Later, when she had made herself presentable, she went downstairs again, concealing her misery behind a steady courtesy and a smile that sometimes was a little forced and bitter, to entertain her guest. It was a long, tiresome day, made almost unbearable by Hester's small talk. But she got through it. And when, rather late in the afternoon, Hester inquired the way to the Diamond K, announcing her intention of visiting Trevison immediately, she gave no evidence of the shocked surprise that seized her.

She coolly helped Hester prepare for the trip, and when she drove away in the buckboard, stood on the ground at the edge of the porch, watching as the buckboard and its occupant faded into the shimmering haze of the plains.

CHAPTER XVII

JUSTICE VS. LAW

Impatience, intolerable and vicious, gripped Trevison as he rode homeward after his haunting vigil at Manti. The law seemed to him to be like a house with many doors, around and through which one could play hide and seek indefinitely, with no possibility of finding one of the doors locked.

Judge Graney had warned him to be cautious, but as he rode into the dusk of the plains the spirit of rebellion seized him. Twice he halted n.i.g.g.e.r and wheeled him, facing Manti, already agleam and tumultuous, almost yielding to his yearning to return and force his enemy to some sort of physical action, but each time he urged the horse on, for he could think of no definite plan. He was half way to the Diamond K when he suddenly started and sat rigid and erect in the saddle, drawing a deep breath, his nerves tingling from excitement. He laughed lowly, exultingly, as men laugh when under the stress of adversity they devise sudden, bold plans of action, and responding to the slight knee press n.i.g.g.e.r turned, reared, and then shot like a black bolt across the plains at an angle that would not take him anywhere near the Diamond K.

Half an hour later, in a darkness which equaled that of the night on which he had carried the limp and drink-saturated Clay Levins to his wife, Trevison was dismounting at the door of the gun-man's cabin. A little later, standing in the glare of lamplight that shone through the open doorway, he was rea.s.suring Mrs. Levins and asking for her husband. Shortly afterward, he was talking lowly to Levins as the latter saddled his pony out at the stable.

"I'll do it--for you," Levins told him. And then he chuckled. "It'll seem like old times."

"It's Justice versus Law, tonight," laughed Trevison; "it's a case of 'the end justifying the means.'"

Manti never slept. At two o'clock in the morning the lights in the gambling rooms of the _Belmont_ and the _Plaza_ were still flickering streams out into the desert night; weak strains of discord were being drummed out of a piano in a dance hall; the shuffling of feet smote the dead, flat silence of the night with an odd, weird resonance. Here and there a light burned in a dwelling or store, or shone through the wall of a tent-house. But Manti's one street was deserted--the only peace that Manti ever knew, had descended.

Two men who had dismounted at the edge of town had hitched their horses in the shadow of a wagon shed in the rear of a store building, and were making their way cautiously down the railroad tracks toward the center of town. They kept in the shadows of the buildings as much as possible--for s.p.a.ce was valuable now and many buildings nuzzled the railroad tracks; but when once they were forced to pa.s.s through a light from a window their faces were revealed in it for an instant--set, grim and determined.

"We've got to move quickly," said one of the men as they neared the courthouse; "it will be daylight soon. d.a.m.n a town that never sleeps!"

The other laughed lowly. "I've said the same thing, often," he whispered.

"Easy now--here we are!"

They paused in the shadow of the building and whispered together briefly.

A sound reached their ears as they stood. Peering around the corner nearest them they saw the bulk of a man appear. He walked almost to the corner of the building where they crouched, and they held their breath, tensing their muscles. Just when it seemed they must be discovered, the man wheeled, walked away, and vanished into the darkness toward the other side of the building. Presently he returned, and repeated the maneuver. As he vanished the second time, the larger man of the two in wait, whispered to the other:

"He's the sentry! Stand where you are--I'll show Corrigan--"

The words were cut short by the reappearance of the sentry. He came close to the corner, and wheeled, to return. A lithe black shape leaped like a huge cat, and landed heavily on the sentry's shoulders, bringing a pained grunt from him. The grunt died in a gurgle as iron fingers closed on his throat; he was jammed, face down, into the dust and held there, smothering, until his body slacked and his muscles ceased rippling. Then a handkerchief was slipped around his mouth and drawn tightly. He was rolled over, still unconscious, his hands tied behind him. Then he was borne away into the darkness by the big man, who carried him as though he were a child.

