The Max Brand Megapack (67 page)

“They’s a hoss there comin’ among the willows!” he announced.

“Maybe it’s Silent,” remarked Haines casually.

“The chief don’t make no such a noise. He picks his goin’,” answered Hal Purvis.

The sound was quite audible now.

“They’s been some crooked work,” said Rhinehart excitedly. “Somebody’s tipped off the marshals about where we’re lyin’.”

“All right,” said Haines quietly, “you and I will investigate.”

They started through the willows. Rhinehart was cursing beneath his breath.

“Don’t be too fast with your six-gun,” warned Haines.

“I’d rather be too early than too late.”

“Maybe it isn’t a marshal. If a man were looking for us he’d be a fool to come smashing along like that.”

He had scarcely spoken when Kate came into view.

“A girl, by God!” said Rhinehart, with mingled relief and disgust.

“Sure thing,” agreed Haines.

“Let’s beat it back to the camp.”

“Not a hope. She’s headed straight for the camp. We’ll take her in and tell her we’re a bunch from the Y Circle X outfit headed north. She’ll never know the difference.”

“Good idea,” said Rhinehart, and he added with a chuckle, “it’s been nigh three months since I’ve talked to a piece of calico.”

“Hey, there!” called Haines, and he stepped out with Rhinehart before her horse.

“Oh!” cried Kate, reining up her horse sharply. “Who are you?”

“A beaut!” muttered Rhinehart in devout admiration.

“We’re from the Y Circle X outfit,” said Haines glibly, “camping over here for the night. Are you lost, lady?”

“I guess I am. I thought I could get across the willows before the night fell. I’m trying to find a man who rode in this direction.”

“Come on into the camp,” said Haines easily. “Maybe some of the boys can put you on his track. What sort of a looking fellow is he?”

“Rides a black horse and whistles a good deal. His name is Barry. They call him Whistling Dan.”

“By God!” whispered Rhinehart in the ear of Haines.

“Shut up!” answered Haines in the same tone. “Are you afraid of a girl?”

“I’ve trailed him south this far,” went on Kate, “and a few miles away from here I lost track of him. I think he may have gone on across the willows.”

“Haven’t seen him,” said Rhinehart amiably. “But come on to the camp, lady. Maybe one of the boys has spotted him on the way. What’s your name?”

“Kate Cumberland,” she answered.

He removed his hat with a broad grin and reached up a hand to her.

“I’m most certainly glad to meet you, an’ my name’s Shorty. This here is Lee. Want to come along with us?”

“Thank you. I’m a little worried.”

“’S all right. Don’t get worried. We’ll show you the way out. Just follow us.”

They started back through the willows, Kate following half a dozen yards behind.

“Listen here, Shorty,” said Haines in a cautious voice. “You heard her name?”

“Sure.”

“Well, that’s the daughter of the man that raised Whistling Dan. I saw her at Morgan’s place. She’s probably been tipped off that he’s following Silent, but she has no idea who we are.”

“Sure she hasn’t. She’s a great looker, eh, Lee?”

“She’ll do, I guess. Now get this: The girl is after Whistling Dan, and if she meets him she’ll persuade him to come back to her father’s place. She’ll take him off our trail, and I guess none of us’ll be sorry to know that he’s gone, eh?”

“I begin to follow you, Lee. You’ve always had the head!”

“All right. Now we’ll get Purvis to tell the girl that he’s heard a peculiar whistling around here this evening. We’ll advise her to stick around and go out when she hears the whistling again. That way she’ll meet him and head him off, savvy?”

“Right,” said Rhinehart.

“Then beat it ahead as fast as you can and wise up the boys.”

“That’s me—specially about their bein’ Y Circle X fellers, eh?”

He chuckled and made ahead as fast as his long legs could carry him. Haines dropped back beside Kate.

“Everything goes finely,” he assured her. “I told Rhinehart what to do. He’s gone ahead to the camp. Now all you have to do is to keep your head. One of the boys will tell you that we’ve heard some whistling near the camp this evening. Then I’ll ask you to stay around for a while in case the whistling should sound again, do you see? Remember, never ask a question!”

It was even more simple than Haines had hoped. Silent’s men suspected nothing. After all, Kate’s deception was a small affair, and her frankness, her laughter, and her beauty carried all before her.

