The Coyote Part 27

"All right, we'll get goin'," he announced, indicating the open door.

"We'll have to hurry, for I take it you've sent for somebody from the mine."

"Where are we going?" asked Sautee without moving.

"We're goin' for a little mornin' walk, if you act reasonable,"

replied Rathburn. "That was my intention. But if you don't want to go----"

He shrugged, and as Sautee looked fixedly at him, he c.o.c.ked his gun.

Sautee hurried toward the door with Rathburn following him closely.

When they were outside Rathburn directed Sautee across the street.

When they reached Rathburn's horse Rathburn quickly mounted and motioned to the mines manager to precede him into the timber behind the little village. When they gained the shelter of the timber they gradually circled around until they struck a trail which led up above the mine. They started up this, Sautee leading the way on foot with Rathburn following on his horse and keeping his gun trained on the mines manager's back.

"Don't worry," Rathburn crooned. "I won't shoot you in the back, Sautee. That wouldn't be accordin' to my ethics. But I'd have to stop you if you made a break to leave the present company."

Sautee plodded on, his breath coming in gasps, the perspiration standing out on his forehead.

The trail joined with another well-worn path a short distance above the mine. The eastern sky now was light, and Rathburn saw a stone building above them. He also saw that they were on the steep slope of the big mountain on which the Dixie Queen was located, and that there was a rift in this mountain to the left which indicated the presence of a pa.s.s there.

In a few minutes they reached the stone building. It had an iron door across which was painted the legend:

DANGER POWDER--DYNAMITE KEEP AWAY

Rathburn dismounted and tossed the reins over his horse's head so the animal would stand.

"That place looks like a natural jail," he commented.

"It's the mine's powder house," said Sautee, wiping his wet forehead.

"Sure," Rathburn rejoined, "that's just what it is. I expect there's enough powder in there to blow half this mountain off."

He walked to the door and took out his gun as he examined the padlock.

"What are you going to do?" asked Sautee excitedly.

"I'm goin' to blow the lock off," said Rathburn coolly.

"Don't do it!" cried Sautee. "There's high-percentage dynamite in there and T N T caps that we use on road work--dozens of boxes of it.

You might set it off!"

Rathburn looked at the quaking mine manager speculatively. "That's right," he said finally, turning aside to grin to himself. "I guess any little jar might start it workin'. It goes off easy, I've heard."

"There are caps and detonators in there, too," said Sautee quickly.

"You might shoot into them some way, you never can tell. Well, it would be as bad for you as for me." He uttered the last sentence in a note of triumph.

Rathburn was looking at the far-flung view below. He turned a hard gaze on Sautee. "What difference do you suppose it would make to me if that stuff in there goes off?" he demanded in a harsh voice. "Look down there!"

Sautee looked and drew in his breath with a gasp.

In the clear light of the blossoming dawn the whole panorama of the lower mountain country was spread out before them. To the left, under the towering peaks of the divide, the rounded crest of the hogback was discernible, and a black spot marked the location of Mannix's automobile.

"There's a car over there," said Rathburn, noting the direction of Sautee's gaze.

Almost directly below them a number of mounted men filed over a ridge and again disappeared in the timber. Off to the right more hors.e.m.e.n were to be seen.

"Looks like there was a posse or two out this morning," said Rathburn in a forbidding voice. "I reckon I ain't such a fool as not to know who they're lookin' for, Sautee. Now maybe you can figure out why I ain't as scared of that powder house as you are."

"I can stop them!" cried Sautee in a shaking voice.

"Sure," Rathburn agreed. "You can say you lied about me takin' the money----"

"I'll tell 'em you gave it back!" said Sautee hoa.r.s.ely. "I'll tell 'em you brought it on up to the mine and that it's in the safe. I'll square it----"

"But you can't square the rewards that are out for The Coyote," said Rathburn sternly. "You've stepped into a bigger game than you thought, Sautee, an' it's got plumb out of your hands."

He turned on the mine manager fiercely. "Whatever happens, remember this: Once a man gets a bad reputation in a country like this or the country I come from, he's got it for keeps. He can't get away from it no matter how he acts or what he does. Mine has drove me away from the place where I belong; it's followed me here; I can't lose it; an' the way things has been going, by glory, I don't know if I _want_ to lose it!"

Sautee cowered back under the fierceness in Rathburn's manner.

"An' you can tell 'em, if you ever have a chance to talk again, that I earned my reputation square! I ain't involved n.o.body else, an' I ain't stole from any poor people, an' I never threw my gun down on a man who didn't start for his first."

The deadly earnestness and the note of regret in Rathburn's tone caused Sautee to forget his uneasiness temporarily and stare at the man in wonder. Rathburn's eyes were narrowed, his gaze was steel blue, and his face was drawn into hard, grim lines as he looked out upon the far-flung, glorious vista below them, broken here and there by the movement of mounted men.

"Maybe I--I----" Sautee faltered in his speech. His words seemed impotent in the face of Rathburn's deadly seriousness.

Rathburn turned abruptly to the powder house door.

"Wait!" cried Sautee.

The mines manager dug frantically into his pockets and drew out a bunch of keys.

"There are some locks on this property to which there are only two keys," he explained nervously. "This is one of them, and I carry the second key. Here!"

He held out the key ring with one key extended.

Rathburn thrust his gun back into its holster and took the keys. In a moment he had unlocked the padlock and swung open the iron door, exposing case after case of high explosive within the stone structure.

Sautee was staring at him in dire apprehension.

Rathburn pointed toward the rift in the mountain on the left above them. Sautee looked and saw a man and a boy riding down the trail.

"That looks to me like the man that held me up last night," said Rathburn. "He looks like one of the men, anyway. Maybe he's found out he didn't get much, eh? Maybe he's coming back because he didn't have enough to make a get-away with. Maybe he thinks he was double crossed or something."

Sautee's features were working in a spasm of fear and worry. Suddenly he turned on Rathburn.

"Why don't you get away?" he asked in eager pleading. "That trail will take you out of the mountains and down into the desert country. You're from the desert, aren't you? You can make it. You've made a good haul.

Go! It'll be better for me and all of us!"

Rathburn laughed bitterly. "I can't go because I'm a worse fool than you are," he said acridly. "Get in there. Sneaking lizards, man, can't you see I'm tempted to put a shot into one of them boxes and blow us both to kingdom come?"