crept overand put her mouth to my ear.
"That may be Muldoon all right," she whispered. "But if it is he's got awife and two children. Mrs. Muldoon is related to Hannah."
IV
Somehow, with the morning our suspicions, if we had any, vanished. Mr.Muldoon had been up at dawn, and when we wakened he had already broughtwater from a near-by spring and was boiling some in the teakettle.
Seen by daylight, he was very good-looking. He had blue eyes with blacklashes and dark-brown hair, and a habit of getting up when any of us didthat kept him on his feet most of the time. His limp was ratherbetter--or his ankle.
"That's what a little mothering has done for me," he said gayly, overhis coffee and mackerel. "It's a long time since I've had any one to doanything like that for me."
"But surely your wife----" began Tish. He started and changed color. Weall saw it.
"My wife!"
"You've got a wife and two children, haven't you?"
He looked at us all and drew a long breath.
"Ladies," he said, "I see some of my painful history is known to you.May I ask--is it too much to beg--that--that we do not discuss thatpart of my life?"
Tish apologized at once. We could not tell, from what he said, whetherhe had been divorced or had lost them all from scarlet fever. Whicheverit was, I must say he was not depressed for very long, although he hadreason enough for depression, as we soon learned.
"It's like this," he said. "They know I'm here in the glen--the outlaws,I mean. The red-bearded man, Naysmith, has sworn to get me."
"Get you?" from Aggie.
"Shoot me. The other three all owe me grudges, too, but Naysmith's theworst. He's just out of the pen--I got him a ten-year sentence for thisvery thing, robbing an express car."
"Ten years!" I exclaimed. "You look as if you hadn't shaved in tenyears!"
He looked at me and smiled.
"I'm older than you think," he said, "and, anyhow, he got a lot off forgood behavior. It's outrageous, the discount that's given to a criminalfor behaving himself. He got--I think I am right when I say--yes, he wassent up in '07--he got seven years off his sentence."
We all thought that this was a grave mistake, and Tish, whose father wasonce warden of the penitentiary, observed that there was nothing likethat in old times, and she would write to the governor about it. Tishhas written to the governor several times, the last occasion being therise in price of brooms.
"It's like this," said Mr. Muldoon. "They've got the glen guarded.There's a man at each end and the rest are covering the hilltops. Asquirrel couldn't get out without their knowledge. I might have before Igot this leg, but now I'm done for."
"Oh, no!" we chorused.
"It amounts to that," he said dejectedly. "They've been watching youwomen and they're not afraid of you. As long as I stay in the cave hereI'm safe enough, but let me poke my nose out and I'm gone. It's an awfulthing to have to hide behind a woman's petticoats!"
We could only silently sympathize.
It was bright and clear that day. The sun came out and dried the roadbelow. It would have been a wonderful day to go on, but none of usthought of it. As Tish said, here was a chance to assist the law and afellow being in peril of his life. Our place was there.
Even had we doubted Mr. Muldoon's story, we had proof of it before noon.A man with a gun came out on a ledge of rock across the valley andstood, with his hands to his eyes, peering across at our cave. Tish washanging some of our clothing out to dry, and although she saw the outlawas well as we did she did not flinch. After a time the man seemedsatisfied and disappeared.
Tish came into the cave then and took a spoonful of blackberry cordial.As we knew, her intrepid spirit had not quailed; but, as she said, one'sbody is never as strong as one's soul. Her knees were shaking.
We put in a quiet and restful afternoon. Mr. Muldoon had a pack of cardswith him and we played whist. He played a very fair game, but he was onthe alert all the time. At every sound he started, and once or twice heslipped out into the thicket and searched the glen in every directionwith his eyes.
He had asked us, if the outlaws surprised us, to say that he was Tish'snephew, Charlie Sands, and to stick to it. "Unless it's Naysmith," hesaid. "He knows me." From that to calling us Aunt Tish, Aunt Aggie andAunt Lizzie was very easy. At four o'clock we stopped playing, with Mr.Muldoon easily the winner, and Aggie made fudge for everybody.
