CHAPTER XIV
HIGH POWER
Jessamy and Oliver had wheeled their horses with such unexpectedsuddenness that the man who was trailing them was caught off his guard.He stood plainly revealed for a moment in the open; then he found hiswits and plunged indiscriminately into the shielding chaparral.
"Oh-ho!" cried Jessamy in a low tone. "The plot thickens! Did you seehim?"
"I'm going after him," declared her companion.
"Stop!" she commanded, as he lifted Poche for a leap toward theskulker's vanishing point.
He reined in quickly. "Why?"
"What good will come of it? Why try to nose him out? We may be ahead inthe end if we play the game as they do. We have more chance of findingout what they're up to by leaving them alone, I'd say."
"Play the game, eh?" he repeated. "So there's a game being played. Ididn't just know. Thought all that's afoot was the big idea of chasingme over the hills and far away. And from Selden's latest attitude, itlooks as if that had been abandoned. Game, eh?"
"That's what I'd call it. Quite evidently the man was spying on us."
"Did you recognize him?"
"I can't make sure."
"But you think you know him," he said with conviction.
"Yes. I imagined it was Digger Foss. But he got to cover prettyquickly."
"His horse can't be far away. Maybe we can locate him somewhere alongthe back trail. I'd know that rawboned roan."
"So should I. Let's send 'em along a little faster."
They had by this time reached the opening in the chaparral into whichtheir shadow had dodged. By common consent they passed it withoutlooking to right or left.
"He may imagine we didn't see him," whispered Jessamy. "I hope he does."
There was an open stretch ahead of them, and across it they galloped,the girl piercing the thickets on the right in search of a saddle horse,Oliver sweeping the slopes that descended to the river. But neither sawa horse, and in the trail were no hoofprints not made by their ownmounts.
"He has been afoot from the start," decided Jessamy. "I wish I knewwhether or not it was Digger Foss."
They wound their way down to Sulphur Spring presently, and came to ahalt in the ravine below it.
"Now," said Oliver, "who knows but that my sniper is not hidden up therein the hills?"
"I'll look for that bullet," she purposed, and swung out of her saddle.
"Oh, no you won't!" His foot touched the ground with hers.
"Yes--listen! No one would shoot at me. But they might take another crackat you, even with me along to witness it. If they were hidden and couldget away unseen, you know. But they'd not shoot at me."
"How do you know?"
"Well, I'm one of them--after a fashion. They all like me--and at leastone of them wants to gather me to his manly breast and fly with me."
"But things are different since I came. You've taken sides with me. Ifany one looks for that slug, I'm the one that'll do it."
He started toward the spring.
"Stop!" she ordered, and grasped his shirt-sleeves. "Listen here: I'dbet a dollar against a saddle string that that was Digger Foss we saw upon the ridge."
"Well?"
"He's afoot. He can't have had time to get down here and guard SulphurSpring."
"All right. Well?"
"And I know positively that Adam Selden and the boys are up north todayafter a bunch of drifters. So none of them can be here. That eliminatessix of the Poison Oakers. There would be left only Obed Pence, EdBuchanan, Chuck Allegan, and Jay Muenster--all privates, next tooutsiders. None of them would shoot at me, and--" She came to a fullstop and eyed him speculatively. "And I'm going to look for thatbullet," she finished limpingly.
Oliver looked her over thoughtfully. "I can't say that I get what you'redriving at at all," he observed. "But it seems to me that you're tryingto convey that, with the Seldens and Digger Foss eliminated, there is nodanger."
She closed her eyes and gave him several vigorous, exaggerated nods.
"But aren't all of the Poison Oakers concerned in my speedy removal fromthis country?"
"Well--yes"--hesitatingly. "That's right. But the four will not molestme. I know. Please let's not argue about what I _know_ is right!"
His lips twitched amusedly. "But one of the four _might_ take a pot-shotat me. Is that it?"
Again the series of nods, eyes closed. "You see," she said, "only theSeldens and Digger Foss accuse me of being on your side. So if any oneof the other four were to see me go to the spring he'd think I wasmerely after water, or something. But if you were to go, why--why, itmight be different."
Saying which she unexpectedly darted away from him up the ravine, leftthe shelter of the trees, and walked boldly to the spring.
She parted the bushes and disappeared from sight.
Oliver stole quickly to the edge of the cover and hid behind a tree, hisColt unholstered and hanging in his hand. His eyes scoured the timberedhills on both sides of the spring, but not a movement did he see.
