done it in cahoots with EarlLeverett; and Quintana set 'em on. And they gotta die, O Lord ofIsrael, them there Egyptians is about to hop the twig. ... I ain'taimin' to be mean to nobody. I buy hootch of them that runs it. I eatmountain mutton in season and out. I trade with law-breakers, I do.But, Lord, I gotta get my girlie outa here; and Harrod he walled me inwith the chariots and spears of Egypt, till I nigh went wild. ... Andnow comes Quintana, and here I be a-lyin' out to get him so's my girliecan become a lady, same's them fine folks with all their butlers andautomobiles and what-not----"
A far crash in the forest stilled his twitching lips and stiffened everyiron muscle. As he lifted his rifle, Sid Hone came into the glade.
"Yahoo! Yahoo!" he called. "Where be you, Mike?"
Clinch slowly rose, grasping his rifle, his small, grey eyes ablaze.
"Where's Quintana?" he demanded.
"H'ain't you seen nobody?"
"No."
In the intense silence other sounds broke sharply in the sunset forest;Harvey Chase's halloo rang out from the rocks above; Blommers and theHastings boys came slouching through the ferns.
Byron Hastings greeted Clinch with upflung gun: "Me and Jim heard a shotaway out on Drowned Valley," he announced. "Was you out that way,Mike."
"No."
One by one the men who had driven Star Peak lounged up in the red sunsetlight, gathering around Clinch and wiping the sweat from sun-reddenedfaces.
"Someone's in Drowned Valley," repeated Byron. "Them minks slid off'nStar in a hurry, I reckon, judgin' how they left their shanty. Phew!It stunk! They had French hootch, too."
"Mebby Leverett and Kloon told 'em we was fixin' to visit them,"suggested Blommers.
"They didn't know," said Clinch.
"Where's Hal Smith?" inquired Hone.
Clinch made no reply. Blommers silently gnawed a new quid from theremains of a sticky plug.
"Well," inquired Jim Hastings finally, "do we quit, Mike, or do westill-hunt in Drowned Valley?"
"Not me, at night," remarked Blommers drily.
"Not amongst them sink-holes," added Hone.
Suddenly Clinch turned and stared at him. Then the deadly light fromhis little eyes shone on the others one by one.
"Boys," he said, "I gotta get Quintana. I can't never sleep anotherwink till I get that man. Come on. Act up like gents all. Let's go."
Nobody stirred.
"Come on," repeated Clinch softly. But his lips shrank back, twitching.
As they looked at him they saw his teeth.
"All right, all right," growled Hone, shouldering his rifle with a jerk.
The Hastings boys, young and rash, shuffled into the trail. Blommershesitated, glanced askance at Clinch, and instantly made up his mind totake a chance with the sink-holes rather than with Clinch.
"God A'mighty, Mike, what be you aimin;' to do?" faltered Harvey.
"I'm aimin' to stop the inlet and outlet to Drowned Valley, Harvey,"replied Clinch in his pleasant voice. "God is a-goin' to deliverQuintana into my hands."
"All right. What next?"
"Then," continued Clinch, "I cal'late to set down and wait."
"How long?"
"Ask God, boys. I don't know. All I know is that whatever is livin' inDrowned Valley at this hour has gotta live and die there. For it can'tnever live to come outen that there morass walkin' on two legs like areal man."
He moved slowly along the file of sullen men, his rifle a-trail in onehuge fist.
"Boys," he said, "I got first. There ain't no sink-hole deep enough odrowned me while Eve needs me. ... And my little girlie needs me bad.... After she gits what's her'n, then I don't care no more. ..." Helooked up into the sky, where the last ashes of sunset faded from thezenith. ... "Then I don't care," he murmured. "Like's not I'll creepaway like some shot-up critter, n'kinda find some lone, safe spot,n'kinda fix me f'r a long nap. ... I guess that'll be the way ... whenEve's a lady down to Noo York 'r'som'ers----" he added vaguely.
Then, still looking up at the fading heavens, he moved forward, headlifted, silent, unhurried, with the soundless, stealthy, and certaintread of those who walk unseeing and asleep.
