OLD BROADBRIM ONCE MORE.
Two days later a little party consisting of ten men came to the gate of the ranch home, and were received by Merle Macray and the Ranch Queen herself.
They were, for the most part, desperate, sunbrowned-looking fellows who sat their horses like Centaurs, and were received with demonstrations of delight at the ranch.
They were led by a youthful-looking man named Jot, who introduced them severally to both Merle and Belle Demona, saying that they had accepted her terms, and had come out from Perth to take service under her, and were ready to stand by her against all the brigands of the country.
They dismounted and were invited into the house, where they were regaled with a splendid repast interspersed with wine and toasts.
The beautiful woman of Round Robin Ranch was in her element, and the glow of pleasure came to her cheeks while she talked and laughed with her new adherents.
After the meal, Merle, well mounted and with Belle Demona at his side, took the men over the ranch, showing them the sheep and other stock, and telling them how they were expected to serve their new mistress.
The ranch was to be guarded at night, and certain signals had been studied out which would warn the people in the house at the first breath of danger.
The shades of this eventful day were deepening, when there galloped to the door of the ranch a single horseman, who dismounted and who was received with an exclamation of surprise by Merle, who came out to greet him.
"Jem!" he cried. "The last man I was looking for, but you're none the less welcome."
The newcomer was escorted into the house where the lights were lit, and where Belle Demona awaited him in the parlor.
"You came in a little behind him?" said Merle, looking at Jem.
"Yes, curse it all!" was the answer. "I did the best I could, but I didn't think of the Maybloom till it was too late. I never thought of Lord Harway coming to this part of the world——"
Here a swift glance from Merle to Belle stopped him, but the ranch queen bade him proceed.
"You have kept something back from me!" she cried sternly, giving Merle a hard look. "You were followed. And all the way from England, too!"
"Yes; I told you about the man who fell into Danny's trap."
"I know it; but not that he started from London so soon after you."
Merle frowned a little but said nothing.
"Go on," said the woman, turning again to Jem. "Tell me all about this person who seems to have come out in Lord Harway's yacht."
Jem detailed his work in London in trying to check Old Broadbrim, and Belle Demona listened attentively.
"It was a slip between cup and lip, but I don't blame you. There's the man who should have watched him," and she pointed toward Merle whose face lost color.
"I thought I was safe when I left it to Jem," was the answer.
"I'll take the blame," said the man just from London. "I've missed him in Sydney, for which place the yacht sailed, and I have failed to find him in Melbourne."
"He's there," said Merle, with a smile.
"Looking for you?"
"No, but he's there, I say."
"Then he may come on here. We should look out."
"Never fear that," laughed the other. "Dead men tell no tales, you know, Jem."
"Is it that good?"
"Of course."
"Did it take place in Melbourne?"
"Yes."
"At Old Danny's, Merle says," put in the woman. "You know him, Jem?"
The newcomer nodded, and then said:
"I once was there, and the old man showed me the fatal stairs with the missing step——"
"The detective saw it, too!" laughed Merle.
"To his everlasting sorrow?"
"Of course."
"Then it's all right. No fears on that score. But I was on nettles during the whole voyage lest, after my telegram, you should fall into his trap. But if he's at the bottom of Old Danny's pit, why, he's safe for Gabriel."
There was an all-around laugh at this, and the trio adjourned to another part of the house.
All at once Jem felt a hand fall lightly upon his arm, and he looked into the face of Belle Demona.
She leaned toward him, and her voice dropped to a whisper.
"Did you see the girl?" asked the woman, and her eyes flashed with the greenish light of jealousy.
"What girl?"
"She—there is but the one!" hissed Belle. "I mean Stareyes."
Jem uttered an exclamation of surprise.
"What, does she bother you yet?" he asked.
"A good deal. She was here not long ago. I saw her in the bush on the east side of the ranch—got a glimpse of her and that was all. You did not see her in Melbourne or Perth?"
Jem shook his head.
"I wasn't looking for her," he said. "But if I had run across her I would have remembered it."
"Yes—yes. Could you go back to Melbourne to-morrow?"
He looked at her astonished, but her face was calm.
