When the men came closer, though, swooping toward the ranchhouse like feathers before a hurricane, he saw that Rogers was among them.

Then, as the men came toward him down along the corral fence, Harlan saw that Rogers' eyes were wide with excitement. And he stood, his face darkening, as Rogers told him what he had seen, and voiced his suspicions.

"We're with you, Harlan," declared Rogers, sweeping a hand toward the men; "an' them other boys which have trailed Deveny, are with you. We're out to 'get' Deveny if you say the word; and that thief, Haydon, too."

Harlan did not answer. He grinned at the men, though, and at Rogers--acknowledging his grat.i.tude for their decision to be "with" him; then he turned, leaped on Purgatory, and sent the big beast thundering toward the timber that led to the main trail.

Their voices silent, their horses falling quickly into the pace set by the big black, Rogers and the other men followed.

The other half of Rogers' men, headed by Colver, were several miles behind Deveny's hors.e.m.e.n when they reached the South Trail. They gained very little on the other men, though, for Deveny and his men were just then racing Barbara to the point where the trails converged, having seen her. But during Deveny's halt at the covert, where he had shot Stroud, Colver's men gained, and they were not more than two or three miles from the covert when Deveny's men left it.

From the shelving trail, ever sweeping toward the trail in the valley, Colver had noted the halt at the covert, though he had not seen Barbara, nor Stroud. He had seen, of course, that Deveny had not gone to the Rancho Seco, that for some reason or other he had swerved, taking the trail up the valley.

Colver was puzzled, but he remembered Rogers' orders, and when he and his men reached the covert, they halted. They came upon Stroud, lying near some bushes, and they saw his horse, grazing on the tall gra.s.s near by.

They had reached the covert too late to see Barbara's pony; and when they remounted, after taking a look at Stroud, they caught a glimpse of a lone horseman racing up the valley in the direction taken by Deveny and his men.

The lone horseman was Red Linton, though Colver did not know it, for the South Trail dipped into the basin miles before it emerged to the level at the point of convergence with the other trail, and Colver had not seen Linton when he had pa.s.sed.

Colver and his men fled up the valley, following the trail taken by Deveny and the lone horseman, and when they had gone two or three miles they saw a rider coming toward them. They raced toward him, for they saw he was in trouble; that he had lashed himself to the pommel of the saddle, and that he was leaning far over it, limp and inert.

Linton was not unconscious, but he was very near it; so near that he seemed to dream that men were around him and that voices were directed at him.

Into his mind as he straightened and looked at the men finally came the conviction that this was not a dream; and after an instant of intense effort, during which he fixed his gaze on Colver, he recognized the other.

He laughed, grimly, mockingly:

"Front an' rear--eh?" he said. "You got me, goin' an' comin'. Well, go to it--I deserve it, for lettin' Barbara out of my sight. If you don't kill me, Harlan will. But if you guys are _men_, you won't let Deveny----"

"Deveny's got Barbara Morgan?"

This was Colver. Something in his voice straightened Linton further, and he steadied himself in the saddle and looked fairly at the man.

"Deveny's got her. An' they got me--chasin' 'em. I was headin' back to the Rancho Seco, to get the T Down boys--all Harlan's friends--to wipe Deveny out. If you guys are _men_----"

Sheer will could no longer support Linton's failing muscles--and he again collapsed over the pommel.

For an instant only did Colver hesitate. Then he turned to a lean rider who bestrode a tall, rangy horse. He spoke sharply to the rider:

"Hit the breeze to the Rancho Seco, an' get them T Down boys. Fan it, d.a.m.n you!"

The rider was off with the word, leaping his horse down the trail with dizzying speed. Then Colver loosed the rope that held Linton to the saddle, and with the help of the other men lifted the man down and stretched him in a plot of gra.s.s beside the trail, where they worked over him until they saw, far out on the level toward the Rancho Seco, a number of hors.e.m.e.n coming, seemingly abreast, as though they were racing, each man trying his best to outstrip the others.

CHAPTER XXIX

WORLD'S END

Barbara Morgan had fought Deveny until she became exhausted. Thereafter she lay quiet, breathing fast, yielding to the nameless terror that held her in its icy clutch.

The appearance of Deveny so soon after the end of the heartbreaking ride down the trail had brought into her heart a sense of the futility of resistance--and yet she had resisted, involuntarily, instinctively. Yet resistance had merely served to increase the exhaustion that had come upon her.

She had not known--until she lay pa.s.sive in Deveny's arms--how taut her nerves had been, nor how the physical ordeal had drained her strength.

She felt the strain, now, but consideration for her body was overwhelmed by what she saw in Deveny's eyes as she lay watching him.

There were a dozen men with Deveny--she had seen them, counted them when they had been racing down the shelving trail on the other side of the valley. And she knew they were following Deveny, for she could hear the thudding of hoofs behind.

Deveny's big arms were around her; she could feel the rippling of his muscles as he swayed from side to side, balancing himself in the saddle.

He was not using the reins; he was giving his attention to her, letting the horse follow his own inclinations.

Yet she noted that the animal held to the trail, that he traveled steadily, requiring no word from his rider.

Once, after they had ridden some distance up the valley, Barbara heard a man behind them call Deveny's attention to some hors.e.m.e.n who were riding the shelving trail that Deveny and his men had taken on their way to the level; and she heard Deveny laugh.

"Some of the Star gang, I reckon. Mebbe Haydon, goin' to the Rancho Seco, to see his girl." He grinned down into Barbara's face, his own alight with a triumph that made a shiver run over her.

Later--only a few minutes, it seemed--she heard a man call to Deveny again, telling him that a lone rider was "fannin' it" up the valley.

"Looks like that guy, Linton," said the man.

"Two of you drop back and lay for him!" ordered Deveny. "Make it sure!"

he added, after a short pause.

Barbara yielded to a quick horror. She fought with Deveny, trying in vain to free her arms--which he held tightly to her sides with his own. She gave it up at last, and lay, looking up into his face, her eyes blazing with impotent rage and repugnance.

"You mean to kill him?" she charged.

"Sure," he laughed; "there's no one interfering with what's going on now."

Overcome with nausea over the conviction that Deveny's order meant death to Red Linton, Barbara lay slack in Deveny's arms for a long time. A premonitory silence had settled over the valley; she heard the dull thud of hoofs behind her, regular and swift, the creaking of the saddle leather as the animal under her loped forward.

There was no other sound. For the men behind her were strangely silent, and even Deveny seemed to be listening.

After what seemed to be a long interval, she heard a shot, and then almost instantly, another. She shuddered, closing her eyes, for she knew they had killed Linton. And she had blamed Linton for guarding her from--from the very thing that had happened to her. And Linton had given his life for her!

How long she had her eyes closed she did not know. The time could not have been more than a few minutes though, for she heard a voice behind her saying to Deveny:

"They got him."

Then she looked up, to see Deveny grinning at her.

"I reckon that's all," he said. "We're headin' for the Cache--my hang-out. If you'd have been good over in Lamo, the day that d.a.m.ned Harlan came, this wouldn't have happened. I'd sent for a parson, an' I intended to give you a square deal. But now it's different. Then I was scared of running foul of Haydon--I didn't want to make trouble. But I'm running my own game now--Haydon and me have agreed to call it quits. Me not liking the idea of Haydon adopting Harlan."

She stared up at him, her eyes widening.