Out Of The Depths Part 34

"I--I must see if Genevieve needs anything," murmured the girl, and she fled to the tent.

"I need you!" Ashton called after her without avail.

"How're you feeling?" inquired Blake.

Ashton's frown deepened to a scowl.

"Didn't mean how you feel towards me," added Blake. "I can guess that.

My reference was to your head."

"I'm all right," snapped Ashton. "Needn't worry. I'm still weak and dizzy, but I shall be quite able to do my work tomorrow."

"That's fine," said the engineer, with insistent good humor. "However, if you feel at all shaky in the morning, I can perhaps get Gowan, or maybe Miss Chuckie would like to--"

"No!" broke in Ashton. "She shall not! I will do it, I tell you."

"Very well," said Blake. He put down the level and rod, but retained the rifle. "Tell the ladies I shall be back before long. I am going to look for something I forgot this morning."

Without waiting for the other's reply, he returned up the dike slope and around the bend of the hill to where Ashton had been shot. That for which he was looking was not here, for he at once turned and started up the hill. He climbed direct to the place where the a.s.sa.s.sin had lain in wait.

The bare ledge told Blake nothing, but from a crevice nearby he picked out two long thirty-eight caliber rifle sh.e.l.ls. He put them into his pocket and went over to scan the mesa from the top of his lookout crag. He could see no sign of the fugitive murderer. Down below the mesa side of the hill, however, he saw a man riding up the bank of Dry Fork, and recognized him as Knowles.

Trained to alert observation by years of life on the range, the cowman had already perceived Blake. He wheeled aside and rode towards the hill when the engineer waved his hat and began to descend. The two met at the foot of the rugged slope.

"Howdy, Mr. Blake," greeted the cowman, "I thought I'd just ride up to see how things are coming along."

"Not so fast as they might, Mr. Knowles. We have stopped for repairs."

"Haven't broken your level?"

"No. Ashton is laid up for the day with a scalp wound. We were shot at this morning from up there--other side of the crest."

"Shot at, and Lafe hit?"

"Not seriously, though it could not well have been a closer shave. He says he will be all right by tomorrow," said Blake, and he gave the bald details of the occurrence in a few words.

Knowles listened without comment, his leathery face stolid, but his eyes glinting. When Blake had finished, he remarked shortly: "Must be the same man. Let's see those sh.e.l.ls."

Blake handed over the two empty cartridge sh.e.l.ls.

"Thirty-eight," confirmed Knowles. "Same as were fired at Lafe before.

Kid and Chuckie showed me how a thirty-eight fitted the hole in Lafe's silver flask. About where did the snake crawl down the hill?"

"Not far from here. He could not have gone any considerable distance along the top or side. He was down and riding away when I reached the crags, and I had not lost much time coming up the other side."

"It'll take an Indian to make out his tracks on this dry ground,"

remarked the cowman. "We'll try a look, though, at his hawss's hoof prints. Just keep behind, if you don't mind."

He threw the reins over the head of his horse, and dismounted, to walk slowly along the more level ground at the foot of the slope. Blake followed, as he had requested, but scrutinizing the ground with a gaze no less keenly observant than that of his companion.

"Mighty queer," said Knowles, after they had carried their examination over a hundred yards. "Either he came down more slanting or else--"

"What do you make of this?" Blake interrupted, bending over a blurred round print in the dust between two gra.s.s tufts.

"_Sho!_" exclaimed the cowman as he peered at the mark. "That's why, of course."

"Indian shoes," said Blake.

"You've seen a thing or two. You're no tenderfoot," remarked Knowles.

"I have myself shrunk rawhide shoes on horses' hoofs when short of iron shoes," Blake explained. "This would make a hard trail to run down without hounds."

The cowman straightened and looked at his companion, his weather-beaten face set in quiet resolve.

"I know what's better than hounds," he said. "This is one badman who has played his game once too often. I'm going to run him down if it takes all year and all the men in the county. There's a couple of Ute bucks being held in the jail at Stockchute, to be tried for hunting deer. I'm going to get the loan of them. The sheriff will turn out with a posse, and we'll trail that snake, if it takes us clear over into Utah."

"We'll have a fair chance to get him with Ute trackers," agreed Blake.

Knowles shook his head. "Unless you're particular to come along, Mr.

Blake, I'd like you and Lafe to keep on with this survey. I've been worrying over the chance of losing my range, till it's got on my nerves."

"Certainly, Mr. Knowles. I shall go ahead in the morning, if Ashton is able to rod. It will be best, I suppose, for my wife and Miss Chuckie to remain close at the ranch until you make sure where this trail leads."

"No; he's a snake, but the Indian shoes prove he's Western--He won't strike at the ladies. Another thing, I'm going to give you Kid for guard."

"He may prefer to join the posse."

"Of course he'll prefer that. You can count on Kid Gowan when it comes to a man hunt. He'll stay, though, all right. I don't want Mrs. Blake to think she has to stop indoors. With Kid on the lookout around your camp, the ladies can feel free to come and go any time between sunup and sundown, and you and Lafe can do what you want. There won't be any more shooting, unless it's by Kid."

"Very well," said Blake. "I'm not anxious to play hide and seek with a man who shoots and runs. When can we expect the rope and spikes?"

"That's another thing," replied Knowles. "Kid can be packing them and your camp outfit up to the canon while you and Lafe are running your line of levels. He ought to be home by now. He was gone when the men turned out this morning. Soon as I get back I'll send him up to camp with you. He can bring along Rocket, to be ready for a chase, providing we can find the brute. Queer about that hawss. Wanted to ride him this morning. Found he'd got out and gone off the way he used to before Lafe gentled him."

While talking, the two men had returned to the cowman's horse and started around the hill to the camp. They found Isobel and Genevieve and the baby all engaged in entertaining Ashton. Knowles briefly congratulated the wounded man, and led his pony down to the pool for a drink. Blake had seated himself beside his wife. She handed the baby to him, and remarking that she also wished to drink, she followed Knowles.

The cowman smiled at her rea.s.suringly. "You're not afraid of any more shooting, ma'am, are you?" he asked. "I've told your husband that Kid is to come up to keep guard. He will stay right along, unless that scoundrel is trailed down sooner."

"Then I shall have no fear, Mr. Knowles."

"You needn't, and you and Chuckie can come and go just the same as ever. I don't want your visit spoiled. It's a great treat to all of us to have you with us."

"And to my husband and myself to be your guests! I have quite fallen in love with your daughter, Mr. Knowles. If you'll permit me to say it, you are very fortunate to have so lovely and lovable a girl."

"Don't I know it, ma'am!"

"So beautiful--and her character as beautiful as her face. How you must prize her!"

"Prize her!" repeated Knowles, his usual stolid face aglow with pride and tenderness. "Why, ma'am, I couldn't hold her more in liking if she was my own flesh and blood!"