He started counting, still in that gentle drawl, marking off the counts on his fingers.
Lieberstein, crouching now like a cornered animal, seemed about to spring upon his tormentor. But the odds were too heavy against him. As Boardman’s soft voice drawled out the number “four,” he turned and bolted from the place.
The others followed him to the door of the cabin, Mary still clinging to Boardman, and heard him crash off through the bushes. Like hunting dogs balked of their quarry, the miners started after him.
“No funny business, boys!” Boardman warned them. “Just see where he goes and that he goes. If he is still in the settlement to-morrow, bring him to me!”
Then Layton Boardman turned to Mary Chase and drew her to him.
“Your worries are all over, girl,” Ruth and Helen heard him murmur softly. “You can put away your dad’s old shotgun in the darkest corner you’ve got. For you’re never going to need it any more!”
“The close-up,” murmured Ruth to Helen, as they turned away.
“And for us,” Helen finished whimsically, “the fade-out!”
So it was that the problem of Mary Chase and her sister Ellen was a problem no longer, even though the affairs of “the girl miners of Snow Mountain,” as Eddie Jones called them, still needed adjusting.
Max Lieberstein left Knockout Point on the very night of the trouble at the cabin. Evidently he realized that Boardman and his friends meant very serious business.