CHAPTER XIX
QUICK TURNS
As he rode westward along the road at a swinging lope, Rathburn madeno apparent effort to conceal his movements. The night sky was brightwith stars, and, although the moon was not up, the road was clearlyoutlined through the marching stands of timber as he swung upward pastthe cabin where he had met the girl said to be Carlisle's sister.
Rathburn could not forget the look on the girl's face when she hadasked him about the activities of the officer in the automobile. Norcould he forget the expression in her eyes during her altercation withCarlisle that day.
After he had passed the cabin, Rathburn checked his pace and proceededmore slowly up the long stretches of road to the hogback. On thehogback he began to take advantage of the screen of timber on thelower side of the road, and to ride more cautiously. However, to anyone who might have been watching, his movements still would have beeneasily discernible, and it would have appeared that he wasn't quitesure of himself. Twice he turned off at what he appeared to think wasthe beginning of a trail, and both times he again turned back to theroad.
Then, as he reached the south end of the hogback where the trail leftthe road and cut straight across to the mine, two horsemen broke fromthe timber, and Rathburn reined in his horse as the guns which coveredhim glinted.
The taller of the pair of night riders kept him covered with two gunswhile the other rode in close and jerked the weapon from his holster.
"C'mon with the package!" said this man in a hoarse voice. "We won'ttake a chance on you. If you make any kind of a break you'll get itwhere it'll do most good."
There was a sneering inflection in the voice.
Rathburn's hand, as it moved downward toward his shirt, hovered aninstant above where his good gun was stuck in his waistband, out ofsight under the skirt of his coat; then it moved to the open shirt athis throat. He drew out the package and held it out toward the other.
The man closed in and snatched the package, glancing at it in the dimstarlight.
"Now back the way you came an' don't invite no shootin'!" was thebrief command.
Rathburn whirled his horse and drove in his spurs. As he fled from thescene a harsh laugh came to his ears from behind. Then utter silencesave for the pounding of his horse's hoofs in the hard road back downthe hogback.
"Jog along, hoss," Rathburn crooned as he sped down the long slopestoward town; "maybe we're peggin' things wrong, an' if it turns outthat way we've a powerful long ways to go."
It lacked a few minutes of being two hours after midnight when hereached the Carlisle cabin. There he reined in his horse, dismountedin the shadow of the timber, and crept to a window. The moon had risenand was bathing the hills in a ghostly light in which every objectstood out clear-cut and easily distinguishable. Rathburn peered intothe two front windows, but could see nothing. Then, from a side windowinto which the moonlight filtered, he made out a bedroom. It was notoccupied. From the other side of the cabin he saw another bedroom,and it, too, was unoccupied.
"Nobody home," he muttered cheerfully as he ran for his horse.
In another minute he was again speeding down the road toward town. Heslacked his pace as he reached the upper end of the short main street.The street was dark save for two beams of yellow light, one of whichshone from a window of the jail office and the other from the front ofthe Red Feather resort.
He walked his horse down the street past the jail and the resort andalmost to the end of the line of buildings where he arrived before thesmall, one-story, two-room structure which was Sautee's office andabode.
The place was dark. Rathburn dismounted and led his horse into thedark shadow at the side of the little building. Then he went around tothe front, and, drawing his gun from his waistband, he rapped smartlyon the door with its butt and dropped it into his holster.
There was no movement within, and Rathburn rapped again and tried thedoor. It was locked.
A match flared into flame somewhere beyond the front room. A glow oflight followed. Rathburn, looking through the front window, saw a dooropen wide and made out the form of Sautee as the mines manager cameforward to the front door.
"Who is it?" Sautee called cautiously.
"Rathburn."
After a moment a key turned in the lock and the door opened part way.Rathburn pushed his way in.
"Why--didn't you _go_?" asked Sautee in excited tones.
"Lock the door an' come in the other room," whispered Rathburn. "I'vegot something to tell you that'll knock you for a goal."
Sautee hurriedly locked the door, and, as he turned to lead the wayinto the other room, Rathburn deftly extracted the key.
In the light from the lamp in the bedroom Sautee swung on his visitorand looked at him keenly. The mines manager was fully dressed, and thebed was made. It was evident that he had merely dozed on top of thecovers with his clothes on. These things Rathburn noted even as Sauteesurveyed him with a frown.
"Well, what is it?" snapped out Sautee.
Rathburn blinked in the light. "I--I was held up," he said sheepishly.
The mines manager stared. First he stared into Rathburn's eyes, andthen he glanced to the gun in the holster on his thigh.
"Couldn't have been very much afraid of you," he said sneeringly. "Isee they didn't even take your gun."
"It all come from my not knowin' enough about the trails, I guess,"Rathburn explained lamely. "Got me on the far end of the hogback. Twoof 'em. Had their guns in my face before I knew it. Couldn't havedrawed if I wanted to. They'd have shot me out of the saddle in awink. All I could do was hand over the package an' beat it."
"And they said you were a gunman," said Sautee in derision. "How do_I_ know anybody stopped you and robbed you? Maybe you've come backhere with that story to cover up the theft of the money. I guess Imade a mistake in ever thinking of trusting a man of your caliber."
"I was afraid of that," said Rathburn. "I was afraid if anything likethis was to happen you might think I was lying and was taking themoney myself. But I fooled 'em, Mr. Sautee," he finished in triumph.
"What's that?" Sautee asked sharply.
"Look here," cried Rathburn excitedly as he took off his hat andrecovered the package he had put in it before starting toward themine.
