When Jack Clegg and Manuel emerged from the depths with their plunder, they were pretty well bushed by their strenuous efforts. In the fading sunlight of the late afternoon, they sat down to get their breath back. Clegg took a look at the sun and reckoned aloud that Southern would be riding in by dawn.
Manuel said earnestly: “Ignacio was enough, Clegg. Too much. So you must allow the others to go. There has been enough blood spilled.”
Clegg gave him the careless look which men of substance offer their inferiors.
“Sure,” he said, and there was as much sincerity in his single word as he cared to offer—which was very little. Manuel was no fool and he knew it. Clegg should have seen the signs then. A thief with Manuel’s kind of conscience is a fish out of water.
But Clegg was on top of the world and he could see no reason in the headiness of the moment why he should not stay there.
He almost lost his balance there when he heard the girl’s voice.
“I see you’ve been busy, boys.”
Startled, they both turned.
Pilar was a beautiful woman whether she’d just thrown you off-balance or not. Their brief moment of fear was mixed with admiration for her.
Clegg said: “There’s plenty more where this came from.”
“May I look?”
“Be my guest,” said Clegg and loosened the rawhide thong that held a parfleche. His mind was continuing his previous thoughts about this girl. She had a body he could make good use of; he liked to have a woman around. Added to which, this one had class. And he never had a woman with class. Now that he was rich, he could afford to raise his sights. His thoughts pleased him. He was pleased too when he saw the girl’s reaction to the sight of the gold. It was the nearest thing to honest, plain lust he had seen on her face. It aroused male lust in him for her. Lust for gold, he found, was not dissimilar from lust for a woman. She picked up a delicate brooch and held it up in the waning sunlight.
“I never saw anything more beautiful,” she said.
“Beautiful women,” he said, “should have beautiful things. Keep it.”
She put the trinket back. “No. I have my fair share coming.”
“Suit yourself.”
“So you have an arrangement with the sheriff, Jack?”
He liked the way she used his given name. “Sure.”
“So it makes sense for me to have an arrangement with you. I’m a realist if nothing else. It seems as if you have taken over here.”
“Keno.”
“What happened to McAllister, Charlie and Ignacio?”
She had him off-balance again and the fact made him a little mad. He said: “We had some trouble down there below. It ain’t the kind of thing a man likes to talk about to a lady.”
“Try me. I’m not easily shocked.”
“The three of them jumped Manuel an’ me. They reckoned to have all the gold for themselves. Me an’ Manuel didn’t have no choice. That’s the truth, ain’t it, Manuel?”
The Mexican was just a fraction too slow in saying: “Yes.”
“Did you kill them?”
“Kill them?” Clegg sounded shocked. “We didn’t have no choice like I said. The old man and Ignacio got themselves shot. Manuel an’ me was fightin’ for our lives.”
Manuel was quicker this time and he volunteered—“That is so, señorita.”
The girl left silence between them for a full minute, then she asked in a casual kind of way: “What about McAllister?”
Clegg began to sound like a solid citizen. “McAllister’s a wanted man. He has to stand trial. An’ he didn’t have the guts to jump us. We have him tied up down there. We’ll hand him over to the sheriff when he gets here. That McAllister is a desperate character. The kind that ought to be locked up like a mad dog. Don’t you waste no sympathy on that one, miss.”
She smiled and said: “I shan’t I promise you.”
They gathered up their burdens again and started for the camp. The girl stayed where she was. As soon as they were out of sight, she rose, went to the head of the steps and looked down into the dark maw below. She admitted to herself that she was scared, but she knew that she would have to go ahead. A man’s life depended on it. She thought with a smile: And not just a man’s life Pilar—also your gold. She reached into a pocket for her stub of candle, begged from one of the Mexicans, and lit it with a match scratched on a step. Now, she slowly descended the steps.