James Fellom

“ A tall, angular, wiry man was Lemuel Huntington, a sprinkle of gray in his hair and mustache, a countenance more pathetic than aggressive. Association with Geerusalem’s uppish fraternity had inspired him to assume its dashy swagger garb—stiff-brim gray Stetson, corduroy suit, his trousers stuffed into yellow, laced, three-quarter boots resplendent with steel buckles, his coat, box-pleated and belted à la Norfolk. Just now, as he rode up, scowling on Dot, he looked more the prosperous mining man of sectional influence than the humble, unimportant rancher he really was. ”

“ The night life of Geerusalem was beginning to waken, stretching itself like some blinking giant making ready to be off on his rampant adventuring. For five crooked blocks down the wide gulch which sloped gently out of the hills, onto the smooth floor of Soapweed Plains, the main street was ablaze with lights, pouring from business houses, saloons, gambling houses, and dance halls. Already the sidewalks were packed with as heterogeneous a stream of humanity as may be seen only in those out-of-the-way places of earth where men have discovered fabulous wealth bursting from the rock. ”

“ As he picked up his hat to look after his chores he caught her in his arms, told her how fondly he loved her, and that her happiness meant everything in the world to him.
But alone, back of the barn, his display of buoyancy vanished. He gazed down the lane between the two corrals and reënacted in his mind’s eye his brave capture of the notorious train robber, Billy Gee, and the way he had marched the outlaw into Sheriff Warburton’s room in the hotel before daybreak and turned his prisoner over to the astounded, sleepy-eyed official. ”

“ He glanced toward the ranch and made out the tiny figure of Mrs. Liggs standing in the garden, her face buried in her hands, and the scarecrow one of old Tinnemaha Pete, arms waving above his head, raging about in insane fashion.
The mob had collected and, slouching in its saddles, listened to Big George Rankin’s reasons why the chase should not be continued. Daylight had brought the leader of Geerusalem’s underworld face to face with the gravity of the night’s activity. Masked men were likely to fall into the toils of the law, even in so lawless a locality as this. ”

“ Taking advantage of the moment, Billy Gee thrust Dot in front of him, and with Quintell leading the way, fled in a hail of bullets for the Miners’ Hotel. The conflict raged on fiercely, the mob fighting with desperate abandon to break through the cordon of mounted deputies. Up and down the main street dashed terrified horses, riderless. Other cow-punchers, thirsting to avenge their fellows’ deaths, filled up the ranks. The street became littered with dead and dying. Stubbornly, furiously, the Quintell element fought. Then Big George Rankin passed out, a curse on his lips. ”

“ Anybody could sneak up behind a desperado and shoot him down, but few had grit enough to confront that desperado and take him alive. Warburton was going to herd Billy Gee into the county seat alive or perish in the attempt. So he swore to himself at the time.
A-straddle of a mule, driving a pack burro before him, went the grim sheriff of San Buenaventura County, looking for all the world like a prospector in his patched-up overalls, old gray hat, and boots worn down at the heels. A rough mat of whiskers which he had let flourish untrimmed, disguised him against the possibility of recognition. ”

“ Wild yells broke from the advancing vigilantes. Their revolvers began to roar, and with quirt and spur they quickened their speed in pursuit of their quarry. Sangerly and Dot crouched down behind the roadster to avoid the hail of bullets that now screamed around them. Presently the cavalcade swept by, leaving a cloud of dust behind them, hanging motionless on the still morning air. Lashing their animals madly, they tore away across the plains, bending every energy to apprehend and vent their vengeance on the man who single-handed had frustrated their sinister plans. ”

“ Here we have Billy Gee with Sheriff Warburton at his heels—not over two hours behind, mind you! Billy Gee is wounded, bleeding badly. He is traveling over a country as flat as this table, where there is no chance of hiding his booty with any assurance of ever being able to find it again—lack of landmarks, you understand? And all the time he is becoming weaker from loss of blood. From what little I saw of him to-day it is a question in my mind whether he would have risked getting off his horse to cache his stealings if he had had a chance, through fear of not being able to mount again. ”

“ Dick Lennox, mining engineer of merit.
The dark days of uncertainty still remain green in the mind of Lemuel Huntington. They remain green, too, in the mind of his daughter, whose romantic brain worked out the destiny of her own happiness. Nor can the shy little mother, who lived and suffered for her wayward son, ever forget; nor that son, who found the turning point in the realization that the price for a hunted animal could not tempt her compassionate heart. ”

“ Liggs.
Dot, staring at the dead man, shivered.
Lex got the roadster under way. It sped out of the driveway and into the road, gathering speed; plunging and swaying along, the sand rattling like machine-gun fire against the under side of the fenders. The girl, wide-eyed, her face bloodless, drawn with fear, watched in awful suspense for sight of the mob.
“We’d better drive to camp, Miss Huntington, and get out the constable—have him lead a posse after them. It’s the safest course, all around,” said Lex presently. ”