* * * * *
II
Clinch had not taken a dozen strides before Hal Smith loomed up ahead inthe rosy dusk, driving in Leverett before him.
An exclamation of fierce exultation burst from Clinch's thin lips as heflung out one arm, indicating Smith and his clinking prisoner:
"Who was that gol-dinged catamount that suspicioned Hal? I wa'ntworried none, neither. Has a gent. Mebbe he sticks up folks, too, buthe's a gent. And gents is honest or they ain't gents."
Smith came up at his easy, tireless gait, hustling Leverett along withprods from gun-butt or muzzle, as came handiest.
The prisoner turned a ghastly visage on Clinch, who ignored him.
"Got my packet, Hal?" he demanded.
Smith poked Leverett with his rifle: "Tune up," he said; "tell Clinchyour story."
As a caged rat looks death in the face, his ratty wits working likelightning and every atom of cunning and ferocity alert for attack orescape, so the little, mean eyes of Earl Leverett became fixed on Clinchlike two immobile and glassy beats of jet.
"G'wan," said Clinch softly, "spit it out."
"Jake done it," muttered Leverett, thickly.
"Done what?"
"Stole that there packet o' yourn -- whatever there was into it."
"Who put him up to it?"
"A fella called Quintana."
"What was there in it for Jake?" inquired Clinch pleasantly.
"Ten thousand."
"How about you?"
"I told 'em I wouldn't touch it. Then they pulled their guns on me, andI was scared to squeal."
"So that was the way?" asked Clinch in his even, reassuring voice.
Leverett's eyes travelled stealthily around the circle of men, thenreverted to Clinch.
"I dassn't touch it," he said, "but I dassn't squeal. ... I as huntin'onto Drowned Valley when Jake meets up with me."
"`I got the packet,' he sez, `and I'm a-going to double criss-crossQuintana, I am, and beat it. Don't you wish you was whacks with me?'
"`No,' sez I, `honesty is my policy, no matter what they tell about me.S'help me God, I ain't never robbed no trap and I ain't no skin thief,whatever lies folks tell. All I ever done was run a little hootch,same's everybody.'"
He licked his lips furtively, his cold, bright eyes fastened on Clinch.
"G'wan Earl," nodded the latter, "heave her up."
"That's all. I sez, `Good-bye, Jake. An' if you heed me warning',ill-gotten gains ain't a-going to prosper nobody.' That's what I saidto Jake Kloon, the last solemn words I spoke to that there man now inhis bloody grave----"
"Hey?" demanded Clinch.
"That's where Jake is," repeated Leverett. "Why, so help me, I wa'ntgone ten yards when, bang! goes a gun, and I see this here Quintana comeouten the busy, I do, and walk up to Jake and frisk him and Jake stilla-kickin' the moss to slivers. Yessir, that's what I seen."
"G'wan."
"Yessir. ... 'N'then Quintana he shoved Jake into a sink-hole. ThaswotI seen with my own two eyes. Yessir. 'N'then Quintana he run off, 'n'Ijest set down in the trail, I did; 'n'then Hal come up and acted like Ihad stole your packet, he did; 'n'then I told him what Quintana done.'N'Hal, he takes after Quintana, but I don't guess he meets up with him,for he come back and ketched holt o' me, 'n'he druv me in like I was acaaf, he did. 'N'here I be."
The dusk in the forest had deepened so that the men's faces had becomemere blotches of grey.
Smith said to Clinch: "That's his story, Mike. But I preferred heshould tell it to you himself, so I brought him along. ... Did you driveStar Peak?"
"There wa'nt nothin' onto it," said Clinch very softly. Then, of asudden, his shadowy visage became contorted and he jerked up his rifleand threw a cartridge into the magazine.
"You dirty louse!" he roared at Leverett, "
you was into this, too,a-robbin' my little Eve----"
"Run!" yelled somebody, giving Leverett a violent shove into the woods.
In the darkness and confusion, Clinch shouldered his way out of thecircle and fired at the crackling