The Boss of the Lazy Y Part 31

"Well," he said, watching her face with a curious smile; "I'm takin' a look, anyway." In spite of her efforts to prevent him he stepped over the threshold. She was about to follow him when she saw him wheel swiftly, his pistol at a poise as his gaze fell upon something outside the ranchhouse. And then she saw him smile.

"It's Bob," he said; "with a rifle." And he helped the boy, white of face and trembling, though with the light of stern resolution in his eyes, into the kitchen.

"Bob'll watch you," he said; "so's nothin' will happen to you.

Besides--" he leaned forward in a listening att.i.tude; "Toban an' the boys are comin'. I reckon what I'm goin' to do won't take me long--if Taggart's in the timber."

He stepped down and vanished around the corner of the ranchhouse.

He had scarcely gone before there was a clatter of hoofs in the ranchhouse yard, a horse dashed up to the edge of the porch, came to a sliding halt and the lank figure of Toban appeared before the door in which Betty was standing.

He looked at her, noted her white face, and peered over her shoulder at Bob, with the rifle, at Taggart on the floor.

"Holy smoke!" he said; "what's happened?"

She told him quickly, in short, brief sentences; her eyes glowing with fear. He tried to squeeze past her to get into the kitchen, but she prevented him, blocking the doorway, pus.h.i.+ng hysterically against him with her hands.

"Calumet has gone to the timber grove--to the clearing--to look for Tom Taggart. Taggart will ambush him, will kill him! I don't want him killed! Go to him, Toban--get him to come back!"

"Shucks," said Toban, grinning; "I reckon you don't need to worry none.

If Taggart's over in the timber an' he sees Calumet he'll just naturally forget he's got a gun. But if it'll ease your mind any, I'll go after him. d.a.m.n his hide, anyway!" he chuckled. "I was braggin' up my cayuse to him, an' after we met Dade an' Malcolm he run plumb away from me. Ride! Holy smoke!"

He crossed the porch, leaped into the saddle and disappeared amid a clatter of hoofs.

Betty stood rigid in the doorway, listening--dreading to hear that which she expected to hear--the sound of a pistol shot which would tell her that Calumet and Taggart had met.

But no sound reached her ears from the direction of the timber grove.

She heard another sound presently--the faint beat of hoofs that grew more distinct each second. It was Dade and Malcolm coming, she knew, and when they finally rode up and Dade flung himself from the saddle and darted to her side she was paler than at any time since her first surprise of the night.

Again she was forced to tell her story. And after it was finished, and she had watched Dade and Malcolm carry Neal Taggart from the room, she went over to where Bob sat, took him by the shoulder and led him to one of the kitchen windows, and there, holding him close to her, her face white, she stared with dreading, anxious eyes through the gla.s.s toward the timber clump. She would have gone out to see for herself, but she knew that she could do nothing. If he did not come back she knew that she would not want to stay at the Lazy Y any longer; she knew that without him--

She no longer weighed him in the balances of her affection as she stood there by the window, she did not critically array his good qualities against the bad. She had pa.s.sed that point now. She merely wanted him. That was all--she just wanted him. And when at last she saw him coming; heard his voice, she hugged Bob closer to her, and with her face against his sobbed silently.

A few minutes after he left the ranchhouse Calumet was in the clearing in the timber grove, standing over the body of a man who lay face upward beside a freshly-dug hole at the edge of a mesquite clump. He was still standing there when a few minutes later Toban came clattering up on his horse. The sheriff dismounted and stood beside him.

Calumet gave Toban one look and then spoke shortly:

"Taggart," he said.

"Lord!" said Toban, in an awed voice; "what in blazes did you do to him? I didn't hear no shootin'! Is he dead?"

Both kneeled over the p.r.o.ne figure and Calumet pointed to the haft of a knife that was buried deep in the body near the heart.

"Telza's," said Calumet, as he examined the handle. "I dropped it here the other night; the night Sharp was killed."

