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+*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10066 ***
+
+GUNMAN'S RECKONING
+
+By
+
+Max Brand
+
+
+
+1921
+
+
+
+GUNMAN'S RECKONING
+
+
+
+1
+
+
+The fifty empty freights danced and rolled and rattled on the rough road
+bed and filled Jericho Pass with thunder; the big engine was laboring
+and grunting at the grade, but five cars back the noise of the
+locomotive was lost. Yet there is a way to talk above the noise of a
+freight train just as there is a way to whistle into the teeth of a
+stiff wind. This freight-car talk is pitched just above the ordinary
+tone--it is an overtone of conversation, one might say--and it is
+distinctly nasal. The brakie could talk above the racket, and so, of
+course, could Lefty Joe. They sat about in the center of the train, on
+the forward end of one of the cars. No matter how the train lurched and
+staggered over that fearful road bed, these two swayed in their places
+as easily and as safely as birds on swinging perches. The brakie had
+touched Lefty Joe for two dollars; he had secured fifty cents; and since
+the vigor of Lefty's oaths had convinced him that this was all the money
+the tramp had, the two now sat elbow to elbow and killed the distance
+with their talk.
+
+"It's like old times to have you here," said the brakie. "You used to
+play this line when you jumped from coast to coast."
+
+"Sure," said Lefty Joe, and he scowled at the mountains on either side
+of the pass. The train was gathering speed, and the peaks lurched
+eastward in a confused, ragged procession. "And a durned hard ride it's
+been many a time."
+
+"Kind of queer to see you," continued the brakie. "Heard you was rising
+in the world."
+
+He caught the face of the other with a rapid side glance, but Lefty Joe
+was sufficiently concealed by the dark.
+
+"Heard you were the main guy with a whole crowd behind you," went on the
+brakie.
+
+"Yeh?"
+
+"Sure. Heard you was riding the cushions, and all that."
+
+"Yeh?"
+
+"But I guess it was all bunk; here you are back again, anyway."
+
+"Yep," agreed Lefty.
+
+The brakie scratched his head, for the silence of the tramp convinced
+him that there had been, after all, a good deal of truth in the rumor.
+He ran back on another tack and slipped about Lefty.
+
+"I never laid much on what they said," he averred. "I know you, Lefty;
+you can do a lot, but when it comes to leading a whole gang, like they
+said you was, and all that--well, I knew it was a lie. Used to tell 'em
+that."
+
+"You talked foolish, then," burst out Lefty suddenly. "It was all
+straight."
+
+The brakie could hear the click of his companion's teeth at the period
+to this statement, as though he regretted his outburst.
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged," murmured the brakie innocently.
+
+Ordinarily, Lefty was not easily lured, but this night he apparently was
+in the mood for talk.
+
+"Kennebec Lou, the Clipper, and Suds. Them and a lot more. They was all
+with me; they was all under me; I was the Main Guy!"
+
+What a ring in his voice as he said it! The beaten general speaks thus
+of his past triumphs. The old man remembered his youth in such a voice.
+The brakie was impressed; he repeated the three names.
+
+"Even Suds?" he said. "Was even Suds with you?"
+
+"Even Suds!"
+
+The brakie stirred a little, wabbling from side to side as he found a
+more comfortable position; instead of looking straight before him, he
+kept a side-glance steadily upon his companion, and one could see that
+he intended to remember what was said on this night.
+
+"Even Suds," echoed the brakie. "Good heavens, and ain't he a man for
+you?"
+
+"He was a man," replied Lefty Joe with an indescribable emphasis.
+
+"Huh?"
+
+"He ain't a man any more."
+
+"Get bumped off?"
+
+"No. Busted."
+
+The brakie considered this bit of news and rolled it back and forth and
+tried its flavor against his gossiping palate.
+
+"Did you fix him after he left you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I see. You busted him while he was still with you. Then Kennebec Lou
+and the Clipper get sore at the way you treat Suds. So here you are back
+on the road with your gang all gone bust. Hard luck, Lefty."
+
+But Lefty whined with rage at this careless diagnosis of his downfall.
+
+"You're all wrong," he said. "You're all wrong. You don't know nothin'."
+
+The brakie waited, grinning securely into the night, and preparing his
+mind for the story. But the story consisted of one word, flung bitterly
+into the rushing air.
+
+"Donnegan!"
+
+"Him?" cried the brakie, starting in his place.
+
+"Donnegan!" cried Lefty, and his voice made the word into a curse.
+
+The brakie nodded.
+
+"Them that get tangled with Donnegan don't last long. You ought to know
+that."
+
+At this the grief, hate, and rage in Lefty Joe were blended and caused
+an explosion.
+
+"Confound Donnegan. Who's Donnegan? I ask you, who's Donnegan?"
+
+"A guy that makes trouble," replied the brakie, evidently hard put to it
+to find a definition.
+
+"Oh, don't he make it, though? Confound him!"
+
+"You ought to of stayed shut of him, Lefty."
+
+"Did I hunt him up, I ask you? Am I a nut? No, I ain't. Do I go along
+stepping on the tail of a rattlesnake? No more do I look up Donnegan."
+
+He groaned as he remembered.
+
+"I was going fine. Nothing could of been better. I had the boys
+together. We was doing so well that I was riding the cushions and I went
+around planning the jobs. Nice, clean work. No cans tied to it. But one
+day I had to meet Suds down in the Meriton Jungle. You know?"
+
+"I've heard--plenty," said the brakie.
+
+"Oh, it ain't so bad--the Meriton. I've seen a lot worse. Found Suds
+there, and Suds was playing Black Jack with an ol gink. He was trimmin'
+him close. Get Suds going good and he could read 'em three down and bury
+'em as fast as they came under the bottom card. Takes a hand to do that
+sort of work. And that's the sort of work Suds was doing for the old
+man. Pretty soon the game was over and the old man was busted. He took
+up his pack and beat it, saying nothing and looking sick. I started
+talking to Suds.
+
+"And while he was talking, along comes a bo and gives us a once-over. He
+knew me. 'Is this here a friend of yours, Lefty? he says.
+
+"'Sure,' says I.
+
+"'Then, he's in Dutch. He trimmed that old dad, and the dad is one of
+Donnegan's pals. Wait till Donnegan hears how your friend made the cards
+talk while he was skinning the old boy!
+
+"He passes me the wink and goes on. Made me sick. I turned to Suds, and
+the fool hadn't batted an eye. Never even heard of Donnegan. You know
+how it is? Half the road never heard of it; part of the roads don't know
+nothin' else. He's like a jumpin tornado; hits every ten miles and don't
+bend a blade of grass in between.
+
+"Took me about five minutes to tell Suds about Donnegan. Then Suds let
+out a grunt and started down the trail for the old dad. Missed him. Dad
+had got out of the Jungle and copped a rattler. Suds come back half
+green and half yeller.
+
+"'I've done it; I've spilled the beans,' he says.
+
+"'That ain't half sayin' it,' says I.
+
+"Well, we lit out after that and beat it down the line as fast as we
+could. We got the rest of the boys together; I had a swell job planned
+up. Everything staked. Then, the first news come that Donnegan was after
+Suds.
+
+"News just dropped on us out of the sky. Suds, you know how he is.
+Strong bluff. Didn't bat an eye. Laughed at this Donnegan. Got a hold of
+an old pal of his, named Levine, and he is a mighty hot scrapper. From a
+knife to a toenail, they was nothing that Levine couldn't use in a
+fight. Suds sent him out to cross Donnegan's trail.
+
+"He crossed it, well enough. Suds got a telegram a couple days later
+saying that Levine had run into a wild cat and was considerable chawed
+and would Suds send him a stake to pay the doctor?
+
+"Well, after that Suds got sort of nervous. Didn't take no interest in
+his work no more. Kept a weather eye out watching for the coming of
+Donnegan. And pretty soon he up and cleaned out of camp.
+
+"Next day, sure enough, along comes Donnegan and asks for Suds. We kept
+still--all but Kennebec Lou. Kennebec is some fighter himself. Two
+hundred pounds of mule muscle with the brain of a devil to tell what to
+do--yes, you can lay it ten to one that Kennebec is some fighter. That
+day he had a good edge from a bottle of rye he was trying for a friend.
+
+"He didn't need to go far to find trouble in Donnegan. A wink and a grin
+was all they needed for a password, and then they went at each other's
+throats. Kennebec made the first pass and hit thin air; and before he
+got back on his heels, Donnegan had hit him four times. Then Kennebec
+jumped back and took a fresh start with a knife."
+
+Here Lefty Joe paused and sighed.
+
+He continued, after a long interval: "Five minutes later we was all busy
+tyin' up what was left of Kennebec; Donnegan was down the road whistlin'
+like a bird. And that was the end of my gang. What with Kennebec Lou and
+Suds both gone, what chance did I have to hold the boys together?"
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+
+The brakie heard this recital with the keenest interest, nodding from
+time to time.
+
+"What beats me, Lefty," he said at the end of the story, "is why you
+didn't knife into the fight yourself and take a hand with Donnegan"
+
+At this Lefty was silent. It was rather the silence of one which cannot
+tell whether or not it is worth while to speak than it was the silence
+of one who needs time for thought.
+
+"I'll tell you why, bo. It's because when I take a trail like that it
+only has one end I'm going to bump off the other bird or he's going to
+bump off me"
+
+The brakie cleared his throat
+
+"Look here," he said, "looks to me like a queer thing that you're on
+this train"
+
+"Does it" queried Lefty softly "Why?"
+
+"Because Donnegan is two cars back, asleep."
+
+"The devil you say!"
+
+The brakie broke into laughter
+
+"Don't kid yourself along," he warned. "Don't do it. It ain't
+wise--with me."
+
+"What you mean?"
+
+"Come on, Lefty. Come clean. You better do a fade off this train."
+
+"Why, you fool--"
+
+"It don't work, Joe. Why, the minute I seen you I knew why you was here.
+I knew you meant to croak Donnegan."
+
+"Me croak him? Why should I croak him?"
+
+"Because you been trailing him two thousand miles. Because you ain't got
+the nerve to meet him face to face and you got to sneak in and take a
+crack at him while he's lying asleep. That's you, Lefty Joe!"
+
+He saw Lefty sway toward him; but, all stories aside, it is a very bold
+tramp that cares for argument of a serious nature with a brakie. And
+even Lefty Joe was deterred from violent action. In the darkness his
+upper lip twitched, but he carefully smoothed his voice.
+
+"You don't know nothing, pal," he declared.
+
+"Don't I?"
+
+"Nothing," repeated Lefty.
+
+He reached into his clothes and produced something which rustled in the
+rush of wind. He fumbled, and finally passed a scrap of the paper into
+the hand of the brakie.
+
+"My heavens," drawled the latter. "D'you think you can fix me with a
+buck for a job like this? You can't bribe me to stand around while you
+bump off Donnegan. Can't be done, Lefty!"
+
+"One buck, did you say?"
+
+Lefty Joe expertly lighted a match in spite of the roaring wind, and by
+this wild light the brakie read the denomination of the bill with a
+gasp. He rolled up his face and was in time to catch the sneer on the
+face of Lefty before a gust snatched away the light of the match.
+
+They had topped the highest point in Jericho Pass and now the long train
+dropped into the down grade with terrific speed. The wind became a
+hurricane. But to the brakie all this was no more than a calm night. His
+thoughts were raging in him, and if he looked back far enough he
+remembered the dollar which Donnegan had given him; and how he had
+promised Donnegan to give the warning before anything went wrong. He
+thought of this, but rustling against the palm of his right hand was
+the bill whose denomination he had read, and that figure ate into his
+memory, ate into his brain.
+
+After all what was Donnegan to him? What was Donnegan but a worthless
+tramp? Without any answer to that last monosyllabic query, the brakie
+hunched forward, and began to work his way up the train.
+
+The tramp watched him go with laughter. It was silent laughter. In the
+most quiet room it would not have sounded louder than a continual, light
+hissing noise. Then he, in turn, moved from his place, and worked his
+way along the train in the opposite direction to that in which the
+brakie had disappeared.
+
+He went expertly, swinging from car to car with apelike clumsiness--and
+surety. Two cars back. It was not so easy to reach the sliding side door
+of that empty car. Considering the fact that it was night, that the
+train was bucking furiously over the old roadbed, Lefty had a not
+altogether simple task before him. But he managed it with the same
+apelike adroitness. He could climb with his feet as well as his hands.
+He would trust a ledge as well as he would trust the rung of a ladder.
+
+Under his discreet manipulations from above the door loosened and it
+became possible to work it back. But even this the tramp did with
+considerable care. He took advantage of the lurching of the train, and
+every time the car jerked he forced the door to roll a little, so that
+it might seem for all the world as though the motion of the train alone
+were operating it.
+
+For suppose that Donnegan wakened out of his sound sleep and observed
+the motion of the door; he would be suspicious if the door opened in a
+single continued motion; but if it worked in these degrees he would be
+hypersuspicious if he dreamed of danger. So the tramp gave five whole
+minutes to that work.
+
+When it was done he waited for a time, another five minutes, perhaps, to
+see if the door would be moved back. And when it was not disturbed, but
+allowed to stand open, he knew that Donnegan still slept.
+
+It was time then for action, and Lefty Joe prepared for the descent into
+the home of the enemy. Let it not be thought that he approached this
+moment with a fallen heart, and with a cringing, snaky feeling as a man
+might be expected to feel when he approached to murder a sleeping
+foeman. For that was not Lefty's emotion at all. Rather he was overcome
+by a tremendous happiness. He could have sung with joy at the thought
+that he was about to rid himself of this pest.
+
+True, the gang was broken up. But it might rise again. Donnegan had
+fallen upon it like a blight. But with Donnegan out of the way would not
+Suds come back to him instantly? And would not Kennebec Lou himself
+return in admiration of a man who had done what he, Kennebec, could not
+do? With those two as a nucleus, how greatly might he not build!
+
+Justice must be done to Lefty Joe. He approached this murder as a
+statesman approaches the removal of a foe from the path of public
+prosperity. There was no more rancor in his attitude. It was rather the
+blissful largeness of the heart that comes to the politician when he
+unearths the scandal which will blight the race of his rival.
+
+With the peaceful smile of a child, therefore, Lefty Joe lay stretched
+at full length along the top of the car and made his choice of weapons.
+On the whole, his usual preference, day or night, was for a revolver.
+Give him a gat and Lefty was at home in any company. But he had reasons
+for transferring his alliance on this occasion. In the first place, a
+box car which is reeling and pitching to and fro, from side to side, is
+not a very good shooting platform--even for a snapshot like Lefty Joe.
+Also, the pitch darkness in the car would be a further annoyance to good
+aim. And in the third and most decisive place, if he were to miss his
+first shot he would not be extremely apt to place his second bullet. For
+Donnegan had a reputation with his own revolver. Indeed, it was said
+that he rarely carried the weapon, because when he did he was always
+tempted too strongly to use it. So that the chances were large that
+Donnegan would not have the gun now. Yet if he did have it--if he,
+Lefty, did miss his first shot--then the story would be brief and bitter
+indeed.
+
+On the other hand, a knife offered advantages almost too numerous to be
+listed. It gave one the deadly assurance which only comes with the
+knowledge of an edge of steel in one's hand. And when the knife reaches
+its mark it ends a battle at a stroke.
+
+Of course these doubts and considerations pro and con went through the
+mind of the tramp in about the same space of time that it requires for a
+dog to waken, snap at a fly, and drowse again. Eventually, he took out
+his knife. It was a sheath knife which he wore from a noose of silk
+around his throat, and it always lay closest to his heart. The blade of
+the knife was of the finest Spanish steel, in the days when Spanish
+smiths knew how to draw out steel to a streak of light; the handle of
+the knife was from Milan. On the whole, it was a delicate and beautiful
+weapon--and it had the durable suppleness of--say--hatred itself.
+
+Lefty Joe, like a pirate in a tale, took this weapon between his teeth;
+allowed his squat, heavy bulk to swing down and dangle at arm's length
+for an instant, and then he swung himself a little and landed softly on
+the floor of the car.
+
+Who has not heard snow drop from the branch upon other snow beneath?
+That was the way Lefty Joe dropped to the floor of the car. He remained
+as he had fallen; crouched, alert, with one hand spread out on the
+boards to balance him and give him a leverage and a start in case he
+should wish to spring in any direction.
+
+Then he began to probe the darkness in every direction; with every
+glance he allowed his head to dart out a little. The movement was like a
+chicken pecking at imaginary grains of corn. But eventually he satisfied
+himself that his quarry lay in the forward end of the car; that he was
+prone; that he, Lefty, had accomplished nine-tenths of his purpose by
+entering the place of his enemy unobserved.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+
+But even though this major step was accomplished successfully, Lefty Joe
+was not the man to abandon caution in the midst of an enterprise. The
+roar of the train would have covered sounds ten times as loud as those
+of his snaky approach, yet he glided forward with as much care as though
+he were stepping on old stairs in a silent house. He could see a vague
+shadow--Donnegan; but chiefly he worked by that peculiar sense of
+direction which some people possess in a dim light. The blind, of
+course, have that sense in a high degree of sensitiveness, but even
+those who are not blind may learn to trust the peculiar and inverted
+sense of direction.
+
+With this to aid him, Lefty Joe went steadily, slowly across the first
+and most dangerous stage of his journey. That is, he got away from the
+square of the open door, where the faint starlight might vaguely serve
+to silhouette his body. After this, it was easier work.
+
+Of course, when he alighted on the floor of the car, the knife had been
+transferred from his teeth to his left hand; and all during his progress
+forward the knife was being balanced delicately, as though he were not
+yet quite sure of the weight of the weapon. Just as a prize fighter
+keeps his deadly, poised hands in play, moving them as though he fears
+to lose his intimate touch with them.
+
+This stalking had occupied a matter of split seconds. Now Lefty Joe rose
+slowly. He was leaning very far forward, and he warded against the roll
+of the car by spreading out his right hand close to the floor; his left
+hand he poised with the knife, and he began to gather his muscles for
+the leap. He had already taken the last preliminary movement--he had
+swung himself to the right side a little and, lightening his left foot,
+had thrown all his weight upon the right--in fact, his body was
+literally suspended in the instant of springing, catlike, when the
+shadow which was Donnegan came to life.
+
+The shadow convulsed as shadows are apt to swirl in a green pool when a
+stone is dropped into it; and a bit of board two feet long and some
+eight inches wide cracked against the shins of Lefty Joe.
+
+It was about the least dramatic weapon that could have been chosen under
+those circumstances, but certainly no other defense could have
+frustrated Lefty's spring so completely. Instead of launching out in a
+compact mass whose point of contact was the reaching knife, Lefty
+crawled stupidly forward upon his knees, and had to throw out his knife
+hand to save his balance.
+
+It is a singular thing to note how important balance is to men. Animals
+fight, as a rule, just as well on their backs as they do on their feet.
+They can lie on their sides and bite; they can swing their claws even
+while they are dropping through the air. But man needs poise and balance
+before he can act. What is speed in a fighter? It is not so much an
+affair of the muscles as it is the power of the brain to adapt itself
+instantly to each new move and put the body in a state of balance. In
+the prize ring speed does not mean the ability to strike one lightning
+blow, but rather that, having finished one drive, the fighter is in
+position to hit again, and then again, so that no matter where the
+impetus of his last lunge has placed him he is ready and poised to shoot
+all his weight behind his fist again and drive it accurately at a
+vulnerable spot. Individually the actions may be slow; but the series of
+efforts seem rapid. That is why a superior boxer seems to hypnotize his
+antagonist with movements which to the spectator seem perfectly easy,
+slow, and sure.
+
+But if Lefty lacked much in agility, he had an animallike sense of
+balance. Sprawling, helpless, he saw the convulsed shadow that was
+Donnegan take form as a straight shooting body that plunged through the
+air above him. Lefty Joe dug his left elbow into the floor of the car
+and whirled back upon his shoulders, bunching his knees high over his
+stomach. Nine chances out of ten, if Donnegan had fallen flatwise upon
+this alert enemy, he would have received those knees in the pit of his
+own stomach and instantly been paralyzed. But in the jumping, rattling
+car even Donnegan was capable of making mistakes. His mistake in this
+instance saved his life, for springing too far, he came down not in
+reaching distance of Lefty's throat, but with his chest on the knees of
+the older tramp.
+
+As a result, Donnegan was promptly kicked head over heels and tumbled
+the length of the car. Lefty was on his feet and plunging after the
+tumbling form in the twinkling of an eye, literally speaking, and he was
+only kept from burying his knife in the flesh of his foe by a sway of
+the car that staggered him in the act of striking. Donnegan, the next
+instant, was beyond reach. He had struck the end of the car and
+rebounded like a ball of rubber at a tangent. He slid into the shadows,
+and Lefty, putting his own shoulders to the wall, felt for his revolver
+and knew that he was lost. He had failed in his first surprise attack,
+and without surprise to help him now he was gone. He weighed his
+revolver, decided that it would be madness to use it, for if he missed,
+Donnegan would instantly be guided by the flash to shoot him full of
+holes.
+
+Something slipped by the open door--something that glimmered faintly;
+and Lefty Joe knew that it was the red head of Donnegan. Donnegan,
+soft-footed as a shadow among shadows. Donnegan on a blood trail. It
+lowered the heartbeat of Lefty Joe to a tremendous, slow pulse. In that
+moment he gave up hope and, resigning himself to die, determined to
+fight to the last gasp, as became one of his reputation and national
+celebrity on "the road."
+
+Yet Lefty Joe was no common man and no common fighter. No, let the shade
+of Rusty Dick, whom Lefty met and beat in his glorious prime--let this
+shade arise and speak for the prowess of Lefty Joe. In fact it was
+because he was such a good fighter himself that he recognized his
+helplessness in the hands of Donnegan.
+
+The faint glimmer of color had passed the door. It was dissolved in
+deeper shadows at once, and soundlessly; Lefty knew that Donnegan was
+closer and closer.
+
+Of one thing he felt more and more confident, that Donnegan did not have
+his revolver with him. Otherwise, he would have used it before. For what
+was darkness to this devil, Donnegan. He walked like a cat, and most
+likely he could see like a cat in the dark. Instinctively the older
+tramp braced himself with his right hand held at a guard before his
+breast and the knife poised in his left, just as a man would prepare to
+meet the attack of a panther. He even took to probing the darkness in a
+strange hope to catch the glimmer of the eyes of Donnegan as he moved to
+the attack. If there were a hair's breadth of light, then Donnegan
+himself must go down. A single blow would do it.
+
+But the devil had instructed his favorite Donnegan how to fight. He did
+not come lunging through the shadows to meet the point of that knife.
+Instead, he had worked a snaky way along the floor and now he leaped in
+and up at Lefty, taking him under the arms.
+
+A dozen hands, it seemed, laid hold on Lefty. He fought like a demon and
+tore himself away, but the multitude of hands pursued him. They were
+small hands. Where they closed they tore the clothes and bit into his
+very flesh. Once a hand had him by the throat, and when Lefty jerked
+himself away it was with a feeling that his flesh had been seared by
+five points of red-hot iron. All this time his knife was darting; once
+it ripped through cloth, but never once did it find the target. And half
+a second later Donnegan got his hold. The flash of the knife as Lefty
+raised it must have guided the other. He shot his right hand up behind
+the left shoulder of the other and imprisoned the wrist. Not only did it
+make the knife hand helpless, but by bearing down with his own weight
+Donnegan could put his enemy in most exquisite torture.
+
+For an instant they whirled; then they went down, and Lefty was on top.
+Only for a moment. The impetus which had sent him to the floor was used
+by Donnegan to turn them over, and once fairly on top his left hand was
+instantly at the throat of Lefty.
+
+Twice Lefty made enormous efforts, but then he was done. About his body
+the limbs of Donnegan were twisted, tightening with incredible force;
+just as hot iron bands sink resistlessly into place. The strangle-hold
+cut away life at its source. Once he strove to bury his teeth in the arm
+of Donnegan. Once, as the horror caught at him, he strove to shriek for
+help. All he succeeded in doing was in raising an awful, sobbing
+whisper. Then, looking death in the face, Lefty plunged into the great
+darkness.
+
+
+
+
+4
+
+
+When he wakened, he jumped at a stride into the full possession of his
+faculties. He had been placed near the open door, and the rush of night
+air had done its work in reviving him. But Lefty, drawn back to life,
+felt only a vague wonder that his life had not been taken. Perhaps he
+was being reserved by the victor for an Indian death of torment. He felt
+cautiously and found that not only were his hands free, but his revolver
+had not been taken from him. A familiar weight was on his chest--the
+very knife had been returned to its sheath.
+
+Had Donnegan returned these things to show how perfectly he despised his
+enemy?
+
+"He's gone!" groaned the tramp, sitting up quickly.
+
+"He's here," said a voice that cut easily through the roar of the train.
+"Waiting for you, Lefty."
+
+The tramp was staggered again. But then, who had ever been able to
+fathom the ways of Donnegan?
+
+"Donnegan!" he cried with a sudden recklessness.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You're a fool!"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"For not finishing the job."
+
+Donnegan began to laugh. In the uproar of the train it was impossible
+really to hear the sound, but Lefty caught the pulse of it. He fingered
+his bruised throat; swallowing was a painful effort. And an
+indescribable feeling came over him as he realized that he sat armed to
+the teeth within a yard of the man he wanted to kill, and yet he was as
+effectively rendered helpless as though iron shackles had been locked on
+his wrists and legs. The night light came through the doorway, and he
+could make out the slender outline of Donnegan and again he caught the
+faint luster of that red hair; and out of the shadowy form a singular
+power emanated and sapped his strength at the root.
+
+Yet he went on viciously: "Sooner or later, Donnegan, I'll get you!"
+
+The red head of Donnegan moved, and Lefty Joe knew that the younger man
+was laughing again.
+
+"Why are you after me?" he asked at length.
+
+It was another blow in the face of Lefty. He sat for a time blinking
+with owlish stupidity.
+
+"Why?" he echoed. And he spoke his astonishment from the heart.
+
+"Why am I after you?" he said again. "Why, confound you, ain't you
+Donnegan?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Don't the whole road know that I'm after you and you after me?"
+
+"The whole road is crazy. I'm not after you."
+
+Lefty choked.
+
+"Maybe I been dreaming. Maybe you didn't bust up the gang? Maybe you
+didn't clean up on Suds and Kennebec?"
+
+"Suds? Kennebec? I sort of remember meeting them."
+
+"You sort of--the devil!" Lefty Joe sputtered the words. "And after you
+cleaned up my crowd, ain't it natural and good sense for you to go on
+and try to clean up on me?"
+
+"Sounds like it."
+
+"But I figured to beat you to it. I cut in on your trail, Donnegan, and
+before I leave it you'll know a lot more about me."
+
+"You're warning me ahead of time?"
+
+"You've played this game square with me; I'll play square with you.
+Next time there'll be no slips, Donnegan. I dunno why you should of
+picked on me, though. Just the natural devil in you."
+
+"I haven't picked on you," said Donnegan.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I'll give you my word."
+
+A tingle ran through the blood of Lefty Joe. Somewhere he had heard, in
+rumor, that the word of Donnegan was as good as gold. He recalled that
+rumor now and something of dignity in the manner with which Donnegan
+made his announcement carried a heavy weight. As a rule, the tramps
+vowed with many oaths; here was one of the nights of the road who made
+his bare word sufficient. And Lefty Joe heard with great wonder.
+
+"All I ask," he said, "is why you hounded my gang, if you wasn't after
+me?"
+
+"I didn't hound them. I ran into Suds by accident. We had trouble. Then
+Levine. Then Kennebec Lou tried to take a fall out of me."
+
+A note of whimsical protest crept into the voice of Donnegan.
+
+"Somehow there's always a fight wherever I go," he said. "Fights just
+sort of grow up around me."
+
+Lefty Joe snarled.
+
+"You didn't mean nothing by just 'happening' to run into three of my
+boys one after another?"
+
+"Not a thing."
+
+Lefty rocked himself back and forth in an ecstasy of impatience.
+
+"Why don't you stay put?" he complained. "Why don't you stake out your
+own ground and stay put in it? You cut in on every guy's territory.
+There ain't any privacy any more since you hit the road. What you got? A
+roving commission?"
+
+Donnegan waited for a moment before he answered. And when he spoke his
+voice had altered. Indeed, he had remarkable ability to pitch his voice
+into the roar of the freight train, and above or beneath it, and give it
+a quality such as he pleased.
+
+"I'm following a trail, but not yours," he admitted at length. "I'm
+following a trail. I've been at it these two years and nothing has
+come of it."
+
+"Who you after?"
+
+"A man with red hair."
+
+"That tells me a lot."
+
+Donnegan refused to explain.
+
+"What you got against him--the color of his hair?"
+
+And Lefty roared contentedly at his own stale jest.
+
+"It's no good," replied Donnegan. "I'll never get on the trail."
+
+Lefty broke in: "You mean to say you've been working two solid years and
+all on a trail that you ain't even found?"
+
+The silence answered him in the affirmative.
+
+"Ain't nobody been able to tip you off to him?" went on Lefty, intensely
+interested.
+
+"Nobody. You see, he's a hard sort to describe. Red hair, that's all
+there was about him for a clue. But if any one ever saw him stripped
+they'd remember him by a big blotchy birthmark on his left shoulder."
+
+"Eh?" grunted Lefty Joe.
+
+He added: "What was his name?"
+
+"Don't know. He changed monikers when he took to the road."
+
+"What was he to you?"
+
+"A man I'm going to find."
+
+"No matter where the trail takes you?"
+
+"No matter where."
+
+At this Lefty was seized with unaccountable laughter. He literally
+strained his lungs with that Homeric outburst. When he wiped the tears
+from his eyes, at length, the shadow on the opposite side of the doorway
+had disappeared. He found his companion leaning over him, and this time
+he could catch the dull glint of starlight on both hair and eyes.
+
+"What d'you know?" asked Donnegan.
+
+"How do you stand toward this bird with the birthmark and the red hair?"
+queried Lefty with caution.
+
+"What d'you know?" insisted Donnegan.
+
+All at once passion shook him; he fastened his grip in the shoulder of
+the larger man, and his fingertips worked toward the bone.
+
+"What do you know?" he repeated for the third time, and now there was no
+hint of laughter in the hard voice of Lefty.
+
+"You fool, if you follow that trail you'll go to the devil. It was
+Rusty Dick; and he's dead!"
+
+His triumphant laughter came again, but Donnegan cut into it.
+
+"Rusty Dick was the one you--killed!"
+
+"Sure. What of it? We fought fair and square."
+
+"Then Rusty wasn't the man I want. The man I want would of eaten two
+like you, Lefty."
+
+"What about the birthmark? It sure was on his shoulder; Donnegan."
+
+"Heavens!" whispered Donnegan.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Rusty Dick," gasped Donnegan. "Yes, it must have been he."
+
+"Sure it was. What did you have against him?"
+
+"It was a matter of blood--between us," stammered Donnegan.
+
+His voice rose in a peculiar manner, so that Lefty shrank involuntarily.
+
+"You killed Rusty?"
+
+"Ask any of the boys. But between you and me, it was the booze that
+licked Rusty Dick. I just finished up the job and surprised everybody."
+
+The train was out of the mountains and in a country of scattering hills,
+but here it struck a steep grade and settled down to a grind of slow
+labor; the rails hummed, and suspense filled the freight car.
+
+"Hey," cried Lefty suddenly. "You fool, you'll do a flop out the door in
+about a minute!"
+
+He even reached out to steady the toppling figure, but Donnegan pitched
+straight out into the night. Lefty craned his neck from the door,
+studying the roadbed, but at that moment the locomotive topped the
+little rise and the whole train lurched forward.
+
+"After all," murmured Lefty Joe, "it sounds like Donnegan. Hated a guy
+so bad that he hadn't any use for livin' when he heard the other guy was
+dead. But I'm never goin' to cross his path again, I hope."
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+
+But Donnegan had leaped clear of the roadbed, and he struck almost to
+the knees in a drift of sand. Otherwise, he might well have broken his
+legs with that foolhardy chance. As it was, the fall whirled him over
+and over, and by the time he had picked himself up the lighted caboose
+of the train was rocking past him. Donnegan watched it grow small in the
+distance, and then, when it was only a red, uncertain star far down the
+track, he turned to the vast country around him.
+
+The mountains were to his right, not far away, but caught up behind the
+shadows so that it seemed a great distance. Like all huge, half-seen
+things they seemed in motion toward him. For the rest, he was in bare,
+rolling country. The sky line everywhere was clean; there was hardly a
+sign of a tree. He knew, by a little reflection, that this must be
+cattle country, for the brakie had intimated as much in their talk just
+before dusk. Now it was early night, and a wind began to rise, blowing
+down the valley with a keen motion and a rapidly lessening temperature,
+so that Donnegan saw he must get to a shelter. He could, if necessary,
+endure any privation, but his tastes were for luxurious comfort.
+Accordingly he considered the landscape with gloomy disapproval. He was
+almost inclined to regret his plunge from the lumbering freight train.
+Two things had governed him in making that move. First, when he
+discovered that the long trail he followed was definitely fruitless, he
+was filled with a great desire to cut himself away from his past and
+make a new start. Secondly, when he learned that Rusty Dick had been
+killed by Joe, he wanted desperately to get the throttle of the latter
+under his thumb. If ever a man risked his life to avoid a sin, it was
+Donnegan jumping from the train to keep from murder.
+
+He stooped to sight along the ground, for this is the best way at night
+and often horizon lights are revealed in this manner. But now Donnegan
+saw nothing to serve as a guide. He therefore drew in his belt until it
+fitted snug about his gaunt waist, settled his cap firmly, and headed
+straight into the wind.
+
+Nothing could have shown his character more distinctly.
+
+When in doubt, head into the wind.
+
+With a jaunty, swinging step he sauntered along, and this time, at
+least, his tactics found an early reward. Topping the first large rise
+of ground, he saw in the hollow beneath him the outline of a large
+building. And as he approached it, the wind clearing a high blowing mist
+from the stars, he saw a jumble of outlying houses. Sheds, barns,
+corrals--it was the nucleus of a big ranch. It is a maxim that, if you
+wish to know a man look at his library and if you wish to know a
+rancher, look at his barn. Donnegan made a small detour to the left and
+headed for the largest of the barns.
+
+He entered it by the big, sliding door, which stood open; he looked up,
+and saw the stars shining through a gap in the roof. And then he stood
+quietly for a time, listening to the voices of the wind in the ruin.
+Oddly enough, it was pleasant to Donnegan. His own troubles and sorrow
+had poured upon him so thickly in the past hour or so that it was
+soothing to find evidence of the distress of others. But perhaps this
+meant that the entire establishment was deserted.
+
+He left the barn and went toward the house. Not until he was close under
+its wall did he come to appreciate its size. It was one of those great,
+rambling, two-storied structures which the cattle kings of the past
+generation were fond of building. Standing close to it, he heard none of
+the intimate sounds of the storm blowing through cracks and broken
+walls; no matter into what disrepair the barns had fallen, the house was
+still solid; only about the edges of the building the storm kept
+murmuring.
+
+Yet there was not a light, neither above nor below. He came to the front
+of the house. Still no sign of life. He stood at the door and knocked
+loudly upon it, and though, when he tried the knob, he found that the
+door was latched, yet no one came in response. He knocked again, and
+putting his ear close he heard the echoes walk through the interior of
+the building.
+
+After this, the wind rose in sudden strength and deafened him with
+rattlings; above him, a shutter was swung open and then crashed to, so
+that the opening of the door was a shock of surprise to Donnegan. A dim
+light from a source which he could not direct suffused the interior of
+the hall; the door itself was worked open a matter of inches and
+Donnegan was aware of two keen old eyes glittering out at him. Beyond
+this he could distinguish nothing.
+
+"Who are you?" asked a woman's voice. "And what do you want?"
+
+"I'm a stranger, and I want something to eat and a place to sleep. This
+house looks as if it might have spare rooms."
+
+"Where d'you come from?"
+
+"Yonder," said Donnegan, with a sufficiently noncommittal gesture.
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"I don't know you. Be off with you, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+He inserted his foot in the closing crack of the door.
+
+"Tell me where I'm to go?" he persisted.
+
+At this her voice rose in pitch, with squeaky rage.
+
+"I'll raise the house on you!"
+
+"Raise 'em. Call down the man of the house. I can talk to him better
+than I can to you; but I won't walk off like this. If you can feed me,
+I'll pay you for what I eat."
+
+A shrill cackling--he could not make out the words. And since patience
+was not the first of Donnegan's virtues, he seized on the knob of the
+door and deliberately pressed it wide. Standing in the hall, now, and
+closing the door slowly behind him, he saw a woman with old, keen eyes
+shrinking away toward the staircase. She was evidently in great fear,
+but there was something infinitely malicious in the manner in which she
+kept working her lips soundlessly. She was shrinking, and half turned
+away, yet there was a suggestion that in an instant she might whirl and
+fly at his face. The door now clicked, and with the windstorm shut away
+Donnegan had a queer feeling of being trapped.
+
+"Now call the man of the house," he repeated. "See if I can't come to
+terms with him."
+
+"He'd make short work of you if he came," she replied. She broke into a
+shrill laughter, and Donnegan thought he had never seen a face so ugly.
+"If he came," she said, "you'd rue the day."
+
+"Well, I'll talk to you, then. I'm not asking charity. I want to pay for
+what I get."
+
+"This ain't a hotel. You go on down the road. Inside eight miles you'll
+come to the town."
+
+"Eight miles!"
+
+"That's nothing for a man to ride."
+
+"Not at all, if I had something to ride."
+
+"You ain't got a horse?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then how do you come here?"
+
+"I walked."
+
+If this sharpened her suspicions, it sharpened her fear also. She put
+one foot on the lowest step of the stairs.
+
+"Be off with you, Mr. Donnegally, or whatever your outlandish name is.
+You'll get nothing here. What brings you--"
+
+A door closed and a footstep sounded lightly on the floor above. And
+Donnegan, already alert in the strange atmosphere of this house, gave
+back a pace so as to get an honest wall behind him. He noted that the
+step was quick and small, and preparing himself to meet a wisp of
+manhood--which, for that matter, was the type he was most inclined to
+fear--Donnegan kept a corner glance upon the old woman at the foot of
+the stairs and steadily surveyed the shadows at the head of the rise.
+
+Out of that darkness a foot slipped; not even a boy's foot--a very
+child's. The shock of it made Donnegan relax his caution for an instant,
+and in that instant she came into the reach of the light. It was a
+wretched light at best, for it came from a lamp with smoky chimney
+which the old hag carried, and at the raising and lowering of her hand
+the flame jumped and died in the throat of the chimney and set the hall
+awash with shadows. Falling away to a point of yellow, the lamp allowed
+the hall to assume a certain indefinite dignity of height and breadth
+and calm proportions; but when the flame rose Donnegan could see the
+broken balusters of the balustrade, the carpet, faded past any design
+and worn to rattiness, wall paper which had rotted or dried away and
+hung in crisp tatters here and there, and on the ceiling an irregular
+patch from which the plaster had fallen and exposed the lathwork. But at
+the coming of the girl the old woman had turned, and as she did the
+flame tossed up in the lamp and Donnegan could see the newcomer
+distinctly.
+
+Once before his heart had risen as it rose now. It had been the fag end
+of a long party, and Donnegan, rousing from a drunken sleep, staggered
+to the window. Leaning there to get the freshness of the night air
+against his hot face, he had looked up, and saw the white face of the
+moon going up the sky; and a sudden sense of the blackness and loathing
+against the city had come upon Donnegan, and the murky color of his own
+life; and when he turned away from the window he was sober. And so it
+was that he now stared up at the girl. At her breast she held a cloak
+together with one hand and the other hand touched the railing of the
+stairs. He saw one foot suspended for the next step, as though the sight
+of him kept her back in fear. To the miserable soul of Donnegan she
+seemed all that was lovely, young, and pure; and her hair, old gold in
+the shadow and pale gold where the lamp struck it, was to Donnegan like
+a miraculous light about her face.
+
+Indeed, that little pause was a great and awful moment. For considering
+that Donnegan, who had gone through his whole life with his eyes ready
+either to mock or hate, and who had rarely used his hand except to make
+a fist of it; Donnegan who had never, so far as is known, had a
+companion; who had asked the world for action, not kindness; this
+Donnegan now stood straight with his back against the wall, and poured
+out the story of his wayward life to a mere slip of a girl.
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+
+Even the old woman, whose eyes were sharpened by her habit of looking
+constantly for the weaknesses and vices of men, could not guess what was
+going on behind the thin, rather ugly face of Donnegan; the girl,
+perhaps, may have seen more. For she caught the glitter of his active
+eyes even at that distance. The hag began to explain with vicious
+gestures that set the light flaring up and down.
+
+"He ain't come from nowhere, Lou," she said. "He ain't going nowhere; he
+wants to stay here for the night."
+
+The foot which had been suspended to take the next step was now
+withdrawn. Donnegan, remembered at last, whipped off his cap, and at
+once the light flared and burned upon his hair. It was a wonderful red;
+it shone, and it had a terrible blood tinge so that his face seemed pale
+beneath it. There were three things that made up the peculiar dominance
+of Donnegan's countenance. The three things were the hair, the uneasy,
+bright eyes, and the rather thin, compressed lips. When Donnegan slept
+he seemed about to waken from a vigorous dream; when he sat down he
+seemed about to leap to his feet; and when he was standing he gave that
+impression of a poise which is ready for anything. It was no wonder that
+the girl, seeing that face and that alert, aggressive body, shrank a
+little on the stairs. Donnegan, that instant, knew that these two women
+were really alone in the house as far as fighting men were concerned.
+
+And the fact disturbed him more than a leveled gun would have done. He
+went to the foot of the stairs, even past the old woman, and, raising
+his head, he spoke to the girl.
+
+"My name's Donnegan. I came over from the railroad--walked. I don't want
+to walk that other eight miles unless there's a real need for it. I--"
+Why did he pause? "I'll pay for anything I get here."
+
+His voice was not too certain; behind his teeth there was knocking a
+desire to cry out to her the truth. "I am Donnegan. Donnegan the tramp.
+Donnegan the shiftless. Donnegan the fighter. Donnegan the killer.
+Donnegan the penniless, worthless. But for heaven's sake let me stay
+until morning and let me look at you--from a distance!"
+
+But, after all, perhaps he did not need to say all these things. His
+clothes were rags, upon his face there was a stubble of unshaven red,
+which made the pallor about his eyes more pronounced. If the girl had
+been half blind she must have felt that here was a man of fire. He saw
+her gather the wrap a little closer about her shoulders, and that sign
+of fear made him sick at heart.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," said the girl. "I am sorry. We cannot take you into the
+house. Eight miles--"
+
+Did she expect to turn a sinner from the gates of heaven with a mere
+phrase? He cast out his hand, and she winced as though he had shaken his
+fist at her.
+
+"Are you afraid?" cried Donnegan.
+
+"I don't control the house."
+
+He paused, not that her reply had baffled him, but the mere pleasure of
+hearing her speak accounted for it. It was one of those low, light
+voices which are apt to have very little range or volume, and which
+break and tremble absurdly under any stress of emotion; and often they
+become shrill in a higher register; but inside conversational limits, if
+such a term may be used, there is no fiber so delightful, so purely
+musical. Suppose the word "velvet" applied to a sound. That voice came
+soothingly and delightfully upon the ear of Donnegan, from which the
+roar and rattle of the empty freight train had not quite departed. He
+smiled at her.
+
+"But," he protested, "this is west of the Rockies--and I don't see any
+other way out."
+
+The girl, all this time, was studying him intently, a little sadly, he
+thought. Now she shook her head, but there was more warmth in her voice.
+
+"I'm sorry. I can't ask you to stay without first consulting my father."
+
+"Go ahead. Ask him."
+
+She raised her hand a little; the thought seemed to bring her to the
+verge of trembling, as though he were asking a sacrilege.
+
+"Why not?" he urged.
+
+She did not answer, but, instead, her eyes sought the old, woman, as if
+to gain her interposition; she burst instantly into speech.
+
+"Which there's no good talking any more," declared the ancient vixen.
+"Are you wanting to make trouble for her with the colonel? Be off, young
+man. It ain't the first time I've told you you'd get nowhere in this
+house!"
+
+There was no possible answer left to Donnegan, and he did as usual the
+surprising thing. He broke into laughter of such clear and ringing
+tone--such infectious laughter--that the old woman blinked in the midst
+of her wrath as though she were seeing a new man, and he saw the lips of
+the girl parted in wonder.
+
+"My father is an invalid," said the girl. "And he lives by strict rules.
+I could not break in on him at this time of the evening."
+
+"If that's all"--Donnegan actually began to mount the steps--"I'll go in
+and talk to your father myself."
+
+She had retired one pace as he began advancing, but as the import of
+what he said became clear to her she was rooted to one position by
+astonishment.
+
+"Colonel Macon--my father--" she began. Then: "Do you really wish to see
+him?"
+
+The hushed voice made Donnegan smile--it was such a voice as one boy
+uses when he asks the other if he really dares enter the pasture of the
+red bull. He chuckled again, and this time she smiled, and her eyes were
+widened, partly by fear of his purpose and partly from his nearness.
+They seemed to be suddenly closer together. As though they were on one
+side against a common enemy, and that enemy was her father. The old
+woman was cackling sharply from the bottom of the stairs, and then
+bobbing in pursuit and calling on Donnegan to come back. At length the
+girl raised her hand and silenced her with a gesture.
+
+Donnegan was now hardly a pace away; and he saw that she lived up to all
+the promise of that first glance. Yet still she seemed unreal. There is
+a quality of the unearthly about a girl's beauty; it is, after all, only
+a gay moment between the formlessness of childhood and the hardness of
+middle age. This girl was pale, Donnegan saw, and yet she had color. She
+had the luster, say, of a white rose, and the same bloom. Lou, the old
+woman had called her, and Macon was her father's name. Lou Macon--the
+name fitted her, Donnegan thought. For that matter, if her name had been
+Sally Smith, Donnegan would probably have thought it beautiful. The
+keener a man's mind is and the more he knows about men and women and the
+ways of the world, the more apt he is to be intoxicated by a touch of
+grace and thoughtfulness; and all these age-long seconds the perfume of
+girlhood had been striking up to Donnegan's brain.
+
+She brushed her timidity away and with the same gesture accepted
+Donnegan as something more than a dangerous vagrant. She took the lamp
+from the hands of the crone and sent her about her business,
+disregarding the mutterings and the warnings which trailed behind the
+departing form. Now she faced Donnegan, screening the light from her
+eyes with a cupped hand and by the same device focusing it upon the face
+of Donnegan. He mutely noted the small maneuver and gave her credit; but
+for the pleasure of seeing the white of her fingers and the way they
+tapered to a pink transparency at the tips, he forgot the poor figure he
+must make with his soiled, ragged shirt, his unshaven face, his gaunt
+cheeks.
+
+Indeed, he looked so straight at her that in spite of her advantage with
+the light she had to avoid his glance.
+
+"I am sorry," said Lou Macon, "and ashamed because we can't take you in.
+The only house on the range where you wouldn't be welcome, I know. But
+my father leads a very close life; he has set ways. The ways of an
+invalid, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"And you're bothered about speaking to him of me?"
+
+"I'm almost afraid of letting you go in yourself."
+
+"Let me take the risk."
+
+She considered him again for a moment, and then turned with a nod and he
+followed her up the stairs into the upper hall. The moment they stepped
+into it he heard her clothes flutter and a small gale poured on them. It
+was criminal to allow such a building to fall into this ruinous
+condition. And a gloomy picture rose in Donnegan's mind of the invalid,
+thin-faced, sallow-eyed, white-haired, lying in his bed listening to the
+storm and silently gathering bitterness out of the pain of living. Lou
+Macon paused again in the hall, close to a door on the right.
+
+"I'm going to send you in to speak to my father," she said gravely.
+"First I have to tell you that he's different."
+
+Donnegan replied by looking straight at her, and this time she did not
+wince from the glance. Indeed, she seemed to be probing him, searching
+with a peculiar hope. What could she expect to find in him? What that
+was useful to her? Not once in all his life had such a sense of
+impotence descended upon Donnegan. Her father? Bah! Invalid or no
+invalid he would handle that fellow, and if the old man had an acrid
+temper, Donnegan at will could file his own speech to a point. But the
+girl! In the meager hand which held the lamp there was a power which all
+the muscles of Donnegan could not compass; and in his weakness he looked
+wistfully at her.
+
+"I hope your talk will be pleasant. I hope so." She laid her hand on the
+knob of the door and withdrew it hastily; then, summoning great
+resolution, she opened the door and showed Donnegan in.
+
+"Father," she said, "this is Mr. Donnegan. He wishes to speak to you."
+
+The door closed behind Donnegan, and hearing that whishing sound which
+the door of a heavy safe will make, he looked down at this, and saw that
+it was actually inches thick! Once more the sense of being in a trap
+descended upon him.
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+
+He found himself in a large room which, before he could examine a single
+feature of it, was effectively curtained from his sight. Straight into
+his face shot a current of violent white light that made him blink.
+There was the natural recoil, but in Donnegan recoils were generally
+protected by several strata of willpower and seldom showed in any
+physical action. On the present occasion his first dismay was swiftly
+overwhelmed by a cold anger at the insulting trick. This was not the
+trick of a helpless invalid; Donnegan could not see a single thing
+before him, but he obeyed a very deep instinct and advanced straight
+into the current of light.
+
+He was glad to see the light switched away. The comparative darkness
+washed across his eyes in a pleasant wave and he was now able to
+distinguish a few things in the room. It was, as he had first surmised,
+quite large. The ceiling was high; the proportions comfortably spacious;
+but what astounded Donnegan was the real elegance of the furnishings.
+There was no mistaking the deep, silken texture of the rug upon which he
+stepped; the glow of light barely reached the wall, and there showed
+faintly in streaks along yellowish hangings. Beside a table which
+supported a big reading lamp--gasoline, no doubt, from the intensity of
+its light--sat Colonel Macon with a large volume spread across his
+knees. Donnegan saw two highlights--fine silver hair that covered the
+head of the invalid and a pair of white hands fallen idly upon the
+surface of the big book, for if the silver hair suggested age the
+smoothly finished hands suggested perennial youth. They were strong,
+carefully tended, complacent hands. They suggested to Donnegan a man
+sufficient unto himself.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, I am sorry that I cannot rise to receive you. Now, what
+pleasant accident has brought me the favor of this call?"
+
+Donnegan was taken aback again, and this time more strongly than by the
+flare of light against his eyes. For in the voice he recognized the
+quality of the girl--the same softness, the same velvety richness,
+though the pitch was a bass. In the voice of this man there was the same
+suggestion that the tone would crack if it were forced either up or
+down. With this great difference, one could hardly conceive of a
+situation which would push that man's voice beyond its monotone. It
+flowed with deadly, all-embracing softness. It clung about one; it
+fascinated and baffled the mind of the listener.
+
+But Donnegan was not in the habit of being baffled by voices. Neither
+was he a lover of formality. He looked about for a place to sit down,
+and immediately discovered that while the invalid sat in an enormous
+easy-chair bordered by shelves and supplied with wheels for raising and
+lowering the back and for propelling the chair about the room on its
+rubber tires, it was the only chair in the room which could make any
+pretensions toward comfort. As a matter of fact, aside from this one
+immense chair, devoted to the pleasure of the invalid, there was nothing
+in the room for his visitors to sit upon except two or three miserable
+backless stools.
+
+But Donnegan was not long taken aback. He tucked his cap under his arm,
+bowed profoundly in honor of the colonel's compliments, and brought one
+of the stools to a place where it was no nearer the rather ominous
+circle of the lamplight than was the invalid himself. With his eyes
+accustomed to the new light, Donnegan could now take better stock of his
+host. He saw a rather handsome face, with eyes exceedingly blue, young,
+and active; but the features of Macon as well as his body were blurred
+and obscured by a great fatness. He was truly a prodigious man, and one
+could understand the stoutness with which the invalid chair was made.
+His great wrist dimpled like the wrist of a healthy baby, and his face
+was so enlarged with superfluous flesh that the lower part of it quite
+dwarfed the upper. He seemed, at first glance, a man with a low forehead
+and bright, careless eyes and a body made immobile by flesh and
+sickness. A man whose spirits despised and defied pain. Yet a second
+glance showed that the forehead was, after all, a nobly proportioned
+one, and for all the bulk of that figure, for all the cripple-chair,
+Donnegan would not have been surprised to see the bulk spring lightly
+out of the chair to meet him.
+
+For his own part, sitting back on the stool with his cap tucked under
+his arm and his hands folded about one knee, he met the faint, cold
+smile of the colonel with a broad grin of his own.
+
+"I can put it in a nutshell," said Donnegan. "I was tired; dead beat;
+needed a handout, and rapped at your door. Along comes a mystery in the
+shape of an ugly-looking woman and opens the door to me. Tries to shut
+me out; I decided to come in. She insists on keeping me outside; all at
+once I see that I have to get into the house. I am brought in; your
+daughter tries to steer me off, sees that the job is more than she can
+get away with, and shelves me off upon you. And that, Colonel Macon, is
+the pleasant accident which brings you the favor of this call."
+
+It would have been a speech both stupid and pert in the mouth of
+another; but Donnegan knew how to flavor words with a touch of mockery
+of himself as well as another. There were two manners in which this
+speech could have been received--with a wink or with a smile. But it
+would have been impossible to hear it and grow frigid. As for the
+colonel, he smiled.
+
+It was a tricky smile, however, as Donnegan felt. It spread easily upon
+that vast face and again went out and left all to the dominion of the
+cold, bright eyes.
+
+"A case of curiosity," commented the colonel.
+
+"A case of hunger," said Donnegan.
+
+"My dear Mr. Donnegan, put it that way if you wish!"
+
+"And a case of blankets needed for one night."
+
+"Really? Have you ventured into such a country as this without any
+equipment?"
+
+"Outside of my purse, my equipment is of the invisible kind."
+
+"Wits," suggested the colonel.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Not at all. You hinted at it yourself."
+
+"However, a hint is harder to take than to make."
+
+The colonel raised his faultless right hand--and oddly enough his great
+corpulence did not extend in the slightest degree to his hand, but
+stopped short at the wrists--and stroked his immense chin. His skin was
+like Lou Macon's, except that in place of the white-flower bloom his was
+a parchment, dead pallor. He lowered his hand with the same slow
+precision and folded it with the other, all the time probing Donnegan
+with his difficult eyes.
+
+"Unfortunately--most unfortunately, it is impossible for me to
+accommodate you, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+The reply was not flippant, but quick. "Not at all. I am the easiest
+person in the world to accommodate."
+
+The big man smiled sadly.
+
+"My fortune has fallen upon evil days, sir. It is no longer what it was.
+There are in this house three habitable rooms; this one; my daughter's
+apartment; the kitchen where old Haggie sleeps. Otherwise you are in a
+rat trap of a place."
+
+He shook his head, a slow, decisive motion.
+
+"A spare blanket," said Donnegan, "will be enough."
+
+There was another sigh and another shake of the head.
+
+"Even a corner of a rug to roll up in will do perfectly."
+
+"You see, it is impossible for me to entertain you."
+
+"Bare boards will do well enough for me, Colonel Macon. And if I have a
+piece of bread, a plate of cold beans--anything--I can entertain
+myself."
+
+"I am sorry to see you so compliant, Mr. Donnegan, because that makes my
+refusal seem the more unkind. But I cannot have you sleeping on the bare
+floor. Not on such a night. Pneumonia comes on one like a cat in the
+dark in such weather. It is really impossible to keep you here, sir."
+
+"H'm-m," said Donnegan. He began to feel that he was stumped, and it was
+a most unusual feeling for him.
+
+"Besides, for a young fellow like you, with your agility, what is eight
+miles? Walk down the road and you will come to a place where you will be
+made at home and fed like a king."
+
+"Eight miles, that's not much! But on such a night as this?"
+
+There was a faint glint in the eyes of the colonel; was he not
+sharpening his wits for his contest of words, and enjoying it?
+
+"The wind will be at your back and buoy your steps. It will shorten the
+eight miles to four."
+
+Very definitely Donnegan felt that the other was reading him. What was
+it that he saw as he turned the pages?
+
+"There is one thing you fail to take into your accounting."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"I have an irresistible aversion to walking."
+
+"Ah?" repeated Macon.
+
+"Or exercise in any form."
+
+"Then you are unfortunate to be in this country without a horse."
+
+"Unfortunate, perhaps, but the fact is that I'm here. Very sorry to
+trouble you, though, colonel."
+
+"I am rarely troubled," said the colonel coldly. "And since I have no
+means of accommodation, the laws of hospitality rest light on my
+shoulders."
+
+"Yet I have an odd thought," replied Donnegan.
+
+"Well? You have expressed a number already, it seems to me."
+
+"It's this: that you've already made up your mind to keep me here."
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+
+The colonel stiffened in his chair, and under his bulk even those
+ponderous timbers quaked a little. Once more Donnegan gained an
+impression of chained activity ready to rise to any emergency. The
+colonel's jaw set and the last vestige of the smile left his eyes. Yet
+it was not anger that showed in its place. Instead, it was rather a
+hungry searching. He looked keenly into the face and the soul of
+Donnegan as a searchlight sweeps over waters by night.
+
+"You are a mind reader, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"No more of a mind reader than a Chinaman is."
+
+"Ah, they are great readers of mind, my friend."
+
+Donnegan grinned, and at this the colonel frowned.
+
+"A great and mysterious people, sir. I keep evidences of them always
+about me. Look!"
+
+He swept the shaft of the reading light up and it fell upon a red vase
+against the yellow hangings. Even Donnegan's inexperienced eye read a
+price into that shimmering vase.
+
+"Queer color," he said.
+
+"Dusty claret. Ah, they have the only names for their colors. Think!
+Peach bloom--liquid dawn--ripe cherry--oil green--green of powdered
+tea--blue of the sky after rain--what names for color! What other land
+possesses such a tongue that goes straight to the heart!"
+
+The colonel waved his faultless hands and then dropped them back upon
+the book with the tenderness of a benediction.
+
+"And their terms for texture--pear's rind--lime peel--millet seed! Do
+not scoff at China, Mr. Donnegan. She is the fairy godmother, and we are
+the poor children."
+
+He changed the direction of the light; Donnegan watched him, fascinated.
+
+"But what convinced you that I wished to keep you here?"
+
+"To amuse you, Colonel Macon."
+
+The colonel exposed gleaming white teeth and laughed in that soft,
+smooth-flowing voice.
+
+"Amuse me? For fifteen years I have sat in this room and amused myself
+by taking in what I would and shutting out the rest of the world. I have
+made the walls thick and padded them to keep out all sound. You observe
+that there is no evidence here of the storm that is going on tonight.
+Amuse me? Indeed!"
+
+And Donnegan thought of Lou Macon in her old, drab dress, huddling the
+poor cloak around her shoulders to keep out the cold, while her father
+lounged here in luxury. He could gladly have buried his lean fingers in
+that fat throat. From the first he had had an aversion to this man.
+
+"Very well, I shall go. It has been a pleasant chat, colonel."
+
+"Very pleasant. And thank you. But before you go, taste this whisky. It
+will help you when you enter the wind."
+
+He opened a cabinet in the side of the chair and brought out a black
+bottle and a pair of glasses and put them on the broad arm of the chair.
+Donnegan sauntered back.
+
+"You see," he murmured, "you will not let me go."
+
+At this the colonel raised his head suddenly and glared into the eyes of
+his guest, and yet so perfect was his muscular and nerve control that he
+did not interrupt the thin stream of amber which trickled into one of
+the glasses. Looking down again, he finished pouring the drinks. They
+pledged each other with a motion, and drank. It was very old, very oily.
+And Donnegan smiled as he put down the empty glass.
+
+"Sit down," said the colonel in a new voice.
+
+Donnegan obeyed.
+
+"Fate," went on the colonel, "rules our lives. We give our honest
+endeavors, but the deciding touch is the hand of Fate."
+
+He garnished this absurd truism with a wave of his hand so solemn that
+Donnegan was chilled; as though the fat man were actually conversant
+with the Three Sisters.
+
+"Fate has brought you to me; therefore, I intend to keep you."
+
+"Here?"
+
+"In my service. I am about to place a great mission and a great trust in
+your hands."
+
+"In the hands of a man you know nothing about?"
+
+"I know you as if I had raised you."
+
+Donnegan smiled, and shaking his head, the red hair flashed and
+shimmered.
+
+"As long as there is no work attached to the mission, it may be
+agreeable to me."
+
+"But there is work."
+
+"Then the contract is broken before it is made."
+
+"You are rash. But I had rather begin with a dissent and then work
+upward."
+
+Donnegan waited.
+
+"To balance against work--"
+
+"Excuse me. Nothing balances against work for me."
+
+"To balance against work," continued the colonel, raising a white hand
+and by that gesture crushing the protest of Donnegan, "there is a great
+reward."
+
+"Colonel Macon, I have never worked for money before and I shall not
+work for it now."
+
+"You trouble me with interruptions. Who mentioned money? You shall not
+have a penny!"
+
+"No?"
+
+"The reward shall grow out of the work."
+
+"And the work?"
+
+"Is fighting."
+
+At this Donnegan narrowed his eyes and searched the fat man thoroughly.
+It sounded like the talk of a charlatan, and yet there was a crispness
+to these sentences that made him suspect something underneath. For that
+matter, in certain districts his name and his career were known. He had
+never dreamed that that reputation could have come within a thousand
+miles of this part of the mountain desert.
+
+"You should have told me in the first place," he said with some anger,
+"that you knew me."
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, upon my honor, I never heard your name before my daughter
+uttered it."
+
+Donnegan waited soberly.
+
+"I despise charlatanry as much as the next man. You shall see the steps
+by which I judged you. When you entered the room I threw a strong light
+upon you. You did not blanch; you immediately walked straight into the
+shaft of light although you could not see a foot before you."
+
+"And that proved?"
+
+"A combative instinct, and coolness; not the sort of brute
+vindictiveness that fights for a rage, for a cool-minded love of
+conflict. Is that clear?"
+
+Donnegan shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"And above all, I need a fighter. Then I watched your eyes and your
+hands. The first were direct and yet they were alert. And your hands
+were perfectly steady."
+
+"Qualifications for a fighter, eh?"
+
+"Do you wish further proof?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"What of the fight to the death which you went through this same night?"
+
+Donnegan started. It was a small movement, that flinching, and he
+covered it by continuing the upward gesture of his hand to his coat; he
+drew out tobacco and cigarette papers and commenced to roll his smoke.
+Looking up, he saw that the eyes of Colonel Macon were smiling, although
+his face was grave.
+
+A glint of understanding passed between the two men, but not a spoken
+word.
+
+"I assure you, there was no death tonight," said Donnegan at length.
+
+"Tush! Of course not! But the tear on the shoulder of your coat--ah,
+that is too smooth edged for a tear, too long for the bite of a
+scissors. Am I right? Tush! Not a word!"
+
+The colonel beamed with an almost tender pride, and Donnegan, knowing
+that the fat man looked upon him as a murderer, newly come from a
+death, considered the beaming face and thought many things in silence.
+
+"So it was easy to see that in coolness, courage, fighting instinct,
+skill, you were probably what I want. Yet something more than all these
+qualifications is necessary for the task which lies ahead of you."
+
+"You pile up the bad features, eh?"
+
+"To entice you, Donnegan. For one man, paint a rosy beginning, and once
+under way he will manage the hard parts. For you, show you the hard
+shell and you will trust it contains the choice flesh. I was saying,
+that I waited to see other qualities in you; qualities of the judgment.
+And suddenly you flashed upon me a single glance; I felt it clash
+against my willpower. I felt your look go past my guard like a rapier
+slipping around my blade. I, Colonel Macon, was for the first time
+outfaced, out-maneuvered. I admit it, for I rejoice in meeting such a
+man. And the next instant you told me that I should keep you here out of
+my own wish! Admirable!"
+
+The admiration of the colonel, indeed, almost overwhelmed Donnegan, but
+he saw that in spite of the genial smile, the face suffused with warmth,
+the colonel was watching him every instant, flinty-eyed. Donnegan did as
+he had done on the stairs; he burst into laughter.
+
+When he had done, the colonel was leaning forward in his chair with his
+fingers interlacing, examining his guest from beneath somber brows. As
+he sat lurched forward he gave a terrible impression of that reserved
+energy which Donnegan had sensed before.
+
+"Donnegan," said the colonel, "I shall talk no more nonsense to you. You
+are a terrible fellow!"
+
+And Donnegan knew that, for the first time in the colonel's life, he was
+meeting another man upon equal ground.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+
+In a way, it was an awful tribute, for one great fact grew upon him:
+that the colonel represented almost perfectly the power of absolute
+evil. Donnegan was not a squeamish sort, but the fat, smiling face of
+Macon filled him with unutterable aversion. A dozen times he would have
+left the room, but a silken thread held him back, the thought of Lou.
+
+"I shall be terse and entirely frank," said the colonel, and at once
+Donnegan reared triple guard and balanced himself for attack or defense.
+
+"Between you and me," went on the fat man, "deceptive words are folly. A
+waste of energy." He flushed a little. "You are, I believe, the first
+man who has ever laughed at me." The click of his teeth as he snapped
+them on this sentence seemed to promise that he should also be the last.
+
+"So I tear away the veils which made me ridiculous, I grant you.
+Donnegan, we have met each other just in time."
+
+"True," said Donnegan, "you have a task for me that promises a lot of
+fighting; and in return I get lodgings for the night."
+
+"Wrong, wrong! I offer you much more. I offer you a career of action in
+which you may forget the great sorrow which has fallen upon you: and in
+the battles which lie before you, you will find oblivion for the sad
+past which lies behind you."
+
+Here Donnegan sprang to his feet with his hand caught at his breast; and
+he stood quivering, in an agony. Pain worked him as anger would do, and,
+his slender frame swelling, his muscles taut, he stood like a panther
+enduring the torture because knows it is folly to attempt to escape.
+
+"You are a human devil!" Donnegan said at last, and sank back upon his
+stool. For a moment he was overcome, his head falling upon his breast,
+and even when he looked up his face was terribly pale, and his eyes
+dull. His expression, however, cleared swiftly, and aside from the
+perspiration which shone on his forehead it would have been impossible
+ten seconds later to discover that the blow of the colonel had fallen
+upon him.
+
+All of this the colonel had observed and noted with grim satisfaction.
+Not once did he speak until he saw that all was well.
+
+"I am sorry," he said at length in a voice almost as delicate as the
+voice of Lou Macon. "I am sorry, but you forced me to say more than I
+wished to say."
+
+Donnegan brushed the apology aside.
+
+His voice became low and hurried. "Let us get on in the matter. I am
+eager to learn from you, colonel."
+
+"Very well. Since it seems that there is a place for both our interests
+in this matter, I shall run on in my tale and make it, as I promised you
+before, absolutely frank and curt. I shall not descend into small
+details. I shall give you a main sketch of the high points; for all men
+of mind are apt to be confused by the face of a thing, whereas the heart
+of it is perfectly clear to them."
+
+He settled into his narrative.
+
+"You have heard of The Corner? No? Well, that is not strange; but a few
+weeks ago gold was found in the sands where the valleys of Young Muddy
+and Christobel Rivers join. The Corner is a long, wide triangle of sand,
+and the sand is filled with a gold deposit brought down from the
+headwaters of both rivers and precipitated here, where one current meets
+the other and reduces the resultant stream to sluggishness. The sands
+are rich--very rich!"
+
+He had become a trifle flushed as he talked, and now, perhaps to cover
+his emotion, he carefully selected a cigarette from the humidor beside
+him and lighted it without haste before he spoke another word.
+
+"Long ago I prospected over that valley; a few weeks ago it was brought
+to my attention again. I determined to stake some claims and work them.
+But I could not go myself. I had to send a trustworthy man. Whom should
+I select? There was only one possible. Jack Landis is my ward. A dozen
+years ago his parents died and they sent him to my care, for my fortune
+was then comfortable. I raised him with as much tenderness as I could
+have shown my own son; I lavished on him the affection and--"
+
+Here Donnegan coughed lightly; the fat man paused, and observing that
+this hypocrisy did not draw the veil over the bright eyes of his guest,
+he continued: "In a word, I made him one of my family. And when the need
+for a man came I turned to him. He is young, strong, active, able to
+take care of himself."
+
+At this Donnegan pricked his ears.
+
+"He went, accordingly, to The Corner and staked the claims and filed
+them as I directed. I was right. There was gold. Much gold. It panned
+out in nuggets."
+
+He made an indescribable gesture, and through his strong fingers
+Donnegan had a vision of yellow gold pouring.
+
+"But there is seldom a discovery of importance claimed by one man alone.
+This was no exception. A villain named William Lester, known as a
+scoundrel over the length and breadth of the cattle country, claimed
+that he had made the discovery first. He even went so far as to claim
+that I had obtained my information from him and he tried to jump the
+claims staked by Jack Landis, whereupon Jack, very properly, shot Lester
+down. Not dead, unfortunately, but slightly wounded.
+
+"In the meantime the rush for The Corner started. In a week there was a
+village; in a fortnight there was a town; in a month The Corner had
+become the talk of the ranges. Jack Landis found in the claims a mint.
+He sent me back a mere souvenir."
+
+The fat man produced from his vest pocket a little chunk of yellow and
+with a dexterous motion whipped it at Donnegan. It was done so suddenly,
+so unexpectedly that the wanderer was well-nigh taken by surprise. But
+his hand flashed up and caught the metal before it struck his face. He
+found in the palm of his hand a nugget weighing perhaps five ounces,
+and he flicked it back to the colonel.
+
+"He sent me the souvenir, but that was all. Since that time I have
+waited. Nothing has come. I sent for word, and I learned that Jack
+Landis had betrayed his trust, fallen in love with some undesirable
+woman of the mining camp, denied my claim to any of the gold to which I
+had sent him. Unpleasant news? Yes. Ungrateful boy? Yes. But my mind is
+hardened against adversity.
+
+"Yet this blow struck me close to the heart. Because Landis is engaged
+to marry my daughter, Lou. At first I could hardly believe in his
+disaffection. But the truth has at length been borne home to me. The
+scoundrel has abandoned both Lou and me!"
+
+Donnegan repeated slowly: "Your daughter loves this chap?"
+
+The colonel allowed his glance to narrow, and he could do this the more
+safely because at this moment Donnegan's eyes were wandering into the
+distance. In that unguarded second Donnegan was defenseless and the
+colonel read something that set him beaming.
+
+"She loves him, of course," he said, "and he is breaking her heart with
+his selfishness."
+
+"He is breaking her heart?" echoed Donnegan.
+
+The colonel raised his hand and stroked his enormous chin. Decidedly he
+believed that things were getting on very well.
+
+"This is the position," he declared. "Jack Landis was threatened by the
+wretch Lester, and shot him down. But Lester was not single-handed. He
+belongs to a wild crew, led by a mysterious fellow of whom no one knows
+very much, a deadly fighter, it is said, and a keen organizer and
+handler of men. Red-haired, wild, smooth. A bundle of contradictions.
+They call him Lord Nick because he has the pride of a nobleman and the
+cunning of the devil. He has gathered a few chosen spirits and cool
+fighters--the Pedlar, Joe Rix, Harry Masters--all celebrated names in
+the cattle country.
+
+"They worship Lord Nick partly because he is a genius of crime and
+partly because he understands how to guide them so that they may rob and
+even kill with impunity. His peculiarity is his ability to keep within
+the bounds of the law. If he commits a robbery he always first
+establishes marvelous alibis and throws the blame toward someone else;
+if it is the case of a killing, it is always the other man who is the
+aggressor. He has been before a jury half a dozen times, but the devil
+knows the law and pleads his own case with a tongue that twists the
+hearts out of the stupid jurors. You see? No common man. And this is the
+leader of the group of which Lester is one of the most debased members.
+He had no sooner been shot than Lord Nick himself appeared. He had his
+followers with him. He saw Jack Landis, threatened him with death, and
+made Jack swear that he would hand over half of the profits of the mines
+to the gang--of which, I suppose, Lester gets his due proportion. At the
+same time, Lord Nick attempted to persuade Jack that I, his adopted
+father, you might say, was really in the wrong, and that I had stolen
+the claims from this wretched Lester!"
+
+He waved this disgusting accusation into a mist and laughed with hateful
+softness.
+
+"The result is this: Jack Landis draws a vast revenue from the mines.
+Half of it he turns over to Lord Nick, and Lord Nick in return gives him
+absolute freedom and backing in the camp, where he is, and probably will
+continue the dominant factor. As for the other half, Landis spends it on
+this woman with whom he has become infatuated. And not a penny comes
+through to me!"
+
+Colonel Macon leaned back in his chair and his eyes became fixed upon a
+great distance. He smiled, and the blood turned cold in the veins of
+Donnegan.
+
+"Of course this adventuress, this Nelly Lebrun, plays hand in glove with
+Lord Nick and his troupe; unquestionably she shares her spoils, so that
+nine-tenths of the revenue from the mines is really flowing back through
+the hands of Lord Nick and Jack Landis has become a silly figurehead. He
+struts about the streets of The Corner as a great mine owner, and with
+the power of Lord Nick behind him, not one of the people of the gambling
+houses and dance halls dares cross him. So that Jack has come to
+consider himself a great man. Is it clear?"
+
+Donnegan had not yet drawn his gaze entirely back from the distance.
+
+"This is the possible solution," went on the colonel. "Jack Landis must
+be drawn away from the influence of this Nelly Lebrun. He must be
+brought back to us and shown his folly both as regards the adventuress
+and Lord Nick; for so long as Nelly has a hold on him, just so long
+Lord Nick will have his hand in Jack's pocket. You see how beautifully
+their plans and their work dovetail? How, therefore, am I to draw him
+from Nelly? There is only one way: send my daughter to the camp--send
+Lou to The Corner and let one glimpse of her beauty turn the shabby
+prettiness of this woman to a shadow! Lou is my last hope!"
+
+At this Donnegan wakened. His sneer was not a pleasant thing to see.
+
+"Send her to a new mining camp. Colonel Macon, you have the gambling
+spirit; you are willing to take great chances!"
+
+"So! So!" murmured the colonel, a little taken aback. "But I should
+never send her except with an adequate protector."
+
+"An adequate protector even against these celebrated gunmen who run the
+camp as you have already admitted?"
+
+"An adequate protector--you are the man!"
+
+Donnegan shivered.
+
+"I? I take your daughter to the camp and play her against Nelly Lebrun
+to win back Jack Landis? Is that the scheme?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Ah," murmured Donnegan. And he got up and began to walk the room,
+white-faced; the colonel watched him in a silent agony of anxiety.
+
+"She truly loves this Landis?" asked Donnegan, swallowing.
+
+"A love that has grown out of their long intimacy together since they
+were children."
+
+"Bah! Calf love! Let the fellow go and she will forget him. Hearts are
+not broken in these days by disappointments in love affairs."
+
+The colonel writhed in his chair.
+
+"But Lou--you do not know her heart!" he suggested. "If you looked
+closely at her you would have seen that she is pale. She does not
+suspect the truth, but I think she is wasting away because Jack hasn't
+written for weeks."
+
+He saw Donnegan wince under the whip.
+
+"It is true," murmured the wanderer. "She is not like others, heaven
+knows!" He turned. "And what if I fail to bring over Jack Landis with
+the sight of Lou?"
+
+The colonel relaxed; the great crisis was past and Donnegan would
+undertake the journey.
+
+"In that case, my dear lad, there is an expedient so simple that you
+astonish me by not perceiving it. If there is no way to wean Landis away
+from the woman, then get him alone and shoot him through the heart. In
+that way you remove from the life of Lou a man unworthy of her and you
+also make the mines come to the heir of Jack Landis--namely, myself. And
+in the latter case, Mr. Donnegan, be sure--oh, be sure that I should not
+forget who brought the mines into my hands!"
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+
+Fifty miles over any sort of going is a stiff march. Fifty miles uphill
+and down and mostly over districts where there was only a rough cow path
+in lieu of a road made a prodigious day's work; and certainly it was an
+almost incredible feat for one who professed to hate work with a
+consuming passion and who had looked upon an eight-mile jaunt the night
+before as an insuperable burden. Yet such was the distance which
+Donnegan had covered, and now he drove the pack mule out on the shoulder
+of the hill in full view of The Corner with the triangle of the Young
+Muddy and Christobel Rivers embracing the little town. Even the gaunt,
+leggy mule was tired to the dropping point, and the tough buckskin which
+trailed up behind went with downward head. When Louise Macon turned to
+him, he had reached the point where he swung his head around first and
+then grudgingly followed the movement with his body. The girl was tired,
+also, in spite of the fact that she had covered every inch of the
+distance in the saddle. There was that violet shade of weariness under
+her eyes and her shoulders slumped forward. Only Donnegan, the hater of
+labor, was fresh.
+
+They had started in the first dusk of the coming day; it was now the
+yellow time of the slant afternoon sunlight; between these two points
+there had been a body of steady plodding. The girl had looked askance at
+that gaunt form of Donnegan's when they began; but before three hours,
+seeing that the spring never left his step nor the swinging rhythm his
+stride, she began to wonder. This afternoon, nothing he did could have
+surprised her. From the moment he entered the house the night before he
+had been a mystery. Till her death day she would not forget the fire
+with which he had stared up at her from the foot of the stairs. But when
+he came out of her father's room--not cowed and whipped as most men left
+it--he had looked at her with a veiled glance, and since that moment
+there had always been a mist of indifference over his eyes when he
+looked at her.
+
+In the beginning of that day's march all she knew was that her father
+trusted her to this stranger, Donnegan, to take her to The Corner, where
+he was to find Jack Landis and bring Jack back to his old allegiance and
+find what he was doing with his time and his money. It was a quite
+natural proceeding, for Jack was a wild sort, and he was probably
+gambling away all the gold that was dug in his mines. It was perfectly
+natural throughout, except that she should have been trusted so entirely
+to a stranger. That was a remarkable thing, but, then, her father was a
+remarkable man, and it was not the first time that his actions had been
+inscrutable, whether concerning her or the affairs of other people. She
+had heard men come into their house cursing Colonel Macon with death in
+their faces; she had seen them sneak out after a soft-voiced interview
+and never appear again. In her eyes, her father was invincible,
+all-powerful. When she thought of superlatives, she thought of him. Her
+conception of mystery was the smile of the colonel, and her conception
+of tenderness was bounded by the gentle voice of the same man.
+Therefore, it was entirely sufficient to her that the colonel had said:
+"Go, and trust everything to Donnegan. He has the power to command you
+and you must obey--until Jack comes back to you."
+
+That was odd, for, as far as she knew, Jack had never left her. But she
+had early discarded any will to question her father. Curiosity was a
+thing which the fat man hated above all else.
+
+Therefore, it was really not strange to her that throughout the journey
+her guide did not speak half a dozen words to her. Once or twice when
+she attempted to open the conversation he had replied with crushing
+monosyllables, and there was an end. For the rest, he was always
+swinging down the trail ahead of her at a steady, unchanging, rapid
+stride. Uphill and down it never varied. And so they came out upon the
+shoulder of the hill and saw the storm center of The Corner. They were
+in the hills behind the town; two miles would bring them into it. And
+now Donnegan came back to her from the mule. He took off his hat and
+shook the dust away; he brushed a hand across his face. He was still
+unshaven. The red stubble made him hideous, and the dust and
+perspiration covered his face as with a mask. Only his eyes were rimmed
+with white skin.
+
+"You'd better get off the horse, here," said Donnegan.
+
+He held her stirrup, and she obeyed without a word.
+
+"Sit down."
+
+She sat down on the flat-topped boulder which he designated, and,
+looking up, observed the first sign of emotion in his face. He was
+frowning, and his face was drawn a little.
+
+"You are tired," he stated.
+
+"A little."
+
+"You are tired," said the wanderer in a tone that implied dislike of any
+denial. Therefore she made no answer. "I'm going down into the town to
+look things over. I don't want to parade you through the streets until I
+know where Landis is to be found and how he'll receive you. The Corner
+is a wild town; you understand?"
+
+"Yes," she said blankly, and noted nervously that the reply did not
+please him. He actually scowled at her.
+
+"You'll be all right here. I'll leave the pack mule with you; if
+anything should happen--but nothing is going to happen, I'll be back in
+an hour or so. There's a pool of water. You can get a cold drink there
+and wash up if you want to while I'm gone. But don't go to sleep!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"A place like this is sure to have a lot of stragglers hunting around
+it. Bad characters. You understand?"
+
+She could not understand why he should make a mystery of it; but then,
+he was almost as strange as her father. His careful English and his
+ragged clothes were typical of him inside and out.
+
+"You have a gun there in your holster. Can you use it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Try it."
+
+It was a thirty-two, a woman's light weapon. She took it out and
+balanced it in her hand.
+
+"The blue rock down the hillside. Let me see you chip it."
+
+Her hand went up, and without pausing to sight along the barrel, she
+fired; fire flew from the rock, and there appeared a white, small scar.
+Donnegan sighed with relief.
+
+"If you squeezed the butt rather than pulled the trigger," he commented,
+"you would have made a bull's-eye that time. Now, I don't mean that in
+any likelihood you'll have to defend yourself. I simply want you to be
+aware that there's plenty of trouble around The Corner."
+
+"Yes," said the girl.
+
+"You're not afraid?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+Donnegan settled his hat a little more firmly upon his head. He had been
+on the verge of attributing her gentleness to a blank, stupid mind; he
+began to realize that there was metal under the surface. He felt that
+some of the qualities of the father were echoed faintly, and at a
+distance, in the child. In a way, she made him think of an unawakened
+creature. When she was roused, if the time ever came, it might be that
+her eye could become a thing alternately of fire and ice, and her voice
+might carry with a ring.
+
+"This business has to be gotten through quickly," he went on. "One
+meeting with Jack Landis will be enough."
+
+She wondered why he set his jaw when he said this, but he was wondering
+how deeply the colonel's ward had fallen into the clutches of Nelly
+Lebrun. If that first meeting did not bring Landis to his senses, what
+followed? One of two things. Either the girl must stay on in The Corner
+and try her hand with her fiancé again, or else the final brutal
+suggestion of the colonel must be followed; he must kill Landis. It was
+a cold-blooded suggestion, but Donnegan was a cold-blooded man. As he
+looked at the girl, where she sat on the boulder, he knew definitely,
+first and last, that he loved her, and that he would never again love
+any other woman. Every instinct drew him toward the necessity of
+destroying Landis. There was his stumbling block. But what if she truly
+loved Landis?
+
+He would have to wait in order to find that out. And as he stood there
+with the sun shining on the red stubble on his face he made a resolution
+the more profound because it was formed in silence: if she truly loved
+Landis he would serve her hand and foot until she had her will.
+
+But all he said was simply: "I shall be back before it's dark."
+
+"I shall be comfortable here," replied the girl, and smiled farewell at
+him.
+
+And while Donnegan went down the slope full of darkness he thought of
+that smile.
+
+The Corner spread more clearly before him with every step he made. It
+was a type of the gold-rush town. Of course most of the dwellings were
+tents--dog tents many of them; but there was a surprising sprinkling of
+wooden shacks, some of them of considerable size. Beginning at the very
+edge of the town and spread over the sand flats were the mines and the
+black sprinkling of laborers. And the town itself was roughly jumbled
+around one street. Over to the left the main road into The Corner
+crossed the wide, shallow ford of the Young Muddy River and up this road
+he saw half a dozen wagons coming, wagons of all sizes; but nothing went
+out of The Corner. People who came stayed there, it seemed.
+
+He dropped over the lower hills, and the voice of the gold town rose to
+him. It was a murmur like that of an army preparing for battle. Now and
+then a blast exploded, for what purpose he could not imagine in this
+school of mining. But as a rule the sounds were subdued by the distance.
+He caught the muttering of many voices, in which laughter and shouts
+were brought to the level of a whisper at close hand; and through all
+this there was a persistent clangor of metallic sounds. No doubt from
+the blacksmith shops where picks and other implements were made or
+sharpened and all sorts of repairing carried on. But the predominant
+tone of the voice of The Corner was this persistent ringing of metal. It
+suggested to Donnegan that here was a town filled with men of iron and
+all the gentler parts of their natures forgotten. An odd place to bring
+such a woman as Lou Macon, surely!
+
+He reached the level, and entered the town.
+
+
+
+
+11
+
+
+Hunting for news, he went naturally to the news emporium which took the
+place of the daily paper--namely, he went to the saloons. But on the way
+he ran through a liberal cross-section of The Corner's populace. First
+of all, the tents and the ruder shacks. He saw little sheet-iron stoves
+with the tin dishes piled, unwashed, upon the tops of them when the
+miners rushed back to their work; broken handles of picks and shovels;
+worn-out shirts and overalls lay where they had been tossed; here was a
+flat strip of canvas supported by four four-foot poles and without
+shelter at the sides, and the belongings of one careless miner tumbled
+beneath this miserable shelter; another man had striven for some
+semblance of a home and he had framed a five-foot walk leading up to the
+closed flap of his tent with stones of a regular size. But nowhere was
+there a sign of life, and would not be until semidarkness brought the
+unwilling workers back to the tents.
+
+Out of this district he passed quickly onto the main street, and here
+there was a different atmosphere. The first thing he saw was a man
+dressed as a cowpuncher from belt to spurs--spurs on a miner--but above
+the waist he blossomed in a frock coat and a silk hat. Around the coat
+he had fastened his belt, and the shirt beneath the coat was common
+flannel, open at the throat. He walked, or rather staggered, on the arm
+of an equally strange companion who was arrayed in a white silk shirt,
+white flannel trousers, white dancing pumps, and a vast sombrero! But as
+if this was not sufficient protection for his head, he carried a parasol
+of the most brilliant green silk and twirled it above his head. The two
+held a wavering course and went blindly past Donnegan.
+
+It was sufficiently clear that the storekeeper had followed the gold.
+
+He noted a cowboy sitting in his saddle while he rolled a cigarette.
+Obviously he had come in to look things over rather than to share in the
+mining, and he made the one sane, critical note in the carnival of noise
+and color. Donnegan began to pass stores. There was the jeweler's; the
+gent's furnishing; a real estate office--what could real estate be doing
+on the Young Muddy's desert? Here was the pawnshop, the windows of which
+were already packed. The blacksmith had a great establishment, and the
+roar of the anvils never died away; feed and grain and a dozen
+lunch-counter restaurants. All this had come to The Corner within six
+weeks.
+
+Liquor seemed to be plentiful, too. In the entire length of the street
+he hardly saw a sober man, except the cowboy. Half a dozen in one group
+pitched silver dollars at a mark. But he was in the saloon district now,
+and dominant among the rest was the big, unpainted front of a building
+before which hung an enormous sign:
+
+LEBRUN'S JOY EMPORIUM
+
+Donnegan turned in under the sign.
+
+It was one big room. The bar stretched completely around two sides of
+it. The floor was dirt, but packed to the hardness of wood. The low roof
+was supported by a scattering of wooden pillars, and across the floor
+the gaming tables were spread. At that vast bar not ten men were
+drinking now; at the crowding tables there were not half a dozen
+players; yet behind the bar stood a dozen tenders ready to meet the
+evening rush from the mines. And at the tables waited an equal number of
+the professional gamblers of the house.
+
+From the door Donnegan observed these things with one sweeping glance,
+and then proceeded to transform himself. One jerk at the visor of his
+cap brought it down over his eyes and covered his face with shadow; a
+single shrug bunched the ragged coat high around his shoulders, and the
+shoulders themselves he allowed to drop forward. With his hands in his
+pockets he glided slowly across the room toward the bar, for all the
+world a picture of the guttersnipe who had been kicked from pillar to
+post until self-respect is dead in him. And pausing in his advance, he
+leaned against one of the pillars and looked hungrily toward the bar.
+
+He was immediately hailed from behind the bar with: "Hey, you. No tramps
+in here. Pay and stay in Lebrun's!"
+
+The command brought an immediate protest. A big fellow stepped from the
+bar, his sombrero pushed to the back of his head, his shirt sleeves
+rolled to the elbow away from vast hairy forearms. One of his long arms
+swept out and brought Donnegan to the bar.
+
+"I ain't no prophet," declared the giant, "but I can spot a man that's
+dry. What'll you have, bud?" And to the bartender he added: "Leave him
+be, pardner, unless you're all set for considerable noise in here."
+
+"Long as his drinks are paid for," muttered the bartender, "here he
+stays. But these floaters do make me tired!"
+
+He jabbed the bottle across the bar at Donnegan and spun a glass noisily
+at him, and the "floater" observed the angry bartender with a frightened
+side glance, and then poured his drink gingerly. When the glass was half
+full he hesitated and sought the face of the bartender again, for
+permission to go on.
+
+"Fill her up!" commanded the giant. "Fill her up, lad, and drink
+hearty."
+
+"I never yet," observed the bartender darkly, "seen a beggar that wasn't
+a hog."
+
+At this Donnegan's protector shifted his belt so that the holster came a
+little more forward on his thigh.
+
+"Son," he said, "how long you been in these parts?"
+
+"Long enough," declared the other, and lowered his black brows. "Long
+enough to be sick of it."
+
+"Maybe, maybe," returned the cowpuncher-miner, "meantime you tie to
+this. We got queer ways out here. When a gent drinks with us he's our
+friend. This lad here is my pardner, just now. If I was him I would of
+knocked your head off before now for what you've said--"
+
+"I don't want no trouble," Donnegan said whiningly.
+
+At this the bartender chuckled, and the miner showed his teeth in his
+disgust.
+
+"Every gent has got his own way," he said sourly. "But while you drink
+with Hal Stern you drink with your chin up, bud. And don't forget it.
+And them that tries to run over you got to run over me."
+
+Saying this, he laid his large left hand on the bar and leaned a little
+toward the bartender, but his right hand remained hanging loosely at his
+side. It was near the holster, as Donnegan noticed. And the bartender,
+having met the boring glance of the big man for a moment, turned surlily
+away. The giant looked to Donnegan and observed: "Know a good definition
+of the word, skunk?"
+
+"Nope," said Donnegan, brightening now that the stern eye, of the
+bartender was turned away.
+
+"Here's one that might do. A skunk is a critter that bites when your
+back is turned and runs when you look it in the eye. Here's how!"
+
+He drained his own glass, and Donnegan dexterously followed the example.
+
+"And what might you be doing around these parts?" asked the big man,
+veiling his contempt under a mild geniality.
+
+"Me? Oh, nothing."
+
+"Looking for a job, eh?"
+
+Donnegan shrugged.
+
+"Work ain't my line," he confided.
+
+"H'm-m-m," said Hal Stern. "Well, you don't make no bones about it."
+
+"But just now," continued Donnegan, "I thought maybe I'd pick up some
+sort of a job for a while." He looked ruefully at the palms of his hands
+which were as tender as the hands of a woman. "Heard a fellow say that
+Jack Landis was a good sort to work for--didn't rush his men none. They
+said I might find him here."
+
+The big man grunted.
+
+"Too early for him. He don't circulate around much till the sun goes
+down. Kind of hard on his skin, the sun, maybe. So you're going to work
+for him?"
+
+"I was figuring on it."
+
+"Well, tie to this, bud. If you work for him you won't have him over
+you."
+
+"No?"
+
+"No, you'll have"--he glanced a little uneasily around him--"Lord Nick."
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"Who's he?" The big man started in astonishment. "Sufferin' catamounts!
+Who is he?" He laughed in a disagreeable manner. "Well, son, you'll
+find out, right enough!"
+
+"The way you talk, he don't sound none too good."
+
+Hal Stern grew anxious. "The way I talk? Have I said anything agin' him?
+Not a word! He's--he's--well, there ain't ever been trouble between us
+and there never ain't going to be." He flushed and looked steadily at
+Donnegan. "Maybe he sent you to talk to me?" he asked coldly.
+
+But Donnegan's eyes took on a childish wideness.
+
+"Why, I never seen him," he declared. Hall Stern allowed the muscles of
+his face to relax. "All right," he said, "they's no harm done. But Lord
+Nick is a name that ain't handled none too free in these here parts.
+Remember that!"
+
+"But how," pondered Donnegan, "can I be working for Lord Nick when I
+sign up to work under Jack Landis?"
+
+"I'll tell you how. Nick and Lebrun work together. Split profits. And
+Nelly Lebrun works Landis for his dust. So the stuff goes in a
+circle--Landis to Nelly to Lebrun to Nick. That clear?"
+
+"I don't quite see it," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"I didn't think you would," declared the other, and snorted his disgust.
+"But that's all I'm going to say. Here come the boys--and dead dry!"
+
+For the afternoon was verging upon evening, and the first drift of
+laborers from the mines was pouring into The Corner. One thing at least
+was clear to Donnegan: that everyone knew how infatuated Landis had
+become with Nelly Lebrun and that Landis had not built up an
+extraordinarily good name for himself.
+
+
+
+
+12
+
+
+By the time absolute darkness had set in, Donnegan, in the new role of
+lady's chaperon, sat before a dying fire with Louise Macon beside him.
+He had easily seen from his talk with Stern that Landis was a public
+figure, whether from the richness of his claims or his relations with
+Lord Nick and Lebrun, or because of all these things; but as a public
+figure it would be impossible to see him alone in his own tent, and
+unless Louise could meet him alone half her power over him--supposing
+that she still retained any--would be lost. Better by far that Landis
+should come to her than that she should come to him, so Donnegan had
+rented two tents by the day at an outrageous figure from the
+enterprising real estate company of The Corner and to this new home he
+brought the girl.
+
+She accepted the arrangement with surprising equanimity. It seemed that
+her father's training had eliminated from her mind any questioning of
+the motives of others. She became even cheerful as she set about
+arranging the pack which Donnegan put in her tent. Afterward she cooked
+their supper over the fire which he built for her. Never was there such
+a quick house-settling. And by the time it was absolutely dark they had
+washed the dishes and sat before Lou's tent looking over the night
+lights of The Corner and hearing the voice of its Great White Way
+opening.
+
+She had not even asked why he did not bring her straight to Jack Landis.
+She had looked into Donnegan's tent, furnished with a single blanket and
+his canvas kit, and had offered to share her pack with him. And now they
+sat side by side before the tent and still she asked no questions about
+what was to come.
+
+Her silence was to Donnegan the dropping of the water upon the hard
+rock. He was crumbling under it, and a wild hatred for the colonel rose
+in him. No doubt that spirit of evil had foreseen all this; and he knew
+that every moment spent with the girl would drive Donnegan on closer to
+the accomplishment of the colonel's great purpose--the death of Jack
+Landis. For the colonel, as Jack's next of kin, would take over all his
+mining interests and free them at a stroke from the silent partnership
+which apparently existed with Lord Nick and Lester. One bullet would do
+all this: and with Jack dead, who else stood close to the girl? It was
+only necessary that she should not know who sped the bullet home.
+
+A horrible fancy grew up in Donnegan, as he sat there, that between him
+and the girl lay a dead body.
+
+He was glad when the time came and he could tell her that he was going
+down to The Corner to find Jack Landis and bring him to her. She rose to
+watch him go and he heard her say "Come soon!"
+
+It shocked Donnegan into realization that for all her calm exterior she
+was perfectly aware of the danger of her position in the wild mining
+camp. She must know, also, that her reputation would be compromised; yet
+never once had she winced, and Donnegan was filled with wonder as he
+went down the hill toward the camp which was spread beneath him; for
+their tents were a little detached from the main body of the town.
+Behind her gentle eyes, he now felt, and under the softness of her
+voice, there was the same iron nerve that was in her father. Her hatred
+could be a deathless passion, and her love also; and the great question
+to be answered now was, did she truly love Jack Landis?
+
+The Corner at night was like a scene at a circus. There was the same
+rush of people, the same irregular flush of lights, the same glimmer of
+lanterns through canvas, the same air of impermanence. Once, in one of
+those hushes which will fall upon every crowd, he heard a coyote wailing
+sharply and far away, as though the desert had sent out this voice to
+mock at The Corner and all it contained.
+
+He had only to ask once to discover where Landis was: Milligan's dance
+hall. Before Milligan's place a bonfire burned from the beginning of
+dusk to the coming of day; and until the time when that fire was
+quenched with buckets of water, it was a sign to all that the merriment
+was under way in the dance hall. If Lebrun's was the sun of the
+amusement world in The Corner, Milligan's was the moon. Everybody who
+had money to lose went to Lebrun's. Every one who was out for gayety
+went to Milligan's. Milligan was a plunger. He had brought up an
+orchestra which demanded fifteen dollars a day and he paid them that and
+more. He not only was able to do this, but he established a bar at the
+entrance from which all who entered were served with a free drink. The
+entrance, also, was not subject to charge. The initial drink at the door
+was spiced to encourage thirst, so Milligan made money as fast, and far
+more easily, than if he had been digging it out of the ground.
+
+To the door of this pleasure emporium came Donnegan. He had transformed
+himself into the ragged hobo by the jerking down of his cap again, and
+the hunching of his shoulders. And shrinking past the bar with a hungry
+sidewise glance, as one who did not dare present himself for free
+liquor, he entered Milligan's.
+
+That is, he had put his foot across the threshold when he was caught
+roughly by the shoulder and dragged to one side. He found himself
+looking up into the face of a strapping fellow who served Milligan as
+bouncer. Milligan had an eye for color. Andy Lewis was tolerably well
+known as a fighting man of parts, who not only wore two guns but could
+use them both at once, which is much more difficult than is generally
+understood. But far more than for his fighting parts Milligan hired his
+bouncer for the sake of his face. It was a countenance made to
+discourage trouble makers. A mule had kicked Lewis in the chin, and a
+great white welt deformed his lower lip. Scars of smallpox added to his
+decorative effect, and he had those extremely bushy brows which for some
+reason are generally considered to denote ferocity. Now, Donnegan was
+not above middle height at best, and in his present shrinking attitude
+he found himself looking up a full head into the formidable face of the
+bouncer.
+
+"And what are you doing in here?" asked the genial Andy. "Don't you know
+this joint is for white folks?"
+
+"I ain't colored," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"You took considerable yaller to me," declared Lewis. He straightway
+chuckled, and his own keen appreciation of his wit softened his
+expression. "What you want?"
+
+Donnegan shivered under his rags.
+
+"I want to see Jack Landis," he said.
+
+It had a wonderful effect upon the doorkeeper. Donnegan found that the
+very name of Landis was a charm of power in The Corner.
+
+"You want to see him?" he queried in amazement. "You?"
+
+He looked Donnegan over again, and then grinned broadly, as if in
+anticipation. "Well, go ahead. There he sits--no, he's dancing."
+
+The music was in full swing; it was chiefly brass; but now and then, in
+softer moments, one could hear a violin squeaking uncertainly. At least
+it went along with a marked, regular rhythm, and the dancers swirled
+industriously around the floor. A very gay crowd; color was apparently
+appreciated in The Corner. And Donnegan, standing modestly out of sight
+behind a pillar until the dance ended, noted twenty phases of life in
+twenty faces. And Donnegan saw the flushes of liquor, and heard the loud
+voices of happy fellows who had made their "strikes"; but in all that
+brilliant crew he had no trouble in picking out Jack Landis and Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+They danced together, and where they passed, the others steered a little
+off so as to give them room on the dance floor, as if the men feared
+that they might cross the formidable Landis, and as if the women feared
+to be brought into too close comparison with Nelly Lebrun. She was,
+indeed, a brilliant figure. She had eyes of the Creole duskiness, a
+delicate olive skin, with a pastel coloring. The hand on the shoulder of
+Landis was a thing of fairy beauty. And her eyes had that peculiar
+quality of seeming to see everything, and rest on every face
+particularly. So that, as she whirled toward Donnegan, he winced,
+feeling that she had found him out among the shadows.
+
+She had a glorious partner to set her off. And Donnegan saw bitterly
+why Lou Macon could love him. Height without clumsiness, bulk and a
+light foot at once, a fine head, well poised, blond hair and a Grecian
+profile--such was Jack Landis. He wore a vest of fawn skin; his boots
+were black in the foot and finished with the softest red leather for the
+leg. And he had yellow buckskin trousers, laced in a Mexican fashion
+with silver at the sides; a narrow belt, a long, red silk handkerchief
+flying from behind his neck in cowboy fashion. So much flashing
+splendor, even in that gay assembly, would have been childishly
+conspicuous on another man. But in big Jack Landis there was patently a
+great deal of the unaffected child. He was having a glorious time on
+this evening, and his eye roved the room challenging admiration in a
+manner that was amusing rather than offensive. He was so overflowingly
+proud of having the prettiest girl in The Corner upon his arm and so
+conscious of being himself probably the finest-looking man that he
+escaped conceit, it might almost be said, by his very excess of it.
+
+Upon this splendid individual, then, the obscure Donnegan bent his gaze.
+He saw the dancers pause and scatter as the music ended, saw them drift
+to the tables along the edges of the room, saw the scurry of waiters
+hurrying drinks up in the interval, saw Nelly Lebrun sip a lemonade, saw
+Jack Landis toss off something stronger. And then Donnegan skirted
+around the room and came to the table of Jack Landis at the very moment
+when the latter was tossing a gold piece to the waiter and giving a new
+order.
+
+Prodigal sons in the distance of thought are apt to be both silly: and
+disgusting, but at close hand they usually dazzle the eye. Even the cold
+brain of Donnegan was daunted a little as he drew near.
+
+He came behind the chair of the tall master of The Corner, and while
+Nelly Lebrun stopped her glass halfway to her lips and stared at the
+ragged stranger, Donnegan was whispering in the ear of Jack Landis:
+"I've got to see you alone."
+
+Landis turned his head slowly and his eye darkened a little as he met
+the reddish, unshaven face of the stranger. Then, with a careless shrug
+of distaste, he drew out a few coins and poured them into Donnegan's
+palm; the latter pocketed them.
+
+"Lou Macon," said Donnegan.
+
+Jack Landis rose from his chair, and it was not until he stood so close
+to Donnegan that the latter realized the truly Herculean proportions of
+the young fellow. He bowed his excuses to Nelly Lebrun, not without
+grace of manner, and then huddled Donnegan into a corner with a wave of
+his vast arm.
+
+"Now what do you want? Who are you? Who put that name in your mouth?"
+
+"She's in The Corner," said Donnegan, and he dwelt upon the face of Jack
+Landis with feverish suspense. A moment later a great weight had slipped
+from his heart. If Lou Macon loved Landis it was beyond peradventure
+that Landis was not breaking his heart because of the girl. For at her
+name he flushed darkly, and then, that rush of color fading, he was left
+with a white spot in the center of each cheek.
+
+
+
+
+13
+
+
+First his glance plunged into vacancy; then it flicked over his shoulder
+at Nelly Lebrun and he bit his lip. Plainly, it was not the most welcome
+news that Jack Landis had ever heard.
+
+"Where is she?" he asked nervously of Donnegan, and he looked over the
+ragged fellow again.
+
+"I'll take you to her."
+
+The big man swayed back and forth from foot to foot, balancing in his
+hesitation. "Wait a moment."
+
+He strode to Nelly Lebrun and bent over her; Donnegan saw her eyes flash
+up--oh, heart of the south, what eyes of shadow and fire! Jack Landis
+trembled under the glance; yes, he was deeply in love with the girl. And
+Donnegan watched her face shade with suspicion, stiffen with cold anger,
+warm and soften again under the explanations of Jack Landis.
+
+Donnegan, looking from the distance, could read everything; it is
+nearness that bewitches a man when he talks to a woman. When Odysseus
+talked to Circe, no doubt he stood on the farther side of the room!
+
+When Landis came again, he was perspiring from the trial of fire
+through which he had just passed.
+
+"Come," he ordered, and set out at a sweeping stride.
+
+Plainly he was anxious to get this matter done with as soon as possible.
+As for Donnegan, he saw a man whom Landis had summoned to take his place
+sit down at the table with Nelly Lebrun. She was laughing with the
+newcomer as though nothing troubled her at all, but over his shoulder
+her glance probed the distance and followed Jack Landis. She wanted to
+see the messenger again, the man who had called her companion away; but
+in this it was fox challenging fox. Donnegan took note and was careful
+to place between him and the girl every pillar and every group of
+people. As far as he was concerned, her first glance must do to read and
+judge and remember him by.
+
+Outside Landis shot several questions at him in swift succession; he
+wanted to know how the girl had happened to make the trip. Above all,
+what the colonel was thinking and doing and if the colonel himself had
+come. But Donnegan replied with monosyllables, and Landis, apparently
+reconciling himself to the fact that the messenger was a fool, ceased
+his questions. They kept close to a run all the way out of the camp and
+up the hillside to the two detached tents where Donnegan and the girl
+slept that night. A lantern burned in both the tents.
+
+"She has made things ready for me," thought Donnegan, his heart opening.
+"She has kept house for me!"
+
+He pointed out Lou's tent to his companion and the big man, with a
+single low word of warning, threw open the flap of the tent and strode
+in.
+
+There was only the split part of a second between the rising and the
+fall of the canvas, but in that swift interval, Donnegan saw the girl
+starting up to receive Landis. Her calm was broken at last. Her cheeks
+were flushed; her eyes were starry with what? Expectancy? Love?
+
+It stopped Donnegan like a blow in the face and turned his heart to
+lead; and then, shamelessly, he glided around the tent and dropped down
+beside it to eavesdrop. After all, there was some excuse. If she loved
+the man he, Donnegan, would let him live; if she did not love him, he,
+Donnegan, would kill him like a worthless rat under heel. That is, if he
+could. No wonder that the wanderer listened with heart and soul!
+
+He missed the first greeting. It was only a jumble of exclamations, but
+now he heard: "But, Lou, what a wild idea. Across the mountains--with
+whom?"
+
+"The man who brought you here."
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't know? He looks like a shifty little rat to me."
+
+"He's big enough, Jack."
+
+Such small praise was enough to set Donnegan's heart thumping.
+
+"Besides, father told me to go with him, to trust him."
+
+"Ah!" There was an abrupt chilling and lowering of Landis' voice. "The
+colonel knows him? He's one of the colonel's men?"
+
+Plainly the colonel was to him as the rod to the child.
+
+"Why didn't you come directly to me?"
+
+"We thought it would be better not to."
+
+"H'm-m. Your guide--well, what was the colonel's idea in sending you
+here? Heavens above, doesn't he know that a mining camp is no place for
+a young girl? And you haven't a sign of a chaperon, Lou! What the devil
+can I do? What was in his mind?"
+
+"You haven't written for a long time."
+
+"Good Lord! Written! Letters! Does he think I have time for letters?"
+The lie came smoothly enough. "Working day and night?"
+
+Donnegan smoothed his whiskers and grinned into the night. Landis might
+prove better game than he had anticipated.
+
+"He worried," said the girl, and her voice was as even as ever. "He
+worried, and sent me to find out if anything is wrong."
+
+Then: "Nonsense! What is there to worry about? Lou, I'm half inclined to
+think that the colonel doesn't trust me!"
+
+She did not answer. Was she reading beneath the boisterous assurance of
+Landis?
+
+"One thing is clear to me--and to you, too, I hope. The first thing is
+to send you back in a hurry."
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"Lou, do you distrust me?"
+
+At length she managed to speak, but it was with some difficulty: "There
+is another reason for sending me."
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"Can't you guess, Jack?"
+
+"I'm not a mind reader."
+
+"The cad," said Donnegan through his teeth.
+
+"It's the old reason."
+
+"Money?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A shadow swept across the side of the tent; it was Landis waving his arm
+carelessly.
+
+"If that's all, I can fix you up and send you back with enough to carry
+the colonel along. Look here--why, I have five hundred with me. Take it,
+Lou. There's more behind it, but the colonel mustn't think that there's
+as much money in the mines as people say. No idea how much living costs
+up here. Heavens, no! And the prices for labor! And then they shirk the
+job from dawn to dark. I have to watch 'em every minute, I tell you!"
+
+He sighed noisily.
+
+"But the end of it is, dear"--how that small word tore into the heart of
+Donnegan, who crouched outside--"that you must go back tomorrow morning.
+I'd send you tonight, if I could. As a matter of fact, I don't trust the
+red-haired rat who--"
+
+The girl interrupted while Donnegan still had control of his
+hair-trigger temper.
+
+"You forget, Jack. Father sent me here, but he did not tell me to come
+back."
+
+At this Jack Landis burst into an enormous laughter.
+
+"You don't mean, Lou, that you actually intend to stay on?"
+
+"What else can I mean?"
+
+"Of course it makes it awkward if the colonel didn't expressly tell you
+just what to do. I suppose he left it to my discretion, and I decide
+definitely that you must go back at once."
+
+"I can't do it."
+
+"Lou, don't you hear me saying that I'll take the responsibility? If
+your father blames you let him tell me--"
+
+He broke down in the middle of his sentence and another of those
+uncomfortable little pauses ensued. Donnegan knew that their eyes were
+miserably upon each other; the man tongue-tied by his guilt; the girl
+wretchedly guessing at the things which lay behind her fiancé's words.
+
+"I'm sorry you don't want me here."
+
+"It isn't that, but--"
+
+He apparently expected to be interrupted, but she waited coolly for him
+to finish the sentence, and, of course, he could not. After all, for a
+helpless girl she had a devilish effective way of muzzling Landis.
+Donnegan chuckled softly in admiration.
+
+All at once she broke through the scene; her voice did not rise or
+harden, but it was filled with finality, as though she were weary of the
+interview.
+
+"I'm tired out; it's been a hard ride, Jack. You go home now and look me
+up again any time tomorrow."
+
+"I--Lou--I feel mighty bad about having you up here in this infernal
+tent, when the camp is full, and--":
+
+"You can't lie across the entrance to my tent and guard me, Jack.
+Besides, I don't need you for that. The man who's with me will protect
+me."
+
+"He doesn't look capable of protecting a cat!"
+
+"My father said that in any circumstances he would be able to take care
+of me."
+
+This reply seemed to overwhelm Landis.
+
+"The colonel trusts him as far as all that?" he muttered. "Then I
+suppose you're safe enough. But what about comfort, Lou?"
+
+"I've done without comfort all my life. Run along, Jack. And take this
+money with you. I can't have it."
+
+"But, didn't the colonel send--"
+
+"You can express it through to him. To me it's--not pleasant to take
+it."
+
+"Why, Lou, you don't mean--"
+
+"Good night, Jack. I don't mean anything, except that I'm tired."
+
+The shadow swept along the wall of the tent again. Donnegan, with a
+shaking pulse, saw the profile of the girl and the man approach as he
+strove to take her in his arms and kiss her good night. And then one
+slender bar of shadow checked Landis.
+
+"Not tonight."
+
+"Lou, you aren't angry with me?"
+
+"No. But you know I have queer ways. Just put this down as one of them.
+I can't explain."
+
+There was a muffled exclamation and Landis went from the tent and strode
+down the hill; he was instantly lost in the night. But Donnegan, turning
+to the entrance flap, called softly. He was bidden to come in, and when
+he raised the flap he saw her sitting with her hands clasped loosely and
+resting upon her knees. Her lips were a little parted, and colorless;
+her eyes were dull with a mist; and though she rallied herself a little,
+the wanderer could see that she was only half-aware of him.
+
+The face which he saw was a milestone in his life. For he had loved her
+jealously, fiercely before; but seeing her now, dazed, hurt, and
+uncomplaining, tenderness came into Donnegan. It spread to his heart
+with a strange pain and made his hands tremble.
+
+All that he said was: "Is there anything you need?"
+
+"Nothing," she replied, and he backed out and away.
+
+But in that small interval he had turned out of the course of his gay,
+selfish life. If Jack Landis had hurt her like this--if she loved him so
+truly--then Jack Landis she should have.
+
+There was an odd mixture of emotions in Donnegan; but he felt most
+nearly like the poor man from whose hand his daughter tugs back and
+looks wistfully, hopelessly, into the bright window at all the toys.
+What pain is there greater than the pain that comes to the poor man in
+such a time? He huddles his coat about him, for his heart is as cold as
+a Christmas day; and if it would make his child happy, he would pour out
+his heart's blood on the snow.
+
+Such was the grief of Donnegan as he backed slowly out into the night.
+Though Jack Landis were fixed as high as the moon he would tear him out
+of his place and give him to the girl.
+
+
+
+
+14
+
+
+The lantern went out in the tent; she was asleep; and when he knew that,
+Donnegan went down into The Corner. He had been trying to think out a
+plan of action, and finding nothing better than to thrust a gun stupidly
+under Landis' nose and make him mark time, Donnegan went into Lebrun's
+place. As if he hoped the bustle there would supply him with ideas.
+
+Lebrun's was going full blast. It was not filled with the shrill mirth
+of Milligan's. Instead, all voices were subdued to a point here. The
+pitch was never raised. If a man laughed, he might show his teeth but he
+took good care that he did not break into the atmosphere of the room.
+For there was a deadly undercurrent of silence which would not tolerate
+more than murmurs on the part of others. Men sat grim-faced over the
+cards, the man who was winning, with his cold, eager eye; the chronic
+loser of the night with his iron smile; the professional, ever debonair,
+with the dull eye which comes from looking too often and too closely
+into the terrible face of chance. A very keen observer might have
+observed a resemblance between those men and Donnegan.
+
+Donnegan roved swiftly here and there. The calm eye and the smooth play
+of an obvious professional in a linen suit kept him for a moment at one
+table, looking on; then he went to the games, and after changing the
+gold which Jack Landis had given as alms so silver dollars, he lost it
+with precision upon the wheel.
+
+He went on, from table to table, from group to group. In Lebrun's his
+clothes were not noticed. It was no matter whether he played or did not
+play, whether he won or lost; they were too busy to notice. But he came
+back, at length, to the man who wore the linen coat and who won so
+easily. Something in his method of dealing appeared to interest Donnegan
+greatly.
+
+It was jackpot; the chips were piled high; and the man in the linen coat
+was dealing again. How deftly he mixed the cards!
+
+Indeed, all about him was elegant, from the turn of his black cravat to
+the cut of the coat. An inebriate passed, shouldered and disturbed his
+chair, and rising to put it straight again, the gambler was seen to be
+about the height and build of Donnegan.
+
+Donnegan studied him with the interest of an artist. Here was a man,
+harking back to Nelly Lebrun and her love of brilliance, who would
+probably win her preference over Jack Landis for the simple reason that
+he was different. That is, there was more in his cravat to attract
+astonished attention in The Corner than there was in all the silver lace
+of Landis. And he was a man's man, no doubt of that. On the inebriate he
+had flashed one glance of fire, and his lean hand had stirred uneasily
+toward the breast of his coat. Donnegan, who missed nothing, saw and
+understood.
+
+Interested? He was fascinated by this man because he recognized the
+kinship which existed between them. They might almost have been blood
+brothers, except for differences in the face. He knew, for instance,
+just what each glance of the man in the linen coat meant, and how he was
+weighing his antagonists. As for the others, they were cool players
+themselves, but here they had met their master. It was the difference
+between the amateur and the professional. They played good chancey
+poker, but the man in the linen coat did more--he stacked the cards!
+
+For the first moment Donnegan was not sure; it was not until there was a
+slight faltering in the deal--an infinitely small hesitation which only
+a practiced eye like that of Donnegan's could have noticed--that he was
+sure. The winner was crooked. Yet the hand was interesting for all that.
+He had done the master trick, not only giving himself the winning hand
+but also giving each of the others a fine set of cards.
+
+And the betting was wild on that historic pot! To begin with the
+smallest hand was three of a kind; and after the draw the weakest was a
+straight. And they bet furiously. The stranger had piqued them with his
+consistent victories. Now they were out for blood. Chips having been
+exhausted, solid gold was piled up on the table--a small fortune!
+
+The man in the linen coat, in the middle of the hand, called for drinks.
+They drank. They went on with the betting. And then at last came the
+call.
+
+Donnegan could have clapped his hands to applaud the smooth rascal. It
+was not an affair of breaking the others who sat in. They were all
+prosperous mine owners, and probably they had been carefully selected
+according to the size of purse, in preparation for the sacrifice. But
+the stakes were swept into the arms and then the canvas bag of the
+winner. If it was not enough to ruin the miners it was at least enough
+to clean them out of ready cash and discontinue the game on that basis.
+They rose; they went to the bar for a drink; but while the winner led
+the way, two of the losers dropped back a trifle and fell into earnest
+conversation, frowning. Donnegan knew perfectly what the trouble was.
+They had noticed that slight faltering in the deal; they were putting
+their mental notes on the game together.
+
+But the winner, apparently unconscious of suspicion, lined up his
+victims at the bar. The first drink went hastily down; the second was on
+the way--it was standing on the bar. And here he excused himself; he
+broke off in the very middle of a story, and telling them that he would
+be back any moment, stepped into a crowd of newcomers.
+
+The moment he disappeared, Donnegan saw the other four put their heads
+close together, and saw a sudden darkening of faces; but as for the
+genial winner, he had no sooner passed to the other side of the crowd
+and out of view, than he turned directly toward the door. His careless
+saunter was exchanged for a brisk walk; and Donnegan, without making
+himself conspicuous, was hard pressed to follow that pace.
+
+At the door he found that the gambler, with his canvas sack under his
+arm, had turned to the right toward the line of saddle horses which
+stood in the shadow; and no sooner did he reach the gloom at the side of
+the building than he broke into a soft, swift run. He darted down the
+line of horses until he came to one which was already mounted. This
+Donnegan saw as he followed somewhat more leisurely and closer to the
+horses to avoid observance. He made out that the man already on
+horseback was a big Negro and that he had turned his own mount and a
+neighboring horse out from the rest of the horses, so that they were
+both pointing down the street of The Corner. Donnegan saw the Negro
+throw the lines of his lead horse into the air. In exchange he caught
+the sack which the runner tossed to him, and then the gambler leaped
+into his saddle.
+
+It was a simple but effective plan. Suppose he were caught in the midst
+of a cheat; his play would be to break away to the outside of the
+building, shooting out the lights, if possible--trusting to the
+confusion to help him--and there he would find his horse held ready for
+him at a time when a second might be priceless. On this occasion no
+doubt the clever rascal had sensed the suspicion of the others.
