CHAPTER XV
THE SPECIES
"Well, pretty one, you got lonesome here all by yourself? So youholler for 'Sim! Sim!'" Big Aleck's voice was close to her as she satin the tent.
Mary Warren felt about her, back of her on the blankets, stealthilyseeking some weapon of defense. She paused. Under her fingers wassomething which felt like leather. She made no sudden movement, buttemporized.
"How could I help it?" she asked.
Always her hand was feeling behind her on the blankets. Yes, there wasa holster. It felt familiar--it might be Sim Gage's gun, taken fromher at the house. She waited.
"Well, that's too bad you can't see," said Aleck. "You can't see whata fine feller I'd make for you! I'm chief. I'm a big man."
"You're a big coward," said Mary Warren calmly. "What's a blind womanto you? Why don't you let me go?"
"Well, even a blind woman can tell what she's heard," said hethoughtfully. "And then," his coarse voice undertaking a softnessforeign to it, "I'm just as tired as Sim Gage was of keeping housealone. I'm a better man than Sim Gage. I'm making plenty of money."
She made no reply, leaned back upon the blanket roll.
"Now, then, gal, listen. I like you. You're handsome--the handsomestgal ever come in this valley. A pretty girl as you shouldn't staysingle, and as good a man as me neither. I work on my ranch, but I'm abig man, miss. I'm a thinker, you can see that. I'm a leader of thelaboring men. I begun with nothing; and look at me!"
"Well, look at you!" She taunted him. "What would you have been ifyou hadn't come to America? You'd be shoveling dirt over there at halfa dollar a day, or else you'd be dead. You think this is Russia? Youcall this Germany?"
Pretending to rest her weight on her arm back of her, she felt thetouch of leather, felt the stock of the pistol in the holster.
Her tormentor went on. "We don't need no army--we free men can fightthe way we are. We'll spoil ten million feet of timber in here beforewe're through."
"I despise you--I hate you!" she cried suddenly, almost forgetful ofherself. "Why do you come to this country, if you don't like it? Ifyou hate America, why don't you go back to your own country and livethere? You ought to be hung--I hope to God you will be!"
He only laughed. "That's fine talk for you, ain't it? You'd betterlisten to what I tell you." He reached out a hand and touched her arm.
With one movement, of sheer instinct, with a primal half-snarl, sheswung the revolver out of the scabbard behind her, flung it almost intohis face. He cowered, but not soon enough. The shot struck him. Hedropped, tried to escape. She heard him scuffling on the sand, firedagain and missed--fired yet again and heard him cry out, gasping,begging for mercy.
The range was too short for her to hear the impact of the bullets; shedid not know she had struck him with two shots, the second of which hadbroken his leg and left him disabled. She had shot a man. He wasthere in front of her, about to die.
"Are you hurt?" she demanded, staring, the revolver in both her hands."Keep away. I'll kill you!"
"You---- Don't shoot again," he cried, as she moved. She could nottell what he meant, what really had happened, except that he washelpless. She rose and fled, groping, stumbling, falling. She couldhear him crying out. He did not follow her.
In the forest growth at this altitude the trees stood large, straightand tall, not very close together. The earth was covered with a densefloor of pine needles. As she ran she felt her feet slipping, sinking.Now and again she brought up against a tree. Still she kept on,sobbing, her hands outstretched, getting away farther than would havebeen possible in denser cover. She felt the sand of the roadway underher feet as her course curved back toward the road, endeavored tofollow the trail for a time, but found herself again on the pineneedles, running she knew not where or how. She had no hope. She knewshe was fleeing death and facing death. Very well, she would meet itfurther on and in a better guise.
She felt that she was passing down, along the mountain side, advancedmore rapidly, stumbling, tripping--and so at last fell full length overa log which lay across her course. Stunned by the impact of her fallbeyond and below the unseen barrier, she lay prone and quiteunconscious.
At a length of unknown moments, she gained her senses. She sat up,felt about her, listened. There was no sound of pursuit. Only thehigh wailing of the pines came to her ears.
She could not know it, but the men were not following her. When theyheard the sound of three shots ring out, every man busy in his work ofsabotage stopped where he was. Was it a surprise? Were officers orthe ranchers coming? They scattered, hiding among the trees.