Late in the afternoon Tish called me aside. She said she did not wantMr. Muldoon to feel that he was a burden, but that we were almost out ofprovisions. We had expected to buy eggs, milk and bread at farmhouses,and instead we had been shut up in the cave. She thought there was afarm up the glen, having heard a cow-bell, and she wanted me to go andfind out.
"Go yourself!" I said somewhat rudely. "If you want to be shot down inyour tracks by outlaws, well and good. I don't."
Aggie, called aside, refused as firmly as I had. Tish stood and lookedat us both with her lip curling.
"Very well," she said coldly; "I shall go. But if I get my neuralgiaagain from wading through the creek bottom don't blame me!"
She put on her overshoes and, taking a tin bucket for milk and hertrusty rifle, she started while Mr. Muldoon was showing Aggie a new gameof solitaire. I went to the cave mouth with her and listened to thecrackling of twigs as she slid down into the valley. She came into viewat the bottom much sooner than I had expected, having, as I learnedlater, slipped on a loose stone and rolled fully half the way down.
The next two hours seemed endless. Mr. Muldoon, tiring of solitaire, hadrolled himself up in a corner and was peacefully sleeping, with hisinjured foot on Aggie's hop pillow. Aggie and I sat on guard, one oneach side of the cave mouth, and stared down at the valley, which wasdarkening rapidly.
Tish had been gone two hours and a half and no sign of her, when Aggiebegan to cry softly.
"She'll never come back!" she whimpered. "The outlaws have got her andkilled her. Oh, Tish, Tish!"
"Why would they kill her?" I demanded. "Because she's trying to buy milkand eggs?"
"B-because she knows too much," Aggie wailed. "We've found their lair,that's why--don't tell me this isn't an outlaw's cave. It's just b-builtfor it. They'll do away with her and then they'll come after us."
Aggie never carries a secret weight in her bosom. She always opens upher heart to the nearest listener. This probably relieves Aggie, but itdoes not make her a cheerful companion. Eight o'clock and darkness came,and still no Tish. I went into the cave and brought out my gun, andAggie roused Mr. Muldoon and explained the situation to him. He grewquite white.
"Good heavens!" he exclaimed. "What possessed her anyhow? To thefarmhouse! Why, they'll----"
His face more than his words convinced us that the matter was reallyserious. He examined Aggie's revolver, which he mostly carried in hiship pocket, and, going to the mouth of the cave, listened carefully.Everything was quiet. The cave and both sides of the valley were in deepshadow, but over the ridge of the Camel's Back across from us there wasstill a streak of red sunset light. Mr. Muldoon looked and pointed.
Against the background of crimson cloud a man's figure stood outclearly. He was peering down toward us, although in the dusk he couldhardly have seen us, and he carried a gun. Mr. Muldoon smiled faintly.
"Well, they've spotted me, I guess," he said. "I'd better move on beforeI get you into trouble. They won't hurt women."
"Why don't you shoot him?" Aggie asked. "It would be one bandit less. Ifyou do arrest him, and he gets nearly all his sentence off for goodbehavior, he'll be out again in no time, doing more mischief."
But at that moment we saw the man on the hill throw his gun to hisshoulder and aim at something moving below in the valley. Aggiescreamed, and I believe I did also.
"Tish!" cried Aggie. "He's shooting at Tish!" And at that instant thebandit fired. He fired three times, and the noise of his gun echoedbackward and forward among the hills. We thought we heard a yell from,the valley. Then the next second there was a fai
nt crack from below andthe outlaw's gun flew out of his hands. Mr. Muldoon's jaw dropped. "Didyou see that?" he said feebly. "Did--you--see--that--shot?"
The outlaw disappeared from the skyline and perhaps ten minutes laterTish crawled up to the cave and put down a tin pail full of milk, aglass of jelly wrapped in a newspaper, and a basket of eggs. Aggie fellon her and cried with joy.
