CHAPTER 18. PLAYING FOR TIME
"They've got 'em. Caught them on Dry Creek, just below Green Forks."
Helen Messiter, just finishing her breakfast at the hotel preparatory toleaving in her machine for the ranch, laid down her knife and fork andlooked with dilated eyes at Denver, who had broken in with the news.
"Are you sure?" The color had washed from her face and left her verywhite, but she fronted the situation quietly without hysterics or fussof any kind.
"Yes, ma'am. They're bringing them in now to jail. Watch out and y'u'llsee them pass here in a few minutes. Seems that Bannister's wound openedup on him and he couldn't go any farther. Course Mac wouldn't leavehim. Sheriff Burns and his posse dropped in on them and had them coveredbefore Mac could chirp."
"You are sure this man--this desperado Bannister--will do nothing tillnight?"
"Not the way I figure it. He'll have the jail watched all day. But he'sgot to work the town up to a lynching. I expect the bars will be freefor all to-day. By night the worst part of this town will be ready foranything. The rest of the citizens are going to sit down and do nothingjust because it is Bannister."
"But it isn't Bannister--not the Bannister they think it is."
He shook his head. "No use, ma'am. I've talked till my throat aches, butit don't do a mite of good. Nobody believes a word of what I say. Y'usee, we ain't got any proof."
"Proof! We have enough, God knows! didn't this villain--this outlaw thatcalls himself Jack Holloway--attack and try to murder him?"
"That's what we believe, but the report out is that one of us punchersshot him up for crossing the dead-line."
"Didn't this fellow hold up the ranch and try to take Ned Bannister awaywith him?"
"Yes, ma'am. But that doesn't look good to most people. They say he hadhis friends come to take him away so y'u wouldn't hold him and let usboys get him. This cousin business is a fairy tale the way they size itup. How come this cousin to let him go if he held up the ranch to putthe sick man out of business? No, miss. This country has made up itsmind that your friend is the original Ned Bannister. My opinion is thatnothing on earth can save him."
"I don't want your opinion. I'm going to save him, I tell you; and youare going to help. Are his friends nothing but a bunch of quitters?" shecried, with sparkling eyes.
"I didn't know I was such a great friend of his," answered the cowboysulkily.
"You're a friend of Jim McWilliams, aren't you? Are you going to sneakaway and let these curs hang him?"
Denver flushed. "Y'u're dead right, Miss Helen. I guess I'll see it outwith you. What's the orders?"
"I want you to help me organize a defense. Get all Mac's friends stirredup to make a fight for him. Bring as many of them in to see me duringthe day as you can. If you see any of the rest of the Lazy D boys sendthem in to me for instructions. Report yourself every hour to me. Andmake sure that at least three of your friends that you can trust arehanging round the jail all day so as to be ready in case any attempt ismade to storm it before dark."
"I'll see to it." Denver hung on his heel a moment before leaving. "It'sonly square to tell y'u, Miss Helen, that this means war here tonight.These streets are going to run with blood if we try to save them."
"I'm taking that responsibility," she told him curtly; but a momentlater she added gently: "I have a plan, my friend, that may stop thisoutrage yet. But you must do your best for me." She smiled sadly at him."You're my foreman, to-day, you know."
"I'm going to do my level best, y'u may tie to that," he told herearnestly.
"I know you will." And their fingers touched for an instant.
Through a window the girl could see a crowd pouring down the streettoward the hotel. She flew up the stairs and out upon the second-storypiazza that looked down upon the road.
From her point of vantage she easily picked them out--the two unarmedmen riding with their hands tied behind their backs, encircled by adozen riders armed to the teeth. Bannister's hat had apparently fallenoff farther down the street, for the man beside him was dusting it. Thewounded prisoner looked about him without fear, but it was plain he wasnear the limit of endurance. He was pale as a sheet, and his fair curlsclung moistly to his damp forehead.
McWilliams caught sight of her first, and she could see him turn andsay a word to his comrade. Bannister looked up, caught sight of her, andsmiled. That smile, so pale and wan, went to her heart like a knife. Butthe message of her eyes was hope. They told the prisoners silently to beof good cheer, that at least they were not deserted to their fate.
