X
"GO TO your mistress!" Northrup commanded the two trembling girls. "And remember, goddess or maid, she is your mistress!"
He went outside. Yahoya must have time to think before he tried further to talk with her. And he himself wanted to think. Inaa, none too sweet-tempered an old rascal at the best, would be up to mischief now. His anger would include Northrup as well as Yahoya. It would be just as well to look for nearly anything now.
But he had not looked for what had already begun. His eyes, seeking Inaa, had gone naturally to the far edge of the cliff where the steps of stone led down to the cañon where the tribe was drinking. He did not see Inaa, but saw a head rising as a man climbed upward. At first he had no suspicion who the man was, as Strang had gone from his mind, and this was not the Strang he had known.
Strang's breast showed as he came up. Then, from the base of the cliff what had looked a shadow there resolved itself into a man's form, leaping out upon Strang. The moonlight fell upon the fellow and showed Northrup Tiyo's dark face, the teeth showing, the eyes gleaming murderously. The knife which already had threatened Northrup was flung up above Strang's head.
The two white men must have seen the Indian at the same moment. Simultaneously their quick cries shot through the stillness. Strang leaped up the last of the steps, throwing himself to the side as Tiyo came at him. He had had but the instant to decide and had decided upon taking the chance here upon the level rather than seeking to descend a hazardous way, leaving his enemy over him.
But Tiyo had had time to plan for all things. As Strang turned to the side the Indian sprang upon him. Northrup saw the moonlight gleam on the uplifted blade, heard the little grunt with which Tiyo brought it down, heard the thud of the impact and for the second thought that all of Strang's accounts were squared.
Then, gripping his automatic, having no chance to shoot from here, he ran to the two forms which were rolling close to the precipice. As he leaped forward, Yahoya, having heard the cries, came running by her maidens to stand in the doorway, watching them.
Tiyo's knife had drunk blood, but not from the body of the writhing man, having found a sheath only in the outflung forearm. Now Strang, a tall man, made into iron from his months on the desert, was fighting as a maddened animal fights for its life. His hand had grown into a steel band about Tiyo's wrist, was forcing the knife back from him. And still, like two great fighting cats, the two men now were almost at the edge of nothingness.
The Indian, seeing a chance, dropped his knife so that it fell against the rock floor at his left side. As quick as lightning he had swept it up again in his left hand, had whipped it up so that again it caught the moonlight. And then Northrup, throwing himself forward, was in time. His great fingers shut about the Indian's left wrist, gripping it as Strang gripped the other.
A moment of breathless struggle in which the muscles of the three men stood out mightily. Then the three bodies relaxed as the knife came away in Northrup's hand, and Strang and Tiyo, rolling over swiftly, got to their feet.
"Well done, Yellow Beard!"
Yahoya's young voice came ringing to them; Yahoya herself had come quickly to Northrup's side, looking up into his face. And again the man saw in the woman's face, unhidden, the admiration which looked out at him frankly.
Beyond the emotion which he had aroused in her she seemed unmoved by what she had seen. She was laughing softly when she said:
"It is in Yahoya's heart to make you love her, Saxnorthrup."
Strang whirled about suddenly. Until now his watchful eyes had been for Tiyo alone. The name, even as Yahoya pronounced it, brought him peering into Northrup's face.
"Northrup!" There was almost a gasp of fear in the voice. "You—you didn't die then?"
"I think not," Northrup assured him coolly. "Otherwise I should not have had the privilege of saving you a throat-cutting."
" him!" spat out Strang, his eyes again going to the Indian. "I'll get him for this."
Tiyo's face, a moment ago a picture of the hot rage and hatred within him, now showed nothing. With an elaborate assumption of nonchalance, he lifted his shoulders and turned to go down the steps. Northrup, watching him go, noted that not once had the man spoken, that now his lips were sealed. The suspicion came to him that Tiyo, like the rest of his simple people, had been tricked by the old priest into a certainty that Yahoya was a goddess and did not dare speak until she, singing the sacred song, had given the signal.
"So you are alive?" demanded Strang as if he could not be convinced. "And you have got here?"
He was frowning, his eyes deeply thoughtful. He seemed already to have forgotten Tiyo and that but for Northrup's coming Tiyo's knife would have drunk more deeply. There was no gratitude in his sharp glance; but there was displeasure and suspicion. As quick as a flash his eyes went from Northrup to Yahoya's face where a man must read what she did not seek to hide.
"Curse it!" cried Strang. "Haven't I got enough on my hands already? What the devil do you want here?"
Northrup grunted his disgust of the man.
"In the first place," he said coolly, "I want a talk with you. And I want it right now, before daybreak. If you've got a shred of decency in you, if you've got a drop of sporting blood, which I don't believe you have, I have a proposition to make you."
STRANG, gripping his wounded arm as he followed, they went back into Yahoya's house. For Northrup wanted what privacy there was to be had. And he wanted what light he might have upon Strang's face.
