"I reckon there's folks which would call that a right clever bit of shootin'," he said, "seem' a? there wasn't time to pull off no fancy stuff!"

CHAPTER XXIII

TEN SPOT USES HIS EYES

The crash of Ten Spot's pistols aroused Nellie Hazelton, and she sat up and stared stupidly about--at Hollis, who was just rising from the floor; at Ten Spot, who still stood in the doorway; and then at Yuma's body, stretched out on the floor beside the overturned table. She shuddered and covered her face with her hands. The next instant Hollis was bending over her, helping her to her feet, leading her to the door and a.s.suring her in a low, earnest voice that everything was all right, and that Yuma would never trouble her again, and that he wanted her to get on her pony and go to the Circle Bar. She allowed herself to be led out on the porch, but once there she looked at him with renewed spirit.

"It was you who came first," she said; "I didn't see you, but I heard Yuma curse, felt something strike him, and then--I must have fainted.

You see, I felt it must be you--I had been expecting you."

As she spoke she seized his hands and pressed them tightly, her eyes eloquent with thankfulness. "Oh, I am so glad!" she whispered. Then she saw Ten Spot standing in the doorway and she ran over and seized his hands also, shaking them hysterically. And Ten Spot stood, red of face, grinning bashfully at her--like a big, awkward, embarra.s.sed schoolboy.

"That's the first time I've ever been thanked for shootin' anybody!" he confided to Hollis, later. "An' it cert'nly did feel some strange!"

In spite of Hollis's remonstrances the girl insisted on returning to the interior of the cabin, to "bundle up her things." Feeling the futility of further objection, Hollis finally allowed her to enter. But while she was busy in one of the rooms he and Ten Spot carried Yuma's body outside, around to the rear of the cabin.

Then, when the girl had finally secured her "things" and they had been securely tied to her pony, and she had started down the trail toward the Circle Bar ranch, Hollis and Ten Spot returned to the rear of the cabin, took up Yuma's body, carried it to a secluded spot at some little distance from the cabin and there buried it deep and quickly.

"I want to thank you again," said Hollis as he and Ten Spot stood on the porch when Hollis was ready to depart; "it was a great stroke of luck that brought you here just when you were needed."

Ten Spot grinned. "I don't think it was just luck that brought me," he said; "though mebbe it was luck that took me into the Fashion this morning. Whatever it was, I was in there, an' I heard Dunlavey an' Yuma cookin' this here deal. I wasn't feelin' entirely ongrateful for the way you'd treated me after you'd got my gun that day in the _Kicker_ office an' I wasn't intendin' to let happen what Dunlavey wanted to happen. So I got out of the Fashion as soon as I could an' trailed Yuma.

I've been after him all day, but somehow or other I lost him an' didn't find out where he'd gone till a little while ago--when I heard a gun go off. Then I hit the breeze here--after Yuma. That's all. That's how I come to get here so lucky." He stuck out a hand to Hollis. "Well, so-long," he said; "I'm hittin' the breeze out of the country." He stepped forward to his pony, but hesitated when he heard Hollis speak.

"Then you're not going back to the Circle Cross--to work for Dunlavey?"

questioned the latter.

"Well, no," grinned Ten Spot. "You see, it might not be so pleasant now as it's been. I reckon when Dunlavey hears this he won't be exactly tickled."

Hollis contemplated him gravely. "So you're going to leave the country?"

he said slowly, his eyes twinkling. "I take it you are not afraid----"

"Don't!" said Ten Spot coldly and sharply. Then he grinned with feline cordiality. "I reckon I ain't scared of anyone," he said, "but I ain't likin' to go back to the Circle Cross after puttin' Yuma out of business. I've done some mean things in my time, but I ain't dealin'

double with no man, an' I couldn't go back to the Circle Cross an' work for Dunlavey when I ain't sympathizin' with him none."

"I'm shy of good cowhands," offered Hollis quietly. "If forty a month would be----"

Ten Spot's right hand was suddenly gripping Hollis's. "You've hired a man, boss!" he said, his eyes alight with pleasure. "Ever since you clawed me that day in the _Kicker_ office I've had a hankerin' to work for you. I was wonder in' if you'd ast me. There ain't no d.a.m.n----"

"Then it's a bargain," laughed Hollis, interrupting. "You can start right now." He pointed to the ridge upon which he had been riding when he heard the shot that had brought him to the cabin. "Some of Ed Hazelton's cattle are in the basin on the other side of that ridge," he said. "You go over there and keep an eye on them until I can get a chance to send some one here to help you drive them back up the river toward the Circle Bar." As he came to the edge of the porch to mount his pony his gaze fell on Yuma's horse, still hitched to one of the columns.

