The Coyote Part 22

"Yes?" asked Rathburn calmly.

"I'm going to hire, or, rather, I'm going to _try_ to hire a man I believe is just as tough, just as clever, just as quick with his gun as the men who've been robbing the Dixie Queen. I'm going to hire him to carry the money to the mine!"

"So _that's_ why you got me out of jail," said Rathburn, drawing the inevitable tobacco and papers from his shirt pocket.

"Yes!" whispered Sautee eagerly. "I want you for the job!"

"You ain't forgetting that I was suspected of that last job, are you?

That's why I went to jail, I reckon."

"You didn't have to go to jail unless you wanted to. You didn't have to stop in this town and invite arrest. Mannix let you go up there yesterday because he felt sure he could get you when he wanted you again, and he figured you'd make some break that would give him a clew to your pals, if you had any. You went to jail because you knew he didn't have anything on you."

Sautee grinned in triumph.

"How do you know I won't beat it with the money?" asked Rathburn.

"I don't," said Sautee quickly. "But I'm taking a chance on it that you won't. I don't care who you are, what you are now, or what you've been; I don't care if you're an outlaw! I figure, Rathburn, that if I come out square and trust you with this mission and depend upon you to carry it out, that you'll play square with me. That's what I'm banking on--your own sense of squareness. You've got it, for I can see it in your eyes."

"Who's Carlisle?" Rathburn asked dryly.

Sautee frowned. "He's a--well, I guess you'd call him a sort of adventurer. I knew him down in Arizona. He follows the camps when they're good, and this one happens to be good right now, for we're improving the property. That's how he happened to come up here about a year ago. Then, when the first robbery occurred, I engaged him as a sort of special agent. He didn't make any progress, so I let him go.

Since then he's been out and in, gambling, prospecting, anything--he's a fast man with his gun, and he has some claims here which he is developing on a small scale and trying to sell."

Rathburn nodded but made no comment.

"Will you take the job?" Sautee asked anxiously.

"What do you want me to do?"

"I want you to carry a sum of money to the mine. I'm not going to tell you how much, but it will be considerable. The money which was stolen yesterday was for the pay-off to-day. I've got to get the cash for the men up there quick. They all know about the holdup, so there's no grumbling--yet. But there will be if they don't have their money pretty quick. We want to pay off to-morrow. I could go with a guard, but to tell you the truth, Rathburn, it's got to a point where I can't trust a soul."

"Why not Mannix?" asked Rathburn sharply.

Sautee shook his head; his beady, black eyes glowed, and he stroked his chin.

"There's another sorrowful point," he explained. "I tell you we're up against it here, Rathburn. The Dixie Queen people and most of the other mines are fighting the present county administration as a matter of policy. They want certain changes, and--well, keep this to yourself--privileges. Mannix has been instructed by the sheriff of this county that he is not here to act as a guard for the Dixie Queen. See?"

Rathburn frowned and built another cigarette.

"If you'll carry this package of money up to the Dixie Queen for me, Rathburn, I'll pay you five hundred dollars. Then, if you want to stay and act as our messenger right along, we'll make a deal. But I'd like to have you do this this time--make this one trip, anyway, I mean.

They may try to stop you. If they do I don't believe they can get away with it. I'm banking on your ability to get through, and I think the proposition will appeal to you in a sporting way if for no other reason. Will you do it?" Sautee's eyes were eager.

"Yes," said Rathburn shortly, tossing away his cigarette.

Sautee held out his hand. "Go to the hotel and engage a room," he instructed. "Be in your room at nine o'clock to-night. Do not tell any one of our deal. I'll get your room number from the register. I'll bring the package of money to you between nine o'clock and midnight.

Now, Rathburn, maybe I'm mistaken in you; but I go a whole lot by what I see in a man's eyes. You may have a hard record, but I'm staking my faith in men on you!"

"I'll be there," Rathburn promised.

He left Sautee at the entrance to the restaurant and strolled around the hotel barn to see that his horse was being taken care of properly.

He found that the barn man was indeed looking after the dun in excellent shape. Rathburn spent a short time with his mount, petting him and rubbing his glossy coat with his hands. Then he took his slicker pack and started for the hotel.

As he reached the street he saw a girl on a horse talking with a man on the sidewalk. The girl was leaning over, and the man evidently was delivering a harangue. He was gesticulating wildly, and Rathburn could see that the girl was cowering. He paused on the hotel porch as the man stepped away from the horse and looked his way. He recognized Carlisle.

Then the girl rode down the street and Rathburn started with surprise as he saw she was the girl from the cabin up the road who had directed him to town the day before. He remembered the two objects he had picked up in the road after the holdup and felt in his pocket to make sure they were there. Then he entered the hotel.

"Have you a room?" he asked the clerk pleasantly.

"Yes. More rooms than anything else to-day since the Sunday crowd's gone."

Rathburn wrote his name upon the register.

CHAPTER XVIII

IN THE NIGHT

Rathburn avoided the Red Feather resort during the morning. Instead of walking about the streets or sitting in the hotel lobby or his room, he cultivated the acquaintance of the barn man, and because he knew horses--_all_ about horses--he soon had the man's attention and respect.

Although Rathburn suspected that he already had a reputation in the town, he did not know that Carlisle was steadily adding to that reputation through the medium of veiled hints dropped here and there until a majority of the population was convinced that a desperate man was in their midst, and that Mannix had permitted him to go free for certain secret reasons.

Thus a web of mystery and suspicion was cleverly woven about Rathburn's movements.

It was not until afternoon, however, that Rathburn began to realize on his intimacy with the barn man. Then they began to talk of trails, and for more than an hour the barn man, caught in the spell of Rathburn's personality, divulged the secret of the trails leading to and from the Dixie Queen.

"The best trail, an' the straightest, if you should ever want to go up there an' look at the mine like you say," said the barn man, "hits into the timber behind the first cabin to the left above town."

Rathburn nodded smilingly. It was the cabin where he had first seen the girl.

"It's 'bout twenty-nine miles to the mine by the road," the man explained; "but that trail will take you there in less'n twenty. Well, maybe twenty or twenty-one. Or you can go up the road till you get to the big hogback--that's where they held up the truck driver yesterday--and cut straight up the hill from the south end."

"I guess those are the best trails from what you say," was Rathburn's yawning comment.

"Them's the best," the other added. "There's another trail going out below town that follows southeast along a big ridge, but that trail's as far as the road. When you goin' up?"

"I dunno," replied Rathburn noncommittally. "Say, I guess I know where that cabin is on the left side of the road going up. I stopped at a cabin up there coming down an' asked a gal how far it was to town----"

"That's it," said the barn man. "That's the one. Trail starts right back of that cabin."

Rathburn yawned again. "Smart-lookin' gal," he observed, digging for his tobacco and papers. "Who is she?"

"That's Joe Carlisle's sister. Anyway, he says she is. There's been some talk. Carlisle lives there when he ain't out in the hills or on a gamblin' trip to some other town."

"I see. Well, old-timer, I ain't hung on the feed bag since morning, an' I'm going on a still hunt for some grub."