Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/253

Rh alarms. The two girls went to sleep in each other's arms while Harvey brooded over them like a patriarch.

The stars were still bright, though their side of the butte was in blackness with the moon sinking westward, when a sound aroused them all as if it had been the trumptrumpet [sic] of Gabriel. It was the "honk-honk!" of an auto horn blaring across the quiet mesa. Another sounded in a different note. They were far away but the honking continued louder and louder.

"They're scarin' 'Ealy orf," said Larkin. "S'pose they fink we may be hup hagainst it. 'Ell, there they go."

Out of the dark shadow of the neighbouring butte came a bunch of horsemen, flying toward the ravine that led up to the mesa. Stone and Harvey and Larkin let loose at the racing targets and one man fell behind the rest, dismounted, caught a riderless horse that had belonged to one of the dead Mexicans, and tore after his comrades, leaving his first mount dead.

"It's a shyme to hit the 'orses stead of the Greasers," said Larkin. "Hi, they're hafter 'em. Let 'em know we're halive."

They fired again and shouted as the horns blared and a big car appeared the other side of the butte from which the riders had come, and went lunging through the soft soil in pursuit. It was filled with men, and jets of fire prefaced the sharp reports of their rifles. A second car came on toward the treasure-butte as the two girls added their ululating "cooee's" to the shouts of the men.