"Be careful of those eggs," Tish warned her. "That outlaw charged meforty cents a dozen."
"You gave him a good fright anyhow," said Aggie fondly.
"Fright?"
"When you shot at him."
"Oh, that one! I'm talking about the woman at the farm."
"And--the one on the hill over there?"
"Oh! Well, he fired at me and I fired back. That's all."
With an air of exaggerated indifference Tish swaggered into the cave andtook off her overshoes.
"Hurry up supper, Ag," she said--never before or since has she calledAggie "Ag"--"I'm starving."
She said she had heard little or nothing. She had found the farmhouse,had bought her supplies from a surly woman and had come away again.Asked by Mr. Muldoon if she had seen any men, she said she had seen afarmhand milking. That was all, except the outlaw on the hill.
But under her calmness Tish was terribly excited. I could tell it by herglittering eyes and the red spot in each cheek. Manlike, Mr. Muldoon didnot see these signs; he ate very little and sat watching her,fascinated. Only once, however, did he broach the subject.
"I had no idea you were such a shot, Miss Letitia," he said. "It--thatwas a marvel."
"Oh, I shoot a little," said Tish coolly. "Only for my own amusement, ofcourse."
Mr. Muldoon made no reply. He was very thoughtful all evening, did notcare to play whist, and watched Tish whenever he could, furtively.
Tish herself was in an exalted mood, but not about the shot--she wasmodest enough about that.
And with cause. Months after she told us how it happened. She said shewas carrying the eggs and milk with her left hand and had the gun in herright, when a shot struck a tree beside her. She was so startled thather finger pulled the trigger of her own rifle, which was pointed up,with the result we know of. She would probably never have confessed eventhen, had she not taken rheumatic fever and thought she was dying.
When Mr. Muldoon went out to fix Modestine for the night Tish called usto the back of the cave.
"I bought the milk and eggs," she said hurriedly, "and having a dimeleft--your missionary dime, Aggie, I borrowed it--I went back and boughta glass of jelly. Men like preserves. The woman wrapped it in anewspaper, and there is a full account of the robbery and of Muldoonbeing after the outlaws. He's after the outlaws, but he's after thereward too. They're quoted at a thousand dollars!"
"He can have the thousand dollars for all of me," said Aggie.
"A thousand dollars!" said Tish. "A thousand dollars to hand in to thechurch as the return from your missionary dime! And if we don't get itMuldoon will! As soon as he can get about on his leg he'll cease beinghunted and begin to hunt. Why should he have it? He has plenty ofchances, and we'll never have another."
That was all she had a chance to say, Muldoon joining us at that moment.
We retired early, but I did not sleep well. I wakened from time to timeand I could hear Tish stirring next to me. At last I reached over andtouched her.
"Can't you sleep?" I whispered.
"Don't want to," she whispered back. "I've got it all fixed, Lizzie.We'll take those outlaws back to the city, roped two by two."
It was a cool spring night, but I broke into a hot perspiration.
V
Tish began with Mr. Muldoon the next morning. He could not leave thecave to carry up water, for daylight revealed another guard across thevalley and it was clear we were being watched. While Aggie and I went tothe spring Tish talked to him.
She told him that he had undertaken too much, single-handed, and that heshould have brought a posse with him. He agreed with her. He said he hadstarted with a posse, but that they had split up. Also he insisted thatbut for his accident he could have managed easily.
"I'm up against it," he said, "and I know it. They'll get me yet. Forthe last day or two they've been closing up round this cave, and in anight or two they'll rush it. They've got their headquarters at thatfarmhouse."
"The thing for you to do then," said Tish, "is to get out while there istime. You can get help and come back."
"And leave you women here alone?"
"They're not after us," Tish replied, "and we've managed alone for agood many years. I guess we'll get along."
But when she proposed her plan, which was that he should put on Aggie'sspare outfit and her sun veil and ride out of the valley on Modestine'sback in daylight, he objected. He said no outlaw worthy of the namewould fall for a thing like that, and he said he wouldn't wear skirts,and that was all there was to it.