He puzzled over Jessamy's speech as he watched for evidences of ahostile demonstration.
"It smacks of a counter-plot," he mused. "All of the Poison Oakers wantme out of here, but only the Seldens and the halfbreed are aware thatJessamy is friendly with me. But these four _must_ know it--everybody inthe country does by now. It would look as if Old Man Selden and hischosen five are the only ones who suspect her of having an interest inme beyond pure friendship, then. That's it! She said there was anotherreason other than the grazing matter why Old Man Selden wants me away.And that can't be moonshining, after all; for if Pense and the othersare likely to shoot me at the spring, they're in on that. But nowapparently Selden wants to appear friendly. I can't get it! Jessamy'snot playing just fair with me. She's keeping something back. She's toohonest and straightforward to be a good dissembler; she's bungling allthe way."
She was returning swiftly down the ravine before he had reached the endof his conclusions. She held up something between dripping fingers asshe entered the concealment of the trees.
"It's perfect still," she announced. "I thought it wouldn't be flattenedor bent, since it struck the water."
Oliver took the small, soft-pointed, steel-banded projectile from herhands and studied it.
"M'm-m!" he muttered. "What's this? Looks no larger than a twenty-two."
She nodded. "So I'd say. A twenty-two high-power--wicked little pill."
"And which of the Poison Oakers packs a twenty-two high-power rifle? Doyou know?"
"It happens that I do. I've taken the pains to acquaint myselfwith the various guns of the Poison Oakers. Most of them usetwenty-five-thirty-fives. Old Man Selden, Bolar, and Jay Muenster usethirty-thirties. There's one twenty-two high-power Savage in the gang,and it's a new one. They say it's a devilish weapon."
"Who owns it?"
"Digger Foss."
"Then it was Foss who shot?"
"Yes--and it's he who was following us today. You see, Digger livescloser to this part of the country than any of the rest. He'd be theonly one likely to come in afoot."
"Do you think he tried to lay me out?"
She looked off through the trees, and her face was troubled. "I'm afraidhe did," she replied in a strained, hushed key. "Had you been in sight,we might determine that he had shot at the water before your face to putthe fear of the Poison Oakers into your heart. But he couldn't see you,in there hidden by the dense growth. It was a fifty-fifty chance whetherhe got you or not. If he'd merely wished to bully you, he'd never takenthe chance of killing you by firing into the growth."
"I guess that's right," he said. "And now what's to be done? I'll neverbe able to forget the picture of Henry Dodd clutching at White Ann'slegs for support in his death struggle. The situation is graver than Ithought. I expected to be bullied and tormented; but I didn't expect adeliberate attempt on my life."
With an impetuous movement she threw her bare forearm horizontallyagainst a tree trunk, and hid her eyes aga
inst it.
"Oh, I wish you hadn't come!" she half sobbed. "But you had to--you hadto! And now you can't leave because that would be running away. Andyou're as good as dead if this side-winder gets the right chance at you.What _can_ we do!"
Oliver was silent in the face of her distress. What could he do indeed!All the chances were against him, with his enemies ready and willing totake any unfair advantage, while his manliness would not let him stoopto the use of such tactics. They probably would avoid an out-and-outquarrel, where the chances would be even for a quick draw and quicktrigger work. They would ambush him, as the halfbreed had attempted todo. He believed now that only the density of the growth about SulphurSpring had stood between him and death, for Digger Foss was accounted anexpert shot.
He gently pulled Jessamy Selden from the tree.
"There, there!" he soothed. "Let's not borrow trouble. They haven't gotme yet. Let's ride on. And I think you'd better give me a little more ofyour confidence. I feel that you're keeping me in the dark about somephases of the deal."
She mounted in silence, and they turned up Clinker Creek toward Oliver'scabin.
"I'd never make a successful vamp, even if I were beautiful," she smiledat last. "I can't hide things. I give myself away. I'm always bungling.But I can play poker, just the same!" she added triumphantly.
"Don't try to hide things, then," he pleaded. "Tell me all that'stroubling you."
She shook her head. "That's the greatest difficulty," she complained. "Ishouldn't have let you know that I have a secret, but I bungled and letit out. And I must keep it. But just the same, I'm with you heart andsoul. I'm on your side from start to finish, and I want you to believeit."
"I do," he said simply.
As they reached the cabin he asked: "Did you feel the end of the pipeunder the water in the spring?"
She nodded. Then with the promise to meet him next morning for theirride to the fiesta, she moved her mare slowly up the canyon anddisappeared in the trees.