“Got any gold?”
“No. I—I wasn't a miner,” replied the youth huskily.
Gulden felt for a gold-belt, then slapped at his pockets. “Turn round!” ordered the giant.
“Aw, Gul let him go!” remonstrated Jesse Smith.
Blicky laid a restraining hand upon Gulden's broad shoulder.
“Turn round!” repeated Gulden, without the slightest sign of noticing his colleagues.
But the youth understood and he turned a ghastly livid hue.
“For God's sake—don't murder me!” he gasped. “I had—nothing—no gold—no gun!”
Gulden spun him round like a top and pushed him forward. They went half a dozen paces, then the youth staggered, and turning, he fell on his knees.
“Don't—kill—me!” he entreated.
Joan, seeing Jim Cleve stiffen and crouch, thought of him even in that horrible moment; and she gripped his arm with all her might. They must endure.
The other bandits muttered, but none moved a hand.
Gulden thrust out the big gun. His hair bristled on his head, and his huge frame seemed instinct with strange vibration, like some object of tremendous weight about to plunge into resistless momentum.
Even the stricken youth saw his doom. “Let—me—pray!” he begged.
Joan did not fault, but a merciful unclamping of muscle-bound rigidity closed her eyes.
“Gul!” yelled Blicky, with passion. “I ain't a-goin' to let you kill this kid! There's no sense in it. We're spotted back in Alder Creek.... Run, kid! Run!”
Then Joan opened her eyes to see the surly Gulden's arm held by Blicky, and the youth running blindly down the road. Joan's relief and joy were tremendous. But still she answered to the realizing shock of what Gulden had meant to do. She leaned against Cleve, all within and without a whirling darkness of fire. The border wildness claimed her then. She had the spirit, though not the strength, to fight. She needed the sight and sound of other things to restore her equilibrium. She would have welcomed another shock, an injury. And then she was looking down upon the gasping miner. He was dying. Hurriedly Joan knelt beside him to lift his head. At her call Cleve brought a canteen. But the miner could not drink and he died with some word unspoken.
Dizzily Joan arose, and with Cleve half supporting her she backed off the road to a seat on the bank. She saw the bandits now at business-like action. Blicky and Smith were cutting the horses out of their harness: Beady Jones, like a ghoul, searched the dead men; the three bandits whom Joan knew only by sight were making up a pack; Budd was standing beside the stage with his, expectant grin; and Gulden, with the agility of the gorilla he resembled, was clambering over the top of the stage. Suddenly from under the driver's seat he hauled a buckskin sack. It was small, but heavy. He threw it down to Budd, almost knocking over that bandit. Budd hugged the sack and yelled like an Indian. The other men whooped and ran toward him. Gulden hauled out another sack. Hands to the number of a dozen stretched clutchingly. When he threw the sack there was a mad scramble. They fought, but it was only play. They were gleeful. Blicky secured the prize and he held it aloft in triumph. Assuredly he would have waved it had it not been so heavy. Gulden drew out several small sacks, which he provokingly placed on the seat in front of him. The bandits below howled in protest. Then the giant, with his arm under the seat, his huge frame bowed, heaved powerfully upon something, and his face turned red. He halted in his tugging to glare at his bandit comrades below. If his great cavernous eyes expressed any feeling it was analogous to the reluctance manifest in his posture—he regretted the presence of his gang. He would rather have been alone. Then with deep-muttered curse and mighty heave he lifted out a huge buckskin sack, tied and placarded and marked.
“ONE HUNDRED POUNDS!” he boomed.
It seemed to Joan then that a band of devils surrounded the stage, all roaring at the huge, bristling demon above, who glared and bellowed down at them.
Finally Gulden stilled the tumult, which, after all, was one of frenzied joy.
“Share and share alike!” he thundered, now black in the face. “Do you fools want to waste time here on the road, dividing up this gold?”
“What you say goes,” shouted Budd.
There was no dissenting voice.
“What a stake!” ejaculated Blicky. “Gul, the boss had it figgered. Strange, though, he hasn't showed up!”
“Where'll we go?” queried Gulden. “Speak up, you men.”
The unanimous selection was Cabin Gulch. Plainly Gulden did not like this, but he was just.
“All right. Cabin Gulch it is. But nobody outside of Kells and us gets a share in this stake.”
Many willing hands made short work of preparation. Gulden insisted on packing all the gold upon his saddle, and had his will. He seemed obsessed; he never glanced at Joan. It was Jesse Smith who gave the directions and orders. One of the stage-horses was packed. Another, with a blanket for a saddle, was given Cleve to ride. Blicky gallantly gave his horse to Joan, shortened his stirrups to fit her, and then whistled at the ridgy back of the stage-horse he elected to ride. Gulden was in a hurry, and twice he edged off, to be halted by impatient calls. Finally the cavalcade was ready; Jesse Smith gazed around upon the scene with the air of a general overlooking a vanquished enemy.
“Whoever fust runs acrost this job will have blind staggers, don't you forgit thet!”
“What's Kells goin' to figger?” asked Blicky, sharply.
“Nothin' fer Kells! He wasn't in at the finish!” declared Budd.
Blicky gazed darkly at him, but made no comment.
“I tell you Blick, I can't git this all right in my head,” said Smith.
“Say, ask Jim again. Mebbe, now the job's done, he can talk,” suggested Blicky.
Jim Cleve heard and appeared ready for that question.
“I don't know much more than I told you. But I can guess. Kells had this big shipment of gold spotted. He must have sent us in the stage for some reason. He said he'd tell me what to expect and do. But he didn't come back. Sure he knew you'd do the job. And just as sure he expected to be on hand. He'll turn up soon.”
This ruse of Jim's did not sound in the least logical or plausible to Joan, but it was readily accepted by the bandits. Apparently what they knew of Kells's movements and plans since the break-up at Alder Creek fitted well with Cleve's suggestions.
“Come on!” boomed Gulden, from the fore. “Do you want to rot here?”
Then without so much as a backward glance at the ruin they left behind the bandits fell into line. Jesse Smith led straight off the road into a shallow brook and evidently meant to keep in it. Gulden followed; next came Beady Jones; then the three bandits with the pack-horse and the other horses; Cleve and Joan, close together, filed in here; and last came Budd and Blicky. It was rough, slippery traveling and the riders spread out. Cleve, however, rode beside Joan. Once, at an opportune moment, he leaned toward her.