"To Melbourne?" he repeated.
"Yes. I want you to go. I don't want to send Merle."
"I'll go."
She held out her hand, and he kissed it.
"You will go to Old Danny's. You will look into the pit, no casual glance, but a good long look. You will see if there is a man at the bottom of it."
"I understand. You doubt——"
"I can't say that I do, but I want certainty. Men sometimes escape from the very jaws of death, and if this shadow from the other continent has come back to life, why, I want to know it."
Jem walked from the room and stood underneath the canopy of the heavens alone.
"What did she say to you, Jem?" suddenly asked a voice at his back.
He stood face to face with Merle Macray.
"She asked you to do her a favor, didn't she?" he went on.
There was no reply, and the hand of Merle fell upon the other's arm.
"Tell me," and his grip tightened. "She wouldn't believe me. She is sending you back to Melbourne."
"She is, Merle; but for God's sake don't give it away!"
"I shall not; but it's all right, there. The detective is in the pit."
"I believe you. Her fears are groundless, and he will stay there till doomsday."
"Then, don't investigate. Hover near, and let Melbourne go. In a few days you can come back with the proper story."
"But if she should find it out?"
"She shall not. I'll see to that. You will go away to-morrow, ostensibly to Melbourne. You can stop in Perth. There are many places where you can be entertained for a week there. I'll let you have all the money you want to fight the tiger there. We've got it here by the thousand, and she won't miss a few guineas. You do this for me, won't you, Jem?"
"Certainly."
Merle and Jem went back into the ranch house, and in a little while the sounds of song and music came out of it and floated away on the night air.
Far away across the ranch foxes barked and the hares played in the soft moonlight which had fallen on the grass.
The sheep had been housed for the night and the ranch guard set.
The statue-like figures of men stood here and there, and the new ranch guard was taking its first night on the reservation.
Merle Macray and Jem listened to the ranch queen's playing and now and then exchanged glances of satisfaction.
A few yards from the main building stood the house in which the new guards hired by Jot in Perth were quartered.
Their voices were heard as the men played cards or sung in the house, waiting to go on duty when the relief came in from outside.
All at once one of the party arose and stepped outside.
He was a well-built man of perhaps fifty and his face was covered with a curly beard almost black.
Dressed in the coarse jacket of the rancher and wearing the long boots of the Australian, he looked a typical sheep guard of the island, and with his face turned toward the large house from which came strains of music, he appeared to be transfixed by the scene.
He leaned against the out-house with folded arms and in an attitude of peace.
Overhead he saw the stars that shone so brilliantly on the sheeplands, and from the distant bush came the long hoot of the black owl, dismal and lone.
When he moved it was toward the large house, and stopping among a network of vines near the porch he listened anew to the music and caught a glimpse of the party in the parlor.
His keen eyes watched Merle Macray with more than passing interest.
He seemed to see no one but him and for some time he stood where he had stopped and watched the ranch queen's right bower.
He said nothing did this man who had given his name as Roland Riggs.
He merely looked, and when he had looked his fill he went back to the others and watched the game in progress there.
At last the tramp of horses was heard and the relief came in.
There was a different scene in the out-house now, and the name of Roland Riggs was called out.
The man stepped to the front and threw himself into the saddle.
In another moment he was riding to his post, and after a while he stood alongside his horse not far from a little copse which looked dark and ghostly.
He was alone in the wild Australian bush.
The stars twinkled on, but he stood there like a statue, with his eyes seeing everything and his senses on the alert.
Far away he caught the glimmer of light in the ranch-house but it only made him smile.
"Not yet," said he, under his breath. "It's a cool game all around, and the man who watched me out of sight when I left London in Lord Harway's yacht has come upon the scene. But he won't know me. I'll risk that. Merle Macray, the old pit in Danny's den didn't hold the Yankee tracker very long."
He ceased and looked toward the bush again.
Old Broadbrim was still on his trail.
A TERRIBLE MOMENT.
"Remember, you are to come back with the truth," said Belle Demona the next day, when she bade Jem good-by on the edge of the ranch, prior to his departure for Melbourne.
