Raw Gold: A Novel

  CHAPTER XIV.

  A CLOSE CALL.

  We were standing in a brushy pocket on the side of a hill, and as therewas no immediate danger of our being seen, MacRae continued, by the aidof the glasses, to follow the movements of our would-be captors.

  "D'you know that plunder can't be far away; those fellows haven't hadmuch time to make their _cache_," he reflected, more to himself than tome. "I wonder how they accounted to Lessard for us. Just think ofit--somewhere within twenty miles of us there's in the neighborhood of ahundred thousand dollars of stolen money, planted till they can get itsafely; and the men that got away with it are helping the law to run usdown. That's a new feature of the case; one, I must say, that I didn'tlook for."

  He lowered the glasses, and regarded me soberly.

  "They fight fire with fire in a grass country," he observed. "TheMounted Police are a hard formation to buck against--but I've a mind tosee this thing to a finish. How do you feel about it, Sarge? Will you gothrough?"

  "All the way and back again," I promised recklessly. I wasn't sure ofwhat he had in mind, but I knew _him_--and seeing that we were in thesame boat, I thought it fitting that we should sink or swim together.

  "We'll come out on top yet," he confidently asserted. "Meantime we'dbetter locate some secluded spot and give our nags a chance to fill upon grass and be fresh for to-morrow; we're apt to have a hard day."

  "It wouldn't be a bad scheme to fill ourselves at the same time," Isuggested. "I'm feeling pretty vacant inside. The first bunch of buffalothat has a fat calf along is going to hear from me."

  "If we can get over this ridge without being seen, there's a canyon withsome cottonwoods and a spring in it. That will be as good a place tohole up for the night as we can find," Mac decided. "And there willlikely be some buffalo near there."

  So we ascended cautiously to the top of the divide, keeping in thecoulees as much as possible, for we knew that other field-glasses wouldbe focused on the hills. Once over the crest, we halted and watched forriders coming our way. But none appeared. Once I thought I glimpsed amoving speck on the farther bank of Lost River. MacRae brought theglasses to bear, and said it was two Policemen jogging toward camp. Thenwe were sure that our flight had not been observed, and we dropped intoa depression that gradually deepened to a narrow-bottomed canyon. Twomiles down this we came to the spring of which MacRae had spoken, a tinystream issuing from a crevice at the foot of the bank. What was equallyimportant, a thick clump of cottonwood and willow furnished tolerablysecure concealment.

  The fates smiled on us in the matter of food very shortly. I'm notenamored of a straight meat diet as a rule, but that evening I was in nomood to carp at anything half-way eatable. While we were on ourstomachs gratefully stowing away a draught of the cool water, I heard abuffalo bull lift his voice in challenge to another far down the canyon.We tied our horses out of sight in the timber and stole in the directionof the sound. A glorious bull-fight was taking place when we got withinshooting-distance, the cows and calves forming a noisy circle about thecombatants, each shaggy brown brute bawling with all the strength ofbovine lungs; in that pandemonium of bellowing and trampling I doubt ifthe report of Mac's carbine could have been heard two hundred yardsaway. The shot served to break up the fight and scatter the herd,however, and we returned to the cottonwoods with the hind-quarter of afat calf.

  Hungry as we were, we could hardly bolt raw meat, so, taking it forgranted that no one was likely to ride up on us, we built a fire in thegrove, being careful to feed it with dry twigs that would make littlesmoke. Over this we toasted bits of meat on the end of a splinter, andpresently our hunger was appeased. Then we blotted out the fire, and,stretching ourselves on the ground, had recourse to the solace oftobacco.

  The longer we laid there the more curious did I become as to what lineof action MacRae purposed to follow. He lay on his back, silent, staringstraight up at the bit of sky that showed through the branches above,and I'd just reached the point of asking, when he sat up and forestalledmy questions.

  "This is going to be risky business, Sarge," he began. "But so far as Ican see, there is only one way that we can hope to get the thingstraightened out. If we can get hold of Hicks or Bevans, any one of thefour, in fact, I think we can _make_ him tell us all we need to know.It's the only chance for you and Lyn to get your money back, and for meto square myself."