+
+At any rate, he lost no time. He waited neither to find his stirrups nor
+grip the reins firmly, but the same athletic leap which carried him into
+the saddle set the horse in motion, and from a standing start the animal
+broke into a headlong gallop. He received, however, an additional burden
+at once.
+
+For Donnegan, from the second time he saw the man of the linen coat, had
+been revolving a daring plan, and during the poker game the plan had
+slowly matured. The moment he made sure that the gambler was heading for
+a horse, he increased his own speed. Ordinarily he would have been
+noted, but now, no doubt, the gambler feared no pursuit except one
+accompanied by a hue and cry. He did not hear the shadow-footed Donnegan
+racing over the soft ground behind him; but when he had gained the
+saddle, Donnegan was close behind with the impetus of his run to aid
+him. It was comparatively simple, therefore, to spring high in the air,
+and he struck fairly and squarely behind the saddle of the man in the
+linen coat. When he landed his revolver was in his hand and the muzzle
+jabbed into the back of the gambler.
+
+The other made one frantic effort to twist around, then recognized the
+pressure of the revolver and was still. The horses, checking their
+gallops in unison, were softly dog-trotting down the street.
+
+"Call off your man!" warned Donnegan, for the big Negro had reined back;
+the gun already gleamed in his hand.
+
+A gesture from the gambler sent the gun into obscurity, yet still the
+fellow continued to fall back.
+
+"Tell him to ride ahead."
+
+"Keep in front, George."
+
+"And not too far."
+
+"Very well. And now?"
+
+"We'll talk later. Go straight on, George, to the clump of trees beyond
+the end of the street. And ride straight. No dodging!"
+
+"It was a good hand you played," continued Donnegan; taking note that of
+the many people who were now passing them none paid the slightest
+attention to two men riding on one horse and chatting together as they
+rode. "It was a good hand, but a bad deal. Your thumb slipped on the
+card, eh?"
+
+"You saw, eh?" muttered the other.
+
+"And two of the others saw it. But they weren't sure till afterward."
+
+"I know. The blockheads! But I spoiled their game for them. Are you one
+of us, pal?"
+
+But Donnegan smiled to himself. For once at least the appeal of gambler
+to gambler should fail.
+
+"Keep straight on," he said. "We'll talk later on."
+
+
+
+
+15
+
+
+Before Donnegan gave the signal to halt in a clear space where the
+starlight was least indistinct, they reached the center of the trees.
+
+"Now, George," he said, "drop your gun to the ground."
+
+There was a flash and faint thud.
+
+"Now the other gun."
+
+"They ain't any more, sir."
+
+"Your other gun," repeated Donnegan.
+
+A little pause. "Do what he tells you, George," said the gambler at
+length, and a second weapon fell.
+
+"Now keep on your horse and keep a little off to the side," went on
+Donnegan, "and remember that if you try to give me the jump I might miss
+you in this light, but I'd be sure to hit your horse. So don't take
+chances, George. Now, sir, just hold your hands over your head and then
+dismount."
+
+He had already gone through the gambler and taken his weapons; he was
+now obeyed. The man of the linen coat tossed up his arms, flung his
+right leg over the horn of the saddle, and slipped to the ground.
+
+Donnegan joined his captive. "I warn you first," he said gently, "that
+I am quite expert with a revolver, and that it will be highly dangerous
+to attempt to trick me. Lower your arms if you wish, but please be
+careful of what you do with your hands. There are such things as knife
+throwing, I know, but it takes a fast wrist to flip a knife faster than
+a bullet. We understand each other?"
+
+"Perfectly," agreed the other. "By the way, my name is Godwin. And
+suppose we become frank. You are in temporary distress. It was
+impossible for you to make a loan at the moment and you are driven to
+this forced--touch. Now, if half--"
+
+"Hush," said Donnegan. "You are too generous. But the present question
+is not one of money. I have long since passed over that. The money is
+now mine. Steady!" This to George, who lurched in the saddle; but Godwin
+was calm as stone. "It is not the question of the money that troubles
+me, but the question of the men. I could easily handle one of you. But I
+fear to allow both of you to go free. You would return on my trail;
+there are such things as waylayings by night, eh? And so, Mr. Godwin, I
+think my best way out is to shoot you through the head. When your body
+is found it will be taken for granted that the servant killed the master
+for the sake of the money which he won by crooked card play. I think
+that's simple. Put your hands up, George, or, by heck, I'll let the
+starlight shine through you!"
+
+The huge arms of George were raised above his head; Godwin, in the
+meantime, had not spoken.
+
+"I almost think you mean it," he said after a short pause.
+
+"Good," said Donnegan. "I do not wish to kill you unprepared."
+
+There was a strangled sound deep in the throat of Godwin; then he was
+able to speak again, but now his voice was made into a horrible jumble
+by fear.
+
+"Pal," he said, "you're dead wrong. George here--he's a devil. If you
+let him live he'll kill you--as sure as you're standing here. You don't
+know him. He's George Green. He's got a record as long as my arm and as
+bad as the devil's name. He--he's the man to get rid of. Me? Why, man,
+you and I could team it together. But George--not--"
+
+Donnegan began to laugh, and the gambler stammered to a halt.
+
+"I knew you when I laid eyes on you for the first time," said Donnegan.
+"You have the hands of a craftsman, but your eyes are put too close
+together. A coward's eyes--a cur's face, Godwin. But you, George--have
+you heard what he said?"
+
+No answer from George but a snarl.
+
+"It sounds logical what he said, eh, George?"
+
+Dead silence.
+
+"But," said Donnegan, "there are flaws in the plan. Godwin, get out of
+your clothes."
+
+The other fell on his knees.
+
+"For heaven's sake," he pleaded.
+
+"Shut up," commanded Donnegan. "I'm not going to shoot you. I never
+intended to, you fool. But I wanted to see if you were worth splitting
+the coin with. You're not. Now get out of your clothes."
+
+He was obeyed in fumbling haste, and while that operation went on, he
+succeeded in jumping out of his own rags and still kept the two fairly
+steadily under the nose of his gun. He tossed this bundle to Godwin, who
+accepted it with a faint oath; and Donnegan stepped calmly and swiftly
+into the clothes of his victim.
+
+"A perfect fit," he said at length, "and to show that I'm pleased,
+here's your purse back. Must be close to two hundred in that, from the
+weight."
+
+Godwin muttered some unintelligible curse.
+
+"Tush. Now, get out! If you show your face in The Corner again, some of
+those miners will spot you, and they'll dress you in tar and feathers."
+
+"You fool. If they see you in my clothes?"
+
+"They'll never see these after tonight, probably. You have other clothes
+in your packs, Godwin. Lots of 'em. You're the sort who knows how to
+dress, and I'll borrow your outfit. Get out!"
+
+The other made no reply; a weight seemed to have fallen upon him along
+with his new outfit, and he slunk into the darkness. George made a move
+to follow; there was a muffled shriek from Godwin, who fled headlong;
+and then a sharp command from Donnegan stopped the big man.
+
+"Come here," said Donnegan.
+
+George Washington Green rode slowly closer.
+
+"If I let you go what would you do?"
+
+There was a glint of teeth.
+
+"I'd find him."
+
+"And break him in two, eh? Instead, I'm going to take you home, where
+you'll have a chance of breaking me in two instead. There's something
+about the cut of your shoulders and your head that I like, Green; and if
+you don't murder me in the first hour or so, I think we'll get on very
+well together. You hear?"
+
+The silence of George Washington Green was a tremendous thing.
+
+"Now ride ahead of me. I'll direct you how to go."
+
+He went first straight back through the town and up the hill to the two
+tents. He made George go before him into the tent and take up the roll
+of bedding; and then, with George and the bedding leading the way, and
+Donnegan leading the two horses behind, they went across the hillside to
+a shack which he had seen vacated that evening. It certainly could not
+be rented again before morning, and in the meantime Donnegan would be in
+possession, which was a large part of the law in The Corner, as he knew.
+
+A little lean-to against the main shack served as a stable; the creek
+down the hillside was the watering trough. And Donnegan stood by while
+the big Negro silently tended to the horses--removing the packs and
+preparing them for the night. Still in silence he produced a small
+lantern and lighted it. It showed his face for the first time--the skin
+ebony black and polished over the cheekbones, but the rest of the face
+almost handsome, except that the slight flare of his nostrils gave him a
+cast of inhuman ferocity. And the fierceness was given point by a pair
+of arms of gorilla length; broad shoulders padded with rolling muscles,
+and the neck of a bull. On the whole, Donnegan, a connoisseur of
+fighting men, had never seen such promise of strength.
+
+At his gesture, George led the way into the house. It was more
+commodious than most of the shacks of The Corner. In place of a single
+room this had two compartments--one for the kitchen and another for the
+living room. In vacating the hut, the last occupants had left some of
+the furnishings behind them. There was a mirror, for instance, in the
+corner; and beneath the mirror a cheap table in whose open drawer
+appeared a tumble of papers. Donnegan dropped the heavy sack of Godwin's
+winnings to the floor, and while George hung the lantern on a nail on
+the wall, Donnegan crossed to the table and appeared to run through the
+papers.
+
+He was humming carelessly while he did it, but all the time he watched
+with catlike intensity the reflection of George in the mirror above him.
+He saw--rather dimly, for the cheap glass showed all its images in
+waves--that George turned abruptly after hanging up the lantern, paused,
+and then whipped a hand into his coat pocket and out again.
+
+Donnegan leaped lightly to one side, and the knife, hissing past his
+head, buried itself in the wall, and its vibrations set up a vicious
+humming. As for Donnegan, the leap that carried him to one side whirled
+him about also; he faced the big man, who was now crouched in the very
+act of following the knife cast with the lunge of his powerful body.
+There was no weapon in Donnegan's hand, and yet George hesitated,
+balanced--and then slowly drew himself erect.
+
+He was puzzled. An outburst of oaths, the flash of a gun, and he would
+have been at home in the brawl, but the silence, the smile of Donnegan
+and the steady glance were too much for him. He moistened his lips, and
+yet he could not speak. And Donnegan knew that what paralyzed George was
+the manner in which he had received warning. Evidently the simple
+explanation of the mirror did not occur to the fellow; and the whole
+incident took on supernatural colorings. A phrase of explanation and
+Donnegan would become again an ordinary human being; but while the small
+link was a mystery the brain and body of George were numb. It was
+necessary above all to continue inexplicable. Donnegan, turning, drew
+the knife from the wall with a jerk. Half the length of the keen blade
+had sunk into the wood--a mute tribute to the force and speed of
+George's hand--and now Donnegan took the bright little weapon by the
+point and gave it back to the other.
+
+"If you throw for the body instead of the head," said Donnegan, "you
+have a better chance of sending the point home."
+
+He turned his back again upon the gaping giant, and drawing up a broken
+box before the open door he sat down to contemplate the night. Not a
+sound behind him. It might be that the big fellow had regained his nerve
+and was stealing up for a second attempt; but Donnegan would have
+wagered his soul that George Washington Green had his first and last
+lesson and that he would rather play with bare lightning than ever again
+cross his new master.
+
+At length: "When you make down the bunks," said Donnegan, "put mine
+farthest from the kitchen. You had better do that first."
+
+"Yes--sir," came the deep bass murmur behind him.
+
+And the heart of Donnegan stirred, for that "sir" meant many things.
+
+Presently George crossed the floor with a burden; there was the "whish"
+of the blankets being unrolled--and then a slight pause. It seemed to
+him that he could hear a heavier breathing. Why? And searching swiftly
+back through his memory he recalled that his other gun, a stub-nosed
+thirty-eight, was in the center of his blanket roll.
+
+And he knew that George had the weapon in his big hand. One pressure of
+the trigger would put an end to Donnegan; one bullet would give George
+the canvas sack and its small treasure.
+
+"When you clean my gun," said Donnegan, "take the action to pieces and
+go over every part."
+
+He could actually feel the start of George.
+
+Then: "Yes, sir," in a subdued whisper.
+
+If the escape from the knife had startled George, this second incident
+had convinced him that his new master possessed eyes in the back of his
+head.
+
+And Donnegan, paying no further heed to him, looked steadily across the
+hillside to the white tent of Lou Macon, fifty yards away.
+
+
+
+
+16
+
+
+His plan, grown to full stature so swiftly, and springing out of
+nothing, well nigh, had come out of his first determination to bring
+Jack Landis back to Lou Macon; for he could interpret those blank, misty
+eyes with which she had sat after the departure of Landis in only one
+way. Yet to rule even the hand of big Jack Landis would be hard enough
+and to rule his heart was quite another story. Remembering Nelly Lebrun,
+he saw clearly that the only way in which he could be brought back to
+Lou was first to remove Nelly as a possibility in his eyes. But how
+remove Nelly as long as it was her cue from her father to play Landis
+for his money? How remove her, unless it were possible to sweep Nelly
+off her feet with another man? She might, indeed, be taken by storm, and
+if she once slighted Landis for the sake of another, his boyish pride
+would probably do the rest, and his next step would be to return to Lou
+Macon.
+
+All this seemed logical, but where find the man to storm the heart of
+Nelly and dazzle her bright, clever eyes? His own rags had made him
+shrug his shoulders; and it was the thought of clothes which had made
+him fasten his attention so closely on the man of the linen suit in
+Lebrun's. Donnegan with money, with well-fitted clothes, and with a few
+notorious escapades behind him--yes, Donnegan with such a flying start
+might flutter the heart of Nelly Lebrun for a moment. But he must have
+the money, the clothes, and then he must deliberately set out to startle
+The Corner, make himself a public figure, talked of, pointed at, known,
+feared, respected, and even loved by at least a few. He must accomplish
+all these things beginning at a literal zero.
+
+It was the impossible nature of this that tempted Donnegan. But the
+paradoxical picture of the ragged skulker in Milligan's actually sitting
+at the same table with Nelly Lebrun and receiving her smiles stayed with
+him. He intended to rise, literally Phoenixlike, out of ashes. And the
+next morning, in the red time of the dawn, he sat drinking the coffee
+which George Washington Green had made for him and considering the
+details of the problem. Clothes, which had been a main obstacle, were
+now accounted for, since, as he had suspected, the packs of Godwin
+contained a luxurious wardrobe of considerable compass. At that moment,
+for instance, Donnegan was wrapped in a dressing gown of padded silk and
+his feet were encased in slippers.
+
+But clothes were the least part of his worries. To startle The Corner,
+and thereby make himself attractive in the eyes of Nelly Lebrun,
+overshadowing Jack Landis--that was the thing! But to startle The
+Corner, where gold strikes were events of every twenty-four hours, just
+now--where robberies were common gossip, and where the killings now
+averaged nearly three a day--to startle The Corner was like trying to
+startle the theatrical world with a sensational play. Indeed, this
+parallel could have been pursued, for Donnegan was the nameless actor
+and the mountain desert was the stage on which he intended to become a
+headliner. No wonder, then, that his lean face was compressed in
+thought. Yet no one could have guessed it by his conversation. At the
+moment he was interrupted, his talk ran somewhat as follows.
+
+"George, Godwin taught you how to make coffee?"
+
+"Yes, sir," from George. Since the night before he had appeared totally
+subdued. Never once did he venture a comment. And ever Donnegan was
+conscious of big, bright eyes watching him in a reverent fear not
+untinged by superstition. Once, in the middle of the night, he had
+wakened and seen the vast shadow of George's form leaning over the sack
+of money. Murder by stealth in the dark had been in the giant's mind, no
+doubt. But when, after that, he came and leaned over Donnegan's bunk,
+the master closed his eyes and kept on breathing regularly, and finally
+George returned to his own place--softly as a gigantic cat. Even in the
+master's sleep he found something to be dreaded, and Donnegan knew that
+he could now trust the fellow through anything. In the morning, at the
+first touch of light, he had gone to the stores and collected
+provisions. And a comfortable breakfast followed.
+
+"Godwin," resumed Donnegan, "was talented in many ways."
+
+The big man showed his teeth in silence; for since Godwin proposed the
+sacrifice of the servant to preserve himself, George had apparently
+altered his opinion of the gambler.
+
+"A talented man, George, but he knew nothing about coffee. It should
+never boil. It should only begin to cream through the crust. Let that
+happen; take the pot from the fire; put it back and let the surface
+cream again. Do this three times, and then pour the liquid from the
+grounds and you have the right strength and the right heating. You
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And concerning the frying of bacon--"
+
+At this point the interruption came in the shape of four men at the open
+door; and one of these Donnegan recognized as the real estate dealer,
+who had shrewdly set up tents and shacks on every favorable spot in The
+Corner and was now reaping a rich harvest. Gloster was his name. It was
+patent that he did not see in the man in the silk dressing robe the
+unshaven miscreant of the day before who had rented the two tents.
+
+"How'dee," he said, standing on the threshold, with the other three in
+the background.
+
+Donnegan looked at him and through him.
+
+"My name is Gloster. I own this shack and I've come to find out why
+you're in it."
+
+"George," said Donnegan, "speak to him. Tel! him that I know houses are
+scarce in The Corner; that I found this place by accident vacant; that I
+intend to stay in it on purpose."
+
+George Washington Green instantly rose to the situation; he swallowed a
+vast grin and strode to the door. And though Mr. Gloster's face
+crimsoned with rage at such treatment he controlled his voice. In The
+Corner manhood was apt to be reckoned by the pound, and George was a
+giant.
+
+"I heard what your boss said, buddie," said Gloster. "But I've rented
+this cabin and the next one to these three gents and their party, and
+they want a home. Nothing to do but vacate. Which speed is the thing I
+want. Thirty minutes will--"
+
+"Thirty minutes don't change nothing," declared George in his deep, soft
+voice.
+
+The real estate man choked. Then: "You tell your boss that jumping a
+cabin is like jumping a claim. They's a law in The Corner for gents like
+him."
+
+George made a gesture of helplessness; but Gloster turned to the three.
+
+"Both shacks or none at all," said the spokesman. "One ain't big enough
+to do us any good. But if this bird won't vamoose--"
+
+He was a tolerably rough-appearing sort and he was backed by two of a
+kind. No doubt dangerous action would have followed had not George shown
+himself capable of rising to a height. He stepped from the door; he
+approached Gloster and said in a confidential whisper that reached
+easily to the other three: "They ain't any call for a quick play,
+mister. Watch yo'selves. Maybe you don't know who the boss is?"
+
+"And what's more, I don't care," said Gloster defiantly but with his
+voice instinctively lowered. He stared past George, and behold, the man
+in the dressing gown still sat in quiet and sipped his coffee.
+
+"It's Donnegan," whispered George.
+
+"Don--who's he?"
+
+"You don't know Donnegan?"
+
+The mingled contempt and astonishment of George would have moved a thing
+of stone. It certainly troubled Gloster. And he turned to the three.
+
+"Gents," he said, "they's two things we can do. Try the law--and law's a
+lame lady in these parts--or throw him out. Say which?"
+
+The three looked from Gloster to the shack; from the shack to Donnegan,
+absently sipping his coffee; from Donnegan to George, who stood
+exhibiting a broad grin of anticipated delight. The contrast was too
+much for them.
+
+There is one great and deep-seated terror in the mountain desert, and
+that is for the man who may be other than he seems. The giant with the
+rough voice and the boisterous ways is generally due for a stormy
+passage west of the Rockies; but the silent man with the gentle manners
+receives respect. Traditions live of desperadoes with exteriors of
+womanish calm and the action of devils. And Donnegan sipping his morning
+coffee fitted into the picture which rumor had painted. The three looked
+at one another, declared that they had not come to fight for a house but
+to rent one, that the real estate agent could go to the devil for all of
+them, and that they were bound elsewhere. So they departed and left
+Gloster both relieved and gloomy.
+
+"Now," said Donnegan to George, "tell him that we'll take both the
+shacks, and he can add fifty per cent to his old price."
+
+The bargain was concluded on the spot; the money was paid by George.
+Gloster went down the hill to tell The Corner that a mystery had hit the
+town and George brought the canvas bag back to Donnegan with the top
+still untied--as though to let it be seen that he had not pocketed any
+of the gold.
+
+"I don't want to count it," said Donnegan. "Keep the bag, George. Keep
+money in your pocket. Treat both of us well. And when that's gone I'll
+get more."
+
+If the manner in which Donnegan had handled the renting of the cabins
+had charmed George, he was wholly entranced by this last touch of free
+spending. To serve a man who was his master was one thing; to serve one
+who trusted him so completely was quite another. To live under the same
+roof with a man who was a riddle was sufficiently delightful; but to be
+allowed actually to share in the mystery was a superhappiness. He was
+singing when he started to wash the dishes, and Donnegan went across the
+hill to the tent of Lou Macon.
+
+She was laying the fire before the tent; and the morning freshness had
+cleared from her face any vestige of the trouble of the night before;
+and in the slant light her hair was glorious, all ruffling gold,
+semitransparent. She did not smile at him; but she could give the effect
+of smiling while her face remained grave; it was her inward calm content
+of which people were aware.
+
+"You missed me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You were worried?"
+
+"No."
+
+He felt himself put quietly at a distance. So he took her up the hill to
+her new home--the shack beside his own; and George cooked her breakfast.
+When she had been served, Donnegan drew the big man to one side.
+
+"She's your mistress," said Donnegan. "Everything you do for her is
+worth two things you do for me. Watch her as if she were in your eye.
+And if a hair of her head is ever harmed--you see that fire burning
+yonder--the bed of coals?"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I'll catch you and make a fire like that and feed you into it--by
+inches!"
+
+And the pale face of Donnegan became for an instant the face of a demon.
+George Washington Green saw, and never forgot.
+
+Afterward, in order that he might think, Donnegan got on one of the
+horses he had taken from Godwin and rode over the hills. They were both
+leggy chestnuts, with surprising signs of blood' and all the earmarks of
+sprinters; but in Godwin's trade sharp getaways were probably often
+necessary. The pleasure he took in the action of the animal kept him
+from getting into his problem.
+
+How to startle The Corner? How follow up the opening gun which he had
+fired at the expense of Gloster and the three miners?
+
+He broke off, later in the day, to write a letter to Colonel Macon,
+informing him that Jack Landis was tied hard and fast by Nelly Lebrun
+and that for the present nothing could be done except wait, unless the
+colonel had suggestions to offer.
+
+The thought of the colonel, however, stimulated Donnegan. And before
+midafternoon he had thought of a thing to do.
+
+
+
+
+17
+
+
+The bar in Milligan's was not nearly so pretentious an affair as the bar
+in Lebrun's, but it was of a far higher class. Milligan had even managed
+to bring in a few bottles of wine, and he had dispensed cheap claret at
+two dollars a glass when the miners wished to celebrate a rare occasion.
+There were complaints, not of the taste, but of the lack of strength. So
+Milligan fortified his liquor with pure alcohol and after that the
+claret went like a sweet song in The Corner. Among other things, he sold
+mint juleps; and it was the memory of the big sign proclaiming this fact
+that furnished Donnegan with his idea.
+
+He had George Washington Green put on his town clothes--a riding suit in
+which Godwin had had him dress for the sake of formal occasions.
+Resplendent in black boots, yellow riding breeches, and blue silk shirt,
+the big man came before Donnegan for instructions.
+
+"Go down to Milligan's," said the master. "They don't allow colored
+people to enter the door, but you go to the door and start for the bar.
+They won't let you go very far. When they stop you, tell them you come
+from Donnegan and that you have to get me some mint for a julep.
+Insist. The bouncer will start to throw you out."
+
+George showed his teeth.
+
+"No fighting back. Don't lift your hand. When you find that you can't
+get in, come back here. Now, ride."
+
+So George mounted the horse and went. Straight to Milligan's he rode and
+dismounted; and half of The Corner's scant daytime population came into
+the street to see the brilliant horseman pass.
+
+Scar-faced Lewis met the big man at the door. And size meant little to
+Andy, except an easier target.
+
+"Well, confound my soul," said Lewis, blocking the way. "A Negro in
+Milligan's? Get out!"
+
+Big George did not move.
+
+"I been sent, mister," he said mildly. "I been sent for enough mint to
+make a julep."
+
+"You been sent to the wrong place," declared Andy, hitching at his
+cartridge belt. "Ain't you seen that sign?"
+
+And he pointed to the one which eliminated colored patrons.
+
+"Signs don't mean nothin' to my boss," said George.
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"And who's Donnegan?"
+
+It puzzled George. He scratched his head in bewilderment seeking for an
+explanation. "Donnegan is--Donnegan," he explained.
+
+"I heard Gloster talk about him," offered someone in the rapidly growing
+group. "He's the gent that rented the two places on the hill."
+
+"Tell him to come himse'f," said Andy Lewis. "We don't play no favorites
+at Milligan's."
+
+"Mister," said big George, "I don't want to bring no trouble on this
+heah place, but--don't make me go back and bring Donnegan."
+
+Even Andy Lewis was staggered by this assurance.
+
+"Rules is rules," he finally decided. "And out you go."
+
+Big George stepped from the doorway and mounted his horse.
+
+"I call on all you gen'lemen," he said to the assembled group, "to say
+that I done tried my best to do this peaceable. It ain't me that's sent
+for Donnegan; it's him!"
+
+He rode away, leaving Scar-faced Lewis biting his long mustaches in
+anxiety. He was not exactly afraid, but he waited in the suspense which
+comes before a battle. Moreover, an audience was gathering. The word
+went about as only a rumor of mischief can travel. New men had gathered.
+The few day gamblers tumbled out of Lebrun's across the street to watch
+the fun. The storekeepers were in their doors. Lebrun himself, withered
+and dark and yellow of eye, came to watch. And here and there through
+the crowd there was a spot of color where the women of the town
+appeared. And among others, Nelly Lebrun with Jack Landis beside her. On
+the whole it was not a large crowd, but what it lacked in size it made
+up in intense interest.
+
+For though The Corner had had its share of troubles of fist and gun,
+most of them were entirely impromptu affairs. Here was a fight in the
+offing for which the stage was set, the actors set in full view of a
+conveniently posted audience, and all the suspense of a curtain rising.
+The waiting bore in upon Andy Lewis. Without a doubt he intended to kill
+his man neatly and with dispatch, but the possibility of missing before
+such a crowd as this sent a chill up and down his spine. If he failed
+now his name would be a sign for laughter ever after in The Corner.
+
+A hum passed down the street; it rose to a chuckle, and then fell away
+to sudden silence, for Donnegan was coming.
+
+He came on a prancing chestnut horse which sidled uneasily on a weaving
+course, as though it wished to show off for the benefit of the rider and
+the crowd at once. It was a hot afternoon and Donnegan's linen riding
+suit shone an immaculate white. He came straight down the street, as
+unaware of the audience which awaited him as though he rode in a park
+where crowds were the common thing. Behind him came George Green, just a
+careful length back. Rumor went before the two with a whisper on either
+side.
+
+"That's Donnegan. There he comes!"
+
+"Who's Donnegan?"
+
+"Gloster's man. The one who bluffed out Gloster and three others."
+
+"He pulled his shooting iron and trimmed the whiskers of one of 'em with
+a chunk of lead."
+
+"D'you mean that?"
+
+"What's that kind of a gent doing in The Corner?"
+
+"Come to buy, I guess. He looks like money."
+
+"Looks like a confounded dude."
+
+"We'll see his hand in a minute."
+
+Donnegan was now opposite the dance hall, and Andy Lewis had his hand
+touching the butt of his gun, but though Donnegan was looking straight
+at him, he kept his reins in one hand and his heavy riding crop in the
+other. And without a move toward his own gun, he rode straight up to the
+door of the dance hall, with Andy in front of it. George drew rein
+behind him and turned upon the crowd one broad, superior grin.
+
+As who should say: "I promised you lightning; now watch it strike!"
+
+If the crowd had been expectant before, it was now reduced to wire-drawn
+tenseness.
+
+"Are you the fellow who turned back my man?" asked Donnegan.
+
+His quiet voice fell coldly upon the soul of Andy. He strove to warm
+himself by an outbreak of temper.
+
+"They ain't any poor fool dude can call me a fellow!" he shouted.
+
+The crowd blinked; but when it opened its eyes the gunplay had not
+occurred. The hand of Andy was relaxing from the butt of his gun and an
+expression of astonishment and contempt was growing upon his face.
+
+"I haven't come to curse you," said the rider, still occupying his hands
+with crop and reins. "I've come to ask you a question and get an answer.
+Are you the fellow who turned back my man?"
+
+"I guess you ain't the kind I was expectin' to call on me," drawled
+Andy, his fear gone, and he winked at the crowd. But the others were not
+yet ready to laugh. Something about the calm face of Donnegan had
+impressed them. "Sure, I'm the one that kicked him out. He ain't allowed
+in there."
+
+"It's the last of my thoughts to break in upon a convention in your
+city," replied the grave rider, "but my man was sent on an errand and
+therefore he had a right to expect courtesy. George, get off your horse
+and go into Milligan's place. I want that mint!"
+
+For a moment Andy was too stunned to answer. Then his voice came harshly
+and he swayed from side to side, gathering and summoning his wrath.
+
+"Keep out boy! Keep out, or you're buzzard meat. I'm warnin'--"
+
+For the first time his glance left the rider to find George, and that
+instant was fatal. The hand of Donnegan licked out as the snake's tongue
+darts--the loaded quirt slipped over in his hand, and holding it by the
+lash he brought the butt of it thudding on the head of Andy.
+
+Even then the instinct to fight remained in the stunned man; while he
+fell, he was drawing the revolver; he lay in a crumpling heap at the
+feet of Donnegan's horse with the revolver shoved muzzle first into the
+sand.
+
+Donnegan's voice did not rise.
+
+"Go in and get that mint, George," he ordered. "And hurry. This rascal
+has kept me waiting until I'm thirsty."
+
+Big George hesitated only one instant--it was to sweep the crowd for the
+second time with his confident grin--and he strode through the door of
+the dance hall. As for Donnegan, his only movement was to swing his
+horse around and shift riding crop and reins into the grip of his left
+hand. His other hand was dropped carelessly upon his hip. Now, both
+these things were very simple maneuvers, but The Corner noted that his
+change of face had enabled Donnegan to bring the crowd under his eye,
+and that his right hand was now ready for a more serious bit of work if
+need be. Moreover, he was probing faces with his glance. And every armed
+man in that group felt that the eye of the rider was directed
+particularly toward him.
+
+There had been one brief murmur; then the silence lay heavily again, for
+it was seen that Andy had been only slightly stunned--knocked out, as a
+boxer might be. Now his sturdy brains were clearing. His body stiffened
+into a human semblance once more; he fumbled, found the butt of his gun
+with his first move. He pushed his hat straight: and so doing he raked
+the welt which the blow had left on his head. The pain finished clearing
+the mist from his mind; in an instant he was on his feet, maddened with
+shame. He saw the semicircle of white faces, and the whole episode
+flashed back on him. He had been knocked down like a dog.
+
+For a moment he looked into the blank faces of the crowd; someone noted
+that there was no gun strapped at the side of Donnegan. A voice shouted
+a warning.
+
+"Stop, Lewis. The dude ain't got a gun. It's murder!"
+
+It was now that Lewis saw Donnegan sitting the saddle directly behind
+him, and he whirled with a moan of fury. It was a twist of his body--in
+his eagerness--rather than a turning upon his feet. And he was half
+around before the rider moved. Then he conjured a gun from somewhere in
+his clothes. There was the flash of the steel, an explosion, and
+Scar-faced Lewis was on his knees with a scream of pain holding his
+right forearm with his left hand.
+
+The crowd hesitated still for a second, as though it feared to
+interfere; but Donnegan had already put up his weapon. A wave of the
+curious spectators rushed across the street and gathered around the
+injured man. They found that he had been shot through the fleshy part of
+the thumb, and the bullet, ranging down the arm, had sliced a furrow to
+the bone all the way to the elbow. It was a grisly wound.
+
+Big George Washington Green came running to the door of the dance hall
+with a sprig of something green in his hand; one glance assured him that
+all was well; and once more that wide, confident grin spread upon his
+face. He came to the master and offered the mint; and Donnegan, raising
+it to his face, inhaled the scent deeply.
+
+"Good," he said. "And now for a julep, George! Let's go home!"
+
+Across the street a dark-eyed girl had clasped the arm of her companion
+in hysterical excitement.
+
+"Did you see?" she asked of her tall companion.
+
+"I saw a murderer shoot down a man; he ought to be hung for it!"
+
+"But the mint! Did you see him smile over it? Oh, what a devil he is;
+and what a man!"
+
+Jack Landis flashed a glance of suspicion down at her, but her dancing
+eyes had quite forgotten him. They were following the progress of
+Donnegan down the street. He rode slowly, and George kept that formal
+distance, just a length behind.
+
+
+
+
+18
+
+
+Before Milligan's the crowd began to buzz like murmuring hornets around
+a nest that has been tapped, when they pour out and cannot find the
+disturber. It was a rather helpless milling around the wounded man, and
+Nelly Lebrun was the one who worked her way through the crowd and came
+to Andy Lewis. She did not like Andy. She had been known to refer to him
+as a cowardly hawk of a man; but now she bullied the crowd in a shrill
+voice and made them bring water and cloth. Then she cleansed and
+bandaged the wound in Andy Lewis' arm and had some of them take him
+away.
+
+By this time the outskirts of the crowd had melted away; but those who
+had really seen all parts of the little drama remained to talk. The
+subject was a real one. Had Donnegan aimed at the hand of Andy and
+risked his own life on his ability to disable the other without killing
+him? Or had he fired at Lewis' body and struck the hand and arm only by
+a random lucky chance?
+
+If the second were the case, he was only a fair shot with plenty of
+nerve and a great deal of luck. If the first were true, then this was a
+nerve of ice-tempered steel, an eye vulture-sharp, and a hand,
+miraculous, fast, and certain. To strike that swinging hand with a snap
+shot, when a miss meant a bullet fired at his own body at deadly short
+range--truly it would take a credulous man to believe that Donnegan had
+coldly planned to disable his man without killing him.
+
+"A murderer by intention," exclaimed Milligan. He had hunted long and
+hard before he found a man with a face like that of Lewis, capable of
+maintaining order by a glance; now he wanted revenge. "A murder by
+intention!" he cried to the crowd, standing beside the place where the
+imprint of Andy's knees was still in the sand. "And like a murderer he
+ought to be treated. He aimed to kill Andy; he had luck and only broke
+his hand. Now, boys, I say it ain't so much what he's done as the way
+he's done it. He's given us the laugh. He's come in here in his dude
+clothes and tried to walk over us. But it don't work. Not in The Corner.
+If Andy was dead, I'd say lynch the dude. But he ain't, and all I say
+is: Run him out of town."
+
+Here there was a brief outburst of applause, but when it ended, it was
+observed that there was a low, soft laughter. The crowd gave way between
+Milligan and the mocker. It was seen that he who laughed was old Lebrun,
+rubbing his olive-skinned hands together and showing his teeth in his
+mirth. There was no love lost between Lebrun and Milligan, even if Nelly
+was often in the dance hall and the center of its merriment.
+
+"It takes a thief to catch a thief," said Lebrun enigmatically, when he
+saw that he had the ear of the crowd, "and it takes a man to catch a
+man."
+
+"What the devil do you mean by that?" a dozen voices asked.
+
+"I mean, that if you got men enough to run out this man Donnegan, The
+Corner is a better town than I think."
+
+It brought a growl, but no answer. Lebrun had never been seen to lift
+his hand, but he was more dreaded than a rattler.
+
+"We'll try," said Milligan dryly. "I ain't much of a man myself"--there
+were dark rumors about Milligan's past and the crowd chuckled at this
+modesty--"but I'll try my hand agin' him with a bit of backing. And
+first I want to tell you boys that they ain't any danger of him having
+aimed at Andy's hand. I tell you, it ain't possible, hardly, for him to
+have planned to hit a swingin' target like that. Maybe some could do it.
+I dunno."
+
+"How about Lord Nick?"
+
+"Sure, Lord Nick might do anything. But Donnegan ain't Lord Nick."
+
+"Not by twenty pounds and three inches."
+
+This brought a laugh. And by comparison with the terrible and familiar
+name of Lord Nick, Donnegan became a smaller danger. Besides, as
+Milligan said, it was undoubtedly luck. And when he called for
+volunteers, three or four stepped up at once. The others made a general
+milling, as though each were trying to get forward and each were
+prevented by the crowd in front. But in the background big Jack Landis
+was seriously trying to get to the firing line. He was encumbered with
+the clinging weight of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"Don't go, Jack," she pleaded. "Please! Please! Be sensible. For my
+sake!"
+
+She backed this appeal with a lifting of her eyes and a parting of her
+lips, and Jack Landis paused.
+
+"You won't go, dear Jack?"
+
+Now, Jack knew perfectly well that the girl was only half sincere. It is
+the peculiar fate of men that they always know when a woman is playing
+with them, but, from Samson down, they always go to the slaughter with
+open eyes, hoping each moment that the girl has been seriously impressed
+at last. As for Jack Landis, his slow mind did not readily get under the
+surface of the arts of Nelly, but he knew that there was at least a
+tinge of real concern in the girl's desire to keep him from the posse
+which Milligan was raising.
+
+"But they's something about him that I don't like, Nelly. Something sort
+of familiar that I don't like." For naturally enough he did not
+recognize the transformed Donnegan, and the name he had never heard
+before. "A gunfighter, that's what he is!"
+
+"Why, Jack, sometimes they call you the same thing; say that you hunt
+for trouble now and then!"
+
+"Do they say that?" asked the young chap quickly, flushing with vanity.
+"Oh, I aim to take care of myself. And I'd like to take a hand with this
+murdering Donnegan."
+
+"Jack, listen! Don't go; keep away from him!"
+
+"Why do you look like that? As if I was a dead one already."
+
+"I tell you, Jack, he'd kill you!"
+
+Something in her terrible assurance whitened the cheeks of Landis, but
+he was also angered. When a very young man becomes both afraid and angry
+he is apt to be dangerous. "What do you know of him?" he asked
+suspiciously.
+
+"You silly! But I saw his face when he lifted that mint. He'd already
+forgotten about the man he had just shot down. He was thinking of
+nothing but the scent of the mint. And did you notice his giant servant?
+He never had a moment's doubt of Donnegan's ability to handle the entire
+crowd. I tell you, it gave me a chill of ghosts to see the big black
+fellow's eyes. He knew that Donnegan would win. And Donnegan won! Jack,
+you're a big man and a strong man and a brave man, and we all know it.
+But don't be foolish. Stay away from Donnegan!"
+
+He wavered just an instant. If she could have sustained her pleading
+gaze a moment longer she would have won him, but at the critical instant
+her gaze became distant. She was seeing the calm face of Donnegan as he
+raised the mint. And as though he understood, Jack Landis hardened.
+
+"I'm glad you don't want me shot up, Nelly," he said coldly. "Mighty
+good of you to watch out for me. But--I'm going to run this Donnegan out
+of town!"
+
+"He's never harmed you; why--"
+
+"I don't like his looks. For a man like me that's enough!"
+
+And he strode away toward Milligan. He was greeted by a cheer just as
+the girl reached the side of her father.
+
+"Jack is going," she said. "Make him come back!"
+
+But the old man was still rubbing his hands; there seemed to be a
+perpetual chill in the tips of the fingers.
+
+"He is a jackass. The moment I first saw his face I knew that he was
+meant for gun fodder--buzzard food! Let him go. Bah!"
+
+The girl shivered. "And then the mines?" she asked, changing her
+tactics.
+
+"Ah, yes. The mines! But leave that to Lord Nick. He'll handle it well
+enough!"
+
+So Jack Landis strode up the hill first and foremost of the six stalwart
+men who wished to correct the stranger's apparent misunderstandings of
+the status of The Corner. They were each armed to the teeth and each
+provided with enough bullets to disturb a small city. All this in honor
+of Donnegan.
+
+They found the shack wrapped in the warm, mellow light of the late
+afternoon; and on a flat-topped rock outside it big George sat
+whittling a stick into a grotesque imitation of a snake coiled. He did
+not rise when the posse approached. He merely rocked back upon the rock,
+embraced his knees in both of his enormous arms, and, in a word,
+transformed himself into a round ball of mirth. But having hugged away
+his laughter he was able to convert his joy into a vast grin. That smile
+stopped the posse. When a mob starts for a scene of violence the least
+exhibition of fear incenses it, but mockery is apt to pour water on its
+flames of anger.
+
+Decidedly the fury of the posse was chilled by the grin of George.
+Milligan, who had lived south of the Mason-Dixon line, stepped up to
+impress George properly.
+
+"Boy," he said, frowning, "go in and tell your man that we've come for
+him. Tell him to step right out here and get ready to talk. We don't
+mean him no harm less'n he can't explain one or two things. Hop along!"
+
+The "boy" did not stir. Only he shifted his eyes from face to face and
+his grin broadened. Ripples of mirth waved along his chest and convulsed
+his face, but still he did not laugh. "Go in and tell them things to
+Donnegan," he said. "But don't ask me to wake him up. He's sleepin'
+soun' an' fas'. Like a baby; mostly, he sleeps every day to get rested
+up for the night. Now, can't you-all wait till Donnegan wakes up
+tonight? No? Then step right in, gen'lemen; but if you-all is set on
+wakin' him up now, George will jus' step over the hill, because he don't
+want to be near the explosion."
+
+At this, he allowed his mirth free rein. His laughter shook up to his
+throat, to his enormous mouth; it rolled and bellowed across the
+hillside; and the posse stood, each man in his place, and looked
+frigidly upon one another. But having been laughed at, they felt it
+necessary to go on, and do or die. So they strode across the hill and
+were almost to the door when another phenomenon occurred. A girl in a
+cheap calico dress of blue was seen to run out of a neighboring shack
+and spring up before the door of Donnegan's hut. When she faced the
+crowd it stopped again.
+
+The soft wind was blowing the blue dress into lovely, long, curving
+lines; about her throat a white collar of some sheer stuff was being
+lifted into waves, or curling against her cheek; and the golden hair, in
+disorder, was tousled low upon her forehead.
+
+Whirling thus upon the crowd, she shocked them to a pause, with her
+parted lips, her flare of delicate color.
+
+"Have you come here," she cried, "for--for Donnegan?"
+
+"Lady," began someone, and then looked about for Jack Landis, who was
+considered quite a hand with the ladies. But Jack Landis was discovered
+fading out of view down the hillside. One glance at that blue dress had
+quite routed him, for now he remembered the red-haired man who had
+escorted Lou Macon to The Corner--and the colonel's singular trust in
+this fellow. It explained much, and he fled before he should be noticed.
+
+Before the spokesman could continue his speech, the girl had whipped
+inside the door. And the posse was dumbfounded. Milligan saw that the
+advance was ruined. "Boys," he said, "we came to fight a man; not to
+storm a house with a woman in it. Let's go back. We'll tend to Donnegan
+later on."
+
+"We'll drill him clean!" muttered the others furiously, and straightway
+the posse departed down the hill.
+
+But inside the girl had found, to her astonishment, that Donnegan was
+stretched upon his bunk wrapped again in the silken dressing gown and
+with a smile upon his lips. He looked much younger, as he slept, and
+perhaps it was this that made the girl steal forward upon tiptoe and
+touch his shoulder so gently.
+
+He was up on his feet in an instant. Alas, vanity, vanity! Donnegan in
+shoes was one thing, for his shoes were of a particular kind; but
+Donnegan in his slippers was a full two inches shorter. He was hardly
+taller than the girl; he was, if the bitter truth must be known, almost
+a small man. And Donnegan was furious at having been found by her in
+such careless attire--and without those dignity-building shoes. First
+he wanted to cut the throat of big George.
+
+"What have you done, what have you done?" cried the girl, in one of
+those heart-piercing whispers of fear. "They have come for you--a whole
+crowd--of armed men--they're outside the door! What have you done? It
+was something done for me, I know!"
+
+Donnegan suddenly transferred his wrath from big George to the mob.
+
+"Outside my door?" he asked. And as he spoke he slipped on a belt at
+which a heavy holster tugged down on one side, and buckled it around
+him.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!" she pleaded, and caught him in her arms.
+
+Donnegan allowed her to stop him with that soft power for a moment,
+until his face went white--as if with pain. Then he adroitly gathered
+both her wrists into one of his bony hands; and having rendered her
+powerless, he slipped by her and cast open the door.
+
+It was an empty scene upon which they looked, with big George rocking
+back and forth upon a rock, convulsed with silent laughter. Donnegan
+looked sternly at the girl and swallowed. He was fearfully susceptible
+to mockery.
+
+"There seems to have been a jest?" he said.
+
+But she lifted him a happy, tearful face.
+
+"Ah, thank heaven!" she cried gently.
+
+Oddly enough, Donnegan at this set his teeth and turned upon his heel,
+and the girl stole out the door again, and closed it softly behind her.
+As a matter of fact, not even the terrible colonel inspired in her quite
+the fear which Donnegan instilled.
+
+
+
+
+19
+
+
+"Big Landis lost his nerve and sidestepped at the last minute, and then
+the whole gang faded."
+
+That was the way the rumors of the affair always ended at each
+repetition in Lebrun's and Milligan's that night. The Corner had had
+many things to talk about during its brief existence, but nothing to
+compare with a man who entered a shooting scrape with such a fellow as
+Scar-faced Lewis all for the sake of a spray of mint. And the main topic
+of conversation was: Did Donnegan aim at the body or the hand of the
+bouncer?
+
+On the whole, it was an excellent thing for Milligan's. The place was
+fairly well crowded, with a few vacant tables. For everyone wanted to
+hear Milligan's version of the affair. He had a short and vigorous one,
+trimmed with neat oaths. It was all the girl in the blue calico dress,
+according to him. The posse couldn't storm a house with a woman in it or
+even conduct a proper lynching in her presence. And no one was able to
+smile when Milligan said this. Neither was anyone nervy enough to
+question the courage of Landis. It looked strange, that sudden flight of
+his, but then, he was a proven man. Everyone remembered the affair of
+Lester. It had been a clean-cut fight, and Jack Landis had won cleanly
+on his merits.
+
+Nevertheless some of the whispers had not failed to come to the big man,
+and his brow was black.
+
+The most terribly heartless and selfish passion of all is shame in a
+young man. To repay the sidelong glances which he met on every side,
+Jack Landis would have willingly crowded every living soul in The Corner
+into one house and touched a match to it. And chiefly because he felt
+the injustice of the suspicion. He had no fear of Donnegan.
+
+He had a theory that little men had little souls. Not that he ever
+formulated the theory in words, but he vaguely felt it and adhered to
+it. He had more fear of one man of six two than a dozen under five ten.
+He reserved in his heart of hearts a place of awe for one man whom he
+had never seen. That was for Lord Nick, for that celebrated character
+was said to be as tall and as finely built as Jack Landis himself. But
+as for Donnegan--Landis wished there were three Donnegans instead of
+one.
+
+Tonight his cue was surly silence. For Nelly Lebrun had been warned by
+her father, and she was making desperate efforts to recover any ground
+she might have lost. Besides, to lose Jack Landis would be to lose the
+most spectacular fellow in The Corner, to say nothing of the one who
+held the largest and the choicest of the mines. The blond, good looks of
+Landis made a perfect background for her dark beauty. With all these
+stakes to play for, Nelly outdid herself. If she were attractive enough
+ordinarily, when she exerted herself to fascinate, Nelly was
+intoxicating. What chance had poor Jack Landis against her? He did not
+call for her that night but went to play gloomily at Lebrun's until
+Nelly walked into Lebrun's and drew him away from a table. Half an hour
+later she had him whirling through a dance in Milligan's and had danced
+the gloom out of his mind for the moment. Before the evening was well
+under way, Landis was making love to her openly, and Nelly was in the
+position of one who had roused the bear.
+
+It was a dangerous flirtation and it was growing clumsy. In any place
+other than The Corner it would have been embarrassing long ago; and when
+Jack Landis, after a dance, put his one big hand over both of Nelly's
+and held her moveless while he poured out a passionate declaration,
+Nelly realized that something must be done. Just what she could not
+tell.
+
+And it was at this very moment that a wave of silence, beginning at the
+door, rushed across Milligan's dance floor. It stopped the bartenders in
+the act of mixing drinks; it put the musicians out of key, and in the
+midst of a waltz phrase they broke down and came to a discordant pause.
+
+What was it?
+
+The men faced the door, wondering, and then the swift rumor passed from
+lip to lip--almost from eye to eye, so rapidly it sped--Donnegan is
+coming! Donnegan, and big George with him.
+
+"Someone tell Milligan!"
+
+But Milligan had already heard; he was back of the bar giving
+directions; guns were actually unlimbering. What would happen?
+
+"Shall I get you out of this?" Landis asked the girl.
+
+"Leave now?" She laughed fiercely and silently. "I'm just beginning to
+live! Miss Donnegan in action? No, sir!"
+
+She would have given a good deal to retract that sentence, for it washed
+the face of Landis white with jealousy.
+
+Surely Donnegan had built greater than he knew.
+
+And suddenly he was there in the midst of the house. No one had stopped
+him--at least, no one had interfered with his servant. Big George had on
+a white suit and a dappled green necktie; he stood directly behind his
+master and made him look like a small boy. For Donnegan was in black,
+and he had a white neckcloth wrapped as high and stiffly as an
+old-fashioned stock. Altogether he was a queer, drab figure compared
+with the brilliant Donnegan of that afternoon. He looked older, more
+weary. His lean face was pale; and his hair flamed with redoubled ardor
+on that account. Never was hair as red as that, not even the hair of
+Lord Nick, said the people in Milligan's this night.
+
+He was perfectly calm even in the midst of that deadly silence. He stood
+looking about him. He saw Gloster, the real estate man, and bowed to him
+deliberately.
+
+For some reason that drew a gasp.
+
+Then he observed a table which was apparently to his fancy and crossed
+the floor with a light, noiseless step, big George padding heavily
+behind him. At the little round table he waited until George had drawn
+out the chair for him and then he sat down. He folded his arms lightly
+upon his breast and once more surveyed the scene, and big George drew
+himself up behind Donnegan. Just once his eyes rolled and flashed
+savagely in delight at the sensation that they were making, then the
+face of George was once again impassive.
+
+If Donnegan had not carried it off with a certain air, the whole
+entrance would have seemed decidedly stagey, but The Corner, as it was,
+found much to wonder at and little to criticize. And in the West grown
+men are as shrewd judges of affectation as children are in other places.
+
+"Putting on a lot of style, eh?" said Jack Landis, and with fierce
+intensity he watched the face of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+For once she was unguarded.
+
+"He's superb!" she exclaimed. "The big fellow is going to bring a drink
+for him."
+
+She looked up, surprised by the silence of Landis, and found that his
+face was actually yellow.
+
+"I'll tell you something. Do you remember the little red-headed tramp
+who came in here the other night and spoke to me?"
+
+"Very well. You seemed to be bothered."
+
+"Maybe. I dunno. But that's the man--the one who's sitting over there
+now all dressed up--the man The Corner is talking about--Donnegan! A
+tramp!"
+
+She caught her breath.
+
+"Is that the one?" A pause. "Well, I believe it. He's capable of
+anything!"
+
+"I think you like him all the better for knowing that."
+
+"Jack, you're angry."
+
+"Why should I be? I hate to see you fooled by the bluff of a tramp,
+though."
+
+"Tush! Do you think I'm fooled by it? But it's an interesting bluff,
+Jack, don't you think?"
+
+"Nelly, he's interesting enough to make you blush; by heaven, the hound
+is lookin' right at you now, Nelly!"
+
+He had pressed her suddenly against the wall and she struck back
+desperately in self-defense.
+
+"By the way, what did he want to see you about?"
+
+It spiked the guns of Landis for the time being, at least. And the girl
+followed by striving to prove that her interest in Donnegan was purely
+impersonal.
+
+"He's clever," she ran on, not daring to look at the set face of her
+companion. "See how he fails to notice that he's making a sensation?
+You'd think he was in a big restaurant in a city. He takes the drink off
+the tray from that fellow as if it were a common thing to be waited on
+by a body-servant in The Corner. Jack, I'll wager that there's something
+crooked about him. A professional gambler, say!"
+
+Jack Landis thawed a little under this careless chatter. He still did
+not quite trust her.
+
+"Do you know what they're whispering? That I was afraid to face him!"
+
+She tilted her head back, so that the light gleamed on her young throat,
+and she broke into laughter.
+
+"Why, Jack, that's foolish. You proved yourself when you first came to
+The Corner. Maybe some of the newcomers may have said something, but all
+the old-timers know you had some different reason for leaving the rest
+of them. By the way, what was the reason?"
+
+She sent a keen little glance at him from the corner of her eyes, but
+the moment she saw that he was embarrassed and at sea because of the
+query she instantly slipped into a fresh tide of careless chatter and
+covered up his confusion for him.
+
+"See how the girls are making eyes at him."
+
+"I'll tell you why," Jack replied. "A girl likes to be with the man
+who's making the town talk." He added pointedly: "Oh, I've found that
+out!"
+
+She shrugged that comment away.
+
+"He isn't paying the slightest attention to any of them," she murmured.
+"He's queer! Has he just come here hunting trouble?"
+
+
+
+
+20
+
+
+It should be understood that before this the men in Milligan's had
+reached a subtly unspoken agreement that red-haired Donnegan was not one
+of them. In a word, they did not like him because he made a mystery of
+himself. And, also, because he was different. Yet there was a growing
+feeling that the shooting of Lewis through the hand had not been an
+accident, for the whole demeanor of Donnegan composed the action of a
+man who is a professional trouble maker. There was no reason why he
+should go to Milligan's and take his servant with him unless he wished a
+fight. And why a man should wish to fight the entire Corner was
+something no one could guess.
+
+That he should have done all this merely to focus all eyes upon him, and
+particularly the eyes of a girl, did not occur to anyone. It looked
+rather like the bravado of a man who lived for the sake of fighting.
+Now, men who hunt trouble in the mountain desert generally find all that
+they may desire, but for the time being everyone held back, wolfishly,
+waiting for another to take the first step toward Donnegan. Indeed,
+there was an unspoken conviction that the man who took the first step
+would probably not live to take another. In the meantime both men and
+women gave Donnegan the lion's share of their attention. There was only
+one who was clever enough to conceal it, and that one was the pair of
+eyes to which the red-haired man was playing--Nelly Lebrun. She confined
+herself strictly to Jack Landis.
+
+So it was that when Milligan announced a tag dance and the couples
+swirled onto the floor gayly, Donnegan decided to take matters into his
+own hands and offer the first overt act. It was clumsy; he did not like
+it; but he hated this delay. And he knew that every moment he stayed on
+there with big George behind his chair was another red rag flaunted in
+the face of The Corner.
+
+He saw the men who had no girl with them brighten at the announcement of
+the tag dance. And when the dance began he saw the prettiest girls
+tagged quickly, one after the other. All except Nelly Lebrun. She swung
+securely around the circle in the big arms of Jack Landis. She seemed to
+be set apart and protected from the common touch by his size, and by his
+formidable, challenging eye. Donnegan felt as never before the
+unassailable position of this fellow; not only from his own fighting
+qualities, but because he had behind him the whole unfathomable power of
+Lord Nick and his gang.
+
+Nelly approached in the arms of Landis in making the first circle of the
+dance floor; her eyes, grown dull as she surrendered herself wholly to
+the rhythm of the waltz, saw nothing. They were blank as unlighted
+charcoal. She came opposite Donnegan, her back was toward him; she swung
+in the arms of Landis, and then, past the shoulder of her partner, she
+flashed a glance at Donnegan. The spark had fallen on the charcoal, and
+her eyes were aflame. Aflame to Donnegan; the next instant the veil had
+dropped across her face once more.
+
+She was carried on, leaving Donnegan tingling.
+
+A wise man upon whom that look had fallen might have seen, not Nelly
+Lebrun in the cheap dance hall, but Helen of Sparta and all Troy's dead.
+But Donnegan was clever, not wise. And he saw only Nelly Lebrun and the
+broad shoulders of Jack Landis.
+
+Let the critic deal gently with Donnegan. He loved Lou Macon with all
+his heart and his soul, and yet because another beautiful girl had
+looked at him, there he sat at his table with his jaw set and the devil
+in his eye. And while she and Landis were whirling through the next
+circumference of the room, Donnegan was seeing all sides of the problem.
+If he tagged Landis it would be casting the glove in the face of the big
+man--and in the face of old Lebrun--and in the face of that mysterious
+and evil power, Lord Nick himself. And consider, that besides these he
+had already insulted all of The Corner.
+
+Why not let things go on as they were? Suppose he were to allow Landis
+to plunge deeper into his infatuation? Suppose he were to bring Lou
+Macon to this place and let her see Landis sitting with Nelly, making
+love to her with every tone in his voice, every light in his eye? Would
+not that cure Lou? And would not that open the door to Donnegan?
+
+And remember, in considering how Donnegan was tempted, that he was not a
+conscientious man. He was in fact what he seemed to be--a wanderer, a
+careless vagrant, living by his wits. For all this, he had been touched
+by the divine fire--a love that is greater than self. And the more
+deeply he hated Landis, the more profoundly he determined that he should
+be discarded by Nelly and forced back to Lou Macon. In the meantime,
+Nelly and Jack were coming again. They were close; they were passing;
+and this time her eye had no spark for Donnegan.
+
+Yet he rose from his table, reached the floor with a few steps, and
+touched Landis lightly on the shoulder. The challenge was passed. Landis
+stopped abruptly and turned his head; his face showed merely dull
+astonishment. The current of dancers split and washed past on either
+side of the motionless trio, and on every face there was a glittering
+curiosity. What would Landis do?
+
+Nothing. He was too stupefied to act. He, Jack Landis, had actually been
+tagged while he was dancing with the woman which all The Corner knew to
+be his girl! And before his befogged senses cleared the girl was in the
+arms of the red-haired man and was lost in the crowd.
+
+What a buzz went around the room! For a moment Landis could no more move
+than he could think; then he sent a sullen glance toward the girl and
+retreated to their table. A childish sullenness clouded his face while
+he sat there; only one decision came clearly to him: he must kill
+Donnegan!
+
+In the meantime people noted two things. The first was that Donnegan
+danced very well with Nelly Lebrun; and his red hair beside the silken
+black of the girl's was a startling contrast. It was not a common red.
+It flamed, as though with phosphoric properties of its own. But they
+danced well; and the eyes of both of them were gleaming. Another thing:
+men did not tag Donnegan any more than they had offered to tag Landis.
+One or two slipped out from the outskirts of the floor, but something in
+the face of Donnegan discouraged them and made them turn elsewhere as
+though they had never started for Nelly Lebrun in the first place.
+Indeed, to a two-year-old child it would have been apparent that Nelly
+and the red-headed chap were interested in each other.
+
+As a matter of fact they did not speak a single syllable until they had
+gone around the floor one complete turn and the dance was coming toward
+an end.
+
+It was he who spoke first, gloomily: "I shouldn't have done it; I
+shouldn't have tagged him!"
+
+At this she drew back a little so that she could meet his eyes.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"The whole crew will be on my trail."
+
+"What crew?"
+
+"Beginning with Lord Nick!"
+
+This shook her completely out of the thrall of the dance.
+
+"Lord Nick? What makes you think that?"
+
+"I know he's thick with Landis. It'll mean trouble."
+
+He was so simple about it that she began to laugh. It was not such a
+voice as Lou Macon's. It was high and light, and one could suspect that
+it might become shrill under a stress.
+
+"And yet it looks as though you've been hunting trouble," she said.
+
+"I couldn't help it," said Donnegan naïvely.
+
+It was a very subtle flattery, this frankness from a man who had puzzled
+all The Corner. Nelly Lebrun felt that she was about to look behind the
+scenes and she tingled with delight.
+
+"Tell me," she said. "Why not?"
+
+"Well," said Donnegan. "I had to make a noise because I wanted to be
+noticed."
+
+She glanced about her; every eye was upon them.
+
+"You've made your point," she murmured. "The whole town is talking of
+nothing else."
+
+"I don't care an ounce of lead about the rest of the town."
+
+"Then--"
+
+She stopped abruptly, seeing toward what he was tending. And the heart
+of Nelly Lebrun fluttered for the first time in many a month. She
+believed him implicitly. It was for her sake that he had made all this
+commotion; to draw her attention. For every lovely girl, no matter how
+cool-headed, has a foolish belief in the power of her beauty. As a
+matter of fact Donnegan had told her the truth. It had all been to win
+her attention, from the fight for the mint to the tagging for the dance.
+How could she dream that it sprang out of anything other than a wild
+devotion to her? And while Donnegan coldly calculated every effect,
+Nelly Lebrun began to see in him the man of a dream, a spirit out of a
+dead age, a soul of knightly, reckless chivalry. In that small
+confession he cast a halo about himself which no other hand could ever
+remove entirely so far as Nelly Lebrun was concerned.
+
+"You understand?" he was saying quietly.
+
+She countered with a question as direct as his confession.
+
+"What are you, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"A wanderer," said Donnegan instantly, "and an avoider of work."
+
+At that they laughed together. The strain was broken and in its place
+there was a mutual excitement. She saw Landis in the distance watching
+their laughter with a face contorted with anger, but it only increased
+her unreasoning happiness.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, let me give you friendly advice. I like you: I know you
+have courage; and I saw you meet Scar-faced Lewis. But if I were you I'd
+leave The Corner tonight and never come back. You've set every man
+against you. You've stepped on the toes of Landis and he's a big man
+here. And even if you were to prove too much for Jack you'd come against
+Lord Nick, as you say yourself. Do you know Nick?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then, Mr. Donnegan, leave The Corner!"
+
+The music, ending, left them face to face as he dropped his arm from
+about her. And she could appreciate now, for the first time, that he was
+smaller than he had seemed at a distance, or while he was dancing. He
+seemed a frail figure indeed to face the entire banded Corner--and Lord
+Nick.
+
+"Don't you see," said Donnegan, "that I can't stop now?"
+
+There was a double meaning that sent her color flaring.
+
+He added in a low, tense voice, "I've gone too far. Besides, I'm
+beginning to hope!"
+
+She paused, then made a little gesture of abandon.
+
+"Then stay, stay!" she whispered with eyes on fire. "And good luck to
+you, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+
+
+
+21
+
+
+As they went back, toward Nelly's table, where Jack Landis was trying to
+appear carelessly at ease, the face of Donnegan was pale. One might have
+thought that excitement and fear caused his pallor; but as a matter of
+fact it was in him an unfailing sign of happiness and success. Landis
+had manners enough to rise as they approached. He found himself being
+presented to the smaller man. He heard the cool, precise voice of
+Donnegan acknowledging the introduction; and then the red-headed man
+went back to his table; and Jack Landis was alone with Nelly Lebrun
+again.
+
+He scowled at her, and she tried to look repentant, but since she could
+not keep the dancing light out of her eyes, she compromised by looking
+steadfastly down at the table. Which convinced Landis that she was
+thinking of her late partner. He made a great effort, swallowed, and was
+able to speak smoothly enough.
+
+"Looked as if you were having a pretty good time with that--tramp."
+
+The color in her cheeks was anger; Landis took it for shame.
+
+"He dances beautifully," she replied.
+
+"Yeh; he's pretty smooth. Take a gent like that, it's hard for a girl
+to see through him."
+
+"Let's not talk about him, Jack."
+
+"All right. Is he going to dance with you again?"
+
+"I promised him the third dance after this."
+
+For a time Landis could not trust his voice. Then: "Kind of sorry about
+that. Because I'll be going home before then."
+
+At this she raised her eyes for the first time. He was astonished and a
+little horrified to see that she was not in the least flustered, but
+very angry.
+
+"You'll go home before I have a chance for that dance?" she asked.
+"You're acting like a two-year-old, Jack. You are!"
+
+He flushed. Burning would be too easy a death for Donnegan.
+
+"He's making a laughingstock out of me; look around the room!"
+
+"Nobody's thinking about you at all, Jack. You're just self-conscious."
+
+Of course, it was pouring acid upon an open wound. But she was past the
+point of caution.
+
+"Maybe they ain't," said Landis, controlling his rage. "I don't figure
+that I amount to much. But I rate myself as high as a skunk like him!"
+
+It may have been a smile that she gave him. At any rate, he caught the
+glint of teeth, and her eyes were as cold as steel points. If she had
+actually defended the stranger she would not have infuriated Landis so
+much.
+
+"Well, what does he say about himself?"
+
+"He says frankly that he's a vagrant."
+
+"And you don't believe him?"
+
+She did not speak.
+
+"Makin' a play for sympathy. Confound a man like that, I say!"
+
+Still she did not answer; and now Landis became alarmed.
+
+"D'you really like him, Nelly?"
+
+"I liked him well enough to introduce him to you, Jack."
+
+"I'm sorry I talked so plain if you put it that way," he admitted
+heavily. "I didn't know you picked up friends so fast as all that!" He
+could not avoid adding this last touch of the poison point.
+
+His back was to Donnegan, and consequently the girl, facing him, could
+look straight across the room at the red-headed man. She allowed herself
+one brief glance, and she saw that he was sitting with his elbow on the
+table, his chin in his hand, looking fixedly at her. It was the gaze of
+one who forgets all else and wraps himself in a dream. Other people in
+the room were noting that changeless stare and the whisper buzzed more
+and more loudly, but Donnegan had forgotten the rest of the world, it
+seemed. It was a very cunning piece of acting, not too much overdone,
+and once more the heart of Nelly Lebrun fluttered.
+
+She remembered that in spite of his frankness he had not talked with
+insolent presumption to her. He had merely answered her individual
+questions with an astonishing, childlike frankness. He had laid his
+heart before her, it seemed. And now he sat at a distance looking at her
+with the white, intense face of one who sees a dream.
+
+Nelly Lebrun was recalled by the heavy breathing of Jack Landis and she
+discovered that she had allowed her eyes to rest too long on the
+red-headed stranger. She had forgotten; her eyes had widened; and even
+Jack Landis was able to look into her mind and see things that startled
+him. For the first time he sensed that this was more than a careless
+flirtation. And he sat stiffly at the table, looking at her and through
+her with a fixed smile. Nelly, horrified, strove to cover her tracks.
+
+"You're right, Jack," she said. "I--I think there was something brazen
+in the way he tagged you. And--let's go home together!"
+
+Too late. The mind of Landis was not oversharp, but now jealousy gave it
+a point. He nodded his assent, and they got up, but there was no
+increase in his color. She read as plain as day in his face that he
+intended murder this night and Nelly was truly frightened.
+
+So she tried different tactics. All the way to the substantial little
+house which Lebrun had built at a little distance from the gambling
+hall, she kept up a running fire of steady conversation. But when she
+said good night to him, his face was still set. She had not deceived
+him. When he turned, she saw him go back into the night with long
+strides, and within half an hour she knew, as clearly as if she were
+remembering the picture instead of foreseeing it, that Jack and Donnegan
+would face each other gun in hand on the floor of Milligan's dance hall.
+
+Still, she was not foolish enough to run after Jack, take his arm, and
+make a direct appeal. It would be too much like begging for Donnegan,
+and even if Jack forgave her for this interest in his rival, she had
+sense enough to feel that Donnegan himself never would. Something,
+however, must be done to prevent the fight, and she took the straightest
+course.
+
+She went as fast as a run would carry her straight behind the
+intervening houses and came to the back entrance to the gaming hall.
+There she entered and stepped into the little office of her father.
+Black Lebrun was not there. She did not want him. In his place there sat
+the Pedlar and Joe Rix; they were members of Lord Nick's chosen crew,
+and since Nick's temporary alliance with Lebrun for the sake of
+plundering Jack Landis, Nick's men were Nelly's men. Indeed, this was a
+formidable pair. They were the kind of men about whom many whispers and
+no facts circulate: and yet the facts are far worse than the whispers.
+It was said that Joe Rix, who was a fat little man with a great aversion
+to a razor and a pair of shallow, pale blue eyes, was in reality a
+merciless fiend. He was; and he was more than that, if there be a
+stronger superlative. If Lord Nick had dirty work to be done, there was
+the man who did it with a relish. The Pedlar, on the other hand, was an
+exact opposite. He was long, lean, raw-boned, and prodigiously strong in
+spite of his lack of flesh. He had vast hands, all loose skin and
+outstanding tendons; he had a fleshless face over which his smile was
+capable of extending limitlessly. He was the sort of a man from whom one
+would expect shrewdness, some cunning, stubbornness, a dry humor, and
+many principles. All of which, except the last, was true of the Pedlar.
+
+There was this peculiarity about the Pedlar. In spite of his broad grins
+and his wise, bright eyes, none, even of Lord Nick's gang, extended a
+friendship or familiarity toward him. When they spoke of the Pedlar they
+never used his name. They referred to him as "him" or they indicated him
+with gestures. If he had a fondness for any living creature it was for
+fat Joe Rix.
+
+Yet on seeing this ominous pair, Nelly Lebrun cried out softly in
+delight. She ran to them, and dropped a hand on the bony shoulder of the
+Pedlar and one on the plump shoulder of Joe Rix, whose loose flesh
+rolled under her finger tips.
+
+"It's Jack Landis!" she cried. "He's gone to Milligan's to fight the
+new man. Stop him!"
+
+"Donnegan?" said Joe, and did not rise.
+
+"Him?" said the Pedlar, and moistened his broad lips like one on the
+verge of starvation.
+
+"Are you going to sit here?" she cried. "What will Lord Nick say if he
+finds out you've let Jack get into a fight?"
+
+"We ain't nursin' mothers," declared the Pedlar. "But I'd kind of like
+to look on!"
+
+And he rose. Unkinking joint after joint, straightening his legs, his
+back, his shoulders, his neck, he soared up and up until he stood a
+prodigious height. The girl controlled a shudder of disgust.
+
+"Joe!" she appealed.
+
+"You want us to clean up Donnegan?" he asked, rising, but without
+interest in his voice.
+
+To his surprise, she slipped back to the door and blocked it with her
+outcast arms.
+
+"Not a hair of his head!" she said fiercely. "Swear that you won't harm
+him, boys!"
+
+"What the devil!" ejaculated Joe, who was a blunt man in spite of his
+fat. "You want us to keep Jack from fightin', but you don't want us to
+hurt the other gent. What you want? Hogtie 'em both?"
+
+"Yes, yes; keep Jack out of Milligan's; but for heaven's sake don't try
+to put a hand on Donnegan."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"For your sakes; he'd kill you, Joe!"
+
+At this they both gaped in unison, and as one man they drawled in vast
+admiration: "Good heavens!"
+
+"But go, go, go!" cried the girl.
+
+And she shoved them through the door and into the night.
+
+
+
+
+22
+
+
+To the people in Milligan's it had been most incredible that Jack Landis
+should withdraw from a competition of any sort. And though the girls
+were able to understand his motives in taking Nelly Lebrun away they
+were not able to explain this fully to their men companions. For one and
+all they admitted that Jack was imperiling his hold on the girl in
+question if he allowed her to stay near this red-headed fiend. But one
+and all they swore that Jack Landis had ruined himself with her by
+taking her away. And this was a paradox which made masculine heads in
+The Corner spin. The main point was that Jack Landis had backed down
+before a rival; and this fact was stunning enough. Donnegan, however,
+was not confused. He sent big George to ask Milligan to come to him for
+a moment.
+
+Milligan, at this, cursed George, but he was drawn by curiosity to
+consent. A moment later he was seated at Donnegan's table, drinking his
+own liquor as it was served to him from the hands of big George. If the
+first emotions of the dance-hall proprietor were anger and intense
+curiosity, his second emotion was that never-failing surprise which all
+who came close to the wanderer felt. For he had that rare faculty of
+seeming larger when in action, even when actually near much bigger men.
+Only when one came close to Donnegan one stepped, as it were, through a
+veil, and saw the almost fragile reality. When Milligan had caught his
+breath and adjusted himself, he began as follows:
+
+"Now, Bud," he said, "you've made a pretty play. Not bad at all. But no
+more bluffs in Milligan's."
+
+"Bluff!" Donnegan repeated gently.
+
+"About your servant. I let it pass for one night, but not for another."
+
+"My dear Mr. Milligan! However"--changing the subject easily--"what I
+wish to speak to you about is a bit of trouble which I foresee. I think,
+sir, that Jack Landis is coming back."
+
+"What makes you think that?"
+
+"It's a feeling I have. I have queer premonitions, Mr. Milligan, I'm
+sure he's coming and I'm sure he's going to attempt a murder."
+
+Milligan's thick lips framed his question but he did not speak: fear
+made his face ludicrous.
+
+"Right here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A shootin' scrape here! You?"
+
+"He has me in mind. That's why I'm speaking to you."
+
+"Don't wait to speak to me about it. Get up and get out!"
+
+"Mr. Milligan, you're wrong. I'm going to stay here and you're going to
+protect me."
+
+"Well, confound your soul! They ain't much nerve about you, is there?"
+
+"You run a public place. You have to protect your patrons from insult."
+
+"And who began it, then? Who started walkin' on Jack's toes? Now you
+come whinin' to me! By heck, I hope Jack gets you!"
+
+"You're a genial soul," said Donnegan. "Here's to you!"
+
+But something in his smile as he sipped his liquor made Milligan sit
+straighter in his chair.
+
+As for Donnegan, he was thinking hard and fast. If there were a shooting
+affair and he won, he would nevertheless run a close chance of being
+hung by a mob. He must dispose that mob to look upon him as the
+defendant and Landis as the aggressor. He had not foreseen the crisis
+until it was fairly upon him. He had thought of Nelly playing Landis
+along more gradually and carefully, so that, while he was slowly
+learning that she was growing cold to him, he would have a chance to
+grow fond of Lou Macon once more. But even across the width of the room
+he had seen the girl fire up, and from that moment he knew the result.
+Landis already suspected him; Landis, with the feeling that he had been
+robbed, would do his best to kill the thief. He might take a chance with
+Landis, if it came to a fight, just as he had taken a chance with Lewis.
+But how different this case would be! Landis was no dull-nerved ruffian
+and drunkard. He was a keen boy with a hair-trigger balance, and in a
+gunplay he would be apt to beat the best of them all. Of all this
+Donnegan was fully aware. Either he must place his own life in terrible
+hazard or else he must shoot to kill; and if he killed, what of Lou
+Macon?
+
+While he smiled into the face of Milligan, perspiration was bursting out
+under his armpits.
+
+"Mr. Milligan, I implore you to give me your aid."
+
+"What's the difference?" Milligan asked in a changed tone. "If he don't
+fight you here he'll fight you later."
+
+"You're wrong, Mr. Milligan. He isn't the sort to hold malice. He'll
+come here tonight and try to get at me like a bulldog straining on a
+leash. If he is kept away he'll get over his bad temper."
+
+Milligan pushed back his chair.
+
+"You've tried to force yourself down the throat of The Corner," he said,
+"and now you yell for help when you see the teeth."
+
+He had raised his voice. Now he got up and strode noisily away. Donnegan
+waited until he was halfway across the dance floor and then rose in
+turn.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said.
+
+The quiet voice cut into every conversation; the musicians lowered the
+instruments.
+
+"I have just told Mr. Milligan that I am sure Jack Landis is coming back
+here to try to kill me. I have asked for his protection. He has refused
+it. I intend to stay here and wait for him, Jack Landis. In the meantime
+I ask any able-bodied man who will do so, to try to stop Landis when he
+enters."
+
+He sat down, raised his glass, and sipped the drink. Two hundred pairs
+of eyes were fastened with hawklike intensity upon him, and they could
+perceive no quiver of his hand.
+
+The sipping of his liquor was not an affectation. For he was drinking,
+at incredible cost, liquors from Milligan's store of rareties.
+
+The effect of Donnegan's announcement was first a silence, then a hum,
+then loud voices of protest, curiosity--and finally a scurrying toward
+the doors.
+
+Yet really very few left. The rest valued a chance to see the fight
+beyond the fear of random slugs of lead which might fly their way.
+Besides, where such men as Donnegan and big Jack Landis were concerned,
+there was not apt to be much wild shooting. The dancing stopped, of
+course. The music was ordered by Milligan to play, in a frantic endeavor
+to rouse custom again; but the music of its own accord fell away in the
+middle of the piece. For the musicians could not watch the notes and the
+door at the same time.
+
+As for Donnegan, he found that it was one thing to wait and another to
+be waited for. He, too, wished to turn and watch that door until it
+should be filled by the bulk of Jack Landis. Yet he fought the desire.
+
+And in the midst of this torturing suspense an idea came to him, and at
+the same instant Jack Landis entered the doorway. He stood there looking
+vast against the night. One glance around was sufficient to teach him
+the meaning of the silence. The stage was set, and the way opened to
+Donnegan. Without a word, big George stole to one side.
+
+Straight to the middle of the dance floor went Jack Landis, red-faced,
+with long, heavy steps. He faced Donnegan.
+
+"You skunk!" shouted Landis. "I've come for you!"
+
+And he went for his gun. Donnegan, too, stirred. But when the revolver
+leaped into the hand of Landis, it was seen that the hands of Donnegan
+rose past the line of his waist, past his shoulders, and presently
+locked easily behind his head. A terrible chance, for Landis had come
+within a breath of shooting. So great was the impulse that, as he
+checked the pressure of his forefinger, he stumbled a whole pace
+forward. He walked on.
+
+"You need cause to fight?" he cried, striking Donnegan across the face
+with the back of his left hand, jerking up the muzzle of the gun in his
+right.
+
+Now a dark trickle was seen to come from the broken lips of Donnegan,
+yet he was smiling faintly.
+
+Jack Landis muttered a curse and said sneeringly: "Are you afraid?"
+
+There were sick faces in that room; men turned their heads, for nothing
+is so ghastly as the sight of a man who is taking water.
+
+"Hush," said Donnegan. "I'm going to kill you, Jack. But I want to kill
+you fairly and squarely. There's no pleasure, you see, in beating a
+youngster like you to the draw. I want to give you a fighting chance.
+Besides"--he removed one hand from behind his head and waved it
+carelessly to where the men of The Corner crouched in the shadow--"you
+people have seen me drill one chap already, and I'd like to shoot you in
+a new way. Is that agreeable?"
+
+Two terrible, known figures detached themselves from the gloom near the
+door.
+
+"Hark to this gent sing," said one, and his name was the Pedlar. "Hark
+to him sing, Jack, and we'll see that you get fair play."
+
+"Good," said his friend, Joe Rix. "Let him take his try, Jack."
+
+As a matter of fact, had Donnegan reached for a gun, he would have been
+shot before even Landis could bring out a weapon, for the steady eye of
+Joe Rix, hidden behind the Pedlar, had been looking down a revolver
+barrel at the forehead of Donnegan, waiting for that first move. But
+something about the coolness of Donnegan fascinated them.
+
+"Don't shoot, Joe," the Pedlar had said. "That bird is the chief over
+again. Don't plug him!"
+
+And that was why Donnegan lived.
+
+
+
+
+23
+
+
+If he had taken the eye of the hardened Rix and the still harder Pedlar,
+he had stunned the men of The Corner. And breathlessly they waited for
+his proposal to Jack Landis.
+
+He spoke with his hands behind his head again, after he had slowly taken
+out a handkerchief and wiped his chin.
+
+"I'm a methodical fellow, Landis," he said. "I hate to do an untidy
+piece of work. I have been disgusted with myself since my little falling
+out with Lewis. I intended to shoot him cleanly through the hand, but
+instead of that I tore up his whole forearm. Sloppy work, Landis. I
+don't like it. Now, in meeting you, I want to do a clean, neat, precise
+job. One that I'll be proud of."
+
+A moaning voice was heard faintly in the distance. It was the Pedlar,
+who had wrapped himself in his gaunt arms and was crooning softly, with
+unspeakable joy: "Hark to him sing! Hark to him sing! A ringer for the
+chief!"
+
+"Why should we be in such a hurry?" continued Donnegan. "You see that
+clock in the corner? Tut, tut! Turn your head and look. Do you think
+I'll drop you while you look around?"
+
+Landis flung one glance over his shoulder at the big clock, whose
+pendulum worked solemnly back and forth.
+
+"In five minutes," said Donnegan, "it will be eleven o'clock. And when
+it's eleven o'clock the clock will chime. Now, Landis, you and I shall
+sit down here like gentlemen and drink our liquor and think our last
+thoughts. Heavens, man, is there anything more disagreeable than being
+hurried out of life? But when the clock chimes, we draw our guns and
+shoot each other through the heart--the brain--wherever we have chosen.
+But, Landis, if one of us should inadvertently--or through
+nervousness--beat the clock's chime by the split part of a second, the
+good people of The Corner will fill that one of us promptly full of
+lead."
+
+He turned to the crowd.
+
+"Gentlemen, is it a good plan?"
+
+As well as a Roman crowd if it wanted to see a gladiator die, the frayed
+nerves of The Corner responded to the stimulus of this delightful
+entertainment. There was a joyous chorus of approval.
+
+"When the clock strikes, then," said Landis, and flung himself down in a
+chair, setting his teeth over his rage.
+
+Donnegan smiled benevolently upon him; then he turned again and beckoned
+to George. The big man strode closer and leaned.
+
+"George," he said. "I'm not going to kill this fellow."
+
+"No, sir; certainly, sir," whispered the other. "George can kill him for
+you, sir."
+
+Donnegan smiled wanly.
+
+"I'm not going to kill him, George, on account of the girl on the hill.
+You know? And the reason is that she's fond of the lubber. I'll try to
+break his nerve, George, and drill him through the arm, say. No, I can't
+take chances like that. But if I have him shaking in time, I'll shoot
+him through the right shoulder, George.
+
+"But if I miss and he gets me instead, mind you, never raise a hand
+against him. If you so much as touch his skin, I'll rise out of my grave
+and haunt you. You hear? Good-by, George."
+
+But big George withdrew without a word, and the reason for his
+speechlessness was the glistening of his eyes.
+
+"If I live," said Donnegan, "I'll show that George that I appreciate
+him."
+
+He went on aloud to Landis: "So glum, my boy? Tush! We have still four
+minutes left. Are you going to spend your last four minutes hating me?"
+
+He turned: "Another liqueur, George. Two of them."
+
+The big man brought the drinks, and having put one on the table of
+Donnegan, he was directed to take the other to Landis.
+
+"It's really good stuff," said Donnegan. "I'm not an expert on these
+matters; but I like the taste. Will you try it?"
+
+It seemed that Landis dared not trust himself to speech. As though a
+vast and deadly hatred were gathered in him, and he feared lest it
+should escape in words the first time he parted his teeth.
+
+He took the glass of liqueur and slowly poured it upon the floor. From
+the crowd there was a deep murmur of disapproval. And Landis, feeling
+that he had advanced the wrong foot in the matter, glowered scornfully
+about him and then stared once more at Donnegan.
+
+"Just as you please," said Donnegan, sipping his glass. "But remember
+this, my young friend, that a fool is a fool, drunk or sober."
+
+Landis showed his teeth, but made no other answer. And Donnegan
+anxiously flashed a glance at the clock. He still had three minutes.
+Three minutes in which he must reduce this stalwart fellow to a
+trembling, nervous wreck. Otherwise, he must shoot to kill, or else sit
+there and become a certain sacrifice for the sake of Lou Macon. Yet he
+controlled the muscles of his face and was still able to smile as he
+turned again to Landis.
+
+"Three minutes left," he said. "Three minutes for you to compose
+yourself, Landis. Think of it, man! All the good life behind you. Have
+you nothing to remember? Nothing to soften your mind? Why die, Landis,
+with a curse in your heart and a scowl on your lips?"
+
+Once more Landis stirred his lips; but there was only the flash of his
+teeth; he maintained his resolute silence.
+
+"Ah," murmured Donnegan, "I am sorry to see this. And before all your
+admirers, Landis. Before all your friends. Look at them scattered there
+under the lights and in the shadows. No farewell word for them? Nothing
+kindly to say? Are you going to leave them without a syllable of
+goodfellowship?"
+
+"Confound you!" muttered Landis.
+
+There was another hum from the crowd; it was partly wonder, partly
+anger. Plainly they were not pleased with Jack Landis on this day.
+
+Donnegan shook his head sadly.
+
+"I hoped," he said, "that I could teach you how to die. But I fail. And
+yet you should be grateful to me for one thing, Jack. I have kept you
+from being a murderer in cold blood. I kept you from killing a
+defenseless man as you intended to do when you walked up to me a moment
+ago."
+
+He smiled genially in mockery, and there was a scowl on the face of
+Landis.
+
+"Two minutes," said Donnegan.
+
+Leaning back in his chair, he yawned. For a whole minute he did not
+stir.
+
+"One minute?" he murmured inquisitively.
+
+And there was a convulsive shudder through the limbs of Landis. It was
+the first sign that he was breaking down under the strain. There
+remained only one minute in which to reduce him to a nervous wreck!
+
+The strain was telling in other places. Donnegan turned and saw in the
+shadow and about the edges of the room a host of drawn, tense faces and
+burning eyes. Never while they lived would they forget that scene.
+
+"And now that the time is close," said Donnegan, "I must look to my
+gun."
+
+He made a gesture; how it was, no one was swift enough of eye to tell,
+but a gun appeared in his hand. At the flash of it, Landis' weapon
+leaped up to the mark and his face convulsed. But Donnegan calmly spun
+the cylinder of his revolver and held it toward Landis, dangling from
+his forefinger under the guard.
+
+"You see?" he said to Landis. "Clean as a whistle, and easy as a girl's
+smile. I hate a stiff action, Jack."
+
+And Landis slowly allowed the muzzle of his own gun to sink. For the
+first time his eyes left the eyes of Donnegan, and sinking, inch by
+inch, stared fascinated at the gun in the hand of the enemy.
+
+"Thirty seconds," said Donnegan by way of conversation.
+
+Landis jerked up his head and his eyes once more met the eyes of
+Donnegan, but this time they were wide, and the pointed glance of
+Donnegan sank into them. The lips of Landis parted. His tongue
+tremblingly moistened them.
+
+"Keep your nerve," said Donnegan in an undertone.
+
+"You hound!" gasped Landis.
+
+"I knew it," said Donnegan sadly. "You'll die with a curse on your
+lips."
+
+He added: "Ten seconds, Landis!"
+
+And then he achieved his third step toward victory, for Landis jerked
+his head around, saw the minute hand almost upon its mark, and swung
+back with a shudder toward Donnegan. From the crowd there was a deep
+breath.
+
+And then Landis was seen to raise the muzzle of his gun again, and
+crouch over it, leveling it straight at Donnegan. He, at least, would
+send his bullet straight to the mark when that first chime went humming
+through the big room.
+
+But Donnegan? He made his last play to shatter the nerve of Landis. With
+the minute hand on the very mark, he turned carelessly, the revolver
+still dangling by the trigger guard, and laughed toward the crowd.
+
+And out of the crowd there came a deep, sobbing breath of heartbreaking
+suspense.
+
+It told on Landis. Out of the corner of his eye Donnegan saw the muscles
+of the man's face sag and tremble; saw him allow his gun to fall, in
+imitation of Donnegan, to his side; and saw the long arm quivering.
+
+And then the chime rang, with a metallic, sharp click and then a long
+and reverberant clanging.
+
+With a gasp Landis whipped up his gun and fired. Once, twice, again, the
+weapon crashed. And, to the eternal wonder of all who saw it, at a
+distance of five paces Landis three times missed his man. But Donnegan,
+sitting back with a smile, raised his own gun almost with leisure,
+unhurried, dropped it upon the mark, and sent a forty-five slug through
+the right shoulder of Jack Landis.
+
+The blow of the slug, like the punch of a strong man's fist, knocked the
+victim out of his chair to the floor. He lay clutching at his shoulder.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Donnegan, rising, "is there a doctor here?"
+
+
+
+
+24
+
+
+That was the signal for the rush that swept across the floor and left a
+flood of marveling men around the fallen Landis. On the outskirts of
+this tide, Donnegan stepped up to two men, Joe Rix and the Pedlar. They
+greeted him with expectant glances.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Donnegan, "will you step aside?"
+
+They followed him to a distance from the clamoring group.
+
+"I have to thank you," said Donnegan.
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For changing your minds," said Donnegan, and left them.
+
+And afterward the Pedlar murmured with an oddly twisted face: "Cat-eye,
+Joe. He can see in the dark! But I told you he was worth savin'."
+
+"Speakin' in general," said Joe, "which you ain't hardly ever wrong when
+you get stirred up about a thing."
+
+"He's something new," the Pedlar said wisely.
+
+"Ay, he's rare."
+
+"But talkin' aside, suppose he was to meet up with Lord Nick?"
+
+The smile of Joe Rix was marvelously evil.
+
+"You got a great mind for great things," he declared. "You ought to of
+been in politics."
+
+In the meantime the doctor had been found. The wound had been cleansed.
+It was a cruel one, for the bullet had torn its way through flesh and
+sinew, and for many a week the fighting arm of Jack Landis would be
+useless. It had, moreover, carried a quantity of cloth into the wound,
+and it was almost impossible to cleanse the hole satisfactorily. As for
+the bullet itself, it had whipped cleanly through, at that short
+distance making nothing of its target.
+
+A door was knocked off its hinges. But before the wounded man was placed
+upon it, Lebrun appeared at the door into Milligan's. He was never a
+very cheery fellow in appearance, and now he looked like a demoniac. He
+went straight to Joe Rix and the skeleton form of the Pedlar. He raised
+one finger as he looked at them.
+
+"I've heard," said Lebrun. "Lord Nick likewise shall hear."
+
+Joe Rix changed color. He bustled about, together with the Pedlar, and
+lent a hand in carrying the wounded man to the house of Lebrun, for
+Nelly Lebrun was to be the nurse of Landis.
+
+In the meantime, Donnegan went up the hill with big George behind him.
+Already he was a sinisterly marked man. Working through the crowd near
+Lebrun's gambling hall, a drunkard in the midst of a song stumbled
+against him. But the sight of the man with whom he had collided, sobered
+him as swiftly as the lash of a whip across his face. It was impossible
+for him, in that condition, to grow pale. But he turned a vivid purple.
+
+"Sorry, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+Donnegan, with a shrug of his shoulders, passed on. The crowd split
+before him, for they had heard his name. There were brave men, he knew,
+among them. Men who would fight to the last drop of blood rather than be
+shamed, but they shrank from Donnegan without shame, as they would have
+shrunk from the coming of a rattler had their feet been bare. So he went
+easily through the crowd with big George in his wake, walking proudly.
+
+For George had stood to one side and watched Donnegan indomitably beat
+down the will of Jack Landis, and the sight would live in his mind
+forever. Indeed, if Donnegan had bidden the sun to stand in the heavens,
+the big man would have looked for obedience. That the forbearance of
+Donnegan should have been based on a desire to serve a girl certainly
+upset the mind of George, but it taught him an amazing thing--that
+Donnegan was capable of affection.
+
+The terrible Donnegan went on. In his wake the crowd closed slowly, for
+many had paused to look after the little man. Until they came to the
+outskirts of the town and climbed the hill toward the two shacks. The
+one was, of course, dark. But the shack in which Lou Macon lived burst
+with light. Donnegan paused to consider this miracle. He listened, and
+he heard voices--the voice of a man, laughing loudly. Thinking something
+was wrong, he hurried forward and called loudly.
+
+What he saw when he was admitted made him speechless. Colonel Macon,
+ensconced in his invalid chair, faced the door, and near him was Lou
+Macon. Lou rose, half-frightened by the unexpected interruption, but the
+liquid laughter of the colonel set all to rights at once.
+
+"Come in, Donnegan. Come in, lad," said the colonel.
+
+"I heard a man's voice," Donnegan said half apologetically. The sick
+color began to leave his face, and relief swept over it slowly. "I
+thought something might be wrong. I didn't think of you." And looking
+down, as all men will in moments of relaxation from a strain, he did not
+see the eyes of Lou Macon grow softly luminous as they dwelt upon him.
+
+"Come in, George," went on the colonel, "and make yourself comfortable
+in the kitchen. Close the door. Sit down, Donnegan. When your letter
+came I saw that I was needed here. Lou, have you looked into our
+friend's cabin? No? Nothing like a woman's touch to give a man the
+feeling of homeliness, Lou. Step over to Donnegan's cabin and put it to
+rights. Yes, I know that George takes care of it, but George is one
+thing, and your care will be another. Besides, I must be alone with him
+for a moment. Man talk confuses a girl, Lou. You shouldn't listen to
+it."
+
+She withdrew with that faint, dreamy smile with which she so often heard
+the instructions of her father; as though she were only listening with
+half of her mind. When she was gone, though the door to the kitchen
+stood wide open, and big George was in it, the colonel lowered his bass
+voice so successfully that it was as safe as being alone with Donnegan.
+
+"And now for facts," he began.
+
+"But," said Donnegan, "how--that chair--how in the world have you come
+here?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"My dear boy, you grieve and disappoint me. The manner in which a thing
+is done is not important. Mysteries are usually simply explained. As for
+my small mystery--a neighbor on the way to The Corner with a wagon
+stopped in, and I asked him to take me along. So here I am. But now for
+your work here, lad?"
+
+"Bad," said Donnegan.
+
+"I gathered you had been unfortunate. And now you have been fighting?"
+
+"You have heard?"
+
+"I see it in your eye, Donnegan. When a man has been looking fear in the
+face for a time, an image of it remains in his eyes. They are wider,
+glazed with the other thing."
+
+"It was forced on me," said Donnegan. "I have shot Landis."
+
+He was amazed to see the colonel was vitally affected. His lips remained
+parted over his next word, and one eyelid twitched violently. But the
+spasm passed over quickly. When he raised his perfect hands and pressed
+them together just under his chin. He smiled in a most winning manner
+that made the blood of Donnegan run cold.
+
+"Donnegan," he said softly, "I see that I have misjudged you. I
+underestimated you. I thought, indeed, that your rare qualities were
+qualified by painful weaknesses. But now I see that you are a man, and
+from this moment we shall act together with open minds. So you have done
+it? Tush, then I need not have taken my trip. The work is done; the
+mines come to me as the heir of Jack. And yet, poor boy, I pity him! He
+misjudged me; he should not have ventured to this deal with Lord Nick
+and his compatriots!"
+
+"Wait," exclaimed Donnegan. "You're wrong; Landis is not dead."
+
+Once more the colonel was checked, but this time the alteration in his
+face was no more than a comma's pause in a long balanced sentence. It
+was impossible to obtain more than one show of emotion from him in a
+single conversation.
+
+"Not dead? Well, Donnegan, that is unfortunate. And after you had
+punctured him you had no chance to send home the finishing shot?"
+
+Donnegan merely watched the colonel and tapped his bony finger against
+the point of his chin.
+
+"Ah," murmured the colonel, "I see another possibility. It is almost as
+good--it may even be better than his death. You have disabled him, and
+having done this you at once take him to a place where he shall be under
+your surveillance--this, in fact, is a very comfortable outlook--for me
+and my interests. But for you, Donnegan, how the devil do you benefit by
+having Jack flat on his back, sick, helpless, and in a perfect position
+to excite all the sympathies of Lou?"
+
+Now, Donnegan had known cold-blooded men in his day, but that there
+existed such a man as the colonel had never come into his mind. He
+looked upon the colonel, therefore, with neither disgust nor anger, but
+with a distant and almost admiring wonder. For perfect evil always wins
+something akin to admiration from more common people.
+
+"Well," continued the colonel, a little uneasy under this silent
+scrutiny--silence was almost the only thing in the world that could
+trouble him--"well, Donnegan, my lad, this is your plan, is it not?"
+
+"To shoot down Landis, then take possession of him and while I nurse him
+back to health hold a gun--metaphorically speaking--to his head and make
+him do as I please: sign some lease, say, of the mines to you?"
+
+The colonel shifted himself to a more comfortable position in his chair,
+brought the tips of his fingers together under his vast chin, and smiled
+benevolently upon Donnegan.
+
+"It is as I thought," he murmured. "Donnegan, you are rare; you are
+exquisite!"
+
+"And you," said Donnegan, "are a scoundrel."
+
+"Exactly. I am very base." The colonel laughed. "You and I alone can
+speak with intimate knowledge of me." His chuckle shook all his body,
+and set the folds of his face quivering. His mirth died away when he saw
+Donnegan come to his feet.
+
+"Eh?" he called.
+
+"Good-by," said Donnegan.
+
+"But where--Landis--Donnegan, what devil is in your eye?"
+
+"A foolish devil, Colonel Macon. I surrender the benefits of all my
+work for you and go to make sure that you do not lay your hands upon
+Jack Landis."
+
+The colonel opened and closed his lips foolishly like a fish gasping
+silently out of water. It was rare indeed for the colonel to appear
+foolish.
+
+"In heaven's name, Donnegan!"
+
+The little man smiled. He had a marvelously wicked smile, which came
+from the fact that his lips could curve while his eyes remained bright
+and straight, and malevolently unwrinkled. He laid his hand on the knob
+of the door.
+
+"Donnegan," cried the colonel, gray of face, "give me one minute."
+
+
+
+
+25
+
+
+Donnegan stepped to a chair and sat down. He took out his watch and held
+it in his hand, studying the dial, and the colonel knew that his time
+limit was taken literally.
+
+"I swear to you," he said, "that if you can help me to the possession of
+Landis while he is ill, I shall not lay a finger upon him or harm him in
+any way."
+
+"You swear?" said Donnegan with that ugly smile.
+
+"My dear boy, do you think I am reckless enough to break a promise I
+have given to you?"
+
+The cynical glance of Donnegan probed the colonel to the heart, but the
+eyes of the fat man did not wince. Neither did he speak again, but the
+two calmly stared at each other. At the end of the minute, Donnegan
+slipped the watch into his pocket.
+
+"I am ready to listen to reason," he said. And the colonel passed one of
+his strong hands across his forehead.
+
+"Now," and he sighed, "I feel that the crisis is passed. With a man of
+your caliber, Donnegan, I fear a snap judgment above all things. Since
+you give me a chance to appeal to your reason I feel safe. As from the
+first, I shall lay my cards upon the table. You are fond of Lou. I took
+it for granted that you would welcome a chance to brush Landis out of
+your path. It appears that I am wrong. I admit my error. Only fools
+cling to convictions; wise men are ready to meet new viewpoints. Very
+well. You wish to spare Landis for reasons of your own which I do not
+pretend to fathom. Perhaps, you pity him; I cannot tell. Now, you wonder
+why I wish to have Landis in my care if I do not intend to put an end to
+him and thereby become owner of his mines? I shall tell you frankly. I
+intend to own the mines, if not through the death of Jack, then through
+a legal act signed by the hand of Jack."
+
+"A willing signature?" asked Donnegan, calmly.
+
+A shadow came and went across the face of the colonel, and Donnegan
+caught his breath. There were times when he felt that if the colonel
+possessed strength of body as well as strength of mind even he,
+Donnegan, would be afraid of the fat man.
+
+"Willing or unwilling," said the colonel, "he shall do as I direct!"
+
+"Without force?"
+
+"Listen to me," said the colonel. "You and I are not children, and
+therefore we know that ordinary men are commanded rather by fear of what
+may happen to them than by being confronted with an actual danger. I
+have told you that I shall not so much as raise the weight of a finger
+against Jack Landis. I shall not. But a whisper adroitly put in his ear
+may accomplish the same ends." He added with a smile. "Personally, I
+dislike physical violence. In that, Mr. Donnegan, we belong to opposite
+schools of action."
+
+The picture came to Donnegan of Landis, lying in the cabin of the
+colonel, his childish mind worked upon by the devilish insinuation of
+the colonel. Truly, if Jack did not go mad under the strain he would be
+very apt to do as the colonel wished.
+
+"I have made a mess of this from the beginning," said Donnegan, quietly.
+"In the first place, I intended to play the role of the
+self-sacrificing. You don't understand? I didn't expect that you would.
+In short, I intended to send Landis back to Lou by making a flash that
+would dazzle The Corner, and dazzle Nelly Lebrun as well--win her away
+from Landis, you see? But the fool, as soon as he saw that I was
+flirting with the girl, lowered his head and charged at me like a bull.
+I had to strike him down in self-defense.
+
+"But now you ask me to put him wholly in your possession. Colonel, you
+omit one link in your chain of reasoning. The link is important--to me.
+What am I to gain by placing him within the range of your whispering?"
+
+"Tush! Do I need to tell you? I still presume you are interested in Lou,
+though you attempted to do so much to give Landis back to her. Well,
+Donnegan, you must know that when she learns it was a bullet from your
+gun that struck down Landis, she'll hate you, my boy, as if you were a
+snake. But if she knows that after all you were forced into the fight,
+and that you took the first opportunity to bring Jack into
+my--er--paternal care--her sentiments may change. No, they will
+change."
+
+Donnegan left his chair and began to pace the floor. He was no more
+self-conscious in the presence of the colonel than a man might be in the
+presence of his own evil instincts. And it was typical of the colonel's
+insight that he made no attempt to influence the decision of Donnegan
+after this point was reached. He allowed him to work out the matter in
+his own way. At length, Donnegan paused.
+
+"What's the next step?" he asked.
+
+The colonel sighed, and by that sigh he admitted more than words could
+tell.
+
+"A reasonable man," he said, "is the delight of my heart. The next step,
+Donnegan, is to bring Jack Landis to this house."
+
+"Tush!" said Donnegan. "Bring him away from Lebrun? Bring him away from
+the tigers of Lord Nick's gang? I saw them at Milligan's place tonight.
+A bad set, Colonel Macon."
+
+"A set you can handle," said the colonel, calmly.
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"The danger will in itself be the thing that tempts you," he went on.
+"To go among those fellows, wild as they are, and bring Jack Landis away
+to this house."
+
+"Bring him here," said Donnegan with indescribable bitterness, "so that
+she may pity his wounds? Bring him here where she may think of him and
+tend him and grow to hate me?"
+
+"Grow to fear you," said the colonel.
+
+"An excellent thing to accomplish," said Donnegan coldly.
+
+"I have found it so," remarked the colonel, and lighted a cigarette.
+
+He drew the smoke so deep that when it issued again from between his
+lips it was a most transparent, bluish vapor. Fear came upon Donnegan.
+Not fear, surely, of the fat man, helpless in his invalid's chair, but
+fear of the mind working ceaselessly behind those hazy eyes. He turned
+without a word and went to the door. The moment it opened under his
+hand, he felt a hysterical impulse to leap out of the room swiftly and
+slam the door behind him--to put a bar between him and the eye of the
+colonel, just as a child leaps from the dark room into the lighted and
+closes the door quickly to keep out the following night. He had to
+compel himself to move with proper dignity.
+
+When outside, he sighed; the quiet of the night was like a blessing
+compared with the ordeal of the colonel's devilish coldness. Macon's
+advice had seemed almost logical the moment before. Win Lou Macon by the
+power of fear, well enough, for was not fear the thing which she had
+followed all her life? Was it not through fear that the colonel himself
+had reduced her to such abject, unquestioning obedience?
+
+He went thoughtfully to his own cabin, and, down-headed in his musings,
+he became aware with a start of Lou Macon in the hut. She had changed
+the room as her father had bidden her to do. Just wherein the difference
+lay, Donnegan could not tell. There was a touch of evergreen in one
+corner; she had laid a strip of bright cloth over the rickety little
+table, and in ten minutes she had given the hut a semblance of permanent
+livableness. Donnegan saw her now, with some vestige of the smile of her
+art upon her face; but she immediately smoothed it to perfect gravity.
+He had never seen such perfect self-command in a woman.
+
+"Is there anything more that I can do?" she asked, moving toward the
+door.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Good night."
+
+"Wait."
+
+She still seemed to be under the authority which the colonel had
+delegated to Donnegan when they started for The Corner. She turned, and
+without a word came back to him. And a pang struck through Donnegan.
+What would he not have given if she had come at his call not with these
+dumb eyes, but with a spark of kindliness? Instead, she obeyed him as a
+soldier obeys a commander.
+
+"There has been trouble," said Donnegan.
+
+"Yes?" she said, but there was no change in her face.
+
+"It was forced upon me." Then he added: "It amounted to a shooting
+affair."
+
+There was a change in her face now, indeed. A glint came in her eyes,
+and the suggestion of the colonel which he had once or twice before
+sensed in her, now became more vivid than ever before. The same
+contemptuous heartlessness, which was the colonel's most habitual
+expression, now looked at Donnegan out of the lovely face of the girl.
+
+"They were fools to press you to the wall," she said. "I have no pity
+for them."
+
+For a moment Donnegan only stared at her; on what did she base her
+confidence in his prowess as a fighting man?
+
+"It was only one man," he said huskily.
+
+Ah, there he had struck her home! As though the words were a burden, she
+shrank from him; then she slipped suddenly close to him and caught both
+his hands. Her head was raised far back; she had pressed close to him;
+she seemed in every line of her body to plead with him against himself,
+and all the veils which had curtained her mind from him dropped away. He
+found himself looking down into eyes full of fire and shadow; and eager
+lips; and the fiber of her voice made her whole body tremble.
+
+"It isn't Jack?" she pleaded. "It isn't Jack that you've fought with?"
+
+And he said to himself: "She loves him with all her heart and soul!"
+
+"It is he," said Donnegan in an agony. Pain may be like a fire that
+tempers some strong men; and now Donnegan, because he was in torment,
+smiled, and his eye was as cold as steel.
+
+The girl flung away his hands.
+
+"You bought murderer!" she cried at him.
+
+"He is not dead."
+
+"But you shot him down!"
+
+"He attacked me; it was self-defense."
+
+She broke into a low-pitched, mirthless laughter. Where was the
+filmy-eyed girl he had known? The laughter broke off short--like a sob.
+
+"Don't you suppose I've known?" she said. "That I've read my father?
+That I knew he was sending a bloodhound when he sent you? But, oh, I
+thought you had a touch of the other thing!"
+
+He cringed under her tone.
+
+"I'll bring him to you," said Donnegan desperately. "I'll bring him here
+so that you can take care of him."
+
+"You'll take him away from Lord Nick--and Lebrun--and the rest?" And it
+was the cold smile of her father with which she mocked him.
+
+"I'll do it."
+
+"You play a deep game," said the girl bitterly. "Why would you do it?"
+
+"Because," said Donnegan faintly. "I love you."
+
+Her hand had been on the knob of the door; now she twitched it open and
+was gone; and the last that Donnegan saw was the width of the startled
+eyes.
+
+"As if I were a leper," muttered Donnegan. "By heaven, she looked at me
+as if I were unclean!"
+
+But once outside the door, the girl stood with both hands pressed to her
+face, stunned. When she dropped them, they folded against her breast,
+and her face tipped up.
+
+Even by starlight, had Donnegan been there to look, he would have seen
+the divinity which comes in the face of a woman when she loves.
+
+
+
+
+26
+
+
+Had he been there to see, even in the darkness he would have known, and
+he could have crossed the distance between their lives with a single
+step, and taken her into his heart. But he did not see. He had thrown
+himself upon his bunk and lay face down, his arms stretched rigidly out
+before him, his teeth set, his eyes closed.
+
+For what Donnegan had wanted in the world, he had taken; by force when
+he could, by subtlety when he must. And now, what he wanted most of all
+was gone from him, he felt, forever. There was no power in his arms to
+take that part of her which he wanted; he had no craft which could
+encompass her.
+
+Big George, stealing into the room, wondered at the lithe, slender form
+of the man in the bed. Seeing him thus, it seemed that with the power of
+one hand, George could crush him. But George would as soon have closed
+his fingers over a rattler. He slipped away into the kitchen and sat
+with his arms wrapped around his body, as frightened as though he had
+seen a ghost.
+
+But Donnegan lay on the bed without moving for hours and hours, until
+big George, who sat wakeful and terrified all that time, was sure that
+he slept. Then he stole in and covered Donnegan with a blanket, for it
+was the chill, gray time of the night.
+
+But Donnegan was not asleep, and when George rose in the morning, he
+found the master sitting at the table with his arms folded tightly
+across his breast and his eyes burning into vacancy.
+
+He spent the day in that chair.
+
+It was the middle of the afternoon when George came with a scared face
+and a message that a "gen'leman who looks riled, sir," wanted to see
+him. There was no answer, and George perforce took the silence as
+acquiescence. So he opened the door and announced: "Mr. Lester to see
+you, sir."
+
+Into the fiery haze of Donnegan's vision stepped a raw-boned fellow with
+sandy hair and a disagreeably strong jaw.
+
+"You're the gent that's here with the colonel, ain't you?" said Lester.
+
+Donnegan did not reply.
+
+"You're the gent that cleaned up on Landis, ain't you?" continued the
+sandy-haired man.
+
+There was still the same silence, and Lester burst out: "It don't work,
+Donnegan. You've showed you're man-sized several ways since you been in
+The Corner. Now I come to tell you to get out from under Colonel Macon.
+Why? Because he's crooked, because we know he's crooked; because he
+played crooked with me. You hear me talk?"
+
+Still Donnegan considered him without a word.
+
+"We're goin' to run him out, Donnegan. We want you on our side if we can
+get you; if we can't get you, then we'll run you out along with the
+colonel."
+
+He began to talk with difficulty, as though Donnegan's stare unnerved
+him. He even took a step back toward the door.
+
+"You can't bluff me out, Donnegan. I ain't alone. They's others behind
+me. I don't need to name no names. Here's another thing: you ain't alone
+yourself. You got a woman and a cripple on your hands. Now, Donnegan,
+you're a fast man with a gun and you're a fast man at thinkin', but I
+ask you personal: have you got a chance runnin' under that weight?"
+
+He added fiercely: "I'm through. Now, talk turkey, Donnegan, or you're
+done!"
+
+For the first time Donnegan moved. It was to make to big George a
+significant signal with his thumb, indicating the visitor. However,
+Lester did not wait to be thrown bodily from the cabin. One enormous
+oath exploded from his lips, and he backed sullenly through the door and
+slammed it after him.
+
+"It kind of looks," said big George, "like a war, sir."
+
+And still Donnegan did not speak, until the afternoon was gone, and the
+evening, and the full black of the night had swallowed up the hills
+around The Corner.
+
+Then he left the chair, shaved, and dressed carefully, looked to his
+revolver, stowed it carefully and invisibly away among his clothes, and
+walked leisurely down the hill. An outbreak of cursing, stamping,
+hair-tearing, shooting could not have affected big George as this quiet
+departure did. He followed, unordered, but as he stepped across the
+threshold of the hut he rolled up his eyes to the stars.
+
+"Oh, heavens above," muttered George, "have mercy on Mr. Donnegan. He
+ain't happy."
+
+And he went down the hill, making sure that he was fit for battle with
+knife and gun.
+
+He had sensed Donnegan's mental condition accurately enough. The heart
+of the little man was swelled to the point of breaking. A twenty-hour
+vigil had whitened his face, drawn in his cheeks, and painted his eyes
+with shadow; and now he wanted action. He wanted excitement, strife,
+competition; something to fill his mind. And naturally enough he had two
+places in mind--Lebrun's and Milligan's.
+
+It is hard to relate the state of Donnegan's mind at this time. Chiefly,
+he was conscious of a peculiar and cruel pain that made him hollow; it
+was like homesickness raised to the nth degree. Vaguely he realized
+that in some way, somehow, he must fulfill his promise to the girl and
+bring Jack Landis home. The colonel dared not harm the boy for fear of
+Donnegan; and the girl would be happy. For that very reason Donnegan
+wanted to tear Landis to shreds.
+
+It is not extremely heroic for a man tormented with sorrow to go to a
+gambling hall and then to a dance hall to seek relief. But Donnegan was
+not a hero. He was only a man, and, since his heart was empty, he wanted
+something that might fill it. Indeed, like most men, suffering made him
+a good deal of a boy.
+
+So the high heels of Donnegan tapped across the floor of Lebrun's. A
+murmur went before him whenever he appeared now, and a way opened for
+him. At the roulette wheel he stopped, placed fifty on red, and watched
+it double three times. George, at a signal from the master, raked in the
+winnings. And Donnegan sat at a faro table and won again, and again rose
+disconsolately and went on. For when men do not care how luck runs it
+never fails to favor them. The devotees of fortune are the ones she
+punishes.
+
+In the meantime the whisper ran swiftly through The Corner.
+
+"Donnegan is out hunting trouble."
+
+About the good that is in men rumor often makes mistakes, but for evil
+she has an infallible eye and at once sets all of her thousand tongues
+wagging. Indeed, any man with half an eye could not fail to get the
+meaning of his fixed glance, his hard set jaw, and the straightness of
+his mouth. If he had been a ghost, men could not have avoided him more
+sedulously, and the giant servant who stalked at his back. Not that The
+Corner was peopled with cowards. The true Westerner avoids trouble, but
+cornered, he will fight like a wildcat.
+
+So people watched from the corner of their eyes as Donnegan passed.
+
+He left Lebrun's. There was no competition. Luck blindly favored him,
+and Donnegan wanted contest, excitement. He crossed to Milligan's. Rumor
+was there before him. A whisper conveyed to a pair of mighty-limbed
+cow-punchers that they were sitting at the table which Donnegan had
+occupied the night before, and they wisely rose without further hint and
+sought other chairs. Milligan, anxious-eyed, hurried to the orchestra,
+and with a blast of sound they sought to cover up the entry of the
+gunman.
+
+As a matter of fact that blare of horns only served to announce him.
+Something was about to happen; the eyes of men grew shadowy; the eyes of
+women brightened. And then Donnegan appeared, with George behind him,
+and crossed the floor straight to his table of the night before. Not
+that he had forethought in going toward it, but he was moving
+absent-mindedly.
+
+Indeed, he had half forgotten that he was a public figure in The Corner,
+and sitting sipping the cordial which big George brought him at once, he
+let his glance rove swiftly around the room. The eye of more than one
+brave man sank under that glance; the eye of more than one woman smiled
+back at him; but where the survey of Donnegan halted was on the face of
+Nelly Lebrun.
+
+She was crossing the farther side of the floor alone, unescorted except
+for the whisper about her, but seeing Donnegan she stopped abruptly.
+Donnegan instantly rose. She would have gone on again in a flurry; but
+that would have been too pointed.
+
+A moment later Donnegan was threading his way across the dance floor to
+Nelly Lebrun, with all eyes turned in his direction. He had his hat
+under his arm; and in his black clothes, with his white stock, he made
+an old-fashioned figure as he bowed before the girl and straightened
+again.
+
+"Did you send for me?" Donnegan inquired.
+
+Nelly Lebrun was frankly afraid; and she was also delighted. She felt
+that she had been drawn into the circle of intense public interest which
+surrounded the red-headed stranger; she remembered on the other hand
+that her father would be furious if she exchanged two words with the
+man. And for that very reason she was intrigued. Donnegan, being
+forbidden fruit, was irresistible. So she let the smile come to her lips
+and eyes, and then laughed outright in her excitement.
+
+"No," she said with her lips, while her eyes said other things.
+
+"I've come to ask a favor: to talk with you one minute."
+
+"If I should--what would people say?";
+
+"Let's find out."
+
+"It would be--daring," said Nelly Lebrun. "After last night."
+
+"It would be delightful," said Donnegan. "Here's a table ready for us."
+
+She went a pace closer to it with him.
+
+"I think you've frightened the poor people away from it. I mustn't sit
+down with you, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+And she immediately slipped into the chair.
+
+
+
+
+27
+
+
+She qualified her surrender, of course, by sitting on the very edge of
+the chair. She had on a wine-colored dress, and, with the excitement
+whipping color into her cheeks and her eyes dancing, Nelly Lebrun was a
+lovely picture.
+
+"I must go at once," said Nelly.
+
+"Of course, I can't expect you to stay."
+
+She dropped one hand on the edge of the table. One would have thought
+that she was in the very act of rising.
+
+"Do you know that you frighten me?"
+
+"I?" said Donnegan, with appropriate inflection.
+
+"As if I were a man and you were angry."
+
+"But you see?" And he made a gesture with both of his palms turned up.
+"People have slandered me. I am harmless."
+
+"The minute is up, Mr. Donnegan. What is it you wish?"
+
+"Another minute."
+
+"Now you laugh at me."
+
+"No, no!"
+
+"And in the next minute?"
+
+"I hope to persuade you to stay till the third minute."
+
+"Of course, I can't."
+
+"I know; it's impossible."
+
+"Quite." She settled into the chair. "See how people stare at me! They
+remember poor Jack Landis and they think--the whole crowd--"
+
+"A crowd is always foolish. In the meantime, I'm happy."
+
+"You?"
+
+"To be here; to sit close to you; to watch you."
+
+Her glance was like the tip of a rapier, searching him through for some
+iota of seriousness under this banter.
+
+"Ah?" and Nelly Lebrun laughed.
+
+"Don't you see that I mean it?"
+
+"You can watch me from a distance, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"May I say a bold thing?"
+
+"You have said several."
+
+"No one can really watch you from a distance."
+
+She canted her head a little to one side; such an encounter of personal
+quips was a seventh heaven to her.
+
+"That's a riddle, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"A simple one. The answer is, because there's too much to watch."
+
+He joined her when she laughed, but the laughter of Donnegan made not a
+sound, and he broke in on her mirth suddenly.
+
+"Ah, don't you see I'm serious?"
+
+Her glance flicked on either side, as though she feared someone might
+have read his lips.
+
+"Not a soul can hear me," murmured Donnegan, "and I'm going to be bolder
+still, and tell you the truth."
+
+"It's the last thing I dare stay to hear."
+
+"You are too lovely to watch from a distance, Nelly Lebrun."
+
+He was so direct that even Nelly Lebrun, expert in flirtations, was
+given pause, and became sober. She shook her head and raised a
+cautioning finger. But Donnegan was not shaken.
+
+"Because there is a glamour about a beautiful girl," he said gravely.
+"One has to step into the halo to see her, to know her. Are you
+contented to look at a flower from a distance? That's an old comparison,
+isn't it? But there is something like a fragrance about you, Nelly
+Lebrun. Don't be afraid. No one can hear; no one shall ever dream I've
+said such bold things to you. In the meantime, we have a truth party.
+There is a fragrance, I say. It must be breathed. There is a glow which
+must touch one. As it touches me now, you see?"
+
+Indeed, there was a faint color in his cheeks. And the girl flushed more
+deeply; her eyes were still bright, but they no longer sharpened to such
+a penetrating point. She was believing at least a little part of what he
+said, and her disbelief only heightened her joy in what was real in this
+strangest of lovemakings.
