CHAPTER XXIV
ANOTHER WOMAN LIES
Shortly before midnight Aunt Agatha Benham laid her book down, took offher glasses, wiped her eyes and yawned. She sat for a time stretched outin her chair, her hands folded in her lap, meditatively looking at theflicker of the kerosene lamp, thinking of the conveniences she had givenup in order to chaperon a wilful girl who did not appreciate her services.It was the selfishness of youth, she decided--nothing less. But stillRosalind might understand what a sacrifice her aunt was making for her.Thrilling with self-pity, she got up, blew out the light and ascended thestairs to her room. She plumped herself in a chair at one of the frontwindows before beginning to undress, that she might again feel thedelicious thrill, for that was the only consolation she got from acontemplation of her sacrifice, Rosalind never offered her a word ofgratitude!
The thrill she anticipated was not the one she experienced--it was athrill of apprehension that seized her--for a glowing midnight sky met hergaze as she stared in the direction of Manti, vast, extensive. In itscenter, directly over the town, was a fierce white glare with off-shootsof licking, leaping tongues of flame that reached skyward hungrily.
Agatha watched for one startled instant, and then she was in Rosalind'sroom, leaning over the bed, shaking her. The girl got up, dressed in hernight clothes, and together they stood at one of the windows in the girl'sroom, watching.
The fierce white center of the fire seemed to expand.
"It's a fire--in Manti!" said the girl. "See! Another building has caught!Oh, I _do_ hope they can put it out!"
They stood long at the window. Once, when the glow grew more brilliant,the girl exclaimed sharply, but after a time the light began to fade, andshe drew a breath of relief.
"They have it under control," she said.
"Well, come to bed," advised Agatha.
"Wait!" said the girl. She pressed her face against the window and peeredintently into the darkness. Then she threw up the sash, stuck her head outand listened. She drew back, her face slowly whitening.
"Some one is coming, Aunty--and riding very fast!"
A premonition of tragedy, associated with the fire, had seized the girl ather first glimpse of the light, though she had said nothing. Theappearance of a rider, approaching the house at breakneck speed had addedstrength to her fears, and now, driven by the urge of apprehension thathad seized her she flitted out of the room before Agatha could restrainher, and was down in the sitting-room in an instant, applying a match tothe lamp. As the light flared up she heard the thunder of hoofs justoutside the door, and she ran to it, throwing it open. She shrank back,drawing her breath gaspingly, for the rider had dismounted and steppedtoward her, into the dim light of the open doorway.
"You!" she said.
A low laugh was her answer, and Trevison stepped over the threshold andclosed the door behind him. From the foot of the stairs Agatha saw him,and she stood, nerveless and shaking with dread over the picture he made.
He had been more than forty-eight hours without sleep, the storm-center ofaction had left its impression on him, and his face was gaunt and haggard,with great, dark hollows under his eyes. The three or four days' growth ofbeard accentuated the bold lines of his chin and jaw; his eyes weredancing with the fires of passion; he held a Winchester rifle under hisright arm, the left, hanging limply at his side, was stained darkly. Heswayed as he stood looking at the girl, and smiled with faint derision atthe naked fear and wonder that had leaped into her eyes. But the derisionwas tinged with bitterness, for this girl with both hands pressed over herbreast, heaving with the mingled emotions of modesty and dismay, was oneof the chief factors in the scheme to rob him. The knowledge hurt himworse than the bullet which had passed through his arm. She had beenuppermost in his thoughts during his reckless ride from Manti, and hewould have cheerfully given his land, his ten years of labor, for theassurance that she was innocent. But he knew guilt when he saw it, andproof of it had been in her avoidance of him, in her ride to saveCorrigan's mining machinery, in her subsequent telling of his presence atthe butte on the night of the dynamiting, in her bitter declaration thathe ought to be punished for it. The case against her was strong. And yeton his ride from Manti he had been irresistibly drawn toward the Bar Branchhouse. He had told himself as he rode that the impulse to visit herthis night was strong within him because on his way to the pueblo he wasforced to pass the house, but he knew better--he had lied to himself. Hewanted to talk with her again; he wanted to show her the land record,which proved her fiance's guilt; he wanted to watch her as she looked atthe record, to learn from her face--what he might find there.