"What is it about--the crowd?" Nora asked of her mistress as the latterwas returning to the head of the stairs.
In as few words as she could Helen told her, repressing sharply thetears the girl began to shed. "This is not the time to weep--not yet.We must save them. You can do your part. Mr. Bannister is wounded. Geta doctor over the telephone and see that he attends him at the prison.Don't leave the 'phone until you have got one to promise to goimmediately."
"Yes, miss. Is there anything else?"
"Ask the doctor to call you up from the prison and tell you how Mr.Bannister is. Make it plain to him that he is to give up his otherpractice, if necessary, and is to keep us informed through the day abouthis patient's condition. I will be responsible for his bill."
Helen herself hurried to the telegraph office at the depot. She wroteout a long dispatch and handed it to the operator. "Send this at onceplease."
He was one of those supercilious young idiots that make the most of suchsmall power as ever drifts down to them. Taking the message, he tossedit on the table. "I'll send it when I get time."
"You'll send it now."
"What--what's that?"
Her steady eyes caught and held his shifting ones. "I say you are goingto send it now--this very minute."
"I guess not. The line's busy," he bluffed.
"If you don't begin sending that message this minute I'll make it mybusiness to see that you lose your position," she told him calmly.
He snatched up the paper from the place where he had tossed it. "Oh,well, if it's so darned important," he-conceded ungraciously.
She stood quietly above him while he sent the telegram, even though hecontrived to make every moment of her stay an unvoiced insult. Herwire was to the wife of the Governor of the State. They had been closefriends at school, and the latter had been urging Helen to pay a visitto Cheyenne. The message she sent was as follows:
Battle imminent between outlaws and cattlemen here. Bloodshed certainto-night. My foreman last night killed in self-defense a desperado.Bannister's gang, in league with town authorities, mean to lynch himand one of my other friends after dark this evening. Sheriff will donothing. Can your husband send soldiers immediately? Wire answer.
The operator looked up sullenly after his fingers had finished the lasttap. "Well?"
"Just one thing more," Helen told him. "You understand the rules of thecompany about secrecy. Nobody you knows I am sending this message. If byany chance it should leak out, I shall know through whom. If you want tohold your position, you will keep quiet."
"I know my business," he growled. Nevertheless, she had spoken inseason, for he had had it in his mind to give a tip where he knewit would be understood to hasten the jail delivery and accompanyinglynching.
When she returned to the hotel? Helen found Missou waiting for her.She immediately sent him back to the office, and told him to wait thereuntil the answer was received. "I'll send one of the boys up to relieveyou so that you may come with the telegram as soon as it arrives. Iwant the operator watched all day. Oh, here's Jim Henson! Denver hasexplained the situation to you, I presume. I want you to go up to thetelegraph office and stay there all day. Go to lunch with the operatorwhen he goes. Don't let him talk privately to anybody, not even for afew seconds. I don't want you to seem to have him under guard beforeoutsiders, but let him know it very plainly. He is not to mention a wireI sent or the answer to it--not to anybody, Jim. Is that plain?"
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"Y'u bet! He's a clam, all right, till the order is countermanded." Andthe young man departed with a cheerful grin that assured Helen she hadnothing to fear from official leaks.
Nora, from answering a telephone call, came to report to the generalin charge. "The doctor says that he has looked after Mr. Bannister, andthere is no immediate danger. If he keeps quiet for a few days he oughtto do well. Mr. McWilliams sent a message by him to say that we aren'tto worry about him. He said he would--would--rope a heap of cows on theLazy D yet."
Nora, bursting into tears, flung herself into Helen's arms. "They aregoing to kill him. I know they are, and--and 'twas only yesterday,ma'am, I told him not to--to get gay, the poor boy. When he triedto--to--" She broke down and sobbed.
Her mistress smiled in spite of herself, though she was bitterly awarethat even Nora's grief was only superficially ludicrous.
"We're going to save him, Nora, if we can. There's hope while there'slife. You see, Mac himself is full of courage. HE hasn't given up. Wemust keep up our courage, too."