The long riders became quickly familiar with her, but through their rough talk, the Westerners’ reverence for a woman ran like a thread of gold over a dark cloth. Her fear lessened and almost passed away while she listened to their talk and watched their faces. The kindly human nature which had lain unexpressed in most of them for months together burst out torrent-like and flooded about her with a sense of security and power. These were conquerors of men, fighters by instinct and habit, but here they sat laughing and chattering with a helpless girl, and not a one of them but would have cut the others’ throats rather than see her come to harm. The roughness of their past and the dread of their future they laid aside like an ugly cloak while they showed her what lies in the worst man’s heart—a certain awe of woman. Their manners underwent a sudden change. Polite words, rusted by long disuse, were resurrected in her honour. Tremendous phrases came labouring forth. There was a general though covert rearranging of bandanas, and an interchange of self-conscious glances. Haines alone seemed impervious to her charm.

The red died slowly along the west. There was no light save the flicker of the fire, which played on Kate’s smile and the rich gold of her hair, or caught out of the dark one of the lean, hard faces which circled her. Now and then it fell on the ghastly grin of Terry Jordan and Kate had to clench her hand to keep up her nerve.

It was deep night when Jim Silent rode into the clearing. Shorty Rhinehart and Hal Purvis went to him quickly to explain the presence of the girl and the fact that they were all members of the Y Circle X outfit. He responded with nods while his gloomy eyes held fast on Kate. When they presented him as the boss, Jim, he replied to her good-natured greeting in a voice that was half grunt and half growl.

CHAPTER XIV

DELILAH

Haines muttered at Kate’s ear: “This is the man. Now keep up your courage.”

“He doesn’t like this,” went on Haines in the same muffled voice, “but when he understands just why you’re here I think he’ll be as glad as any of us.”

Silent beckoned to him and he went to the chief.

“What about the girl?” asked the big fellow curtly.

“Didn’t Rhinehart tell you?”

“Rhinehart’s a fool and so are the rest of them. Have you gone loco too, Haines, to let a girl come here?”

“Where’s the harm?”

“Why, damn it, she’s marked every man here.”

“I let her in because she is trying to get hold of Whistling Dan.”

“Which no fool girl c’n take that feller off the trail. Nothin’ but lead can do that.”

“I tell you,” said Haines, “the boy’s in love with her. I watched them at Morgan’s place. She can twist him around her finger.”

A faint light broke the gloom of Silent’s face.

“Yaller hair an’ blue eyes. They c’n do a lot. Maybe you’re right. What’s that?” His voice had gone suddenly husky.

A russet moon pushed slowly up through the trees. Its uncertain light fell across the clearing. For the first time the thick pale smoke of the fire was visible, rising straight up until it cleared the tops of the willows, and then caught into swift, jagging lines as the soft wind struck it. A coyote wailed from the distant hills, and before his complaint was done another sound came through the hushing of the willows, a melancholy whistling, thin with distance.

“We’ll see if that’s the man you want,” suggested Haines.

“I’ll go along,” said Shorty Rhinehart.

“And me too,” said a third. The whole group would have accompanied them, but the heavy voice of Jim Silent cut in: “You’ll stay here, all of you except the girl and Lee.”

They turned back, muttering, and Kate followed Haines into the willows.

“Well?” growled Bill Kilduff.

“What I want to know—” broke in Terry Jordan.

“Go to hell with your questions,” said Silent, “but until you go there you’ll do what I say, understand?”

“Look here, Jim,” said Hal Purvis, “are you a king an’ we jest your slaves, maybe?”

“You’re goin’ it a pile too hard,” said Shorty Rhinehart.

Every one of these speeches came sharply out while they glared at Jim Silent. Hands were beginning to fall to the hip and fingers were curving stiffly as if for the draw. Silent leaned his broad shoulders against the side of his roan and folded his arms. His eyes went round the circle slowly, lingering an instant on each face. Under that cold stare they grew uneasy. To Shorty Rhinehart it became necessary to push back his hat and scratch his forehead. Terry Jordan found a mysterious business with his bandana. Every one of them had occasion to raise his hand from the neighbourhood of his six-shooter. Silent smiled.

“A fine, hard crew you are,” he said sarcastically at last. “A great bunch of long riders, lettin’ a slip of a yaller-haired girl make fools of you. You over there—you, Shorty Rhinehart, you’d cut the throat of a man that looked crosswise at the Cumberland girl, wouldn’t you? An’ you, Purvis, you’re aching to get at me, ain’t you? An’ you’re still thinkin’ of them blue eyes, Jordan?”

