Deserts -- Fiction; Latter Day Saints -- Fiction; Utah -- Fiction; Western stories
“Cut him loose from the others,” said Hare. He scrutinized the line of
rustlers. Several were masked in black. “Take off those masks!”
“No! Those men go to their graves masked.” Again the strange twinge of
pain crossed John Caldwell's face.
“Ah, I see,” exclaimed Hare. Then quickly: “I couldn't recognize the
other man anyhow; I don't know him. But Mescal can tell. He saved her
and I'll save him. But how?”
Every rustler, except the masked ones standing stern and silent,
clamored that he was the one to be saved.
“Hurry back home,” said Caldwell in Hare's ear. “Tell them to fetch
Mescal. Find out and hurry back. Time presses. The Mormons are wavering.
You've got only a few minutes.”
Hare slipped out of the crowd, sped up the road, jumped the fence on the
run, and burst in upon the Bishop and his family.
“No danger--don't be alarmed--all's well,” he panted. “The rustlers are
captured. I want Mescal. Quick! Where is she? Fetch her, somebody.”
One of the women glided from the room. Hare caught the clicking of a
latch, the closing of a door, hollow footfalls descending on stone, and
dying away under the cottage. They rose again, ending in swiftly
pattering footsteps. Like a whirlwind Mescal came through the hall,
black hair flying, dark eyes beaming.
“My darling!” Oblivious of the Mormons he swung her up and held her in
his arms. “Mescal! Mescal!”
When he raised his face from the tumbling mass of her black hair, the
Bishop and his family had left the room.
“Listen, Mescal. Be calm. I'm safe. The rustlers are prisoners. One of
them released you from Holderness. Tell me which one?”
“I don't know,” replied Mescal. “I've tried to think. I didn't see his
face; I can't remember his voice.”
“Think! Think! He'll be hanged if you don't recall something to identify
him. He deserves a chance. Holderness's crowd are thieves, murderers.
But two were not all bad. That showed the night you were at Silver Cup.
I saved Nebraska--”
“Were you at Silver Cup? Jack!”
“Hush! don't interrupt me. We must save this man who saved you. Think!
Mescal! Think!”
“Oh! I can't. What--how shall I remember?”
“Something about him. Think of his coat, his sleeve. You must remember
something. Did you see his hands?”
“Yes, I did--when he was loosing the cords,” said Mescal, eagerly.
“Long, strong fingers. I felt them too. He has a sharp rough wart on one
hand, I don't know which. He wears a leather wristband.”
“That's enough!” Hare bounded out upon the garden walk and raced back to
the crowded square. The uneasy circle stirred and opened for him to
enter. He stumbled over a pile of lassoes which had not been there when
he left. The stony Mormons waited; the rustlers coughed and shifted
their feet. John Caldwell turned a gray face. Hare bent over the three
dead rustlers lying with Holderness, and after a moment of anxious
scrutiny he rose to confront the line of prisoners.
“Hold out your hands.”
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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