"Yes, ma'am, but this is the first gentleman friend I ever had hanged,and--" She broke off, sobbing, leaving the rest as a guess.
Helen filled it out aloud. "And you were going to say that you care morefor him than any of the others. Well, you must stop coquetting and tellhim so when we have saved him."
"Yes, ma'am," agreed Nora, very repentant for the moment of the factthat it was her nature to play with the hearts of those of themale persuasion. Immediately she added: "He was THAT kind, ma'am,tender-hearted."
Helen, whose own heart was breaking, continued to soothe her. "Don't sayWAS, child. You are to be brave, and not think of him that way."
"Yes, ma'am. He told me he was going to buy cows with the thousanddollars he won yesterday. I knew he meant--"
"Yes, of course. It's a cowboy's way of saying that he means to starthousekeeping. Have you the telegram, Missou?" For that young man wasstanding in the doorway.
He handed her the yellow slip. She ripped open the envelope and read:Company B en route. Railroad connections uncertain Postpone crisis longas possible. May reach Gimlet Butte by ten-thirty.
Her first thought was of unspeakable relief. The militia was going totake a hand. The boys in khaki would come marching down the street, andeverything would be all right. But hard on the heels of her instinctivegladness trod the sober second thought. Ten-thirty at best, and perhapslater! Would they wait that long, or would they do their cowardly workas soon as night fell She must contrive to delay them till the traindrew in. She must play for those two lives with all her woman's wit;must match the outlaw's sinister cunning and fool him into delay. Sheknew he would come if she sent for him. But how long could she keephim? As long as he was amused at her agony, as long as his pleasure intormenting her was greater than his impatience to be at his ruffianlywork. Oh, if she ever needed all her power it would be to-night.
Throughout the day she continued to receive hourly reports from Denver,who always brought with him four or five honest cowpunchers fromup-country to listen to the strange tale she unfolded to them. It was,of course, in part, the spell of her sweet personality, of that shyappeal she made to the manhood in them; but of those who came, nearlyall believed, for the time at least, and aligned themselves on her sidein the struggle that was impending. Some of these were swayed from theirallegiance in the course of the day, but a few she knew would remaintrue.
Meanwhile, all through the day, the enemy was busily at work. As Denverhad predicted, free liquor was served to all who would drink. Thetown and its guests were started on a grand debauch that was to end inviolence that might shock their sober intelligence. Everywhere poisonedwhispers were being flung broadcast against the two men waiting in thejail for what the night would bring forth.
Dusk fell on a town crazed by bad whiskey and evil report. The deeds ofBannister were hashed and rehashed at every bar, and nobody related themwith more ironic gusto than the man who called himself Jack Holloway.There were people in town who knew his real name and character, but ofthese the majority were either in alliance with him or dared not voicetheir knowledge. Only Miss Messiter and her punchers told the truth, andtheir words were blown away like chaff.
From the first moment of darkness Helen had the outlaw leader dogged bytwo of her men. Since neither of these were her own riders this wasdone without suspicion. At intervals of every quarter of an hour theyreported to her in turn. Bannister was beginning to drink heavily, andshe did not want to cut short his dissipation by a single minute. Yetshe had to make sure of getting his attention before he went too far.
It was close to nine when she sent him a note, not daring to delay aminute longer. For the reports of her men were all to the same effect,that the crisis would not now be long postponed. Bannister, or Holloway,as he chose to call himself, was at the bar with his lieutenants in evilwhen the note reached him. He read it with a satisfaction he could notconceal. So! He had brought her already to her knees. Before he wasthrough with her she should grovel in the dust before him.
"I'll be back in a few minutes. Do nothing till I return," he ordered,and went jingling away to the Elk House.
The young woman's anxiety was pitiable, but she repressed it sternlywhen she went to meet the man she feared; and never had it been more inevidence than in this hour of her greatest torture. Blithely she cameforward to meet him, eye challenging eye gayly. No hint of her anguishescaped into her manner. He read there only coquetry, the eternal sexconflict, the winsome defiance of a woman hitherto the virgin mistressof all assaults upon her heart's citadel. It was the last thing he hadexpected to see, but it was infinitely more piquant, more intoxicating,than desperation. She seemed to give the lie to his impression of herlove for his cousin; and that, too, delighted his pride.
