The Man of the Forest
CHAPTER XXIII

“Listen!”

Anson whispered tensely. His poise was motionless, his eyes roved everywhere. He held up a shaking, bludgy finger, to command silence.

A third and stranger sound accompanied the low, weird moan of the wind, and the hollow mockery of the brook—and it seemed a barely perceptible, exquisitely delicate wail or whine. It filled in the lulls between the other sounds.

“If thet's some varmint he's close,” whispered Anson.

“But shore, it's far off,” said Wilson.

Shady Jones and Moze divided their opinions in the same way.

All breathed freer when the wail ceased, relaxing to their former lounging positions around the fire. An impenetrable wall of blackness circled the pale space lighted by the camp-fire; and this circle contained the dark, somber group of men in the center, the dying camp-fire, and a few spectral trunks of pines and the tethered horses on the outer edge. The horses scarcely moved from their tracks, and their erect, alert heads attested to their sensitiveness to the peculiarities of the night.

Then, at an unusually quiet lull the strange sound gradually arose to a wailing whine.

“It's thet crazy wench cryin',” declared the outlaw leader.

Apparently his allies accepted that statement with as much relief as they had expressed for the termination of the sound.

“Shore, thet must be it,” agreed Jim Wilson, gravely.

“We'll git a lot of sleep with thet gurl whinin' all night,” growled Shady Jones.

“She gives me the creeps,” said Moze.

Wilson got up to resume his pondering walk, head bent, hands behind his back, a grim, realistic figure of perturbation.

“Jim—set down. You make me nervous,” said Anson, irritably.

Wilson actually laughed, but low, as if to keep his strange mirth well confined.

“Snake, I'll bet you my hoss an' my gun ag'in' a biscuit thet in aboot six seconds more or less I'll be stampedin like them hosses.”

Anson's lean jaw dropped. The other two outlaws stared with round eyes. Wilson was not drunk, they evidently knew; but what he really was appeared a mystery.

“Jim Wilson, are you showin' yellow?” queried Anson, hoarsely.

“Mebbe. The Lord only knows. But listen heah.... Snake, you've seen an' heard people croak?”

“You mean cash in—die?”

“Shore.”

“Wal, yes—a couple or so,” replied Anson, grimly.

“But you never seen no one die of shock—of an orful scare?”

“No, I reckon I never did.”

“I have. An' thet's what's ailin' Jim Wilson,” and he resumed his dogged steps.

Anson and his two comrades exchanged bewildered glances with one another.

“A-huh! Say, what's thet got to do with us hyar? asked Anson, presently.

“Thet gurl is dyin'!” retorted Wilson, in a voice cracking like a whip.

The three outlaws stiffened in their seats, incredulous, yet irresistibly swayed by emotions that stirred to this dark, lonely, ill-omened hour.

Wilson trudged to the edge of the lighted circle, muttering to himself, and came back again; then he trudged farther, this time almost out of sight, but only to return; the third time he vanished in the impenetrable wall of light. The three men scarcely moved a muscle as they watched the place where he had disappeared. In a few moments he came stumbling back.

“Shore she's almost gone,” he said, dismally. “It took my nerve, but I felt of her face.... Thet orful wail is her breath chokin' in her throat.... Like a death-rattle, only long instead of short.”

“Wal, if she's gotta croak it's good she gits it over quick,” replied Anson. “I 'ain't hed sleep fer three nights. ... An' what I need is whisky.”

“Snake, thet's gospel you're spoutin',” remarked Shady Jones, morosely.

The direction of sound in the glen was difficult to be assured of, but any man not stirred to a high pitch of excitement could have told that the difference in volume of this strange wail must have been caused by different distances and positions. Also, when it was loudest, it was most like a whine. But these outlaws heard with their consciences.

At last it ceased abruptly.

Wilson again left the group to be swallowed up by the night. His absence was longer than usual, but he returned hurriedly.

“She's daid!” he exclaimed, solemnly. “Thet innocent kid—who never harmed no one—an' who'd make any man better fer seein' her—she's daid!... Anson, you've shore a heap to answer fer when your time comes.”