+
+"I shall stay here to learn one thing," she said. "What deviltry is
+behind all this talk, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"Is that fair to me? Besides, I only follow a beaten trail in The
+Corner."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"Toward Nelly Lebrun."
+
+"A beaten trail? You?" she cried, with just a touch of anger. "I'm not a
+child, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"You are not; and that's why I am frank."
+
+"You have done all these things--following this trail you speak of?"
+
+"Remember," said Donnegan soberly. "What have I done?"
+
+"Shot down two men; played like an actor on a stage a couple of times at
+least, if I must be blunt; hunted danger like--like a reckless madman;
+dared all The Corner to cross you; flaunted the red rag in the face of
+the bull. Those are a few things you have done, sir! And all on one
+trail? That trail you spoke of?"
+
+"Nelly Lebrun--"
+
+"I'm listening; and do you know I'm persuading myself to believe you?"
+
+"It's because you feel the truth before I speak it. Truth speaks for
+itself, you know."
+
+"I have closed my eyes--you see? I have stepped into a masquerade. Now
+you can talk."
+
+"Masquerades are exciting," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"And they are sometimes beautiful."
+
+"But this sober truth of mine--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I came here unknown--and I saw you, Nelly Lebrun."
+
+He paused; she was looking a little past him.
+
+"I came in rags; no friends; no following. And I saw that I should have
+to make you notice me."
+
+"And why? No, I shouldn't have asked that."
+
+"You shouldn't ask that," agreed Donnegan. "But I saw you the queen of
+The Corner, worshiped by all men. What could I do? I am not rich. I am
+not big. You see?"
+
+He drew her attention to his smallness with a flush which never failed
+to touch the face of Donnegan when he thought of his size; and he seemed
+to swell and grow greater in the very instant she glanced at him.
+
+"What could I do? One thing; fight. I have fought. I fought to get the
+eye of The Corner, but most of all to attract your attention. I came
+closer to you. I saw that one man blocked the way--mostly. I decided to
+brush him aside. How?"
+
+"By fighting?" She had not been carried away by his argument. She was
+watching him like a lynx every moment.
+
+"Not by that. By bluffing. You see, I was not fool enough to think that
+you would--particularly notice a fighting bully."
+
+He laid his open hand on the table. It was like exposing both strength
+and weakness; and into such a trap it would have been a singularly
+hard-minded woman who might not have stepped. Nelly Lebrun leaned a
+little closer. She forgot to criticize.
+
+"It was bluff. I saw that Landis was big and good-looking. And what was
+I beside him? Nothing. I could only hope that he was hollow; yellow--you
+see? So I tried the bluff. You know about it. The clock, and all that
+claptrap. But Landis wasn't yellow. He didn't crumble. He lasted long
+enough to call my bluff, and I had to shoot in self-defense. And then,
+when he lay on the floor, I saw that I had failed."
+
+"Failed?"
+
+He lowered his eyes for fear that she would catch the glitter of them.
+
+"I knew that you would hate me for what I had done because I had only
+proved that Landis was a brave youngster with enough nerve for nine out
+of ten. And I came tonight--to ask you to forgive me. No, not that--only
+to ask you to understand. Do you?"
+
+He raised his glance suddenly at that, and their eyes met with one of
+these electric shocks which will go tingling through two people. And
+when the lips of Nelly Lebrun parted a little, he knew that she was in
+the trap. He closed his hand that lay on the table--curling the fingers
+slowly. In that way he expressed all his exultation.
+
+"There is something wrong," said the girl, in a tone of one who argues
+with herself. "It's all too logical to be real."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Was that your only reason for fighting Jack Landis?"
+
+"Do I have to confess even that?"
+
+She smiled in the triumph of her penetration, but it was a brief,
+unhappy smile. One might have thought that she would have been glad to
+be deceived.
+
+"I came to serve a girl who was unhappy," said Donnegan. "Her fiancé had
+left her; her fiancé was Jack Landis. And she's now in a hut up the hill
+waiting for him. And I thought that if I ruined him in your eyes he'd go
+back to a girl who wouldn't care so much about bravery. Who'd forgive
+him for having left her. But you see what a fool I was and how clumsily
+I worked? My bluff failed, and I only wounded him, put him in your
+house, under your care, where he'll be happiest, and where there'll
+never be a chance for this girl to get him back."
+
+Nelly Lebrun, with her folded hands under her chin, studied him.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," she said, "I wish I knew whether you are the most
+chivalrous, self-sacrificing of men, or simply the most gorgeous liar in
+the desert."
+
+"And it's hardly fair," said Donnegan, "to expect me to tell you that."
+
+
+
+
+28
+
+
+It gave them both a welcome opportunity to laugh, welcome to the girl
+because it broke into an excitement which was rapidly telling upon her,
+and welcome to Donnegan because the strain of so many distortions of the
+truth was telling upon him as well. They laughed together. One hasty
+glance told Donnegan that half the couples in the room were whispering
+about Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun; but when he looked across the table he
+saw that Nelly Lebrun had not a thought for what might be going on in
+the minds of others. She was quite content.
+
+"And the girl?" she said.
+
+Donnegan rested his forehead upon his hand in thought. He dared not let
+Nelly see his face at this moment, for the mention of Lou Macon had
+poured the old flood of sorrow back upon him And therefore, when he
+looked up, he was sneering.
+
+"You know these blond, pretty girls?" he said.
+
+"Oh, they are adorable!"
+
+"With dull eyes," said Donnegan coldly, and a twinkle came into the
+responsive eye of Nelly Lebrun. "The sort of a girl who sees a hero in
+such a fellow as Jack Landis."
+
+"And Jack is brave."
+
+"I shouldn't have said that."
+
+"Never mind. Brave, but such a boy."
+
+"Are you serious?"
+
+She looked questioningly at Donnegan and they smiled together, slowly.
+
+"I--I'm glad it's that way," and Donnegan sighed.
+
+"And did you really think it could be any other way?"
+
+"I didn't know. I'm afraid I was blind."
+
+"But the poor girl on the hill; I wish I could see her."
+
+She was watching Donnegan very sharply again.
+
+"A good idea. Why don't you?"
+
+"You seem to like her?"
+
+"Yes," said Donnegan judiciously. "She has an appealing way; I'm very
+sorry for her. But I've done my best; I can't help her."
+
+"Isn't there some way?"
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of helping her."
+
+Donnegan laughed. "Go to your father and persuade him to send Landis
+back to her."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Of course, that wouldn't do. There's business mixed up in all this, you
+know."
+
+"Business? Well, I guessed at that."
+
+"My part in it wasn't very pleasant," she remarked sadly.
+
+Donnegan was discreetly silent, knowing that silence extracts secrets.
+
+"They made me--flirt with poor Jack. I really liked him!"
+
+How much the past tense may mean!
+
+"Poor fellow," murmured the sympathetic Donnegan. "But why," with
+gathering heat, "couldn't you help me to do the thing I can't do alone?
+Why couldn't you get him away from the house?"
+
+"With Joe Rix and the Pedlar guarding him?"
+
+"They'll be asleep in the middle of the night."
+
+"But Jack would wake up and make a noise."
+
+"There are things that would make him sleep through anything."
+
+"But how could he be moved?"
+
+"On a horse litter kept ready outside."
+
+"And how carried to the litter?"
+
+"I would carry him." The girl looked at him with a question and then
+with a faint smile beginning. "Easily," said Donnegan, stiffening in his
+chair. "Very easily."
+
+It pleased her to find this weakness in the pride of the invincible
+Donnegan. It gave her a secure feeling of mastery. So she controlled her
+smile and looked with a sort of superior kindliness upon the red-headed
+little man.
+
+"It's no good," Nelly Lebrun said with a sigh. "Even if he were taken
+away--and then it would get you into a bad mess."
+
+"Would it? Worse than I'm in?"
+
+"Hush! Lord Nick is coming to The Corner; and no matter what you've done
+so far--I think I could quiet him. But if you were to take Landis
+away--then nothing could stop him."
+
+Donnegan sneered.
+
+"I begin to think Lord Nick is a bogie," he said. "Everyone whispers
+when they speak of him." He leaned forward. "I should like to meet him,
+Nelly Lebrun!"
+
+It staggered Nelly. "Do you mean that?" she cried softly.
+
+"I do."
+
+She caught her breath and then a spark of deviltry gleamed. "I wonder!"
+said Nelly Lebrun, and her glance weighed Donnegan.
+
+"All I ask is a fair chance," he said.
+
+"He is a big man," said the girl maliciously.
+
+The never-failing blush burned in the face of Donnegan.
+
+"A large target is more easily hit," he said through his teeth.
+
+Her thoughts played back and forth in her eyes.
+
+"I can't do it," she said.
+
+Donnegan played a random card.
+
+"I was mistaken," he said darkly. "Jack was not the man I should have
+faced. Lord Nick!"
+
+"No, no, no, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"You can't persuade me. Well, I was a fool not to guess it!"
+
+"I really think," said the girl gloomily, "that as soon as Lord Nick
+comes, you'll hunt him out!"
+
+He bowed to her with cold politeness. "In spite of his size," said
+Donnegan through his teeth once more.
+
+And at this the girl's face softened and grew merry.
+
+"I'm going to help you to take Jack away," she said, "on one
+condition."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"That you won't make a step toward Lord Nick when he comes."
+
+"I shall not avoid him," said Donnegan.
+
+"You're unreasonable! Well, not avoid him, but simply not provoke him.
+I'll arrange it so that Lord Nick won't come hunting trouble."
+
+"And he'll let Jack stay with the girl and her father?"
+
+"Perhaps he'll persuade them to let him go of their own free will."
+
+Donnegan thought of the colonel and smiled.
+
+"In that case, of course, I shouldn't care at all." He added: "But do
+you mean all this?"
+
+"You shall see."
+
+They talked only a moment longer and then Donnegan left the hall with
+the girl on his arm. Certainly the thoughts of all in Milligan's
+followed that pair; and it was seen that Donnegan took her to the door
+of her house and then went away through the town and up the hill. And
+big George followed him like a shadow cast from a lantern behind a man
+walking in a fog.
+
+In the hut on the hill, Donnegan put George quickly to work, and with a
+door and some bedding, a litter was hastily constructed and swung
+between the two horses. In the meantime, Donnegan climbed higher up the
+hill and watched steadily over the town until, in a house beneath him,
+two lights were shown. He came back at that and hurried down the hill
+with George behind and around the houses until they came to the
+pretentious cabin of the gambler, Lebrun.
+
+Once there, Donnegan went straight to an unlighted window, tapped; and
+it was opened from within, softly. Nelly Lebrun stood within.
+
+"It's done," she said. "Joe and the Pedlar are sound asleep. They drank
+too much."
+
+"Your father."
+
+"Hasn't come home."
+
+"And Jack Landis?"
+
+"No matter what you do, he won't wake up; but be careful of his
+shoulder. It's badly torn. How can you carry him?"
+
+She could not see Donnegan's flush, but she heard his teeth grit. And
+he slipped through the window, gesturing to George to come close. It was
+still darker inside the room--far darker than the starlit night outside.
+And the one path of lighter gray was the bed of Jack Landis. His heavy
+breathing was the only sound. Donnegan kneeled beside him and worked his
+arms under the limp figure.
+
+And while he kneeled there a door in the house was opened and closed
+softly. Donnegan stood up.
+
+"Is the door locked?"
+
+"No," whispered the girl.
+
+"Quick!"
+
+"Too late. It's father, and he'd hear the turning of the key."
+
+They waited, while the light, quick step came down the hall of the
+cabin. It came to the door, it went past; and then the steps retraced
+and the door was opened gently.
+
+There was a light in the hall; the form of Lebrun was outlined black and
+distinct..
+
+"Jack!" he whispered.
+
+No sound; he made as if to enter, and then he heard the heavy breathing
+of the sleeper, apparently.
+
+"Asleep, poor fool," murmured the gambler, and closed the door.
+
+The door was no sooner closed than Donnegan had raised the body of the
+sleeper. Once, as he rose, straining, it nearly slipped from his arms;
+and when he stood erect he staggered. But once he had gained his
+equilibrium, he carried the wounded man easily enough to the window
+through which George reached his long arms and lifted out the burden.
+
+"You see?" said Donnegan, panting, to the girl.
+
+"Yes; it was really wonderful!"
+
+"You are laughing, now."
+
+"I? But hurry. My father has a fox's ear for noises."
+
+"He will not hear this, I think." There was a swift scuffle, very soft
+of movement.
+
+"Nelly!" called a far-off voice.
+
+"Hurry, hurry! Don't you hear?"
+
+"You forgive me?"
+
+"No--yes--but hurry!"
+
+"You will remember me?"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+She caught a picture of him sitting in the window for the split part of
+a second, with his hat off, bowing to her. Then he was gone. And she
+went into the hall, panting with excitement.
+
+"Heavens!" Nelly Lebrun murmured. "I feel as if I had been hunted, and I
+must look it. What if he--" Whatever the thought was she did not
+complete it. "It may have been for the best," added Nelly Lebrun.
+
+
+
+
+29
+
+
+It is your phlegmatic person who can waken easily in the morning, but an
+active mind readjusts itself slowly to the day. So Nelly Lebrun roused
+herself with an effort and scowled toward the door at which the hand was
+still rapping.
+
+"Yes?" she called drowsily.
+
+"This is Nick. May I come in?"
+
+"This is who?"
+
+The name had brought her instantly into complete wakefulness; she was
+out of the bed, had slipped her feet into her slippers and whipped a
+dressing gown around her while she was asking the question. It was a
+luxurious little boudoir which she had managed to equip. Skins of the
+lynx, cunningly matched, had been sewn together to make her a rug, and
+the soft fur of the wildcat was the outer covering of her bed. She threw
+back the tumbled bedclothes, tossed half a dozen pillows into place,
+transforming it into a day couch, and ran to the mirror.
+
+And in the meantime, the deep voice outside the door was saying: "Yes,
+Nick. May I come in?"
+
+She gave a little ecstatic cry, but while it was still tingling on her
+lips, she was winding her hair into shape with lightning speed; had
+dipped the tips of her fingers in cold water and rubbed her eyes awake
+and brilliant, and with one circular rub had brought the color into her
+cheeks.
+
+Scarcely ten seconds from the time when she first answered the knock,
+Nelly was opening the door and peeping out into the hall.
+
+The rest was done by the man without; he cast the door open with the
+pressure of his foot, caught the girl in his arms, and kissed her; and
+while he closed the door the girl slipped back and stood with one hand
+pressed against her face, and her face held that delightful expression
+halfway between laughter and embarrassment. As for Lord Nick, he did not
+even smile. He was not, in fact, a man who was prone to gentle
+expressions, but having been framed by nature for a strong dominance
+over all around him, his habitual expression was a proud
+self-containment. It would have been insolence in another man; in Lord
+Nick it was rather leonine.
+
+He was fully as tall as Jack Landis, but he carried his height easily,
+and was so perfectly proportioned that unless he was seen beside another
+man he did not look large. The breadth of his shoulders was concealed by
+the depth of his chest; and the girth of his throat was made to appear
+quite normal by the lordly size of the head it supported. To crown and
+set off his magnificent body there was a handsome face; and he had the
+combination of active eyes and red hair, which was noticeable in
+Donnegan, too. In fact, there was a certain resemblance between the two
+men; in the set of the jaw for instance, in the gleam of the eye, and
+above all in an indescribable ardor of spirit, which exuded from them
+both. Except, of course, that in Donnegan, one was conscious of all
+spirit and very little body, but in Lord Nick hand and eye were terribly
+mated. Looking upon so splendid a figure, it was no wonder that the
+mountain desert had forgiven the crimes of Lord Nick because of the
+careless insolence with which he treated the law. It requires an
+exceptional man to make a legal life attractive and respected; it takes
+a genius to make law-breaking glorious.
+
+No wonder that Nelly Lebrun stood with her hand against her cheek,
+looking him over, smiling happily at him, and questioning him about his
+immediate past all in the same glance. He waved her back to her couch,
+and she hesitated. Then, as though she remembered that she now had to
+do with Lord Nick in person, she obediently curled up on the lounge, and
+waited expectantly.
+
+"I hear you've been raising the devil," said this singularly frank
+admirer.
+
+The girl merely looked at him.
+
+"Well?" he insisted.
+
+"I haven't done a thing," protested Nelly rather childishly.
+
+"No?" One felt that he could have crushed her with evidence to the
+contrary but that he was restraining himself--it was not worthwhile to
+bother with such a girl seriously. "Things have fallen into a tangle
+since I left, old Satan Macon is on the spot and your rat of a father
+has let Landis get away. What have you been doing, Nelly, while all this
+was going on? Sitting with your eyes closed?"
+
+He took a chair and lounged back in it gracefully.
+
+"How could I help it? I'm not a watchdog."
+
+He was silent for a time. "Well," he said, "if you told me the truth I
+suppose I shouldn't love you, my girl. But this time I'm in earnest.
+Landis is a mint, silly child. If we let him go we lose the mint."
+
+"I suppose you'll get him back?"
+
+"First, I want to find out how he got away."
+
+"I know how."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"Donnegan, Donnegan, Donnegan!" burst out Lord Nick, and though he did
+not raise the pitch of his voice, he allowed its volume to swell softly
+so that it filled the room like the humming of a great, angry tiger.
+"Nobody says three words without putting in the name of Donnegan as one
+of them! You, too!"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Donnegan thrills The Corner!" went on the big man in the same terrible
+voice. "Donnegan wears queer clothes; Donnegan shoots Scar-faced Lewis;
+Donnegan pumps the nerve out of poor Jack Landis and then drills him.
+Why, Nelly, it looks as though I'll have to kill this intruding fool!"
+
+She blanched at this, but did not appear to notice.
+
+"It's a long time since you've killed a man, isn't it?" she asked
+coldly.
+
+"It's an awful business," declared Lord Nick. "Always complications;
+have to throw the blame on the other fellow. And even these blockheads
+are beginning to get tired of my self-defense pleas."
+
+"Well," murmured the girl, "don't cross that bridge until you come to
+it; and you'll never come to it."
+
+"Never. Because I don't want him killed."
+
+"Ah," Lord Nick murmured. "And why?"
+
+"Because he's in love--with me."
+
+"Tush!" said Lord Nick. "I see you, my dear. Donnegan seems to be a rare
+fellow, but he couldn't have gotten Landis out of this house without
+help. Rix and the Pedlar may have been a bit sleepy, but Donnegan had to
+find out when they fell asleep. He had a confederate. Who? Not Rix; not
+the Pedlar; not Lebrun. They all know me. It had to be someone who
+doesn't fear me. Who? Only one person in the world. Nelly, you're the
+one!"
+
+She hesitated a breathless instant.
+
+"Yes," she said. "I am."
+
+She added, as he stared calmly at her, considering: "There's a girl in
+the case. She came up here to get Landis; seems he was in love with her
+once. And I pitied her. I sent him back to her. Suppose he is a mint;
+haven't we coined enough money out of him? Besides, I couldn't have kept
+on with it."
+
+"No?"
+
+"He was getting violent, and he talked marriage all day, every day. I
+haven't any nerves, you say, but he began to put me on edge. So I got
+rid of him."
+
+"Nelly, are you growing a conscience?"
+
+She flushed and then set her teeth.
+
+"But I'll have to teach you business methods, my dear. I have to bring
+him back."
+
+"You'll have to go through Donnegan to do it."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"You don't understand, Nick. He's different."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"He's like you."
+
+"What are you driving at?"
+
+"Nick, I tell you upon my word of honor, no matter what a terrible
+fighter you may be, Donnegan will give you trouble. He has your hair
+and your eyes and he moves like a cat. I've never seen such a
+man--except you. I'd rather see you fight the plague than fight
+Donnegan!"
+
+For the first time Lord Nick showed real emotion; he leaned a little
+forward.
+
+"Just what does he mean to you?" he asked. "I've stood for a good deal,
+Nelly; I've given you absolute freedom, but if I ever suspect you--"
+
+The lion was up in him unmistakably now. And the girl shrank.
+
+"If it were serious, do you suppose I'd talk like this?"
+
+"I don't know. You're a clever little devil, Nell. But I'm clever, too.
+And I begin to see through you. Do you still want to save Donnegan?"
+
+"For your own sake."
+
+He stood up.
+
+"I'm going up the hill today. If Donnegan's there, I'll go through him;
+but I'm going to have Landis back!"
+
+She, also, rose.
+
+"There's only one way out and I'll take that way. I'll get Donnegan to
+leave the house."
+
+"I don't care what you do about that."
+
+"And if he isn't there, will you give me your word that you won't hunt
+him out afterward?"
+
+"I never make promises, Nell."
+
+"But I'll trust you, Nick."
+
+"Very well. I start up the hill in an hour. You have that long."
+
+
+
+
+30
+
+
+The air was thin and chilly; snow had fallen in the mountains to the
+north, and the wind was bringing the cold down to The Corner. Nelly
+Lebrun noted this as she dressed and made up her mind accordingly. She
+sent out two messages: one to the cook to send breakfast to her room,
+which she ate while she finished dressing with care; and the other to
+the gambling house, summoning one of the waiters. When he came, she gave
+him a note for Donnegan. The fellow flashed a glance at her as he took
+the envelope. There was no need to give that name and address in The
+Corner, and the girl tingled under the glance.
+
+She finished her breakfast and then concentrated in polishing up her
+appearance. From all of which it may be gathered that Nelly Lebrun was
+in love with Donnegan, but she really was not. But he had touched in her
+that cord of romance which runs through every woman; whenever it is
+touched the vibration is music, and Nelly was filled with the sound of
+it. And except for Lord Nick, there is no doubt that she would have
+really lost her head; for she kept seeing the face of Donnegan, as he
+had leaned toward her across the little table in Milligan's. And that,
+as anyone may know, is a dangerous symptom.
+
+Her glances were alternating between her mirror and her watch, and the
+hands of the latter pointed to the fact that fifty minutes of her hour
+had elapsed when a message came up that she was waited for in the street
+below. So Nelly Lebrun went down in her riding costume, the corduroy
+swishing at each step, and tapping her shining boots with the riding
+crop. Her own horse she found at the hitching rack, and beside it
+Donnegan was on his chestnut horse. It was a tall horse, and he looked
+more diminutive than ever before, pitched so high in the saddle.
+
+He was on the ground in a flash with the reins tucked under one arm and
+his hat under the other; she became aware of gloves and white-linen
+stock, and pale, narrow face. Truly Donnegan made a natty appearance.
+
+"There's no day like a cool day for riding," she said, "and I thought
+you might agree with me."
+
+He untethered her horse while he murmured an answer. But for his
+attitude she cared little so long as she had him riding away from that
+house on the hill where Lord Nick in all his terror would appear in some
+few minutes. Besides, as they swung up the road--the chestnut at a
+long-strided canter and Nelly's black at a soft and choppy pace--the
+wind of the gallop struck into her face; Nelly was made to enjoy things
+one by one and not two by two. They hit over the hills, and when the
+first impulse of the ride was done they were a mile or more away from
+The Corner--and Lord Nick.
+
+The resemblance between the two men was less striking now that she had
+Donnegan beside her. He seemed more wizened, paler, and intense as a
+violin string screwed to the snapping point; there was none of the
+lordly tolerance of Nick about him; he was like a bull terrier compared
+with a stag hound. And only the color of his eyes and his hair made her
+make the comparison at all.
+
+"What could be better?" she said when they checked their horses on a
+hilltop to look over a gradual falling of the ground below. "What could
+be better?" The wind flattened a loose curl of hair against her cheek,
+and overhead the wild geese were flying and crying, small and far away.
+
+"One thing better," said Donnegan, "and that is to sit in a chair and
+see this."
+
+She frowned at such frankness; it was almost blunt discourtesy.
+
+"You see, I'm a lazy man."
+
+"How long has it been," the girl asked sharply, "since you have slept?"
+
+"Two days, I think."
+
+"What's wrong?"
+
+He lifted his eyes slowly from a glittering, distant rock, and brought
+his glance toward her by degrees. He had a way of exciting people even
+in the most commonplace conversation, and the girl felt a thrill under
+his look.
+
+"That," said Donnegan, "is a dangerous question."
+
+And he allowed such hunger to come into his eye that she caught her
+breath. The imp of perversity made her go on.
+
+"And why dangerous?"
+
+It was an excellent excuse for an outpouring of the heart from Donnegan,
+but, instead, his eyes twinkled at her.
+
+"You are not frank," he remarked.
+
+She could not help laughing, and her laughter trailed away musically in
+her excitement.
+
+"Having once let down the bars I cannot keep you at arm's length. After
+last night I suppose I should never have let you see me for--days and
+days."
+
+"That's why I'm curious," said Donnegan, "and not flattered. I'm trying
+to find what purpose you have in taking me riding."
+
+"I wonder," she said thoughtfully, "if you will."
+
+And since such fencing with the wits delighted her, she let all her
+delight come with a sparkle in her eyes.
+
+"I have one clue."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"And that is that you may have the old-woman curiosity to find out how
+many ways a man can tell her that he's fond of her."
+
+Though she flushed a little she kept her poise admirably.
+
+"I suppose that is part of my interest," she admitted.
+
+"I can think of a great many ways of saying it," said Donnegan. "I am
+the dry desert, you are the rain, and yet I remain dry and produce no
+grass." "A very pretty comparison," said the girl with a smile.
+
+"A very green one," and Donnegan smiled. "I am the wind and you are the
+wild geese, and yet I keep on blowing after you are gone and do not
+carry away a feather of you."
+
+"Pretty again."
+
+"And silly. But, really, you are very kind to me, and I shall try not to
+take too much advantage of it."
+
+"Will you answer a question?"
+
+"I had rather ask one: but go on."
+
+"What made you so dry a desert, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"There is a very leading question again."
+
+"I don't mean it that way. For you had the same sad, hungered look the
+first time I saw you--when you came into Milligan's in that beggarly
+disguise."
+
+"I shall confess one thing. It was not a disguise. It was the fact of
+me; I am a beggarly person."
+
+"Nonsense! I'm not witless, Mr. Donnegan. You talk well. You have an
+education."
+
+"In fact I have an educated taste; I disapprove of myself, you see, and
+long ago learned not to take myself too seriously."
+
+"Which leads to--"
+
+"The reason why I have wandered so much."
+
+"Like a hunter on a trail. Hunting for what?"
+
+"A chance to sit in a saddle--or a chair--and talk as we are talking."
+
+"Which seems to be idly."
+
+"Oh, you mistake me. Under the surface I am as serious as fire."
+
+"Or ice."
+
+At the random hit he glanced sharply at her, but she was looking a
+little past him, thinking.
+
+"I have tried to get at the reason behind all your reasons," she said.
+"You came on me in a haphazard fashion, and yet you are not a haphazard
+sort."
+
+"Do you see nothing serious about me?"
+
+"I see that you are unhappy," said the girl gently. "And I am sorry."
+
+Once again Donnegan was jarred, and he came within an ace of opening
+his mind to her, of pouring out the truth about Lou Macon. Love is a
+talking madness in all men and he came within an ace of confessing his
+troubles.
+
+"Let's go on," she said, loosening her rein.
+
+"Why not cut back in a semicircle toward The Corner?"
+
+"Toward The Corner? No, no!"
+
+There was a brightening of his eye as he noted her shudder of distaste
+or fear, and she strove to cover her traces.
+
+"I'm sick of the place," she said eagerly. "Let's get as far from it as
+we may."
+
+"But yonder is a very good trail leading past it."
+
+"Of course we'll ride that way if you wish, but I'd rather go straight
+ahead."
+
+If she had insisted stubbornly he would have thought nothing, but the
+moment she became politic he was on his guard.
+
+"You dislike something in The Corner," he said, thinking carelessly and
+aloud. "You are afraid of something back there. But what could you be
+afraid of? Then you may be afraid of something for me. Ah, I have it!
+They have decided to 'get' me for taking Jack Landis away; Joe Rix and
+the Pedlar are waiting for me to come back!"
+
+He looked steadily and she attempted to laugh.
+
+"Joe Rix and the Pedlar? I would not stack ten like them against you!"
+
+"Then it is someone else."
+
+"I haven't said so. Of course there's no one."
+
+She shook her rein again, but Donnegan sat still in his saddle and
+looked fixedly at her.
+
+"That's why you brought me out here," he announced. "Oh, Nelly Lebrun,
+what's behind your mind? Who is it? By heaven, it's this Lord Nick!"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, you're letting your imagination run wild."
+
+"It's gone straight to the point. But I'm not angry. I think I may get
+back in time."
+
+He turned his horse, and the girl swung hers beside him and caught his
+arm.
+
+"Don't go!" she pleaded. "You're right; it's Nick, and it's suicide to
+face him!"
+
+The face of Donnegan set cruelly.
+
+"The main obstacle," he said. "Come and watch me handle it!"
+
+But she dropped her head and buried her face in her hands, and, sitting
+there for a long time, she heard his careless whistling blow back to her
+as he galloped toward The Corner.
+
+
+
+
+31
+
+
+If Nelly Lebrun had consigned him mentally to the worms, that thought
+made not the slightest impression upon Donnegan. A chance for action was
+opening before him, and above all a chance of action in the eye of Lou
+Macon; and he welcomed with open arms the thought that he would have an
+opportunity to strike for her, and keep Landis with her. He went arrowy
+straight and arrowy fast to the cabin on the hill, and he found ample
+evidence that it had become a center of attention in The Corner. There
+was a scattering of people in the distance, apparently loitering with no
+particular purpose, but undoubtedly because they awaited an explosion of
+some sort. He went by a group at which the chestnut shied, and as
+Donnegan straightened out the horse again he caught a look of both
+interest and pity on the faces of the men.
+
+Did they give him up so soon as it was known that Lord Nick had entered
+the lists against him? Had all his display in The Corner gone for
+nothing as against the repute of this terrible mystery man? His vanity
+made him set his teeth again.
+
+Dismounting before the cabin of the colonel, he found that worthy in
+his invalid chair, enjoying a sun bath in front of his house. But there
+was no sign of Lord Nick--no sign of Lou. A grim fear came to Donnegan
+that he might have to attack Nick in his own stronghold, for Jack Landis
+might already have been taken away to the Lebrun house.
+
+So he went straight to the colonel, and when he came close he saw that
+the fat man was apparently in the grip of a chill. He had gathered a
+vast blanket about his shoulders and kept drawing it tighter; beneath
+his eyes, which looked down to the ground, there were violet shadows.
+
+"I've lost," said Donnegan through his teeth. "Lord Nick has been here?"
+
+The invalid lifted his eyes, and Donnegan saw a terrible thing--that the
+nerve of the fat man had been crushed. The folds of his face quivered as
+he answered huskily: "He has been here!"
+
+"And Landis is gone?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not gone? Then--"
+
+"Nick has gone to get a horse litter. He came up just to clear the way."
+
+"When he comes back he'll find me!"
+
+The glance of the colonel cleared long enough to survey Donnegan slowly
+from head to foot, and his amusement sent the familiar hot flush over
+the face of the little man. He straightened to his full height, which,
+in his high heels, was not insignificant. But the colonel was apparently
+so desperate that he was willing to throw caution away.
+
+"Compared with Lord Nick, Donnegan," he said, "you don't look half a
+man--even with those heels."
+
+And he smiled calmly at Donnegan in the manner of one who, having
+escaped the lightning bolt itself, does not fear mere thunder.
+
+"There is no fool like a fat fool," said Donnegan with childish
+viciousness. "What did Lord Nick, as you call him, do to you? He's
+brought out the yellow, my friend."
+
+The colonel accepted the insult without the quiver of an eyelid.
+Throughout he seemed to be looking expectantly beyond Donnegan.
+
+"My young friend," he said, "you have been very useful to me. But I
+must confess that you are no longer a tool equal to the task. I dismiss
+you. I thank you cordially for your efforts. They are worthless. You see
+that crowd gathering yonder? They have come to see Lord Nick prepare you
+for a hole in the ground. And make no mistake: if you are here when he
+returns that hole will have to be dug--unless they throw you out for the
+claws of the buzzards. In the meantime, our efforts have been wasted
+completely. I hadn't enough time. I had thrown the fear of sudden death
+into Landis, and in another hour he would have signed away his soul to
+me for fear of poison."
+
+The colonel paused to chuckle at some enjoyable memory.
+
+"Then Nick came. You see, I know all about Nick."
+
+"And Nick knows all about you?"
+
+For a moment the agate, catlike eyes of the colonel clouded and cleared
+again in their unfathomable manner.
+
+"At moments, Donnegan," he said, "you have rare perceptions. That is
+exactly it--Nick knows just about everything concerning me. And so--roll
+your pack and climb on your horse and get away. I think you may have
+another five minutes before he comes."
+
+Donnegan turned on his heel. He went to the door of the hut and threw it
+open. Lou sat beside Landis holding his hand, and the murmur of her
+voice was still pleasant as an echo through the room when she looked and
+saw Donnegan. At that she rose and her face hardened as she looked at
+him. Landis, also, lifted his head, and his face was convulsed with
+hatred. So Donnegan closed the door and went softly away to his own
+shack.
+
+She hated him even as Landis hated him, it seemed. He should have known
+that he would not be thanked for bringing back her lover to her with a
+bullet through his shoulder. Sitting in his cabin, he took his head
+between his hands and thought of life and death, and made up his mind.
+He was afraid. If Lord Nick had been the devil himself Donnegan could
+not have been more afraid. But if the big stranger had been ten devils
+instead of one Donnegan would not have found it in his soul to run away.
+
+Nothing remained for him in The Corner, it seemed, except his position
+as a man of power--a dangerous fighter. It was a less than worthless
+position, and yet, once having taken it up, he could not abandon it.
+More than one gunfighter has been in the same place, forced to act as a
+public menace long after he has ceased to feel any desire to fight. Of
+selfish motives there remained not a scruple to him, but there was still
+the happiness of Lou Macon. If the boy were taken back to Lebrun's, it
+would be fatal to her. For even if Nelly wished, she could not teach her
+eyes new habits, and she would ceaselessly play on the heart of the
+wounded man.
+
+It was the cessation of all talk from the gathering crowd outside that
+made Donnegan lift his head at length, and know that Lord Nick had come.
+But before he had time to prepare himself, the door was cast open and
+into it, filling it from side to side, stepped Lord Nick.
+
+There was no need of an introduction. Donnegan knew him by the aptness
+with which the name fitted that glorious figure of a man and by the
+calm, confident eye which now was looking him slowly over, from head to
+foot. Lord Nick closed the door carefully behind him.
+
+"The colonel told me," he said in his deep, smooth voice, "that you were
+waiting for me here."
+
+And Donnegan recognized the snakelike malice of the fat man in drawing
+him into the fight. But he dismissed that quickly from his mind. He was
+staring, fascinated, into the face of the other. He was a reader of men,
+was Donnegan; he was a reader of mind, too. In his life of battle he had
+learned to judge the prowess of others at a glance, just as a musician
+can tell the quality of a violin by the first note he hears played upon
+it. So Donnegan judged the quality of fighting men, and, looking into
+the face of Lord Nick, he knew that he had met his equal at last.
+
+It was a great and a bitter moment to him. The sense of physical
+smallness he had banished a thousand times by the recollection of his
+speed of hand and his surety with weapons. He had looked at men
+muscularly great and despised them in the knowledge that a gun or a
+knife would make him their master. But in Lord Nick he recognized his
+own nerveless speed of hand, his own hair-trigger balance, his own
+deadly seriousness and contempt of life. The experience in battle was
+there, too. And he began to feel that the size of the other crushed him
+to the floor and made him hopeless. It was unnatural, it was wrong, that
+this giant in the body should be a giant in adroitness also.
+
+Already Donnegan had died one death before he rose from his chair and
+stood to the full of his height ready to die again and summoning his
+nervous force to meet the enemy. He had seen that the big man had
+followed his own example and had measured him at a glance.
+
+Indeed the history of some lives of action held less than the
+concentrated silence of these two men during that second's space.
+
+And now Donnegan felt the cold eye of the other eating into his own,
+striving to beat him down, break his nerve. For an instant panic got
+hold on Donnegan. He, himself, had broken the nerve of other men by the
+weight of his unaided eye. Had he not reduced poor Jack Landis to a
+trembling wreck by five minutes of silence? And had he not seen other
+brave men become trembling cowards unable to face the light, and all
+because of that terrible power which lies in the eye of some? He fought
+away the panic, though perspiration was pouring out upon his forehead
+and beneath his armpits.
+
+"The colonel is very kind," said Donnegan.
+
+And that moment he sent up a prayer of thankfulness that his voice was
+smooth as silk, and that he was able to smile into the face of Lord
+Nick. The brow of the other clouded and then smoothed itself deftly.
+Perhaps he, too, recognized the clang of steel upon steel and knew the
+metal of his enemy.
+
+"And therefore," said Lord Nick, "since most of The Corner expects
+business from us, it seems much as if one of us must kill the other
+before we part."
+
+"As a matter of fact," said Donnegan, "I have been keeping that in
+mind." He added, with that deadly smile of his that never reached his
+eyes: "I never disappoint the public when it's possible to satisfy
+them."
+
+"No," and Lord Nick nodded, "you seem to have most of the habits of an
+actor--including an inclination to make up for your part."
+
+Donnegan bit his lip until it bled, and then smiled.
+
+"I have been playing to fools," he said. "Now I shall enjoy a
+discriminating critic."
+
+"Yes," remarked Lord Nick, "actors generally desire an intelligent
+audience for the death scene."
+
+"I applaud your penetration and I shall speak well of you when this
+disagreeable duty is finished."
+
+"Come," and Lord Nick smiled genially, "you are a game little cock!"
+
+The telltale flush crimsoned Donnegan's face. And if the fight had begun
+at that moment no power under heaven could have saved Lord Nick from the
+frenzy of the little man.
+
+"My size keeps me from stooping," said Donnegan, "I shall look up to
+you, sir, until the moment you fall."
+
+"Well hit again! You are also a wit, I see! Donnegan, I am almost sorry
+for the necessity of this meeting. And if it weren't for the audience--"
+
+"Say no more," said Donnegan, bowing. "I read your heart and appreciate
+all you intend."
+
+He had touched his stock as he bowed, and now he turned to the mirror
+and carefully adjusted it, for it was a little awry from the ride; but
+in reality he used that moment to examine his own face, and the set of
+his jaw and the clearness of his eye reassured him. Turning again, he
+surprised a glint of admiration in the glance of Lord Nick.
+
+"We are at one, sir, it appears," he said. "And there is no other way
+out of this disagreeable necessity?"
+
+"Unfortunately not. I have a certain position in these parts. People are
+apt to expect a good deal of me. And for my part I see no way out except
+a gunplay--no way out between the devil and the moon!"
+
+Astonishment swept suddenly across the face of the big man, for
+Donnegan, turning white as death, shrank toward the wall as though he
+had that moment received cold steel in his body.
+
+"Say that again!" said Donnegan hoarsely.
+
+"I said there was no way out," repeated Lord Nick, and though he kept
+his right hand in readiness, he passed his left through his red hair and
+stared at Donnegan with a tinge of contempt; he had seen men buckle like
+this at the last moment when their backs were to the wall.
+
+"Between--" repeated Donnegan.
+
+"The devil and the moon. Do you see a way yourself?"
+
+He was astonished again to see Donnegan wince as if from a blow. His
+lips were trembling and they writhed stiffly over his words.
+
+"Who taught you that expression?" said Donnegan.
+
+"A gentleman," said Lord Nick.
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"My father, sir!"
+
+"Oh, heaven," moaned Donnegan, catching his hands to his breast. "Oh,
+heaven, forgive us!"
+
+"What the devil is in you?" asked Lord Nick.
+
+The little man stood erect again and his eyes were now on fire.
+
+"You are Henry Nicholas Reardon," he said.
+
+Lord Nick set his teeth.
+
+"Now," he said, "it is certain that you must die!"
+
+But Donnegan cast out his arms and broke into a wild laughter.
+
+"Oh, you fool, you fool!" he cried. "Don't you know me? I am the
+cripple!"
+
+
+
+
+32
+
+
+The big man crossed the floor with one vast stride, and, seizing
+Donnegan by both shoulders, dragged him under the full light of the
+window; and still the crazy laughter shook Donnegan and made him
+helpless.
+
+"They tied me to a board--like a papoose," said Donnegan, "and they
+straightened my back--but they left me this way--wizened up." He was
+stammering; hysterical, and the words tumbled from his lips in a jumble.
+"That was a month after you ran away from home. I was going to find you.
+Got bigger. Took the road. Kept hunting. Then I met a yegg who told
+about Rusty Dick--described him like you--I thought--I thought you were
+dead!"
+
+And the tears rolled down his face; he sobbed like a woman.
+
+A strange thing happened then. Lord Nick lifted the little man in his
+arms as if he were a child and literally carried him in that fashion to
+the bunk. He put him down tenderly, still with one mighty arm around his
+back.
+
+"You are Garry? You!"
+
+"Garrison Donnegan Reardon. Aye, that's what I am. Henry, don't say
+that you don't know me!"
+
+"But--your back--I thought--"
+
+"I know--hopeless they said I was. But they brought in a young doctor.
+Now look at me. Little. I never grew big--but hard, Henry, as leather!"
+
+And he sprang to his feet. And knowing that Donnegan had begun life as a
+cripple it was easy to appreciate certain things about his expression--a
+cold wistfulness, and his manner of reading the minds of men. Lord Nick
+was like a man in a dream. He dragged Donnegan back to the bunk and
+forced him to sit down with the weight of his arms. And he could not
+keep his hands from his younger brother. As though he were blind and had
+to use the sense of touch to reassure him.
+
+"I heard lies. They said everybody was dead. I thought--"
+
+"The fever killed them all, except me. Uncle Toby took me in. He was a
+devil. Helped me along, but I left him when I could. And--"
+
+"Don't tell me any more. All that matters is that I have you at last,
+Garry. Heaven knows it's a horrible thing to be kithless and kinless,
+but I have you now! Ah, lad, but the old pain has left its mark on you.
+Poor Garry!"
+
+Donnegan shuddered.
+
+"I've forgotten it. Don't bring it back."
+
+"I keep feeling that you should be in that chair."
+
+"I know. But I'm not. I'm hard as nails, I tell you."
+
+He leaped to his feet again.
+
+"And not so small as you might think, Henry!"
+
+"Oh, big enough, Garry. Big enough to paralyze The Corner, from what
+I've heard."
+
+"I've been playing a game with 'em, Henry. And now--if one of us could
+clear the road, what will we do together? Eh?"
+
+The smile of Lord Nick showed his teeth.
+
+"Haven't I been hungry all my life for a man like you, lad? Somebody to
+stand and guard my back while I faced the rest of the world?"
+
+"And I'll do my share of the facing, too."
+
+"You will, Garry. But I'm your elder."
+
+"Man, man! Nobody's my elder except one that's spent half his life--as I
+have done!"
+
+"We'll teach you to forget the pain I'll make life roses for you,
+Garry."
+
+"And the fools outside thought--"
+
+Donnegan broke into a soundless laughter, and, running to the door,
+opened it a fraction of an inch and peeped out.
+
+"They're standing about in a circle. I can see 'em gaping. Even from
+here. What will they think, Henry?"
+
+Lord Nick ground his teeth.
+
+"They'll think I've backed down from you," he said gloomily. "They'll
+think I've taken water for the first time."
+
+"Why, confound 'em, the first man that opens his head--"
+
+"I know, I know. You'd fill his mouth with lead, and so would I. But if
+it ever gets about--as it's sure to--that Lord, Nick, as they call me,
+has been bluffed down without a fight, I'll have every Chinaman that
+cooks on the range talking back to me. I'll have to start all over
+again."
+
+"Don't say that, Henry. Don't you see that I'll go out and explain that
+I'm your brother?"
+
+"What good will that do? No, do we look alike?"
+
+Donnegan stopped short.
+
+"I'm not very big," he said rather coldly, "but then I'm not so very
+small, either. I've found myself big enough, speaking in general.
+Besides, we have the same hair and eyes."
+
+"Why, man, people will laugh when they hear that we call ourselves
+brothers."
+
+Donnegan ground his teeth and the old flush burned upon his face.
+
+"I'll cut some throats if they do," he said, trembling with his passion.
+
+"I can hear them say it. 'Lord Nick walked in on Donnegan prepared to
+eat him up. He measured him up and down, saw that he was a fighting
+wildcat in spite of his size, and decided to back out. And Donnegan was
+willing. They couldn't come out without a story of some kind--with the
+whole world expecting a death in that cabin--so they framed a crazy
+cock-and-bull story about being brothers.' I can hear them say that,
+Donnegan, and it makes me wild!"
+
+"Do you call me Donnegan?" said Donnegan sadly.
+
+"No, no. Garry, don't be so touchy. You've never got over that, I see.
+Still all pride and fire."
+
+"You're not very humble yourself, Henry."
+
+"Maybe not, maybe not. But I've been in a certain position around these
+parts, Don--Garry. And it's hard to see it go!"
+
+Donnegan closed his eyes in deep reverie. And then he forced out the
+words one by one.
+
+"Henry, I'll let everybody know that it was I who backed down. That we
+were about to fight." He was unable to speak; he tore the stock loose at
+his throat and went on: "We were about to fight; I lost my nerve; you
+couldn't shoot a helpless man. We began to talk. We found out we are
+brothers--"
+
+"Damnation!" broke out Lord Nick, and he struck himself violently across
+the forehead with the back of his hand. "I'm a skunk, Garry, lad. Why,
+for a minute I was about to let you do it. No. no, no! A thousand times
+no!"
+
+It was plain to be seen that he was arguing himself away from the
+temptation.
+
+"What do I care what they say? We'll cram the words back down their
+throats and be hanged to 'em. Here I am worrying about myself like a
+selfish dog without letting myself be happy over finding you. But I am
+happy, Garry. Heaven knows it. And you don't doubt it, do you, old
+fellow?"
+
+"Ah," said Donnegan, and he smiled to cover a touch of sadness. "I hope
+not. No, I don't doubt you, of course. I've spent my life wishing for
+you since you left us, you see. And then I followed you for three years
+on the road, hunting everywhere."
+
+"You did that?"
+
+"Yes. Three years. I liked the careless life. For to tell you the truth,
+I'm not worth much, Henry. I'm a loafer by instinct, and--"
+
+"Not another word." There were tears in the eyes of Lord Nick, and he
+frowned them away. "Confound it, Garry, you unman me. I'll be weeping
+like a woman in a minute. But now, sit down. We still have some things
+to talk over. And we'll get to a quick conclusion."
+
+"Ah, yes," said Donnegan, and at the emotion which had come in the face
+of Lord Nick, his own expression softened wonderfully. A light seemed to
+stand in his face. "We'll brush over the incidentals. And everything is
+incidental aside from the fact that we're together again. They can
+chisel iron chain apart, but we'll never be separated again, God
+willing!" He looked up as he spoke, and his face was for the moment as
+pure as the face of a child--Donnegan, the thief, the beggar, the liar
+by gift, and the man-killer by trade and artistry.
+
+But Lord Nick in the meantime was looking down to the floor and
+mustering his thoughts.
+
+"The main thing is entirely simple," he said. "You'll make one
+concession to my pride, Garry, boy?"
+
+"Can you ask me?" said Donnegan softly, and he cast out his hands in a
+gesture that offered his heart and his soul. "Can you ask me? Anything I
+have is yours!"
+
+"Don't say that," answered Lord Nick tenderly. "But this small thing--my
+pride, you know--I despise myself for caring what people think, but I'm
+weak. I admit it, but I can't help it."
+
+"Talk out, man. You'll see if there's a bottom to things that I can
+give!"
+
+"Well, it's this. Everyone knows that I came up here to get young Jack
+Landis and bring him back to Lebrun's--from which you stole him, you
+clever young devil! Well, I'll simply take him back there, Garry; and
+then I'll never have to ask another favor of you."
+
+He was astonished by a sudden silence, and looking up again, he saw that
+Donnegan sat with his hand at his breast. It was a singularly feminine
+gesture to which he resorted. It was a habit which had come to him in
+his youth in the invalid chair, when the ceaseless torment of his
+crippled back became too great for him to bear.
+
+And clearly, indeed, those days were brought home to Lord Nick as he
+glanced up, for Donnegan was staring at him in the same old, familiar
+agony, mute and helpless.
+
+
+
+
+33
+
+
+At this Lord Nick very frankly frowned in turn. And when he frowned his
+face grew marvelously dark, like some wrathful god, for there was a
+noble, a Grecian purity to the profile of Henry Nicholas Reardon, and
+when he frowned he seemed to be scorning, from a distance, ignoble,
+earthly things which troubled him.
+
+"I know it isn't exactly easy for you, Garry," he admitted. "You have
+your own pride; you have your own position here in The Corner. But I
+want you to notice that mine is different. You've spent a day for what
+you have in The Corner, here. I've spent ten years. You've played a
+prank, acted a part, and cast a jest for what you have. But for the
+place which I hold, brother mine, I've schemed with my wits, played fast
+and loose, and killed men. Do you hear? I've bought it with blood, and
+things you buy at such a price ought to stick, eh?"
+
+He banished his frown; the smile played suddenly across his features.
+
+"Why, I'm arguing with myself. But that look you gave me a minute ago
+had me worried for a little while."
+
+At this Donnegan, who had allowed his head to fall, so that he seemed
+to be nodding in acquiescence, now raised his face and Lord Nick
+perceived the same white pain upon it. The same look which had been on
+the face of the cripple so often in the other days.
+
+"Henry," said the younger brother, "I give you my oath that my pride has
+nothing to do with this. I'd let you drive me barefoot before you
+through the street yonder. I'd let every soul in The Corner know that I
+have no pride where you're concerned. I'll do whatever you wish--with
+one exception--and that one is the unlucky thing you ask. Pardner, you
+mustn't ask for Jack Landis! Anything else I'll work like a slave to get
+for you: I'll fight your battles, I'll serve you in any way you name:
+but don't take Landis back!"
+
+He had talked eagerly, the words coming with a rush, and he found at the
+end that Lord Nick was looking at him in bewilderment.
+
+"When a man is condemned to death," said Lord Nick slowly, "suppose
+somebody offers him anything in the world that he wants--palaces,
+riches, power--everything except his life. What would the condemned man
+say to a friend who made such an offer? He'd laugh at him and then call
+him a traitor. Eh? But I don't laugh at you, Garry. I simply explain to
+you why I have to have Landis back. Listen!"
+
+He counted off his points upon the tips of his fingers, in the confident
+manner of a teacher who deals with a stupid child, waiting patiently for
+the young mind to comprehend.
+
+"We've been bleeding Jack Landis. Do you know why? Because it was Lester
+who made the strike up here. He started out to file his claim. He
+stopped at the house of Colonel Macon. That old devil learned the
+location, learned everything; detained Lester with a trick, and rushed
+young Landis away to file the claims for himself. Then when Lester came
+up here he found that his claims had been jumped, and when he went to
+the law there was no law that could help him. He had nothing but his
+naked word for what he had discovered. And naturally the word of a
+ruffian like Lester had no weight against the word of Landis. And, you
+see, Landis thought that he was entirely in the right. Lester tried the
+other way; tried to jump the claims; and was shot down by Landis. So
+Lester sent for me. What was I to do? Kill Landis? The mine would go to
+his heirs. I tried a different way--bleeding him of his profits, after
+I'd explained to him that he was in the wrong. He half admitted that,
+but he naturally wouldn't give up the mines even after we'd almost
+proved to him that Lester had the first right. So Landis has been mining
+the gold and we've been drawing it away from him. It looks tricky, but
+really it's only just. And Lester and Lebrun split with me.
+
+"But I tell you, Garry, that I'd give up everything without an
+afterthought. I'll give up the money and I'll make Lebrun and Lester
+shut up without a word. I'll make them play square and not try to knife
+Landis in the back. I'll do all that willingly--for you! But, Garry, I
+can't give up taking Landis back to Lebrun's and keeping him there until
+he's well. Why, man, I saw him in the hut just now. He wants to go. He's
+afraid of the old colonel as if he were poison--and I think he's wise in
+being afraid."
+
+"The colonel won't touch him," said Donnegan.
+
+"No?"
+
+"No. I've told him what would happen if he does."
+
+"Tush. Garry, Colonel Macon is the coldest-blooded murderer I've ever
+known. But come out in the open, lad. You see that I'm ready to listen
+to reason--except on one point. Tell me why you're so set on this
+keeping of Landis here against my will and even against the lad's own
+will? I'm reasonable, Garry. Do you doubt that?"
+
+Explaining his own mildness, the voice of Lord Nick swelled again and
+filled the room, and he frowned on his brother. But Donnegan looked on
+him sadly.
+
+"There is a girl--" he began.
+
+"Why didn't I guess it?" exclaimed Lord Nick. "If ever you find a man
+unreasonable, stubborn and foolish, you'll always find a woman behind
+it! All this trouble because of a piece of calico?"
+
+He leaned back, laughing thunderously in his relief.
+
+"Come, come! I was prepared for a tragedy. Now tell me about this girl.
+Who and what is she?"
+
+"The daughter of the colonel."
+
+"You're in love with her? I'm glad to hear it, Garry. As a matter of
+fact I've been afraid that you were hunting in my own preserve, but if
+it's the colonel's daughter, you're welcome to her. So you love the
+girl? She's pretty, lad!"
+
+"I love her?" said Donnegan in an indescribably tender voice. "I love
+her? Who am I to love her? A thief, a man-killer, a miserable play
+actor, a gambler, a drunkard. I love her? Bah!"
+
+If there was one quality of the mind with which Lord Nick was less
+familiar than with all others, it was humbleness of spirit. He now
+abased his magnificent head, and resting his chin in the mighty palm of
+his hand, he stared with astonishment and commiseration into the face of
+Donnegan. He seemed to be learning new things every moment about his
+brother.
+
+"Leave me out of the question," said Donnegan.
+
+"Can't be done. If I leave you out, dear boy, there's not one of them
+that I care a hang about; I'd ride roughshod over the whole lot. I've
+done it before to better men than these!"
+
+"Then you'll change, I know. This is the fact of the matter. She loves
+Landis. And if you take Landis away where will you put him?"
+
+"Where he was stolen away. In Lebrun's."
+
+"And what will be in Lebrun's?"
+
+"Joe Rix to guard him and the old negress to nurse him."'
+
+"No, no! Nelly Lebrun will be there!"
+
+"Eh? Are you glancing at her, now?"
+
+"Henry, you yourself know that Landis is mad about that girl."
+
+"Oh, she's flirted a bit with him. Turned the fool's head. He'll come
+out of it safe. She won't break his heart. I've seen her work on
+others!"
+
+He chuckled at the memory.
+
+"What do I care about Landis?" said Donnegan with unutterable scorn.
+"It's the girl. You'll break her heart, Henry; and if you do I'll never
+forgive you."
+
+"Steady, lad. This is a good deal like a threat."
+
+"No, no, no! Not a threat, heaven knows!"
+
+"By heaven!" exclaimed Lord Nick. "I begin to be irritated to see you
+stick on a silly point like this. Listen to me, lad. Do you mean to say
+that you are making all! this trouble about a slip of a girl?"
+
+"The heart of a girl," said Donnegan calmly.
+
+"Let Landis go; then take her in your arms and kiss her worries away. I
+warrant you can do it! I gather from Nell that you're not tongue-tied
+around women!"
+
+"I?" echoed Donnegan, turning pale. "Don't jest at this, Henry. I'm as
+serious as death. She's the type of woman made to love one man, and one
+man only. Landis may be common as dirt; but she doesn't see it. She's
+fastened her heart on him. I looked in on her a little while ago. She
+turned white when she saw me. I brought Landis to her, but she hates me
+because I had to shoot him down."
+
+"Garry," said the big man with a twinkle in his eye, "you're in love!"
+
+It shook Donnegan to the core, but he replied instantly; "If I were in
+love, don't you suppose that I would have shot to kill when I met
+Landis?"
+
+At this his brother blinked, frowned, and shook his head. The point was
+apparently plain to him and wiped out his previous convictions. Also, it
+eased his mind.
+
+"Then you don't love the girl?"
+
+"I?"
+
+"Either way, my hands are cleared of the worry. If you want her, let me
+take Landis. If you don't want her, what difference does it make to you
+except silly sentiment?"
+
+Donnegan made no answer.
+
+"If she comes to Lebrun's house, I'll see that Nell doesn't bother him
+too much."
+
+"Can you control her? If she wants to see this fool can you keep her
+away, and if she goes to him can you control her smiling?"
+
+"Certainly," said Lord Nick, but he flushed heavily.
+
+Donnegan smiled.
+
+"She's a devil of a girl," admitted Henry Reardon. "But this is beside
+the point: which is, that you're sticking on a matter that means
+everything to me, and which is only a secondhand interest to you--a
+point of sentiment. You pity the girl. What's pity? Bah! I pity a dog in
+the street, but would I cross you, Garry, lad, to save the dog?
+Sentiment, I say, silly sentiment."
+
+Donnegan rose.
+
+"It was a silly sentiment," he said hoarsely, "that put me on the road
+following you, Henry. It was a silly sentiment that turned me into a
+wastrel, a wanderer, a man without a home and without friends."
+
+"It's wrong to throw that in my face," muttered Lord Nick.
+
+"It is. And I'm sorry for it. But I want you to see that matters of
+sentiment may be matters of life and death with me."
+
+"Aye, if it were for you it would be different. I might see my way
+clear--but for a girl you have only a distant interest in--"
+
+"It is a matter of whether or not her heart shall be broken."
+
+"Come, come. Let's talk man talk. Besides, girls' hearts don't break in
+this country. You're old-fashioned."
+
+"I tell you the question of her happiness is worth more than a dozen
+lives like yours and mine."
+
+There had been a gathering impatience in Lord Nick. Now he, also, leaped
+to his feet; a giant.
+
+"Tell me in one word: You stick on this point?"
+
+"In one word--yes!"
+
+"Then you deny me, Garry. You set me aside for a silly purpose of your
+own--a matter that really doesn't mean much to you. It shows me where I
+stand in your eyes--and nothing between the devil and the moon shall
+make me sidestep!"
+
+They remained silent, staring at each other. Lord Nick stood with a
+flush of anger growing; Donnegan became whiter than ever, and he
+stiffened himself to his full height, which, in all who knew him well,
+was the danger signal.
+
+"You take Landis?" he said softly.
+
+"I do."
+
+"Not," said Donnegan, "while I live!"
+
+"You mean--" cried Lord Nick.
+
+"I mean it!"
+
+They had been swept back to the point at which that strangest of scenes
+began, but this time there was an added element--horror.
+
+"You'd fight?"
+
+"To the death, Henry!"
+
+"Garry, if one of us should kill the other, he'd be cursed forever!"
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And she's worth even this?"
+
+"A thousand times more! What are we? Dust in the wind; dust in the wind.
+But a woman like that is divine, Henry!"
+
+Lord Nick swayed a little, setting himself in balance like an animal
+preparing for the leap.
+
+"If it comes to the pinch, it is you who will die," he said.
+
+"You've no chance against me, Garry. And I swear to you that I won't
+weaken. You prove that you don't care for me. You put another above me.
+It's my pride, my life, that you'd sacrifice to the whim of a girl!" His
+passion choked him.
+
+"Are you ready?" said Donnegan.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Move first!"
+
+"I have never formed the habit."
+
+"Nor I! You fool, take what little advantage you can, because it won't
+help you in the end."
+
+"You shall see. I have a second sight, Henry, and it shows me you dead
+on the floor there, looking bigger than ever, and I see the gun smoking
+in my hand and my heart as dead as ashes! Oh, Henry, if there were only
+some other way!"
+
+They were both pale now.
+
+"Aye," murmured Lord Nick, "if we could find a judge. My hand turns to
+lead when I think of fighting you, Garry."
+
+Perspiration stood on the face of Donnegan.
+
+"Name a judge; I'll abide by the decision."
+
+"Some man--"
+
+"No, no. What man could understand me? A woman, Henry!"
+
+"Nell Lebrun."
+
+"The girl who loves you? You want me to plead before her?"
+
+"Put her on her honor and she'll be as straight as a string with both of
+us."
+
+For a moment Donnegan considered, and at length: "She loves you, Henry.
+You have that advantage. You have only to let her know that this is a
+vital matter to you and she'll speak as you wish her to speak."
+
+"Nonsense. You don't know her. You've seen yourself that no man can
+control her absolutely."
+
+"Make a concession."
+
+"A thousand, Garry, dear boy, if they'll get us clear from this horrible
+mess."
+
+"Only this. Leave The Corner for a few hours. Give me until--tonight.
+Let me see Nelly during that time. You've had years to work on her. I
+want only this time to put my own case before her."
+
+"Thank heaven that we're coming to see light and a way out!"
+
+"Aye, Henry."
+
+The big man wiped his forehead and sighed in his relief.
+
+"A minute ago I was ready--but we'll forget all this. What will you do?
+How will you persuade Nelly? I almost think that you intend to make love
+to her, Garry!"
+
+The little man turned paler still.
+
+"It is exactly what I intend," he said quietly.
+
+The brow of Lord Nick darkened solemnly, and then he forced a laugh.
+
+"She'll be afraid to turn me down, Garry. But try your own way." He bit
+his lips. "Why, if you influence her that way--do it. What's a fickle
+jade to me? Nothing!"
+
+"However I do it, you'll stick by her judgment, Henry?"
+
+The perspiration had started on Lord Nick's forehead again. Doubt swayed
+him, but pride forced him on.
+
+"I'll come again tonight," he said gloomily. "I'll meet you
+in--Milligan's?"
+
+"In Milligan's, then."
+
+Lord Nick, without a word of farewell, stamped across the hut and out.
+
+As for Donnegan, he stepped backward, his legs buckled beneath him, and
+when big George entered, with a scared face, he found the little man
+half sitting on the bunk, half lying against the wall with the face and
+the staring eyes of a dead man.
+
+
+
+
+34
+
+
+It was a long time before Donnegan left the hut, and when he came out
+the crowd which had gathered to watch the fight, or at least to mark the
+reports of the guns when those two terrible warriors met, was scattered.
+There remained before Donnegan only the colonel in his invalid's chair.
+Even from the distance one could see that his expression was changed,
+and when the little red-headed man came near the colonel looked up to
+him with something akin to humility.
+
+"Donnegan," he said, stopping the other as Donnegan headed for the door
+of the hut, "Donnegan, don't go in there just now."
+
+Donnegan turned and came slowly toward him.
+
+"The reason," said the colonel, "is that you probably won't receive a
+very cheery reception. Unfortunate--very unfortunate. Lou has turned
+wrong-headed for the first time in her life and she won't listen to
+reason."
+
+He chuckled softly.
+
+"I never dreamed there was so much of my metal in her. Blood will tell,
+my boy; blood will tell. And when you finally get her you'll find that
+she's worth waiting for."
+
+"Let me tell you a secret," said Donnegan dryly. "I am no longer waiting
+for her!"
+
+"Ah?" smiled the colonel. "Of course not. This bringing of Landis to
+her--it was all pure self-sacrifice. It was not an attempt to soften her
+heart. It was not a cunning maneuver. Tush! Of course not!"
+
+"I am about to make a profound remark," said Donnegan carelessly.
+
+"By all means."
+
+"You read the minds of other people through a colored glass, colonel.
+You see yourself everywhere."
+
+"In other words I put my own motives into the actions and behind the
+actions of people? Perhaps. I am full of weaknesses. Very full. In the
+meantime let me tell you one important thing--if you have not made the
+heart of Lou tender toward you, you have at least frightened her."
+
+The jaw on Donnegan set.
+
+"Excellent!" he said huskily.
+
+"Perhaps better than you think; and to keep you abreast with the times,
+you must know another thing. Lou has a silly idea that you are a lost
+soul, Donnegan, but she attributes your fall entirely to my weakness.
+Nothing can convince her that you did not intend to kill Landis; nothing
+can convince her that you did not act on my inspiration. I have tried
+arguing. Bah! she overwhelmed me with her scorn. You are a villain, says
+Lou, and I have made you one. And for the first time in my memory of
+her, her eyes fill with tears."
+
+"Tears?"
+
+"Upon my honor, and when a girl begins to weep about a man I don't need
+to say he is close to her heart."
+
+"You are full of maxims, Colonel Macon."
+
+"As a nut is full of meat. Old experience, you know. In the meantime Lou
+is perfectly certain that I intend to make away with Landis. Ha, ha,
+ha!" The laughter of the colonel was a cheery thunder, and soft as with
+distance. "Landis is equally convinced. He begs Lou not to fall asleep
+lest I should steal in on him. She hardly dares leave him to cook his
+food. I actually think she would have been glad to see that fiend, Lord
+Nick, take Landis away!"
+
+Donnegan smiled wanly. But could he tell her, poor girl, the story of
+Nelly Lebrun? Landis, in fear of his life, was no doubt at this moment
+pouring out protestations of deathless affection.
+
+"And they both consider you an archdemon for keeping Lord Nick away!"
+
+Again Donnegan winced, and coughed behind his hand to cover it.
+
+"However," went on the colonel, "when it comes to matters with the
+hearts of women, I trust to time. Time alone will show her that Landis
+is a puppy."
+
+"In the meantime, colonel, she keeps you from coming near Landis?"
+
+"Not at all! You fail to understand me and my methods, dear boy. I have
+only to roll my chair into the room and sit and smile at Jack in order
+to send him into an hysteria of terror. It is amusing to watch. And I
+can be there while Lou is in the room and through a few careful
+innuendoes convey to Landis my undying determination to either remove
+him from my path and automatically become his heir, or else secure from
+him a legal transfer of his rights to the mines."
+
+"I have learned," said Donnegan, "that Landis has not the slightest
+claim to them himself. And that you set him on the trail of the claims
+by trickery."
+
+The colonel did not wince.
+
+"Of course not," said the fat trickster. "Not the slightest right. My
+claim is a claim of superior wits, you see. And in the end all your
+labor shall be rewarded, for my share will go to Lou and through her it
+shall come to you. No?"
+
+"Quite logical."
+
+The colonel disregarded the other's smile.
+
+"But I have a painful confession to make."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I misjudged you, Donnegan. A moment since, when I was nearly distraught
+with disappointment, I said some most unpleasant things to you."
+
+"I have forgotten them."
+
+But the colonel raised his strong forefinger and shook his head,
+smiling.
+
+"No, no, Donnegan. If you deny it, I shall know that you are harboring
+the most undying grudge against me. As a matter of fact, I have just
+had an interview with Lord Nick, and the cursed fellow put my nerves on
+edge."
+
+The colonel made a wry face.
+
+"And when you came, I saw no manner in which you could possibly thwart
+him."
+
+His eyes grew wistful.
+
+"Between friends--as a son to his future father," he said softly, "can't
+you tell me what the charm was that you used on. Nick to send him away?
+I watched him come out of the shack. He was in a fury. I could see that
+by the way his head thrust out between his big shoulders. And when he
+went down the hill he was striding like a giant, but every now and then
+he would stop short, and his head would go up as if he were tempted to
+turn around and go back, but didn't quite have the nerve. Donnegan, tell
+me the trick of it?"
+
+"Willingly. I appealed to his gambling instinct."
+
+"Which leaves me as much in the dark as ever."
+
+But Donnegan smiled in his own peculiar and mirthless manner and he went
+on to the hut. Not that he expected a cheery greeting from Lou Macon,
+but he was drawn by the same perverse instinct which tempts a man to
+throw himself from a great height. At the door he paused a moment. He
+could distinguish no words, but he caught the murmur of Lou's voice as
+she talked to Jack Landis, and it had that infinitely gentle quality
+which only a woman's voice can have, and only when she nurses the sick.
+It was a pleasant torture to Donnegan to hear it. At length he summoned
+his resolution and tapped at the door.
+
+The voice of Lou Macon stopped. He heard a hurried and whispered
+consultation. What did they expect? Then swift foot-falls on the floor,
+and she opened the door. There was a smile of expectancy on her lips;
+her eyes were bright; but when she saw Donnegan her lips pinched in. She
+stared at him as if he were a ghost.
+
+"I knew; I knew!" she said piteously, falling back a step but still
+keeping her hand upon the knob of the door as if to block the way to
+Donnegan. "Oh, Jack, he has killed Lord Nick and now he is here--"
+
+To do what? To kill Landis in turn? Her horrified eyes implied as much.
+He saw Landis in the distance raise himself upon one elbow and his face
+was gray, not with pain but with dread.
+
+"It can't be!" groaned Landis.
+
+"Lord Nick is alive," said Donnegan. "And I have not come here to
+torment you; I have only come to ask that you let me speak with you
+alone for a moment, Lou!"
+
+He watched her face intently. All the cabin was in deep shadow, but the
+golden hair of the girl glowed as if with an inherent light of its own,
+and the same light touched her face. Jack Landis was stricken with
+panic: he stammered in a dreadful eagerness of fear.
+
+"Don't leave me, Lou. You know what it means. He wants to get you out of
+the way so that the colonel can be alone with me. Don't go, Lou! Don't
+go!"
+
+As though she saw how hopeless it was to try to bar Donnegan by closing
+the door against him, she fell back to the bed. She kept her eye on the
+little man, as if to watch against a surprise attack, and, fumbling
+behind her, her hand found the hand of Landis and closed over it with
+the reassurance of a mother.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Jack. I won't leave you. Not unless they carry me away
+by force."
+
+"I give you my solemn word." said Donnegan in torment, "that the colonel
+shall not come near Landis while you're away with me."
+
+"Your word!" murmured the girl with a sort of horrified wonder. "Your
+word!"
+
+And Donnegan bowed his head.
+
+But all at once she cast out her free hand toward him, while the other
+still cherished the weakness of Jack Landis.
+
+"Oh, give them up!" she cried. "Give up my father and all his wicked
+plans. There is something good in you. Give him up; come with us;
+stand for us: and we shall be grateful all our lives!"
+
+The little man had removed his hat, so that the sunshine burned brightly
+on his red hair. Indeed, there was always a flamelike quality about him.
+In inaction he seemed femininely frail and pale; but when his spirit was
+roused his eyes blazed as his hair burned in the sunlight.
+
+"You shall learn in the end," he said to the girl, "that everything I
+do, I do for you."
+
+She cried out as if he had struck her.
+
+"It's not worthy of you," she said bitterly. "You are keeping Jack
+here--in peril--for my sake?"
+
+"For your sake," said Donnegan.
+
+She looked at him with a queer pain in her eyes.
+
+"To keep you from needless lying," she said, "let me tell you that Jack
+has told me everything. I am not angry because you come and pretend that
+you do all these horrible things for my sake. I know my father has
+tempted you with a promise of a great deal of money. But in the end you
+will get nothing. No, he will twist everything away from you and leave
+you nothing! But as for me--I know everything; Jack told me."
+
+"He has told you what? What?"
+
+"About the woman you love."
+
+"The woman I love?" echoed Donnegan, stupefied.
+
+It seemed that Lou Macon could only name her with an effort that left
+her trembling.
+
+"The Lebrun woman," she said. "Jack has told me."
+
+"Did you tell her that?" he asked Landis.
+
+"The whole town knows it," stammered the wounded man.
+
+The cunning hypocrisy spurred Donnegan. He put his foot on the threshold
+of the shack, and at this the girl cried out and shrank from him; but
+Landis was too paralyzed to stir or speak. For a moment Donnegan was
+wildly tempted to pour his torrent of contempt and accusation upon
+Landis. To what end? To prove to the girl that the big fellow had coolly
+tricked her? That it was to be near Nelly Lebrun as much as to be away
+from the colonel that he wished so ardently to leave the shack? After
+all, Lou Macon was made happy by an illusion; let her keep it.
+
+He looked at her sadly again. She stood defiant over Landis; ready to
+protect the helpless bulk of the man.
+
+So Donnegan closed the door softly and turned away with ashes in his
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+35
+
+
+When Nelly Lebrun raised her head from her hands, Donnegan was a far
+figure; yet even in the distance she could catch the lilt and easy sway
+of his body; he rode as he walked, lightly, his feet in the stirrups
+half taking his weight in a semi-English fashion. For a moment she was
+on the verge of spurring after him, but she kept the rein taut and
+merely stared until he dipped away among the hills. For one thing she
+was quite assured that she could not overtake that hard rider; and,
+again, she felt that it was useless to interfere. To step between Lord
+Nick and one of his purposes would have been like stepping before an
+avalanche and commanding it to halt with a raised hand.
+
+She watched miserably until even the dust cloud dissolved and the bare,
+brown hills alone remained before her. Then she turned away, and hour
+after hour let her black jog on.
+
+To Nelly Lebrun this day was one of those still times which come over
+the life of a person, and in which they see themselves in relation to
+the rest of the world clearly. It would not be true to say that Nelly
+loved Donnegan. Certainly not as yet, for the familiar figure of Lord
+Nick filled her imagination. But the little man was different. Lord
+Nick commanded respect, admiration, obedience; but there was about
+Donnegan something which touched her in an intimate and disturbing
+manner. She had felt the will-o'-the-wisp flame which burned in him in
+his great moments. It was possible for her to smile at Donnegan; it was
+possible even to pity him for his fragility, his touchy pride about his
+size; to criticize his fondness for taking the center of the stage even
+in a cheap little mining camp like this and strutting about, the center
+of all attention. Yet there were qualities in him which escaped her, a
+possibility of metallic hardness, a pitiless fire of purpose.
+
+To Lord Nick, he was as the bull terrier to the mastiff.
+
+But above all she could not dislodge the memory of his strange talk with
+her at Lebrun's. Not that she did not season the odd avowals of Donnegan
+with a grain of salt, but even when she had discounted all that he said,
+she retained a quivering interest. Somewhere beneath his words she
+sensed reality. Somewhere beneath his actions she felt a selfless
+willingness to throw himself away.
+
+As she rode she was comparing him steadily with Lord Nick. And as she
+made the comparisons she felt more and more assured that she could pick
+and choose between the two. They loved her, both of them. With Nick it
+was an old story; with Donnegan it might be equally true in spite of its
+newness. And Nelly Lebrun felt rich. Not that she would have been
+willing to give up Lord Nick. By no means. But neither was she willing
+to throw away Donnegan. Diamonds in one hand and pearls in the other.
+Which handful must she discard?
+
+She remained riding an unconscionable length of time, and when she drew
+rein again before her father's house, the black was flecked with foam
+from his clamped bit, and there was a thick lather under the stirrup
+leathers. She threw the reins to the servant who answered her call and
+went slowly into the house.
+
+Donnegan, by this time, was dead. She began to feel that it would be
+hard to look Lord Nick in the face again. His other killings had often
+seemed to her glorious. She had rejoiced in the invincibility of her
+lover.
+
+Now he suddenly took on the aspect of a murderer.
+
+She found the house hushed. Perhaps everyone was at the gaming house;
+for now it was midafternoon. But when she opened the door to the
+apartment which they used as a living room she found Joe Rix and the
+Pedlar and Lester sitting side by side, silent. There was no whisky in
+sight; there were no cards to be seen. Marvel of marvels, these three
+men were spending their time in solemn thought. A sudden thought rushed
+over her, and her cry told where her heart really lay, at least at this
+time.
+
+"Lord Nick--has he been--"
+
+The Pedlar lifted his gaunt head and stared at her without expression.
+It was Joe Rix who answered.
+
+"Nick's upstairs."
+
+"Safe?"
+
+"Not a scratch."
+
+She sank into a chair with a sigh, but was instantly on edge again with
+the second thought.
+
+"Donnegan?" she whispered.
+
+"Safe and sound," said Lester coldly.
+
+She could not gather the truth of the statement.
+
+"Then Nick got Landis back before Donnegan returned?"
+
+"No."
+
+Like any other girl, Nelly Lebrun hated a puzzle above all things in the
+world, at least a puzzle which affected her new friends.
+
+"Lester, what's happened?" she demanded.
+
+At this Lester, who had been brooding upon the floor, raised his eyes
+and then switched one leg over the other. He was a typical cowman, was
+Lester, from his crimson handkerchief knotted around his throat to his
+shop-made boots which fitted slenderly about his instep with the care of
+a gloved hand.
+
+"I dunno what happened," said Lester. "Which looks like what counts is
+the things that didn't happen. Landis is still with that devil, Macon.
+Donnegan is loose without a scratch, and Lord Nick is in his room with a
+face as black as a cloudy night."
+
+And briefly he described how Lord Nick had gone up the hill, seen the
+colonel, come back, taken a horse litter, and gone up the hill again,
+while the populace of The Corner waited for a crash. For Donnegan had
+arrived in the meantime. And how Nick had gone into the cabin, remained
+a singularly long time, and then come out, with a face half white and
+half red and an eye that dared anyone to ask questions. He had strode
+straight home to Lebrun's and gone to his room; and there he remained,
+never making a sound.
+
+"But I'll give you my way of readin' the sign on that trail," said
+Lester. "Nick goes up the hill to clean up on Donnegan. He sees him;
+they size each other up in a flash; they figure that if they's a gun it
+means a double killin'--and they simply haul off and say a perlite
+fare-thee-well."
+
+The girl paid no attention to these remarks. She was sunk in a brown
+study.
+
+"There's something behind it all," she said, more to herself than to the
+men. "Nick is proud as the devil himself. And I can't imagine why he'd
+let Donnegan go. Oh, it might have been done if they'd met alone in the
+desert. But with the whole town looking on and waiting for Nick to clean
+up on Donnegan--no, it isn't possible. There must have been a showdown
+of some kind."
+
+There was a grim little silence after this.
+
+"Maybe there was," said the Pedlar dryly. "Maybe there was a
+showdown--and the wind-up of it is that Nick comes home meek as a
+six-year-old broke down in front."
+
+She stared at him, first astonished, and then almost frightened.
+
+"You mean that Nick may have taken water?"
+
+The three, as one man, shrugged their shoulders, and met her glance with
+cold eyes.
+
+"You fools!" cried the girl, springing to her feet. "He'd rather die!"
+
+Joe Rix leaned forward, and to emphasize his point he stabbed one dirty
+forefinger into the fat palm of his other hand.
+
+"You just start thinkin' back," he said solemnly, "and you'll remember
+that Donnegan has done some pretty slick things."
+
+Lester added with a touch of contempt: "Like shootin' down Landis one
+day and then sittin' down and havin' a nice long chat with you the next.
+I dunno how he does it."
+
+"That hunch of yours," said the girl fiercely, "ought to be roped and
+branded--lie! Lester, don't look at me like that. And if you think Nick
+has lost his grip on things you're dead wrong. Step light, Lester--and
+the rest of you. Or Nick may hear you walk--and think."
+
+She flung out of the room and raced up the stairs to Lord Nick's room.
+There was an interval without response after her first knock. But when
+she rapped again he called out to know who was there. At her answer she
+heard his heavy stride cross the room, and the door opened slowly. His
+face, as she looked up to it, was so changed that she hardly knew him.
+His hair was unkempt, on end, where he had sat with his fingers thrust
+into it, buried in thought. And the marks of his palms were red upon his
+forehead.
+
+"Nick," she whispered, frightened, "what is it?"
+
+He looked down half fiercely, half sadly at her. And though his lips
+parted they closed again before he spoke. Fear jumped coldly in Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+"Did Donnegan--" she pleaded, white-faced. "Did he--"
+
+"Did he bluff me out?" finished Nick. "No, he didn't. That's what
+everybody'll say. I know it, don't I? And that's why I'm staying here by
+myself, because the first fool that looks at me with a question in his
+face, why--I'll break him in two."
+
+She pressed close to him, more frightened than before. That Lord Nick
+should have been driven to defend himself with words was almost too much
+for credence.
+
+"You know I don't believe it, Nick? You know that I'm not doubting you?"
+
+But he brushed her hands roughly away.
+
+"You want to know what it's all about? Then go over to--well, to
+Milligan's. Donnegan will be there. He'll explain things to you, I
+guess. He wants to see you. And maybe I'll come over later and join
+you."
+
+Seeing Lord Nick before her, so shaken, so gray of face, so dull of eye,
+she pictured Donnegan as a devil in human form, cunning, resistless.
+
+"Nick, dear--" she pleaded.
+
+He closed the door in her face, and she heard his heavy step go back
+across the room. In some mysterious manner she felt the Promethean fire
+had been stolen from Lord Nick, and Donnegan's was the hand that had
+robbed him of it.
+
+
+
+
+36
+
+
+It was fear that Nelly Lebrun felt first of all. It was fear because
+the impossible had happened and the immovable object had been at last
+moved. Going back to her own room, the record of Lord Nick flashed
+across her mind; one long series of thrilling deeds. He had been a great
+and widely known figure on the mountain desert while she herself was no
+more than a girl. When she first met him she had been prepared for the
+sight of a firebreathing monster; and she had never quite recovered from
+the first thrill of finding him not devil but man.
+
+Quite oddly, now that there seemed another man as powerful as Lord Nick
+or even more terrible, she felt for the big man more tenderly than ever;
+for like all women, there was a corner of her heart into which she
+wished to receive a thing she could cherish and protect. Lord Nick, the
+invincible, had seemed without any real need of other human beings. His
+love for her had seemed unreal because his need of her seemed a
+superficial thing. Now that he was in sorrow and defeat she suddenly
+visualized a Lord Nick to whom she could truly be a helpmate. Tears came
+to her eyes at the thought.
+
+Yet, very contradictorily and very humanly, the moment she was in her
+room she began preparing her toilet for that evening at Lebrun's. Let no
+one think that she was already preparing to cast Lord Nick away and turn
+to the new star in the sky of the mountain desert. By no means. No doubt
+her own heart was not quite clear to Nelly. Indeed, she put on her most
+lovely gown with a desire for revenge. If Lord Nick had been humbled by
+this singular Donnegan, would it not be a perfect revenge to bring
+Donnegan himself to her feet? Would it not be a joy to see him turn pale
+under her smile, and then, when he was well-nigh on his knees, spurn the
+love which he offered her?
+
+She set her teeth and her eyes gleamed with the thought. But
+nevertheless she went on lavishing care in the preparation for that
+night.
+
+As she visioned the scene, the many curious eyes that watched her with
+Donnegan; the keen envy in the faces of the women; the cold watchfulness
+of the men, were what she pictured.
+
+In a way she almost regretted that she was admired by such fighting men,
+Landis, Lord Nick, and now Donnegan, who frightened away the rank and
+file of other would-be admirers. But it was a pang which she could
+readily control and subdue.
+
+To tell the truth the rest of the day dragged through a weary length. At
+the dinner table her father leaned to her and talked in his usual
+murmuring voice which could reach her own ear and no other by any
+chance.
+
+"Nelly, there's going to be the devil to pay around The Corner. You know
+why. Now, be a good girl and wise girl and play your cards. Donnegan is
+losing his head; he's losing it over you. So play your cards."
+
+"Turn down Nick and take up Donnegan?" she asked coldly.
+
+"I've said enough already," said her father, and would not speak again.
+But it was easy to see that he already felt Lord Nick's star to be past
+its full glory.
+
+Afterward, Lebrun himself took his daughter over to Milligan's and left
+her under the care of the dance-hall proprietor.
+
+"I'm waiting for someone," said Nelly, and Milligan sat willingly at her
+table and made talk. He was like the rest of The Corner--full of the
+subject of the strange encounter between Lord Nick and Donnegan. What
+had Donnegan done to the big man? Nelly merely smiled and said they
+would all know in time: one thing was certain--Lord Nick had not taken
+water. But at this Milligan smiled behind his hand.
+
+Ten minutes later there was that stir which announced the arrival of
+some public figures; and Donnegan with big George behind him came into
+the room. This evening he went straight to the table to Nelly Lebrun.
+Milligan, a little uneasy, rose. But Donnegan was gravely polite and
+regretted that he had interrupted.
+
+"I have only come to ask you for five minutes of your time," he said to
+the girl.
+
+She was about to put him off merely to make sure of her hold over him,
+but something she saw in his face fascinated her. She could not play her
+game. Milligan had slipped away before she knew it, and Donnegan was in
+his place at the table. He was as much changed as Lord Nick, she
+thought. Not that his clothes were less carefully arranged than ever,
+but in the compression of his lips and something behind his eyes she
+felt the difference. She would have given a great deal indeed to have
+learned what went on behind the door of Donnegan's shack when Lord Nick
+was there.
+
+"Last time you asked for one minute and stayed half an hour," she said.
+"This time it's five minutes."
+
+No matter what was on his mind he was able to answer fully as lightly.
+
+"When I talk about myself, I'm always long-winded."
+
+"Tonight it's someone else?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She was, being a woman, intensely disappointed, but her smile was as
+bright as ever.
+
+"Of course I'm listening."
+
+"You remember what I told you of Landis and the girl on the hill?"
+
+"She seems to stick in your thoughts, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"Yes, she's a lovely child."
+
+And by his frankness he very cunningly disarmed her. Even if he had
+hesitated an instant she would have been on the track of the truth, but
+he had foreseen the question and his reply came back instantly.
+
+He added: "Also, what I say has to do with Lord Nick."
+
+"Ah," said the girl a little coldly.
+
+Donnegan went on. He had chosen frankness to be his role and he played
+it to the full.
+
+"It is a rather wonderful story," he went on. "You know that Lord Nick
+went up the hill for Landis? And The Corner was standing around waiting
+for him to bring the youngster down?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"There was only one obstacle--which you had so kindly removed--myself."
+
+"For your own sake, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"Ah, don't you suppose that I know?" And his voice touched her. "He came
+to kill me. And no doubt he could have done so."
+
+Such frankness shocked her into a new attention.
+
+Perhaps Donnegan overdid his part a little at this point, for in her
+heart of hearts she knew that the little man would a thousand times
+rather die than give way to any living man.
+
+"But I threw my case bodily before him--the girl--her love for
+Landis--and the fear which revolved around your own unruly eyes, you
+know, if he were sent back to your father's house. I placed it all
+before him. At first he was for fighting at once. But the story appealed
+to him. He pitied the girl. And in the end he decided to let the matter
+be judged by a third person. He suggested a man. But I know that a man
+would see in my attitude nothing but foolishness. No man could have
+appreciated the position of that girl on the hill. I myself named
+another referee--yourself."
+
+She gasped.
+
+"And so I have come to place the question before you, because I know
+that you will decide honestly."
+
+"Then I shall be honest," said the girl.
+
+She was thinking: Why not have Landis back? It would keep the three men
+revolving around her. Landis on his feet and well would have been
+nothing; either of these men would have killed him. But Landis sick she
+might balance in turn against them both. Nelly had the instincts of a
+fencer; she loved balance.
+
+But Donnegan was heaping up his effects. For by the shadow in her eyes
+he well knew what was passing through her mind, and he dared not let her
+speak too quickly.
+
+"There is more hanging upon it. In the first place, if Landis is left
+with the girl it gives the colonel a chance to work on him, and like as
+not the colonel will get the young fool to sign away the mines to
+him--frighten him, you see, though I've made sure that the colonel will
+not actually harm him."
+
+"How have you made sure? They say the colonel is a devil."
+
+"I have spoken with him. The colonel is not altogether without
+sensibility to fear."
+
+She caught the glint in the little man's eye and she believed.
+
+"So much for that. Landis is safe, but his money may not be. Another
+thing still hangs upon your decision. Lord Nick wanted to know why I
+trusted to you? Because I felt you were honest. Why did I feel that?
+There was nothing to do. Besides, how could I conceal myself from such a
+man? I spoke frankly and told him that I trusted you because I love
+you."
+
+She closed her hand hard on the edge of the table to steady herself.
+
+"And he made no move at you?"
+
+"He restrained himself."
+
+"Lord Nick?" gasped the incredulous girl.
+
+"He is a gentleman," said Donnegan with a singular pride which she could
+not understand.
+
+He went on: "And unfortunately I fear that if you decide in favor of my
+side of the argument, I fear that Lord Nick will feel that you--that
+you--"
+
+He was apparently unable to complete his sentence.
+
+"He will feel that you no longer care for him," said Donnegan at length.
+
+The girl pondered him with cloudy eyes.
+
+"What is behind all this frankness?" she asked coldly.
+
+"I shall tell you. Hopelessness is behind it. Last night I poured my
+heart at your feet. And I had hope. Today I have seen Lord Nick and I no
+longer hope."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"He is worthy of a lovely woman's affection; and I--" He called her
+attention to himself with a deprecatory gesture.
+
+"Do you ask me to hurt him like this?" said the girl. "His pride is the
+pride of the fiend. Love me? He would hate me!"
+
+"It might be true. Still I know you would risk it, because--" he paused.
+
+"Well?" asked the girl, whispering in her excitement.
+
+"Because you are a lady."
+
+He bowed to her.
+
+"Because you are fair; because you are honest, Nelly Lebrun. Personally
+I think that you can win Lord Nick back with one minute of smiling. But
+you might not. You might alienate him forever. It will be clumsy to
+explain to him that you were influenced not by me, but by justice. He
+will make it a personal matter, whereas you and I know that it is only
+the right that you are seeing."
+
+She propped her chin on the tips of her fingers, and her arm was a thing
+of grace. For the last moments that clouded expression had not cleared.
+
+"If I only could read your mind," she murmured now. "There is something
+behind it all."
+
+"I shall tell you what it is. It is the restraint that has fallen upon
+me. It is because I wish to lean closer to you across the table and
+speak to you of things which are at the other end of the world from
+Landis and the other girl. It is because I have to keep my hands gripped
+hard to control myself. Because, though I have given up hope, I would
+follow a forlorn chance, a lost cause, and tell you again and again that
+I love you, Nelly Lebrun!"
+
+He had half lowered his eyes as he spoke; he had called up a vision, and
+the face of Lou Macon hovered dimly between him and Nelly Lebrun. If all
+that he spoke was a lie, let him be forgiven for it; it was the
+golden-haired girl whom he addressed, and it was she who gave the tremor
+and the fiber to his voice. And after all was he not pleading for her
+happiness as he believed?
+
+He covered his eyes with his hand; but when he looked up again she could
+see the shadow of the pain which was slowly passing. She had never seen
+such emotion in any man's face, and if it was for another, how could she
+guess it? Her blood was singing in her veins, and the old, old question
+was flying back and forth through her brain like a shuttle through a
+loom: Which shall it be?
+
+She called up the picture of Lord Nick, half-broken, but still terrible,
+she well knew. She pitied him, but when did pity wholly rule the heart
+of a woman? And as for Nelly Lebrun, she had the ambition of a young
+Caesar; she could not fill a second place. He who loved her must stand
+first, and she saw Donnegan as the invincible man. She had not believed
+half of his explanation. No, he was shielding Lord Nick; behind that
+shield the truth was that the big man had quailed before the small.
+
+Of course she saw that Donnegan, pretending to be constrained by his
+agreement with Lord Nick, was in reality cunningly pleading his own
+cause. But his passion excused him. When has a woman condemned a man for
+loving her beyond the rules of fair play?
+
+"Whatever you may decide," Donnegan was saying. "I shall be prepared to
+stand by it without a murmur. Send Landis back to your father's house
+and I submit: I leave The Corner and say farewell. But now, think
+quickly. For Lord Nick is coming to receive your answer."
+
+
+
+
+37
+
+
+If the meeting between Lord Nick and Donnegan earlier that day had
+wrought up the nerves of The Corner to the point of hysteria; if the
+singular end of that meeting had piled mystery upon excitement; if the
+appearance of Donnegan, sitting calmly at the table of the girl who was
+known to be engaged to Nick, had further stimulated public curiosity,
+the appearance of Lord Nick was now a crowning burden under which The
+Corner staggered.
+
+Yet not a man or a woman stirred from his chair, for everyone knew that
+if the long-delayed battle between these two gunfighters was at length
+to take place, neither bullet was apt to fly astray.
+
+But what happened completed the wreck of The Corner's nerves, for Lord
+Nick walked quietly across the floor and sat down with Nelly Lebrun and
+his somber rival.
+
+Oddly enough, he looked at Donnegan, not at the girl, and this token of
+the beaten man decided her.
+
+"Well?" said Lord Nick.
+
+"I have decided," said the girl. "Landis should stay where he is."
+
+Neither of the two men stirred hand or eye. But Lord Nick turned gray.
+At length he rose and asked Donnegan, quietly, to step aside with him.
+Seeing them together, the difference between their sizes was more
+apparent: Donnegan seemed hardly larger than a child beside the splendid
+bulk of Lord Nick. But she could not overhear their talk.
+
+"You've won," said Lord Nick, "both Landis and Nelly. And--"
+
+"Wait," broke in Donnegan eagerly. "Henry, I've persuaded Nelly to see
+my side of the case, but that doesn't mean that she has turned from you
+to--"
+
+"Stop!" put in Lord Nick, between his teeth. "I've not come to argue
+with you or ask advice or opinions. I've come to state facts. You've
+crawled in between me and Nelly like a snake in the grass. Very well.
+You're my brother. That keeps me from handling you. You've broken my
+reputation just as I said you would do. The bouncer at the door looked
+me in the eye and smiled when I came in."
+
+He had to pause a little, breathing heavily, and avoiding Donnegan's
+eyes. Finally he was able to continue.
+
+"I'm going to roll my blankets and leave The Corner and everything I
+have in it. You'll get my share of most things, it seems." He smiled
+after a ghastly, mirthless fashion. "I give you a free road. I surrender
+everything to you, Donnegan. But there are two things I want to warn you
+about. It may be that my men will not agree with me. It may be that
+they'll want to put up a fight for the mine. They can't get at it
+without getting at Macon. They can't get at him without removing you.
+And they'll probably try it. I warn you now.
+
+"Another thing: from this moment there's no blood tie between us. I've
+found a brother and lost him in the same day. And if I ever cross you
+again, Donnegan, I'll shoot you on sight. Remember, I'm not threatening.
+I simply warn you in advance. If I were you, I'd get out of the country.
+Avoid me, Donnegan, as you'd avoid the devil."
+
+And he turned on his heel. He felt the eyes of the people in the room
+follow him by jerks, dwelling on every one of his steps. Near the door,
+stepping aside to avoid a group of people coming in, he half turned and
+he could not avoid the sight of Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun at the other
+end of the room. He was leaning across the table, talking with a smile
+on his lips--at that distance he could not mark the pallor of the little
+man's face--and Nelly Lebrun was laughing. Laughing already, and
+oblivious of the rest of the world.
+
+Lord Nick turned, a blur coming before his eyes, and made blindly for
+the door. A body collided with him; without a word he drew back his
+massive right fist and knocked the man down. The stunned body struck
+against the wall and collapsed along the floor. Lord Nick felt a great
+madness swell in his heart. Yet he set his teeth, controlled himself,
+and went on toward the house of Lebrun. He had come within an eyelash of
+running amuck, and the quivering hunger for action was still swelling
+and ebbing in him when he reached the gambler's house.
+
+Lebrun was not in the gaming house, no doubt, at this time of night--but
+the rest of Nick's chosen men were there. They stood up as he entered
+the room--Harry Masters, newly arrived--the Pedlar--Joe Rix--three names
+famous in the mountain desert for deeds which were not altogether a
+pleasant aroma in the nostrils of the law-abiding, but whose sins had
+been deftly covered from legal proof by the cunning of Nick, and whose
+bravery itself had half redeemed them. They rose now as three wolves
+rise at the coming of the leader. But this time there was a question
+behind their eyes, and he read it in gloomy silence.
+
+"Well?" asked Harry Masters.
+
+In the old days not one of them would have dared to voice the question,
+but now things were changing, and well Lord Nick could read the change
+and its causes.
+
+"Are you talking to me?" asked Nick, and he looked straight between the
+eyes of Masters.
+
+The glance of the other did not falter, and it maddened Nick.
+
+"I'm talking to you," said Masters coolly enough. "What happened between
+you and Donnegan?"
+
+"What should happen?" asked Lord Nick.
+
+"Maybe all this is a joke," said Masters bitterly. He was a square-built
+man, with a square face and a wrinkled, fleshy forehead. In
+intelligence, Nick ranked him first among the men. And if a new leader
+were to be chosen there was no doubt as to where the choice of the men
+would fall. No doubt that was why Masters put himself forward now, ready
+to brave the wrath of the chief. "Maybe we're fooled," went on Masters.
+"Maybe they ain't any call for you to fall out with Donnegan?"
+
+"Maybe there's a call to find out this," answered Lord Nick. "Why did
+you leave the mines? What are you doing up here?"
+
+The other swallowed so hard that he blinked.
+
+"I left the mines," he declared through his set teeth, "because I was
+run off 'em."
+
+"Ah," said Lord Nick, for the devil was rising in him, "I always had an
+idea that you might be yellow, Masters."
+
+The right hand of Masters swayed toward his gun, hesitated, and then
+poised idly.
+
+"You heard me talk?" persisted Lord Nick brutally. "I call you yellow.
+Why don't you draw on me? I called you yellow, you swine, and I call the
+rest of you yellow. You think you have me down? Why, curse you, if there
+were thirty of your cut, I'd say the same to you!"
+
+There was a quick shift, the three men faced Lord Nick, but each from a
+different angle. And opposing them, he stood superbly indifferent, his
+arms folded, his feet braced. His arms were folded, but each hand, for
+all they knew, might be grasping the butt of a gun hidden away in his
+clothes. Once they flashed a glance from face to face; but there was no
+action. They were remembering only too well some of the wild deeds of
+this giant.
+
+"You think I'm through," went on Lord Nick. "Maybe I am--through with
+you. You hear me talk?"
+
+One by one, his eyes dared them, and one by one they took up the
+challenge, struggled, and lowered their glances. He was still their
+master and in that mute moment the three admitted it, the Pedlar last of
+all.
+
+Masters saw fit to fall back on the last remark.
+
+"I've swallowed a lot from you, Nick," he said gravely.
+
+"Maybe there'll be an end to what we take one of these days. But now
+I'll tell you how yellow I was. A couple of gents come to me and tell me
+I'm through at the mine. I told them they were crazy. They said old
+Colonel Macon had sent them down to take charge. I laughed at 'em. They
+went away and came back. Who with? With the sheriff. And he flashed a
+paper on me. It was all drawn up clean as a whistle. Trimmed up with a
+lot of 'whereases' and 'as hereinbefore mentioned' and such like things.
+But the sheriff just gimme a look and then he tells me what it's about.
+Jack Landis has signed over all the mines to the colonel and the
+colonel has taken possession."
+
+As he stopped, a growl came from the others.
+
+"Lester is the man that has the complaint," said Lord Nick. "Where do
+the rest of you figure in it? Lester had the mines; he lost 'em because
+he couldn't drop Landis with his gun. He'd never have had a smell of the
+gold if I hadn't come in. Who made Landis see light? I did! Who worked
+it so that every nickel that came out of the mines went through the
+fingers of Landis and came back to us? I did! But I'm through with you.
+You can hunt for yourselves now. I've kept you together to guard one
+another's backs. I've kept the law off your trail. You, Masters, you'd
+have swung for killing the McKay brothers. Who saved you? Who was it
+bribed the jury that tried you for the shooting up of Derbyville,
+Pedlar? Who took the marshal off your trail after you'd knifed Lefty
+Waller, Joe Rix? I've saved you all a dozen times. Now you whine at me.
+I'm through with you forever!"
+
+Stopping, he glared about him. His knuckles stung from the impact of the
+blow he had delivered in Milligan's place. He hungered to have one of
+these three stir a hand and get into action.
+
+And they knew it. All at once they crumbled and became clay in his
+hands.
+
+"Chief," said Joe Rix, the smoothest spoken of the lot, and one who was
+supposed to stand specially well with Lord Nick on account of his
+ability to bake beans, Spanish. "Chief, you've said a whole pile. You're
+worth more'n the rest of us all rolled together. Sure. We know that.
+There ain't any argument. But here's just one little point that I want
+to make.
+
+"We was doing fine. The gold was running fine and free. Along comes this
+Donnegan. He busts up our good time. He forks in on your girl--"
+
+A convulsion of the chief's face made Rix waver in his speech and then
+he went on: "He shoots Landis, and when he misses killing him--by some
+accident, he comes down here and grabs him out of Lebrun's own house.
+Smooth, eh? Then he makes Landis sign that deed to the mines. Oh, very
+nice work, I say. Too nice.
+
+"'Now, speakin' man to man, they ain't any doubt that you'd like to get
+rid of Donnegan. Why don't you? Because everybody has a jinx, and he's
+yours. I ain't easy scared, maybe, but I knew an albino with white eyes
+once, and just to look at him made me some sick. Well, chief, they ain't
+nobody can say that you ever took water or ever will. But maybe the fact
+that this Donnegan has hair just as plumb red as yours may sort of get
+you off your feed. I'm just suggesting. Now, what I say is, let the rest
+of us take a crack at Donnegan, and you sit back and come in on the
+results when we've cleaned up. D'you give us a free road?"
+
+How much went through the brain of Lord Nick? But in the end he gave his
+brother up to death. For he remembered how Nelly Lebrun had sat in
+Milligan's laughing.
+
+"Do what you want," he said suddenly. "But I want to know none of your
+plans--and the man that tells me Donnegan is dead gets paid--in lead!"
+
+
+
+
+38
+
+
+The smile of Joe Rix was the smile of a diplomat. It could be maintained
+upon his face as unwaveringly as if it were wrought out of marble while
+Joe heard insult and lie. As a matter of fact Joe had smiled in the face
+of death more than once, and this is a school through which even
+diplomats rarely pass. Yet it was with an effort that he maintained the
+characteristic good-natured expression when the door to Donnegan's shack
+opened and he saw big George and, beyond him, Donnegan himself.
+
+"Booze," said Joe Rix to himself instantly.
+
+For Donnegan was a wreck. The unshaven beard--it was the middle of
+morning--was a reddish mist over his face. His eyes were sunken in
+shadow. His hair was uncombed. He sat with his shoulders hunched up like
+one who suffers from cold. Altogether his appearance was that of one
+whose energy has been utterly sapped.
+
+"The top of the morning, Mr. Donnegan," said Joe Rix, and put his foot
+on the threshold.
+
+But since big George did not move it was impossible to enter.
+
+"Who's there?" asked Donnegan.
+
+It was a strange question to ask, for by raising his eyes he could have
+seen. But Donnegan was staring down at the floor. Even his voice was a
+weak murmur.
+
+"What a party! What a party he's had!" thought Joe Rix, and after all,
+there was cause for a celebration. Had not the little man in almost one
+stroke won the heart of the prettiest girl in The Corner, and also did
+he not probably have a working share in the richest of the diggings?
+
+"I'm Joe Rix," he said.
+
+"Joe Rix?" murmured Donnegan softly. "Then you're one of Lord Nick's
+men?"
+
+"I was," said Joe Rix, "sort of attached to him, maybe."
+
+Perhaps this pointed remark won the interest of Donnegan. He raised his
+eyes, and Joe Rix beheld the most unhappy face he had ever seen. "A bad
+hangover," he decided, "and that makes it bad for me!"
+
+"Come in," said Donnegan in the same monotonous, lifeless voice.
+
+Big George reluctantly, it seemed, withdrew to one side, and Rix was
+instantly in the room and drawing out a chair so that he could face
+Donnegan.
+
+"I was," he proceeded "sort of tied up with Lord Nick. But"--and here he
+winked broadly--"it ain't much of a secret that Nick ain't altogether a
+lord any more. Nope. Seems he turned out sort of common, they say."
+
+"What fool," murmured Donnegan, "has told you that? What ass had told
+you that Lord Nick is a common sort?"
+
+It shocked Joe Rix, but being a diplomat he avoided friction by changing
+his tactics.
+
+"Between you and me," he said calmly enough, "I took what I heard with a
+grain of salt. There's something about Nick that ain't common, no matter
+what they say. Besides, they's some men that nobody but a fool would
+stand up to. It ain't hardly a shame for a man to back down from 'em."
+
+He pointed this remark with a nod to Donnegan.
+
+"I'll give you a bit of free information," said the little man, with his
+weary eyes lighted a little. "There's no man on the face of the earth
+who could make Lord Nick back down."
+
+Once more Joe Rix was shocked to the verge of gaping, but again he
+exercised a power of marvelous self control "About that," he remarked
+as pointedly as before, "I got my doubts. Because there's some things
+that any gent with sense will always clear away from. Maybe not one
+man--but say a bunch of all standin' together."
+
+Donnegan leaned back in his chair and waited. Both of his hands remained
+drooping from the edge of the table, and the tired eyes drifted slowly
+across the face of Joe Rix.
+
+It was obviously not the aftereffects of liquor. The astonishing
+possibility occurred to Joe Rix that this seemed to be a man with a
+broken spirit and a great sorrow. He blinked that absurdity away.
+
+"Coming to cases," he went on, "there's yourself, Mr. Donnegan. Now,
+you're the sort of a man that don't sidestep nobody. Too proud to do it.
+But even you, I guess, would step careful if there was a whole bunch
+agin' you."
+
+"No doubt," remarked Donnegan.
+
+"I don't mean any ordinary bunch," explained Joe Rix, "but a lot of hard
+fellows. Gents that handle their guns like they was born with a holster
+on the hip."
+
+"Fellows like Nick's crowd," suggested Donnegan quietly.
+
+At this thrust the eyes of Joe narrowed a little.
+
+"Yes," he admitted, "I see you get my drift."
+
+"I think so."
+
+"Two hard fighters would give the best man that ever pulled a gun a lot
+of trouble. Eh?"
+
+"No doubt."
+
+"And three men--they ain't any question, Mr. Donnegan--would get him
+ready for a hole in the ground."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"And four men would make it no fight--jest a plain butchery."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Now, I don't mean that Nick's crowd has any hard feeling about you, Mr.
+Donnegan."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that."
+
+"I knew you'd be. That's why I've come, all friendly, to talk things
+over. Suppose you look at it this way--"
+
+"Joe Rix," broke in Donnegan, sighing, "I'm very tired. Won't you cut
+this short? Tell me in ten words just how you stand."
+
+Joe Rix blinked once more, caught his breath, and fired his volley.
+
+"Short talk is straight talk, mostly," he declared. "This is what Lester
+and the rest of us want--the mines!"
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Macon stole 'em. We got 'em back through Landis. Now we've got to get
+'em back through the colonel himself. But we can't get at the colonel
+while you're around."
+
+"In short, you're going to start out to get me? I expected it, but it's
+kind of you to warn me."
+
+"Wait, wait, wait! Don't rush along to conclusions. We ain't so much in
+a hurry. We don't want you out of the way. We just want you on our
+side."
+
+"Shoot me up and then bring me back to life, eh?"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," said the other, spreading out his hands solemnly on the
+table, "you ain't doin' us justice. We don't hanker none for trouble
+with you. Any way it comes, a fight with you means somebody dead besides
+you. We'd get you. Four to one is too much for any man. But one or two
+of us might go down. Who would it be? Maybe the Pedlar, maybe Harry
+Masters, maybe Lester, maybe me! Oh, we know all that. No gunplay if we
+can keep away from it."
+
+"You've left out the name of Lord Nick," said Donnegan.
+
+Joe Rix winked.
+
+"Seems like you tended to him once and for all when you got him alone in
+this cabin. Must have thrown a mighty big scare into him. He won't lift
+a hand agin' you now."
+
+"No?" murmured Donnegan hoarsely.
+
+"Not him! But that leaves four of us, and four is plenty, eh?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"But I'm not here to insist on that point. No, we put a value on keepin'
+up good feeling between us and you, Mr. Donnegan. We ain't fools. We
+know a man when we see him--and the fastest gunman that ever slid a gun
+out of leather ain't the sort of a man that me and the rest of the boys
+pass over lightly. Not us! We know you, Mr. Donnegan; we respect you; we
+want you with us; we're going to have you with us."
+
+"You flatter me and I thank you. But I'm glad to see that you are at
+last coming to the point."
+
+"I am, and the point is five thousand dollars that's tied behind the
+hoss that stands outside your door."
+
+He pushed his fat hand a little way across the table, as though the gold
+even then were resting in it, a yellow tide of fortune.
+
+"For which," said Donnegan, "I'm to step aside and let you at the
+colonel?"
+
+"Right."
+
+Donnegan smiled.
+
+"Wait," said Joe Rix. "I was makin' a first offer to see how you stood,
+but you're right. Five thousand ain't enough and we ain't cheapskates.
+Not us. Mr. Donnegan, they's ten thousand cold iron men behind that
+saddle out there and every cent of it belongs to you when you come over
+on our side."
+
+But Donnegan merely dropped his chin upon his hand and smiled
+mirthlessly at Joe Rix. A wild thought came to the other man. Both of
+Donnegan's hands were far from his weapons. Why not a quick draw, a snap
+shot, and then the glory of having killed this manslayer in single
+battle for Joe Rix?
+
+The thought rushed red across his brain and then faded slowly. Something
+kept him back. Perhaps it was the singular calm of Donnegan; no matter
+how quiet he sat he suggested the sleeping cat which can leap out of
+dead sleep into fighting action at a touch. By the time a second thought
+had come to Joe Rix the idea of an attack was like an idea of suicide.
+
+"Is that final?" he asked, though Donnegan had not said a word.
+
+"It is."
+
+Joe Rix stood up.
+
+"You put it to us kind of hard. But we want you, Mr. Donnegan. And
+here's the whole thing in a nutshell. Come over to us. We'll stand
+behind you. Lord Nick is slipping. We'll put you in his place. You won't
+even have to face him; we'll get rid of him."
+
+"You'll kill him and give his place to me?" asked Donnegan.
+
+"We will. And when you're with us, you cut in on the whole amount of
+coin that the mines turn out--and it'll be something tidy. And right
+now, to show where we stand and how high we put you, I'll let you in on
+the rock-bottom truth. Mr. Donnegan. out there tied behind my saddle
+there's thirty thousand dollars in pure gold. You can take it in here
+and weigh it out!"
+
+He stepped back to watch this blow take effect. To his unutterable
+astonishment the little man had not moved. His chin still rested upon
+the back of his hand, and the smile which was on the lips and not in the
+eyes of Donnegan remained there, fixed.
+
+"Donnegan," muttered Joe Rix, "if we can't get you, we'll get rid of
+you. You understand?"
+
+But the other continued to smile.
+
+It gave Joe Rix a shuddering feeling that someone was stealing behind
+him to block his way to the door. He cast one swift glance over his
+shoulder and then, seeing that the way was clear, he slunk back, always
+keeping his face to the red-headed man. But when he came to the doorway
+his nerve collapsed. He whirled, covered the rest of the distance with a
+leap, and emerged from the cabin in a fashion ludicrously like one who
+has been kicked through a door.
+
+His nerve returned as soon as the sunlight fell warmly upon him again;
+and he looked around hastily to see if anyone had observed his flight.
+
+There was no one on the whole hillside except Colonel Macon in the
+invalid chair, and the colonel was smiling broadly, beneficently. He had
+his perfect hands folded across his breast and seemed to cast a prayer
+of peace and goodwill upon Joe Rix.
+
+
+
+
+39
+
+
+Nelly Lebrun smelled danger. She sensed it as plainly as the deer when
+the puma comes between her and the wind. The many tokens that something
+was wrong came to her by small hints which had to be put together before
+they assumed any importance.
+
+First of all, her father, who should have burst out at her in a tirade
+for having left Lord Nick for Donnegan said nothing at all, but kept a
+dark smile on his face when she was near him. He even insinuated that
+Nick's time was done and that another was due to supersede him.
+
+In the second place, she had passed into a room where Masters, Joe Rix,
+and the Pedlar sat cheek by jowl in close conference with a hum of deep
+voice. But at her appearance all talk was broken off.
+
+It was not strange that they should not invite her into their confidence
+if they had some dark work ahead of them; but it was exceedingly
+suspicious that Joe Rix attempted to pass off their whispers by
+immediately breaking off the soft talk and springing into the midst of a
+full-fledged jest; also, it was strangest of all that when the jest
+ended even the Pedlar, who rarely smiled, now laughed uproariously and
+smote Joe soundingly upon the back.
+
+Even a child could have strung these incidents into a chain of evidence
+which pointed toward danger. Obviously the danger was not directly hers,
+but then it must be directed at some one near to her. Her father? No, he
+was more apt to be the mainspring of their action. Lord Nick? There was
+nothing to gain by attacking him. Who was left? Donnegan!
+
+As the realization came upon her it took her breath away for a moment.
+Donnegan was the man. At breakfast everyone had been talking about him.
+Lebrun had remarked that he had a face for the cards--emotionless. Joe
+Rix had commented upon his speed of hand, and the Pedlar had
+complimented the little man on his dress.
+
+But at lunch not a word was spoken about Donnegan even after she had
+dexterously introduced the subject twice. Why the sudden silence?
+Between morning and noon Donnegan must have grievously offended them.
+
+Fear for his sake stimulated her; but above and beyond this, indeed,
+there was a mighty feminine curiosity. She smelled the secret; it reeked
+through the house, and she was devoured by eagerness to know. She
+handpicked Lord Nick's gang in the hope of finding a weakness among
+them; some weakness upon which she could play in one of them and draw
+out what they were all concealing. The Pedlar was as unapproachable as a
+crag on a mountaintop. Masters was wise as an outlaw broncho. Lester was
+probably not even in the confidence of the others because since the
+affair with Landis his nerve had been shattered to bits and the others
+secretly despised him for being beaten by the youngster at the draw.
+There remained, therefore, only Joe Rix.
+
+But Joe Rix was a fox of the first quality. He lied with the smoothness
+of silk. He could show a dozen colors in as many moments. Come to the
+windward of Joe Rix? It was a delicate business! But since there was
+nothing else to do, she fixed her mind upon it, working out this puzzle.
+Joe Rix wished to destroy Donnegan for reasons that were evidently
+connected with the mines. And she must step into his confidence to
+discover his plans. How should it be done? And there was a vital need
+for speed, for they might be within a step of executing whatever
+mischief it was that they were planning.
+
+She went down from her room; they were there still, only Joe Rix was
+not with them. She went to the apartment where he and the other three of
+Nick's gang slept and rapped at the door. He maintained his smile when
+he saw her, but there was an uncertain quiver of his eyebrows that told
+her much. Plainly he was ill at ease. Suspicious? Ay, there were always
+clouds of suspicion drifting over the red, round face of Joe Rix. She
+put a tremor of excitement and trouble in her voice.
+
+"Come into my room, Joe, where we won't be interrupted."
+
+He followed her without a word, and since she led the way she was able
+to relax her expression for a necessary moment. When she closed the door
+behind him and faced Joe again she was once more ready to step into her
+part. She did not ask him to sit down. She remained for a moment with
+her hand on the knob and searched the face of Joe Rix eagerly.
+
+"Do you think he can hear?" she whispered, gesturing over her shoulder.
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Who but Lord Nick!" she exclaimed softly.
+
+The bewilderment of Joe clouded his face a second and then he was able
+to smooth it away. What on earth was the reason of her concern about
+Lord Nick he was obviously wondering.
+
+"I'll tell you why," she said, answering the unspoken question at once.
+"He's as jealous as the devil, Joe!"
+
+The fat little man sighed as he looked at her.
+
+"He can't hear. Not through that log wall. But we'll talk soft, if you
+want."
+
+"Yes, yes. Keep your voice down. He's already jealous of you, Joe."
+
+"Of me?"
+
+"He knows I like you, that I trust you; and just now he's on edge about
+everyone I look at."
+
+The surprising news which the first part of this sentence contained
+caused Joe to gape, and the girl looked away in concern, enabling him to
+control his expression. For she knew well enough that men hate to appear
+foolishly surprised. And particularly a fox like Joe Rix.
+
+"But what's the trouble, Nelly?" He added with a touch of venom: "I
+thought everything was going smoothly with you. And I thought you
+weren't worrying much about what Lord Nick had in his mind."
+
+She stared at him as though astonished.
+
+"Do you think just the same as the rest of them?" she asked sadly. "Do
+you mean to say that you're fooled just the same as Harry Masters and
+the Pedlar and the rest of those fools--including Nick himself?"
+
+Joe Rix was by no means willing to declare himself a fool beforehand. He
+now mustered a look of much reserved wisdom.
+
+"I have my own doubts, Nell, but I'm not talking about them."
+
+He was so utterly at sea that she had to bite her lip hard to keep from
+breaking into ringing laughter.
+
+"Oh, I knew that you'd seen through it, Joe," she cried softly. "You see
+what an awful mess I've gotten into?"
+
+He passed a hurried hand across his forehead and then looked at her
+searchingly. But he could not penetrate her pretense of concern.
+
+"No matter what I think," said Joe Rix, "you come out with it frankly.
+I'll listen."
+
+"As a friend, Joe?"
+
+She managed to throw a plea into her voice that made Joe sigh.
+
+"Sure. You've already said that I'm your friend, and you're right."
+
+"I'm in terrible, terrible trouble! You know how it happened. I was a
+fool. I tried to play with Lord Nick. And now he thinks I was in
+earnest."
+
+As though the strength of his legs had given way, Joe Rix slipped down
+into a chair.
+
+"Go on," he said huskily. "You were playing with Lord Nick?"
+
+"Can't you put yourself in my place, Joe? It's always been taken for
+granted that I'm to marry Nick. And the moment he comes around everybody
+else avoids me as if I were poison. I was sick of it. And when he showed
+up this time it was the same old story. A man would as soon sign his own
+death warrant as ask me for a dance. You know how it is?"
+
+He nodded, still at sea, but with a light beginning to dawn in his
+little eyes.
+
+"I'm only a girl, Joe. I have all the weakness of other girls. I don't
+want to be locked up in a cage just because I--love one man!"
+
+The avowal made Joe blink. It was the second time that day that he had
+been placed in an astonishing scene. But some of his old cunning
+remained to him.
+
+"Nell," he said suddenly, rising from his chair and going to her. "What
+are you trying to do to me? Pull the wool over my eyes?"
+
+It was too much for Nelly Lebrun. She knew that she could not face him
+without betraying her guilt and therefore she did not attempt it. She
+whirled and flung herself on her bed, face down, and began to sob
+violently, suppressing the sounds. And so she waited.
+
+Presently a hand touched her shoulder lightly.
+
+"Go away," cried Nelly in a choked voice. "I hate you, Joe Rix. You're
+like all the rest!"
