The Max Brand Megapack (338 page)

The bulldog came into the face of Cartwright and contorted it. “Don’t she belong to me by law? Ain’t she sworn to—”

“Don’t,” said Sinclair, as if the words strangled him. “Don’t say that, Cartwright, if you please!”

“Why not? You put up a good slick talk, Sinclair. But you don’t win. I ain’t going to give her up by no divorce. I’m going to keep her. I don’t love her enough to want her back, I hate her enough. They’s only one way that I’d stop caring about—stop fearing that she’d shame me. And that’s by having her six feet underground. But you, Sinclair, you need coin. You’re footloose. Suppose you was to take her and bring her to—”

“Don’t!” cried Sinclair again. “Don’t say it, Cartwright. Think it over again. Have mercy on her, man. She could make some home happy. Are you going to destroy that chance?”

“Say, what kind of talk is this?” asked the big man.

“Now,” said Sinclair, “look to your own rotten soul!”

The strength of Cartwright was cut away at the root. The color was struck out of his face as by a mortal blow. “What d’you mean?” he whispered.

“You don’t deserve a man’s chance, but I’m going to give it to you. Go get your gun, Cartwright!”

Cartwright slunk back in his chair. “Do you mean murder, Sinclair?”

“I mean a fair fight.”

“You’re a gunman. You been raised and trained for gunfighting. I wouldn’t have no chance!”

Sinclair controlled his scorn. “Then I’ll fight left-handed. I’m a right-handed man, Cartwright, and I’ll take you with my gun in my left hand. That evens us up, I guess.”

“No, it don’t!”

But with the cry on his lips, the glance of Cartwright flickered past Sinclair. He grew thoughtful, less flabby. He seemed to be calculating his chances as his glance rested on the window.

“All right,” he whispered, a fearful eye on Sinclair, as if he feared the latter would change his mind. “Gimme a fair break.”

“I’ll do it.”

Sinclair shifted his gun to his left hand and turned to look at the window which Cartwright had been watching with such intense interest. He had not half turned, however, when a gun barked at his very ear, it seemed, a tongue of flame spat in from the window, there was a crash of glass, and the lamp was snuffed. Some accurate shot had cut the burning wick out of the lamp with his bullet, so nicely placed that, though the lamp reeled, it did not fall.

CHAPTER 24

With the spurt of flame, Sinclair leaped back until his shoulders grazed the wall. He crouched beside the massive chest of drawers. It might partially shelter him from fire from the window.

There fell one of those deadly breathing spaces of silence—silence, except for the chattering of the lamp, as it steadied on the table and finally was still. There was a light crunching noise from the opposite side of the room. Cartwright had moved and put his foot on a fragment of the shattered chimney.

Sinclair studied the window. It was a rectangle of dim light, but nothing showed in that frame. He who had fired the shot must have crouched at once, or else have drawn to one side. He waited with his gun poised. Steps were sounding far away in the building, steps which approached rapidly. Voices were calling. Somewhere on the farther side of the room Cartwright must have found the best shelter he could, and Sinclair shrewdly guessed that it would be on the far side of the chest of drawers which faced him.

In the meantime he studied the blank rectangle of the window. Sooner or later the man who stood on the ledge would risk a look into the dark interior; otherwise, he would not be human. And, sure enough, presently the faintest shadow of an outline encroached on the solid rectangle of faint light. Sinclair aimed just to the right and fired. At once there was a splash of red flame and a thundering report from the other side of the room. Cartwright had fired at the flash of Sinclair’s gun, and the bullet smashed into the chest beside Sinclair. As for Sinclair’s own bullet, it brought only a stifled curse from the window.

“No good, Riley,” sang out the voice. “This wall’s too thick for a Colt.”

Sinclair had flung himself softly forward on his stomach, his gun in readiness and leveled in the direction of Cartwright. There was the prime necessity. Now heavy footfalls rushed down the hall, and a storm of voices broke in upon him.

At the same time Cartwright’s gun spat fire again. The bullet buzzed angrily above Sinclair’s head. His own brought a yell of pain, sharp as the yelp of a coyote.

“Keep quiet, Cartwright,” ordered the man at the window. “You’ll get yourself killed if you keep risking it. Sheriff!”

