Then again came the sound of approaching hoofs.
Starting up out of her chair, she listened. It was the gait of a fresh horse. If it were her father returning early from camp? If it were somebody else? She had not given this phase of the matter a thought. She had lost sight of embarrassing consequences developing. Now vague fears she could not analyze began to assail her.
The hoofs had fallen into a trot, had come to a halt out on the road, ere she flitted through the house, reached the front door and peered cautiously out. A man had just dismounted at the gate. He also was a stranger, a big, broad man about fifty, wearing a split-crown sombrero, unusually wide of brim, and baggy trousers stuffed into high-heeled boots. He too was coated with the dust of long riding, his iron-gray mustache almost invisibly white with it, his six-shooter holsters standing out from his hips.
In the act of lowering the bars, he stooped to examine something on the ground. His appearance, coupled with this last suspicious move, sufficed to stamp him an officer of the law, even though he was not wearing his identifying star of authority.
Dot watched him a few seconds, reasoning that were he an officer, he undoubtedly hailed from San Buenaventura, the county seat, as she was well acquainted with the constable and deputy sheriffs who made their headquarters in Geerusalem. With this decision, she closed the door, locked it, and rushed into the parlor. Her patient was sleeping heavily. She shook him by the shoulder.
“Wake up! Wake up! There’s a—a sheriff outside!” she whispered hoarsely into his ear.
He scrambled off the lounge in a panic, wild-eyed, groggy, a curse bursting from his lips.
“Y’sure? Why in hell—— Git back, an’ let me at him! I’ll give him——” He fumbled feebly for his six-shooters, reeled off his balance, and tumbled over backward on the lounge. His gaze fastened on her, horrible with appeal. “You wouldn’t feed me to that buzzard—this way—would you, sister? Gimme an even break with the——” he gasped out.
A strange ominous fire was playing in Dot’s eyes. She was pale, but dangerously calm. She leaned over him and caught him quickly around the middle with her right arm.
“Come! Stand up! He won’t dare go into my room.”