CHAPTER XIII.--HOT AIR SUE.
A heated argument was taking place.
"Go on, Hot Air Sue and mind your own business. You are too full ofcuriosity. I tell you I found this girl here. She had run away fromhome."
"Umph! Umph! Hawkeseye big lie. Hawkeseye always big lie!"
"Woman, will you be quiet. Do you want to make big money. Father richman, see? He pay big money to get girl back. Hot Air Sue make much gold.Hot Air Sue have necklace and fine new dress."
"Umph! Umph!"
"If I promise to take you, will you keep quiet?"
"Umph! Umph!"
Billie's wandering mind had returned to its dwelling place but she stillkept her eyes closed even when she felt two strong arms lift her up andplace her on a seat which seemed almost familiar. She half opened hereyes and looked through the lashes. She was in an automobile, but it wasnot the Comet.
"Get in, Sue. Sit here and hold her beside you. I'll run the car."
Evidently there were only two seats to the motor car. Billie wassqueezed into a seat beside the woman and while the peddler, Indian, orwhatever he was, was cranking up the machine she opened her eyes andlooked straight into the little pig eyes of a fat Indian squaw.
"Shut eyes," whispered Hot Air Sue and Billie promptly closed themagain, feeling suddenly very wide awake and alert.
Presently they were moving smoothly and silently over the prairie. Theautomobile was a very fast one and the wind raised by the swift motionhad a reviving, refreshing effect on the exhausted girl.
"Water and food," she whispered into the ear of Hot Air Sue.
"Umph!" grunted the squaw. "Girl ver' sick," she said to Hawkes. "Musthave water and bread."
The man stopped the car and from under the seat drew forth a box ofcrackers and a bottle of water. Billie ate some of the crackers anddrank deeply from a tin cup of the water. She never stopped to think ofhow clean the cup was or where the sandwich had come from.
Then she laid her head on the Indian woman's breast and pretended to goback to sleep.
"Where going?" she heard Hot Air Sue ask.
"Across the border," he said. "Into Colorado. We'll get there byevening."
The air was beginning to have a cool feeling. They had left the plainsabruptly behind them and were nearing the mountains.
"I must get back tonight," said Billie to herself. "Cousin Helen willdie of heart failure if I don't."
Although her body was exhausted, her mind was clear and with her eyesclosed, she was able to think connectedly and deeply. "I am beingkidnapped," her thoughts continued. "Hot Air Sue is my friend and willsave me if she possibly can. The trouble is we haven't any money betweenus, I suppose."
Once after a long time they stopped and Hawkes jumped out and examinedone of the tires.
"Sue save young lady," whispered the old Indian woman. "Sue not afraid.Don't wake up."
The man came and stood at the side of the car and looked into Billie'sface.
"Hot Air Sue good old girl," he said. "Hot Air Sue won't be sorry shehelped Hawkeseye. Give me water bottle. Hawkeseye get water. Hot Air Suelook after girl. She mustn't run away. No money, no girl."
"Umph! umph!" grunted the woman. "Sue would get water for young chief,but Sue must hold girl."
Hawkeseye took the bottle and started down to a spring which bubbled outof the rocks at the foot of a small precipice at one side of the road.
Billie watched him as he leaped nimbly from one rock to another. Thenwith one flying leap she was out of the machine and had cranked it up.At the sound of the motor the man looked up quickly, dropped the bottlewith a crash of broken glass and began to run up the cliff. It was adifficult place in which to turn, and Billie was obliged to go backwarddown a narrow road, but the young girl kept her head and moved themachine slowly and deliberately.
"Hawkeseye come runnin'," said the Indian woman. "White girl hurry."
Another moment and they were headed in the other direction, butHawkeseye had reached them. With a bound he seized the back of themachine and was lifting himself on his elbows.
Instantly Hot Air Sue whipped out a knife which she had hidden somewherein the depths of her shawl, and slashed him across the wrist. With ayell of fury the man fell backward and lay on the ground. Billie gaveone glance over her shoulder. Never had she felt so deliberately andcruelly cold-blooded as at that moment. If Buckthorne Hawkes' back hadbeen broken she would have gone on just the same. But it was not broken,for a second glance showed him crawling to the side of the road.
"I'm at Steptoe Lodge. Do you know where that is?" she asked Hot AirSue, who was regarding her efforts at running the motor car with stolidadmiration.
"Steptoe Lodge thirty miles away."
"Thirty miles? That's nothing," replied Billie cheerfully. "Is this theright road?"
"This is first right road. This road wrong later."
"You mean we take another road that branches off from this?"
"Umph!"
"Will you tell me when we get to it?"
"Hot Air Sue tell everything. Hot Air Sue talk much. That's why cowboyscall her 'Hot Air.'"
Billie laughed. Was it possible she had been dying of thirst in thedesert only a few hours before, and here she was exhilarated and almostshouting with joy over her escape; riding with Hot Air Sue in aperfectly strange automobile. But was it perfectly strange? She leanedover and looked at the color as they sped along. It was gray. It was aracing car and it was built for two.
"Hawkeseye bad man. Hawkeseye call himself school-teacher. He badIndian," went on Sue. "He no teacher. He thief. He no Indian, either. Heonly half Indian. That's why Hawkeseye bad man. All white or all redbetter."
"Hawkeseye steals automobiles," said Billie.
"Umph! Umph! His sisters, they spoil Hawkeseye. They work to send him toschool and give him fine clothes."
"Has he got another sister?"
"Hawkeseye got two sisters--Rosina and Maria."
"The illustrious Hawkes family," said Billie to herself. "Well-known inthe West. I think the most dangerous member of that family had better belocked up."
The first stars were just coming into view when Billie drew up in frontof Steptoe Lodge, but in all that big ranch house only two human beingswere there to greet her--Miss Helen Campbell and the Chinese cook.
Seizing a trumpet made of a cow's horn the Chinaman rushed to the top ofthe house and blew half a dozen blasts that resounded over the prairielike the call of the wild huntsman, and in fifteen minutes from everydirection horses and ponies bearing cowboy riders were dashing acrossthe plains toward the Lodge. But far more amazing to Billie was thesight of her own red Comet hastening eagerly toward her, and at thewheel sat Mary, clever little pupil that she was, and in the back seatwere Elinor and Nancy crying and calling and waving their handkerchiefsall at once.
Miss Campbell had been completely prostrated. She was in bed with a wettowel around her head and her eyes were red with weeping. Billie alsowas put to bed and fed by her devoted friends with hot soup and drytoast. She was more exhausted than she cared to admit, and it was HotAir Sue, with her talent for inexhaustible conversation, who madeexplanations to the household of Steptoe Lodge.
The next morning two men arrived at the Lodge. They bore a warrant forthe arrest of one, Buckthorne Hawkes, automobile thief. But BuckthorneHawkes was not to be found. However, they confiscated the gray racingcar, and the girls knew that Peter Van Vechten was once more inpossession of his property.