  "I shouldn't think," I put in resentfully, "that you'd want to squareyourself, after the dirty way you've been treated. I'd as soon take toherding sheep, or washing dirty clothes like a Chinaman, as be a memberof the Mounted Police if what I've seen in the last ten days is a fairsample of what a man can expect."

  "Fiddlesticks!" Mac impatiently exclaimed. "You don't know what you'retalking about. I tell you a man in the Police, if he has any head atall, can control his own destiny. You'll be a heap more sane when youget that old, wild-west notion, that every man should be a law untohimself, out of your head. I'll venture to say that the Northwest willbe a safer and more law-abiding place five years from now than south ofthe line will be in twenty--and the men in red coats will make it so.Why, I wouldn't miss helping tame this country for half a dozen suchscrapes as I'm in now. This is merely the result of a rotten spot in thepersonnel, a rotten spot that will soon be cut out if things come aboutlogically; it isn't the fault of the system. There never was any greatmovement in developing a new country that didn't have a quota of damnedrascals to eliminate from within itself. If you didn't have such aperverted idea of independence, you'd see that I'm in no danger oflosing either my identity or my self-respect simply because I've becomea unit in a body of six hundred fighting-men. I don't intend to remainin the insignificant-unit class."

  "Your intentions," I interrupted, "will cut a mighty small figure ifyour friend Lessard gets hold of you in the next day or two."

  "That's the melancholy truth," he returned seriously. "I imagine we'dget a pretty rough deal; in fact, I wouldn't be surprised if that troophas received orders, by now, to shoot first and arrest afterward. Still,I'm willing to gamble that if we rode into Fort Walsh and gave ourselvesup, it would only be a matter of a few weeks in the guardhouse for usbefore the thing was cleared up."

  "Maybe," I responded skeptically. "If that's your belief, why don't youact accordingly?"

  "Because, confound it, that's just where they want to get us," hedeclared. "Once we were safely penned, they'll drift, and neither younor Lyn Rowan nor the government would ever lay eyes on that bundle ofmoney again. I have a theory--but what's vastly more important, I thinkthose fellows can hardly get out of the country with their plunderwithout crossing trails with us. It was smooth business to set the dogson us. I don't quite _sabe_--well, I do, too. You can probably realizejust how headquarters would take the sort of yarn we'd spin if we dashedin and told them the truth. But I think we're smart enough to upsetthese fellows' calculations. Lord! wouldn't it be a stroke of businessif we could trap that collection of buccaneers? Frankly, that would bethe biggest thing that ever came my way."

  "It would be equally a stroke of business if they happen to trap us," Ireminded.

  "They won't," he asserted confidently. "We can't afford to let them.We've inflicted a compound fracture on established law, and until we canmake the outcome justify our actions, we're compelled, in self-defense,to avoid being caught. It may be a dubious undertaking, but as I see itthe only thing for us is to hang on the flank of these man-hunters tillwe can lay hold of one of that red-handed quartette. According to Burky,two of them, at least, are in that troop. Probably the others are. Andknowing that bunch as well as I do, I don't think they'll lift theplunder and quit the country till they can go together. Even if we can'tget hold of one of them, we can keep track of their movements, and ifthey _do_ lift their _cache_ and pull out, why, that would be as good aswe want. I wouldn't ask anything better than to get a fair chance atthat bunch with the stolen money on them."

  I'll admit that, soberly considered, MacRae's plan did look exceedingrisky. No one c
ould appreciate better than ourselves the unpleasantpossibilities that stared us in the face. But things had narrowed to apoint where only two courses were open to us--one, to throw up our handsand quit the jurisdiction of the Mounted Police, which involveddesertion on MacRae's part, and on mine a chicken-hearted abandonment ofLa Pere's trust in me (for, rightly or wrongly, I was given over to thefeeling that on me alone rested the responsibility for the loss orrecovery of La Pere's money); the other, to take any measure, no matterhow desperate, that would unravel the tangle. All things considered, thelatter was the logical choice. And the plan Mac had put forth seemed asfeasible as any.

