The first thing I heard was a loud laugh, and then:

"How are you, Jud?" said Pike. "Back again, you see. Hope yer feeling all right."

I saw I might as well make the best of it, though you may be sure I was half scared to death.

"Yes, I'm feeling pretty well," I said. "I was able to be about the last time you were here, maybe you remember."

Pike scowled at me. "Yes, that's so, you was," he said. "You stood us off in pretty good shape that time--you and the snow. We were fools not to find out that you were all alone. But we app'inted an investigating committee _this_ time, and we're onto your game. Just excuse me, but I'll have to ask you to wear a little of Taggart's jewelry while we tend to some important business."

He pulled out a pair of handcuffs and slipped one of them around my wrist and shut it up so tight that it pressed into the flesh. Then he led me in front of the counter, slipped the other cuff through a brace under the front edge of the counter, and then clasped it around my other wrist, leaving the short chain which connected the cuffs behind the brace, so that I was a prisoner. He pushed up a chair and said:

"Set down and make yourself comfortable, Jud. I'll see if I can't find a handful of b.u.t.tons for you, and you can put 'em on the counter and play checkers with your nose."

The men laughed at this, and Pike went on:

"We met your pardner out here, the dark-complected feller. He was a-riding off our pinto that we left here by mistake last winter, with our saddle and things, and a-leading your two broncs, so we just stopped him and gathered 'em in, and I reckon they're _all_ our'n now, _most_ of 'em, _anyhow_. And in consideration of our only shooting him around the edges careful like, he give us some valuable information, such as just where you was a-sleeping, Jud, and where we'd find the blacksmith tools, and so forth. That's the way to get along with an Injun and have everything all easy-going--shoot 'im, _very careful_, around the edges."

Again they all laughed, and then went out the back door, which, I noticed, had a small hole cut in it over the bolt big enough to let in a man's hand. There were five of them, counting Pike. The windows were boarded up and it was dark in the store, but as the door opened I saw that it was quite light outside and that it was snowing.

[Ill.u.s.tration: PIKE HANDCUFFING ME IN THE DRUG STORE, MARCH NINETEENTH]

As I sat there in the dark unable to move and with the handcuffs cutting into my wrists you may believe I was miserable enough. I expected nothing short of being killed by the gang before they left. I saw what a fool I had been to trust the scoundrelly Indian even as much as I had. It was a little satisfaction, however, to know that he had failed to get off with his stolen property even if it had fallen into the hands of a worse set of thieves. I soon heard them at work on the safe in the bank. Of course I thought of my fuse, but it was a dozen feet away, the other side of the counter, and I could see not a shadow of hope of getting at it.

I think I sat there as much as two hours, listening to the noise in the next building, when Pike came in and said:

"You'll be glad to hear, Jud, that we're getting along beautiful on that safe. We're a-going to blow the stuffing out of it the next thing _you_ know. Reckon if you ain't particular we'll just borrow a sleigh we see out here and a set of Sours's harness for a couple of our horses when we go away, 'cause we think the specie may be a little heavy. Besides, we're calculating there may be some other stuff around town worth taking off--Winchesters and such agricultural and stock-raising implements," and he laughed. He seemed to be in very good humor.

He went back, and for another long while I heard nothing but steady drilling on the safe and a little of their talk, though I could not catch much of that. Sometimes, too, I could hear Kaiser barking. He was locked in the hotel, and I thought he knew I was in trouble and wanted to get out and help me.

After what seemed hours Pike came in again.

"We blow 'er open now very shortly," he said. "A reg'ler little Fourth o' July celebration of our own, hey, Jud?" Then he laughed and went on: "We need that money and you bet it's going to come handy." He looked at me, came closer with the lantern, and said:

"Jud, what d'ye say to coming in with us and having your share like a man? You're a good one, if you _are_ young, and we can find plenty of work for you, and always you get your share."

"No," I said, "I don't care to."

He looked at me sharply a moment and then went on:

"Just as you please, of course. But me and the boys was talking it over and we calculated it was the best way to dispose of you, a _pile_ the best for you and _some_ better for us."

I had kept looking straight into his eyes, under his big eyebrows.

"No," I said, "I won't do it."

"Oh, take your choice," he answered, "take your choice. Just as you think best, of course. Only you know the old saying about how dead men don't tell any tales. And if you come in with us you get your share, just the same as if you'd done your part of the work."

I said nothing. He waited a minute, then went out and shut the door. I sprang up and pulled and wrenched at the brace with all my strength.

