“You must ride forward at once. Tell the vaqueros that I am moving my sheep only to take them to the railroad. Explain to them how Alan is 179 detained with the message I sent Farnum. In a few minutes we shall follow with the sheep.”
“And if they don’t believe that you are going out of the sheep business—what then?”
“I shall have to take my chance of that.”
She seemed about to speak, but changed her mind, nodded, swung to the saddle, and rode forward. After a few minutes Bellamy followed slowly. He was unarmed, not having doubted that his letter to the cattleman would make his journey safe. That he should have waited for an answer was now plain, but the contract called for an immediate delivery of the sheep, as he had carefully explained in his note to Farnum.
Presently he heard again the clatter of a horse’s hoofs in the loose shale and saw Melissy returning.
“Well?” he asked as she drew up.
“I’ve told them. I think they believe me, but I’m going through the gorge with you.”
He looked up quickly to protest, but did not. He knew that her thought was that her presence beside him would protect him from attack. The rough chivalry of Arizona takes its hat off to a woman, and Melissy Lee was a favorite of the whole countryside.
So together they passed into the gulch, Bellamy walking by the side of her horse. Neither of them spoke. At their heels was the soft rustle of many thousands of padding feet.
Once there came to them the sound of cheering, 180 and they looked up to see a group of vaqueros waving their hats and shouting down. Melissy shook her handkerchief and laughed happily at them. It was a day to be remembered by these riders.