Jem was serving two masters, or, to be a little more correct, one master and one mistress.
He was expected by the ranch queen to proceed to Melbourne and there look into the trap-pit underneath Old Danny's house, while Merle Macray had his promise that he would go no further than Perth, where he would sojourn a few days and then come back with a well-coined story.
Whom would he obey—master or mistress?
Merle chuckled to himself when he saw the man from London ride away, and for some time he watched him with inward satisfaction.
During the remainder of the week nothing very exciting occurred at Ranch Robin.
Belle Demona thought that the secret of Jem's mission was her own, and she was as gay as a lark.
Roland Riggs, the new guard, became quite a man about the place.
No one suspected his identity.
Old Broadbrim in that character was a man to be praised, for he did his work well and became the best and most painstaking of the new guards.
It was the third night after Jem's departure, and Old Broadbrim was patrolling his beat some distance from the little copse from which the bandits of the ranches generally made their appearance, when he discovered something dark moving along the lighter ground.
In another moment he made out the figure of Merle Macray, and saw that he was approaching him.
The detective looked closely and started.
Had he been suspected and was the old enemy about to unmask him?
Suddenly Merle, in the little moonlight that fell upon the region, stopped and turned his face toward the copse.
"Hands up!" cried a stern voice from the belt of trees.
Merle looked toward Roland Riggs and seemed to appeal for help.
"Hands up, there! We've come, Sir Nabob."
Out of the copse rushed twenty men and the next minute Merle, with half-drawn revolver, stood at the mercy of the bandits.
They had come to surprise Ranch Robin at last.
Merle stood at bay till the band came, and Old Broadbrim, crouching behind a tuft of grass, held his breath, but clutched his repeating rifle with firm hands.
Merle was seized at once.
His hands were tied behind his back, and then the bandits consulted.
Suddenly one of them turned to their prisoner.
"Where's the money?" he demanded.
Merle's answer was a defiant oath.
"Come! we can't stand to be cursed. Where's the money? In the big house or in the little one? You'll be a dead man in ten seconds if you don't spit out the truth."
Merle did not reply.
"Stand him out there, Billy," cried the leader of the plunderers. "There, that will do. Stand him with his face toward us; so. Now, Merle of Ranch Robin, your life won't be worth the wick of a candle if you don't disclose the hiding place of Belle Demona's gold within three seconds. Time him by the watch, Peter."
One of the bandits, who was a tall, well-dressed fellow, but whose desperateness showed in every lineament, took a large watch from his trousers pocket and looked at it.
"He won't betray her. He'll die first," said Old Broadbrim, who breathlessly watched the scene. "In that case I will lose my map, and the chase across the sea will end in failure."
The voice of the bandit captain was heard again.
"One!" he said sternly.
Merle did not utter a word.
"Two!"
The figure of Old Broadbrim moved in the grass and the rifle came up against his shoulder.
He covered the group a few yards away, and then advanced upon it.
"Set him free!" came over the gleaming barrel of the leveled weapon.
The bandits looked up and then exchanged glances.
They saw but one man, and he stood in the moonlight with a rifle to his shoulder.
"Release Captain Merle!" repeated Old Broadbrim.
"Shoot the prisoner, that will be release enough," cried one of the robbers of the ranches.
"If you dare!" cried the detective. "It will be worth your leader's life to issue a command of that kind."
Nearer and nearer came the determined detective.
"Quick, we can kill the guard afterward," said one of the band in undertones. "It won't take a minute to riddle him."
The ringleader of the brigands issued the order, but at the same time the detective's rifle spoke and the form of the captain of the robbers reeled away and tumbled in a heap a few feet from his intended victim.
At the crack of the guard's weapon the brigands scattered, for the Australian bandit is not overbrave under some circumstances, but Old Broadbrim did not stop there.
In another second he was emptying the repeating rifle into the horde with some effect, but the unhurt ones dragged off their comrades and left Merle alone on the scene of battle.
"By Jove! it was well done!" he cried, springing forward and holding out his hand to his disguised hunter. "I never saw anything like it, Riggs."
"I thought you needed help and so I let loose upon the rascals."
