Page:Allan Dunn--Dead Man's Gold.djvu/83

Rh kisses. Perhaps I might give what I would not sell, if Kiss me," she broke off, imperiously.

Her lips sought his and clung to them passionately. Then she lithely released herself from his arms. A scrap of folded paper was thrust into his hand, his fingers folded over it.

"Where are you going?" she whispered.

"I don't know," he answered, frankly.

"I shall find out," she returned. "Put that note away and read it when you are by yourself. Then destroy it. I must go."

She was standing by now on the running-board, on the opposite side from the three waiting men. She leaned forward, caught his head between her hands, kissed him, leaped down, and disappeared in the dusk, wrapped in a long cloak above her finery. Stone shifted over and called to the rest.

As they sped across the line and up the main street of Calexico to their hotel, Healy was voluble in praise of Stone and rejoicing at their own safety.

"We're well out of that joint," he concluded. "There's going to be blood-letting over those bets."

Stone laughed suddenly.

"I won and we didn't make a cent by it," he said. "We went there to make a stake and I lost my sixty right off the reel and then bulled the deal for you. Did either of you save anything?"

"I was breaking about even," said Healy. "I cashed in seventy dollars when the row started."

"That won't take us far," said Stone. "Just what is the next move, Healy?"