“What's eatin' you?” demanded the leader, angrily. “Her blood ain't on my hands.”

“It shore is,” shouted Wilson, shaking his hand at Anson. “An' you'll hev to take your medicine. I felt thet comin' all along. An' I feel some more.”

“Aw! She's jest gone to sleep,” declared Anson, shaking his long frame as he rose. “Gimme a light.”

“Boss, you're plumb off to go near a dead gurl thet's jest died crazy,” protested Shady Jones.

“Off! Haw! Haw! Who ain't off in this outfit, I'd like to know?” Anson possessed himself of a stick blazing at one and, and with this he stalked off toward the lean-to where the girl was supposed to be dead. His gaunt figure, lighted by the torch, certainly fitted the weird, black surroundings. And it was seen that once near the girl's shelter he proceeded more slowly, until he halted. He bent to peer inside.

“SHE'S GONE!” he yelled, in harsh, shaken accents.

Than the torch burned out, leaving only a red glow. He whirled it about, but the blaze did not rekindle. His comrades, peering intently, lost sight of his tall form and the end of the red-ended stick. Darkness like pitch swallowed him. For a moment no sound intervened. Again the moan of wind, the strange little mocking hollow roar, dominated the place. Then there came a rush of something, perhaps of air, like the soft swishing of spruce branches swinging aside. Dull, thudding footsteps followed it. Anson came running back to the fire. His aspect was wild, his face pale, his eyes were fierce and starting from their sockets. He had drawn his gun.

“Did—ye—see er hear—anythin'?” he panted, peering back, then all around, and at last at his man.

“No. An' I shore was lookin' an' listenin',” replied Wilson.

“Boss, there wasn't nothin',” declared Moze.

“I ain't so sartin,” said Shady Jones, with doubtful, staring eyes. “I believe I heerd a rustlin'.”

“She wasn't there!” ejaculated Anson, in wondering awe. “She's gone!... My torch went out. I couldn't see. An' jest then I felt somethin' was passin'. Fast! I jerked 'round. All was black, an' yet if I didn't see a big gray streak I'm crazier 'n thet gurl. But I couldn't swear to anythin' but a rushin' of wind. I felt thet.”

“Gone!” exclaimed Wilson, in great alarm. “Fellars, if thet's so, then mebbe she wasn't daid an' she wandered off. ... But she was daid! Her heart hed quit beatin'. I'll swear to thet.”

“I move to break camp,” said Shady Jones, gruffly, and he stood up. Moze seconded that move by an expressive flash of his black visage.

“Jim, if she's dead—an' gone—what 'n hell's come off?” huskily asked Anson. “It, only seems thet way. We're all worked up.... Let's talk sense.”

“Anson, shore there's a heap you an' me don't know,” replied Wilson. “The world come to an end once. Wal, it can come to another end.... I tell you I ain't surprised—”

“THAR!” cried Anson, whirling, with his gun leaping out.

Something huge, shadowy, gray against the black rushed behind the men and trees; and following it came a perceptible acceleration of the air.

“Shore, Snake, there wasn't nothin',” said Wilson, “presently.”

“I heerd,” whispered Shady Jones.

“It was only a breeze blowin' thet smoke,” rejoined Moze.

“I'd bet my soul somethin' went back of me,” declared Anson, glaring into the void.

“Listen an' let's make shore,” suggested Wilson.

The guilty, agitated faces of the outlaws showed plain enough in the flickering light for each to see a convicting dread in his fellow. Like statues they stood, watching and listening.

Few sounds stirred in the strange silence. Now and then the horses heaved heavily, but stood still; a dismal, dreary note of the wind in the pines vied with a hollow laugh of the brook. And these low sounds only fastened attention upon the quality of the silence. A breathing, lonely spirit of solitude permeated the black dell. Like a pit of unplumbed depths the dark night yawned. An evil conscience, listening there, could have heard the most peaceful, beautiful, and mournful sounds of nature only as strains of a calling hell.

Suddenly the silent, oppressive, surcharged air split to a short, piercing scream.

Anson's big horse stood up straight, pawing the air, and came down with a crash. The other horses shook with terror.

