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Updated: May 5, 2025
He stood upright an instant, swayed with the regular poise of a falling oak, and then plunged backward to the ground. His face, ghastly and livid, took on the awful calm of death. A very small hole, reddish-blue round the edges, dotted the center of his temple. Legget stared aghast at the dead sailor; then he possessed himself of the bag of gold.
I'm shipping them East, myself." "Consignin' 'em to who?" "They'll go to Legget and Mellert." "H'm; they're an independent concern, ain't they?" "Yes; that's the firm my father shipped to before Jim Lefingwell opened an office here." Simmons locked his fingers together and squinted his eyes at Lawler. "H'm," he said. Then he was silent, seemingly meditating.
Brandt's plan, presumably somewhat changed by the advent of the red-man, was to steal horses, abduct a girl in broad daylight, and before tomorrow's sunset escape to join the ruffian Legget. "I am the girl," murmured Helen shudderingly, as she relapsed momentarily into girlish fears. But at once she rose above selfish feelings.
The garment was rent and slashed, and under the left sleeve was a small, blood-stained hole where one of Brandt's blows had fallen. "Hullo, what's this?" muttered the sailor, feeling in the pocket of the jacket. "Blast my timbers, hooray!" He held up a small, silver-mounted whiskey flask, unscrewed the lid, and lifted the vessel to his mouth. "I'm kinder thirsty myself," suggested Legget.
One, a desperate-looking outlaw, Jonathan did not know. The blond-bearded giant in the center was Legget. Steel-blue, inhuman eyes, with the expression of a free but hunted animal; a set, mastiff-like jaw, brutal and coarse, individualized him. The last man was the haggard-faced Brandt. "I tell ye, Brandt, I ain't agoin' against this Injun," Legget was saying positively.
Legget leaped back with a curse. "Close shave!" said Brandt coolly. "That bullet came, probably, straight down from the top of the cliff. Jack Zane's there. Wetzel is lower down watching the outlet. We're trapped." "Trapped," shouted Legget with an angry leer. "We kin live here longer'n the bordermen kin. We've meat on hand, an' a good spring in the back of the hut. How'er we trapped?"
Didn't I beg you to kill Zane when we had a chance? Wetzel would never have taken our trail alone. Now they've beat me out of the girl, and as sure as death will round us up here." "You don't believe they'll rush us here?" asked Legget. "They're too keen to take foolish chances, but something will be done we don't expect.
The Indian grunted again, and pointed upward. "Smoke! There's smoke risin' above the trees," cried Legget. "Brandt, come here. What's thet mean?" Brandt hurried, looked out. His face paled, his lower jaw protruded, quivered, and then was shut hard. He walked away, put his foot on a bench and began to lace his leggings. "Wal?" demanded Legget. "The game's up!
"Remember this, Legget, we're not to fight against soldiers, settlers, or hunters; but bordermen understand bordermen! Such as have been developed right here on this bloody frontier, and nowhere else on earth. They haven't fear in them. Both are fleet as deer in the woods. They can't be seen or trailed. They can snuff a candle with a rifle ball in the dark.
From now on there'll be no sleep, no time to eat, the nameless fear of an unseen foe who can't be shaken off, marching by night, hiding and starving by day, until ! I'd rather be back in Fort Henry at Colonel Zane's mercy." Legget turned a ghastly face toward Brandt. "Look a here. You're takin' a lot of glee in sayin' these things.
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