+
+His knee struck the floor with a soft thud.
+
+"Come on, Nell. Don't be hard on me. I thought you were stringing me a
+little. But if you're playing straight, tell me what you want?"
+
+At that she bounced upright on the bed, and before he could rise she
+caught him by both shoulders.
+
+"I want Donnegan," she said fiercely.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I want him dead!"
+
+Joe Rix gasped.
+
+"Here's the cause of all my trouble. Just because I flirted with him
+once or twice, Nick thought I was in earnest and now he's sulking. And
+Donnegan puts on airs and acts as if I belonged to him. I hate him, Joe.
+And if he's gone Nick will come back to me. He'll come back to me, Joe;
+and I want him so!"
+
+She found that Joe Rix was staring straight into her eyes, striving to
+probe her soul to its depths, and by a great effort she was enabled to
+meet that gaze. Finally the fat little man rose slowly to his feet. Her
+hands trailed from his shoulders as he stood up and fell helplessly upon
+her lap.
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged, Nell!" exclaimed Joe Rix.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You're not acting a part? No, I can see you mean it. But what a
+cold-blooded little--" He checked himself. His face was suddenly
+jubilant. "Then we've got him, Nell. We've got him if you're with us. We
+had him anyway, but we'll make sure of him if you're with us. Look at
+this! You saw me put a paper in my pocket when I opened the door of my
+room? Here it is!"
+
+He displayed before the astonished eyes of Nelly Lebrun a paper covered
+with an exact duplicate of her own swift, dainty script. And she read:
+
+  Nick is terribly angry and is making trouble. I have to get
+  away. It isn't safe for me to stay here. Will you help me?
+  Will you meet me at the shack by Donnell's ford tomorrow
+  morning at ten o'clock?
+
+"But I didn't write it," cried Nelly Lebrun, bewildered.
+
+"Nelly," Joe Rix chuckled, flushing with pleasure, "you didn't. It was
+me. I kind of had an idea that you wanted to get rid of this Donnegan,
+and I was going to do it for you and then surprise you with the good
+news."
+
+"Joe, you forged it?"
+
+"Don't bother sayin' pretty things about me and my pen," said Rix
+modestly. "This is nothin'! But if you want to help me, Nelly--"
+
+His voice faded partly out of her consciousness as she fought against a
+tigerish desire to spring at the throat of the little fat man. But
+gradually it dawned on her that he was asking her to write out that note
+herself. Why? Because it was possible that Donnegan might have seen her
+handwriting and in that case, though the imitation had been good enough
+to deceive Nelly herself, it probably would not for a moment fool the
+keen eyes of Donnegan. But if she herself wrote out the note, Donnegan
+was already as good as dead.
+
+"That is," concluded Joe Rix, "if he really loves you, Nell."
+
+"The fool!" cried Nelly. "He worships the ground I walk on, Joe. And I
+hate him for it."
+
+Even Joe Rix shivered, for he saw the hate in her eyes and could not
+dream that he himself was the cause and the object of it. There was a
+red haze of horror and confusion in front of her eyes, and yet she was
+able to smile while she copied the note for Joe Rix.
+
+"But how are you going to work it?" she asked. "How are you going to
+kill him, Joe?"
+
+"Don't bother your pretty head," said the fat man, smiling. "Just wait
+till we bring you the good news."
+
+"But are you sure?" she asked eagerly. "See what he's done already. He's
+taken Landis away from us; he's baffled Nick himself, in some manner;
+and he's gathered the mines away from all of us. He's a devil, Joe, and
+if you want to get him you'd better take ten men for the job."
+
+"You hate him, Nell, don't you?" queried Joe Rix, and his voice was both
+hard and curious. "But how has he harmed you?"
+
+"Hasn't he taken Nick away from me? Isn't that enough?"
+
+The fat man shivered again.
+
+"All right. I'll tell you how it works. Now, listen!"
+
+And he began to check off the details of his plan.
+
+
+
+
+40
+
+
+The day passed and the night, but how very slowly for Nelly Lebrun; she
+went up to her room early for she could no longer bear the meaning
+glances which Joe Rix cast at her from time to time. But once in her
+room it was still harder to bear the suspense as she waited for the
+noise to die away in the house. Midnight, and half an hour more went by,
+and then, at last, the murmurs and the laughter stopped; she alone was
+wakeful in Lebrun's. And when that time came she caught a scarf around
+her hair and her shoulders, made of a filmy material which would veil
+her face but through which she could see, and ventured out of her room
+and down the hall.
+
+There was no particular need for such caution, however, it seemed.
+Nothing stirred. And presently she was outside the house and hurrying
+behind the houses and up the hill. Still she met nothing. If The Corner
+lived tonight, its life was confined to Milligan's and the gambling
+house.
+
+She found Donnegan's shack and the one next to it, which the terrible
+colonel occupied, entirely dark, but only a moment after she tapped at
+the door it was opened. Donnegan, fully dressed, stood in the entrance,
+outlined blackly by the light which came faintly from the hooded lantern
+hanging on the wall. Was he sitting up all the night, unable to sleep
+because he waited breathlessly for that false tryst on the morrow? A
+great tenderness came over the heart of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"It is I," she whispered.
+
+There was a soft exclamation, then she was drawn into the room.
+
+"Is there anyone here?"
+
+"Only big George. But he's in the kitchen and he won't hear. He never
+hears anything except what's meant for his ear. Take this chair!"
+
+He was putting a blanket over the rough wood to make it more
+comfortable, and she submitted dumbly to his ministrations. It seemed
+terrible and strange to her that one so gentle should be the object of
+so much hate--such deadly hate as the members of Nick's gang felt for
+him. And now that he was sitting before her she could see that he had
+indeed been wakeful for a long time. His face was grimly wasted; the
+lips were compressed as one who has endured long pain; and his eyes
+gleamed at her out of a profound shadow. He remained in the gloom; the
+light from the lantern fell brightly upon his hands alone--meager,
+fleshless hands which seemed to represent hardly more strength than that
+of a child. Truly this man was all a creature of spirit and nerve.
+Therein lay his strength, as also his weakness, and again the cherishing
+instinct grew strong and swept over her.
+
+"There is no one near," he said, "except the colonel and his daughter.
+They are up the hillside, somewhere. Did you see them?"
+
+"No. What in the world are they out for at this time of night?"
+
+"Because the colonel only wakes up when the sun goes down. And now he's
+out there humming to himself and never speaking a word to the girl. But
+they won't be far away. They'll stay close to see that no one comes near
+the cabin to get at Landis."
+
+He added: "They must have seen you come into my cabin!"
+
+And his lips set even harder than before. Was it fear because of her?
+
+"They may have seen me enter, but they won't know who it was. You have
+the note from me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It's a lie! It's a ruse. I was forced to write it to save you! For
+they're planning to murder you. Oh, my dear!"
+
+"Hush! Hush! Murder?"
+
+"I've been nearly hysterical all day and all the night. But. thank
+heaven, I'm here to warn you in time! You mustn't go. You mustn't go!"
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+He had drawn his chair closer: he had taken her hands, and she noted
+that his own were icy cold, but steady as a rock. Their pressure soothed
+her infinitely.
+
+"Joe Rix, the Pedlar, Harry Masters. They'll be at the shack at ten
+o'clock, but not I!"
+
+"Murder, but a very clumsy scheme. Three men leave town and commit a
+murder and then expect to go undetected? Not even in the mountain
+desert!"
+
+"But you don't understand, you don't understand! They're wise as foxes.
+They'll take no risk. They don't even leave town together or travel by
+the same routes. Harry Masters starts first. He rides out at eight
+o'clock in the morning and takes the north trail. He rides down the
+gulch and winds out of it and strikes for the shack at the ford. At half
+past eight the Pedlar starts. He goes past Sandy's place and then over
+the trail through the marsh. You know it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Last of all, Joe Rix starts at nine o'clock. Half an hour between
+them."
+
+"How does he go to the shack?"
+
+"By the south trail. He takes the ridge of the hills. But they'll all be
+at the shack long before you and they'll shoot you down from a distance
+as you come up to it. Plain murder, but even for cowardly murder they
+daren't face you except three to one."
+
+He was thoughtful.
+
+"Suppose they were to be met on the way?"
+
+"You're mad to think of it!"
+
+"But if they fail this time they'll try again. They must be taught a
+lesson."
+
+"Three men? Oh, my dear, my dear! Promise!"
+
+"Very well. I shall do nothing rash. And I shall never forget that
+you've come to tell me this and been in peril, Nell, for if they found
+you had come to me--"
+
+"The Pedlar would cut my throat. I know him!"
+
+"Ah! But now you must go. I'll take you down the hill, dear."
+
+"No, no! It's much easier to get back alone. My face will be covered.
+But there's no way you could be disguised. You have a way of
+walking--good night--and God bless you!"
+
+She was in his arms, straining him to her; and then she slipped out the
+door.
+
+And sure enough, there was the colonel in his chair not fifty feet away
+with a girl pushing him. The moonlight was too dim for Nelly Lebrun to
+make out the face of Lou Macon, but even the light which escaped through
+the filter of clouds was enough to set her golden hair glowing. The
+color was not apparent, but its luster was soft silver in the night.
+There was a murmur of the colonel's voice as Nelly came out of the
+cabin.
+
+And then, from the girl, a low cry.
+
+It brought the blood to the cheeks of Nelly as she hurried down the
+hill, for she recognized the pain that was in it; and it occurred to her
+that if the girl was in love with Jack Landis she was strangely
+interested in Donnegan also.
+
+The thought came so sharply home to her that she paused abruptly on the
+way down the hill. After all, this Macon girl would be a very strange
+sort if she were not impressed by the little red-headed man, with his
+gentle voice and his fiery ways, and his easy way of making himself a
+brilliant spectacle whenever he appeared in public. And Nelly
+remembered, also, with the keen suspicion of a woman in love how weakly
+Donnegan had responded to her embrace this night. How absent-mindedly
+his arms had held her, and how numbly they had fallen away when she
+turned at the door.
+
+But she shook her head and made the suspicion shudder its way out of
+her. Lou Macon, she decided, was just the sort of girl who would think
+Jack Landis an ideal. Besides, she had never had an opportunity to see
+Donnegan in his full glory at Milligan's. And as for Donnegan? He was
+wearied out; his nerves relaxed; and for the deeds with which he had
+startled The Corner and won her own heart he was now paying the penalty
+in the shape of ruined nerves. Pity again swelled in her heart, and a
+consuming hatred for the three murderers who lived in her father's
+house.
+
+And when she reached her room again her heart was filled with a singing
+happiness and a glorious knowledge that she had saved the man she loved.
+
+And Donnegan himself?
+
+He had seen Lou and her father: he had heard that low cry of pain; and
+now he sat bowed again over his table, his face in his hands and a
+raging devil in his heart.
+
+
+
+
+41
+
+
+There was one complication which Nelly Lebrun might have foreseen after
+her pretended change of heart and her simulated confession to Joe Rix
+that she still loved the lionlike Lord Nick. But strangely enough she
+did not think of this phase: and even when her father the next morning
+approached her in the hall and tapping her arm whispered: "Good girl!
+Nick has just heard and he's hunting for you now!" Even then the full
+meaning did not come home to her. It was not until she saw the great
+form of Lord Nick stalking swiftly down the hall that she knew. He came
+with a glory in his face which the last day had graven with unfamiliar
+lines; and when he saw her he threw up his hand so that it almost
+brushed the ceiling, and cried out.
+
+What could she do? Try to push him away; to explain?
+
+There was nothing to be done. She had to submit when he swept her into
+his arms.
+
+"Rix has told me. Rix has told me. Ah, Nell, you little fox!"
+
+"Told you what, Nick?"
+
+Was he, too, a party to the murderous plan?
+
+But he allowed himself to be pushed away.
+
+"I've gone through something in the last few days. Why did you do it,
+girl?"
+
+She saw suddenly that she must continue to play her part.
+
+"Some day I'll tell you why it was that I gave you up so easily, Nell.
+You thought I was afraid of Donnegan?" He ground his teeth and turned
+pale at the thought. "But that wasn't it. Some day I can tell you. But
+after this, the first man who comes between us--Donnegan or any
+other--I'll turn him into powder--under my heel!"
+
+He ground it into the floor as he spoke. She decided that she would see
+how much he knew.
+
+"It will never be Donnegan, at least," she said. "He's done for today.
+And I'm almost sorry for him in spite of all that he's done."
+
+He became suddenly grave.
+
+"What are you saying, Nell?"
+
+"Why, Joe told you, didn't he? They've drawn Donnegan out of town, and
+now they're lying in wait for him. Yes, they must have him, by this
+time. It's ten o'clock!"
+
+A strangely tense exclamation broke from Lord Nick. "They've gone for
+Donnegan?"
+
+"Yes. Are you angry?"
+
+The big man staggered; one would have said that he had been stunned with
+a blow.
+
+"Garry!" he whispered.
+
+"What are you saying?"
+
+"Nell," he muttered hoarsely, "did you know about it?"
+
+"But I did it for you, Nick. I knew you hated--"
+
+"No, no! Don't say it!" He added bitterly, after a moment. "This is for
+my sins."
+
+And then, to her: "But you knew about it and didn't warn him? You hated
+him all the time you were laughing with him and smiling at him? Oh,
+Nell! What a merciless witch of a woman you are! For the rest of
+them--I'll wait till they come back!"
+
+"What are you going to do, Nick?"
+
+"I told them I'd pay the man who killed Donnegan--with lead. Did the
+fools think I didn't mean it?"
+
+Truly, no matter what shadow had passed over the big man, he was the
+lion again, and Nell shrank from him.
+
+"We'll wait for them," he said. "We'll wait for them here."
+
+And they sat down together in the room. She attempted to speak once in a
+shaken voice, but he silenced her with a gesture, and after that she sat
+and watched in quiet the singular play of varying expressions across his
+face. Grief, rage, tenderness, murderous hate--they followed like a
+puppet play.
+
+What was Donnegan to him? And then there was a tremor of fear. Would the
+three suspect when they reached the shack by the ford and no Donnegan
+came to them? The moments stole on. Then the soft beat of a galloping
+horse in the sand. The horse stopped. Presently they saw Joe Rix and
+Harry Masters pass in front of the window. And they looked as though a
+cyclone had caught them up, juggled them a dizzy distance in the air,
+and then flung them down carelessly upon bruising rocks. Their hats were
+gone; and the clothes of burly Harry Masters were literally torn from
+his back. Joe Rix was evidently far more terribly hurt, for he leaned on
+the arm of Masters and they came on together, staggering.
+
+"They've done the business!" exclaimed Lord Nick. "And now, curse them,
+I'll do theirs!"
+
+But the girl could not speak. A black haze crossed before her eyes. Had
+Donnegan gone out madly to fight the three men in spite of her warning?
+
+The door opened. They stood in the doorway, and if they had seemed a
+horrible sight passing the window, they were a deadly picture at close
+range. And opposite them stood Lord Nick; in spite of their wounds there
+was murder in his face and his revolver was out.
+
+"You've met him? You've met Donnegan?" he asked angrily.
+
+Masters literally carried Joe Rix to a chair and placed him in it. He
+had been shot through both shoulders, and though tight bandages had
+stanched the wound he was still in agony. Then Masters raised his head.
+
+"We've met him," he said.
+
+"What happened?"
+
+But Masters, in spite of the naked gun in the hand of Lord Nick, was
+looking straight at Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"We fought him."
+
+"Then say your prayers, Masters."
+
+"Say prayers for the Pedlar, you fool," said Masters bitterly. "He's
+dead, and Donnegan's still living!"
+
+There was a faint cry from Nelly Lebrun. She sank into her chair again.
+
+"We've been double-crossed," said Masters, still looking at the girl. "I
+was going down the gulch the way we planned. I come to the narrow place
+where the cliffs almost touch, and right off the wall above me drops a
+wildcat. I thought it was a cat at first. And then I found it was
+Donnegan.
+
+"The way he hit me from above knocked me off the horse. Then we hit the
+ground. I started for my gun; he got it out of my hand; I pulled my
+knife. He got that away, too. His fingers work with steel springs and
+act like a cat's claws. Then we fought barehanded. He didn't say a word.
+But kept snarling in his throat. Always like a cat. And his face was
+devilish. Made me sick inside. Pretty soon he dived under my arms. Got
+me up in the air. I came down on my head.
+
+"Of course I went out cold. When I came to there was still a mist in
+front of my eyes and this lump on the back of my head. He'd figured that
+my head was cracked and that I was dead. That's the only reason he left
+me. Later I climbed on my hoss and fed him the spur.
+
+"But I was too late. I took the straight cut for the ford, and when I
+got there I found that Donnegan had been there before me. Joe Rix was
+lyin' on the floor. When he got to the shack Donnegan was waitin' for
+him. They went for their guns and Donnegan beat him to it. The hound
+didn't shoot to kill. He plugged him through both shoulders, and left
+him lyin' helpless. But I got a couple of bandages on him and saved him.
+
+"Then we cut back for home and crossed the marsh. And there we found the
+Pedlar.
+
+"Too late to help him. Maybe Donnegan knew that the Pedlar was something
+of a flash with a gun himself, and he didn't take any chances. He'd met
+him face to face the same way he met Joe Rix and killed him. Shot him
+clean between the eyes. Think of shooting for the head with a snap shot!
+That's what he done and Joe didn't have time to think twice after that
+slug hit him. His gun wasn't even fired, he was beat so bad on the draw.
+
+"So Joe and me come back home. And we come full of questions!"
+
+"Let me tell you something," muttered Lord Nick, putting up the weapon
+which he had kept exposed during all of the recital. "You've got what
+was coming to you. If Donnegan hadn't cleaned up on you, you'd have had
+to talk turkey with me. Understand?"
+
+"Wait a minute," protested Harry Masters.
+
+And Joe Rix, almost too far gone for speech, set his teeth over a groan
+and cast a look of hatred at the girl.
+
+"Wait a minute, chief. There's one thing we all got to get straight.
+Somebody had tipped off Donnegan about our whole plan. Was it the Pedlar
+or Rix or me? I guess good sense'll tell a man that it wasn't none of
+us, eh? Then who was it? The only other person that knew about the
+plan--Nell--Nell, the crooked witch--and it's her that murdered the
+Pedlar--curse her!"
+
+He thrust out his bulky arm as he spoke.
+
+"Her that lied her way into our confidence with a lot of talk about you,
+Nick. Then what did she do? She goes runnin' to the gent that she said
+she hated. Don't you see her play? She makes fools of us--she makes a
+fool out of you!"
+
+She dared not meet the glance of Lord Nick. Even now she might have
+acted out her part and filled in with lies, but she was totally
+unnerved.
+
+"Get Rix to bed," was all he said, and he did not even glance at Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+Masters glowered at him, and then silently obeyed, lifting Joe as a
+helpless bulk, for the fat man was nearly fainting with pain. Not until
+they had gone and he had closed the door after them and upon the murmurs
+of the servants in the hall did Lord Nick turn to Nelly.
+
+"Is it true?" he asked shortly.
+
+Between relief and terror her mind was whirling.
+
+"Is what true?"
+
+"You haven't even sense enough to lie, Nell, eh? It's all true, then?
+And last night, after you'd wormed it out of Joe, you went to Donnegan?"
+
+She could only stare miserably at him.
+
+"And that was why you pushed me away when I kissed you a little while
+ago?"
+
+Once more she was dumb. But she was beginning to be afraid. Not for
+herself, but for Donnegan.
+
+"Nell, I told you I'd never let another man come between us again. I
+meant it. I know you're treacherous now; but that doesn't keep me from
+wanting you. It's Donnegan again--Donnegan still? Nell, you've killed
+him. As sure as if your own finger pulled the trigger when I shoot him.
+He's a dead one, and you've done it!"
+
+If words would only come! But her throat was stiff and cold and aching.
+She could not speak.
+
+"You've done more than kill him," said Lord Nick. "You've put a curse on
+me as well. And afterward I'm going to even up with you. You hear me?
+Nell, when I shoot Donnegan I'm doing a thing worse than if he was a
+girl--or a baby. You can't understand that; I don't want you to know.
+But some time when you're happy again and you're through grieving for
+Donnegan, I'll tell you the truth and make your heart black for the rest
+of your life."
+
+Still words would not come. She strove to cling to him and stop him, but
+he cast her away with a single gesture and strode out the door.
+
+
+
+
+42
+
+
+There was no crowd to block the hill at this second meeting of Donnegan
+and Lord Nick. There was a blank stretch of brown hillside with the wind
+whispering stealthily through the dead grass when Lord Nick thrust open
+the door of Donnegan's shack and entered.
+
+The little man had just finished shaving and was getting back into his
+coat while George carried out the basin of water. And Donnegan, as he
+buttoned the coat, was nodding slightly to the rhythm of a song which
+came from the cabin of the colonel near by. It was a clear, high music,
+and though the voice was light it carried the sound far. Donnegan looked
+up to Lord Nick; but still he kept the beat of the music.
+
+He seemed even more fragile this morning than ever before. Yet Lord Nick
+was fresh from the sight of the torn bodies of the two fighting men whom
+this fellow had struck and left for dead, or dying, as he thought.
+
+"Dismiss your servant," said Lord Nick.
+
+"George, you may go out."
+
+"And keep him out."
+
+"Don't come back until I call for you."
+
+Big George disappeared into the kitchen and the outside door was closed.
+Yet even with all the doors closed the singing of Lou Macon kept running
+through the cabin in a sweet and continuous thread.
+
+  What made the ball so fine?
+      Robin Adair!
+  What made the assembly shine?
+      Robin Adair!
+
+And no matter what Lord Nick could say, it seemed that with half his
+mind Donnegan was listening to the song of the girl.
+
+"First," said the big man, "I've broken my word."
+
+Donnegan waved his hand and dismissed the charge. He pointed to a chair,
+but Lord Nick paid no heed.
+
+"I've broken my word," he went on. "I promised that I'd give you a clear
+road to win over Nelly Lebrun. I gave you the road and you've won her,
+but now I'm taking her back!"
+
+"Ah, Henry," said Donnegan, and a flash of eagerness came in his eyes.
+"You're a thousand times welcome to her."
+
+Lord Nick quivered.
+
+"Do you mean it?"
+
+"Henry, don't you see that I was only playing for a purpose all the
+time? And if you've opened the eyes of Nelly to the fact that you truly
+love her and I've been only acting out of a heartless sham--why, I'm
+glad of it--I rejoice, Henry, I swear I do!"
+
+He came forward, smiling, and held out his hand; Lord Nick struck it
+down, and Donnegan shrank back, holding his wrist tight in the fingers
+of his other hand.
+
+"Is it possible?" murmured Henry Reardon. "Is it possible that she loves
+a man who despises her?"
+
+"Not that! If any other man said this to me, I'd call for an explanation
+of his meaning, Henry. No, no! I honor and respect her, I tell you. By
+heaven, Nick, she has a thread of pure, generous gold in her nature!"
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"She has saved my life no longer ago than this morning."
+
+"It's perfect," said Lord Nick. And he writhed under a torment. "I am
+discarded for the sake of a man who despises her!"
+
+Donnegan, frowning with thought, watched his older brother. And still
+the thin singing entered the room, that matchless old melody of "Robin
+Adair;" the day shall never come when that song does not go straight
+from heart to heart. But because Donnegan still listened to it, Lord
+Nick felt that he was contemptuously received, and a fresh spur was
+driven into his tender pride.
+
+"Donnegan!" he said sharply.
+
+Donnegan raised his hand slowly.
+
+"Do you call me by that name?"
+
+"Aye. You've ceased to be a brother. There's no blood tie between us
+now, as I warned you before."
+
+Donnegan, very white, moved back toward the wall and rested his
+shoulders lightly against it, as though he needed the support. He made
+no answer.
+
+"I warned you not to cross me again." exclaimed Lord Nick.
+
+"I have not."
+
+"Donnegan, you've murdered my men!"
+
+"Murder? I've met them fairly. Not murder, Henry."
+
+"Leave out that name, I say!"
+
+"If you wish," said Donnegan very faintly.
+
+The sight of his resistlessness seemed to madden Lord Nick. He made one
+of his huge strides and came to the center of the room and dominated all
+that was in it, including his brother.
+
+"You murdered my men," repeated Lord Nick. "You turned my girl against
+me with your lying love-making and turned her into a spy. You made her
+set the trap and then you saw that it was worked. You showed her how she
+could wind me around her finger again."
+
+"Will you let me speak?"
+
+"Aye, but be short."
+
+"I swear to you, Henry, that I've never influenced her to act against
+you; except to win her away for just one little time, and she will
+return to you again. It is only a fancy that makes her interested in me.
+Look at us! How could any woman in her senses prefer me?"
+
+"Are you done?"
+
+"No, no! I have more to say: I have a thousand things!"
+
+"I shall not hear them"
+
+"Henry, there is a black devil in your face. Beware of it."
+
+"Who put it there?"
+
+"It was not I."
+
+"What power then?"
+
+"Something over which I have no control."
+
+"Are you trying to mystify me?"
+
+"Listen!" And as Donnegan raised his hand, the singing poured clear and
+small into the room.
+
+"That is the power," said Donnegan.
+
+"You're talking gibberish'" exclaimed the other pettishly.
+
+"I suppose I shouldn't expect you to understand."
+
+"On the other hand, what I have to say is short and to the point. A
+child could comprehend it. You've stolen the girl. I tried to let her
+go. I can't. I have to have her. Willing or unwilling she has to belong
+to me, Donnegan."
+
+"If you wish, I shall promise that I shall never see her again or speak
+to her."
+
+"You fool' Won't she find you out? Do you think I could trust you? Only
+in one place--underground."
+
+Donnegan had clasped his hands upon his breast and his eyes were wide.
+
+"What is it you mean, Henry?"
+
+"I'll trust you--dead!"
+
+"Henry!"
+
+"That name means nothing to me I've forgotten it. The worlds has
+forgotten it."
+
+"Henry, I implore you to keep cool--to give me five minutes for talk--"
+
+"No, not one. I know your cunning tongue!"
+
+"For the sake of the days when you loved me, my brother. For the sake of
+the days when you used to wheel my chair and be kind to me."
+
+"You're wasting your time. You're torturing us both for nothing.
+Donnegan, my will is a rock. It won't change."
+
+And drawing closer his right hand gripped his gun and the trembling
+passion of the gunfighter set him shuddering.
+
+"You're armed, Garry. Go for your gun!"
+
+"No, no!"
+
+"Then I'll give you cause to fight."
+
+And as he spoke, he drew back his massive arm and with his open hand
+smote Donnegan heavily across the face. The weight of that blow crushed
+the little man against the wall.
+
+"Your gun!" cried Lord Nick, swaying from side to side as the passion
+choked him.
+
+Donnegan fell upon his knees and raised his arms.
+
+"God have mercy on me, and on yourself!"
+
+At that the blackness cleared slowly on the face of the big man; he
+thrust his revolver into the holster.
+
+"This time," he said, "there's no death. But sooner or later we meet,
+Donnegan, and then, I swear by all that lives, I'll shoot you
+down--without mercy--like a mad dog. You've robbed me; you've hounded
+me: you've killed my men: you've taken the heart of the woman I love.
+And now nothing can save you from the end."
+
+He turned on his heel and left the room.
+
+And Donnegan remained kneeling, holding a stained handkerchief to his
+face.
+
+All at once his strength seemed to desert him like a tree chopped at the
+root, and he wilted down against the wall with closed eyes.
+
+But the music still came out of the throat and the heart of Lou, and it
+entered the room and came into the ears of Donnegan. He became aware
+that there was a strength beyond himself which had sustained him, and
+then he knew it had been the singing of Lou from first to last which had
+kept the murder out of his own heart and restrained the hand of Lord
+Nick.
+
+Perhaps of all Donnegan's life, this was the first moment of true
+humility.
+
+
+
+
+43
+
+
+One thing was now clear. He must not remain in The Corner unless he was
+prepared for Lord Nick again: and in a third meeting guns must be drawn.
+From that greater sin he shrank, and prepared to leave. His order to
+George made the big man's eyes widen, but George had long since passed
+the point where he cared to question the decision of his master. He
+began to build the packs.
+
+As for Donnegan, he could see that there was little to be won by
+remaining. That would save Landis to Lou Macon, to be sure, but after
+all, he was beginning to wonder if it were not better to let the big
+fellow go back to his own kind--Lebrun and the rest. For if it needed
+compulsion to keep him with Lou now, might it not be the same story
+hereafter?
+
+Indeed, Donnegan began to feel that all his labor in The Corner had been
+running on a treadmill. It had all been grouped about the main purpose,
+which was to keep Landis with the girl. To do that now he must be
+prepared to face Nick again; and to face Nick meant the bringing of the
+guilt of fratricide upon the head of one of them. There only remained
+flight. He saw at last that he had been fighting blindly from the
+first. He had won a girl whom he did not love--though doubtless her
+liking was only the most fickle fancy. And she for whom he would have
+died he had taught to hate him. It was a grim summing up. Donnegan
+walked the room whistling softly to himself as he checked up his
+accounts.
+
+One thing at least he had done; he had taken the joy out of his life
+forever.
+
+And here, answering a rap at the door, he opened it upon Lou Macon. She
+wore a dress of some very soft material. It was a pale blue--faded, no
+doubt--but the color blended exquisitely with her hair and with the
+flush of her face. It came to Donnegan that it was an unnecessary
+cruelty of chance that made him see the girl lovelier than he had ever
+seen her before at the very moment when he was surrendering the last
+shadow of a claim upon her.
+
+And it hurt him, also, to see the freshness of her face, the clear eyes;
+and to hear her smooth, untroubled voice. She had lived untouched by
+anything save the sunshine in The Corner.
+
+Her glance flicked across his face and then fluttered down, and her
+color increased guiltily.
+
+"I have come to ask you a favor," she said.
+
+"Step in," said Donnegan, recovering his poise at length.
+
+At this, she looked past him, and her eyes widened a little. There was
+an imperceptible shrug of her shoulders, as though the very thought of
+entering this cabin horrified her. And Donnegan had to bear that look as
+well.
+
+"I'll stay here; I haven't much to say. It's a small thing."
+
+"Large or small," said Donnegan eagerly. "Tell me!"
+
+"My father has asked me to take a letter for him down to the town and
+mail it. I--I understand that it would be dangerous for me to go alone.
+Will you walk with me?"
+
+And Donnegan turned cold. Go down into The Corner? Where by five chances
+out of ten he must meet his brother in the street?
+
+"I can do better still," he said, smiling. "I'll have George take the
+letter down for you."
+
+"Thank you. But you see, father would not trust it to anyone save me. I
+asked him; he was very firm about it."
+
+"Tush! I would trust George with my life."
+
+"Yes, yes It is not what I wish--but my father rarely changes his
+mind."
+
+Perspiration beaded the forehead of Donnegan. Was there no way to evade
+this easy request?
+
+"You see," he faltered, "I should be glad to go--"
+
+She raised her eyes slowly.
+
+"But I am terribly busy this morning."
+
+She did not answer, but half of her color left her face.
+
+"Upon my word of honor there is no danger to a woman in the town."
+
+"But some of the ruffians of Lord Nick--"
+
+"If they dared to even raise their voices at you, they would hear from
+him in a manner that they would never forget."
+
+"Then you don't wish to go?"
+
+She was very pale now; and to Donnegan it was more terrible than the gun
+in the hand of Lord Nick. Even if she thought he was slighting her why
+should she take it so mortally to heart? For Donnegan, who saw all
+things, was blind to read the face of this girl.
+
+"It doesn't really matter," she murmured and turned away.
+
+A gentle motion, but it wrenched the heart of Donnegan. He was instantly
+before her.
+
+"Wait here a moment. I'll be ready to go down immediately."
+
+"No. I can't take you from your--work."
+
+What work did she assign to him in her imagination? Endless planning of
+deviltry no doubt.
+
+"I shall go with you," said Donnegan. "At first--I didn't dream it could
+be so important. Let me get my hat."
+
+He left her and leaped back into the cabin.
+
+"I am going down into The Corner for a moment," he said over his
+shoulder to George, as he took his belt down from the wall.
+
+The big man strode to the wall and took his hat from a nail.
+
+"I shall not need you, George."
+
+But George merely grinned, and his big teeth flashed at the master. And
+in the second place he took up a gun from the drawer and offered it to
+Donnegan.
+
+"The gun in that holster ain't loaded," he said.
+
+Donnegan considered him soberly.
+
+"I know it. There'll be no need for a loaded gun."
+
+But once more George grinned. All at once Donnegan turned pale.
+
+"You dog," he whispered. "Did you listen at the door when Nick was
+here?"
+
+"Me?" murmured George. "No, I just been thinking."
+
+And so it was that while Donnegan went down the hill with Lou Macon,
+carrying an empty-chambered revolver, George followed at a distance of a
+few paces, and he carried a loaded weapon unknown to Donnegan.
+
+It was the dull time of the day in The Corner. There were very few
+people in the single street, and though most of them turned to look at
+the little man and the girl who walked beside him, not one of them
+either smiled or whispered.
+
+"You see?" said Donnegan. "You would have been perfectly safe--even from
+Lord Nick's ruffians. That was one of his men we passed back there."
+
+"Yes. I'm safe with you," said the girl.
+
+And when she looked up to him, the blood of Donnegan turned to fire.
+
+Out of a shop door before them came a girl with a parcel under her arm.
+She wore a gay, semi-masculine outfit, bright-colored, jaunty, and she
+walked with a lilt toward them. It was Nelly Lebrun. And as she passed
+them. Donnegan lifted his hat ceremoniously high. She nodded to him with
+a smile, but the smile aimed wan and small in an instant. There was a
+quick widening and then a narrowing of her eyes, and Donnegan knew that
+she had judged Lou Macon as only one girl can judge another who is
+lovelier.
+
+He glanced at Lou to see if she had noticed, and he saw her raise her
+head and go on with her glance proudly straight before her; but her face
+was very pale, and Donnegan knew that she had guessed everything that
+was true and far more than the truth. Her tone at the door of the post
+office was ice.
+
+"I think you are right, Mr. Donnegan. There's no danger. And if you have
+anything else to do, I can get back home easily enough."
+
+"I'll wait for you," murmured Donnegan sadly, and he stood as the door
+of the little building with bowed head.
+
+And then a murmur came down the street. How small it was, and how
+sinister! It consisted of exclamations begun, and then broken sharply
+off. A swirl of people divided as a cloud of dust divides before a blast
+of wind, and through them came the gigantic figure of Lord Nick!
+
+On he came, a gorgeous figure, a veritable king of men. He carried his
+hat in his hand and his red hair flamed, and he walked with great
+strides. Donnegan glanced behind him. The way was clear. If he turned,
+Lord Nick would not pursue him, he knew.
+
+But to flee even from his brother was more than he could do; for the
+woman he loved would know of it and could never understand.
+
+He touched the holster that held his empty gun--and waited!
+
+An eternity between every step of Lord Nick. Others seemed to have
+sensed the meaning of this silent scene. People seemed to stand frozen
+in the midst of gestures. Or was that because Donnegan's own thoughts
+were traveling at such lightning speed that the rest of the world seemed
+standing still? What kept Lou Macon? If she were with him, not even Lord
+Nick in his madness would force on a gunplay in the presence of a woman,
+no doubt.
+
+Lord Nick was suddenly close; he had paused; his voice rang over the
+street and struck upon Donnegan's ear as sounds come under water.
+
+"Donnegan!"
+
+"Aye!" called Donnegan softly.
+
+"It's the time!"
+
+"Aye," said Donnegan.
+
+Then a huge body leaped before him; it was big George. And as he sprang
+his gun went up with his hand in a line of light. The two reports came
+close together as finger taps on a table, and big George, completing his
+spring, lurched face downward into the sand.
+
+Dead? Not yet. All his faith and selflessness were nerving the big man.
+And Donnegan stood behind him, unarmed!
+
+He reared himself upon his knees--an imposing bulk, even then, and fired
+again. But his hand was trembling, and the bullet shattered a sign above
+the head of Lord Nick. He, in his turn, it seemed to Donnegan that the
+motion was slow, twitched up the muzzle of his weapon and fired once
+more from his hip. And big George lurched back on the sand, with his
+face upturned to Donnegan. He would have spoken, but a burst of blood
+choked him; yet his eyes fixed and glazed, he mustered his last
+strength and offered his revolver to Donnegan.
+
+But Donnegan let the hand fall limp to the ground. There were voices
+about him; steps running; but all that he clearly saw was Lord Nick with
+his feet braced, and his head high.
+
+"Donnegan! Your gun!"
+
+"Aye," said Donnegan.
+
+"Take it then!"
+
+But in the crisis, automatically Donnegan flipped his useless revolver
+out of its holster and into his hand. At the same instant the gun from
+Nick's hand seemed to blaze in his eyes. He was struck a crushing blow
+in his chest. He sank upon his knees: another blow struck his head, and
+Donnegan collapsed on the body of big George.
+
+
+
+
+44
+
+
+An ancient drunkard in the second story of one of the stores across the
+street had roused himself at the sound of the shots and now he dragged
+himself to the window and began to scream: "Murder! Murder!" over and
+over, and even The Corner shuddered at the sound of his voice.
+
+Lord Nick, his revolver still in his hand, stalked through the film of
+people who now swirled about him, eager to see the dead. There was no
+call for the law to make its appearance, and the representatives of the
+law were wisely dilatory in The Corner.
+
+He stood over the two motionless figures with a stony face.
+
+"You saw it, boys," he said. "You know what I've borne from this fellow.
+The big man pulled his gun first on me. I shot in self-defense. As
+for--the other--it was a square fight."
+
+"Square fight," someone answered. "You both went for your irons at the
+same time. Pretty work, Nick."
+
+It was a solid phalanx of men which had collected around the moveless
+bodies as swiftly as mercury sinks through water. Yet none of them
+touched either Donnegan or George. And then the solid group dissolved at
+one side. It was the moan of a woman which had scattered it, and a
+yellow-haired girl slipped through them. She glanced once, in horror, at
+the mute faces of the men, and then there was a wail as she threw
+herself on the body of Donnegan. Somewhere she found the strength of a
+man to lift him and place him face upward on the sand, the gun trailing
+limply in his hand. And then she lay, half crouched over him, her face
+pressed to his heart--listening--listening for the stir of life.
+
+Shootings were common in The Corner; the daily mortality ran high; but
+there had never been aftermaths like this one. Men looked at one
+another, and then at Lord Nick. A bright spot of color had come in his
+cheeks, but his face was as hard as ever.
+
+"Get her away from him," someone murmured.
+
+And then another man cried out, stooped, wrenched the gun from the limp
+hand of Donnegan and opened the cylinder. He spun it: daylight was
+glittering through the empty cylinder.
+
+At this the man stiffened, and with a low bow which would have done
+credit to a drawing-room, he presented the weapon butt first to Lord
+Nick.
+
+"Here's something the sheriff will want to see," he said, "but maybe
+you'll be interested, too."
+
+But Lord Nick, with the gun in his hand, stared at it dumbly, turned the
+empty cylinder. And the full horror crept slowly on his mind. He had not
+killed his brother, he had murdered him. As his eyes cleared, he caught
+the glitter of the eyes which surrounded him.
+
+And then Lou Macon was on her knees with her hands clasped at her breast
+and her face glorious.
+
+"Help!" she was crying. "Help me. He's not dead, but he's dying unless
+you help me!"
+
+Then Lord Nick cast away his own revolver and the empty gun of Donnegan.
+They heard him shout: "Garry!" and saw him stride forward.
+
+Instantly men pressed between, hard-jawed men who meant business. It was
+a cordon he would have to fight his way through: but he dissolved it
+with a word.
+
+"You fools! He's my brother!"
+
+And then he was on his knees opposite Lou Macon.
+
+"You?" she had stammered in horror.
+
+"His brother, girl."
+
+And ten minutes later, when the bandages had been wound, there was a
+strange sight of Lord Nick striding up the street with his victim in his
+arms. How lightly he walked; and he was talking to the calm, pale face
+which rested in the hollow of his shoulder.
+
+"He will live? He will live?" Lou Macon was pleading as she hurried at
+the side of Lord Nick.
+
+"God willing, he shall live!"
+
+
+It was three hours before Donnegan opened his eyes. It was three days
+before he recovered his senses, and looking aside toward the door he saw
+a brilliant shaft of sunlight falling into the room. In the midst of it
+sat Lou Macon. She had fallen asleep in her great weariness now that the
+crisis was over. Behind her, standing, his great arms folded, stood the
+indomitable figure of Lord Nick.
+
+Donnegan saw and wondered greatly. Then he closed his eyes dreamily.
+"Hush," said Donnegan to himself, as if afraid that what he saw was all
+a dream. "I'm in heaven, or if I'm not, it's still mighty good to be
+alive."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
+
+*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10066 ***
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+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
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+<div>*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10066 ***</div>
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+
+<a name="GUNMAN'S_RECKONING"></a><h2>GUNMAN'S RECKONING</h2>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+
+<h2>Max Brand</h2>
+
+
+<h3>1921</h3>
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<h2>GUNMAN'S RECKONING</h2>
+
+
+<table summary="" align="center" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#1">1</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#2">2</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#3">3</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#4">4</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#5">5</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#6">6</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#7">7</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#8">8</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#9">9</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#10">10</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#11">11</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#12">12</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#13">13</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#14">14</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#15">15</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#16">16</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#17">17</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#18">18</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#19">19</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#21">21</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#22">22</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#23">23</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#24">24</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#25">25</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#26">26</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#27">27</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#28">28</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#29">29</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#30">30</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#31">31</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#32">32</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#33">33</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#34">34</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#35">35</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#36">36</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#37">37</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#38">38</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#39">39</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#40">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#41">41</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#42">42</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#43">43</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#44">44</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="1"></a><h2>1</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The fifty empty freights danced and rolled and rattled on the rough road
+bed and filled Jericho Pass with thunder; the big engine was laboring
+and grunting at the grade, but five cars back the noise of the
+locomotive was lost. Yet there is a way to talk above the noise of a
+freight train just as there is a way to whistle into the teeth of a
+stiff wind. This freight-car talk is pitched just above the ordinary
+tone&mdash;it is an overtone of conversation, one might say&mdash;and it is
+distinctly nasal. The brakie could talk above the racket, and so, of
+course, could Lefty Joe. They sat about in the center of the train, on
+the forward end of one of the cars. No matter how the train lurched and
+staggered over that fearful road bed, these two swayed in their places
+as easily and as safely as birds on swinging perches. The brakie had
+touched Lefty Joe for two dollars; he had secured fifty cents; and since
+the vigor of Lefty's oaths had convinced him that this was all the money
+the tramp had, the two now sat elbow to elbow and killed the distance
+with their talk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's like old times to have you here,&quot; said the brakie. &quot;You used to
+play this line when you jumped from coast to coast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure,&quot; said Lefty Joe, and he scowled at the mountains on either side
+of the pass. The train was gathering speed, and the peaks lurched
+eastward in a confused, ragged procession. &quot;And a durned hard ride it's
+been many a time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kind of queer to see you,&quot; continued the brakie. &quot;Heard you was rising
+in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He caught the face of the other with a rapid side glance, but Lefty Joe
+was sufficiently concealed by the dark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heard you were the main guy with a whole crowd behind you,&quot; went on the
+brakie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yeh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure. Heard you was riding the cushions, and all that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yeh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I guess it was all bunk; here you are back again, anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yep,&quot; agreed Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>The brakie scratched his head, for the silence of the tramp convinced
+him that there had been, after all, a good deal of truth in the rumor.
+He ran back on another tack and slipped about Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never laid much on what they said,&quot; he averred. &quot;I know you, Lefty;
+you can do a lot, but when it comes to leading a whole gang, like they
+said you was, and all that&mdash;well, I knew it was a lie. Used to tell 'em
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You talked foolish, then,&quot; burst out Lefty suddenly. &quot;It was all
+straight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie could hear the click of his companion's teeth at the period
+to this statement, as though he regretted his outburst.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'll be hanged,&quot; murmured the brakie innocently.</p>
+
+<p>Ordinarily, Lefty was not easily lured, but this night he apparently was
+in the mood for talk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kennebec Lou, the Clipper, and Suds. Them and a lot more. They was all
+with me; they was all under me; I was the Main Guy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What a ring in his voice as he said it! The beaten general speaks thus
+of his past triumphs. The old man remembered his youth in such a voice.
+The brakie was impressed; he repeated the three names.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even Suds?&quot; he said. &quot;Was even Suds with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even Suds!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie stirred a little, wabbling from side to side as he found a
+more comfortable position; instead of looking straight before him, he
+kept a side-glance steadily upon his companion, and one could see that
+he intended to remember what was said on this night.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even Suds,&quot; echoed the brakie. &quot;Good heavens, and ain't he a man for
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was a man,&quot; replied Lefty Joe with an indescribable emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Huh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He ain't a man any more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Get bumped off?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. Busted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie considered this bit of news and rolled it back and forth and
+tried its flavor against his gossiping palate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you fix him after he left you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see. You busted him while he was still with you. Then Kennebec Lou
+and the Clipper get sore at the way you treat Suds. So here you are back
+on the road with your gang all gone bust. Hard luck, Lefty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Lefty whined with rage at this careless diagnosis of his downfall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're all wrong,&quot; he said. &quot;You're all wrong. You don't know nothin'.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie waited, grinning securely into the night, and preparing his
+mind for the story. But the story consisted of one word, flung bitterly
+into the rushing air.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Him?&quot; cried the brakie, starting in his place.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot; cried Lefty, and his voice made the word into a curse.</p>
+
+<p>The brakie nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Them that get tangled with Donnegan don't last long. You ought to know
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this the grief, hate, and rage in Lefty Joe were blended and caused
+an explosion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confound Donnegan. Who's Donnegan? I ask you, who's Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A guy that makes trouble,&quot; replied the brakie, evidently hard put to it
+to find a definition.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, don't he make it, though? Confound him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You ought to of stayed shut of him, Lefty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did I hunt him up, I ask you? Am I a nut? No, I ain't. Do I go along
+stepping on the tail of a rattlesnake? No more do I look up Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He groaned as he remembered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was going fine. Nothing could of been better. I had the boys
+together. We was doing so well that I was riding the cushions and I went
+around planning the jobs. Nice, clean work. No cans tied to it. But one
+day I had to meet Suds down in the Meriton Jungle. You know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've heard&mdash;plenty,&quot; said the brakie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, it ain't so bad&mdash;the Meriton. I've seen a lot worse. Found Suds
+there, and Suds was playing Black Jack with an ol gink. He was trimmin'
+him close. Get Suds going good and he could read 'em three down and bury
+'em as fast as they came under the bottom card. Takes a hand to do that
+sort of work. And that's the sort of work Suds was doing for the old
+man. Pretty soon the game was over and the old man was busted. He took
+up his pack and beat it, saying nothing and looking sick. I started
+talking to Suds.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And while he was talking, along comes a bo and gives us a once-over. He
+knew me. 'Is this here a friend of yours, Lefty? he says.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Sure,' says I.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Then, he's in Dutch. He trimmed that old dad, and the dad is one of
+Donnegan's pals. Wait till Donnegan hears how your friend made the cards
+talk while he was skinning the old boy!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He passes me the wink and goes on. Made me sick. I turned to Suds, and
+the fool hadn't batted an eye. Never even heard of Donnegan. You know
+how it is? Half the road never heard of it; part of the roads don't know
+nothin' else. He's like a jumpin tornado; hits every ten miles and don't
+bend a blade of grass in between.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Took me about five minutes to tell Suds about Donnegan. Then Suds let
+out a grunt and started down the trail for the old dad. Missed him. Dad
+had got out of the Jungle and copped a rattler. Suds come back half
+green and half yeller.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I've done it; I've spilled the beans,' he says.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'That ain't half sayin' it,' says I.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, we lit out after that and beat it down the line as fast as we
+could. We got the rest of the boys together; I had a swell job planned
+up. Everything staked. Then, the first news come that Donnegan was after
+Suds.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;News just dropped on us out of the sky. Suds, you know how he is.
+Strong bluff. Didn't bat an eye. Laughed at this Donnegan. Got a hold of
+an old pal of his, named Levine, and he is a mighty hot scrapper. From a
+knife to a toenail, they was nothing that Levine couldn't use in a
+fight. Suds sent him out to cross Donnegan's trail.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He crossed it, well enough. Suds got a telegram a couple days later
+saying that Levine had run into a wild cat and was considerable chawed
+and would Suds send him a stake to pay the doctor?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, after that Suds got sort of nervous. Didn't take no interest in
+his work no more. Kept a weather eye out watching for the coming of
+Donnegan. And pretty soon he up and cleaned out of camp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Next day, sure enough, along comes Donnegan and asks for Suds. We kept
+still&mdash;all but Kennebec Lou. Kennebec is some fighter himself. Two
+hundred pounds of mule muscle with the brain of a devil to tell what to
+do&mdash;yes, you can lay it ten to one that Kennebec is some fighter. That
+day he had a good edge from a bottle of rye he was trying for a friend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He didn't need to go far to find trouble in Donnegan. A wink and a grin
+was all they needed for a password, and then they went at each other's
+throats. Kennebec made the first pass and hit thin air; and before he
+got back on his heels, Donnegan had hit him four times. Then Kennebec
+jumped back and took a fresh start with a knife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Lefty Joe paused and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>He continued, after a long interval: &quot;Five minutes later we was all busy
+tyin' up what was left of Kennebec; Donnegan was down the road whistlin'
+like a bird. And that was the end of my gang. What with Kennebec Lou and
+Suds both gone, what chance did I have to hold the boys together?&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="2"></a><h2>2</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The brakie heard this recital with the keenest interest, nodding from
+time to time.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What beats me, Lefty,&quot; he said at the end of the story, &quot;is why you
+didn't knife into the fight yourself and take a hand with Donnegan&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Lefty was silent. It was rather the silence of one which cannot
+tell whether or not it is worth while to speak than it was the silence
+of one who needs time for thought.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you why, bo. It's because when I take a trail like that it
+only has one end I'm going to bump off the other bird or he's going to
+bump off me&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie cleared his throat</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here,&quot; he said, &quot;looks to me like a queer thing that you're on
+this train&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does it&quot; queried Lefty softly &quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because Donnegan is two cars back, asleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil you say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie broke into laughter</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't kid yourself along,&quot; he warned. &quot;Don't do it. It ain't
+wise&mdash;with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come on, Lefty. Come clean. You better do a fade off this train.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, you fool&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It don't work, Joe. Why, the minute I seen you I knew why you was here.
+I knew you meant to croak Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me croak him? Why should I croak him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you been trailing him two thousand miles. Because you ain't got
+the nerve to meet him face to face and you got to sneak in and take a
+crack at him while he's lying asleep. That's you, Lefty Joe!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He saw Lefty sway toward him; but, all stories aside, it is a very bold
+tramp that cares for argument of a serious nature with a brakie. And
+even Lefty Joe was deterred from violent action. In the darkness his
+upper lip twitched, but he carefully smoothed his voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know nothing, pal,&quot; he declared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; repeated Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>He reached into his clothes and produced something which rustled in the
+rush of wind. He fumbled, and finally passed a scrap of the paper into
+the hand of the brakie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My heavens,&quot; drawled the latter. &quot;D'you think you can fix me with a
+buck for a job like this? You can't bribe me to stand around while you
+bump off Donnegan. Can't be done, Lefty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One buck, did you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty Joe expertly lighted a match in spite of the roaring wind, and by
+this wild light the brakie read the denomination of the bill with a
+gasp. He rolled up his face and was in time to catch the sneer on the
+face of Lefty before a gust snatched away the light of the match.</p>
+
+<p>They had topped the highest point in Jericho Pass and now the long train
+dropped into the down grade with terrific speed. The wind became a
+hurricane. But to the brakie all this was no more than a calm night. His
+thoughts were raging in him, and if he looked back far enough he
+remembered the dollar which Donnegan had given him; and how he had
+promised Donnegan to give the warning before anything went wrong. He
+thought of this, but rustling against the palm of his right hand was
+the bill whose denomination he had read, and that figure ate into his
+memory, ate into his brain.</p>
+
+<p>After all what was Donnegan to him? What was Donnegan but a worthless
+tramp? Without any answer to that last monosyllabic query, the brakie
+hunched forward, and began to work his way up the train.</p>
+
+<p>The tramp watched him go with laughter. It was silent laughter. In the
+most quiet room it would not have sounded louder than a continual, light
+hissing noise. Then he, in turn, moved from his place, and worked his
+way along the train in the opposite direction to that in which the
+brakie had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>He went expertly, swinging from car to car with apelike clumsiness&mdash;and
+surety. Two cars back. It was not so easy to reach the sliding side door
+of that empty car. Considering the fact that it was night, that the
+train was bucking furiously over the old roadbed, Lefty had a not
+altogether simple task before him. But he managed it with the same
+apelike adroitness. He could climb with his feet as well as his hands.
+He would trust a ledge as well as he would trust the rung of a ladder.</p>
+
+<p>Under his discreet manipulations from above the door loosened and it
+became possible to work it back. But even this the tramp did with
+considerable care. He took advantage of the lurching of the train, and
+every time the car jerked he forced the door to roll a little, so that
+it might seem for all the world as though the motion of the train alone
+were operating it.</p>
+
+<p>For suppose that Donnegan wakened out of his sound sleep and observed
+the motion of the door; he would be suspicious if the door opened in a
+single continued motion; but if it worked in these degrees he would be
+hypersuspicious if he dreamed of danger. So the tramp gave five whole
+minutes to that work.</p>
+
+<p>When it was done he waited for a time, another five minutes, perhaps, to
+see if the door would be moved back. And when it was not disturbed, but
+allowed to stand open, he knew that Donnegan still slept.</p>
+
+<p>It was time then for action, and Lefty Joe prepared for the descent into
+the home of the enemy. Let it not be thought that he approached this
+moment with a fallen heart, and with a cringing, snaky feeling as a man
+might be expected to feel when he approached to murder a sleeping
+foeman. For that was not Lefty's emotion at all. Rather he was overcome
+by a tremendous happiness. He could have sung with joy at the thought
+that he was about to rid himself of this pest.</p>
+
+<p>True, the gang was broken up. But it might rise again. Donnegan had
+fallen upon it like a blight. But with Donnegan out of the way would not
+Suds come back to him instantly? And would not Kennebec Lou himself
+return in admiration of a man who had done what he, Kennebec, could not
+do? With those two as a nucleus, how greatly might he not build!</p>
+
+<p>Justice must be done to Lefty Joe. He approached this murder as a
+statesman approaches the removal of a foe from the path of public
+prosperity. There was no more rancor in his attitude. It was rather the
+blissful largeness of the heart that comes to the politician when he
+unearths the scandal which will blight the race of his rival.</p>
+
+<p>With the peaceful smile of a child, therefore, Lefty Joe lay stretched
+at full length along the top of the car and made his choice of weapons.
+On the whole, his usual preference, day or night, was for a revolver.
+Give him a gat and Lefty was at home in any company. But he had reasons
+for transferring his alliance on this occasion. In the first place, a
+box car which is reeling and pitching to and fro, from side to side, is
+not a very good shooting platform&mdash;even for a snapshot like Lefty Joe.
+Also, the pitch darkness in the car would be a further annoyance to good
+aim. And in the third and most decisive place, if he were to miss his
+first shot he would not be extremely apt to place his second bullet. For
+Donnegan had a reputation with his own revolver. Indeed, it was said
+that he rarely carried the weapon, because when he did he was always
+tempted too strongly to use it. So that the chances were large that
+Donnegan would not have the gun now. Yet if he did have it&mdash;if he,
+Lefty, did miss his first shot&mdash;then the story would be brief and bitter
+indeed.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, a knife offered advantages almost too numerous to be
+listed. It gave one the deadly assurance which only comes with the
+knowledge of an edge of steel in one's hand. And when the knife reaches
+its mark it ends a battle at a stroke.</p>
+
+<p>Of course these doubts and considerations pro and con went through the
+mind of the tramp in about the same space of time that it requires for a
+dog to waken, snap at a fly, and drowse again. Eventually, he took out
+his knife. It was a sheath knife which he wore from a noose of silk
+around his throat, and it always lay closest to his heart. The blade of
+the knife was of the finest Spanish steel, in the days when Spanish
+smiths knew how to draw out steel to a streak of light; the handle of
+the knife was from Milan. On the whole, it was a delicate and beautiful
+weapon&mdash;and it had the durable suppleness of&mdash;say&mdash;hatred itself.</p>
+
+<p>Lefty Joe, like a pirate in a tale, took this weapon between his teeth;
+allowed his squat, heavy bulk to swing down and dangle at arm's length
+for an instant, and then he swung himself a little and landed softly on
+the floor of the car.</p>
+
+<p>Who has not heard snow drop from the branch upon other snow beneath?
+That was the way Lefty Joe dropped to the floor of the car. He remained
+as he had fallen; crouched, alert, with one hand spread out on the
+boards to balance him and give him a leverage and a start in case he
+should wish to spring in any direction.</p>
+
+<p>Then he began to probe the darkness in every direction; with every
+glance he allowed his head to dart out a little. The movement was like a
+chicken pecking at imaginary grains of corn. But eventually he satisfied
+himself that his quarry lay in the forward end of the car; that he was
+prone; that he, Lefty, had accomplished nine-tenths of his purpose by
+entering the place of his enemy unobserved.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="3"></a><h2>3</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>But even though this major step was accomplished successfully, Lefty Joe
+was not the man to abandon caution in the midst of an enterprise. The
+roar of the train would have covered sounds ten times as loud as those
+of his snaky approach, yet he glided forward with as much care as though
+he were stepping on old stairs in a silent house. He could see a vague
+shadow&mdash;Donnegan; but chiefly he worked by that peculiar sense of
+direction which some people possess in a dim light. The blind, of
+course, have that sense in a high degree of sensitiveness, but even
+those who are not blind may learn to trust the peculiar and inverted
+sense of direction.</p>
+
+<p>With this to aid him, Lefty Joe went steadily, slowly across the first
+and most dangerous stage of his journey. That is, he got away from the
+square of the open door, where the faint starlight might vaguely serve
+to silhouette his body. After this, it was easier work.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, when he alighted on the floor of the car, the knife had been
+transferred from his teeth to his left hand; and all during his progress
+forward the knife was being balanced delicately, as though he were not
+yet quite sure of the weight of the weapon. Just as a prize fighter
+keeps his deadly, poised hands in play, moving them as though he fears
+to lose his intimate touch with them.</p>
+
+<p>This stalking had occupied a matter of split seconds. Now Lefty Joe rose
+slowly. He was leaning very far forward, and he warded against the roll
+of the car by spreading out his right hand close to the floor; his left
+hand he poised with the knife, and he began to gather his muscles for
+the leap. He had already taken the last preliminary movement&mdash;he had
+swung himself to the right side a little and, lightening his left foot,
+had thrown all his weight upon the right&mdash;in fact, his body was
+literally suspended in the instant of springing, catlike, when the
+shadow which was Donnegan came to life.</p>
+
+<p>The shadow convulsed as shadows are apt to swirl in a green pool when a
+stone is dropped into it; and a bit of board two feet long and some
+eight inches wide cracked against the shins of Lefty Joe.</p>
+
+<p>It was about the least dramatic weapon that could have been chosen under
+those circumstances, but certainly no other defense could have
+frustrated Lefty's spring so completely. Instead of launching out in a
+compact mass whose point of contact was the reaching knife, Lefty
+crawled stupidly forward upon his knees, and had to throw out his knife
+hand to save his balance.</p>
+
+<p>It is a singular thing to note how important balance is to men. Animals
+fight, as a rule, just as well on their backs as they do on their feet.
+They can lie on their sides and bite; they can swing their claws even
+while they are dropping through the air. But man needs poise and balance
+before he can act. What is speed in a fighter? It is not so much an
+affair of the muscles as it is the power of the brain to adapt itself
+instantly to each new move and put the body in a state of balance. In
+the prize ring speed does not mean the ability to strike one lightning
+blow, but rather that, having finished one drive, the fighter is in
+position to hit again, and then again, so that no matter where the
+impetus of his last lunge has placed him he is ready and poised to shoot
+all his weight behind his fist again and drive it accurately at a
+vulnerable spot. Individually the actions may be slow; but the series of
+efforts seem rapid. That is why a superior boxer seems to hypnotize his
+antagonist with movements which to the spectator seem perfectly easy,
+slow, and sure.</p>
+
+<p>But if Lefty lacked much in agility, he had an animallike sense of
+balance. Sprawling, helpless, he saw the convulsed shadow that was
+Donnegan take form as a straight shooting body that plunged through the
+air above him. Lefty Joe dug his left elbow into the floor of the car
+and whirled back upon his shoulders, bunching his knees high over his
+stomach. Nine chances out of ten, if Donnegan had fallen flatwise upon
+this alert enemy, he would have received those knees in the pit of his
+own stomach and instantly been paralyzed. But in the jumping, rattling
+car even Donnegan was capable of making mistakes. His mistake in this
+instance saved his life, for springing too far, he came down not in
+reaching distance of Lefty's throat, but with his chest on the knees of
+the older tramp.</p>
+
+<p>As a result, Donnegan was promptly kicked head over heels and tumbled
+the length of the car. Lefty was on his feet and plunging after the
+tumbling form in the twinkling of an eye, literally speaking, and he was
+only kept from burying his knife in the flesh of his foe by a sway of
+the car that staggered him in the act of striking. Donnegan, the next
+instant, was beyond reach. He had struck the end of the car and
+rebounded like a ball of rubber at a tangent. He slid into the shadows,
+and Lefty, putting his own shoulders to the wall, felt for his revolver
+and knew that he was lost. He had failed in his first surprise attack,
+and without surprise to help him now he was gone. He weighed his
+revolver, decided that it would be madness to use it, for if he missed,
+Donnegan would instantly be guided by the flash to shoot him full of
+holes.</p>
+
+<p>Something slipped by the open door&mdash;something that glimmered faintly;
+and Lefty Joe knew that it was the red head of Donnegan. Donnegan,
+soft-footed as a shadow among shadows. Donnegan on a blood trail. It
+lowered the heartbeat of Lefty Joe to a tremendous, slow pulse. In that
+moment he gave up hope and, resigning himself to die, determined to
+fight to the last gasp, as became one of his reputation and national
+celebrity on &quot;the road.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Yet Lefty Joe was no common man and no common fighter. No, let the shade
+of Rusty Dick, whom Lefty met and beat in his glorious prime&mdash;let this
+shade arise and speak for the prowess of Lefty Joe. In fact it was
+because he was such a good fighter himself that he recognized his
+helplessness in the hands of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>The faint glimmer of color had passed the door. It was dissolved in
+deeper shadows at once, and soundlessly; Lefty knew that Donnegan was
+closer and closer.</p>
+
+<p>Of one thing he felt more and more confident, that Donnegan did not have
+his revolver with him. Otherwise, he would have used it before. For what
+was darkness to this devil, Donnegan. He walked like a cat, and most
+likely he could see like a cat in the dark. Instinctively the older
+tramp braced himself with his right hand held at a guard before his
+breast and the knife poised in his left, just as a man would prepare to
+meet the attack of a panther. He even took to probing the darkness in a
+strange hope to catch the glimmer of the eyes of Donnegan as he moved to
+the attack. If there were a hair's breadth of light, then Donnegan
+himself must go down. A single blow would do it.</p>
+
+<p>But the devil had instructed his favorite Donnegan how to fight. He did
+not come lunging through the shadows to meet the point of that knife.
+Instead, he had worked a snaky way along the floor and now he leaped in
+and up at Lefty, taking him under the arms.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen hands, it seemed, laid hold on Lefty. He fought like a demon and
+tore himself away, but the multitude of hands pursued him. They were
+small hands. Where they closed they tore the clothes and bit into his
+very flesh. Once a hand had him by the throat, and when Lefty jerked
+himself away it was with a feeling that his flesh had been seared by
+five points of red-hot iron. All this time his knife was darting; once
+it ripped through cloth, but never once did it find the target. And half
+a second later Donnegan got his hold. The flash of the knife as Lefty
+raised it must have guided the other. He shot his right hand up behind
+the left shoulder of the other and imprisoned the wrist. Not only did it
+make the knife hand helpless, but by bearing down with his own weight
+Donnegan could put his enemy in most exquisite torture.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant they whirled; then they went down, and Lefty was on top.
+Only for a moment. The impetus which had sent him to the floor was used
+by Donnegan to turn them over, and once fairly on top his left hand was
+instantly at the throat of Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>Twice Lefty made enormous efforts, but then he was done. About his body
+the limbs of Donnegan were twisted, tightening with incredible force;
+just as hot iron bands sink resistlessly into place. The strangle-hold
+cut away life at its source. Once he strove to bury his teeth in the arm
+of Donnegan. Once, as the horror caught at him, he strove to shriek for
+help. All he succeeded in doing was in raising an awful, sobbing
+whisper. Then, looking death in the face, Lefty plunged into the great
+darkness.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="4"></a><h2>4</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>When he wakened, he jumped at a stride into the full possession of his
+faculties. He had been placed near the open door, and the rush of night
+air had done its work in reviving him. But Lefty, drawn back to life,
+felt only a vague wonder that his life had not been taken. Perhaps he
+was being reserved by the victor for an Indian death of torment. He felt
+cautiously and found that not only were his hands free, but his revolver
+had not been taken from him. A familiar weight was on his chest&mdash;the
+very knife had been returned to its sheath.</p>
+
+<p>Had Donnegan returned these things to show how perfectly he despised his
+enemy?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's gone!&quot; groaned the tramp, sitting up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's here,&quot; said a voice that cut easily through the roar of the train.
+&quot;Waiting for you, Lefty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The tramp was staggered again. But then, who had ever been able to
+fathom the ways of Donnegan?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot; he cried with a sudden recklessness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For not finishing the job.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan began to laugh. In the uproar of the train it was impossible
+really to hear the sound, but Lefty caught the pulse of it. He fingered
+his bruised throat; swallowing was a painful effort. And an
+indescribable feeling came over him as he realized that he sat armed to
+the teeth within a yard of the man he wanted to kill, and yet he was as
+effectively rendered helpless as though iron shackles had been locked on
+his wrists and legs. The night light came through the doorway, and he
+could make out the slender outline of Donnegan and again he caught the
+faint luster of that red hair; and out of the shadowy form a singular
+power emanated and sapped his strength at the root.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he went on viciously: &quot;Sooner or later, Donnegan, I'll get you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The red head of Donnegan moved, and Lefty Joe knew that the younger man
+was laughing again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why are you after me?&quot; he asked at length.</p>
+
+<p>It was another blow in the face of Lefty. He sat for a time blinking
+with owlish stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot; he echoed. And he spoke his astonishment from the heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why am I after you?&quot; he said again. &quot;Why, confound you, ain't you
+Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't the whole road know that I'm after you and you after me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole road is crazy. I'm not after you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty choked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe I been dreaming. Maybe you didn't bust up the gang? Maybe you
+didn't clean up on Suds and Kennebec?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suds? Kennebec? I sort of remember meeting them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You sort of&mdash;the devil!&quot; Lefty Joe sputtered the words. &quot;And after you
+cleaned up my crowd, ain't it natural and good sense for you to go on
+and try to clean up on me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sounds like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I figured to beat you to it. I cut in on your trail, Donnegan, and
+before I leave it you'll know a lot more about me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're warning me ahead of time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've played this game square with me; I'll play square with you.
+Next time there'll be no slips, Donnegan. I dunno why you should of
+picked on me, though. Just the natural devil in you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't picked on you,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll give you my word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A tingle ran through the blood of Lefty Joe. Somewhere he had heard, in
+rumor, that the word of Donnegan was as good as gold. He recalled that
+rumor now and something of dignity in the manner with which Donnegan
+made his announcement carried a heavy weight. As a rule, the tramps
+vowed with many oaths; here was one of the nights of the road who made
+his bare word sufficient. And Lefty Joe heard with great wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All I ask,&quot; he said, &quot;is why you hounded my gang, if you wasn't after
+me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't hound them. I ran into Suds by accident. We had trouble. Then
+Levine. Then Kennebec Lou tried to take a fall out of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A note of whimsical protest crept into the voice of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Somehow there's always a fight wherever I go,&quot; he said. &quot;Fights just
+sort of grow up around me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty Joe snarled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You didn't mean nothing by just 'happening' to run into three of my
+boys one after another?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty rocked himself back and forth in an ecstasy of impatience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why don't you stay put?&quot; he complained. &quot;Why don't you stake out your
+own ground and stay put in it? You cut in on every guy's territory.
+There ain't any privacy any more since you hit the road. What you got? A
+roving commission?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan waited for a moment before he answered. And when he spoke his
+voice had altered. Indeed, he had remarkable ability to pitch his voice
+into the roar of the freight train, and above or beneath it, and give it
+a quality such as he pleased.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm following a trail, but not yours,&quot; he admitted at length. &quot;I'm
+following a trail. I've been at it these two years and nothing has
+come of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who you after?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man with red hair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That tells me a lot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan refused to explain.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What you got against him&mdash;the color of his hair?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Lefty roared contentedly at his own stale jest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's no good,&quot; replied Donnegan. &quot;I'll never get on the trail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty broke in: &quot;You mean to say you've been working two solid years and
+all on a trail that you ain't even found?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The silence answered him in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ain't nobody been able to tip you off to him?&quot; went on Lefty, intensely
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nobody. You see, he's a hard sort to describe. Red hair, that's all
+there was about him for a clue. But if any one ever saw him stripped
+they'd remember him by a big blotchy birthmark on his left shoulder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh?&quot; grunted Lefty Joe.</p>
+
+<p>He added: &quot;What was his name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't know. He changed monikers when he took to the road.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What was he to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man I'm going to find.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter where the trail takes you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter where.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Lefty was seized with unaccountable laughter. He literally
+strained his lungs with that Homeric outburst. When he wiped the tears
+from his eyes, at length, the shadow on the opposite side of the doorway
+had disappeared. He found his companion leaning over him, and this time
+he could catch the dull glint of starlight on both hair and eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What d'you know?&quot; asked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do you stand toward this bird with the birthmark and the red hair?&quot;
+queried Lefty with caution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What d'you know?&quot; insisted Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>All at once passion shook him; he fastened his grip in the shoulder of
+the larger man, and his fingertips worked toward the bone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you know?&quot; he repeated for the third time, and now there was no
+hint of laughter in the hard voice of Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fool, if you follow that trail you'll go to the devil. It was
+Rusty Dick; and he's dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His triumphant laughter came again, but Donnegan cut into it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rusty Dick was the one you&mdash;killed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure. What of it? We fought fair and square.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then Rusty wasn't the man I want. The man I want would of eaten two
+like you, Lefty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about the birthmark? It sure was on his shoulder; Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heavens!&quot; whispered Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rusty Dick,&quot; gasped Donnegan. &quot;Yes, it must have been he.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure it was. What did you have against him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a matter of blood&mdash;between us,&quot; stammered Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>His voice rose in a peculiar manner, so that Lefty shrank involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You killed Rusty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ask any of the boys. But between you and me, it was the booze that
+licked Rusty Dick. I just finished up the job and surprised everybody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The train was out of the mountains and in a country of scattering hills,
+but here it struck a steep grade and settled down to a grind of slow
+labor; the rails hummed, and suspense filled the freight car.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hey,&quot; cried Lefty suddenly. &quot;You fool, you'll do a flop out the door in
+about a minute!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He even reached out to steady the toppling figure, but Donnegan pitched
+straight out into the night. Lefty craned his neck from the door,
+studying the roadbed, but at that moment the locomotive topped the
+little rise and the whole train lurched forward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After all,&quot; murmured Lefty Joe, &quot;it sounds like Donnegan. Hated a guy
+so bad that he hadn't any use for livin' when he heard the other guy was
+dead. But I'm never goin' to cross his path again, I hope.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="5"></a><h2>5</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>But Donnegan had leaped clear of the roadbed, and he struck almost to
+the knees in a drift of sand. Otherwise, he might well have broken his
+legs with that foolhardy chance. As it was, the fall whirled him over
+and over, and by the time he had picked himself up the lighted caboose
+of the train was rocking past him. Donnegan watched it grow small in the
+distance, and then, when it was only a red, uncertain star far down the
+track, he turned to the vast country around him.</p>
+
+<p>The mountains were to his right, not far away, but caught up behind the
+shadows so that it seemed a great distance. Like all huge, half-seen
+things they seemed in motion toward him. For the rest, he was in bare,
+rolling country. The sky line everywhere was clean; there was hardly a
+sign of a tree. He knew, by a little reflection, that this must be
+cattle country, for the brakie had intimated as much in their talk just
+before dusk. Now it was early night, and a wind began to rise, blowing
+down the valley with a keen motion and a rapidly lessening temperature,
+so that Donnegan saw he must get to a shelter. He could, if necessary,
+endure any privation, but his tastes were for luxurious comfort.
+Accordingly he considered the landscape with gloomy disapproval. He was
+almost inclined to regret his plunge from the lumbering freight train.
+Two things had governed him in making that move. First, when he
+discovered that the long trail he followed was definitely fruitless, he
+was filled with a great desire to cut himself away from his past and
+make a new start. Secondly, when he learned that Rusty Dick had been
+killed by Joe, he wanted desperately to get the throttle of the latter
+under his thumb. If ever a man risked his life to avoid a sin, it was
+Donnegan jumping from the train to keep from murder.</p>
+
+<p>He stooped to sight along the ground, for this is the best way at night
+and often horizon lights are revealed in this manner. But now Donnegan
+saw nothing to serve as a guide. He therefore drew in his belt until it
+fitted snug about his gaunt waist, settled his cap firmly, and headed
+straight into the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could have shown his character more distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>When in doubt, head into the wind.</p>
+
+<p>With a jaunty, swinging step he sauntered along, and this time, at
+least, his tactics found an early reward. Topping the first large rise
+of ground, he saw in the hollow beneath him the outline of a large
+building. And as he approached it, the wind clearing a high blowing mist
+from the stars, he saw a jumble of outlying houses. Sheds, barns,
+corrals&mdash;it was the nucleus of a big ranch. It is a maxim that, if you
+wish to know a man look at his library and if you wish to know a
+rancher, look at his barn. Donnegan made a small detour to the left and
+headed for the largest of the barns.</p>
+
+<p>He entered it by the big, sliding door, which stood open; he looked up,
+and saw the stars shining through a gap in the roof. And then he stood
+quietly for a time, listening to the voices of the wind in the ruin.
+Oddly enough, it was pleasant to Donnegan. His own troubles and sorrow
+had poured upon him so thickly in the past hour or so that it was
+soothing to find evidence of the distress of others. But perhaps this
+meant that the entire establishment was deserted.</p>
+
+<p>He left the barn and went toward the house. Not until he was close under
+its wall did he come to appreciate its size. It was one of those great,
+rambling, two-storied structures which the cattle kings of the past
+generation were fond of building. Standing close to it, he heard none of
+the intimate sounds of the storm blowing through cracks and broken
+walls; no matter into what disrepair the barns had fallen, the house was
+still solid; only about the edges of the building the storm kept
+murmuring.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was not a light, neither above nor below. He came to the front
+of the house. Still no sign of life. He stood at the door and knocked
+loudly upon it, and though, when he tried the knob, he found that the
+door was latched, yet no one came in response. He knocked again, and
+putting his ear close he heard the echoes walk through the interior of
+the building.</p>
+
+<p>After this, the wind rose in sudden strength and deafened him with
+rattlings; above him, a shutter was swung open and then crashed to, so
+that the opening of the door was a shock of surprise to Donnegan. A dim
+light from a source which he could not direct suffused the interior of
+the hall; the door itself was worked open a matter of inches and
+Donnegan was aware of two keen old eyes glittering out at him. Beyond
+this he could distinguish nothing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who are you?&quot; asked a woman's voice. &quot;And what do you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm a stranger, and I want something to eat and a place to sleep. This
+house looks as if it might have spare rooms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where d'you come from?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yonder,&quot; said Donnegan, with a sufficiently noncommittal gesture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's your name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know you. Be off with you, Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He inserted his foot in the closing crack of the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me where I'm to go?&quot; he persisted.</p>
+
+<p>At this her voice rose in pitch, with squeaky rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll raise the house on you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Raise 'em. Call down the man of the house. I can talk to him better
+than I can to you; but I won't walk off like this. If you can feed me,
+I'll pay you for what I eat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A shrill cackling&mdash;he could not make out the words. And since patience
+was not the first of Donnegan's virtues, he seized on the knob of the
+door and deliberately pressed it wide. Standing in the hall, now, and
+closing the door slowly behind him, he saw a woman with old, keen eyes
+shrinking away toward the staircase. She was evidently in great fear,
+but there was something infinitely malicious in the manner in which she
+kept working her lips soundlessly. She was shrinking, and half turned
+away, yet there was a suggestion that in an instant she might whirl and
+fly at his face. The door now clicked, and with the windstorm shut away
+Donnegan had a queer feeling of being trapped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now call the man of the house,&quot; he repeated. &quot;See if I can't come to
+terms with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'd make short work of you if he came,&quot; she replied. She broke into a
+shrill laughter, and Donnegan thought he had never seen a face so ugly.
+&quot;If he came,&quot; she said, &quot;you'd rue the day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'll talk to you, then. I'm not asking charity. I want to pay for
+what I get.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This ain't a hotel. You go on down the road. Inside eight miles you'll
+come to the town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eight miles!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's nothing for a man to ride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all, if I had something to ride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You ain't got a horse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then how do you come here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I walked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If this sharpened her suspicions, it sharpened her fear also. She put
+one foot on the lowest step of the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be off with you, Mr. Donnegally, or whatever your outlandish name is.
+You'll get nothing here. What brings you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A door closed and a footstep sounded lightly on the floor above. And
+Donnegan, already alert in the strange atmosphere of this house, gave
+back a pace so as to get an honest wall behind him. He noted that the
+step was quick and small, and preparing himself to meet a wisp of
+manhood&mdash;which, for that matter, was the type he was most inclined to
+fear&mdash;Donnegan kept a corner glance upon the old woman at the foot of
+the stairs and steadily surveyed the shadows at the head of the rise.</p>
+
+<p>Out of that darkness a foot slipped; not even a boy's foot&mdash;a very
+child's. The shock of it made Donnegan relax his caution for an instant,
+and in that instant she came into the reach of the light. It was a
+wretched light at best, for it came from a lamp with smoky chimney
+which the old hag carried, and at the raising and lowering of her hand
+the flame jumped and died in the throat of the chimney and set the hall
+awash with shadows. Falling away to a point of yellow, the lamp allowed
+the hall to assume a certain indefinite dignity of height and breadth
+and calm proportions; but when the flame rose Donnegan could see the
+broken balusters of the balustrade, the carpet, faded past any design
+and worn to rattiness, wall paper which had rotted or dried away and
+hung in crisp tatters here and there, and on the ceiling an irregular
+patch from which the plaster had fallen and exposed the lathwork. But at
+the coming of the girl the old woman had turned, and as she did the
+flame tossed up in the lamp and Donnegan could see the newcomer
+distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>Once before his heart had risen as it rose now. It had been the fag end
+of a long party, and Donnegan, rousing from a drunken sleep, staggered
+to the window. Leaning there to get the freshness of the night air
+against his hot face, he had looked up, and saw the white face of the
+moon going up the sky; and a sudden sense of the blackness and loathing
+against the city had come upon Donnegan, and the murky color of his own
+life; and when he turned away from the window he was sober. And so it
+was that he now stared up at the girl. At her breast she held a cloak
+together with one hand and the other hand touched the railing of the
+stairs. He saw one foot suspended for the next step, as though the sight
+of him kept her back in fear. To the miserable soul of Donnegan she
+seemed all that was lovely, young, and pure; and her hair, old gold in
+the shadow and pale gold where the lamp struck it, was to Donnegan like
+a miraculous light about her face.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, that little pause was a great and awful moment. For considering
+that Donnegan, who had gone through his whole life with his eyes ready
+either to mock or hate, and who had rarely used his hand except to make
+a fist of it; Donnegan who had never, so far as is known, had a
+companion; who had asked the world for action, not kindness; this
+Donnegan now stood straight with his back against the wall, and poured
+out the story of his wayward life to a mere slip of a girl.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="6"></a><h2>6</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Even the old woman, whose eyes were sharpened by her habit of looking
+constantly for the weaknesses and vices of men, could not guess what was
+going on behind the thin, rather ugly face of Donnegan; the girl,
+perhaps, may have seen more. For she caught the glitter of his active
+eyes even at that distance. The hag began to explain with vicious
+gestures that set the light flaring up and down.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He ain't come from nowhere, Lou,&quot; she said. &quot;He ain't going nowhere; he
+wants to stay here for the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The foot which had been suspended to take the next step was now
+withdrawn. Donnegan, remembered at last, whipped off his cap, and at
+once the light flared and burned upon his hair. It was a wonderful red;
+it shone, and it had a terrible blood tinge so that his face seemed pale
+beneath it. There were three things that made up the peculiar dominance
+of Donnegan's countenance. The three things were the hair, the uneasy,
+bright eyes, and the rather thin, compressed lips. When Donnegan slept
+he seemed about to waken from a vigorous dream; when he sat down he
+seemed about to leap to his feet; and when he was standing he gave that
+impression of a poise which is ready for anything. It was no wonder that
+the girl, seeing that face and that alert, aggressive body, shrank a
+little on the stairs. Donnegan, that instant, knew that these two women
+were really alone in the house as far as fighting men were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>And the fact disturbed him more than a leveled gun would have done. He
+went to the foot of the stairs, even past the old woman, and, raising
+his head, he spoke to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My name's Donnegan. I came over from the railroad&mdash;walked. I don't want
+to walk that other eight miles unless there's a real need for it. I&mdash;&quot;
+Why did he pause? &quot;I'll pay for anything I get here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His voice was not too certain; behind his teeth there was knocking a
+desire to cry out to her the truth. &quot;I am Donnegan. Donnegan the tramp.
+Donnegan the shiftless. Donnegan the fighter. Donnegan the killer.
+Donnegan the penniless, worthless. But for heaven's sake let me stay
+until morning and let me look at you&mdash;from a distance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But, after all, perhaps he did not need to say all these things. His
+clothes were rags, upon his face there was a stubble of unshaven red,
+which made the pallor about his eyes more pronounced. If the girl had
+been half blind she must have felt that here was a man of fire. He saw
+her gather the wrap a little closer about her shoulders, and that sign
+of fear made him sick at heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan,&quot; said the girl. &quot;I am sorry. We cannot take you into the
+house. Eight miles&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Did she expect to turn a sinner from the gates of heaven with a mere
+phrase? He cast out his hand, and she winced as though he had shaken his
+fist at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you afraid?&quot; cried Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't control the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, not that her reply had baffled him, but the mere pleasure of
+hearing her speak accounted for it. It was one of those low, light
+voices which are apt to have very little range or volume, and which
+break and tremble absurdly under any stress of emotion; and often they
+become shrill in a higher register; but inside conversational limits, if
+such a term may be used, there is no fiber so delightful, so purely
+musical. Suppose the word &quot;velvet&quot; applied to a sound. That voice came
+soothingly and delightfully upon the ear of Donnegan, from which the
+roar and rattle of the empty freight train had not quite departed. He
+smiled at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; he protested, &quot;this is west of the Rockies&mdash;and I don't see any
+other way out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl, all this time, was studying him intently, a little sadly, he
+thought. Now she shook her head, but there was more warmth in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry. I can't ask you to stay without first consulting my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go ahead. Ask him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised her hand a little; the thought seemed to bring her to the
+verge of trembling, as though he were asking a sacrilege.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; he urged.</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer, but, instead, her eyes sought the old, woman, as if
+to gain her interposition; she burst instantly into speech.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which there's no good talking any more,&quot; declared the ancient vixen.
+&quot;Are you wanting to make trouble for her with the colonel? Be off, young
+man. It ain't the first time I've told you you'd get nowhere in this
+house!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no possible answer left to Donnegan, and he did as usual the
+surprising thing. He broke into laughter of such clear and ringing
+tone&mdash;such infectious laughter&mdash;that the old woman blinked in the midst
+of her wrath as though she were seeing a new man, and he saw the lips of
+the girl parted in wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father is an invalid,&quot; said the girl. &quot;And he lives by strict rules.
+I could not break in on him at this time of the evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that's all&quot;&mdash;Donnegan actually began to mount the steps&mdash;&quot;I'll go in
+and talk to your father myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She had retired one pace as he began advancing, but as the import of
+what he said became clear to her she was rooted to one position by
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Colonel Macon&mdash;my father&mdash;&quot; she began. Then: &quot;Do you really wish to see
+him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hushed voice made Donnegan smile&mdash;it was such a voice as one boy
+uses when he asks the other if he really dares enter the pasture of the
+red bull. He chuckled again, and this time she smiled, and her eyes were
+widened, partly by fear of his purpose and partly from his nearness.
+They seemed to be suddenly closer together. As though they were on one
+side against a common enemy, and that enemy was her father. The old
+woman was cackling sharply from the bottom of the stairs, and then
+bobbing in pursuit and calling on Donnegan to come back. At length the
+girl raised her hand and silenced her with a gesture.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan was now hardly a pace away; and he saw that she lived up to all
+the promise of that first glance. Yet still she seemed unreal. There is
+a quality of the unearthly about a girl's beauty; it is, after all, only
+a gay moment between the formlessness of childhood and the hardness of
+middle age. This girl was pale, Donnegan saw, and yet she had color. She
+had the luster, say, of a white rose, and the same bloom. Lou, the old
+woman had called her, and Macon was her father's name. Lou Macon&mdash;the
+name fitted her, Donnegan thought. For that matter, if her name had been
+Sally Smith, Donnegan would probably have thought it beautiful. The
+keener a man's mind is and the more he knows about men and women and the
+ways of the world, the more apt he is to be intoxicated by a touch of
+grace and thoughtfulness; and all these age-long seconds the perfume of
+girlhood had been striking up to Donnegan's brain.</p>
+
+<p>She brushed her timidity away and with the same gesture accepted
+Donnegan as something more than a dangerous vagrant. She took the lamp
+from the hands of the crone and sent her about her business,
+disregarding the mutterings and the warnings which trailed behind the
+departing form. Now she faced Donnegan, screening the light from her
+eyes with a cupped hand and by the same device focusing it upon the face
+of Donnegan. He mutely noted the small maneuver and gave her credit; but
+for the pleasure of seeing the white of her fingers and the way they
+tapered to a pink transparency at the tips, he forgot the poor figure he
+must make with his soiled, ragged shirt, his unshaven face, his gaunt
+cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, he looked so straight at her that in spite of her advantage with
+the light she had to avoid his glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sorry,&quot; said Lou Macon, &quot;and ashamed because we can't take you in.
+The only house on the range where you wouldn't be welcome, I know. But
+my father leads a very close life; he has set ways. The ways of an
+invalid, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you're bothered about speaking to him of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm almost afraid of letting you go in yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me take the risk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She considered him again for a moment, and then turned with a nod and he
+followed her up the stairs into the upper hall. The moment they stepped
+into it he heard her clothes flutter and a small gale poured on them. It
+was criminal to allow such a building to fall into this ruinous
+condition. And a gloomy picture rose in Donnegan's mind of the invalid,
+thin-faced, sallow-eyed, white-haired, lying in his bed listening to the
+storm and silently gathering bitterness out of the pain of living. Lou
+Macon paused again in the hall, close to a door on the right.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going to send you in to speak to my father,&quot; she said gravely.
+&quot;First I have to tell you that he's different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan replied by looking straight at her, and this time she did not
+wince from the glance. Indeed, she seemed to be probing him, searching
+with a peculiar hope. What could she expect to find in him? What that
+was useful to her? Not once in all his life had such a sense of
+impotence descended upon Donnegan. Her father? Bah! Invalid or no
+invalid he would handle that fellow, and if the old man had an acrid
+temper, Donnegan at will could file his own speech to a point. But the
+girl! In the meager hand which held the lamp there was a power which all
+the muscles of Donnegan could not compass; and in his weakness he looked
+wistfully at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope your talk will be pleasant. I hope so.&quot; She laid her hand on the
+knob of the door and withdrew it hastily; then, summoning great
+resolution, she opened the door and showed Donnegan in.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; she said, &quot;this is Mr. Donnegan. He wishes to speak to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The door closed behind Donnegan, and hearing that whishing sound which
+the door of a heavy safe will make, he looked down at this, and saw that
+it was actually inches thick! Once more the sense of being in a trap
+descended upon him.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="7"></a><h2>7</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>He found himself in a large room which, before he could examine a single
+feature of it, was effectively curtained from his sight. Straight into
+his face shot a current of violent white light that made him blink.
+There was the natural recoil, but in Donnegan recoils were generally
+protected by several strata of willpower and seldom showed in any
+physical action. On the present occasion his first dismay was swiftly
+overwhelmed by a cold anger at the insulting trick. This was not the
+trick of a helpless invalid; Donnegan could not see a single thing
+before him, but he obeyed a very deep instinct and advanced straight
+into the current of light.</p>
+
+<p>He was glad to see the light switched away. The comparative darkness
+washed across his eyes in a pleasant wave and he was now able to
+distinguish a few things in the room. It was, as he had first surmised,
+quite large. The ceiling was high; the proportions comfortably spacious;
+but what astounded Donnegan was the real elegance of the furnishings.
+There was no mistaking the deep, silken texture of the rug upon which he
+stepped; the glow of light barely reached the wall, and there showed
+faintly in streaks along yellowish hangings. Beside a table which
+supported a big reading lamp&mdash;gasoline, no doubt, from the intensity of
+its light&mdash;sat Colonel Macon with a large volume spread across his
+knees. Donnegan saw two highlights&mdash;fine silver hair that covered the
+head of the invalid and a pair of white hands fallen idly upon the
+surface of the big book, for if the silver hair suggested age the
+smoothly finished hands suggested perennial youth. They were strong,
+carefully tended, complacent hands. They suggested to Donnegan a man
+sufficient unto himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan, I am sorry that I cannot rise to receive you. Now, what
+pleasant accident has brought me the favor of this call?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan was taken aback again, and this time more strongly than by the
+flare of light against his eyes. For in the voice he recognized the
+quality of the girl&mdash;the same softness, the same velvety richness,
+though the pitch was a bass. In the voice of this man there was the same
+suggestion that the tone would crack if it were forced either up or
+down. With this great difference, one could hardly conceive of a
+situation which would push that man's voice beyond its monotone. It
+flowed with deadly, all-embracing softness. It clung about one; it
+fascinated and baffled the mind of the listener.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan was not in the habit of being baffled by voices. Neither
+was he a lover of formality. He looked about for a place to sit down,
+and immediately discovered that while the invalid sat in an enormous
+easy-chair bordered by shelves and supplied with wheels for raising and
+lowering the back and for propelling the chair about the room on its
+rubber tires, it was the only chair in the room which could make any
+pretensions toward comfort. As a matter of fact, aside from this one
+immense chair, devoted to the pleasure of the invalid, there was nothing
+in the room for his visitors to sit upon except two or three miserable
+backless stools.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan was not long taken aback. He tucked his cap under his arm,
+bowed profoundly in honor of the colonel's compliments, and brought one
+of the stools to a place where it was no nearer the rather ominous
+circle of the lamplight than was the invalid himself. With his eyes
+accustomed to the new light, Donnegan could now take better stock of his
+host. He saw a rather handsome face, with eyes exceedingly blue, young,
+and active; but the features of Macon as well as his body were blurred
+and obscured by a great fatness. He was truly a prodigious man, and one
+could understand the stoutness with which the invalid chair was made.
+His great wrist dimpled like the wrist of a healthy baby, and his face
+was so enlarged with superfluous flesh that the lower part of it quite
+dwarfed the upper. He seemed, at first glance, a man with a low forehead
+and bright, careless eyes and a body made immobile by flesh and
+sickness. A man whose spirits despised and defied pain. Yet a second
+glance showed that the forehead was, after all, a nobly proportioned
+one, and for all the bulk of that figure, for all the cripple-chair,
+Donnegan would not have been surprised to see the bulk spring lightly
+out of the chair to meet him.</p>
+
+<p>For his own part, sitting back on the stool with his cap tucked under
+his arm and his hands folded about one knee, he met the faint, cold
+smile of the colonel with a broad grin of his own.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can put it in a nutshell,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I was tired; dead beat;
+needed a handout, and rapped at your door. Along comes a mystery in the
+shape of an ugly-looking woman and opens the door to me. Tries to shut
+me out; I decided to come in. She insists on keeping me outside; all at
+once I see that I have to get into the house. I am brought in; your
+daughter tries to steer me off, sees that the job is more than she can
+get away with, and shelves me off upon you. And that, Colonel Macon, is
+the pleasant accident which brings you the favor of this call.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It would have been a speech both stupid and pert in the mouth of
+another; but Donnegan knew how to flavor words with a touch of mockery
+of himself as well as another. There were two manners in which this
+speech could have been received&mdash;with a wink or with a smile. But it
+would have been impossible to hear it and grow frigid. As for the
+colonel, he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>It was a tricky smile, however, as Donnegan felt. It spread easily upon
+that vast face and again went out and left all to the dominion of the
+cold, bright eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A case of curiosity,&quot; commented the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A case of hunger,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Mr. Donnegan, put it that way if you wish!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And a case of blankets needed for one night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really? Have you ventured into such a country as this without any
+equipment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Outside of my purse, my equipment is of the invisible kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wits,&quot; suggested the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all. You hinted at it yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However, a hint is harder to take than to make.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel raised his faultless right hand&mdash;and oddly enough his great
+corpulence did not extend in the slightest degree to his hand, but
+stopped short at the wrists&mdash;and stroked his immense chin. His skin was
+like Lou Macon's, except that in place of the white-flower bloom his was
+a parchment, dead pallor. He lowered his hand with the same slow
+precision and folded it with the other, all the time probing Donnegan
+with his difficult eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unfortunately&mdash;most unfortunately, it is impossible for me to
+accommodate you, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The reply was not flippant, but quick. &quot;Not at all. I am the easiest
+person in the world to accommodate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man smiled sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My fortune has fallen upon evil days, sir. It is no longer what it was.
+There are in this house three habitable rooms; this one; my daughter's
+apartment; the kitchen where old Haggie sleeps. Otherwise you are in a
+rat trap of a place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head, a slow, decisive motion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A spare blanket,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;will be enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was another sigh and another shake of the head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even a corner of a rug to roll up in will do perfectly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see, it is impossible for me to entertain you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bare boards will do well enough for me, Colonel Macon. And if I have a
+piece of bread, a plate of cold beans&mdash;anything&mdash;I can entertain
+myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sorry to see you so compliant, Mr. Donnegan, because that makes my
+refusal seem the more unkind. But I cannot have you sleeping on the bare
+floor. Not on such a night. Pneumonia comes on one like a cat in the
+dark in such weather. It is really impossible to keep you here, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;H'm-m,&quot; said Donnegan. He began to feel that he was stumped, and it was
+a most unusual feeling for him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Besides, for a young fellow like you, with your agility, what is eight
+miles? Walk down the road and you will come to a place where you will be
+made at home and fed like a king.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eight miles, that's not much! But on such a night as this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint glint in the eyes of the colonel; was he not
+sharpening his wits for his contest of words, and enjoying it?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The wind will be at your back and buoy your steps. It will shorten the
+eight miles to four.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Very definitely Donnegan felt that the other was reading him. What was
+it that he saw as he turned the pages?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is one thing you fail to take into your accounting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an irresistible aversion to walking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot; repeated Macon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or exercise in any form.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you are unfortunate to be in this country without a horse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unfortunate, perhaps, but the fact is that I'm here. Very sorry to
+trouble you, though, colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am rarely troubled,&quot; said the colonel coldly. &quot;And since I have no
+means of accommodation, the laws of hospitality rest light on my
+shoulders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet I have an odd thought,&quot; replied Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well? You have expressed a number already, it seems to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's this: that you've already made up your mind to keep me here.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="8"></a><h2>8</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The colonel stiffened in his chair, and under his bulk even those
+ponderous timbers quaked a little. Once more Donnegan gained an
+impression of chained activity ready to rise to any emergency. The
+colonel's jaw set and the last vestige of the smile left his eyes. Yet
+it was not anger that showed in its place. Instead, it was rather a
+hungry searching. He looked keenly into the face and the soul of
+Donnegan as a searchlight sweeps over waters by night.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a mind reader, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No more of a mind reader than a Chinaman is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, they are great readers of mind, my friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan grinned, and at this the colonel frowned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A great and mysterious people, sir. I keep evidences of them always
+about me. Look!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He swept the shaft of the reading light up and it fell upon a red vase
+against the yellow hangings. Even Donnegan's inexperienced eye read a
+price into that shimmering vase.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Queer color,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dusty claret. Ah, they have the only names for their colors. Think!
+Peach bloom&mdash;liquid dawn&mdash;ripe cherry&mdash;oil green&mdash;green of powdered
+tea&mdash;blue of the sky after rain&mdash;what names for color! What other land
+possesses such a tongue that goes straight to the heart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel waved his faultless hands and then dropped them back upon
+the book with the tenderness of a benediction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And their terms for texture&mdash;pear's rind&mdash;lime peel&mdash;millet seed! Do
+not scoff at China, Mr. Donnegan. She is the fairy godmother, and we are
+the poor children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He changed the direction of the light; Donnegan watched him, fascinated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what convinced you that I wished to keep you here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To amuse you, Colonel Macon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel exposed gleaming white teeth and laughed in that soft,
+smooth-flowing voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Amuse me? For fifteen years I have sat in this room and amused myself
+by taking in what I would and shutting out the rest of the world. I have
+made the walls thick and padded them to keep out all sound. You observe
+that there is no evidence here of the storm that is going on tonight.
+Amuse me? Indeed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan thought of Lou Macon in her old, drab dress, huddling the
+poor cloak around her shoulders to keep out the cold, while her father
+lounged here in luxury. He could gladly have buried his lean fingers in
+that fat throat. From the first he had had an aversion to this man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, I shall go. It has been a pleasant chat, colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very pleasant. And thank you. But before you go, taste this whisky. It
+will help you when you enter the wind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He opened a cabinet in the side of the chair and brought out a black
+bottle and a pair of glasses and put them on the broad arm of the chair.
+Donnegan sauntered back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see,&quot; he murmured, &quot;you will not let me go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this the colonel raised his head suddenly and glared into the eyes of
+his guest, and yet so perfect was his muscular and nerve control that he
+did not interrupt the thin stream of amber which trickled into one of
+the glasses. Looking down again, he finished pouring the drinks. They
+pledged each other with a motion, and drank. It was very old, very oily.
+And Donnegan smiled as he put down the empty glass.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sit down,&quot; said the colonel in a new voice.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fate,&quot; went on the colonel, &quot;rules our lives. We give our honest
+endeavors, but the deciding touch is the hand of Fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He garnished this absurd truism with a wave of his hand so solemn that
+Donnegan was chilled; as though the fat man were actually conversant
+with the Three Sisters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fate has brought you to me; therefore, I intend to keep you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In my service. I am about to place a great mission and a great trust in
+your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the hands of a man you know nothing about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know you as if I had raised you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled, and shaking his head, the red hair flashed and
+shimmered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As long as there is no work attached to the mission, it may be
+agreeable to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But there is work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then the contract is broken before it is made.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are rash. But I had rather begin with a dissent and then work
+upward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan waited.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To balance against work&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excuse me. Nothing balances against work for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To balance against work,&quot; continued the colonel, raising a white hand
+and by that gesture crushing the protest of Donnegan, &quot;there is a great
+reward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Colonel Macon, I have never worked for money before and I shall not
+work for it now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You trouble me with interruptions. Who mentioned money? You shall not
+have a penny!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reward shall grow out of the work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the work?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is fighting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan narrowed his eyes and searched the fat man thoroughly.
+It sounded like the talk of a charlatan, and yet there was a crispness
+to these sentences that made him suspect something underneath. For that
+matter, in certain districts his name and his career were known. He had
+never dreamed that that reputation could have come within a thousand
+miles of this part of the mountain desert.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You should have told me in the first place,&quot; he said with some anger,
+&quot;that you knew me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan, upon my honor, I never heard your name before my daughter
+uttered it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan waited soberly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I despise charlatanry as much as the next man. You shall see the steps
+by which I judged you. When you entered the room I threw a strong light
+upon you. You did not blanch; you immediately walked straight into the
+shaft of light although you could not see a foot before you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that proved?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A combative instinct, and coolness; not the sort of brute
+vindictiveness that fights for a rage, for a cool-minded love of
+conflict. Is that clear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And above all, I need a fighter. Then I watched your eyes and your
+hands. The first were direct and yet they were alert. And your hands
+were perfectly steady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Qualifications for a fighter, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you wish further proof?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What of the fight to the death which you went through this same night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan started. It was a small movement, that flinching, and he
+covered it by continuing the upward gesture of his hand to his coat; he
+drew out tobacco and cigarette papers and commenced to roll his smoke.
+Looking up, he saw that the eyes of Colonel Macon were smiling, although
+his face was grave.</p>
+
+<p>A glint of understanding passed between the two men, but not a spoken
+word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I assure you, there was no death tonight,&quot; said Donnegan at length.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush! Of course not! But the tear on the shoulder of your coat&mdash;ah,
+that is too smooth edged for a tear, too long for the bite of a
+scissors. Am I right? Tush! Not a word!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel beamed with an almost tender pride, and Donnegan, knowing
+that the fat man looked upon him as a murderer, newly come from a
+death, considered the beaming face and thought many things in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So it was easy to see that in coolness, courage, fighting instinct,
+skill, you were probably what I want. Yet something more than all these
+qualifications is necessary for the task which lies ahead of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You pile up the bad features, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To entice you, Donnegan. For one man, paint a rosy beginning, and once
+under way he will manage the hard parts. For you, show you the hard
+shell and you will trust it contains the choice flesh. I was saying,
+that I waited to see other qualities in you; qualities of the judgment.
+And suddenly you flashed upon me a single glance; I felt it clash
+against my willpower. I felt your look go past my guard like a rapier
+slipping around my blade. I, Colonel Macon, was for the first time
+outfaced, out-maneuvered. I admit it, for I rejoice in meeting such a
+man. And the next instant you told me that I should keep you here out of
+my own wish! Admirable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The admiration of the colonel, indeed, almost overwhelmed Donnegan, but
+he saw that in spite of the genial smile, the face suffused with warmth,
+the colonel was watching him every instant, flinty-eyed. Donnegan did as
+he had done on the stairs; he burst into laughter.</p>
+
+<p>When he had done, the colonel was leaning forward in his chair with his
+fingers interlacing, examining his guest from beneath somber brows. As
+he sat lurched forward he gave a terrible impression of that reserved
+energy which Donnegan had sensed before.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; said the colonel, &quot;I shall talk no more nonsense to you. You
+are a terrible fellow!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan knew that, for the first time in the colonel's life, he was
+meeting another man upon equal ground.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="9"></a><h2>9</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>In a way, it was an awful tribute, for one great fact grew upon him:
+that the colonel represented almost perfectly the power of absolute
+evil. Donnegan was not a squeamish sort, but the fat, smiling face of
+Macon filled him with unutterable aversion. A dozen times he would have
+left the room, but a silken thread held him back, the thought of Lou.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall be terse and entirely frank,&quot; said the colonel, and at once
+Donnegan reared triple guard and balanced himself for attack or defense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between you and me,&quot; went on the fat man, &quot;deceptive words are folly. A
+waste of energy.&quot; He flushed a little. &quot;You are, I believe, the first
+man who has ever laughed at me.&quot; The click of his teeth as he snapped
+them on this sentence seemed to promise that he should also be the last.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I tear away the veils which made me ridiculous, I grant you.
+Donnegan, we have met each other just in time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;you have a task for me that promises a lot of
+fighting; and in return I get lodgings for the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wrong, wrong! I offer you much more. I offer you a career of action in
+which you may forget the great sorrow which has fallen upon you: and in
+the battles which lie before you, you will find oblivion for the sad
+past which lies behind you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Donnegan sprang to his feet with his hand caught at his breast; and
+he stood quivering, in an agony. Pain worked him as anger would do, and,
+his slender frame swelling, his muscles taut, he stood like a panther
+enduring the torture because knows it is folly to attempt to escape.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a human devil!&quot; Donnegan said at last, and sank back upon his
+stool. For a moment he was overcome, his head falling upon his breast,
+and even when he looked up his face was terribly pale, and his eyes
+dull. His expression, however, cleared swiftly, and aside from the
+perspiration which shone on his forehead it would have been impossible
+ten seconds later to discover that the blow of the colonel had fallen
+upon him.</p>
+
+<p>All of this the colonel had observed and noted with grim satisfaction.
+Not once did he speak until he saw that all was well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sorry,&quot; he said at length in a voice almost as delicate as the
+voice of Lou Macon. &quot;I am sorry, but you forced me to say more than I
+wished to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan brushed the apology aside.</p>
+
+<p>His voice became low and hurried. &quot;Let us get on in the matter. I am
+eager to learn from you, colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. Since it seems that there is a place for both our interests
+in this matter, I shall run on in my tale and make it, as I promised you
+before, absolutely frank and curt. I shall not descend into small
+details. I shall give you a main sketch of the high points; for all men
+of mind are apt to be confused by the face of a thing, whereas the heart
+of it is perfectly clear to them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He settled into his narrative.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have heard of The Corner? No? Well, that is not strange; but a few
+weeks ago gold was found in the sands where the valleys of Young Muddy
+and Christobel Rivers join. The Corner is a long, wide triangle of sand,
+and the sand is filled with a gold deposit brought down from the
+headwaters of both rivers and precipitated here, where one current meets
+the other and reduces the resultant stream to sluggishness. The sands
+are rich&mdash;very rich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had become a trifle flushed as he talked, and now, perhaps to cover
+his emotion, he carefully selected a cigarette from the humidor beside
+him and lighted it without haste before he spoke another word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Long ago I prospected over that valley; a few weeks ago it was brought
+to my attention again. I determined to stake some claims and work them.
+But I could not go myself. I had to send a trustworthy man. Whom should
+I select? There was only one possible. Jack Landis is my ward. A dozen
+years ago his parents died and they sent him to my care, for my fortune
+was then comfortable. I raised him with as much tenderness as I could
+have shown my own son; I lavished on him the affection and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Donnegan coughed lightly; the fat man paused, and observing that
+this hypocrisy did not draw the veil over the bright eyes of his guest,
+he continued: &quot;In a word, I made him one of my family. And when the need
+for a man came I turned to him. He is young, strong, active, able to
+take care of himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan pricked his ears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He went, accordingly, to The Corner and staked the claims and filed
+them as I directed. I was right. There was gold. Much gold. It panned
+out in nuggets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He made an indescribable gesture, and through his strong fingers
+Donnegan had a vision of yellow gold pouring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But there is seldom a discovery of importance claimed by one man alone.
+This was no exception. A villain named William Lester, known as a
+scoundrel over the length and breadth of the cattle country, claimed
+that he had made the discovery first. He even went so far as to claim
+that I had obtained my information from him and he tried to jump the
+claims staked by Jack Landis, whereupon Jack, very properly, shot Lester
+down. Not dead, unfortunately, but slightly wounded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the meantime the rush for The Corner started. In a week there was a
+village; in a fortnight there was a town; in a month The Corner had
+become the talk of the ranges. Jack Landis found in the claims a mint.
+He sent me back a mere souvenir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fat man produced from his vest pocket a little chunk of yellow and
+with a dexterous motion whipped it at Donnegan. It was done so suddenly,
+so unexpectedly that the wanderer was well-nigh taken by surprise. But
+his hand flashed up and caught the metal before it struck his face. He
+found in the palm of his hand a nugget weighing perhaps five ounces,
+and he flicked it back to the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He sent me the souvenir, but that was all. Since that time I have
+waited. Nothing has come. I sent for word, and I learned that Jack
+Landis had betrayed his trust, fallen in love with some undesirable
+woman of the mining camp, denied my claim to any of the gold to which I
+had sent him. Unpleasant news? Yes. Ungrateful boy? Yes. But my mind is
+hardened against adversity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet this blow struck me close to the heart. Because Landis is engaged
+to marry my daughter, Lou. At first I could hardly believe in his
+disaffection. But the truth has at length been borne home to me. The
+scoundrel has abandoned both Lou and me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan repeated slowly: &quot;Your daughter loves this chap?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel allowed his glance to narrow, and he could do this the more
+safely because at this moment Donnegan's eyes were wandering into the
+distance. In that unguarded second Donnegan was defenseless and the
+colonel read something that set him beaming.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She loves him, of course,&quot; he said, &quot;and he is breaking her heart with
+his selfishness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is breaking her heart?&quot; echoed Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel raised his hand and stroked his enormous chin. Decidedly he
+believed that things were getting on very well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is the position,&quot; he declared. &quot;Jack Landis was threatened by the
+wretch Lester, and shot him down. But Lester was not single-handed. He
+belongs to a wild crew, led by a mysterious fellow of whom no one knows
+very much, a deadly fighter, it is said, and a keen organizer and
+handler of men. Red-haired, wild, smooth. A bundle of contradictions.
+They call him Lord Nick because he has the pride of a nobleman and the
+cunning of the devil. He has gathered a few chosen spirits and cool
+fighters&mdash;the Pedlar, Joe Rix, Harry Masters&mdash;all celebrated names in
+the cattle country.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They worship Lord Nick partly because he is a genius of crime and
+partly because he understands how to guide them so that they may rob and
+even kill with impunity. His peculiarity is his ability to keep within
+the bounds of the law. If he commits a robbery he always first
+establishes marvelous alibis and throws the blame toward someone else;
+if it is the case of a killing, it is always the other man who is the
+aggressor. He has been before a jury half a dozen times, but the devil
+knows the law and pleads his own case with a tongue that twists the
+hearts out of the stupid jurors. You see? No common man. And this is the
+leader of the group of which Lester is one of the most debased members.
+He had no sooner been shot than Lord Nick himself appeared. He had his
+followers with him. He saw Jack Landis, threatened him with death, and
+made Jack swear that he would hand over half of the profits of the mines
+to the gang&mdash;of which, I suppose, Lester gets his due proportion. At the
+same time, Lord Nick attempted to persuade Jack that I, his adopted
+father, you might say, was really in the wrong, and that I had stolen
+the claims from this wretched Lester!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He waved this disgusting accusation into a mist and laughed with hateful
+softness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The result is this: Jack Landis draws a vast revenue from the mines.
+Half of it he turns over to Lord Nick, and Lord Nick in return gives him
+absolute freedom and backing in the camp, where he is, and probably will
+continue the dominant factor. As for the other half, Landis spends it on
+this woman with whom he has become infatuated. And not a penny comes
+through to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Macon leaned back in his chair and his eyes became fixed upon a
+great distance. He smiled, and the blood turned cold in the veins of
+Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course this adventuress, this Nelly Lebrun, plays hand in glove with
+Lord Nick and his troupe; unquestionably she shares her spoils, so that
+nine-tenths of the revenue from the mines is really flowing back through
+the hands of Lord Nick and Jack Landis has become a silly figurehead. He
+struts about the streets of The Corner as a great mine owner, and with
+the power of Lord Nick behind him, not one of the people of the gambling
+houses and dance halls dares cross him. So that Jack has come to
+consider himself a great man. Is it clear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan had not yet drawn his gaze entirely back from the distance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is the possible solution,&quot; went on the colonel. &quot;Jack Landis must
+be drawn away from the influence of this Nelly Lebrun. He must be
+brought back to us and shown his folly both as regards the adventuress
+and Lord Nick; for so long as Nelly has a hold on him, just so long
+Lord Nick will have his hand in Jack's pocket. You see how beautifully
+their plans and their work dovetail? How, therefore, am I to draw him
+from Nelly? There is only one way: send my daughter to the camp&mdash;send
+Lou to The Corner and let one glimpse of her beauty turn the shabby
+prettiness of this woman to a shadow! Lou is my last hope!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan wakened. His sneer was not a pleasant thing to see.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Send her to a new mining camp. Colonel Macon, you have the gambling
+spirit; you are willing to take great chances!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So! So!&quot; murmured the colonel, a little taken aback. &quot;But I should
+never send her except with an adequate protector.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An adequate protector even against these celebrated gunmen who run the
+camp as you have already admitted?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An adequate protector&mdash;you are the man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I? I take your daughter to the camp and play her against Nelly Lebrun
+to win back Jack Landis? Is that the scheme?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; murmured Donnegan. And he got up and began to walk the room,
+white-faced; the colonel watched him in a silent agony of anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She truly loves this Landis?&quot; asked Donnegan, swallowing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A love that has grown out of their long intimacy together since they
+were children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bah! Calf love! Let the fellow go and she will forget him. Hearts are
+not broken in these days by disappointments in love affairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel writhed in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Lou&mdash;you do not know her heart!&quot; he suggested. &quot;If you looked
+closely at her you would have seen that she is pale. She does not
+suspect the truth, but I think she is wasting away because Jack hasn't
+written for weeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He saw Donnegan wince under the whip.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is true,&quot; murmured the wanderer. &quot;She is not like others, heaven
+knows!&quot; He turned. &quot;And what if I fail to bring over Jack Landis with
+the sight of Lou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel relaxed; the great crisis was past and Donnegan would
+undertake the journey.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that case, my dear lad, there is an expedient so simple that you
+astonish me by not perceiving it. If there is no way to wean Landis away
+from the woman, then get him alone and shoot him through the heart. In
+that way you remove from the life of Lou a man unworthy of her and you
+also make the mines come to the heir of Jack Landis&mdash;namely, myself. And
+in the latter case, Mr. Donnegan, be sure&mdash;oh, be sure that I should not
+forget who brought the mines into my hands!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="10"></a><h2>10</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Fifty miles over any sort of going is a stiff march. Fifty miles uphill
+and down and mostly over districts where there was only a rough cow path
+in lieu of a road made a prodigious day's work; and certainly it was an
+almost incredible feat for one who professed to hate work with a
+consuming passion and who had looked upon an eight-mile jaunt the night
+before as an insuperable burden. Yet such was the distance which
+Donnegan had covered, and now he drove the pack mule out on the shoulder
+of the hill in full view of The Corner with the triangle of the Young
+Muddy and Christobel Rivers embracing the little town. Even the gaunt,
+leggy mule was tired to the dropping point, and the tough buckskin which
+trailed up behind went with downward head. When Louise Macon turned to
+him, he had reached the point where he swung his head around first and
+then grudgingly followed the movement with his body. The girl was tired,
+also, in spite of the fact that she had covered every inch of the
+distance in the saddle. There was that violet shade of weariness under
+her eyes and her shoulders slumped forward. Only Donnegan, the hater of
+labor, was fresh.</p>
+
+<p>They had started in the first dusk of the coming day; it was now the
+yellow time of the slant afternoon sunlight; between these two points
+there had been a body of steady plodding. The girl had looked askance at
+that gaunt form of Donnegan's when they began; but before three hours,
+seeing that the spring never left his step nor the swinging rhythm his
+stride, she began to wonder. This afternoon, nothing he did could have
+surprised her. From the moment he entered the house the night before he
+had been a mystery. Till her death day she would not forget the fire
+with which he had stared up at her from the foot of the stairs. But when
+he came out of her father's room&mdash;not cowed and whipped as most men left
+it&mdash;he had looked at her with a veiled glance, and since that moment
+there had always been a mist of indifference over his eyes when he
+looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>In the beginning of that day's march all she knew was that her father
+trusted her to this stranger, Donnegan, to take her to The Corner, where
+he was to find Jack Landis and bring Jack back to his old allegiance and
+find what he was doing with his time and his money. It was a quite
+natural proceeding, for Jack was a wild sort, and he was probably
+gambling away all the gold that was dug in his mines. It was perfectly
+natural throughout, except that she should have been trusted so entirely
+to a stranger. That was a remarkable thing, but, then, her father was a
+remarkable man, and it was not the first time that his actions had been
+inscrutable, whether concerning her or the affairs of other people. She
+had heard men come into their house cursing Colonel Macon with death in
+their faces; she had seen them sneak out after a soft-voiced interview
+and never appear again. In her eyes, her father was invincible,
+all-powerful. When she thought of superlatives, she thought of him. Her
+conception of mystery was the smile of the colonel, and her conception
+of tenderness was bounded by the gentle voice of the same man.
+Therefore, it was entirely sufficient to her that the colonel had said:
+&quot;Go, and trust everything to Donnegan. He has the power to command you
+and you must obey&mdash;until Jack comes back to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>That was odd, for, as far as she knew, Jack had never left her. But she
+had early discarded any will to question her father. Curiosity was a
+thing which the fat man hated above all else.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, it was really not strange to her that throughout the journey
+her guide did not speak half a dozen words to her. Once or twice when
+she attempted to open the conversation he had replied with crushing
+monosyllables, and there was an end. For the rest, he was always
+swinging down the trail ahead of her at a steady, unchanging, rapid
+stride. Uphill and down it never varied. And so they came out upon the
+shoulder of the hill and saw the storm center of The Corner. They were
+in the hills behind the town; two miles would bring them into it. And
+now Donnegan came back to her from the mule. He took off his hat and
+shook the dust away; he brushed a hand across his face. He was still
+unshaven. The red stubble made him hideous, and the dust and
+perspiration covered his face as with a mask. Only his eyes were rimmed
+with white skin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'd better get off the horse, here,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>He held her stirrup, and she obeyed without a word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sit down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sat down on the flat-topped boulder which he designated, and,
+looking up, observed the first sign of emotion in his face. He was
+frowning, and his face was drawn a little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are tired,&quot; he stated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A little.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are tired,&quot; said the wanderer in a tone that implied dislike of any
+denial. Therefore she made no answer. &quot;I'm going down into the town to
+look things over. I don't want to parade you through the streets until I
+know where Landis is to be found and how he'll receive you. The Corner
+is a wild town; you understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; she said blankly, and noted nervously that the reply did not
+please him. He actually scowled at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll be all right here. I'll leave the pack mule with you; if
+anything should happen&mdash;but nothing is going to happen, I'll be back in
+an hour or so. There's a pool of water. You can get a cold drink there
+and wash up if you want to while I'm gone. But don't go to sleep!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A place like this is sure to have a lot of stragglers hunting around
+it. Bad characters. You understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She could not understand why he should make a mystery of it; but then,
+he was almost as strange as her father. His careful English and his
+ragged clothes were typical of him inside and out.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have a gun there in your holster. Can you use it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Try it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a thirty-two, a woman's light weapon. She took it out and
+balanced it in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The blue rock down the hillside. Let me see you chip it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her hand went up, and without pausing to sight along the barrel, she
+fired; fire flew from the rock, and there appeared a white, small scar.
