The Heritage of the Desert: A Novel by Zane Grey (free e books to read online .txt) 📖

“Oh—Silvermane!” cried Hare. It was just a call, as if the horse were human, and knew what that pace meant to his master. The stern business of the race had ceased to rest on Hare. Silvermane was out to the front! He was like a level-rushing thunderbolt. Hare felt the instantaneous pause between his long low leaps, the gather of mighty muscles, the strain, the tension, then the quivering expulsion of force. It was a perilous ride down that red slope, not so much from the hissing bullets as from the washes and gullies which Silvermane sailed over in magnificent leaps. Hare thrilled with savage delight in the wonderful prowess of his desert king, in the primal instinct of joy at escaping with the woman he loved.

“Outrun!” he cried, with blazing eyes. Mescal's white face was pressed close to his shoulder. “Silver has beaten them. They'll hang on till we reach the sand-strip, hoping the slow-down will let them come up in time. But they'll be far too late.”

The rustlers continued on the trail, firing desultorily, till Silvermane so far distanced them that even the necessary lapse into a walk in the red sand placed him beyond range when they arrived at the strip.

“They've turned back, Mescal. We're safe. Why, you look as you did the day the bear ran for you.”

“I'd rather a bear got me than Snap. Jack, did you see him?”

“See him? Rather! I'll bet he nearly killed his pinto. Mescal, what do you think of Silvermane now? Can he run? Can he outrun Bolly?”

“Yes—yes. Oh! Jack! how I'll love him! Look back again. Are we safe? Will we ever be safe?”

It was still daylight when they rounded the portal of the oasis and entered the lane with the familiar wall on one side, the peeled fence-pickets on the other. Wolf dashed on ahead, and presently a chorus of barks announced that he had been met by the other dogs. Silvermane neighed shrilly, and the horses and mustangs in the corrals trooped noisily to the lower sides and hung inquisitive heads over the top bars.

A Navajo whom Hare remembered stared with axe idle by the woodpile, then Judith Naab dropped a bundle of sticks and with a cry of gladness ran from the house. Before Silvermane had come to a full stop Mescal was off. She put her arms around his neck and kissed him, then she left Judith to dart to the corral where a little black mustang had begun to whistle and stamp and try to climb over the bars.

August Naab, bareheaded, with shaggy locks shaking at every step, strode off the porch and his great hands lifted Hare from the saddle.

“Every day I've watched the river for you,” he said. His eyes were warm and his grasp like a vise.

“Mescal—child!” he continued, as she came running to him. “Safe and well. He's brought you back. Thank the Lord!” He took her to his breast and bent his gray head over her.

Then the crowd of big and little Naabs burst from the house and came under the cottonwoods to offer noisy welcome to Mescal and Hare.

“Jack, you look done up,” said Dave Naab solicitously, when the first greetings had been spoken, and Mother Ruth had led Mescal indoors. “Silvermane, too—he's wet and winded. He's been running?”

“Yes, a little,” replied Hare, as he removed the saddle from the weary horse.

“Ah! What's this?” questioned August Naab, with his hand on Silvermane's flank. He touched a raw groove, and the stallion flinched. “Hare, a bullet made that!”

“Yes.”

“Then you didn't ride in by the Navajo crossing?”

“No. I came by Silver Cup.”

“Silver Cup? How on earth did you get down there?”

“We climbed out of the canyon up over Coconina, and so made the spring.”

Naab whistled in surprise and he flashed another keen glance over Hare and his horse. “Your story can wait. I know about what it is—after you reached Silver Cup. Come in, come in, Dave will look out for the stallion.”

But Hare would allow no one else to attend to Silvermane. He rubbed the tired gray, gave him a drink at the trough, led him to the corral, and took leave of him with a caress like Mescal's. Then he went to his room and bathed himself and changed his clothes, afterward presenting himself at the supper-table to eat like one famished. Mescal and he ate alone, as they had been too late for the regular hour. The women-folk waited upon them as if they could not do enough. There were pleasant words and smiles; but in spite of them something sombre attended the meal. There was a shadow in each face, each step was slow, each voice subdued. Naab and his sons were waiting for Hare when he entered the sitting room, and after his entrance the door was closed. They were all quiet and stern, especially the father. “Tell us all,” said Naab, simply.

While Hare was telling his adventures not a word or a move interrupted him till he spoke of Silvermane's running Dene down.

“That's the second time!” rolled out Naab. “The stallion will kill him yet!”

Hare finished his story.

“What don't you owe to that whirlwind of a horse!” exclaimed Dave Naab. No other comment on Hare or Silvermane was offered by the Naabs.

“You knew Holderness had taken in Silver Cup?” inquired Hare.

August Naab nodded gloomily.

“I guess we knew it,” replied Dave for him. “While I was in White Sage and the boys were here at home, Holderness rode to the spring and took possession. I called to see him on my way back, but he wasn't around. Snap was there, the boss of a bunch of riders. Dene, too, was there.”

“Did you go right into camp?” asked Hare.

“Sure. I was looking for Holderness. There were eighteen or twenty riders in the bunch. I talked to several of them, Mormons, good fellows, they used to be. Also I had some words with Dene. He said: 'I shore was sorry Snap got to my spy first. I wanted him bad, an' I'm shore goin' to have his white horse.' Snap and Dene, all of them, thought you were number thirty-one in dad's cemetery.”

“Not yet,” said Hare. “Dene certainly looked as if he saw a ghost when Silvermane jumped for him. Well, he's at Silver Cup now. They're all there. What's to be done about it? They're openly thieves. The new brand on all your stock proves that.”

“Such a trick we never heard of,” replied August Naab. “If we had we might have spared ourselves the labor of branding the stock.”

“But that new brand of Holderness's upon yours proves his guilt.”

“It's not now a question of proof. It's one of possession. Holderness has stolen my water and my stock.”

“They are worse than rustlers; firing on Mescal and me proves