Page:Weird Tales Volume 43 Number 02 (1951-01).djvu/63

 "No. You don’t try rattlers. We found eleven bodies in the orchard. But what I remember most is the body of the little girl. She must have been still alive when they buried her." The sun rose. The day wore on. At noon the Benders stopped at a farmhouse for water, and learned that they were on the right road. They might be able to make Vinita by dark. Kate, sighing with relief, did not resist when John drew her down under the wagon seat.

Afterward they chatted idly over plans, what they should do with the money they had taken from the travelers who had stopped at the Bender farmhouse. John wanted to start a restaurant in Denison, Kate wanted to keep on with the seances and the lecturing. Sne spoke of the good luck she'd had curing deafness and epileptic fits. Or the four of them might buy another farm. Why not? They had plenty of rhino, John said.

As the sun began to wester, Kate dozed. She leaned against John, her body swaying to the steady jogging. Once she said petulantly, "Vinita sure is a long way off."

At sundown the posse reached a crossroads. Sanders dismounted to check, the wagon tracks. As he grasped the pommel again he was frowning. "They've turned," he told the men with him, gesturing to the right. "They're headed back."

"Why?” asked the lieutenant after a moment.

Sanders shrugged. "The devil knows. May be trying to throw us off the track."

T WAS quite dark when the wagon stopped, Vinita still unreached. Kate was drunk with sleepiness. John roused her and helped her out.

"Vinita?" she asked as she reached the ground.

"No, Kate. Not yet. First thing tomorrow, I guess."

She stood looking around her. The moon had not risen; it was difficult to see anything. Suddenly she gathered up her skirts and ran like a wild thing. After a moment they heard her screaming, "John! John! We’ve come back. This is the same place!"

When he got up to her she pointed at the skeleton. She picked up the arrow and handed it to him. "They've brought us back to the same place."

He let the point fall from his fingers. "What do you mean? Who has?"

"The Indians. They wouldn't let us get away. They brought us back. The dead—don’t you see, John?—the dead stick together."

He stared at her in the darkness. Then he grasped her by the shoulder and began to pull her after him with desperate energy. "Hurry! Hurry! The wagon! We've got to get away!"

But as they neared the wagon they heard a thunder and a plunging, and then old man Bender's voice crying despairingly, "Whoa! Whoa! Damn you, come back!"

"The team’s run off," Kate said simply. "I knew they wouldn’t let us get away."

He began to wrench at the wagon sides, tearing off planking. "We'll make a fire, a big fire. They can't get past it. And paw will get out the guns."

"That's right," Kate said, cheering. "And we'll stay awake, all of us. Maybe if. . . ."

There were noises on the other side of the wagon as the night got older. Once old man Bender said, "What's dot whooping?" and Kate laughed.

The fire died down and was replenished with the wagon seats. Kate yawned, and then John and the others. He said, "We've got to stay awake."

About two in the morning Professor Kate realized abruptly that the others were sleeping. She ran from one to the other, shaking them, screaming their names. They wouldn't wake.

Morning came. John said, "Guess we must have gone to sleep, h'um, Kate?"

"I guess so. I remember dreaming. I'm awful tired."

John Bender yawned. "Well, anyway, we're all right. We was silly to worry. And look, the team's come back."

LD man Bender was silently harnessing the horses. When he was done they climbed in the wagon. The front seat was still intact, but John and his sister had to sit on the floor. After they had driven for 