Yahoya, unbidden but frankly interested, went with them. As they began speaking in a language which was unknown to her, she frowned a little and watched them the more closely.
"Here's a girl who's in a nasty mess," Northrup began abruptly. "She's white and she's the plaything of a dirty old savage. We've got to get her out of this. It's a sight more than a one-man job or I wouldn't ask your help. The mere fact that there is no love between you and me doesn't cut any figure in a case like this. Will you tuck in and help me get her out?"
Strang's head was down as he sought to bind up his wound. When he looked up it was first at Yahoya. He studied her face intently, then turned to Northrup. Then of Northrup he demanded sharply:
"Have you talked with her? Do you understand their lingo?"
"Yes."
"What have you told her? Does she know that the goddess stuff is all bunk?"
"I have told her. But she doesn't believe me. Inaa told her and she thought that he was lying."
There was a gleam in Strang's eye which told Northrup what he might expect even before Strang's voice demanded bluntly:
"Well? If she wants to believe it, what's the difference?"
"What difference?" cried Northrup hotly. "We've got to get her out, I tell you. And it looks as if we'd have to go on the run. Unless she gets that fool notion out of her head, I've got my doubts if she'll be willing to go with us and leave what she looks upon as her people."
Strang's brows contracted into a quick frown.
"I know your sort pretty well, Sax Northrup," he said sharply. "You're the kind of man who likes to run things pretty much his own way and to with the other fellow. Here you butt in where I've been six months and at the jump are telling me what 'we' are going to do! Hasn't it entered your head that perhaps I've decided for myself what I am going to do? And what this girl is going to do? And, by Heaven! You can put it in your pipe and smoke it right now that she is going to do what I tell her to do!"
Northrup bit back the words which came to his lips. Now was no time to quarrel with Strang. And, since no human being is altogether vicious, he still hoped to find a hint of decency somewhere in Strang.
"Would you mind telling me what your plans are?" he asked quietly. "Things are going to happen pretty fast now, you know."
A little color came into Strang's bronzed cheeks, a quick bright light like a flame into his eyes.
"So you'll listen to reason, will you?" he demanded, making the mistake of thinking himself the bigger man at that moment. "You can just bet things are going to happen in a hurry. I'm going to get Tiyo's tag to begin with, the murderous young hound! And I'm going to put a crimp into Inaa's game that will make him dizzy. And, so that you won't make any mistakes, Northrup, I'll tell you right now who's runnin' the whole show here. It's Ed Strang! What I've got I'm going to hold on to; what I haven't got—I'm going to get. And I'm going to keep it—just as long as I want it!"
His eyes went swiftly to the splendid form of Yahoya, clung there a moment and then, defiantly, came back to Northrup.
"You are just one man against a whole tribe," Northrup reminded him, keeping the anger out of his voice though for an instant his eyes were on fire with it. "Has it occurred to you that they will let you go just as far as it pleases them? And that then they will know how to bring you up with a rather ugly jerk?"
Strang's air while he was speaking had subtly changed. Now, if in truth he were not the master of the situation, he thought that he was. From confidence he went to insolence.
"I've been here six months, you've been here a few hours, and so you advise and warn," he laughed impudently. "And, if you want to know, I am not one man against a tribe. The tribe is split square in two, and by ! I'm the man that split it! Inaa is going down to make room for another man who's hungering after his job. Tiyo is going the same way to make place for a sort of tribal captain who belongs to me. Do you begin to see, Sax Northrup?"
Northrup saw, knew that Strang was telling him the truth, and understood that in sober truth Strang might have made himself the power to reckon with here. Then Yahoya . . .
"It won't work," he said quietly. "You can't get away with it, Strang, and you ought to know it. You might put it over for a while, but the bottom will drop out of the whole thing sooner or later. And I think it will be sooner."
"It will, will it? You wouldn't mind explaining how and why?"
"Because where one white man has gone another follows. Where two have been many will come. If I don't take this girl out with me I'll come back for her. And I won't come alone."
Again Strang's assurance rang in his laugh.
"Has the thought occurred to you that maybe you won't go out at all?"
Northrup stared at him incredulously. Strang had risen, or fallen, to levels Northrup had not thought open to him.
"Frankly, it hadn't. I generally go where I want to go. While we are threshing things out you might tell me what you are driving at."
"I'm driving at this: I've stumbled on to something here which, if I work it the one right way, will put me in a place where I can make the Astors and Morgans shine my shoes. If I let you go your way out of here to blab, I stand to lose the whole thing. So you are not going to get out! Is that plain enough?"
"You're taking over a pretty big contract, aren't you?" asked Northrup steadily. "I don't see how you're going to prevent me going out, unless you get some of your friends to stick a knife into me. And you won't do that."
"How do you know I won't?" snapped Strang.
"Because you haven't got the nerve," retorted Northrup. "I know your kind, too. You'd go off and leave a man to die alone in the desert, because you're an infernal coward! Too much of a coward to kill a man or to make somebody else do it. You're short on nerve, Strang."