  "We'll have to proceed on the faro-bank formula that all bets go as theylay," I said lightly. "There's no use anticipating things disagreeableor otherwise; we'll simply have to take them as they come."

  By this time dusk was upon us. We picketed the horses in the open bottomwhere grass was more plentiful than in the brush, and settled ourselvesto sleep. Fortunately, the aftermath of that blistering day was a fairlywarm night. By spreading over us the heavy woolen blankets the MountedPolice use under their saddles, we slept in comfort. Long before dawn,however, we arose, built a fire, and breakfasted on buffalo veal, at thesame time broiling a good supply and stowing it in our pockets to servethe rest of the day. Then, with darkness still obscuring our movements,we saddled and rode over the ridge and down into Lost River, crossingthat ancient waterway before the first glimmer of light in the east.

  Day found us dismounted in the head of a coulee where we could spy onthe Police camp from a distance of three miles, more or less. Aboutsunrise the troop left camp in a body, later spreading fanwise over theprairies. Once a party trotted by within a half-mile of us, but no oneof the four men we wanted to see was in the squad.

  Until after the noon hour we laid _perdu_ in the hollow, no wiser forour watching. Then I saw a number of riders debouch from the camp, andat once trained the glasses on them. At first I couldn't distinguish anyparticular face among so many shifting forms, but presently they splitin two bodies, and these again subdivided; and in the bunch comingtoward us I recognized three men, Lessard, unmistakable in his blackuniform, Hicks, and Bevans. I turned the glasses over to MacRae then.

  "I thought probably some more of our friends would show up," he said,after a quick survey. "With those two in sight the chances are that allfour are with the troop. The other fellows in that squad are just plainbuck Policemen. Confound them, I wish----Aha, by Jupiter! the big chiefis turning off those two."

  As Mac spoke I saw the two men I had spotted as Hicks and Bevans swingaway from the rest and angle toward Lost River. From our vantage pointwe watched them come abreast and pass us at a distance well within amile. The others turned south, directly away from us.

  "Now," Mac coolly declared, "here's where we get the chance we want, ifwe're lucky. We'll keep parallel with these gentlemen, and if they getout of touch with the rest we'll make a try at nailing them. Be careful,though, how you show yourself; there's at least fifty of thesepeacemakers within four or five miles, and a shot or a yell will bringthem on a high run."

  Hicks and Bevans, whatever their destination, were in no haste. Theyrode at a walk most of the time, and we were forced to keep the samepace. It was slow work poking along those coulee-bottoms, now and thenmaking a risky sneak to ground, whence we could get a clear view of thegame we were stalking so assiduously.

  Progressing in this manner we finally reached the breaks that ran downto Lost River, not a great distance from where MacRae and I had kickedover the traces of legally constituted authority the previous day. Herewe had to dodge over a stretch of ground barren of concealment, and todo so waited till such time as Hicks and Bevans were themselves in thedepths of a coulee.

  When next we caught sight of our men--well, to be exact, we saw onlyone, and that was Bevans. He had stopped his horse on top of a knoll notmore than four hundred yards to the north of us, and was standing up inhis stirrups staring over the ears of his horse at a point down theslope. Hicks had disappeared. Nor did we see aught of him during thenext few minutes that we spent glaring at Bevans and the surroundingterritory.

  "I wonder if that square-jawed devil has got a glimpse of us and istrying a lone-handed stalk himself?" I hazarded.

  MacRae shook his head. "Not likely," he said. "If it was Paul Gregory,now, that's the very thing he'd do. I don't quite _sabe_ thisperformance."

  We watched for sign of Hicks, but without result. Then Bevans got underway and moved along at the same poky gait as before. When he had gonesome distance we took to the hollow. Twenty minutes jogging brought usinto a stretch of rough country, a series of knobs and ridges cut byinnumerable coulees. Here it became necessary to locate Mr. Bevansagain. Once more he was revealed on top of an elevation, studying thesurrounding landscape, and he was still alone.

