The Cattle-Baron's Daughter Part 52

"No!" she said. "Back into the shadow of the trees!"

Larry, seeing the fear in her face, touched the horse with his heel, and wheeled it with its head towards the house. He could see the warm gleam from the windows between the birches. Then, he turned to the girl, who stood gasping at his stirrup.

"You sent for me, dear, and I have come. Can't you give me just a minute now?" he said.

"No," said Hetty breathlessly, "you must go. The Sheriff is here waiting for you!"

Larry laughed a little scornful laugh, and slackening the bridle, sat still, looking down on her very quietly.

"I don't understand," he said. "You sent for me!"

"No," the girl again gasped. "Oh, Larry, go away! Clavering and the others who are most bitter against you are in the house."

Instinctively Larry moved his hand on the rifle and glanced towards the building. He could see it dimly, but no sound from it reached him, and Hetty, looking up, saw his face grow stern.

"Still," he persisted, with a curious quietness, "somebody sent a note to me!"

"Yes," said Hetty, turning away from him, "it was my wicked maid.

Clavering laid the trap for you."

The man sat very still a moment, and then bent with a swift resoluteness towards his companion.

"And you came to warn me?" he said. "Hetty, dear, look up."

Hetty glanced at him and saw the glow in his eyes, but she clenched her hand, and would have struck the horse in an agony of fear if Larry had not touched him with his heel and swung a pace away from her.

"Oh," she gasped, "why will you waste time! Larry, they will kill you if they find you."

Once more the little scornful smile showed upon Grant's lips, but it vanished and Hetty saw only the light in his eyes.

"Listen a moment, dear," he said. "I have tried to do the square thing, but I think to-night's work relieves me of the obligation. Hetty, can't you see that your father would never give you to me, and you must choose between us sooner or later? I have waited a long while, and would try to wait longer if it would relieve you of the difficulty, but you will have to make the decision, and it can't be harder now than it would be in the future. Promise me you will go back to New York with Miss Schuyler, and stay with her until I come for you."

Hetty trembled visibly, and the moonlight showed the crimson in her cheeks; but she looked up at him bravely. "Larry," she said, "you are sure--quite sure--you want me, and will be kind to me?"

The man bent his head solemnly. "My dear, I have longed for you for eight weary years--and I think you could trust me."

"Then," and Hetty's voice was very uneven, though she still met his eyes.

"Larry, you can take me now."

Larry set his lips for a moment and his face showed curiously white.

"Think, my dear!" he said hoa.r.s.ely. "It would not be fair to you. Miss Schuyler will take you away in a week or two, and I will come for you. I dare not do anything you may be sorry for; and they may find you are not in the house. You must go home before my strength gives way."

The emotion she had struggled with swept Hetty away. "Go home!" she said pa.s.sionately. "They wanted to kill you--and I can never go back now. If I did, they would know I had warned you--and believe--Can't you understand, Larry?"

Then, the situation flashed upon Grant, and he recognized, as Hetty had done, that she had cast herself adrift when she left the house to warn him. He knew the cattle-baron's vindictiveness, and that his daughter had committed an offence he could not forgive. That left but one escape from the difficulty, and it was the one his own pa.s.sions, which he had striven to crush down, urged him to.

"Then," he said in a strained voice, "you must come with me. We can be married to-morrow."

Hetty held up her hands to him. "I am ready. Oh, be quick. They may come any minute!"

Larry swept his glance towards the house, and saw a shaft of radiance stream out as the great door opened. Then, he heard Flora Schuyler's voice, and, leaning downwards from the saddle, grasped both the girl's hands.

"Yes," he said, very quietly, "they are coming now. Spring when I lift you. Your foot on my foot--I have you!"

It was done. Hetty was active and slender, the man muscular, and both had been taught, not only to ride, but master the half-wild broncho by a superior daring and an equal agility, in a land where the horse is not infrequently roped and thrown before it is mounted. But Larry breathed hard as, with his arm about her waist, he held the girl in front of him, and felt her cheek hot against his lips. The next moment he pressed his heels home and the big horse swung forward under its double burden.

A shout rang out behind them, and there was a crackling in the bluff.

Then, a rifle flashed, and just as a cloud drove across the moon, another cry rose up:

"Quit firing. He has the girl with him!"

