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Gunsight Pass, a fiction by William MacLeod Raine |
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Chapter 13. For Murder |
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_ CHAPTER XIII. FOR MURDER Dave whistled. The pony pricked up its ears, looked round, and came straight to him. The young man laid his face against the soft, silky nose, fondled it, whispered endearments to his pet. He put the bronco through its tricks for the benefit of the corral attendant. "Well, I'll be doggoned," that youth commented. "The little pinto sure is a wonder. Acts like he knows you mighty well." "Ought to. I trained him. Had him before Miller got him." "Bet you hated to sell him." "You _know_ it." Dave moved forward to his end, the intention to get possession of the horse. He spoke in a voice easy and casual. "Saw Miller a while ago. They're talkin' about sellin' the paint hawss, him and his pardner Doble. I'm to saddle up and show what Chiquito can do." "Say, that's a good notion. If I was a buyer I'd pay ten bucks more after you'd put him through that circus stuff." "Which is Miller's saddle?" When it was pointed out to him, Dave examined it and pretended to disapprove. "Too heavy. Lend me a lighter one, can't you?" "Sure. Here's three or four. Help yourself." The wrangler moved into the stable to attend to his work. Dave cinched, swung to the saddle, and rode to the gate of the corral. Two men were coming in, and by the sound of their voices were quarreling. They stepped aside to let him pass, one on each side of the gate, so that it was necessary to ride between them. They recognized the pinto at the same moment Dave did them. On the heels of that recognition came another. Doble ripped out an oath and a shout of warning. "It's Sanders!" A gun flashed as the pony jumped to a gallop. The silent night grew noisy with shots, voices, the clatter of hoofs. Twice Dave fired answers to the challenges which leaped out of the darkness at him. He raced across the bridge spanning the Platte and for a moment drew up on the other side to listen for sounds which might tell him whether he would be pursued. One last solitary revolver shot disturbed the stillness. The rider grinned. "Think he'd know better than to shoot at me this far." He broke his revolver, extracted the empty shells, and dropped them to the street. Then he rode up the long hill toward Highlands, passed through that suburb of the city, and went along the dark and dusty road to the shadows of the Rockies silhouetted in the night sky. His flight had no definite objective except to put as much distance between himself and Denver as possible. He knew nothing about the geography of Colorado, except that a large part of the Rocky Mountains and a delectable city called Denver lived there. His train trip to it had told him that one of its neighbors was New Mexico, which was in turn adjacent to Arizona. Therefore he meant to get to New Mexico as quickly as Chiquito could quite comfortably travel. Unfortunately Dave was going west instead of south. Every step of the pony was carrying him nearer the roof of the continent, nearer the passes of the front range which lead, by divers valleys and higher mountains beyond, to the snowclad regions of eternal white. Up in this altitude it was too cold to camp out without a fire and blankets. "I reckon we'll keep goin', old pal," the young man told his horse. "I've noticed roads mostly lead somewheres." Day broke over valleys of swirling mist far below the rider. The sun rose and dried the moisture. Dave looked down on a town scattered up and down a gulch. He met an ore team and asked the driver what town it was. The man looked curiously at him. "Why, it's Idaho Springs," he said. "Where you come from?" Dave eased himself in the saddle. "From the Southwest." "You're quite a ways from home. I reckon your hills ain't so uncurried down there, are they?" The cowpuncher looked over the mountains. He was among the summits, aglow in the amber light of day with the many blended colors of wild flowers. "We got some down there, too, that don't fit a lady's boodwar. Say, if I keep movin' where'll this road take me?" The man with the ore team gave information. It struck Dave that he had run into a blind alley. "If you're after a job, I reckon you can find one at some of the mines. They're needin' hands," the teamster added. Perhaps this was the best immediate solution of the problem. The puncher nodded farewell and rode down into the town. He left Chiquito at a livery barn, after having personally fed and watered the pinto, and went himself to a hotel. Here he registered, not under his own name, ate breakfast, and lay down for a few hours' sleep. When he awakened he wrote a note with the stub of a pencil to Bob Hart. It read:
Dave P.S. Get this money order cashed old-timer and pay the boys what I borrowed when we hit the trail after Miller and Doble. I lit out to sudden to settle. Five to Steve and five to Buck. Well so long. Dave The puncher went to the post-office, got a money order, and mailed the letter, after which he returned to the hotel. He intended to eat dinner and then look for work. Three or four men were standing on the steps of the hotel talking with the proprietor. Dave was quite close before the Boniface saw him. "That's him," the hotel-keeper said in an excited whisper. A brown-faced man without a coat turned quickly and looked at Sanders. He wore a belt with cartridges and a revolver. "What's your name?" he demanded. Dave knew at once this man was an officer of the law. He knew, too, the futility of trying to escape under the pseudonym he had written on the register. "Sanders--Dave Sanders." "I want you." "So? Who are you?" "Sheriff of the county." "Whadjawant me for?" "Murder." Dave gasped. His heart beat fast with a prescience of impending disaster. "Murder," he repeated dully. "You're charged with the murder of George Doble last night in Denver." The boy stared at him with horror-stricken eyes. "Doble? My God, did I kill him?" He clutched at a porch post to steady himself. The hills were sliding queerly up into the sky. _ |
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