The Black Box Part 61

This time, however, Laura intervened. She walked straight up into the little circle and stood close to French's side, regardless of the levelled guns.

"Look here, Long Jim, or whatever your name is," she protested, "you just call your crowd off and stop this. Undo those two deputies. A joke's a joke, but this has gone far enough. If you don't untie them, I will. Take your choice and get a move on."

Long Jim scratched his chin for a moment.

"Waal," he said, "I guess that what the lady says goes. We ain't often favoured with ladies' society, boys, and I guess when we are we'd better do as we are told. Turn 'em loose, boys."

They abandoned the sport a little reluctantly. Suddenly they all paused to listen. The sound of a horse's slow footfall was heard close at hand.

Presently Quest appeared out of the shadows, carrying Lenora in his arms.

Laura rushed forward.

"Lenora!" she cried. "Is she hurt?"

Quest laid her tenderly upon the ground.

"We had a spill at the bridge," he explained quickly. "I don't know whether Craig loosened the supports. He got over all right, but it went down under Lenora, who was following, and I had to get her out of the river. Where's the Professor?"

The Professor came ambling down from the tent where he had been lying. He stooped at once over Lenora's still unconscious form.

"Dear me!" he exclaimed. "Dear me! Come, come!"

He pa.s.sed his hand over her side and made a brief examination.

"Four ribs broken," he p.r.o.nounced. "It will be a week, at any rate, before we are able to move her. Nothing more serious, so far as I can see, Mr.

Quest, but she'll need rest and all the comfort we can give her."

"Say, that's too bad!" Long Jim declared. "If you've got to stay around for a time, though, you can have the tents. We boys can double up anywhere, or bunk on the ground. That's right, ain't it?" he added, turning around to the cowboys.

There was a little grunt of acquiescence. They carried Lenora to the largest of the tents and made her as comfortable as possible. She opened her eyes on the way.

"I am so sorry," she faltered. "It's just my side. It--hurts. How did I get out of the stream?"

"I fished you out," Quest whispered. "Don't talk now. We are going to make you comfortable."

She pressed his hand and closed her eyes again. The Professor returned.

"We'll make the young lady comfortable all right," he a.s.sured them cheerfully, "but there's one thing you can make up your minds to. We are here for a week at the least."

They all looked at one another. The Inspector was the only one who preserved an air of cheerfulness, and he was glancing towards Laura.

"Guess we'll have to make the best of it," he murmured.

2.

The girl drew a low stool over to Craig's side. He was sitting in a rough chair tilted back against the adobe wall of the saloon.

"As tired as ever?" she asked, laying her hand upon his for a moment.

He turned his head and looked at her.

"Always tired," he answered listlessly.

She made a little grimace.

"But you are so strange," she protested. "Over the hills there are the steam cars. They would take you to some of our beautiful cities where all is light and gaiety. You are safe here, whatever your troubles may have been. You say that you have money, and if you are lonely," she added, dropping her voice, "you need not go alone."

[Ill.u.s.tration: LENORA KNOWS THAT QUEST IS IN DANGER AND GOES TO FIND HIM.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: MARTA TRIES TO MAKE FRIENDS WITH CRAIG.]

He patted her hand affectionately but there was something a little forced about the action.

"Child," he said, "it is so hard to make you understand. I might lose myself for a few minutes, it is true, over yonder. Perhaps, even," he added, "you might help me to forget. And then there would be the awakening. That is always the same. Sometimes at night I sleep, and when I sleep I rest, and when my eyes are opened in the morning the weight comes back and sits upon my heart, and the strength seems to pa.s.s from my limbs and the will from my brain."

Her eyes were soft and her voice shook a little as she leaned towards him.

Something in his helplessness had kindled the protective spirit in her.

"Has life been so terrible for you?" she whispered. "Have you left behind--but no! you never could have been really wicked. You are not very old, are you? Why do you not stand up and be a man? If you have done wrong, then very likely people have done wrong things to you. Why should you brood over these memories? Why--... What are you looking at? Who are these people?"

The Professor, with Quest and Long Jim, suddenly appeared round the corner of the building. They walked towards Craig. He shrank back in his place.

"If these are your enemies," the girl cried fiercely, "remember that they cannot touch you here. I'll have the boys out in a minute, if they dare to try it."

Craig struggled to his feet. He made no answer. His eyes were fixed upon the Professor's. The girl pa.s.sed her arm through his and dragged him into the saloon. They pa.s.sed Jose in the doorway. He scoffed at them.

"Say, the boss will fire you, Marta, if you waste all your time with that Yankee," he muttered.

Marta drew the red rose from the bosom of her dress and placed it in Craig's b.u.t.tonhole. Then she led him without a word to a seat.

"If these men try any tricks in here," she said, "there'll be trouble."

Almost at that moment they all three entered. Long Jim nodded to Craig in friendly fas.h.i.+on.

"It's all right, cookie," he told them. "Don't you look so scared. This is just a bit of parley-vous business, that's all."

The Professor held out a piece of paper. He handed it over to Craig.

"Craig," he announced, "this is a dispatch which I found in Allguez with my letters. It is addressed to you, but under the circ.u.mstances you will scarcely wonder that I opened it. You had better read it."

Craig accepted the cable-form and read it through slowly to himself:--

"To John Craig, c/o Professor Lord Ashleigh, Yonkers, New York:

"Your sister died to-day. Her daughter Mary sails on Tuesday to join you in New York. Please meet her.

"COMPTON, Solicitor, London."

Craig sat for a moment as though stunned. The girl leaned over towards him.