+Donnegan sighed with relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you squeezed the butt rather than pulled the trigger,&quot; he commented,
+&quot;you would have made a bull's-eye that time. Now, I don't mean that in
+any likelihood you'll have to defend yourself. I simply want you to be
+aware that there's plenty of trouble around The Corner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not afraid?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan settled his hat a little more firmly upon his head. He had been
+on the verge of attributing her gentleness to a blank, stupid mind; he
+began to realize that there was metal under the surface. He felt that
+some of the qualities of the father were echoed faintly, and at a
+distance, in the child. In a way, she made him think of an unawakened
+creature. When she was roused, if the time ever came, it might be that
+her eye could become a thing alternately of fire and ice, and her voice
+might carry with a ring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This business has to be gotten through quickly,&quot; he went on. &quot;One
+meeting with Jack Landis will be enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She wondered why he set his jaw when he said this, but he was wondering
+how deeply the colonel's ward had fallen into the clutches of Nelly
+Lebrun. If that first meeting did not bring Landis to his senses, what
+followed? One of two things. Either the girl must stay on in The Corner
+and try her hand with her fianc&eacute; again, or else the final brutal
+suggestion of the colonel must be followed; he must kill Landis. It was
+a cold-blooded suggestion, but Donnegan was a cold-blooded man. As he
+looked at the girl, where she sat on the boulder, he knew definitely,
+first and last, that he loved her, and that he would never again love
+any other woman. Every instinct drew him toward the necessity of
+destroying Landis. There was his stumbling block. But what if she truly
+loved Landis?</p>
+
+<p>He would have to wait in order to find that out. And as he stood there
+with the sun shining on the red stubble on his face he made a resolution
+the more profound because it was formed in silence: if she truly loved
+Landis he would serve her hand and foot until she had her will.</p>
+
+<p>But all he said was simply: &quot;I shall be back before it's dark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall be comfortable here,&quot; replied the girl, and smiled farewell at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>And while Donnegan went down the slope full of darkness he thought of
+that smile.</p>
+
+<p>The Corner spread more clearly before him with every step he made. It
+was a type of the gold-rush town. Of course most of the dwellings were
+tents&mdash;dog tents many of them; but there was a surprising sprinkling of
+wooden shacks, some of them of considerable size. Beginning at the very
+edge of the town and spread over the sand flats were the mines and the
+black sprinkling of laborers. And the town itself was roughly jumbled
+around one street. Over to the left the main road into The Corner
+crossed the wide, shallow ford of the Young Muddy River and up this road
+he saw half a dozen wagons coming, wagons of all sizes; but nothing went
+out of The Corner. People who came stayed there, it seemed.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped over the lower hills, and the voice of the gold town rose to
+him. It was a murmur like that of an army preparing for battle. Now and
+then a blast exploded, for what purpose he could not imagine in this
+school of mining. But as a rule the sounds were subdued by the distance.
+He caught the muttering of many voices, in which laughter and shouts
+were brought to the level of a whisper at close hand; and through all
+this there was a persistent clangor of metallic sounds. No doubt from
+the blacksmith shops where picks and other implements were made or
+sharpened and all sorts of repairing carried on. But the predominant
+tone of the voice of The Corner was this persistent ringing of metal. It
+suggested to Donnegan that here was a town filled with men of iron and
+all the gentler parts of their natures forgotten. An odd place to bring
+such a woman as Lou Macon, surely!</p>
+
+<p>He reached the level, and entered the town.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="11"></a><h2>11</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Hunting for news, he went naturally to the news emporium which took the
+place of the daily paper&mdash;namely, he went to the saloons. But on the way
+he ran through a liberal cross-section of The Corner's populace. First
+of all, the tents and the ruder shacks. He saw little sheet-iron stoves
+with the tin dishes piled, unwashed, upon the tops of them when the
+miners rushed back to their work; broken handles of picks and shovels;
+worn-out shirts and overalls lay where they had been tossed; here was a
+flat strip of canvas supported by four four-foot poles and without
+shelter at the sides, and the belongings of one careless miner tumbled
+beneath this miserable shelter; another man had striven for some
+semblance of a home and he had framed a five-foot walk leading up to the
+closed flap of his tent with stones of a regular size. But nowhere was
+there a sign of life, and would not be until semidarkness brought the
+unwilling workers back to the tents.</p>
+
+<p>Out of this district he passed quickly onto the main street, and here
+there was a different atmosphere. The first thing he saw was a man
+dressed as a cowpuncher from belt to spurs&mdash;spurs on a miner&mdash;but above
+the waist he blossomed in a frock coat and a silk hat. Around the coat
+he had fastened his belt, and the shirt beneath the coat was common
+flannel, open at the throat. He walked, or rather staggered, on the arm
+of an equally strange companion who was arrayed in a white silk shirt,
+white flannel trousers, white dancing pumps, and a vast sombrero! But as
+if this was not sufficient protection for his head, he carried a parasol
+of the most brilliant green silk and twirled it above his head. The two
+held a wavering course and went blindly past Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>It was sufficiently clear that the storekeeper had followed the gold.</p>
+
+<p>He noted a cowboy sitting in his saddle while he rolled a cigarette.
+Obviously he had come in to look things over rather than to share in the
+mining, and he made the one sane, critical note in the carnival of noise
+and color. Donnegan began to pass stores. There was the jeweler's; the
+gent's furnishing; a real estate office&mdash;what could real estate be doing
+on the Young Muddy's desert? Here was the pawnshop, the windows of which
+were already packed. The blacksmith had a great establishment, and the
+roar of the anvils never died away; feed and grain and a dozen
+lunch-counter restaurants. All this had come to The Corner within six
+weeks.</p>
+
+<p>Liquor seemed to be plentiful, too. In the entire length of the street
+he hardly saw a sober man, except the cowboy. Half a dozen in one group
+pitched silver dollars at a mark. But he was in the saloon district now,
+and dominant among the rest was the big, unpainted front of a building
+before which hung an enormous sign:</p>
+
+<h3 align=center>LEBRUN'S JOY EMPORIUM</h3>
+
+<p>Donnegan turned in under the sign.</p>
+
+<p>It was one big room. The bar stretched completely around two sides of
+it. The floor was dirt, but packed to the hardness of wood. The low roof
+was supported by a scattering of wooden pillars, and across the floor
+the gaming tables were spread. At that vast bar not ten men were
+drinking now; at the crowding tables there were not half a dozen
+players; yet behind the bar stood a dozen tenders ready to meet the
+evening rush from the mines. And at the tables waited an equal number of
+the professional gamblers of the house.</p>
+
+<p>From the door Donnegan observed these things with one sweeping glance,
+and then proceeded to transform himself. One jerk at the visor of his
+cap brought it down over his eyes and covered his face with shadow; a
+single shrug bunched the ragged coat high around his shoulders, and the
+shoulders themselves he allowed to drop forward. With his hands in his
+pockets he glided slowly across the room toward the bar, for all the
+world a picture of the guttersnipe who had been kicked from pillar to
+post until self-respect is dead in him. And pausing in his advance, he
+leaned against one of the pillars and looked hungrily toward the bar.</p>
+
+<p>He was immediately hailed from behind the bar with: &quot;Hey, you. No tramps
+in here. Pay and stay in Lebrun's!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The command brought an immediate protest. A big fellow stepped from the
+bar, his sombrero pushed to the back of his head, his shirt sleeves
+rolled to the elbow away from vast hairy forearms. One of his long arms
+swept out and brought Donnegan to the bar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I ain't no prophet,&quot; declared the giant, &quot;but I can spot a man that's
+dry. What'll you have, bud?&quot; And to the bartender he added: &quot;Leave him
+be, pardner, unless you're all set for considerable noise in here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Long as his drinks are paid for,&quot; muttered the bartender, &quot;here he
+stays. But these floaters do make me tired!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He jabbed the bottle across the bar at Donnegan and spun a glass noisily
+at him, and the &quot;floater&quot; observed the angry bartender with a frightened
+side glance, and then poured his drink gingerly. When the glass was half
+full he hesitated and sought the face of the bartender again, for
+permission to go on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fill her up!&quot; commanded the giant. &quot;Fill her up, lad, and drink
+hearty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never yet,&quot; observed the bartender darkly, &quot;seen a beggar that wasn't
+a hog.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan's protector shifted his belt so that the holster came a
+little more forward on his thigh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Son,&quot; he said, &quot;how long you been in these parts?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Long enough,&quot; declared the other, and lowered his black brows. &quot;Long
+enough to be sick of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe, maybe,&quot; returned the cowpuncher-miner, &quot;meantime you tie to
+this. We got queer ways out here. When a gent drinks with us he's our
+friend. This lad here is my pardner, just now. If I was him I would of
+knocked your head off before now for what you've said&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't want no trouble,&quot; Donnegan said whiningly.</p>
+
+<p>At this the bartender chuckled, and the miner showed his teeth in his
+disgust.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every gent has got his own way,&quot; he said sourly. &quot;But while you drink
+with Hal Stern you drink with your chin up, bud. And don't forget it.
+And them that tries to run over you got to run over me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, he laid his large left hand on the bar and leaned a little
+toward the bartender, but his right hand remained hanging loosely at his
+side. It was near the holster, as Donnegan noticed. And the bartender,
+having met the boring glance of the big man for a moment, turned surlily
+away. The giant looked to Donnegan and observed: &quot;Know a good definition
+of the word, skunk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nope,&quot; said Donnegan, brightening now that the stern eye, of the
+bartender was turned away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's one that might do. A skunk is a critter that bites when your
+back is turned and runs when you look it in the eye. Here's how!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He drained his own glass, and Donnegan dexterously followed the example.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what might you be doing around these parts?&quot; asked the big man,
+veiling his contempt under a mild geniality.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me? Oh, nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Looking for a job, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Work ain't my line,&quot; he confided.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;H'm-m-m,&quot; said Hal Stern. &quot;Well, you don't make no bones about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But just now,&quot; continued Donnegan, &quot;I thought maybe I'd pick up some
+sort of a job for a while.&quot; He looked ruefully at the palms of his hands
+which were as tender as the hands of a woman. &quot;Heard a fellow say that
+Jack Landis was a good sort to work for&mdash;didn't rush his men none. They
+said I might find him here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man grunted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Too early for him. He don't circulate around much till the sun goes
+down. Kind of hard on his skin, the sun, maybe. So you're going to work
+for him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was figuring on it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, tie to this, bud. If you work for him you won't have him over
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, you'll have&quot;&mdash;he glanced a little uneasily around him&mdash;&quot;Lord Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's he?&quot; The big man started in astonishment. &quot;Sufferin' catamounts!
+Who is he?&quot; He laughed in a disagreeable manner. &quot;Well, son, you'll
+find out, right enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The way you talk, he don't sound none too good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hal Stern grew anxious. &quot;The way I talk? Have I said anything agin' him?
+Not a word! He's&mdash;he's&mdash;well, there ain't ever been trouble between us
+and there never ain't going to be.&quot; He flushed and looked steadily at
+Donnegan. &quot;Maybe he sent you to talk to me?&quot; he asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan's eyes took on a childish wideness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, I never seen him,&quot; he declared. Hall Stern allowed the muscles of
+his face to relax. &quot;All right,&quot; he said, &quot;they's no harm done. But Lord
+Nick is a name that ain't handled none too free in these here parts.
+Remember that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how,&quot; pondered Donnegan, &quot;can I be working for Lord Nick when I
+sign up to work under Jack Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you how. Nick and Lebrun work together. Split profits. And
+Nelly Lebrun works Landis for his dust. So the stuff goes in a
+circle&mdash;Landis to Nelly to Lebrun to Nick. That clear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't quite see it,&quot; murmured Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't think you would,&quot; declared the other, and snorted his disgust.
+&quot;But that's all I'm going to say. Here come the boys&mdash;and dead dry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the afternoon was verging upon evening, and the first drift of
+laborers from the mines was pouring into The Corner. One thing at least
+was clear to Donnegan: that everyone knew how infatuated Landis had
+become with Nelly Lebrun and that Landis had not built up an
+extraordinarily good name for himself.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="12"></a><h2>12</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>By the time absolute darkness had set in, Donnegan, in the new role of
+lady's chaperon, sat before a dying fire with Louise Macon beside him.
+He had easily seen from his talk with Stern that Landis was a public
+figure, whether from the richness of his claims or his relations with
+Lord Nick and Lebrun, or because of all these things; but as a public
+figure it would be impossible to see him alone in his own tent, and
+unless Louise could meet him alone half her power over him&mdash;supposing
+that she still retained any&mdash;would be lost. Better by far that Landis
+should come to her than that she should come to him, so Donnegan had
+rented two tents by the day at an outrageous figure from the
+enterprising real estate company of The Corner and to this new home he
+brought the girl.</p>
+
+<p>She accepted the arrangement with surprising equanimity. It seemed that
+her father's training had eliminated from her mind any questioning of
+the motives of others. She became even cheerful as she set about
+arranging the pack which Donnegan put in her tent. Afterward she cooked
+their supper over the fire which he built for her. Never was there such
+a quick house-settling. And by the time it was absolutely dark they had
+washed the dishes and sat before Lou's tent looking over the night
+lights of The Corner and hearing the voice of its Great White Way
+opening.</p>
+
+<p>She had not even asked why he did not bring her straight to Jack Landis.
+She had looked into Donnegan's tent, furnished with a single blanket and
+his canvas kit, and had offered to share her pack with him. And now they
+sat side by side before the tent and still she asked no questions about
+what was to come.</p>
+
+<p>Her silence was to Donnegan the dropping of the water upon the hard
+rock. He was crumbling under it, and a wild hatred for the colonel rose
+in him. No doubt that spirit of evil had foreseen all this; and he knew
+that every moment spent with the girl would drive Donnegan on closer to
+the accomplishment of the colonel's great purpose&mdash;the death of Jack
+Landis. For the colonel, as Jack's next of kin, would take over all his
+mining interests and free them at a stroke from the silent partnership
+which apparently existed with Lord Nick and Lester. One bullet would do
+all this: and with Jack dead, who else stood close to the girl? It was
+only necessary that she should not know who sped the bullet home.</p>
+
+<p>A horrible fancy grew up in Donnegan, as he sat there, that between him
+and the girl lay a dead body.</p>
+
+<p>He was glad when the time came and he could tell her that he was going
+down to The Corner to find Jack Landis and bring him to her. She rose to
+watch him go and he heard her say &quot;Come soon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It shocked Donnegan into realization that for all her calm exterior she
+was perfectly aware of the danger of her position in the wild mining
+camp. She must know, also, that her reputation would be compromised; yet
+never once had she winced, and Donnegan was filled with wonder as he
+went down the hill toward the camp which was spread beneath him; for
+their tents were a little detached from the main body of the town.
+Behind her gentle eyes, he now felt, and under the softness of her
+voice, there was the same iron nerve that was in her father. Her hatred
+could be a deathless passion, and her love also; and the great question
+to be answered now was, did she truly love Jack Landis?</p>
+
+<p>The Corner at night was like a scene at a circus. There was the same
+rush of people, the same irregular flush of lights, the same glimmer of
+lanterns through canvas, the same air of impermanence. Once, in one of
+those hushes which will fall upon every crowd, he heard a coyote wailing
+sharply and far away, as though the desert had sent out this voice to
+mock at The Corner and all it contained.</p>
+
+<p>He had only to ask once to discover where Landis was: Milligan's dance
+hall. Before Milligan's place a bonfire burned from the beginning of
+dusk to the coming of day; and until the time when that fire was
+quenched with buckets of water, it was a sign to all that the merriment
+was under way in the dance hall. If Lebrun's was the sun of the
+amusement world in The Corner, Milligan's was the moon. Everybody who
+had money to lose went to Lebrun's. Every one who was out for gayety
+went to Milligan's. Milligan was a plunger. He had brought up an
+orchestra which demanded fifteen dollars a day and he paid them that and
+more. He not only was able to do this, but he established a bar at the
+entrance from which all who entered were served with a free drink. The
+entrance, also, was not subject to charge. The initial drink at the door
+was spiced to encourage thirst, so Milligan made money as fast, and far
+more easily, than if he had been digging it out of the ground.</p>
+
+<p>To the door of this pleasure emporium came Donnegan. He had transformed
+himself into the ragged hobo by the jerking down of his cap again, and
+the hunching of his shoulders. And shrinking past the bar with a hungry
+sidewise glance, as one who did not dare present himself for free
+liquor, he entered Milligan's.</p>
+
+<p>That is, he had put his foot across the threshold when he was caught
+roughly by the shoulder and dragged to one side. He found himself
+looking up into the face of a strapping fellow who served Milligan as
+bouncer. Milligan had an eye for color. Andy Lewis was tolerably well
+known as a fighting man of parts, who not only wore two guns but could
+use them both at once, which is much more difficult than is generally
+understood. But far more than for his fighting parts Milligan hired his
+bouncer for the sake of his face. It was a countenance made to
+discourage trouble makers. A mule had kicked Lewis in the chin, and a
+great white welt deformed his lower lip. Scars of smallpox added to his
+decorative effect, and he had those extremely bushy brows which for some
+reason are generally considered to denote ferocity. Now, Donnegan was
+not above middle height at best, and in his present shrinking attitude
+he found himself looking up a full head into the formidable face of the
+bouncer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what are you doing in here?&quot; asked the genial Andy. &quot;Don't you know
+this joint is for white folks?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I ain't colored,&quot; murmured Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You took considerable yaller to me,&quot; declared Lewis. He straightway
+chuckled, and his own keen appreciation of his wit softened his
+expression. &quot;What you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shivered under his rags.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want to see Jack Landis,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>It had a wonderful effect upon the doorkeeper. Donnegan found that the
+very name of Landis was a charm of power in The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You want to see him?&quot; he queried in amazement. &quot;You?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked Donnegan over again, and then grinned broadly, as if in
+anticipation. &quot;Well, go ahead. There he sits&mdash;no, he's dancing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The music was in full swing; it was chiefly brass; but now and then, in
+softer moments, one could hear a violin squeaking uncertainly. At least
+it went along with a marked, regular rhythm, and the dancers swirled
+industriously around the floor. A very gay crowd; color was apparently
+appreciated in The Corner. And Donnegan, standing modestly out of sight
+behind a pillar until the dance ended, noted twenty phases of life in
+twenty faces. And Donnegan saw the flushes of liquor, and heard the loud
+voices of happy fellows who had made their &quot;strikes&quot;; but in all that
+brilliant crew he had no trouble in picking out Jack Landis and Nelly
+Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>They danced together, and where they passed, the others steered a little
+off so as to give them room on the dance floor, as if the men feared
+that they might cross the formidable Landis, and as if the women feared
+to be brought into too close comparison with Nelly Lebrun. She was,
+indeed, a brilliant figure. She had eyes of the Creole duskiness, a
+delicate olive skin, with a pastel coloring. The hand on the shoulder of
+Landis was a thing of fairy beauty. And her eyes had that peculiar
+quality of seeming to see everything, and rest on every face
+particularly. So that, as she whirled toward Donnegan, he winced,
+feeling that she had found him out among the shadows.</p>
+
+<p>She had a glorious partner to set her off. And Donnegan saw bitterly
+why Lou Macon could love him. Height without clumsiness, bulk and a
+light foot at once, a fine head, well poised, blond hair and a Grecian
+profile&mdash;such was Jack Landis. He wore a vest of fawn skin; his boots
+were black in the foot and finished with the softest red leather for the
+leg. And he had yellow buckskin trousers, laced in a Mexican fashion
+with silver at the sides; a narrow belt, a long, red silk handkerchief
+flying from behind his neck in cowboy fashion. So much flashing
+splendor, even in that gay assembly, would have been childishly
+conspicuous on another man. But in big Jack Landis there was patently a
+great deal of the unaffected child. He was having a glorious time on
+this evening, and his eye roved the room challenging admiration in a
+manner that was amusing rather than offensive. He was so overflowingly
+proud of having the prettiest girl in The Corner upon his arm and so
+conscious of being himself probably the finest-looking man that he
+escaped conceit, it might almost be said, by his very excess of it.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this splendid individual, then, the obscure Donnegan bent his gaze.
+He saw the dancers pause and scatter as the music ended, saw them drift
+to the tables along the edges of the room, saw the scurry of waiters
+hurrying drinks up in the interval, saw Nelly Lebrun sip a lemonade, saw
+Jack Landis toss off something stronger. And then Donnegan skirted
+around the room and came to the table of Jack Landis at the very moment
+when the latter was tossing a gold piece to the waiter and giving a new
+order.</p>
+
+<p>Prodigal sons in the distance of thought are apt to be both silly: and
+disgusting, but at close hand they usually dazzle the eye. Even the cold
+brain of Donnegan was daunted a little as he drew near.</p>
+
+<p>He came behind the chair of the tall master of The Corner, and while
+Nelly Lebrun stopped her glass halfway to her lips and stared at the
+ragged stranger, Donnegan was whispering in the ear of Jack Landis:
+&quot;I've got to see you alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Landis turned his head slowly and his eye darkened a little as he met
+the reddish, unshaven face of the stranger. Then, with a careless shrug
+of distaste, he drew out a few coins and poured them into Donnegan's
+palm; the latter pocketed them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lou Macon,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Landis rose from his chair, and it was not until he stood so close
+to Donnegan that the latter realized the truly Herculean proportions of
+the young fellow. He bowed his excuses to Nelly Lebrun, not without
+grace of manner, and then huddled Donnegan into a corner with a wave of
+his vast arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now what do you want? Who are you? Who put that name in your mouth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's in The Corner,&quot; said Donnegan, and he dwelt upon the face of Jack
+Landis with feverish suspense. A moment later a great weight had slipped
+from his heart. If Lou Macon loved Landis it was beyond peradventure
+that Landis was not breaking his heart because of the girl. For at her
+name he flushed darkly, and then, that rush of color fading, he was left
+with a white spot in the center of each cheek.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="13"></a><h2>13</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>First his glance plunged into vacancy; then it flicked over his shoulder
+at Nelly Lebrun and he bit his lip. Plainly, it was not the most welcome
+news that Jack Landis had ever heard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is she?&quot; he asked nervously of Donnegan, and he looked over the
+ragged fellow again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll take you to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man swayed back and forth from foot to foot, balancing in his
+hesitation. &quot;Wait a moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He strode to Nelly Lebrun and bent over her; Donnegan saw her eyes flash
+up&mdash;oh, heart of the south, what eyes of shadow and fire! Jack Landis
+trembled under the glance; yes, he was deeply in love with the girl. And
+Donnegan watched her face shade with suspicion, stiffen with cold anger,
+warm and soften again under the explanations of Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, looking from the distance, could read everything; it is
+nearness that bewitches a man when he talks to a woman. When Odysseus
+talked to Circe, no doubt he stood on the farther side of the room!</p>
+
+<p>When Landis came again, he was perspiring from the trial of fire
+through which he had just passed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come,&quot; he ordered, and set out at a sweeping stride.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly he was anxious to get this matter done with as soon as possible.
+As for Donnegan, he saw a man whom Landis had summoned to take his place
+sit down at the table with Nelly Lebrun. She was laughing with the
+newcomer as though nothing troubled her at all, but over his shoulder
+her glance probed the distance and followed Jack Landis. She wanted to
+see the messenger again, the man who had called her companion away; but
+in this it was fox challenging fox. Donnegan took note and was careful
+to place between him and the girl every pillar and every group of
+people. As far as he was concerned, her first glance must do to read and
+judge and remember him by.</p>
+
+<p>Outside Landis shot several questions at him in swift succession; he
+wanted to know how the girl had happened to make the trip. Above all,
+what the colonel was thinking and doing and if the colonel himself had
+come. But Donnegan replied with monosyllables, and Landis, apparently
+reconciling himself to the fact that the messenger was a fool, ceased
+his questions. They kept close to a run all the way out of the camp and
+up the hillside to the two detached tents where Donnegan and the girl
+slept that night. A lantern burned in both the tents.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has made things ready for me,&quot; thought Donnegan, his heart opening.
+&quot;She has kept house for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed out Lou's tent to his companion and the big man, with a
+single low word of warning, threw open the flap of the tent and strode
+in.</p>
+
+<p>There was only the split part of a second between the rising and the
+fall of the canvas, but in that swift interval, Donnegan saw the girl
+starting up to receive Landis. Her calm was broken at last. Her cheeks
+were flushed; her eyes were starry with what? Expectancy? Love?</p>
+
+<p>It stopped Donnegan like a blow in the face and turned his heart to
+lead; and then, shamelessly, he glided around the tent and dropped down
+beside it to eavesdrop. After all, there was some excuse. If she loved
+the man he, Donnegan, would let him live; if she did not love him, he,
+Donnegan, would kill him like a worthless rat under heel. That is, if he
+could. No wonder that the wanderer listened with heart and soul!</p>
+
+<p>He missed the first greeting. It was only a jumble of exclamations, but
+now he heard: &quot;But, Lou, what a wild idea. Across the mountains&mdash;with
+whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The man who brought you here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know? He looks like a shifty little rat to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's big enough, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such small praise was enough to set Donnegan's heart thumping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Besides, father told me to go with him, to trust him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah!&quot; There was an abrupt chilling and lowering of Landis' voice. &quot;The
+colonel knows him? He's one of the colonel's men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Plainly the colonel was to him as the rod to the child.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why didn't you come directly to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We thought it would be better not to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;H'm-m. Your guide&mdash;well, what was the colonel's idea in sending you
+here? Heavens above, doesn't he know that a mining camp is no place for
+a young girl? And you haven't a sign of a chaperon, Lou! What the devil
+can I do? What was in his mind?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You haven't written for a long time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good Lord! Written! Letters! Does he think I have time for letters?&quot;
+The lie came smoothly enough. &quot;Working day and night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smoothed his whiskers and grinned into the night. Landis might
+prove better game than he had anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He worried,&quot; said the girl, and her voice was as even as ever. &quot;He
+worried, and sent me to find out if anything is wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then: &quot;Nonsense! What is there to worry about? Lou, I'm half inclined to
+think that the colonel doesn't trust me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer. Was she reading beneath the boisterous assurance of
+Landis?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One thing is clear to me&mdash;and to you, too, I hope. The first thing is
+to send you back in a hurry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still no answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lou, do you distrust me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At length she managed to speak, but it was with some difficulty: &quot;There
+is another reason for sending me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you guess, Jack?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not a mind reader.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The cad,&quot; said Donnegan through his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the old reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Money?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A shadow swept across the side of the tent; it was Landis waving his arm
+carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that's all, I can fix you up and send you back with enough to carry
+the colonel along. Look here&mdash;why, I have five hundred with me. Take it,
+Lou. There's more behind it, but the colonel mustn't think that there's
+as much money in the mines as people say. No idea how much living costs
+up here. Heavens, no! And the prices for labor! And then they shirk the
+job from dawn to dark. I have to watch 'em every minute, I tell you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He sighed noisily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the end of it is, dear&quot;&mdash;how that small word tore into the heart of
+Donnegan, who crouched outside&mdash;&quot;that you must go back tomorrow morning.
+I'd send you tonight, if I could. As a matter of fact, I don't trust the
+red-haired rat who&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl interrupted while Donnegan still had control of his
+hair-trigger temper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You forget, Jack. Father sent me here, but he did not tell me to come
+back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Jack Landis burst into an enormous laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean, Lou, that you actually intend to stay on?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What else can I mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it makes it awkward if the colonel didn't expressly tell you
+just what to do. I suppose he left it to my discretion, and I decide
+definitely that you must go back at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lou, don't you hear me saying that I'll take the responsibility? If
+your father blames you let him tell me&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He broke down in the middle of his sentence and another of those
+uncomfortable little pauses ensued. Donnegan knew that their eyes were
+miserably upon each other; the man tongue-tied by his guilt; the girl
+wretchedly guessing at the things which lay behind her fianc&eacute;'s words.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry you don't want me here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't that, but&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He apparently expected to be interrupted, but she waited coolly for him
+to finish the sentence, and, of course, he could not. After all, for a
+helpless girl she had a devilish effective way of muzzling Landis.
+Donnegan chuckled softly in admiration.</p>
+
+<p>All at once she broke through the scene; her voice did not rise or
+harden, but it was filled with finality, as though she were weary of the
+interview.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm tired out; it's been a hard ride, Jack. You go home now and look me
+up again any time tomorrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I&mdash;Lou&mdash;I feel mighty bad about having you up here in this infernal
+tent, when the camp is full, and&mdash;&quot;:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't lie across the entrance to my tent and guard me, Jack.
+Besides, I don't need you for that. The man who's with me will protect
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He doesn't look capable of protecting a cat!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father said that in any circumstances he would be able to take care
+of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This reply seemed to overwhelm Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The colonel trusts him as far as all that?&quot; he muttered. &quot;Then I
+suppose you're safe enough. But what about comfort, Lou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've done without comfort all my life. Run along, Jack. And take this
+money with you. I can't have it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, didn't the colonel send&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can express it through to him. To me it's&mdash;not pleasant to take
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Lou, you don't mean&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good night, Jack. I don't mean anything, except that I'm tired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The shadow swept along the wall of the tent again. Donnegan, with a
+shaking pulse, saw the profile of the girl and the man approach as he
+strove to take her in his arms and kiss her good night. And then one
+slender bar of shadow checked Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not tonight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lou, you aren't angry with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. But you know I have queer ways. Just put this down as one of them.
+I can't explain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a muffled exclamation and Landis went from the tent and strode
+down the hill; he was instantly lost in the night. But Donnegan, turning
+to the entrance flap, called softly. He was bidden to come in, and when
+he raised the flap he saw her sitting with her hands clasped loosely and
+resting upon her knees. Her lips were a little parted, and colorless;
+her eyes were dull with a mist; and though she rallied herself a little,
+the wanderer could see that she was only half-aware of him.</p>
+
+<p>The face which he saw was a milestone in his life. For he had loved her
+jealously, fiercely before; but seeing her now, dazed, hurt, and
+uncomplaining, tenderness came into Donnegan. It spread to his heart
+with a strange pain and made his hands tremble.</p>
+
+<p>All that he said was: &quot;Is there anything you need?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; she replied, and he backed out and away.</p>
+
+<p>But in that small interval he had turned out of the course of his gay,
+selfish life. If Jack Landis had hurt her like this&mdash;if she loved him so
+truly&mdash;then Jack Landis she should have.</p>
+
+<p>There was an odd mixture of emotions in Donnegan; but he felt most
+nearly like the poor man from whose hand his daughter tugs back and
+looks wistfully, hopelessly, into the bright window at all the toys.
+What pain is there greater than the pain that comes to the poor man in
+such a time? He huddles his coat about him, for his heart is as cold as
+a Christmas day; and if it would make his child happy, he would pour out
+his heart's blood on the snow.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the grief of Donnegan as he backed slowly out into the night.
+Though Jack Landis were fixed as high as the moon he would tear him out
+of his place and give him to the girl.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="14"></a><h2>14</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The lantern went out in the tent; she was asleep; and when he knew that,
+Donnegan went down into The Corner. He had been trying to think out a
+plan of action, and finding nothing better than to thrust a gun stupidly
+under Landis' nose and make him mark time, Donnegan went into Lebrun's
+place. As if he hoped the bustle there would supply him with ideas.</p>
+
+<p>Lebrun's was going full blast. It was not filled with the shrill mirth
+of Milligan's. Instead, all voices were subdued to a point here. The
+pitch was never raised. If a man laughed, he might show his teeth but he
+took good care that he did not break into the atmosphere of the room.
+For there was a deadly undercurrent of silence which would not tolerate
+more than murmurs on the part of others. Men sat grim-faced over the
+cards, the man who was winning, with his cold, eager eye; the chronic
+loser of the night with his iron smile; the professional, ever debonair,
+with the dull eye which comes from looking too often and too closely
+into the terrible face of chance. A very keen observer might have
+observed a resemblance between those men and Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan roved swiftly here and there. The calm eye and the smooth play
+of an obvious professional in a linen suit kept him for a moment at one
+table, looking on; then he went to the games, and after changing the
+gold which Jack Landis had given as alms so silver dollars, he lost it
+with precision upon the wheel.</p>
+
+<p>He went on, from table to table, from group to group. In Lebrun's his
+clothes were not noticed. It was no matter whether he played or did not
+play, whether he won or lost; they were too busy to notice. But he came
+back, at length, to the man who wore the linen coat and who won so
+easily. Something in his method of dealing appeared to interest Donnegan
+greatly.</p>
+
+<p>It was jackpot; the chips were piled high; and the man in the linen coat
+was dealing again. How deftly he mixed the cards!</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, all about him was elegant, from the turn of his black cravat to
+the cut of the coat. An inebriate passed, shouldered and disturbed his
+chair, and rising to put it straight again, the gambler was seen to be
+about the height and build of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan studied him with the interest of an artist. Here was a man,
+harking back to Nelly Lebrun and her love of brilliance, who would
+probably win her preference over Jack Landis for the simple reason that
+he was different. That is, there was more in his cravat to attract
+astonished attention in The Corner than there was in all the silver lace
+of Landis. And he was a man's man, no doubt of that. On the inebriate he
+had flashed one glance of fire, and his lean hand had stirred uneasily
+toward the breast of his coat. Donnegan, who missed nothing, saw and
+understood.</p>
+
+<p>Interested? He was fascinated by this man because he recognized the
+kinship which existed between them. They might almost have been blood
+brothers, except for differences in the face. He knew, for instance,
+just what each glance of the man in the linen coat meant, and how he was
+weighing his antagonists. As for the others, they were cool players
+themselves, but here they had met their master. It was the difference
+between the amateur and the professional. They played good chancey
+poker, but the man in the linen coat did more&mdash;he stacked the cards!</p>
+
+<p>For the first moment Donnegan was not sure; it was not until there was a
+slight faltering in the deal&mdash;an infinitely small hesitation which only
+a practiced eye like that of Donnegan's could have noticed&mdash;that he was
+sure. The winner was crooked. Yet the hand was interesting for all that.
+He had done the master trick, not only giving himself the winning hand
+but also giving each of the others a fine set of cards.</p>
+
+<p>And the betting was wild on that historic pot! To begin with the
+smallest hand was three of a kind; and after the draw the weakest was a
+straight. And they bet furiously. The stranger had piqued them with his
+consistent victories. Now they were out for blood. Chips having been
+exhausted, solid gold was piled up on the table&mdash;a small fortune!</p>
+
+<p>The man in the linen coat, in the middle of the hand, called for drinks.
+They drank. They went on with the betting. And then at last came the
+call.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan could have clapped his hands to applaud the smooth rascal. It
+was not an affair of breaking the others who sat in. They were all
+prosperous mine owners, and probably they had been carefully selected
+according to the size of purse, in preparation for the sacrifice. But
+the stakes were swept into the arms and then the canvas bag of the
+winner. If it was not enough to ruin the miners it was at least enough
+to clean them out of ready cash and discontinue the game on that basis.
+They rose; they went to the bar for a drink; but while the winner led
+the way, two of the losers dropped back a trifle and fell into earnest
+conversation, frowning. Donnegan knew perfectly what the trouble was.
+They had noticed that slight faltering in the deal; they were putting
+their mental notes on the game together.</p>
+
+<p>But the winner, apparently unconscious of suspicion, lined up his
+victims at the bar. The first drink went hastily down; the second was on
+the way&mdash;it was standing on the bar. And here he excused himself; he
+broke off in the very middle of a story, and telling them that he would
+be back any moment, stepped into a crowd of newcomers.</p>
+
+<p>The moment he disappeared, Donnegan saw the other four put their heads
+close together, and saw a sudden darkening of faces; but as for the
+genial winner, he had no sooner passed to the other side of the crowd
+and out of view, than he turned directly toward the door. His careless
+saunter was exchanged for a brisk walk; and Donnegan, without making
+himself conspicuous, was hard pressed to follow that pace.</p>
+
+<p>At the door he found that the gambler, with his canvas sack under his
+arm, had turned to the right toward the line of saddle horses which
+stood in the shadow; and no sooner did he reach the gloom at the side of
+the building than he broke into a soft, swift run. He darted down the
+line of horses until he came to one which was already mounted. This
+Donnegan saw as he followed somewhat more leisurely and closer to the
+horses to avoid observance. He made out that the man already on
+horseback was a big Negro and that he had turned his own mount and a
+neighboring horse out from the rest of the horses, so that they were
+both pointing down the street of The Corner. Donnegan saw the Negro
+throw the lines of his lead horse into the air. In exchange he caught
+the sack which the runner tossed to him, and then the gambler leaped
+into his saddle.</p>
+
+<p>It was a simple but effective plan. Suppose he were caught in the midst
+of a cheat; his play would be to break away to the outside of the
+building, shooting out the lights, if possible&mdash;trusting to the
+confusion to help him&mdash;and there he would find his horse held ready for
+him at a time when a second might be priceless. On this occasion no
+doubt the clever rascal had sensed the suspicion of the others.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, he lost no time. He waited neither to find his stirrups nor
+grip the reins firmly, but the same athletic leap which carried him into
+the saddle set the horse in motion, and from a standing start the animal
+broke into a headlong gallop. He received, however, an additional burden
+at once.</p>
+
+<p>For Donnegan, from the second time he saw the man of the linen coat, had
+been revolving a daring plan, and during the poker game the plan had
+slowly matured. The moment he made sure that the gambler was heading for
+a horse, he increased his own speed. Ordinarily he would have been
+noted, but now, no doubt, the gambler feared no pursuit except one
+accompanied by a hue and cry. He did not hear the shadow-footed Donnegan
+racing over the soft ground behind him; but when he had gained the
+saddle, Donnegan was close behind with the impetus of his run to aid
+him. It was comparatively simple, therefore, to spring high in the air,
+and he struck fairly and squarely behind the saddle of the man in the
+linen coat. When he landed his revolver was in his hand and the muzzle
+jabbed into the back of the gambler.</p>
+
+<p>The other made one frantic effort to twist around, then recognized the
+pressure of the revolver and was still. The horses, checking their
+gallops in unison, were softly dog-trotting down the street.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Call off your man!&quot; warned Donnegan, for the big Negro had reined back;
+the gun already gleamed in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>A gesture from the gambler sent the gun into obscurity, yet still the
+fellow continued to fall back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him to ride ahead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep in front, George.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And not too far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. And now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll talk later. Go straight on, George, to the clump of trees beyond
+the end of the street. And ride straight. No dodging!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a good hand you played,&quot; continued Donnegan; taking note that of
+the many people who were now passing them none paid the slightest
+attention to two men riding on one horse and chatting together as they
+rode. &quot;It was a good hand, but a bad deal. Your thumb slipped on the
+card, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You saw, eh?&quot; muttered the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And two of the others saw it. But they weren't sure till afterward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know. The blockheads! But I spoiled their game for them. Are you one
+of us, pal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan smiled to himself. For once at least the appeal of gambler
+to gambler should fail.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep straight on,&quot; he said. &quot;We'll talk later on.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="15"></a><h2>15</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Before Donnegan gave the signal to halt in a clear space where the
+starlight was least indistinct, they reached the center of the trees.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, George,&quot; he said, &quot;drop your gun to the ground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a flash and faint thud.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now the other gun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They ain't any more, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your other gun,&quot; repeated Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>A little pause. &quot;Do what he tells you, George,&quot; said the gambler at
+length, and a second weapon fell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now keep on your horse and keep a little off to the side,&quot; went on
+Donnegan, &quot;and remember that if you try to give me the jump I might miss
+you in this light, but I'd be sure to hit your horse. So don't take
+chances, George. Now, sir, just hold your hands over your head and then
+dismount.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had already gone through the gambler and taken his weapons; he was
+now obeyed. The man of the linen coat tossed up his arms, flung his
+right leg over the horn of the saddle, and slipped to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan joined his captive. &quot;I warn you first,&quot; he said gently, &quot;that
+I am quite expert with a revolver, and that it will be highly dangerous
+to attempt to trick me. Lower your arms if you wish, but please be
+careful of what you do with your hands. There are such things as knife
+throwing, I know, but it takes a fast wrist to flip a knife faster than
+a bullet. We understand each other?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perfectly,&quot; agreed the other. &quot;By the way, my name is Godwin. And
+suppose we become frank. You are in temporary distress. It was
+impossible for you to make a loan at the moment and you are driven to
+this forced&mdash;touch. Now, if half&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;You are too generous. But the present question
+is not one of money. I have long since passed over that. The money is
+now mine. Steady!&quot; This to George, who lurched in the saddle; but Godwin
+was calm as stone. &quot;It is not the question of the money that troubles
+me, but the question of the men. I could easily handle one of you. But I
+fear to allow both of you to go free. You would return on my trail;
+there are such things as waylayings by night, eh? And so, Mr. Godwin, I
+think my best way out is to shoot you through the head. When your body
+is found it will be taken for granted that the servant killed the master
+for the sake of the money which he won by crooked card play. I think
+that's simple. Put your hands up, George, or, by heck, I'll let the
+starlight shine through you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The huge arms of George were raised above his head; Godwin, in the
+meantime, had not spoken.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I almost think you mean it,&quot; he said after a short pause.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I do not wish to kill you unprepared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a strangled sound deep in the throat of Godwin; then he was
+able to speak again, but now his voice was made into a horrible jumble
+by fear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pal,&quot; he said, &quot;you're dead wrong. George here&mdash;he's a devil. If you
+let him live he'll kill you&mdash;as sure as you're standing here. You don't
+know him. He's George Green. He's got a record as long as my arm and as
+bad as the devil's name. He&mdash;he's the man to get rid of. Me? Why, man,
+you and I could team it together. But George&mdash;not&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan began to laugh, and the gambler stammered to a halt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew you when I laid eyes on you for the first time,&quot; said Donnegan.
+&quot;You have the hands of a craftsman, but your eyes are put too close
+together. A coward's eyes&mdash;a cur's face, Godwin. But you, George&mdash;have
+you heard what he said?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No answer from George but a snarl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounds logical what he said, eh, George?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dead silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;there are flaws in the plan. Godwin, get out of
+your clothes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The other fell on his knees.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For heaven's sake,&quot; he pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shut up,&quot; commanded Donnegan. &quot;I'm not going to shoot you. I never
+intended to, you fool. But I wanted to see if you were worth splitting
+the coin with. You're not. Now get out of your clothes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was obeyed in fumbling haste, and while that operation went on, he
+succeeded in jumping out of his own rags and still kept the two fairly
+steadily under the nose of his gun. He tossed this bundle to Godwin, who
+accepted it with a faint oath; and Donnegan stepped calmly and swiftly
+into the clothes of his victim.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A perfect fit,&quot; he said at length, &quot;and to show that I'm pleased,
+here's your purse back. Must be close to two hundred in that, from the
+weight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Godwin muttered some unintelligible curse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush. Now, get out! If you show your face in The Corner again, some of
+those miners will spot you, and they'll dress you in tar and feathers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fool. If they see you in my clothes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'll never see these after tonight, probably. You have other clothes
+in your packs, Godwin. Lots of 'em. You're the sort who knows how to
+dress, and I'll borrow your outfit. Get out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The other made no reply; a weight seemed to have fallen upon him along
+with his new outfit, and he slunk into the darkness. George made a move
+to follow; there was a muffled shriek from Godwin, who fled headlong;
+and then a sharp command from Donnegan stopped the big man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come here,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>George Washington Green rode slowly closer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I let you go what would you do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a glint of teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'd find him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And break him in two, eh? Instead, I'm going to take you home, where
+you'll have a chance of breaking me in two instead. There's something
+about the cut of your shoulders and your head that I like, Green; and if
+you don't murder me in the first hour or so, I think we'll get on very
+well together. You hear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The silence of George Washington Green was a tremendous thing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now ride ahead of me. I'll direct you how to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He went first straight back through the town and up the hill to the two
+tents. He made George go before him into the tent and take up the roll
+of bedding; and then, with George and the bedding leading the way, and
+Donnegan leading the two horses behind, they went across the hillside to
+a shack which he had seen vacated that evening. It certainly could not
+be rented again before morning, and in the meantime Donnegan would be in
+possession, which was a large part of the law in The Corner, as he knew.</p>
+
+<p>A little lean-to against the main shack served as a stable; the creek
+down the hillside was the watering trough. And Donnegan stood by while
+the big Negro silently tended to the horses&mdash;removing the packs and
+preparing them for the night. Still in silence he produced a small
+lantern and lighted it. It showed his face for the first time&mdash;the skin
+ebony black and polished over the cheekbones, but the rest of the face
+almost handsome, except that the slight flare of his nostrils gave him a
+cast of inhuman ferocity. And the fierceness was given point by a pair
+of arms of gorilla length; broad shoulders padded with rolling muscles,
+and the neck of a bull. On the whole, Donnegan, a connoisseur of
+fighting men, had never seen such promise of strength.</p>
+
+<p>At his gesture, George led the way into the house. It was more
+commodious than most of the shacks of The Corner. In place of a single
+room this had two compartments&mdash;one for the kitchen and another for the
+living room. In vacating the hut, the last occupants had left some of
+the furnishings behind them. There was a mirror, for instance, in the
+corner; and beneath the mirror a cheap table in whose open drawer
+appeared a tumble of papers. Donnegan dropped the heavy sack of Godwin's
+winnings to the floor, and while George hung the lantern on a nail on
+the wall, Donnegan crossed to the table and appeared to run through the
+papers.</p>
+
+<p>He was humming carelessly while he did it, but all the time he watched
+with catlike intensity the reflection of George in the mirror above him.
+He saw&mdash;rather dimly, for the cheap glass showed all its images in
+waves&mdash;that George turned abruptly after hanging up the lantern, paused,
+and then whipped a hand into his coat pocket and out again.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan leaped lightly to one side, and the knife, hissing past his
+head, buried itself in the wall, and its vibrations set up a vicious
+humming. As for Donnegan, the leap that carried him to one side whirled
+him about also; he faced the big man, who was now crouched in the very
+act of following the knife cast with the lunge of his powerful body.
+There was no weapon in Donnegan's hand, and yet George hesitated,
+balanced&mdash;and then slowly drew himself erect.</p>
+
+<p>He was puzzled. An outburst of oaths, the flash of a gun, and he would
+have been at home in the brawl, but the silence, the smile of Donnegan
+and the steady glance were too much for him. He moistened his lips, and
+yet he could not speak. And Donnegan knew that what paralyzed George was
+the manner in which he had received warning. Evidently the simple
+explanation of the mirror did not occur to the fellow; and the whole
+incident took on supernatural colorings. A phrase of explanation and
+Donnegan would become again an ordinary human being; but while the small
+link was a mystery the brain and body of George were numb. It was
+necessary above all to continue inexplicable. Donnegan, turning, drew
+the knife from the wall with a jerk. Half the length of the keen blade
+had sunk into the wood&mdash;a mute tribute to the force and speed of
+George's hand&mdash;and now Donnegan took the bright little weapon by the
+point and gave it back to the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you throw for the body instead of the head,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;you
+have a better chance of sending the point home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned his back again upon the gaping giant, and drawing up a broken
+box before the open door he sat down to contemplate the night. Not a
+sound behind him. It might be that the big fellow had regained his nerve
+and was stealing up for a second attempt; but Donnegan would have
+wagered his soul that George Washington Green had his first and last
+lesson and that he would rather play with bare lightning than ever again
+cross his new master.</p>
+
+<p>At length: &quot;When you make down the bunks,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;put mine
+farthest from the kitchen. You had better do that first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes&mdash;sir,&quot; came the deep bass murmur behind him.</p>
+
+<p>And the heart of Donnegan stirred, for that &quot;sir&quot; meant many things.</p>
+
+<p>Presently George crossed the floor with a burden; there was the &quot;whish&quot;
+of the blankets being unrolled&mdash;and then a slight pause. It seemed to
+him that he could hear a heavier breathing. Why? And searching swiftly
+back through his memory he recalled that his other gun, a stub-nosed
+thirty-eight, was in the center of his blanket roll.</p>
+
+<p>And he knew that George had the weapon in his big hand. One pressure of
+the trigger would put an end to Donnegan; one bullet would give George
+the canvas sack and its small treasure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When you clean my gun,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;take the action to pieces and
+go over every part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He could actually feel the start of George.</p>
+
+<p>Then: &quot;Yes, sir,&quot; in a subdued whisper.</p>
+
+<p>If the escape from the knife had startled George, this second incident
+had convinced him that his new master possessed eyes in the back of his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan, paying no further heed to him, looked steadily across the
+hillside to the white tent of Lou Macon, fifty yards away.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="16"></a><h2>16</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>His plan, grown to full stature so swiftly, and springing out of
+nothing, well nigh, had come out of his first determination to bring
+Jack Landis back to Lou Macon; for he could interpret those blank, misty
+eyes with which she had sat after the departure of Landis in only one
+way. Yet to rule even the hand of big Jack Landis would be hard enough
+and to rule his heart was quite another story. Remembering Nelly Lebrun,
+he saw clearly that the only way in which he could be brought back to
+Lou was first to remove Nelly as a possibility in his eyes. But how
+remove Nelly as long as it was her cue from her father to play Landis
+for his money? How remove her, unless it were possible to sweep Nelly
+off her feet with another man? She might, indeed, be taken by storm, and
+if she once slighted Landis for the sake of another, his boyish pride
+would probably do the rest, and his next step would be to return to Lou
+Macon.</p>
+
+<p>All this seemed logical, but where find the man to storm the heart of
+Nelly and dazzle her bright, clever eyes? His own rags had made him
+shrug his shoulders; and it was the thought of clothes which had made
+him fasten his attention so closely on the man of the linen suit in
+Lebrun's. Donnegan with money, with well-fitted clothes, and with a few
+notorious escapades behind him&mdash;yes, Donnegan with such a flying start
+might flutter the heart of Nelly Lebrun for a moment. But he must have
+the money, the clothes, and then he must deliberately set out to startle
+The Corner, make himself a public figure, talked of, pointed at, known,
+feared, respected, and even loved by at least a few. He must accomplish
+all these things beginning at a literal zero.</p>
+
+<p>It was the impossible nature of this that tempted Donnegan. But the
+paradoxical picture of the ragged skulker in Milligan's actually sitting
+at the same table with Nelly Lebrun and receiving her smiles stayed with
+him. He intended to rise, literally Phoenixlike, out of ashes. And the
+next morning, in the red time of the dawn, he sat drinking the coffee
+which George Washington Green had made for him and considering the
+details of the problem. Clothes, which had been a main obstacle, were
+now accounted for, since, as he had suspected, the packs of Godwin
+contained a luxurious wardrobe of considerable compass. At that moment,
+for instance, Donnegan was wrapped in a dressing gown of padded silk and
+his feet were encased in slippers.</p>
+
+<p>But clothes were the least part of his worries. To startle The Corner,
+and thereby make himself attractive in the eyes of Nelly Lebrun,
+overshadowing Jack Landis&mdash;that was the thing! But to startle The
+Corner, where gold strikes were events of every twenty-four hours, just
+now&mdash;where robberies were common gossip, and where the killings now
+averaged nearly three a day&mdash;to startle The Corner was like trying to
+startle the theatrical world with a sensational play. Indeed, this
+parallel could have been pursued, for Donnegan was the nameless actor
+and the mountain desert was the stage on which he intended to become a
+headliner. No wonder, then, that his lean face was compressed in
+thought. Yet no one could have guessed it by his conversation. At the
+moment he was interrupted, his talk ran somewhat as follows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;George, Godwin taught you how to make coffee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sir,&quot; from George. Since the night before he had appeared totally
+subdued. Never once did he venture a comment. And ever Donnegan was
+conscious of big, bright eyes watching him in a reverent fear not
+untinged by superstition. Once, in the middle of the night, he had
+wakened and seen the vast shadow of George's form leaning over the sack
+of money. Murder by stealth in the dark had been in the giant's mind, no
+doubt. But when, after that, he came and leaned over Donnegan's bunk,
+the master closed his eyes and kept on breathing regularly, and finally
+George returned to his own place&mdash;softly as a gigantic cat. Even in the
+master's sleep he found something to be dreaded, and Donnegan knew that
+he could now trust the fellow through anything. In the morning, at the
+first touch of light, he had gone to the stores and collected
+provisions. And a comfortable breakfast followed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Godwin,&quot; resumed Donnegan, &quot;was talented in many ways.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man showed his teeth in silence; for since Godwin proposed the
+sacrifice of the servant to preserve himself, George had apparently
+altered his opinion of the gambler.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A talented man, George, but he knew nothing about coffee. It should
+never boil. It should only begin to cream through the crust. Let that
+happen; take the pot from the fire; put it back and let the surface
+cream again. Do this three times, and then pour the liquid from the
+grounds and you have the right strength and the right heating. You
+understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And concerning the frying of bacon&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this point the interruption came in the shape of four men at the open
+door; and one of these Donnegan recognized as the real estate dealer,
+who had shrewdly set up tents and shacks on every favorable spot in The
+Corner and was now reaping a rich harvest. Gloster was his name. It was
+patent that he did not see in the man in the silk dressing robe the
+unshaven miscreant of the day before who had rented the two tents.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How'dee,&quot; he said, standing on the threshold, with the other three in
+the background.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan looked at him and through him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My name is Gloster. I own this shack and I've come to find out why
+you're in it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;George,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;speak to him. Tel! him that I know houses are
+scarce in The Corner; that I found this place by accident vacant; that I
+intend to stay in it on purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>George Washington Green instantly rose to the situation; he swallowed a
+vast grin and strode to the door. And though Mr. Gloster's face
+crimsoned with rage at such treatment he controlled his voice. In The
+Corner manhood was apt to be reckoned by the pound, and George was a
+giant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard what your boss said, buddie,&quot; said Gloster. &quot;But I've rented
+this cabin and the next one to these three gents and their party, and
+they want a home. Nothing to do but vacate. Which speed is the thing I
+want. Thirty minutes will&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thirty minutes don't change nothing,&quot; declared George in his deep, soft
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>The real estate man choked. Then: &quot;You tell your boss that jumping a
+cabin is like jumping a claim. They's a law in The Corner for gents like
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>George made a gesture of helplessness; but Gloster turned to the three.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Both shacks or none at all,&quot; said the spokesman. &quot;One ain't big enough
+to do us any good. But if this bird won't vamoose&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was a tolerably rough-appearing sort and he was backed by two of a
+kind. No doubt dangerous action would have followed had not George shown
+himself capable of rising to a height. He stepped from the door; he
+approached Gloster and said in a confidential whisper that reached
+easily to the other three: &quot;They ain't any call for a quick play,
+mister. Watch yo'selves. Maybe you don't know who the boss is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what's more, I don't care,&quot; said Gloster defiantly but with his
+voice instinctively lowered. He stared past George, and behold, the man
+in the dressing gown still sat in quiet and sipped his coffee.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's Donnegan,&quot; whispered George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don&mdash;who's he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The mingled contempt and astonishment of George would have moved a thing
+of stone. It certainly troubled Gloster. And he turned to the three.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gents,&quot; he said, &quot;they's two things we can do. Try the law&mdash;and law's a
+lame lady in these parts&mdash;or throw him out. Say which?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The three looked from Gloster to the shack; from the shack to Donnegan,
+absently sipping his coffee; from Donnegan to George, who stood
+exhibiting a broad grin of anticipated delight. The contrast was too
+much for them.</p>
+
+<p>There is one great and deep-seated terror in the mountain desert, and
+that is for the man who may be other than he seems. The giant with the
+rough voice and the boisterous ways is generally due for a stormy
+passage west of the Rockies; but the silent man with the gentle manners
+receives respect. Traditions live of desperadoes with exteriors of
+womanish calm and the action of devils. And Donnegan sipping his morning
+coffee fitted into the picture which rumor had painted. The three looked
+at one another, declared that they had not come to fight for a house but
+to rent one, that the real estate agent could go to the devil for all of
+them, and that they were bound elsewhere. So they departed and left
+Gloster both relieved and gloomy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; said Donnegan to George, &quot;tell him that we'll take both the
+shacks, and he can add fifty per cent to his old price.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The bargain was concluded on the spot; the money was paid by George.
+Gloster went down the hill to tell The Corner that a mystery had hit the
+town and George brought the canvas bag back to Donnegan with the top
+still untied&mdash;as though to let it be seen that he had not pocketed any
+of the gold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't want to count it,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Keep the bag, George. Keep
+money in your pocket. Treat both of us well. And when that's gone I'll
+get more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If the manner in which Donnegan had handled the renting of the cabins
+had charmed George, he was wholly entranced by this last touch of free
+spending. To serve a man who was his master was one thing; to serve one
+who trusted him so completely was quite another. To live under the same
+roof with a man who was a riddle was sufficiently delightful; but to be
+allowed actually to share in the mystery was a superhappiness. He was
+singing when he started to wash the dishes, and Donnegan went across the
+hill to the tent of Lou Macon.</p>
+
+<p>She was laying the fire before the tent; and the morning freshness had
+cleared from her face any vestige of the trouble of the night before;
+and in the slant light her hair was glorious, all ruffling gold,
+semitransparent. She did not smile at him; but she could give the effect
+of smiling while her face remained grave; it was her inward calm content
+of which people were aware.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You missed me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were worried?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He felt himself put quietly at a distance. So he took her up the hill to
+her new home&mdash;the shack beside his own; and George cooked her breakfast.
+When she had been served, Donnegan drew the big man to one side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's your mistress,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Everything you do for her is
+worth two things you do for me. Watch her as if she were in your eye.
+And if a hair of her head is ever harmed&mdash;you see that fire burning
+yonder&mdash;the bed of coals?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll catch you and make a fire like that and feed you into it&mdash;by
+inches!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And the pale face of Donnegan became for an instant the face of a demon.
+George Washington Green saw, and never forgot.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward, in order that he might think, Donnegan got on one of the
+horses he had taken from Godwin and rode over the hills. They were both
+leggy chestnuts, with surprising signs of blood' and all the earmarks of
+sprinters; but in Godwin's trade sharp getaways were probably often
+necessary. The pleasure he took in the action of the animal kept him
+from getting into his problem.</p>
+
+<p>How to startle The Corner? How follow up the opening gun which he had
+fired at the expense of Gloster and the three miners?</p>
+
+<p>He broke off, later in the day, to write a letter to Colonel Macon,
+informing him that Jack Landis was tied hard and fast by Nelly Lebrun
+and that for the present nothing could be done except wait, unless the
+colonel had suggestions to offer.</p>
+
+<p>The thought of the colonel, however, stimulated Donnegan. And before
+midafternoon he had thought of a thing to do.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="17"></a><h2>17</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The bar in Milligan's was not nearly so pretentious an affair as the bar
+in Lebrun's, but it was of a far higher class. Milligan had even managed
+to bring in a few bottles of wine, and he had dispensed cheap claret at
+two dollars a glass when the miners wished to celebrate a rare occasion.
+There were complaints, not of the taste, but of the lack of strength. So
+Milligan fortified his liquor with pure alcohol and after that the
+claret went like a sweet song in The Corner. Among other things, he sold
+mint juleps; and it was the memory of the big sign proclaiming this fact
+that furnished Donnegan with his idea.</p>
+
+<p>He had George Washington Green put on his town clothes&mdash;a riding suit in
+which Godwin had had him dress for the sake of formal occasions.
+Resplendent in black boots, yellow riding breeches, and blue silk shirt,
+the big man came before Donnegan for instructions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go down to Milligan's,&quot; said the master. &quot;They don't allow colored
+people to enter the door, but you go to the door and start for the bar.
+They won't let you go very far. When they stop you, tell them you come
+from Donnegan and that you have to get me some mint for a julep.
+Insist. The bouncer will start to throw you out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>George showed his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No fighting back. Don't lift your hand. When you find that you can't
+get in, come back here. Now, ride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So George mounted the horse and went. Straight to Milligan's he rode and
+dismounted; and half of The Corner's scant daytime population came into
+the street to see the brilliant horseman pass.</p>
+
+<p>Scar-faced Lewis met the big man at the door. And size meant little to
+Andy, except an easier target.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, confound my soul,&quot; said Lewis, blocking the way. &quot;A Negro in
+Milligan's? Get out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Big George did not move.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I been sent, mister,&quot; he said mildly. &quot;I been sent for enough mint to
+make a julep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You been sent to the wrong place,&quot; declared Andy, hitching at his
+cartridge belt. &quot;Ain't you seen that sign?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he pointed to the one which eliminated colored patrons.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signs don't mean nothin' to my boss,&quot; said George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who's Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It puzzled George. He scratched his head in bewilderment seeking for an
+explanation. &quot;Donnegan is&mdash;Donnegan,&quot; he explained.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard Gloster talk about him,&quot; offered someone in the rapidly growing
+group. &quot;He's the gent that rented the two places on the hill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him to come himse'f,&quot; said Andy Lewis. &quot;We don't play no favorites
+at Milligan's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mister,&quot; said big George, &quot;I don't want to bring no trouble on this
+heah place, but&mdash;don't make me go back and bring Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even Andy Lewis was staggered by this assurance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rules is rules,&quot; he finally decided. &quot;And out you go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Big George stepped from the doorway and mounted his horse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I call on all you gen'lemen,&quot; he said to the assembled group, &quot;to say
+that I done tried my best to do this peaceable. It ain't me that's sent
+for Donnegan; it's him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rode away, leaving Scar-faced Lewis biting his long mustaches in
+anxiety. He was not exactly afraid, but he waited in the suspense which
+comes before a battle. Moreover, an audience was gathering. The word
+went about as only a rumor of mischief can travel. New men had gathered.
+The few day gamblers tumbled out of Lebrun's across the street to watch
+the fun. The storekeepers were in their doors. Lebrun himself, withered
+and dark and yellow of eye, came to watch. And here and there through
+the crowd there was a spot of color where the women of the town
+appeared. And among others, Nelly Lebrun with Jack Landis beside her. On
+the whole it was not a large crowd, but what it lacked in size it made
+up in intense interest.</p>
+
+<p>For though The Corner had had its share of troubles of fist and gun,
+most of them were entirely impromptu affairs. Here was a fight in the
+offing for which the stage was set, the actors set in full view of a
+conveniently posted audience, and all the suspense of a curtain rising.
+The waiting bore in upon Andy Lewis. Without a doubt he intended to kill
+his man neatly and with dispatch, but the possibility of missing before
+such a crowd as this sent a chill up and down his spine. If he failed
+now his name would be a sign for laughter ever after in The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>A hum passed down the street; it rose to a chuckle, and then fell away
+to sudden silence, for Donnegan was coming.</p>
+
+<p>He came on a prancing chestnut horse which sidled uneasily on a weaving
+course, as though it wished to show off for the benefit of the rider and
+the crowd at once. It was a hot afternoon and Donnegan's linen riding
+suit shone an immaculate white. He came straight down the street, as
+unaware of the audience which awaited him as though he rode in a park
+where crowds were the common thing. Behind him came George Green, just a
+careful length back. Rumor went before the two with a whisper on either
+side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's Donnegan. There he comes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gloster's man. The one who bluffed out Gloster and three others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He pulled his shooting iron and trimmed the whiskers of one of 'em with
+a chunk of lead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;D'you mean that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's that kind of a gent doing in The Corner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come to buy, I guess. He looks like money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Looks like a confounded dude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll see his hand in a minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan was now opposite the dance hall, and Andy Lewis had his hand
+touching the butt of his gun, but though Donnegan was looking straight
+at him, he kept his reins in one hand and his heavy riding crop in the
+other. And without a move toward his own gun, he rode straight up to the
+door of the dance hall, with Andy in front of it. George drew rein
+behind him and turned upon the crowd one broad, superior grin.</p>
+
+<p>As who should say: &quot;I promised you lightning; now watch it strike!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If the crowd had been expectant before, it was now reduced to wire-drawn
+tenseness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you the fellow who turned back my man?&quot; asked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>His quiet voice fell coldly upon the soul of Andy. He strove to warm
+himself by an outbreak of temper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They ain't any poor fool dude can call me a fellow!&quot; he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd blinked; but when it opened its eyes the gunplay had not
+occurred. The hand of Andy was relaxing from the butt of his gun and an
+expression of astonishment and contempt was growing upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't come to curse you,&quot; said the rider, still occupying his hands
+with crop and reins. &quot;I've come to ask you a question and get an answer.
+Are you the fellow who turned back my man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess you ain't the kind I was expectin' to call on me,&quot; drawled
+Andy, his fear gone, and he winked at the crowd. But the others were not
+yet ready to laugh. Something about the calm face of Donnegan had
+impressed them. &quot;Sure, I'm the one that kicked him out. He ain't allowed
+in there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the last of my thoughts to break in upon a convention in your
+city,&quot; replied the grave rider, &quot;but my man was sent on an errand and
+therefore he had a right to expect courtesy. George, get off your horse
+and go into Milligan's place. I want that mint!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Andy was too stunned to answer. Then his voice came harshly
+and he swayed from side to side, gathering and summoning his wrath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep out boy! Keep out, or you're buzzard meat. I'm warnin'&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time his glance left the rider to find George, and that
+instant was fatal. The hand of Donnegan licked out as the snake's tongue
+darts&mdash;the loaded quirt slipped over in his hand, and holding it by the
+lash he brought the butt of it thudding on the head of Andy.</p>
+
+<p>Even then the instinct to fight remained in the stunned man; while he
+fell, he was drawing the revolver; he lay in a crumpling heap at the
+feet of Donnegan's horse with the revolver shoved muzzle first into the
+sand.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan's voice did not rise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go in and get that mint, George,&quot; he ordered. &quot;And hurry. This rascal
+has kept me waiting until I'm thirsty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Big George hesitated only one instant&mdash;it was to sweep the crowd for the
+second time with his confident grin&mdash;and he strode through the door of
+the dance hall. As for Donnegan, his only movement was to swing his
+horse around and shift riding crop and reins into the grip of his left
+hand. His other hand was dropped carelessly upon his hip. Now, both
+these things were very simple maneuvers, but The Corner noted that his
+change of face had enabled Donnegan to bring the crowd under his eye,
+and that his right hand was now ready for a more serious bit of work if
+need be. Moreover, he was probing faces with his glance. And every armed
+man in that group felt that the eye of the rider was directed
+particularly toward him.</p>
+
+<p>There had been one brief murmur; then the silence lay heavily again, for
+it was seen that Andy had been only slightly stunned&mdash;knocked out, as a
+boxer might be. Now his sturdy brains were clearing. His body stiffened
+into a human semblance once more; he fumbled, found the butt of his gun
+with his first move. He pushed his hat straight: and so doing he raked
+the welt which the blow had left on his head. The pain finished clearing
+the mist from his mind; in an instant he was on his feet, maddened with
+shame. He saw the semicircle of white faces, and the whole episode
+flashed back on him. He had been knocked down like a dog.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment he looked into the blank faces of the crowd; someone noted
+that there was no gun strapped at the side of Donnegan. A voice shouted
+a warning.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop, Lewis. The dude ain't got a gun. It's murder!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was now that Lewis saw Donnegan sitting the saddle directly behind
+him, and he whirled with a moan of fury. It was a twist of his body&mdash;in
+his eagerness&mdash;rather than a turning upon his feet. And he was half
+around before the rider moved. Then he conjured a gun from somewhere in
+his clothes. There was the flash of the steel, an explosion, and
+Scar-faced Lewis was on his knees with a scream of pain holding his
+right forearm with his left hand.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd hesitated still for a second, as though it feared to
+interfere; but Donnegan had already put up his weapon. A wave of the
+curious spectators rushed across the street and gathered around the
+injured man. They found that he had been shot through the fleshy part of
+the thumb, and the bullet, ranging down the arm, had sliced a furrow to
+the bone all the way to the elbow. It was a grisly wound.</p>
+
+<p>Big George Washington Green came running to the door of the dance hall
+with a sprig of something green in his hand; one glance assured him that
+all was well; and once more that wide, confident grin spread upon his
+face. He came to the master and offered the mint; and Donnegan, raising
+it to his face, inhaled the scent deeply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good,&quot; he said. &quot;And now for a julep, George! Let's go home!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Across the street a dark-eyed girl had clasped the arm of her companion
+in hysterical excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you see?&quot; she asked of her tall companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw a murderer shoot down a man; he ought to be hung for it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the mint! Did you see him smile over it? Oh, what a devil he is;
+and what a man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jack Landis flashed a glance of suspicion down at her, but her dancing
+eyes had quite forgotten him. They were following the progress of
+Donnegan down the street. He rode slowly, and George kept that formal
+distance, just a length behind.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="18"></a><h2>18</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Before Milligan's the crowd began to buzz like murmuring hornets around
+a nest that has been tapped, when they pour out and cannot find the
+disturber. It was a rather helpless milling around the wounded man, and
+Nelly Lebrun was the one who worked her way through the crowd and came
+to Andy Lewis. She did not like Andy. She had been known to refer to him
+as a cowardly hawk of a man; but now she bullied the crowd in a shrill
+voice and made them bring water and cloth. Then she cleansed and
+bandaged the wound in Andy Lewis' arm and had some of them take him
+away.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the outskirts of the crowd had melted away; but those who
+had really seen all parts of the little drama remained to talk. The
+subject was a real one. Had Donnegan aimed at the hand of Andy and
+risked his own life on his ability to disable the other without killing
+him? Or had he fired at Lewis' body and struck the hand and arm only by
+a random lucky chance?</p>
+
+<p>If the second were the case, he was only a fair shot with plenty of
+nerve and a great deal of luck. If the first were true, then this was a
+nerve of ice-tempered steel, an eye vulture-sharp, and a hand,
+miraculous, fast, and certain. To strike that swinging hand with a snap
+shot, when a miss meant a bullet fired at his own body at deadly short
+range&mdash;truly it would take a credulous man to believe that Donnegan had
+coldly planned to disable his man without killing him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A murderer by intention,&quot; exclaimed Milligan. He had hunted long and
+hard before he found a man with a face like that of Lewis, capable of
+maintaining order by a glance; now he wanted revenge. &quot;A murder by
+intention!&quot; he cried to the crowd, standing beside the place where the
+imprint of Andy's knees was still in the sand. &quot;And like a murderer he
+ought to be treated. He aimed to kill Andy; he had luck and only broke
+his hand. Now, boys, I say it ain't so much what he's done as the way
+he's done it. He's given us the laugh. He's come in here in his dude
+clothes and tried to walk over us. But it don't work. Not in The Corner.
+If Andy was dead, I'd say lynch the dude. But he ain't, and all I say
+is: Run him out of town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here there was a brief outburst of applause, but when it ended, it was
+observed that there was a low, soft laughter. The crowd gave way between
+Milligan and the mocker. It was seen that he who laughed was old Lebrun,
+rubbing his olive-skinned hands together and showing his teeth in his
+mirth. There was no love lost between Lebrun and Milligan, even if Nelly
+was often in the dance hall and the center of its merriment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It takes a thief to catch a thief,&quot; said Lebrun enigmatically, when he
+saw that he had the ear of the crowd, &quot;and it takes a man to catch a
+man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What the devil do you mean by that?&quot; a dozen voices asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I mean, that if you got men enough to run out this man Donnegan, The
+Corner is a better town than I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It brought a growl, but no answer. Lebrun had never been seen to lift
+his hand, but he was more dreaded than a rattler.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll try,&quot; said Milligan dryly. &quot;I ain't much of a man myself&quot;&mdash;there
+were dark rumors about Milligan's past and the crowd chuckled at this
+modesty&mdash;&quot;but I'll try my hand agin' him with a bit of backing. And
+first I want to tell you boys that they ain't any danger of him having
+aimed at Andy's hand. I tell you, it ain't possible, hardly, for him to
+have planned to hit a swingin' target like that. Maybe some could do it.
+I dunno.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How about Lord Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure, Lord Nick might do anything. But Donnegan ain't Lord Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not by twenty pounds and three inches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This brought a laugh. And by comparison with the terrible and familiar
+name of Lord Nick, Donnegan became a smaller danger. Besides, as
+Milligan said, it was undoubtedly luck. And when he called for
+volunteers, three or four stepped up at once. The others made a general
+milling, as though each were trying to get forward and each were
+prevented by the crowd in front. But in the background big Jack Landis
+was seriously trying to get to the firing line. He was encumbered with
+the clinging weight of Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't go, Jack,&quot; she pleaded. &quot;Please! Please! Be sensible. For my
+sake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She backed this appeal with a lifting of her eyes and a parting of her
+lips, and Jack Landis paused.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You won't go, dear Jack?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now, Jack knew perfectly well that the girl was only half sincere. It is
+the peculiar fate of men that they always know when a woman is playing
+with them, but, from Samson down, they always go to the slaughter with
+open eyes, hoping each moment that the girl has been seriously impressed
+at last. As for Jack Landis, his slow mind did not readily get under the
+surface of the arts of Nelly, but he knew that there was at least a
+tinge of real concern in the girl's desire to keep him from the posse
+which Milligan was raising.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But they's something about him that I don't like, Nelly. Something sort
+of familiar that I don't like.&quot; For naturally enough he did not
+recognize the transformed Donnegan, and the name he had never heard
+before. &quot;A gunfighter, that's what he is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Jack, sometimes they call you the same thing; say that you hunt
+for trouble now and then!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do they say that?&quot; asked the young chap quickly, flushing with vanity.
+&quot;Oh, I aim to take care of myself. And I'd like to take a hand with this
+murdering Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack, listen! Don't go; keep away from him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why do you look like that? As if I was a dead one already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell you, Jack, he'd kill you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Something in her terrible assurance whitened the cheeks of Landis, but
+he was also angered. When a very young man becomes both afraid and angry
+he is apt to be dangerous. &quot;What do you know of him?&quot; he asked
+suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You silly! But I saw his face when he lifted that mint. He'd already
+forgotten about the man he had just shot down. He was thinking of
+nothing but the scent of the mint. And did you notice his giant servant?
+He never had a moment's doubt of Donnegan's ability to handle the entire
+crowd. I tell you, it gave me a chill of ghosts to see the big black
+fellow's eyes. He knew that Donnegan would win. And Donnegan won! Jack,
+you're a big man and a strong man and a brave man, and we all know it.
+But don't be foolish. Stay away from Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He wavered just an instant. If she could have sustained her pleading
+gaze a moment longer she would have won him, but at the critical instant
+her gaze became distant. She was seeing the calm face of Donnegan as he
+raised the mint. And as though he understood, Jack Landis hardened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad you don't want me shot up, Nelly,&quot; he said coldly. &quot;Mighty
+good of you to watch out for me. But&mdash;I'm going to run this Donnegan out
+of town!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's never harmed you; why&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't like his looks. For a man like me that's enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he strode away toward Milligan. He was greeted by a cheer just as
+the girl reached the side of her father.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack is going,&quot; she said. &quot;Make him come back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the old man was still rubbing his hands; there seemed to be a
+perpetual chill in the tips of the fingers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is a jackass. The moment I first saw his face I knew that he was
+meant for gun fodder&mdash;buzzard food! Let him go. Bah!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl shivered. &quot;And then the mines?&quot; she asked, changing her
+tactics.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, yes. The mines! But leave that to Lord Nick. He'll handle it well
+enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So Jack Landis strode up the hill first and foremost of the six stalwart
+men who wished to correct the stranger's apparent misunderstandings of
+the status of The Corner. They were each armed to the teeth and each
+provided with enough bullets to disturb a small city. All this in honor
+of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>They found the shack wrapped in the warm, mellow light of the late
+afternoon; and on a flat-topped rock outside it big George sat
+whittling a stick into a grotesque imitation of a snake coiled. He did
+not rise when the posse approached. He merely rocked back upon the rock,
+embraced his knees in both of his enormous arms, and, in a word,
+transformed himself into a round ball of mirth. But having hugged away
+his laughter he was able to convert his joy into a vast grin. That smile
+stopped the posse. When a mob starts for a scene of violence the least
+exhibition of fear incenses it, but mockery is apt to pour water on its
+flames of anger.</p>
+
+<p>Decidedly the fury of the posse was chilled by the grin of George.
+Milligan, who had lived south of the Mason-Dixon line, stepped up to
+impress George properly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Boy,&quot; he said, frowning, &quot;go in and tell your man that we've come for
+him. Tell him to step right out here and get ready to talk. We don't
+mean him no harm less'n he can't explain one or two things. Hop along!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The &quot;boy&quot; did not stir. Only he shifted his eyes from face to face and
+his grin broadened. Ripples of mirth waved along his chest and convulsed
+his face, but still he did not laugh. &quot;Go in and tell them things to
+Donnegan,&quot; he said. &quot;But don't ask me to wake him up. He's sleepin'
+soun' an' fas'. Like a baby; mostly, he sleeps every day to get rested
+up for the night. Now, can't you-all wait till Donnegan wakes up
+tonight? No? Then step right in, gen'lemen; but if you-all is set on
+wakin' him up now, George will jus' step over the hill, because he don't
+want to be near the explosion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this, he allowed his mirth free rein. His laughter shook up to his
+throat, to his enormous mouth; it rolled and bellowed across the
+hillside; and the posse stood, each man in his place, and looked
+frigidly upon one another. But having been laughed at, they felt it
+necessary to go on, and do or die. So they strode across the hill and
+were almost to the door when another phenomenon occurred. A girl in a
+cheap calico dress of blue was seen to run out of a neighboring shack
+and spring up before the door of Donnegan's hut. When she faced the
+crowd it stopped again.</p>
+
+<p>The soft wind was blowing the blue dress into lovely, long, curving
+lines; about her throat a white collar of some sheer stuff was being
+lifted into waves, or curling against her cheek; and the golden hair, in
+disorder, was tousled low upon her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Whirling thus upon the crowd, she shocked them to a pause, with her
+parted lips, her flare of delicate color.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you come here,&quot; she cried, &quot;for&mdash;for Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady,&quot; began someone, and then looked about for Jack Landis, who was
+considered quite a hand with the ladies. But Jack Landis was discovered
+fading out of view down the hillside. One glance at that blue dress had
+quite routed him, for now he remembered the red-haired man who had
+escorted Lou Macon to The Corner&mdash;and the colonel's singular trust in
+this fellow. It explained much, and he fled before he should be noticed.</p>
+
+<p>Before the spokesman could continue his speech, the girl had whipped
+inside the door. And the posse was dumbfounded. Milligan saw that the
+advance was ruined. &quot;Boys,&quot; he said, &quot;we came to fight a man; not to
+storm a house with a woman in it. Let's go back. We'll tend to Donnegan
+later on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll drill him clean!&quot; muttered the others furiously, and straightway
+the posse departed down the hill.</p>
+
+<p>But inside the girl had found, to her astonishment, that Donnegan was
+stretched upon his bunk wrapped again in the silken dressing gown and
+with a smile upon his lips. He looked much younger, as he slept, and
+perhaps it was this that made the girl steal forward upon tiptoe and
+touch his shoulder so gently.</p>
+
+<p>He was up on his feet in an instant. Alas, vanity, vanity! Donnegan in
+shoes was one thing, for his shoes were of a particular kind; but
+Donnegan in his slippers was a full two inches shorter. He was hardly
+taller than the girl; he was, if the bitter truth must be known, almost
+a small man. And Donnegan was furious at having been found by her in
+such careless attire&mdash;and without those dignity-building shoes. First
+he wanted to cut the throat of big George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What have you done, what have you done?&quot; cried the girl, in one of
+those heart-piercing whispers of fear. &quot;They have come for you&mdash;a whole
+crowd&mdash;of armed men&mdash;they're outside the door! What have you done? It
+was something done for me, I know!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan suddenly transferred his wrath from big George to the mob.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Outside my door?&quot; he asked. And as he spoke he slipped on a belt at
+which a heavy holster tugged down on one side, and buckled it around
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no, no, no!&quot; she pleaded, and caught him in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan allowed her to stop him with that soft power for a moment,
+until his face went white&mdash;as if with pain. Then he adroitly gathered
+both her wrists into one of his bony hands; and having rendered her
+powerless, he slipped by her and cast open the door.</p>
+
+<p>It was an empty scene upon which they looked, with big George rocking
+back and forth upon a rock, convulsed with silent laughter. Donnegan
+looked sternly at the girl and swallowed. He was fearfully susceptible
+to mockery.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There seems to have been a jest?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>But she lifted him a happy, tearful face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, thank heaven!&quot; she cried gently.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, Donnegan at this set his teeth and turned upon his heel,
+and the girl stole out the door again, and closed it softly behind her.
+As a matter of fact, not even the terrible colonel inspired in her quite
+the fear which Donnegan instilled.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="19"></a><h2>19</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>&quot;Big Landis lost his nerve and sidestepped at the last minute, and then
+the whole gang faded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>That was the way the rumors of the affair always ended at each
+repetition in Lebrun's and Milligan's that night. The Corner had had
+many things to talk about during its brief existence, but nothing to
+compare with a man who entered a shooting scrape with such a fellow as
+Scar-faced Lewis all for the sake of a spray of mint. And the main topic
+of conversation was: Did Donnegan aim at the body or the hand of the
+bouncer?</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, it was an excellent thing for Milligan's. The place was
+fairly well crowded, with a few vacant tables. For everyone wanted to
+hear Milligan's version of the affair. He had a short and vigorous one,
+trimmed with neat oaths. It was all the girl in the blue calico dress,
+according to him. The posse couldn't storm a house with a woman in it or
+even conduct a proper lynching in her presence. And no one was able to
+smile when Milligan said this. Neither was anyone nervy enough to
+question the courage of Landis. It looked strange, that sudden flight of
+his, but then, he was a proven man. Everyone remembered the affair of
+Lester. It had been a clean-cut fight, and Jack Landis had won cleanly
+on his merits.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless some of the whispers had not failed to come to the big man,
+and his brow was black.</p>
+
+<p>The most terribly heartless and selfish passion of all is shame in a
+young man. To repay the sidelong glances which he met on every side,
+Jack Landis would have willingly crowded every living soul in The Corner
+into one house and touched a match to it. And chiefly because he felt
+the injustice of the suspicion. He had no fear of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>He had a theory that little men had little souls. Not that he ever
+formulated the theory in words, but he vaguely felt it and adhered to
+it. He had more fear of one man of six two than a dozen under five ten.
+He reserved in his heart of hearts a place of awe for one man whom he
+had never seen. That was for Lord Nick, for that celebrated character
+was said to be as tall and as finely built as Jack Landis himself. But
+as for Donnegan&mdash;Landis wished there were three Donnegans instead of
+one.</p>
+
+<p>Tonight his cue was surly silence. For Nelly Lebrun had been warned by
+her father, and she was making desperate efforts to recover any ground
+she might have lost. Besides, to lose Jack Landis would be to lose the
+most spectacular fellow in The Corner, to say nothing of the one who
+held the largest and the choicest of the mines. The blond, good looks of
+Landis made a perfect background for her dark beauty. With all these
+stakes to play for, Nelly outdid herself. If she were attractive enough
+ordinarily, when she exerted herself to fascinate, Nelly was
+intoxicating. What chance had poor Jack Landis against her? He did not
+call for her that night but went to play gloomily at Lebrun's until
+Nelly walked into Lebrun's and drew him away from a table. Half an hour
+later she had him whirling through a dance in Milligan's and had danced
+the gloom out of his mind for the moment. Before the evening was well
+under way, Landis was making love to her openly, and Nelly was in the
+position of one who had roused the bear.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dangerous flirtation and it was growing clumsy. In any place
+other than The Corner it would have been embarrassing long ago; and when
+Jack Landis, after a dance, put his one big hand over both of Nelly's
+and held her moveless while he poured out a passionate declaration,
+Nelly realized that something must be done. Just what she could not
+tell.</p>
+
+<p>And it was at this very moment that a wave of silence, beginning at the
+door, rushed across Milligan's dance floor. It stopped the bartenders in
+the act of mixing drinks; it put the musicians out of key, and in the
+midst of a waltz phrase they broke down and came to a discordant pause.</p>
+
+<p>What was it?</p>
+
+<p>The men faced the door, wondering, and then the swift rumor passed from
+lip to lip&mdash;almost from eye to eye, so rapidly it sped&mdash;Donnegan is
+coming! Donnegan, and big George with him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Someone tell Milligan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Milligan had already heard; he was back of the bar giving
+directions; guns were actually unlimbering. What would happen?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I get you out of this?&quot; Landis asked the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave now?&quot; She laughed fiercely and silently. &quot;I'm just beginning to
+live! Miss Donnegan in action? No, sir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She would have given a good deal to retract that sentence, for it washed
+the face of Landis white with jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>Surely Donnegan had built greater than he knew.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly he was there in the midst of the house. No one had stopped
+him&mdash;at least, no one had interfered with his servant. Big George had on
+a white suit and a dappled green necktie; he stood directly behind his
+master and made him look like a small boy. For Donnegan was in black,
+and he had a white neckcloth wrapped as high and stiffly as an
+old-fashioned stock. Altogether he was a queer, drab figure compared
+with the brilliant Donnegan of that afternoon. He looked older, more
+weary. His lean face was pale; and his hair flamed with redoubled ardor
+on that account. Never was hair as red as that, not even the hair of
+Lord Nick, said the people in Milligan's this night.</p>
+
+<p>He was perfectly calm even in the midst of that deadly silence. He stood
+looking about him. He saw Gloster, the real estate man, and bowed to him
+deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>For some reason that drew a gasp.</p>
+
+<p>Then he observed a table which was apparently to his fancy and crossed
+the floor with a light, noiseless step, big George padding heavily
+behind him. At the little round table he waited until George had drawn
+out the chair for him and then he sat down. He folded his arms lightly
+upon his breast and once more surveyed the scene, and big George drew
+himself up behind Donnegan. Just once his eyes rolled and flashed
+savagely in delight at the sensation that they were making, then the
+face of George was once again impassive.</p>
+
+<p>If Donnegan had not carried it off with a certain air, the whole
+entrance would have seemed decidedly stagey, but The Corner, as it was,
+found much to wonder at and little to criticize. And in the West grown
+men are as shrewd judges of affectation as children are in other places.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Putting on a lot of style, eh?&quot; said Jack Landis, and with fierce
+intensity he watched the face of Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>For once she was unguarded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's superb!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;The big fellow is going to bring a drink
+for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked up, surprised by the silence of Landis, and found that his
+face was actually yellow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you something. Do you remember the little red-headed tramp
+who came in here the other night and spoke to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. You seemed to be bothered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe. I dunno. But that's the man&mdash;the one who's sitting over there
+now all dressed up&mdash;the man The Corner is talking about&mdash;Donnegan! A
+tramp!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught her breath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that the one?&quot; A pause. &quot;Well, I believe it. He's capable of
+anything!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you like him all the better for knowing that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack, you're angry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should I be? I hate to see you fooled by the bluff of a tramp,
+though.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush! Do you think I'm fooled by it? But it's an interesting bluff,
+Jack, don't you think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly, he's interesting enough to make you blush; by heaven, the hound
+is lookin' right at you now, Nelly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had pressed her suddenly against the wall and she struck back
+desperately in self-defense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By the way, what did he want to see you about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It spiked the guns of Landis for the time being, at least. And the girl
+followed by striving to prove that her interest in Donnegan was purely
+impersonal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's clever,&quot; she ran on, not daring to look at the set face of her
+companion. &quot;See how he fails to notice that he's making a sensation?
+You'd think he was in a big restaurant in a city. He takes the drink off
+the tray from that fellow as if it were a common thing to be waited on
+by a body-servant in The Corner. Jack, I'll wager that there's something
+crooked about him. A professional gambler, say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jack Landis thawed a little under this careless chatter. He still did
+not quite trust her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know what they're whispering? That I was afraid to face him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She tilted her head back, so that the light gleamed on her young throat,
+and she broke into laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Jack, that's foolish. You proved yourself when you first came to
+The Corner. Maybe some of the newcomers may have said something, but all
+the old-timers know you had some different reason for leaving the rest
+of them. By the way, what was the reason?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sent a keen little glance at him from the corner of her eyes, but
+the moment she saw that he was embarrassed and at sea because of the
+query she instantly slipped into a fresh tide of careless chatter and
+covered up his confusion for him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See how the girls are making eyes at him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you why,&quot; Jack replied. &quot;A girl likes to be with the man
+who's making the town talk.&quot; He added pointedly: &quot;Oh, I've found that
+out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged that comment away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He isn't paying the slightest attention to any of them,&quot; she murmured.
+&quot;He's queer! Has he just come here hunting trouble?&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="20"></a><h2>20</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>It should be understood that before this the men in Milligan's had
+reached a subtly unspoken agreement that red-haired Donnegan was not one
+of them. In a word, they did not like him because he made a mystery of
+himself. And, also, because he was different. Yet there was a growing
+feeling that the shooting of Lewis through the hand had not been an
+accident, for the whole demeanor of Donnegan composed the action of a
+man who is a professional trouble maker. There was no reason why he
+should go to Milligan's and take his servant with him unless he wished a
+fight. And why a man should wish to fight the entire Corner was
+something no one could guess.</p>
+
+<p>That he should have done all this merely to focus all eyes upon him, and
+particularly the eyes of a girl, did not occur to anyone. It looked
+rather like the bravado of a man who lived for the sake of fighting.
+Now, men who hunt trouble in the mountain desert generally find all that
+they may desire, but for the time being everyone held back, wolfishly,
+waiting for another to take the first step toward Donnegan. Indeed,
+there was an unspoken conviction that the man who took the first step
+would probably not live to take another. In the meantime both men and
+women gave Donnegan the lion's share of their attention. There was only
+one who was clever enough to conceal it, and that one was the pair of
+eyes to which the red-haired man was playing&mdash;Nelly Lebrun. She confined
+herself strictly to Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that when Milligan announced a tag dance and the couples
+swirled onto the floor gayly, Donnegan decided to take matters into his
+own hands and offer the first overt act. It was clumsy; he did not like
+it; but he hated this delay. And he knew that every moment he stayed on
+there with big George behind his chair was another red rag flaunted in
+the face of The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the men who had no girl with them brighten at the announcement of
+the tag dance. And when the dance began he saw the prettiest girls
+tagged quickly, one after the other. All except Nelly Lebrun. She swung
+securely around the circle in the big arms of Jack Landis. She seemed to
+be set apart and protected from the common touch by his size, and by his
+formidable, challenging eye. Donnegan felt as never before the
+unassailable position of this fellow; not only from his own fighting
+qualities, but because he had behind him the whole unfathomable power of
+Lord Nick and his gang.</p>
+
+<p>Nelly approached in the arms of Landis in making the first circle of the
+dance floor; her eyes, grown dull as she surrendered herself wholly to
+the rhythm of the waltz, saw nothing. They were blank as unlighted
+charcoal. She came opposite Donnegan, her back was toward him; she swung
+in the arms of Landis, and then, past the shoulder of her partner, she
+flashed a glance at Donnegan. The spark had fallen on the charcoal, and
+her eyes were aflame. Aflame to Donnegan; the next instant the veil had
+dropped across her face once more.</p>
+
+<p>She was carried on, leaving Donnegan tingling.</p>
+
+<p>A wise man upon whom that look had fallen might have seen, not Nelly
+Lebrun in the cheap dance hall, but Helen of Sparta and all Troy's dead.
+But Donnegan was clever, not wise. And he saw only Nelly Lebrun and the
+broad shoulders of Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>Let the critic deal gently with Donnegan. He loved Lou Macon with all
+his heart and his soul, and yet because another beautiful girl had
+looked at him, there he sat at his table with his jaw set and the devil
+in his eye. And while she and Landis were whirling through the next
+circumference of the room, Donnegan was seeing all sides of the problem.
+If he tagged Landis it would be casting the glove in the face of the big
+man&mdash;and in the face of old Lebrun&mdash;and in the face of that mysterious
+and evil power, Lord Nick himself. And consider, that besides these he
+had already insulted all of The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>Why not let things go on as they were? Suppose he were to allow Landis
+to plunge deeper into his infatuation? Suppose he were to bring Lou
+Macon to this place and let her see Landis sitting with Nelly, making
+love to her with every tone in his voice, every light in his eye? Would
+not that cure Lou? And would not that open the door to Donnegan?</p>
+
+<p>And remember, in considering how Donnegan was tempted, that he was not a
+conscientious man. He was in fact what he seemed to be&mdash;a wanderer, a
+careless vagrant, living by his wits. For all this, he had been touched
+by the divine fire&mdash;a love that is greater than self. And the more
+deeply he hated Landis, the more profoundly he determined that he should
+be discarded by Nelly and forced back to Lou Macon. In the meantime,
+Nelly and Jack were coming again. They were close; they were passing;
+and this time her eye had no spark for Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he rose from his table, reached the floor with a few steps, and
+touched Landis lightly on the shoulder. The challenge was passed. Landis
+stopped abruptly and turned his head; his face showed merely dull
+astonishment. The current of dancers split and washed past on either
+side of the motionless trio, and on every face there was a glittering
+curiosity. What would Landis do?</p>
+
+<p>Nothing. He was too stupefied to act. He, Jack Landis, had actually been
+tagged while he was dancing with the woman which all The Corner knew to
+be his girl! And before his befogged senses cleared the girl was in the
+arms of the red-haired man and was lost in the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>What a buzz went around the room! For a moment Landis could no more move
+than he could think; then he sent a sullen glance toward the girl and
+retreated to their table. A childish sullenness clouded his face while
+he sat there; only one decision came clearly to him: he must kill
+Donnegan!</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime people noted two things. The first was that Donnegan
+danced very well with Nelly Lebrun; and his red hair beside the silken
+black of the girl's was a startling contrast. It was not a common red.
+It flamed, as though with phosphoric properties of its own. But they
+danced well; and the eyes of both of them were gleaming. Another thing:
+men did not tag Donnegan any more than they had offered to tag Landis.
+One or two slipped out from the outskirts of the floor, but something in
+the face of Donnegan discouraged them and made them turn elsewhere as
+though they had never started for Nelly Lebrun in the first place.
+Indeed, to a two-year-old child it would have been apparent that Nelly
+and the red-headed chap were interested in each other.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact they did not speak a single syllable until they had
+gone around the floor one complete turn and the dance was coming toward
+an end.</p>
+
+<p>It was he who spoke first, gloomily: &quot;I shouldn't have done it; I
+shouldn't have tagged him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this she drew back a little so that she could meet his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole crew will be on my trail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What crew?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beginning with Lord Nick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This shook her completely out of the thrall of the dance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Nick? What makes you think that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know he's thick with Landis. It'll mean trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was so simple about it that she began to laugh. It was not such a
+voice as Lou Macon's. It was high and light, and one could suspect that
+it might become shrill under a stress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet it looks as though you've been hunting trouble,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I couldn't help it,&quot; said Donnegan na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very subtle flattery, this frankness from a man who had puzzled
+all The Corner. Nelly Lebrun felt that she was about to look behind the
+scenes and she tingled with delight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me,&quot; she said. &quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I had to make a noise because I wanted to be
+noticed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She glanced about her; every eye was upon them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've made your point,&quot; she murmured. &quot;The whole town is talking of
+nothing else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't care an ounce of lead about the rest of the town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stopped abruptly, seeing toward what he was tending. And the heart
+of Nelly Lebrun fluttered for the first time in many a month. She
+believed him implicitly. It was for her sake that he had made all this
+commotion; to draw her attention. For every lovely girl, no matter how
+cool-headed, has a foolish belief in the power of her beauty. As a
+matter of fact Donnegan had told her the truth. It had all been to win
+her attention, from the fight for the mint to the tagging for the dance.
+How could she dream that it sprang out of anything other than a wild
+devotion to her? And while Donnegan coldly calculated every effect,
+Nelly Lebrun began to see in him the man of a dream, a spirit out of a
+dead age, a soul of knightly, reckless chivalry. In that small
+confession he cast a halo about himself which no other hand could ever
+remove entirely so far as Nelly Lebrun was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You understand?&quot; he was saying quietly.</p>
+
+<p>She countered with a question as direct as his confession.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you, Mr. Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A wanderer,&quot; said Donnegan instantly, &quot;and an avoider of work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At that they laughed together. The strain was broken and in its place
+there was a mutual excitement. She saw Landis in the distance watching
+their laughter with a face contorted with anger, but it only increased
+her unreasoning happiness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan, let me give you friendly advice. I like you: I know you
+have courage; and I saw you meet Scar-faced Lewis. But if I were you I'd
+leave The Corner tonight and never come back. You've set every man
+against you. You've stepped on the toes of Landis and he's a big man
+here. And even if you were to prove too much for Jack you'd come against
+Lord Nick, as you say yourself. Do you know Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, Mr. Donnegan, leave The Corner!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The music, ending, left them face to face as he dropped his arm from
+about her. And she could appreciate now, for the first time, that he was
+smaller than he had seemed at a distance, or while he was dancing. He
+seemed a frail figure indeed to face the entire banded Corner&mdash;and Lord
+Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you see,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;that I can't stop now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a double meaning that sent her color flaring.</p>
+
+<p>He added in a low, tense voice, &quot;I've gone too far. Besides, I'm
+beginning to hope!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She paused, then made a little gesture of abandon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then stay, stay!&quot; she whispered with eyes on fire. &quot;And good luck to
+you, Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="21"></a><h2>21</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>As they went back, toward Nelly's table, where Jack Landis was trying to
+appear carelessly at ease, the face of Donnegan was pale. One might have
+thought that excitement and fear caused his pallor; but as a matter of
+fact it was in him an unfailing sign of happiness and success. Landis
+had manners enough to rise as they approached. He found himself being
+presented to the smaller man. He heard the cool, precise voice of
+Donnegan acknowledging the introduction; and then the red-headed man
+went back to his table; and Jack Landis was alone with Nelly Lebrun
+again.</p>
+
+<p>He scowled at her, and she tried to look repentant, but since she could
+not keep the dancing light out of her eyes, she compromised by looking
+steadfastly down at the table. Which convinced Landis that she was
+thinking of her late partner. He made a great effort, swallowed, and was
+able to speak smoothly enough.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Looked as if you were having a pretty good time with that&mdash;tramp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The color in her cheeks was anger; Landis took it for shame.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He dances beautifully,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yeh; he's pretty smooth. Take a gent like that, it's hard for a girl
+to see through him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let's not talk about him, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right. Is he going to dance with you again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I promised him the third dance after this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a time Landis could not trust his voice. Then: &quot;Kind of sorry about
+that. Because I'll be going home before then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this she raised her eyes for the first time. He was astonished and a
+little horrified to see that she was not in the least flustered, but
+very angry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll go home before I have a chance for that dance?&quot; she asked.
+&quot;You're acting like a two-year-old, Jack. You are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He flushed. Burning would be too easy a death for Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's making a laughingstock out of me; look around the room!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nobody's thinking about you at all, Jack. You're just self-conscious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Of course, it was pouring acid upon an open wound. But she was past the
+point of caution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe they ain't,&quot; said Landis, controlling his rage. &quot;I don't figure
+that I amount to much. But I rate myself as high as a skunk like him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It may have been a smile that she gave him. At any rate, he caught the
+glint of teeth, and her eyes were as cold as steel points. If she had
+actually defended the stranger she would not have infuriated Landis so
+much.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, what does he say about himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He says frankly that he's a vagrant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you don't believe him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Makin' a play for sympathy. Confound a man like that, I say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still she did not answer; and now Landis became alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;D'you really like him, Nelly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I liked him well enough to introduce him to you, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry I talked so plain if you put it that way,&quot; he admitted
+heavily. &quot;I didn't know you picked up friends so fast as all that!&quot; He
+could not avoid adding this last touch of the poison point.</p>
+
+<p>His back was to Donnegan, and consequently the girl, facing him, could
+look straight across the room at the red-headed man. She allowed herself
+one brief glance, and she saw that he was sitting with his elbow on the
+table, his chin in his hand, looking fixedly at her. It was the gaze of
+one who forgets all else and wraps himself in a dream. Other people in
+the room were noting that changeless stare and the whisper buzzed more
+and more loudly, but Donnegan had forgotten the rest of the world, it
+seemed. It was a very cunning piece of acting, not too much overdone,
+and once more the heart of Nelly Lebrun fluttered.</p>
+
+<p>She remembered that in spite of his frankness he had not talked with
+insolent presumption to her. He had merely answered her individual
+questions with an astonishing, childlike frankness. He had laid his
+heart before her, it seemed. And now he sat at a distance looking at her
+with the white, intense face of one who sees a dream.</p>
+
+<p>Nelly Lebrun was recalled by the heavy breathing of Jack Landis and she
+discovered that she had allowed her eyes to rest too long on the
+red-headed stranger. She had forgotten; her eyes had widened; and even
+Jack Landis was able to look into her mind and see things that startled
+him. For the first time he sensed that this was more than a careless
+flirtation. And he sat stiffly at the table, looking at her and through
+her with a fixed smile. Nelly, horrified, strove to cover her tracks.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're right, Jack,&quot; she said. &quot;I&mdash;I think there was something brazen
+in the way he tagged you. And&mdash;let's go home together!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Too late. The mind of Landis was not oversharp, but now jealousy gave it
+a point. He nodded his assent, and they got up, but there was no
+increase in his color. She read as plain as day in his face that he
+intended murder this night and Nelly was truly frightened.</p>
+
+<p>So she tried different tactics. All the way to the substantial little
+house which Lebrun had built at a little distance from the gambling
+hall, she kept up a running fire of steady conversation. But when she
+said good night to him, his face was still set. She had not deceived
+him. When he turned, she saw him go back into the night with long
+strides, and within half an hour she knew, as clearly as if she were
+remembering the picture instead of foreseeing it, that Jack and Donnegan
+would face each other gun in hand on the floor of Milligan's dance hall.</p>
+
+<p>Still, she was not foolish enough to run after Jack, take his arm, and
+make a direct appeal. It would be too much like begging for Donnegan,
+and even if Jack forgave her for this interest in his rival, she had
+sense enough to feel that Donnegan himself never would. Something,
+however, must be done to prevent the fight, and she took the straightest
+course.</p>
+
+<p>She went as fast as a run would carry her straight behind the
+intervening houses and came to the back entrance to the gaming hall.
+There she entered and stepped into the little office of her father.
+Black Lebrun was not there. She did not want him. In his place there sat
+the Pedlar and Joe Rix; they were members of Lord Nick's chosen crew,
+and since Nick's temporary alliance with Lebrun for the sake of
+plundering Jack Landis, Nick's men were Nelly's men. Indeed, this was a
+formidable pair. They were the kind of men about whom many whispers and
+no facts circulate: and yet the facts are far worse than the whispers.
+It was said that Joe Rix, who was a fat little man with a great aversion
+to a razor and a pair of shallow, pale blue eyes, was in reality a
+merciless fiend. He was; and he was more than that, if there be a
+stronger superlative. If Lord Nick had dirty work to be done, there was
+the man who did it with a relish. The Pedlar, on the other hand, was an
+exact opposite. He was long, lean, raw-boned, and prodigiously strong in
+spite of his lack of flesh. He had vast hands, all loose skin and
+outstanding tendons; he had a fleshless face over which his smile was
+capable of extending limitlessly. He was the sort of a man from whom one
+would expect shrewdness, some cunning, stubbornness, a dry humor, and
+many principles. All of which, except the last, was true of the Pedlar.</p>
+
+<p>There was this peculiarity about the Pedlar. In spite of his broad grins
+and his wise, bright eyes, none, even of Lord Nick's gang, extended a
+friendship or familiarity toward him. When they spoke of the Pedlar they
+never used his name. They referred to him as &quot;him&quot; or they indicated him
+with gestures. If he had a fondness for any living creature it was for
+fat Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>Yet on seeing this ominous pair, Nelly Lebrun cried out softly in
+delight. She ran to them, and dropped a hand on the bony shoulder of the
+Pedlar and one on the plump shoulder of Joe Rix, whose loose flesh
+rolled under her finger tips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's Jack Landis!&quot; she cried. &quot;He's gone to Milligan's to fight the
+new man. Stop him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan?&quot; said Joe, and did not rise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Him?&quot; said the Pedlar, and moistened his broad lips like one on the
+verge of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you going to sit here?&quot; she cried. &quot;What will Lord Nick say if he
+finds out you've let Jack get into a fight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We ain't nursin' mothers,&quot; declared the Pedlar. &quot;But I'd kind of like
+to look on!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he rose. Unkinking joint after joint, straightening his legs, his
+back, his shoulders, his neck, he soared up and up until he stood a
+prodigious height. The girl controlled a shudder of disgust.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe!&quot; she appealed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You want us to clean up Donnegan?&quot; he asked, rising, but without
+interest in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>To his surprise, she slipped back to the door and blocked it with her
+outcast arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a hair of his head!&quot; she said fiercely. &quot;Swear that you won't harm
+him, boys!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What the devil!&quot; ejaculated Joe, who was a blunt man in spite of his
+fat. &quot;You want us to keep Jack from fightin', but you don't want us to
+hurt the other gent. What you want? Hogtie 'em both?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, yes; keep Jack out of Milligan's; but for heaven's sake don't try
+to put a hand on Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For your sakes; he'd kill you, Joe!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this they both gaped in unison, and as one man they drawled in vast
+admiration: &quot;Good heavens!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But go, go, go!&quot; cried the girl.</p>
+
+<p>And she shoved them through the door and into the night.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="22"></a><h2>22</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>To the people in Milligan's it had been most incredible that Jack Landis
+should withdraw from a competition of any sort. And though the girls
+were able to understand his motives in taking Nelly Lebrun away they
+were not able to explain this fully to their men companions. For one and
+all they admitted that Jack was imperiling his hold on the girl in
+question if he allowed her to stay near this red-headed fiend. But one
+and all they swore that Jack Landis had ruined himself with her by
+taking her away. And this was a paradox which made masculine heads in
+The Corner spin. The main point was that Jack Landis had backed down
+before a rival; and this fact was stunning enough. Donnegan, however,
+was not confused. He sent big George to ask Milligan to come to him for
+a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Milligan, at this, cursed George, but he was drawn by curiosity to
+consent. A moment later he was seated at Donnegan's table, drinking his
+own liquor as it was served to him from the hands of big George. If the
+first emotions of the dance-hall proprietor were anger and intense
+curiosity, his second emotion was that never-failing surprise which all
+who came close to the wanderer felt. For he had that rare faculty of
+seeming larger when in action, even when actually near much bigger men.
+Only when one came close to Donnegan one stepped, as it were, through a
+veil, and saw the almost fragile reality. When Milligan had caught his
+breath and adjusted himself, he began as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, Bud,&quot; he said, &quot;you've made a pretty play. Not bad at all. But no
+more bluffs in Milligan's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bluff!&quot; Donnegan repeated gently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;About your servant. I let it pass for one night, but not for another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Mr. Milligan! However&quot;&mdash;changing the subject easily&mdash;&quot;what I
+wish to speak to you about is a bit of trouble which I foresee. I think,
+sir, that Jack Landis is coming back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What makes you think that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a feeling I have. I have queer premonitions, Mr. Milligan, I'm
+sure he's coming and I'm sure he's going to attempt a murder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Milligan's thick lips framed his question but he did not speak: fear
+made his face ludicrous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A shootin' scrape here! You?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has me in mind. That's why I'm speaking to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't wait to speak to me about it. Get up and get out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Milligan, you're wrong. I'm going to stay here and you're going to
+protect me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, confound your soul! They ain't much nerve about you, is there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You run a public place. You have to protect your patrons from insult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who began it, then? Who started walkin' on Jack's toes? Now you
+come whinin' to me! By heck, I hope Jack gets you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a genial soul,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Here's to you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But something in his smile as he sipped his liquor made Milligan sit
+straighter in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>As for Donnegan, he was thinking hard and fast. If there were a shooting
+affair and he won, he would nevertheless run a close chance of being
+hung by a mob. He must dispose that mob to look upon him as the
+defendant and Landis as the aggressor. He had not foreseen the crisis
+until it was fairly upon him. He had thought of Nelly playing Landis
+along more gradually and carefully, so that, while he was slowly
+learning that she was growing cold to him, he would have a chance to
+grow fond of Lou Macon once more. But even across the width of the room
+he had seen the girl fire up, and from that moment he knew the result.
+Landis already suspected him; Landis, with the feeling that he had been
+robbed, would do his best to kill the thief. He might take a chance with
+Landis, if it came to a fight, just as he had taken a chance with Lewis.
+But how different this case would be! Landis was no dull-nerved ruffian
+and drunkard. He was a keen boy with a hair-trigger balance, and in a
+gunplay he would be apt to beat the best of them all. Of all this
+Donnegan was fully aware. Either he must place his own life in terrible
+hazard or else he must shoot to kill; and if he killed, what of Lou
+Macon?</p>
+
+<p>While he smiled into the face of Milligan, perspiration was bursting out
+under his armpits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Milligan, I implore you to give me your aid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the difference?&quot; Milligan asked in a changed tone. &quot;If he don't
+fight you here he'll fight you later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're wrong, Mr. Milligan. He isn't the sort to hold malice. He'll
+come here tonight and try to get at me like a bulldog straining on a
+leash. If he is kept away he'll get over his bad temper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Milligan pushed back his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've tried to force yourself down the throat of The Corner,&quot; he said,
+&quot;and now you yell for help when you see the teeth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had raised his voice. Now he got up and strode noisily away. Donnegan
+waited until he was halfway across the dance floor and then rose in
+turn.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>The quiet voice cut into every conversation; the musicians lowered the
+instruments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have just told Mr. Milligan that I am sure Jack Landis is coming back
+here to try to kill me. I have asked for his protection. He has refused
+it. I intend to stay here and wait for him, Jack Landis. In the meantime
+I ask any able-bodied man who will do so, to try to stop Landis when he
+enters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He sat down, raised his glass, and sipped the drink. Two hundred pairs
+of eyes were fastened with hawklike intensity upon him, and they could
+perceive no quiver of his hand.</p>
+
+<p>The sipping of his liquor was not an affectation. For he was drinking,
+at incredible cost, liquors from Milligan's store of rareties.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of Donnegan's announcement was first a silence, then a hum,
+then loud voices of protest, curiosity&mdash;and finally a scurrying toward
+the doors.</p>
+
+<p>Yet really very few left. The rest valued a chance to see the fight
+beyond the fear of random slugs of lead which might fly their way.
+Besides, where such men as Donnegan and big Jack Landis were concerned,
+there was not apt to be much wild shooting. The dancing stopped, of
+course. The music was ordered by Milligan to play, in a frantic endeavor
+to rouse custom again; but the music of its own accord fell away in the
+middle of the piece. For the musicians could not watch the notes and the
+door at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>As for Donnegan, he found that it was one thing to wait and another to
+be waited for. He, too, wished to turn and watch that door until it
+should be filled by the bulk of Jack Landis. Yet he fought the desire.</p>
+
+<p>And in the midst of this torturing suspense an idea came to him, and at
+the same instant Jack Landis entered the doorway. He stood there looking
+vast against the night. One glance around was sufficient to teach him
+the meaning of the silence. The stage was set, and the way opened to
+Donnegan. Without a word, big George stole to one side.</p>
+
+<p>Straight to the middle of the dance floor went Jack Landis, red-faced,
+with long, heavy steps. He faced Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You skunk!&quot; shouted Landis. &quot;I've come for you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he went for his gun. Donnegan, too, stirred. But when the revolver
+leaped into the hand of Landis, it was seen that the hands of Donnegan
+rose past the line of his waist, past his shoulders, and presently
+locked easily behind his head. A terrible chance, for Landis had come
+within a breath of shooting. So great was the impulse that, as he
+checked the pressure of his forefinger, he stumbled a whole pace
+forward. He walked on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You need cause to fight?&quot; he cried, striking Donnegan across the face
+with the back of his left hand, jerking up the muzzle of the gun in his
+right.</p>
+
+<p>Now a dark trickle was seen to come from the broken lips of Donnegan,
+yet he was smiling faintly.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Landis muttered a curse and said sneeringly: &quot;Are you afraid?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There were sick faces in that room; men turned their heads, for nothing
+is so ghastly as the sight of a man who is taking water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I'm going to kill you, Jack. But I want to kill
+you fairly and squarely. There's no pleasure, you see, in beating a
+youngster like you to the draw. I want to give you a fighting chance.
+Besides&quot;&mdash;he removed one hand from behind his head and waved it
+carelessly to where the men of The Corner crouched in the shadow&mdash;&quot;you
+people have seen me drill one chap already, and I'd like to shoot you in
+a new way. Is that agreeable?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two terrible, known figures detached themselves from the gloom near the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hark to this gent sing,&quot; said one, and his name was the Pedlar. &quot;Hark
+to him sing, Jack, and we'll see that you get fair play.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good,&quot; said his friend, Joe Rix. &quot;Let him take his try, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, had Donnegan reached for a gun, he would have been
+shot before even Landis could bring out a weapon, for the steady eye of
+Joe Rix, hidden behind the Pedlar, had been looking down a revolver
+barrel at the forehead of Donnegan, waiting for that first move. But
+something about the coolness of Donnegan fascinated them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't shoot, Joe,&quot; the Pedlar had said. &quot;That bird is the chief over
+again. Don't plug him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And that was why Donnegan lived.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="23"></a><h2>23</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>If he had taken the eye of the hardened Rix and the still harder Pedlar,
+he had stunned the men of The Corner. And breathlessly they waited for
+his proposal to Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with his hands behind his head again, after he had slowly taken
+out a handkerchief and wiped his chin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm a methodical fellow, Landis,&quot; he said. &quot;I hate to do an untidy
+piece of work. I have been disgusted with myself since my little falling
+out with Lewis. I intended to shoot him cleanly through the hand, but
+instead of that I tore up his whole forearm. Sloppy work, Landis. I
+don't like it. Now, in meeting you, I want to do a clean, neat, precise
+job. One that I'll be proud of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A moaning voice was heard faintly in the distance. It was the Pedlar,
+who had wrapped himself in his gaunt arms and was crooning softly, with
+unspeakable joy: &quot;Hark to him sing! Hark to him sing! A ringer for the
+chief!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should we be in such a hurry?&quot; continued Donnegan. &quot;You see that
+clock in the corner? Tut, tut! Turn your head and look. Do you think
+I'll drop you while you look around?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Landis flung one glance over his shoulder at the big clock, whose
+pendulum worked solemnly back and forth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In five minutes,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;it will be eleven o'clock. And when
+it's eleven o'clock the clock will chime. Now, Landis, you and I shall
+sit down here like gentlemen and drink our liquor and think our last
+thoughts. Heavens, man, is there anything more disagreeable than being
+hurried out of life? But when the clock chimes, we draw our guns and
+shoot each other through the heart&mdash;the brain&mdash;wherever we have chosen.
+But, Landis, if one of us should inadvertently&mdash;or through
+nervousness&mdash;beat the clock's chime by the split part of a second, the
+good people of The Corner will fill that one of us promptly full of
+lead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned to the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen, is it a good plan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As well as a Roman crowd if it wanted to see a gladiator die, the frayed
+nerves of The Corner responded to the stimulus of this delightful
+entertainment. There was a joyous chorus of approval.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When the clock strikes, then,&quot; said Landis, and flung himself down in a
+chair, setting his teeth over his rage.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled benevolently upon him; then he turned again and beckoned
+to George. The big man strode closer and leaned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;George,&quot; he said. &quot;I'm not going to kill this fellow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, sir; certainly, sir,&quot; whispered the other. &quot;George can kill him for
+you, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled wanly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not going to kill him, George, on account of the girl on the hill.
+You know? And the reason is that she's fond of the lubber. I'll try to
+break his nerve, George, and drill him through the arm, say. No, I can't
+take chances like that. But if I have him shaking in time, I'll shoot
+him through the right shoulder, George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But if I miss and he gets me instead, mind you, never raise a hand
+against him. If you so much as touch his skin, I'll rise out of my grave
+and haunt you. You hear? Good-by, George.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But big George withdrew without a word, and the reason for his
+speechlessness was the glistening of his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I live,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I'll show that George that I appreciate
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He went on aloud to Landis: &quot;So glum, my boy? Tush! We have still four
+minutes left. Are you going to spend your last four minutes hating me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned: &quot;Another liqueur, George. Two of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man brought the drinks, and having put one on the table of
+Donnegan, he was directed to take the other to Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's really good stuff,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I'm not an expert on these
+matters; but I like the taste. Will you try it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that Landis dared not trust himself to speech. As though a
+vast and deadly hatred were gathered in him, and he feared lest it
+should escape in words the first time he parted his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>He took the glass of liqueur and slowly poured it upon the floor. From
+the crowd there was a deep murmur of disapproval. And Landis, feeling
+that he had advanced the wrong foot in the matter, glowered scornfully
+about him and then stared once more at Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just as you please,&quot; said Donnegan, sipping his glass. &quot;But remember
+this, my young friend, that a fool is a fool, drunk or sober.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Landis showed his teeth, but made no other answer. And Donnegan
+anxiously flashed a glance at the clock. He still had three minutes.
