Lost Pueblo (1992) (18 page)

"Wife? Phillip Randolph?... Good God! But you're Janey Endicott. Your father said you were here."

"You're crazy. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

"No, I'm not crazy, but you are."

Janey pointed imperiously down the canyon. "Take your horse and get out of here."

"Janey Endicott, you can't stall me like that," he replied, hotly. "I've come clear across the country to rescue you from your father. This is how I fmd you! It has a damn queer look!"

His eyes held a sharp suspecting glint of anger and jealous doubt.

"Poor boy!" said Janey, solicitously. "You must have gotten away from your keeper. There! There! Run along and fmd him."

Bert pointed to Janey's left hand. "If you're Mrs. Randolph, where's your wedding ring?"

"In the years I've lived here with my husband, I never saw the like of you," declared Janey. "Either you're an escaped lunatic or a college freshman--trying to impersonate Hopalong Cassidy. I'm going to call my husband."

"Go ahead. It'll be great when Mother sees you. Janey, it's your wheels that are twisted, not mine." Then he seemed to become genuinely concerned. "You know, Janey, you do look strained and queer. My God! You might have lost your memory!"

Janey backed away trying to elude him, but he moved to stand in front of her.

"No, you won't escape that way. I'm going to make you remember."

"Let me by!" cried Janey, wildly. She was really possessed with an infernal glee. What would Phil say to this? "Get out, or I'll have my Phil take care of you."

"Janey, dear, you're strange. Your eyes. Try to concentrate. I'm Bert. Bert Durland. Something terrible has been done to you or you'd remember me and how I love you. Why I couldn't hurt a hair of your lovely head."

Janey kept maneuvering for a loophole to dodge through.

"If you touch me I'll scream!"

Bert made a lunge and captured her, and before Janey could thwart his intention he had grasped her hand and looked at her ring. "There! You are Janey Endicott. I know that diamond as well as if it were my own. It was a present from your father."

"Stop mauling me," cried Janey, breaking free from him. "I don't know you. I never saw you in my life!"

"You do it well, Janey, if you're not truly mad. I'm afraid there's something behind all this, young lady, and I'm going to find out."

Indeed there was, Janey thought; and never in her wildest flights of imagination could she have planned anything so good. She almost wanted to hug Bert for happening along at this opportune hour. Then voices drew Bert's attention and he hurried to meet Randolph, of whom Janey caught a glimpse among the cedars. She ran up the rock slope to hide in a niche where she could not be easily discovered. When she got herself satisfactorily crouched she peeped out with eyes that fairly danced. This was better than any comedy she had ever seen. Bert and Randolph were approaching. Randolph had a baffled look. His sweeping gaze about camp explained to Janey one of the reasons he was so concerned. She wondered what had become of Mrs. Durland.

Bert viewed the desert camp in dismay. "I'll be damned!" he ejaculated.

"Will you please produce the young lady?" demanded Randolph, stiffly.

"She's gone."

"My dear young fellow, she was never here."

"I tell you she was," retorted Durland, angrily. "Janey," he yelled. "You come back here. This has gone far enough."

"I agree with you," said Randolph.

"She was here. I talked with her, though she denied she was Janey. She looked awful. Her clothes were soiled and torn--dress up to her neck. Most disgraceful! And either her reason's gone or she's a clever actress."

At this point Mrs. Durland appeared, red and puffing.

"Bert--this Mr. Randolph--talks strange," she panted. "He left me a few minutes ago most unceremoniously. There's no other camp. Janey isn't here."

"Yes she is, Mother. Or she was a moment ago," asserted Bert, positively. "But now she's gone."

"Gone! Where?"

"I haven't an idea. She just vanished."

"Why don't you fmd her? You've chased her long and far--why not a little more? My son, you act queer."

"There you are," interposed Randolph, with exaggerated conviction. "Why don't you chase this hallucination of yours? I'm sorry indeed to see a fine young fellow like you, laboring under mental aberration."

