CHAPTER XXII.
All this while the girl crouched close to earth, immovable, breathless,keenly alert amid the gruesome shadows hovering along the broken line ofrock. There was a strange and terrible fascination in the scene enactedbelow her--a fascination she would fain shake off, yet felt powerless toovercome, like the fatal spell a serpent weaves when it charms a victim.
To her perturbed brain it seemed an oppressive dream, an unhappynightmare, born of the surrounding gloom, and still she understood thatit was most real, that the little drama, with its environment of nightand secrecy and threatened crime, was one of momentous import to her andto her lover.
Was it now time for her to act, to take her part in it, or must she waita little longer for her cue? Should she reveal her presence and appealto the members of this lawless band, denouncing its unscrupulousleader, and his traitorous ally? Would the raiders believe her story,and listen to a petition for her sweetheart's liberty, after havingheard Steve Judson's strong testimony, strengthened by the captain'sphilippic?
True, she might conduct them to the very spot wherein the real traitorhad concealed his ill-gotten gains, and where she had overheard himplotting with the captain against the prisoner, but the money was nolonger there, and with Steve and the captain both against her, she couldhope to accomplish little. Neither would hesitate to go to any length toprove her statements false; besides, there was no time to prove wordstrue--it was a moment for action, not for words. Whatever was done mustbe done this very night--at once.
On one point her mind was fully set--harm should not befall the innocentvictim of this foul conspiracy, while she could raise a voice or hand toprevent it. A plan of succor must be speedily decided upon. Persuasionseemed the only feasible one in her present strait. Might she not statethe whole case calmly and dispassionately to them? Surely they wouldnot be deaf to reason or entreaty. When they were brought to realize thefact that it was through her the band had been warned of the gate beingunder guard the night of the attack, their gratitude alone should insureher both justice and mercy for the one whose cause she pleaded.
Among these lawless men there were two who stood in the way of Milt'sliberty, the others were negative save as their own personal safety wasconcerned, and of these two active enemies, the captain was by far themost dangerous. With his evil influence removed, Steve would no longerbe an enemy to the prisoner. Yet how could that influence be taken awayin time to be of benefit to Milt? A sudden thought came to the girl thatstartled and terrified her with its meaning.
There was a solution to the problem. The means for removing this banefulinfluence was close at hand--within her very grasp. But could she dothis deed? Had she the courage to attempt it? She resolutely nervedherself to the effort.
Slowly drawing the pistol from her belt, and noiselessly sinking on oneknee, that she might the better rest her arm and take a more accurateaim, the girl carefully sighted the captain's dark form, while herfinger trembled nervously on the hammer of the weapon.
Just a slight pressure--the mere movement of a finger--and a soul wouldbe sent quickly into eternity. Yet what an evil soul it was and to whatlasting punishment! As she thought of it, in all its terrible import,her own soul turned faint, and her fingers grew limp and purposeless.Oh! it was a fearful thing to do, to shoot one down like a wild beast,and far worse to hurry one so deeply charged with wickedness intoeternity, without a moment's time in which to cry out for forgivenessfor his evil life.
Were she to commit this deed, would not its terror abide with her forall time--a hideous ever-present spectre, that would follow her throughlife? She recalled to mind a sermon she had once heard in Alder Creekglen, in which had been pictured in powerful intensity the wrong oftaking human life, and the murderer's unrest and troubled conscienceforever after. Must she be a taker of human life?
Then would her own soul be stained with crime, her own hand prove thefatal instrument for sending a lost soul to a judgment in which therecould be no hope, from which there was no appeal. The word of Godhimself was against such an act, for in letters of flame the sentenceseemed to flash into her brain--"Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord, Iwill repay."
No! no! she must not blot her soul with this awful act, there was surelysome other means to employ, some method less dreadful by which she couldsave the one in peril. She would wait a little longer, hoping withouthope as it were.
Her arm rested idly on her knee, her finger fell away from the triggershe had come so near to pressing, while a half exultant joy leaped inher soul that she had not obeyed the first savage impulse to which hertroubled mind gave birth. Not yet had she usurped God's prerogative.
"Am I to be shot down like a dog?" cried the prisoner sharply.
