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Slingerland's keen eyes quickened. "But the railroad's about done an' you need a vacation," he insisted. "Yes," Neale answered, dreamily. "Son, mebbe you ought to wait awhile. You're packin' a bullet somewhar in your carcass." "It's here," said Neale, putting his hand to his breast, high up toward the shoulder. "I feel it a dull, steady, weighty pain.... But that's nothing.
"Wal, I'll set to work an' clean out a place fer her," said Slingerland. "We'll help," rejoined Neale. "Red, you have a look at the horses." "I'll slip the saddles an' bridles," replied King, "an' let 'em go. Hosses couldn't be chased out of heah." Slingerland's cabin consisted really of two adjoining cabins with a door between, one part being larger and of later construction.
An' hyar I I am an' thar's the gold." Allie stared at the pack, bewildered by Slingerland's story. Suddenly she sat up and she felt the blood rush to her cheeks. "Gold! Horn's gold! But it's not mine! Did Neale send it to me?" "Every ounce," replied the trapper, soberly. "I reckon it's yours. Thar was no one else left an' you recollect what Horn said.
You don't know that she lost her mind for a while. But she recovered.... And during an absence of Slingerland's she was taken away." "Were you and she sweethearts?" "Yes." "And engaged to marry?" "Of course," replied Neale, dreamily. "That cannot be now." "I understand. I didn't expect I didn't think...."
"Ride!" yelled Slingerland. Not the least interesting sight to Neale was Larry riding away from them. He was whacking the buffalo on the rumps with his bare hand before Slingerland and Neale got near enough to shoot. At the trapper's first shot the herd stampeded. Thereafter it took fine riding to keep up, to choose the level ground, and to follow Slingerland's orders.
Larry seemed utterly stricken. "Wealth!" he echoed, feebly. "Yes. Gold! Lots of gold!" Slingerland's merry face suddenly grew curious and earnest. Larry struggled with his discomfiture. "I reckon I'd done thet anyhow without knowin' you was rich if it hadn't been fer this heah U. P. surveyor fellar." And then the joke was on Allie, as her blushes proved.
It was a tranquil, beautiful scene. Rising, she turned her back upon it, with a muttered prayer for the Indian girl whose jealousy and generosity had freed her, and again she faced the ridge-top and the unknown wilderness. A wolf mourned, and the sound, clear and sharp, startled her. But remembering Slingerland's word that no beast would be likely to harm her in the warm season, she was reassured.
"All right, Red. I don't want blood spilled," he said, cheerfully. "I'll be a martyr and put up with you.... What do you say to a day off? Let's ride over to Slingerland's." The cowboy's red face slowly wrinkled into a smile. "Wal, I shore was wonderin' what in the hell made you rustle so lately. I reckon nothin' would suit me better. I've been wonderin', too, about our little girl."
They were a bad lot, and Slingerland's reason for worry had at last been justified. Allie did not fully realize her predicament until she found herself bound to the tree. Then she was furious, and strained with all her might to slip free of the rope. But the efforts were useless; she only succeeded in bruising her arms for nothing.
A lonely wolf mourned from the heights, and the long wail brought to mind Slingerland's cabin. Then it was only a quick step to memory of Allie Lee; and Neale drifted from the perplexities and problems of his new responsibility to haunting memories, hopes, doubts, fears. When he returned to the tent he espied a folded paper on the table in the yellow lamplight. It was a telegram addressed to him.
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