"And scattered them like chaff! Why, you shoot like an old hand from the States."
"I've hunted in the States, as I've told you," smiled Old Broadbrim. "They won't return again to-night."
"Not they! You've killed their captain, I think, for when they dragged him away he did not seem to have a spark of life in him. But we'll hear from them again. They'll want revenge now, but we're too much for them."
The two men walked over to the place where Merle had been captured.
"I was making a quiet inspection of the lines by moonlight," explained Merle to the guard. "It is necessary at times, for you don't know what sort of guards you get. But men of your stamp, Riggs, are worth their weight in gold."
"They're gone, sir. Over the ridge yonder you can hear the last sounds of their horses."
"Yes. When you get off to-night come into the house," said Merle, and with this he left Old Broadbrim and went toward the ranch dwelling.
Two hours later the relief came around and Old Broadbrim marched back to the house.
Already he was a hero.
His comrades received him with demonstrations of delight and he was overwhelmed with words of praise.
But it was when he entered the presence of Belle Demona and stood before her, that he feared for his safety.
Her lustrous eyes looked him over from head to foot, and he heard her questions about the fight with the bandits.
He answered all with coolness, and all the while was watched by Merle, who stood near and confirmed his story.
"It's all right so far," thought Old Broadbrim. "I'm the hero of the hour, but let them find me out, or even suspect me, and my life won't be worth the snuffing of a tallow dip. I am in the lion's den and I must play out my hand coolly. It is no time for fear—I must lose no nerve in this new death-trap."
Merle Macray was about to quit the room when a horse stopped in front of the ranch house and the next moment footsteps sounded on the porch.
As he reached the door it was opened in his face, and a young man, who showed signs of hard riding, came in and caught Merle's eye.
"Oh, it's you, is it, Tom?" cried the villain.
"Yes. I've a letter from Logan. He told me to spare no time, but to get it to you at once. It came to the post office this afternoon, and he gave it to me for prompt delivery."
Merle, with a face full of eagerness, took the letter which the youth extended and withdrew with a hurried glance at Belle.
"You fight like a prince," said she, looking at Old Broadbrim, who had taken in the messenger and the letter. "It's a pleasure to know that one's fortunes are in such good hands at Round Robin Ranch. Some time you will tell me about your career, for Merle says you have traveled a great deal."
Old Broadbrim bowed.
"At any time you care to hear my story it is at your disposal," he answered. "Mine has not been a very exciting life. I learned to shoot in the States when we used to have brushes with both bear and Indian."
"Accept the thanks of Belle Demona," said the ranch queen. "Consider yourself engaged for life here. Round Robin Ranch is proud to have such a protector."
The detective looked out of the window at that moment and caught a glimpse of a face on the porch among the vines.
He could not help starting at it, for it was the face of a woman with two glittering basilisk eyes.
Belle Demona did not see it, for she was looking at the new guard.
As for Merle, who had withdrawn to another room, he stood at a little table with the recently-arrived letter in his hand.
"It's from Danny. I know his writing," he said. "I wonder what the old man has to say?"
In another second he had torn open the letter, and one glance sufficed.
In that glance he had read these terrible lines:
"Be on your guard! I have just looked into the pit and it is empty. The man who fell into it the other night is not there, and I have thrown a light to the bottom of it. So look for him near you by this time, if he is a Scotland Yarder.
"Old Danny."
Out of the pit?
No wonder all semblance of color left Merle's face.
No wonder he looked up with white lips that quivered like the leaves of the aspen.
Look out for him near Ranch Robin?
Where should he look?
Whom should he suspect?
He read the letter again and then crushed it in his hand.
"I'll find him if he comes here!" he hissed. "I have crossed the ocean to live again and not to fall into the hands of the shadower. I'll be ready for him. I'll find this man if he is to be found; but how did he get out? Perhaps he never fell into the place. That must be it. Why didn't I look for myself before quitting Melbourne? But never mind. I'm safe here."
A moment later he came back into the room with the calmest of faces, and his gaze caught Old Broadbrim's countenance, which stood the ordeal like a stoic's.
It was a terrible moment.
THE FACE IN THE HAY.
