They have hounded me, induced my men
to betray me. In five years I have not slept soundly because of them.
But I have foiled them. I am dying now, and that which they seek will
be hidden until you fulfill the conditions which I impose on you. I
know you are coming home--I can feel it--and I know that when you read
what is to follow you will be eager to square my account with Tom
Taggart.
"Before going any further, before you read my story, I want you to know
that the cursed virago whom you saw buried in the cottonwood was not
your real mother. Your mother died giving you birth, and her body lies
in a quiet spot beside the Rio Pecos, at Twin Pine crossing, about ten
miles north of the Texas border. God rest her."
Again Calumet glanced at Betty. She was reading, apparently
unconscious of him, and without disturbing her Calumet laid down the
finished page and took up another.
CHAPTER VIII
THE TOLTEC IDOL
"I was twenty-five when your mother died," this page began. "I had a
little ranch in the Pecos valley near Twin Pine crossing, and I had
just begun to taste prosperity. After your mother died things began to
go wrong. It didn't take me long to conclude that she had been
responsible for what success I had had, and that without her I couldn't
hope to keep things together.
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