The Mesa Trail Page 17

  CHAPTER XVII--DORALES RUNS AWAY

  "Look!" said the soft voice of Coravel Tio. "Look up at the skyline!"Mrs. Crump tore herself free from that restraining hand--but she looked.She looked up, beyond Abel Dorales, above Abel Dorales, at the line ofthe hogback that cleaved across the hot blue sky. She stood thus,looking, wonder upon her.

  There, clear-cut and sharp against the quivering blue sky, appearedthree figures. They were the figures of a horse and two men; one of themen carried a bundle in his arms. This last figure sank again from sightalmost instantly, as did that of the horse. The figure of the other mancame down the steep slope, came down swiftly and eagerly.

  Abel Dorales saw Mrs. Crump look upward. He saw the others follow hergaze, saw the startled and wondering surmise that filled their eyes. Heturned, catlike, and looked. He stared at that tall figure, whoseclothes were torn and dishevelled, whose forehead was streaked by theraw, red brand of a hot bullet. He stared at that figure, which wascoming down the hillside rapidly toward him.

  "_Dios!_" he whispered, throatily. "_Jesus Maria!_"

  He crossed himself; the gesture was made in terrible, spasmodic haste.His arms flung out wide, palms backward as though in search of somesupport. He took a retreating step, and another, as that tall figurestrode down at him; he backed against a bowlder and stood thus, staring.His brown face became ghastly pale, his mouth opened in slaveringhorror.

  In his madness there was reason. He had come here quickly, very quickly,after shooting Thady Shea and seeing him topple into that gully; he knewthat no other man could walk here and arrive so soon after he hadarrived himself. He knew that this tall figure with the raw, red brandacross the brow could be no living man.

  "_Que quiere?_" he cried, huskily, with a great effort forcing his vocalchords to do their work. "_Que quiere?_ What do you want, hell dweller?"

  Mrs. Crump, who did not believe in ghosts, and who was not easily shakenoff her balance, satisfied herself that it was really Thady Shea whoapproached. Then she slipped to the doorway of the shack and picked upthe blacksnake whip which she had tossed away. She stood at the cornerof the shack, waiting, watching Abel Dorales, her lips grimly clenchedinto a thin line. She was quite content to let Thady Shea settle his ownscore with the man.

  Thady came forward, wordless, his gaze fastened upon Dorales, deep angergleaming in those intensely black eyes. Abel Dorales, ashen white, edgedaround the side of the bowlder. His hand drifted to his pocket; itflashed up again with a revolver.

  But as Abel Dorales swung down that revolver, as he drew down on ThadyShea for a desperate ghost-quelling shot, something snaked out throughthe air--something that seemed to leap from the expert arm of MehitabelCrump. It curled about the wrist of Abel Dorales, it curled and clungwith vicious snap about his hand and fingers; as the head of arattlesnake is snapped and tugged from his body with one whipcrack, sothe revolver was torn from the hand of Dorales and sent flying out uponthe stones.

  Thady Shea flung himself upon Dorales.

  As has been previously seen, Thady Shea knew nothing about the scienceand art of fighting. His was a blind, primitive, untutored lust forvengeance. He had heard that resonant voice telling the story of hisdeath; he had heard, lifting to him above the crest of the hogback, thatfalse tale designed to blacken his memory, and now he plunged headlongat Abel Dorales, angered as he had never been angered in his life.

  Stricken and all unstrung by what he had taken to be an apparition, AbelDorales tried to stumble away, cowering. But in a moment the furious,clumsy blows of Thady Shea proved that here was real flesh and blood;Shea landed one smash that all but stove in the ribs of his enemy. Inhis arms was terrific strength, had he but known how to use it. Perhapsit was as well that the knowledge was lacking, else Dorales had diedvery brutally and quickly.

  Still retreating, Dorales gathered himself together and faced the storm.He saw that this was no ghost, but a man of flesh and blood--a man veryweary, very terrible, a man whose consuming anger swept away all senseof bodily hurt and weariness. Dorales blocked the furious blows, then,most incautiously, allowed Thady Shea to clinch.

  That was near to being the death of Dorales, for now the terrificstrength of Thady Shea poured forth like a flood. The two men locked,reeled back and forth, went plunging down to the stones. They rolleddown the hillside; they fought with utter madness--yet ever the steelarms were tightening about the body of Dorales, ever the ribs of Doraleswere cracking and giving inward.

  In that primitive and sickening struggle, neither man saw or gave heedto anything else than the face of his foe. Neither man observed that, asthey upheaved and rolled again, they had come upon something thatgleamed like needles in the sunlight; something wide and gaping that laythere unseen and inconspicuous among the stones.

  Desperate, feeling the very life wrenching out of him, Abel Doralesflung loose one arm and attempted to clutch a stone, wherewith to batterat the deadly face above him. The two men writhed again, heaved upward,fell heavily in a twisted mass. Something thin and piercing, somethingthat gleamed like white needles in the sunlight, ripped the skin ofDorales' outflung arm. Upon that arm fell all the plunging weight ofThady Shea, grinding it down upon the stones, grinding with it thegaping jaws of that rattler's head, grinding arm and jaws until theskin, from wrist to elbow, was burst and ripped asunder as cloth isripped before a knife.

