Page:Stewart Edward White--The Rose Dawn.djvu/355

Rh tightly that movement was all but impossible. They did not act drunk.

The arrival at Corbell's ranch house was at a little after day-break, that time just before the sun comes over the hill, when the air is shivery, the light gray, and the rose-coloured east is paling rapidly to the clarities of yellow and green. In the half light the men's faces looked gray and fatigued. The flame of Boyd's anger had sunk with his vitality. He had become viciously sullen.

Sheridan and Hunter got out stiffly either side the buckboard.

"We stop here," said Sheridan, briefly.

They went into the central part of the ranch house, and after a moment's hesitation Boyd followed them. Hunter was rapidly constructing a fire in the big fireplace, while Sheridan was fussing with an alcohol coffee machine that stood ready on the side table. Presently the flames were leaping up the chimney. Hunter then went out; and a moment later his huge voice could be heard arousing the Chinese cook.

"We'll have breakfast in a few minutes," he observed, returning. "Better thaw out, Mr. Boyd."

Boyd drew near the grateful warmth. These men were cold sober. The prank, if it was a prank, was not the freak product of whim; it was being carried out deliberately. For what earthly purpose? A bet? That might well be; but in the last analysis this did not seem a convincing solution. These men were wild enough and careless enough of opinion: but they were gentlemen and good sportsmen and not likely to bet in cold blood on a feat that would bring so great a degree of discomfort and inconvenience to an outsider. Nor would it be a funny bet, as it might be were they to kidnap old Major Gaylord, or somebody of like dignity. It seemed more serious, more planned than a joke.

If not a joke, then what the motive? Self-interest. What self-interest, and how was it to be served? Boyd's logical mind attacked these problems one at a time. Leaving for later consideration what the self-interest might be, how could kidnapping him in this fashion further it? Either they would try to intimidate him into some course of action: or they were getting