Three hours it took them to search the various passages where Eddie thought it possible that Marian had turned aside. Bud saw that the trail through was safe as any such trail could be, and he wondered at the nerve and initiative of the girl and the boy who had explored the place and found where certain queer twists and turns would lead. Afterwards he learned that Marian was twelve and Eddie ten when first they had hidden there from Indians, and they had been five years in finding where every passage led. Also, in daytime the place was not so fearsome, since sunlight slanted down into many a passageway through the blow-holes high above.
"She ain't here. I knew she wasn't," Eddie announced when the final tunnel let them into the graying light of dawn beyond the Peak.
"In that case--" Bud glanced from him to Jerry, who was blowing out his lantern.
Jerry let down the globe carefully, at the same time glancing soberly at Bud. "The kid knows better than we do what would happen if Lew met up with her and Boise."
Eddie shook his head miserably, his eyes fixed helpessly upon Bud. "Lew never, Mr. Birnie. I was with him every minute from dark till--till the cashier,shot him. We come up the way I took you through the canyon. Lew never knew she was gone any more than I did."
Jerry bit his lip. "Kid, what if the gang run acrost her, KNOWING Lew was dead?" he grated. "And her on Boise? The word's out that Bud stole Boise. Dave and the boys rode out to round him up--and they ain't done it, so they're still riding--we'll hope. Kid, you know damn well your gang would double-cross Dave in a minute, now Lew's killed. If they got hold of the horse, do yuh think they'd turn him over to Dave?"
"No, you bet your life they wouldn't!" Eddie retorted.
"And what about HER?" Bud cut in with ominous calm. "She's your sister, kid. Would you be worried if you knew they had HER and the horse?"
Eddie gulped and looked away. "They wouldn't hurt her unless they knew't Lew was dead," he said. "And them that went to Crater was killed or jailed, so--" He hesitated. "It looked to me like Anse was setting up waiting for the bunch to get back from Crater. He--he's always jumpy when they go off and stay, and it'd be just like him to set there and wait till daylight. It looks to me, Mr. Birnie, like him and--and the rest don't know yet that the Crater job was a fizzle. They wouldn't think of such a thing as taking Sis, or Boise either, unless they knew Lew was dead."
"Are you sure of that?" Bud had him in a grip that widened the boy's eyes with something approaching fear.
"Yes sir, Mr. Birnie, I'm sure. What didn't go to Crater stayed in camp--or was gone on some other trip. No, I'm sure!" He jerked away with sudden indignation at Bud's disbelief. "Say! Do you think I'm bad enough to let my sister get into trouble with the Catrockers? I know they never got her. More'n likely it's Dave."
"Dave went up Burroback Valley," Jerry stated flatly. "Him and the boys wasn't on this side the ridge. They had it sized up that Bud might go from Crater straight across into Black Rim, and they rode up to catch him as he comes back across."
Jerry grinned a little. They wanted that money you peeled off the crowd Sunday, Bud. They was willing you should get to Crater and cash them checks before they overhauled yuh and strung yuh up."
"You don't suppose they'd hurt Marian if they found her with the horse? She might have followed along to Crater--"
"She never," Eddie contradicted. And Jerry declared in the same breath, "She'd be too much afraid of Lew. No, if they found her with the horse they'd take him away from her and send her back on another one to do the kitchen work," he conjectured with some contempt. "If they found YOU without the horse--well--men have been hung on suspicion, Bud.
Money's something everybody wants, and there ain't a man in the valley but what has figured your winnings down to the last two-bit piece. It's just a runnin' match now to see what bunch gets to yuh first."
"Oh, the money! I'd give the whole of it to anyone that would tell me Marian 's safe," Bud cried unguardedly in his misery.
Whereat Jerry and Ed looked at each other queerly.
