"What does it all mean?" asked the dazed followers of Al Jenkins, gaping after Ronicky and his men, as the wild riders plunged down the slope toward the house again.
"It means," said Al Jenkins savagely, "that I've been beat at the last minute by a kid half my age. It means that I've been a blockhead and fool not to jump Bennett a week ago when I had him down and out. I've waited too long. I've tried to give him a sporting chance to fight for his life, and now I'm dynamited by this man of powder and lightning! Look at him go!"
There was a gloomy admiration mingled with his anger, as he saw Ronicky dart out to the head of his men, the beautiful bay mare running smoothly as flowing water.
"And now maybe it'll take me another year of waiting till I get Bennett rounded up."
As for Ronicky Doone, riding at the head of his little band, he felt singing and laughter overflowing in his heart. Truly the story of these past six days had been a crowded narrative, and now he was coming to the reward of honest labor, and that reward was sweet in the prospect. He could go to Elsie Bennett and say to her:
"Here is your father preserved, your ranch retained, and all is well for a little longer. The great Al Jenkins has been foiled!" What would she say in reply? He did not guess; that part was a happy blur.
Just as evening fell, he and his men hurried up the trail toward the Bennett place.
"That pile of wood was to make the smoke that was to start the drive," Ronicky declared confidently to the outlaws. "And as long as we don't see that behind us, we're safe enough, and there's no big cause for hurry. He won't try anything to-day. And if he does, there'll be a fight. I guess you boys ain't unwilling?"
They grinned broadly at the thought Unwilling? Unwilling to take part in a fight in which they would not have the banded powers of the law against them, but in which they would be defending a man's legal rights against the aggressions of another? Such a battle would be after their inmost wishes.
Above all they were delighted by the thought that they were fighting the battle of their leader, and that while he lay helpless in Twin Springs, feeling that all of his work in the name of Bennett had been in vain, they, his men from Mount Solomon, were fighting his fight unknown to him.
"But what beats me," said the tall man who was usually known as "Bud," though "Skinny" was also a favorite name, "what beats me is that Kit should waste so much time over a girl like Elsie Bennett I dunno how his mind works. Or maybe he's getting reformed!"
"Why not?" asked Ronicky. "Why shouldn't he reform and settle down and marry? He's not known in this part of the country. Matter of fact, his face doesn't seem to be well known in any part!"
But Skinny merely shook his head.
"Sure," he said. "It would be all fine for Blondy to settle down with a wife. But in the first place he ain't the kind that settles down."
"How do you know?" interrupted Ronicky. "She's pretty enough to tame wilder men than Christopher ever was!"
"Is she? I dunno but what she is," said Skinny. Here he paused and looked around so as to bring all eyes upon him. And since they were walking their horses up a steep grade and had plenty of leisure to make their observations, they turned readily to the speaker.
"I dunno but what she is pretty enough to tame wilder men than Kit, but the point is that he don't stay tamed very long."
"How do you know?" asked Ronicky, an ugly suspicion beginning to grow in his mind, as he watched the face of the tall man.
"I'll tell you why," said Skinny. "I know because I know that he's already tried this settling-down idea!"
This announcement brought an incredulous roar from the others. What, Christopher married? They could not and would not believe it. But Bud persisted.
It was a full year and a half before, he said, that he and Christopher had been working on a "job" together, and that during their adventure they had encountered a pretty black-eyed girl who made a complete conquest of Blondy. Twelve hours after they met they were married, and he, Skinny, was the witness to the ceremony.
He told the story with so many details that there was no doubting him. He would not have had the imagination to furnish forth the story so completely.
As for Ronicky Doone, while the band of outlaws exclaimed, he was silent, stunned, and thoughtful. Yet it seemed to him that only a kindly Fate had revealed these tidings to him through the lips of Skinny. And a hope, which he had carefully stifled, burst into a blaze of joyous strength.
But what had been the purpose of Blondy Christopher, as it was revealed by the information which Skinny had just given them? Did Blondy really have a big and generous heart? Had the beauty of the girl simply worked upon him like water on a sandy soil and brought forth a surprising fruit? Had his months of labor at the Bennett place been only to help Elsie Bennett by helping her father?
It was a fine thing to think about, but another grim doubt arose in the heart of Ronicky, and he shook his head at the prospect He could not help doubting the existence of such altruistic virtues in the heart of the big man. What should he do next, therefore, in the light of all that he had heard? He must get to the girl at once and watch over her and keep her safe!
There would be only a brief stay on the Bennett ranch. But here he was abruptly recalled to the way and to the story of Skinny, which had been proceeding all the time, but to which his own thoughts had strongly deafened him.
"And when I got the letter from her," Skinny was saying, "I didn't know what to do. I didn't feel like riding two hundred miles so's a girl could cry on my shoulder and ask me to bring her husband back to her. If Kit was tired of her, that was Kit's business. But after a while I couldn't help remembering her happy face, when she stood up beside Kit and married him and swore she'd stay by him, and he swore he'd stay by her! I got to thinking about that so much that finally I couldn't stand it no longer. And that's why I lit out a couple of weeks ago. I went right down to see Ruth. And what d'you think she done when she seen me? She led me into the next room and showed me a baby asleep in a cradle. And there she picks it up and starts crying over it and telling me how bad she and the baby need Kit.
"It sure put a dent in me to hear the way she went on about it. I done what I could for her, and I promised that I'd sure enough get Kit back to her. So then I hotfooted it back here, but when I landed yesterday I heard all this yarn about Kit being laid up with a slug through the middle of things. Then I started to thinking. I'd sworn to Kit that I'd never tell a soul about him being married, but I figure that the best thing for all the three of them is to tell what I know, so that Kit'll be shamed into going back and taking care of the two of them. The girl would sure do her best to make him happy, and if he's any kind of a man he'd ought to be happy to have a Charlie junior hanging around his house. Am I right, boys?"
They replied with great vehemence that he was, and then a moment of damning silence held the group. Plainly they did not think many favorable things about the conduct of Kit in this affair, and if he had been there he might have learned various strongly worded opinions at first hand.
"It's plumb bad," said the man in the red shirt. "This is something that Kit'll have to fight hard to live down. I never guessed anything as black as this about him!"
And that was the concensus of opinion, as they rattled into the open space beside the Bennett house. Their shout brought a slow opening of the door, and then a shrill cry of joy, as old Bennett cast the door wide and ran out to them.
"Ronicky Doone!" he cried. "You've come back after all! You've come back after all! And all these gentlemen ready to work for me? But not work first, lads! It's gun play that I'm needing! They're swarming yonder through the hills! I've gone up and seen 'em. I spotted three with my own eyes, and they got a lot more lying here and there. They got every man of mine off the ranch, and now they're ready for their drive."
He was close to an hysteria of excited joy; he began to stammer thanks, orders, prayers, but Ronicky Doone was giving quiet and efficient directions, sending off his warriors in three directions, two pairs and a group of three. It would go hard with any skulkers who encountered any of that array!