Larry fancied he could hear men floundering behind him amidst the trees, and a trampling of hoofs about the house, but as he listened another rifle flashed away to the right of them on the prairie, and a beat of hoofs followed it that for a moment puzzled him. He laughed huskily.

"Breckenridge! He'll draw them off," he said. "Hold fast! We have got to face the river."

It was very evident that he had not a second to lose. Mounted men were cras.h.i.+ng recklessly through the bluff and more of them riding at a gallop across the gra.s.sy slope; but the darkness hid them as it hid the fugitives, and the big horse held on, until there was a plunge and a splas.h.i.+ng, and they were in the river. Larry slipped from the saddle, and Hetty saw him floundering by the horse's head as she thrust her foot into the stirrup.

"Slack your bridle," he said sharply. "The beast will bring us through."

The command came when it was needed, for Hetty was almost dismayed, and its curtness was bracing. There was no moon now, but she could dimly see the white swirling of the flood, and the gurgling roar of it throbbed about her hoa.r.s.e and threatening, suggesting the perils the darkness hid.

Her light skirt trailed in the water, and a shock of icy cold ran through her as one shoe dipped under. Larry was on his feet yet, but there was a fierce white frothing about him, and when in another pace or two he slipped down she broke into a stifled scream. The next moment she saw his face again faintly white beneath her amidst the sliding foam, and fancied that he was swimming or being dragged along. The horse, she felt, had lost its footing, and had its head up stream. How long this lasted she did not know, but it seemed an interminable time, and the dull roar of the water grew louder and deafened her, while the blackness that closed in became insupportable.

"Larry!" she gasped. "Larry, are you there!"

A faintly heard voice made answer, and Grant appeared again, shoulder-deep in the flood, while the dipping and floundering of the beast beneath her showed that the hoofs had found uncertain hold; but that relief only lasted a moment, and they were once more sliding down-stream, until, when they swung round in an eddy, the head that showed now and then dimly beside her stirrup was lost altogether, and in an agony of terror the girl cried aloud.

There was no answer, but after a horrible moment or two had pa.s.sed a half-seen arm and shoulder rose out of the flood, and the sudden drag on the bridle that slipped from her fingers was very rea.s.suring. The horse plunged and floundered, and once more Hetty felt her dragging skirt was clear of the water.

"Through the worst!" a voice that reached her faintly said, and they were splas.h.i.+ng on again, the water growing shallower all the time until they scrambled out upon the opposite bank. Then, the man checking the horse, stood by her stirrup, pressing the water from the hem of her skirt, rubbing the little open shoe with his handkerchief, which was saturated.

Even in that hour of horror Hetty laughed.

"Larry," she said, "don't be ridiculous. You couldn't dry it that way in a week. Lift me down instead."

Larry held up his hands to her, for on that side of the river the slope to the level was steep, and when he swung her down the girl kissed him lightly on either cheek.

"That was because of what we have been through, dear," she said. "There was a horrible moment, when I could not see you anywhere."

She stopped and held up her hand as though listening, and Larry laughed softly as a faint drumming of hoofs came back to them through the roar of the flood.

"Breckenridge! He must have Muller or somebody with him, and they are chasing him," he said. "I didn't know he was following me, but he is gaining us valuable time, and we will push on again. Your friends will find out they are following the wrong man very soon, but we should get another horse at Muller's before they can ride round by the bridge."

They scrambled up the slope, and after Hetty mounted Larry ran with his hand on the stirrup for a while, until once more he made the staunch beast carry a double load. He was running again when they came clattering up to Muller's homestead and the fraulein, who was apparently alone, stared at them in astonishment when she opened the door. The water still dripped from Larry, and Hetty's light, bedraggled dress clung about her, while the moisture trickled from her little open-fronted shoes. She was hatless, and loosened wisps of dusky hair hung low about her face, which turned faintly crimson under the fraulein's gaze.

"Miss Torrance!" exclaimed the girl.

"Well," said Larry quietly, "she will be Mrs. Grant to-morrow if you will lend me a horse and not mention the fact that you have seen us when Torrance's boys come round. Where is your father?"

Miss Muller nodded with comprehending sympathy. "He two hours since with Mr. Breckenridge go," she said. "There is new horse in the stable, and you on the rack a saddle for lady find."