The Essential Max Brand - 29 Westerns in One Edition. Max Brand
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seen the light about Mark, and that he has money enough to pay back what he owes.”
“But I haven’t,” broke in Jerry.
“I have it,” said Ronicky, “and that’s the same thing.”
“I’ll take no charity,” declared Jerry Smith.
“You’ll do what I tell you,” said Ronicky Doone. “You been bothering enough, son. Go tell Caroline what I’ve said,” he went on to the girl. “Let her know that they’s no chain on anybody, and, if she wants to find Bill Gregg, all she’s got to do is go across the street. You understand?”
“But, even if I were to tell her, how could she go, Ronicky Doone, when she’s watched?”
“If she can’t make a start and get to a man that loves her and is waiting for her, right across the street, she ain’t worth worrying about,” said Ronicky sternly. “Do we go this way?”
She hurried before them. “You’ve waited too long—you’ve waited too long!” she kept whispering in her terror, as she led them through the door, paused to turn out the light behind her, and then conducted them down a passage like that on the other side of the treasure chamber.
It was all deadly black and deadly silent, but the rustling of the girl’s dress, as she hurried before them, was their guide. And always her whisper came back: “Hurry! Hurry! I fear it is too late!”
Suddenly they were climbing up a narrow flight of steps. They stood under the starlight in a back yard, with houses about them on all sides.
“Go down that alley, and you will be on the street,” said the girl. “Down that alley, and then hurry—run—find the first taxi. Will you do that?”
“We’ll sure go, and we’ll wait for Caroline Smith—and you, too!”
“Don’t talk madness! Why will you stay? You risk everything for yourselves and for me!”
Jerry Smith was already tugging at Ronicky’s arm to draw him away, but the Westerner was stubbornly pressing back to the girl. He had her hand and would not leave it.
“If you don’t show up, lady,” he said, “I’ll come to find you. You hear?”
“No, no!”
“I swear!”
“Bless you, but never venture near again. But, oh, Ronicky Doone, I wish ten other men in the whole world could be half so generous and wild as you!” Suddenly her hand was slipped from his, and she was gone into the shadows.
Down the alley went Jerry Smith, but he returned in an agony of dread to find that Ronicky Doone was still running here and there, in a blind confusion, probing the shadowy corners of the yard in search of the girl.
“Come off, you wild man,” said Jerry. “They’ll be on our heels any minute —they may be waiting for us now, down the alley—come off, idiot, quick!”
“If I thought they was a chance of finding her I’d stay,” declared Ronicky, shaking his head bitterly. “Whether you and me live, don’t count beside a girl like that. Getting soot on one tip of her finger might mean more’n whether you or me die.”
“Maybe, maybe,” said the other, “but answer that tomorrow; right now, let’s start to make sure of ourselves, and we can come back to find her later.”
Ronicky Doone, submitting partly to the force and partly to the persuasion of his friend, turned reluctantly and followed him down the alley.
22. MARK MAKES A MOVE
Passing hurriedly out of the cloakroom, a little later, Ruth met Simonds, the lieutenant of Frederic Fernand, in the passage. He was a ratfaced little man, with a furtive smile. Not an unpleasant smile, but it was continually coming and going, as if he wished earnestly to win the favor of the men before him, but greatly doubted his ability to do so. Ruth Tolliver, knowing his genius for the cards, knowing his cold and unscrupulous soul, detested him heartily.
When she saw his eyes flicker up and down the hall she hesitated. Obviously he wished to speak with her, and obviously he did not wish to be seen in the act. As she paused he stepped to her, his face suddenly set with determination.
“Watch John Mark,” he whispered. “Don’t trust him. He suspects everything!”
“What? Everything about what?” she asked.
Simonds gazed at her for a moment with a singular expression. There were conjoined cynicism, admiration, doubt, and fear in his glance. But, instead of speaking again, he bowed and slipped away into the open hall.
She heard him call, and she heard Fernand’s oily voice make answer. And at that she shivered.
What had Simonds guessed? How, under heaven, did he know where she had gone when she left the gaming house? Or did he know? Had he not merely guessed? Perhaps he had been set on by Fernand or Mark to entangle and confuse her?
There remained, out of all this confusion of guesswork, a grim feeling that Simonds did indeed know, and that, for the first time in his life, perhaps, he was doing an unbought, a purely generous thing.
She remembered, now, how often Simonds had followed her with his eyes, how often his face had lighted when she spoke even casually to him. Yes, there might be a reason for Simonds’ generosity. But that implied that he knew fairly well what John Mark himself half guessed. The thought that she was under the suspicion of Mark himself was terrible to her.
She drew a long breath and advanced courageously into the gaming rooms.
The first thing she saw was Fernand hurrying a late comer toward the tables, laughing and chatting as he went. She shuddered at the sight of him. It was strange that he, who had, a moment before, in the very cellar of that house, been working to bring about the death of two men, should now be immaculate, self-possessed.
A step farther and she saw John Mark sitting at a console table, with his back to the room and a cup of tea before him. That was, in fact, his favorite drink at all hours of the day or night. To see Fernand was bad enough, but to see the master mind of all the evil that passed around her was too much. The girl inwardly thanked Heaven that his back was turned and started to pass him as softly as possible.
“Just a minute, Ruth,” he called, as she was almost at the door of the room.
For a moment there was a frantic impulse in her to bolt like a foolish child afraid of the dark. In the next apartment were light and warmth and eager faces and smiles and laughter, and here, behind her, was the very spirit of darkness calling her back. After an imperceptible hesitation she turned.
Mark had not turned in his chair, but it was easy to discover how he had known of her passing. A small oval mirror, fixed against the wall before him, had shown her image. How much had it betrayed, she wondered, of her guiltily stealthy pace? She went to him and found that he was leisurely and openly examining her in the glass, as she approached, his chin resting on one hand, his thin face perfectly calm, his eyes hazy with content. It was a habit of his to regard her like a picture, but she had never become used to it; she was always disconcerted by it, as she was at this moment.
He rose, of course, when she was beside him, and asked her to sit down.
“But I’ve hardly touched a card,” she said. “This isn’t very professional, you know, wasting a whole evening.”
She was astonished to see him flush to the roots of his hair. His voice shook. “Sit down, please.”
She obeyed, positively inert with surprise.
“Do you think I keep you at this detestable business because I want the money?” he asked. “Dear Heaven! Ruth, is that what you think of me?” Fortunately, before she could