The handcuffs cut into my wrists, but I did not feel it. The brace stayed as firm as ever. I sat down weak and trembling with my last hope gone. A minute later there was a loud explosion in the bank, which shook the building I was in. Next came a cheer from the men.

Then voices, and I heard Pike shout:

"It's all afire here--bring a pail of water, Joe!"

The well windla.s.s creaked and I heard a man start in from the back.

Next I heard Pike say, "We'll soon fix that fire," then came an explosion and a crash, like an earthquake, and the wall came down upon me, and the counter came over and I was half under it. I heard the cries of the men, and, wriggling about, I got out from under the counter and found my hands free from the brace, and the snowflakes coming in my face through where half the side of the building had been blown away.

CHAPTER XXI

After the Explosion: some cheerful Talk with the Thieves, and a strange but welcome Message out of the Storm.

As I struggled to my feet out of the wreck I was so dazed that I had to lean against the wall to keep from falling. I felt something running down my face and at first wondered what it was; then I saw it was blood. One of my arms felt numb and I was afraid it was broken; and my hands were all torn and bruised. I could not see into the other building for the smoke and falling snow, but I could hear the groans and curses of the men. I thought that if any of them were able they might come to take revenge on me, and that I best go away, especially as I was helpless with the handcuffs still on my wrists. I managed to pull open the front door and ran to Taggart's, thinking that I might get the handcuffs off in some way.

I found the box from which Pike had got them. There were two other pairs, with keys. I took the keys in my teeth and tried, but neither would fit mine. Then I went to the tin shop up-stairs. There was a file on the bench and I managed to get this into the vise and began rubbing the chain up and down on the edge of it. It was the hardest work I ever did, but I soon saw that I could get my hands free in time if I kept on. Once or twice I heard Pike shouting something and I could still hear Kaiser barking in the hotel.

I don't know how long it took, but at last I got my hands separated, though of course the clasps were still tightly around my wrists. I looked out of the window and saw that the sleigh was in front of the bank with a pair of the outlaws' horses. .h.i.tched to it. I was afraid that the safe had been blown open with the first explosion and that they were getting the money after all. I ran out the back door and along behind the buildings to the hotel. Kaiser bounded around me, and Pawsy was again in her old place over the door.

I peeped through the cracks in the boards over one of the front windows. The whole front of the bank was blown away, but I could just make out through the snow that the inner door of the safe was still closed. Two of the men were lying in the bottom of the sleigh, motionless, whether dead or alive I knew not. Pike was on the floor of the bank, propped up on one elbow, giving orders to the one they called Joe, who was helping the fifth man into the sleigh, who seemed badly wounded and sat in the bottom of the box.

Then Joe went back to help Pike. He took him by the arms and was dragging him toward the sleigh, when I suddenly made up my mind that I would keep Pike. I went to the closet and got Sours's double-barreled shot-gun. I knew there was no weapon that they would fear so much at close range. I opened the door and walked out into the street with it.

"Just leave Pike right here," I said. "I'll take care of him. The rest of you go on."

I guess they thought I was buried under the rubbish in the drug store, because I have seldom seen men more astonished. I walked up closer.

Even Joe looked half wrecked, and his face was all blackened with powder.

"h.e.l.lo, Jud," called Pike. "You ain't a-going to strike a man when he's down, be you, Jud? I might 'a' been harder on you many a time than I was, Jud."

"No, I won't hurt you, but you've got to stay, that's all," I said.

"Help him over to the hotel and then go on with the others and don't come back," I added, looking at Joe.

There was nothing for him but to do as he was told, because I held the gun on them both, and they had heard the click as I drew back the hammers. Pike's left leg seemed to be broken and he was all burned and blackened with the powder. I sent Joe for a mattress, which he put on the floor of the office and rolled Pike on it. Then he drove off with the others.

So that is the whole account of the second visit of the outlaws to Track's End, just as it all happened, Sat.u.r.day, March 19th.

"Now, Pike," I said, after Joe had gone, "the first thing--out with that handcuff key!"

He took it from his pocket and gave it to me. I unlocked each of my bracelets. They left deep red marks around my wrists. Pike asked for a drink of water and I got it for him. I could see that he was in pain.

"You've played it on us again, Jud, I'll be hanged if you ain't," he said to me. "What'd you have under that counter, Jud?"

"A can of blasting-powder," I answered.

"Dangerous place to store it when there's explosions, and kerosene lamps and hot stoves, and fires, and such truck around. It done us fellers up, and that's a fact."

"Well, I wasn't trying to make you feel at home," I replied. "How did you happen to be blowing open other folks's safes?"