“They tell me ye give up—quit like a dollar watch. Quit like a——” he screeched insanely, jerking his puffing burro to a stop. “Say it’s a danged lie, Billy! Billy, d’ye hear? Don’t tell me ye ain’t got the guts. Don’t tell me, my Billy boy ain’t got the guts. The son of Agatha! D’ye mark that, Dot? D’ye want—d’ye want to—d’ye want to kill me, Billy? To know—to know the buzzards’ll be peckin’ my innards outer me, sooner’n they oughter?”
He waved his skinny arms, a curious spasm of emotion sweeping over him, racking his shriveled little body.
“Jerome, did you hear? Oh, how can you refuse? How can you—— And Sheriff Warburton would understand. He is so good and generous. Please, Jerome, darling! Do as I say,” pleaded Dot passionately.
It was nearly midnight when Lemuel Huntington admitted them. Dot was pale and drawn of face, her eyes filled with suffering. Tinnemaha Pete puffed furiously at his old pipe and muttered endlessly to himself. Billy Gee sat down, bowed his head, and stared at the floor. Presently the girl brought up a chair and, taking her place close beside him, leaned her cheek against his arm and wept.
Lemuel, clad in an old-fashioned night robe, stood and blinked at them soberly. Throughout that day he had been repairing, where he could, the damage wrought by the night riders, so that, lacking certain pieces of furniture destroyed beyond all hope of restoration, the interior of the house looked much the same as it always had.
Standing thus, watching the trio, he presently nodded gravely to himself; for he recalled the agreement Billy Gee had entered into with Bob Warburton, and he knew without being told that Jule Quintell’s activities were at an end. Moreover, he was witnessing the verification of a long-standing suspicion that his Dot was in love with this outlaw. Without a word, he tiptoed into the little closet where Lennox lay and closed the door after him.
“It’s hell,” he whispered to the mining engineer, after they had discussed the situation. “But she’ll ferget it, soon’s she gits back to her edjucation. That’s one blessing. But ain’t it too bad, Lennox? You see, he saved my life to-day, when them kiyotes were takin’ me——”
“He saved mine, too,” broke in the other with a sigh.
The next day dawned finally. The sun rose, gloriously bright, and a playful little breeze came frolicking merrily out of the northwest. A lone mocking bird had lingered for one whole hour in the elderberry tree in the garden, pouring out a beautiful pæan, heralding to the desolate world its love of life and freedom.
Billy Gee was still at the ranch. He sat on the front porch with Dot. They sat facing the distant island of chromatic hills where nestled the camp of Geerusalem, watching the white thread of road that led to it. Sheriff Warburton would come by that road. Now and again, the girl would moan pitifully and wring her hands in silent agony. Every little while, Billy Gee would clasp her close, and he would kiss her hungrily and whisper fierce words of endearment into her ear.