He stood the rifle against the wall near the door, while the girl and heraunt watched him, breathlessly. His voice was vibrant and hoarse, but wellunder control, and he smiled with straight lips as he set the rifle downand drew the record from his waistband.
"I've something to show you, Miss Benham. I couldn't pass the housewithout letting you know what has happened." He opened the book andstepped to her side, swinging his left hand up, the index fingerindicating a page on which his name appeared.
"Look!" he said, sharply, and watched her face closely. He saw her cheeksblanch, and set his lips grimly.
"Why," she said, after she had hurriedly scanned the page; "it seems toprove your title! But this is a court record, isn't it?" She examined thegilt lettering on the back of the volume, and looked up at him with wide,luminous eyes. "Where did you get that book?"
"From the courthouse."
"Why, I thought people weren't permitted to take court records--"
"I've taken this one," he laughed.
She looked at the blood on his hand, shudderingly. "Why," she said;"there's been violence! The fire, the blood on your hand, the record, yourride here--What does it mean?"
"It means that I've been denied my rights, and I've taken them. Is thereany crime in that? Look here!" He took another step and stood looking downat her. "I'm not saying anything about Corrigan. You know what we think ofeach other, and we'll fight it out, man to man. But the fact that a womanis engaged to one man doesn't bar another man from the game. And I'm inthis game to the finish. And even if I don't get you I don't want you tobe mixed up in these schemes and plots--you're too good a girl for that!"
"What do you mean?" She stiffened, looking scornfully at him, her chinheld high, outraged innocence in her manner. His cold grin of frankdisbelief roused her to furious indignation. What right had he to questionher integrity to make such speeches to her after his disgraceful affairwith Hester Harvey?
"I do not care to discuss the matter with you!" she said, her lips stiff.
"Ha, ha!" The bitter derision in his laugh made her blood riot withhatred. He walked toward the door and took up the rifle, dimly rememberingshe had used the same words to him once before, when he had met her as shehad been riding toward Manti. Of course she wouldn't discuss such athing--he had been a blind fool to think she would. But it proved herguilt. Swinging the rifle under his arm, he opened the door, turned whenon the threshold and bowed to her.
"I'm sorry I troubled you, Miss Benham," he said. He essayed to turn,staggered, looked vacantly around the room, his lips in a queerly coldhalf-smile, and then without uttering a sound pitched forward, oneshoulder against the door jamb, and slid slowly to his knees, where herested, his head sinking limply to his chest. He heard the girl cry outsharply and he raised his head with an effort and smiled reassuringly ather, and when he felt her hands on his arm, trying to lift him, he laughedaloud in self-derision and got to his feet, hanging to the door jamb.
"I'm sorry, Miss Benham," he mumbled. "I lost some blood, I suppose.Rotten luck, isn't it. I shouldn't have stopped." He turned to go, lurchedforward and would have fallen out of the door had not the girl seized andsteadied him.
He did not resist when she dragged him into the room and closed the door,but he waved her away when she tried to take his arm and lead him towardthe kitchen where, she insisted, she would prepare a stimulant an
d foodfor him. He tottered after her, tall and gaunt, his big, lithe figurestrangely slack, his head rocking, the room whirling around him. He hadheld to the record and the rifle; the latter by the muzzle, dragging itafter him, the record under his arm.
But his marvelous constitution, a result of his clean living and outdoorlife, responded quickly to the stimulation of food and hot drinks, and inhalf an hour he got up, still a little weak, but with some color in hischeeks, and shame-facedly thanked the girl. He realized now, that heshould not have come here; the past few hours loomed in his thoughts likea wild nightmare in which he had lost his sense of proportion, yielding tothe elemental passions that had been aroused in his long, sleeplessstruggle, making him act upon impulses that he would have frownedcontemptuously away in a normal frame of mind.
"I've been nearly crazy, I think," he said to the girl with a wan smile ofself-accusation. "I want you to forget what I said."
"What happened at Manti?" she demanded, ignoring his words.
He laughed at the recollection, tucking his rifle under his arm,preparatory to leaving. "I went after the record. I got it. There was afight. But I got away."
"But the fire!"
"I was forced to smash a lamp in the courthouse. The wick fell into theoil, and I couldn't delay to--"
"Was anybody hurt--besides you?"