“Wasn't—thet—a cougar?” whispered Anson, thickly.

“Thet was a woman's scream,” replied Wilson, and he appeared to be shaking like a leaf in the wind.

“Then—I figgered right—the kid's alive—wonderin' around—an' she let out thet orful scream,” said Anson.

“Wonderin' 'round, yes—but she's daid!”

“My Gawd! it ain't possible!”

“Wal, if she ain't wonderin' round daid she's almost daid,” replied Wilson. And he began to whisper to himself.

“If I'd only knowed what thet deal meant I'd hev plugged Beasley instead of listenin'.... An' I ought to hev knocked thet kid on the head an' made sartin she'd croaked. If she goes screamin' 'round thet way—”

His voice failed as there rose a thin, splitting, high-pointed shriek, somewhat resembling the first scream, only less wild. It came apparently from the cliff.

From another point in the pitch-black glen rose the wailing, terrible cry of a woman in agony. Wild, haunting, mournful wail!

Anson's horse, loosing the halter, plunged back, almost falling over a slight depression in the rocky ground. The outlaw caught him and dragged him nearer the fire. The other horses stood shaking and straining. Moze ran between them and held them. Shady Jones threw green brush on the fire. With sputter and crackle a blaze started, showing Wilson standing tragically, his arms out, facing the black shadows.

The strange, live shriek was not repeated. But the cry, like that of a woman in her death-throes, pierced the silence again. It left a quivering ring that softly died away. Then the stillness clamped down once more and the darkness seemed to thicken. The men waited, and when they had begun to relax the cry burst out appallingly close, right behind the trees. It was human—the personification of pain and terror—the tremendous struggle of precious life against horrible death. So pure, so exquisite, so wonderful was the cry that the listeners writhed as if they saw an innocent, tender, beautiful girl torn frightfully before their eyes. It was full of suspense; it thrilled for death; its marvelous potency was the wild note—that beautiful and ghastly note of self-preservation.

In sheer desperation the outlaw leader fired his gun at the black wall whence the cry came. Then he had to fight his horse to keep him from plunging away. Following the shot was an interval of silence; the horses became tractable; the men gathered closer to the fire, with the halters still held firmly.

“If it was a cougar—thet 'd scare him off,” said Anson.

“Shore, but it ain't a cougar,” replied Wilson. “Wait an' see!”

They all waited, listening with ears turned to different points, eyes roving everywhere, afraid of their very shadows. Once more the moan of wind, the mockery of brook, deep gurgle, laugh and babble, dominated the silence of the glen.

“Boss, let's shake this spooky hole,” whispered Moze.

The suggestion attracted Anson, and he pondered it while slowly shaking his head.

“We've only three hosses. An' mine 'll take ridin'—after them squalls,” replied the leader. “We've got packs, too. An' hell 'ain't nothin' on this place fer bein' dark.”

“No matter. Let's go. I'll walk an' lead the way,” said Moze, eagerly. “I got sharp eyes. You fellars can ride an' carry a pack. We'll git out of here an' come back in daylight fer the rest of the outfit.”

“Anson, I'm keen fer thet myself,” declared Shady Jones.

“Jim, what d'ye say to thet?” queried Anson. “Rustlin' out of this black hole?”

“Shore it's a grand idee,” agreed Wilson.

“Thet was a cougar,” avowed Anson, gathering courage as the silence remained unbroken. “But jest the same it was as tough on me as if it hed been a woman screamin' over a blade twistin' in her gizzards.”

“Snake, shore you seen a woman heah lately?” deliberately asked Wilson.

“Reckon I did. Thet kid,” replied Anson, dubiously.

“Wal, you seen her go crazy, didn't you?”

“Yes.”

“'An' she wasn't heah when you went huntin' fer her?”

“Correct.”

“Wal, if thet's so, what do you want to blab about cougars for?”

Wilson's argument seemed incontestable. Shady and Moze nodded gloomily and shifted restlessly from foot to foot. Anson dropped his head.

“No matter—if we only don't hear—” he began, suddenly to grow mute.