  The pain of this unseen, blind hurt fired Dorales into frantic efforts.He flung Shea backward; he hammered in one blow and another, rockingback Shea's head and blinding him. Dorales gained his feet once more,writhing free, panting. He was freed of Shea's grip. His arm wasdripping blood. Dorales looked down at Thady Shea, who was weakly risingto throw himself forward anew--then Abel Dorales turned. He turned andran, bounding and sliding to the canon floor in great leaps, runningwildly and blindly past the two automobiles, running from the vengeanceof the man whom he had tried to murder, the man who now seemed to bemore than man. But Thady Shea did not pursue, for now weakness anddizziness had come upon him, and after two steps Shea fell forward.

  From the doorway of the shack came a sharp report; a fleck of dustlifted, slightly to one side of the running figure of Dorales. Therecame a second report, and a fleck of dust lifted from between therunning feet of Dorales. Mrs. Crump was throwing down for the third andfinal shot when Coravel Tio wrenched her arm aside.

  "For the love of Heaven, stop!" cried Coravel Tio. "No murder, senora!Go and look after Shea--quick!"

  He tore the revolver away from her; then he watched Abel Dorales untilthe half-breed turned a bend in the canon and was lost to sight.

  Gilbert and Lewis had run to lift Thady Shea, and Mrs. Crump joinedthem. Tears shone upon her cheeks as Thady Shea came to his feet andfaintly smiled at her. His lips moved, and a panting whisper reached herears.

  "The baby--look after--her! I--knew--you wouldn't mind----"

  "Carry him into the shack, ye galoots!" snapped Mrs. Crump, crisply, onehand dabbing the tears from her eyes. "Can't you see his mind'swanderin'? Hurry up, now!"

  Despite Shea's protest, they obeyed her mandate. She followed them asfar as the shack doorway, then paused. Another man had come down fromthe hogback, had suddenly appeared from nowhere, and was talking withCoravel Tio; another man, tall and swarthy of face, behind whom followeda saddled pony. The pony was very weary.

  It was not the man at whom Mrs. Crump looked, however. It was the bundlein his arms which drew her startled attention--that bundle wasunmistakably a baby! She realized that Thady Shea had not been wanderingin his mind after all. It was a baby, a little brown baby who was cooingand laughing in the face of Coravel Tio.

  Hastily, Mrs. Crump stepped forward, Coravel Tio turned to meet her.

  "Senora, this is my friend Thomas Twofork, of whom I told you. He hasbeen following those gods of the San Marcos, and now he has found them."

  Coravel Tio gestured toward the earth, where lay the seven stone godssprawled in grotesque attitudes, one alone being upright, grinningstonily. But Mrs.
Crump paid no heed to him or to the smiling ThomasTwofork. From the latter's infolding arms she seized the baby with asudden and fierce gesture.

  "Where'd ye get it? Where'd Thady Shea get it?" she demanded, sharply.

  Thomas Twofork, standing there in the sunlight, told his story, whileMrs. Crump fondled the baby with admiration and kindliness growing inher keen blue eyes.

  Thomas Twofork had located that battered yellow suitcase at the HotelAragon, had seen Thady Shea depart with it--and had found the fan belton his own car broken. While repairing it, he had become aware thatDorales was also on the trail of Shea. Dorales had started westward, andafter him, Twofork.

  Dorales had not gone on to St. Johns, but had followed the tracks ofMurray's car when it turned off on the trail to Old Fort Tularosa andAragon. He had met Murray's car returning without Thady Shea, and hadhastened on into Aragon; by the time he discovered that Shea had notbeen here, and had exchanged his car for a horse, much time was lost.

  Dorales had gone back along the trail, had picked up Shea's track atdaybreak, and had followed; after Dorales had gone Thomas Twofork,patiently unhurrying. Both men had met the ranger returning to town withthe murderer, Garcia, and had learned Shea's route.

  When Dorales had fired that shot in the night, Twofork had been waiting,had seen the act too late to prevent it. Dorales had at once taken theyellow suitcase, pushing forward without delay. Thomas Twofork had foundThady Shea in the gully, creased by the bullet, but unwounded, batteredby the fall but sound of wind and limb. With Shea in the saddle, holdingthe baby, Thomas Twofork had followed the trail of Dorales quickly andunerringly.

  The remainder was briefly told. Knowing that the hogback hid all thecountry beyond the view of those in the canon, Thady Shea had waiteduntil Dorales had ridden down into the canon, then had come on withThomas Twofork. Unseen, the two men had arrived, had waited; at theright moment, Thady Shea had made his appearance. As Thomas Twofork toldit, the whole story was very simple, all very prosaic. But to those whohad waited by the shack in the canon, it had not been simple or prosaic.It had been very tragic and very terrible.

