Destination Danger .sx By ERNEST HAYCOX .sx ILLUSTRATED BY EDWIN PHILLIPS .sx Bill wanted her to be his alone- despite her past .sx But first he had to settle a grudge THIS was one of those years when Apache smoke signals spiralled from the mountain tops , when many a ranch-house lay as a square of blackened ashes and the departure of a stage from Tonto started an adventure that had no certain ending .sx The stage , with its six horses , waited in Tonto's town square .sx On the box was Happy Stewart , the reins between his fingers .sx John Strang rode shotgun guard .sx And an escort of 10 cavalrymen waited behind the coach , half asleep in their saddles .sx In the dawn , this high air was cold .sx A small crowd stood in the square , presenting their final messages to the passengers .sx There was a girl going to marry an infantry officer , a tall , thin Englishman carrying a sporting rifle , a gambler , a cattleman- and a slim blond man .sx Happy Stuart and the shotgun guard looked at him with narrow-eyed interest .sx This seemed all until a girl known commonly throughout Arizona Territory as Henriette walked from the crowd .sx She was small , with a touch of paleness in her cheeks .sx The blond man stepped back from the coach door and her eyes lifted at his unexpected courtesy .sx They showed faint surprise .sx Men in the crowd were smiling- derisively .sx But the blond man turned- the movement like the swift cut of a knife- and his sharp-bright attention covered them until the smiling quit .sx He was a lean man , and stamped as a gun-fighter by the Colts slung on his hip .sx But it wasn't the guns alone .sx Something in his face , watchful and smooth , showed his trade , too .sx Happy Stuart kicked off the brakes and yelled :sx " Hi !sx " The stage rolled from the town in a cloud of dust , the cavalrymen trotting briskly behind .sx Beyond them stretched the journey no coach had attempted for 45 days .sx Out below in the desert's distance stood the relay stations they hoped to reach and pass .sx Between lay a country swept empty by the quick raids of Geronimo's savages .sx The Englishman , the gambler and the blond man sat jammed together in the forward seat .sx The cattleman and the two women shared the rear seat .sx NOW the cattleman leaned towards Henriette , his knees almost touching her .sx A huge gold nugget slid gently back and forth along the gold watch chain slung across his wide chest .sx His eyes looked into hers , reading something that caused him to smile .sx They were strangers packed closely together with nothing in common save a destination .sx Yet the cattleman's smile and the boldness of his glance was something as audible as speech , noted by everyone except the Englishman , who sat bolt upright in the corner , covered by stony indifference .sx The army girl , tall and demurely pretty , threw a quick side-glance at Henriette , then looked away with a touch of colour .sx Three hours from Tonto the road , making a last round sweep , let them down into the flat desert .sx From now on they would be on their own .sx The cavalrymen wheeled back to town , their sergeant yelling , doubtfully :sx " Good luck .sx " The miles fell behind and the smell of alkali dust got thicker .sx Up on the box , Johnny Strang shifted the gun on his lap .sx " What's Malpais Bill- the blond one- riding with us for ?sx " " I guess I wouldn't ask him , " Happy Stuart replied,- and studied the hazy horizon .sx All day they were tormented by a cruel , relentless sun .sx Now as the coach trundled to a stop outside Gap Station , they were red-eyed and aching from the stinging dust .sx A short man with a tremendous stomach shuffled through the dusk .sx He said :sx " Wasn't sure you'd get through , Happy .sx " " Where's the soldiers for tomorrow ?sx " " Other side of the mountains .sx Everybody's chased out .sx What ain't forted up here was sent into Lordsburg .sx " He looked first at the army girl , then appraised Henriette instantly .sx His eyes slid on to Malpais Bill standing in the background .sx Recognition stirred him then and made his voice careful .sx " Hello , Bill .sx What brings you this way ?sx " Malpais Bill's cigarette glowed in the gathering dusk and Henriette caught the brief image of his face , serene and watchful .sx Malpais Bill's tone was easy , it was soft .sx " Just the trip .sx " They were moving on towards the frame house .sx As the army girl walked into the station's big room , a soldier in a dishevelled uniform stepped forward .sx He said :sx " Miss Robertson ?sx Lieutenant Hauser was to have met you here .sx He is at Lordsburg .sx He was wounded in a brush with the Apaches last night .sx " The girl stood very still .sx She said :sx " Badly ?sx " " Well , yes , " said the soldier .sx Henriette's dove-coloured dress blended with the background shadows .sx She was watching the other girl's face whiten .sx But there was a strength in the army girl , a fortitude that made her think of the soldier .sx For she said quietly :sx " You must have had a bad trip .sx " " Nothing- nothing at all , " said the soldier .sx As the trooper left the room , the gambler turned to the army girl with an odd expression , as though he were remembering painful things .sx After dinner , Malpais Bill lounged , cigarette in hand , in the yard .sx The moonlight was a frozen silver that could not dissolve the desert's incredible blackness .sx AS Henriette walked towards him from the Tonto road , her face was clear and strange and incurious in the night .sx He said :sx " Apaches like to crawl down next to a settlement and wait for strays .sx " She was indifferent , unafraid .sx Her voice was cool , and he could hear the faint loneliness in it , the fatalism that made her words so even .sx " There's a wind coming up , so soft and good .sx " He took off his hat , long legs braced and his eyes quick and puzzled in their watchfulness .sx His blond hair glowed in the fugitive light .sx His lips were restless and the