When he leaped around the corner of the house and sprang through the door, he saw Hugh Dawn standing with a revolver in each hand, while a still form lay on the floor before him. Those two guns jumped up and were leveled against Ronicky.
“Don’t shoot!” cried Ronicky. “Light your lantern. Quick, Hugh! Is it Moon?”
And all his heart rose up in hope that it might indeed be the master criminal.
“You, Ronicky?” breathed Dawn. “I might of knowed you’d be the one to keep watch over me tonight when I trusted to Moon’s word, like a fool, and figured myself safe. Here’s a light. I seen the knife drop in his hand when you shot. Fifth part of another second, and I’d be where he is now!”
His trembling hands ignited a lantern, and as the smoking flame rose Ronicky turned the dead man upon his back. They both looked down into the sullen, relaxed features of Bud Kent. The bullet had struck him in the back of the head and came out again squarely between the eyes, a grisly wound. In falling, the canvas bag had struck the floor beside the victim, and part of the gleaming contents had tumbled beside him. If ever gold had killed a man, here was a sample! Ronicky turned to Hugh Dawn, the latter trembling from the narrowness of his escape.
“Now,” he said, “we’re in for thunder and battle, Dawn. Guard the house, I’m going to try to get Jerry in here, or otherwise the swine Moon will—”
He stopped, for the sound of clamoring voices broke in upon him. Then there was a rush of running feet and shouting across the clearing and the well- known bass thunder of Jack Moon’s voice calling: “Steady, boys, and get back here. I’ll do the exploring!”
Ronicky jumped to the front door.
Every man of the band was out in the clearing, and guns gleamed in every hand. Jack Moon was striding toward the shack at a long-gaited run. It was too late to reach Jerry Dawn unless she would come at his call.
“Jerry!” he shouted. “Jerry Dawn!”
And he halted Moon with a clear-ringing warning: “Get back, Moon, or I’ll drill you through!”
The bandit stopped as the frightened face of Jerry appeared at the door of her shack.
“Jerry!” called Ronicky Doone. “Come here, quick! Don’t stop for nothing!”
“Si!” shouted Moon in counter warning. “Get the girl and keep her from that throat-cutter. Jerry, if you trust Ronicky, you trust a man that’s just done murder!”
That word was decisive. She shrank back from the door with a cry of terror, and at the same time Silas Treat, who had apparently been running up from the other side of the shack, out of sight of Ronicky, swerved into view for a moment and then sprang into the shack with the girl. Taken by surprise though he was, Ronicky managed to get in a shot, but his aim was so hurried that, even at that short distance, he missed. He was only able to knock the hat from the head of the big man, and the wide sombrero fluttered clumsily toward the ground.
In the meantime, the rest of the band in the clearing had dived for cover, and as they did so they sent a volley which crashed into the solid log walls of the hut about the doorway where Ronicky stood. He himself took to cover, calling to Hugh Dawn to turn down the flame of the lantern so as to give the enemy a dimmer target.
An instant of silence settled over the battlefield. In that breathing space Ronicky turned to his older companion and found Dawn cool and steady as a rock. The time had come for action now, and the big fellow was ready. He had now taken his post in the corner of the shack, covering, in that fashion, both the rear door and the single window to the east, facing the hut which now contained his daughter and Silas Treat.
“Get out of line!” warned Ronicky hastily. “Get out of line, Hugh! They’ll be trying pot shots at the window and at the door pretty pronto.”
The other nodded and stepped back. And then they heard the wailing voice of Jerry Dawn crying: “Dad! Oh, dad! Are you there? Are you safe?”
He roared the answer: “Safe and sound, girl, thanks to Ronicky Doone! Murder they can call it if they will, but it was Bud Kent or me. Ronicky dropped Bud in time to save my neck. Watch yourself, Jerry, and come to us when you can! You—”
A shouting rose in the clearing, and then a crackle of guns, which Ronicky shrewdly guessed was more to drown the sound of Hugh’s voice than in the hope of dropping one of the two.
Then came a frightened cry: “Dad! Help!”
But it was Ronicky Doone who responded to that call.
“They’re taking her away from the shack!” he cried to Dawn. “The dogs!”
He started for the door with a fierce murmur, like that of a bull terrier before it springs at the throat of an enemy. Hugh Dawn hurled himself after his companion and gathered the smaller man into the huge embrace of his arms, where Ronicky strove vainly to worm his way toward liberty, writhing and twisting and panting.
“Let me go, Hugh!” he shouted. “Let me get at em!”
“You fool!” gasped Dawn. “Don’t you know that the minute you show your head it’ll be loaded with bullets? And when you go, I go, too! One man can’t hold two doors and a window. Ronicky, for both our sakes we got to play safe!”
Ronicky Doone, weak with rage and disappointment, submitted and stood leaning against the wall.
“They’ve got her,” he groaned. “And now they’ll ride off with her, Hugh. They’ve got her and most of the money that Cosslett buried. And now— Heaven knows what’ll happen! When I had that chance to fight Moon man to man, why didn’t I take it?” He added sadly: “Now I’ve lost everything!”
“She’ll come to no harm in their hands,” insisted the girl’s father.
“No harm?” said Ronicky. “They won’t lay a hand on her. I know that. But the main danger is that Moon has a chance to talk to her, the snake! And no one knows what he’ll be able to persuade her to!”
“After he’s sent a man to murder me? After he’s taken her and is keeping her away from me by force? After he’s set a siege to the cabin where I am? D’you think he can persuade away all those things?”
“He could persuade the angels that he was one of ‘em, if he had a chance,” said Ronicky gloomily. “Hush! There’s the devil himself calling to us.”
“Doone! Ronicky Doone!” called the voice of Jack Moon.
“I hear you,” answered Ronicky. “Talk out, Moon.”
“Do I get a truce?” said Moon. “If I come out to talk to you, Ronicky, will you and Hugh promise to gimme a chance to get back safe? I want to tell you—”
“Come out,” said Ronicky. “You know I won’t plug you. I wish I was the kind that would take an advantage. But I ain’t your brand of man, Jack Moon!”
Without waiting for a further assurance, Jack Moon appeared across the clearing at the door of the shack facing that of Ronicky and Hugh. He advanced until he was three paces from Ronicky, who remained in the shadow at the door.
“Stop there!” commanded Ronicky. “That’s close enough for talk.”
“If you don’t trust me,” said Moon, “right enough! But here I am one man against two, and yet you’re afraid.”
Ronicky answered indirectly.
“Watch the back of the house, Hugh,” he directed, “and watch sharp. If a head or a hand shows, take a potshot. They might try to rush from behind while Moon chats here in front. Now go on and talk, Moon. I suppose you want the body of Kent?”
“Was it Bud Kent you murdered,