"What?" snapped Bert.

Randolph turned to Mrs. Durland: "Have you ever had your son under observation or--er--examined, you know?"

"You--you--commoner! How dare you!" burst out Mrs. Durland.

"Really, I don't mean offense. If he was all right then it's the long ride, the heat, the loneliness of the desert. These things act powerfully upon some persons, especially any who are not strong mentally and physically."

Bert strode forward to confront Randolph with dark and angry mien.

"See here, Sir," he said, "cut that stuff. You're trying to string me. But you can't do it. I tell you there was a girl here not ten minutes ago. If she wasn't Janey Endicott then I am out of my head. But it was Janey, and it's she who is crazy. She doesn't know who she is. She forgot she's engaged to marry me."

"Engaged to you!" ejaculated Randolph, taken aback.

"Yes, to me. Ask Mother."

Randolph turned bewildered with a voiceless query.

"There was an understanding between my son and Miss Endicott," replied Mrs. Durland. "No formal announcement, but all their friends knew."

Randolph seemed stunned.

"Look here, Randolph," spoke up Bert, suddenly. "Are you a married man?"

"Certainly not," replied Randolph, surprised into the truth.

"So! That's it!" shouted Bert, triumphantly. "I've a hunch you're a damned villain. Wait until I find that girl!" He rushed to and fro, and finally disappeared round the corner.

"Mrs. Durland, don't you think I had better stop him?" queried Randolph, in real concern. "This canyon is a big place. He could get lost or fall off a cliff. He's so slim he could almost slip down into a gopher hole."

"I don't care what happens," complained Mrs. Durland. "I'm overcome at this shocking turn of affairs. I'm beginning to think Janey Endicott was here. The fools men make of themselves over that girl!... I wish I'd never come to your miserable old ruin. I'll crumble myself before I get away."

"Courage, Madam. All is not lost!"

"Stop calling me Madam," replied the woman, testily. "My name is Mrs. Durland."

"Pardon... Shall I endeavor to locate your son before he..."

Bert hove in sight at that moment high up on the shelving rock. Janey had caught sight of him before the others, and she tried to melt into the niche. But she was a little too substantial. Part of her protruded and young Durland saw it.

"Aha!" he shouted, leaping down the slope. Janey wanted at least to show her face, because she was fighting a wild laugh, but as soon as Bert laid rough hands on her, she blazed with wrath.

"Here you are. Come out of it," he said, exultantly. "Hey, you down there. I've found her."

"Let go of me, you--you..." cried Janey.

"You shameless thing! No wonder you can't face me... Out you come!"

"Let go!--Philip!" shrieked Janey, as Bert dragged her out. She wrenched free to glare at him.

"Durland, I'll knock your head off," called Randolph, loudly.

"So he is your party?" sneered Bert, in jealous contempt. "I'm on to you, Janey Endicott. This beats any stunt you ever pulled back East. Came out West for a real kick, eh? Well! Won't it sound sweet back home?"

"Yes, and you'll be just about the kind to blab about it," retorted Janey.

"Come on down here. You've got to face them," he said, snatching at her.

Durland did not release her even when they reached a level. In fact, he dragged her in a most undignified, if not actually brutal way, toward his mother.

"Phil!" cried Janey, in pain and mortification.

Randolph intercepted Durland and gave him a resounding slap that was certainly equivalent to a blow. Durland went down in a heap. His grand sombrero rolled in the dust.

"You blackguard!" screamed Mrs. Durland. "To strike my son! You'll suffer for this."

Bert got tangled up in his long spurs and with difficulty restored his equilibrium.

"Say, you young jackass," declared Randolph, coolly. "If you touch this young lady again, I'll take a real poke at you."

"Don't hit him, Phil," interposed Janey, trying to recover her humor. "I don't want his death on our hands."

Then ensued an awkward silence. Bert went from white to red. He brushed the dust from his immaculate riding breeches, and picked up the huge velvet sombrero. Meanwhile Mrs. Durland was staring in wide-eyed recognition at Janey.