"You will sit down?"
Carelessly, almost indolently, she put the question, her raised eyebrowsindicating a chair with perfunctory hospitality. He had not meant tosit, had expected only to gloat a few minutes over her despair; butthis situation called for more deliberation. He had yet to establish themastery his vanity demanded. Therefore he took a chair.
"This is ce'tainly an unexpected honor. Did y'u send for me to explainsome more about that sufficient understanding between us?" he sneered.
It was a great relief to her to see that, though he had been drinking,as she had heard, he was entirely master of himself. Her efforts mightstill be directed to Philip sober.
"I sent for you to congratulate you," she answered, with a smile. "Youare a bigger man than I thought. You have done what you said you woulddo, and I presume you can very shortly go out of mourning."
He radiated vanity, seemed to visibly expand "Do y'u go in when I goout?" he asked brutally.
She laughed lightly. "Hardly. But it does seem as if I'm unlucky in myforemen. They all seem to have engagements across the divide."
"I'll get y u another."
"Thank you. I was going to ask as much of you. Can you suggest one now?"
"I'm a right good cattle man myself."
"And--can you stay with me a reasonable time?"
He laughed. "I have no engagements across the Styx, ma'am."
"My other foremen thought they were permanent fixtures here, too."
"We're all liable to mistakes."
"Even you, I suppose."
"I'll sign a lease to give y'u possession of my skill for as long as y'ulike."
She settled herself comfortably back in an easy chair, as alluring apicture of buoyant, radiant youth as he had seen in many a day. "But theterms. I am afraid I can't offer you as much as you make at your presentoccupation."
"I could keep that up as a side-line."
"So you could. But if you use my time for your own profit, you ought topay me a royalty on your intake."
His eyes lit with laughter. "I reckon that can be arranged. Anypercentage you think fair It will all be in the family, anyway."
"I think that is one of the things about which we don't agree,"
she madeanswer softly, flashing him the proper look of inviting disdain fromunder her silken lashes.
He leaned forward, elbow on the chair-arm and chin in hand. "We'll agreeabout it one of these days."
"Think so?" she returned airily.
"I don't think. I know."
Just an eyebeat her gaze met his, with that hint of shy questioning, ofpuzzled doubt that showed a growing interest. "I wonder," she murmured,and recovered herself little laugh.
How she hated her task, and him! She was a singularly honest woman, butshe must play the siren; must allure this scoundrel to forgetfulness,with a hurried and yet elude the very familiarity her manner invited.She knew her part, the heartless enticing coquette, compounded halfof passion and half of selfishness. It was a hateful thing to do, thissacrifice of her personal reticence, of the individual abstraction inwhich she wrapped herself as a cloak, in order to hint at a possibilityof some intimacy of feeling between them. She shrank from it with arepugnance hardly to be overcome, but she held herself with an iron willand consummate art to the role she had undertaken. Two lives hung onher success. She must not forget that. She would not let herself forgetthat--and one of them that of the man she loved.
So, bravely she played her part, repelling always with a hint ofinvitation, denying with the promise in her fascinated eyes of ultimatesurrender to his ardor. In the zest of the pursuit the minutes slippedaway unnoticed. Never had a woman seemed to him more subtly elusive, andnever had he felt more sure of himself. Her charm grew on him, stirredhis pulses to a faster beat. For it was his favorite sport, and thiswarm, supple young creature, who was to be the victim of his bow andarrow, showed herself worthy of his mettle.
