A Woman at Bay; Or, A Fiend in Skirts
better word, to the post office.
He stopped and talked with people as he met them, having posted himself,
with the old man's aid, in what he was to say. And he stood around the
post office steps for two hours, as Turner was in the habit of doing.
He was trying out the part; trying it on the dog, so to speak. And he
was thoroughly satisfied with the result.
In his talks there in front of the post office he gave it out that he
was going to take another trip into the woods; and as it was the season
of the year when Turner had been in the habit of being absent, no
surprise was felt. And that afternoon he literally pulled up stakes and
started.
Once he was in the woods, Nick quickened his pace. He realized now that,
figuratively, he had burned his bridges behind him, and that he must see
the thing through to the end.
He did not fear the consequences at all; he felt that there was only one
chance of his failure, and that was in the shrewd eyes and keen
intelligence of Handsome.
Handsome had met Turner twice and talked with him each time. Nick knew
Handsome well enough to know that the outlaw would have studied Turner
very closely at those interviews; the question now was, would Handsome
detect the fraud?
Nick did not think it likely; and, anyhow, the risk had to be taken.
That night the detective made himself a fire and camped in the woods; in
the early morning he started on again.
In due course of time he came to the ravine, and went up it to the top
as the old man had directed him to do. And he went around the "rocks
with a sort of a twist in them" until he found the steps that were cut
in the stones, and so mounted to the top.
Far up the second ravine he found the dead tree that hung over it, and
the pathway up the side of the hill beside it; and that night he camped
again in the woods.
He had not far to go that second morning, after he had eaten some
breakfast, before he arrived at the Dog's Nose. It was ten o'clock in
the morning when he got there.
All that morning Nick had noticed signs that he was approaching the
region where he would find the hobo gang. He had seen where trees had
been chopped down and corded up for firewood; and there were many other
signs that many men were in the vicinity.
When he came to the shelter of the Dog's Nose, he stopped there, and,
having fixed himself a temporary camp, resolved that he would remain
there until night, for he had some hope that some of the hoboes would
happen along, and that he could talk with them.
That was his game; not to sneak upon them unawares, but to let it be
known that he was in the neighborhood, so that Handsome would come to
him. He wanted that ordeal over with Handsome as soon as possible.
He was destined not to be disappointed. The afternoon was well advanced
when Handsome suddenly stepped out of a cluster of balsams, and stood
before him.
He had approached as silently as an Indian; as if he had passed his life
in woodcraft, and, indeed, Nick had no doubt that he had.
For a moment he stood there near the balsams, silently regarding the
detective; and Nick, perfectly acting the part of Turner, looked up and
nodded, but said nothing.
After a little Handsome strode forward, no longer taking care to remain
quiet; and he seated himself on a log near Nick, and facing him, while
at the same time he toyed with apparent carelessness with a revolver he
held in his hand.
"What brings you here, Turner?" he asked at last.
"The season of the year brings me," was the reply. "I have come here
every autumn at this time for more'n fifty years."
"Indeed!" Handsome looked at him with new interest. "Is that true?" he
asked.
"I wouldn't have any reason to lie to ye, would I?" asked Nick. "Old
Bill Turner hasn't missed a year in fifty years in coming here, Mr.
Handsome."
"Then you must know these hills mighty well, eh?"
"I know every inch of 'em; every leaf that falls on 'em, almost. That's
the way I know 'em."
"And do you know about the places under the hills as well?"
"Do you mean the caves?"
"I do."
"I know 'em purty well--yes. There is some parts of 'em that nobody
knows, I reckon; and while I--well, maybe I don't know all about 'em,
and maybe I'd get lost in 'em now; only I don't think so."
"What do you know about that hole up there, under that rock that is
shaped like the nose of a dog?"
"I know it's a hole. I reckon that's about all that anybody knows about
it. It's a dark sort of a place. I ain't got no fancy for goin' into
it."
"Does it connect with the main part of the cavern?"
"Maybe it does, and maybe it doesn't; but most likely it does; only I
don't think that anybody would be after trying to find out."
"You have never been through that hole, then?"
"I ain't never been inside of it," replied Nick, with perfect truth.
Handsome thought a moment, and then he asked suddenly:
"Turner, who sent you up here?"
"Nobody sent me; why?"
"Didn't the people of Calamont send you to find me and my followers?"
"Nary a bit of it."
"Well, now that you have seen me, and know that I am here, and therefore
guess that others are here with me, what would you do about it if you
should go back to Calamont now, and somebody there should ask you if you
had seen me?"
"Look here, Handsome, I don't meddle with other people's affairs. I want
'em to leave mine alone, and consequently I leave theirn alone. You hear
me speak!"
"But what answer would you make if that question was asked of you?"
"I probably shouldn't answer at all."
"Suppose an answer was insisted upon?"
"I ain't never found nobody yet who could make old Bill Turner answer a
question if he didn't want to."
"Do you mean that you would not wish to answer that question?"
"Look here, Handsome, if you want me to promise that I won't tell on ye,
why don't you say so? What you and your fellers do ain't none of my
funeral, so long as you leave me alone. Do you think I came up here to
spy on you?"