His voice rose and rang.

“Blow the lock off’n that door. We got him!”

There was an instant reply in the explosion of a gun, the crash of broken metal, the door swung slowly in, admitting a dim twilight into the room. The light showed Sinclair one thing—the dull outlines of Cartwright. He whipped up his gun and then hesitated. It would be murder. He had killed before, but never save in fair fight, standing in a clear light before his enemy. He knew that he could not kill this rat he detested. He thought of the wrecked life of the girl and set his teeth. Still he could not fire.

“Cartwright,” he said softly, “I got you covered. Your right hand’s on the floor with your gun. Don’t raise that hand!”

In the shadow against the wall Cartwright moved, but he obeyed. The revolver still glimmered on the floor.

A new and desperate thought came to Sinclair—to rush straight for the window, shoot down the man on the ledge, and risk the leap to the ground. “Scatter back!” called the man on the ledge.

That settled the last chance of Sinclair. There were guards on the ground, scattered about the house. He could never get out that way.

“Keep out of the light by the door,” commanded the man at the window. “And start shooting for the chest of drawers on the left-hand side of the room—and aim low down. It may take time, but we’ll get him!”

Obviously the truth of that statement was too clear for Sinclair to deny it. He reviewed his situation with the swift calm of an old gambler. He had tried his desperate coup and had failed. There was nothing to do but accept the failure, or else make a still more desperate effort to rectify his position, risking everything on a final play.

He must get out of the room. The window was hopelessly blocked. There remained the open door, but the hall beyond the door was crowded with men.

Perhaps their very numbers would work against them. Even now they could be heard cautiously maneuvering. They would shoot through the door in his general direction, unaimed shots, with the hope of a chance hit, and eventually they would strike him down. Suppose he were to steal close to the door, leap over the bed, and plunge out among them, his Colt spitting lead and fire.

That unexpected attack would cleave a passage for him. The more he thought of it, the more clearly he saw that the chances of escape to the street were at least one in three. And yet he hesitated. If he made that break two or three innocent men would go down before his bullets, as he sprang out, shooting to kill. He shrank from the thought. He was amazed at himself. Never before had he been so tender of expedients. He had always fought to win—cleanly, but to win. Why was he suddenly remembering that to these men he was an outlaw, fit meat for the first bullet they could send home? Had he been one of them, he would have taken up a position in that very hall just as they were doing.

Slowly, reluctantly, fighting himself as he did it, he shoved his revolver back into his holster and determined to take the chance of that surprise attack, with his empty hands against their guns. If they did not drop him the instant he leaped out, he would be among them, too close for gunplay unless they took the chance of killing their own men.

Keeping his gaze fixed on Cartwright across the room—for the moment he showed his intention, Cartwright would shoot—he maneuvered softly toward the bed. Cartwright turned his head, but made no move to lift his gun. There was a reason. The light from the door fell nearer to the rancher than it did to Sinclair. To Cartwright he must be no more than a shapeless blur.

A gun exploded from the doorway, with only a glint of steel, as the muzzle was shoved around the jamb. The bullet crashed harmlessly into the wall behind him. Another try. The sharp, stifling odor of burned powder began to fill the room, stinging the nostrils of Sinclair. Cartwright was coughing in a stifled fashion on the far side of the room, as if he feared a loud noise would draw a bullet his way.

All at once there was no sound in the hotel, and, as the wave of silence spread, Sinclair was aware that the whole little town was listening, waiting, watching. Not a whisper in the hall, not a stir from Cartwright across the room. The quiet made the drama seem unreal.

Then that voice outside the window, which seemed to be Sinclair’s Nemesis, cried: “Steady, boys. Something’s going to happen. He’s getting ready. Buck up, boys!”

In a moment of madness Sinclair decided to rush that window and dispose of the cool-minded speaker at all costs before he died. There, at least, was the one man he wished to kill. He followed that impulse long enough to throw himself sidling along the floor, so as not to betray his real strategic position to those at the door, and he splashed two bullets into the wall, trimming the side of the window.

Only clear, deep-throated laughter came in response.

“I told you, boys. I read his mind, and he’s mad at me, eh?”

