Myra noticed that the last mark was longer than the others.
“A special enemy!” she said to herself. “I wonder if he met the Canyon Monster? No, no! he was surrounded by his Thugs.”
Almost abruptly the boy Vigilante turned upon the girl; the piece of chalk still in his hand.
“One more, Myra!” he exclaimed. “Do you not see that the last mark is the longest one on the wall? Ah! girl, I met an old foe to-night; but--if he had divulged a secret which I believe he held, there would be no mark there, although I hated him with all my heart.”
“A secret! a secret!” cried the girl. “Whom did it concern?”
“You, Hal? Why, I always thought I was the best subject for a secret--or some such mystery like they have in novels. What do you think the dead man’s secret was?”
“If there’s a mystery concerning you, Hal, time will clear it up,” she said. “But the man--was he a Thug?”
“No. His name was Dan Darrell. Deadly Dan he was called. I have told you about how he acted on the Rosebud?”
“Oh, yes. And so you met at last? Fate brought you together!”
“Yes, it must have been fate; but I did not think so when I hanged him. He said that his secret concerned me; he said it with his last breath, Myra. I believe him. Men like Dan Darrell don’t die with lies on their lips.”
For several minutes the pair stood face to face, speechless but thoughtful.
“I would give my right arm if Rosebud Dan was alive,” cried the boy judge, starting forward. “His stubbornness hung him, more than my hatred or my revenge. Look at the legacy he left behind--a tortured, doubting mind. Girl--girl, you cannot know how I have suffered since I left that wretch and his secret hanging together.”
“Once you hung a foe, but the neck was not broken, and he escaped. Are you certain that Deadly Dan is dead?”
The boy avenger almost shrieked as he bounded forward.
“Ah, why did I not think of it before? No, I am not certain that he is dead. Come, girl, it is not far away; there is a certain place from whence we can look down upon the gallows. The voice. Ah! I recall it now. It frightened Red Crest; it even paled my cheek, for on the spur of the moment, Myra. I thought it came from the dead man.”
The hand of the young Vigilante encircled the girl’s wrist, and a moment later the two were going up the waterless ravine.