The Coyote Page 20

  There followed a few moments of quiet, broken only by the harsh, ringing pound of his mount’s hoofs. Rathburn could see open country just ahead. Then a flash of fire came from almost under him, and the big dun lunged into the air, half twisting, and came down upon some object under its hoofs. The dun bounded on in great leaps, literally flying through the air, as Rathburn thrilled with the knowledge that the horse had knocked down the man who had sought to kill him.

  From above came sharp reports, and the blackness of the high cañon walls was streaked with spurts of flame. Leaden death hurled itself into the rock trail behind him. Then he was out of the cañon, riding like mad through the white desert night toward his goal––the Mallory ranch!

  * * *

  Laura Mallory stood on the porch of the little ranch house, staring out across the dimly lit spaces of desert. A worried look appeared in her eyes. The front door was open, and in the small sitting room her father was reading under a shaded lamp at the table. At times the worried look in the girl’s eyes would change to one of wistfulness, and twice the tears welled.

  Presently she straightened and listened intently, looking into the south instead of northwest. Her ears, keen as are those of the desert born, had caught a sound––a succession of faint sounds––in the still night air. Gradually the sound became more and more distinct, and the worried expression of her face increased. She hurried into the sitting room.

  “Father, Fred Doane is coming out from town,” she said breathlessly. “Do you suppose they’ve got him?”

  “Maybe so, girlie,” said the old man. “It was a bold business, an’ what could you expect?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. I can’t seem to understand. All this trouble is coming so suddenly. Father, are you sure you heard Roger refuse to aid that man Eagen in some shady scheme last night?”

  “Ab-so-lutely,” declared Mallory. “I’ve been wondering, daughter, if he didn’t turn Eagen down because he had this scheme of his own.”

  The purr of a motor came to them from outside, and Laura, hastily wiping her eyes with a small handkerchief, went slowly out.

  “Laura!” cried Fred Doane, as he came up the steps, holding out his hands.

  “What––what is it, Fred?” she faltered. “Have they caught–––”

  “Not yet,” said Doane briskly, as Mallory appeared in the door. “An’ they probably won’t get him. He’s clever, that fellow.”

  The bank cashier indulged in a frown, but he was plainly nervous.

  “Then what news do you bring here?” Mallory demanded. “Did you come to tell us he’d got away clean?”

  “Why, not––not exactly,” said Doane. “I meant to tell you that, of course, but I also want to have a little talk with Laura. Can I see you alone, Laura, for a few minutes?”

  “Oh, that’s it,” snorted Mallory, as he stamped back into the house.

  “You have something to tell me you don’t want father to hear?” asked the girl in a worried voice.

  “Laura, there’s something I must tell you right away,” said Doane nervously, leading her to the shadow of the far end of the porch. There he turned and faced her, taking her hands.

  “Laura, you must have seen it for a long time. You could hardly help but see it. I love you, Laura––I love you with all my heart, and I want you to be my wife.”

  The girl drew back in astonishment.

  “But why do you have to tell me this so suddenly?” she asked, her color coming and going.

  “Because I want you to marry me, Laura, to-night!” he said.

  Again he reached for her hands. “Please, Laura,” he pleaded. “It means so much to me. Don’t you care for me, sweetheart? I’ve been led to think you did, and I intended to tell you soon, but all this trouble––this terrible trouble to-day––has nearly driven me mad. I’m afraid I’ll go mad, Laura, if I don’t have something else to think about. Oh, Laura, marry me and help me out of this big trouble.”

  “Fred!” exclaimed the girl, startled by his passion of pleading. “Fred, I’ve never tried to make you think I cared for you. And now––well, I’d have to have a long time to think it over. How would it help you out of trouble, Fred? Tell me that.”

  “By helping me forget––by helping me forget that our bank is ruined! By saving my mind! By keeping me from going mad! By–––”

  “Fred you must not talk so. That robbery has unnerved you for the time being, that’s all. You’re excited and so–––”

  “I’m more than excited,” he declared, trying to put his hands on her shoulders. “I’m about––about––gone! Laura, marry me to-night, and we’ll go somewhere––we’ll go somewhere right from here, from this ranch––go a long way and get married in the morning. Then we can stay away for a short time till I get to be myself again.”

