What would happen if he appeared before Gallup in the dead of night in similar fashion? Gallup had paid Madeiras to murder him. Johnny cursed Gallup as he led his horse away from the ranch. “Reckon I’ll pay you a visit, Aaron,” he said to himself. “And right soon, too. I may be dead, but I’ll put the fear of hell into your miserable old carcass. You’ll be thinkin’ of somethin’ else besides who you are goin’ to marry.” Johnny’s one brief glance at Molly had shown him the girl tired, grief-stricken, hysterical. He wanted to tell her, now more than ever, that he lived; but to do so meant the loss of his best weapon against Kent and Gallup. Better for her to suffer now than to be forced into marrying Aaron Gallup. Thoughts of Crosbie Traynor came to Johnny as he rode along. What had old Thunder Bird found out? The chief would have something to say when next they met. “Strikes me we got quite a lot in common, Crosbie Traynor,” mused Johnny. “The world’s got both of us figured for dead. Only I’m alive to avenge myself.” CHAPTER XXII THE FACE IN THE WINDOW Johnny surprised Charlie Paul on the following day by telling him that they were going to Standing Rock. “Me still dead man,” the boy said in answer to the question in the Indian’s eyes. “We stop this side the Rock. Nobody there know I be in your camp. Mebbe so, come night time, we go into town, play ghost, mebbe scare some man, eh?” Charlie grinned and shook his head. “Ah, nah,” he said, “me no ghost.” “I be the ghost, Charlie,” Johnny told him. “Gallup paid Tony to git me. I’m goin’ to play dead now. You go down and git the horses. I be ready pretty quick.” This talk of ghosts was “bad medicine” in Charlie’s eyes, but he agreed, nevertheless, to do as the boy ordered. The two traveled far from any road, and so slow was their progress that night found them still some miles from town. Low hills came close to the northern limits of Standing Rock. The Indian knew a spot among them where he decided to camp. It was a little after nine o’clock before they reached it. “Leave our stuff here, Charlie,” Johnny advised. “We eat, then we go see Gallup.” The Indian answered with a shrug of his shoulders. He favored more direct action than this business of playing ghost. His way, under the circumstances, would have been to pot Aaron as he slept. Johnny thumbled his gun just as they were ready to leave. Charlie smiled at this. Maybe the night held something of interest, after all. “Ghost no have gun,” he laughed mockingly. “No,” Johnny chuckled. “All the same I take him. You watch sharp till we cross railroad.” He knew that once across the tracks they would be in little danger of being seen. Gallup’s house was one of the few on that side of the Espee main line.