"I hate to do it," thought Bridge; "because, even if he is a bank robber, he's an American; but I need the money and in all probability the fellow is a scoundrel who should have been hanged long ago."Over the trail to the north rode Captain Billy Byrne, secure in the belief that no pursuit would develop until after the opening hour of the bank in the morning, by which time he would be halfway on his return journey to Pesita's camp.
"Ol' man Pesita'll be some surprised when I show him what I got for him," mused Billy."Say!" he exclaimed suddenly and aloud, "Why the devil should I take all this swag back to that yellow-faced yegg? Who pulled this thing off anyway? Why me, of course, and does anybody think Billy Byrne's boob enough to split with a guy that didn't have a hand in it at all.
Split! Why the nut'll take it all!
"Nix! Me for the border.I couldn't do a thing with all this coin down in Rio, an' Bridgie'll be along there most any time.
We can hit it up some in lil' ol' Rio on this bunch o' dough.
Why, say kid, there must be a million here, from the weight of it."A frown suddenly clouded his face."Why did I take it?" he asked himself."Was I crackin' a safe, or was I pullin' off something fine fer poor, bleedin' Mexico? If I was a-doin' that they ain't nothin' criminal in what I done--except to the guy that owned the coin.If I was just plain crackin' a safe on my own hook why then I'm a crook again an' I can't be that--no, not with that face of yours standin' out there so plain right in front of me, just as though you were there yourself, askin' me to remember an' be decent.God! Barbara--why wasn't I born for the likes of you, and not just a measly, ornery mucker like I am.Oh, hell! what is that that Bridge sings of Knibbs's:
There ain't no sweet Penelope somewhere that's longing much for me, But I can smell the blundering sea, and hear the rigging hum;And I can hear the whispering lips that fly before the out-bound ships, And I can hear the breakers on the sand a-calling "Come!"Billy took off his hat and scratched his head.
"Funny," he thought, "how a girl and poetry can get a tough nut like me.I wonder what the guys that used to hang out in back of Kelly's 'ud say if they seen what was goin' on in my bean just now.They'd call me Lizzy, eh? Well, they wouldn't call me Lizzy more'n once.I may be gettin' soft in the head, but I'm all to the good with my dukes."Speed is not conducive to sentimental thoughts and so Billy had unconsciously permitted his pony to drop into a lazy walk.There was no need for haste anyhow.No one knew yet that the bank had been robbed, or at least so Billy argued.He might, however, have thought differently upon the subject of haste could he have had a glimpse of the horseman in his rear--two miles behind him, now, but rapidly closing up the distance at a keen gallop, while he strained his eyes across the moonlit flat ahead in eager search for his quarry.
So absorbed was Billy Byrne in his reflections that his ears were deaf to the pounding of the hoofs of the pursuer's horse upon the soft dust of the dry road until Bridge was little more than a hundred yards from him.For the last half-mile Bridge had had the figure of the fugitive in full view and his mind had been playing rapidly with seductive visions of the one-thousand dollars reward--one-thousand dollars Mex, perhaps, but still quite enough to excite pleasant thoughts.At the first glimpse of the horseman ahead Bridge had reined his mount down to a trot that the noise of his approach might thereby be lessened.He had drawn his revolver from its holster, and was upon the point of putting spurs to his horse for a sudden dash upon the fugitive when the man ahead, finally attracted by the noise of the other's approach, turned in his saddle and saw him.
Neither recognized the other, and at Bridge's command of, "Hands up!" Billy, lightning-like in his quickness, drew and fired.The bullet raked Bridge's hat from his head but left him unscathed.
