The Max Brand Megapack (48 page)

He laughed.

“I knew that Mr. Drew was very anxious to receive me with courtesy; I did not dream that he would be able to induce so many men to take care of me.”

And Sally Fortune, bracing herself against the wall with one hand, and in the capable grasp of the other a six-gun balanced, stared in growing amazement on the scene, and shuddered at the silences.

“Bard,” she called, “what have I done?”

“You’ve started a game,” he answered, “which I presume we’ve all been waiting to play. What about it, boys? I hope you’re well paid; I’d hate to die a cheap death.”

A voice, deep and ringing, sounded close at hand, almost within the room, and from a direction which Bard could not locate.

“Don’t harm him if you can help it. But keep him in that room!”

Bard stepped back a pace till his shoulders touched the wall.

“Sirs,” he said, “if you keep me here you will most certainly have to harm me.”

A figure ran around the edge of the crowd and stood beside him.

“Stand clear of me, Sally,” he muttered, much moved. “Stand away. This is a man’s work.”

“The work of a pack of coyotes!” she cried shrilly. “What d’ye mean?”

She turned on them fiercely.

“Are you goin’ to murder a tenderfoot among you? One that ain’t done no real harm? I don’t believe my eyes. You, there, Shorty Kilrain, I’ve waited on you with my own hands. You’ve played the man with me. Are you goin’ to play the dog now? Jansen, you was tellin’ me about a blue-eyed girl in Sweden; have you forgot about her now? And Calamity Ben! My God, ain’t there a man among you to step over here and join the two of us?”

They were shaken, but the memory of Drew quelled them.

“They’s no harm intended him, on my honour, Sally,” said Lawlor. “All he’s got to do is give up his gun—and—and”—he finished weakly—“let his hands be tied.”

“Is that all?” said Sally scornfully.

“Don’t follow me, Sally,” said Bard. “Stay out of this. Boys, you may have been paid high, but I don’t think you’ve been paid high enough to risk taking a chance with me. If you put me out with the first shot that ends it, of course, but the chances are that I’ll be alive when I hit the floor, and if I am, I’ll have my gun working—and I won’t miss. One or two of you are going to drop.”

He surveyed them with a quick glance which seemed to linger on each face.

“I don’t know who’ll go first. But now I’m going to walk straight for that door, and I’m going out of it.”

He moved slowly, deliberately toward the door, around the table. Still they did not shoot.

“Bard!” commanded the voice which had spoken from nowhere before. “Stop where you are. Are you fool enough to think that I’ll let you go?”

“Are you William Drew?”

“I am, and you are—”

“The son of John Bard. Are you in this house?”

“I am; Bard, listen to me for thirty seconds—”

“Not for three. Sally, go out of this room and through that door.”

There was a grim command in his voice. It started her moving against her will. She paused and looked back with an imploring gesture.

“Go on,” he repeated.

And she passed out of the door and stood there, a glimmering figure against the night. Still there was not a shot fired, though all those guns were trained on Bard.

“You’ve got me Drew,” he called, “but I’ve got you, and your hirelings—all of you, and I’m going to take you to hell with me—to hell!”

He jerked his gun up and fired, not at a man, for the bullet struck the thin chain which held the gasoline lamp suspended, struck it with a clang, and it rushed down to the table. It struck, but not with the loud explosion which Bard had expected. There was a dull report, as of a shot fired at a great distance, the scream of Sally from the door, and then liquid fire spurted from the lamp across the table, whipped in a flare to the ceiling, and licked against the walls. It shot to all sides but it shot high, and every man was down on his face.

Anthony, scarcely believing that he was still alive, rushed for the door, with a cry of agony ringing in his ears from the voice beyond the room. One man in all that crowd was near enough or had the courage to obey the master even to the uttermost. The gaunt form of Calamity Ben blocked the doorway in front of Bard, blocked it with poised revolver.

“Halt!” he yelled.

But the other rushed on. Calamity whipped down the gun and fired, but even before the trigger was pulled he was sagging toward the floor, for Bard had shot to kill. Over the prostrate form of the cowpuncher he leaped, and into the night, where the white face of Sally greeted him.

Outside the red inferno of that room, as if the taste of blood had maddened him, he raised his arms and shouted, like one crying a wild prayer: “William Drew! William Drew! Come out to me!”