"What are we going to do with Yuma's horse?" he questioned.

Ten Spot grinned. He walked over to the pony, unhitched it, and with a vicious slap on the flank sent it loping down the trail toward the river.

"That'll be my message to Dunlavey that Yuma ain't here any more," he said grimly.

Hollis mounted and rode a short distance, but halted and turned in the saddle when he heard Ten Spot call to him.

"Boss," he said with a grin, "I ain't exactly blind, an' mebbe you've got your eyes with you, too. But I saw that there Hazelton girl lookin'

at you sorta----"

He saw a smile on Hollis's face, but the rest of his speech was drowned in a clatter of hoofs as the "boss's" pony tore down the Coyote trail.

Then Ten Spot smiled, mounted his pony, and rode away toward the ridge.

CHAPTER XXIV

CAMPAIGN GUNS

Of course Yuma had been amply punished for his part in the attack on Nellie Hazelton, but there still remained Dunlavey--who had instigated it. Hollis was aware of the uselessness of bringing a charge against Dunlavey--he had not forgotten his experience with Bill Watkins when he had attempted to have Greasy brought to justice. He believed that he would not have brought such a charge had there been any probability of the sheriff taking action. He felt that in inciting Yuma to attack Nellie, Dunlavey had also contemplated a blow at him. The man's devilish ingenuity appalled him, but it also aroused a fierce anger in his heart that, in the absence of a powerful will, would have moved him to immediate vengeance.

But he contemplated no immediate action. Besides the attack on Nellie Hazelton there was another score to settle with Dunlavey, and when the time came for a final accounting he told himself that he would settle both. He knew there would come such a time. From the beginning he had felt that he and the Circle Cross manager were marked by fate for a clash. He was eager for it, but content to wait until the appointed time. And he knew that the time was not far distant.

Therefore he remained silent regarding the incident, and except to Norton and his wife, Nellie Hazelton, Ten Spot, and himself, the disappearance of Yuma remained a mystery.

Dunlavey, perhaps, might have had his suspicions, but if so he communicated them to no one, and so as the days pa.s.sed the mystery ceased to be discussed and Yuma was forgotten.

Hollis received a letter from Weary, dated "Chicago," announcing the safe arrival of himself and Ed Hazelton. "Town" suited him to a "T," he wrote. But Doctor Hammond would not operate at once--he wanted time to study the symptoms of Ed's malady. That was all. Hollis turned this letter over to Nellie, with another from Ed, addressed to her--whose contents remained a mystery to him.

Ben Allen had returned from his visit to the small ranchers in the vicinity, had confided to Hollis that he had "mixed a little politics with business," and then, after receiving a telegram from the Secretary of the Interior, had taken himself off to Santa Fe to confer with the governor.

After several days he returned. He entered the _Kicker_ office to greet Hollis, his face wreathed in smiles.

"You've got 'em all stirred up, my boy!" he declared, placing his hand on Hollis's shoulder with a resounding "smack"; "they're goin' to enforce the little law we've got and they've pa.s.sed some new ones.

Here's a few! First and foremost, cattle stealing is to be considered felony! Penalty, from one to twenty years! Next--free water! Being as the rivers in this Territory ain't never been sold with what land the government sharks has disposed of, any cattleman's got the right to water wherever he wants to. The governor told me that if it's necessary he'll send Uncle Sam's blue coats anywhere in the Territory to enforce that! Third: after a man's registered his brand he can't change it unless he applies to the district judge. Them that ain't registered their brand ain't ent.i.tled to no protection. I reckon there's trouble ahead for any man which monkeys with another man's brand!

"Say!" Allen eyed Hollis whimsically; "that new governor's all het up over you! Had a copy of the _Kicker_ in front of him on his desk when he was talkin' to me. Says you're a sc.r.a.pper from the word go, an'

that he'd back you up long as there was a blue coat anywhere in the Territory!"

Allen's speech was ungrammatical, but its message was one of good cheer and Hollis's eyes brightened. The Law was coming at last! He could not help but wonder what Dunlavey's feelings would be when he heard of it.

For himself, he felt as any man must feel who, laboring at a seemingly impossible task, endless and thankless, sees in the distance the possible, the end, and the plaudits of his friends.

Yes, he could see the end, but the end was not yet. He looked gravely at Allen.

"Did you happen to hear when these laws become effective?" he inquired.

"On the first day of October!" returned Allen, triumphantly.

Hollis smiled. "And election day is the third of November," he said.

"That gives Dunlavey, Watkins and Company a month's grace--in case you are elected sheriff."

Allen grinned. "They can't do a heap in a month," he said.