Five minutes later the detective walked from the house with Belle Demona's words of thanks and her good-night ringing in his ears, and sought the little corner where his bunk was.
This was in a small house not far from the main dwelling, but separate from it.
The other guards were his companions, but when he entered the place he found them all sound asleep, and their snores told him that he would have plenty of music through the night.
But it was not to sleep that the menaced detective sought the hard grass pillow of his couch.
He believed that the message received by Merle concerned his escape from the pit in Melbourne.
He felt assured that it told the hunted man that it was empty, and perhaps the letter was from Old Danny himself.
Broadbrim thought the whole matter over as the night wore on.
He recalled the face on the porch in the vines, and wondered what it meant.
Whose face was it and from whence had it come?
Midnight passed and he was not asleep.
Outside all was still, and the moon had gone down, taking with her the light which had silvered all that it touched.
Old Broadbrim suddenly heard a noise at the door.
It was a very slight one, but it was enough to tell him that something was afoot.
In a few moments the door of the sleeping quarters was pushed open, and some one came in.
Old Broadbrim heard the step as it cleared the threshold, and then feigned slumber.
Presently the rays of a dark lantern penetrated the place, and disclosed the figure of the person who carried it.
It was Merle Macray!
On came the hunted man with a lantern in one hand, and a long knife lying along the right arm.
He stepped like the Indian, and his light fell here and there upon the forms of the sleeping men.
Old Broadbrim knew what the visit meant.
Merle was looking for the detective; he was investigating in person to see if the hunter who had escaped the pit in Melbourne had yet found his way to Round Robin Ranch.
Over each sleeper the man bent and threw the light of the little bull's-eye upon him.
Old Broadbrim saw all this, while Merle searched those in the other beds, knowing well that in time he would reach him.
The crisis of his man hunt seemed to have come, but he did not lose his nerve.
At last Merle stepped to where he lay, and the detective, with closed eyes, felt that he was being subjected to a terrible examination.
Merle lingered longer over him than usual.
He held the light in various positions, so as to see all of the hunter's face, and at last he stepped back.
It was a ruse to deceive the detective, but Old Broadbrim did not open his eyes.
Not for five minutes did he stir.
He heard the little door open and shut, and then he looked and found himself in darkness.
It was over, but what had Merle discovered?
Time would tell.
Old Broadbrim slept but little the rest of the night.
He longed for day, and when the first streaks flushed the eastern skies he came forth and looked abroad.
The ordeal had been passed without a break, but the worst had to come.
All at once the front door of the ranch opened, and Merle came out.
Old Broadbrim touched his hat to him.
"You're up early, Riggs," said the hunted man. "Don't you sleep good?"
"Good enough, I guess; but I'm an early bird."
Merle came up and lowered his voice.
"Walk down the paddock road with me to the bridge," said he.
"Certainly. The morning's cool, and a little walk will help a fellow stretch his limbs."
The bridge was but a few hundred yards from the ranch dwelling, and spanned an almost waterless ravine, which was one of the wildest spots on the ranch.
The banks on either side were rocky and steep, and the bottom of the ravine was some hundreds of feet below the timber of the little bridge.
Merle talked but little during the walk to the spot, but the moment they touched the bridge he turned suddenly upon Old Broadbrim and said:
"I want you to do me a little favor. I want some help just now, and a cool man like you is just the one I want."
The detective looked at the speaker, but did not answer him.
"You don't mind a little by-play, eh Riggs?" continued Merle. "You didn't come out here just to guard a few sheep and a ranch house? You're ready for anything that promises to pay well, aren't you?"
"Certainly. Who is not?"
"That's what I thought. I took you for a free lance the moment you leaped from the saddle in front of the ranch house. I'm glad I'm not mistaken."
The detective waited for him to go on, which he did after taking breath.
"I'm in a little trouble, and there's a woman in the case," he said. "It's this way: I once met a young girl who would not listen to me. I believe I promised to marry her, but I never thought of doing that. It's the way all over the world. She is pure yet, but she's a vengeance hunter. She gives me a good bit of trouble, shadows me and all that. I don't want to be bothered with her. You understand, Riggs?"