Right upon them, from some place, just out the circle of light, rose a scream, by reason of its proximity the most piercing and agonizing yet heard, simply petrifying the group until the peal passed. Anson's huge horse reared, and with a snort of terror lunged in tremendous leap, straight out. He struck Anson with thudding impact, knocking him over the rocks into the depression back of the camp-fire, and plunging after him. Wilson had made a flying leap just in time to avoid being struck, and he turned to see Anson go down. There came a crash, a groan, and then the strike and pound of hoofs as the horse struggled up. Apparently he had rolled over his master.

“Help, fellars!” yelled Wilson, quick to leap down over the little bank, and in the dim light to grasp the halter. The three men dragged the horse out and securely tied him close to a tree. That done, they peered down into the depression. Anson's form could just barely be distinguished in the gloom. He lay stretched out. Another groan escaped him.

“Shore I'm scared he's hurt,” said Wilson.

“Hoss rolled right on top of him. An' thet hoss's heavy,” declared Moze.

They got down and knelt beside their leader. In the darkness his face looked dull gray. His breathing was not right.

“Snake, old man, you ain't—hurt?” asked Wilson, with a tremor in his voice. Receiving no reply, he said to his comrades, “Lay hold an' we'll heft him up where we can see.”

The three men carefully lifted Anson up on the bank and laid him near the fire in the light. Anson was conscious. His face was ghastly. Blood showed on his lips.

Wilson knelt beside him. The other outlaws stood up, and with one dark gaze at one another damned Anson's chance of life. And on the instant rose that terrible distressing scream of acute agony—like that of a woman being dismembered. Shady Jones whispered something to Moze. Then they stood up, gazing down at their fallen leader.

“Tell me where you're hurt?” asked Wilson.

“He—smashed—my chest,” said Anson, in a broken, strangled whisper.

Wilson's deft hands opened the outlaw's shirt and felt of his chest.

“No. Shore your breast-bone ain't smashed,” replied Wilson, hopefully. And he began to run his hand around one side of Anson's body and then the other. Abruptly he stopped, averted his gaze, then slowly ran the hand all along that side. Anson's ribs had been broken and crushed in by the weight of the horse. He was bleeding at the mouth, and his slow, painful expulsions of breath brought a bloody froth, which showed that the broken bones had penetrated the lungs. An injury sooner or later fatal!

“Pard, you busted a rib or two,” said Wilson.

“Aw, Jim—it must be—wuss 'n thet!” he whispered. “I'm—in orful—pain. An' I can't—git any—breath.”

“Mebbe you'll be better,” said Wilson, with a cheerfulness his face belied.

Moze bent close over Anson, took a short scrutiny of that ghastly face, at the blood-stained lips, and the lean hands plucking at nothing. Then he jerked erect.

“Shady, he's goin' to cash. Let's clear out of this.”

“I'm yours pertickler previous,” replied Jones.

Both turned away. They untied the two horses and led them up to where the saddles lay. Swiftly the blankets went on, swiftly the saddles swung up, swiftly the cinches snapped. Anson lay gazing up at Wilson, comprehending this move. And Wilson stood strangely grim and silent, somehow detached coldly from that self of the past few hours.

“Shady, you grab some bread an' I'll pack a bunk of meat,” said Moze. Both men came near the fire, into the light, within ten feet of where the leader lay.

“Fellars—you ain't—slopin'?” he whispered, in husky amaze.

“Boss, we air thet same. We can't do you no good an' this hole ain't healthy,” replied Moze.

Shady Jones swung himself astride his horse, all about him sharp, eager, strung.

“Moze, I'll tote the grub an' you lead out of hyar, till we git past the wust timber,” he said.

“Aw, Moze—you wouldn't leave—Jim hyar—alone,” implored Anson.

“Jim can stay till he rots,” retorted Moze. “I've hed enough of this hole.”

“But, Moze—it ain't square—” panted Anson. “Jim wouldn't—leave me. I'd stick—by you.... I'll make it—all up to you.”

“Snake, you're goin' to cash,” sardonically returned Moze.

