“Take care, Lassiter, I might think that a proposal,” she replied, gaily. “It’s dangerous to propose elopement to a Mormon woman. Well, I was expecting you. Now will be a good hour to show you Milly Erne’s grave. The day-riders have gone, and the night-riders haven’t come in. Bern, what do you make of that? Need I worry? You know I have to be made to worry.”
“Well, it’s not usual for the night shift to ride in so late,” replied Venters, slowly, and his glance sought Lassiter’s. “Cattle are usually quiet after dark. Still, I’ve known even a coyote to stampede your white herd.”
“I refuse to borrow trouble. Come,” said Jane.
They mounted, and, with Jane in the lead, rode down the lane, and, turning off into a cattle trail, proceeded westward. Venters’s dogs trotted behind them. On this side of the ranch the outlook was different from that on the other; the immediate foreground was rough and the sage more rugged and less colorful; there were no dark-blue lines of canyons to hold the eye, nor any uprearing rock walls. It was a long roll and slope into gray obscurity. Soon Jane left the trail and rode into the sage, and presently she dismounted and threw her bridle. The men did likewise. Then, on foot, they followed her, coming out at length on the rim of a low escarpment. She passed by several little ridges of earth to halt before a faintly defined mound. It lay in the shade of a sweeping sage-brush close to the edge of the promontory; and a rider could have jumped his horse over it without recognizing a grave.
“Here!”
She looked sad as she spoke, but she offered no explanation for the neglect of an unmarked, uncared-for grave. There was a little bunch of pale, sweet lavender daisies, doubtless planted there by Jane.
“I only come here to remember and to pray,” she said. “But I leave no trail!”
A grave in the sage! How lonely this resting-place of Milly Erne! The cottonwoods or the alfalfa fields were not in sight, nor was there any rock or ridge or cedar to lend contrast to the monotony. Gray slopes, tinging the purple, barren and wild, with the wind waving the sage, swept away to the dim horizon.
Lassiter looked at the grave and then out into space. At that moment he seemed a figure of bronze.
Jane touched Venters’s arm and led him back to the horses.
“Bern!” cried Jane, when they were out of hearing. “Suppose Lassiter were Milly’s husband—the father of that little girl lost so long ago!”
“It might be, Jane. Let us ride on. If he wants to see us again he’ll come.”
So they mounted and rode out to the cattle trail and began to climb. From the height of the ridge, where they had started down, Venters looked back. He did not see Lassiter, but his glance, drawn irresistibly farther out on the gradual slope, caught sight of a moving cloud of dust.
“Hello, a rider!”
“Yes, I see,” said Jane.
“That fellow’s riding hard. Jane, there’s something wrong.”
“Oh yes, there must be.... How he rides!”
The horse disappeared in the sage, and then puffs of dust marked his course.
“He’s short-cut on us—he’s making straight for the corrals.”
Venters and Jane galloped their steeds and reined in at the turning of the lane. This lane led down to the right of the grove. Suddenly into its lower entrance flashed a bay horse. Then Venters caught the fast rhythmic beat of pounding hoofs. Soon his keen eye recognized the swing of the rider in his saddle.
“It’s Judkins, your Gentile rider!” he cried. “Jane, when Judkins rides like that it means hell!”
CHAPTER IV
DECEPTION PASS
The rider thundered up and almost threw his foam-flecked horse in the sudden stop. He was of giant form, and with fearless eyes.
“Judkins, you’re all bloody!” cried Jane, in affright. “Oh, you’ve been shot!”
“Nothin’ much Miss Withersteen. I got a nick in the shoulder. I’m some wet an’ the hoss’s been throwin’ lather, so all this ain’t blood.”
“What’s up?” queried Venters, sharply.
“Rustlers sloped off with the red herd.”
“Where are my riders?” demanded Jane.
“Miss Withersteen, I was alone all night with the herd. At daylight this mornin’ the rustlers rode down. They began to shoot at me on sight. They chased me hard an’ far, burnin’ powder all the time, but I got away.”
“Jud, they meant to kill you,” declared Venters.
“Now I wonder,” returned Judkins. “They wanted me bad. An’ it ain’t regular for rustlers to waste time chasin’ one rider.”
“Thank heaven you got away,” said Jane. “But my riders—where are they?”
“I don’t know. The night-riders weren’t there last night when I rode down, an’ this mornin’ I met no day-riders.”
“Judkins! Bern, they’ve been set upon—killed by Oldring’s men!”
“I don’t think so,” replied Venters, decidedly. “Jane, your riders haven’t gone out in the sage.”
“Bern, what do you mean?” Jane Withersteen turned deathly pale.
“You remember what I said about the unseen hand?”
“Oh!... Impossible!”
“I hope so. But I fear—” Venters finished, with a shake of his head.
“Bern, you’re bitter; but that’s only natural. We’ll wait to see what’s happened to my riders. Judkins, come to the house with me. Your wound must be attended to.”
“Jane, I’ll find out where Oldring drives the herd,” vowed Venters.
“No, no! Bern, don’t risk it now—when the rustlers are in such shooting mood.”
“I’m going. Jud, how many cattle in that red herd?”
“Twenty-five hundred head.”
“Whew! What on earth can Oldring do with so many cattle? Why, a hundred head is a big steal. I’ve got to find out.”
“Don’t go,” implored Jane.
“Bern, you want a hoss thet can run. Miss Withersteen, if it’s not too bold of me to advise, make him take a fast hoss or don’t let him go.”
“Yes, yes, Judkins. He must ride a horse that can’t be caught. Which one—Black Star—Night?”
“Jane, I won’t take either,” said Venters, emphatically. “I wouldn’t risk losing one of your favorites.”
“Wrangle, then?”
“Thet’s the hoss,” replied Judkins. “Wrangle can outrun Black Star an’ Night. You’d never believe it, Miss Withersteen, but I know. Wrangle’s the biggest an’ fastest hoss on the sage.”
“Oh no, Wrangle can’t beat Black Star. But, Bern, take Wrangle if you will go. Ask Jerd for anything you need. Oh, be watchful, careful.... God speed you.”
She clasped his hand, turned quickly away, and went down a lane with the rider.
Venters rode to the barn, and, leaping off, shouted for Jerd. The boy came running. Venters sent him for meat, bread, and dried fruits, to be packed in saddlebags. His own horse he turned loose into the nearest corral. Then he went for Wrangle. The giant sorrel had earned his name for a trait the opposite of amiability. He came readily out of the barn, but once in the yard he broke from Venters, and plunged about with