But in the end Tish prevailed, as usual.
"I'm going to the farmhouse this morning and I am going to say that oneof the ladies is leaving this afternoon and going back home. That willbe you. I wish you had a razor, but the veil will hide that. They'll notmolest you. You'll not only look like Aggie--you'll be Aggie."
Well, it seemed to be his best chance, although none of us dared tothink what might happen if the hat blew off or Aggie's gray alpacaripped at the seams.
We worked feverishly all day, letting out the dress and setting forwardthe buttons on her raincoat. Mr. Muldoon was inclined to be sulky. Hesat at the back of the cave, playing solitaire and every now and thenexamining the road maps. Aggie was depressed too. But, as Tish said,getting rid of Muldoon was the first step toward the thousand dollars,and even if Aggie never got her gray alpaca again it had seen its bestdays.
That morning, while Aggie and I sewed and ripped and Mr. Muldoon satback in the cave with the road map on his knees, Tish went to thefarmhouse. She came back at eleven o'clock with a chicken for dinner anda flush on each cheek.
"I've fixed it, Mr. Muldoon," she said. "I talked to one of theoutlaws!"
"What?" screeched Aggie.
"He'd come in for something to eat--the red-bearded one. We had quite achat. I told him we were traveling like Stevenson--with a donkey; butthat one of the ladies had an abscess on a tooth and was going home. Hesaid it was no place for women and offered himself as an escort."
Mr. Muldoon groaned. "What am I going to do if one of them comes up andmakes an ass of himself?" he demanded. "Kiss him?"
Tish looked at him coldly.
"You'll have your jaw tied up," she said. "That will cover your chin,and you needn't speak. Point to your jaw. Anyhow, they'll not botheryou. I said the toothache had affected your disposition, and we werejust as glad you were going. The red-haired man says he's got relativesnear the mouth of the valley and you can stay there overnight. One ofthe men folks pulls teeth in emergencies."
It is hard, writing all this of Tish, to remember that she has alwaysbeen a truthful woman. As Charlie Sands said later, when we told him thestory and he had sat, open-mouthed, staring from one to the other of us,no one knows what depths of mendacity lie behind the most virtuouscountenance.
We started "Aggie" off at two o'clock that afternoon, sitting sidewayson Modestine, jaw tied up, veiled and sun-hatted, with Aggie'sflowered-silk bag hanging to one wrist and a lunch-basket on the otherarm. Tish and I saw "her" down the hill and kissed "her" good-by.
This was Tish's idea. I thought it unnecessary, but as a matter of fact,no matter what Charlie Sands may say, it was not a real kiss, going asit did through a veil and a bandage.
The man with a gun watched "her" off, and Tish, having waved "her" outof sight round a curve, looked up at him and nodded. Far away as he was,he saw that and swept his hat off with quite an air.
* * * * *
Tish's plan was very simple. She told us as we cleared up the cave afterthe day's excitement.
"When I go for the evening milk," s
he said, "I shall mention that wehave a young man with us, a stranger, who has hurt his ankle and cannotwalk. And I'll ask for arnica. That's all."
"That's all!" Aggie and I exclaimed together.
"Certainly that's all. Sometime tonight they'll rush the cave."
"You're a fool!" said Aggie shortly.
"Why?" demanded Tish. "We won't be in it. We'll be outside. The momentthey are in we'll start to shoot. Not one of them will dare to stick hisnose out."
When we told this to Charlie Sands he slid entirely off his chair andsat on the floor. "Not really!" he kept saying over and over. "Youdreamed it! You must have! A thing like that!" I hastened to explain."Tish planned it," I said. I remember him, looking at Tish--who wascrocheting as she told the story--and moistening his lips. He was quitegreen in color.
VI
Clipping from the _Morning News_ of May the seventh:
SHERIFF AMBUSHED
REMARKABLE EXPERIENCE OF MULDOON AND PARTY IN THUNDER CLOUD