  “No, Fred,” replied the girl in convincing tones, “I can’t. It would be asking too much even if I loved you. Come inside, and I’ll make you some strong tea. You can talk to father and me and regain control of yourself.”

  There was a moment of silence. Mallory with the lamp had come to the door at the sound of Doane’s loud voice. He was looking at them. Then out of the night came the pound of hoofs. There was no mistaking the sound.

  Doane whirled around, as a rider came out of the sea of mesquite and greasewood and flung himself from the saddle in front of the porch. The bank cashier turned toward Mallory. His face was haggard. He seemed to sway, as the rider came stamping up the steps. He darted for the door, but had hardly got inside before the rider caught him and made him face about. Mallory hurried in with the lamp, followed by the girl.

  Doane was quailing before the new arrival. Both cried out, as they saw it was Eagen who had broken out so suddenly. Eagen towered above the shrinking Doane.

  “So you thought you’d double cross me, did you, eh?” came Eagen’s harsh voice, and he slapped Doane in the face.

  Doane went red, then white. For a moment intense hatred and anger flashed in his eyes, but he made no move to avenge the insult. Slowly the light in his eyes died again to fear, as he realized his inability to cope with this man of strength.

  “Here, Eagen, you can’t come into my house and act like that,” said Mallory stoutly, putting the lamp on the table.

  Laura still stood in the doorway, stunned by the rapid and extraordinary turn of events. Eagen turned on Mallory with a snarl.

  “Shut up, you old fool! Don’t butt in where you ain’t wanted, an’ on something you don’t know anything about.”

  “I know you’re in my house!” Mallory retorted sternly.

  “I’ll only be here a minute,” said Eagen with a sneer. “I’m goin’ out of your house, an’ I’m goin’ to drag this sneaking cur out with me––out on the solid ground an’ give him what’s comin’ to him. An’ then,” he added in a terrible voice; “I’m goin’ to go out an’ get his pardner––Rathburn, The Coyote––get him when the others can’t come within a mile of him!”

  “You can’t take this man out of my house when he is my guest!” thundered Mallory.

  “No?” asked Eagen contemptuously. “Well, you watch an’ see! If you try to stop me you’ll stop lead!”

  He leaped forward and grasped Doane by the shoulder, jerked him forward, and stepped backward himself. He turned, dragging his victim, then stopped dead in his tracks with a hissing intake of breath. Rathburn was standing quietly in the doorway.

  * * *

  CHAPTER XXXVI

  THE LOOT

  In the heat of the threats and counterthreats which had been in progress, none of the occupants of the room had heard the newest arrival thunder up to the porch and leap from the saddle to the steps.

  Eagen was dumfounded by Rathburn’s sudden appearance. He saw that the girl was standing now in a front corner of the room, with her hands crossed on her breast, a look of horror in her eyes. Slowly Eagen recovered and loosed his hold on Doane, who staggered weakly to the table and leaned upon it. Eagen’s sneer r
eturned to his thick lips, and his narrowed gaze traveled quickly to a sack which Rathburn held in his left hand. Eagen’s eyes shone with fury.

  “Come here to fix up the divvy!” he choked. “I knew it was a put-up job between you an’ Doane, an’ I figured you’d maybe meet aroun’ here where Doane would be sure to come to try an’ take this woman with him.”

  Rathburn eyed him calmly. There was something of a deadly calm in his very posture, as he stood just within the threshold. He looked past Eagen to Doane. Then he tossed the sack on the table.

  “Here’s the money I took this morning, Doane,” he said in matter-of-fact tones. “I came here to turn it over to you.”

  With bulging eyes Doane stared at him.