But Riley Sinclair hardly heard the mocking answer. He had glided back behind the bed, the instant the shots were fired. As he moved, two guns appeared for a flickering instant around the edge of the doorway, one on each side. Their muzzles kicked up rapidly, one, two, three, four, five, six, and each, as he fired, spread the shots carefully from side to side. Sinclair heard the bullets bite and splinter the woodwork close to the floor. The chest of drawers staggered with the impact.

He raised his own gun, watched one of the jumping muzzles for an instant, and then tried a snap shot. The report of his revolver was bitten off short by the clang of metal; there was a shouted curse from the hallway. He had blown the gun cleanly out of the sharpshooter’s hand.

Before the amazed rumble from the hall died away, Sinclair had acted. He shoved his weapon back in its holster, and cleared the bed with a flying leap. From the corner of his eye, he saw Cartwright snatch up his gun and take a chance shot that whistled close to his head, and then Sinclair plunged into the hall.

One glimmering chance of success remained. On the side of the door toward which he drove there were only three men in the hall; behind him were more, far more, but their weapons were neutralized. They could not fire without risking a miss that would be certain to lodge a bullet in the body of one of the men before Sinclair.

Those men were kneeling, for they had been reaching out and firing low around the door to rake the floor of the room. At the appearance of Sinclair they started up. He saw a gun jerk high for a snap shot, and, swerving as he leaped, he drove out with all his weight behind his fist. The knuckles bit through flesh to the bone. There was a jarring impact, and now only two men were before him. One of them dropped his gun—it was he who had just emptied his weapon into the room—and flung himself at Sinclair, with outspread arms. The cowpuncher snapped up his knee, and the blow crumpled the other back and to the side. He sprang on toward the last man who barred his way. And all this in the split part of a second.

Chance took a hand against him. In the very act of striking, his foot lodged on the first senseless body, and he catapulted forward on his hands. He struck the legs of the third man as he fell.

Down they went together, and Sinclair lurched up from under the weight only to be overtaken by many reaching hands from behind. That instant of delay had lost the battle for him; and, as he strove to whirl and fight himself clear, an arm curled around his neck, shutting off his breath. A great weight jarred between his shoulders. And he pitched down to the floor.

He stopped fighting. He felt his gun slipped from the holster. Deft, strong hands jerked his arms behind him and tied the wrists firmly together. Then he was drawn to his feet.

All this without a word spoken, only the pant and struggle of hard-drawn breaths. Not until he stood on his feet again, with a bleeding-faced fellow rising with dazed eyes, and another clambering up unsteadily, with both hands pressed against his head, did the captors give voice. And their voice was a yell of triumph that was taken up in two directions outside the hotel.

They became suddenly excited, riotously happy. In the overflowing of their joy they were good-natured. Some one caught up Sinclair’s hat and jammed it on his head. Another slapped him on the shoulder.

“A fine, game fight!” said the latter. It was the man with the smeared face. He was grinning through his wounds. “Hardest punch I ever got. But I don’t blame you, partner!”

Presently he saw Sheriff Kern. The latter was perfectly cool, perfectly grave. It was his arm that had coiled around the neck of Sinclair and throttled him into submission.

“You didn’t come out to kill, Sinclair. Why?”

“I ain’t used to slaughterhouse work,” said Sinclair with equal calm, although he was panting. “Besides, it wasn’t worth it. Murder never is.”

“Kind of late to come to that idea, son. Now just trot along with me, will you?” He paused. “Where’s Arizona?”

Cartwright lurched out of the room with his naked gun in his hand. Red dripped from the shallow wound where Sinclair’s bullet had nicked him. He plunged at the captive, yelling.

“Stop that fool!” snapped the sheriff.

Half a dozen men put themselves between the outlaw and the avenger. Cartwright straggled vainly.

“Between you and me,” said Sinclair coldly to the sheriff, “I think that skunk would plug me while I got my hands tied.”

The sheriff flashed a knowing glance up at his tall prisoner’s face.

“I dunno, Sinclair. Kind of looks that way.”

Although Cartwright had been persuaded to restore his gun to its cover, he passed through the crowd until he confronted Sinclair.