"Correct," said Toban; "I saw you drop it." He smiled at the quick, inquiring glance Calumet gave him.

"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. I saw you come, but I wasn't figgerin' on makin' any explanations for my bein' around the Lazy Y at that time of the night, an' besides I saw the Taggarts sneakin' up on you. While they was ga.s.sin' to you I had one knee on Telza's windpipe an' my rifle pointin' in the general direction of the Taggarts, figgerin' that if they tried to start anything I'd beat them to it. But as it turned out it wasn't necessary. I sure appreciated your tender-heartedness toward them poor dumb brutes of the Taggarts.

"After you set the Taggarts to walkin' home, I took Telza to Lazette an' locked him up for murderin' Sharp."

"I reckon, then," said Calumet, a puzzled frown wrinkling his forehead as he looked from Taggart to the freshly dug hole; "that somebody else killed Taggart. It was someone who knew where the idol was, too--he'd been diggin' for it."

"I reckon you've got me," said Toban. "Sharp an' Telza an' you an'

Betty is the only one's that ever saw the diagram. I saw you pick it up from where Telza dropped it when I was maulin' him. I know you didn't do any diggin' for the idol; I know Betty wouldn't; an' Sharp's dead, an' Telza's in jail--"

There was a clatter of hoofs from the direction of the ranchhouse.

Both men turned to confront a horseman who was coming rapidly toward them, and as he came closer Toban cried out in surprise:

"Ed Bernse!" he said; "what in thunder are you doin' here?"

"Trailin' a jail breaker!" said the latter. "That copper-skinned weazel we had in there slipped out some way. He stole a horse an' come in this direction. Got an hour's start of me!"

Calumet laughed shortly and turned to the new-made excavation, making a thorough examination of it.

At its bottom was a square impression, a mold such as would be left by the removal of a box. Calumet stood up and grinned at Toban.

"The idol's gone," he said. "Telza's got it. You go back to Lazette,"

he said to Bernse, "an' tell the man who owns the horse that Calumet Marston will be glad to pay for it--he's that d.a.m.ned glad he's got rid of the idol."

Followed by Bernse, Calumet and Toban returned to the ranchhouse. When they neared it they were met by Dade and Malcolm, bearing between them the body of Neal Taggart. Calumet directed them to the clearing, telling them briefly what they would find there, and then, with Toban and Bernse, continued on to the ranchhouse.

Bernse hesitated at the door. "I reckon I'll be lightin' out for town," he said to the sheriff.

"Wait," said the sheriff; "I'll be goin' that way myself, directly."

Calumet had preceded Toban. As the latter was speaking to Bernse, Calumet stood before Betty, who, with Bob, had moved to the sitting-room door and was standing, pale, her eyes moist and brilliant with the depth of her emotions.

Briefly, he told her what he had found in the clearing.

"And the idol's gone," he concluded. "Telza's got it."

"Thank G.o.d!" she exclaimed, devoutly.

"I reckon," came Toban's voice, as he stepped across the kitchen floor toward them, "that we'd better bring this here idol business to an end.

Mebbe it's bothered you folks a heap, but it's had me sorta uneasy, too." He grinned at Betty. "Mebbe you'd better show him his dad's last letter," he suggested. "I reckon it'll let me out of this deal.

An' I'm sure wantin' to go back home."

Betty vanished into the sitting-room in an instant, and presently returned bearing an envelope of the shape and size which had contained all of the elder Marston's previous communications to Calumet. She pa.s.sed it over to the latter and she and the sheriff watched him while he read.

"MY DEAR SON: If you receive this you will understand that by this time Betty is satisfied that you have qualified for your heritage. I thank you and wish I were there to shake your hand, to look into your eyes and tell you how glad I am for your sake.

"As soon as you have your affairs in shape I want you to marry Betty--if she will have you. I think she will, for she is in love with your picture.

"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.