"Well, Mother, do you know the young lady? Was I right or wrong?"

"Right, Bertrand," snapped Mrs. Durland. Whereupon Bert turned to the others. "Janey, I've got the goods on you," he said. "You needn't take the trouble to keep up the farce any longer. What I can't understand is that your father should tell us you were here."

"I can't understand that, either," replied Janey, soberly.

"He must have guessed it and hoped I'd rescue you," went on Bert. "Or else he saw you gone beyond redemption."

"That probably is it, Bert," said Janey, with sweet meekness.

Randolph appeared the most uncomfortable of the four, although Mrs. Durland was getting ready to explode.

"Anyway, it's too late," concluded Durland, with bitterness.

"Randolph, you told me you were not married. 'Certainly not,' you said."

"Yes, I--did," returned Randolph, haltingly, as if his mind was not working.

"There! Janey, you swore you were Mrs. Phillip Randolph, didn't you?" went on the accuser, bolder as he recognized he had the whip hand.

"Yes, I--did," returned Janey, bending terrible eyes upon Phillip.

"Miss Endicott!" burst out Mrs. Durland, in accents of horror. "You're here with this man alone?"

"Yes, but not willingly, Mrs. Durland," answered Janey, with profound sorrow. "He kidnaped me."

"Kidnaped you? Good heavens! Then he isn't what he pretends to be?"

"Indeed he isn't."

"Desperado--Wild West villain sort of man?" she whispered, huskily.

"Worse than that."

Durland had turned pale at this revelation. His distended eyes, fast upon Randolph, denoted both fear and anger.

"Your name isn't Randolph?" he queried, apprehensively.

"Looks as if my name is mud," returned Randolph, coming out of his stupefaction.

"Bert, the truth is he is Black Dick, a notorious character hereabouts," explained Janey.

"Black Dick! I--heard about him from the driver," rejoined Durland, apprehensively. "But, Janey, why did you try to deceive me about yourself? Why didn't you tell me in the first place who this man was?"

"It was the shame--the ignominy of it all, Bert," she said, enjoying Randolph's discomfort. "I knew he'd drive you off and I thought I could get away with that story. I'd rather have died out here than have--anyone know."

"And he actually kidnaped you?"

"Well, I just guess he did. Ambushed me when I was in camp with friends on the way here. He caught me alone. Seems he followed all the way from the post where he'd been watching me for days. He grabbed me. I fought with all my might. But he was too much for me. Tied me on a horse. Oh, it was awful! Look at these black-and-blue marks. These are nothing to others I have that I--I can't very well show you. I had to ride a whole day and night in the most terrible storm. When we got here I was more dead than alive."

"By heaven, it's like a book!" ejaculated Durland. "Kidnaped you for ransom? Heard about your dad's wealth, of course?"

"No, Bert, it isn't money he's after," declared Janey. "I imagined that at first. And I offered to give him everything from ten to a hundred thousand dollars. But the brute would only laugh and kiss me again. Swears the minute he saw me at the post he went mad over me."

Bert's consternation and fright were strong, but he laughed--hysterically--nonetheless. He rocked to and fro.

"Ha! Ha! Ha! Ha! It was coming to you--Janey Endicott! Drove him mad? Ha! Ha! He's only one of many. Prefers making love to you to a hundred thousand bucks!... By golly, you've finally got the kick you were always longing for!"

"Bert, I deserve all I'm getting," rejoined Janey, sadly resigned.

"Why didn't your father get word of this? What is the matter with your friends?"

"I think they must have been captured by Black Dick's outfit and are being held."

"My God! And--and where is Randolph, the archaeologist? They said he was here."

Janey managed a convincing moan. "There was a Mr. Randolph, a wonderful man, but now he's--he's gone, and there's nobody but this vicious desperado left."

Bert turned white. "You mean "Hush!" Janey almost screamed. "Don't remind me!"