But Andrew turned Sally and went around the bend; that old desire to
rush on the men and shoot them down, that same cold tingling of the
nerves, which he had felt when he faced the posse after the fall of Bill
Dozier, was on him again, and he had to fight it down. He mastered it,
and galloped with a heavy heart up the ravine and to the house of Pop.
The old man saw him; he called to Jud, and the two stood in front of the
door to admire the horseman and his horse. But Andrew flung himself out
of the saddle and came to them sadly. He told them what had happened,
the meeting, the recognition. There was only one thing to do--make up
the pack as soon as possible and leave the place. For they would know
where he had been hiding. Sally was famous all through the mountains;
she was known as Pop's outlaw horse, and the searchers would come
straight to his house.
Pop took the news philosophically, but Jud became a pitiful figure of
stone in his grief. He came to life again to help in the packing. They
worked swiftly, and Andrew began to ask the final questions about the
best and least-known trails over the mountains. Pop discouraged
the attempt.
"You seen what happened before," he said. "They'll have learned their
lesson from Hal Dozier. They'll take the telephone and rouse the towns
all along the mountains. In two hours, Andy, two hundred men will be
blocking every trail and closin' in on you."
And Andrew reluctantly admitted the truth of what he said. He resigned
himself gloomily to turning back onto the mountain desert, and now he
remembered the warning of failure which Henry Allister had given him. He
felt, indeed, that the great outlaw had simply allowed him to run on a
long rope, knowing that he must travel in a circle and eventually come
back to the band.
Now the pack was made--he saw Jud covertly tuck some little mementoes
into it--and he drew Pop aside and dropped a weight of gold coins into
his pocket.
"You tarnation scoundrel!" began Pop huskily.
"Hush," said Andrew, "or Jud will hear you and know that I've tried to
leave some money. You don't want to ruin me with Jud, do you?"
Pop was uneasy and uncertain.
"I've had your food these weeks and your care, Pop," said Andrew, "and
now I walk off with a saddle and a horse and an outfit all yours. It's
too much. I can't take charity. But suppose I accept it as a gift; I
leave you an exchange--a present for Jud that you can give him later on.
Is that fair?"
"Andy," said the old man, "you've double-crossed me, and you've got me
where I can't talk out before Jud. But I'll get even yet. Good-by, lad,
and put this one thing under your hat: It's the loneliness that's goin'
to be the hardest thing to fight, Andy. You'll get so tired of bein' by
yourself that you'll risk murder for the sake of a talk. But then hold
hard. Stay by yourself. Don't trust to nobody. And keep clear of towns.
Will you do that?"
"That's plain common sense, Pop."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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