Brand Blotters - Page 37/180

Melissy had been up the Cañ del Oro for wild poppies in her runabout and

had just reached the ranch. She was disposing of her flowers in ollas when

Jim Budd, waiter, chambermaid, and odd jobs man at the Bar Double G,

appeared in the hall with a frightened, mysterious face.

"What's the matter, Jim? You and Hop Ling been quarrelling again?" she

asked carelessly.

"No'm, that ain't it. It's wusser'n that. I got to tell you-all su'thin' I

hearn yore paw say."

The girl looked up quickly at him. "What do you mean, Jim?"

"That Mistah Norris he come back whilst you wus away, and him and yore paw

wus in that back room a-talkin' mighty confidential."

"Yes, and you listened. Well?"

Jim swelled with offended dignity. "No'm, I didn't listen neither. I des

natcherally hearn, 'count of that hole fer the stovepipe what comes

through the floor of my room."

"But what was it you heard?" she interrupted impatiently.

"I wus a-comin' to that. Plum proverdenshul, I draps into my room des as

yore paw wus sayin', 'Twenty thousand dollars goin' down to the Fort on

the stage to-day?' 'Cose I pricks up my ears then and tuk it all in. This

yere Norris had foun' out that Mistah Morse was shippin' gold from his

mine to-day on the Fort Allison stage, and he gits yore paw to go in with

him an' hold it up. Yore paw cussed and said as how 't wus his gold anyhow

by rights."

The girl went white and gave a little broken cry. "Oh, Jim! Are you

sure?"

"Yas'm, 'cose I'm suah. Them's his ve'y words. Hope to die if they ain't.

They wus drinkin', and when 't wus all fixed up that 't wus to be at the

mouth of the Box Cañon they done tore an old black shirt you got for a

dust-rag and made masks out of it and then rode away."

"Which way did they go?"

"Tow'ds the Box Cañon Miss M'lissy."

A slender, pallid figure of despair, she leaned against the wall to

support the faintness that had so suddenly stolen the strength from her

limbs, trying desperately to think of some way to save her father from

this madness. She was sure he would bungle it and be caught eventually,

and she was equally sure he would never let himself be taken alive. Her

helplessness groped for some way out. There must be some road of escape

from this horrible situation, and as she sought blindly for it the path

opened before her.