“You better stay where you are,” he told the masked man. “You ain’t so awful tough.”
Jimmy had heard Johnny Grant use that expression, and it seemed to fit the occasion. He turned his head and called to Marion.
“Can you lead the horses up here, Marion? We’ve got to pack this lead-filled person to a doctor, or he won’t live to be hung.”
XIV—WHO GOT THE PAY-ROLL?
When Hashknife turned back to the Double Bar 8 it was because of a single theory. He was fairly positive that Marion had not been kidnaped by those men because they wanted her; but that they had had reasons of more importance to them than the mere capture of a young lady. Hashknife wasn’t sure just what this was, but he had a suspicion—at least, enough suspicion to send him back to the ranch, instead of heading a posse over to the breaks of Broken Cañon.
He rode his horse into the stable, unsaddled quickly, turned it into the corral, and ran to the house, where he found Nanah, bathing her head in a basin of water. He explained to her the necessity of locking the house, covering the windows, and of keeping out of sight.
Without question she obeyed him, and he went back to the stable, climbed to the little loft and sprawled near the window, concealed by a screen of hay. He could not see over the ranch-house, except at a distance, but his little window gave him a fairly good view of the country toward Broken Cañon.
Apollo wandered about the patio, possibly wondering why no one was about. Mocking-birds sang from the twisted vines along the walls, and little lizards scuttled here and there over the débris of the former bunk-house. Hashknife yawned and waited, wondering what success Sleepy had had in gathering a posse.
He had been there over an hour, when his keen eyes detected two riders, who seemed to be coming swiftly toward the ranch from the northeast. Blue Wells was almost directly north. He wondered if some of the posse had turned back from going to Broken Cañon and were coming to the ranch.
When about a mile from the ranch they swung due west, passing from Hashknife’s vision. He went to the rear of the loft, and peered from a crack. The riders came into sight, swinging in toward the ranch again, but disappeared into the cañon where Hashknife had captured Plenty Goode, following the mysterious shot from the hill.