Chapter XI: The Outlaw Becomes Suspicious of Rose

After the captain had selected the troopers whom he wished to keep with him, all of whom were chosen because of their fearlessness and deadly marksmanship, the colonel gave the command for the rest of the men to return to the base of the mountain and camp for the night.

"Shall you want Alkali?" he asked, as he prepared to follow them.

"No, sir. That is, I don't think so. You said there was no other entrance to the Cave, didn't you, Alkali?" the captain asked, turning to the half-breed.

"None as I knows of," repeated the scout.

"Then I don't see how Alkali can be of any use to me, Colonel Edwards."

But the officer was soon to regret his decision to dispense with the services of the half-breed.

Wearied with the labors of the strenuous day, now that they felt they had the notorious outlaw in their power, or at least where he could do no more harm, the troopers rolled themselves up in their blankets and were soon fast asleep, while a solitary sentinel stool guard over the crevice, at the two ends of which fires had been kindled.

Within the Cave, however, all was activity, though the outlaw and his companions had passed through an even more nerve-wracking day than their pursuers.

The haven which Rogers had reached barely in time to save his life was one that he and his former gang had chiselled from the solid rock. Scarce twenty feet long was it, but it extended back for at least twice that distance. The phenomenal breathing of the crevice afforded a constant change of air, thus enabling them to burn candles which had been left when it was one of Rogers' regular hiding places before his capture.

Lighting several of these, he bade Rose prepare some food, while he stood as near to the entrance as he dared in order that he might hear what transpired among the troopers in the event of their trailing him to the Cave.

And could they have seen the smile that spread over his face as the half-breed declared he was ignorant of any other means of departing from or getting into the retreat, Colonel Edwards would never have called off the manhunt.

"It's a lucky thing for me that I ran across Faro Pete and put him out of the way," chuckled the bandit to himself. "If I hadn't, old 'turkey gobler' would have had me like a rat in a trap. As it is, I'll be able to pull off a few stunts that will give him an awful jar."

From where he lay, he could hear almost every word that the manhunters said, and again he grinned as the order to lay siege to the Cave was issued. And when all was quiet and only the guard was astir, he returned to his companions, to whom he quickly related all that had transpired.

"Let them keep up their old siege, if they want to," exclaimed Rose, as the outlaw concluded. "We've got food enough in that bag for a couple of days, anyhow, so we can just stay here and get a good rest. I sure do need it, and I guess you and Pedro do, too, Red."

"Sleep won't seem a bit bad, especially as it will be the first I have had outside a jail for five years," agreed the outlaw.

"But what are you going to do with the scouts?" demanded Pedro. "It won't do to take the gags out of their mouths or to let 'em loose."

"And they'll lower our supply of food," interposed the girl.

"It looks as though old 'turkey gobler' would starve his own men and not us," chuckled the outlaw. "Still, there's no hurry about deciding what to do with them. They can't do any damage, that's certain. After I take a look round to-morrow and see how the land lays, we can attend to them."

Preys to all sorts of hopes and fears, Jennings and Scotty had passed through an ordeal during the last hour such as seldom falls to the lot of any human. The sight of their comrades beating the mountainside for their captors had inspired them with hope for their own rescue. When Rogers had decided to take them with him, they still clung to this hope. But as the pursuit grew closer, they were in terror lest the outlaw put a bullet into each of them and thus rid himself of the handicap they were to his escape. With the realization that they would probably be kept to serve the purpose of their captor, after they heard from his lips that there was a different place to enter the Cave than the one the troopers were besieging, they lost heart, however. And as their hunger increased with the savory odors coming from the food that Rose was preparing, they wished that the notorious outlaw had, indeed, ended their suffering.

But they were to find that Rogers was not utterly without feeling.

As Rose announced that their meal was ready, the desperado walked over to where the scouts lay.

"I reckon you fellows are a bit hungry," he chuckled. "Now, I tell you what I'm going to do. I'm going to take the gags out of your mouths and give you something to eat. I'll also remove the bandages from your eyes. It won't do you any good to yell or cry out, because we've got enough shells and bullets in this Cave to hold it against a regiment. Besides, if any of your friends up above tried to get in here, unless they struck one particular place, they'd fall way down, clean to hell, I guess. So you see, it won't do you any good to try to start something."

"But they might let 'em know' there was another way to get into the place," interposed Pedro.

"Little good it would do 'em," returned his chief. "They could search a month of Sundays and never find it."

"Still, they might get word to the Fort and then old 'turkey gobler' would order the men out again, which would interfere with our going where we pleased," objected Rose.

"Reckon you're right, girl. It will be a big sight easier for me to carry out my plans if I don't have a bunch of manhunters to dodge for a while.

"Say, you fellows," he exclaimed, turning toward his captives, "if you make any attempt to communicate with the guard up there, I'll chuck you down that crack in the rock--and no one ever comes back from there. So be good and you'll be a big lot happier. Perhaps, if you're real good, after I've carried out my pledge, I'll let you loose. You're a mighty entertaining couple of chaps, but I can't say I should care to have to tote you about with me all the rest of my days, especially as the way, you're togged up is something likely to attract attention."

His words disclosing that the outlaw was in rare good humor, the scouts wisely decided not to bring down his wrath upon them, and accordingly when they were placed at the table and the gags and bandages were removed, they made no outcry, eating gratefully the food which the girl and even Rogers fed them.

But the outlaw's leniency would go no further, as Rose found when she pleaded with him to remove the thongs from their arms and ankles and allow them to stretch their aching limbs.

Indeed, the request seemed to revive his earlier suspicion of the girl.

"Say, what's the matter with you, anyhow, girl?" he demanded. "Here, just because I fed the poor devils, you seem to think I should turn 'em loose. Pretty soon, I suppose you'll be asking me to go to that guard pacing back and forth and give myself up." Then an idea seemed to strike him, and, with a disgusting leer, he said: "I believe this doll-faced kid here has hypnotized you."

"Well, I know _he_ isn't the kind of man that would make you sleep all trussed up the way you've got him," flashed Rose, blushing at the outlaw's words.

"You're dead right, he ain't," retorted Rogers, "because he ain't the sort of chap who would ever catch a man to bind him."

And laughing at his words, evidently considering them mighty clever, the bandit got up from the table, ordered Pedro to place the prisoners on some straw, and threw himself down upon a pile of blankets, keeping his eyes upon Rose, however, till her breathing indicated that she was asleep.