Starlight Riders Boxed-Set 50 Western Classics in One Edition. Ernest Haycox
to shoot and destroy, but just to be along. Anything is better than this uncertainty."
"Don't worry. Your dad's got a big bunch with him."
"Do you think he is the only one I worry about?" asked the girl softly.
"Bless you for that," muttered Denver. "I've always been a hand to think I did very well ridin' the single trail. But when you say somethin' real comfortin' like that to me it's mighty pleasant. It sticks with me a long time. I guess a man never realizes what loneliness is—"
He bit off the rest of it and turned away. "No time to lose now. Don't worry."
"You should never ride by yourself after dark," said Eve.
He was in the saddle. "If your dad comes back very soon tell him Redmain's been located in a high meadow due east of here about seven miles. Tell him to watch out for a trap. Redmain never strikes direct. He's too tricky for that."
"And yourself, Dave?"
"I was told today," he said morosely, "that I was as much of a savage as Redmain. I reckon I'll be all right. So-long till I see you."
"So-long, David."
He cut around the house, and fell in with the western trail. A few rods from Leverage's it began to warp with the rising slope. The cleared meadows fell off, and he was riding once again in the abysmal shades of the forest. And around ten o'clock of the night he reached the Henry trail, feeling the presence of a man about him. Quietly he let a phrase fall into the utter silence.
"All right."
"Denver?" questioned a husky voice.
"Yeah. Who is it?"
"Hank Munn."
"Which way?"
"Still up yonder to the west. We better drift."
"Lead off."
Munn came out of the trees, rode across the Henry trail and proceeded due west, Denver following. The path was narrow, extremely crooked, and overhung by branches that swooped down to rake them as they passed. Munn put up with the tedious vagaries of the path until a small clearing appeared. At that point he swapped directions, hurried over the open space, and with another sudden shift went down a glen soaked in fog. Water guttered across stones. The horses splashed through a creek and attacked a stiff bank with bunched muscles. Presently Munn halted in black nowhere and cleared his throat.
There was no answer. Munn forged on a few hundred yards. Again he coughed. Out of the brush rode a sentry.
"Munn?"
"Yeah. What made yuh drag yore picket?"
No answer. Munn dropped back to second place as this new outpost led them on. More turns, more offset alleys through the pines, yet always climbing toward some high point; a high point they abruptly came upon after a hundred yards of end-over-end ascent. There was a murmured challenge ahead. Men closed in. Lyle Bonnet spoke from a short distance. "Dave?"
"What've you got, Lyle?"
"Come over here. Here. Look off down yonder."
Denver crowded his horse beside Bonnet and saw, far below, a point of flame shimmering through the rolling fog; rising and falling and trembling with a queer, shutter-like effect.
"Redmain's camp," said Bonnet. "I been watchin' it better'n four hours. Saw 'em movin' around until the fog came in. Can't make out nothin' but the fire now. All the boys is here. And it's up to you."
SURROUNDED
"Done any exploring down there?" Denver asked.
"I got boys posted along the ridge here, but nobody's scouted that bowl. I was afraid of losin' 'em, and I didn't want to bring on no premature fightin'. They prob'ly got the brush speckled with gents."
"Good enough. Munn, where are you? Drift along and collect the bunch right here. I'm going down. Need another man."
"Right beside yuh," announced Bonnet.
Denver paused long enough to issue his orders. "If you fellows hear one shot, come along. If you hear more than one shot, also come along, but don't waste any time. Otherwise wait for us."
He turned from the ridge. Bonnet muttered. "A little to yore left—there's a good way of gettin' below." Accordingly, Denver slipped away from the main party, let himself down what appeared to be a convenient alley, and immediately was plunged into a black and solitary world. The avenue of approach shot one way and another, drifting from high levels to water holes and back again. Perceptibly the outlaw camp fire brightened and the fog thinned. Bonnet breathed in his ear. "This is one of the two- three entries to the bowl. They'd be apt to have it guarded." Denver accepted the warning and abandoned the easy travel. Curling around the trees, he circled the beacon fire until he judged he had completed an approximate quarter turn. Bonnet's wind rose and fell asthmatically; then Denver plunged forward in long and staggered spurts. A thick rampart of trees shut out the gleam of the fire. He halted once more, waiting for Bonnet to catch up. Bonnet murmured, "Not far now," and Denver cut straight through the trees to find himself on the smooth rim of the bowl. Fifty yards off the camp blaze shot up with a brilliant cascade of sparks. A man threw an armful of wood on it and quickly retreated to outer darkness.
That move evoked a sudden suspicion in Denver's head. Where were the horses and the men of Redmain's outfit? Certainly not anywhere along this particular angle of the bowl. He touched Bonnet's arm and began a swift march around the rim. He saw a man crouching beside a horse. By degrees he came nearer. The man's cigarette tip made a fitful glow; the horse stirred. For a long time Denver kept his place, trying to penetrate the gloom behind that man. But he saw nothing. To all intents and purposes that fellow was a solitary watcher. And as the dragging minutes passed Denver definitely accepted the belief. Redmain had posted a decoy and fled.
There was but one conclusion to draw. Redmain somehow had caught wind of the forces moving against him and was now playing his own particular game under the black cloak of the night. Denver stared at the fire guard. He touched Bonnet on the knee and whispered, "Stay here." Curving with the tree line, he arrived in the rear of the outlaw. A hundred feet intervened. Stepping ahead in long, springing strides he reached the horse at the moment it jerked up. The man sprang to his feet and grunted. "Who's that?" Denver's gun leveled against him.
"Snap your elbows."
The outlaw swayed as if calling on his nerve. But the fighting moment went winging by. He was lost, and he knew it. His hands rose.
"Step this way," grunted Denver. "Turn around. Stand fast." His free hand shot out and ripped the man's gun from its holster. He tucked it behind his own belt. The outlaw jeered him with a sudden revival of spirit.
"A hell of a lot of good this'll do yuh."
"You're lucky to be out of what's comin'. Anybody else around here?"
"Think I'd tell if they was?" growled the outlaw.
"Just a catamount of wheels, ain't you," reflected Denver. "Walk over to the fire where I can see you."
The outlaw obeyed. He had a strange face, and Denver commented on it. "Another slick-eared gun fanner from other parts. Redmain must have a young army."
"Big enough to whip the tar outa you, once ever yuh tackle it," stated the outlaw coolly.
"We'll have a chance to find out soon enough," said Denver. "But you'll have no part in the fun."
"The Sundown jail won't hold me," challenged the outlaw.
"Your ticket don't read that far," was Denver's laconic answer. This stopped the outlaw dead. His teeth clicked together, and the bones of his face sprang against the tightening skin.
"So that's yore style, uh?" he muttered.
"You seem to like the life.