Small, strong hands gripped his wrists and turned him away from the house.

“You fool!” cried Sally. “Ride for it! You’ve raised your hell at last—I knew you would!”

Red light flared in all the windows of the dining-room; shouts and groans and cursing poured out of them. Bard turned and followed her out toward the stable on the run, and he heard her moaning as she ran: “I knew! I knew!”

She mounted her horse, which was tethered near the barn. He chose at random the first horse he reached, a grey, threw on his back the saddle which hung from the peg behind, mounted, and they were off through the night. No thought, no direction; but only in blind speed there seemed to be the hope of a salvation.

A mile, two miles dropped behind them, and then in an open stretch, for he had outridden her somewhat, Anthony reined back, caught the bridle of her horse, and pulled it down to a sharp trot.

“Why have you come?”

Their faces were so close that even through the night he could see the grim set of her lips.

“Ain’t you raised your hell—the hell you was hungry to raise? Don’t you need help?”

“What I’ve done is my own doing. I’ll take the burden of it.”

“You’ll take a halter for it, that’s what you’ll take. The whole range’ll rise for this. You’re marked already. Everywhere you’ve gone you’ve made an enemy. They’ll be out to get you—Nash—Boardman—the whole gang.”

“Let ’em come. I’d do this all over again.”

“Born gunman, eh? Bard, you ain’t got a week to live.”

It was fierceness; it was a reproach rather than sorrow.

“Then let me go my own way. Why do you follow, Sally?”

“D’you know these mountains?”

“No, but—”

“Then they’d run you down in twelve hours. Where’ll you head for?”

He said, as the first thought entered his mind: “I’ll go for the old house that Drew has on the other side of the range.”

“That ain’t bad. Know the short cut?”

“What cut?”

“You can make it in five hours over one trail. But of course you don’t know. Nobody but old Dan and me ever knowed it. Let go my bridle and ride like hell.”

She jerked the reins away from him and galloped off at full speed. He followed.

“Sally!” he called.

But she kept straight ahead, and he followed, shouting, imploring her to go back. Finally he settled to the chase, resolved on overtaking her. It was no easy task, for she rode like a centaur, and she knew the way.

CHAPTER XXXI

NASH STARTS THE FINISH

Through the windows and the door the cowpunchers fled from the red spurt of the flames, each man for himself, except Shorty Kilrain, who stooped, gathered the lanky frame of Calamity Ben into his arms, and staggered out with his burden. The great form of William Drew loomed through the night.

His hand on the shoulder of Shorty, he cried: “Is he badly burned?”

“Shot,” said Kilrain bitterly, “by the tenderfoot; done for.”

It was strange to hear the big voice go shrill with pain.

“Shot? By Anthony? Give him to me.”

Kilrain lowered his burden to the ground.

“You’ve got him murdered. Ain’t you through with him? Calamity, he was my pal!”

But the big man thrust him aside and knelt by the stricken cowpuncher.

He commanded: “Gather the boys; form a line of buckets from the pump; fight that fire. It hasn’t a hold on the house yet.”

The habit of obedience persisted in Kilrain. Under the glow of the fire, excited by the red light, the other man stood irresolute, eager for action, but not knowing what to do. A picture came back to him of a ship labouring in a storm; the huddling men on the deck; the mate on the bridge, shrieking his orders through a megaphone. He cupped his hands at his mouth and began to bark orders.

They obeyed on the run. Some rushed for the kitchen and secured buckets; two manned the big pump and started a great gush of water; in a moment a steady stream was being flung by the foremost men of the line against the smoking walls and even the ceiling of the dining-room. So far it was the oil itself, which had made most of the flame and smoke, and now, although the big table was on fire, the main structure of the house was hardly touched.

They caught it in time and worked with a cheer, swinging the buckets from hand to hand, shouting as the flames fell little by little until the floor of the room was awash, the walls gave back clouds of steam, and the only fire was that which smouldered along the ruined table. Even this went out, hissing, at last, and they came back with blackened, singed faces to Calamity and Drew.

The rancher had torn away the coat and shirt of the wounded man, and now, with much labour, was twisting a tight bandage around his chest. At every turn Calamity groaned feebly. Kilrain dropped beside his partner, taking the head between his hands.

