Nan of Music Mountain Part 18

"You d.a.m.ned little vixen!" He sprang forward and caught her by the wrist. "I'll take the kinks out of you. You wouldn't marry me your way, now you'll marry me mine."

She fought like a tigress. He dragged her struggling into his arms.

But above her half-stifled cries and his grunting laugh, Morgan heard a sharp voice: "Take your hands off that girl!"

Whirling, with Nan in his savage arms, the half-drunken mountaineer saw de Spain ten feet away, his right hand resting on the grip of his revolver. Stunned, but sobered by mortal danger, Morgan greeted his enemy with an oath. "Stand away from that girl!" repeated de Spain harshly, backing the words with a step forward. Morgan's grasp relaxed. Nan, jerking away, looked at de Spain and instantly stepped in front of her cousin, on whom de Spain seemed about to draw.

"What are you doing here?" demanded Morgan, with an enraged oath.

"I left some business with you the other day at Calabasas half finished," said de Spain. "I'm here this afternoon to clean it up. Get away from that girl!"

His manner frightened even Nan. The quick step to the side and back--poising himself like a fencer--his revolver restrained a moment in its sheath by an eager right arm, as if at any instant it might leap into deadly play.

Shocked with new fear, Nan hesitated. If it was play, it was too realistic for the nerves even of a mountain girl. De Spain's angry face and burning eyes photographed themselves on her memory from that moment. But whatever he meant, she had her part to do. She backed, with arms spread low at her sides, directly against her cousin. "You shan't fight," she cried at de Spain.

"Stand away from that man!" retorted de Spain sternly.

"You shan't kill my cousin. What do you mean? What are you doing here?

Leave us!"

"Get away, Nan, I tell you. I'll finish him," cried Morgan, puncturing every word with an oath.

She whirled and caught her cousin in her arms. "He will shoot us both if you fire. Take me away, Gale. You coward," she exclaimed, whirling again with trembling tones on de Spain, "would you kill a woman?"

De Spain saw the danger was past. It needed hardly an instant to show him that Morgan had lost stomach for a fight. He talked wrathfully, but he made no motion to draw. "I see I've got to chase you into a fight," said de Spain contemptuously, and starting gingerly to circle the hesitating cousin. Nan, in her excitement, ran directly toward the enemy, as if to cut off his movement.

"Don't you dare put me in danger," she cried, facing de Spain threateningly. "Don't you dare fight my cousin here."

"Stand away from me," hammered de Spain, eying Morgan steadily.

"He is wounded now," stormed Nan, so fast she could hardly frame the words. "You shan't kill him. If you are a man, don't shoot a wounded man and a woman. You shan't shoot. Gale! protect yourself!" Whirling to face her cousin, she took the chance to back directly against de Spain. Both hands were spread open and partly behind her, the palms up, as if to check him. In the instant that she and de Spain were in contact he realized, rather than saw--for his eyes never released Morgan's eyes--what she was frantically slipping to him--the loaded cartridge. It was done in a flash, and she was running from him again.

Her warm fingers had swept across his own. She had returned to him, voluntarily, his slender chance for life. But in doing it she had challenged him to a new and overwhelming interest in life itself. And again, in front of her cousin, she was crying out anew against the shedding of blood.

"I came up here to fight a man. I don't fight women," muttered de Spain, maintaining the deceit and regarding both with an unpromising visage. Then to Morgan. "I'll talk to you later. But you've got to fight or get away from here, both of you, in ten seconds."

"Take me away, Gale," cried Nan. "Leave him here--take me home! Take me home!"

She caught her cousin's arm. "Stay right where you are," shouted Morgan, pointing at de Spain, and following Nan as she pulled him along. "When I come back, I'll give you what you're looking for."

"Bring your friends," said de Spain tauntingly. "I'll accommodate four more of you. Stop!" With one hand still on his revolver he pointed the way. "Go down that trail first, Morgan. Stay where you are, girl, till he gets down that hill. You won't pot me over her shoulder for a while yet. Move!"

Morgan took the path sullenly, de Spain covering every step he took.

Behind de Spain Nan stood waiting for her cousin to get beyond earshot. "What," she whispered hurriedly to de Spain, "will you do?"

Covering Morgan, who could whirl on him at any turn in the descent, de Spain could not look at her in answering. "Looks pretty rocky, doesn't it?"

"He will start the whole Gap as soon as he gets to his horse."

He looked at the darkening sky. "They won't be very active on the job before morning."

Morgan was at a safe distance. De Spain turned to Nan. He tried to speak out to her, but she sternly smothered his every effort. Her cheeks were on fire, she breathed fast, her eyes burned.

"It looks," muttered de Spain, "as if I should have to climb Music Mountain to make a get-away."

"There is no good place to hide anywhere above here," said Nan, regarding him intently.

"Why look so hard at me, then?" he asked. "If this is the last of it, I can take it here with our one lone cartridge."

Her eyes were bent on him as if they would pierce him through. "If I save your life--" still breathing fast, she hesitated for words--"you won't trick me--ever--will you?"

Steadily returning her appealing gaze, de Spain answered with deliberation. "Don't ever give me a chance to trick you, Nan."

"What do you mean?" she demanded, fear and distrust burning in her tone.

"My life," he said slowly, "isn't worth it."

"You know--" He could see her resolute underlip, pink with fresh young blood, quiver with intensity of feeling as she faltered. "You know what every man says of every girl--foolish, trusting, easy to deceive--everything like that."

"May G.o.d wither my tongue before ever it speaks to deceive _you_, Nan."

"A while ago you frightened me so----"

"Frightened you! Great G.o.d!" He stepped closer and looked straight down into her eyes. "If you had raised just one finger when I was bluffing that fellow, I'd have calmed down and eaten out of your little hand, by the hour!"

"There's not a moment to lose," she said swiftly. "Listen: a trail around this mountain leads out of the Gap, straight across the face of El Capitan."

"I can make it."

"Listen! It is terribly dangerous----"

"Whatever it is it's a concrete boulevard to a man in my fix."

"It is half a mile--only inches wide in places--up and down--loose rock----"

"Some trail!"

"If you slip it's a thousand feet----"

"A hundred would be more than plenty."

"A good climber can do it--I have done it. I'd even go with you, if I could."

"Why?"

She shook her head angrily at what he dared show in his eyes. "Oh, keep still, listen!"

"I know you'd go, Nan," he declared unperturbed. "But believe me, I never would let you."

"I can't go, because to do any good I must meet you with a horse outside."