“Wait, wait! McNamara has called for troops and you’ll all be shot. Oh, what a terrible night it has been! I haven’t been to bed. I’m going mad. Now, listen, carefully—yesterday Helen went with Struve to the Sign of the Sled and she hasn’t come back.”
The man at the end of the wire cried out at this, then choked back his words to hear what followed. His free hand began making strange, futile motions as though he traced patterns in the air.
“I can’t raise the road-house on the wire and—something dreadful has happened, I know.”
“What made her go?” he shouted.
“To save you,” came Cherry’s faint reply. “If you love her, ride fast to the Sign of the Sled or you’ll be too late. The Bronco Kid has gone there—”
At that name Roy crashed the instrument to its hook and burst out of the shanty, calling loudly to his men.
“What’s up?”
“Where are you going?”
“To the Sign of the Sled,” he panted.
“We’ve stood by you, Glenister, and you can’t quit us like this,” said one, angrily. “The trail to town is good, and we’ll take it if you do.” Roy saw they feared he was deserting, feared that he had heard some alarming rumor of which they did not know.