Part 36 (1/2)
”Yup,” answered Zinn, as he hurried toward the outskirts of the town, ”He'll be there by now.”
Along the dark streets, and through a darker lumber yard, hurried Zinn, with Brent close at his heels urging him to greater speed. At length they pa.s.sed around behind the sawmill and Brent saw that a light showed dimly in the window of a disreputable log shack that stood upon the edge of a deep ravine. The next moment he had pushed through the door, and found himself in the presence of four as evil looking specimens as ever broke the commandments. One of them he recognized as ”Stumpy” Cooley, a man who, two years before had escaped the noose only by prompt action of the Mounted, after he had been duly convicted by a meeting of outraged miners of robbing a _cache_.
”Where's Camillo Bill?” demanded Brent, his eyes sweeping the room.
”Tuk him to the hospital jest now,” informed Stumpy.
”Hospital!” cried Brent.
”Yes--built one sence you was here. But, you don't need to be in no hurry, 'cause he's out of his head, now.” The man produced a bottle and pulling the cork, offered it to Brent: ”Might's well have a little drink, an' we'll be goin'.”
”To h.e.l.l with your drinks!” cried Brent, ”Where is this hospital?”
Suddenly he sensed that something was wrong. And whirling saw that two of the men had slipped between himself and the door. He turned to Stumpy to see an evil grin upon the man's face.
”When I ask anyone to drink with me, he most generally does it,” he sneered, ”Or I know the reason why.”
”There's the reason!” roared Brent, and quick as a flash his right fist smashed into the man's face, the blow knocking him clean across the room. The next instant a man sprang onto Brent's back and another dived for his legs, while a third struck at him with a short piece of scantling. Brent fought like a tiger, weaving this way and that, and stumbling about the room in a vain effort to rid himself of the two men who clung to him like leeches. Stumpy staggered toward him, and Brent making a frenzied effort to release one of his pinioned arms, saw him raise the heavy quart whiskey bottle. The next instant it descended with a full arm swing. Brent saw a blinding flash of light, a stab of pain seemed to pierce his very brain, his knees buckled suddenly and he was falling, down, down, down, into a bottomless pit of intense blackness.
CHAPTER XXIV
THE FIGHT AT CUTER MALONE'S
The porter at Cuter Malone's Klondike Palace was lighting the huge oil lamps as the girl called Kitty sauntered to the bar with her dancing partner who loudly demanded wine. Cuter Malone himself, standing behind the bar in earnest conversation with Johnnie Claw, set out the drinks and as the girl raised her gla.s.s, a man brushed past her. She recognized Zinn, one of Malone's despicable lieutenants, and was quick to note that something unusual was in the air. A swift meaning glance pa.s.sed between Claw and Malone, and as Zinn stepped around the bar to deposit his rifle, he whispered earnestly to the two who stepped close to listen.
Unperceived, Kitty managed to edge near, and the next instant she was all attention. For from the detached words that came to her ears, she made out, ”Ace-In-The-Hole,” and ”the girl,” and then Malone, whose voice carried above the others issued an order, ”The shack behind the saw mill. Git him soused. Knock him out if you have to--but don't kill him. Once we git the girl here me an' Claw--” the rest of the sentence was lost as it blended with an added order of Claw's. ”Ace-In-The-Hole!”
thought Kitty, ”What did it mean? And who is 'The girl?' Ace-In-The-Hole is dead. And, yet--” she glanced toward Claw whose beady eyes were glittering with excitement. ”He just came back from somewhere--maybe he knows--something.”
She saw Zinn cross the room and speak in a whisper to four men who were playing solo at a table near the huge stove. She knew those men, Stumpy Cooley, and his three companions. The men nodded, and went on with their game, and Zinn returned and resumed his conversation with Malone and Claw. But the girl could hear nothing more. The ”professor” was loudly banging out the notes of the next dance upon the piano, and her partner was pulling at her arm.
For two hours Kitty danced, and between dances she drank wine at the bar, and always her eyes were upon the four men at the solo table, and upon Zinn, who loafed close by, and upon Malone and Claw, who she noted, were drinking more than usual, as they hob-n.o.bbed behind the bar.
The evening crowd foregathered. The music became faster, the talk louder, the laughter wilder. At the conclusion of a dance, Kitty saw Malone speak to Zinn, who immediately slipped out the door. The four men at the table, threw down their cards, and sauntered casually from the room and declining the next dance, the girl dashed up the stairway to her room where she kicked off her high heeled slippers, pulled a pair of heavy woolen stockings over her silk ones, and hurriedly laced her moccasins. She jammed a cap over her ears and slipping into a heavy fur coat, stepped out into the hall and came face to face with Johnnie Claw.
”Where do you think you're goin'?” asked the man with a sneer.
”It's none of your business!” snapped the girl, ”I don't have to ask you when I want to go anywhere--and I don't have to tell you where I'm goin', either! You haven't got any strings on me!”
”Well--fergit it, 'cause you ain't goin' nowhere's--not right now.”
”Get out of my way! d.a.m.n you!” cried the girl, ”If I had a gun here, I'd blow your rotten heart out!”
”But, you ain't got none--an' I have--so it's the other way around. Only I ain't goin' to kill you, if you do like I say.
”Listen here, I seen you easin' over and tryin' to hear what me an'
Malone, an' Zinn was talkin' about. I don't know how much you heard, but you heard enough, so you kep' pretty clost cases on all of us. G'wan back in yer room, 'fore I put you there! What the h.e.l.l do you care anyhow? All we want is the girl. Onct we git her up in the strong room, you kin have Ace-In-The-Hole. An' as long as she's around you ain't nowhere with him. Why don't you use yer head?”
”You fool!” screamed the girl, in a sudden fury, and as she tried to spring past him, Claw's fist caught her squarely in the chin and without a sound she crashed backward across the door sill. Swiftly the man reached down and dragged her into the room, removed the key from the lock on the inside, closed and locked the door, and thrusting the key into his pocket, turned and walked down stairs.
How long she lay there, Kitty did not know. Consciousness returned slowly. She was aware of a dull ache in her head, and after what seemed like a long time she struggled to her knees and drew herself onto the bed where she lay trying to think what had happened. Faintly, from below drifted the sound of the piano. So, they were still dancing, down there?