+Three minutes in which he must reduce this stalwart fellow to a
+trembling, nervous wreck. Otherwise, he must shoot to kill, or else sit
+there and become a certain sacrifice for the sake of Lou Macon. Yet he
+controlled the muscles of his face and was still able to smile as he
+turned again to Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Three minutes left,&quot; he said. &quot;Three minutes for you to compose
+yourself, Landis. Think of it, man! All the good life behind you. Have
+you nothing to remember? Nothing to soften your mind? Why die, Landis,
+with a curse in your heart and a scowl on your lips?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more Landis stirred his lips; but there was only the flash of his
+teeth; he maintained his resolute silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; murmured Donnegan, &quot;I am sorry to see this. And before all your
+admirers, Landis. Before all your friends. Look at them scattered there
+under the lights and in the shadows. No farewell word for them? Nothing
+kindly to say? Are you going to leave them without a syllable of
+goodfellowship?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confound you!&quot; muttered Landis.</p>
+
+<p>There was another hum from the crowd; it was partly wonder, partly
+anger. Plainly they were not pleased with Jack Landis on this day.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shook his head sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hoped,&quot; he said, &quot;that I could teach you how to die. But I fail. And
+yet you should be grateful to me for one thing, Jack. I have kept you
+from being a murderer in cold blood. I kept you from killing a
+defenseless man as you intended to do when you walked up to me a moment
+ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled genially in mockery, and there was a scowl on the face of
+Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two minutes,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning back in his chair, he yawned. For a whole minute he did not
+stir.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One minute?&quot; he murmured inquisitively.</p>
+
+<p>And there was a convulsive shudder through the limbs of Landis. It was
+the first sign that he was breaking down under the strain. There
+remained only one minute in which to reduce him to a nervous wreck!</p>
+
+<p>The strain was telling in other places. Donnegan turned and saw in the
+shadow and about the edges of the room a host of drawn, tense faces and
+burning eyes. Never while they lived would they forget that scene.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now that the time is close,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I must look to my
+gun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He made a gesture; how it was, no one was swift enough of eye to tell,
+but a gun appeared in his hand. At the flash of it, Landis' weapon
+leaped up to the mark and his face convulsed. But Donnegan calmly spun
+the cylinder of his revolver and held it toward Landis, dangling from
+his forefinger under the guard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see?&quot; he said to Landis. &quot;Clean as a whistle, and easy as a girl's
+smile. I hate a stiff action, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Landis slowly allowed the muzzle of his own gun to sink. For the
+first time his eyes left the eyes of Donnegan, and sinking, inch by
+inch, stared fascinated at the gun in the hand of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thirty seconds,&quot; said Donnegan by way of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Landis jerked up his head and his eyes once more met the eyes of
+Donnegan, but this time they were wide, and the pointed glance of
+Donnegan sank into them. The lips of Landis parted. His tongue
+tremblingly moistened them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep your nerve,&quot; said Donnegan in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You hound!&quot; gasped Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew it,&quot; said Donnegan sadly. &quot;You'll die with a curse on your
+lips.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He added: &quot;Ten seconds, Landis!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And then he achieved his third step toward victory, for Landis jerked
+his head around, saw the minute hand almost upon its mark, and swung
+back with a shudder toward Donnegan. From the crowd there was a deep
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>And then Landis was seen to raise the muzzle of his gun again, and
+crouch over it, leveling it straight at Donnegan. He, at least, would
+send his bullet straight to the mark when that first chime went humming
+through the big room.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan? He made his last play to shatter the nerve of Landis. With
+the minute hand on the very mark, he turned carelessly, the revolver
+still dangling by the trigger guard, and laughed toward the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>And out of the crowd there came a deep, sobbing breath of heartbreaking
+suspense.</p>
+
+<p>It told on Landis. Out of the corner of his eye Donnegan saw the muscles
+of the man's face sag and tremble; saw him allow his gun to fall, in
+imitation of Donnegan, to his side; and saw the long arm quivering.</p>
+
+<p>And then the chime rang, with a metallic, sharp click and then a long
+and reverberant clanging.</p>
+
+<p>With a gasp Landis whipped up his gun and fired. Once, twice, again, the
+weapon crashed. And, to the eternal wonder of all who saw it, at a
+distance of five paces Landis three times missed his man. But Donnegan,
+sitting back with a smile, raised his own gun almost with leisure,
+unhurried, dropped it upon the mark, and sent a forty-five slug through
+the right shoulder of Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>The blow of the slug, like the punch of a strong man's fist, knocked the
+victim out of his chair to the floor. He lay clutching at his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; said Donnegan, rising, &quot;is there a doctor here?&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="24"></a><h2>24</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>That was the signal for the rush that swept across the floor and left a
+flood of marveling men around the fallen Landis. On the outskirts of
+this tide, Donnegan stepped up to two men, Joe Rix and the Pedlar. They
+greeted him with expectant glances.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;will you step aside?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They followed him to a distance from the clamoring group.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have to thank you,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For changing your minds,&quot; said Donnegan, and left them.</p>
+
+<p>And afterward the Pedlar murmured with an oddly twisted face: &quot;Cat-eye,
+Joe. He can see in the dark! But I told you he was worth savin'.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speakin' in general,&quot; said Joe, &quot;which you ain't hardly ever wrong when
+you get stirred up about a thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's something new,&quot; the Pedlar said wisely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, he's rare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But talkin' aside, suppose he was to meet up with Lord Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The smile of Joe Rix was marvelously evil.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You got a great mind for great things,&quot; he declared. &quot;You ought to of
+been in politics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the doctor had been found. The wound had been cleansed.
+It was a cruel one, for the bullet had torn its way through flesh and
+sinew, and for many a week the fighting arm of Jack Landis would be
+useless. It had, moreover, carried a quantity of cloth into the wound,
+and it was almost impossible to cleanse the hole satisfactorily. As for
+the bullet itself, it had whipped cleanly through, at that short
+distance making nothing of its target.</p>
+
+<p>A door was knocked off its hinges. But before the wounded man was placed
+upon it, Lebrun appeared at the door into Milligan's. He was never a
+very cheery fellow in appearance, and now he looked like a demoniac. He
+went straight to Joe Rix and the skeleton form of the Pedlar. He raised
+one finger as he looked at them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've heard,&quot; said Lebrun. &quot;Lord Nick likewise shall hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix changed color. He bustled about, together with the Pedlar, and
+lent a hand in carrying the wounded man to the house of Lebrun, for
+Nelly Lebrun was to be the nurse of Landis.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Donnegan went up the hill with big George behind him.
+Already he was a sinisterly marked man. Working through the crowd near
+Lebrun's gambling hall, a drunkard in the midst of a song stumbled
+against him. But the sight of the man with whom he had collided, sobered
+him as swiftly as the lash of a whip across his face. It was impossible
+for him, in that condition, to grow pale. But he turned a vivid purple.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sorry, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, with a shrug of his shoulders, passed on. The crowd split
+before him, for they had heard his name. There were brave men, he knew,
+among them. Men who would fight to the last drop of blood rather than be
+shamed, but they shrank from Donnegan without shame, as they would have
+shrunk from the coming of a rattler had their feet been bare. So he went
+easily through the crowd with big George in his wake, walking proudly.</p>
+
+<p>For George had stood to one side and watched Donnegan indomitably beat
+down the will of Jack Landis, and the sight would live in his mind
+forever. Indeed, if Donnegan had bidden the sun to stand in the heavens,
+the big man would have looked for obedience. That the forbearance of
+Donnegan should have been based on a desire to serve a girl certainly
+upset the mind of George, but it taught him an amazing thing&mdash;that
+Donnegan was capable of affection.</p>
+
+<p>The terrible Donnegan went on. In his wake the crowd closed slowly, for
+many had paused to look after the little man. Until they came to the
+outskirts of the town and climbed the hill toward the two shacks. The
+one was, of course, dark. But the shack in which Lou Macon lived burst
+with light. Donnegan paused to consider this miracle. He listened, and
+he heard voices&mdash;the voice of a man, laughing loudly. Thinking something
+was wrong, he hurried forward and called loudly.</p>
+
+<p>What he saw when he was admitted made him speechless. Colonel Macon,
+ensconced in his invalid chair, faced the door, and near him was Lou
+Macon. Lou rose, half-frightened by the unexpected interruption, but the
+liquid laughter of the colonel set all to rights at once.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come in, Donnegan. Come in, lad,&quot; said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard a man's voice,&quot; Donnegan said half apologetically. The sick
+color began to leave his face, and relief swept over it slowly. &quot;I
+thought something might be wrong. I didn't think of you.&quot; And looking
+down, as all men will in moments of relaxation from a strain, he did not
+see the eyes of Lou Macon grow softly luminous as they dwelt upon him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come in, George,&quot; went on the colonel, &quot;and make yourself comfortable
+in the kitchen. Close the door. Sit down, Donnegan. When your letter
+came I saw that I was needed here. Lou, have you looked into our
+friend's cabin? No? Nothing like a woman's touch to give a man the
+feeling of homeliness, Lou. Step over to Donnegan's cabin and put it to
+rights. Yes, I know that George takes care of it, but George is one
+thing, and your care will be another. Besides, I must be alone with him
+for a moment. Man talk confuses a girl, Lou. You shouldn't listen to
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She withdrew with that faint, dreamy smile with which she so often heard
+the instructions of her father; as though she were only listening with
+half of her mind. When she was gone, though the door to the kitchen
+stood wide open, and big George was in it, the colonel lowered his bass
+voice so successfully that it was as safe as being alone with Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now for facts,&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;how&mdash;that chair&mdash;how in the world have you come
+here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear boy, you grieve and disappoint me. The manner in which a thing
+is done is not important. Mysteries are usually simply explained. As for
+my small mystery&mdash;a neighbor on the way to The Corner with a wagon
+stopped in, and I asked him to take me along. So here I am. But now for
+your work here, lad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bad,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gathered you had been unfortunate. And now you have been fighting?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have heard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see it in your eye, Donnegan. When a man has been looking fear in the
+face for a time, an image of it remains in his eyes. They are wider,
+glazed with the other thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was forced on me,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I have shot Landis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was amazed to see the colonel was vitally affected. His lips remained
+parted over his next word, and one eyelid twitched violently. But the
+spasm passed over quickly. When he raised his perfect hands and pressed
+them together just under his chin. He smiled in a most winning manner
+that made the blood of Donnegan run cold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; he said softly, &quot;I see that I have misjudged you. I
+underestimated you. I thought, indeed, that your rare qualities were
+qualified by painful weaknesses. But now I see that you are a man, and
+from this moment we shall act together with open minds. So you have done
+it? Tush, then I need not have taken my trip. The work is done; the
+mines come to me as the heir of Jack. And yet, poor boy, I pity him! He
+misjudged me; he should not have ventured to this deal with Lord Nick
+and his compatriots!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait,&quot; exclaimed Donnegan. &quot;You're wrong; Landis is not dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more the colonel was checked, but this time the alteration in his
+face was no more than a comma's pause in a long balanced sentence. It
+was impossible to obtain more than one show of emotion from him in a
+single conversation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not dead? Well, Donnegan, that is unfortunate. And after you had
+punctured him you had no chance to send home the finishing shot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan merely watched the colonel and tapped his bony finger against
+the point of his chin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; murmured the colonel, &quot;I see another possibility. It is almost as
+good&mdash;it may even be better than his death. You have disabled him, and
+having done this you at once take him to a place where he shall be under
+your surveillance&mdash;this, in fact, is a very comfortable outlook&mdash;for me
+and my interests. But for you, Donnegan, how the devil do you benefit by
+having Jack flat on his back, sick, helpless, and in a perfect position
+to excite all the sympathies of Lou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now, Donnegan had known cold-blooded men in his day, but that there
+existed such a man as the colonel had never come into his mind. He
+looked upon the colonel, therefore, with neither disgust nor anger, but
+with a distant and almost admiring wonder. For perfect evil always wins
+something akin to admiration from more common people.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; continued the colonel, a little uneasy under this silent
+scrutiny&mdash;silence was almost the only thing in the world that could
+trouble him&mdash;&quot;well, Donnegan, my lad, this is your plan, is it not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To shoot down Landis, then take possession of him and while I nurse him
+back to health hold a gun&mdash;metaphorically speaking&mdash;to his head and make
+him do as I please: sign some lease, say, of the mines to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shifted himself to a more comfortable position in his chair,
+brought the tips of his fingers together under his vast chin, and smiled
+benevolently upon Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is as I thought,&quot; he murmured. &quot;Donnegan, you are rare; you are
+exquisite!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;are a scoundrel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Exactly. I am very base.&quot; The colonel laughed. &quot;You and I alone can
+speak with intimate knowledge of me.&quot; His chuckle shook all his body,
+and set the folds of his face quivering. His mirth died away when he saw
+Donnegan come to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh?&quot; he called.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-by,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But where&mdash;Landis&mdash;Donnegan, what devil is in your eye?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A foolish devil, Colonel Macon. I surrender the benefits of all my
+work for you and go to make sure that you do not lay your hands upon
+Jack Landis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel opened and closed his lips foolishly like a fish gasping
+silently out of water. It was rare indeed for the colonel to appear
+foolish.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In heaven's name, Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little man smiled. He had a marvelously wicked smile, which came
+from the fact that his lips could curve while his eyes remained bright
+and straight, and malevolently unwrinkled. He laid his hand on the knob
+of the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; cried the colonel, gray of face, &quot;give me one minute.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="25"></a><h2>25</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Donnegan stepped to a chair and sat down. He took out his watch and held
+it in his hand, studying the dial, and the colonel knew that his time
+limit was taken literally.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear to you,&quot; he said, &quot;that if you can help me to the possession of
+Landis while he is ill, I shall not lay a finger upon him or harm him in
+any way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You swear?&quot; said Donnegan with that ugly smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear boy, do you think I am reckless enough to break a promise I
+have given to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The cynical glance of Donnegan probed the colonel to the heart, but the
+eyes of the fat man did not wince. Neither did he speak again, but the
+two calmly stared at each other. At the end of the minute, Donnegan
+slipped the watch into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am ready to listen to reason,&quot; he said. And the colonel passed one of
+his strong hands across his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; and he sighed, &quot;I feel that the crisis is passed. With a man of
+your caliber, Donnegan, I fear a snap judgment above all things. Since
+you give me a chance to appeal to your reason I feel safe. As from the
+first, I shall lay my cards upon the table. You are fond of Lou. I took
+it for granted that you would welcome a chance to brush Landis out of
+your path. It appears that I am wrong. I admit my error. Only fools
+cling to convictions; wise men are ready to meet new viewpoints. Very
+well. You wish to spare Landis for reasons of your own which I do not
+pretend to fathom. Perhaps, you pity him; I cannot tell. Now, you wonder
+why I wish to have Landis in my care if I do not intend to put an end to
+him and thereby become owner of his mines? I shall tell you frankly. I
+intend to own the mines, if not through the death of Jack, then through
+a legal act signed by the hand of Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A willing signature?&quot; asked Donnegan, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>A shadow came and went across the face of the colonel, and Donnegan
+caught his breath. There were times when he felt that if the colonel
+possessed strength of body as well as strength of mind even he,
+Donnegan, would be afraid of the fat man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Willing or unwilling,&quot; said the colonel, &quot;he shall do as I direct!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without force?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen to me,&quot; said the colonel. &quot;You and I are not children, and
+therefore we know that ordinary men are commanded rather by fear of what
+may happen to them than by being confronted with an actual danger. I
+have told you that I shall not so much as raise the weight of a finger
+against Jack Landis. I shall not. But a whisper adroitly put in his ear
+may accomplish the same ends.&quot; He added with a smile. &quot;Personally, I
+dislike physical violence. In that, Mr. Donnegan, we belong to opposite
+schools of action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The picture came to Donnegan of Landis, lying in the cabin of the
+colonel, his childish mind worked upon by the devilish insinuation of
+the colonel. Truly, if Jack did not go mad under the strain he would be
+very apt to do as the colonel wished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have made a mess of this from the beginning,&quot; said Donnegan, quietly.
+&quot;In the first place, I intended to play the role of the
+self-sacrificing. You don't understand? I didn't expect that you would.
+In short, I intended to send Landis back to Lou by making a flash that
+would dazzle The Corner, and dazzle Nelly Lebrun as well&mdash;win her away
+from Landis, you see? But the fool, as soon as he saw that I was
+flirting with the girl, lowered his head and charged at me like a bull.
+I had to strike him down in self-defense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But now you ask me to put him wholly in your possession. Colonel, you
+omit one link in your chain of reasoning. The link is important&mdash;to me.
+What am I to gain by placing him within the range of your whispering?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush! Do I need to tell you? I still presume you are interested in Lou,
+though you attempted to do so much to give Landis back to her. Well,
+Donnegan, you must know that when she learns it was a bullet from your
+gun that struck down Landis, she'll hate you, my boy, as if you were a
+snake. But if she knows that after all you were forced into the fight,
+and that you took the first opportunity to bring Jack into
+my&mdash;er&mdash;paternal care&mdash;her sentiments may change. No, they will
+change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan left his chair and began to pace the floor. He was no more
+self-conscious in the presence of the colonel than a man might be in the
+presence of his own evil instincts. And it was typical of the colonel's
+insight that he made no attempt to influence the decision of Donnegan
+after this point was reached. He allowed him to work out the matter in
+his own way. At length, Donnegan paused.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the next step?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel sighed, and by that sigh he admitted more than words could
+tell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A reasonable man,&quot; he said, &quot;is the delight of my heart. The next step,
+Donnegan, is to bring Jack Landis to this house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush!&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Bring him away from Lebrun? Bring him away from
+the tigers of Lord Nick's gang? I saw them at Milligan's place tonight.
+A bad set, Colonel Macon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A set you can handle,&quot; said the colonel, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The danger will in itself be the thing that tempts you,&quot; he went on.
+&quot;To go among those fellows, wild as they are, and bring Jack Landis away
+to this house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bring him here,&quot; said Donnegan with indescribable bitterness, &quot;so that
+she may pity his wounds? Bring him here where she may think of him and
+tend him and grow to hate me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Grow to fear you,&quot; said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An excellent thing to accomplish,&quot; said Donnegan coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have found it so,&quot; remarked the colonel, and lighted a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>He drew the smoke so deep that when it issued again from between his
+lips it was a most transparent, bluish vapor. Fear came upon Donnegan.
+Not fear, surely, of the fat man, helpless in his invalid's chair, but
+fear of the mind working ceaselessly behind those hazy eyes. He turned
+without a word and went to the door. The moment it opened under his
+hand, he felt a hysterical impulse to leap out of the room swiftly and
+slam the door behind him&mdash;to put a bar between him and the eye of the
+colonel, just as a child leaps from the dark room into the lighted and
+closes the door quickly to keep out the following night. He had to
+compel himself to move with proper dignity.</p>
+
+<p>When outside, he sighed; the quiet of the night was like a blessing
+compared with the ordeal of the colonel's devilish coldness. Macon's
+advice had seemed almost logical the moment before. Win Lou Macon by the
+power of fear, well enough, for was not fear the thing which she had
+followed all her life? Was it not through fear that the colonel himself
+had reduced her to such abject, unquestioning obedience?</p>
+
+<p>He went thoughtfully to his own cabin, and, down-headed in his musings,
+he became aware with a start of Lou Macon in the hut. She had changed
+the room as her father had bidden her to do. Just wherein the difference
+lay, Donnegan could not tell. There was a touch of evergreen in one
+corner; she had laid a strip of bright cloth over the rickety little
+table, and in ten minutes she had given the hut a semblance of permanent
+livableness. Donnegan saw her now, with some vestige of the smile of her
+art upon her face; but she immediately smoothed it to perfect gravity.
+He had never seen such perfect self-command in a woman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there anything more that I can do?&quot; she asked, moving toward the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She still seemed to be under the authority which the colonel had
+delegated to Donnegan when they started for The Corner. She turned, and
+without a word came back to him. And a pang struck through Donnegan.
+What would he not have given if she had come at his call not with these
+dumb eyes, but with a spark of kindliness? Instead, she obeyed him as a
+soldier obeys a commander.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There has been trouble,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot; she said, but there was no change in her face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was forced upon me.&quot; Then he added: &quot;It amounted to a shooting
+affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a change in her face now, indeed. A glint came in her eyes,
+and the suggestion of the colonel which he had once or twice before
+sensed in her, now became more vivid than ever before. The same
+contemptuous heartlessness, which was the colonel's most habitual
+expression, now looked at Donnegan out of the lovely face of the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They were fools to press you to the wall,&quot; she said. &quot;I have no pity
+for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Donnegan only stared at her; on what did she base her
+confidence in his prowess as a fighting man?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was only one man,&quot; he said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, there he had struck her home! As though the words were a burden, she
+shrank from him; then she slipped suddenly close to him and caught both
+his hands. Her head was raised far back; she had pressed close to him;
+she seemed in every line of her body to plead with him against himself,
+and all the veils which had curtained her mind from him dropped away. He
+found himself looking down into eyes full of fire and shadow; and eager
+lips; and the fiber of her voice made her whole body tremble.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't Jack?&quot; she pleaded. &quot;It isn't Jack that you've fought with?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he said to himself: &quot;She loves him with all her heart and soul!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is he,&quot; said Donnegan in an agony. Pain may be like a fire that
+tempers some strong men; and now Donnegan, because he was in torment,
+smiled, and his eye was as cold as steel.</p>
+
+<p>The girl flung away his hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You bought murderer!&quot; she cried at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is not dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you shot him down!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He attacked me; it was self-defense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She broke into a low-pitched, mirthless laughter. Where was the
+filmy-eyed girl he had known? The laughter broke off short&mdash;like a sob.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you suppose I've known?&quot; she said. &quot;That I've read my father?
+That I knew he was sending a bloodhound when he sent you? But, oh, I
+thought you had a touch of the other thing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He cringed under her tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll bring him to you,&quot; said Donnegan desperately. &quot;I'll bring him here
+so that you can take care of him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll take him away from Lord Nick&mdash;and Lebrun&mdash;and the rest?&quot; And it
+was the cold smile of her father with which she mocked him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You play a deep game,&quot; said the girl bitterly. &quot;Why would you do it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because,&quot; said Donnegan faintly. &quot;I love you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her hand had been on the knob of the door; now she twitched it open and
+was gone; and the last that Donnegan saw was the width of the startled
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As if I were a leper,&quot; muttered Donnegan. &quot;By heaven, she looked at me
+as if I were unclean!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But once outside the door, the girl stood with both hands pressed to her
+face, stunned. When she dropped them, they folded against her breast,
+and her face tipped up.</p>
+
+<p>Even by starlight, had Donnegan been there to look, he would have seen
+the divinity which comes in the face of a woman when she loves.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="26"></a><h2>26</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Had he been there to see, even in the darkness he would have known, and
+he could have crossed the distance between their lives with a single
+step, and taken her into his heart. But he did not see. He had thrown
+himself upon his bunk and lay face down, his arms stretched rigidly out
+before him, his teeth set, his eyes closed.</p>
+
+<p>For what Donnegan had wanted in the world, he had taken; by force when
+he could, by subtlety when he must. And now, what he wanted most of all
+was gone from him, he felt, forever. There was no power in his arms to
+take that part of her which he wanted; he had no craft which could
+encompass her.</p>
+
+<p>Big George, stealing into the room, wondered at the lithe, slender form
+of the man in the bed. Seeing him thus, it seemed that with the power of
+one hand, George could crush him. But George would as soon have closed
+his fingers over a rattler. He slipped away into the kitchen and sat
+with his arms wrapped around his body, as frightened as though he had
+seen a ghost.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan lay on the bed without moving for hours and hours, until
+big George, who sat wakeful and terrified all that time, was sure that
+he slept. Then he stole in and covered Donnegan with a blanket, for it
+was the chill, gray time of the night.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan was not asleep, and when George rose in the morning, he
+found the master sitting at the table with his arms folded tightly
+across his breast and his eyes burning into vacancy.</p>
+
+<p>He spent the day in that chair.</p>
+
+<p>It was the middle of the afternoon when George came with a scared face
+and a message that a &quot;gen'leman who looks riled, sir,&quot; wanted to see
+him. There was no answer, and George perforce took the silence as
+acquiescence. So he opened the door and announced: &quot;Mr. Lester to see
+you, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Into the fiery haze of Donnegan's vision stepped a raw-boned fellow with
+sandy hair and a disagreeably strong jaw.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're the gent that's here with the colonel, ain't you?&quot; said Lester.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're the gent that cleaned up on Landis, ain't you?&quot; continued the
+sandy-haired man.</p>
+
+<p>There was still the same silence, and Lester burst out: &quot;It don't work,
+Donnegan. You've showed you're man-sized several ways since you been in
+The Corner. Now I come to tell you to get out from under Colonel Macon.
+Why? Because he's crooked, because we know he's crooked; because he
+played crooked with me. You hear me talk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still Donnegan considered him without a word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're goin' to run him out, Donnegan. We want you on our side if we can
+get you; if we can't get you, then we'll run you out along with the
+colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He began to talk with difficulty, as though Donnegan's stare unnerved
+him. He even took a step back toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't bluff me out, Donnegan. I ain't alone. They's others behind
+me. I don't need to name no names. Here's another thing: you ain't alone
+yourself. You got a woman and a cripple on your hands. Now, Donnegan,
+you're a fast man with a gun and you're a fast man at thinkin', but I
+ask you personal: have you got a chance runnin' under that weight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He added fiercely: &quot;I'm through. Now, talk turkey, Donnegan, or you're
+done!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time Donnegan moved. It was to make to big George a
+significant signal with his thumb, indicating the visitor. However,
+Lester did not wait to be thrown bodily from the cabin. One enormous
+oath exploded from his lips, and he backed sullenly through the door and
+slammed it after him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It kind of looks,&quot; said big George, &quot;like a war, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And still Donnegan did not speak, until the afternoon was gone, and the
+evening, and the full black of the night had swallowed up the hills
+around The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>Then he left the chair, shaved, and dressed carefully, looked to his
+revolver, stowed it carefully and invisibly away among his clothes, and
+walked leisurely down the hill. An outbreak of cursing, stamping,
+hair-tearing, shooting could not have affected big George as this quiet
+departure did. He followed, unordered, but as he stepped across the
+threshold of the hut he rolled up his eyes to the stars.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, heavens above,&quot; muttered George, &quot;have mercy on Mr. Donnegan. He
+ain't happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he went down the hill, making sure that he was fit for battle with
+knife and gun.</p>
+
+<p>He had sensed Donnegan's mental condition accurately enough. The heart
+of the little man was swelled to the point of breaking. A twenty-hour
+vigil had whitened his face, drawn in his cheeks, and painted his eyes
+with shadow; and now he wanted action. He wanted excitement, strife,
+competition; something to fill his mind. And naturally enough he had two
+places in mind&mdash;Lebrun's and Milligan's.</p>
+
+<p>It is hard to relate the state of Donnegan's mind at this time. Chiefly,
+he was conscious of a peculiar and cruel pain that made him hollow; it
+was like homesickness raised to the nth degree. Vaguely he realized
+that in some way, somehow, he must fulfill his promise to the girl and
+bring Jack Landis home. The colonel dared not harm the boy for fear of
+Donnegan; and the girl would be happy. For that very reason Donnegan
+wanted to tear Landis to shreds.</p>
+
+<p>It is not extremely heroic for a man tormented with sorrow to go to a
+gambling hall and then to a dance hall to seek relief. But Donnegan was
+not a hero. He was only a man, and, since his heart was empty, he wanted
+something that might fill it. Indeed, like most men, suffering made him
+a good deal of a boy.</p>
+
+<p>So the high heels of Donnegan tapped across the floor of Lebrun's. A
+murmur went before him whenever he appeared now, and a way opened for
+him. At the roulette wheel he stopped, placed fifty on red, and watched
+it double three times. George, at a signal from the master, raked in the
+winnings. And Donnegan sat at a faro table and won again, and again rose
+disconsolately and went on. For when men do not care how luck runs it
+never fails to favor them. The devotees of fortune are the ones she
+punishes.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the whisper ran swiftly through The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan is out hunting trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>About the good that is in men rumor often makes mistakes, but for evil
+she has an infallible eye and at once sets all of her thousand tongues
+wagging. Indeed, any man with half an eye could not fail to get the
+meaning of his fixed glance, his hard set jaw, and the straightness of
+his mouth. If he had been a ghost, men could not have avoided him more
+sedulously, and the giant servant who stalked at his back. Not that The
+Corner was peopled with cowards. The true Westerner avoids trouble, but
+cornered, he will fight like a wildcat.</p>
+
+<p>So people watched from the corner of their eyes as Donnegan passed.</p>
+
+<p>He left Lebrun's. There was no competition. Luck blindly favored him,
+and Donnegan wanted contest, excitement. He crossed to Milligan's. Rumor
+was there before him. A whisper conveyed to a pair of mighty-limbed
+cow-punchers that they were sitting at the table which Donnegan had
+occupied the night before, and they wisely rose without further hint and
+sought other chairs. Milligan, anxious-eyed, hurried to the orchestra,
+and with a blast of sound they sought to cover up the entry of the
+gunman.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact that blare of horns only served to announce him.
+Something was about to happen; the eyes of men grew shadowy; the eyes of
+women brightened. And then Donnegan appeared, with George behind him,
+and crossed the floor straight to his table of the night before. Not
+that he had forethought in going toward it, but he was moving
+absent-mindedly.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, he had half forgotten that he was a public figure in The Corner,
+and sitting sipping the cordial which big George brought him at once, he
+let his glance rove swiftly around the room. The eye of more than one
+brave man sank under that glance; the eye of more than one woman smiled
+back at him; but where the survey of Donnegan halted was on the face of
+Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>She was crossing the farther side of the floor alone, unescorted except
+for the whisper about her, but seeing Donnegan she stopped abruptly.
+Donnegan instantly rose. She would have gone on again in a flurry; but
+that would have been too pointed.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Donnegan was threading his way across the dance floor to
+Nelly Lebrun, with all eyes turned in his direction. He had his hat
+under his arm; and in his black clothes, with his white stock, he made
+an old-fashioned figure as he bowed before the girl and straightened
+again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you send for me?&quot; Donnegan inquired.</p>
+
+<p>Nelly Lebrun was frankly afraid; and she was also delighted. She felt
+that she had been drawn into the circle of intense public interest which
+surrounded the red-headed stranger; she remembered on the other hand
+that her father would be furious if she exchanged two words with the
+man. And for that very reason she was intrigued. Donnegan, being
+forbidden fruit, was irresistible. So she let the smile come to her lips
+and eyes, and then laughed outright in her excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; she said with her lips, while her eyes said other things.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to ask a favor: to talk with you one minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I should&mdash;what would people say?&quot;;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let's find out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be&mdash;daring,&quot; said Nelly Lebrun. &quot;After last night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be delightful,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Here's a table ready for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She went a pace closer to it with him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you've frightened the poor people away from it. I mustn't sit
+down with you, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And she immediately slipped into the chair.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="27"></a><h2>27</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>She qualified her surrender, of course, by sitting on the very edge of
+the chair. She had on a wine-colored dress, and, with the excitement
+whipping color into her cheeks and her eyes dancing, Nelly Lebrun was a
+lovely picture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must go at once,&quot; said Nelly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course, I can't expect you to stay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She dropped one hand on the edge of the table. One would have thought
+that she was in the very act of rising.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know that you frighten me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I?&quot; said Donnegan, with appropriate inflection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As if I were a man and you were angry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you see?&quot; And he made a gesture with both of his palms turned up.
+&quot;People have slandered me. I am harmless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The minute is up, Mr. Donnegan. What is it you wish?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now you laugh at me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And in the next minute?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope to persuade you to stay till the third minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course, I can't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know; it's impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite.&quot; She settled into the chair. &quot;See how people stare at me! They
+remember poor Jack Landis and they think&mdash;the whole crowd&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A crowd is always foolish. In the meantime, I'm happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be here; to sit close to you; to watch you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her glance was like the tip of a rapier, searching him through for some
+iota of seriousness under this banter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot; and Nelly Lebrun laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you see that I mean it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can watch me from a distance, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I say a bold thing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have said several.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No one can really watch you from a distance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She canted her head a little to one side; such an encounter of personal
+quips was a seventh heaven to her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's a riddle, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A simple one. The answer is, because there's too much to watch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He joined her when she laughed, but the laughter of Donnegan made not a
+sound, and he broke in on her mirth suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, don't you see I'm serious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her glance flicked on either side, as though she feared someone might
+have read his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a soul can hear me,&quot; murmured Donnegan, &quot;and I'm going to be bolder
+still, and tell you the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the last thing I dare stay to hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are too lovely to watch from a distance, Nelly Lebrun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was so direct that even Nelly Lebrun, expert in flirtations, was
+given pause, and became sober. She shook her head and raised a
+cautioning finger. But Donnegan was not shaken.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because there is a glamour about a beautiful girl,&quot; he said gravely.
+&quot;One has to step into the halo to see her, to know her. Are you
+contented to look at a flower from a distance? That's an old comparison,
+isn't it? But there is something like a fragrance about you, Nelly
+Lebrun. Don't be afraid. No one can hear; no one shall ever dream I've
+said such bold things to you. In the meantime, we have a truth party.
+There is a fragrance, I say. It must be breathed. There is a glow which
+must touch one. As it touches me now, you see?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, there was a faint color in his cheeks. And the girl flushed more
+deeply; her eyes were still bright, but they no longer sharpened to such
+a penetrating point. She was believing at least a little part of what he
+said, and her disbelief only heightened her joy in what was real in this
+strangest of lovemakings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall stay here to learn one thing,&quot; she said. &quot;What deviltry is
+behind all this talk, Mr. Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that fair to me? Besides, I only follow a beaten trail in The
+Corner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Toward Nelly Lebrun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A beaten trail? You?&quot; she cried, with just a touch of anger. &quot;I'm not a
+child, Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are not; and that's why I am frank.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have done all these things&mdash;following this trail you speak of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remember,&quot; said Donnegan soberly. &quot;What have I done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shot down two men; played like an actor on a stage a couple of times at
+least, if I must be blunt; hunted danger like&mdash;like a reckless madman;
+dared all The Corner to cross you; flaunted the red rag in the face of
+the bull. Those are a few things you have done, sir! And all on one
+trail? That trail you spoke of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly Lebrun&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm listening; and do you know I'm persuading myself to believe you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's because you feel the truth before I speak it. Truth speaks for
+itself, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have closed my eyes&mdash;you see? I have stepped into a masquerade. Now
+you can talk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Masquerades are exciting,&quot; murmured Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And they are sometimes beautiful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this sober truth of mine&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came here unknown&mdash;and I saw you, Nelly Lebrun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused; she was looking a little past him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came in rags; no friends; no following. And I saw that I should have
+to make you notice me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why? No, I shouldn't have asked that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shouldn't ask that,&quot; agreed Donnegan. &quot;But I saw you the queen of
+The Corner, worshiped by all men. What could I do? I am not rich. I am
+not big. You see?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He drew her attention to his smallness with a flush which never failed
+to touch the face of Donnegan when he thought of his size; and he seemed
+to swell and grow greater in the very instant she glanced at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What could I do? One thing; fight. I have fought. I fought to get the
+eye of The Corner, but most of all to attract your attention. I came
+closer to you. I saw that one man blocked the way&mdash;mostly. I decided to
+brush him aside. How?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By fighting?&quot; She had not been carried away by his argument. She was
+watching him like a lynx every moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not by that. By bluffing. You see, I was not fool enough to think that
+you would&mdash;particularly notice a fighting bully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He laid his open hand on the table. It was like exposing both strength
+and weakness; and into such a trap it would have been a singularly
+hard-minded woman who might not have stepped. Nelly Lebrun leaned a
+little closer. She forgot to criticize.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was bluff. I saw that Landis was big and good-looking. And what was
+I beside him? Nothing. I could only hope that he was hollow; yellow&mdash;you
+see? So I tried the bluff. You know about it. The clock, and all that
+claptrap. But Landis wasn't yellow. He didn't crumble. He lasted long
+enough to call my bluff, and I had to shoot in self-defense. And then,
+when he lay on the floor, I saw that I had failed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Failed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He lowered his eyes for fear that she would catch the glitter of them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew that you would hate me for what I had done because I had only
+proved that Landis was a brave youngster with enough nerve for nine out
+of ten. And I came tonight&mdash;to ask you to forgive me. No, not that&mdash;only
+to ask you to understand. Do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He raised his glance suddenly at that, and their eyes met with one of
+these electric shocks which will go tingling through two people. And
+when the lips of Nelly Lebrun parted a little, he knew that she was in
+the trap. He closed his hand that lay on the table&mdash;curling the fingers
+slowly. In that way he expressed all his exultation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is something wrong,&quot; said the girl, in a tone of one who argues
+with herself. &quot;It's all too logical to be real.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Was that your only reason for fighting Jack Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do I have to confess even that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled in the triumph of her penetration, but it was a brief,
+unhappy smile. One might have thought that she would have been glad to
+be deceived.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came to serve a girl who was unhappy,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Her fianc&eacute; had
+left her; her fianc&eacute; was Jack Landis. And she's now in a hut up the hill
+waiting for him. And I thought that if I ruined him in your eyes he'd go
+back to a girl who wouldn't care so much about bravery. Who'd forgive
+him for having left her. But you see what a fool I was and how clumsily
+I worked? My bluff failed, and I only wounded him, put him in your
+house, under your care, where he'll be happiest, and where there'll
+never be a chance for this girl to get him back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nelly Lebrun, with her folded hands under her chin, studied him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan,&quot; she said, &quot;I wish I knew whether you are the most
+chivalrous, self-sacrificing of men, or simply the most gorgeous liar in
+the desert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And it's hardly fair,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;to expect me to tell you that.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="28"></a><h2>28</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>It gave them both a welcome opportunity to laugh, welcome to the girl
+because it broke into an excitement which was rapidly telling upon her,
+and welcome to Donnegan because the strain of so many distortions of the
+truth was telling upon him as well. They laughed together. One hasty
+glance told Donnegan that half the couples in the room were whispering
+about Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun; but when he looked across the table he
+saw that Nelly Lebrun had not a thought for what might be going on in
+the minds of others. She was quite content.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the girl?&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan rested his forehead upon his hand in thought. He dared not let
+Nelly see his face at this moment, for the mention of Lou Macon had
+poured the old flood of sorrow back upon him And therefore, when he
+looked up, he was sneering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know these blond, pretty girls?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, they are adorable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With dull eyes,&quot; said Donnegan coldly, and a twinkle came into the
+responsive eye of Nelly Lebrun. &quot;The sort of a girl who sees a hero in
+such a fellow as Jack Landis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Jack is brave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shouldn't have said that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind. Brave, but such a boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you serious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked questioningly at Donnegan and they smiled together, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I&mdash;I'm glad it's that way,&quot; and Donnegan sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And did you really think it could be any other way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't know. I'm afraid I was blind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the poor girl on the hill; I wish I could see her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was watching Donnegan very sharply again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A good idea. Why don't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You seem to like her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said Donnegan judiciously. &quot;She has an appealing way; I'm very
+sorry for her. But I've done my best; I can't help her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't there some way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of helping her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan laughed. &quot;Go to your father and persuade him to send Landis
+back to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course, that wouldn't do. There's business mixed up in all this, you
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Business? Well, I guessed at that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My part in it wasn't very pleasant,&quot; she remarked sadly.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan was discreetly silent, knowing that silence extracts secrets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They made me&mdash;flirt with poor Jack. I really liked him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>How much the past tense may mean!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor fellow,&quot; murmured the sympathetic Donnegan. &quot;But why,&quot; with
+gathering heat, &quot;couldn't you help me to do the thing I can't do alone?
+Why couldn't you get him away from the house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With Joe Rix and the Pedlar guarding him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'll be asleep in the middle of the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Jack would wake up and make a noise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are things that would make him sleep through anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how could he be moved?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On a horse litter kept ready outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And how carried to the litter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would carry him.&quot; The girl looked at him with a question and then
+with a faint smile beginning. &quot;Easily,&quot; said Donnegan, stiffening in his
+chair. &quot;Very easily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It pleased her to find this weakness in the pride of the invincible
+Donnegan. It gave her a secure feeling of mastery. So she controlled her
+smile and looked with a sort of superior kindliness upon the red-headed
+little man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's no good,&quot; Nelly Lebrun said with a sigh. &quot;Even if he were taken
+away&mdash;and then it would get you into a bad mess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would it? Worse than I'm in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush! Lord Nick is coming to The Corner; and no matter what you've done
+so far&mdash;I think I could quiet him. But if you were to take Landis
+away&mdash;then nothing could stop him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan sneered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begin to think Lord Nick is a bogie,&quot; he said. &quot;Everyone whispers
+when they speak of him.&quot; He leaned forward. &quot;I should like to meet him,
+Nelly Lebrun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It staggered Nelly. &quot;Do you mean that?&quot; she cried softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught her breath and then a spark of deviltry gleamed. &quot;I wonder!&quot;
+said Nelly Lebrun, and her glance weighed Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All I ask is a fair chance,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is a big man,&quot; said the girl maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>The never-failing blush burned in the face of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A large target is more easily hit,&quot; he said through his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Her thoughts played back and forth in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't do it,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan played a random card.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was mistaken,&quot; he said darkly. &quot;Jack was not the man I should have
+faced. Lord Nick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no, no, Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't persuade me. Well, I was a fool not to guess it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I really think,&quot; said the girl gloomily, &quot;that as soon as Lord Nick
+comes, you'll hunt him out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He bowed to her with cold politeness. &quot;In spite of his size,&quot; said
+Donnegan through his teeth once more.</p>
+
+<p>And at this the girl's face softened and grew merry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going to help you to take Jack away,&quot; she said, &quot;on one
+condition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That you won't make a step toward Lord Nick when he comes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not avoid him,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're unreasonable! Well, not avoid him, but simply not provoke him.
+I'll arrange it so that Lord Nick won't come hunting trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And he'll let Jack stay with the girl and her father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps he'll persuade them to let him go of their own free will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan thought of the colonel and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that case, of course, I shouldn't care at all.&quot; He added: &quot;But do
+you mean all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They talked only a moment longer and then Donnegan left the hall with
+the girl on his arm. Certainly the thoughts of all in Milligan's
+followed that pair; and it was seen that Donnegan took her to the door
+of her house and then went away through the town and up the hill. And
+big George followed him like a shadow cast from a lantern behind a man
+walking in a fog.</p>
+
+<p>In the hut on the hill, Donnegan put George quickly to work, and with a
+door and some bedding, a litter was hastily constructed and swung
+between the two horses. In the meantime, Donnegan climbed higher up the
+hill and watched steadily over the town until, in a house beneath him,
+two lights were shown. He came back at that and hurried down the hill
+with George behind and around the houses until they came to the
+pretentious cabin of the gambler, Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>Once there, Donnegan went straight to an unlighted window, tapped; and
+it was opened from within, softly. Nelly Lebrun stood within.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's done,&quot; she said. &quot;Joe and the Pedlar are sound asleep. They drank
+too much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hasn't come home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Jack Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter what you do, he won't wake up; but be careful of his
+shoulder. It's badly torn. How can you carry him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She could not see Donnegan's flush, but she heard his teeth grit. And
+he slipped through the window, gesturing to George to come close. It was
+still darker inside the room&mdash;far darker than the starlit night outside.
+And the one path of lighter gray was the bed of Jack Landis. His heavy
+breathing was the only sound. Donnegan kneeled beside him and worked his
+arms under the limp figure.</p>
+
+<p>And while he kneeled there a door in the house was opened and closed
+softly. Donnegan stood up.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the door locked?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; whispered the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Too late. It's father, and he'd hear the turning of the key.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They waited, while the light, quick step came down the hall of the
+cabin. It came to the door, it went past; and then the steps retraced
+and the door was opened gently.</p>
+
+<p>There was a light in the hall; the form of Lebrun was outlined black and
+distinct..</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack!&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>No sound; he made as if to enter, and then he heard the heavy breathing
+of the sleeper, apparently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Asleep, poor fool,&quot; murmured the gambler, and closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>The door was no sooner closed than Donnegan had raised the body of the
+sleeper. Once, as he rose, straining, it nearly slipped from his arms;
+and when he stood erect he staggered. But once he had gained his
+equilibrium, he carried the wounded man easily enough to the window
+through which George reached his long arms and lifted out the burden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see?&quot; said Donnegan, panting, to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; it was really wonderful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are laughing, now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I? But hurry. My father has a fox's ear for noises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will not hear this, I think.&quot; There was a swift scuffle, very soft
+of movement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly!&quot; called a far-off voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hurry, hurry! Don't you hear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You forgive me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No&mdash;yes&mdash;but hurry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will remember me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adieu!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught a picture of him sitting in the window for the split part of
+a second, with his hat off, bowing to her. Then he was gone. And she
+went into the hall, panting with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heavens!&quot; Nelly Lebrun murmured. &quot;I feel as if I had been hunted, and I
+must look it. What if he&mdash;&quot; Whatever the thought was she did not
+complete it. &quot;It may have been for the best,&quot; added Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="29"></a><h2>29</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>It is your phlegmatic person who can waken easily in the morning, but an
+active mind readjusts itself slowly to the day. So Nelly Lebrun roused
+herself with an effort and scowled toward the door at which the hand was
+still rapping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot; she called drowsily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is Nick. May I come in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The name had brought her instantly into complete wakefulness; she was
+out of the bed, had slipped her feet into her slippers and whipped a
+dressing gown around her while she was asking the question. It was a
+luxurious little boudoir which she had managed to equip. Skins of the
+lynx, cunningly matched, had been sewn together to make her a rug, and
+the soft fur of the wildcat was the outer covering of her bed. She threw
+back the tumbled bedclothes, tossed half a dozen pillows into place,
+transforming it into a day couch, and ran to the mirror.</p>
+
+<p>And in the meantime, the deep voice outside the door was saying: &quot;Yes,
+Nick. May I come in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little ecstatic cry, but while it was still tingling on her
+lips, she was winding her hair into shape with lightning speed; had
+dipped the tips of her fingers in cold water and rubbed her eyes awake
+and brilliant, and with one circular rub had brought the color into her
+cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely ten seconds from the time when she first answered the knock,
+Nelly was opening the door and peeping out into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The rest was done by the man without; he cast the door open with the
+pressure of his foot, caught the girl in his arms, and kissed her; and
+while he closed the door the girl slipped back and stood with one hand
+pressed against her face, and her face held that delightful expression
+halfway between laughter and embarrassment. As for Lord Nick, he did not
+even smile. He was not, in fact, a man who was prone to gentle
+expressions, but having been framed by nature for a strong dominance
+over all around him, his habitual expression was a proud
+self-containment. It would have been insolence in another man; in Lord
+Nick it was rather leonine.</p>
+
+<p>He was fully as tall as Jack Landis, but he carried his height easily,
+and was so perfectly proportioned that unless he was seen beside another
+man he did not look large. The breadth of his shoulders was concealed by
+the depth of his chest; and the girth of his throat was made to appear
+quite normal by the lordly size of the head it supported. To crown and
+set off his magnificent body there was a handsome face; and he had the
+combination of active eyes and red hair, which was noticeable in
+Donnegan, too. In fact, there was a certain resemblance between the two
+men; in the set of the jaw for instance, in the gleam of the eye, and
+above all in an indescribable ardor of spirit, which exuded from them
+both. Except, of course, that in Donnegan, one was conscious of all
+spirit and very little body, but in Lord Nick hand and eye were terribly
+mated. Looking upon so splendid a figure, it was no wonder that the
+mountain desert had forgiven the crimes of Lord Nick because of the
+careless insolence with which he treated the law. It requires an
+exceptional man to make a legal life attractive and respected; it takes
+a genius to make law-breaking glorious.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that Nelly Lebrun stood with her hand against her cheek,
+looking him over, smiling happily at him, and questioning him about his
+immediate past all in the same glance. He waved her back to her couch,
+and she hesitated. Then, as though she remembered that she now had to
+do with Lord Nick in person, she obediently curled up on the lounge, and
+waited expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hear you've been raising the devil,&quot; said this singularly frank
+admirer.</p>
+
+<p>The girl merely looked at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; he insisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't done a thing,&quot; protested Nelly rather childishly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot; One felt that he could have crushed her with evidence to the
+contrary but that he was restraining himself&mdash;it was not worthwhile to
+bother with such a girl seriously. &quot;Things have fallen into a tangle
+since I left, old Satan Macon is on the spot and your rat of a father
+has let Landis get away. What have you been doing, Nelly, while all this
+was going on? Sitting with your eyes closed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He took a chair and lounged back in it gracefully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How could I help it? I'm not a watchdog.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was silent for a time. &quot;Well,&quot; he said, &quot;if you told me the truth I
+suppose I shouldn't love you, my girl. But this time I'm in earnest.
+Landis is a mint, silly child. If we let him go we lose the mint.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose you'll get him back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First, I want to find out how he got away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know how.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan, Donnegan, Donnegan!&quot; burst out Lord Nick, and though he did
+not raise the pitch of his voice, he allowed its volume to swell softly
+so that it filled the room like the humming of a great, angry tiger.
+&quot;Nobody says three words without putting in the name of Donnegan as one
+of them! You, too!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan thrills The Corner!&quot; went on the big man in the same terrible
+voice. &quot;Donnegan wears queer clothes; Donnegan shoots Scar-faced Lewis;
+Donnegan pumps the nerve out of poor Jack Landis and then drills him.
+Why, Nelly, it looks as though I'll have to kill this intruding fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She blanched at this, but did not appear to notice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a long time since you've killed a man, isn't it?&quot; she asked
+coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's an awful business,&quot; declared Lord Nick. &quot;Always complications;
+have to throw the blame on the other fellow. And even these blockheads
+are beginning to get tired of my self-defense pleas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; murmured the girl, &quot;don't cross that bridge until you come to
+it; and you'll never come to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never. Because I don't want him killed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; Lord Nick murmured. &quot;And why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because he's in love&mdash;with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush!&quot; said Lord Nick. &quot;I see you, my dear. Donnegan seems to be a rare
+fellow, but he couldn't have gotten Landis out of this house without
+help. Rix and the Pedlar may have been a bit sleepy, but Donnegan had to
+find out when they fell asleep. He had a confederate. Who? Not Rix; not
+the Pedlar; not Lebrun. They all know me. It had to be someone who
+doesn't fear me. Who? Only one person in the world. Nelly, you're the
+one!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated a breathless instant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; she said. &quot;I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She added, as he stared calmly at her, considering: &quot;There's a girl in
+the case. She came up here to get Landis; seems he was in love with her
+once. And I pitied her. I sent him back to her. Suppose he is a mint;
+haven't we coined enough money out of him? Besides, I couldn't have kept
+on with it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was getting violent, and he talked marriage all day, every day. I
+haven't any nerves, you say, but he began to put me on edge. So I got
+rid of him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly, are you growing a conscience?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She flushed and then set her teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I'll have to teach you business methods, my dear. I have to bring
+him back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll have to go through Donnegan to do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't understand, Nick. He's different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's like you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you driving at?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick, I tell you upon my word of honor, no matter what a terrible
+fighter you may be, Donnegan will give you trouble. He has your hair
+and your eyes and he moves like a cat. I've never seen such a
+man&mdash;except you. I'd rather see you fight the plague than fight
+Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time Lord Nick showed real emotion; he leaned a little
+forward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just what does he mean to you?&quot; he asked. &quot;I've stood for a good deal,
+Nelly; I've given you absolute freedom, but if I ever suspect you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lion was up in him unmistakably now. And the girl shrank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it were serious, do you suppose I'd talk like this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know. You're a clever little devil, Nell. But I'm clever, too.
+And I begin to see through you. Do you still want to save Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For your own sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stood up.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going up the hill today. If Donnegan's there, I'll go through him;
+but I'm going to have Landis back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She, also, rose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's only one way out and I'll take that way. I'll get Donnegan to
+leave the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't care what you do about that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if he isn't there, will you give me your word that you won't hunt
+him out afterward?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never make promises, Nell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I'll trust you, Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. I start up the hill in an hour. You have that long.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="30"></a><h2>30</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The air was thin and chilly; snow had fallen in the mountains to the
+north, and the wind was bringing the cold down to The Corner. Nelly
+Lebrun noted this as she dressed and made up her mind accordingly. She
+sent out two messages: one to the cook to send breakfast to her room,
+which she ate while she finished dressing with care; and the other to
+the gambling house, summoning one of the waiters. When he came, she gave
+him a note for Donnegan. The fellow flashed a glance at her as he took
+the envelope. There was no need to give that name and address in The
+Corner, and the girl tingled under the glance.</p>
+
+<p>She finished her breakfast and then concentrated in polishing up her
+appearance. From all of which it may be gathered that Nelly Lebrun was
+in love with Donnegan, but she really was not. But he had touched in her
+that cord of romance which runs through every woman; whenever it is
+touched the vibration is music, and Nelly was filled with the sound of
+it. And except for Lord Nick, there is no doubt that she would have
+really lost her head; for she kept seeing the face of Donnegan, as he
+had leaned toward her across the little table in Milligan's. And that,
+as anyone may know, is a dangerous symptom.</p>
+
+<p>Her glances were alternating between her mirror and her watch, and the
+hands of the latter pointed to the fact that fifty minutes of her hour
+had elapsed when a message came up that she was waited for in the street
+below. So Nelly Lebrun went down in her riding costume, the corduroy
+swishing at each step, and tapping her shining boots with the riding
+crop. Her own horse she found at the hitching rack, and beside it
+Donnegan was on his chestnut horse. It was a tall horse, and he looked
+more diminutive than ever before, pitched so high in the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>He was on the ground in a flash with the reins tucked under one arm and
+his hat under the other; she became aware of gloves and white-linen
+stock, and pale, narrow face. Truly Donnegan made a natty appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's no day like a cool day for riding,&quot; she said, &quot;and I thought
+you might agree with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He untethered her horse while he murmured an answer. But for his
+attitude she cared little so long as she had him riding away from that
+house on the hill where Lord Nick in all his terror would appear in some
+few minutes. Besides, as they swung up the road&mdash;the chestnut at a
+long-strided canter and Nelly's black at a soft and choppy pace&mdash;the
+wind of the gallop struck into her face; Nelly was made to enjoy things
+one by one and not two by two. They hit over the hills, and when the
+first impulse of the ride was done they were a mile or more away from
+The Corner&mdash;and Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>The resemblance between the two men was less striking now that she had
+Donnegan beside her. He seemed more wizened, paler, and intense as a
+violin string screwed to the snapping point; there was none of the
+lordly tolerance of Nick about him; he was like a bull terrier compared
+with a stag hound. And only the color of his eyes and his hair made her
+make the comparison at all.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What could be better?&quot; she said when they checked their horses on a
+hilltop to look over a gradual falling of the ground below. &quot;What could
+be better?&quot; The wind flattened a loose curl of hair against her cheek,
+and overhead the wild geese were flying and crying, small and far away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One thing better,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;and that is to sit in a chair and
+see this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She frowned at such frankness; it was almost blunt discourtesy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see, I'm a lazy man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How long has it been,&quot; the girl asked sharply, &quot;since you have slept?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two days, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's wrong?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He lifted his eyes slowly from a glittering, distant rock, and brought
+his glance toward her by degrees. He had a way of exciting people even
+in the most commonplace conversation, and the girl felt a thrill under
+his look.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;is a dangerous question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he allowed such hunger to come into his eye that she caught her
+breath. The imp of perversity made her go on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why dangerous?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was an excellent excuse for an outpouring of the heart from Donnegan,
+but, instead, his eyes twinkled at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are not frank,&quot; he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>She could not help laughing, and her laughter trailed away musically in
+her excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Having once let down the bars I cannot keep you at arm's length. After
+last night I suppose I should never have let you see me for&mdash;days and
+days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's why I'm curious,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;and not flattered. I'm trying
+to find what purpose you have in taking me riding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder,&quot; she said thoughtfully, &quot;if you will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And since such fencing with the wits delighted her, she let all her
+delight come with a sparkle in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have one clue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that is that you may have the old-woman curiosity to find out how
+many ways a man can tell her that he's fond of her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though she flushed a little she kept her poise admirably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose that is part of my interest,&quot; she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can think of a great many ways of saying it,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I am
+the dry desert, you are the rain, and yet I remain dry and produce no
+grass.&quot; &quot;A very pretty comparison,&quot; said the girl with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A very green one,&quot; and Donnegan smiled. &quot;I am the wind and you are the
+wild geese, and yet I keep on blowing after you are gone and do not
+carry away a feather of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pretty again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And silly. But, really, you are very kind to me, and I shall try not to
+take too much advantage of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you answer a question?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had rather ask one: but go on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What made you so dry a desert, Mr. Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a very leading question again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't mean it that way. For you had the same sad, hungered look the
+first time I saw you&mdash;when you came into Milligan's in that beggarly
+disguise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall confess one thing. It was not a disguise. It was the fact of
+me; I am a beggarly person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense! I'm not witless, Mr. Donnegan. You talk well. You have an
+education.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In fact I have an educated taste; I disapprove of myself, you see, and
+long ago learned not to take myself too seriously.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which leads to&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reason why I have wandered so much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Like a hunter on a trail. Hunting for what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A chance to sit in a saddle&mdash;or a chair&mdash;and talk as we are talking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which seems to be idly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, you mistake me. Under the surface I am as serious as fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or ice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the random hit he glanced sharply at her, but she was looking a
+little past him, thinking.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have tried to get at the reason behind all your reasons,&quot; she said.
+&quot;You came on me in a haphazard fashion, and yet you are not a haphazard
+sort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you see nothing serious about me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see that you are unhappy,&quot; said the girl gently. &quot;And I am sorry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once again Donnegan was jarred, and he came within an ace of opening
+his mind to her, of pouring out the truth about Lou Macon. Love is a
+talking madness in all men and he came within an ace of confessing his
+troubles.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let's go on,&quot; she said, loosening her rein.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not cut back in a semicircle toward The Corner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Toward The Corner? No, no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a brightening of his eye as he noted her shudder of distaste
+or fear, and she strove to cover her traces.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sick of the place,&quot; she said eagerly. &quot;Let's get as far from it as
+we may.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But yonder is a very good trail leading past it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course we'll ride that way if you wish, but I'd rather go straight
+ahead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If she had insisted stubbornly he would have thought nothing, but the
+moment she became politic he was on his guard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You dislike something in The Corner,&quot; he said, thinking carelessly and
+aloud. &quot;You are afraid of something back there. But what could you be
+afraid of? Then you may be afraid of something for me. Ah, I have it!
+They have decided to 'get' me for taking Jack Landis away; Joe Rix and
+the Pedlar are waiting for me to come back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked steadily and she attempted to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix and the Pedlar? I would not stack ten like them against you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it is someone else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't said so. Of course there's no one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her rein again, but Donnegan sat still in his saddle and
+looked fixedly at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's why you brought me out here,&quot; he announced. &quot;Oh, Nelly Lebrun,
+what's behind your mind? Who is it? By heaven, it's this Lord Nick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan, you're letting your imagination run wild.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's gone straight to the point. But I'm not angry. I think I may get
+back in time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned his horse, and the girl swung hers beside him and caught his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't go!&quot; she pleaded. &quot;You're right; it's Nick, and it's suicide to
+face him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The face of Donnegan set cruelly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The main obstacle,&quot; he said. &quot;Come and watch me handle it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But she dropped her head and buried her face in her hands, and, sitting
+there for a long time, she heard his careless whistling blow back to her
+as he galloped toward The Corner.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="31"></a><h2>31</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>If Nelly Lebrun had consigned him mentally to the worms, that thought
+made not the slightest impression upon Donnegan. A chance for action was
+opening before him, and above all a chance of action in the eye of Lou
+Macon; and he welcomed with open arms the thought that he would have an
+opportunity to strike for her, and keep Landis with her. He went arrowy
+straight and arrowy fast to the cabin on the hill, and he found ample
+evidence that it had become a center of attention in The Corner. There
+was a scattering of people in the distance, apparently loitering with no
+particular purpose, but undoubtedly because they awaited an explosion of
+some sort. He went by a group at which the chestnut shied, and as
+Donnegan straightened out the horse again he caught a look of both
+interest and pity on the faces of the men.</p>
+
+<p>Did they give him up so soon as it was known that Lord Nick had entered
+the lists against him? Had all his display in The Corner gone for
+nothing as against the repute of this terrible mystery man? His vanity
+made him set his teeth again.</p>
+
+<p>Dismounting before the cabin of the colonel, he found that worthy in
+his invalid chair, enjoying a sun bath in front of his house. But there
+was no sign of Lord Nick&mdash;no sign of Lou. A grim fear came to Donnegan
+that he might have to attack Nick in his own stronghold, for Jack Landis
+might already have been taken away to the Lebrun house.</p>
+
+<p>So he went straight to the colonel, and when he came close he saw that
+the fat man was apparently in the grip of a chill. He had gathered a
+vast blanket about his shoulders and kept drawing it tighter; beneath
+his eyes, which looked down to the ground, there were violet shadows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've lost,&quot; said Donnegan through his teeth. &quot;Lord Nick has been here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The invalid lifted his eyes, and Donnegan saw a terrible thing&mdash;that the
+nerve of the fat man had been crushed. The folds of his face quivered as
+he answered huskily: &quot;He has been here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Landis is gone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not gone? Then&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick has gone to get a horse litter. He came up just to clear the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When he comes back he'll find me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The glance of the colonel cleared long enough to survey Donnegan slowly
+from head to foot, and his amusement sent the familiar hot flush over
+the face of the little man. He straightened to his full height, which,
+in his high heels, was not insignificant. But the colonel was apparently
+so desperate that he was willing to throw caution away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Compared with Lord Nick, Donnegan,&quot; he said, &quot;you don't look half a
+man&mdash;even with those heels.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he smiled calmly at Donnegan in the manner of one who, having
+escaped the lightning bolt itself, does not fear mere thunder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no fool like a fat fool,&quot; said Donnegan with childish
+viciousness. &quot;What did Lord Nick, as you call him, do to you? He's
+brought out the yellow, my friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel accepted the insult without the quiver of an eyelid.
+Throughout he seemed to be looking expectantly beyond Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My young friend,&quot; he said, &quot;you have been very useful to me. But I
+must confess that you are no longer a tool equal to the task. I dismiss
+you. I thank you cordially for your efforts. They are worthless. You see
+that crowd gathering yonder? They have come to see Lord Nick prepare you
+for a hole in the ground. And make no mistake: if you are here when he
+returns that hole will have to be dug&mdash;unless they throw you out for the
+claws of the buzzards. In the meantime, our efforts have been wasted
+completely. I hadn't enough time. I had thrown the fear of sudden death
+into Landis, and in another hour he would have signed away his soul to
+me for fear of poison.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel paused to chuckle at some enjoyable memory.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then Nick came. You see, I know all about Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Nick knows all about you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the agate, catlike eyes of the colonel clouded and cleared
+again in their unfathomable manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At moments, Donnegan,&quot; he said, &quot;you have rare perceptions. That is
+exactly it&mdash;Nick knows just about everything concerning me. And so&mdash;roll
+your pack and climb on your horse and get away. I think you may have
+another five minutes before he comes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan turned on his heel. He went to the door of the hut and threw it
+open. Lou sat beside Landis holding his hand, and the murmur of her
+voice was still pleasant as an echo through the room when she looked and
+saw Donnegan. At that she rose and her face hardened as she looked at
+him. Landis, also, lifted his head, and his face was convulsed with
+hatred. So Donnegan closed the door and went softly away to his own
+shack.</p>
+
+<p>She hated him even as Landis hated him, it seemed. He should have known
+that he would not be thanked for bringing back her lover to her with a
+bullet through his shoulder. Sitting in his cabin, he took his head
+between his hands and thought of life and death, and made up his mind.
+He was afraid. If Lord Nick had been the devil himself Donnegan could
+not have been more afraid. But if the big stranger had been ten devils
+instead of one Donnegan would not have found it in his soul to run away.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing remained for him in The Corner, it seemed, except his position
+as a man of power&mdash;a dangerous fighter. It was a less than worthless
+position, and yet, once having taken it up, he could not abandon it.
+More than one gunfighter has been in the same place, forced to act as a
+public menace long after he has ceased to feel any desire to fight. Of
+selfish motives there remained not a scruple to him, but there was still
+the happiness of Lou Macon. If the boy were taken back to Lebrun's, it
+would be fatal to her. For even if Nelly wished, she could not teach her
+eyes new habits, and she would ceaselessly play on the heart of the
+wounded man.</p>
+
+<p>It was the cessation of all talk from the gathering crowd outside that
+made Donnegan lift his head at length, and know that Lord Nick had come.
+But before he had time to prepare himself, the door was cast open and
+into it, filling it from side to side, stepped Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need of an introduction. Donnegan knew him by the aptness
+with which the name fitted that glorious figure of a man and by the
+calm, confident eye which now was looking him slowly over, from head to
+foot. Lord Nick closed the door carefully behind him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The colonel told me,&quot; he said in his deep, smooth voice, &quot;that you were
+waiting for me here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan recognized the snakelike malice of the fat man in drawing
+him into the fight. But he dismissed that quickly from his mind. He was
+staring, fascinated, into the face of the other. He was a reader of men,
+was Donnegan; he was a reader of mind, too. In his life of battle he had
+learned to judge the prowess of others at a glance, just as a musician
+can tell the quality of a violin by the first note he hears played upon
+it. So Donnegan judged the quality of fighting men, and, looking into
+the face of Lord Nick, he knew that he had met his equal at last.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great and a bitter moment to him. The sense of physical
+smallness he had banished a thousand times by the recollection of his
+speed of hand and his surety with weapons. He had looked at men
+muscularly great and despised them in the knowledge that a gun or a
+knife would make him their master. But in Lord Nick he recognized his
+own nerveless speed of hand, his own hair-trigger balance, his own
+deadly seriousness and contempt of life. The experience in battle was
+there, too. And he began to feel that the size of the other crushed him
+to the floor and made him hopeless. It was unnatural, it was wrong, that
+this giant in the body should be a giant in adroitness also.</p>
+
+<p>Already Donnegan had died one death before he rose from his chair and
+stood to the full of his height ready to die again and summoning his
+nervous force to meet the enemy. He had seen that the big man had
+followed his own example and had measured him at a glance.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed the history of some lives of action held less than the
+concentrated silence of these two men during that second's space.</p>
+
+<p>And now Donnegan felt the cold eye of the other eating into his own,
+striving to beat him down, break his nerve. For an instant panic got
+hold on Donnegan. He, himself, had broken the nerve of other men by the
+weight of his unaided eye. Had he not reduced poor Jack Landis to a
+trembling wreck by five minutes of silence? And had he not seen other
+brave men become trembling cowards unable to face the light, and all
+because of that terrible power which lies in the eye of some? He fought
+away the panic, though perspiration was pouring out upon his forehead
+and beneath his armpits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The colonel is very kind,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>And that moment he sent up a prayer of thankfulness that his voice was
+smooth as silk, and that he was able to smile into the face of Lord
+Nick. The brow of the other clouded and then smoothed itself deftly.
+Perhaps he, too, recognized the clang of steel upon steel and knew the
+metal of his enemy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And therefore,&quot; said Lord Nick, &quot;since most of The Corner expects
+business from us, it seems much as if one of us must kill the other
+before we part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a matter of fact,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I have been keeping that in
+mind.&quot; He added, with that deadly smile of his that never reached his
+eyes: &quot;I never disappoint the public when it's possible to satisfy
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; and Lord Nick nodded, &quot;you seem to have most of the habits of an
+actor&mdash;including an inclination to make up for your part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan bit his lip until it bled, and then smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been playing to fools,&quot; he said. &quot;Now I shall enjoy a
+discriminating critic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; remarked Lord Nick, &quot;actors generally desire an intelligent
+audience for the death scene.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I applaud your penetration and I shall speak well of you when this
+disagreeable duty is finished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come,&quot; and Lord Nick smiled genially, &quot;you are a game little cock!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The telltale flush crimsoned Donnegan's face. And if the fight had begun
+at that moment no power under heaven could have saved Lord Nick from the
+frenzy of the little man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My size keeps me from stooping,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I shall look up to
+you, sir, until the moment you fall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well hit again! You are also a wit, I see! Donnegan, I am almost sorry
+for the necessity of this meeting. And if it weren't for the audience&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say no more,&quot; said Donnegan, bowing. &quot;I read your heart and appreciate
+all you intend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had touched his stock as he bowed, and now he turned to the mirror
+and carefully adjusted it, for it was a little awry from the ride; but
+in reality he used that moment to examine his own face, and the set of
+his jaw and the clearness of his eye reassured him. Turning again, he
+surprised a glint of admiration in the glance of Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are at one, sir, it appears,&quot; he said. &quot;And there is no other way
+out of this disagreeable necessity?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unfortunately not. I have a certain position in these parts. People are
+apt to expect a good deal of me. And for my part I see no way out except
+a gunplay&mdash;no way out between the devil and the moon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Astonishment swept suddenly across the face of the big man, for
+Donnegan, turning white as death, shrank toward the wall as though he
+had that moment received cold steel in his body.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say that again!&quot; said Donnegan hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I said there was no way out,&quot; repeated Lord Nick, and though he kept
+his right hand in readiness, he passed his left through his red hair and
+stared at Donnegan with a tinge of contempt; he had seen men buckle like
+this at the last moment when their backs were to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between&mdash;&quot; repeated Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil and the moon. Do you see a way yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was astonished again to see Donnegan wince as if from a blow. His
+lips were trembling and they writhed stiffly over his words.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who taught you that expression?&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A gentleman,&quot; said Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father, sir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, heaven,&quot; moaned Donnegan, catching his hands to his breast. &quot;Oh,
+heaven, forgive us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What the devil is in you?&quot; asked Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>The little man stood erect again and his eyes were now on fire.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Henry Nicholas Reardon,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick set his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; he said, &quot;it is certain that you must die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan cast out his arms and broke into a wild laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, you fool, you fool!&quot; he cried. &quot;Don't you know me? I am the
+cripple!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="32"></a><h2>32</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The big man crossed the floor with one vast stride, and, seizing
+Donnegan by both shoulders, dragged him under the full light of the
+window; and still the crazy laughter shook Donnegan and made him
+helpless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They tied me to a board&mdash;like a papoose,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;and they
+straightened my back&mdash;but they left me this way&mdash;wizened up.&quot; He was
+stammering; hysterical, and the words tumbled from his lips in a jumble.
+&quot;That was a month after you ran away from home. I was going to find you.
+Got bigger. Took the road. Kept hunting. Then I met a yegg who told
+about Rusty Dick&mdash;described him like you&mdash;I thought&mdash;I thought you were
+dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And the tears rolled down his face; he sobbed like a woman.</p>
+
+<p>A strange thing happened then. Lord Nick lifted the little man in his
+arms as if he were a child and literally carried him in that fashion to
+the bunk. He put him down tenderly, still with one mighty arm around his
+back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Garry? You!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Garrison Donnegan Reardon. Aye, that's what I am. Henry, don't say
+that you don't know me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But&mdash;your back&mdash;I thought&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know&mdash;hopeless they said I was. But they brought in a young doctor.
+Now look at me. Little. I never grew big&mdash;but hard, Henry, as leather!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he sprang to his feet. And knowing that Donnegan had begun life as a
+cripple it was easy to appreciate certain things about his expression&mdash;a
+cold wistfulness, and his manner of reading the minds of men. Lord Nick
+was like a man in a dream. He dragged Donnegan back to the bunk and
+forced him to sit down with the weight of his arms. And he could not
+keep his hands from his younger brother. As though he were blind and had
+to use the sense of touch to reassure him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard lies. They said everybody was dead. I thought&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The fever killed them all, except me. Uncle Toby took me in. He was a
+devil. Helped me along, but I left him when I could. And&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't tell me any more. All that matters is that I have you at last,
+Garry. Heaven knows it's a horrible thing to be kithless and kinless,
+but I have you now! Ah, lad, but the old pain has left its mark on you.
+Poor Garry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've forgotten it. Don't bring it back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I keep feeling that you should be in that chair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know. But I'm not. I'm hard as nails, I tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He leaped to his feet again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And not so small as you might think, Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, big enough, Garry. Big enough to paralyze The Corner, from what
+I've heard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been playing a game with 'em, Henry. And now&mdash;if one of us could
+clear the road, what will we do together? Eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The smile of Lord Nick showed his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Haven't I been hungry all my life for a man like you, lad? Somebody to
+stand and guard my back while I faced the rest of the world?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I'll do my share of the facing, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will, Garry. But I'm your elder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Man, man! Nobody's my elder except one that's spent half his life&mdash;as I
+have done!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll teach you to forget the pain I'll make life roses for you,
+Garry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the fools outside thought&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan broke into a soundless laughter, and, running to the door,
+opened it a fraction of an inch and peeped out.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're standing about in a circle. I can see 'em gaping. Even from
+here. What will they think, Henry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick ground his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'll think I've backed down from you,&quot; he said gloomily. &quot;They'll
+think I've taken water for the first time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, confound 'em, the first man that opens his head&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know, I know. You'd fill his mouth with lead, and so would I. But if
+it ever gets about&mdash;as it's sure to&mdash;that Lord, Nick, as they call me,
+has been bluffed down without a fight, I'll have every Chinaman that
+cooks on the range talking back to me. I'll have to start all over
+again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't say that, Henry. Don't you see that I'll go out and explain that
+I'm your brother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What good will that do? No, do we look alike?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan stopped short.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not very big,&quot; he said rather coldly, &quot;but then I'm not so very
+small, either. I've found myself big enough, speaking in general.
+Besides, we have the same hair and eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, man, people will laugh when they hear that we call ourselves
+brothers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan ground his teeth and the old flush burned upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll cut some throats if they do,&quot; he said, trembling with his passion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can hear them say it. 'Lord Nick walked in on Donnegan prepared to
+eat him up. He measured him up and down, saw that he was a fighting
+wildcat in spite of his size, and decided to back out. And Donnegan was
+willing. They couldn't come out without a story of some kind&mdash;with the
+whole world expecting a death in that cabin&mdash;so they framed a crazy
+cock-and-bull story about being brothers.' I can hear them say that,
+Donnegan, and it makes me wild!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you call me Donnegan?&quot; said Donnegan sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no. Garry, don't be so touchy. You've never got over that, I see.
+Still all pride and fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not very humble yourself, Henry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe not, maybe not. But I've been in a certain position around these
+parts, Don&mdash;Garry. And it's hard to see it go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan closed his eyes in deep reverie. And then he forced out the
+words one by one.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, I'll let everybody know that it was I who backed down. That we
+were about to fight.&quot; He was unable to speak; he tore the stock loose at
+his throat and went on: &quot;We were about to fight; I lost my nerve; you
+couldn't shoot a helpless man. We began to talk. We found out we are
+brothers&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Damnation!&quot; broke out Lord Nick, and he struck himself violently across
+the forehead with the back of his hand. &quot;I'm a skunk, Garry, lad. Why,
+for a minute I was about to let you do it. No. no, no! A thousand times
+no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was plain to be seen that he was arguing himself away from the
+temptation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do I care what they say? We'll cram the words back down their
+throats and be hanged to 'em. Here I am worrying about myself like a
+selfish dog without letting myself be happy over finding you. But I am
+happy, Garry. Heaven knows it. And you don't doubt it, do you, old
+fellow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; said Donnegan, and he smiled to cover a touch of sadness. &quot;I hope
+not. No, I don't doubt you, of course. I've spent my life wishing for
+you since you left us, you see. And then I followed you for three years
+on the road, hunting everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. Three years. I liked the careless life. For to tell you the truth,
+I'm not worth much, Henry. I'm a loafer by instinct, and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not another word.&quot; There were tears in the eyes of Lord Nick, and he
+frowned them away. &quot;Confound it, Garry, you unman me. I'll be weeping
+like a woman in a minute. But now, sit down. We still have some things
+to talk over. And we'll get to a quick conclusion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, yes,&quot; said Donnegan, and at the emotion which had come in the face
+of Lord Nick, his own expression softened wonderfully. A light seemed to
+stand in his face. &quot;We'll brush over the incidentals. And everything is
+incidental aside from the fact that we're together again. They can
+chisel iron chain apart, but we'll never be separated again, God
+willing!&quot; He looked up as he spoke, and his face was for the moment as
+pure as the face of a child&mdash;Donnegan, the thief, the beggar, the liar
+by gift, and the man-killer by trade and artistry.</p>
+
+<p>But Lord Nick in the meantime was looking down to the floor and
+mustering his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The main thing is entirely simple,&quot; he said. &quot;You'll make one
+concession to my pride, Garry, boy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you ask me?&quot; said Donnegan softly, and he cast out his hands in a
+gesture that offered his heart and his soul. &quot;Can you ask me? Anything I
+have is yours!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't say that,&quot; answered Lord Nick tenderly. &quot;But this small thing&mdash;my
+pride, you know&mdash;I despise myself for caring what people think, but I'm
+weak. I admit it, but I can't help it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Talk out, man. You'll see if there's a bottom to things that I can
+give!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, it's this. Everyone knows that I came up here to get young Jack
+Landis and bring him back to Lebrun's&mdash;from which you stole him, you
+clever young devil! Well, I'll simply take him back there, Garry; and
+then I'll never have to ask another favor of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was astonished by a sudden silence, and looking up again, he saw that
+Donnegan sat with his hand at his breast. It was a singularly feminine
+gesture to which he resorted. It was a habit which had come to him in
+his youth in the invalid chair, when the ceaseless torment of his
+crippled back became too great for him to bear.</p>
+
+<p>And clearly, indeed, those days were brought home to Lord Nick as he
+glanced up, for Donnegan was staring at him in the same old, familiar
+agony, mute and helpless.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="33"></a><h2>33</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>At this Lord Nick very frankly frowned in turn. And when he frowned his
+face grew marvelously dark, like some wrathful god, for there was a
+noble, a Grecian purity to the profile of Henry Nicholas Reardon, and
+when he frowned he seemed to be scorning, from a distance, ignoble,
+earthly things which troubled him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it isn't exactly easy for you, Garry,&quot; he admitted. &quot;You have
+your own pride; you have your own position here in The Corner. But I
+want you to notice that mine is different. You've spent a day for what
+you have in The Corner, here. I've spent ten years. You've played a
+prank, acted a part, and cast a jest for what you have. But for the
+place which I hold, brother mine, I've schemed with my wits, played fast
+and loose, and killed men. Do you hear? I've bought it with blood, and
+things you buy at such a price ought to stick, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He banished his frown; the smile played suddenly across his features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, I'm arguing with myself. But that look you gave me a minute ago
+had me worried for a little while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan, who had allowed his head to fall, so that he seemed
+to be nodding in acquiescence, now raised his face and Lord Nick
+perceived the same white pain upon it. The same look which had been on
+the face of the cripple so often in the other days.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry,&quot; said the younger brother, &quot;I give you my oath that my pride has
+nothing to do with this. I'd let you drive me barefoot before you
+through the street yonder. I'd let every soul in The Corner know that I
+have no pride where you're concerned. I'll do whatever you wish&mdash;with
+one exception&mdash;and that one is the unlucky thing you ask. Pardner, you
+mustn't ask for Jack Landis! Anything else I'll work like a slave to get
+for you: I'll fight your battles, I'll serve you in any way you name:
+but don't take Landis back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had talked eagerly, the words coming with a rush, and he found at the
+end that Lord Nick was looking at him in bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When a man is condemned to death,&quot; said Lord Nick slowly, &quot;suppose
+somebody offers him anything in the world that he wants&mdash;palaces,
+riches, power&mdash;everything except his life. What would the condemned man
+say to a friend who made such an offer? He'd laugh at him and then call
+him a traitor. Eh? But I don't laugh at you, Garry. I simply explain to
+you why I have to have Landis back. Listen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He counted off his points upon the tips of his fingers, in the confident
+manner of a teacher who deals with a stupid child, waiting patiently for
+the young mind to comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've been bleeding Jack Landis. Do you know why? Because it was Lester
+who made the strike up here. He started out to file his claim. He
+stopped at the house of Colonel Macon. That old devil learned the
+location, learned everything; detained Lester with a trick, and rushed
+young Landis away to file the claims for himself. Then when Lester came
+up here he found that his claims had been jumped, and when he went to
+the law there was no law that could help him. He had nothing but his
+naked word for what he had discovered. And naturally the word of a
+ruffian like Lester had no weight against the word of Landis. And, you
+see, Landis thought that he was entirely in the right. Lester tried the
+other way; tried to jump the claims; and was shot down by Landis. So
+Lester sent for me. What was I to do? Kill Landis? The mine would go to
+his heirs. I tried a different way&mdash;bleeding him of his profits, after
+I'd explained to him that he was in the wrong. He half admitted that,
+but he naturally wouldn't give up the mines even after we'd almost
+proved to him that Lester had the first right. So Landis has been mining
+the gold and we've been drawing it away from him. It looks tricky, but
+really it's only just. And Lester and Lebrun split with me.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I tell you, Garry, that I'd give up everything without an
+afterthought. I'll give up the money and I'll make Lebrun and Lester
+shut up without a word. I'll make them play square and not try to knife
+Landis in the back. I'll do all that willingly&mdash;for you! But, Garry, I
+can't give up taking Landis back to Lebrun's and keeping him there until
+he's well. Why, man, I saw him in the hut just now. He wants to go. He's
+afraid of the old colonel as if he were poison&mdash;and I think he's wise in
+being afraid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The colonel won't touch him,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. I've told him what would happen if he does.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush. Garry, Colonel Macon is the coldest-blooded murderer I've ever
+known. But come out in the open, lad. You see that I'm ready to listen
+to reason&mdash;except on one point. Tell me why you're so set on this
+keeping of Landis here against my will and even against the lad's own
+will? I'm reasonable, Garry. Do you doubt that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Explaining his own mildness, the voice of Lord Nick swelled again and
+filled the room, and he frowned on his brother. But Donnegan looked on
+him sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a girl&mdash;&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why didn't I guess it?&quot; exclaimed Lord Nick. &quot;If ever you find a man
+unreasonable, stubborn and foolish, you'll always find a woman behind
+it! All this trouble because of a piece of calico?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He leaned back, laughing thunderously in his relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come, come! I was prepared for a tragedy. Now tell me about this girl.
+Who and what is she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The daughter of the colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're in love with her? I'm glad to hear it, Garry. As a matter of
+fact I've been afraid that you were hunting in my own preserve, but if
+it's the colonel's daughter, you're welcome to her. So you love the
+girl? She's pretty, lad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I love her?&quot; said Donnegan in an indescribably tender voice. &quot;I love
+her? Who am I to love her? A thief, a man-killer, a miserable play
+actor, a gambler, a drunkard. I love her? Bah!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If there was one quality of the mind with which Lord Nick was less
+familiar than with all others, it was humbleness of spirit. He now
+abased his magnificent head, and resting his chin in the mighty palm of
+his hand, he stared with astonishment and commiseration into the face of
+Donnegan. He seemed to be learning new things every moment about his
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave me out of the question,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't be done. If I leave you out, dear boy, there's not one of them
+that I care a hang about; I'd ride roughshod over the whole lot. I've
+done it before to better men than these!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you'll change, I know. This is the fact of the matter. She loves
+Landis. And if you take Landis away where will you put him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where he was stolen away. In Lebrun's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what will be in Lebrun's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix to guard him and the old negress to nurse him.&quot;'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no! Nelly Lebrun will be there!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh? Are you glancing at her, now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, you yourself know that Landis is mad about that girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, she's flirted a bit with him. Turned the fool's head. He'll come
+out of it safe. She won't break his heart. I've seen her work on
+others!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled at the memory.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do I care about Landis?&quot; said Donnegan with unutterable scorn.
+&quot;It's the girl. You'll break her heart, Henry; and if you do I'll never
+forgive you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Steady, lad. This is a good deal like a threat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no, no! Not a threat, heaven knows!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By heaven!&quot; exclaimed Lord Nick. &quot;I begin to be irritated to see you
+stick on a silly point like this. Listen to me, lad. Do you mean to say
+that you are making all! this trouble about a slip of a girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The heart of a girl,&quot; said Donnegan calmly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let Landis go; then take her in your arms and kiss her worries away. I
+warrant you can do it! I gather from Nell that you're not tongue-tied
+around women!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I?&quot; echoed Donnegan, turning pale. &quot;Don't jest at this, Henry. I'm as
+serious as death. She's the type of woman made to love one man, and one
+man only. Landis may be common as dirt; but she doesn't see it. She's
+fastened her heart on him. I looked in on her a little while ago. She
+turned white when she saw me. I brought Landis to her, but she hates me
+because I had to shoot him down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Garry,&quot; said the big man with a twinkle in his eye, &quot;you're in love!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It shook Donnegan to the core, but he replied instantly; &quot;If I were in
+love, don't you suppose that I would have shot to kill when I met
+Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this his brother blinked, frowned, and shook his head. The point was
+apparently plain to him and wiped out his previous convictions. Also, it
+eased his mind.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you don't love the girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Either way, my hands are cleared of the worry. If you want her, let me
+take Landis. If you don't want her, what difference does it make to you
+except silly sentiment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If she comes to Lebrun's house, I'll see that Nell doesn't bother him
+too much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you control her? If she wants to see this fool can you keep her
+away, and if she goes to him can you control her smiling?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly,&quot; said Lord Nick, but he flushed heavily.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's a devil of a girl,&quot; admitted Henry Reardon. &quot;But this is beside
+the point: which is, that you're sticking on a matter that means
+everything to me, and which is only a secondhand interest to you&mdash;a
+point of sentiment. You pity the girl. What's pity? Bah! I pity a dog in
+the street, but would I cross you, Garry, lad, to save the dog?
+Sentiment, I say, silly sentiment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan rose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a silly sentiment,&quot; he said hoarsely, &quot;that put me on the road
+following you, Henry. It was a silly sentiment that turned me into a
+wastrel, a wanderer, a man without a home and without friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's wrong to throw that in my face,&quot; muttered Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is. And I'm sorry for it. But I want you to see that matters of
+sentiment may be matters of life and death with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, if it were for you it would be different. I might see my way
+clear&mdash;but for a girl you have only a distant interest in&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a matter of whether or not her heart shall be broken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come, come. Let's talk man talk. Besides, girls' hearts don't break in
+this country. You're old-fashioned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell you the question of her happiness is worth more than a dozen
+lives like yours and mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There had been a gathering impatience in Lord Nick. Now he, also, leaped
+to his feet; a giant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me in one word: You stick on this point?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In one word&mdash;yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you deny me, Garry. You set me aside for a silly purpose of your
+own&mdash;a matter that really doesn't mean much to you. It shows me where I
+stand in your eyes&mdash;and nothing between the devil and the moon shall
+make me sidestep!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They remained silent, staring at each other. Lord Nick stood with a
+flush of anger growing; Donnegan became whiter than ever, and he
+stiffened himself to his full height, which, in all who knew him well,
+was the danger signal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You take Landis?&quot; he said softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;while I live!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean&mdash;&quot; cried Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I mean it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They had been swept back to the point at which that strangest of scenes
+began, but this time there was an added element&mdash;horror.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'd fight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the death, Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Garry, if one of us should kill the other, he'd be cursed forever!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And she's worth even this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand times more! What are we? Dust in the wind; dust in the wind.
+But a woman like that is divine, Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick swayed a little, setting himself in balance like an animal
+preparing for the leap.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it comes to the pinch, it is you who will die,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've no chance against me, Garry. And I swear to you that I won't
+weaken. You prove that you don't care for me. You put another above me.
+It's my pride, my life, that you'd sacrifice to the whim of a girl!&quot; His
+passion choked him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you ready?&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Move first!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have never formed the habit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor I! You fool, take what little advantage you can, because it won't
+help you in the end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall see. I have a second sight, Henry, and it shows me you dead
+on the floor there, looking bigger than ever, and I see the gun smoking
+in my hand and my heart as dead as ashes! Oh, Henry, if there were only
+some other way!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were both pale now.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye,&quot; murmured Lord Nick, &quot;if we could find a judge. My hand turns to
+lead when I think of fighting you, Garry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Perspiration stood on the face of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name a judge; I'll abide by the decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some man&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no. What man could understand me? A woman, Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nell Lebrun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The girl who loves you? You want me to plead before her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Put her on her honor and she'll be as straight as a string with both of
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Donnegan considered, and at length: &quot;She loves you, Henry.
+You have that advantage. You have only to let her know that this is a
+vital matter to you and she'll speak as you wish her to speak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense. You don't know her. You've seen yourself that no man can
+control her absolutely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Make a concession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand, Garry, dear boy, if they'll get us clear from this horrible
+mess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only this. Leave The Corner for a few hours. Give me until&mdash;tonight.
+Let me see Nelly during that time. You've had years to work on her. I
+want only this time to put my own case before her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank heaven that we're coming to see light and a way out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, Henry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man wiped his forehead and sighed in his relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A minute ago I was ready&mdash;but we'll forget all this. What will you do?
+How will you persuade Nelly? I almost think that you intend to make love
+to her, Garry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little man turned paler still.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is exactly what I intend,&quot; he said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The brow of Lord Nick darkened solemnly, and then he forced a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She'll be afraid to turn me down, Garry. But try your own way.&quot; He bit
+his lips. &quot;Why, if you influence her that way&mdash;do it. What's a fickle
+jade to me? Nothing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However I do it, you'll stick by her judgment, Henry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The perspiration had started on Lord Nick's forehead again. Doubt swayed
+him, but pride forced him on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll come again tonight,&quot; he said gloomily. &quot;I'll meet you
+in&mdash;Milligan's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In Milligan's, then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick, without a word of farewell, stamped across the hut and out.</p>
+
+<p>As for Donnegan, he stepped backward, his legs buckled beneath him, and
+when big George entered, with a scared face, he found the little man
+half sitting on the bunk, half lying against the wall with the face and
+the staring eyes of a dead man.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="34"></a><h2>34</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>It was a long time before Donnegan left the hut, and when he came out
+the crowd which had gathered to watch the fight, or at least to mark the
+reports of the guns when those two terrible warriors met, was scattered.
+There remained before Donnegan only the colonel in his invalid's chair.
+Even from the distance one could see that his expression was changed,
+and when the little red-headed man came near the colonel looked up to
+him with something akin to humility.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; he said, stopping the other as Donnegan headed for the door
+of the hut, &quot;Donnegan, don't go in there just now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan turned and came slowly toward him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reason,&quot; said the colonel, &quot;is that you probably won't receive a
+very cheery reception. Unfortunate&mdash;very unfortunate. Lou has turned
+wrong-headed for the first time in her life and she won't listen to
+reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never dreamed there was so much of my metal in her. Blood will tell,
+my boy; blood will tell. And when you finally get her you'll find that
+she's worth waiting for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me tell you a secret,&quot; said Donnegan dryly. &quot;I am no longer waiting
+for her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot; smiled the colonel. &quot;Of course not. This bringing of Landis to
+her&mdash;it was all pure self-sacrifice. It was not an attempt to soften her
+heart. It was not a cunning maneuver. Tush! Of course not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am about to make a profound remark,&quot; said Donnegan carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You read the minds of other people through a colored glass, colonel.
+You see yourself everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In other words I put my own motives into the actions and behind the
+actions of people? Perhaps. I am full of weaknesses. Very full. In the
+meantime let me tell you one important thing&mdash;if you have not made the
+heart of Lou tender toward you, you have at least frightened her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The jaw on Donnegan set.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excellent!&quot; he said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps better than you think; and to keep you abreast with the times,
+you must know another thing. Lou has a silly idea that you are a lost
+soul, Donnegan, but she attributes your fall entirely to my weakness.
+Nothing can convince her that you did not intend to kill Landis; nothing
+can convince her that you did not act on my inspiration. I have tried
+arguing. Bah! she overwhelmed me with her scorn. You are a villain, says
+Lou, and I have made you one. And for the first time in my memory of
+her, her eyes fill with tears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tears?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Upon my honor, and when a girl begins to weep about a man I don't need
+to say he is close to her heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are full of maxims, Colonel Macon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a nut is full of meat. Old experience, you know. In the meantime Lou
+is perfectly certain that I intend to make away with Landis. Ha, ha,
+ha!&quot; The laughter of the colonel was a cheery thunder, and soft as with
+distance. &quot;Landis is equally convinced. He begs Lou not to fall asleep
+lest I should steal in on him. She hardly dares leave him to cook his
+food. I actually think she would have been glad to see that fiend, Lord
+Nick, take Landis away!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled wanly. But could he tell her, poor girl, the story of
+Nelly Lebrun? Landis, in fear of his life, was no doubt at this moment
+pouring out protestations of deathless affection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And they both consider you an archdemon for keeping Lord Nick away!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again Donnegan winced, and coughed behind his hand to cover it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However,&quot; went on the colonel, &quot;when it comes to matters with the
+hearts of women, I trust to time. Time alone will show her that Landis
+is a puppy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the meantime, colonel, she keeps you from coming near Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all! You fail to understand me and my methods, dear boy. I have
+only to roll my chair into the room and sit and smile at Jack in order
+to send him into an hysteria of terror. It is amusing to watch. And I
+can be there while Lou is in the room and through a few careful
+innuendoes convey to Landis my undying determination to either remove
+him from my path and automatically become his heir, or else secure from
+him a legal transfer of his rights to the mines.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have learned,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;that Landis has not the slightest
+claim to them himself. And that you set him on the trail of the claims
+by trickery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel did not wince.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course not,&quot; said the fat trickster. &quot;Not the slightest right. My
+claim is a claim of superior wits, you see. And in the end all your
+labor shall be rewarded, for my share will go to Lou and through her it
+shall come to you. No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite logical.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel disregarded the other's smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I have a painful confession to make.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I misjudged you, Donnegan. A moment since, when I was nearly distraught
+with disappointment, I said some most unpleasant things to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have forgotten them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the colonel raised his strong forefinger and shook his head,
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no, Donnegan. If you deny it, I shall know that you are harboring
+the most undying grudge against me. As a matter of fact, I have just
+had an interview with Lord Nick, and the cursed fellow put my nerves on
+edge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel made a wry face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And when you came, I saw no manner in which you could possibly thwart
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His eyes grew wistful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between friends&mdash;as a son to his future father,&quot; he said softly, &quot;can't
+you tell me what the charm was that you used on. Nick to send him away?
+I watched him come out of the shack. He was in a fury. I could see that
+by the way his head thrust out between his big shoulders. And when he
+went down the hill he was striding like a giant, but every now and then
+he would stop short, and his head would go up as if he were tempted to
+turn around and go back, but didn't quite have the nerve. Donnegan, tell
+me the trick of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Willingly. I appealed to his gambling instinct.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which leaves me as much in the dark as ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan smiled in his own peculiar and mirthless manner and he went
+on to the hut. Not that he expected a cheery greeting from Lou Macon,
+but he was drawn by the same perverse instinct which tempts a man to
+throw himself from a great height. At the door he paused a moment. He
+could distinguish no words, but he caught the murmur of Lou's voice as
+she talked to Jack Landis, and it had that infinitely gentle quality
+which only a woman's voice can have, and only when she nurses the sick.
+It was a pleasant torture to Donnegan to hear it. At length he summoned
+his resolution and tapped at the door.</p>
+
+<p>The voice of Lou Macon stopped. He heard a hurried and whispered
+consultation. What did they expect? Then swift foot-falls on the floor,
+and she opened the door. There was a smile of expectancy on her lips;
+her eyes were bright; but when she saw Donnegan her lips pinched in. She
+stared at him as if he were a ghost.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew; I knew!&quot; she said piteously, falling back a step but still
+keeping her hand upon the knob of the door as if to block the way to
+Donnegan. &quot;Oh, Jack, he has killed Lord Nick and now he is here&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To do what? To kill Landis in turn? Her horrified eyes implied as much.
+He saw Landis in the distance raise himself upon one elbow and his face
+was gray, not with pain but with dread.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It can't be!&quot; groaned Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Nick is alive,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;And I have not come here to
+torment you; I have only come to ask that you let me speak with you
+alone for a moment, Lou!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He watched her face intently. All the cabin was in deep shadow, but the
+golden hair of the girl glowed as if with an inherent light of its own,
+and the same light touched her face. Jack Landis was stricken with
+panic: he stammered in a dreadful eagerness of fear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't leave me, Lou. You know what it means. He wants to get you out of
+the way so that the colonel can be alone with me. Don't go, Lou! Don't
+go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As though she saw how hopeless it was to try to bar Donnegan by closing
+the door against him, she fell back to the bed. She kept her eye on the
+little man, as if to watch against a surprise attack, and, fumbling
+behind her, her hand found the hand of Landis and closed over it with
+the reassurance of a mother.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be afraid, Jack. I won't leave you. Not unless they carry me away
+by force.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I give you my solemn word.&quot; said Donnegan in torment, &quot;that the colonel
+shall not come near Landis while you're away with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your word!&quot; murmured the girl with a sort of horrified wonder. &quot;Your
+word!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan bowed his head.</p>
+
+<p>But all at once she cast out her free hand toward him, while the other
+still cherished the weakness of Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, give them up!&quot; she cried. &quot;Give up my father and all his wicked
+plans. There is something good in you. Give him up; come with us;
+stand for us: and we shall be grateful all our lives!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little man had removed his hat, so that the sunshine burned brightly
+on his red hair. Indeed, there was always a flamelike quality about him.
+In inaction he seemed femininely frail and pale; but when his spirit was
+roused his eyes blazed as his hair burned in the sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall learn in the end,&quot; he said to the girl, &quot;that everything I
+do, I do for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She cried out as if he had struck her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's not worthy of you,&quot; she said bitterly. &quot;You are keeping Jack
+here&mdash;in peril&mdash;for my sake?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For your sake,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with a queer pain in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To keep you from needless lying,&quot; she said, &quot;let me tell you that Jack
+has told me everything. I am not angry because you come and pretend that
+you do all these horrible things for my sake. I know my father has
+tempted you with a promise of a great deal of money. But in the end you
+will get nothing. No, he will twist everything away from you and leave
+you nothing! But as for me&mdash;I know everything; Jack told me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has told you what? What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;About the woman you love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The woman I love?&quot; echoed Donnegan, stupefied.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that Lou Macon could only name her with an effort that left
+her trembling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Lebrun woman,&quot; she said. &quot;Jack has told me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you tell her that?&quot; he asked Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole town knows it,&quot; stammered the wounded man.</p>
+
+<p>The cunning hypocrisy spurred Donnegan. He put his foot on the threshold
+of the shack, and at this the girl cried out and shrank from him; but
+Landis was too paralyzed to stir or speak. For a moment Donnegan was
+wildly tempted to pour his torrent of contempt and accusation upon
+Landis. To what end? To prove to the girl that the big fellow had coolly
+tricked her? That it was to be near Nelly Lebrun as much as to be away
+from the colonel that he wished so ardently to leave the shack? After
+all, Lou Macon was made happy by an illusion; let her keep it.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her sadly again. She stood defiant over Landis; ready to
+protect the helpless bulk of the man.</p>
+
+<p>So Donnegan closed the door softly and turned away with ashes in his
+heart.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="35"></a><h2>35</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>When Nelly Lebrun raised her head from her hands, Donnegan was a far
+figure; yet even in the distance she could catch the lilt and easy sway
+of his body; he rode as he walked, lightly, his feet in the stirrups
+half taking his weight in a semi-English fashion. For a moment she was
+on the verge of spurring after him, but she kept the rein taut and
+merely stared until he dipped away among the hills. For one thing she
+was quite assured that she could not overtake that hard rider; and,
+again, she felt that it was useless to interfere. To step between Lord
+Nick and one of his purposes would have been like stepping before an
+avalanche and commanding it to halt with a raised hand.</p>
+
+<p>She watched miserably until even the dust cloud dissolved and the bare,
+brown hills alone remained before her. Then she turned away, and hour
+after hour let her black jog on.</p>
+
+<p>To Nelly Lebrun this day was one of those still times which come over
+the life of a person, and in which they see themselves in relation to
+the rest of the world clearly. It would not be true to say that Nelly
+loved Donnegan. Certainly not as yet, for the familiar figure of Lord
+Nick filled her imagination. But the little man was different. Lord
+Nick commanded respect, admiration, obedience; but there was about
+Donnegan something which touched her in an intimate and disturbing
+manner. She had felt the will-o'-the-wisp flame which burned in him in
+his great moments. It was possible for her to smile at Donnegan; it was
+possible even to pity him for his fragility, his touchy pride about his
+size; to criticize his fondness for taking the center of the stage even
+in a cheap little mining camp like this and strutting about, the center
+of all attention. Yet there were qualities in him which escaped her, a
+possibility of metallic hardness, a pitiless fire of purpose.</p>
+
+<p>To Lord Nick, he was as the bull terrier to the mastiff.</p>
+
+<p>But above all she could not dislodge the memory of his strange talk with
+her at Lebrun's. Not that she did not season the odd avowals of Donnegan
+with a grain of salt, but even when she had discounted all that he said,
+she retained a quivering interest. Somewhere beneath his words she
+sensed reality. Somewhere beneath his actions she felt a selfless
+willingness to throw himself away.</p>
+
+<p>As she rode she was comparing him steadily with Lord Nick. And as she
+made the comparisons she felt more and more assured that she could pick
+and choose between the two. They loved her, both of them. With Nick it
+was an old story; with Donnegan it might be equally true in spite of its
+newness. And Nelly Lebrun felt rich. Not that she would have been
+willing to give up Lord Nick. By no means. But neither was she willing
+to throw away Donnegan. Diamonds in one hand and pearls in the other.
+Which handful must she discard?</p>
+
+<p>She remained riding an unconscionable length of time, and when she drew
+rein again before her father's house, the black was flecked with foam
+from his clamped bit, and there was a thick lather under the stirrup
+leathers. She threw the reins to the servant who answered her call and
+went slowly into the house.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, by this time, was dead. She began to feel that it would be
+hard to look Lord Nick in the face again. His other killings had often
+seemed to her glorious. She had rejoiced in the invincibility of her
+lover.</p>
+
+<p>Now he suddenly took on the aspect of a murderer.</p>
+
+<p>She found the house hushed. Perhaps everyone was at the gaming house;
+for now it was midafternoon. But when she opened the door to the
+apartment which they used as a living room she found Joe Rix and the
+Pedlar and Lester sitting side by side, silent. There was no whisky in
+sight; there were no cards to be seen. Marvel of marvels, these three
+men were spending their time in solemn thought. A sudden thought rushed
+over her, and her cry told where her heart really lay, at least at this
+time.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Nick&mdash;has he been&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Pedlar lifted his gaunt head and stared at her without expression.
+It was Joe Rix who answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick's upstairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Safe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a scratch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sank into a chair with a sigh, but was instantly on edge again with
+the second thought.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan?&quot; she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Safe and sound,&quot; said Lester coldly.</p>
+
+<p>She could not gather the truth of the statement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then Nick got Landis back before Donnegan returned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Like any other girl, Nelly Lebrun hated a puzzle above all things in the
+world, at least a puzzle which affected her new friends.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lester, what's happened?&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>At this Lester, who had been brooding upon the floor, raised his eyes
+and then switched one leg over the other. He was a typical cowman, was
+Lester, from his crimson handkerchief knotted around his throat to his
+shop-made boots which fitted slenderly about his instep with the care of
+a gloved hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I dunno what happened,&quot; said Lester. &quot;Which looks like what counts is
+the things that didn't happen. Landis is still with that devil, Macon.
+Donnegan is loose without a scratch, and Lord Nick is in his room with a
+face as black as a cloudy night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And briefly he described how Lord Nick had gone up the hill, seen the
+colonel, come back, taken a horse litter, and gone up the hill again,
+while the populace of The Corner waited for a crash. For Donnegan had
+arrived in the meantime. And how Nick had gone into the cabin, remained
+a singularly long time, and then come out, with a face half white and
+half red and an eye that dared anyone to ask questions. He had strode
+straight home to Lebrun's and gone to his room; and there he remained,
+never making a sound.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I'll give you my way of readin' the sign on that trail,&quot; said
+Lester. &quot;Nick goes up the hill to clean up on Donnegan. He sees him;
+they size each other up in a flash; they figure that if they's a gun it
+means a double killin'&mdash;and they simply haul off and say a perlite
+fare-thee-well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl paid no attention to these remarks. She was sunk in a brown
+study.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's something behind it all,&quot; she said, more to herself than to the
+men. &quot;Nick is proud as the devil himself. And I can't imagine why he'd
+let Donnegan go. Oh, it might have been done if they'd met alone in the
+desert. But with the whole town looking on and waiting for Nick to clean
+up on Donnegan&mdash;no, it isn't possible. There must have been a showdown
+of some kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a grim little silence after this.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe there was,&quot; said the Pedlar dryly. &quot;Maybe there was a
+showdown&mdash;and the wind-up of it is that Nick comes home meek as a
+six-year-old broke down in front.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stared at him, first astonished, and then almost frightened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean that Nick may have taken water?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The three, as one man, shrugged their shoulders, and met her glance with
+cold eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fools!&quot; cried the girl, springing to her feet. &quot;He'd rather die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix leaned forward, and to emphasize his point he stabbed one dirty
+forefinger into the fat palm of his other hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You just start thinkin' back,&quot; he said solemnly, &quot;and you'll remember
+that Donnegan has done some pretty slick things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lester added with a touch of contempt: &quot;Like shootin' down Landis one
+day and then sittin' down and havin' a nice long chat with you the next.
+I dunno how he does it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That hunch of yours,&quot; said the girl fiercely, &quot;ought to be roped and
+branded&mdash;lie! Lester, don't look at me like that. And if you think Nick
+has lost his grip on things you're dead wrong. Step light, Lester&mdash;and
+the rest of you. Or Nick may hear you walk&mdash;and think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She flung out of the room and raced up the stairs to Lord Nick's room.
+There was an interval without response after her first knock. But when
+she rapped again he called out to know who was there. At her answer she
+heard his heavy stride cross the room, and the door opened slowly. His
+face, as she looked up to it, was so changed that she hardly knew him.
+His hair was unkempt, on end, where he had sat with his fingers thrust
+into it, buried in thought. And the marks of his palms were red upon his
+forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick,&quot; she whispered, frightened, &quot;what is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked down half fiercely, half sadly at her. And though his lips
+parted they closed again before he spoke. Fear jumped coldly in Nelly
+Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did Donnegan&mdash;&quot; she pleaded, white-faced. &quot;Did he&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did he bluff me out?&quot; finished Nick. &quot;No, he didn't. That's what
+everybody'll say. I know it, don't I? And that's why I'm staying here by
+myself, because the first fool that looks at me with a question in his
+face, why&mdash;I'll break him in two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She pressed close to him, more frightened than before. That Lord Nick
+should have been driven to defend himself with words was almost too much
+for credence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know I don't believe it, Nick? You know that I'm not doubting you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But he brushed her hands roughly away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You want to know what it's all about? Then go over to&mdash;well, to
+Milligan's. Donnegan will be there. He'll explain things to you, I
+guess. He wants to see you. And maybe I'll come over later and join
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Seeing Lord Nick before her, so shaken, so gray of face, so dull of eye,
+she pictured Donnegan as a devil in human form, cunning, resistless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick, dear&mdash;&quot; she pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>He closed the door in her face, and she heard his heavy step go back
+across the room. In some mysterious manner she felt the Promethean fire
+had been stolen from Lord Nick, and Donnegan's was the hand that had
+robbed him of it.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="36"></a><h2>36</h2>
+<br>
+
+
+<p>It was fear that Nelly Lebrun felt first of all. It was fear because
+the impossible had happened and the immovable object had been at last
+moved. Going back to her own room, the record of Lord Nick flashed
+across her mind; one long series of thrilling deeds. He had been a great
+and widely known figure on the mountain desert while she herself was no
+more than a girl. When she first met him she had been prepared for the
+sight of a firebreathing monster; and she had never quite recovered from
+the first thrill of finding him not devil but man.</p>
+
+<p>Quite oddly, now that there seemed another man as powerful as Lord Nick
+or even more terrible, she felt for the big man more tenderly than ever;
+for like all women, there was a corner of her heart into which she
+wished to receive a thing she could cherish and protect. Lord Nick, the
+invincible, had seemed without any real need of other human beings. His
+love for her had seemed unreal because his need of her seemed a
+superficial thing. Now that he was in sorrow and defeat she suddenly
+visualized a Lord Nick to whom she could truly be a helpmate. Tears came
+to her eyes at the thought.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, very contradictorily and very humanly, the moment she was in her
+room she began preparing her toilet for that evening at Lebrun's. Let no
+one think that she was already preparing to cast Lord Nick away and turn
+to the new star in the sky of the mountain desert. By no means. No doubt
+her own heart was not quite clear to Nelly. Indeed, she put on her most
+lovely gown with a desire for revenge. If Lord Nick had been humbled by
+this singular Donnegan, would it not be a perfect revenge to bring
+Donnegan himself to her feet? Would it not be a joy to see him turn pale
+under her smile, and then, when he was well-nigh on his knees, spurn the
+love which he offered her?</p>
+
+<p>She set her teeth and her eyes gleamed with the thought. But
+nevertheless she went on lavishing care in the preparation for that
+night.</p>
+
+<p>As she visioned the scene, the many curious eyes that watched her with
+Donnegan; the keen envy in the faces of the women; the cold watchfulness
+of the men, were what she pictured.</p>
+
+<p>In a way she almost regretted that she was admired by such fighting men,
+Landis, Lord Nick, and now Donnegan, who frightened away the rank and
+file of other would-be admirers. But it was a pang which she could
+readily control and subdue.</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth the rest of the day dragged through a weary length. At
+the dinner table her father leaned to her and talked in his usual
+murmuring voice which could reach her own ear and no other by any
+chance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly, there's going to be the devil to pay around The Corner. You know
+why. Now, be a good girl and wise girl and play your cards. Donnegan is
+losing his head; he's losing it over you. So play your cards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Turn down Nick and take up Donnegan?&quot; she asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've said enough already,&quot; said her father, and would not speak again.
+But it was easy to see that he already felt Lord Nick's star to be past
+its full glory.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward, Lebrun himself took his daughter over to Milligan's and left
+her under the care of the dance-hall proprietor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm waiting for someone,&quot; said Nelly, and Milligan sat willingly at her
+table and made talk. He was like the rest of The Corner&mdash;full of the
+subject of the strange encounter between Lord Nick and Donnegan. What
+had Donnegan done to the big man? Nelly merely smiled and said they
+would all know in time: one thing was certain&mdash;Lord Nick had not taken
+water. But at this Milligan smiled behind his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later there was that stir which announced the arrival of
+some public figures; and Donnegan with big George behind him came into
+the room. This evening he went straight to the table to Nelly Lebrun.
+Milligan, a little uneasy, rose. But Donnegan was gravely polite and
+regretted that he had interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have only come to ask you for five minutes of your time,&quot; he said to
+the girl.</p>
+
+<p>She was about to put him off merely to make sure of her hold over him,
+but something she saw in his face fascinated her. She could not play her
+game. Milligan had slipped away before she knew it, and Donnegan was in
+his place at the table. He was as much changed as Lord Nick, she
+thought. Not that his clothes were less carefully arranged than ever,
+but in the compression of his lips and something behind his eyes she
+felt the difference. She would have given a great deal indeed to have
+learned what went on behind the door of Donnegan's shack when Lord Nick
+was there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Last time you asked for one minute and stayed half an hour,&quot; she said.
+&quot;This time it's five minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No matter what was on his mind he was able to answer fully as lightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I talk about myself, I'm always long-winded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tonight it's someone else?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was, being a woman, intensely disappointed, but her smile was as
+bright as ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I'm listening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You remember what I told you of Landis and the girl on the hill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She seems to stick in your thoughts, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, she's a lovely child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And by his frankness he very cunningly disarmed her. Even if he had
+hesitated an instant she would have been on the track of the truth, but
+he had foreseen the question and his reply came back instantly.</p>
+
+<p>He added: &quot;Also, what I say has to do with Lord Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; said the girl a little coldly.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan went on. He had chosen frankness to be his role and he played
+it to the full.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a rather wonderful story,&quot; he went on. &quot;You know that Lord Nick
+went up the hill for Landis? And The Corner was standing around waiting
+for him to bring the youngster down?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was only one obstacle&mdash;which you had so kindly removed&mdash;myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For your own sake, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, don't you suppose that I know?&quot; And his voice touched her. &quot;He came
+to kill me. And no doubt he could have done so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such frankness shocked her into a new attention.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Donnegan overdid his part a little at this point, for in her
+heart of hearts she knew that the little man would a thousand times
+rather die than give way to any living man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I threw my case bodily before him&mdash;the girl&mdash;her love for
+Landis&mdash;and the fear which revolved around your own unruly eyes, you
+know, if he were sent back to your father's house. I placed it all
+before him. At first he was for fighting at once. But the story appealed
+to him. He pitied the girl. And in the end he decided to let the matter
+be judged by a third person. He suggested a man. But I know that a man
+would see in my attitude nothing but foolishness. No man could have
+appreciated the position of that girl on the hill. I myself named
+another referee&mdash;yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She gasped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so I have come to place the question before you, because I know
+that you will decide honestly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I shall be honest,&quot; said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>She was thinking: Why not have Landis back? It would keep the three men
+revolving around her. Landis on his feet and well would have been
+nothing; either of these men would have killed him. But Landis sick she
+might balance in turn against them both. Nelly had the instincts of a
+fencer; she loved balance.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan was heaping up his effects. For by the shadow in her eyes
+he well knew what was passing through her mind, and he dared not let her
+speak too quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is more hanging upon it. In the first place, if Landis is left
+with the girl it gives the colonel a chance to work on him, and like as
+not the colonel will get the young fool to sign away the mines to
+him&mdash;frighten him, you see, though I've made sure that the colonel will
+not actually harm him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How have you made sure? They say the colonel is a devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have spoken with him. The colonel is not altogether without
+sensibility to fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught the glint in the little man's eye and she believed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So much for that. Landis is safe, but his money may not be. Another
+thing still hangs upon your decision. Lord Nick wanted to know why I
+trusted to you? Because I felt you were honest. Why did I feel that?
+There was nothing to do. Besides, how could I conceal myself from such a
+man? I spoke frankly and told him that I trusted you because I love
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She closed her hand hard on the edge of the table to steady herself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And he made no move at you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He restrained himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Nick?&quot; gasped the incredulous girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is a gentleman,&quot; said Donnegan with a singular pride which she could
+not understand.</p>
+
+<p>He went on: &quot;And unfortunately I fear that if you decide in favor of my
+side of the argument, I fear that Lord Nick will feel that you&mdash;that
+you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was apparently unable to complete his sentence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will feel that you no longer care for him,&quot; said Donnegan at length.</p>
+
+<p>The girl pondered him with cloudy eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is behind all this frankness?&quot; she asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall tell you. Hopelessness is behind it. Last night I poured my
+heart at your feet. And I had hope. Today I have seen Lord Nick and I no
+longer hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is worthy of a lovely woman's affection; and I&mdash;&quot; He called her
+attention to himself with a deprecatory gesture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you ask me to hurt him like this?&quot; said the girl. &quot;His pride is the
+pride of the fiend. Love me? He would hate me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It might be true. Still I know you would risk it, because&mdash;&quot; he paused.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; asked the girl, whispering in her excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you are a lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He bowed to her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you are fair; because you are honest, Nelly Lebrun. Personally
+I think that you can win Lord Nick back with one minute of smiling. But
+you might not. You might alienate him forever. It will be clumsy to
+explain to him that you were influenced not by me, but by justice. He
+will make it a personal matter, whereas you and I know that it is only
+the right that you are seeing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She propped her chin on the tips of her fingers, and her arm was a thing
+of grace. For the last moments that clouded expression had not cleared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I only could read your mind,&quot; she murmured now. &quot;There is something
+behind it all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall tell you what it is. It is the restraint that has fallen upon
+me. It is because I wish to lean closer to you across the table and
+speak to you of things which are at the other end of the world from
+Landis and the other girl. It is because I have to keep my hands gripped
+hard to control myself. Because, though I have given up hope, I would
+follow a forlorn chance, a lost cause, and tell you again and again that
+I love you, Nelly Lebrun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had half lowered his eyes as he spoke; he had called up a vision, and
+the face of Lou Macon hovered dimly between him and Nelly Lebrun. If all
+that he spoke was a lie, let him be forgiven for it; it was the
+golden-haired girl whom he addressed, and it was she who gave the tremor
+and the fiber to his voice. And after all was he not pleading for her
+happiness as he believed?</p>
+
+<p>He covered his eyes with his hand; but when he looked up again she could
+see the shadow of the pain which was slowly passing. She had never seen
+such emotion in any man's face, and if it was for another, how could she
+guess it? Her blood was singing in her veins, and the old, old question
+was flying back and forth through her brain like a shuttle through a
+loom: Which shall it be?</p>
+
+<p>She called up the picture of Lord Nick, half-broken, but still terrible,
+she well knew. She pitied him, but when did pity wholly rule the heart
+of a woman? And as for Nelly Lebrun, she had the ambition of a young
+Caesar; she could not fill a second place. He who loved her must stand
+first, and she saw Donnegan as the invincible man. She had not believed
+half of his explanation. No, he was shielding Lord Nick; behind that
+shield the truth was that the big man had quailed before the small.</p>
+
+<p>Of course she saw that Donnegan, pretending to be constrained by his
+agreement with Lord Nick, was in reality cunningly pleading his own
+cause. But his passion excused him. When has a woman condemned a man for
+loving her beyond the rules of fair play?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whatever you may decide,&quot; Donnegan was saying. &quot;I shall be prepared to
+stand by it without a murmur. Send Landis back to your father's house
+and I submit: I leave The Corner and say farewell. But now, think
+quickly. For Lord Nick is coming to receive your answer.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="37"></a><h2>37</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>If the meeting between Lord Nick and Donnegan earlier that day had
+wrought up the nerves of The Corner to the point of hysteria; if the
+singular end of that meeting had piled mystery upon excitement; if the
+appearance of Donnegan, sitting calmly at the table of the girl who was
+known to be engaged to Nick, had further stimulated public curiosity,
+the appearance of Lord Nick was now a crowning burden under which The
+Corner staggered.</p>
+
+<p>Yet not a man or a woman stirred from his chair, for everyone knew that
+if the long-delayed battle between these two gunfighters was at length
+to take place, neither bullet was apt to fly astray.</p>
+
+<p>But what happened completed the wreck of The Corner's nerves, for Lord
+Nick walked quietly across the floor and sat down with Nelly Lebrun and
+his somber rival.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, he looked at Donnegan, not at the girl, and this token of
+the beaten man decided her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; said Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have decided,&quot; said the girl. &quot;Landis should stay where he is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Neither of the two men stirred hand or eye. But Lord Nick turned gray.