sing and rush of strong feeling was like a current of quick wind around him .sx It was that unruly .sx " You have folks in Lordsburg ?sx " SHE spoke in a direct patient way as though explaining something he should have known without asking .sx " I run a house in Lordsburg .sx " " No , " he said , " it wasn't what I asked .sx " " My folks are dead- I think .sx There was a massacre in the Superstition Mountains when I was a baby .sx " He stood with his head bowed .sx There was a hardness and a rawness to this land and little sympathy for the weak .sx She had survived , and had paid for her survival and she looked at him now in a way that offered no explanation or apologies .sx He said :sx " Over in the Tonto Basin it's fine land .sx I still have a piece of a ranch there- with a house half built .sx " " If that's your country , why are you here ?sx " His lips laughed and the rashness in him glowed hot again and he seemed to grow taller in the moonlight .sx " A debt to collect .sx " " You will never get through collecting those kind of debts .sx Everybody in the Territory knows you .sx " Once you were just a rancher .sx Then you tried to wipe out a grudge and then there was a bigger one to wipe out- and the debt kept growing and more men are waiting to kill you .sx Some day a man will .sx Run away from the debts .sx " His bright smile kept constant , which made her shoulders lift in resignation .sx " No , " she murmured .sx " You won't run .sx " He said :sx " We'd better go back , " and they went across the yard in silence .sx She turned to look at him once more and then passed down the narrow corridor to her own quarters .sx Beyond her window in the yard , a man was murmuring to another man :sx " Plummer and Shanley are in Lordsburg .sx Malpais Bill knows it .sx " Through the thin partition of the adjoining room she heard the army girl crying with uncontrollable regularity .sx Henriette stared at the dark wall , her shoulders and head bowed .sx Then she returned to the hall , knocked on the army girl's door and went in .sx It was morning .sx Six fresh horses fidgeted in front of the coach and the fat host of Gap Station came across the yard swinging a lantern against the dead , bitter black .sx All the passengers filed sleep-dulled and miserable from the house .sx The Gap host grumbled :sx " If they don't jump you before you get to Al's ranch , you'll be all right .sx " It was noon when Henriette caught the smell of smoke in the windless air .sx Looking through the angled vista of the window panel she saw a clay and rock chimney standing up like a gaunt skeleton against the day's light .sx The house that had been there was a black square on the ground , smoke still rising from pieces that had not been completely burned .sx The stage stopped and all the men were instantly out .sx An iron stove squatted on the earth , with one section of pipe stuck upright to it .sx Fire licked lazily along the collapsed fragments of what had been a trunk .sx Beyond the house lay two nude figures grotesquely bald , with deliberate knife-slashes marking their bodies .sx Happy Stuart walked over and returned quickly .sx " Al and his wife .sx " Malpais Bill knew now that they had a battle ahead .sx With Happy and the shotgun guard he clambered on to the coach roof- ready for the fight .sx Back on the coach , the gambler said to the army girl :sx " You're pretty safe between two fellows .sx " He hauled a .sx 44 from a back pocket and laid it on his lap .sx The Englishman pulled the rifle from between his knees and laid it across the sill of the window .sx The cattleman swept back his coat to clear the gun holster .sx Henriette sat with her eyes pinned to the gloved tips of her fingers , remembering the tall shape of Malpais Bill cut against the moonlight of Gap Station .sx He had smiled at her as a man might smile at any desirable woman , with the sweep and swing of laughter in his voice .sx His eyes had been gentle .sx The gambler spoke very quietly and she didn't hear him until his fingers gripped her arm .sx He said again , not raising his voice :sx " Get down .sx " HENRIETTE dropped to her knees , hearing gunfire blast through the rush and run of the coach .sx Happy Stuart ceased to yell and the army girl's eyes were round and dark , yet showing no fright .sx Looking upward through the window on the gambler's side , Henriette saw the weaving figure of an Apache warrior reel nakedly on a pony and rush by with a rifle raised and pointed in his bony elbows .sx The gambler took a cool aim .sx The stockman fired and aimed again .sx The Englishman's sporting rifle blasted heavy echoes through the coach , hurting her ears , and the smell of powder got rank and bitter .sx The blond man's boots scraped the coach top and round small holes began to dimple the panelling as the Apaches' bullets struck .sx An Indian came boldly abreast the coach and made a target that couldn't be missed .sx The cattleman dropped him with one shot .sx The coach hubs screamed as its wheels slewed around the sharp ruts and the whole heavy superstructure bounced high in the air .sx The gambler said , quietly :sx " You'd better take this , " handing Henriette his gun .sx He leaned against the door , with his small hands gripping the sill .sx Pallor loosened the cheeks .sx He said , to the army girl :sx " Be sure to keep between those gentlemen .sx " He slumped on to the window sill .sx They were rolling down the mountain without brake .sx Gunfire fell off and the crying of the Indians faded back .sx Coming up from her knees then , she saw the desert's flat surface far below , with the angular pattern of Lordsburg vaguely on the far borders of the heat fog .sx WITH a roar , Happy Stuart's voice lifted again and brakes were screaming on the wheels , and going off , and screaming again .sx The Englishman stared out of the window sullenly .sx The army girl seemed in a deep desperate dream .sx The cattleman's face was shining with a strange sweat .sx