This particular August evening was destined to be the most eventful one in Lemuel Huntington’s life, for hardly had he recovered from the shock occasioned by Billy Gee’s visit, ere he received a glorious surprise—Dot’s unannounced arrival from San Francisco. She came bounding into the house, followed by Mrs. Liggs, caught her astonished father in an ecstatic embrace, stifled his ejaculations with kisses, and told him breathlessly the reason for her return home. Even Warburton, scowling and furious over the outlaw’s escape, came in for his share of Dot’s effusiveness and forgot for the time the responsibilities of his office.
It appeared that Mrs. Liggs having received a letter from Tinnemaha Pete, containing the disturbing news that Sheriff Warburton was again in the neighborhood, presumably searching for her son, that loyal little mother after consulting with Dot decided on returning to Soapweed Plains and, regardless of Billy Gee’s intentions to see that his old friend obtained ultimate possession of the new gold strike, try to persuade him to leave the country and take up his residence with her in the metropolis. Since the trip would not occupy longer than a week, Dot had made up her mind to go along—so Mrs. Liggs would not be lonesome, she had said. Though the truth was, she felt a consuming desire to meet and talk again with this romantic hero of her girlish dreams, to see how he looked and acted in the full flush of health, to find out if he had forgotten that tragic day of his advent at the ranch. She was curious to know how he would treat her, what he would say to her, and she secretly told herself that, once having met him, she could bring back with her certain happy memories which would do much to make her studies at the university more apparently worth while. Besides, there was the novel she was writing around this knight of Soapweed Plains, without knowing just exactly his character.
But Dot said nothing of all this to her father. According to the agreement she made with Mrs. Liggs, the girl simply told Lemuel that the little old lady had some important business to transact in Geerusalem, and that she, Dot, had taken advantage of the opportunity to pay a visit home. She went on to say that Lemuel must accompany them back to San Francisco. He must see the adorable bungalow where she and Mrs. Liggs lived. Then he would have to spend a day at the University of California, and—— Oh, he must hear what she had written on her novel!
She talked on breathlessly, recounting her adventures, plying him with questions. Lemuel listened, open-mouthed, replying vaguely, his eyes brilliant with admiration. She looked queenly and so thoroughly refined, he thought, and she was prettier and far more vivacious than he had ever seen her before.
Once he leaned over and whispered into Sheriff Warburton’s ear: “Bob, you notice them big words she’s slingin’? Hear ’em? That’s one of ’em—conspicuously. That’s what edjucation does. Listen to that, will you! Rattles ’em off, like nuthin’.”
It was an epochal homecoming. Until after midnight, Dot regaled them with incidents and painted glowing pictures of San Francisco for them. Around one o’clock, Sheriff Warburton suddenly recalled that the unexpected arrival of the two women robbed him of his chances of a bed for the night.
Reluctantly he struck out for his own blankets at Blue Mud Spring, getting a little comfort out of the thought that, although Billy Gee had eluded him, he would be able to grill Tinnemaha Pete on the habits and the probable whereabouts of the bandit the first thing in the morning. None the less gratifying was the fact that Mrs. Liggs was back in the district, where he could reach her when he needed her. Why had she returned, he wondered? Unquestionably, her presence had to do with Billy Gee. But what? Well, no matter. He’d force it out of Tinnemaha Pete. The old fellow would give him a straightforward story, or go to jail. Too bad, but he, Warburton, had to do his duty.
However, when Sheriff Warburton reached Blue Mud Spring, the camp fire was ashes, stone cold, and Tinnemaha Pete and his pair of burros were gone. Warburton looked back undecidedly through the gloom of the cool desert night in the direction of the Huntington ranch. After an interval, he dismounted, unsaddled his mule, spread out his blankets on the ground, and turned in, cursing. Billy Gee had outwitted him a second time. The third time was a charm, he told himself as he dropped off to sleep.
Lex Sangerly, however, was not so fortunate as Warburton. He could not compose himself to rest. Shortly after the sheriff left the ranch, he had driven in from his trip to the railroad construction camp and found Lemuel waiting up for him, entertaining Lennox with a detailed account of Billy Gee’s career of crime. After relating to Lex the stirring events of the night, including the unannounced arrival of Dot and Mrs. Liggs, the rancher concluded with a dissertation on the virtues of education as manifested by the ease with which his daughter handled words, that he proudly declared were “jaw-breakers” of an unusual type.
Just now, Lex lay in Lemuel’s bed and tossed about nervously in the grip of disturbing thoughts. From the parlor lounge across the hall came sonorous evidence of Huntington’s blissful state of mind, rumbling rhythmically through the house. The night was tomblike.