Old Broadbrim smiled.
Of course he understood the cool-hearted villain.
"She's here again," Merle went on. "I found a footstep in the sand last night which I know was not made by Belle. Stareyes is back to Round Robin."
"Stareyes? Is that her name?"
"Yes, that's what we call her. She lives in Perth, but she wanders off to Melbourne and is ready at all times to make war between me and Belle, whom she hates with all an Australian's nature."
"But you can meet her without help, can't you?"
"Hang it, no. I have a good many things to look after here, and she's liable to turn up at any time."
"I see."
"Of course you do. Now, if she's here, as I believe she is, I want her looked after."
"And taken care of?"
"That's it, Riggs, that's it exactly. Belle is ready to pistol her at a moment's notice, but Stareyes may get her work in too soon for her, and give me a world of trouble. I want it well done."
"I can watch for her, and, if she turns up, I will take her from the ranch, and warn her not to come back again."
Merle's look at this juncture was a study.
"I don't want her to go away. I want her to remain on Ranch Robin."
"Oh!" ejaculated the detective.
"I want her to rest here forever."
"Not alive, Captain Merle?"
"As dead as Potipher's wife!" was the answer, and the eyes of the handsome speaker flashed. "I don't want this girl to bother me any longer. A little grip like the sort you've got and a little twist of her pretty neck and it will be well done."
Roland Riggs drew back and looked at Merle with pretended horror.
"You can't mean that I am expected to silence the girl?" he exclaimed.
"I mean nothing else," was the answer. "I want her out of the way. She will prove nothing in your hands, Riggs. You're one of those agile men, and one little twist will get her out of my way. I'll make you rich for the job."
It was the coolest proposition he had ever heard, and Old Broadbrim felt a thrill sweep to his heart.
He looked at the man before him and saw that he was terribly in earnest.
"She won't be hard to find," said Merle. "She's bound to show up somewhere, and I'll get you relieved from guard duty if you will undertake the work."
Merle was looking Old Broadbrim squarely in the eye and his gaze seemed to transfix him like a lance.
"It's a bargain, eh?" he cried.
"I'll try," said Old Broadbrim.
"That's all I ask. I know if you 'try' we'll get rid of this pest in skirts. Don't mince matters, Riggs. Let her have the full benefit of your grip and that will be sufficient."
Old Broadbrim cast his eyes down the ravine and seemed to measure the distance to the bottom mentally.
"Stareyes is cunning and cool. I have stood before her and seen her orbs flash like twin stars. She has one parent living, an old mother, who is either in Perth or Melbourne. She is as much a viper as her child, but never let her sting you. Take time by the forelock, Riggs."
"I'll do it, sir."
They walked back over the dusty road and separated near the ranch house.
"A hired murderer," smiled the detective when he thought of the walk to the bridge. "I must see Stareyes. I must find this girl who is doomed by Merle Macray, and she can tell me something of his past. When I kill her for him the moon will fall from the skies."
At that moment the detective happened to look across a little patch of meadow land and caught sight of a figure that flitted out of sight even as he gazed.
The girl had been found already.
Down where he saw the slight figure a few empty houses stood and he walked toward them.
They were tumble-down traps, hardly fit to house sheep in, and Old Broadbrim entered one.
His head touched the rafters of the place and he looked up to avoid them.
The next moment he started back, for overhead, half concealed by a lot of hay, lay a young girl, and her white face was turned toward his own.
Their eyes met.
He found Stareyes already, and she watched him with a strange smile at the corners of her mouth.
"How do you like it?" she asked, the smile broadening as she spoke. "It's a nice place, isn't it, but it's inhabited by demons. They call you Roland Riggs here, but you're not that person. You're a beagle, but I'll keep the secret. Ha, ha, ha! sir, you don't know Stareyes yet. You play fair with her and you're safe. Fail, and it's death—death!"
OLD BROADBRIM AND THE FAIR AVENGER.
Old Broadbrim looked again at the face in the hay, and caught a gleam of friendship in the eyes, despite the words Stareyes had just spoken.
She knew his secret.
