“Have they locked up the whole house?” Jessup asked as Stratton paused.
“Yes, but what good’ll that do with two able-bodied men set on getting in? There isn’t a door or shutter that wouldn’t—”
“Two!” gasped Bud. “You didn’t say—”
“Didn’t I? It was just at the end. She was telling me about seeing the face and locking up the house. Then all at once she broke off.” Buck’s tone was calmer now, but it was the hard-won calm of determined will, and every now and then there quivered through it a faint, momentary note that told eloquently of the mingled dread and fury that were tearing his nerves to pieces. “I asked what was the matter and she said to wait a minute. It seemed like she stopped to listen for something. Then all of a sudden she cried out that some one was riding up.”
“It—it might not have been any of the gang,” murmured Bud, voicing a hope he did not feel.
“Who else would be likely to come at this time of night?” demanded Stratton. “Lynch is on the outs with everybody around Perilla. They don’t go near the ranch unless they have to. It couldn’t have been 304 one of Hardenberg’s men; he’s not expecting any one.”
“Did—did she say anything else?” asked Jessup, after a brief pause.
Buck hesitated. “Only that she—was afraid, and wanted us to—come quickly. Then the wire went dead as if it had been cut.”
Silence fell, broken only by the thud of hoofs and the heavy breathing of the two horses. Bud’s slim, lithe figure had slumped a little in the saddle, and his eyes were fixed unseeingly on the wide, flat sweep of prairie unfolding before them, dim and mysterious under the brilliant stars.
In his mind anxiety, rage, and apprehension contended with a dull, dead hopelessness which lay upon his heart like lead. For something in Buck’s tone made him realize in a flash a situation which, strangely, he had never even suspected. He wondered dully why he hadn’t ever thought of it before; perhaps because Buck was a new-comer who had seemed to see so little of Mary Thorne. Probably, also, the very friendly manner of Stella Manning had something to do with Jessup’s blindness. But his eyes were opened now, thoroughly and effectually, and for a space, how long or short he never knew, he fought out his silent battle.