“ The Billy Geerusalem claims blossomed out, bonanzas, and the camp of Geerusalem lost its ranking as the metropolis of Soapweed Plains. It never knew a railroad—even as the elder Sangerly had avowed to Jule Quintell, now languishing in the State penitentiary.
Prosperity can never change the sterling members of the human family, no more than may the powers of alchemy convert slag into gold. They are still the same humble dwellers of the vast Mohave—Tinnemaha Pete, quaint, timid old desert rat; Sheriff Bob Warburton, big of soul and purposeful; achieving, ambitious Lex Sangerly ”

“ He brought his horse to a halt behind it, swung from the saddle, and waited, screened by the heavy foliage. The machine came dashing up the road. As it got abreast of the hiding place, it slowed down, and the headlights were switched off.
Mystified, Billy Gee crouched low to the ground, watching the blue-black sky line, and gripped his revolver. Presently he heard the crunch of gravel underfoot. He saw the shadowlike figure of a man pass stealthily over the wash and vanish into the gloom.
“That you, Mr. Quintell?” suddenly came the low voice of another man, some distance away. ”

“ Following her departure, Billy Gee remained in the hayloft for a long interval and leisurely ate the food she had brought him. Periodically, he looked at his watch by the aid of a moonbeam streaming in through a crack in the boards. When one o’clock came, he got carefully to his feet, took up the roll of blankets, and started downstairs.
From far out on Soapweed Plains, rose the wail-bark of a foraging coyote. There was no other sound. That semiarid land lay mute and mysterious and teaming with tragic potentialities. ”

“ Lemuel stood half dressed, pale with fright, holding a candle in one trembling hand. Dot, clad in a dressing gown, her thick, wavy hair tumbled charmingly over her shoulders, her eyes glinting with a strange fire, was standing before the door, firmly gripping a six-shooter. Huddled up against the wall, some distance back, was Mrs. Liggs wringing her thin hands distractedly.
“The man who tries to come in here, dies! Do you understand that?” called out the girl in harsh tones.
A wild jeer went up. The mob howled for action, and heavy shoulders started heaving against the panels. Dot fired. ”

“ And flocking in, also, came the type of woman that men know best and fall easier prey to because they do, while added to these denizens of the city’s slums, were the drifters, adventurers, and saloon hangers-on, all bent on getting their share of gold at some other fellow’s expense.
With this formidable army of undesirables at its back, the Quintell crowd ruled Geerusalem, and from it, chose its tools who went out at night and beat up men, drove them off their claims, killed them if they proved too troublesome. These tools got money for their work. ”

“ As has been said, Geerusalem was at the time the Mecca of the gregarious creatures designated as wildcatters—ruthless, scoundrelly gentlemen who wax fat by selling worthless blocks of fabulous mining stock to gullibles and trusting innocents in far-away places, women being for the most part their easier victims. To-day, they were the power in Geerusalem, and Mrs. Liggs in her talk with Lex Sangerly had not exaggerated the methods of these money-grabbing rascals one whit. They controlled the camp and the representatives of the law. ”

“ In a twinkling, the thoroughfare became alive with men, pouring from every conceivable hiding place in the vicinity. Lex and his father cried out a warning. The former caught Dot by the arm.
“Come! Run! They’ll trample us!” he shouted.
But she shook him off, her eyes flashing with a resolute fire. “I’m all right. Take care of your father and Pete. Get them away!” Her voice was harsh, commanding.
The outlaw gave a short laugh. Lex hesitated an instant, then started off on a run for the sidewalk, dragging his father with him. ”

“ Another significant move, traceable to the emergency methods and industry of Sheriff Warburton, was the sudden appearance in Geerusalem of a growing army of these self-same cowboys. They began arriving at intervals, throughout the afternoon, riding up the street singly and in pairs, in dozens and by the score. They came heavily armed, delegation after delegation of them, grim-faced, wiry, silent men who feared neither man nor devil. Every ranch in that far-flung, fertile hill territory—known as the Green Range—to the north of Soapweed Plains, became represented as the day wore on. ”

“ An officer appreciates only too well that he is the custodian of the law, that his voice is the voice of the commonwealth, that his body is as sacred as it is possible for a human body to be sacred. Sheriff Warburton cherished this belief with pride. Had Billy Gee held him up at the point of a gun and stripped him of his valuables, the act would have been more or less forgivable alongside of striking the sheriff down, shackling the sheriff with the sheriff’s handcuffs, and making his escape. ”

