“If I were to call out your name from that door, a long rope and a short shrift would save the bullet the trouble,” said Murdock.
The stranger winced at the words.
“Don’t be alarmed; I don’t mean to betray you,” continued Murdock. “It was an astonishing thing that I alone should penetrate your disguise and guess who you were. I never saw you but once before, either, and that was years ago. But now to business. As I said before, I need your aid, and I am willing to pay you well for it.”
“What is it you want me to do?”
“There’s a girl in the settlement that has rejected my advances. I don’t care so much for her, but she’s the heiress to a large fortune. Now, if the girl marries me, of course I get the fortune, or if she dies, I get the fortune, for I am the next heir. Now, I don’t want to take the life of the girl if I can help it. I had much rather marry her; but, unfortunately, she has taken a fancy to some one else, and won’t listen to my suit. Now, my plan is to carry the girl off. I know a lonely cabin, now deserted, some ten miles from the station, on the other bank of the Kanawha. I want the girl carried there, and the impression given to her that she is a prisoner in the hands of the Indians. Then I’ll pretend to follow on the trail—gain access to the cabin; offer to assist her to escape, if in reward she’ll marry me. Of course she’ll feel grateful for the risk I run for her sake, and consent. Then I’ll escape with her, take her back to the settlement, and the thing is done.”
“But suppose she refuses to marry you?”
“Then she won’t escape from the hands of the red-skins, but they’ll kill her,” said Murdock, coolly.
“And in that case, you’ll come in for the property?”
“Exactly.”
“The plan ought to work,” said Benton, thoughtfully.