
Sudden's surprise was genuine. "The devil!" he said. "But he wouldn't know her, would he?"
"No, but they might have met by chance," Satan replied. "You must bring him back. If you fail to do this .. ."
He did not finish, but the relentless tone conveyed the unspoken threat. Sudden went out, apparently a chastened and thoughtful man. He left the bandit still brooding over the story Lagley had told.
"It couldn't have been Jeff--he would not dare speak to her," he argued. "And yet ..."
A vision of Joan as he had last seen her, the slim figure appearing to be part of the pony she bestrode and her lovely face rosy with indignation aroused by his attempted caress, came to torment him. Until that meeting, he had coveted the Double K range only, but then was born desire for the girl who would one day own it, and though he had not seen her since, that desire had become such an overwhelming passion that the very thought of another kissing even her finger-tips moved him almost to madness.
"She may still care for him, in spite of all," he said violently. "Well, friend Jeff, I'll plaster something on youwhich will turn love to loathing, an act so vile that the hand of every man must be against you, and women will shudder at your name. With the whole country raised, you'll be glad to sneak back into the only place where you can lie hidden--Hell City. Then, the game will be in my hands."
For long he stood, gazing into the deepening darkness, while the plot which would give him, not only the girl for whom he lusted, but wealth and power, framed itself in his cold-blooded brain. One factor only was lacking, and he cursed the cowboy who had deprived him of it.
"Jeff will be hack, on his knees," he told himself. "After to-morrow."
Notwithstanding his somewhat autocratic attitude towards his fellow-man, Colonel Keith was popular in Dugout. That he was just and generous compensated for the keenness of his tongue and as the owner of the largest ranch in the vicinity, his custom was an important consideration to a small community. So his weekly visit was a welcome event and had become a matter of routine. Always there was someone waiting to hitch his horse outside Black Sam's, but with the Colonel, business came first : the several tradesmen had to be visited, orders given, and the invariable invitation to drink the rancher's health extended.