"Locked in a box-car," whispered the big man, returning: "They'll get him; they're half unloaded."

Without further words they returned to the shadow of the building.

Judge Lindman had not been able to sleep until long after his usual hour for retiring. The noise, and certain thoughts, troubled him. It was after midnight when he finally sought his cot, and he was in a heavy doze until shortly after two, when a breath of air, chilled by its clean sweep over the plains, searched him out and brought him up, sitting on the edge of the cot, shivering.

The rear door of the courthouse was open. In front of the iron safe at the rear of the room he saw a man, faintly but unmistakably outlined in the cross light from two windows. He was about to cry out when his throat was seized from behind and he was borne back on the cot resistlessly. Held thus, a voice which made him strain his eyes in an effort to see the owner's face, hissed in his ear:

"I don't want to kill you, but I'll do it if you cry out! I mean business!

Do you promise not to betray us?"

The Judge wagged his head weakly, and the grip on his throat relaxed. He sat up, aware that the fingers were ready to grip his throat again, for he could feel the big shape lingering beside him.

"This is an outrage!" he gasped, shuddering. "I know you--you are Trevison. I shall have you punished for this."

The other laughed lowly and vibrantly. "That's your affair--if you dare!

You say a word about this visit and I'll feed your scoundrelly old carca.s.s to the coyotes! Justice is abroad tonight and it won't be balked. I'm after that original land record--and I'm going to have it. You know where it is--you've got it. Your face told me that the other day. You're only half-heartedly in this steal. Be a man--give me the record--and I'll stand by you until h.e.l.l freezes over! Quick! Is it in the safe?"

The Judge wavered in agonized indecision. But thoughts of Corrigan's wrath finally conquered.

"It--it isn't in the safe," he said. And then, aware of his error because of the shrill breath the other drew, he added, quaveringly: "There is no--the original record is in my desk--you've seen it."

"Bah!" The big shape backed away--two or three feet, whispering back at the Judge. "Open your mouth and you're a dead man. I've got you covered!"

Cowering on his cot the Judge watched the big shape join the other at the safe. How long it remained there, he did not know. A step sounded in the silence that reigned outside--a third shape loomed in the doorway.

"Judge Lindman!" called a voice.

"Y-es?" quavered the Judge, aware that the big shape in the room was now close to him, menacing him.

"Your door's open! Where's Ed? There's something wrong! Get up and strike a light. There'll be h.e.l.l to pay if Corrigan finds out we haven't been watching your stuff. d.a.m.n it! A man can't steal time for a drink without something happens. Jim and Bill and me just went across the street, leaving Ed here. They're coming right--"

He had been entering the room while talking, fingering in his pockets for a match. His voice died in a quick gasp as Trevison struck with the b.u.t.t of his pistol. The man fell, silently.

Another voice sounded outside. Trevison crouched at the doorway. A form darkened the opening. Trevison struck, missed, a streak of fire split the night--the newcomer had used his pistol. It went off again--the flame-spurt shooting ceilingward, as Levins clinched the man from the rear. A third man loomed in the doorway; a fourth appeared, behind him.

Trevison swung at the head of the man nearest him, driving him back upon the man behind, who cursed, plunging into the room. The man whom Levins had seized was shouting orders to the others. But these suddenly ceased as Levins smashed him on the head with the b.u.t.t of a pistol. Two others remained. They were stubborn and courageous. But it was miserable work, in the dark--blows were misdirected, friend striking friend; other blows went wild, grunts of rage and impotent curses following. But Trevison and Levins were intent on escaping--a victory would have been hollow--for the thud and jar of their boots on the bare floor had been heard; doors were slamming; from across the street came the barking of a dog; men were shouting questions at one another; from the box-car on the railroad tracks issued vociferous yells and curses. Trevison slipped out through the door, panting. His opponent had gone down, temporarily disabled from sundry vicious blows from a fist that had worked like a piston rod. A figure loomed at his side. "I got mine!" it said, triumphantly; "we'd better slope."