"A traitor may meet his death by rope, bullet, or knife. He deserves tosuffer by each separate means," said the leader with a significantglance rather at Steve than at the prisoner.
"See that the prisoner is safely bound." At his command Steve steppedforward and closely examined the cords with which Milt's ankles andwrists were bound. His hands were tied behind him, and with his feet inthe shadow the watcher on the rocky ledge above had not noticed untilthis moment how utterly helpless he was.
Once more she grasped the pistol with a determined grip, andbreathlessly looked down on the group beneath her. A crisis was surelyapproaching.
The captain gave a brief command.
Two of his henchmen--men as unscrupulous and callous as he--began toremove some flat stones that were laid on a pile of cedar logs near therocky sides of the quarry just beyond the prisoner. This spot was partlyin the shadow, and Sally had not noticed it until her attention wasdirected thither.
She leaned forward cautiously, and looked down in wonder and perplexitywhile the stones were lifted off, then two of the logs were shifted toone side, while a dark, irregular opening was revealed in the rockfloor, as if the mouth of a small cave had been uncovered.
Indeed, such was the case, for on blasting away the rock, some yearsbefore, this aperture had been discovered, and as it was a dangerousopening, descending far downward into the very heart of the hill, it hadbeen closed by means of the cedar logs, and the large flat stones laidon top of them.
As the logs were lifted to one side, a member of the band standing near,dropped a loose stone into the opening, while the girl anxiouslylistening, quickly caught her breath as she heard the object fallingdown and down, striking against the uneven sides of the pit in itsdescent until it seemed to have penetrated the very bowels of the earth.
The man who had dropped the stone shuddered and turned away.
"The devil take me! if I believe that hole has any bottom to it," hesaid in an awed voice, and quickly the thought flashed into Sally'sbrain as to the purpose for which the pit had been uncovered, and whythe abandoned quarry had been selected for a meeting-place this night.
Was a human body to be sacrificed to the fearsome depths of that darkcavern? The thought appalled her more than all else that had gonebefore, and she grew faint with terror. Even the prisoner seemed to lookin speechless horror toward the black opening as if he, also, guessedthe peril that threatened him.
The very members of the secret conclave gazed with awe-stricken faces onthe yawning, ominous hole, as though they were beginning to weaken at sodire a punishment. Even the act of a traitor seemed scarcely to merit afate this terrible. Only the captain and his ally appeared unmoved andunrelenting. On the former's face a look of fiendish triumph slowlysettled, as he gazed steadfastly into the awesome blackness of thecave-like opening--a hard, evil face it was, that held neither pity norregret.
"To your horses, boys!" The leader spoke quickly, commandingly, for hiskeen eyes saw signs of weakening among his followers. "Remember youroath! Remember your safety!" he called out warningly.
"And remember the blood of an innocent man is on your hands!" cried thedoomed man despairingly. "I sought to save your lives--you arewrongfully taking mine!"
"He lies!" thundered the captain. "He sold
himself to the officers ofthe law, an' but for a premature shot we might all now be dead, or inprison. They did not fire on him, bear in mind, but waited until he hadpassed on, an' given the signal that all was safe, an' we come nearridin' into the trap that was laid for us. He is a traitor to us, an' toour cause, an' deserves a traitor's death!"
The accused began again to speak, but the captain cut short his words,fearful of their effect on the hearers.
"Gag the prisoner!" he commanded, and despite Milt's protests, the orderwas speedily carried out, and soon the prisoner was lying bound andgagged, close to the dark opening piercing the very earth. "To yourhorses!" the leader cried savagely, "and to hell with all traitors."
For a moment the members of the little band appeared to hesitate, movedby conflicting impulses, but the instinct of self-preservation isstrongly implanted in the human breast, and will crowd out many noblequalities. The vacillation was but momentary; slowly and silently themen began to move away, each one eyeing his neighbor askance, as if todiscover who held the fatal red bean within his keeping.
Thus they melted into the night, stealing like dissolving shadows downto the thicket below where the horses were hitched.
Soon after the tread of many horses' feet broke into the hush of thelonely scene. Some seemed going in one direction, some in another, andon the sleeping hills a darkness lay heavily--a darkness such as hidesmany a ghastly crime.