He held up the package. "I was scared they might get wise an' get thedrop on me," he said. "So I opened the package an' took out what wasin it and put it in my hat. They got the original package, all right,but it was stuffed with an old glove of mine. Here's the money. Ididn't go right on to the mine for fear they'd find out their mistakean' pot me from the timber. This is the money you gave me, minus theseals an' the string an' box. I wanted you to see that I was on thesquare."
Sautee's eyes were bulging. "Give me that," he gulped out.
"Why--don't you want me to take it to the mine?" asked Rathburn insurprise.
"Hand that over," ordered Sautee, reaching for the package.
Rathburn drew away. "All right, Mr. Sautee," he said in a complainingvoice. "If you don't want me to go through with the job you can backdown, I guess. We'll just make sure the money's here, though."
Sautee leaped toward him.
"Give me that package!" he cried angrily. "Do you hear me?"
Rathburn warded him off, keeping the package at arm's length away.
"Just hold your horses," he said coldly. "I reckon I know what I'mdoing. You don't trust me now, an' I ain't goin' to take any chanceswith you. I'm goin' to open this an' show you that the money's there,that's all; I'm goin' to show you that I'm giving you back what yougave me all fair an' square."
Sautee's face was ashen. His voice trembled as he spoke again: "Handit over and get out of here. I've had enough trouble with you. I'lltake your word for it."
But Rathburn was undoing the paper wrappings.
Again Sautee made a leap, but this time he met Rathburn's left fistand staggered back, dropping into a chair. Rathburn looked at himcoldly.
"Funny you're so anxious to take my word for t
hings now, when a minuteago you said you couldn't know but what I'd told that holdup story fora blind so's I could get away with--_this_!"
The wrappings fell away, revealing a wad of blank paper.
Rathburn's face froze. Sautee stared white-faced at what the otherheld in his hand. Then a peculiar glint came into his eyes and helooked at Rathburn narrowly.
"So that's the way of it," he said sarcastically.
Rathburn stuffed the paper into a pocket. Then he pulled a chair infront of the mines manager and sat down. He took out paper and tobaccofrom his shirt pocket and began to fashion a cigarette.
"It sure looks bad for me, doesn't it, Mr. Sautee?" he asked as hesnapped a match into flame.
"I thought you were going to return the money," Sautee saidsneeringly.
"It looks bad two ways," Rathburn went on as if he hadn't heard theother's comment. "First, if that package the holdups got had containedthe money you could have swore it was a put-up job. I'd have had tobeat it fast. Now, when I find that the package you gave to me wasfull of blank paper, you can say that I framed the holdup story andchanged the money for paper in the bargain."
Sautee's eyes were glowing. "An' you'll have to beat it, after all,"he jeered.
"So it would seem," mused Rathburn. "I fooled 'em, an' to allappearances I fooled myself, although maybe I _did_ take a peep intothat package when I changed it in my room, Mr. Sautee."
The mines manager shifted in his chair; but he stared defiantly atRathburn.
"You'd have a hard time proving anything," he said grimly.
"That's the trouble," Rathburn admitted. "I'd sort of have to dependon you. I was thinkin' maybe you double crossed me to make 'em think_I_ was carrying the money while you sneaked it up some other way, Mr.Sautee."
"You can think what you want to," said Sautee. "But you better startmoving. If I was you, I'd get as far away from this town and Mannix asI could by daylight."
Rathburn's manner underwent a lightning change as he threw away hispartly finished cigarette.
"You're right," he said crisply. "It's time to start moving, Sautee."
He rose, and his right hand moved incredibly fast. Sautee gasped as helooked into the bore of Rathburn's gun. He could hardly realize thatRathburn had drawn.
"I fooled the night riders twice," explained Rathburn with a peculiarsmile. "First, when I let 'em get the wrong package, an' again when Ilet 'em get the wrong gun. This gun an' I work together like clockticks when necessary. I'll have to ask you to fork over the money thatyou drew from the bank an' that should have been in that package,Sautee."
Rathburn's eyes had narrowed and hardened; his words were cold andmenacing--deadly in their absolute sincerity.
"What--what do you mean?" stammered the mines manager.
"I take it you're not deaf," snapped out Rathburn. "Maybe you don'tknow it, Sautee, but so help me, you're takin' a chance by acting likeyou didn't get me."
Sautee's thin face was twitching in a spasm of commingled rage andfear.
"The Coyote!" he breathed.
"Who told you that?" demanded Rathburn on the instant.
Sautee gripped the sides of his chair, and his face went a shade morepallid.
"Carlisle," he confessed in a strained voice.
Rathburn laughed, and the mines manager shivered as he heard.
"Now, Sautee, we'll quit beatin' around the bush," Rathburn saidthrough his teeth. "We'll get down to business together, or I'll beginto search your place here. But if I have to search, I'll search alone.There ain't so much chance of a shot bein' heard way up the street;an' there ain't much chance of me bein' caught on that hoss of mine ifI don't want to get caught. Also, I'm beginning to feel like I was ina hurry. Fork over that money!"
Sautee looked just an instant longer into the eyes of the man toweringover him. Then he rose, shaking, dry-lipped, and knelt down by thehead of the bed. He lifted a piece of the carpet, opened a smalltrapdoor, reached inside, and brought out a bundle of bank notes.Rathburn took the money from him.
Sautee still was kneeling as he heard Rathburn walk lightly to thefront door and insert the key in the lock. He tried to cry out, butthe effort resulted only in a croak in his throat. He heard the doorclose softly.
"The Coyote!" he mumbled, passing a hand across his forehead.
The echoes of galloping hoofs came to him as he scrambled to his feetand staggered toward the door.