The Lone Star Ranger, Zane Grey [best ereader for pc TXT] 📗
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- Author: Zane Grey
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Book online «The Lone Star Ranger, Zane Grey [best ereader for pc TXT] 📗». Author Zane Grey
“Your stock and property will last a long time—do you lots of good when this ranger—”
“Bah!” hoarsely croaked Lawson. The ranger’s name was a match applied to powder. “Haven’t I told you he’d be dead soon—any time—same as Laramie is?”
“Yes, you mentioned the—the supposition,” replied Longstreth, sarcastically. “I inquired, too, just how that very desired event was to be brought about.”
“The gang will lay him out.”
“Bah!” retorted Longstreth, in turn. He laughed contemptuously.
“Floyd, don’t be a fool. You’ve been on the border for ten years. You’ve packed a gun and you’ve used it. You’ve been with rustlers when they killed their men. You’ve been present at many fights. But you never in all that time saw a man like this ranger. You haven’t got sense enough to see him right if you had a chance. Neither have any of you. The only way to get rid of him is for the gang to draw on him, all at once. Then he’s going to drop some of them.”
“Longstreth, you say that like a man who wouldn’t care much if he did drop some of them,” declared Lawson; and now he was sarcastic.
“To tell you the truth, I wouldn’t,” returned the other, bluntly. “I’m pretty sick of this mess.”
Lawson cursed in amazement. His emotions were all out of proportion to his intelligence. He was not at all quick-witted. Duane had never seen a vainer or more arrogant man.
“Longstreth, I don’t like your talk,” he said.
“If you don’t like the way I talk you know what you can do,” replied Longstreth, quickly. He stood up then, cool and quiet, with flash of eyes and set of lips that told Duane he was dangerous.
“Well, after all, that’s neither here nor there,” went on Lawson, unconsciously cowed by the other. “The thing is, do I get the girl?”
“Not by any means except her consent.”
“You’ll not make her marry me?”
“No. No,” replied Longstreth, his voice still cold, low-pitched.
“All right. Then I’ll make her.”
Evidently Longstreth understood the man before him so well that he wasted no more words. Duane knew what Lawson never dreamed of, and that was that Longstreth had a gun somewhere within reach and meant to use it. Then heavy footsteps sounded outside tramping upon the porch. Duane might have been mistaken, but he believed those footsteps saved Lawson’s life.
“There they are,” said Lawson, and he opened the door.
Five masked men entered. They all wore coats hiding any weapons. A big man with burly shoulders shook hands with Longstreth, and the others stood back.
The atmosphere of that room had changed. Lawson might have been a nonentity for all he counted. Longstreth was another man—a stranger to Duane. If he had entertained a hope of freeing himself from this band, of getting away to a safer country, he abandoned it at the very sight of these men. There was power here, and he was bound.
The big man spoke in low, hoarse whispers, and at this all the others gathered around him close to the table. There were evidently some signs of membership not plain to Duane. Then all the heads were bent over the table. Low voices spoke, queried, answered, argued. By straining his ears Duane caught a word here and there. They were planning, and they were brief. Duane gathered they were to have a rendezvous at or near Ord.
Then the big man, who evidently was the leader of the present convention, got up to depart. He went as swiftly as he had come, and was followed by his comrades. Longstreth prepared for a quiet smoke. Lawson seemed uncommunicative and unsociable. He smoked fiercely and drank continually. All at once he straightened up as if listening.
“What’s that?” he called, suddenly.
Duane’s strained ears were pervaded by a slight rustling sound.
“Must be a rat,” replied Longstreth.
The rustle became a rattle.
“Sounds like a rattlesnake to me,” said Lawson.
Longstreth got up from the table and peered round the room.
Just at that instant Duane felt an almost inappreciable movement of the adobe wall which supported him. He could scarcely credit his senses. But the rattle inside Longstreth’s room was mingling with little dull thuds of falling dirt. The adobe wall, merely dried mud, was crumbling. Duane distinctly felt a tremor pass through it. Then the blood gushed back to his heart.
“What in the hell!” exclaimed Longstreth.
“I smell dust,” said Lawson, sharply.
That was the signal for Duane to drop down from his perch, yet despite his care he made a noise.
“Did you hear a step?” queried Longstreth.
No one answered. But a heavy piece of the adobe wall fell with a thud. Duane heard it crack, felt it shake.
“There’s somebody between the walls!” thundered Longstreth.
Then a section of the wall fell inward with a crash. Duane began to squeeze his body through the narrow passage toward the patio.
“Hear him!” yelled Lawson. “This side!”
“No, he’s going that way,” yelled Longstreth.
The tramp of heavy boots lent Duane the strength of desperation. He was not shirking a fight, but to be cornered like a trapped coyote was another matter. He almost tore his clothes off in that passage. The dust nearly stifled him. When he burst into the patio it was not a single instant too soon. But one deep gasp of breath revived him and he was up, gun in hand, running for the outlet into the court. Thumping footsteps turned him back. While there was a chance to get away he did not want to fight. He thought he heard someone running into the patio from the other end. He stole along, and coming to a door, without any idea of where it might lead, he softly pushed it open a little way and slipped in.
