J. Allan Dunn

“ There was a cloud of dust into which Sandy, swiftly springing from his saddle, ran, pistol in hand, while Pete maintained the tension of the lariat.
The man lay senseless from the unexpected shock. Sandy hastened to throw off the rope and lift the arms that had involuntarily cushioned the child in safety. He picked up the baby and held it, frightened, whimpering, but unhurt, on his left arm and stood with ready gun surveying Hammond. ”

“ Padilla shrank against the rock, turning his head to one side.
“You look at me,” commanded Sandy, “or this is the end of you. They’s only one answer to this. They’s a way out of that cave.”
The pupils of Padilla’s eyes oscillated despite his effort to control them.
“I thought so,” said Sandy, while Mormon looked on in astonishment. “An’ you wanted we should let you go in there with the money and tell ’em it was muy bueno? When a man double-crosses me, hombre,” he went on ominously, “he does it once. Sabe? Just once.” ”

“ With an oath the second man felt for his pistol, setting spurs to his stumbling horse. Sam’s Winchester spat and the kidnapper swerved in his saddle, clutching at the horn. A second shot brought the horse crashing to the ground, throwing the rider heavily. Sam dismounted and walked toward him, carrying his rifle at his hip. Sandy fired from the saddle and the reins fell from Hammond’s right hand to his horse’s neck. ”

“ Look out for the kid.
“Now then,” he said to Padilla, “you tell me again just what yore scheme is.”
The Mexican, forced to accept the steely challenge of Sandy’s eyes, spoke hesitatingly.
“It is simple, señor. I go to the cave with the money. Everything is bueno, muy bueno. We leave, as we hav’ plan, to take the child to some one, a woman, who will bring it to the ranch tomorrow. Only, you hide, an’ when we come—han’s up! It is easy, they can not get out of the cave Your amigo is there to watch.” ”

“ The stout cowboy came over to the fence.
“Ain’t they nothin’ we kin do, Sandy?” he asked. “They don’t seem no sense in goin’ ahead brandin’. The boys don’t know an iron from a rope.”
“If Barton sends ’em out. Mormon, you tell ’em to scatteh an’ keep away from Salt Cañon. Tell ’em to keep clear of the ranch till I come back. You stick aroun’. You an’ Sam an’ me’s goin’ to take a hand in this by our lonesomes, I think. Don’t let any excited idiot take Pete. I’m changin’ to Goldie, an’ I’ll need him fresh later. Get yore hawss rested up good an’ save a mount for Sam. ”

“ Sandy groaned.
“That lets us out, Goldie, hawss,” he said. “Goin’ south, they was. If they’ve crossed the Rio it’s goin’ to complicate mattehs. Then, again, it may be a bluff. They may have ridden out anywheres for five mile back, an’ doubled to the mountains.”
He kept on to where the cattle had milled before they started homeward, and rode in a wide arc in the hope of finding patches of softer topsoil that might hold trail. But there were none to be found, and Sandy reluctantly turned ranchward.
“They’s still the ransom to work on, Goldie, hawss,” he said. ”

“ An’ it’s a long ways home. I’m jest askin’ you fo’ one mo’ li’l bu’st of speed, Pete. An’ when we git back, they’s goin’ to be pantry-food for you for supper, you ol’ Piute, pie-eatin’ Pete, you!”
“What you-all doing with the rope, Sandy?” called across Sam in a low voice. “Goin’ to stretch it?”
“No,” answered Sandy, carefully overhauling the lariat. “When they come out we’ll throw down the rifles on ’em. If they don’t stop, plug the one without the kid. I’ll handle Hammond.” ”

“ Sandy’s face was set and his gray eyes hard and glittering.
“My baby!” moaned Barbara. “He’ll die. They’ll starve him.”
“They ain’t goin’ to huht him any,” said Sandy. “They’ll be scared to, knowin’ they’d have the whole State of Texas after ’em if they huht a hair of his li’l head. I know that brand of skunks. They’ll want a ransom—that’s their game, but they won’t huht the baby.”
“I’ll pay anything they ask,” said Barton distractedly, “anything. I’ve sent Sam to town to notify the sheriff and wire to Redding. But you know that.”
“Yes, sir,” answered Sandy. “Let’s get busy. ”