"That is what I thought when I first discovered you."
"Well, forget it. I ain't carryin' no tales. I'd 'a' been dead long ago
if I had done that. Life's too short. I ain't never mentioned to nobody
about the two times I have met you, and I ain't likely to, either. I
ain't got time. You ain't robbed my house, and I don't care what you do
as long as you leave me alone."
Again Handsome was silent a while, and then he said suddenly:
"Turner, would you like to go to our camp?"
"No; that is, I ain't particular about it. You might think I was trying
to spy on ye--or some of the men might, and that would make me mad."
"They won't think anything of the kind if I take you there."
"All right. If you want me to go--I'll go."
"Come along, then. You have got this far, and we've either got to trust
you, or kill you. It will depend upon you which that will be."
Keeping in his mind's eye the plans that Turner had made for him, Nick
knew perfectly the route over which Handsome led him on the way to the
camp, to which he had referred.
It was a picturesque place. Turner had described it in detail to the
detective, and had mentioned it as the most likely place for the outlaws
to make their headquarters. He had said:
"Ye see, mister, it's a sort of sasser in the mountings. There ain't
only one way to git to it from the outside, and that is a purty hard
one; so hard that half a dozen men could hold it agin' a thousand; and
the other way to git to it is through the caves; and ye've got to know
them galleries mighty well in order to find yer way through. I think
you'll do it, because you act as if you had been in caves afore."
The place was a "sasser" in the mountains, sure enough. On every side of
it there were frowning cliffs, which rose hundreds of feet in the air;
and these cliffs were as inaccessible from the outside as they were from
the saucer itself. There was only one pathway, and that was through a
narrow fissure, barely wide enough for one big man to walk through it.
And this latter could have been stopped up with rocks in half an hour,
so that nobody could get through it.
Handsome made the supposed Turner walk in front of him when they entered
the fissure; and thus it was that they appeared on the opposite side of
it; then Handsome took the lead.
Already the hoboes had erected cabins of slabs and of logs; and many of
them were still at work building others; but as with one accord they
ceased to work when they saw Handsome approaching with the old man; and
they stared at him.
"Have you got another one, Handsome?" somebody called out to him; but
Handsome deigned no reply, passing on in silence, and leading the way to
a cabin that was larger and better than the others, and which stood
exactly in the centre of the miniature valley.
Nick guessed that this was the temporary home of Black Madge, and he
was, therefore, not at all surprised when she stepped out upon the porch
in front of it.
She showed her white and even teeth, and smiled, in her own bold way, as
Handsome approached her, with Nick in tow; and she asked, as soon as
they were near enough:
"Whom have we here?"
"It is the old chap I have told you about, Madge," replied Handsome.
"Sent here to spy upon us, I suppose," she smiled scornfully. "Why
didn't you shoot him at once instead of bringing him here?"
Before Handsome could reply, Nick wheeled upon him.
"Didn't I tell ye so?" he demanded, with a show of anger. "Didn't I tell
ye so? Didn't I say that they be thinking that I was a spy; but you
wouldn't have it so? Tell me that."
"I don't think he is a spy, Madge," said Handsome. "Remember that I have
known him for a considerable time. And I have found him on the level."
Madge shrugged her shoulders.
"All right," she said. "That is, all right this time. Only now that he
is here, he stays. Don't forget that."
"Oh, I haven't forgotten that."
"Nobody leaves this valley without my permission; not a single one."
"They are all pretty well satisfied that you mean that, Madge."
"Now, tell me what you brought the old man here for."
"Because he knows every inch of the galleries inside those caves. I want
to know about them myself, and I want the old man to teach me about
them. The time will come, Madge, when we will be mighty glad to know
about those galleries."
"Possibly so," she replied. "Do as you like with him; only
remember--nobody leaves this valley without my permission. When I get
the men thoroughly organized and so they will do what I want them to do,
then I will turn loose upon the world one of the best--and the
worst--criminal organizations that has ever been heard of. Do what you
please with the old man. He looks old enough to have been dead long
ago."
"And as old as I am, madam, I've never before heard a woman speak so to
me," said Nick, as if he were hurt by it.
Madge turned to him quickly.
"You mustn't mind what I say--always Turner," she said. "I have a habit
of speaking harshly at times; but I am not unkind to those who are true
to me. Do you happen to know a man who is named Nick Carter?"
She asked the question suddenly, as if she expected the utterance of the
name would make the supposed Turner start with surprise; but Nick looked
at her quite calmly, and replied:
"I know the name. He's a detective chap, ain't he? I heerd about him;
something about that bank robbery."
"Is he in Calamont now, Turner?"
"No, ma'am; he ain't."
"You speak positively."
"Well, I know he wasn't there when I came out of town; and I didn't hear
that he was expected there, nuther. And if he had been expected there
I'd 'a' heerd it. There ain't nothin' goin' on in that town that I don't
hear about."
"Do you know if he has been sent for?"
"I ain't heerd nothin' about his bein' sent for, ma'am."