"Quintana's," said Smith, laughing. A wild exhilaration possessed him. His flanks and rear were protected by the sink-hole. He had Quintana's gang two of them over his pistol.
"Turn your backs and sit down," he said. As the shadowy forms hesitated, he picked up a stick and hurled it at them. They sat down hastily, hands up, backs toward him.
"You'll both die where you sit," remarked Smith, "if you yell for help."
Clinch sighed heavily, stirred, groped on the damp leaves with his hands.
"I say," began the voice which Smith identified as Harry Beck's, "if you'll come in with us on this it will pay you, young man."
"No," drawled Smith, "I'll go it alone."
"It can't be done, old dear. You'll see if you try it on."
"Who'll stop me? Quintana?"
"Come," urged Beck, "and be a good pal. You can't manage it alone. We've got all night to make Clinch talk. We know how, too. You'll get your share "
"Oh, stow it," said Smith, watching Clinch, who was reviving. He sat up presently, and put both hands over his head. Smith touched him silently on the shoulder and he turned his heavy, square head in a dazed way. Blood striped his visage. He gazed dully at Smith for a little while, then, seeming to recollect, the old glare began to light his pale eyes.
The next instant, however, Beck spoke again, and Clinch turned in astonishment and saw the two figures sitting there with backs toward Smith and hands up.
Clinch stared at the squatting forms, then slowly moved his head and looked at Smith and his levelled pistol.
"We know how to make a man squeal," said Harry Beck suddenly. "He'll talk. We can make Clinch talk, no fear! Leave it to us, old pal. Are you with us?" He started to look around over his shoulder and Smith hurled another stick and hit him in the face.
"Quiet there, Harry," he said. "What's my share if I go in with you?"
"One sixth, same's we all get."
"What's it worth?" asked Smith, with a motion of caution toward Clinch.
"If I say a million you'll tell me I lie. But it's nearer three or you can have my share. Is it a go?"
"You'll not hurt Clinch when he comes to?"
"We'll make him talk, that's all. It may hurt him some."
"You won't kill him?"
"I swear by God "
"Wait! Isn't it better to shoot him after he squeals? Here's a lovely sink-hole handy."
"Right-o! We'll make him talk first and then shove him in. Are you with us?"
"If you turn your head I'll blow the face off you, Harry," said Smith, cautioning Clinch to silence with a gesture.
"All right. Only you better make up your mind. That cove is likely to wake up now at any time," grumbled Beck.
Clinch looked at Smith. The latter smiled, leaned over, and whispered:
"Can you walk all right?"
Clinch nodded.
"Well, we'd better beat it. Quintana's whole gang is in these woods, somewhere, hunting for you, and they might stumble on us here, at any moment." And, to the two men in front: "Lie down flat on your faces. Don't stir; don't speak; or it's you for the sink-hole Lie down, I tell you! That's it. Don't move till I tell you to."
Clinch got up from where he was sitting, cast one murderous glance at the prostrate forms, then followed Smith, noiselessly, over the stretch of sphagnum moss.
When they reached the house they saw Eve standing on the steps in her night-dress and bare feet, holding a lantern.
"Daddy," she whimpered, "I was frightened. I didn't know where you had gone "
Clinch put his arm around her, turned his bloody face and looked at Smith.
"It's this ," he said, "that I ain't forgetting, young fella. What you done for me you done for her .
"I gotta live to make a lady of her. That's why," he added thickly, "I'm much obliged to you, Hal Smith Go to bed, girlie "
"You're bleeding, dad?"
"Aw, a twig scratched me. I been in the woods with Hal. G'wan to bed."
He went to the sink and washed his face, dried it, kissed the girl, and gave her a gentle shove toward the stairs.
"Hal and I is sittin' up talkin' business," he remarked, bolting the door and all the shutters.
When the girl had gone, Clinch went to a closet and brought back two Winchester rifles, two shot guns, and a box of ammunition.
"Goin' to see it out with me, Hal?"
"Sure," smiled Smith.
"Aw' right. Have a drink?"
"No."
"Aw' right. Where'll you set?"
"Anywhere."
"Aw' right. Set over there. They may try the back porch. I'll jest set here a spell, n'then I'll kind er mosey 'round Plug the first fella that tries a shutter, Hal."
"You bet."
Clinch came over and held out his hand.
"You said a face-full that time when you says to me, 'Clinch,' you says, 'Eve is a lady.' I gotta fix her up. I gotta be alive to do it That's why I'm greatly obliged to yeh, Hal."
He took his rifle and walked slowly toward the pantry.
"You bet," he muttered, "she is a lady, so help me God."
Episode Three
ON STAR PEAK
IMIKE CLINCH regarded the jewels taken from José Quintana as legitimate loot acquired in war.
He was prepared to kill anybody who attempted to take the gems from him.
At the very possibility his ruling passion blazed his mania to make of Eve Strayer a grand lady.
But now, what he had feared for years had happened. Quintana had found him, Quintana, after all these years, had discovered the identity and dwelling place of the obscure American soldier who had robbed him in the wash-room of a Paris café. And Quintana was now in America, here in this very wilderness, tracking the man who had despoiled him.
Clinch, in his shirt-sleeves, carrying a rifle, came out on the log veranda and sat down to think it over.
He began to realise that he was likely to have trouble with a man as cold-blooded and as dogged as himself.
Nor did he doubt that those with Quintana were desperate men.
On whom could he count? On nobody unless he paid their hire. None among the lawless men who haunted his backwoods "hotel" at Star Pond would lift a finger to help him. Almost any among them would have robbed him, murdered him, probably, if it were known that jewels were hidden in the house.
He could not trust Jake Kloon; Leverett was as treacherous as only a born coward can be; Sid Hone, Harvey Chase, Blommers, Byron Hastings, he knew them all too well to trust them, a sullen, unscrupulous pack, partly cowardly, always fierce, as are any creatures that live furtively, feed only by their wits, and slink through life just outside the frontiers of law.
And yet, one of this gang had stood by him Hal Smith the man he himself had been about to slay.
Clinch got up from the bench where he had been sitting and walked down to the pond where Hal Smith sat cleaning trout.
"Hal," he said, "I been figuring some. Quintana don't dare call in the constables. I can't afford to. Quintana and I've got to settle this on our own."
Smith slit open a ten-inch trout, stripped it, flung the entrails out into the pond, soused the fish in water, and threw it into a milk pan.
"Whose jewels were they in the beginning?" he enquired carelessly.
"How do I know?"
"If you ever found out "
"I don't want to. I got them in the war, anyway. And it don't make no difference how I got 'em; Eve's going to be a lady if I go to the chair for it. So that's that."
Smith slit another trout, gutted it, flung away the viscera but laid back the roe.
"Shame to take them in October," he remarked, "but people must eat."