He ate a breakfast which she had the cook prepare hurriedly for him, and departed on the horse for which she had telephoned to the nearest livery 224 stable. Melissy was a singularly fearless girl; yet she watched him go with a decided relief, for which she could not account. He rode, she observed, like a centaur—flat-backed, firm in the saddle with the easy negligence of a plainsman. He turned as he started, and waved a hand debonairly at her.
“If I have any luck, I’ll bring back one of the Roaring Fork bunch with me—a present for a good girl, Miss Melissy.”
She turned on her heel and went inside. Anger pulsed fiercely through her. He laughed at her, made fun of her, and yet called her by her first name. How dared he treat her so! Worst of all, she read admiration bold and unveiled in the eyes that mocked her.
Half an hour later Flatray, riding toward town with his prisoner in front of him, heard a sudden sharp summons to throw up his hands. A man had risen from behind a boulder, and held him covered steadily.
Jack looked at the fellow without complying. He needed no second glance to tell him that this man was not one to be trifled with. “Who are you?” he demanded quietly.
“Never mind who I am. Reach for the sky.”
The captured outlaw had given a little whoop, and was now loosening the rope from his neck. “You’re the goods, Cap! I knew the boys would pull it off for me, but I didn’t reckon on it so durn soon.” 225
“Shut up!” ordered the man behind the gun, without moving his eyes from Flatray.
“I’m a clam,” retorted the other.
“I’m waiting for those hands to go up; but I’ll not wait long, seh.”