_ CHAPTER XXIII. THE OUTLAWS' CAPTIVE
It was with a sinking heart that Celeste Seldon saw Harding drive away upon the stage, leaving her in the power of the road-agents. But she was a brave girl, and determined to show the outlaws that she did not fear them, no matter how great her dread of them was in reality.
The saddle and bridle she had brought with her were carried along for a couple of miles, and placed upon a led horse, one of half a score hidden there, and the masked chief started to aid her to mount.
But she said with a sneer:
"I need no assistance from you."
With this she placed her hands upon the horn and leaped lightly into the saddle.
Her leather trunk was then strapped securely upon a pack-saddle, and the chief said:
"Now, Miss Seldon, that you and my men are mounted, we will start."
She turned her horse on the trail behind him, and the other outlaws followed, all riding in Indian file and with several packhorses bringing up the rear.
After a ride of a dozen miles a halt was made for a rest, the chief said, and then Celeste Seldon observed that the hoofs of every horse were muffled, to prevent their leaving a trail.
Having been left something over a couple of miles from the scene of the holding up of the stage, it would be next to impossible for the best of trailers to discover which way the road-agents had come to the spot and left it, for the chief's muffled-hoofed horse would leave no track to where the other animals were.
Tired out and anxious, Celeste Seldon, after eating sparingly of the food given her by the chief, sat down with her back to a tree, and, closing her eyes, dropped into a deep sleep. When she was awakened to continue the journey she found that she had slept an hour.
"We are ready to go miss," said the man who had appeared to be the chief's lieutenant, and whom he had called Wolf, whether because it was his real name, or on account of his nature, Celeste did not know.
"I am ready," she said simply, refreshed by her short nap.
"Shall I aid you to mount, miss?"
"No, I can mount without your aid; but where is your chief?"
"He has gone on ahead, miss, to prepare for your coming, leaving me to escort you."
"I am content, for one is as bad as the other," was the reply, and, leaping into her saddle again, she fell in behind the man Wolf, and the march was again begun.
Night came on, but the outlaws rode on for an hour or more, when they halted at a small spring in a thicket.
Celeste was made more comfortable in a shelter of boughs, hastily cut and thrown up, and when supper was ready she ate heartily of antelope-steak, crackers, and coffee.
She was rather glad to have got rid of the masked chief, of whom she stood in the greatest awe, and Wolf never spoke to her unless she addressed some remark to him.
When she lay down upon the blanket-bed, spread upon fine straw, which he had made for her, she sank at once to sleep.
She had no thought of escape, for what could she do there alone in that wild, trackless land? She would bide her time and await the result, be it what it might.
She was awakened early in the morning, and the march was at once begun again, a halt being made a couple of hours later for breakfast.
While it was being prepared she was allowed to wander at will, Wolf calling her only when it was ready, and thus showing that they had not the slightest idea that she would do so foolish a thing as to escape from them, to perish in the wilderness, or meet death by being attacked by wild beasts.
When the start was again made, Wolf said:
"When we halt for our noon camp, miss, I will have to blindfold you, and bind your hands."
"Ah! you consider me very dangerous, then?" she said, with a smile.
"You doubtless are dangerous, miss, in more ways than one; but it is to prevent your seeing where we take you that you are to be blindfolded."
"Do you think I could guide a party after you?"
"You have the nerve to do it, miss."
"But why bind my hands?"
"To prevent your removing the bandage from your eyes, miss."
"I will pledge you my word that I will not do so."
"I believe you would keep your word, miss; but the chief is a man who is merciless, and his orders were to blindfold and bind you, and if I disobey he would shoot me down as though I were in reality a wolf."
"Perhaps not much loss, but I will submit," said Celeste with a sigh, for she had enjoyed the scenery, and her freedom as well this far, and now must be both blindfolded and bound. _