  Eagen laughed loudly. “That’s rich! Tryin’ to make me think you was goin’ to give it all to him? Don’t you figure, Mr. Coyote, that I can throw my rope aroun’ a simple scheme like you an’ that shivering rat over by the table cooked up? That’s why you turned down my little proposition last night. It was this same deal––only, me, an’ Doane there was goin’ to put it over. You figured I’d cut you out of your divvy, an’ you figured right; he suspected I might double cross him, an’ maybe he was right, too. So he cooked it up with you to pull the robbery, thinkin’ you’d be more likely to go through an’ give him his end. But the pair of you figured too many points when you thought I wouldn’t catch on.”

  “That was what your proposition was to be, was it?” asked Rathburn pleasantly. “Rob the bank? Why, I didn’t need a gang to rob the bank, Eagen, an’ I didn’t have anybody in with me. The trouble with you is that you’ve got too much imagination.”

  The drawl in which Rathburn concluded his speech drove Eagen to a frenzy.

  “You lie, Rathburn!”

  Rathburn smiled. “I might as well tell you that I intended to get away with that money that’s on the table, Eagen. That’s what I took it for. I’m making this little statement because something’s liable to happen to one, or both of us. I didn’t know Doane was cashier of the bank when I took it. I only recently learned that fact. Then I brought it back to turn over to him, not so much on his account as on account of Miss Mallory. I understand Doane is a very good friend of Miss Mallory. I wouldn’t want his bank hurt for that reason.”

  It was Laura Mallory who cried out at this. She walked toward Rathburn, although he did not look at her.

  “Why did you do it, Roger?” she asked in a trembling voice.

  “I can’t tell you that, ma’am,” he said.

  “But I know!” she cried. “I’ve guessed it. You saw Mr. Doane and me together in Hope to-day and remembered he was at the ranch last night, and–––”

  “Don’t say any more, Laura!” Rathburn commanded sternly.

  “Be still, daughter; it’s best,” said Mallory.

  “Neither she, nor you, nor Doane, nor all of you together can talk me out of it!” roared Eagen. “It was a frame-up!”

  In the deadly stillness that followed, Laura Mallory shrank back from the sight of two gunmen looking steadily into each other’s eyes, their hands ready for the lightning draw––each waiting for the merest suggestion of the beginning of a move on the part of the other to get his weapon into action. But the draws did not come. The pregnant silence was broken by the thundering roll of many horses galloping into the yard about the house.

  “There!” yelled Eagen in a voice of triumph. “There’s your sweet little posse, Coyote!”

  “I expected to see Bob Long when I came down here!” said Rathburn coolly, looking at Laura Mallory for the first time.

  * * *

  CHAPTER XXXVII

  THE TEST OF A MAN

  Several men stamped across the porch to the jingle of spur chains. Others broke in through the back door and entered the kitchen. Sheriff Bob Long appeared at the door, with two guns leveled.

  “You’re covered from both doors and all the windows, Rathburn!” he said sharply.

  “That’s almost just what I thought, sheriff,” Rathburn drawled.

  Long stepped into the room, shoving his guns into their holsters. Many other guns were covering Rathburn.

  “What’s the meaning of all this, anyway?” demanded Long with a puzzled expression on his face. His eyes widened, as he saw the bag of money on the table. “Is that the money that was taken from your bank this morning Mr. Doane?” he asked sharply.

  Doane nodded weakly. The sheriff looked at Rathburn curiously.

  “You brought it back? You was up to Joe Price’s place.”

  “Yes, I brought it back, sheriff,” said Rathburn cheerfully.

  “Well, I’ll be frank and tell you, Rathburn, that if you expect leniency after what happened this morning you might just as well give up that idea. Any man can change his mind when he sees he can’t get away.”

  “That’s up to you, sheriff,” replied Rathburn, taking tobacco and papers from his shirt pocket. “As I was just tellin’ our friend, Mr. Eagen, I brought it back on purpose, an’ I expected to see you when I got here. I came near not gettin’ here at that.”

  “You took a long chance,” scowled Long. “But it won’t get you much now at this stage of the game––especially after the way you led me to believe this morning that you were thinking of giving yourself up.”

  Eagen’s laugh startled them.