They could hear the bellowing of Big Aleck, beseeching aid. Theyadvanced cautiously, to spy out what had happened and saw him rollingfrom side to side, striving to rise, falling back. The woman wasnowhere visible.
"Who done it, Aleck?" demanded the man next in command, when he hadventured closer. "Did she shoot you?"
Aleck groaned as he rolled over, his face upward. A nod showed hiscrippled shoulder. His other hand Big Aleck feebly placed upon hiship. They bent over him.
"By God, she got you fair that time!" said one investigator. "She'splugged you twice. She wasn't blind. Where did she go?"
"I don't know where--I heard her run. God, that leg! What will I do?I can't stay here alone!"
"I tell you, you'll have to! If that girl's not blind she'll get outand give this snap away."
"But you can take me out with you, fellers. I can ride." Aleck waspleading, his face gray with pain.
"Worst thing we could do, either for you or for us," replied the other,coldly. "If we got you down to the settlements what could we say? Ifyou was shot once we could call it an accident, but shot twice, andonce through the hip from behind--how would that be explained, I'd liketo know? Folks would begin to ask too many questions. Besides, they'dask where that girl was. Then there's the fires you set. No, sir, youstay right here. We other fellers'll get out of here as fast as wecan."
"And leave me here?" The terror in Big Aleck's voice had been piteousfor any men but these.
"Listen! Before midnight I'll be at the Company dam. I'll tell thatnew doctor there's been an accident up here in the timber camp. I'lltell him to come up here to-morrow morning sure. When he gets here,you tell him how the accident happened. It's up to you, then. You'llhave to pay him pretty well, of course."
"And that reminds me," he went on, "we fellers has got to have thefunds, Aleck. We'll need money more'n you will now. Here!"
He stooped over and began to feel in Aleck's coat, drew out a heavywallet, and began to transfer the bills to his own pocket.
"I'll leave you a hundred and fifty. That's enough," said he. "Notelling what we fellers'll have to do before we get out of this. Yourgetting shot here is apt to blow the whole thing. Did she take the gunaway with her?"
Aleck groaned and rolled his head. "I don't know," he said.
Jim Denny was the new leader of the brigand party. "Hell's bells!"said he, impatiently now. "We can't be fooling around--this don't lookgood to me. Noon to-morrow, anyways, the Doctor ought to be here. Asfor us, we got to beat it now."
The wolf pack knew no mercy nor unselfishness. Aleck got no moreattention from them. There were two cars beside the one which hadbrought Aleck and Mary Warren up the day before. This last one theyleft, seeing that the tire was in bad condition. Not one of themturned to say good-by to Aleck as he lay in the tent where he had beendragged.
"Got it right on top the hip bone," said one man. "She busted himplenty with that soft-nose."
"And served him right," said Jim Denny, the new leader, grumbling."Aleck has never been looking for the worst of it, any way of the game.If he had left that woman down below where she belonged, we wouldn't bein this fix. I tell you them ranchers'll be out in a pack after us,and the only thing we can do is to pull our freight good and plentyright now."
The whir of the engine
drowned conversation. An instant later the twocarloads of banditti were passing down around curve after curve of thesandy road. Mary Warren, still dazed, and dull where she lay, heardthem go by. Yonder then, lay the trail--but could she know which way?If she turned her head she would lose the direction. She kept her eyesfixed upon the last point of the compass from which she had heard thecar distinctly, and taking the muzzle of the revolver in her hand,endeavored to scratch a mark in the sand to give her the directionlater by the sense of touch. She laid the pistol itself at the upperend of the little furrow, pointing toward the road which she had left.Sinking down, she resigned herself to what she felt must soon be theend.
The chill of the mountain night was coming on. The whispering in thepines grew less. Vaguely she sensed that the sun was low, that soontwilight would come. She had no means of making a fire, had nocovering, no food. Simply a lost unit of one of the many speciesinhabiting the earth, surviving each as it may, she cowered alone andhelpless in the wilderness.
The hush of the evening came. The pines were silent. There was onlyone little faint sound above her--in some tree, she thought. It wasmade by a worm boring under the bark, seeking place for the larvaewhich presently it would leave, in order that its species might endure.A small sound, of no great carrying power.