Strang's lips twitched a little, but his eyes held hard to Northrup's, and the cool dare in them. After a brief, hesitant moment he whirled about and went to the door. Yahoya, who had guessed what she might of the conversation, flashed a quick glance at Northrup and smiled.
Almost immediately Strang came back. He pointed outside. Northrup, looking, saw six men, one after the other, come silently up from. the cañon. He noted that all, excepting ohe only, were tall, sinewy young men of superb physiques, and that they were fully armed, each carrying two great-bladed knives at his belt, and in his hand a short thrusting-spear. The one man who had passed the prime of life looked a patriarch. Hair and beard were snow white; he was great-framed and erect; his eyes flashed as if with youth.
"Inaa's successor," said Strang, taking on again his marked manner of one supreme in power. "And the first of the young men is Muyingwa who is hungering after Tiyo's job. They are friends of mine, as you call them, Northrup. Don't forget that. And there are more of them coming."
"And I can drop the whole gang in their tracks if need be before they can get within knifing distance," answered Northrup, understanding what lay back of Strang's air of authority.
"And in the end get a two-edged knife through you," came the swift answer. "You know that. You wouldn't have a chance in the world. If you did getaway for the minute, what would you do? Run out into the desert without taking time to get a drink of water, eh?"
"Go ahead, Strang. You haven't entirely outlined your plan."
"So you're ready to walk easy and talk easier, are you?" sneered Strang.
Still standing at the door he flung out his hand a trifle theatrically. The six men stopped dead in their tracks. He turned a smile upon Northrup.
"You see? Now maybe you'll listen. I haven't got anything against you, Northrup, and I'd let you go and be glad of it if I could. But I tell you I can't work this game in a day. It's too big; the stakes—I tell you I can make the big men on Wall Street look sick! If I took a chance on you and you squealed when you got out, then what? I can't do it."
"That's about enough sop to your conscience," cut in Northrup. "What do you think you are going to do with me?"
"I'm going to keep you here until I can get out. I need a man like you. There are mines here, gold-mines—it makes me dizzy to think about it—which these fool Indians have never worked beyond scratching the top like a flock of clucking hens! You are going into the mines; you are going to drive the men I give you and drive them hard. You are going to clean up more money for me than you ever saw. And when I get away and it goes with me, then you can do as you please!"
"Many thanks," said Northrup dryly. "It doesn't sound good to me, Strang."
Before Strang could answer, the young Indian whom he had made known as Muyingwa came on, leaving his fellows. He raised his hand in salute twice, first to Strang, second to Yahoya.
His eyes ran by them all, flashed a greeting which was filled with triumph at the girl Nayangap, standing in the anteroom door. Then, his eyes upon Strang, he lifted his hand and pointed toward the east.
It was the first light of the dawn.
Northrup swung about toward Yahoya.
"Yahoya," he said quickly, "you must listen to me."
"I listen, Yellow Beard," she said, looking at him curiously.
"What do you want to talk to her about?" demanded Strang in sharp suspicion. "Keep your hands off, Sax Northrup. She's mine, and you will do well to keep it in mind."
"Yours? You contemptible coward!" Northrup flung at him, his anger at last snapping its leash. "You would trade on her superstition and ignorance and then throw her away when you got tired, would you? Now I am going to talk with her and you are going outside while I do it."
"Am I?" jeered Strang. "So you've got a notion to the pretty innocent yourself, have you? If you think I've kept my hands off her this long just so you can have her"
Northrup shut Strang's mouth with a blow which brought the blood and sent Strang reeling out through the door.
"Come in and I'll kill you," he said, his voice dropped low and grown husky. "I mean that, Strang."
Strang hesitated, then went swiftly to Muyingwa and the others who had come closer. Northrup paid no further attention to him save always to keep him in sight.
"Yahoya," he said as gently as he could with the emotions riding him. "You must believe me. You are a girl, a Bahana like me. Inaa has tricked you. Strang knows it. Strang is a bad man in a good many ways, Yahoya. I'd rather see you marry Tiyo than him. Tiyo at least loves you, I think. Strang plans on getting rid of Tiyo and Inaa, on putting two other men in their places—that old man out there and Muyingwa. Then Strang will be chief man here and he will do what he pleases with you. Do you understand, Yahoya?"
"I understand," she said curiously, "that you say I am no true goddess but a mere girl, like Nayangap and Tocha there, but white. Why do you lie to me, Yellow Beard?"
"Lie to you?" he cried. "Can't you see it's the truth. Cut your hand and it will bleed; put it in the fire and the fire will burn it; go without food and water and you will die like the rest of us! Can't you see? You're just a God-blessed girl, Yahoya, and no goddess."
She shook her head, the odd smile still in her eyes.
"The dawn is coming, Yellow Beard," she said softly. "I must go. The people wait for Yahoya."
"But," he cried after her, "you must not marry Strang"
"The Goddess Yahoya promised," she told him steadily. "A goddess must not lie."