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[53] <h2>CHAPTER V. CAUGHT IN THE HILLS.</h2> Next morning, in a fresh disguise, Patsy went over to Bronco Bill’s and saw Snell eating breakfast. The detective felt relieved. He had feared that the man might have been so frightened by the drunken horseman as to light out. Patsy had now been studying the man for several days. “I can’t make him out,” he said to himself, “but I don’t believe he’s a regular crook.” The detective was inclined to think that Snell had been up to crooked work, but that he was new to it. He went back to his lodging almost at once, and watched. Snell came to the door of Bronco Bill’s and stood there a moment, looking up and down the street. “He wants to walk for exercise,” thought the waiting detective, “but he doesn’t dare to get far away, for he’s expecting somebody. I won’t bother to follow him.” So Snell that morning took his walks alone. They were not long ones. [54] He was always back at Bronco Bill’s within ten minutes from the time he started. At length he went in and stayed there. Patsy went across and looked in long enough to see that Snell had found an old book somewhere, and was reading it in the barroom. It was almost noon when the man Snell had been expecting came. The detective knew it before Snell did. Watching from his window, he saw a man come rapidly up from the direction of the railroad. He walked as if he knew where he was going, and he turned in at Bronco Bill’s. It was the stranger who had come so near to murdering Snell a short time before in New York City. “Now we’re getting down to business!” thought Patsy, with great satisfaction. It had been a long wait, and he was a little tired of it. Every day he had sent a telegram to Nick, saying, simply: “No change,” or “Nothing doing.” Meantime, he had received no word from his chief. So he knew that there was nothing for him to do but stay there and watch. [55] Of course, he crossed over to the saloon soon after the stranger went in. He was disguised so that neither knew him, and Bronco Bill did not suspect that the man who asked for a cigar was the one who had done the wonderful shooting the night before. Snell and the stranger were eating dinner at a table in the corner. They did no talking. Patsy returned to his watching place. After dinner, the stranger went away alone. The detective would have liked to follow, but it was his business to spot Snell. So he stayed where he was. Some three hours passed, and then the stranger returned. He went into the saloon, and almost immediately came out again with Snell. They walked away rapidly. Patsy was after them. Thinking that there might be some such excursion as this, the detective had bought a horse. The animal was stabled a few doors from his lodging[56] house, where he could be got quickly, and he was kept saddled all the time. But there was no use for him on this trip. The men walked through the city, and they acted as if they were in a hurry, but they walked, and Patsy thought it better to follow them in the same way. As long as they were in busy streets he had no difficulty in keeping close to them. When they came to a long street, where the houses were scattered, he fell a little further behind. And at last they were in the open country, with no house at all in sight ahead. Then the detective had to be very cautious. He decided to get into a field alongside the road, where he could dodge behind bushes. It was well he took this precaution when he did. He had hardly left the road when both men wheeled about suddenly. They stood for a full minute, looking back toward the city. There could be no doubt that some sudden fear of pursuit had made them turn. Patsy stooped behind a low bush and waited. [57] At last they went on, but Snell turned frequently, and Patsy was kept on the dodge all the time. This continued for two miles or more. By then the road had brought them to hilly land, and the detective was thinking that his pursuit would be easier, when the two turned aside and began to climb a steep hill. It was covered with trees, and there was no path. Dead wood was on the ground everywhere. A man’s footsteps could be heard a long way, no matter how carefully he proceeded. Therefore, it was not possible any longer to keep the men in sight. Patsy took the chance of cutting across ahead of where the men seemed to be aiming for. In this way he thought he might come to the top of the hill before they did. Perhaps he succeeded. He could not tell, for, when he got to the hilltop, they were not to be seen. He waited a bit, and listened for a sound of their voices, or footsteps, but heard nothing. The hill dipped steeply on the other side, and there were many hills beyond. [58] It was a very wild place, only partly wooded, and there seemed to be deep gullies in every direction. “They didn’t come out here for their health,” thought Patsy. “It was to meet somebody. “Probably that somebody is waiting in one of these gullies. “Which one? “It’s almost as good a place for hiding as a big city is.” After some little thought he went part way down the hill, then along the side until he came near the edge of a ravine. While he was cautiously approaching the edge, he heard a laugh somewhere below him. In the ravine, undoubtedly. Then that was where the men had gone. Patsy saw a rock a short distance away, from behind which he thought he might be able to look down into the ravine without being seen. A few cautious steps and he was beside it. Leaning far over it, he found that he had chosen the spot luckily; for a little way below him he saw a group of men, most of them roughly dressed. Among them were Snell and his strange companion. [59] They were talking earnestly. At that moment, Snell’s companion was speaking, and the others were listening. His words came faintly to Patsy’s ears. “I tell you,” he said, “we’re ready to pay the price, but you’ve got to deliver the goods. There’s nothing unfair in that. We’ve come out here to tell you so, but you can’t deliver the goods here, can you?” “That’ll be all right,” said one of the rough men. “Oh! will it? How do we know?” demanded Snell’s companion. “We don’t propose to put our feet into a trap.” At this some of the men laughed hoarsely. “Supposin’,” suggested one of them, “we don’t let you get out of this gulch alive?” Snell could be seen to start uncomfortably. His companion was unmoved. “In that case,” he retorted, “you’d leave a couple of worthless stiffs here for the crows to pick. That’s all.” “Do you mean that you haven’t brought the stuff with you?” “That’s it, exactly.” “Then what the dev——” [60] “Why!” interrupted Snell’s companion, “we’re here to let you know that we’re acting on the square. Prove that you’re on the square, too, and we can do business.” The men looked at each other. “Don’t like it,” grumbled one. “Well,” said another, the youngest in the party, “I think they’ve got the best of the argument. Here they are, just as they agreed to be. They haven’t gone to any detectives, and it’s our business now to hand over the goods——” Patsy was greatly interested, wondering whether this young man would persuade the gang to his way of thinking, when, without the least warning, strong hands were laid upon him. He turned like a flash at the first touch. His hand raised the revolver that he had been clutching from the moment when he lay down behind the rock. But there was no use in firing it. The bullet wouldn’t have hit anybody. His assailants had every advantage of him. He had been caught by both feet and yanked backward. Others had grabbed him by the arms. [61] Still another dropped a noose over his head and pulled it tight. A little more strain on that rope, and the detective would have been choked to death. In much less time than it takes to tell it, they had him with his hands securely bound behind his back. The detective was helpless. And up to this moment, nobody had said a word, and no sound of the capture had reached the ears of the men in the ravine. <hr class="chap" /></div> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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