+At length he rose and asked Donnegan, quietly, to step aside with him.
+Seeing them together, the difference between their sizes was more
+apparent: Donnegan seemed hardly larger than a child beside the splendid
+bulk of Lord Nick. But she could not overhear their talk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've won,&quot; said Lord Nick, &quot;both Landis and Nelly. And&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait,&quot; broke in Donnegan eagerly. &quot;Henry, I've persuaded Nelly to see
+my side of the case, but that doesn't mean that she has turned from you
+to&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop!&quot; put in Lord Nick, between his teeth. &quot;I've not come to argue
+with you or ask advice or opinions. I've come to state facts. You've
+crawled in between me and Nelly like a snake in the grass. Very well.
+You're my brother. That keeps me from handling you. You've broken my
+reputation just as I said you would do. The bouncer at the door looked
+me in the eye and smiled when I came in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had to pause a little, breathing heavily, and avoiding Donnegan's
+eyes. Finally he was able to continue.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going to roll my blankets and leave The Corner and everything I
+have in it. You'll get my share of most things, it seems.&quot; He smiled
+after a ghastly, mirthless fashion. &quot;I give you a free road. I surrender
+everything to you, Donnegan. But there are two things I want to warn you
+about. It may be that my men will not agree with me. It may be that
+they'll want to put up a fight for the mine. They can't get at it
+without getting at Macon. They can't get at him without removing you.
+And they'll probably try it. I warn you now.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another thing: from this moment there's no blood tie between us. I've
+found a brother and lost him in the same day. And if I ever cross you
+again, Donnegan, I'll shoot you on sight. Remember, I'm not threatening.
+I simply warn you in advance. If I were you, I'd get out of the country.
+Avoid me, Donnegan, as you'd avoid the devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he turned on his heel. He felt the eyes of the people in the room
+follow him by jerks, dwelling on every one of his steps. Near the door,
+stepping aside to avoid a group of people coming in, he half turned and
+he could not avoid the sight of Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun at the other
+end of the room. He was leaning across the table, talking with a smile
+on his lips&mdash;at that distance he could not mark the pallor of the little
+man's face&mdash;and Nelly Lebrun was laughing. Laughing already, and
+oblivious of the rest of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick turned, a blur coming before his eyes, and made blindly for
+the door. A body collided with him; without a word he drew back his
+massive right fist and knocked the man down. The stunned body struck
+against the wall and collapsed along the floor. Lord Nick felt a great
+madness swell in his heart. Yet he set his teeth, controlled himself,
+and went on toward the house of Lebrun. He had come within an eyelash of
+running amuck, and the quivering hunger for action was still swelling
+and ebbing in him when he reached the gambler's house.</p>
+
+<p>Lebrun was not in the gaming house, no doubt, at this time of night&mdash;but
+the rest of Nick's chosen men were there. They stood up as he entered
+the room&mdash;Harry Masters, newly arrived&mdash;the Pedlar&mdash;Joe Rix&mdash;three names
+famous in the mountain desert for deeds which were not altogether a
+pleasant aroma in the nostrils of the law-abiding, but whose sins had
+been deftly covered from legal proof by the cunning of Nick, and whose
+bravery itself had half redeemed them. They rose now as three wolves
+rise at the coming of the leader. But this time there was a question
+behind their eyes, and he read it in gloomy silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; asked Harry Masters.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days not one of them would have dared to voice the question,
+but now things were changing, and well Lord Nick could read the change
+and its causes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you talking to me?&quot; asked Nick, and he looked straight between the
+eyes of Masters.</p>
+
+<p>The glance of the other did not falter, and it maddened Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm talking to you,&quot; said Masters coolly enough. &quot;What happened between
+you and Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What should happen?&quot; asked Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe all this is a joke,&quot; said Masters bitterly. He was a square-built
+man, with a square face and a wrinkled, fleshy forehead. In
+intelligence, Nick ranked him first among the men. And if a new leader
+were to be chosen there was no doubt as to where the choice of the men
+would fall. No doubt that was why Masters put himself forward now, ready
+to brave the wrath of the chief. &quot;Maybe we're fooled,&quot; went on Masters.
+&quot;Maybe they ain't any call for you to fall out with Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe there's a call to find out this,&quot; answered Lord Nick. &quot;Why did
+you leave the mines? What are you doing up here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The other swallowed so hard that he blinked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I left the mines,&quot; he declared through his set teeth, &quot;because I was
+run off 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; said Lord Nick, for the devil was rising in him, &quot;I always had an
+idea that you might be yellow, Masters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The right hand of Masters swayed toward his gun, hesitated, and then
+poised idly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You heard me talk?&quot; persisted Lord Nick brutally. &quot;I call you yellow.
+Why don't you draw on me? I called you yellow, you swine, and I call the
+rest of you yellow. You think you have me down? Why, curse you, if there
+were thirty of your cut, I'd say the same to you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a quick shift, the three men faced Lord Nick, but each from a
+different angle. And opposing them, he stood superbly indifferent, his
+arms folded, his feet braced. His arms were folded, but each hand, for
+all they knew, might be grasping the butt of a gun hidden away in his
+clothes. Once they flashed a glance from face to face; but there was no
+action. They were remembering only too well some of the wild deeds of
+this giant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You think I'm through,&quot; went on Lord Nick. &quot;Maybe I am&mdash;through with
+you. You hear me talk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One by one, his eyes dared them, and one by one they took up the
+challenge, struggled, and lowered their glances. He was still their
+master and in that mute moment the three admitted it, the Pedlar last of
+all.</p>
+
+<p>Masters saw fit to fall back on the last remark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've swallowed a lot from you, Nick,&quot; he said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe there'll be an end to what we take one of these days. But now
+I'll tell you how yellow I was. A couple of gents come to me and tell me
+I'm through at the mine. I told them they were crazy. They said old
+Colonel Macon had sent them down to take charge. I laughed at 'em. They
+went away and came back. Who with? With the sheriff. And he flashed a
+paper on me. It was all drawn up clean as a whistle. Trimmed up with a
+lot of 'whereases' and 'as hereinbefore mentioned' and such like things.
+But the sheriff just gimme a look and then he tells me what it's about.
+Jack Landis has signed over all the mines to the colonel and the
+colonel has taken possession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he stopped, a growl came from the others.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lester is the man that has the complaint,&quot; said Lord Nick. &quot;Where do
+the rest of you figure in it? Lester had the mines; he lost 'em because
+he couldn't drop Landis with his gun. He'd never have had a smell of the
+gold if I hadn't come in. Who made Landis see light? I did! Who worked
+it so that every nickel that came out of the mines went through the
+fingers of Landis and came back to us? I did! But I'm through with you.
+You can hunt for yourselves now. I've kept you together to guard one
+another's backs. I've kept the law off your trail. You, Masters, you'd
+have swung for killing the McKay brothers. Who saved you? Who was it
+bribed the jury that tried you for the shooting up of Derbyville,
+Pedlar? Who took the marshal off your trail after you'd knifed Lefty
+Waller, Joe Rix? I've saved you all a dozen times. Now you whine at me.
+I'm through with you forever!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Stopping, he glared about him. His knuckles stung from the impact of the
+blow he had delivered in Milligan's place. He hungered to have one of
+these three stir a hand and get into action.</p>
+
+<p>And they knew it. All at once they crumbled and became clay in his
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Chief,&quot; said Joe Rix, the smoothest spoken of the lot, and one who was
+supposed to stand specially well with Lord Nick on account of his
+ability to bake beans, Spanish. &quot;Chief, you've said a whole pile. You're
+worth more'n the rest of us all rolled together. Sure. We know that.
+There ain't any argument. But here's just one little point that I want
+to make.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We was doing fine. The gold was running fine and free. Along comes this
+Donnegan. He busts up our good time. He forks in on your girl&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A convulsion of the chief's face made Rix waver in his speech and then
+he went on: &quot;He shoots Landis, and when he misses killing him&mdash;by some
+accident, he comes down here and grabs him out of Lebrun's own house.
+Smooth, eh? Then he makes Landis sign that deed to the mines. Oh, very
+nice work, I say. Too nice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Now, speakin' man to man, they ain't any doubt that you'd like to get
+rid of Donnegan. Why don't you? Because everybody has a jinx, and he's
+yours. I ain't easy scared, maybe, but I knew an albino with white eyes
+once, and just to look at him made me some sick. Well, chief, they ain't
+nobody can say that you ever took water or ever will. But maybe the fact
+that this Donnegan has hair just as plumb red as yours may sort of get
+you off your feed. I'm just suggesting. Now, what I say is, let the rest
+of us take a crack at Donnegan, and you sit back and come in on the
+results when we've cleaned up. D'you give us a free road?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>How much went through the brain of Lord Nick? But in the end he gave his
+brother up to death. For he remembered how Nelly Lebrun had sat in
+Milligan's laughing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do what you want,&quot; he said suddenly. &quot;But I want to know none of your
+plans&mdash;and the man that tells me Donnegan is dead gets paid&mdash;in lead!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="38"></a><h2>38</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The smile of Joe Rix was the smile of a diplomat. It could be maintained
+upon his face as unwaveringly as if it were wrought out of marble while
+Joe heard insult and lie. As a matter of fact Joe had smiled in the face
+of death more than once, and this is a school through which even
+diplomats rarely pass. Yet it was with an effort that he maintained the
+characteristic good-natured expression when the door to Donnegan's shack
+opened and he saw big George and, beyond him, Donnegan himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Booze,&quot; said Joe Rix to himself instantly.</p>
+
+<p>For Donnegan was a wreck. The unshaven beard&mdash;it was the middle of
+morning&mdash;was a reddish mist over his face. His eyes were sunken in
+shadow. His hair was uncombed. He sat with his shoulders hunched up like
+one who suffers from cold. Altogether his appearance was that of one
+whose energy has been utterly sapped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The top of the morning, Mr. Donnegan,&quot; said Joe Rix, and put his foot
+on the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>But since big George did not move it was impossible to enter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's there?&quot; asked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange question to ask, for by raising his eyes he could have
+seen. But Donnegan was staring down at the floor. Even his voice was a
+weak murmur.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a party! What a party he's had!&quot; thought Joe Rix, and after all,
+there was cause for a celebration. Had not the little man in almost one
+stroke won the heart of the prettiest girl in The Corner, and also did
+he not probably have a working share in the richest of the diggings?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm Joe Rix,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix?&quot; murmured Donnegan softly. &quot;Then you're one of Lord Nick's
+men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was,&quot; said Joe Rix, &quot;sort of attached to him, maybe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this pointed remark won the interest of Donnegan. He raised his
+eyes, and Joe Rix beheld the most unhappy face he had ever seen. &quot;A bad
+hangover,&quot; he decided, &quot;and that makes it bad for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come in,&quot; said Donnegan in the same monotonous, lifeless voice.</p>
+
+<p>Big George reluctantly, it seemed, withdrew to one side, and Rix was
+instantly in the room and drawing out a chair so that he could face
+Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was,&quot; he proceeded &quot;sort of tied up with Lord Nick. But&quot;&mdash;and here he
+winked broadly&mdash;&quot;it ain't much of a secret that Nick ain't altogether a
+lord any more. Nope. Seems he turned out sort of common, they say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What fool,&quot; murmured Donnegan, &quot;has told you that? What ass had told
+you that Lord Nick is a common sort?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It shocked Joe Rix, but being a diplomat he avoided friction by changing
+his tactics.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between you and me,&quot; he said calmly enough, &quot;I took what I heard with a
+grain of salt. There's something about Nick that ain't common, no matter
+what they say. Besides, they's some men that nobody but a fool would
+stand up to. It ain't hardly a shame for a man to back down from 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed this remark with a nod to Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll give you a bit of free information,&quot; said the little man, with his
+weary eyes lighted a little. &quot;There's no man on the face of the earth
+who could make Lord Nick back down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more Joe Rix was shocked to the verge of gaping, but again he
+exercised a power of marvelous self control &quot;About that,&quot; he remarked
+as pointedly as before, &quot;I got my doubts. Because there's some things
+that any gent with sense will always clear away from. Maybe not one
+man&mdash;but say a bunch of all standin' together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan leaned back in his chair and waited. Both of his hands remained
+drooping from the edge of the table, and the tired eyes drifted slowly
+across the face of Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>It was obviously not the aftereffects of liquor. The astonishing
+possibility occurred to Joe Rix that this seemed to be a man with a
+broken spirit and a great sorrow. He blinked that absurdity away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Coming to cases,&quot; he went on, &quot;there's yourself, Mr. Donnegan. Now,
+you're the sort of a man that don't sidestep nobody. Too proud to do it.
+But even you, I guess, would step careful if there was a whole bunch
+agin' you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No doubt,&quot; remarked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't mean any ordinary bunch,&quot; explained Joe Rix, &quot;but a lot of hard
+fellows. Gents that handle their guns like they was born with a holster
+on the hip.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fellows like Nick's crowd,&quot; suggested Donnegan quietly.</p>
+
+<p>At this thrust the eyes of Joe narrowed a little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; he admitted, &quot;I see you get my drift.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two hard fighters would give the best man that ever pulled a gun a lot
+of trouble. Eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No doubt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And three men&mdash;they ain't any question, Mr. Donnegan&mdash;would get him
+ready for a hole in the ground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And four men would make it no fight&mdash;jest a plain butchery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, I don't mean that Nick's crowd has any hard feeling about you, Mr.
+Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad to hear that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew you'd be. That's why I've come, all friendly, to talk things
+over. Suppose you look at it this way&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix,&quot; broke in Donnegan, sighing, &quot;I'm very tired. Won't you cut
+this short? Tell me in ten words just how you stand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix blinked once more, caught his breath, and fired his volley.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Short talk is straight talk, mostly,&quot; he declared. &quot;This is what Lester
+and the rest of us want&mdash;the mines!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Macon stole 'em. We got 'em back through Landis. Now we've got to get
+'em back through the colonel himself. But we can't get at the colonel
+while you're around.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In short, you're going to start out to get me? I expected it, but it's
+kind of you to warn me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait, wait, wait! Don't rush along to conclusions. We ain't so much in
+a hurry. We don't want you out of the way. We just want you on our
+side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shoot me up and then bring me back to life, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan,&quot; said the other, spreading out his hands solemnly on the
+table, &quot;you ain't doin' us justice. We don't hanker none for trouble
+with you. Any way it comes, a fight with you means somebody dead besides
+you. We'd get you. Four to one is too much for any man. But one or two
+of us might go down. Who would it be? Maybe the Pedlar, maybe Harry
+Masters, maybe Lester, maybe me! Oh, we know all that. No gunplay if we
+can keep away from it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've left out the name of Lord Nick,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix winked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Seems like you tended to him once and for all when you got him alone in
+this cabin. Must have thrown a mighty big scare into him. He won't lift
+a hand agin' you now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot; murmured Donnegan hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not him! But that leaves four of us, and four is plenty, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I'm not here to insist on that point. No, we put a value on keepin'
+up good feeling between us and you, Mr. Donnegan. We ain't fools. We
+know a man when we see him&mdash;and the fastest gunman that ever slid a gun
+out of leather ain't the sort of a man that me and the rest of the boys
+pass over lightly. Not us! We know you, Mr. Donnegan; we respect you; we
+want you with us; we're going to have you with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You flatter me and I thank you. But I'm glad to see that you are at
+last coming to the point.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am, and the point is five thousand dollars that's tied behind the
+hoss that stands outside your door.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pushed his fat hand a little way across the table, as though the gold
+even then were resting in it, a yellow tide of fortune.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For which,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I'm to step aside and let you at the
+colonel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait,&quot; said Joe Rix. &quot;I was makin' a first offer to see how you stood,
+but you're right. Five thousand ain't enough and we ain't cheapskates.
+Not us. Mr. Donnegan, they's ten thousand cold iron men behind that
+saddle out there and every cent of it belongs to you when you come over
+on our side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan merely dropped his chin upon his hand and smiled
+mirthlessly at Joe Rix. A wild thought came to the other man. Both of
+Donnegan's hands were far from his weapons. Why not a quick draw, a snap
+shot, and then the glory of having killed this manslayer in single
+battle for Joe Rix?</p>
+
+<p>The thought rushed red across his brain and then faded slowly. Something
+kept him back. Perhaps it was the singular calm of Donnegan; no matter
+how quiet he sat he suggested the sleeping cat which can leap out of
+dead sleep into fighting action at a touch. By the time a second thought
+had come to Joe Rix the idea of an attack was like an idea of suicide.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that final?&quot; he asked, though Donnegan had not said a word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix stood up.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You put it to us kind of hard. But we want you, Mr. Donnegan. And
+here's the whole thing in a nutshell. Come over to us. We'll stand
+behind you. Lord Nick is slipping. We'll put you in his place. You won't
+even have to face him; we'll get rid of him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll kill him and give his place to me?&quot; asked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will. And when you're with us, you cut in on the whole amount of
+coin that the mines turn out&mdash;and it'll be something tidy. And right
+now, to show where we stand and how high we put you, I'll let you in on
+the rock-bottom truth. Mr. Donnegan. out there tied behind my saddle
+there's thirty thousand dollars in pure gold. You can take it in here
+and weigh it out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stepped back to watch this blow take effect. To his unutterable
+astonishment the little man had not moved. His chin still rested upon
+the back of his hand, and the smile which was on the lips and not in the
+eyes of Donnegan remained there, fixed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; muttered Joe Rix, &quot;if we can't get you, we'll get rid of
+you. You understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the other continued to smile.</p>
+
+<p>It gave Joe Rix a shuddering feeling that someone was stealing behind
+him to block his way to the door. He cast one swift glance over his
+shoulder and then, seeing that the way was clear, he slunk back, always
+keeping his face to the red-headed man. But when he came to the doorway
+his nerve collapsed. He whirled, covered the rest of the distance with a
+leap, and emerged from the cabin in a fashion ludicrously like one who
+has been kicked through a door.</p>
+
+<p>His nerve returned as soon as the sunlight fell warmly upon him again;
+and he looked around hastily to see if anyone had observed his flight.</p>
+
+<p>There was no one on the whole hillside except Colonel Macon in the
+invalid chair, and the colonel was smiling broadly, beneficently. He had
+his perfect hands folded across his breast and seemed to cast a prayer
+of peace and goodwill upon Joe Rix.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="39"></a><h2>39</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Nelly Lebrun smelled danger. She sensed it as plainly as the deer when
+the puma comes between her and the wind. The many tokens that something
+was wrong came to her by small hints which had to be put together before
+they assumed any importance.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, her father, who should have burst out at her in a tirade
+for having left Lord Nick for Donnegan said nothing at all, but kept a
+dark smile on his face when she was near him. He even insinuated that
+Nick's time was done and that another was due to supersede him.</p>
+
+<p>In the second place, she had passed into a room where Masters, Joe Rix,
+and the Pedlar sat cheek by jowl in close conference with a hum of deep
+voice. But at her appearance all talk was broken off.</p>
+
+<p>It was not strange that they should not invite her into their confidence
+if they had some dark work ahead of them; but it was exceedingly
+suspicious that Joe Rix attempted to pass off their whispers by
+immediately breaking off the soft talk and springing into the midst of a
+full-fledged jest; also, it was strangest of all that when the jest
+ended even the Pedlar, who rarely smiled, now laughed uproariously and
+smote Joe soundingly upon the back.</p>
+
+<p>Even a child could have strung these incidents into a chain of evidence
+which pointed toward danger. Obviously the danger was not directly hers,
+but then it must be directed at some one near to her. Her father? No, he
+was more apt to be the mainspring of their action. Lord Nick? There was
+nothing to gain by attacking him. Who was left? Donnegan!</p>
+
+<p>As the realization came upon her it took her breath away for a moment.
+Donnegan was the man. At breakfast everyone had been talking about him.
+Lebrun had remarked that he had a face for the cards&mdash;emotionless. Joe
+Rix had commented upon his speed of hand, and the Pedlar had
+complimented the little man on his dress.</p>
+
+<p>But at lunch not a word was spoken about Donnegan even after she had
+dexterously introduced the subject twice. Why the sudden silence?
+Between morning and noon Donnegan must have grievously offended them.</p>
+
+<p>Fear for his sake stimulated her; but above and beyond this, indeed,
+there was a mighty feminine curiosity. She smelled the secret; it reeked
+through the house, and she was devoured by eagerness to know. She
+handpicked Lord Nick's gang in the hope of finding a weakness among
+them; some weakness upon which she could play in one of them and draw
+out what they were all concealing. The Pedlar was as unapproachable as a
+crag on a mountaintop. Masters was wise as an outlaw broncho. Lester was
+probably not even in the confidence of the others because since the
+affair with Landis his nerve had been shattered to bits and the others
+secretly despised him for being beaten by the youngster at the draw.
+There remained, therefore, only Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>But Joe Rix was a fox of the first quality. He lied with the smoothness
+of silk. He could show a dozen colors in as many moments. Come to the
+windward of Joe Rix? It was a delicate business! But since there was
+nothing else to do, she fixed her mind upon it, working out this puzzle.
+Joe Rix wished to destroy Donnegan for reasons that were evidently
+connected with the mines. And she must step into his confidence to
+discover his plans. How should it be done? And there was a vital need
+for speed, for they might be within a step of executing whatever
+mischief it was that they were planning.</p>
+
+<p>She went down from her room; they were there still, only Joe Rix was
+not with them. She went to the apartment where he and the other three of
+Nick's gang slept and rapped at the door. He maintained his smile when
+he saw her, but there was an uncertain quiver of his eyebrows that told
+her much. Plainly he was ill at ease. Suspicious? Ay, there were always
+clouds of suspicion drifting over the red, round face of Joe Rix. She
+put a tremor of excitement and trouble in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come into my room, Joe, where we won't be interrupted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He followed her without a word, and since she led the way she was able
+to relax her expression for a necessary moment. When she closed the door
+behind him and faced Joe again she was once more ready to step into her
+part. She did not ask him to sit down. She remained for a moment with
+her hand on the knob and searched the face of Joe Rix eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think he can hear?&quot; she whispered, gesturing over her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who but Lord Nick!&quot; she exclaimed softly.</p>
+
+<p>The bewilderment of Joe clouded his face a second and then he was able
+to smooth it away. What on earth was the reason of her concern about
+Lord Nick he was obviously wondering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you why,&quot; she said, answering the unspoken question at once.
+&quot;He's as jealous as the devil, Joe!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fat little man sighed as he looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He can't hear. Not through that log wall. But we'll talk soft, if you
+want.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, yes. Keep your voice down. He's already jealous of you, Joe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He knows I like you, that I trust you; and just now he's on edge about
+everyone I look at.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The surprising news which the first part of this sentence contained
+caused Joe to gape, and the girl looked away in concern, enabling him to
+control his expression. For she knew well enough that men hate to appear
+foolishly surprised. And particularly a fox like Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what's the trouble, Nelly?&quot; He added with a touch of venom: &quot;I
+thought everything was going smoothly with you. And I thought you
+weren't worrying much about what Lord Nick had in his mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stared at him as though astonished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think just the same as the rest of them?&quot; she asked sadly. &quot;Do
+you mean to say that you're fooled just the same as Harry Masters and
+the Pedlar and the rest of those fools&mdash;including Nick himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix was by no means willing to declare himself a fool beforehand. He
+now mustered a look of much reserved wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have my own doubts, Nell, but I'm not talking about them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was so utterly at sea that she had to bite her lip hard to keep from
+breaking into ringing laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I knew that you'd seen through it, Joe,&quot; she cried softly. &quot;You see
+what an awful mess I've gotten into?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He passed a hurried hand across his forehead and then looked at her
+searchingly. But he could not penetrate her pretense of concern.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter what I think,&quot; said Joe Rix, &quot;you come out with it frankly.
+I'll listen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a friend, Joe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She managed to throw a plea into her voice that made Joe sigh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure. You've already said that I'm your friend, and you're right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm in terrible, terrible trouble! You know how it happened. I was a
+fool. I tried to play with Lord Nick. And now he thinks I was in
+earnest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As though the strength of his legs had given way, Joe Rix slipped down
+into a chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on,&quot; he said huskily. &quot;You were playing with Lord Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you put yourself in my place, Joe? It's always been taken for
+granted that I'm to marry Nick. And the moment he comes around everybody
+else avoids me as if I were poison. I was sick of it. And when he showed
+up this time it was the same old story. A man would as soon sign his own
+death warrant as ask me for a dance. You know how it is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, still at sea, but with a light beginning to dawn in his
+little eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm only a girl, Joe. I have all the weakness of other girls. I don't
+want to be locked up in a cage just because I&mdash;love one man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The avowal made Joe blink. It was the second time that day that he had
+been placed in an astonishing scene. But some of his old cunning
+remained to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nell,&quot; he said suddenly, rising from his chair and going to her. &quot;What
+are you trying to do to me? Pull the wool over my eyes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was too much for Nelly Lebrun. She knew that she could not face him
+without betraying her guilt and therefore she did not attempt it. She
+whirled and flung herself on her bed, face down, and began to sob
+violently, suppressing the sounds. And so she waited.</p>
+
+<p>Presently a hand touched her shoulder lightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go away,&quot; cried Nelly in a choked voice. &quot;I hate you, Joe Rix. You're
+like all the rest!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His knee struck the floor with a soft thud.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come on, Nell. Don't be hard on me. I thought you were stringing me a
+little. But if you're playing straight, tell me what you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At that she bounced upright on the bed, and before he could rise she
+caught him by both shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want Donnegan,&quot; she said fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want him dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix gasped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's the cause of all my trouble. Just because I flirted with him
+once or twice, Nick thought I was in earnest and now he's sulking. And
+Donnegan puts on airs and acts as if I belonged to him. I hate him, Joe.
+And if he's gone Nick will come back to me. He'll come back to me, Joe;
+and I want him so!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She found that Joe Rix was staring straight into her eyes, striving to
+probe her soul to its depths, and by a great effort she was enabled to
+meet that gaze. Finally the fat little man rose slowly to his feet. Her
+hands trailed from his shoulders as he stood up and fell helplessly upon
+her lap.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'll be hanged, Nell!&quot; exclaimed Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not acting a part? No, I can see you mean it. But what a
+cold-blooded little&mdash;&quot; He checked himself. His face was suddenly
+jubilant. &quot;Then we've got him, Nell. We've got him if you're with us. We
+had him anyway, but we'll make sure of him if you're with us. Look at
+this! You saw me put a paper in my pocket when I opened the door of my
+room? Here it is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He displayed before the astonished eyes of Nelly Lebrun a paper covered
+with an exact duplicate of her own swift, dainty script. And she read:</p>
+
+<center>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Nick is terribly angry and is making trouble. I have to get away.</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">It isn't safe for me to stay here. Will you help me?</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Will you meet me at the shack by Donnell's ford</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">tomorrow morning at ten o'clock?</span><br>
+</center>
+
+<p>&quot;But I didn't write it,&quot; cried Nelly Lebrun, bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly,&quot; Joe Rix chuckled, flushing with pleasure, &quot;you didn't. It was
+me. I kind of had an idea that you wanted to get rid of this Donnegan,
+and I was going to do it for you and then surprise you with the good
+news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe, you forged it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't bother sayin' pretty things about me and my pen,&quot; said Rix
+modestly. &quot;This is nothin'! But if you want to help me, Nelly&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His voice faded partly out of her consciousness as she fought against a
+tigerish desire to spring at the throat of the little fat man. But
+gradually it dawned on her that he was asking her to write out that note
+herself. Why? Because it was possible that Donnegan might have seen her
+handwriting and in that case, though the imitation had been good enough
+to deceive Nelly herself, it probably would not for a moment fool the
+keen eyes of Donnegan. But if she herself wrote out the note, Donnegan
+was already as good as dead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is,&quot; concluded Joe Rix, &quot;if he really loves you, Nell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The fool!&quot; cried Nelly. &quot;He worships the ground I walk on, Joe. And I
+hate him for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even Joe Rix shivered, for he saw the hate in her eyes and could not
+dream that he himself was the cause and the object of it. There was a
+red haze of horror and confusion in front of her eyes, and yet she was
+able to smile while she copied the note for Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how are you going to work it?&quot; she asked. &quot;How are you going to
+kill him, Joe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't bother your pretty head,&quot; said the fat man, smiling. &quot;Just wait
+till we bring you the good news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But are you sure?&quot; she asked eagerly. &quot;See what he's done already. He's
+taken Landis away from us; he's baffled Nick himself, in some manner;
+and he's gathered the mines away from all of us. He's a devil, Joe, and
+if you want to get him you'd better take ten men for the job.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You hate him, Nell, don't you?&quot; queried Joe Rix, and his voice was both
+hard and curious. &quot;But how has he harmed you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hasn't he taken Nick away from me? Isn't that enough?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fat man shivered again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right. I'll tell you how it works. Now, listen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he began to check off the details of his plan.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="40"></a><h2>40</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The day passed and the night, but how very slowly for Nelly Lebrun; she
+went up to her room early for she could no longer bear the meaning
+glances which Joe Rix cast at her from time to time. But once in her
+room it was still harder to bear the suspense as she waited for the
+noise to die away in the house. Midnight, and half an hour more went by,
+and then, at last, the murmurs and the laughter stopped; she alone was
+wakeful in Lebrun's. And when that time came she caught a scarf around
+her hair and her shoulders, made of a filmy material which would veil
+her face but through which she could see, and ventured out of her room
+and down the hall.</p>
+
+<p>There was no particular need for such caution, however, it seemed.
+Nothing stirred. And presently she was outside the house and hurrying
+behind the houses and up the hill. Still she met nothing. If The Corner
+lived tonight, its life was confined to Milligan's and the gambling
+house.</p>
+
+<p>She found Donnegan's shack and the one next to it, which the terrible
+colonel occupied, entirely dark, but only a moment after she tapped at
+the door it was opened. Donnegan, fully dressed, stood in the entrance,
+outlined blackly by the light which came faintly from the hooded lantern
+hanging on the wall. Was he sitting up all the night, unable to sleep
+because he waited breathlessly for that false tryst on the morrow? A
+great tenderness came over the heart of Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is I,&quot; she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>There was a soft exclamation, then she was drawn into the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there anyone here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only big George. But he's in the kitchen and he won't hear. He never
+hears anything except what's meant for his ear. Take this chair!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was putting a blanket over the rough wood to make it more
+comfortable, and she submitted dumbly to his ministrations. It seemed
+terrible and strange to her that one so gentle should be the object of
+so much hate&mdash;such deadly hate as the members of Nick's gang felt for
+him. And now that he was sitting before her she could see that he had
+indeed been wakeful for a long time. His face was grimly wasted; the
+lips were compressed as one who has endured long pain; and his eyes
+gleamed at her out of a profound shadow. He remained in the gloom; the
+light from the lantern fell brightly upon his hands alone&mdash;meager,
+fleshless hands which seemed to represent hardly more strength than that
+of a child. Truly this man was all a creature of spirit and nerve.
+Therein lay his strength, as also his weakness, and again the cherishing
+instinct grew strong and swept over her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one near,&quot; he said, &quot;except the colonel and his daughter.
+They are up the hillside, somewhere. Did you see them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. What in the world are they out for at this time of night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because the colonel only wakes up when the sun goes down. And now he's
+out there humming to himself and never speaking a word to the girl. But
+they won't be far away. They'll stay close to see that no one comes near
+the cabin to get at Landis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He added: &quot;They must have seen you come into my cabin!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And his lips set even harder than before. Was it fear because of her?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They may have seen me enter, but they won't know who it was. You have
+the note from me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a lie! It's a ruse. I was forced to write it to save you! For
+they're planning to murder you. Oh, my dear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush! Hush! Murder?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been nearly hysterical all day and all the night. But. thank
+heaven, I'm here to warn you in time! You mustn't go. You mustn't go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had drawn his chair closer: he had taken her hands, and she noted
+that his own were icy cold, but steady as a rock. Their pressure soothed
+her infinitely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix, the Pedlar, Harry Masters. They'll be at the shack at ten
+o'clock, but not I!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Murder, but a very clumsy scheme. Three men leave town and commit a
+murder and then expect to go undetected? Not even in the mountain
+desert!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you don't understand, you don't understand! They're wise as foxes.
+They'll take no risk. They don't even leave town together or travel by
+the same routes. Harry Masters starts first. He rides out at eight
+o'clock in the morning and takes the north trail. He rides down the
+gulch and winds out of it and strikes for the shack at the ford. At half
+past eight the Pedlar starts. He goes past Sandy's place and then over
+the trail through the marsh. You know it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Last of all, Joe Rix starts at nine o'clock. Half an hour between
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How does he go to the shack?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By the south trail. He takes the ridge of the hills. But they'll all be
+at the shack long before you and they'll shoot you down from a distance
+as you come up to it. Plain murder, but even for cowardly murder they
+daren't face you except three to one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suppose they were to be met on the way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're mad to think of it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But if they fail this time they'll try again. They must be taught a
+lesson.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Three men? Oh, my dear, my dear! Promise!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. I shall do nothing rash. And I shall never forget that
+you've come to tell me this and been in peril, Nell, for if they found
+you had come to me&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Pedlar would cut my throat. I know him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah! But now you must go. I'll take you down the hill, dear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no! It's much easier to get back alone. My face will be covered.
+But there's no way you could be disguised. You have a way of
+walking&mdash;good night&mdash;and God bless you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was in his arms, straining him to her; and then she slipped out the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>And sure enough, there was the colonel in his chair not fifty feet away
+with a girl pushing him. The moonlight was too dim for Nelly Lebrun to
+make out the face of Lou Macon, but even the light which escaped through
+the filter of clouds was enough to set her golden hair glowing. The
+color was not apparent, but its luster was soft silver in the night.
+There was a murmur of the colonel's voice as Nelly came out of the
+cabin.</p>
+
+<p>And then, from the girl, a low cry.</p>
+
+<p>It brought the blood to the cheeks of Nelly as she hurried down the
+hill, for she recognized the pain that was in it; and it occurred to her
+that if the girl was in love with Jack Landis she was strangely
+interested in Donnegan also.</p>
+
+<p>The thought came so sharply home to her that she paused abruptly on the
+way down the hill. After all, this Macon girl would be a very strange
+sort if she were not impressed by the little red-headed man, with his
+gentle voice and his fiery ways, and his easy way of making himself a
+brilliant spectacle whenever he appeared in public. And Nelly
+remembered, also, with the keen suspicion of a woman in love how weakly
+Donnegan had responded to her embrace this night. How absent-mindedly
+his arms had held her, and how numbly they had fallen away when she
+turned at the door.</p>
+
+<p>But she shook her head and made the suspicion shudder its way out of
+her. Lou Macon, she decided, was just the sort of girl who would think
+Jack Landis an ideal. Besides, she had never had an opportunity to see
+Donnegan in his full glory at Milligan's. And as for Donnegan? He was
+wearied out; his nerves relaxed; and for the deeds with which he had
+startled The Corner and won her own heart he was now paying the penalty
+in the shape of ruined nerves. Pity again swelled in her heart, and a
+consuming hatred for the three murderers who lived in her father's
+house.</p>
+
+<p>And when she reached her room again her heart was filled with a singing
+happiness and a glorious knowledge that she had saved the man she loved.</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan himself?</p>
+
+<p>He had seen Lou and her father: he had heard that low cry of pain; and
+now he sat bowed again over his table, his face in his hands and a
+raging devil in his heart.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="41"></a><h2>41</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>There was one complication which Nelly Lebrun might have foreseen after
+her pretended change of heart and her simulated confession to Joe Rix
+that she still loved the lionlike Lord Nick. But strangely enough she
+did not think of this phase: and even when her father the next morning
+approached her in the hall and tapping her arm whispered: &quot;Good girl!
+Nick has just heard and he's hunting for you now!&quot; Even then the full
+meaning did not come home to her. It was not until she saw the great
+form of Lord Nick stalking swiftly down the hall that she knew. He came
+with a glory in his face which the last day had graven with unfamiliar
+lines; and when he saw her he threw up his hand so that it almost
+brushed the ceiling, and cried out.</p>
+
+<p>What could she do? Try to push him away; to explain?</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing to be done. She had to submit when he swept her into
+his arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rix has told me. Rix has told me. Ah, Nell, you little fox!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Told you what, Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Was he, too, a party to the murderous plan?</p>
+
+<p>But he allowed himself to be pushed away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've gone through something in the last few days. Why did you do it,
+girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She saw suddenly that she must continue to play her part.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some day I'll tell you why it was that I gave you up so easily, Nell.
+You thought I was afraid of Donnegan?&quot; He ground his teeth and turned
+pale at the thought. &quot;But that wasn't it. Some day I can tell you. But
+after this, the first man who comes between us&mdash;Donnegan or any
+other&mdash;I'll turn him into powder&mdash;under my heel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He ground it into the floor as he spoke. She decided that she would see
+how much he knew.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will never be Donnegan, at least,&quot; she said. &quot;He's done for today.
+And I'm almost sorry for him in spite of all that he's done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He became suddenly grave.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you saying, Nell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Joe told you, didn't he? They've drawn Donnegan out of town, and
+now they're lying in wait for him. Yes, they must have him, by this
+time. It's ten o'clock!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A strangely tense exclamation broke from Lord Nick. &quot;They've gone for
+Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. Are you angry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man staggered; one would have said that he had been stunned with
+a blow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Garry!&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you saying?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nell,&quot; he muttered hoarsely, &quot;did you know about it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I did it for you, Nick. I knew you hated&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no! Don't say it!&quot; He added bitterly, after a moment. &quot;This is for
+my sins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And then, to her: &quot;But you knew about it and didn't warn him? You hated
+him all the time you were laughing with him and smiling at him? Oh,
+Nell! What a merciless witch of a woman you are! For the rest of
+them&mdash;I'll wait till they come back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you going to do, Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I told them I'd pay the man who killed Donnegan&mdash;with lead. Did the
+fools think I didn't mean it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Truly, no matter what shadow had passed over the big man, he was the
+lion again, and Nell shrank from him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll wait for them,&quot; he said. &quot;We'll wait for them here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And they sat down together in the room. She attempted to speak once in a
+shaken voice, but he silenced her with a gesture, and after that she sat
+and watched in quiet the singular play of varying expressions across his
+face. Grief, rage, tenderness, murderous hate&mdash;they followed like a
+puppet play.</p>
+
+<p>What was Donnegan to him? And then there was a tremor of fear. Would the
+three suspect when they reached the shack by the ford and no Donnegan
+came to them? The moments stole on. Then the soft beat of a galloping
+horse in the sand. The horse stopped. Presently they saw Joe Rix and
+Harry Masters pass in front of the window. And they looked as though a
+cyclone had caught them up, juggled them a dizzy distance in the air,
+and then flung them down carelessly upon bruising rocks. Their hats were
+gone; and the clothes of burly Harry Masters were literally torn from
+his back. Joe Rix was evidently far more terribly hurt, for he leaned on
+the arm of Masters and they came on together, staggering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They've done the business!&quot; exclaimed Lord Nick. &quot;And now, curse them,
+I'll do theirs!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the girl could not speak. A black haze crossed before her eyes. Had
+Donnegan gone out madly to fight the three men in spite of her warning?</p>
+
+<p>The door opened. They stood in the doorway, and if they had seemed a
+horrible sight passing the window, they were a deadly picture at close
+range. And opposite them stood Lord Nick; in spite of their wounds there
+was murder in his face and his revolver was out.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've met him? You've met Donnegan?&quot; he asked angrily.</p>
+
+<p>Masters literally carried Joe Rix to a chair and placed him in it. He
+had been shot through both shoulders, and though tight bandages had
+stanched the wound he was still in agony. Then Masters raised his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've met him,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Masters, in spite of the naked gun in the hand of Lord Nick, was
+looking straight at Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We fought him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then say your prayers, Masters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say prayers for the Pedlar, you fool,&quot; said Masters bitterly. &quot;He's
+dead, and Donnegan's still living!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint cry from Nelly Lebrun. She sank into her chair again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've been double-crossed,&quot; said Masters, still looking at the girl. &quot;I
+was going down the gulch the way we planned. I come to the narrow place
+where the cliffs almost touch, and right off the wall above me drops a
+wildcat. I thought it was a cat at first. And then I found it was
+Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The way he hit me from above knocked me off the horse. Then we hit the
+ground. I started for my gun; he got it out of my hand; I pulled my
+knife. He got that away, too. His fingers work with steel springs and
+act like a cat's claws. Then we fought barehanded. He didn't say a word.
+But kept snarling in his throat. Always like a cat. And his face was
+devilish. Made me sick inside. Pretty soon he dived under my arms. Got
+me up in the air. I came down on my head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I went out cold. When I came to there was still a mist in
+front of my eyes and this lump on the back of my head. He'd figured that
+my head was cracked and that I was dead. That's the only reason he left
+me. Later I climbed on my hoss and fed him the spur.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I was too late. I took the straight cut for the ford, and when I
+got there I found that Donnegan had been there before me. Joe Rix was
+lyin' on the floor. When he got to the shack Donnegan was waitin' for
+him. They went for their guns and Donnegan beat him to it. The hound
+didn't shoot to kill. He plugged him through both shoulders, and left
+him lyin' helpless. But I got a couple of bandages on him and saved him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then we cut back for home and crossed the marsh. And there we found the
+Pedlar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Too late to help him. Maybe Donnegan knew that the Pedlar was something
+of a flash with a gun himself, and he didn't take any chances. He'd met
+him face to face the same way he met Joe Rix and killed him. Shot him
+clean between the eyes. Think of shooting for the head with a snap shot!
+That's what he done and Joe didn't have time to think twice after that
+slug hit him. His gun wasn't even fired, he was beat so bad on the draw.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So Joe and me come back home. And we come full of questions!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me tell you something,&quot; muttered Lord Nick, putting up the weapon
+which he had kept exposed during all of the recital. &quot;You've got what
+was coming to you. If Donnegan hadn't cleaned up on you, you'd have had
+to talk turkey with me. Understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait a minute,&quot; protested Harry Masters.</p>
+
+<p>And Joe Rix, almost too far gone for speech, set his teeth over a groan
+and cast a look of hatred at the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait a minute, chief. There's one thing we all got to get straight.
+Somebody had tipped off Donnegan about our whole plan. Was it the Pedlar
+or Rix or me? I guess good sense'll tell a man that it wasn't none of
+us, eh? Then who was it? The only other person that knew about the
+plan&mdash;Nell&mdash;Nell, the crooked witch&mdash;and it's her that murdered the
+Pedlar&mdash;curse her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He thrust out his bulky arm as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her that lied her way into our confidence with a lot of talk about you,
+Nick. Then what did she do? She goes runnin' to the gent that she said
+she hated. Don't you see her play? She makes fools of us&mdash;she makes a
+fool out of you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She dared not meet the glance of Lord Nick. Even now she might have
+acted out her part and filled in with lies, but she was totally
+unnerved.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Get Rix to bed,&quot; was all he said, and he did not even glance at Nelly
+Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>Masters glowered at him, and then silently obeyed, lifting Joe as a
+helpless bulk, for the fat man was nearly fainting with pain. Not until
+they had gone and he had closed the door after them and upon the murmurs
+of the servants in the hall did Lord Nick turn to Nelly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it true?&quot; he asked shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Between relief and terror her mind was whirling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is what true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You haven't even sense enough to lie, Nell, eh? It's all true, then?
+And last night, after you'd wormed it out of Joe, you went to Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She could only stare miserably at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that was why you pushed me away when I kissed you a little while
+ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more she was dumb. But she was beginning to be afraid. Not for
+herself, but for Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nell, I told you I'd never let another man come between us again. I
+meant it. I know you're treacherous now; but that doesn't keep me from
+wanting you. It's Donnegan again&mdash;Donnegan still? Nell, you've killed
+him. As sure as if your own finger pulled the trigger when I shoot him.
+He's a dead one, and you've done it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If words would only come! But her throat was stiff and cold and aching.
+She could not speak.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've done more than kill him,&quot; said Lord Nick. &quot;You've put a curse on
+me as well. And afterward I'm going to even up with you. You hear me?
+Nell, when I shoot Donnegan I'm doing a thing worse than if he was a
+girl&mdash;or a baby. You can't understand that; I don't want you to know.
+But some time when you're happy again and you're through grieving for
+Donnegan, I'll tell you the truth and make your heart black for the rest
+of your life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still words would not come. She strove to cling to him and stop him, but
+he cast her away with a single gesture and strode out the door.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="42"></a><h2>42</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>There was no crowd to block the hill at this second meeting of Donnegan
+and Lord Nick. There was a blank stretch of brown hillside with the wind
+whispering stealthily through the dead grass when Lord Nick thrust open
+the door of Donnegan's shack and entered.</p>
+
+<p>The little man had just finished shaving and was getting back into his
+coat while George carried out the basin of water. And Donnegan, as he
+buttoned the coat, was nodding slightly to the rhythm of a song which
+came from the cabin of the colonel near by. It was a clear, high music,
+and though the voice was light it carried the sound far. Donnegan looked
+up to Lord Nick; but still he kept the beat of the music.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed even more fragile this morning than ever before. Yet Lord Nick
+was fresh from the sight of the torn bodies of the two fighting men whom
+this fellow had struck and left for dead, or dying, as he thought.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dismiss your servant,&quot; said Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;George, you may go out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And keep him out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't come back until I call for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Big George disappeared into the kitchen and the outside door was closed.
+Yet even with all the doors closed the singing of Lou Macon kept running
+through the cabin in a sweet and continuous thread.</p>
+
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">What made the ball so fine?</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1.5em;">Robin Adair!</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">What made the assembly shine?</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1.5em;">Robin Adair!</span><br>
+
+<p>And no matter what Lord Nick could say, it seemed that with half his
+mind Donnegan was listening to the song of the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First,&quot; said the big man, &quot;I've broken my word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan waved his hand and dismissed the charge. He pointed to a chair,
+but Lord Nick paid no heed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've broken my word,&quot; he went on. &quot;I promised that I'd give you a clear
+road to win over Nelly Lebrun. I gave you the road and you've won her,
+but now I'm taking her back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, Henry,&quot; said Donnegan, and a flash of eagerness came in his eyes.
+&quot;You're a thousand times welcome to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick quivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you mean it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, don't you see that I was only playing for a purpose all the
+time? And if you've opened the eyes of Nelly to the fact that you truly
+love her and I've been only acting out of a heartless sham&mdash;why, I'm
+glad of it&mdash;I rejoice, Henry, I swear I do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He came forward, smiling, and held out his hand; Lord Nick struck it
+down, and Donnegan shrank back, holding his wrist tight in the fingers
+of his other hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it possible?&quot; murmured Henry Reardon. &quot;Is it possible that she loves
+a man who despises her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not that! If any other man said this to me, I'd call for an explanation
+of his meaning, Henry. No, no! I honor and respect her, I tell you. By
+heaven, Nick, she has a thread of pure, generous gold in her nature!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has saved my life no longer ago than this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's perfect,&quot; said Lord Nick. And he writhed under a torment. &quot;I am
+discarded for the sake of a man who despises her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, frowning with thought, watched his older brother. And still
+the thin singing entered the room, that matchless old melody of &quot;Robin
+Adair;&quot; the day shall never come when that song does not go straight
+from heart to heart. But because Donnegan still listened to it, Lord
+Nick felt that he was contemptuously received, and a fresh spur was
+driven into his tender pride.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot; he said sharply.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan raised his hand slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you call me by that name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye. You've ceased to be a brother. There's no blood tie between us
+now, as I warned you before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, very white, moved back toward the wall and rested his
+shoulders lightly against it, as though he needed the support. He made
+no answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I warned you not to cross me again.&quot; exclaimed Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan, you've murdered my men!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Murder? I've met them fairly. Not murder, Henry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave out that name, I say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you wish,&quot; said Donnegan very faintly.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of his resistlessness seemed to madden Lord Nick. He made one
+of his huge strides and came to the center of the room and dominated all
+that was in it, including his brother.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You murdered my men,&quot; repeated Lord Nick. &quot;You turned my girl against
+me with your lying love-making and turned her into a spy. You made her
+set the trap and then you saw that it was worked. You showed her how she
+could wind me around her finger again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you let me speak?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, but be short.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear to you, Henry, that I've never influenced her to act against
+you; except to win her away for just one little time, and she will
+return to you again. It is only a fancy that makes her interested in me.
+Look at us! How could any woman in her senses prefer me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no! I have more to say: I have a thousand things!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not hear them&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, there is a black devil in your face. Beware of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who put it there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was not I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What power then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something over which I have no control.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you trying to mystify me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen!&quot; And as Donnegan raised his hand, the singing poured clear and
+small into the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is the power,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're talking gibberish'&quot; exclaimed the other pettishly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose I shouldn't expect you to understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On the other hand, what I have to say is short and to the point. A
+child could comprehend it. You've stolen the girl. I tried to let her
+go. I can't. I have to have her. Willing or unwilling she has to belong
+to me, Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you wish, I shall promise that I shall never see her again or speak
+to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fool' Won't she find you out? Do you think I could trust you? Only
+in one place&mdash;underground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan had clasped his hands upon his breast and his eyes were wide.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it you mean, Henry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll trust you&mdash;dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That name means nothing to me I've forgotten it. The worlds has
+forgotten it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, I implore you to keep cool&mdash;to give me five minutes for talk&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not one. I know your cunning tongue!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the sake of the days when you loved me, my brother. For the sake of
+the days when you used to wheel my chair and be kind to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're wasting your time. You're torturing us both for nothing.
+Donnegan, my will is a rock. It won't change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And drawing closer his right hand gripped his gun and the trembling
+passion of the gunfighter set him shuddering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're armed, Garry. Go for your gun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll give you cause to fight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And as he spoke, he drew back his massive arm and with his open hand
+smote Donnegan heavily across the face. The weight of that blow crushed
+the little man against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your gun!&quot; cried Lord Nick, swaying from side to side as the passion
+choked him.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan fell upon his knees and raised his arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God have mercy on me, and on yourself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At that the blackness cleared slowly on the face of the big man; he
+thrust his revolver into the holster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This time,&quot; he said, &quot;there's no death. But sooner or later we meet,
+Donnegan, and then, I swear by all that lives, I'll shoot you
+down&mdash;without mercy&mdash;like a mad dog. You've robbed me; you've hounded
+me: you've killed my men: you've taken the heart of the woman I love.
+And now nothing can save you from the end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned on his heel and left the room.</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan remained kneeling, holding a stained handkerchief to his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>All at once his strength seemed to desert him like a tree chopped at the
+root, and he wilted down against the wall with closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But the music still came out of the throat and the heart of Lou, and it
+entered the room and came into the ears of Donnegan. He became aware
+that there was a strength beyond himself which had sustained him, and
+then he knew it had been the singing of Lou from first to last which had
+kept the murder out of his own heart and restrained the hand of Lord
+Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps of all Donnegan's life, this was the first moment of true
+humility.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="43"></a><h2>43</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>One thing was now clear. He must not remain in The Corner unless he was
+prepared for Lord Nick again: and in a third meeting guns must be drawn.
+From that greater sin he shrank, and prepared to leave. His order to
+George made the big man's eyes widen, but George had long since passed
+the point where he cared to question the decision of his master. He
+began to build the packs.</p>
+
+<p>As for Donnegan, he could see that there was little to be won by
+remaining. That would save Landis to Lou Macon, to be sure, but after
+all, he was beginning to wonder if it were not better to let the big
+fellow go back to his own kind&mdash;Lebrun and the rest. For if it needed
+compulsion to keep him with Lou now, might it not be the same story
+hereafter?</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Donnegan began to feel that all his labor in The Corner had been
+running on a treadmill. It had all been grouped about the main purpose,
+which was to keep Landis with the girl. To do that now he must be
+prepared to face Nick again; and to face Nick meant the bringing of the
+guilt of fratricide upon the head of one of them. There only remained
+flight. He saw at last that he had been fighting blindly from the
+first. He had won a girl whom he did not love&mdash;though doubtless her
+liking was only the most fickle fancy. And she for whom he would have
+died he had taught to hate him. It was a grim summing up. Donnegan
+walked the room whistling softly to himself as he checked up his
+accounts.</p>
+
+<p>One thing at least he had done; he had taken the joy out of his life
+forever.</p>
+
+<p>And here, answering a rap at the door, he opened it upon Lou Macon. She
+wore a dress of some very soft material. It was a pale blue&mdash;faded, no
+doubt&mdash;but the color blended exquisitely with her hair and with the
+flush of her face. It came to Donnegan that it was an unnecessary
+cruelty of chance that made him see the girl lovelier than he had ever
+seen her before at the very moment when he was surrendering the last
+shadow of a claim upon her.</p>
+
+<p>And it hurt him, also, to see the freshness of her face, the clear eyes;
+and to hear her smooth, untroubled voice. She had lived untouched by
+anything save the sunshine in The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>Her glance flicked across his face and then fluttered down, and her
+color increased guiltily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have come to ask you a favor,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Step in,&quot; said Donnegan, recovering his poise at length.</p>
+
+<p>At this, she looked past him, and her eyes widened a little. There was
+an imperceptible shrug of her shoulders, as though the very thought of
+entering this cabin horrified her. And Donnegan had to bear that look as
+well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll stay here; I haven't much to say. It's a small thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Large or small,&quot; said Donnegan eagerly. &quot;Tell me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father has asked me to take a letter for him down to the town and
+mail it. I&mdash;I understand that it would be dangerous for me to go alone.
+Will you walk with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan turned cold. Go down into The Corner? Where by five chances
+out of ten he must meet his brother in the street?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can do better still,&quot; he said, smiling. &quot;I'll have George take the
+letter down for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you. But you see, father would not trust it to anyone save me. I
+asked him; he was very firm about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush! I would trust George with my life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, yes It is not what I wish&mdash;but my father rarely changes his
+mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Perspiration beaded the forehead of Donnegan. Was there no way to evade
+this easy request?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see,&quot; he faltered, &quot;I should be glad to go&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I am terribly busy this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer, but half of her color left her face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Upon my word of honor there is no danger to a woman in the town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But some of the ruffians of Lord Nick&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If they dared to even raise their voices at you, they would hear from
+him in a manner that they would never forget.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you don't wish to go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was very pale now; and to Donnegan it was more terrible than the gun
+in the hand of Lord Nick. Even if she thought he was slighting her why
+should she take it so mortally to heart? For Donnegan, who saw all
+things, was blind to read the face of this girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It doesn't really matter,&quot; she murmured and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>A gentle motion, but it wrenched the heart of Donnegan. He was instantly
+before her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait here a moment. I'll be ready to go down immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. I can't take you from your&mdash;work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What work did she assign to him in her imagination? Endless planning of
+deviltry no doubt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall go with you,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;At first&mdash;I didn't dream it could
+be so important. Let me get my hat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left her and leaped back into the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am going down into The Corner for a moment,&quot; he said over his
+shoulder to George, as he took his belt down from the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The big man strode to the wall and took his hat from a nail.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not need you, George.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But George merely grinned, and his big teeth flashed at the master. And
+in the second place he took up a gun from the drawer and offered it to
+Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gun in that holster ain't loaded,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan considered him soberly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it. There'll be no need for a loaded gun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But once more George grinned. All at once Donnegan turned pale.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You dog,&quot; he whispered. &quot;Did you listen at the door when Nick was
+here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me?&quot; murmured George. &quot;No, I just been thinking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so it was that while Donnegan went down the hill with Lou Macon,
+carrying an empty-chambered revolver, George followed at a distance of a
+few paces, and he carried a loaded weapon unknown to Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>It was the dull time of the day in The Corner. There were very few
+people in the single street, and though most of them turned to look at
+the little man and the girl who walked beside him, not one of them
+either smiled or whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see?&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;You would have been perfectly safe&mdash;even from
+Lord Nick's ruffians. That was one of his men we passed back there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. I'm safe with you,&quot; said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>And when she looked up to him, the blood of Donnegan turned to fire.</p>
+
+<p>Out of a shop door before them came a girl with a parcel under her arm.
+She wore a gay, semi-masculine outfit, bright-colored, jaunty, and she
+walked with a lilt toward them. It was Nelly Lebrun. And as she passed
+them. Donnegan lifted his hat ceremoniously high. She nodded to him with
+a smile, but the smile aimed wan and small in an instant. There was a
+quick widening and then a narrowing of her eyes, and Donnegan knew that
+she had judged Lou Macon as only one girl can judge another who is
+lovelier.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at Lou to see if she had noticed, and he saw her raise her
+head and go on with her glance proudly straight before her; but her face
+was very pale, and Donnegan knew that she had guessed everything that
+was true and far more than the truth. Her tone at the door of the post
+office was ice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you are right, Mr. Donnegan. There's no danger. And if you have
+anything else to do, I can get back home easily enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll wait for you,&quot; murmured Donnegan sadly, and he stood as the door
+of the little building with bowed head.</p>
+
+<p>And then a murmur came down the street. How small it was, and how
+sinister! It consisted of exclamations begun, and then broken sharply
+off. A swirl of people divided as a cloud of dust divides before a blast
+of wind, and through them came the gigantic figure of Lord Nick!</p>
+
+<p>On he came, a gorgeous figure, a veritable king of men. He carried his
+hat in his hand and his red hair flamed, and he walked with great
+strides. Donnegan glanced behind him. The way was clear. If he turned,
+Lord Nick would not pursue him, he knew.</p>
+
+<p>But to flee even from his brother was more than he could do; for the
+woman he loved would know of it and could never understand.</p>
+
+<p>He touched the holster that held his empty gun&mdash;and waited!</p>
+
+<p>An eternity between every step of Lord Nick. Others seemed to have
+sensed the meaning of this silent scene. People seemed to stand frozen
+in the midst of gestures. Or was that because Donnegan's own thoughts
+were traveling at such lightning speed that the rest of the world seemed
+standing still? What kept Lou Macon? If she were with him, not even Lord
+Nick in his madness would force on a gunplay in the presence of a woman,
+no doubt.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick was suddenly close; he had paused; his voice rang over the
+street and struck upon Donnegan's ear as sounds come under water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye!&quot; called Donnegan softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the time!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Then a huge body leaped before him; it was big George. And as he sprang
+his gun went up with his hand in a line of light. The two reports came
+close together as finger taps on a table, and big George, completing his
+spring, lurched face downward into the sand.</p>
+
+<p>Dead? Not yet. All his faith and selflessness were nerving the big man.
+And Donnegan stood behind him, unarmed!</p>
+
+<p>He reared himself upon his knees&mdash;an imposing bulk, even then, and fired
+again. But his hand was trembling, and the bullet shattered a sign above
+the head of Lord Nick. He, in his turn, it seemed to Donnegan that the
+motion was slow, twitched up the muzzle of his weapon and fired once
+more from his hip. And big George lurched back on the sand, with his
+face upturned to Donnegan. He would have spoken, but a burst of blood
+choked him; yet his eyes fixed and glazed, he mustered his last
+strength and offered his revolver to Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan let the hand fall limp to the ground. There were voices
+about him; steps running; but all that he clearly saw was Lord Nick with
+his feet braced, and his head high.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan! Your gun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take it then!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But in the crisis, automatically Donnegan flipped his useless revolver
+out of its holster and into his hand. At the same instant the gun from
+Nick's hand seemed to blaze in his eyes. He was struck a crushing blow
+in his chest. He sank upon his knees: another blow struck his head, and
+Donnegan collapsed on the body of big George.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="44"></a><h2>44</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>An ancient drunkard in the second story of one of the stores across the
+street had roused himself at the sound of the shots and now he dragged
+himself to the window and began to scream: &quot;Murder! Murder!&quot; over and
+over, and even The Corner shuddered at the sound of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick, his revolver still in his hand, stalked through the film of
+people who now swirled about him, eager to see the dead. There was no
+call for the law to make its appearance, and the representatives of the
+law were wisely dilatory in The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>He stood over the two motionless figures with a stony face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You saw it, boys,&quot; he said. &quot;You know what I've borne from this fellow.
+The big man pulled his gun first on me. I shot in self-defense. As
+for&mdash;the other&mdash;it was a square fight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Square fight,&quot; someone answered. &quot;You both went for your irons at the
+same time. Pretty work, Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a solid phalanx of men which had collected around the moveless
+bodies as swiftly as mercury sinks through water. Yet none of them
+touched either Donnegan or George. And then the solid group dissolved at
+one side. It was the moan of a woman which had scattered it, and a
+yellow-haired girl slipped through them. She glanced once, in horror, at
+the mute faces of the men, and then there was a wail as she threw
+herself on the body of Donnegan. Somewhere she found the strength of a
+man to lift him and place him face upward on the sand, the gun trailing
+limply in his hand. And then she lay, half crouched over him, her face
+pressed to his heart&mdash;listening&mdash;listening for the stir of life.</p>
+
+<p>Shootings were common in The Corner; the daily mortality ran high; but
+there had never been aftermaths like this one. Men looked at one
+another, and then at Lord Nick. A bright spot of color had come in his
+cheeks, but his face was as hard as ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Get her away from him,&quot; someone murmured.</p>
+
+<p>And then another man cried out, stooped, wrenched the gun from the limp
+hand of Donnegan and opened the cylinder. He spun it: daylight was
+glittering through the empty cylinder.</p>
+
+<p>At this the man stiffened, and with a low bow which would have done
+credit to a drawing-room, he presented the weapon butt first to Lord
+Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's something the sheriff will want to see,&quot; he said, &quot;but maybe
+you'll be interested, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Lord Nick, with the gun in his hand, stared at it dumbly, turned the
+empty cylinder. And the full horror crept slowly on his mind. He had not
+killed his brother, he had murdered him. As his eyes cleared, he caught
+the glitter of the eyes which surrounded him.</p>
+
+<p>And then Lou Macon was on her knees with her hands clasped at her breast
+and her face glorious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Help!&quot; she was crying. &quot;Help me. He's not dead, but he's dying unless
+you help me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then Lord Nick cast away his own revolver and the empty gun of Donnegan.
+They heard him shout: &quot;Garry!&quot; and saw him stride forward.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly men pressed between, hard-jawed men who meant business. It was
+a cordon he would have to fight his way through: but he dissolved it
+with a word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fools! He's my brother!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And then he was on his knees opposite Lou Macon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You?&quot; she had stammered in horror.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His brother, girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And ten minutes later, when the bandages had been wound, there was a
+strange sight of Lord Nick striding up the street with his victim in his
+arms. How lightly he walked; and he was talking to the calm, pale face
+which rested in the hollow of his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will live? He will live?&quot; Lou Macon was pleading as she hurried at
+the side of Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God willing, he shall live!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>It was three hours before Donnegan opened his eyes. It was three days
+before he recovered his senses, and looking aside toward the door he saw
+a brilliant shaft of sunlight falling into the room. In the midst of it
+sat Lou Macon. She had fallen asleep in her great weariness now that the
+crisis was over. Behind her, standing, his great arms folded, stood the
+indomitable figure of Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan saw and wondered greatly. Then he closed his eyes dreamily.
+&quot;Hush,&quot; said Donnegan to himself, as if afraid that what he saw was all
+a dream. &quot;I'm in heaven, or if I'm not, it's still mighty good to be
+alive.&quot;</p>
+
+<div>*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 10066 ***</div>
+</body>
+</html>
+
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+
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+Project Gutenberg (https://www.gutenberg.org) public repository for
+eBook #10066 (https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/10066)
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Gunman's Reckoning
+
+Author: Max Brand
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2003 [EBook #10066]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUNMAN'S RECKONING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+GUNMAN'S RECKONING
+
+By
+
+Max Brand
+
+
+
+1921
+
+
+
+GUNMAN'S RECKONING
+
+
+
+1
+
+
+The fifty empty freights danced and rolled and rattled on the rough road
+bed and filled Jericho Pass with thunder; the big engine was laboring
+and grunting at the grade, but five cars back the noise of the
+locomotive was lost. Yet there is a way to talk above the noise of a
+freight train just as there is a way to whistle into the teeth of a
+stiff wind. This freight-car talk is pitched just above the ordinary
+tone--it is an overtone of conversation, one might say--and it is
+distinctly nasal. The brakie could talk above the racket, and so, of
+course, could Lefty Joe. They sat about in the center of the train, on
+the forward end of one of the cars. No matter how the train lurched and
+staggered over that fearful road bed, these two swayed in their places
+as easily and as safely as birds on swinging perches. The brakie had
+touched Lefty Joe for two dollars; he had secured fifty cents; and since
+the vigor of Lefty's oaths had convinced him that this was all the money
+the tramp had, the two now sat elbow to elbow and killed the distance
+with their talk.
+
+"It's like old times to have you here," said the brakie. "You used to
+play this line when you jumped from coast to coast."
+
+"Sure," said Lefty Joe, and he scowled at the mountains on either side
+of the pass. The train was gathering speed, and the peaks lurched
+eastward in a confused, ragged procession. "And a durned hard ride it's
+been many a time."
+
+"Kind of queer to see you," continued the brakie. "Heard you was rising
+in the world."
+
+He caught the face of the other with a rapid side glance, but Lefty Joe
+was sufficiently concealed by the dark.
+
+"Heard you were the main guy with a whole crowd behind you," went on the
+brakie.
+
+"Yeh?"
+
+"Sure. Heard you was riding the cushions, and all that."
+
+"Yeh?"
+
+"But I guess it was all bunk; here you are back again, anyway."
+
+"Yep," agreed Lefty.
+
+The brakie scratched his head, for the silence of the tramp convinced
+him that there had been, after all, a good deal of truth in the rumor.
+He ran back on another tack and slipped about Lefty.
+
+"I never laid much on what they said," he averred. "I know you, Lefty;
+you can do a lot, but when it comes to leading a whole gang, like they
+said you was, and all that--well, I knew it was a lie. Used to tell 'em
+that."
+
+"You talked foolish, then," burst out Lefty suddenly. "It was all
+straight."
+
+The brakie could hear the click of his companion's teeth at the period
+to this statement, as though he regretted his outburst.
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged," murmured the brakie innocently.
+
+Ordinarily, Lefty was not easily lured, but this night he apparently was
+in the mood for talk.
+
+"Kennebec Lou, the Clipper, and Suds. Them and a lot more. They was all
+with me; they was all under me; I was the Main Guy!"
+
+What a ring in his voice as he said it! The beaten general speaks thus
+of his past triumphs. The old man remembered his youth in such a voice.
+The brakie was impressed; he repeated the three names.
+
+"Even Suds?" he said. "Was even Suds with you?"
+
+"Even Suds!"
+
+The brakie stirred a little, wabbling from side to side as he found a
+more comfortable position; instead of looking straight before him, he
+kept a side-glance steadily upon his companion, and one could see that
+he intended to remember what was said on this night.
+
+"Even Suds," echoed the brakie. "Good heavens, and ain't he a man for
+you?"
+
+"He was a man," replied Lefty Joe with an indescribable emphasis.
+
+"Huh?"
+
+"He ain't a man any more."
+
+"Get bumped off?"
+
+"No. Busted."
+
+The brakie considered this bit of news and rolled it back and forth and
+tried its flavor against his gossiping palate.
+
+"Did you fix him after he left you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I see. You busted him while he was still with you. Then Kennebec Lou
+and the Clipper get sore at the way you treat Suds. So here you are back
+on the road with your gang all gone bust. Hard luck, Lefty."
+
+But Lefty whined with rage at this careless diagnosis of his downfall.
+
+"You're all wrong," he said. "You're all wrong. You don't know nothin'."
+
+The brakie waited, grinning securely into the night, and preparing his
+mind for the story. But the story consisted of one word, flung bitterly
+into the rushing air.
+
+"Donnegan!"
+
+"Him?" cried the brakie, starting in his place.
+
+"Donnegan!" cried Lefty, and his voice made the word into a curse.
+
+The brakie nodded.
+
+"Them that get tangled with Donnegan don't last long. You ought to know
+that."
+
+At this the grief, hate, and rage in Lefty Joe were blended and caused
+an explosion.
+
+"Confound Donnegan. Who's Donnegan? I ask you, who's Donnegan?"
+
+"A guy that makes trouble," replied the brakie, evidently hard put to it
+to find a definition.
+
+"Oh, don't he make it, though? Confound him!"
+
+"You ought to of stayed shut of him, Lefty."
+
+"Did I hunt him up, I ask you? Am I a nut? No, I ain't. Do I go along
+stepping on the tail of a rattlesnake? No more do I look up Donnegan."
+
+He groaned as he remembered.
+
+"I was going fine. Nothing could of been better. I had the boys
+together. We was doing so well that I was riding the cushions and I went
+around planning the jobs. Nice, clean work. No cans tied to it. But one
+day I had to meet Suds down in the Meriton Jungle. You know?"
+
+"I've heard--plenty," said the brakie.
+
+"Oh, it ain't so bad--the Meriton. I've seen a lot worse. Found Suds
+there, and Suds was playing Black Jack with an ol gink. He was trimmin'
+him close. Get Suds going good and he could read 'em three down and bury
+'em as fast as they came under the bottom card. Takes a hand to do that
+sort of work. And that's the sort of work Suds was doing for the old
+man. Pretty soon the game was over and the old man was busted. He took
+up his pack and beat it, saying nothing and looking sick. I started
+talking to Suds.
+
+"And while he was talking, along comes a bo and gives us a once-over. He
+knew me. 'Is this here a friend of yours, Lefty? he says.
+
+"'Sure,' says I.
+
+"'Then, he's in Dutch. He trimmed that old dad, and the dad is one of
+Donnegan's pals. Wait till Donnegan hears how your friend made the cards
+talk while he was skinning the old boy!
+
+"He passes me the wink and goes on. Made me sick. I turned to Suds, and
+the fool hadn't batted an eye. Never even heard of Donnegan. You know
+how it is? Half the road never heard of it; part of the roads don't know
+nothin' else. He's like a jumpin tornado; hits every ten miles and don't
+bend a blade of grass in between.
+
+"Took me about five minutes to tell Suds about Donnegan. Then Suds let
+out a grunt and started down the trail for the old dad. Missed him. Dad
+had got out of the Jungle and copped a rattler. Suds come back half
+green and half yeller.
+
+"'I've done it; I've spilled the beans,' he says.
+
+"'That ain't half sayin' it,' says I.
+
+"Well, we lit out after that and beat it down the line as fast as we
+could. We got the rest of the boys together; I had a swell job planned
+up. Everything staked. Then, the first news come that Donnegan was after
+Suds.
+
+"News just dropped on us out of the sky. Suds, you know how he is.
+Strong bluff. Didn't bat an eye. Laughed at this Donnegan. Got a hold of
+an old pal of his, named Levine, and he is a mighty hot scrapper. From a
+knife to a toenail, they was nothing that Levine couldn't use in a
+fight. Suds sent him out to cross Donnegan's trail.
+
+"He crossed it, well enough. Suds got a telegram a couple days later
+saying that Levine had run into a wild cat and was considerable chawed
+and would Suds send him a stake to pay the doctor?
+
+"Well, after that Suds got sort of nervous. Didn't take no interest in
+his work no more. Kept a weather eye out watching for the coming of
+Donnegan. And pretty soon he up and cleaned out of camp.
+
+"Next day, sure enough, along comes Donnegan and asks for Suds. We kept
+still--all but Kennebec Lou. Kennebec is some fighter himself. Two
+hundred pounds of mule muscle with the brain of a devil to tell what to
+do--yes, you can lay it ten to one that Kennebec is some fighter. That
+day he had a good edge from a bottle of rye he was trying for a friend.
+
+"He didn't need to go far to find trouble in Donnegan. A wink and a grin
+was all they needed for a password, and then they went at each other's
+throats. Kennebec made the first pass and hit thin air; and before he
+got back on his heels, Donnegan had hit him four times. Then Kennebec
+jumped back and took a fresh start with a knife."
+
+Here Lefty Joe paused and sighed.
+
+He continued, after a long interval: "Five minutes later we was all busy
+tyin' up what was left of Kennebec; Donnegan was down the road whistlin'
+like a bird. And that was the end of my gang. What with Kennebec Lou and
+Suds both gone, what chance did I have to hold the boys together?"
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+
+The brakie heard this recital with the keenest interest, nodding from
+time to time.
+
+"What beats me, Lefty," he said at the end of the story, "is why you
+didn't knife into the fight yourself and take a hand with Donnegan"
+
+At this Lefty was silent. It was rather the silence of one which cannot
+tell whether or not it is worth while to speak than it was the silence
+of one who needs time for thought.
+
+"I'll tell you why, bo. It's because when I take a trail like that it
+only has one end I'm going to bump off the other bird or he's going to
+bump off me"
+
+The brakie cleared his throat
+
+"Look here," he said, "looks to me like a queer thing that you're on
+this train"
+
+"Does it" queried Lefty softly "Why?"
+
+"Because Donnegan is two cars back, asleep."
+
+"The devil you say!"
+
+The brakie broke into laughter
+
+"Don't kid yourself along," he warned. "Don't do it. It ain't
+wise--with me."
+
+"What you mean?"
+
+"Come on, Lefty. Come clean. You better do a fade off this train."
+
+"Why, you fool--"
+
+"It don't work, Joe. Why, the minute I seen you I knew why you was here.
+I knew you meant to croak Donnegan."
+
+"Me croak him? Why should I croak him?"
+
+"Because you been trailing him two thousand miles. Because you ain't got
+the nerve to meet him face to face and you got to sneak in and take a
+crack at him while he's lying asleep. That's you, Lefty Joe!"
+
+He saw Lefty sway toward him; but, all stories aside, it is a very bold
+tramp that cares for argument of a serious nature with a brakie. And
+even Lefty Joe was deterred from violent action. In the darkness his
+upper lip twitched, but he carefully smoothed his voice.
+
+"You don't know nothing, pal," he declared.
+
+"Don't I?"
+
+"Nothing," repeated Lefty.
+
+He reached into his clothes and produced something which rustled in the
+rush of wind. He fumbled, and finally passed a scrap of the paper into
+the hand of the brakie.
+
+"My heavens," drawled the latter. "D'you think you can fix me with a
+buck for a job like this? You can't bribe me to stand around while you
+bump off Donnegan. Can't be done, Lefty!"
+
+"One buck, did you say?"
+
+Lefty Joe expertly lighted a match in spite of the roaring wind, and by
+this wild light the brakie read the denomination of the bill with a
+gasp. He rolled up his face and was in time to catch the sneer on the
+face of Lefty before a gust snatched away the light of the match.
+
+They had topped the highest point in Jericho Pass and now the long train
+dropped into the down grade with terrific speed. The wind became a
+hurricane. But to the brakie all this was no more than a calm night. His
+thoughts were raging in him, and if he looked back far enough he
+remembered the dollar which Donnegan had given him; and how he had
+promised Donnegan to give the warning before anything went wrong. He
+thought of this, but rustling against the palm of his right hand was
+the bill whose denomination he had read, and that figure ate into his
+memory, ate into his brain.
+
+After all what was Donnegan to him? What was Donnegan but a worthless
+tramp? Without any answer to that last monosyllabic query, the brakie
+hunched forward, and began to work his way up the train.
+
+The tramp watched him go with laughter. It was silent laughter. In the
+most quiet room it would not have sounded louder than a continual, light
+hissing noise. Then he, in turn, moved from his place, and worked his
+way along the train in the opposite direction to that in which the
+brakie had disappeared.
+
+He went expertly, swinging from car to car with apelike clumsiness--and
+surety. Two cars back. It was not so easy to reach the sliding side door
+of that empty car. Considering the fact that it was night, that the
+train was bucking furiously over the old roadbed, Lefty had a not
+altogether simple task before him. But he managed it with the same
+apelike adroitness. He could climb with his feet as well as his hands.
+He would trust a ledge as well as he would trust the rung of a ladder.
+
+Under his discreet manipulations from above the door loosened and it
+became possible to work it back. But even this the tramp did with
+considerable care. He took advantage of the lurching of the train, and
+every time the car jerked he forced the door to roll a little, so that
+it might seem for all the world as though the motion of the train alone
+were operating it.
+
+For suppose that Donnegan wakened out of his sound sleep and observed
+the motion of the door; he would be suspicious if the door opened in a
+single continued motion; but if it worked in these degrees he would be
+hypersuspicious if he dreamed of danger. So the tramp gave five whole
+minutes to that work.
+
+When it was done he waited for a time, another five minutes, perhaps, to
+see if the door would be moved back. And when it was not disturbed, but
+allowed to stand open, he knew that Donnegan still slept.
+
+It was time then for action, and Lefty Joe prepared for the descent into
+the home of the enemy. Let it not be thought that he approached this
+moment with a fallen heart, and with a cringing, snaky feeling as a man
+might be expected to feel when he approached to murder a sleeping
+foeman. For that was not Lefty's emotion at all. Rather he was overcome
+by a tremendous happiness. He could have sung with joy at the thought
+that he was about to rid himself of this pest.
+
+True, the gang was broken up. But it might rise again. Donnegan had
+fallen upon it like a blight. But with Donnegan out of the way would not
+Suds come back to him instantly? And would not Kennebec Lou himself
+return in admiration of a man who had done what he, Kennebec, could not
+do? With those two as a nucleus, how greatly might he not build!
+
+Justice must be done to Lefty Joe. He approached this murder as a
+statesman approaches the removal of a foe from the path of public
+prosperity. There was no more rancor in his attitude. It was rather the
+blissful largeness of the heart that comes to the politician when he
+unearths the scandal which will blight the race of his rival.
+
+With the peaceful smile of a child, therefore, Lefty Joe lay stretched
+at full length along the top of the car and made his choice of weapons.
+On the whole, his usual preference, day or night, was for a revolver.
+Give him a gat and Lefty was at home in any company. But he had reasons
+for transferring his alliance on this occasion. In the first place, a
+box car which is reeling and pitching to and fro, from side to side, is
+not a very good shooting platform--even for a snapshot like Lefty Joe.
+Also, the pitch darkness in the car would be a further annoyance to good
+aim. And in the third and most decisive place, if he were to miss his
+first shot he would not be extremely apt to place his second bullet. For
+Donnegan had a reputation with his own revolver. Indeed, it was said
+that he rarely carried the weapon, because when he did he was always
+tempted too strongly to use it. So that the chances were large that
+Donnegan would not have the gun now. Yet if he did have it--if he,
+Lefty, did miss his first shot--then the story would be brief and bitter
+indeed.
+
+On the other hand, a knife offered advantages almost too numerous to be
+listed. It gave one the deadly assurance which only comes with the
+knowledge of an edge of steel in one's hand. And when the knife reaches
+its mark it ends a battle at a stroke.
+
+Of course these doubts and considerations pro and con went through the
+mind of the tramp in about the same space of time that it requires for a
+dog to waken, snap at a fly, and drowse again. Eventually, he took out
+his knife. It was a sheath knife which he wore from a noose of silk
+around his throat, and it always lay closest to his heart. The blade of
+the knife was of the finest Spanish steel, in the days when Spanish
+smiths knew how to draw out steel to a streak of light; the handle of
+the knife was from Milan. On the whole, it was a delicate and beautiful
+weapon--and it had the durable suppleness of--say--hatred itself.
+
+Lefty Joe, like a pirate in a tale, took this weapon between his teeth;
+allowed his squat, heavy bulk to swing down and dangle at arm's length
+for an instant, and then he swung himself a little and landed softly on
+the floor of the car.
+
+Who has not heard snow drop from the branch upon other snow beneath?
+That was the way Lefty Joe dropped to the floor of the car. He remained
+as he had fallen; crouched, alert, with one hand spread out on the
+boards to balance him and give him a leverage and a start in case he
+should wish to spring in any direction.
+
+Then he began to probe the darkness in every direction; with every
+glance he allowed his head to dart out a little. The movement was like a
+chicken pecking at imaginary grains of corn. But eventually he satisfied
+himself that his quarry lay in the forward end of the car; that he was
+prone; that he, Lefty, had accomplished nine-tenths of his purpose by
+entering the place of his enemy unobserved.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+
+But even though this major step was accomplished successfully, Lefty Joe
+was not the man to abandon caution in the midst of an enterprise. The
+roar of the train would have covered sounds ten times as loud as those
+of his snaky approach, yet he glided forward with as much care as though
+he were stepping on old stairs in a silent house. He could see a vague
+shadow--Donnegan; but chiefly he worked by that peculiar sense of
+direction which some people possess in a dim light. The blind, of
+course, have that sense in a high degree of sensitiveness, but even
+those who are not blind may learn to trust the peculiar and inverted
+sense of direction.
+
+With this to aid him, Lefty Joe went steadily, slowly across the first
+and most dangerous stage of his journey. That is, he got away from the
+square of the open door, where the faint starlight might vaguely serve
+to silhouette his body. After this, it was easier work.
+
+Of course, when he alighted on the floor of the car, the knife had been
+transferred from his teeth to his left hand; and all during his progress
+forward the knife was being balanced delicately, as though he were not
+yet quite sure of the weight of the weapon. Just as a prize fighter
+keeps his deadly, poised hands in play, moving them as though he fears
+to lose his intimate touch with them.
+
+This stalking had occupied a matter of split seconds. Now Lefty Joe rose
+slowly. He was leaning very far forward, and he warded against the roll
+of the car by spreading out his right hand close to the floor; his left
+hand he poised with the knife, and he began to gather his muscles for
+the leap. He had already taken the last preliminary movement--he had
+swung himself to the right side a little and, lightening his left foot,
+had thrown all his weight upon the right--in fact, his body was
+literally suspended in the instant of springing, catlike, when the
+shadow which was Donnegan came to life.
+
+The shadow convulsed as shadows are apt to swirl in a green pool when a
+stone is dropped into it; and a bit of board two feet long and some
+eight inches wide cracked against the shins of Lefty Joe.
+
+It was about the least dramatic weapon that could have been chosen under
+those circumstances, but certainly no other defense could have
+frustrated Lefty's spring so completely. Instead of launching out in a
+compact mass whose point of contact was the reaching knife, Lefty
+crawled stupidly forward upon his knees, and had to throw out his knife
+hand to save his balance.
+
+It is a singular thing to note how important balance is to men. Animals
+fight, as a rule, just as well on their backs as they do on their feet.
+They can lie on their sides and bite; they can swing their claws even
+while they are dropping through the air. But man needs poise and balance
+before he can act. What is speed in a fighter? It is not so much an
+affair of the muscles as it is the power of the brain to adapt itself
+instantly to each new move and put the body in a state of balance. In
+the prize ring speed does not mean the ability to strike one lightning
+blow, but rather that, having finished one drive, the fighter is in
+position to hit again, and then again, so that no matter where the
+impetus of his last lunge has placed him he is ready and poised to shoot
+all his weight behind his fist again and drive it accurately at a
+vulnerable spot. Individually the actions may be slow; but the series of
+efforts seem rapid. That is why a superior boxer seems to hypnotize his
+antagonist with movements which to the spectator seem perfectly easy,
+slow, and sure.
+
+But if Lefty lacked much in agility, he had an animallike sense of
+balance. Sprawling, helpless, he saw the convulsed shadow that was
+Donnegan take form as a straight shooting body that plunged through the
+air above him. Lefty Joe dug his left elbow into the floor of the car
+and whirled back upon his shoulders, bunching his knees high over his
+stomach. Nine chances out of ten, if Donnegan had fallen flatwise upon
+this alert enemy, he would have received those knees in the pit of his
+own stomach and instantly been paralyzed. But in the jumping, rattling
+car even Donnegan was capable of making mistakes. His mistake in this
+instance saved his life, for springing too far, he came down not in
+reaching distance of Lefty's throat, but with his chest on the knees of
+the older tramp.
+
+As a result, Donnegan was promptly kicked head over heels and tumbled
+the length of the car. Lefty was on his feet and plunging after the
+tumbling form in the twinkling of an eye, literally speaking, and he was
+only kept from burying his knife in the flesh of his foe by a sway of
+the car that staggered him in the act of striking. Donnegan, the next
+instant, was beyond reach. He had struck the end of the car and
+rebounded like a ball of rubber at a tangent. He slid into the shadows,
+and Lefty, putting his own shoulders to the wall, felt for his revolver
+and knew that he was lost. He had failed in his first surprise attack,
+and without surprise to help him now he was gone. He weighed his
+revolver, decided that it would be madness to use it, for if he missed,
+Donnegan would instantly be guided by the flash to shoot him full of
+holes.
+
+Something slipped by the open door--something that glimmered faintly;
+and Lefty Joe knew that it was the red head of Donnegan. Donnegan,
+soft-footed as a shadow among shadows. Donnegan on a blood trail. It
+lowered the heartbeat of Lefty Joe to a tremendous, slow pulse. In that
+moment he gave up hope and, resigning himself to die, determined to
+fight to the last gasp, as became one of his reputation and national
+celebrity on "the road."
+
+Yet Lefty Joe was no common man and no common fighter. No, let the shade
+of Rusty Dick, whom Lefty met and beat in his glorious prime--let this
+shade arise and speak for the prowess of Lefty Joe. In fact it was
+because he was such a good fighter himself that he recognized his
+helplessness in the hands of Donnegan.
+
+The faint glimmer of color had passed the door. It was dissolved in
+deeper shadows at once, and soundlessly; Lefty knew that Donnegan was
+closer and closer.
+
+Of one thing he felt more and more confident, that Donnegan did not have
+his revolver with him. Otherwise, he would have used it before. For what
+was darkness to this devil, Donnegan. He walked like a cat, and most
+likely he could see like a cat in the dark. Instinctively the older
+tramp braced himself with his right hand held at a guard before his
+breast and the knife poised in his left, just as a man would prepare to
+meet the attack of a panther. He even took to probing the darkness in a
+strange hope to catch the glimmer of the eyes of Donnegan as he moved to
+the attack. If there were a hair's breadth of light, then Donnegan
+himself must go down. A single blow would do it.
+
+But the devil had instructed his favorite Donnegan how to fight. He did
+not come lunging through the shadows to meet the point of that knife.
+Instead, he had worked a snaky way along the floor and now he leaped in
+and up at Lefty, taking him under the arms.
+
+A dozen hands, it seemed, laid hold on Lefty. He fought like a demon and
+tore himself away, but the multitude of hands pursued him. They were
+small hands. Where they closed they tore the clothes and bit into his
+very flesh. Once a hand had him by the throat, and when Lefty jerked
+himself away it was with a feeling that his flesh had been seared by
+five points of red-hot iron. All this time his knife was darting; once
+it ripped through cloth, but never once did it find the target. And half
+a second later Donnegan got his hold. The flash of the knife as Lefty
+raised it must have guided the other. He shot his right hand up behind
+the left shoulder of the other and imprisoned the wrist. Not only did it
+make the knife hand helpless, but by bearing down with his own weight
+Donnegan could put his enemy in most exquisite torture.
+
+For an instant they whirled; then they went down, and Lefty was on top.
+Only for a moment. The impetus which had sent him to the floor was used
+by Donnegan to turn them over, and once fairly on top his left hand was
+instantly at the throat of Lefty.
+
+Twice Lefty made enormous efforts, but then he was done. About his body
+the limbs of Donnegan were twisted, tightening with incredible force;
+just as hot iron bands sink resistlessly into place. The strangle-hold
+cut away life at its source. Once he strove to bury his teeth in the arm
+of Donnegan. Once, as the horror caught at him, he strove to shriek for
+help. All he succeeded in doing was in raising an awful, sobbing
+whisper. Then, looking death in the face, Lefty plunged into the great
+darkness.
+
+
+
+
+4
+
+
+When he wakened, he jumped at a stride into the full possession of his
+faculties. He had been placed near the open door, and the rush of night
+air had done its work in reviving him. But Lefty, drawn back to life,
+felt only a vague wonder that his life had not been taken. Perhaps he
+was being reserved by the victor for an Indian death of torment. He felt
+cautiously and found that not only were his hands free, but his revolver
+had not been taken from him. A familiar weight was on his chest--the
+very knife had been returned to its sheath.
+
+Had Donnegan returned these things to show how perfectly he despised his
+enemy?
+
+"He's gone!" groaned the tramp, sitting up quickly.
+
+"He's here," said a voice that cut easily through the roar of the train.
+"Waiting for you, Lefty."
+
+The tramp was staggered again. But then, who had ever been able to
+fathom the ways of Donnegan?
+
+"Donnegan!" he cried with a sudden recklessness.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You're a fool!"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"For not finishing the job."
+
+Donnegan began to laugh. In the uproar of the train it was impossible
+really to hear the sound, but Lefty caught the pulse of it. He fingered
+his bruised throat; swallowing was a painful effort. And an
+indescribable feeling came over him as he realized that he sat armed to
+the teeth within a yard of the man he wanted to kill, and yet he was as
+effectively rendered helpless as though iron shackles had been locked on
+his wrists and legs. The night light came through the doorway, and he
+could make out the slender outline of Donnegan and again he caught the
+faint luster of that red hair; and out of the shadowy form a singular
+power emanated and sapped his strength at the root.
+
+Yet he went on viciously: "Sooner or later, Donnegan, I'll get you!"
+
+The red head of Donnegan moved, and Lefty Joe knew that the younger man
+was laughing again.
+
+"Why are you after me?" he asked at length.
+
+It was another blow in the face of Lefty. He sat for a time blinking
+with owlish stupidity.
+
+"Why?" he echoed. And he spoke his astonishment from the heart.
+
+"Why am I after you?" he said again. "Why, confound you, ain't you
+Donnegan?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Don't the whole road know that I'm after you and you after me?"
+
+"The whole road is crazy. I'm not after you."
+
+Lefty choked.
+
+"Maybe I been dreaming. Maybe you didn't bust up the gang? Maybe you
+didn't clean up on Suds and Kennebec?"
+
+"Suds? Kennebec? I sort of remember meeting them."
+
+"You sort of--the devil!" Lefty Joe sputtered the words. "And after you
+cleaned up my crowd, ain't it natural and good sense for you to go on
+and try to clean up on me?"
+
+"Sounds like it."
+
+"But I figured to beat you to it. I cut in on your trail, Donnegan, and
+before I leave it you'll know a lot more about me."
+
+"You're warning me ahead of time?"
+
+"You've played this game square with me; I'll play square with you.
+Next time there'll be no slips, Donnegan. I dunno why you should of
+picked on me, though. Just the natural devil in you."
+
+"I haven't picked on you," said Donnegan.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I'll give you my word."
+
+A tingle ran through the blood of Lefty Joe. Somewhere he had heard, in
+rumor, that the word of Donnegan was as good as gold. He recalled that
+rumor now and something of dignity in the manner with which Donnegan
+made his announcement carried a heavy weight. As a rule, the tramps
+vowed with many oaths; here was one of the nights of the road who made
+his bare word sufficient. And Lefty Joe heard with great wonder.
+
+"All I ask," he said, "is why you hounded my gang, if you wasn't after
+me?"
+
+"I didn't hound them. I ran into Suds by accident. We had trouble. Then
+Levine. Then Kennebec Lou tried to take a fall out of me."
+
+A note of whimsical protest crept into the voice of Donnegan.
+
+"Somehow there's always a fight wherever I go," he said. "Fights just
+sort of grow up around me."
+
+Lefty Joe snarled.
+
+"You didn't mean nothing by just 'happening' to run into three of my
+boys one after another?"
+
+"Not a thing."
+
+Lefty rocked himself back and forth in an ecstasy of impatience.
+
+"Why don't you stay put?" he complained. "Why don't you stake out your
+own ground and stay put in it? You cut in on every guy's territory.
+There ain't any privacy any more since you hit the road. What you got? A
+roving commission?"
+
+Donnegan waited for a moment before he answered. And when he spoke his
+voice had altered. Indeed, he had remarkable ability to pitch his voice
+into the roar of the freight train, and above or beneath it, and give it
+a quality such as he pleased.
+
+"I'm following a trail, but not yours," he admitted at length. "I'm
+following a trail. I've been at it these two years and nothing has
+come of it."
+
+"Who you after?"
+
+"A man with red hair."
+
+"That tells me a lot."
+
+Donnegan refused to explain.
+
+"What you got against him--the color of his hair?"
+
+And Lefty roared contentedly at his own stale jest.
+
+"It's no good," replied Donnegan. "I'll never get on the trail."
+
+Lefty broke in: "You mean to say you've been working two solid years and
+all on a trail that you ain't even found?"
+
+The silence answered him in the affirmative.
+
+"Ain't nobody been able to tip you off to him?" went on Lefty, intensely
+interested.
+
+"Nobody. You see, he's a hard sort to describe. Red hair, that's all
+there was about him for a clue. But if any one ever saw him stripped
+they'd remember him by a big blotchy birthmark on his left shoulder."
+
+"Eh?" grunted Lefty Joe.
+
+He added: "What was his name?"
+
+"Don't know. He changed monikers when he took to the road."
+
+"What was he to you?"
+
+"A man I'm going to find."
+
+"No matter where the trail takes you?"
+
+"No matter where."
+
+At this Lefty was seized with unaccountable laughter. He literally
+strained his lungs with that Homeric outburst. When he wiped the tears
+from his eyes, at length, the shadow on the opposite side of the doorway
+had disappeared. He found his companion leaning over him, and this time
+he could catch the dull glint of starlight on both hair and eyes.
+
+"What d'you know?" asked Donnegan.
+
+"How do you stand toward this bird with the birthmark and the red hair?"
+queried Lefty with caution.
+
+"What d'you know?" insisted Donnegan.
+
+All at once passion shook him; he fastened his grip in the shoulder of
+the larger man, and his fingertips worked toward the bone.
+
+"What do you know?" he repeated for the third time, and now there was no
+hint of laughter in the hard voice of Lefty.
+
+"You fool, if you follow that trail you'll go to the devil. It was
+Rusty Dick; and he's dead!"
+
+His triumphant laughter came again, but Donnegan cut into it.
+
+"Rusty Dick was the one you--killed!"
+
+"Sure. What of it? We fought fair and square."
+
+"Then Rusty wasn't the man I want. The man I want would of eaten two
+like you, Lefty."
+
+"What about the birthmark? It sure was on his shoulder; Donnegan."
+
+"Heavens!" whispered Donnegan.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Rusty Dick," gasped Donnegan. "Yes, it must have been he."
+
+"Sure it was. What did you have against him?"
+
+"It was a matter of blood--between us," stammered Donnegan.
+
+His voice rose in a peculiar manner, so that Lefty shrank involuntarily.
+
+"You killed Rusty?"
+
+"Ask any of the boys. But between you and me, it was the booze that
+licked Rusty Dick. I just finished up the job and surprised everybody."
+
+The train was out of the mountains and in a country of scattering hills,
+but here it struck a steep grade and settled down to a grind of slow
+labor; the rails hummed, and suspense filled the freight car.
+
+"Hey," cried Lefty suddenly. "You fool, you'll do a flop out the door in
+about a minute!"
+
+He even reached out to steady the toppling figure, but Donnegan pitched
+straight out into the night. Lefty craned his neck from the door,
+studying the roadbed, but at that moment the locomotive topped the
+little rise and the whole train lurched forward.
+
+"After all," murmured Lefty Joe, "it sounds like Donnegan. Hated a guy
+so bad that he hadn't any use for livin' when he heard the other guy was
+dead. But I'm never goin' to cross his path again, I hope."
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+
+But Donnegan had leaped clear of the roadbed, and he struck almost to
+the knees in a drift of sand. Otherwise, he might well have broken his
+legs with that foolhardy chance. As it was, the fall whirled him over
+and over, and by the time he had picked himself up the lighted caboose
+of the train was rocking past him. Donnegan watched it grow small in the
+distance, and then, when it was only a red, uncertain star far down the
+track, he turned to the vast country around him.
+
+The mountains were to his right, not far away, but caught up behind the
+shadows so that it seemed a great distance. Like all huge, half-seen
+things they seemed in motion toward him. For the rest, he was in bare,
+rolling country. The sky line everywhere was clean; there was hardly a
+sign of a tree. He knew, by a little reflection, that this must be
+cattle country, for the brakie had intimated as much in their talk just
+before dusk. Now it was early night, and a wind began to rise, blowing
+down the valley with a keen motion and a rapidly lessening temperature,
+so that Donnegan saw he must get to a shelter. He could, if necessary,
+endure any privation, but his tastes were for luxurious comfort.
+Accordingly he considered the landscape with gloomy disapproval. He was
+almost inclined to regret his plunge from the lumbering freight train.
+Two things had governed him in making that move. First, when he
+discovered that the long trail he followed was definitely fruitless, he
+was filled with a great desire to cut himself away from his past and
+make a new start. Secondly, when he learned that Rusty Dick had been
+killed by Joe, he wanted desperately to get the throttle of the latter
+under his thumb. If ever a man risked his life to avoid a sin, it was
+Donnegan jumping from the train to keep from murder.
+
+He stooped to sight along the ground, for this is the best way at night
+and often horizon lights are revealed in this manner. But now Donnegan
+saw nothing to serve as a guide. He therefore drew in his belt until it
+fitted snug about his gaunt waist, settled his cap firmly, and headed
+straight into the wind.
+
+Nothing could have shown his character more distinctly.
+
+When in doubt, head into the wind.
+
+With a jaunty, swinging step he sauntered along, and this time, at
+least, his tactics found an early reward. Topping the first large rise
+of ground, he saw in the hollow beneath him the outline of a large
+building. And as he approached it, the wind clearing a high blowing mist
+from the stars, he saw a jumble of outlying houses. Sheds, barns,
+corrals--it was the nucleus of a big ranch. It is a maxim that, if you
+wish to know a man look at his library and if you wish to know a
+rancher, look at his barn. Donnegan made a small detour to the left and
+headed for the largest of the barns.
+
+He entered it by the big, sliding door, which stood open; he looked up,
+and saw the stars shining through a gap in the roof. And then he stood
+quietly for a time, listening to the voices of the wind in the ruin.
+Oddly enough, it was pleasant to Donnegan. His own troubles and sorrow
+had poured upon him so thickly in the past hour or so that it was
+soothing to find evidence of the distress of others. But perhaps this
+meant that the entire establishment was deserted.
+
+He left the barn and went toward the house. Not until he was close under
+its wall did he come to appreciate its size. It was one of those great,
+rambling, two-storied structures which the cattle kings of the past
+generation were fond of building. Standing close to it, he heard none of
+the intimate sounds of the storm blowing through cracks and broken
+walls; no matter into what disrepair the barns had fallen, the house was
+still solid; only about the edges of the building the storm kept
+murmuring.
+
+Yet there was not a light, neither above nor below. He came to the front
+of the house. Still no sign of life. He stood at the door and knocked
+loudly upon it, and though, when he tried the knob, he found that the
+door was latched, yet no one came in response. He knocked again, and
+putting his ear close he heard the echoes walk through the interior of
+the building.
+
+After this, the wind rose in sudden strength and deafened him with
+rattlings; above him, a shutter was swung open and then crashed to, so
+that the opening of the door was a shock of surprise to Donnegan. A dim
+light from a source which he could not direct suffused the interior of
+the hall; the door itself was worked open a matter of inches and
+Donnegan was aware of two keen old eyes glittering out at him. Beyond
+this he could distinguish nothing.
+
+"Who are you?" asked a woman's voice. "And what do you want?"
+
+"I'm a stranger, and I want something to eat and a place to sleep. This
+house looks as if it might have spare rooms."
+
+"Where d'you come from?"
+
+"Yonder," said Donnegan, with a sufficiently noncommittal gesture.
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"I don't know you. Be off with you, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+He inserted his foot in the closing crack of the door.
+
+"Tell me where I'm to go?" he persisted.
+
+At this her voice rose in pitch, with squeaky rage.
+
+"I'll raise the house on you!"
+
+"Raise 'em. Call down the man of the house. I can talk to him better
+than I can to you; but I won't walk off like this. If you can feed me,
+I'll pay you for what I eat."
+
+A shrill cackling--he could not make out the words. And since patience
+was not the first of Donnegan's virtues, he seized on the knob of the
+door and deliberately pressed it wide. Standing in the hall, now, and
+closing the door slowly behind him, he saw a woman with old, keen eyes
+shrinking away toward the staircase. She was evidently in great fear,
+but there was something infinitely malicious in the manner in which she
+kept working her lips soundlessly. She was shrinking, and half turned
+away, yet there was a suggestion that in an instant she might whirl and
+fly at his face. The door now clicked, and with the windstorm shut away
+Donnegan had a queer feeling of being trapped.
+
+"Now call the man of the house," he repeated. "See if I can't come to
+terms with him."
+
+"He'd make short work of you if he came," she replied. She broke into a
+shrill laughter, and Donnegan thought he had never seen a face so ugly.
+"If he came," she said, "you'd rue the day."
+
+"Well, I'll talk to you, then. I'm not asking charity. I want to pay for
+what I get."
+
+"This ain't a hotel. You go on down the road. Inside eight miles you'll
+come to the town."
+
+"Eight miles!"
+
+"That's nothing for a man to ride."
+
+"Not at all, if I had something to ride."
+
+"You ain't got a horse?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then how do you come here?"
+
+"I walked."
+
+If this sharpened her suspicions, it sharpened her fear also. She put
+one foot on the lowest step of the stairs.
+
+"Be off with you, Mr. Donnegally, or whatever your outlandish name is.
+You'll get nothing here. What brings you--"
+
+A door closed and a footstep sounded lightly on the floor above. And
+Donnegan, already alert in the strange atmosphere of this house, gave
+back a pace so as to get an honest wall behind him. He noted that the
+step was quick and small, and preparing himself to meet a wisp of
+manhood--which, for that matter, was the type he was most inclined to
+fear--Donnegan kept a corner glance upon the old woman at the foot of
+the stairs and steadily surveyed the shadows at the head of the rise.
+
+Out of that darkness a foot slipped; not even a boy's foot--a very
+child's. The shock of it made Donnegan relax his caution for an instant,
+and in that instant she came into the reach of the light. It was a
+wretched light at best, for it came from a lamp with smoky chimney
+which the old hag carried, and at the raising and lowering of her hand
+the flame jumped and died in the throat of the chimney and set the hall
+awash with shadows. Falling away to a point of yellow, the lamp allowed
+the hall to assume a certain indefinite dignity of height and breadth
+and calm proportions; but when the flame rose Donnegan could see the
+broken balusters of the balustrade, the carpet, faded past any design
+and worn to rattiness, wall paper which had rotted or dried away and
+hung in crisp tatters here and there, and on the ceiling an irregular
+patch from which the plaster had fallen and exposed the lathwork. But at
+the coming of the girl the old woman had turned, and as she did the
+flame tossed up in the lamp and Donnegan could see the newcomer
+distinctly.
+
+Once before his heart had risen as it rose now. It had been the fag end
+of a long party, and Donnegan, rousing from a drunken sleep, staggered
+to the window. Leaning there to get the freshness of the night air
+against his hot face, he had looked up, and saw the white face of the
+moon going up the sky; and a sudden sense of the blackness and loathing
+against the city had come upon Donnegan, and the murky color of his own
+life; and when he turned away from the window he was sober. And so it
+was that he now stared up at the girl. At her breast she held a cloak
+together with one hand and the other hand touched the railing of the
+stairs. He saw one foot suspended for the next step, as though the sight
+of him kept her back in fear. To the miserable soul of Donnegan she
+seemed all that was lovely, young, and pure; and her hair, old gold in
+the shadow and pale gold where the lamp struck it, was to Donnegan like
+a miraculous light about her face.
+
+Indeed, that little pause was a great and awful moment. For considering
+that Donnegan, who had gone through his whole life with his eyes ready
+either to mock or hate, and who had rarely used his hand except to make
+a fist of it; Donnegan who had never, so far as is known, had a
+companion; who had asked the world for action, not kindness; this
+Donnegan now stood straight with his back against the wall, and poured
+out the story of his wayward life to a mere slip of a girl.
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+
+Even the old woman, whose eyes were sharpened by her habit of looking
+constantly for the weaknesses and vices of men, could not guess what was
+going on behind the thin, rather ugly face of Donnegan; the girl,
+perhaps, may have seen more. For she caught the glitter of his active
+eyes even at that distance. The hag began to explain with vicious
+gestures that set the light flaring up and down.
+
+"He ain't come from nowhere, Lou," she said. "He ain't going nowhere; he
+wants to stay here for the night."
+
+The foot which had been suspended to take the next step was now
+withdrawn. Donnegan, remembered at last, whipped off his cap, and at
+once the light flared and burned upon his hair. It was a wonderful red;
+it shone, and it had a terrible blood tinge so that his face seemed pale
+beneath it. There were three things that made up the peculiar dominance
+of Donnegan's countenance. The three things were the hair, the uneasy,
+bright eyes, and the rather thin, compressed lips. When Donnegan slept
+he seemed about to waken from a vigorous dream; when he sat down he
+seemed about to leap to his feet; and when he was standing he gave that
+impression of a poise which is ready for anything. It was no wonder that
+the girl, seeing that face and that alert, aggressive body, shrank a
+little on the stairs. Donnegan, that instant, knew that these two women
+were really alone in the house as far as fighting men were concerned.
+
+And the fact disturbed him more than a leveled gun would have done. He
+went to the foot of the stairs, even past the old woman, and, raising
+his head, he spoke to the girl.
+
+"My name's Donnegan. I came over from the railroad--walked. I don't want
+to walk that other eight miles unless there's a real need for it. I--"
+Why did he pause? "I'll pay for anything I get here."
+
+His voice was not too certain; behind his teeth there was knocking a
+desire to cry out to her the truth. "I am Donnegan. Donnegan the tramp.
+Donnegan the shiftless. Donnegan the fighter. Donnegan the killer.
+Donnegan the penniless, worthless. But for heaven's sake let me stay
+until morning and let me look at you--from a distance!"
+
+But, after all, perhaps he did not need to say all these things. His
+clothes were rags, upon his face there was a stubble of unshaven red,
+which made the pallor about his eyes more pronounced. If the girl had
+been half blind she must have felt that here was a man of fire. He saw
+her gather the wrap a little closer about her shoulders, and that sign
+of fear made him sick at heart.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," said the girl. "I am sorry. We cannot take you into the
+house. Eight miles--"
+
+Did she expect to turn a sinner from the gates of heaven with a mere
+phrase? He cast out his hand, and she winced as though he had shaken his
+fist at her.
+
+"Are you afraid?" cried Donnegan.
+
+"I don't control the house."
+
+He paused, not that her reply had baffled him, but the mere pleasure of
+hearing her speak accounted for it. It was one of those low, light
+voices which are apt to have very little range or volume, and which
+break and tremble absurdly under any stress of emotion; and often they
+become shrill in a higher register; but inside conversational limits, if
+such a term may be used, there is no fiber so delightful, so purely
+musical. Suppose the word "velvet" applied to a sound. That voice came
+soothingly and delightfully upon the ear of Donnegan, from which the
+roar and rattle of the empty freight train had not quite departed. He
+smiled at her.
+
+"But," he protested, "this is west of the Rockies--and I don't see any
+other way out."
+
+The girl, all this time, was studying him intently, a little sadly, he
+thought. Now she shook her head, but there was more warmth in her voice.
+
+"I'm sorry. I can't ask you to stay without first consulting my father."
+
+"Go ahead. Ask him."
+
+She raised her hand a little; the thought seemed to bring her to the
+verge of trembling, as though he were asking a sacrilege.
+
+"Why not?" he urged.
+
+She did not answer, but, instead, her eyes sought the old, woman, as if
+to gain her interposition; she burst instantly into speech.
+
+"Which there's no good talking any more," declared the ancient vixen.
+"Are you wanting to make trouble for her with the colonel? Be off, young
+man. It ain't the first time I've told you you'd get nowhere in this
+house!"
+
+There was no possible answer left to Donnegan, and he did as usual the
+surprising thing. He broke into laughter of such clear and ringing
+tone--such infectious laughter--that the old woman blinked in the midst
+of her wrath as though she were seeing a new man, and he saw the lips of
+the girl parted in wonder.
+
+"My father is an invalid," said the girl. "And he lives by strict rules.
+I could not break in on him at this time of the evening."
+
+"If that's all"--Donnegan actually began to mount the steps--"I'll go in
+and talk to your father myself."
+
+She had retired one pace as he began advancing, but as the import of
+what he said became clear to her she was rooted to one position by
+astonishment.
+
+"Colonel Macon--my father--" she began. Then: "Do you really wish to see
+him?"
+
+The hushed voice made Donnegan smile--it was such a voice as one boy
+uses when he asks the other if he really dares enter the pasture of the
+red bull. He chuckled again, and this time she smiled, and her eyes were
+widened, partly by fear of his purpose and partly from his nearness.
+They seemed to be suddenly closer together. As though they were on one
+side against a common enemy, and that enemy was her father. The old
+woman was cackling sharply from the bottom of the stairs, and then
+bobbing in pursuit and calling on Donnegan to come back. At length the
+girl raised her hand and silenced her with a gesture.
+
+Donnegan was now hardly a pace away; and he saw that she lived up to all
+the promise of that first glance. Yet still she seemed unreal. There is
+a quality of the unearthly about a girl's beauty; it is, after all, only
+a gay moment between the formlessness of childhood and the hardness of
+middle age. This girl was pale, Donnegan saw, and yet she had color. She
+had the luster, say, of a white rose, and the same bloom. Lou, the old
+woman had called her, and Macon was her father's name. Lou Macon--the
+name fitted her, Donnegan thought. For that matter, if her name had been
+Sally Smith, Donnegan would probably have thought it beautiful. The
+keener a man's mind is and the more he knows about men and women and the
+ways of the world, the more apt he is to be intoxicated by a touch of
+grace and thoughtfulness; and all these age-long seconds the perfume of
+girlhood had been striking up to Donnegan's brain.
+
+She brushed her timidity away and with the same gesture accepted
+Donnegan as something more than a dangerous vagrant. She took the lamp
+from the hands of the crone and sent her about her business,
+disregarding the mutterings and the warnings which trailed behind the
+departing form. Now she faced Donnegan, screening the light from her
+eyes with a cupped hand and by the same device focusing it upon the face
+of Donnegan. He mutely noted the small maneuver and gave her credit; but
+for the pleasure of seeing the white of her fingers and the way they
+tapered to a pink transparency at the tips, he forgot the poor figure he
+must make with his soiled, ragged shirt, his unshaven face, his gaunt
+cheeks.
+
+Indeed, he looked so straight at her that in spite of her advantage with
+the light she had to avoid his glance.
+
+"I am sorry," said Lou Macon, "and ashamed because we can't take you in.
+The only house on the range where you wouldn't be welcome, I know. But
+my father leads a very close life; he has set ways. The ways of an
+invalid, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"And you're bothered about speaking to him of me?"
+
+"I'm almost afraid of letting you go in yourself."
+
+"Let me take the risk."
+
+She considered him again for a moment, and then turned with a nod and he
+followed her up the stairs into the upper hall. The moment they stepped
+into it he heard her clothes flutter and a small gale poured on them. It
+was criminal to allow such a building to fall into this ruinous
+condition. And a gloomy picture rose in Donnegan's mind of the invalid,
+thin-faced, sallow-eyed, white-haired, lying in his bed listening to the
+storm and silently gathering bitterness out of the pain of living. Lou
+Macon paused again in the hall, close to a door on the right.
+
+"I'm going to send you in to speak to my father," she said gravely.
+"First I have to tell you that he's different."
+
+Donnegan replied by looking straight at her, and this time she did not
+wince from the glance. Indeed, she seemed to be probing him, searching
+with a peculiar hope. What could she expect to find in him? What that
+was useful to her? Not once in all his life had such a sense of
+impotence descended upon Donnegan. Her father? Bah! Invalid or no
+invalid he would handle that fellow, and if the old man had an acrid
+temper, Donnegan at will could file his own speech to a point. But the
+girl! In the meager hand which held the lamp there was a power which all
+the muscles of Donnegan could not compass; and in his weakness he looked
+wistfully at her.
+
+"I hope your talk will be pleasant. I hope so." She laid her hand on the
+knob of the door and withdrew it hastily; then, summoning great
+resolution, she opened the door and showed Donnegan in.
+
+"Father," she said, "this is Mr. Donnegan. He wishes to speak to you."
+
+The door closed behind Donnegan, and hearing that whishing sound which
+the door of a heavy safe will make, he looked down at this, and saw that
+it was actually inches thick! Once more the sense of being in a trap
+descended upon him.
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+
+He found himself in a large room which, before he could examine a single
+feature of it, was effectively curtained from his sight. Straight into
+his face shot a current of violent white light that made him blink.
+There was the natural recoil, but in Donnegan recoils were generally
+protected by several strata of willpower and seldom showed in any
+physical action. On the present occasion his first dismay was swiftly
+overwhelmed by a cold anger at the insulting trick. This was not the
+trick of a helpless invalid; Donnegan could not see a single thing
+before him, but he obeyed a very deep instinct and advanced straight
+into the current of light.
+
+He was glad to see the light switched away. The comparative darkness
+washed across his eyes in a pleasant wave and he was now able to
+distinguish a few things in the room. It was, as he had first surmised,
+quite large. The ceiling was high; the proportions comfortably spacious;
+but what astounded Donnegan was the real elegance of the furnishings.
+There was no mistaking the deep, silken texture of the rug upon which he
+stepped; the glow of light barely reached the wall, and there showed
+faintly in streaks along yellowish hangings. Beside a table which
+supported a big reading lamp--gasoline, no doubt, from the intensity of
+its light--sat Colonel Macon with a large volume spread across his
+knees. Donnegan saw two highlights--fine silver hair that covered the
+head of the invalid and a pair of white hands fallen idly upon the
+surface of the big book, for if the silver hair suggested age the
+smoothly finished hands suggested perennial youth. They were strong,
+carefully tended, complacent hands. They suggested to Donnegan a man
+sufficient unto himself.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, I am sorry that I cannot rise to receive you. Now, what
+pleasant accident has brought me the favor of this call?"
+
+Donnegan was taken aback again, and this time more strongly than by the
+flare of light against his eyes. For in the voice he recognized the
+quality of the girl--the same softness, the same velvety richness,
+though the pitch was a bass. In the voice of this man there was the same
+suggestion that the tone would crack if it were forced either up or
+down. With this great difference, one could hardly conceive of a
+situation which would push that man's voice beyond its monotone. It
+flowed with deadly, all-embracing softness. It clung about one; it
+fascinated and baffled the mind of the listener.
+
+But Donnegan was not in the habit of being baffled by voices. Neither
+was he a lover of formality. He looked about for a place to sit down,
+and immediately discovered that while the invalid sat in an enormous
+easy-chair bordered by shelves and supplied with wheels for raising and
+lowering the back and for propelling the chair about the room on its
+rubber tires, it was the only chair in the room which could make any
+pretensions toward comfort. As a matter of fact, aside from this one
+immense chair, devoted to the pleasure of the invalid, there was nothing
+in the room for his visitors to sit upon except two or three miserable
+backless stools.
+
+But Donnegan was not long taken aback. He tucked his cap under his arm,
+bowed profoundly in honor of the colonel's compliments, and brought one
+of the stools to a place where it was no nearer the rather ominous
+circle of the lamplight than was the invalid himself. With his eyes
+accustomed to the new light, Donnegan could now take better stock of his
+host. He saw a rather handsome face, with eyes exceedingly blue, young,
+and active; but the features of Macon as well as his body were blurred
+and obscured by a great fatness. He was truly a prodigious man, and one
+could understand the stoutness with which the invalid chair was made.
+His great wrist dimpled like the wrist of a healthy baby, and his face
+was so enlarged with superfluous flesh that the lower part of it quite
+dwarfed the upper. He seemed, at first glance, a man with a low forehead
+and bright, careless eyes and a body made immobile by flesh and
+sickness. A man whose spirits despised and defied pain. Yet a second
+glance showed that the forehead was, after all, a nobly proportioned
+one, and for all the bulk of that figure, for all the cripple-chair,
+Donnegan would not have been surprised to see the bulk spring lightly
+out of the chair to meet him.
+
+For his own part, sitting back on the stool with his cap tucked under
+his arm and his hands folded about one knee, he met the faint, cold
+smile of the colonel with a broad grin of his own.
+
+"I can put it in a nutshell," said Donnegan. "I was tired; dead beat;
+needed a handout, and rapped at your door. Along comes a mystery in the
+shape of an ugly-looking woman and opens the door to me. Tries to shut
+me out; I decided to come in. She insists on keeping me outside; all at
+once I see that I have to get into the house. I am brought in; your
+daughter tries to steer me off, sees that the job is more than she can
+get away with, and shelves me off upon you. And that, Colonel Macon, is
+the pleasant accident which brings you the favor of this call."
+
+It would have been a speech both stupid and pert in the mouth of
+another; but Donnegan knew how to flavor words with a touch of mockery
+of himself as well as another. There were two manners in which this
+speech could have been received--with a wink or with a smile. But it
+would have been impossible to hear it and grow frigid. As for the
+colonel, he smiled.
+
+It was a tricky smile, however, as Donnegan felt. It spread easily upon
+that vast face and again went out and left all to the dominion of the
+cold, bright eyes.
+
+"A case of curiosity," commented the colonel.
+
+"A case of hunger," said Donnegan.
+
+"My dear Mr. Donnegan, put it that way if you wish!"
+
+"And a case of blankets needed for one night."
+
+"Really? Have you ventured into such a country as this without any
+equipment?"
+
+"Outside of my purse, my equipment is of the invisible kind."
+
+"Wits," suggested the colonel.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Not at all. You hinted at it yourself."
+
+"However, a hint is harder to take than to make."
+
+The colonel raised his faultless right hand--and oddly enough his great
+corpulence did not extend in the slightest degree to his hand, but
+stopped short at the wrists--and stroked his immense chin. His skin was
+like Lou Macon's, except that in place of the white-flower bloom his was
+a parchment, dead pallor. He lowered his hand with the same slow
+precision and folded it with the other, all the time probing Donnegan
+with his difficult eyes.
+
+"Unfortunately--most unfortunately, it is impossible for me to
+accommodate you, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+The reply was not flippant, but quick. "Not at all. I am the easiest
+person in the world to accommodate."
+
+The big man smiled sadly.
+
+"My fortune has fallen upon evil days, sir. It is no longer what it was.
+There are in this house three habitable rooms; this one; my daughter's
+apartment; the kitchen where old Haggie sleeps. Otherwise you are in a
+rat trap of a place."