  "So work the gods!" Coravel Tio tossed away his cigarette. "ThomasTwofork, here are the gods of your fathers; they are yours to take backto Cochiti. They have brought disaster upon Mackintavers and Dorales;they have brought us good blessings. And presently will come the realPremble, senora, to buy this mine of ours."

  "What was that ye threatened Sandy about?" demanded Mrs. Crump, lookingup from the baby for the first time. "That information ye mentioned?"

  "Oh, that!" Coravel Tio laughed gently. "The grand jury is sitting atSanta Fe. I arranged a few things; a few affidavits, chief among themthat of Senor Cota, one of our native legislators. I am confident thatby this time Sandy Mackintavers has been indicted for bribery and otherthings. When he reaches Magdalena, he will find officers waiting forhim. That is all. He paid too much attention to the gods of the SanMarcos, and not enough attention to business. Ah, yes! Now, I am verycurious to find what made so much blood upon the arm of Abel Dorales. Iwonder, now!"

  He beckoned to Thomas Twofork. The two men walked away, their eyesintent upon the stony ground of the hillside.

  Mrs. Crump went into the cabin, bearing the baby. Somewhat to hersurprise, she found Thady Shea sitting at the table, enjoying a heartymeal by the aid of Gilbert and Lewis.

  "My land, Thady. I thought ye was plumb laid out. So ye've come back atlast, huh? Well, set steady a while till I get some water on thestove--got to fix this here baby up a bit. Pore little critter! Don'tknow when I've seen a baby chortle like this here one."

  Presently she had disposed the baby upon her own bunk, and found thatthe two men had gone. She was alone in the shack with Thady Shea and thebaby. She went to the table and extended her hand.

  "Thady," she said, her blue eyes moist, "have--have ye forgiven me thatblow?"

  He stood awkwardly, gripping her hand, a glow spreading over his face ashe read the message in her eyes. Seldom had he seen her eyes look sotender, so womanly.

  "What blow? I don't--oh! Why, I had really forgotten it."

  "I ain't. It's sore mem'ry," said Mrs. Crump, bluntly. "Thady, when thatvarmint told that yarn about you bein' dead and so on, I was fixin' tokill him--yes, I was! In another minute I'd ha' done it, too. And now,"suddenly her voice became crisp and harsh, defiantly harsh, "what yemean bringin' that baby around here? D'you reckon I got time and room totake care o' babies?"

  A look of pained astonishment came to the man's eye.

  "Why--why, I intended to take care of that baby myself! She seemed tolike me----"

  "Who wouldn't, ye blunderin' big heart of a man!" she returned, softly."Yes, I reckon that baby is goin' to stay right here, Thady Shea. I justwanted to see the idea in your mind, and now I reckon I know. Yes, sir!I reckon I know."

  "You don't know--at least not all of it." Thady Shea was smiling now,smiling down into her eyes. "That baby is dependent on me; I'm going tomake her happy! And she isn't all, either. I'm an old man and prettyuseless, but--but I found a big purpose that has drawn me backhere--and--and I want to tell you----"

  Out upon the stony hillside, out in the blinding white sunlight, CoravelTio and Thomas Twofork were standing together. In his hand the Indianheld something--something fragmentary and crushed, something thatglittered like broken needles in the sunlight.

  "It was the head of a rattlesnake," said Thomas Twofork, meditatively,"and not long dead. You see? The fangs caught in his arm. The two menfell and ground into the stones the arm and fang together; the fangswere ripped along his arm----"

  "Ah, yes! It is very wonderful." Coravel Tio began to roll a cigarette.He gazed down the canon where the running figure of Abel Dorales haddisappeared, and speculation filled his dreamy dark eyes.

  "Was there any poison in the fangs? Very likely, Thomas Twofork. Perhapsit had been there in the moment of death; beyond doubt, it had beenthere. Was it dried up, too dried up to take effect? Well, we do notknow. Soon, in a day or two, we shall know. One thing I do know,however--I know that _I_ would never meddle with the gods of the SanMarcos. Eh?"

  Thomas Twofork was a college graduate, but he was first an Indian. Tothis last word of his companion he nodded solemn affirmation. The twomen turned and started toward the shack; but a few yards from thedoorway, they halted and glanced at each other. From the building hadcome a sudden low sound of a woman softly sobbing. Into the eyes ofThomas Twofork leaped a mute question. Coravel Tio answered with agesture, and the two men changed their course and came to a halt nearthe automobiles.

  "Well?" asked the Indian a moment later. "Why does she cry, Coravel Tio?Has that man Shea harmed her?"

  Coravel Tio struck a match, lighted his cigarette, broke the match intwo, and gracefully tossed away the fragments.

  "No, he has not harmed her," he said, gently. "Yet she is sobbing; so,perhaps, is he. You do not understand these things, Thomas Twofork, butI am a philosopher. I understand everything! I have expected to hear thesenora sob, thus, for some time past. Now it has happened. All is well."

  "Eh?" The Indian scrutinized him in perplexity. "But what does it mean?"

  "It means," and Coravel Tio smiled, "that the senora is very happy! Shehas found both a husband and a child. _Adios!_"

  THE END

  THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESSGARDEN CITY, N. Y.