A low cry greeted Duane. The room was light. He saw Ray Longstreth sitting on her bed in her dressing-gown. With a warning gesture to her to be silent he turned to close the door. It was a heavy door without bolt or bar, and when Duane had shut it he felt safe only for the moment. Then he gazed around the room. There was one window with blind closely drawn. He listened and seemed to hear footsteps retreating, dying away.
Then Duane turned to Miss Longstreth. She had slipped off the bed, half to her knees, and was holding out trembling hands. She was as white as the pillow on her bed. She was terribly frightened. Again with warning hand commanding silence, Duane stepped softly forward, meaning to reassure her.
“Oh!” she whispered, wildly; and Duane thought she was going to faint. When he got close and looked into her eyes he understood the strange, dark expression in them. She was terrified because she believed he meant to kill her, or do worse, probably worse. Duane realized he must have looked pretty hard and fierce bursting into her room with that big gun in hand.
The way she searched Duane’s face with doubtful, fearful eyes hurt him.
“Listen. I didn’t know this was your room. I came here to get away—to save my life. I was pursued. I was spying on—on your father and his men. They heard me, but did not see me. They don’t know who was listening. They’re after me now.”
Her eyes changed from blank gulfs to dilating, shadowing. quickening windows of thought.
Then she stood up and faced Duane with the fire and intelligence of a woman in her eyes.
“Tell me now. You were spying on my father?”
Briefly Duane told her what had happened before he entered her room, not omitting a terse word as to the character of the men he had watched.
“My God! So it’s that? I knew something was terribly wrong here—with him—with the place—the people. And right off I hated Floyd Lawson. Oh, it’ll kill me if—if—It’s so much worse than I dreamed. What shall I do?”
The sound of soft steps somewhere near distracted Duane’s attention, reminded him of her peril, and now, what counted more with him, made clear the probability of being discovered in her room.
“I’ll have to get out of here,” whispered Duane.
“Wait,” she replied. “Didn’t you say they were hunting for you?”
“They sure are,” he returned, grimly.
“Oh, then you mustn’t go. They might shoot you before you got away. Stay. If we hear them you can hide. I’ll turn out the light. I’ll meet them at the door. You can trust me. Wait till all quiets down, if we have to wait till morning. Then you can slip out.”
“I oughtn’t to stay. I don’t want to—I won’t,” Duane replied, perplexed and stubborn.
“But you must. It’s the only safe way. They won’t come here.”
“Suppose they should? It’s an even chance Longstreth’ll search every room and corner in this old house. If they found me here I couldn’t start a fight. You might be hurt. Then—the fact of my being here—”
Duane did not finish what he meant, but instead made a step toward the door. White of face and dark of eye, she took hold of him to detain him. She was as strong and supple as a panther. But she need not have been either resolute or strong, for the clasp of her hand was enough to make Duane weak.
“Up yet, Ray?” came Longstreth’s clear voice, too strained, too eager to be natural.
“No. I’m in bed reading. Good night,” instantly replied Miss Longstreth, so calmly and naturally that Duane marveled at the difference between man and woman. Then she motioned for Duane to hide in the closet. He slipped in, but the door would not close altogether.
“Are you alone?” went on Longstreth’s penetrating voice.
“Yes,” she replied. “Ruth went to bed.”
The door swung inward with a swift scrape and jar. Longstreth half entered, haggard, flaming-eyed. Behind him Duane saw Lawson, and indistinctly another man.
Longstreth barred Lawson from entering, which action showed control as well as distrust. He wanted to see into the room. When he had glanced around he went out and closed the door.
Then what seemed a long interval ensued. The house grew silent once more. Duane could not see Miss Longstreth, but he heard her quick breathing. How long did she mean to let him stay hidden there? Hard and perilous as his life had been, this was a new kind of adventure. He had divined the strange softness of his feeling as something due to the magnetism of this beautiful woman. It hardly seemed possible that he, who had been outside the pale for so many years, could have fallen in love. Yet that must be the secret of his agitation.
Presently he pushed open the closet door and stepped forth. Miss Longstreth had her head lowered upon her arms and appeared to be in distress. At his touch she raised a quivering face.
“I think I can go now—safely,” he whispered.
“Go then, if you must, but you may stay till you’re safe,” she replied.
“I—I couldn’t thank you enough. It’s been hard on me—this finding out—and you his daughter. I feel strange. I don’t understand myself well. But I want you to know—if I were not an outlaw—a ranger—I’d lay my life at your feet.”
“Oh! You have seen so—so little of me,” she faltered.
“All the same it’s true. And that makes me feel more the trouble my coming caused you.”
“You will not fight my father?”
“Not if I can help it. I’m trying to get out of his way.’
“But you spied upon him.”
“I am a ranger, Miss Longstreth.”
“And oh! I am a rustler’s daughter,”
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