  “He brought it back to give it up an’ himself, too?” he jeered. “He brought it back, sheriff, because he an’ that rat of a Doane planned this thing. Coyote got away with the money an’ came back here to divvy up with Doane. Didn’t Doane make the same kind of a proposition to me? Didn’t he tell me he was short in his accounts, an’ it could be covered up if the bank was robbed, for then he could say more money was took than really was? I’ll say he did. An’ I was goin’ to see if he’d go through with it, an’ then I was going to wise you up so we could get him cold.”

  With knitted brows the sheriff stared at Eagen, then looked at the white-faced Doane.

  “Tell him I’m tellin’ the truth!” shouted Eagen at the shaking bank cashier. “You can’t get out of it.”

  There was a tense moment.

  Doane shook his head weakly; he was a picture of guilt.

  “He got scared I wouldn’t go through with the play, sheriff,” Eagen continued. “Thought maybe I’d make off with all the kale. So he framed it with Rathburn, an’ I caught ’em about to divide it here.”

  “He lies!” screamed Doane. “I didn’t frame it with Rathburn. I can prove it. That man”––he pointed a shaking finger at Eagen––“has come to me with threats and made me take securities I knew were stolen. There’s some of them in the bank now. Some of the stuff he took from the stage driver yesterday is there! He’s pulled job after job–––”

  Eagen, recovering from his amazement at the man’s outbreak, leaped and drove his powerful fist against Doane’s jaw, knocking him nearly the length of the room, where he crashed with his head against the stones of the fireplace. Eagen turned quickly. His eyes were blazing red.

  “You’re the man!” he yelled wrathfully. “You’re the yellow Coyote–––”

  His right hand went to his gun, as there came a crashing report. He staggered back, trying to get out the weapon which had not left his holster. He sank down to his knees, still glaring death at the man above him, still fumbling at his gun. Then he lurched forward on his face.

  Rathburn flipped his smoking pistol so that its barrel landed in his hand. Then he tendered it, butt foremost, to Sheriff Bob Long. Long took it and threw it on the table, looking first at Rathburn, then at the dead man on the floor. He waved toward the doors and windows.

  “You boys can draw back,” he ordered.

  Mallory stepped to the fallen Doane. The man’s face had set in a white cast. He felt his heart.

  “He did for him,” he said, rising.

  Laura Mallory came walking slowly up to the sheriff. Her face was ghastly after what she had witnessed.

  “Sheriff Long,” s
he said in a voice strangely calm, “we heard Eagen”––she shuddered, as she mentioned the name––“ask Roger––ask Mr. Rathburn last night to help with some job that would get them a lot of money. It may be that––that––Fred did plan such a thing. I’m sorry to say it, but Fred had seemed awfully nervous lately, and to-night he came to me and asked me to run away with him––at once. He seemed horribly afraid of something. Anyway, Roger refused to go in with Eagen, and an examination of Fred’s books will tell all.”

  She hesitated. Then she spoke slowly and softly.

  “I know why Roger robbed the bank and–––”

  “Stop, Laura!” cried Rathburn.

  “No,” said Laura firmly; “you may be going to prison.”

  He put out one hand in protest.

  Turning again to the sheriff she said:

  “Roger did go to town last night, intending to give himself up. I knew he was going to do it by the way he looked at me. But to-day he saw me with Mr. Doane, and maybe he’s heard things for which there was no warrant. Anyway, I know he thought I––I––was in love with Fred.”

  “Laura––please!” Rathburn pleaded.

  “And to-night,” said the girl in triumph, “he heard Fred was cashier of the bank he’d robbed, and he brought the money back because he thought the robbery would hurt Fred and in that way hurt me!”

  Rathburn turned appealingly to the sheriff. “Let’s go,” he urged.

  “He robbed that bank because he thought I had betrayed his trust, Sheriff Long!” cried Laura, her eyes shining.

  “Are we going, Long?” cried Rathburn in an agony.

  The sheriff stepped to the door and called to some of his men who entered and bore the bodies of Doane and Eagen out of the sitting room. Then he took the money sack from the table and indicated to Rathburn to follow him, as he went out of the door. Rathburn went after him quickly, and the girl ran to the porch. Rathburn drew back with a cry, as he reached the porch. Just beyond the steps a horse was lying on its side.