Laramie Holds the Range | Page 5

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road--was where he had purposed setting Kate over, as he expressed it,
to the ranch. Double-draw bridge--on the road to the fort and
Reservation--was two miles above.
The horses climbed the long hill again and started on the road for the
bridge.
"If the Double-draw is out," sighed Belle resignedly, "I reckon we're
trapped."
For the first time now they could hear the hoofs of the two teams
sinking into and pulling out of mud. It grew deeper as they descended
the long grade toward the bridge and clouds obscured the light of the
stars.
With the horses stumbling on, the women watched for something to
meet either sight or hearing, but there was nothing until they again
neared the creek. Then the same vague roar rose on the night and as
they rimmed the bench above the creek a faint, ghastly light on the
eastern horizon betokened a rising moon. Down the trail they stopped
in darkness and Bradley again clambered down from his box with the
lantern to investigate.
"'Z fur 'z I c'n see," he reported when he came back, "th' bridge is all
right, but mos'ly under water."
"Can we get across?" Belle Shockley asked querulously.
Bradley answered with hesitation: "Why--yes----"
"Oh, good!"
"And no."
"What does that mean?" snapped Belle.
"We can't get across tonight--we might in the mornin'."
Kate kept silence, but Belle was persistent. "What are we going to do?"

she demanded; "go 'way back to Sleepy Cat?"
"Not in a milyun years," returned Bradley, calmly. "We're goin' to pull
out t' one side 'n' camp right here till daylight. Ef I didn't have you
wimmen on my hands, I might take a chanst with the mail," he went on,
drawing his horses carefully around to where he meant to camp. "Me
and the horses could make it, even 'f we lost the wagon. But I w'dn't
like the job of huntin' for you folks in the Crazy Woman with a
lantern--not tonight. She's surely a-rip-roarin'. Well; t'hell with her 'n'
all creeks like her, say I," he wound up, chirruping kindly to his
uncomplaining beasts.
"You don't like creeks," suggested Belle.
"Dry creeks--yes. Wouldn't care if I never seen another wet creek from
now till kingdom come--Whoa, Nellie!" he called to the off lead mare
who was feeling the way for her companions back to a safe spot for a
halt. "This is good, right here."
Belle showed her fellow-traveler how to lie down with some comfort
on the leather seat, and as they had one for each she gave Kate her
choice. Kate, to put Belle between her and any man in front, took the
back seat. The side curtains were let down and with a mail sack
supplied by Bradley for a pillow, Kate, drawing her big coat over her,
curled up for a rest.
The excitement of the journey had worn away. The delay she was
disposed to accept philosophically. It took some time for Bradley to
unhitch and dispose of the horses to his satisfaction, and theirs, and his
mumblings and the sound of their moving about and champing their
bits fell a long time on Kate's drowsy ears. Belle went to sleep at once,
and though sleep was the last thing Kate expected to achieve, she did
fall asleep--with the Crazy Woman singing wildly in her ears.
She had hardly lost herself, it seemed, when Bradley roused his
passengers. The storm waters were creeping up over the bench where
they had camped and with much impatient sputtering, Bradley hitched
the pole team to the stage and, in his pet, retreated into the hills for

assured safety. Even the noise of the flood failed to follow them there
and they disposed themselves once more to rest.
How long she slept this time, Kate did not know, but she was awakened
by voices.
The night had grown very cold and death itself could not have been
more silent. Yet at intervals Kate heard the low converse of two voices;
they were not far away and both were men's.
A panic seized her. Her heart beat like the roll of a drum and then
nearly stopped. What might happen now? she asked herself. And what
could she fear but the worst? In the dead of night--marooned in a wild
country, with only a queer woman and two strange men. Could it be a
plot? she asked herself. In the fear that gripped her she could hardly
breathe, and to think was only to invite added agonies of apprehension.
She sat quickly up, breathing hurriedly now and her heart racing. Then
she heard the even breathing of her companion on the seat ahead. To
make sure it was she, Kate put her hand over and touched Belle's
shoulder. Reassured a little, but