  "Where the mischief can Hicks have got to?" Mac growled. "We reallyought to smell him out before we do anything."

  "Look, now," I said. "Don't you suppose Bevans is waiting for him?"

  Bevans had dismounted and stretched himself on the ground in the shadeof his horse. But he was not napping; on the contrary, he was very muchon the alert, for his head turned slowly from side to side, quiescent ashe seemed; there would be little movement pass unobserved within rangeof that pair of eyes.

  "Maybe he is," MacRae replied. "Anyhow, I think we'd better wait a whileourselves."

  For nearly an hour Bevans kept his position. Hicks, if he were in thevicinity, kept closely under cover. Bevans had all the best of thesituation, so far as being able to keep a lookout was a factor; theopposite bank of the coulee we were in towered high above us, and shutoff our view in that direction. And we didn't dare risk showingourselves on high ground. Finally, after what seemed an interminableperiod of waiting, Mac's patience frazzled out and he declared foraction.

  "We're doing no good here," he said. "Hicks or no Hicks, I'm going tohave a try at making connections with his nibs on that hill. I think thecoulee right under his perch is an arm of the one we're in; runs insomewhere below. Maybe we can get to him that way. It's worth trying."

  As MacRae had surmised, our canyon forked below. We turned the pointafter making sure that Bevans couldn't see us unless he moved. But theuncertain beggar had moved, and moved to some purpose we quicklylearned; for when we next laid eyes on him he was out on the extremepoint of the little bench, opposite the mouth of the coulee we hadascended, whirling his horse about in cramped circles. And in answer tohis signaling a full score of red-jacketed riders were galloping downthe ridges, a human comb that bade fair to rake us from our concealmentin a scant number of minutes.

  "Looks bad for you and me, old boy," MacRae grinned. "I see now whatbrother Hicks has been up to. But they haven't got us yet. Whateverhappens, Sarge, don't get excited and go to shooting. We can't win outthat way, against this combination. If we can't dodge and outrun themwe'll have to take our medicine. Down the coulee is our only chance.There's only Bevans to stop us; and it won't really matter if we do puthis light out--be one thief less at the finish."

  Bevans, however, made no demonstration. We just got a mere glimpse ofhim, and I imagine he was nowise anxious to try heading us off, which hecould not do without coming into the open. Whipping around the crookedbends at top speed, he had little chance to pot us, and I think he hadan idea that we would cheerfully pot him if he got in the way.

  We mystified them somewhat, and gained considerable ground, by thatsudden dash, but it wasn't long before they were in full cry like a packof hounds, and the carbines began to pop in a futile sort of way. Machad not been far astray when he hazarded the guess that the troop wouldhave orders to shoot on sight, for they began to peck at us the momentwe came in view. We had just enough of a start, though, and our mountswere just good enough and fresh enough to gradually draw away from them.And as we were then out of the network of protecting coulees andpattering over the comparative level of Lost River bottoms, I was veryglad that we were beyond carbine-range a
nd that it was near sundown.

  "Barring accidents, they can't get up on us now," Mac declared. "So Ithink it'll be wise to keep south along the open bottoms. If they see ussplitting the breeze down Lost River, they won't look for us to bob upfrom the opposite quarter to-morrow. When it gets dark and we're farenough ahead, we can swing into the hills. That'll fool them plenty forto-night. They'll probably try tracking us to-morrow, but I reckonthey'll find that a tough job."

  They kept persistently after us, and we were more or less on the anxiousseat, till it did get dark. Then we turned sharp to the left and gainedhigh ground once more, congratulating ourselves on so easily getting outof a ticklish place. If we hadn't moved up on Bevans they might havesurrounded us before we got wind of them. But we'd beaten them fairly,and so we looked back through the dark and laughed; though I'm sure wehad no particular cause for merriment.