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He had struck one blow, a sudden and decisive one, and, though it had not landed on either of the Taggarts, it had at least shown them what they might expect.
He grasped her by the shoulders and looked closely at her, his eyes boring, probing, as though searching for some evidence of duplicity in hers. For an instant his gaze held. Then he laughed, softly, self-accusingly. "I thought you was stringin' me just for a minute," he said. "But you're true blue, an' I'll tell you. I'm goin' first to the Arrow to hand the Taggarts their pass-out checks.
What do you suppose will happen when the Taggarts discover that you have gone and that I am here alone?" His eyes glinted with hatred. "The Taggarts," he laughed. "Did you think I was going to let them off so easy? I'm charged with one murder, ain't I? Well, after tonight there won't be any Taggarts to bother anybody." "You mean to " Her eyes widened with horror. "I reckon," he said.
"By this time you will know that I didn't leave Betty alone to cope with the Taggarts. If Dave Toban has kept his word and I know he has he has visited the Lazy Y pretty often. I didn't want you to know that he was back of Betty, and so I have told him to visit her secretly. He will give you what money is left in the bank at Las Vegas we thought it would be safer over there.
"I was comin' through here after tendin' to some business an' I saw Telza knife Sharp. I piled onto Telza an' beat him up a little. Lordy, how that little copper-skinned devil did fight! But I squelched him. I heard some one comin', thought it was one of Taggarts, an' dragged Telza behind that scrub brush over there.
We found two men Tom Taggart and his son Neal concealed in the cottonwood, trying to shoot your father, who was in the house. Your father had been wounded in the shoulder and it would not have been long before " "Who are the Taggarts?" questioned Calumet, his lips setting strangely. "They own a ranch near here the Arrow.
The motive behind their desire to kill your father makes another story which you shall hear some time if you have the patience," she said with jeering emphasis. "I ain't particular." The girl's lips straightened. "Grandfather helped your father drive the Taggarts away," she went on.
Calumet had lingered in town until dusk, for he had given his word and would not break it, and then, it being certain that his enemy had decided not to accept the challenge, he hitched his horses and just after dusk pulled out for the Lazy Y. Something had been added to the debt of hatred which he owed the Taggarts. As he drove through the darkening land he yielded to a deep satisfaction.
By this time Betty has told you the rest and you know just what you can expect from the Taggarts. "That is the whole history of the Toltec idol. I am not proud of my part in the affair, but Tom Taggart must never have the idol. Remember that! I don't want him to have it! Neither do I want you to have it, or the money I leave, unless you can show that you forgive me.
Still watching at the window, she had seen him returning; saw him disappear into the timber clump. Some time later she had observed the Taggarts emerge and run as though their lives depended on haste.
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