“Ain’t this Rankin the feller that owns the Northern Saloon—big walloper with a red face, sorter straw boss o’ the Stingeree bunch?”
“That’s he. I’ve heard he was bad clean through, one of the worst characters——”
“I know all about them kind, pal. They sure kin squeal, when you start workin’ on ’em. Use her as his stenographer, eh?” he repeated, as if to himself.
They rode along in silence after that, save for the occasional groan of suffering that broke from Lennox. Within a few hundred yards of the Huntington ranch, the stranger drew rein and slid to the ground.
“I’m goin’ to let you make it in alone,” he said in low tones. “You’ll find two detectives there—Sangerly’s men. Jest holler, an’ they’ll come out. Don’t tell nobody about meetin’ me or about the shootin’ or anythin’. You understand? If they ask questions, jest say Quintell’s men shot you, an’ that a friend took you in, an’ give you a hoss.”
“I’ll certainly never forget you, old man, for what you’ve done,” replied the other. “My name is Dick Lennox. I’m a mining engineer, and any time I can be of service to you, why——But who am I indebted to? What is your name?”
“There’ll be a doctor out here in an hour. You kin trust him. If you’ll hang the bridle rein over the horn of the saddle, she’ll come back to me. Mollie, git a-goin’!” he added, slapping the animal on the flanks.
A few minutes later, when Detective Coates came out to turn the horse into the field, after he and his partner had carried Lennox into the house, he found it gone. In the distance, toward Geerusalem, he heard it galloping along, and concluded that, in obedience to its natural instincts, it was returning home.
CHAPTER XVI—THE HAND OF QUINTELL
The Lennox episode threw the forces that governed Geerusalem into a vengeful attitude, not unmixed with doubt, and set working the stealthy brotherhood under Big George Rankin to ascertain who had aided the mining engineer, not only in escaping assassination and mysteriously disappearing, but in killing four of the element’s most daring and dependable gunmen. But far-reaching and thorough though the investigation proved, not the least light was shed on the matter. All that there seemed to be to the incident was that the four had been found dead on the road, near the mouth of Geerusalem Gulch, a hundred yards or more from a deserted cabin, and that Lennox, unarmed, according to the statement of the man who had given him temporary refuge in his office, had got away.