In that log hut, hidden in the deep gorge, in the wild Cold Water country, Sibyl Andres sat before the dying fire, waiting for the dawn. On a high, wind-swept ledge in the Galena mountains, Aaron King grimly walked his weary beat. In Clear Creek Canyon, Myra Willard and Conrad Lagrange waited, and Brian Oakley planned for the morrow. Over in the Galena Valley, an automobile from Fairlands stopped at the mouth of a canyon leading toward Granite Peak. Somewhere, in the darkness of the night, a man strove to know right from wrong.
Chapter XXXVII
The Man Was Insane
Neither Sibyl Andres nor her companion, the next morning, reopened their conversation of the night before. Each was preoccupied and silent, with troubled thoughts that might not be spoken.
Often, as the forenoon passed, Sibyl saw the man listening, as though for a step on the mountainside above. She knew, without being told, that the convict was expecting his master. It was, perhaps, ten o'clock, when they heard a sound that told them some one was approaching.
The man caught up his rifle and slipped a round of cartridges into the magazine; saying to the girl, "Go into the cabin and bar the door; quick, do as I say! Don't come out until I call you."
She obeyed; and the convict, himself, rifle in hand, disappeared in the heavy underbrush.
A few minutes later, James Rutlidge parted the bushes and stepped into the little open space in front of the cabin. The convict reappeared, his rifle under his arm.
The new-comer greeted the man whom Sibyl knew as Henry Marston, with, "Hello, George, everything all right? Where is she?"
"Miss Andres is in the cabin. When I heard you coming, I asked her to go inside, and took cover in the brush, myself, until I knew for sure that it was you."
Rutlidge laughed. "You are all right, George. But you needn't worry.
Everything is as peaceful as a graveyard. They've found the horse, and they think now that the girl killed herself, or met with an accident while wandering around the hills in a state of mental aberration."
"You left the supplies at the same old place, I suppose?" said the convict.
"Yes, I brought what I could," Rutlidge indicated a pack which he had slipped from his shoulder as he was talking. "You better hike over there and bring in the rest to-night. If you leave at once, you will make it back by noon, to-morrow."
The girl in the cabin, listening, heard every word and trembled with fear.
The convict spoke again.
"What are your plans, Mr. Rutlidge?"
"Never mind my plans, now. They can wait until you get back. You must start at once. You say Miss Andres is in the cabin?" He turned toward the door.
But the other said, shortly, "Wait a minute, sir. I have a word to say, before I go."
"Well, out with it."
"You are not going to forget your promise to me?"
"Certainly not, George. You are safe."
"I mean regarding Miss Andres."
"Oh, of course not! Why, what's the matter?"
"Nothing, only she is in my care until she is your wife."
James Rutlidge laughed. "I will take good care of her until you get back.
You need have no fear. You're not doubting my word, are you?"
"If I doubted your word, I would take Miss Andres with me," answered the convict, simply.
James Rutlidge looked at him, curiously; "Oh, you would?"
"Yes, sir, I would; and I think I should tell you, too, that if you _should_ forget your promise--"
"Well, what would you do if I should forget?"
The answer came deliberately; "If you do not keep your promise I will kill you, Mr. Rutlidge."
James Rutlidge did not reply.
Stepping to the cabin door, the convict knocked.
Sibyl's voice answered, "Yes?"
"You may come out now, please, Miss Andres."
As the girl opened the door, she spoke to him in a low tone. "Thank you, Mr. Marston. I heard."
"I meant you to hear," he returned in a whisper. "Do not be afraid." In a louder tone he continued. "I must go for supplies, Miss Andres. I will be back to-morrow noon."
He stepped around the corner of the cabin, and was gone.
Sibyl Andres faced James Rutlidge, without speaking. She was not afraid, now, as she had always been in his presence, until that day when he had so plainly declared himself to her and she met his advances with a gun. The convict's warning to the man who could send him back to prison for practically the remaining years of his life, had served its purpose in giving her courage. She did not believe that, for the present, Rutlidge would dare to do otherwise than heed the warning.
[Illustration: Still she did not speak.]
James Rutlidge regarded her with a smile of triumphant satisfaction.
"Really," he said, at last, "you do not seem at all glad to see me."
She made no reply.
"I am frightfully hungry"--he continued, with a short laugh, moving toward her as she stood in the door of the cabin--"I've been walking since midnight I was in such a hurry to get here that I didn't even stop for breakfast."
She stepped out, and moved away from the door.
With another laugh, he entered the cabin.
Presently, when he had helped himself to food, he went back to the girl who had seated herself on a log, at the farther side of the little clearing. "You seem fairly comfortable here," he said.