“Joe,” he said in a tremulous voice, “it’s the last ditch. I can’t get away from it. I thought I could tell you––an old friend––the whole story, but I can’t, Joe. That’s the devil of it! There’s something wrong with me. I reckon I’m one of those fellows who just had everything mapped out for him. I had some trouble, Joe, an’ it’s started something––something I can’t control. They had to remember me, an’ I gave them something to remember me by!”
“Who do you mean by ‘they,’ Rathburn?” asked the miner.
“Sheriff Long an’ the others,” said Rathburn quickly. “There wasn’t a chance for me. Why, I was thinking of giving myself up only this morning. Joe, it ain’t in the pictures––not after I let Gomez have it. Even after I stopped Gomez I had an idea that I could face the music. Besides, Joe, there’s more to this than you think. They call me The Coyote, an’, Joe, so help me, from now on I am!”
“Did you stop at the Mallory place?” asked Price quietly.
Rathburn did not reply at once. With agony in his eyes he looked at his old friend, and suddenly he bristled:
“I might as well never have gone there,” he flung out. “I see now I wasn’t wanted. I found out as much from Gomez. He told me about Laura’s affair with that fellow Doane. But what could I expect? I wasn’t entitled to no thought from her, an’ I should have known as much. I’m just a plain fool––a worse one now than I was before.”
Joe Price’s faded blue eyes glowed with comprehension.
“You thought Laura had put you off, so you gave in an’ robbed the bank, Rathburn, an’ just naturally made a mess of things when you had a chance,” said the old man stoutly. “That ain’t actin’ with a lick of sense. You wasn’t gettin’ square with anybody, an’ you wasn’t doin’ that girl right by takin’ the word of Gomez.”
“I saw the two of them, her an’ Doane, in Hope this morning, walkin’ down the street, arm in arm, laughing––probably over me,” Rathburn replied bitterly. “I’ve got eyes, and I can put two an’ two together. I’m only The Coyote with her, and I’ll be The Coyote. She took my gun an’ then gave it back when Mike Eagen showed up, thinkin’ maybe there’d be gun play, an’ I’d get mine.”