"Killed lately, ma'am?"
"Two years ago. We swore revenge. MacQueen did not keep his oath, the oath
we all swore together."
Bellamy began to understand the situation. She wanted to get back at
MacQueen, unless she were trying to lead them into a trap.
"Let's get this straight. MacQueen turned O'Connor loose, did he?" Bellamy
questioned.
"No. He escaped. This man--what you call him?--the sheriff, helped him and
Señor West to break away."
The mine owner's eye met Farnum's. They were being told much news.
"So they all escaped, did they?"
"Si, señor, but MacQueen took West and the sheriff next morning. They
could not find their way out of the valley."
"But O'Connor escaped. Is that it?"
Her eyes flashed hatred. "He escaped because the sheriff helped him. His
life was forfeit to me. So then was the sheriff's. MacQueen he admit it.
But when the girl promise to marry him he speak different."
"What girl?"
"Señorita Lee."
"Not Melissy Lee."
"Si, señor."
"My God! Melissy Lee a prisoner of that infernal villain. How did she come
there?"
The Mexican woman was surprised at the sudden change that had come over
the men. They had grown tense and alert. Interest had flamed into a
passionate eagerness.
Rosario Chaves told the story from beginning to end, so far as she knew
it; and every sentence of it wrung the big heart of these men. The pathos
of it hit them hard. Their little comrade, the girl they had been fond of
for years--the bravest, truest lass in Arizona--had fallen a victim to
this intolerable fate! They could have wept with the agony of it if they
had known how.
"Are you sure they were married? Maybe the thing slipped up," Alan
suggested, the hope father to the thought.
But this hope was denied him; for the woman had brought with her a copy of
the Mesa Sentinel, with an account of the marriage and the reason for
it. This had been issued on the morning after the event, and MacQueen had
brought it back with him to the Cache.
Bellamy arranged with the Mexican woman a plan of attack upon the valley.
Camp was struck at once, and she guided them through tortuous ravines and
gulches deeper into the Roaring Fork country. She left them in a grove of
aspens, just above the lip of the valley, on the side least frequented by
the outlaws.