“Calamity—pal,” he said, “how’d you let a tenderfoot, a damned tenderfoot, do this?”

The other sighed: “I dunno. I had him covered. I should have sent him to hell. But sure shootin’ is better’n fast shootin’. He nailed me fair and square while I was blockin’ him at the door.”

“How d’you feel?”

“Done for, Shorty, but damned glad that—”

His voice died away in a horrible whisper and bubbles of red foam rose to his lips.

“God!” groaned Shorty, and then called loudly, as if the strength of his voice might recall the other, “Calamity!”

The eyes of Calamity rolled up; the wide lips twisted over formless words; there was no sound from his mouth. Someone was holding a lantern whose light fell full on the silent struggle. It was Nash, his habitual sneer grown more malevolent than ever.

“What of the feller that done it, Shorty?” he suggested.

“So help me God,” said the cattleman, with surprising softness, “the range ain’t big enough to keep him away from me.”

Drew, completing his bandage, said, “That’s enough of such talk, Nash. Let it drop there. Here, Kilrain, take his feet. Help me into the house with him.”

They moved in, the rest trailing behind like sheep after a bell-weather, and it was astonishing to see the care with which big Drew handled his burden, placing it at last on his own four-poster bed.

“The old man’s all busted up,” said little Duffy to Nash. “I’d never of guessed he was so fond of Calamity.”

“You’re a fool,” answered Nash. “It ain’t Calamity he cares about.”

“Then what the devil is it?”

“I dunno. We’re goin’ to see some queer things around here.”

Drew, having disposed of the wounded man, carefully raising his head on a pillow, turned to the others.

“Who saw Ben shot?”

“I did,” said Kilrain, who was making his way to the door.

“Come back here. Are you sure you saw the shot fired?”

“I seen the tenderfoot—damn his eyes!—whip up his gun and take a snap shot while he was runnin’ for the door where Calamity stood.”

Nash raised his lantern high, so that the light fell full on the face of Drew. The rancher was more grey than ever.

He said, with almost an appeal in his voice: “Mightn’t it have been one of the other boys, shooting at random?”

The tone of Kilrain raised and grew ugly.

“Are you tryin’ to cover the tenderfoot, Drew?”

The big man made a fierce gesture.

“Why should I cover him?”

“Because you been actin’ damned queer,” answered Nash.

“Ah, you’re here again, Nash? I know you hate Bard because he was too much for you.”

“He got the start of me, but I’ll do a lot of finishing.”

“Kilrain,” called Drew, “you’re Calamity’s best friend. Ride for Eldara and bring back Dr. Young. Quick! We’re going to pull Ben through.”

“Jest a waste of time,” said Nash coolly. “He’s got one foot in hell already.”

“You’ve said too much, Nash. Kilrain, are you going?”

“I’ll stop for the doctor at Eldara, but then I’ll keep on riding.”

“What do you mean?”

“Nothin’.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Nash, and turned with the other.

“Stop!” called Drew. “Boys, I know what you have planned; but let the law take care of this. Remember that we were the aggressors against young Bard. He came peaceably into this house and I tried to hold him here. What would you have done in his place?”

“They’s a dozen men know how peaceable he is,” said Nash drily. “Wherever he’s gone on the range he’s raised hell. He’s cut out for a killer, and Glendin in Eldara knows it.”

“I’ll talk to Glendin. In the meantime you fellows keep your hands off Bard. In the first place because if you take the law into your own hands you’ll have me against you—understand?”

Kilrain and Nash glowered at him a moment, and then backed through the door.

As they hurried for the barn Kilrain asked: “What makes the chief act soft to that hell-raiser?”

“If you have a feller cut out for your own meat,” answered Nash, “d’you want to have any one else step in and take your meal away?”

“But you and me, Steve, we’ll get this bird.”

“We’ll get Glendin behind us first.”

“Why him?”

“Play safe. Glendin can swear us in as deputies to—’apprehend,’ as he calls it, this Bard. Apprehendin’ a feller like Bard simply means to shoot him down and ask him to come along afterward, see?”

“Nash, you got a great head. You ought to be one of these lawyers. There ain’t nothin’ you can’t find a way out of. But will Glendin do it?”

“He’ll do what I ask him to do.”