The last he heard of them was a high-pitched laugh. It
irritated Hervey. It floated back to him thin and small, like mockery.
And indeed he had failed miserably. How great was his failure he could
hardly estimate in a moment and he needed quiet to sum up his losses.
First of all, he had hopelessly alienated the girl and while offending
her he had failed to serve the rancher. For Red Jim Perris, driven by
force from the ranch, would surely return again to exact payment
in full for the treatment he had received. The whole affair was a
hopeless muddle. He had staked everything on his ability to trap
Perris and destroy him, thereby piling upon the shoulders of Oliver
Jordan a burden of gratitude which the rancher could never repay. But
now that Perris was footloose he became a danger imperilling not only
Jordan but Hervey himself. The trap had closed and closed on nothing.
The future presented to Hervey stark ruin.
So enthralling was the gloom of these thoughts that the foreman did
not hear the thudding hoofs of a horse which trotted up through the
trees. Not until horse and rider appeared in the clearing was Hervey
roused and then in the first glance by the size and the tossing head
of the approaching pony, he recognized the horse of Red Perris!
CHAPTER XXI
THE BATTLE
He had time to burst from the hut and race across the clearing through
the darkness which would surely shelter him from the snap-shot of
even such an expert as Red Jim, but in mind and body Hervey was too
paralyzed by the appearance of his enemy to stir until he saw Perris
slip from his horse, slumping to the earth after the fashion of a
weary man, and drag off the saddle.
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