Skeleton Lode by Ralph Compton Page A

Bollinger didn’t relish the walk to town, and they trusted Gary Davis about as far as Davis trusted them. Still, they needed horses. While Davis might eventually double-cross them, he was in no position to do so now. So they started out, hoping to avoid some of the merciless heat the Arizona sun would unleash later in the day.
     
    By the time Dallas and Arlo reached the upper region of the mountain, the distant gunfire had ceased.
    “It’s all over but the burying, I reckon,” Arlo said. “Knowin” Apaches, I’d gamble that whoever’s still alive is also afoot. I think if we keep a sharp watch, we’ll see somebody hoofin’ it for town pronto. We might get some idea as to who survived.”
     
    They watched for almost two hours before seeing seven tiny dots moving westward. Soon they were lost among the mesquite and paloverde.
     
    “That’s got to be what’s left of that bunch from town,” said Dallas, “and that means they’ve lost eight men since yesterday.”
     
    “We’ve seen the last of them, I think,” Arlo said. “If they were just interested in more horses, they wouldn’t all be walking to town. I’d say they’ve pulled out for good.”
     
    “Unless some of that seven is Davis’s bunch,” said Dallas.
     
    “Not so,” Arlo said. “Look.”
     
    A pair of tiny figures plodded slowly westward and were soon lost in the distance.
     
    “I’d say that’s Rust and Bollinger,” said Arlo. “They’re probably being sent to town for horses and a pack mule. That means we’re not likely to run into the Davis outfit anytime soon.”
     
    But he was wrong. When Dallas and Arlo returned to their hidden camp, they stopped dead in their tracks. Paiute wasn’t alone—Kelly and Kelsey Logan werethere. They sprang to their feet with relieved cries at the sight of the two cowboys. Paiute sat with his old hat tipped over his eyes, seeming not to notice.
     
    “Dear God,” Kelsey cried, “are we glad to see you!”
     
    “We’re just as glad to see you,” replied Arlo. “But how do we tell you apart?”
     
    “Kelly has a birthmark just below her belly button. I don’t.”
     
    The cowboys blushed and the girls laughed. Then the conversation turned serious.
     
    “Who is he?” Kelly asked, pointing to Paiute.
     
    “That’s Paiute,” said Arlo. “The last twenty years of your uncle’s life, Paiute was with him. He’s mute, unable to talk.”
     
    “He scared us half to death,” Kelsey said. “We fought him, but he tied our hands and made us walk for miles through the dark.”
     
    “Tell us everything that’s happened,” said Dallas. “We’ll listen while the two of you talk. Then we’ll answer your questions and tell you as much as we know about all this.”
     
    Kelly and Kelsey talked for more than an hour, taking turns telling of events up to and including the killing of Paulette Davis.
     
    “It was all so strange,” said Kelly. “After he—Paiute—forced us back into the dark passage, he tied us so we couldn’t get loose. He lit a piece of pine so we wouldn’t be alone in the dark, and then he returned to the cavern. When he came back, he had Mother—Mother’s body—all wrapped in blankets. We watched him find a place for her in another passage, and … and that’s where we left her. He untied our feet and led us here.”
     
    “I’m glad he took Mother away,” Kelsey said. “I want Gary Davis to wonder for the rest of his rotten life what became of her. I want him always to be afraid when he hears a sound in the night.”
     
    “I wouldn’t be surprised if that’s what Paiute had in mind,” said Arlo. “He’s a sensitive old fellow, and bein’ honest, I have to tell you this was entirely his idea.”
     
    “We wanted to rescue you,” Dallas added hastily, “but we hadn’t come up with a plan. Paiute heard us talking, and he knows these mountains well enough that he was able to get to you. God, that was beautiful, the way he slipped both of