Bud gasped. What did he mean? Norah Clarey was the only Irish girl in that country. Or was it only a wild boast of the egotistical half-breed?
"I'm go long ways north," explained Joe. "Go too far for police to follow. And Joe Burgoyne take his girl along. The police give me two more days, and I be long ways from here."
"You get married, Joe?" asked one of the cowboys.
"You bet! Without priest. Ha, ha, ha, ha!"
Came the sound of the trap-door being violently thrown back, a sharp exchange of words and two muddy, half-exhausted men fairly tumbled down the stairs. Swiftly they looked around. Joe was coming toward them.
"Conley got away, Joe!" panted one of them. "He set fire to the cabin and got away. He killed one of the Injuns and damn near killed the other!"
"Diable!" swore Joe. "You say that Conley got away and——"
"Yes, yes! Not only that, but I think he stole the team and wagon. Me and Beaupre got there just after he escaped. We left the team about a hundred yards from the burnin' cabin, and when we came back it was gone."
"The team and wagon gone?" Joe screamed, shaking the man by the shoulders. "Mon dieu!" He struck the man full in the face and sent him reeling against the wall.
The room was in an uproar. Came a sound of someone hammering on the wall, almost directly behind Bud. One of the men shoved Bud aside and flung the door open.