In some manner the girl whom he had promised to remove for Merle Macray had penetrated his disguise, and the secret he had guarded so well, carrying it across the ocean, was in the hands of a creature whose whole thought was revenge.
"We can be friends, Roland Riggs," continued Stareyes. "You have just seen him—I saw both of you at the bridge—and you have given him a promise."
"You know him?"
"Who has cause to know him better?" cried Stareyes. "I've known him ever since he came out to Australia; and with her whom he serves he plays a bold hand for money."
"Tell me about him."
The face came nearer, and the next moment the girl dropped deftly from the hay and stood before the detective.
"They call me Stareyes," she went on. "I am an Australian. My father died on a ranch years ago, and my mother—about her anon, perhaps. But first tell me what fetches you out here? What made you quit your own country? What did Merle Macray do there?"
Old Broadbrim hesitated.
Should he tell this girl of the crime on Fifth Avenue?
Would it be altogether wise to acquaint her with the real secret of his mission?
"He committed a crime, didn't he, sir?" she exclaimed, laying her hand on Old Broadbrim's arm. "And you have come out to take him away from me. Why, sir, if I chose I could turn you in a moment over to death, and you would never drag him from Round Robin Ranch. You saved his life last night, and he does not dream that you did so in order to bring him some day under the halter. What if he should discover this? Why, as cool as you are and as brave, your life wouldn't be worth the sunbeams on the grass."
"Let that go, girl. It is something I know already and I fear it not."
"I like brave men. But you have not answered me. What did he do in America? She sent him away."
"Belle Demona?"
"Bella, the Demon," cried Stareyes. "She sent him off on the dark mission across the sea. But for her he would not have gone and committed the crime. I heard the bargain."
"You heard it, girl? When?"
"More than six months ago."
"Here?"
"In yonder house. I was a shadow on the porch underneath the window, and but little of the bargain escaped me. He was to avenge her."
"Who had wronged her?"
"A nabob in New York."
"How?"
"He had dashed her hopes to earth at Monaco. Ah! this woman is hatred personified. She swore revenge in the moonlit garden there. She treasured her vengeance all this time in her heart. It was years ago, when she was but a little chit with money and little reputation—the prettiest adventuress in the swim.
"He was traveling on the Continent then, and her face charmed him. But he was suddenly undeceived. He discovered that she was not the angel he deemed her, and when he found it out he turned hater and spurned her at Monaco.
"That is what made her hate him. Did she keep track of him all this time? Partly so. He eluded her and kept out of her sight, but somehow he turned up on her trail and the oath was renewed."
"And she sent Merle across the sea to kill him?"
"Did he do it?" cried Stareyes. "Did he find the doomed nabob in New York, and did he carry out his promise to Belle Demona? That's why you are here, is it? You've tracked him to the bush. You have entered the lion's den, and now you are in my hands—in mine, sir!"
Once more the face before the detective assumed a mad look, but the voice was as gentle as ever.
"Yes, sir," resumed Stareyes. "It must have been six months ago, though, from what I have learned by playing spy here, the man who crossed her path knew long ago that he was doomed. Perhaps he treated it lightly, believing that he was safe from the hands of the adventuress he had spurned, but he fell at last by her command."
"Then," said Old Broadbrim, looking down into the girl's eyes, "why don't you let me take him?"
"What would I do for vengeance?" she cried.
"The same noose will avenge the murdered millionaire and you, too."
"No! I want to avenge myself."
"And cheat me?"
There was a smile on the detective's face, and for a moment it lingered there while Stareyes watched it intently.
"Do you know what came in the letter last night?" she suddenly asked.
"In the one the boy brought from Perth?"
"Yes."
"I do not."
"He read it alone in the room. I heard him mutter its contents, for I was his shadow even then. It told about the man who escaped from Old Danny's pit."
"Indeed?"
"It was from Danny himself. He sent the letter post-haste here to inform Merle that the detective—you, sir—was not in the well, but had eluded the old wretch of Melbourne."
"And he will look for me here, eh?"
"That's it! What made him take the lantern last night and enter the guardhouse? Why with his keen eyes did he look over the sleeping men there? He was already on the hunt!"
