“Yes, sir.”
“How did he happen to catch us on El Capitan?”
“He saw a fire on Music Mountain and watched the lower end of the Gap all night. Sassoon was a wide-awake man.”
“Well, I’m sorry, Pardaloe,” continued de Spain after a moment. “Nobody could call it 380 my fault. It was either he or I––or the life of a woman who never harmed a hair of his head, and a woman I’m bound to protect. He was running when he was hit. If he had got to cover again there was nothing to stop him from picking both of us off. I shot low––most of the lead must have gone into the ground.”
“He was hit in the head.”
De Spain was silent.
“It was a soft-nose bullet,” continued Pardaloe.
Again there was a pause. “I’ll tell you about that, too, Pardaloe,” de Spain went on collectedly. “I lost my rifle before that man opened fire on us. Nan happened to have her rifle with her––if she hadn’t, he’d ’ve dropped one or both of us off El Capitan. We were pinned against the wall like a couple of targets. If there were soft-nose bullets in her rifle it’s because she uses them on game––bobcats and mountain-lions. I never thought of it till this minute. That is it.”
“What I came up to tell you has to do with Dave Sassoon. From what happened to-day in the Gap I thought you ought to know it now. Gale and Duke quarrelled yesterday over the way things turned out; they were pretty bitter. This afternoon Gale took it up again with his uncle, and it ended in Duke’s driving him clean out of the Gap.”