The Max Brand Megapack. Max Brand
cried Kate, reining up her horse sharply. “Who are you?”
“A beaut!” muttered Rhinehart in devout admiration.
“We’re from the Y Circle X outfit,” said Haines glibly, “camping over here for the night. Are you lost, lady?”
“I guess I am. I thought I could get across the willows before the night fell. I’m trying to find a man who rode in this direction.”
“Come on into the camp,” said Haines easily. “Maybe some of the boys can put you on his track. What sort of a looking fellow is he?”
“Rides a black horse and whistles a good deal. His name is Barry. They call him Whistling Dan.”
“By God!” whispered Rhinehart in the ear of Haines.
“Shut up!” answered Haines in the same tone. “Are you afraid of a girl?”
“I’ve trailed him south this far,” went on Kate, “and a few miles away from here I lost track of him. I think he may have gone on across the willows.”
“Haven’t seen him,” said Rhinehart amiably. “But come on to the camp, lady. Maybe one of the boys has spotted him on the way. What’s your name?”
“Kate Cumberland,” she answered.
He removed his hat with a broad grin and reached up a hand to her.
“I’m most certainly glad to meet you, an’ my name’s Shorty. This here is Lee. Want to come along with us?”
“Thank you. I’m a little worried.”
“’S all right. Don’t get worried. We’ll show you the way out. Just follow us.”
They started back through the willows, Kate following half a dozen yards behind.
“Listen here, Shorty,” said Haines in a cautious voice. “You heard her name?”
“Sure.”
“Well, that’s the daughter of the man that raised Whistling Dan. I saw her at Morgan’s place. She’s probably been tipped off that he’s following Silent, but she has no idea who we are.”
“Sure she hasn’t. She’s a great looker, eh, Lee?”
“She’ll do, I guess. Now get this: The girl is after Whistling Dan, and if she meets him she’ll persuade him to come back to her father’s place. She’ll take him off our trail, and I guess none of us’ll be sorry to know that he’s gone, eh?”
“I begin to follow you, Lee. You’ve always had the head!”
“All right. Now we’ll get Purvis to tell the girl that he’s heard a peculiar whistling around here this evening. We’ll advise her to stick around and go out when she hears the whistling again. That way she’ll meet him and head him off, savvy?”
“Right,” said Rhinehart.
“Then beat it ahead as fast as you can and wise up the boys.”
“That’s me—specially about their bein’ Y Circle X fellers, eh?”
He chuckled and made ahead as fast as his long legs could carry him. Haines dropped back beside Kate.
“Everything goes finely,” he assured her. “I told Rhinehart what to do. He’s gone ahead to the camp. Now all you have to do is to keep your head. One of the boys will tell you that we’ve heard some whistling near the camp this evening. Then I’ll ask you to stay around for a while in case the whistling should sound again, do you see? Remember, never ask a question!”
It was even more simple than Haines had hoped. Silent’s men suspected nothing. After all, Kate’s deception was a small affair, and her frankness, her laughter, and her beauty carried all before her.
The long riders became quickly familiar with her, but through their rough talk, the Westerners’ reverence for a woman ran like a thread of gold over a dark cloth. Her fear lessened and almost passed away while she listened to their talk and watched their faces. The kindly human nature which had lain unexpressed in most of them for months together burst out torrent-like and flooded about her with a sense of security and power. These were conquerors of men, fighters by instinct and habit, but here they sat laughing and chattering with a helpless girl, and not a one of them but would have cut the others’ throats rather than see her come to harm. The roughness of their past and the dread of their future they laid aside like an ugly cloak while they showed her what lies in the worst man’s heart—a certain awe of woman. Their manners underwent a sudden change. Polite words, rusted by long disuse, were resurrected in her honour. Tremendous phrases came labouring forth. There was a general though covert rearranging of bandanas, and an interchange of self-conscious glances. Haines alone seemed impervious to her charm.
The red died slowly along the west. There was no light save the flicker of the fire, which played on Kate’s smile and the rich gold of her hair, or caught out of the dark one of the lean, hard faces which circled her. Now and then it fell on the ghastly grin of Terry Jordan and Kate had to clench her hand to keep up her nerve.
It was deep night when Jim Silent rode into the clearing. Shorty Rhinehart and Hal Purvis went to him quickly to explain the presence of the girl and the fact that they were all members of the Y Circle X outfit. He responded with nods while his gloomy eyes held fast on Kate. When they presented him as the boss, Jim, he replied to her good-natured greeting in a voice that was half grunt and half growl.
CHAPTER XIV
DELILAH
Haines muttered at Kate’s ear: “This is the man. Now keep up your courage.”
“He doesn’t like this,” went on Haines in the same muffled voice, “but when he understands just why you’re here I think he’ll be as glad as any of us.”
Silent beckoned to him and he went to the chief.
“What about the girl?” asked the big fellow curtly.
“Didn’t Rhinehart tell you?”
“Rhinehart’s a fool and so are the rest of them. Have you gone loco too, Haines, to let a girl come here?”
“Where’s the harm?”
“Why, damn it, she’s marked every man here.”
“I let her in because she is trying to get hold of Whistling Dan.”
“Which no fool girl c’n take that feller off the trail. Nothin’ but lead can do that.”
“I tell you,” said Haines, “the boy’s in love with her. I watched them at Morgan’s place. She can twist him around her finger.”
A faint light broke the gloom of Silent’s face.
“Yaller hair an’ blue eyes. They c’n do a lot. Maybe you’re right. What’s that?” His voice had gone suddenly husky.
A russet moon pushed slowly up through the trees. Its uncertain light fell across the clearing. For the first time the thick pale smoke of the fire was visible, rising straight up until it cleared the tops of the willows, and then caught into swift, jagging lines as the soft wind struck it. A coyote wailed from the distant hills, and before his complaint was done another sound came through the hushing of the willows, a melancholy whistling, thin with distance.
“We’ll see if that’s the man you want,” suggested Haines.
“I’ll go along,” said Shorty Rhinehart.
“And me too,” said a third. The whole group would have accompanied them, but the heavy voice of Jim Silent cut in: “You’ll stay here, all of you except the girl and Lee.”
They turned back, muttering, and Kate followed Haines into the willows.
“Well?” growled Bill Kilduff.
“What I want to know—”