"I saw him."
"And escaped? What if he should discover that you are not Roland Riggs, but the hunter from across the sea? It would be death."
"I know that, girl, but I am ready to face the worst."
"Then play fair with me. If I avenge myself you need not be troubled with taking a man across the sea. Stand back, sir, and let Stareyes take care of the inmates of Ranch Robin."
Old Broadbrim was not inclined to do this.
The girl should not baffle him nor throw him for a moment off the bush trail.
"I understand. You don't intend to do it!" she cried. "You have made up your mind that I am to be brushed aside, and treated like a viper which one finds in one's path. You intend to dare me to do my worst. Beware, sir!"
Her hand fell away from Old Broadbrim's arm, and she stepped back.
"I could betray you," ventured the detective. "They want to find you and for them to discover you in the sheepsheds would be the beginning of your end."
"Go out there and betray me!" cried Stareyes. "Go out and tell the pair in this bush Eden that I am Stareyes, and that the old sheds shelter me. I am here, but I am not defenseless."
She drew from her bosom a long-bladed knife with a black ebony hilt which she gripped, and raised suddenly over her head.
"Stareyes did not come here unarmed. She is ready for the enemy. She has taken an oath that the man who spurned her, and even heaped insults upon her mother, shall die the death. All your cunning cannot save him from Stareyes' blade. We are in the play, and a human life is the stake. Go out and betray me if you care to, but remember that the lips of Stareyes can utter truths which may seal the doom of the American detective!"
It was a critical situation for the Quaker.
Stareyes was determined, and her bosom rose and fell like the ocean tide while the threat passed her lips.
Her hands seemed to lose blood, and her eyes emitted sparks of light akin to fire.
Old Broadbrim looked down into her face, and stepped back.
"You're safe," said he.
Her face did not change, but her knife was put away.
"I will not betray you, but you must not step between me and my quarry."
"I make no promises," haughtily said the girl.
The detective went to the door and looked over the landscape toward the ranch house.
Her gaze followed his and she said suddenly:
"They're in a glass house, which is liable to be shattered. Captain Blacklocks, the man who led the robbers last night, will have revenge. You didn't kill the man, though his friends dragged him away. He will come again, and some night, unless we strike soon, the ranch will crumble before the flames, and Merle and Belle Demona will end their careers in the light of the burning bush palace. These bandits of the desert are men of purpose and demons without mercy. They will avenge the battle of last night, and if they ever get hold of you as Roland Riggs, the guardsman, you will never see the flag of your land again."
Old Broadbrim held out his hand, which the girl took.
"Keep out of sight," he said. "Don't play spy too often while you're here. There are eyes about the ranch as keen as yours and you know that Demon Belle hates you like a viper."
"On that score there's no love lost," laughed the girl from Perth. "Wait till we stand face to face, as we will some day. Then you shall see this proud woman, this adventuress, cower before me and beg for mercy."
"The ranch queen? I don't know about that," smiled Old Broadbrim.
"Wait and see."
And with this the girl looked away, her face paling in the light and her lips compressed.
In another moment the detective was walking from the scene of his encounter with Stareyes.
He was known to her.
She was a strange creature and her revenge had turned her head.
He knew that he was in more danger than ever, for the girl in her eagerness to get the best of Merle and Belle Demona would be likely to precipitate matters and unmask him.
If she were out of the way all would be well, but she was now in his path and the storm was on the eve of breaking out.
Back to the ranch house went the detective.
He came face to face with the ranch queen on the porch of vines and her voice greeted him.
He entered the house at her suggestion and was waved to a seat.
"You're a brave fellow, Riggs," said she, looking at him. "I am glad you came out to us, for we are in the shadow of a great event. But I want to show you something. It will strengthen your loyalty to us."
She touched a button set in the wall, and a door opened slowly.
This disclosed a flight of steps, and the woman descended with the detective at her heels.
At the bottom of the flight she struck a match and lit a lamp.
"Look!" she said, pointing away. "Behold something worth fighting for. I feel that we can trust you, Riggs."
Old Broadbrim looked and uttered an exclamation of surprise.