Before any one could speak he poured in another volley between wind and water: “One slip of a girl can make fools out of five long riders? No, you ain’t long riders. All you c’n handle is hobby hosses!”

“What do you want us to do?” growled swarthy Bill Kilduff.

“Keep your face shut while I’m talkin’, that’s what I want you to do!”

There was a devil of rage in his eyes. His folded arms tugged at each other, and if they got free there would be gun play. The four men shrank, and he was satisfied.

“Now I’ll tell you what we’re goin’ to do,” he went on. “We’re goin’ out after Haines an’ the girl. If they come up with this Whistlin’ Dan we’re goin’ to surround him an’ fill him full of lead, while they’re talkin’.”

“Not for a million dollars!” burst in Hal Purvis.

“Not in a thousan’ years!” echoed Terry Jordan.

Silent turned his watchful eyes from one to the other. They were ready to fight now, and he sensed it at once.

“Why?” he asked calmly.

“It ain’t playin’ square with the girl,” announced Rhinehart.

“Purvis,” said Silent, for he knew that the opposition centred in the figure of the venomous little gun fighter; “if you seen a mad dog that was runnin’ straight at you, would you be kep’ from shootin’ it because a pretty girl hollered out an’ asked you not to?”

Their eyes shifted rapidly from one to another, seeking a way out, and finding none.

“An’ is there any difference between this hero Whistlin’ Dan an’ a mad dog?”

Still they were mute.

“I tell you, boys, we got a better chance of dodgin’ lightnin’ an’ puttin’ a bloodhound off our trail than we have of gettin’ rid of this Whistlin’ Dan. An’ when he catches up with us—well, all I’m askin’ is that you remember what he done to them four dollars before they hit the dust?”

“The chief’s right,” growled Kilduff, staring down at the ground. “It’s Whistlin’ Dan or us. The mountains ain’t big enough to hold him an’ us!”

* * * *

Before Whistling Dan the great wolf glided among the trees. For a full hour they had wandered through the willows in this manner, and Dan had made up his mind to surrender the search when Bart, returning from one of his noiseless detours, sprang out before his master and whined softly. Dan turned, loosening his revolver in the holster, and followed Bart through the soft gloom of the tree shadows and the moonlight. His step was almost as silent as that of the slinking animal which went before. At last the wolf stopped and raised his head. Almost instantly Dan saw a man and a woman approaching through the willows. The moonlight dropped across her face. He recognized Kate, with Lee Haines walking a pace before her.

“Stand where you are,” he said.

Haines leaped to one side, his revolver flashing in his hand. Dan stepped out before them while Black Bart slunk close beside him, snarling softly.

He seemed totally regardless of the gun in Haines’s hand. His manner was that of a conqueror who had the outlaw at his mercy.

“You,” he said, “walk over there to the side of the clearing.”

“Dan!” cried Kate, as she went to him with extended arms.

He stopped her with a gesture, his eyes upon Haines, who had moved away.

“Watch him, Bart,” said Dan.

The black wolf ran to Haines and crouched snarling at his feet. The outlaw restored his revolver to his holster and stood with his arms folded, his back turned. Dan looked to Kate. At the meeting of their eyes she shrank a little. She had expected a difficult task in persuading him, but not this hard aloofness. She felt suddenly as if she were a stranger to him.

“How do you come here—with him?”

“He is my friend!”

“You sure pick a queer place to go walkin’ with him.”

“Hush, Dan! He brought me here to find you!”

“
He
brought you here?”

“Don’t you understand?”

“When I want a friend like him, I’ll go huntin’ for him myself; an’ I’ll pack a gun with me!”

That flickering yellow light played behind Dan’s eyes.

“I looked into his face—an’ he stared the other way.”

She made a little imploring gesture, but his hand remained on his hips, and there was no softening of his voice.

“What fetched you here?”

Every word was like a hand that pushed her farther away.

“Are you dumb, Kate? What fetched you here?”

“I have come to bring you home, Dan.”

“I’m home now.”

“What do you mean?”

“There’s the roof of my house,” he jerked his hand towards the sky, “the mountain passes are my doors—an’ the earth is my floor.”