Page:Hendryx--Connie Morgan with the Mounted.djvu/246

228 For answer the woman reached swiftly and tore off the buckskin covering, and once more Connie's eyes rested upon the misshapen outlines of the "Demon's Heart** that showed dull yellow, with its mysterious streaks of red just visible in the fast deepening twilight.

There was a swift movement, a sharp rattle of loose stones, and from the angle of a huge rock fragment a man leaped straight toward them. One hand held a tightly clutched carbine and, stooping swiftly, he snatched the nugget from the ground.

So suddenly had the man appeared, and so swift were his movements that the three stared speechless with amazement. But as his fingers closed about the great nugget, Connie's voice cut sharp and clear on the silence: "Drop that!" The command rang like a pistol shot and, even as he spoke, the boy jerked the service revolver from its holster. With a snarl the man sprang erect and leaped backward to swing his carbine into line. As he did so his heel caught a projecting sliver of rock and with a shrill scream he toppled backward, his body shot out from the edge of the cliff, and went hurtling downward into the darkness.