“ To me, it’s just like selling a soul. And because I feel that way about it, I know I’m deeply indebted to Billy Gee——”
“Bosh!” cried Lex. “He’s a law-breaker—a dangerous desperado. He robs men, seizes other men’s belongings, appropriates to himself what isn’t his, threatens men’s lives to do it. Miss Huntington, anybody who captures such an animal, who rids the world of such an animal, deserves far more than your father received from the M. & S.” He had spoken brusquely, animated by a conscientious detestation of crime and criminals in any form. ”

“ He smiled at her vehement defense of the girl. “I don’t think we will have occasion to go that far in the matter, Mother Liggs,” he said reassuringly. “As I was driving in from the ranch it struck me that, confronted with what evidence we have and more that we’ll get, showing that Miss Huntington presumably aided him, Billy Gee will confess—make a clean breast of everything, rather than have her incriminated. Any man would, out of a sense of gratitude, if for no other reason.” ”

“ As she spoke, the galloping mass of the night riders came into view. The roadster bore down on it rapidly, and the powerful rays of the headlights growing brighter and brighter, startled the horses. Those in the rear began bolting in fright, swerving sharply, unmanageable for the instant. But that instant proved sufficient in which to throw the entire body into confusion. It split, scattering to either side of the road, and Lex, a cold hand clutching his heart, steered the car into the breach, stepping on the gas as he did so. ”

“ She’s one of the belles of the camp, I suppose?”
“Dot Huntington is one of the finest girls in the West, Lex.”
“Whew! You’re some little booster. Pretty?”
“Pretty as a picture, and sensible. That’s a combination you don’t often find, Lex, and you know it. She’s a girl any man would kneel to,” she said solemnly.
“Mother Liggs, you interest me. You must tell me more about this charming young lady. I want to meet her. You see, I’ve always believed my San Francisco girl was the prize winner, but it just may be that this fair daughter of Geerusalem is—well, I’ll tell you after I see her.” ”

“ Sangerly, I’m not altogether a madman! I want the railroad. The camp is a unit for it. It spells progress, greater industry, greater opportunity!”
Lex nodded. “My father, who is Western manager of the road, instructed me to speak with you quite plainly on the matter. To begin, every landowner along the entire fifty-three miles of proposed line, from the station of Mirage to Geerusalem, has granted us the privilege of a right of way for the asking. Coöperation has been extended to us on every hand. ”

“ Liggs entered the parlor to announce that luncheon was ready. They seated themselves at the table in the cool little dining room, and their hostess poured the tea and led the conversation, which ran the gamut from reminiscences of bygone days in San José to a series of interesting episodes in and around Geerusalem. But she steered carefully clear of any mention of lawlessness, being fearful of bringing the name of her bandit son into the discussion and hearing Lex’s criticism of him—the chum he believed dead.
“You men folks think us women don’t know anything about business,” she laughed gayly. ”

“ More than likely, it was Warburton hurrying to camp to organize a posse. That would be the average sheriff’s method of working; never single-handed—always twenty to one, playing safe.
He looked ahead. He had reached the mouth of Geerusalem Gulch. A mile or so away, a few scattered lights twinkled, indicating the outskirts of the settlement. The old rock shack, where he had rescued Lennox from the Quintell gunmen, lay within pistol-shot distance. It was a little too far off to make it unobserved, for it just might be that the powerful headlights of the approaching machine would reveal him. ”

“ Boss Quintell’s associates, whom Mrs. Liggs had designated as the “brains” of the element were, even as she had said, assayers, mining engineers, surveyors, stockbrokers. There were more than a score of them; as smug and high-handed a coterie of crooks as ever sidestepped the penitentiary. Against their influence and methods, the reputable competitor was promptly starved out, forced to seek a living in other fields. ”

“ She favored returning to the ranch, in the face of the knowledge that they would have to pass the disgruntled night riders approaching along the road.
“Mrs. Liggs will be safe until we come back,” argued Lex, as they went whirling away. “This fellow, Billy Gee, doesn’t seem like a man who would harm a defenseless old lady. Wasn’t that the most spectacular rescue, Miss Huntington?”
“I am sure he wouldn’t harm her,” said Dot slowly. “He’s wonderful! One man against forty cowardly curs. Didn’t I tell you in San Francisco what an extraordinary person he was?” ”

“ His clothes—Norfolk suit of the finest whipcord, silk shirt, jaunty, stiff-brimmed Stetson and nap-a-tan half boots of superior quality—his whole bearing, in fact, stamped him a person of wealth and prominence.
There was a tragic silence. In that brief interval, the center of the street was a solid mass of staring humanity, the two principals standing alone, the hub of a wide circle. Even Mrs. Liggs, attracted by the sudden commotion, stood watching now, pale and trembling, from the rear of the store, her eyes riveted on the contestants facing each other before her door. ”