Page:J Allan Dunn--The Girl of Ghost Mountain.djvu/255

237 slowly, came Red, gun in hand. Beyond the opening, tremulous light played curiously. It strengthened to brilliant, well-defined radiance that seemed to be projected from lenses.

"They come all of a sudden," Bill announced. "Me, I was peelin' spuds when they come sneakin' up, silent over the sand, two cars of 'em. Had their lights way down. I catches the sound of the engines an' I starts to pussy-foot it over here. Struck me thet organization looked too bisnesslike. I was half-way over, sneakin' through the brush when they spots me an' throws up the lights full. Me, I was like a vodivil actor in the spotlight. One of 'em fires an' fires damn straight. Red, he jumps out of the cave here an' takes a crack back. He yells for me to run for it. An' covers me with another shot at the Chinks."

"Chinese?" As Sheridan spoke he glanced down the passage towards the entrance. Plain in the light that shone on the portal, a head and neck was thrust, peering into the cave. It vanished as Sheridan flung a bullet humming for the mark. For a split-second it had shown clear to all of them: a flattened nose, high cheekbones, cruel mouth. The glitter of slanting eyes, the face of a Chinaman of the lower type, piratical, murderous! A hatchet-man, a Tong-killer!

"I suppose I give the whole show away, boltin' in here like a rabbit," said the wounded rider, baring his wounded arm for Sheridan's inspection. "But I figgered I c'ud warn you. Did you git one of 'em, Red?"