"Braman's dead." The girl gasped and shrank from him, and he saw that shebelieved he had killed the banker, and he was about to deny the crime whenAgatha's voice shrilled through the doorway:
"There are some men coming, Rosalind!" And then, vindictively: "I presumethey are desperadoes--too!"
"Deputies!" said Trevison. The girl clasped her hands over her breast indismay, which changed to terror when she saw Trevison stiffen and leaptoward the door. She was afraid for him, horrified over this secondlawless deed, dumb with doubt and indecision--and she didn't want them tocatch him!
He opened the door, paused on the threshold and smiled at her withstraight, hard lips.
"Braman was--"
"Go!" she cried in a frenzy of anxiety; "go!"
He laughed mockingly, and looked at her intently. "I suppose I will neverunderstand women. You are my enemy, and yet you give me food and drink andare eager to have me escape your accomplice. Don't you know that thisrecord will ruin him?"
"Go, go!" she panted.
"Well, you're a puzzle!" he said. She saw him leap into the saddle, andshe ran to the lamp, blew out the flame, and returned to the open door, inwhich she stood for a long time, listening to rapid hoof beats thatgradually receded. Before they died out entirely there came the sound ofmany others, growing in volume and drawing nearer, and she beat her handstogether, murmuring:
"Run, Nigger--run, run, run!"
* * * * *
She closed the door as the hoof beats sounded in the yard, locking it andretreating to the foot of the stairs, where Agatha stood.
"What does it all mean?" asked the elder woman. She was trembling.
"Oh, I don't know," whispered the girl, gulping hard to keep her voicefrom breaking. "It's something about Trevison's land. And I'm afraid,Aunty, that there is something terribly wrong. Mr. Corrigan says itbelongs to him, and the court in Manti has decided in his favor. Butaccording to the record in Trevison's possession, _he_ has a clear titleto it."
"There, there," consoled Agatha; "your father wouldn't permit--"
"No, no!" said the girl, vehemently; "he wouldn't. But I can't understandwhy Trevison fights so hard if--if he is in the wrong!"
"He is a desperado, my dear; a wild, reckless spirit who has no regard forlaw and order. Of course, if these men are after him, you will tell themhe was here!"
"No!" said the girl, sharply; "I shan't!"
"Perhaps you shouldn't," acquiesced Agatha. She patted the girl'sshoulder. "Maybe it would be for the best, dear--he may be in the right.And I think I understand why you went riding with him so much, dear. Hemay be wild and reckless, but he's a man--every inch of him!"
The girl squeezed her relative's hand and went to open the door, uponwhich had come a loud knock. Corrigan stood framed in the opening. Shecould see his face only dimly.
"There's no occasion for alarm, Miss Benham," he said, and she felt thathe could see her better than she could see him, and thus must havediscerned something of her emotion. "I must apologize for this noisydemonstration. I believe I'm a little excited, though. Has Trevison passedhere within the last hour or so?"
"No," she said, firmly.
He laughed shortly. "Well, we'll get him. I've split my men up--some havegone to his ranch, the others have headed for Levins' place."
"What has happened?"
"Enough. Judge Lindman disappeared--the supposition is that he wasabducted. I placed some men around the courthouse, to safeguard therecords, and Trevison broke in and set fire to the place. He also robbedthe safe in the bank, and killed Braman--choked him to death. A mostrevolting murder. I'm sorry I disturbed you--good night."
The girl closed the door as he left it, and leaned against it, weak andshaking. Corrigan's voice had a curious note in it. He had told her he wassorry to have disturbed her, but the words had not rung true--there hadbeen too much satisfaction in them. What was she to believe from thisnight's events? One thought leaped vividly above the others that rioted inher mind: Trevison had again sinned against the law, and this time hiscrime was murder! She shrank away from the door and joined Agatha at thefoot of the stairs.
"Aunty," she sobbed; "I want to go away. I want to go back East, away fromthis lawlessness and confusion!"
"There, there, dear," soothed Agatha. "I am sure everything will come outall right. But Trevison _does_ look to be the sort of a man who wouldabduct a judge, doesn't he? If I were a girl, and felt that he were inlove with me, I'd be mighty careful--"
"That he wouldn't abduct you?" laughed the girl, tremulously, cheered bythe change in her relative's manner.
"No," said Agatha, slyly. "I'd be mighty careful that he _got_ me!"
"Oh!" said the girl, and buried her face in her aunt's shoulder.