"Another five minutes and I'd have cracked it," breathed Levins as they ran. "What's Corrigan havin' the place watched for?"

"You've got me. Afraid of the Judge, maybe. The Judge hasn't his whole soul in this deal; it looks to me as though Corrigan is forcing him. But the Judge has the original record, all right; and it's in that safe, too!

G.o.d! If they'd only given us a minute or two longer!"

They fled down the track, running heavily, for the work had been fast and the tension great, and when they reached the horses and threw themselves into the saddles, Manti was ablaze with light. As they raced away in the darkness a grim smile wreathed Trevison's face. For though he had not succeeded in this enterprise, he had at least struck a blow--and he had corroborated his previous opinion concerning Judge Lindman's knowledge of the whereabouts of the original record.

It was three o'clock and the dawn was just breaking when Trevison rode into the Diamond K corral and pulled the saddle from n.i.g.g.e.r. Levins had gone home.

Trevison was disappointed. It had been a bold scheme, and well planned, and it would have succeeded had it not been for the presence of the sentries. He had not antic.i.p.ated that. He laughed grimly, remembering Judge Lindman's fright. Would the Judge reveal the ident.i.ty of his early-morning visitor? Trevison thought not, for if the original record were in the safe, and if for any reason the Judge wished to conceal its existence from Corrigan, a hint of the ident.i.ty of the early-morning visitors--especially of one--might arouse Corrigan's suspicions.

But what if Corrigan knew of the existence of the original record? There was the presence of the guards to indicate that he did. But there was Judge Lindman's half-heartedness to disprove that line of reasoning. Also, Trevison was convinced that if Corrigan knew of the existence of the record he would destroy it; it would be dangerous, in the hands of an enemy. But it would be an admirable weapon of self-protection in the hands of a man who had been forced into wrong-doing--in the hands of Judge Lindman, for instance. Trevison opened the door that led to his office, thrilling with a new hope. He lit a match, stepped across the floor and touched the flame to the wick of the kerosene lamp--for it was not yet light enough for him to see plainly in the office--and stood for an instant blinking in its glare. A second later he reeled back against the edge of the desk, his hands gripping it, dumb, amazed, physically sick with a fear that he had suddenly gone insane. For in a big chair in a corner of the room, sleepy-eyed, tired, but looking very becoming in her simple dress with a light cloak over it, the collar turned up, so that it gave her an appearance of attractive negligence, a smile of delighted welcome on her face, was Hester Harvey.

She got up as he stood staring dumfoundedly at her and moved toward him, with an air of artful supplication that brought a gasp out of him--of sheer relief.

"Won't you welcome me, Trev? I have come very far, to see you." She held out her hands and went slowly toward him, mutely pleading, her eyes luminous with love--which she did not pretend, for the boy she had known had grown into the promise of his youth--big, magnetic--a figure for any woman to love.

He had been looking at her intently, narrowly, searchingly. He saw what she herself had not seen--the natural changes that ten years had brought to her. He saw other things--that she had not suspected--a certain blase sophistication; a too bold and artful expression of the eyes--as though she knew their power and the lure of them; the slightly hard curve in the corners of her mouth; a second character lurking around her--indefinite, vague, repelling--the subconscious self, that no artifice can hide--the sin and the shame of deeds unrepented. If there had been a time when he had loved her, its potence could not leap the lapse of years and overcome his repugnance for her kind, and he looked at her coldly, barring her progress with a hand, which caught her two and held them in a grip that made her wince.

"What are you doing here? How did you get in? When did you come?" He fired the questions at her roughly, brutally.

"Why, Trev." She gulped, her smile fading palely. The conquest was not to be the easy one she had thought--though she really wanted him--more than ever, now that she saw she was in danger of losing him. She explained, earnestly pleading with eyes that had lost their power to charm him.

"I heard you were here--that you were in trouble. I want to help you. I got here night before last--to Manti. Rosalind Benham had written about you to Ruth Gresham--a friend of hers in New York. Ruth Gresham told me. I went directly from Manti to Benham's ranch. Then I came here--about dusk, last night. There was a man here--your foreman, he said. I explained, and he let me in. Trev--won't you welcome me?"

"It isn't the first time I've been in trouble." His laugh was harsh; it made her cringe and cry: