Brand Blotters - Page 110/180

Both mounted, Jack keeping the captive covered every moment of the time;

and they began to retrace the way by which the young cattleman had just

come.

After they had ridden about a quarter of a mile Flatray made a

readjustment of the rope. He let the loop lie loosely about the neck of

the outlaw, the other end of it being tied to the horn of his own saddle.

Also, he tied the hands of the man in such a way that, though they were

free to handle the bridle rein, he could not raise them from the saddle as

high as his neck.

"If you make any sudden moves, you'll be committing suicide. If you yell

out, it will amount to about the same thing. It's up to you to be good,

looks like."

The man cursed softly. He knew that the least attempt to escape or to

attract the attention of his confederates would mean his undoing.

Something about this young man's cold eye and iron jaw told him that he

would not hesitate to shoot, if necessary.

Voices came to them from the cañon. Flatray guessed that a reconnaissance

of the gulch would be made, and prepared himself for it by deflecting his

course from the bed of the arroyo at a point where the walls fell back

to form a little valley. A little grove of aspens covered densely the

shoulder of a hillock some fifty yards back, and here he took his stand.

He dismounted, and made his prisoner do the same.

"Sit down," he ordered crisply.

"What for?"

"To keep me from blowing the top of your head off," answered Jack

quietly.

Without further discussion, the man sat down. His captor stood behind him,

one hand on the shoulder of his prisoner, his eyes watching the point of

the gulch at which the enemy would appear.

Two mounted men showed presently in silhouette. Almost opposite the grove

they drew up.

"Mighty queer what has become of Hank," one of them said. "But I don't

reckon there's any use looking any farther. You don't figure he's aiming

to throw us down--do you, Buck?"

"Nope. He'll stick, Hank will. But it sure looks darned strange. Here's

him a-ridin' along with us, and suddenly he's missin'. We hear a yell, and

go back to look for him. Nothin' doin'. You don't allow the devil could

have come for him sudden--do you, Jeff?"

It was said with a laugh, defiantly, but none the less Jack read

uneasiness in the manner of the man. It seemed to him that both were eager

to turn back. Giant boulders, carved to grotesque and ghostly shapes by a

million years' wind and water, reared themselves aloft and threw shadows

in the moonlight. The wind, caught in the gulch, rose and fell in

unearthly, sibilant sounds. If ever fiends from below walk the earth, this

time and place was a fitting one for them. Jack curved a hand around his

mouth, and emitted a strange, mournful, low cry, which might have been the

scream of a lost soul.