At Carey's downfall his men fled through the woods, pursued by several
of the Governor's party. Perky seized the rockets and touched one after
the other to the flames of the bonfire. The varicolored lights were
still bright in the sky when the answering signal rose from the bay.
"The tug's moving up," said Perky.
A thousand and one things flitted through Archie's mind. The Governor
had not opened his eyes; his breath came in gasps, at long, painful
intervals. To summon aid through the usual channels would be to invite a
scrutiny of their operations that could only lead to complications with
the law and a resulting publicity that was to be avoided at any hazard.
If a doctor were summoned from Calderville, he would in all likelihood
feel it to be his duty to report to the authorities the fact that he had
a wounded patient. It was hardly fair to call upon the young woman
physician at Heart o' Dreams, and yet this was the only safe move.
While Perky and Leary were fashioning a litter he knelt beside the
Governor, laving his face with water from the brook. He despatched two
messengers to Heart o' Dreams, one through the woods and the other in a
canoe.
They would make the crossing in Carey's launch, while the tug, now
showing its lights close inshore could be sent for the doctor. Two men
had already started for the beach with Carey bound and gagged and he was
to be kept on the tug until some way could be found of disposing of him.
"I'll stay behind; I gotta clean up here; you don't need to know nothin'
about it," said Leary gruffly.
One of Carey's men had been shot and instantly killed and another still
lay unconscious near the barricade from his battering on the head early
in the fight. Leary grimly declared that the others would not be likely
to talk of their night's adventure.
It had been a foolhardy undertaking, with potentialities of exposure and
danger that added fear to the grief in Archie's heart at the Governor's
fall. At best the thing was horrible, and but for the coolness with
which Leary and Perky were meeting the situation Archie would have been
for abandoning any attempt at secrecy.
"It was th' ole Governor's way o' doin' it," said Leary, as though
reading Archie's thoughts. "Ole Governor never made no mistakes. We
ain't agoin' to make no mistakes now, doin' what he tole us not to do.
I'll go back and bury that poor devil and cover up the place. I guess
he's luckier bein' dead anyhow. An' then I'll wake up that other cuss
an' get rid of 'im. All you gotta do is t' ferget about it and take care
o' ole Governor."
III
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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