A current leaped all through Anson's stretched frame. His ghastly face blazed. That was the great and the terrible moment which for long had been in abeyance. Wilson had known grimly that it would come, by one means or another. Anson had doggedly and faithfully struggled against the tide of fatal issues. Moze and Shady Jones, deep locked in their self-centered motives, had not realized the inevitable trend of their dark lives.

Anson, prostrate as he was, swiftly drew his gun and shot Moze. Without sound or movement of hand Moze fell. Then the plunge of Shady's horse caused Anson's second shot to miss. A quick third shot brought no apparent result but Shady's cursing resort to his own weapon. He tried to aim from his plunging horse. His bullets spattered dust and gravel over Anson. Then Wilson's long arm stretched and his heavy gun banged. Shady collapsed in the saddle, and the frightened horse, throwing him, plunged out of the circle of light. Thudding hoofs, crashings of brush, quickly ceased.

“Jim—did you—git him?” whispered Anson.

“Shore did, Snake,” was the slow, halting response. Jim Wilson must have sustained a sick shudder as he replied. Sheathing his gun, he folded a blanket and put it under Anson's head.

“Jim—my feet—air orful cold,” whispered Anson.

“Wal, it's gittin' chilly,” replied Wilson, and, taking a second blanket, he laid that over Anson's limbs. “Snake, I'm feared Shady hit you once.”

“A-huh! But not so I'd care—much—if I hed—no wuss hurt.”

“You lay still now. Reckon Shady's hoss stopped out heah a ways. An' I'll see.”

“Jim—I 'ain't heerd—thet scream fer—a little.”

“Shore it's gone.... Reckon now thet was a cougar.”

“I knowed it!”

Wilson stalked away into the darkness. That inky wall did not seem so impenetrable and black after he had gotten out of the circle of light. He proceeded carefully and did not make any missteps. He groped from tree to tree toward the cliff and presently brought up against a huge flat rock as high as his head. Here the darkness was blackest, yet he was able to see a light form on the rock.

“Miss, are you there—all right?” he called, softly.

“Yes, but I'm scared to death,” she whispered in reply.

“Shore it wound up sudden. Come now. I reckon your trouble's over.”

He helped her off the rock, and, finding her unsteady on her feet, he supported her with one arm and held the other out in front of him to feel for objects. Foot by foot they worked out from under the dense shadow of the cliff, following the course of the little brook. It babbled and gurgled, and almost drowned the low whistle Wilson sent out. The girl dragged heavily upon him now, evidently weakening. At length he reached the little open patch at the head of the ravine. Halting here, he whistled. An answer came from somewhere behind him and to the right. Wilson waited, with the girl hanging on his arm.

“Dale's heah,” he said. “An' don't you keel over now—after all the nerve you hed.”

A swishing of brush, a step, a soft, padded footfall; a looming, dark figure, and a long, low gray shape, stealthily moving—it was the last of these that made Wilson jump.

“Wilson!” came Dale's subdued voice.

“Heah. I've got her, Dale. Safe an sound,” replied Wilson, stepping toward the tall form. And he put the drooping girl into Dale's arms.

“Bo! Bo! You're all right?” Dale's deep voice was tremulous.

She roused up to seize him and to utter little cries of joy

“Oh, Dale!... Oh, thank Heaven! I'm ready to drop now.... Hasn't it been a night—an adventure?... I'm well—safe—sound.... Dale, we owe it to this Jim Wilson.”

“Bo, I—we'll all thank him—all our lives,” replied Dale. “Wilson, you're a man!... If you'll shake that gang—”

“Dale, shore there ain't much of a gang left, onless you let Burt git away,” replied Wilson.

“I didn't kill him—or hurt him. But I scared him so I'll bet he's runnin' yet.... Wilson, did all the shootin' mean a fight?”

“Tolerable.”

“Oh, Dale, it was terrible! I saw it all. I—”

“Wal, Miss, you can tell him after I go.... I'm wishin' you good luck.”

His voice was a cool, easy drawl, slightly tremulous.

The girl's face flashed white in the gloom. She pressed against the outlaw—wrung his hands.

“Heaven help you, Jim Wilson! You ARE from Texas!... I'll remember you—pray for you all my life!”

Wilson moved away, out toward the pale glow of light under the black pines.

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