The clock downstairs struck the half-hour, and Bannister, reminded ofwhat lay before him outside, made a move to go. Her alert eyes had beenexpecting it, and she forestalled him by a change of tactics. Movedapparently by impulse, she seated herself on the piano-stool, swept thekeys for an instant with her fingers, and plunged into the brilliant"Carmen" overture. Susceptible as this man was to the influence ofmusic, he could not fail to be arrested by so perfect an interpretationof his mood. He stood rooted, was carried back again in imagination toa great artiste's rendering of that story of fierce passion and achingdesire so brilliantly enacted under the white sunbeat of a countryof cloudless skies. Imperceptibly she drifted into other parts of theopera. Was it the wild, gypsy seductiveness of _Carmen_ that he felt,or, rather, this American girl's allurement? From "Love will like abirdling fly" she slipped into the exquisitely graceful snatches of songwith which _Carmen_ answers the officer's questions. Their rare buoyancymarched with his mood, and from them she carried him into the song"Over the hill," that is so perfect and romantic an expression of the_wanderlust._
How long she could have held him she will never know, for at thatinopportune time came blundering one of his men into the room with acall for his presence to take charge of the situation outside.
"What do y'u want, Bostwick?" he demanded, with curt peremptoriness.
The man whispered in his ear.
"Can't wait any longer, can't they?" snapped his chief. "Y'u tell themthey'll wait till I give the word. Understand?"
He almost flung the man out of the room, but Helen noticed that she hadlost him. His interest was perfunctory, and, though he remained a littletime longer, it was to establish his authority with the men rather thanto listen to her. Twice he looked at his watch within five minutes.
He rose to go. "There is a little piece of business I have to putthrough. So I'll have to ask y'u to excuse me. I have had a delightfulhour, and I hate to go." He smiled, and quoted with mock sentimentality:
"The hours I spent with thee, dear heart, Are as a string of pearls tome; I count them over, every one apart, My rosary! My rosary!"
"Dear me! One certainly lives and learns. How could I have guessed that,with your reputation, you could afford to indulge in a rosary?" shemocked.
"Good night." He offered his hand.
"Don't go yet," she coaxed.
He shook his head. "Duty, y'u know."
"Stay only a little longer. Just ten minutes more."
His vanity purred, so softly she stroked it. "Can't. Wish I could. Y'uhear how noisy things are getting. I've got to take charge. So-long."
She stood close, looking up at him with a face of seductive appeal.
"Don't go yet. Please!"
The triumph of victory mounted to his head. "I'll come back when I'vedone what I've got to do."
"No, no. Stay a little longer just a little."
"Not a minute, sweetheart."
He bent to kiss her, and a little clenched fist struck his face.
"Don't you dare!" she cried.
The outraged woman in her, curbed all evening with an iron bit, escapedfrom control. Delightedly he laughed. The hot spirit in her pleased himmightily. He took her little hands and held them in one of his while hesmiled down at her. "I guess that kiss will keep, my girl, till I comeback."
"My God! Are you going to kill your own cousin?"
All her terror, all her detestation and hatred of him, looked haggardlyout of her unmasked face. His narrowed eyes searched her heart, and hiscountenance grew every second more sinister,
"Y'u have been fooling me all evening, then?"
"Yes, and hating you every minute of the time."
"Y'u dared?" His face was black with rage.
"You would like to kill me. Why don't you?"
"Because I know a better revenge. I'm going out to take it now. Afteryour lover is dead, I'll come back and make love to y'u again," hesneered.
"Never!" She stood before him like a queen in her lissom, brave, defiantyouth. "And as for your cousin, you may kill him, but you can't destroyhis contempt for you. He will die despising you for a coward and ascoundrel."
It was true, and he knew it. In his heart he cursed her, while he vainlysought some weapon that would strike home through her impervious armor.
"Y'u love him. I'll remember that when I see him kick," he taunted.
"I make you a present of the information. I love him, and I despise you.Nothing can change those facts," she retorted whitely.
"Mebbe, but some day y'u'll crawl on your knees to beg my pardon forhaving told me so."
"There is your overweening vanity again," she commented.
"I'm going to break y'u, my beauty, so that y'u'll come running when Isnap my fingers."
"We'll see."
"And in the meantime I'll go hang your lover." He bowed ironically,swung on his jingling heel, and strode out of the room.
She stood there listening to his dying footfalls, then covered herface with her hands, as if to press back the dreadful vision her mindconjured.