“ In his heart he longed for a hearthside of his own, half conscious that he wanted some one to tend it for him, yet, unless his chivalry conquered his timidity, the threatened propinquity of a girl or the neighborhood of anything approaching sentiment found him hopelessly embarrassed, or, as he called it, “hog-tied an’ helpless.” ”

“ Padilla looked at him furtively, a glint of amused triumph in his glance.
Sandy sat with half-closed eyes smoking a thoughtful cigarette.
“It’s Hammond all right,” he announced at length to his patiently waiting chums. “I saw him an’ the kid. He heard that Pinto nicker—” Sandy looked reproachfully at Mormon and Sam—“an’ suspicioned somethin’. But he didn’t see me.”
“Why didn’t you plug him?” asked Sam.
“An’ kill the kid? He was packin’ him. ”

“ Tell Sam to repoht to me. We’ve got to keep them an’ our boys away from Chimney Rock in any case. Long’s you’ve decided to pay the money you’ve got to have that neighbo’hood clear of any one ’cept yourself from the time it’s light till they come fo’ the money.
“Let’s get something to eat. We’ll all need it. Then you hitch up an’ staht fo’ Rubio.”
“My God, Sandy!” exclaimed Barton, grasping his foreman’s hand, his face very old in the afterglow despite the ruddy reflection that poured in through the window “It’s going to be hard to wait. But I promised Barbara I’d pay the ransom. ”

“ We wont hurt the kid if you hurry.
“I haven’t got five hundred dollars on the ranch, much less five thousand,” said Barton. “I can get it in Rubio, I suppose, and get back before sunup.”
Sandy was sitting on the office desk, musing.
“Chimney Rock,” he said. “I knew they was some one with brains in that outfit. They ain’t a spear of coveh fo’ a mile either ways of it. No place between the Chimney an the mountains fo’ anything bigger ’n a horn’ toad to squat. ”

“ Of course I trust you, Sandy, but I’d rather have the money paid, ten times over, than endanger the life of that baby.”
“You know me, Misteh Barton,” said Sandy, quietly walking over to his superintendent and facing him. “I ain’t goin’ to do nothin’ to gum up the cards in this game. The hand’s goin’ to be played out at Chimney Rock. If my scheme don’t work, I’ll know long befo’ mornin’, an’ you can go ahead with the deal.
“You’ll meet the posse on the way. Don’t tell the sheriff about the note from the Mexican unless you have to. ”

“ I’m goin’ out to try an’ pick up trail. You stay heah an’ cheer up Miss Bahba’a—Mrs. Redding, I mean—an’ wait fo’ somethin’ to break about the ransom. They’ll be some kind of a message comin’ along soon. Mebbe befo’ dark, mebbe after. If you catch sight of the man who brings it, have him followed. Send Peters, he’s got a good hawss an’ some brains. Don’t hold the man—trail him. ”

“ If nothin’ breaks inside a couple of hours, take him back to the ranch.”
“Señor,” protested Padilla, “you said that——”
“I played square with you as long as you did with me,” said Sandy. “That’s all. If they is any trouble stahts, Mormon, shoot him first.”
“I shore hate to miss all the fun,” said Mormon ruefully.
“Some one’s got to stay,” said Sandy. “Yo’re too heavy. Mormon, for the kind of ridin’ we’ve got ahead of us. Come on, Sam.”
The two plunged down the almost-effaced trail, Sandy in the lead, on Pete. ”

“ You’ll have to mount ’em on one hawss. Betteh take ’em oveh to the A-bar-A—it’s shorter. I’ll take care of the kid.”
VII
THE sheriff’s posse, swelled by the cowboys of the Curly O under the direction of Mormon who had brought in the Mexican to the ranch, rode swiftly through the gathering dusk. ”