+
+He shook his head, a slow, decisive motion.
+
+"A spare blanket," said Donnegan, "will be enough."
+
+There was another sigh and another shake of the head.
+
+"Even a corner of a rug to roll up in will do perfectly."
+
+"You see, it is impossible for me to entertain you."
+
+"Bare boards will do well enough for me, Colonel Macon. And if I have a
+piece of bread, a plate of cold beans--anything--I can entertain
+myself."
+
+"I am sorry to see you so compliant, Mr. Donnegan, because that makes my
+refusal seem the more unkind. But I cannot have you sleeping on the bare
+floor. Not on such a night. Pneumonia comes on one like a cat in the
+dark in such weather. It is really impossible to keep you here, sir."
+
+"H'm-m," said Donnegan. He began to feel that he was stumped, and it was
+a most unusual feeling for him.
+
+"Besides, for a young fellow like you, with your agility, what is eight
+miles? Walk down the road and you will come to a place where you will be
+made at home and fed like a king."
+
+"Eight miles, that's not much! But on such a night as this?"
+
+There was a faint glint in the eyes of the colonel; was he not
+sharpening his wits for his contest of words, and enjoying it?
+
+"The wind will be at your back and buoy your steps. It will shorten the
+eight miles to four."
+
+Very definitely Donnegan felt that the other was reading him. What was
+it that he saw as he turned the pages?
+
+"There is one thing you fail to take into your accounting."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"I have an irresistible aversion to walking."
+
+"Ah?" repeated Macon.
+
+"Or exercise in any form."
+
+"Then you are unfortunate to be in this country without a horse."
+
+"Unfortunate, perhaps, but the fact is that I'm here. Very sorry to
+trouble you, though, colonel."
+
+"I am rarely troubled," said the colonel coldly. "And since I have no
+means of accommodation, the laws of hospitality rest light on my
+shoulders."
+
+"Yet I have an odd thought," replied Donnegan.
+
+"Well? You have expressed a number already, it seems to me."
+
+"It's this: that you've already made up your mind to keep me here."
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+
+The colonel stiffened in his chair, and under his bulk even those
+ponderous timbers quaked a little. Once more Donnegan gained an
+impression of chained activity ready to rise to any emergency. The
+colonel's jaw set and the last vestige of the smile left his eyes. Yet
+it was not anger that showed in its place. Instead, it was rather a
+hungry searching. He looked keenly into the face and the soul of
+Donnegan as a searchlight sweeps over waters by night.
+
+"You are a mind reader, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"No more of a mind reader than a Chinaman is."
+
+"Ah, they are great readers of mind, my friend."
+
+Donnegan grinned, and at this the colonel frowned.
+
+"A great and mysterious people, sir. I keep evidences of them always
+about me. Look!"
+
+He swept the shaft of the reading light up and it fell upon a red vase
+against the yellow hangings. Even Donnegan's inexperienced eye read a
+price into that shimmering vase.
+
+"Queer color," he said.
+
+"Dusty claret. Ah, they have the only names for their colors. Think!
+Peach bloom--liquid dawn--ripe cherry--oil green--green of powdered
+tea--blue of the sky after rain--what names for color! What other land
+possesses such a tongue that goes straight to the heart!"
+
+The colonel waved his faultless hands and then dropped them back upon
+the book with the tenderness of a benediction.
+
+"And their terms for texture--pear's rind--lime peel--millet seed! Do
+not scoff at China, Mr. Donnegan. She is the fairy godmother, and we are
+the poor children."
+
+He changed the direction of the light; Donnegan watched him, fascinated.
+
+"But what convinced you that I wished to keep you here?"
+
+"To amuse you, Colonel Macon."
+
+The colonel exposed gleaming white teeth and laughed in that soft,
+smooth-flowing voice.
+
+"Amuse me? For fifteen years I have sat in this room and amused myself
+by taking in what I would and shutting out the rest of the world. I have
+made the walls thick and padded them to keep out all sound. You observe
+that there is no evidence here of the storm that is going on tonight.
+Amuse me? Indeed!"
+
+And Donnegan thought of Lou Macon in her old, drab dress, huddling the
+poor cloak around her shoulders to keep out the cold, while her father
+lounged here in luxury. He could gladly have buried his lean fingers in
+that fat throat. From the first he had had an aversion to this man.
+
+"Very well, I shall go. It has been a pleasant chat, colonel."
+
+"Very pleasant. And thank you. But before you go, taste this whisky. It
+will help you when you enter the wind."
+
+He opened a cabinet in the side of the chair and brought out a black
+bottle and a pair of glasses and put them on the broad arm of the chair.
+Donnegan sauntered back.
+
+"You see," he murmured, "you will not let me go."
+
+At this the colonel raised his head suddenly and glared into the eyes of
+his guest, and yet so perfect was his muscular and nerve control that he
+did not interrupt the thin stream of amber which trickled into one of
+the glasses. Looking down again, he finished pouring the drinks. They
+pledged each other with a motion, and drank. It was very old, very oily.
+And Donnegan smiled as he put down the empty glass.
+
+"Sit down," said the colonel in a new voice.
+
+Donnegan obeyed.
+
+"Fate," went on the colonel, "rules our lives. We give our honest
+endeavors, but the deciding touch is the hand of Fate."
+
+He garnished this absurd truism with a wave of his hand so solemn that
+Donnegan was chilled; as though the fat man were actually conversant
+with the Three Sisters.
+
+"Fate has brought you to me; therefore, I intend to keep you."
+
+"Here?"
+
+"In my service. I am about to place a great mission and a great trust in
+your hands."
+
+"In the hands of a man you know nothing about?"
+
+"I know you as if I had raised you."
+
+Donnegan smiled, and shaking his head, the red hair flashed and
+shimmered.
+
+"As long as there is no work attached to the mission, it may be
+agreeable to me."
+
+"But there is work."
+
+"Then the contract is broken before it is made."
+
+"You are rash. But I had rather begin with a dissent and then work
+upward."
+
+Donnegan waited.
+
+"To balance against work--"
+
+"Excuse me. Nothing balances against work for me."
+
+"To balance against work," continued the colonel, raising a white hand
+and by that gesture crushing the protest of Donnegan, "there is a great
+reward."
+
+"Colonel Macon, I have never worked for money before and I shall not
+work for it now."
+
+"You trouble me with interruptions. Who mentioned money? You shall not
+have a penny!"
+
+"No?"
+
+"The reward shall grow out of the work."
+
+"And the work?"
+
+"Is fighting."
+
+At this Donnegan narrowed his eyes and searched the fat man thoroughly.
+It sounded like the talk of a charlatan, and yet there was a crispness
+to these sentences that made him suspect something underneath. For that
+matter, in certain districts his name and his career were known. He had
+never dreamed that that reputation could have come within a thousand
+miles of this part of the mountain desert.
+
+"You should have told me in the first place," he said with some anger,
+"that you knew me."
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, upon my honor, I never heard your name before my daughter
+uttered it."
+
+Donnegan waited soberly.
+
+"I despise charlatanry as much as the next man. You shall see the steps
+by which I judged you. When you entered the room I threw a strong light
+upon you. You did not blanch; you immediately walked straight into the
+shaft of light although you could not see a foot before you."
+
+"And that proved?"
+
+"A combative instinct, and coolness; not the sort of brute
+vindictiveness that fights for a rage, for a cool-minded love of
+conflict. Is that clear?"
+
+Donnegan shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"And above all, I need a fighter. Then I watched your eyes and your
+hands. The first were direct and yet they were alert. And your hands
+were perfectly steady."
+
+"Qualifications for a fighter, eh?"
+
+"Do you wish further proof?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"What of the fight to the death which you went through this same night?"
+
+Donnegan started. It was a small movement, that flinching, and he
+covered it by continuing the upward gesture of his hand to his coat; he
+drew out tobacco and cigarette papers and commenced to roll his smoke.
+Looking up, he saw that the eyes of Colonel Macon were smiling, although
+his face was grave.
+
+A glint of understanding passed between the two men, but not a spoken
+word.
+
+"I assure you, there was no death tonight," said Donnegan at length.
+
+"Tush! Of course not! But the tear on the shoulder of your coat--ah,
+that is too smooth edged for a tear, too long for the bite of a
+scissors. Am I right? Tush! Not a word!"
+
+The colonel beamed with an almost tender pride, and Donnegan, knowing
+that the fat man looked upon him as a murderer, newly come from a
+death, considered the beaming face and thought many things in silence.
+
+"So it was easy to see that in coolness, courage, fighting instinct,
+skill, you were probably what I want. Yet something more than all these
+qualifications is necessary for the task which lies ahead of you."
+
+"You pile up the bad features, eh?"
+
+"To entice you, Donnegan. For one man, paint a rosy beginning, and once
+under way he will manage the hard parts. For you, show you the hard
+shell and you will trust it contains the choice flesh. I was saying,
+that I waited to see other qualities in you; qualities of the judgment.
+And suddenly you flashed upon me a single glance; I felt it clash
+against my willpower. I felt your look go past my guard like a rapier
+slipping around my blade. I, Colonel Macon, was for the first time
+outfaced, out-maneuvered. I admit it, for I rejoice in meeting such a
+man. And the next instant you told me that I should keep you here out of
+my own wish! Admirable!"
+
+The admiration of the colonel, indeed, almost overwhelmed Donnegan, but
+he saw that in spite of the genial smile, the face suffused with warmth,
+the colonel was watching him every instant, flinty-eyed. Donnegan did as
+he had done on the stairs; he burst into laughter.
+
+When he had done, the colonel was leaning forward in his chair with his
+fingers interlacing, examining his guest from beneath somber brows. As
+he sat lurched forward he gave a terrible impression of that reserved
+energy which Donnegan had sensed before.
+
+"Donnegan," said the colonel, "I shall talk no more nonsense to you. You
+are a terrible fellow!"
+
+And Donnegan knew that, for the first time in the colonel's life, he was
+meeting another man upon equal ground.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+
+In a way, it was an awful tribute, for one great fact grew upon him:
+that the colonel represented almost perfectly the power of absolute
+evil. Donnegan was not a squeamish sort, but the fat, smiling face of
+Macon filled him with unutterable aversion. A dozen times he would have
+left the room, but a silken thread held him back, the thought of Lou.
+
+"I shall be terse and entirely frank," said the colonel, and at once
+Donnegan reared triple guard and balanced himself for attack or defense.
+
+"Between you and me," went on the fat man, "deceptive words are folly. A
+waste of energy." He flushed a little. "You are, I believe, the first
+man who has ever laughed at me." The click of his teeth as he snapped
+them on this sentence seemed to promise that he should also be the last.
+
+"So I tear away the veils which made me ridiculous, I grant you.
+Donnegan, we have met each other just in time."
+
+"True," said Donnegan, "you have a task for me that promises a lot of
+fighting; and in return I get lodgings for the night."
+
+"Wrong, wrong! I offer you much more. I offer you a career of action in
+which you may forget the great sorrow which has fallen upon you: and in
+the battles which lie before you, you will find oblivion for the sad
+past which lies behind you."
+
+Here Donnegan sprang to his feet with his hand caught at his breast; and
+he stood quivering, in an agony. Pain worked him as anger would do, and,
+his slender frame swelling, his muscles taut, he stood like a panther
+enduring the torture because knows it is folly to attempt to escape.
+
+"You are a human devil!" Donnegan said at last, and sank back upon his
+stool. For a moment he was overcome, his head falling upon his breast,
+and even when he looked up his face was terribly pale, and his eyes
+dull. His expression, however, cleared swiftly, and aside from the
+perspiration which shone on his forehead it would have been impossible
+ten seconds later to discover that the blow of the colonel had fallen
+upon him.
+
+All of this the colonel had observed and noted with grim satisfaction.
+Not once did he speak until he saw that all was well.
+
+"I am sorry," he said at length in a voice almost as delicate as the
+voice of Lou Macon. "I am sorry, but you forced me to say more than I
+wished to say."
+
+Donnegan brushed the apology aside.
+
+His voice became low and hurried. "Let us get on in the matter. I am
+eager to learn from you, colonel."
+
+"Very well. Since it seems that there is a place for both our interests
+in this matter, I shall run on in my tale and make it, as I promised you
+before, absolutely frank and curt. I shall not descend into small
+details. I shall give you a main sketch of the high points; for all men
+of mind are apt to be confused by the face of a thing, whereas the heart
+of it is perfectly clear to them."
+
+He settled into his narrative.
+
+"You have heard of The Corner? No? Well, that is not strange; but a few
+weeks ago gold was found in the sands where the valleys of Young Muddy
+and Christobel Rivers join. The Corner is a long, wide triangle of sand,
+and the sand is filled with a gold deposit brought down from the
+headwaters of both rivers and precipitated here, where one current meets
+the other and reduces the resultant stream to sluggishness. The sands
+are rich--very rich!"
+
+He had become a trifle flushed as he talked, and now, perhaps to cover
+his emotion, he carefully selected a cigarette from the humidor beside
+him and lighted it without haste before he spoke another word.
+
+"Long ago I prospected over that valley; a few weeks ago it was brought
+to my attention again. I determined to stake some claims and work them.
+But I could not go myself. I had to send a trustworthy man. Whom should
+I select? There was only one possible. Jack Landis is my ward. A dozen
+years ago his parents died and they sent him to my care, for my fortune
+was then comfortable. I raised him with as much tenderness as I could
+have shown my own son; I lavished on him the affection and--"
+
+Here Donnegan coughed lightly; the fat man paused, and observing that
+this hypocrisy did not draw the veil over the bright eyes of his guest,
+he continued: "In a word, I made him one of my family. And when the need
+for a man came I turned to him. He is young, strong, active, able to
+take care of himself."
+
+At this Donnegan pricked his ears.
+
+"He went, accordingly, to The Corner and staked the claims and filed
+them as I directed. I was right. There was gold. Much gold. It panned
+out in nuggets."
+
+He made an indescribable gesture, and through his strong fingers
+Donnegan had a vision of yellow gold pouring.
+
+"But there is seldom a discovery of importance claimed by one man alone.
+This was no exception. A villain named William Lester, known as a
+scoundrel over the length and breadth of the cattle country, claimed
+that he had made the discovery first. He even went so far as to claim
+that I had obtained my information from him and he tried to jump the
+claims staked by Jack Landis, whereupon Jack, very properly, shot Lester
+down. Not dead, unfortunately, but slightly wounded.
+
+"In the meantime the rush for The Corner started. In a week there was a
+village; in a fortnight there was a town; in a month The Corner had
+become the talk of the ranges. Jack Landis found in the claims a mint.
+He sent me back a mere souvenir."
+
+The fat man produced from his vest pocket a little chunk of yellow and
+with a dexterous motion whipped it at Donnegan. It was done so suddenly,
+so unexpectedly that the wanderer was well-nigh taken by surprise. But
+his hand flashed up and caught the metal before it struck his face. He
+found in the palm of his hand a nugget weighing perhaps five ounces,
+and he flicked it back to the colonel.
+
+"He sent me the souvenir, but that was all. Since that time I have
+waited. Nothing has come. I sent for word, and I learned that Jack
+Landis had betrayed his trust, fallen in love with some undesirable
+woman of the mining camp, denied my claim to any of the gold to which I
+had sent him. Unpleasant news? Yes. Ungrateful boy? Yes. But my mind is
+hardened against adversity.
+
+"Yet this blow struck me close to the heart. Because Landis is engaged
+to marry my daughter, Lou. At first I could hardly believe in his
+disaffection. But the truth has at length been borne home to me. The
+scoundrel has abandoned both Lou and me!"
+
+Donnegan repeated slowly: "Your daughter loves this chap?"
+
+The colonel allowed his glance to narrow, and he could do this the more
+safely because at this moment Donnegan's eyes were wandering into the
+distance. In that unguarded second Donnegan was defenseless and the
+colonel read something that set him beaming.
+
+"She loves him, of course," he said, "and he is breaking her heart with
+his selfishness."
+
+"He is breaking her heart?" echoed Donnegan.
+
+The colonel raised his hand and stroked his enormous chin. Decidedly he
+believed that things were getting on very well.
+
+"This is the position," he declared. "Jack Landis was threatened by the
+wretch Lester, and shot him down. But Lester was not single-handed. He
+belongs to a wild crew, led by a mysterious fellow of whom no one knows
+very much, a deadly fighter, it is said, and a keen organizer and
+handler of men. Red-haired, wild, smooth. A bundle of contradictions.
+They call him Lord Nick because he has the pride of a nobleman and the
+cunning of the devil. He has gathered a few chosen spirits and cool
+fighters--the Pedlar, Joe Rix, Harry Masters--all celebrated names in
+the cattle country.
+
+"They worship Lord Nick partly because he is a genius of crime and
+partly because he understands how to guide them so that they may rob and
+even kill with impunity. His peculiarity is his ability to keep within
+the bounds of the law. If he commits a robbery he always first
+establishes marvelous alibis and throws the blame toward someone else;
+if it is the case of a killing, it is always the other man who is the
+aggressor. He has been before a jury half a dozen times, but the devil
+knows the law and pleads his own case with a tongue that twists the
+hearts out of the stupid jurors. You see? No common man. And this is the
+leader of the group of which Lester is one of the most debased members.
+He had no sooner been shot than Lord Nick himself appeared. He had his
+followers with him. He saw Jack Landis, threatened him with death, and
+made Jack swear that he would hand over half of the profits of the mines
+to the gang--of which, I suppose, Lester gets his due proportion. At the
+same time, Lord Nick attempted to persuade Jack that I, his adopted
+father, you might say, was really in the wrong, and that I had stolen
+the claims from this wretched Lester!"
+
+He waved this disgusting accusation into a mist and laughed with hateful
+softness.
+
+"The result is this: Jack Landis draws a vast revenue from the mines.
+Half of it he turns over to Lord Nick, and Lord Nick in return gives him
+absolute freedom and backing in the camp, where he is, and probably will
+continue the dominant factor. As for the other half, Landis spends it on
+this woman with whom he has become infatuated. And not a penny comes
+through to me!"
+
+Colonel Macon leaned back in his chair and his eyes became fixed upon a
+great distance. He smiled, and the blood turned cold in the veins of
+Donnegan.
+
+"Of course this adventuress, this Nelly Lebrun, plays hand in glove with
+Lord Nick and his troupe; unquestionably she shares her spoils, so that
+nine-tenths of the revenue from the mines is really flowing back through
+the hands of Lord Nick and Jack Landis has become a silly figurehead. He
+struts about the streets of The Corner as a great mine owner, and with
+the power of Lord Nick behind him, not one of the people of the gambling
+houses and dance halls dares cross him. So that Jack has come to
+consider himself a great man. Is it clear?"
+
+Donnegan had not yet drawn his gaze entirely back from the distance.
+
+"This is the possible solution," went on the colonel. "Jack Landis must
+be drawn away from the influence of this Nelly Lebrun. He must be
+brought back to us and shown his folly both as regards the adventuress
+and Lord Nick; for so long as Nelly has a hold on him, just so long
+Lord Nick will have his hand in Jack's pocket. You see how beautifully
+their plans and their work dovetail? How, therefore, am I to draw him
+from Nelly? There is only one way: send my daughter to the camp--send
+Lou to The Corner and let one glimpse of her beauty turn the shabby
+prettiness of this woman to a shadow! Lou is my last hope!"
+
+At this Donnegan wakened. His sneer was not a pleasant thing to see.
+
+"Send her to a new mining camp. Colonel Macon, you have the gambling
+spirit; you are willing to take great chances!"
+
+"So! So!" murmured the colonel, a little taken aback. "But I should
+never send her except with an adequate protector."
+
+"An adequate protector even against these celebrated gunmen who run the
+camp as you have already admitted?"
+
+"An adequate protector--you are the man!"
+
+Donnegan shivered.
+
+"I? I take your daughter to the camp and play her against Nelly Lebrun
+to win back Jack Landis? Is that the scheme?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Ah," murmured Donnegan. And he got up and began to walk the room,
+white-faced; the colonel watched him in a silent agony of anxiety.
+
+"She truly loves this Landis?" asked Donnegan, swallowing.
+
+"A love that has grown out of their long intimacy together since they
+were children."
+
+"Bah! Calf love! Let the fellow go and she will forget him. Hearts are
+not broken in these days by disappointments in love affairs."
+
+The colonel writhed in his chair.
+
+"But Lou--you do not know her heart!" he suggested. "If you looked
+closely at her you would have seen that she is pale. She does not
+suspect the truth, but I think she is wasting away because Jack hasn't
+written for weeks."
+
+He saw Donnegan wince under the whip.
+
+"It is true," murmured the wanderer. "She is not like others, heaven
+knows!" He turned. "And what if I fail to bring over Jack Landis with
+the sight of Lou?"
+
+The colonel relaxed; the great crisis was past and Donnegan would
+undertake the journey.
+
+"In that case, my dear lad, there is an expedient so simple that you
+astonish me by not perceiving it. If there is no way to wean Landis away
+from the woman, then get him alone and shoot him through the heart. In
+that way you remove from the life of Lou a man unworthy of her and you
+also make the mines come to the heir of Jack Landis--namely, myself. And
+in the latter case, Mr. Donnegan, be sure--oh, be sure that I should not
+forget who brought the mines into my hands!"
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+
+Fifty miles over any sort of going is a stiff march. Fifty miles uphill
+and down and mostly over districts where there was only a rough cow path
+in lieu of a road made a prodigious day's work; and certainly it was an
+almost incredible feat for one who professed to hate work with a
+consuming passion and who had looked upon an eight-mile jaunt the night
+before as an insuperable burden. Yet such was the distance which
+Donnegan had covered, and now he drove the pack mule out on the shoulder
+of the hill in full view of The Corner with the triangle of the Young
+Muddy and Christobel Rivers embracing the little town. Even the gaunt,
+leggy mule was tired to the dropping point, and the tough buckskin which
+trailed up behind went with downward head. When Louise Macon turned to
+him, he had reached the point where he swung his head around first and
+then grudgingly followed the movement with his body. The girl was tired,
+also, in spite of the fact that she had covered every inch of the
+distance in the saddle. There was that violet shade of weariness under
+her eyes and her shoulders slumped forward. Only Donnegan, the hater of
+labor, was fresh.
+
+They had started in the first dusk of the coming day; it was now the
+yellow time of the slant afternoon sunlight; between these two points
+there had been a body of steady plodding. The girl had looked askance at
+that gaunt form of Donnegan's when they began; but before three hours,
+seeing that the spring never left his step nor the swinging rhythm his
+stride, she began to wonder. This afternoon, nothing he did could have
+surprised her. From the moment he entered the house the night before he
+had been a mystery. Till her death day she would not forget the fire
+with which he had stared up at her from the foot of the stairs. But when
+he came out of her father's room--not cowed and whipped as most men left
+it--he had looked at her with a veiled glance, and since that moment
+there had always been a mist of indifference over his eyes when he
+looked at her.
+
+In the beginning of that day's march all she knew was that her father
+trusted her to this stranger, Donnegan, to take her to The Corner, where
+he was to find Jack Landis and bring Jack back to his old allegiance and
+find what he was doing with his time and his money. It was a quite
+natural proceeding, for Jack was a wild sort, and he was probably
+gambling away all the gold that was dug in his mines. It was perfectly
+natural throughout, except that she should have been trusted so entirely
+to a stranger. That was a remarkable thing, but, then, her father was a
+remarkable man, and it was not the first time that his actions had been
+inscrutable, whether concerning her or the affairs of other people. She
+had heard men come into their house cursing Colonel Macon with death in
+their faces; she had seen them sneak out after a soft-voiced interview
+and never appear again. In her eyes, her father was invincible,
+all-powerful. When she thought of superlatives, she thought of him. Her
+conception of mystery was the smile of the colonel, and her conception
+of tenderness was bounded by the gentle voice of the same man.
+Therefore, it was entirely sufficient to her that the colonel had said:
+"Go, and trust everything to Donnegan. He has the power to command you
+and you must obey--until Jack comes back to you."
+
+That was odd, for, as far as she knew, Jack had never left her. But she
+had early discarded any will to question her father. Curiosity was a
+thing which the fat man hated above all else.
+
+Therefore, it was really not strange to her that throughout the journey
+her guide did not speak half a dozen words to her. Once or twice when
+she attempted to open the conversation he had replied with crushing
+monosyllables, and there was an end. For the rest, he was always
+swinging down the trail ahead of her at a steady, unchanging, rapid
+stride. Uphill and down it never varied. And so they came out upon the
+shoulder of the hill and saw the storm center of The Corner. They were
+in the hills behind the town; two miles would bring them into it. And
+now Donnegan came back to her from the mule. He took off his hat and
+shook the dust away; he brushed a hand across his face. He was still
+unshaven. The red stubble made him hideous, and the dust and
+perspiration covered his face as with a mask. Only his eyes were rimmed
+with white skin.
+
+"You'd better get off the horse, here," said Donnegan.
+
+He held her stirrup, and she obeyed without a word.
+
+"Sit down."
+
+She sat down on the flat-topped boulder which he designated, and,
+looking up, observed the first sign of emotion in his face. He was
+frowning, and his face was drawn a little.
+
+"You are tired," he stated.
+
+"A little."
+
+"You are tired," said the wanderer in a tone that implied dislike of any
+denial. Therefore she made no answer. "I'm going down into the town to
+look things over. I don't want to parade you through the streets until I
+know where Landis is to be found and how he'll receive you. The Corner
+is a wild town; you understand?"
+
+"Yes," she said blankly, and noted nervously that the reply did not
+please him. He actually scowled at her.
+
+"You'll be all right here. I'll leave the pack mule with you; if
+anything should happen--but nothing is going to happen, I'll be back in
+an hour or so. There's a pool of water. You can get a cold drink there
+and wash up if you want to while I'm gone. But don't go to sleep!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"A place like this is sure to have a lot of stragglers hunting around
+it. Bad characters. You understand?"
+
+She could not understand why he should make a mystery of it; but then,
+he was almost as strange as her father. His careful English and his
+ragged clothes were typical of him inside and out.
+
+"You have a gun there in your holster. Can you use it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Try it."
+
+It was a thirty-two, a woman's light weapon. She took it out and
+balanced it in her hand.
+
+"The blue rock down the hillside. Let me see you chip it."
+
+Her hand went up, and without pausing to sight along the barrel, she
+fired; fire flew from the rock, and there appeared a white, small scar.
+Donnegan sighed with relief.
+
+"If you squeezed the butt rather than pulled the trigger," he commented,
+"you would have made a bull's-eye that time. Now, I don't mean that in
+any likelihood you'll have to defend yourself. I simply want you to be
+aware that there's plenty of trouble around The Corner."
+
+"Yes," said the girl.
+
+"You're not afraid?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+Donnegan settled his hat a little more firmly upon his head. He had been
+on the verge of attributing her gentleness to a blank, stupid mind; he
+began to realize that there was metal under the surface. He felt that
+some of the qualities of the father were echoed faintly, and at a
+distance, in the child. In a way, she made him think of an unawakened
+creature. When she was roused, if the time ever came, it might be that
+her eye could become a thing alternately of fire and ice, and her voice
+might carry with a ring.
+
+"This business has to be gotten through quickly," he went on. "One
+meeting with Jack Landis will be enough."
+
+She wondered why he set his jaw when he said this, but he was wondering
+how deeply the colonel's ward had fallen into the clutches of Nelly
+Lebrun. If that first meeting did not bring Landis to his senses, what
+followed? One of two things. Either the girl must stay on in The Corner
+and try her hand with her fiancé again, or else the final brutal
+suggestion of the colonel must be followed; he must kill Landis. It was
+a cold-blooded suggestion, but Donnegan was a cold-blooded man. As he
+looked at the girl, where she sat on the boulder, he knew definitely,
+first and last, that he loved her, and that he would never again love
+any other woman. Every instinct drew him toward the necessity of
+destroying Landis. There was his stumbling block. But what if she truly
+loved Landis?
+
+He would have to wait in order to find that out. And as he stood there
+with the sun shining on the red stubble on his face he made a resolution
+the more profound because it was formed in silence: if she truly loved
+Landis he would serve her hand and foot until she had her will.
+
+But all he said was simply: "I shall be back before it's dark."
+
+"I shall be comfortable here," replied the girl, and smiled farewell at
+him.
+
+And while Donnegan went down the slope full of darkness he thought of
+that smile.
+
+The Corner spread more clearly before him with every step he made. It
+was a type of the gold-rush town. Of course most of the dwellings were
+tents--dog tents many of them; but there was a surprising sprinkling of
+wooden shacks, some of them of considerable size. Beginning at the very
+edge of the town and spread over the sand flats were the mines and the
+black sprinkling of laborers. And the town itself was roughly jumbled
+around one street. Over to the left the main road into The Corner
+crossed the wide, shallow ford of the Young Muddy River and up this road
+he saw half a dozen wagons coming, wagons of all sizes; but nothing went
+out of The Corner. People who came stayed there, it seemed.
+
+He dropped over the lower hills, and the voice of the gold town rose to
+him. It was a murmur like that of an army preparing for battle. Now and
+then a blast exploded, for what purpose he could not imagine in this
+school of mining. But as a rule the sounds were subdued by the distance.
+He caught the muttering of many voices, in which laughter and shouts
+were brought to the level of a whisper at close hand; and through all
+this there was a persistent clangor of metallic sounds. No doubt from
+the blacksmith shops where picks and other implements were made or
+sharpened and all sorts of repairing carried on. But the predominant
+tone of the voice of The Corner was this persistent ringing of metal. It
+suggested to Donnegan that here was a town filled with men of iron and
+all the gentler parts of their natures forgotten. An odd place to bring
+such a woman as Lou Macon, surely!
+
+He reached the level, and entered the town.
+
+
+
+
+11
+
+
+Hunting for news, he went naturally to the news emporium which took the
+place of the daily paper--namely, he went to the saloons. But on the way
+he ran through a liberal cross-section of The Corner's populace. First
+of all, the tents and the ruder shacks. He saw little sheet-iron stoves
+with the tin dishes piled, unwashed, upon the tops of them when the
+miners rushed back to their work; broken handles of picks and shovels;
+worn-out shirts and overalls lay where they had been tossed; here was a
+flat strip of canvas supported by four four-foot poles and without
+shelter at the sides, and the belongings of one careless miner tumbled
+beneath this miserable shelter; another man had striven for some
+semblance of a home and he had framed a five-foot walk leading up to the
+closed flap of his tent with stones of a regular size. But nowhere was
+there a sign of life, and would not be until semidarkness brought the
+unwilling workers back to the tents.
+
+Out of this district he passed quickly onto the main street, and here
+there was a different atmosphere. The first thing he saw was a man
+dressed as a cowpuncher from belt to spurs--spurs on a miner--but above
+the waist he blossomed in a frock coat and a silk hat. Around the coat
+he had fastened his belt, and the shirt beneath the coat was common
+flannel, open at the throat. He walked, or rather staggered, on the arm
+of an equally strange companion who was arrayed in a white silk shirt,
+white flannel trousers, white dancing pumps, and a vast sombrero! But as
+if this was not sufficient protection for his head, he carried a parasol
+of the most brilliant green silk and twirled it above his head. The two
+held a wavering course and went blindly past Donnegan.
+
+It was sufficiently clear that the storekeeper had followed the gold.
+
+He noted a cowboy sitting in his saddle while he rolled a cigarette.
+Obviously he had come in to look things over rather than to share in the
+mining, and he made the one sane, critical note in the carnival of noise
+and color. Donnegan began to pass stores. There was the jeweler's; the
+gent's furnishing; a real estate office--what could real estate be doing
+on the Young Muddy's desert? Here was the pawnshop, the windows of which
+were already packed. The blacksmith had a great establishment, and the
+roar of the anvils never died away; feed and grain and a dozen
+lunch-counter restaurants. All this had come to The Corner within six
+weeks.
+
+Liquor seemed to be plentiful, too. In the entire length of the street
+he hardly saw a sober man, except the cowboy. Half a dozen in one group
+pitched silver dollars at a mark. But he was in the saloon district now,
+and dominant among the rest was the big, unpainted front of a building
+before which hung an enormous sign:
+
+LEBRUN'S JOY EMPORIUM
+
+Donnegan turned in under the sign.
+
+It was one big room. The bar stretched completely around two sides of
+it. The floor was dirt, but packed to the hardness of wood. The low roof
+was supported by a scattering of wooden pillars, and across the floor
+the gaming tables were spread. At that vast bar not ten men were
+drinking now; at the crowding tables there were not half a dozen
+players; yet behind the bar stood a dozen tenders ready to meet the
+evening rush from the mines. And at the tables waited an equal number of
+the professional gamblers of the house.
+
+From the door Donnegan observed these things with one sweeping glance,
+and then proceeded to transform himself. One jerk at the visor of his
+cap brought it down over his eyes and covered his face with shadow; a
+single shrug bunched the ragged coat high around his shoulders, and the
+shoulders themselves he allowed to drop forward. With his hands in his
+pockets he glided slowly across the room toward the bar, for all the
+world a picture of the guttersnipe who had been kicked from pillar to
+post until self-respect is dead in him. And pausing in his advance, he
+leaned against one of the pillars and looked hungrily toward the bar.
+
+He was immediately hailed from behind the bar with: "Hey, you. No tramps
+in here. Pay and stay in Lebrun's!"
+
+The command brought an immediate protest. A big fellow stepped from the
+bar, his sombrero pushed to the back of his head, his shirt sleeves
+rolled to the elbow away from vast hairy forearms. One of his long arms
+swept out and brought Donnegan to the bar.
+
+"I ain't no prophet," declared the giant, "but I can spot a man that's
+dry. What'll you have, bud?" And to the bartender he added: "Leave him
+be, pardner, unless you're all set for considerable noise in here."
+
+"Long as his drinks are paid for," muttered the bartender, "here he
+stays. But these floaters do make me tired!"
+
+He jabbed the bottle across the bar at Donnegan and spun a glass noisily
+at him, and the "floater" observed the angry bartender with a frightened
+side glance, and then poured his drink gingerly. When the glass was half
+full he hesitated and sought the face of the bartender again, for
+permission to go on.
+
+"Fill her up!" commanded the giant. "Fill her up, lad, and drink
+hearty."
+
+"I never yet," observed the bartender darkly, "seen a beggar that wasn't
+a hog."
+
+At this Donnegan's protector shifted his belt so that the holster came a
+little more forward on his thigh.
+
+"Son," he said, "how long you been in these parts?"
+
+"Long enough," declared the other, and lowered his black brows. "Long
+enough to be sick of it."
+
+"Maybe, maybe," returned the cowpuncher-miner, "meantime you tie to
+this. We got queer ways out here. When a gent drinks with us he's our
+friend. This lad here is my pardner, just now. If I was him I would of
+knocked your head off before now for what you've said--"
+
+"I don't want no trouble," Donnegan said whiningly.
+
+At this the bartender chuckled, and the miner showed his teeth in his
+disgust.
+
+"Every gent has got his own way," he said sourly. "But while you drink
+with Hal Stern you drink with your chin up, bud. And don't forget it.
+And them that tries to run over you got to run over me."
+
+Saying this, he laid his large left hand on the bar and leaned a little
+toward the bartender, but his right hand remained hanging loosely at his
+side. It was near the holster, as Donnegan noticed. And the bartender,
+having met the boring glance of the big man for a moment, turned surlily
+away. The giant looked to Donnegan and observed: "Know a good definition
+of the word, skunk?"
+
+"Nope," said Donnegan, brightening now that the stern eye, of the
+bartender was turned away.
+
+"Here's one that might do. A skunk is a critter that bites when your
+back is turned and runs when you look it in the eye. Here's how!"
+
+He drained his own glass, and Donnegan dexterously followed the example.
+
+"And what might you be doing around these parts?" asked the big man,
+veiling his contempt under a mild geniality.
+
+"Me? Oh, nothing."
+
+"Looking for a job, eh?"
+
+Donnegan shrugged.
+
+"Work ain't my line," he confided.
+
+"H'm-m-m," said Hal Stern. "Well, you don't make no bones about it."
+
+"But just now," continued Donnegan, "I thought maybe I'd pick up some
+sort of a job for a while." He looked ruefully at the palms of his hands
+which were as tender as the hands of a woman. "Heard a fellow say that
+Jack Landis was a good sort to work for--didn't rush his men none. They
+said I might find him here."
+
+The big man grunted.
+
+"Too early for him. He don't circulate around much till the sun goes
+down. Kind of hard on his skin, the sun, maybe. So you're going to work
+for him?"
+
+"I was figuring on it."
+
+"Well, tie to this, bud. If you work for him you won't have him over
+you."
+
+"No?"
+
+"No, you'll have"--he glanced a little uneasily around him--"Lord Nick."
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"Who's he?" The big man started in astonishment. "Sufferin' catamounts!
+Who is he?" He laughed in a disagreeable manner. "Well, son, you'll
+find out, right enough!"
+
+"The way you talk, he don't sound none too good."
+
+Hal Stern grew anxious. "The way I talk? Have I said anything agin' him?
+Not a word! He's--he's--well, there ain't ever been trouble between us
+and there never ain't going to be." He flushed and looked steadily at
+Donnegan. "Maybe he sent you to talk to me?" he asked coldly.
+
+But Donnegan's eyes took on a childish wideness.
+
+"Why, I never seen him," he declared. Hall Stern allowed the muscles of
+his face to relax. "All right," he said, "they's no harm done. But Lord
+Nick is a name that ain't handled none too free in these here parts.
+Remember that!"
+
+"But how," pondered Donnegan, "can I be working for Lord Nick when I
+sign up to work under Jack Landis?"
+
+"I'll tell you how. Nick and Lebrun work together. Split profits. And
+Nelly Lebrun works Landis for his dust. So the stuff goes in a
+circle--Landis to Nelly to Lebrun to Nick. That clear?"
+
+"I don't quite see it," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"I didn't think you would," declared the other, and snorted his disgust.
+"But that's all I'm going to say. Here come the boys--and dead dry!"
+
+For the afternoon was verging upon evening, and the first drift of
+laborers from the mines was pouring into The Corner. One thing at least
+was clear to Donnegan: that everyone knew how infatuated Landis had
+become with Nelly Lebrun and that Landis had not built up an
+extraordinarily good name for himself.
+
+
+
+
+12
+
+
+By the time absolute darkness had set in, Donnegan, in the new role of
+lady's chaperon, sat before a dying fire with Louise Macon beside him.
+He had easily seen from his talk with Stern that Landis was a public
+figure, whether from the richness of his claims or his relations with
+Lord Nick and Lebrun, or because of all these things; but as a public
+figure it would be impossible to see him alone in his own tent, and
+unless Louise could meet him alone half her power over him--supposing
+that she still retained any--would be lost. Better by far that Landis
+should come to her than that she should come to him, so Donnegan had
+rented two tents by the day at an outrageous figure from the
+enterprising real estate company of The Corner and to this new home he
+brought the girl.
+
+She accepted the arrangement with surprising equanimity. It seemed that
+her father's training had eliminated from her mind any questioning of
+the motives of others. She became even cheerful as she set about
+arranging the pack which Donnegan put in her tent. Afterward she cooked
+their supper over the fire which he built for her. Never was there such
+a quick house-settling. And by the time it was absolutely dark they had
+washed the dishes and sat before Lou's tent looking over the night
+lights of The Corner and hearing the voice of its Great White Way
+opening.
+
+She had not even asked why he did not bring her straight to Jack Landis.
+She had looked into Donnegan's tent, furnished with a single blanket and
+his canvas kit, and had offered to share her pack with him. And now they
+sat side by side before the tent and still she asked no questions about
+what was to come.
+
+Her silence was to Donnegan the dropping of the water upon the hard
+rock. He was crumbling under it, and a wild hatred for the colonel rose
+in him. No doubt that spirit of evil had foreseen all this; and he knew
+that every moment spent with the girl would drive Donnegan on closer to
+the accomplishment of the colonel's great purpose--the death of Jack
+Landis. For the colonel, as Jack's next of kin, would take over all his
+mining interests and free them at a stroke from the silent partnership
+which apparently existed with Lord Nick and Lester. One bullet would do
+all this: and with Jack dead, who else stood close to the girl? It was
+only necessary that she should not know who sped the bullet home.
+
+A horrible fancy grew up in Donnegan, as he sat there, that between him
+and the girl lay a dead body.
+
+He was glad when the time came and he could tell her that he was going
+down to The Corner to find Jack Landis and bring him to her. She rose to
+watch him go and he heard her say "Come soon!"
+
+It shocked Donnegan into realization that for all her calm exterior she
+was perfectly aware of the danger of her position in the wild mining
+camp. She must know, also, that her reputation would be compromised; yet
+never once had she winced, and Donnegan was filled with wonder as he
+went down the hill toward the camp which was spread beneath him; for
+their tents were a little detached from the main body of the town.
+Behind her gentle eyes, he now felt, and under the softness of her
+voice, there was the same iron nerve that was in her father. Her hatred
+could be a deathless passion, and her love also; and the great question
+to be answered now was, did she truly love Jack Landis?
+
+The Corner at night was like a scene at a circus. There was the same
+rush of people, the same irregular flush of lights, the same glimmer of
+lanterns through canvas, the same air of impermanence. Once, in one of
+those hushes which will fall upon every crowd, he heard a coyote wailing
+sharply and far away, as though the desert had sent out this voice to
+mock at The Corner and all it contained.
+
+He had only to ask once to discover where Landis was: Milligan's dance
+hall. Before Milligan's place a bonfire burned from the beginning of
+dusk to the coming of day; and until the time when that fire was
+quenched with buckets of water, it was a sign to all that the merriment
+was under way in the dance hall. If Lebrun's was the sun of the
+amusement world in The Corner, Milligan's was the moon. Everybody who
+had money to lose went to Lebrun's. Every one who was out for gayety
+went to Milligan's. Milligan was a plunger. He had brought up an
+orchestra which demanded fifteen dollars a day and he paid them that and
+more. He not only was able to do this, but he established a bar at the
+entrance from which all who entered were served with a free drink. The
+entrance, also, was not subject to charge. The initial drink at the door
+was spiced to encourage thirst, so Milligan made money as fast, and far
+more easily, than if he had been digging it out of the ground.
+
+To the door of this pleasure emporium came Donnegan. He had transformed
+himself into the ragged hobo by the jerking down of his cap again, and
+the hunching of his shoulders. And shrinking past the bar with a hungry
+sidewise glance, as one who did not dare present himself for free
+liquor, he entered Milligan's.
+
+That is, he had put his foot across the threshold when he was caught
+roughly by the shoulder and dragged to one side. He found himself
+looking up into the face of a strapping fellow who served Milligan as
+bouncer. Milligan had an eye for color. Andy Lewis was tolerably well
+known as a fighting man of parts, who not only wore two guns but could
+use them both at once, which is much more difficult than is generally
+understood. But far more than for his fighting parts Milligan hired his
+bouncer for the sake of his face. It was a countenance made to
+discourage trouble makers. A mule had kicked Lewis in the chin, and a
+great white welt deformed his lower lip. Scars of smallpox added to his
+decorative effect, and he had those extremely bushy brows which for some
+reason are generally considered to denote ferocity. Now, Donnegan was
+not above middle height at best, and in his present shrinking attitude
+he found himself looking up a full head into the formidable face of the
+bouncer.
+
+"And what are you doing in here?" asked the genial Andy. "Don't you know
+this joint is for white folks?"
+
+"I ain't colored," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"You took considerable yaller to me," declared Lewis. He straightway
+chuckled, and his own keen appreciation of his wit softened his
+expression. "What you want?"
+
+Donnegan shivered under his rags.
+
+"I want to see Jack Landis," he said.
+
+It had a wonderful effect upon the doorkeeper. Donnegan found that the
+very name of Landis was a charm of power in The Corner.
+
+"You want to see him?" he queried in amazement. "You?"
+
+He looked Donnegan over again, and then grinned broadly, as if in
+anticipation. "Well, go ahead. There he sits--no, he's dancing."
+
+The music was in full swing; it was chiefly brass; but now and then, in
+softer moments, one could hear a violin squeaking uncertainly. At least
+it went along with a marked, regular rhythm, and the dancers swirled
+industriously around the floor. A very gay crowd; color was apparently
+appreciated in The Corner. And Donnegan, standing modestly out of sight
+behind a pillar until the dance ended, noted twenty phases of life in
+twenty faces. And Donnegan saw the flushes of liquor, and heard the loud
+voices of happy fellows who had made their "strikes"; but in all that
+brilliant crew he had no trouble in picking out Jack Landis and Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+They danced together, and where they passed, the others steered a little
+off so as to give them room on the dance floor, as if the men feared
+that they might cross the formidable Landis, and as if the women feared
+to be brought into too close comparison with Nelly Lebrun. She was,
+indeed, a brilliant figure. She had eyes of the Creole duskiness, a
+delicate olive skin, with a pastel coloring. The hand on the shoulder of
+Landis was a thing of fairy beauty. And her eyes had that peculiar
+quality of seeming to see everything, and rest on every face
+particularly. So that, as she whirled toward Donnegan, he winced,
+feeling that she had found him out among the shadows.
+
+She had a glorious partner to set her off. And Donnegan saw bitterly
+why Lou Macon could love him. Height without clumsiness, bulk and a
+light foot at once, a fine head, well poised, blond hair and a Grecian
+profile--such was Jack Landis. He wore a vest of fawn skin; his boots
+were black in the foot and finished with the softest red leather for the
+leg. And he had yellow buckskin trousers, laced in a Mexican fashion
+with silver at the sides; a narrow belt, a long, red silk handkerchief
+flying from behind his neck in cowboy fashion. So much flashing
+splendor, even in that gay assembly, would have been childishly
+conspicuous on another man. But in big Jack Landis there was patently a
+great deal of the unaffected child. He was having a glorious time on
+this evening, and his eye roved the room challenging admiration in a
+manner that was amusing rather than offensive. He was so overflowingly
+proud of having the prettiest girl in The Corner upon his arm and so
+conscious of being himself probably the finest-looking man that he
+escaped conceit, it might almost be said, by his very excess of it.
+
+Upon this splendid individual, then, the obscure Donnegan bent his gaze.
+He saw the dancers pause and scatter as the music ended, saw them drift
+to the tables along the edges of the room, saw the scurry of waiters
+hurrying drinks up in the interval, saw Nelly Lebrun sip a lemonade, saw
+Jack Landis toss off something stronger. And then Donnegan skirted
+around the room and came to the table of Jack Landis at the very moment
+when the latter was tossing a gold piece to the waiter and giving a new
+order.
+
+Prodigal sons in the distance of thought are apt to be both silly: and
+disgusting, but at close hand they usually dazzle the eye. Even the cold
+brain of Donnegan was daunted a little as he drew near.
+
+He came behind the chair of the tall master of The Corner, and while
+Nelly Lebrun stopped her glass halfway to her lips and stared at the
+ragged stranger, Donnegan was whispering in the ear of Jack Landis:
+"I've got to see you alone."
+
+Landis turned his head slowly and his eye darkened a little as he met
+the reddish, unshaven face of the stranger. Then, with a careless shrug
+of distaste, he drew out a few coins and poured them into Donnegan's
+palm; the latter pocketed them.
+
+"Lou Macon," said Donnegan.
+
+Jack Landis rose from his chair, and it was not until he stood so close
+to Donnegan that the latter realized the truly Herculean proportions of
+the young fellow. He bowed his excuses to Nelly Lebrun, not without
+grace of manner, and then huddled Donnegan into a corner with a wave of
+his vast arm.
+
+"Now what do you want? Who are you? Who put that name in your mouth?"
+
+"She's in The Corner," said Donnegan, and he dwelt upon the face of Jack
+Landis with feverish suspense. A moment later a great weight had slipped
+from his heart. If Lou Macon loved Landis it was beyond peradventure
+that Landis was not breaking his heart because of the girl. For at her
+name he flushed darkly, and then, that rush of color fading, he was left
+with a white spot in the center of each cheek.
+
+
+
+
+13
+
+
+First his glance plunged into vacancy; then it flicked over his shoulder
+at Nelly Lebrun and he bit his lip. Plainly, it was not the most welcome
+news that Jack Landis had ever heard.
+
+"Where is she?" he asked nervously of Donnegan, and he looked over the
+ragged fellow again.
+
+"I'll take you to her."
+
+The big man swayed back and forth from foot to foot, balancing in his
+hesitation. "Wait a moment."
+
+He strode to Nelly Lebrun and bent over her; Donnegan saw her eyes flash
+up--oh, heart of the south, what eyes of shadow and fire! Jack Landis
+trembled under the glance; yes, he was deeply in love with the girl. And
+Donnegan watched her face shade with suspicion, stiffen with cold anger,
+warm and soften again under the explanations of Jack Landis.
+
+Donnegan, looking from the distance, could read everything; it is
+nearness that bewitches a man when he talks to a woman. When Odysseus
+talked to Circe, no doubt he stood on the farther side of the room!
+
+When Landis came again, he was perspiring from the trial of fire
+through which he had just passed.
+
+"Come," he ordered, and set out at a sweeping stride.
+
+Plainly he was anxious to get this matter done with as soon as possible.
+As for Donnegan, he saw a man whom Landis had summoned to take his place
+sit down at the table with Nelly Lebrun. She was laughing with the
+newcomer as though nothing troubled her at all, but over his shoulder
+her glance probed the distance and followed Jack Landis. She wanted to
+see the messenger again, the man who had called her companion away; but
+in this it was fox challenging fox. Donnegan took note and was careful
+to place between him and the girl every pillar and every group of
+people. As far as he was concerned, her first glance must do to read and
+judge and remember him by.
+
+Outside Landis shot several questions at him in swift succession; he
+wanted to know how the girl had happened to make the trip. Above all,
+what the colonel was thinking and doing and if the colonel himself had
+come. But Donnegan replied with monosyllables, and Landis, apparently
+reconciling himself to the fact that the messenger was a fool, ceased
+his questions. They kept close to a run all the way out of the camp and
+up the hillside to the two detached tents where Donnegan and the girl
+slept that night. A lantern burned in both the tents.
+
+"She has made things ready for me," thought Donnegan, his heart opening.
+"She has kept house for me!"
+
+He pointed out Lou's tent to his companion and the big man, with a
+single low word of warning, threw open the flap of the tent and strode
+in.
+
+There was only the split part of a second between the rising and the
+fall of the canvas, but in that swift interval, Donnegan saw the girl
+starting up to receive Landis. Her calm was broken at last. Her cheeks
+were flushed; her eyes were starry with what? Expectancy? Love?
+
+It stopped Donnegan like a blow in the face and turned his heart to
+lead; and then, shamelessly, he glided around the tent and dropped down
+beside it to eavesdrop. After all, there was some excuse. If she loved
+the man he, Donnegan, would let him live; if she did not love him, he,
+Donnegan, would kill him like a worthless rat under heel. That is, if he
+could. No wonder that the wanderer listened with heart and soul!
+
+He missed the first greeting. It was only a jumble of exclamations, but
+now he heard: "But, Lou, what a wild idea. Across the mountains--with
+whom?"
+
+"The man who brought you here."
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't know? He looks like a shifty little rat to me."
+
+"He's big enough, Jack."
+
+Such small praise was enough to set Donnegan's heart thumping.
+
+"Besides, father told me to go with him, to trust him."
+
+"Ah!" There was an abrupt chilling and lowering of Landis' voice. "The
+colonel knows him? He's one of the colonel's men?"
+
+Plainly the colonel was to him as the rod to the child.
+
+"Why didn't you come directly to me?"
+
+"We thought it would be better not to."
+
+"H'm-m. Your guide--well, what was the colonel's idea in sending you
+here? Heavens above, doesn't he know that a mining camp is no place for
+a young girl? And you haven't a sign of a chaperon, Lou! What the devil
+can I do? What was in his mind?"
+
+"You haven't written for a long time."
+
+"Good Lord! Written! Letters! Does he think I have time for letters?"
+The lie came smoothly enough. "Working day and night?"
+
+Donnegan smoothed his whiskers and grinned into the night. Landis might
+prove better game than he had anticipated.
+
+"He worried," said the girl, and her voice was as even as ever. "He
+worried, and sent me to find out if anything is wrong."
+
+Then: "Nonsense! What is there to worry about? Lou, I'm half inclined to
+think that the colonel doesn't trust me!"
+
+She did not answer. Was she reading beneath the boisterous assurance of
+Landis?
+
+"One thing is clear to me--and to you, too, I hope. The first thing is
+to send you back in a hurry."
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"Lou, do you distrust me?"
+
+At length she managed to speak, but it was with some difficulty: "There
+is another reason for sending me."
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"Can't you guess, Jack?"
+
+"I'm not a mind reader."
+
+"The cad," said Donnegan through his teeth.
+
+"It's the old reason."
+
+"Money?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A shadow swept across the side of the tent; it was Landis waving his arm
+carelessly.
+
+"If that's all, I can fix you up and send you back with enough to carry
+the colonel along. Look here--why, I have five hundred with me. Take it,
+Lou. There's more behind it, but the colonel mustn't think that there's
+as much money in the mines as people say. No idea how much living costs
+up here. Heavens, no! And the prices for labor! And then they shirk the
+job from dawn to dark. I have to watch 'em every minute, I tell you!"
+
+He sighed noisily.
+
+"But the end of it is, dear"--how that small word tore into the heart of
+Donnegan, who crouched outside--"that you must go back tomorrow morning.
+I'd send you tonight, if I could. As a matter of fact, I don't trust the
+red-haired rat who--"
+
+The girl interrupted while Donnegan still had control of his
+hair-trigger temper.
+
+"You forget, Jack. Father sent me here, but he did not tell me to come
+back."
+
+At this Jack Landis burst into an enormous laughter.
+
+"You don't mean, Lou, that you actually intend to stay on?"
+
+"What else can I mean?"
+
+"Of course it makes it awkward if the colonel didn't expressly tell you
+just what to do. I suppose he left it to my discretion, and I decide
+definitely that you must go back at once."
+
+"I can't do it."
+
+"Lou, don't you hear me saying that I'll take the responsibility? If
+your father blames you let him tell me--"
+
+He broke down in the middle of his sentence and another of those
+uncomfortable little pauses ensued. Donnegan knew that their eyes were
+miserably upon each other; the man tongue-tied by his guilt; the girl
+wretchedly guessing at the things which lay behind her fiancé's words.
+
+"I'm sorry you don't want me here."
+
+"It isn't that, but--"
+
+He apparently expected to be interrupted, but she waited coolly for him
+to finish the sentence, and, of course, he could not. After all, for a
+helpless girl she had a devilish effective way of muzzling Landis.
+Donnegan chuckled softly in admiration.
+
+All at once she broke through the scene; her voice did not rise or
+harden, but it was filled with finality, as though she were weary of the
+interview.
+
+"I'm tired out; it's been a hard ride, Jack. You go home now and look me
+up again any time tomorrow."
+
+"I--Lou--I feel mighty bad about having you up here in this infernal
+tent, when the camp is full, and--":
+
+"You can't lie across the entrance to my tent and guard me, Jack.
+Besides, I don't need you for that. The man who's with me will protect
+me."
+
+"He doesn't look capable of protecting a cat!"
+
+"My father said that in any circumstances he would be able to take care
+of me."
+
+This reply seemed to overwhelm Landis.
+
+"The colonel trusts him as far as all that?" he muttered. "Then I
+suppose you're safe enough. But what about comfort, Lou?"
+
+"I've done without comfort all my life. Run along, Jack. And take this
+money with you. I can't have it."
+
+"But, didn't the colonel send--"
+
+"You can express it through to him. To me it's--not pleasant to take
+it."
+
+"Why, Lou, you don't mean--"
+
+"Good night, Jack. I don't mean anything, except that I'm tired."
+
+The shadow swept along the wall of the tent again. Donnegan, with a
+shaking pulse, saw the profile of the girl and the man approach as he
+strove to take her in his arms and kiss her good night. And then one
+slender bar of shadow checked Landis.
+
+"Not tonight."
+
+"Lou, you aren't angry with me?"
+
+"No. But you know I have queer ways. Just put this down as one of them.
+I can't explain."
+
+There was a muffled exclamation and Landis went from the tent and strode
+down the hill; he was instantly lost in the night. But Donnegan, turning
+to the entrance flap, called softly. He was bidden to come in, and when
+he raised the flap he saw her sitting with her hands clasped loosely and
+resting upon her knees. Her lips were a little parted, and colorless;
+her eyes were dull with a mist; and though she rallied herself a little,
+the wanderer could see that she was only half-aware of him.
+
+The face which he saw was a milestone in his life. For he had loved her
+jealously, fiercely before; but seeing her now, dazed, hurt, and
+uncomplaining, tenderness came into Donnegan. It spread to his heart
+with a strange pain and made his hands tremble.
+
+All that he said was: "Is there anything you need?"
+
+"Nothing," she replied, and he backed out and away.
+
+But in that small interval he had turned out of the course of his gay,
+selfish life. If Jack Landis had hurt her like this--if she loved him so
+truly--then Jack Landis she should have.
+
+There was an odd mixture of emotions in Donnegan; but he felt most
+nearly like the poor man from whose hand his daughter tugs back and
+looks wistfully, hopelessly, into the bright window at all the toys.
+What pain is there greater than the pain that comes to the poor man in
+such a time? He huddles his coat about him, for his heart is as cold as
+a Christmas day; and if it would make his child happy, he would pour out
+his heart's blood on the snow.
+
+Such was the grief of Donnegan as he backed slowly out into the night.
+Though Jack Landis were fixed as high as the moon he would tear him out
+of his place and give him to the girl.
+
+
+
+
+14
+
+
+The lantern went out in the tent; she was asleep; and when he knew that,
+Donnegan went down into The Corner. He had been trying to think out a
+plan of action, and finding nothing better than to thrust a gun stupidly
+under Landis' nose and make him mark time, Donnegan went into Lebrun's
+place. As if he hoped the bustle there would supply him with ideas.
+
+Lebrun's was going full blast. It was not filled with the shrill mirth
+of Milligan's. Instead, all voices were subdued to a point here. The
+pitch was never raised. If a man laughed, he might show his teeth but he
+took good care that he did not break into the atmosphere of the room.
+For there was a deadly undercurrent of silence which would not tolerate
+more than murmurs on the part of others. Men sat grim-faced over the
+cards, the man who was winning, with his cold, eager eye; the chronic
+loser of the night with his iron smile; the professional, ever debonair,
+with the dull eye which comes from looking too often and too closely
+into the terrible face of chance. A very keen observer might have
+observed a resemblance between those men and Donnegan.
+
+Donnegan roved swiftly here and there. The calm eye and the smooth play
+of an obvious professional in a linen suit kept him for a moment at one
+table, looking on; then he went to the games, and after changing the
+gold which Jack Landis had given as alms so silver dollars, he lost it
+with precision upon the wheel.
+
+He went on, from table to table, from group to group. In Lebrun's his
+clothes were not noticed. It was no matter whether he played or did not
+play, whether he won or lost; they were too busy to notice. But he came
+back, at length, to the man who wore the linen coat and who won so
+easily. Something in his method of dealing appeared to interest Donnegan
+greatly.
+
+It was jackpot; the chips were piled high; and the man in the linen coat
+was dealing again. How deftly he mixed the cards!
+
+Indeed, all about him was elegant, from the turn of his black cravat to
+the cut of the coat. An inebriate passed, shouldered and disturbed his
+chair, and rising to put it straight again, the gambler was seen to be
+about the height and build of Donnegan.
+
+Donnegan studied him with the interest of an artist. Here was a man,
+harking back to Nelly Lebrun and her love of brilliance, who would
+probably win her preference over Jack Landis for the simple reason that
+he was different. That is, there was more in his cravat to attract
+astonished attention in The Corner than there was in all the silver lace
+of Landis. And he was a man's man, no doubt of that. On the inebriate he
+had flashed one glance of fire, and his lean hand had stirred uneasily
+toward the breast of his coat. Donnegan, who missed nothing, saw and
+understood.
+
+Interested? He was fascinated by this man because he recognized the
+kinship which existed between them. They might almost have been blood
+brothers, except for differences in the face. He knew, for instance,
+just what each glance of the man in the linen coat meant, and how he was
+weighing his antagonists. As for the others, they were cool players
+themselves, but here they had met their master. It was the difference
+between the amateur and the professional. They played good chancey
+poker, but the man in the linen coat did more--he stacked the cards!
+
+For the first moment Donnegan was not sure; it was not until there was a
+slight faltering in the deal--an infinitely small hesitation which only
+a practiced eye like that of Donnegan's could have noticed--that he was
+sure. The winner was crooked. Yet the hand was interesting for all that.
+He had done the master trick, not only giving himself the winning hand
+but also giving each of the others a fine set of cards.
+
+And the betting was wild on that historic pot! To begin with the
+smallest hand was three of a kind; and after the draw the weakest was a
+straight. And they bet furiously. The stranger had piqued them with his
+consistent victories. Now they were out for blood. Chips having been
+exhausted, solid gold was piled up on the table--a small fortune!
+
+The man in the linen coat, in the middle of the hand, called for drinks.
+They drank. They went on with the betting. And then at last came the
+call.
+
+Donnegan could have clapped his hands to applaud the smooth rascal. It
+was not an affair of breaking the others who sat in. They were all
+prosperous mine owners, and probably they had been carefully selected
+according to the size of purse, in preparation for the sacrifice. But
+the stakes were swept into the arms and then the canvas bag of the
+winner. If it was not enough to ruin the miners it was at least enough
+to clean them out of ready cash and discontinue the game on that basis.
+They rose; they went to the bar for a drink; but while the winner led
+the way, two of the losers dropped back a trifle and fell into earnest
+conversation, frowning. Donnegan knew perfectly what the trouble was.
+They had noticed that slight faltering in the deal; they were putting
+their mental notes on the game together.
+
+But the winner, apparently unconscious of suspicion, lined up his
+victims at the bar. The first drink went hastily down; the second was on
+the way--it was standing on the bar. And here he excused himself; he
+broke off in the very middle of a story, and telling them that he would
+be back any moment, stepped into a crowd of newcomers.
+
+The moment he disappeared, Donnegan saw the other four put their heads
+close together, and saw a sudden darkening of faces; but as for the
+genial winner, he had no sooner passed to the other side of the crowd
+and out of view, than he turned directly toward the door. His careless
+saunter was exchanged for a brisk walk; and Donnegan, without making
+himself conspicuous, was hard pressed to follow that pace.
+
+At the door he found that the gambler, with his canvas sack under his
+arm, had turned to the right toward the line of saddle horses which
+stood in the shadow; and no sooner did he reach the gloom at the side of
+the building than he broke into a soft, swift run. He darted down the
+line of horses until he came to one which was already mounted. This
+Donnegan saw as he followed somewhat more leisurely and closer to the
+horses to avoid observance. He made out that the man already on
+horseback was a big Negro and that he had turned his own mount and a
+neighboring horse out from the rest of the horses, so that they were
+both pointing down the street of The Corner. Donnegan saw the Negro
+throw the lines of his lead horse into the air. In exchange he caught
+the sack which the runner tossed to him, and then the gambler leaped
+into his saddle.
+
+It was a simple but effective plan. Suppose he were caught in the midst
+of a cheat; his play would be to break away to the outside of the
+building, shooting out the lights, if possible--trusting to the
+confusion to help him--and there he would find his horse held ready for
+him at a time when a second might be priceless. On this occasion no
+doubt the clever rascal had sensed the suspicion of the others.
+
+At any rate, he lost no time. He waited neither to find his stirrups nor
+grip the reins firmly, but the same athletic leap which carried him into
+the saddle set the horse in motion, and from a standing start the animal
+broke into a headlong gallop. He received, however, an additional burden
+at once.
+
+For Donnegan, from the second time he saw the man of the linen coat, had
+been revolving a daring plan, and during the poker game the plan had
+slowly matured. The moment he made sure that the gambler was heading for
+a horse, he increased his own speed. Ordinarily he would have been
+noted, but now, no doubt, the gambler feared no pursuit except one
+accompanied by a hue and cry. He did not hear the shadow-footed Donnegan
+racing over the soft ground behind him; but when he had gained the
+saddle, Donnegan was close behind with the impetus of his run to aid
+him. It was comparatively simple, therefore, to spring high in the air,
+and he struck fairly and squarely behind the saddle of the man in the
+linen coat. When he landed his revolver was in his hand and the muzzle
+jabbed into the back of the gambler.
+
+The other made one frantic effort to twist around, then recognized the
+pressure of the revolver and was still. The horses, checking their
+gallops in unison, were softly dog-trotting down the street.
+
+"Call off your man!" warned Donnegan, for the big Negro had reined back;
+the gun already gleamed in his hand.
+
+A gesture from the gambler sent the gun into obscurity, yet still the
+fellow continued to fall back.
+
+"Tell him to ride ahead."
+
+"Keep in front, George."
+
+"And not too far."
+
+"Very well. And now?"
+
+"We'll talk later. Go straight on, George, to the clump of trees beyond
+the end of the street. And ride straight. No dodging!"
+
+"It was a good hand you played," continued Donnegan; taking note that of
+the many people who were now passing them none paid the slightest
+attention to two men riding on one horse and chatting together as they
+rode. "It was a good hand, but a bad deal. Your thumb slipped on the
+card, eh?"
+
+"You saw, eh?" muttered the other.
+
+"And two of the others saw it. But they weren't sure till afterward."
+
+"I know. The blockheads! But I spoiled their game for them. Are you one
+of us, pal?"
+
+But Donnegan smiled to himself. For once at least the appeal of gambler
+to gambler should fail.
+
+"Keep straight on," he said. "We'll talk later on."
+
+
+
+
+15
+
+
+Before Donnegan gave the signal to halt in a clear space where the
+starlight was least indistinct, they reached the center of the trees.
+
+"Now, George," he said, "drop your gun to the ground."
+
+There was a flash and faint thud.
+
+"Now the other gun."
+
+"They ain't any more, sir."
+
+"Your other gun," repeated Donnegan.
+
+A little pause. "Do what he tells you, George," said the gambler at
+length, and a second weapon fell.
+
+"Now keep on your horse and keep a little off to the side," went on
+Donnegan, "and remember that if you try to give me the jump I might miss
+you in this light, but I'd be sure to hit your horse. So don't take
+chances, George. Now, sir, just hold your hands over your head and then
+dismount."
+
+He had already gone through the gambler and taken his weapons; he was
+now obeyed. The man of the linen coat tossed up his arms, flung his
+right leg over the horn of the saddle, and slipped to the ground.
+
+Donnegan joined his captive. "I warn you first," he said gently, "that
+I am quite expert with a revolver, and that it will be highly dangerous
+to attempt to trick me. Lower your arms if you wish, but please be
+careful of what you do with your hands. There are such things as knife
+throwing, I know, but it takes a fast wrist to flip a knife faster than
+a bullet. We understand each other?"
+
+"Perfectly," agreed the other. "By the way, my name is Godwin. And
+suppose we become frank. You are in temporary distress. It was
+impossible for you to make a loan at the moment and you are driven to
+this forced--touch. Now, if half--"
+
+"Hush," said Donnegan. "You are too generous. But the present question
+is not one of money. I have long since passed over that. The money is
+now mine. Steady!" This to George, who lurched in the saddle; but Godwin
+was calm as stone. "It is not the question of the money that troubles
+me, but the question of the men. I could easily handle one of you. But I
+fear to allow both of you to go free. You would return on my trail;
+there are such things as waylayings by night, eh? And so, Mr. Godwin, I
+think my best way out is to shoot you through the head. When your body
+is found it will be taken for granted that the servant killed the master
+for the sake of the money which he won by crooked card play. I think
+that's simple. Put your hands up, George, or, by heck, I'll let the
+starlight shine through you!"
+
+The huge arms of George were raised above his head; Godwin, in the
+meantime, had not spoken.
+
+"I almost think you mean it," he said after a short pause.
+
+"Good," said Donnegan. "I do not wish to kill you unprepared."
+
+There was a strangled sound deep in the throat of Godwin; then he was
+able to speak again, but now his voice was made into a horrible jumble
+by fear.
+
+"Pal," he said, "you're dead wrong. George here--he's a devil. If you
+let him live he'll kill you--as sure as you're standing here. You don't
+know him. He's George Green. He's got a record as long as my arm and as
+bad as the devil's name. He--he's the man to get rid of. Me? Why, man,
+you and I could team it together. But George--not--"
+
+Donnegan began to laugh, and the gambler stammered to a halt.
+
+"I knew you when I laid eyes on you for the first time," said Donnegan.
+"You have the hands of a craftsman, but your eyes are put too close
+together. A coward's eyes--a cur's face, Godwin. But you, George--have
+you heard what he said?"
+
+No answer from George but a snarl.
+
+"It sounds logical what he said, eh, George?"
+
+Dead silence.
+
+"But," said Donnegan, "there are flaws in the plan. Godwin, get out of
+your clothes."
+
+The other fell on his knees.
+
+"For heaven's sake," he pleaded.
+
+"Shut up," commanded Donnegan. "I'm not going to shoot you. I never
+intended to, you fool. But I wanted to see if you were worth splitting
+the coin with. You're not. Now get out of your clothes."
+
+He was obeyed in fumbling haste, and while that operation went on, he
+succeeded in jumping out of his own rags and still kept the two fairly
+steadily under the nose of his gun. He tossed this bundle to Godwin, who
+accepted it with a faint oath; and Donnegan stepped calmly and swiftly
+into the clothes of his victim.
+
+"A perfect fit," he said at length, "and to show that I'm pleased,
+here's your purse back. Must be close to two hundred in that, from the
+weight."
+
+Godwin muttered some unintelligible curse.
+
+"Tush. Now, get out! If you show your face in The Corner again, some of
+those miners will spot you, and they'll dress you in tar and feathers."
+
+"You fool. If they see you in my clothes?"
+
+"They'll never see these after tonight, probably. You have other clothes
+in your packs, Godwin. Lots of 'em. You're the sort who knows how to
+dress, and I'll borrow your outfit. Get out!"
+
+The other made no reply; a weight seemed to have fallen upon him along
+with his new outfit, and he slunk into the darkness. George made a move
+to follow; there was a muffled shriek from Godwin, who fled headlong;
+and then a sharp command from Donnegan stopped the big man.
+
+"Come here," said Donnegan.
+
+George Washington Green rode slowly closer.
+
+"If I let you go what would you do?"
+
+There was a glint of teeth.
+
+"I'd find him."
+
+"And break him in two, eh? Instead, I'm going to take you home, where
+you'll have a chance of breaking me in two instead. There's something
+about the cut of your shoulders and your head that I like, Green; and if
+you don't murder me in the first hour or so, I think we'll get on very
+well together. You hear?"
+
+The silence of George Washington Green was a tremendous thing.
+
+"Now ride ahead of me. I'll direct you how to go."
+
+He went first straight back through the town and up the hill to the two
+tents. He made George go before him into the tent and take up the roll
+of bedding; and then, with George and the bedding leading the way, and
+Donnegan leading the two horses behind, they went across the hillside to
+a shack which he had seen vacated that evening. It certainly could not
+be rented again before morning, and in the meantime Donnegan would be in
+possession, which was a large part of the law in The Corner, as he knew.
+
+A little lean-to against the main shack served as a stable; the creek
+down the hillside was the watering trough. And Donnegan stood by while
+the big Negro silently tended to the horses--removing the packs and
+preparing them for the night. Still in silence he produced a small
+lantern and lighted it. It showed his face for the first time--the skin
+ebony black and polished over the cheekbones, but the rest of the face
+almost handsome, except that the slight flare of his nostrils gave him a
+cast of inhuman ferocity. And the fierceness was given point by a pair
+of arms of gorilla length; broad shoulders padded with rolling muscles,
+and the neck of a bull. On the whole, Donnegan, a connoisseur of
+fighting men, had never seen such promise of strength.
+
+At his gesture, George led the way into the house. It was more
+commodious than most of the shacks of The Corner. In place of a single
+room this had two compartments--one for the kitchen and another for the
+living room. In vacating the hut, the last occupants had left some of
+the furnishings behind them. There was a mirror, for instance, in the
+corner; and beneath the mirror a cheap table in whose open drawer
+appeared a tumble of papers. Donnegan dropped the heavy sack of Godwin's
+winnings to the floor, and while George hung the lantern on a nail on
+the wall, Donnegan crossed to the table and appeared to run through the
+papers.
+
+He was humming carelessly while he did it, but all the time he watched
+with catlike intensity the reflection of George in the mirror above him.
+He saw--rather dimly, for the cheap glass showed all its images in
+waves--that George turned abruptly after hanging up the lantern, paused,
+and then whipped a hand into his coat pocket and out again.
+
+Donnegan leaped lightly to one side, and the knife, hissing past his
+head, buried itself in the wall, and its vibrations set up a vicious
+humming. As for Donnegan, the leap that carried him to one side whirled
+him about also; he faced the big man, who was now crouched in the very
+act of following the knife cast with the lunge of his powerful body.
+There was no weapon in Donnegan's hand, and yet George hesitated,
+balanced--and then slowly drew himself erect.
+
+He was puzzled. An outburst of oaths, the flash of a gun, and he would
+have been at home in the brawl, but the silence, the smile of Donnegan
+and the steady glance were too much for him. He moistened his lips, and
+yet he could not speak. And Donnegan knew that what paralyzed George was
+the manner in which he had received warning. Evidently the simple
+explanation of the mirror did not occur to the fellow; and the whole
+incident took on supernatural colorings. A phrase of explanation and
+Donnegan would become again an ordinary human being; but while the small
+link was a mystery the brain and body of George were numb. It was
+necessary above all to continue inexplicable. Donnegan, turning, drew
+the knife from the wall with a jerk. Half the length of the keen blade
+had sunk into the wood--a mute tribute to the force and speed of
+George's hand--and now Donnegan took the bright little weapon by the
+point and gave it back to the other.
+
+"If you throw for the body instead of the head," said Donnegan, "you
+have a better chance of sending the point home."
+
+He turned his back again upon the gaping giant, and drawing up a broken
+box before the open door he sat down to contemplate the night. Not a
+sound behind him. It might be that the big fellow had regained his nerve
+and was stealing up for a second attempt; but Donnegan would have
+wagered his soul that George Washington Green had his first and last
+lesson and that he would rather play with bare lightning than ever again
+cross his new master.
+
+At length: "When you make down the bunks," said Donnegan, "put mine
+farthest from the kitchen. You had better do that first."
+
+"Yes--sir," came the deep bass murmur behind him.
+
+And the heart of Donnegan stirred, for that "sir" meant many things.
+
+Presently George crossed the floor with a burden; there was the "whish"
+of the blankets being unrolled--and then a slight pause. It seemed to
+him that he could hear a heavier breathing. Why? And searching swiftly
+back through his memory he recalled that his other gun, a stub-nosed
+thirty-eight, was in the center of his blanket roll.
+
+And he knew that George had the weapon in his big hand. One pressure of
+the trigger would put an end to Donnegan; one bullet would give George
+the canvas sack and its small treasure.
+
+"When you clean my gun," said Donnegan, "take the action to pieces and
+go over every part."
+
+He could actually feel the start of George.
+
+Then: "Yes, sir," in a subdued whisper.
+
+If the escape from the knife had startled George, this second incident
+had convinced him that his new master possessed eyes in the back of his
+head.
+
+And Donnegan, paying no further heed to him, looked steadily across the
+hillside to the white tent of Lou Macon, fifty yards away.
+
+
+
+
+16
+
+
+His plan, grown to full stature so swiftly, and springing out of
+nothing, well nigh, had come out of his first determination to bring
+Jack Landis back to Lou Macon; for he could interpret those blank, misty
+eyes with which she had sat after the departure of Landis in only one
+way. Yet to rule even the hand of big Jack Landis would be hard enough
+and to rule his heart was quite another story. Remembering Nelly Lebrun,
+he saw clearly that the only way in which he could be brought back to
+Lou was first to remove Nelly as a possibility in his eyes. But how
+remove Nelly as long as it was her cue from her father to play Landis
+for his money? How remove her, unless it were possible to sweep Nelly
+off her feet with another man? She might, indeed, be taken by storm, and
+if she once slighted Landis for the sake of another, his boyish pride
+would probably do the rest, and his next step would be to return to Lou
+Macon.
+
+All this seemed logical, but where find the man to storm the heart of
+Nelly and dazzle her bright, clever eyes? His own rags had made him
+shrug his shoulders; and it was the thought of clothes which had made
+him fasten his attention so closely on the man of the linen suit in
+Lebrun's. Donnegan with money, with well-fitted clothes, and with a few
+notorious escapades behind him--yes, Donnegan with such a flying start
+might flutter the heart of Nelly Lebrun for a moment. But he must have
+the money, the clothes, and then he must deliberately set out to startle
+The Corner, make himself a public figure, talked of, pointed at, known,
+feared, respected, and even loved by at least a few. He must accomplish
+all these things beginning at a literal zero.
+
+It was the impossible nature of this that tempted Donnegan. But the
+paradoxical picture of the ragged skulker in Milligan's actually sitting
+at the same table with Nelly Lebrun and receiving her smiles stayed with
+him. He intended to rise, literally Phoenixlike, out of ashes. And the
+next morning, in the red time of the dawn, he sat drinking the coffee
+which George Washington Green had made for him and considering the
+details of the problem. Clothes, which had been a main obstacle, were
+now accounted for, since, as he had suspected, the packs of Godwin
+contained a luxurious wardrobe of considerable compass. At that moment,
+for instance, Donnegan was wrapped in a dressing gown of padded silk and
+his feet were encased in slippers.
+
+But clothes were the least part of his worries. To startle The Corner,
+and thereby make himself attractive in the eyes of Nelly Lebrun,
+overshadowing Jack Landis--that was the thing! But to startle The
+Corner, where gold strikes were events of every twenty-four hours, just
+now--where robberies were common gossip, and where the killings now
+averaged nearly three a day--to startle The Corner was like trying to
+startle the theatrical world with a sensational play. Indeed, this
+parallel could have been pursued, for Donnegan was the nameless actor
+and the mountain desert was the stage on which he intended to become a
+headliner. No wonder, then, that his lean face was compressed in
+thought. Yet no one could have guessed it by his conversation. At the
+moment he was interrupted, his talk ran somewhat as follows.
+
+"George, Godwin taught you how to make coffee?"
+
+"Yes, sir," from George. Since the night before he had appeared totally
+subdued. Never once did he venture a comment. And ever Donnegan was
+conscious of big, bright eyes watching him in a reverent fear not
+untinged by superstition. Once, in the middle of the night, he had
+wakened and seen the vast shadow of George's form leaning over the sack
+of money. Murder by stealth in the dark had been in the giant's mind, no
+doubt. But when, after that, he came and leaned over Donnegan's bunk,
+the master closed his eyes and kept on breathing regularly, and finally
+George returned to his own place--softly as a gigantic cat. Even in the
+master's sleep he found something to be dreaded, and Donnegan knew that
+he could now trust the fellow through anything. In the morning, at the
+first touch of light, he had gone to the stores and collected
+provisions. And a comfortable breakfast followed.
+
+"Godwin," resumed Donnegan, "was talented in many ways."
+
+The big man showed his teeth in silence; for since Godwin proposed the
+sacrifice of the servant to preserve himself, George had apparently
+altered his opinion of the gambler.
+
+"A talented man, George, but he knew nothing about coffee. It should
+never boil. It should only begin to cream through the crust. Let that
+happen; take the pot from the fire; put it back and let the surface
+cream again. Do this three times, and then pour the liquid from the
+grounds and you have the right strength and the right heating. You
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And concerning the frying of bacon--"
+
+At this point the interruption came in the shape of four men at the open
+door; and one of these Donnegan recognized as the real estate dealer,
+who had shrewdly set up tents and shacks on every favorable spot in The
+Corner and was now reaping a rich harvest. Gloster was his name. It was
+patent that he did not see in the man in the silk dressing robe the
+unshaven miscreant of the day before who had rented the two tents.
+
+"How'dee," he said, standing on the threshold, with the other three in
+the background.
+
+Donnegan looked at him and through him.
+
+"My name is Gloster. I own this shack and I've come to find out why
+you're in it."
+
+"George," said Donnegan, "speak to him. Tel! him that I know houses are
+scarce in The Corner; that I found this place by accident vacant; that I
+intend to stay in it on purpose."
+
+George Washington Green instantly rose to the situation; he swallowed a
+vast grin and strode to the door. And though Mr. Gloster's face
+crimsoned with rage at such treatment he controlled his voice. In The
+Corner manhood was apt to be reckoned by the pound, and George was a
+giant.
+
+"I heard what your boss said, buddie," said Gloster. "But I've rented
+this cabin and the next one to these three gents and their party, and
+they want a home. Nothing to do but vacate. Which speed is the thing I
+want. Thirty minutes will--"
+
+"Thirty minutes don't change nothing," declared George in his deep, soft
+voice.
+
+The real estate man choked. Then: "You tell your boss that jumping a
+cabin is like jumping a claim. They's a law in The Corner for gents like
+him."
+
+George made a gesture of helplessness; but Gloster turned to the three.
+
+"Both shacks or none at all," said the spokesman. "One ain't big enough
+to do us any good. But if this bird won't vamoose--"
+
+He was a tolerably rough-appearing sort and he was backed by two of a
+kind. No doubt dangerous action would have followed had not George shown
+himself capable of rising to a height. He stepped from the door; he
+approached Gloster and said in a confidential whisper that reached
+easily to the other three: "They ain't any call for a quick play,
+mister. Watch yo'selves. Maybe you don't know who the boss is?"
+
+"And what's more, I don't care," said Gloster defiantly but with his
+voice instinctively lowered. He stared past George, and behold, the man
+in the dressing gown still sat in quiet and sipped his coffee.
+
+"It's Donnegan," whispered George.
+
+"Don--who's he?"
+
+"You don't know Donnegan?"
+
+The mingled contempt and astonishment of George would have moved a thing
+of stone. It certainly troubled Gloster. And he turned to the three.
+
+"Gents," he said, "they's two things we can do. Try the law--and law's a
+lame lady in these parts--or throw him out. Say which?"
+
+The three looked from Gloster to the shack; from the shack to Donnegan,
+absently sipping his coffee; from Donnegan to George, who stood
+exhibiting a broad grin of anticipated delight. The contrast was too
+much for them.
+
+There is one great and deep-seated terror in the mountain desert, and
+that is for the man who may be other than he seems. The giant with the
+rough voice and the boisterous ways is generally due for a stormy
+passage west of the Rockies; but the silent man with the gentle manners
+receives respect. Traditions live of desperadoes with exteriors of
+womanish calm and the action of devils. And Donnegan sipping his morning
+coffee fitted into the picture which rumor had painted. The three looked
+at one another, declared that they had not come to fight for a house but
+to rent one, that the real estate agent could go to the devil for all of
+them, and that they were bound elsewhere. So they departed and left
+Gloster both relieved and gloomy.
+
+"Now," said Donnegan to George, "tell him that we'll take both the
+shacks, and he can add fifty per cent to his old price."
+
+The bargain was concluded on the spot; the money was paid by George.
+Gloster went down the hill to tell The Corner that a mystery had hit the
+town and George brought the canvas bag back to Donnegan with the top
+still untied--as though to let it be seen that he had not pocketed any
+of the gold.
+
+"I don't want to count it," said Donnegan. "Keep the bag, George. Keep
+money in your pocket. Treat both of us well. And when that's gone I'll
+get more."
+
+If the manner in which Donnegan had handled the renting of the cabins
+had charmed George, he was wholly entranced by this last touch of free
+spending. To serve a man who was his master was one thing; to serve one
+who trusted him so completely was quite another. To live under the same
+roof with a man who was a riddle was sufficiently delightful; but to be
+allowed actually to share in the mystery was a superhappiness. He was
+singing when he started to wash the dishes, and Donnegan went across the
+hill to the tent of Lou Macon.
+
+She was laying the fire before the tent; and the morning freshness had
+cleared from her face any vestige of the trouble of the night before;
+and in the slant light her hair was glorious, all ruffling gold,
+semitransparent. She did not smile at him; but she could give the effect
+of smiling while her face remained grave; it was her inward calm content
+of which people were aware.
+
+"You missed me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You were worried?"
+
+"No."
+
+He felt himself put quietly at a distance. So he took her up the hill to
+her new home--the shack beside his own; and George cooked her breakfast.
+When she had been served, Donnegan drew the big man to one side.
+
+"She's your mistress," said Donnegan. "Everything you do for her is
+worth two things you do for me. Watch her as if she were in your eye.
+And if a hair of her head is ever harmed--you see that fire burning
+yonder--the bed of coals?"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I'll catch you and make a fire like that and feed you into it--by
+inches!"
+
+And the pale face of Donnegan became for an instant the face of a demon.
+George Washington Green saw, and never forgot.
+
+Afterward, in order that he might think, Donnegan got on one of the
+horses he had taken from Godwin and rode over the hills. They were both
+leggy chestnuts, with surprising signs of blood' and all the earmarks of
+sprinters; but in Godwin's trade sharp getaways were probably often
+necessary. The pleasure he took in the action of the animal kept him
+from getting into his problem.
+
+How to startle The Corner? How follow up the opening gun which he had
+fired at the expense of Gloster and the three miners?
+
+He broke off, later in the day, to write a letter to Colonel Macon,
+informing him that Jack Landis was tied hard and fast by Nelly Lebrun
+and that for the present nothing could be done except wait, unless the
+colonel had suggestions to offer.
+
+The thought of the colonel, however, stimulated Donnegan. And before
+midafternoon he had thought of a thing to do.
+
+
+
+
+17
+
+
+The bar in Milligan's was not nearly so pretentious an affair as the bar
+in Lebrun's, but it was of a far higher class. Milligan had even managed
+to bring in a few bottles of wine, and he had dispensed cheap claret at
+two dollars a glass when the miners wished to celebrate a rare occasion.
+There were complaints, not of the taste, but of the lack of strength. So
+Milligan fortified his liquor with pure alcohol and after that the
+claret went like a sweet song in The Corner. Among other things, he sold
+mint juleps; and it was the memory of the big sign proclaiming this fact
+that furnished Donnegan with his idea.
+
+He had George Washington Green put on his town clothes--a riding suit in
+which Godwin had had him dress for the sake of formal occasions.
+Resplendent in black boots, yellow riding breeches, and blue silk shirt,
+the big man came before Donnegan for instructions.
+
+"Go down to Milligan's," said the master. "They don't allow colored
+people to enter the door, but you go to the door and start for the bar.
+They won't let you go very far. When they stop you, tell them you come
+from Donnegan and that you have to get me some mint for a julep.
+Insist. The bouncer will start to throw you out."
+
+George showed his teeth.
+
+"No fighting back. Don't lift your hand. When you find that you can't
+get in, come back here. Now, ride."
+
+So George mounted the horse and went. Straight to Milligan's he rode and
+dismounted; and half of The Corner's scant daytime population came into
+the street to see the brilliant horseman pass.
+
+Scar-faced Lewis met the big man at the door. And size meant little to
+Andy, except an easier target.
+
+"Well, confound my soul," said Lewis, blocking the way. "A Negro in
+Milligan's? Get out!"
+
+Big George did not move.
+
+"I been sent, mister," he said mildly. "I been sent for enough mint to
+make a julep."
+
+"You been sent to the wrong place," declared Andy, hitching at his
+cartridge belt. "Ain't you seen that sign?"
+
+And he pointed to the one which eliminated colored patrons.
+
+"Signs don't mean nothin' to my boss," said George.
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"And who's Donnegan?"
+
+It puzzled George. He scratched his head in bewilderment seeking for an
+explanation. "Donnegan is--Donnegan," he explained.
+
+"I heard Gloster talk about him," offered someone in the rapidly growing
+group. "He's the gent that rented the two places on the hill."
+
+"Tell him to come himse'f," said Andy Lewis. "We don't play no favorites
+at Milligan's."
+
+"Mister," said big George, "I don't want to bring no trouble on this
+heah place, but--don't make me go back and bring Donnegan."
+
+Even Andy Lewis was staggered by this assurance.
+
+"Rules is rules," he finally decided. "And out you go."
+
+Big George stepped from the doorway and mounted his horse.
+
+"I call on all you gen'lemen," he said to the assembled group, "to say
+that I done tried my best to do this peaceable. It ain't me that's sent
+for Donnegan; it's him!"
+
+He rode away, leaving Scar-faced Lewis biting his long mustaches in
+anxiety. He was not exactly afraid, but he waited in the suspense which
+comes before a battle. Moreover, an audience was gathering. The word
+went about as only a rumor of mischief can travel. New men had gathered.
+The few day gamblers tumbled out of Lebrun's across the street to watch
+the fun. The storekeepers were in their doors. Lebrun himself, withered
+and dark and yellow of eye, came to watch. And here and there through
+the crowd there was a spot of color where the women of the town
+appeared. And among others, Nelly Lebrun with Jack Landis beside her. On
+the whole it was not a large crowd, but what it lacked in size it made
+up in intense interest.
+
+For though The Corner had had its share of troubles of fist and gun,
+most of them were entirely impromptu affairs. Here was a fight in the
+offing for which the stage was set, the actors set in full view of a
+conveniently posted audience, and all the suspense of a curtain rising.
+The waiting bore in upon Andy Lewis. Without a doubt he intended to kill
+his man neatly and with dispatch, but the possibility of missing before
+such a crowd as this sent a chill up and down his spine. If he failed
+now his name would be a sign for laughter ever after in The Corner.
+
+A hum passed down the street; it rose to a chuckle, and then fell away
+to sudden silence, for Donnegan was coming.
+
+He came on a prancing chestnut horse which sidled uneasily on a weaving
+course, as though it wished to show off for the benefit of the rider and
+the crowd at once. It was a hot afternoon and Donnegan's linen riding
+suit shone an immaculate white. He came straight down the street, as
+unaware of the audience which awaited him as though he rode in a park
+where crowds were the common thing. Behind him came George Green, just a
+careful length back. Rumor went before the two with a whisper on either
+side.
+
+"That's Donnegan. There he comes!"
+
+"Who's Donnegan?"
+
+"Gloster's man. The one who bluffed out Gloster and three others."
+
+"He pulled his shooting iron and trimmed the whiskers of one of 'em with
+a chunk of lead."
+
+"D'you mean that?"
+
+"What's that kind of a gent doing in The Corner?"
+
+"Come to buy, I guess. He looks like money."
+
+"Looks like a confounded dude."
+
+"We'll see his hand in a minute."
+
+Donnegan was now opposite the dance hall, and Andy Lewis had his hand
+touching the butt of his gun, but though Donnegan was looking straight
+at him, he kept his reins in one hand and his heavy riding crop in the
+other. And without a move toward his own gun, he rode straight up to the
+door of the dance hall, with Andy in front of it. George drew rein
+behind him and turned upon the crowd one broad, superior grin.
+
+As who should say: "I promised you lightning; now watch it strike!"
+
+If the crowd had been expectant before, it was now reduced to wire-drawn
+tenseness.
+
+"Are you the fellow who turned back my man?" asked Donnegan.
+
+His quiet voice fell coldly upon the soul of Andy. He strove to warm
+himself by an outbreak of temper.
+
+"They ain't any poor fool dude can call me a fellow!" he shouted.
+
+The crowd blinked; but when it opened its eyes the gunplay had not
+occurred. The hand of Andy was relaxing from the butt of his gun and an
+expression of astonishment and contempt was growing upon his face.
+
+"I haven't come to curse you," said the rider, still occupying his hands
+with crop and reins. "I've come to ask you a question and get an answer.
+Are you the fellow who turned back my man?"
+
+"I guess you ain't the kind I was expectin' to call on me," drawled
+Andy, his fear gone, and he winked at the crowd. But the others were not
+yet ready to laugh. Something about the calm face of Donnegan had
+impressed them. "Sure, I'm the one that kicked him out. He ain't allowed
+in there."
+
+"It's the last of my thoughts to break in upon a convention in your
+city," replied the grave rider, "but my man was sent on an errand and
+therefore he had a right to expect courtesy. George, get off your horse
+and go into Milligan's place. I want that mint!"
+
+For a moment Andy was too stunned to answer. Then his voice came harshly
+and he swayed from side to side, gathering and summoning his wrath.
+
+"Keep out boy! Keep out, or you're buzzard meat. I'm warnin'--"
+
+For the first time his glance left the rider to find George, and that
+instant was fatal. The hand of Donnegan licked out as the snake's tongue
+darts--the loaded quirt slipped over in his hand, and holding it by the
+lash he brought the butt of it thudding on the head of Andy.
+
+Even then the instinct to fight remained in the stunned man; while he
+fell, he was drawing the revolver; he lay in a crumpling heap at the
+feet of Donnegan's horse with the revolver shoved muzzle first into the
+sand.
+
+Donnegan's voice did not rise.
+
+"Go in and get that mint, George," he ordered. "And hurry. This rascal
+has kept me waiting until I'm thirsty."
+
+Big George hesitated only one instant--it was to sweep the crowd for the
+second time with his confident grin--and he strode through the door of
+the dance hall. As for Donnegan, his only movement was to swing his
+horse around and shift riding crop and reins into the grip of his left
+hand. His other hand was dropped carelessly upon his hip. Now, both
+these things were very simple maneuvers, but The Corner noted that his
+change of face had enabled Donnegan to bring the crowd under his eye,
+and that his right hand was now ready for a more serious bit of work if
+need be. Moreover, he was probing faces with his glance. And every armed
+man in that group felt that the eye of the rider was directed
+particularly toward him.
+
+There had been one brief murmur; then the silence lay heavily again, for
+it was seen that Andy had been only slightly stunned--knocked out, as a
+boxer might be. Now his sturdy brains were clearing. His body stiffened
+into a human semblance once more; he fumbled, found the butt of his gun
+with his first move. He pushed his hat straight: and so doing he raked
+the welt which the blow had left on his head. The pain finished clearing
+the mist from his mind; in an instant he was on his feet, maddened with
+shame. He saw the semicircle of white faces, and the whole episode
+flashed back on him. He had been knocked down like a dog.
+
+For a moment he looked into the blank faces of the crowd; someone noted
+that there was no gun strapped at the side of Donnegan. A voice shouted
+a warning.
+
+"Stop, Lewis. The dude ain't got a gun. It's murder!"
+
+It was now that Lewis saw Donnegan sitting the saddle directly behind
+him, and he whirled with a moan of fury. It was a twist of his body--in
+his eagerness--rather than a turning upon his feet. And he was half
+around before the rider moved. Then he conjured a gun from somewhere in
+his clothes. There was the flash of the steel, an explosion, and
+Scar-faced Lewis was on his knees with a scream of pain holding his
+right forearm with his left hand.
+
+The crowd hesitated still for a second, as though it feared to
+interfere; but Donnegan had already put up his weapon. A wave of the
+curious spectators rushed across the street and gathered around the
+injured man. They found that he had been shot through the fleshy part of
+the thumb, and the bullet, ranging down the arm, had sliced a furrow to
+the bone all the way to the elbow. It was a grisly wound.
+
+Big George Washington Green came running to the door of the dance hall
+with a sprig of something green in his hand; one glance assured him that
+all was well; and once more that wide, confident grin spread upon his
+face. He came to the master and offered the mint; and Donnegan, raising
+it to his face, inhaled the scent deeply.
+
+"Good," he said. "And now for a julep, George! Let's go home!"
+
+Across the street a dark-eyed girl had clasped the arm of her companion
+in hysterical excitement.
+
+"Did you see?" she asked of her tall companion.
+
+"I saw a murderer shoot down a man; he ought to be hung for it!"
+
+"But the mint! Did you see him smile over it? Oh, what a devil he is;
+and what a man!"
+
+Jack Landis flashed a glance of suspicion down at her, but her dancing
+eyes had quite forgotten him. They were following the progress of
+Donnegan down the street. He rode slowly, and George kept that formal
+distance, just a length behind.
+
+
+
+
+18
+
+
+Before Milligan's the crowd began to buzz like murmuring hornets around
+a nest that has been tapped, when they pour out and cannot find the
+disturber. It was a rather helpless milling around the wounded man, and
+Nelly Lebrun was the one who worked her way through the crowd and came
+to Andy Lewis. She did not like Andy. She had been known to refer to him
+as a cowardly hawk of a man; but now she bullied the crowd in a shrill
+voice and made them bring water and cloth. Then she cleansed and
+bandaged the wound in Andy Lewis' arm and had some of them take him
+away.
+
+By this time the outskirts of the crowd had melted away; but those who
+had really seen all parts of the little drama remained to talk. The
+subject was a real one. Had Donnegan aimed at the hand of Andy and
+risked his own life on his ability to disable the other without killing
+him? Or had he fired at Lewis' body and struck the hand and arm only by
+a random lucky chance?
+
+If the second were the case, he was only a fair shot with plenty of
+nerve and a great deal of luck. If the first were true, then this was a
+nerve of ice-tempered steel, an eye vulture-sharp, and a hand,
+miraculous, fast, and certain. To strike that swinging hand with a snap
+shot, when a miss meant a bullet fired at his own body at deadly short
+range--truly it would take a credulous man to believe that Donnegan had
+coldly planned to disable his man without killing him.
+
+"A murderer by intention," exclaimed Milligan. He had hunted long and
+hard before he found a man with a face like that of Lewis, capable of
+maintaining order by a glance; now he wanted revenge. "A murder by
+intention!" he cried to the crowd, standing beside the place where the
+imprint of Andy's knees was still in the sand. "And like a murderer he
+ought to be treated. He aimed to kill Andy; he had luck and only broke
+his hand. Now, boys, I say it ain't so much what he's done as the way
+he's done it. He's given us the laugh. He's come in here in his dude
+clothes and tried to walk over us. But it don't work. Not in The Corner.
+If Andy was dead, I'd say lynch the dude. But he ain't, and all I say
+is: Run him out of town."
+
+Here there was a brief outburst of applause, but when it ended, it was
+observed that there was a low, soft laughter. The crowd gave way between
+Milligan and the mocker. It was seen that he who laughed was old Lebrun,
+rubbing his olive-skinned hands together and showing his teeth in his
+mirth. There was no love lost between Lebrun and Milligan, even if Nelly
+was often in the dance hall and the center of its merriment.
+
+"It takes a thief to catch a thief," said Lebrun enigmatically, when he
+saw that he had the ear of the crowd, "and it takes a man to catch a
+man."
+
+"What the devil do you mean by that?" a dozen voices asked.
+
+"I mean, that if you got men enough to run out this man Donnegan, The
+Corner is a better town than I think."
+
+It brought a growl, but no answer. Lebrun had never been seen to lift
+his hand, but he was more dreaded than a rattler.
+
+"We'll try," said Milligan dryly. "I ain't much of a man myself"--there
+were dark rumors about Milligan's past and the crowd chuckled at this
+modesty--"but I'll try my hand agin' him with a bit of backing. And
+first I want to tell you boys that they ain't any danger of him having
+aimed at Andy's hand. I tell you, it ain't possible, hardly, for him to
+have planned to hit a swingin' target like that. Maybe some could do it.
+I dunno."
+
+"How about Lord Nick?"
+
+"Sure, Lord Nick might do anything. But Donnegan ain't Lord Nick."
+
+"Not by twenty pounds and three inches."
+
+This brought a laugh. And by comparison with the terrible and familiar
+name of Lord Nick, Donnegan became a smaller danger. Besides, as
+Milligan said, it was undoubtedly luck. And when he called for
+volunteers, three or four stepped up at once. The others made a general
+milling, as though each were trying to get forward and each were
+prevented by the crowd in front. But in the background big Jack Landis
+was seriously trying to get to the firing line. He was encumbered with
+the clinging weight of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"Don't go, Jack," she pleaded. "Please! Please! Be sensible. For my
+sake!"
+
+She backed this appeal with a lifting of her eyes and a parting of her
+lips, and Jack Landis paused.
+
+"You won't go, dear Jack?"
+
+Now, Jack knew perfectly well that the girl was only half sincere. It is
+the peculiar fate of men that they always know when a woman is playing
+with them, but, from Samson down, they always go to the slaughter with
+open eyes, hoping each moment that the girl has been seriously impressed
+at last. As for Jack Landis, his slow mind did not readily get under the
+surface of the arts of Nelly, but he knew that there was at least a
+tinge of real concern in the girl's desire to keep him from the posse
+which Milligan was raising.
+
+"But they's something about him that I don't like, Nelly. Something sort
+of familiar that I don't like." For naturally enough he did not
+recognize the transformed Donnegan, and the name he had never heard
+before. "A gunfighter, that's what he is!"
+
+"Why, Jack, sometimes they call you the same thing; say that you hunt
+for trouble now and then!"
+
+"Do they say that?" asked the young chap quickly, flushing with vanity.
+"Oh, I aim to take care of myself. And I'd like to take a hand with this
+murdering Donnegan."
+
+"Jack, listen! Don't go; keep away from him!"
+
+"Why do you look like that? As if I was a dead one already."
+
+"I tell you, Jack, he'd kill you!"
+
+Something in her terrible assurance whitened the cheeks of Landis, but
+he was also angered. When a very young man becomes both afraid and angry
+he is apt to be dangerous. "What do you know of him?" he asked
+suspiciously.
+
+"You silly! But I saw his face when he lifted that mint. He'd already
+forgotten about the man he had just shot down. He was thinking of
+nothing but the scent of the mint. And did you notice his giant servant?
+He never had a moment's doubt of Donnegan's ability to handle the entire
+crowd. I tell you, it gave me a chill of ghosts to see the big black
+fellow's eyes. He knew that Donnegan would win. And Donnegan won! Jack,
+you're a big man and a strong man and a brave man, and we all know it.
+But don't be foolish. Stay away from Donnegan!"
+
+He wavered just an instant. If she could have sustained her pleading
+gaze a moment longer she would have won him, but at the critical instant
+her gaze became distant. She was seeing the calm face of Donnegan as he
+raised the mint. And as though he understood, Jack Landis hardened.
+
+"I'm glad you don't want me shot up, Nelly," he said coldly. "Mighty
+good of you to watch out for me. But--I'm going to run this Donnegan out
+of town!"
+
+"He's never harmed you; why--"
+
+"I don't like his looks. For a man like me that's enough!"
+
+And he strode away toward Milligan. He was greeted by a cheer just as
+the girl reached the side of her father.
+
+"Jack is going," she said. "Make him come back!"
+
+But the old man was still rubbing his hands; there seemed to be a
+perpetual chill in the tips of the fingers.
+
+"He is a jackass. The moment I first saw his face I knew that he was
+meant for gun fodder--buzzard food! Let him go. Bah!"
+
+The girl shivered. "And then the mines?" she asked, changing her
+tactics.
+
+"Ah, yes. The mines! But leave that to Lord Nick. He'll handle it well
+enough!"
+
+So Jack Landis strode up the hill first and foremost of the six stalwart
+men who wished to correct the stranger's apparent misunderstandings of
+the status of The Corner. They were each armed to the teeth and each
+provided with enough bullets to disturb a small city. All this in honor
+of Donnegan.
+
+They found the shack wrapped in the warm, mellow light of the late
+afternoon; and on a flat-topped rock outside it big George sat
+whittling a stick into a grotesque imitation of a snake coiled. He did
+not rise when the posse approached. He merely rocked back upon the rock,
+embraced his knees in both of his enormous arms, and, in a word,
+transformed himself into a round ball of mirth. But having hugged away
+his laughter he was able to convert his joy into a vast grin. That smile
+stopped the posse. When a mob starts for a scene of violence the least
+exhibition of fear incenses it, but mockery is apt to pour water on its
+flames of anger.
+
+Decidedly the fury of the posse was chilled by the grin of George.
+Milligan, who had lived south of the Mason-Dixon line, stepped up to
+impress George properly.
+
+"Boy," he said, frowning, "go in and tell your man that we've come for
+him. Tell him to step right out here and get ready to talk. We don't
+mean him no harm less'n he can't explain one or two things. Hop along!"
+
+The "boy" did not stir. Only he shifted his eyes from face to face and
+his grin broadened. Ripples of mirth waved along his chest and convulsed
+his face, but still he did not laugh. "Go in and tell them things to
+Donnegan," he said. "But don't ask me to wake him up. He's sleepin'
+soun' an' fas'. Like a baby; mostly, he sleeps every day to get rested
+up for the night. Now, can't you-all wait till Donnegan wakes up
+tonight? No? Then step right in, gen'lemen; but if you-all is set on
+wakin' him up now, George will jus' step over the hill, because he don't
+want to be near the explosion."
+
+At this, he allowed his mirth free rein. His laughter shook up to his
+throat, to his enormous mouth; it rolled and bellowed across the
+hillside; and the posse stood, each man in his place, and looked
+frigidly upon one another. But having been laughed at, they felt it
+necessary to go on, and do or die. So they strode across the hill and
+were almost to the door when another phenomenon occurred. A girl in a
+cheap calico dress of blue was seen to run out of a neighboring shack
+and spring up before the door of Donnegan's hut. When she faced the
+crowd it stopped again.
+
+The soft wind was blowing the blue dress into lovely, long, curving
+lines; about her throat a white collar of some sheer stuff was being
+lifted into waves, or curling against her cheek; and the golden hair, in
+disorder, was tousled low upon her forehead.
+
+Whirling thus upon the crowd, she shocked them to a pause, with her
+parted lips, her flare of delicate color.
+
+"Have you come here," she cried, "for--for Donnegan?"
+
+"Lady," began someone, and then looked about for Jack Landis, who was
+considered quite a hand with the ladies. But Jack Landis was discovered
+fading out of view down the hillside. One glance at that blue dress had
+quite routed him, for now he remembered the red-haired man who had
+escorted Lou Macon to The Corner--and the colonel's singular trust in
+this fellow. It explained much, and he fled before he should be noticed.
+
+Before the spokesman could continue his speech, the girl had whipped
+inside the door. And the posse was dumbfounded. Milligan saw that the
+advance was ruined. "Boys," he said, "we came to fight a man; not to
+storm a house with a woman in it. Let's go back. We'll tend to Donnegan
+later on."
+
+"We'll drill him clean!" muttered the others furiously, and straightway
+the posse departed down the hill.
+
+But inside the girl had found, to her astonishment, that Donnegan was
+stretched upon his bunk wrapped again in the silken dressing gown and
+with a smile upon his lips. He looked much younger, as he slept, and
+perhaps it was this that made the girl steal forward upon tiptoe and
+touch his shoulder so gently.
+
+He was up on his feet in an instant. Alas, vanity, vanity! Donnegan in
+shoes was one thing, for his shoes were of a particular kind; but
+Donnegan in his slippers was a full two inches shorter. He was hardly
+taller than the girl; he was, if the bitter truth must be known, almost
+a small man. And Donnegan was furious at having been found by her in
+such careless attire--and without those dignity-building shoes. First
+he wanted to cut the throat of big George.
+
+"What have you done, what have you done?" cried the girl, in one of
+those heart-piercing whispers of fear. "They have come for you--a whole
+crowd--of armed men--they're outside the door! What have you done? It
+was something done for me, I know!"
+
+Donnegan suddenly transferred his wrath from big George to the mob.
+
+"Outside my door?" he asked. And as he spoke he slipped on a belt at
+which a heavy holster tugged down on one side, and buckled it around
+him.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!" she pleaded, and caught him in her arms.
+
+Donnegan allowed her to stop him with that soft power for a moment,
+until his face went white--as if with pain. Then he adroitly gathered
+both her wrists into one of his bony hands; and having rendered her
+powerless, he slipped by her and cast open the door.
+
+It was an empty scene upon which they looked, with big George rocking
+back and forth upon a rock, convulsed with silent laughter. Donnegan
+looked sternly at the girl and swallowed. He was fearfully susceptible
+to mockery.
+
+"There seems to have been a jest?" he said.
+
+But she lifted him a happy, tearful face.
+
+"Ah, thank heaven!" she cried gently.
+
+Oddly enough, Donnegan at this set his teeth and turned upon his heel,
+and the girl stole out the door again, and closed it softly behind her.
+As a matter of fact, not even the terrible colonel inspired in her quite
+the fear which Donnegan instilled.
+
+
+
+
+19
+
+
+"Big Landis lost his nerve and sidestepped at the last minute, and then
+the whole gang faded."
+
+That was the way the rumors of the affair always ended at each
+repetition in Lebrun's and Milligan's that night. The Corner had had
+many things to talk about during its brief existence, but nothing to
+compare with a man who entered a shooting scrape with such a fellow as
+Scar-faced Lewis all for the sake of a spray of mint. And the main topic
+of conversation was: Did Donnegan aim at the body or the hand of the
+bouncer?
+
+On the whole, it was an excellent thing for Milligan's. The place was
+fairly well crowded, with a few vacant tables. For everyone wanted to
+hear Milligan's version of the affair. He had a short and vigorous one,
+trimmed with neat oaths. It was all the girl in the blue calico dress,
+according to him. The posse couldn't storm a house with a woman in it or
+even conduct a proper lynching in her presence. And no one was able to
+smile when Milligan said this. Neither was anyone nervy enough to
+question the courage of Landis. It looked strange, that sudden flight of
+his, but then, he was a proven man. Everyone remembered the affair of
+Lester. It had been a clean-cut fight, and Jack Landis had won cleanly
+on his merits.
+
+Nevertheless some of the whispers had not failed to come to the big man,
+and his brow was black.
+
+The most terribly heartless and selfish passion of all is shame in a
+young man. To repay the sidelong glances which he met on every side,
+Jack Landis would have willingly crowded every living soul in The Corner
+into one house and touched a match to it. And chiefly because he felt
+the injustice of the suspicion. He had no fear of Donnegan.
+
+He had a theory that little men had little souls. Not that he ever
+formulated the theory in words, but he vaguely felt it and adhered to
+it. He had more fear of one man of six two than a dozen under five ten.
+He reserved in his heart of hearts a place of awe for one man whom he
+had never seen. That was for Lord Nick, for that celebrated character
+was said to be as tall and as finely built as Jack Landis himself. But
+as for Donnegan--Landis wished there were three Donnegans instead of
+one.
+
+Tonight his cue was surly silence. For Nelly Lebrun had been warned by
+her father, and she was making desperate efforts to recover any ground
+she might have lost. Besides, to lose Jack Landis would be to lose the
+most spectacular fellow in The Corner, to say nothing of the one who
+held the largest and the choicest of the mines. The blond, good looks of
+Landis made a perfect background for her dark beauty. With all these
+stakes to play for, Nelly outdid herself. If she were attractive enough
+ordinarily, when she exerted herself to fascinate, Nelly was
+intoxicating. What chance had poor Jack Landis against her? He did not
+call for her that night but went to play gloomily at Lebrun's until
+Nelly walked into Lebrun's and drew him away from a table. Half an hour
+later she had him whirling through a dance in Milligan's and had danced
+the gloom out of his mind for the moment. Before the evening was well
+under way, Landis was making love to her openly, and Nelly was in the
+position of one who had roused the bear.
+
+It was a dangerous flirtation and it was growing clumsy. In any place
+other than The Corner it would have been embarrassing long ago; and when
+Jack Landis, after a dance, put his one big hand over both of Nelly's
+and held her moveless while he poured out a passionate declaration,
+Nelly realized that something must be done. Just what she could not
+tell.
+
+And it was at this very moment that a wave of silence, beginning at the
+door, rushed across Milligan's dance floor. It stopped the bartenders in
+the act of mixing drinks; it put the musicians out of key, and in the
+midst of a waltz phrase they broke down and came to a discordant pause.
+
+What was it?
+
+The men faced the door, wondering, and then the swift rumor passed from
+lip to lip--almost from eye to eye, so rapidly it sped--Donnegan is
+coming! Donnegan, and big George with him.
+
+"Someone tell Milligan!"
+
+But Milligan had already heard; he was back of the bar giving
+directions; guns were actually unlimbering. What would happen?
+
+"Shall I get you out of this?" Landis asked the girl.
+
+"Leave now?" She laughed fiercely and silently. "I'm just beginning to
+live! Miss Donnegan in action? No, sir!"
+
+She would have given a good deal to retract that sentence, for it washed
+the face of Landis white with jealousy.
+
+Surely Donnegan had built greater than he knew.
+
+And suddenly he was there in the midst of the house. No one had stopped
+him--at least, no one had interfered with his servant. Big George had on
+a white suit and a dappled green necktie; he stood directly behind his
+master and made him look like a small boy. For Donnegan was in black,
+and he had a white neckcloth wrapped as high and stiffly as an
+old-fashioned stock. Altogether he was a queer, drab figure compared
+with the brilliant Donnegan of that afternoon. He looked older, more
+weary. His lean face was pale; and his hair flamed with redoubled ardor
+on that account. Never was hair as red as that, not even the hair of
+Lord Nick, said the people in Milligan's this night.
+
+He was perfectly calm even in the midst of that deadly silence. He stood
+looking about him. He saw Gloster, the real estate man, and bowed to him
+deliberately.
+
+For some reason that drew a gasp.
+
+Then he observed a table which was apparently to his fancy and crossed
+the floor with a light, noiseless step, big George padding heavily
+behind him. At the little round table he waited until George had drawn
+out the chair for him and then he sat down. He folded his arms lightly
+upon his breast and once more surveyed the scene, and big George drew
+himself up behind Donnegan. Just once his eyes rolled and flashed
+savagely in delight at the sensation that they were making, then the
+face of George was once again impassive.
+
+If Donnegan had not carried it off with a certain air, the whole
+entrance would have seemed decidedly stagey, but The Corner, as it was,
+found much to wonder at and little to criticize. And in the West grown
+men are as shrewd judges of affectation as children are in other places.
+
+"Putting on a lot of style, eh?" said Jack Landis, and with fierce
+intensity he watched the face of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+For once she was unguarded.
+
+"He's superb!" she exclaimed. "The big fellow is going to bring a drink
+for him."
+
+She looked up, surprised by the silence of Landis, and found that his
+face was actually yellow.
+
+"I'll tell you something. Do you remember the little red-headed tramp
+who came in here the other night and spoke to me?"
+
+"Very well. You seemed to be bothered."
+
+"Maybe. I dunno. But that's the man--the one who's sitting over there
+now all dressed up--the man The Corner is talking about--Donnegan! A
+tramp!"
+
+She caught her breath.
+
+"Is that the one?" A pause. "Well, I believe it. He's capable of
+anything!"
+
+"I think you like him all the better for knowing that."
+
+"Jack, you're angry."
+
+"Why should I be? I hate to see you fooled by the bluff of a tramp,
+though."
+
+"Tush! Do you think I'm fooled by it? But it's an interesting bluff,
+Jack, don't you think?"
+
+"Nelly, he's interesting enough to make you blush; by heaven, the hound
+is lookin' right at you now, Nelly!"
+
+He had pressed her suddenly against the wall and she struck back
+desperately in self-defense.
+
+"By the way, what did he want to see you about?"
+
+It spiked the guns of Landis for the time being, at least. And the girl
+followed by striving to prove that her interest in Donnegan was purely
+impersonal.
+
+"He's clever," she ran on, not daring to look at the set face of her
+companion. "See how he fails to notice that he's making a sensation?
+You'd think he was in a big restaurant in a city. He takes the drink off
+the tray from that fellow as if it were a common thing to be waited on
+by a body-servant in The Corner. Jack, I'll wager that there's something
+crooked about him. A professional gambler, say!"
+
+Jack Landis thawed a little under this careless chatter. He still did
+not quite trust her.
+
+"Do you know what they're whispering? That I was afraid to face him!"
+
+She tilted her head back, so that the light gleamed on her young throat,
+and she broke into laughter.
+
+"Why, Jack, that's foolish. You proved yourself when you first came to
+The Corner. Maybe some of the newcomers may have said something, but all
+the old-timers know you had some different reason for leaving the rest
+of them. By the way, what was the reason?"
+
+She sent a keen little glance at him from the corner of her eyes, but
+the moment she saw that he was embarrassed and at sea because of the
+query she instantly slipped into a fresh tide of careless chatter and
+covered up his confusion for him.
+
+"See how the girls are making eyes at him."
+
+"I'll tell you why," Jack replied. "A girl likes to be with the man
+who's making the town talk." He added pointedly: "Oh, I've found that
+out!"
+
+She shrugged that comment away.
+
+"He isn't paying the slightest attention to any of them," she murmured.
+"He's queer! Has he just come here hunting trouble?"
+
+
+
+
+20
+
+
+It should be understood that before this the men in Milligan's had
+reached a subtly unspoken agreement that red-haired Donnegan was not one
+of them. In a word, they did not like him because he made a mystery of
+himself. And, also, because he was different. Yet there was a growing
+feeling that the shooting of Lewis through the hand had not been an
+accident, for the whole demeanor of Donnegan composed the action of a
+man who is a professional trouble maker. There was no reason why he
+should go to Milligan's and take his servant with him unless he wished a
+fight. And why a man should wish to fight the entire Corner was
+something no one could guess.
+
+That he should have done all this merely to focus all eyes upon him, and
+particularly the eyes of a girl, did not occur to anyone. It looked
+rather like the bravado of a man who lived for the sake of fighting.
+Now, men who hunt trouble in the mountain desert generally find all that
+they may desire, but for the time being everyone held back, wolfishly,
+waiting for another to take the first step toward Donnegan. Indeed,
+there was an unspoken conviction that the man who took the first step
+would probably not live to take another. In the meantime both men and
+women gave Donnegan the lion's share of their attention. There was only
+one who was clever enough to conceal it, and that one was the pair of
+eyes to which the red-haired man was playing--Nelly Lebrun. She confined
+herself strictly to Jack Landis.
+
+So it was that when Milligan announced a tag dance and the couples
+swirled onto the floor gayly, Donnegan decided to take matters into his
+own hands and offer the first overt act. It was clumsy; he did not like
+it; but he hated this delay. And he knew that every moment he stayed on
+there with big George behind his chair was another red rag flaunted in
+the face of The Corner.
+
+He saw the men who had no girl with them brighten at the announcement of
+the tag dance. And when the dance began he saw the prettiest girls
+tagged quickly, one after the other. All except Nelly Lebrun. She swung
+securely around the circle in the big arms of Jack Landis. She seemed to
+be set apart and protected from the common touch by his size, and by his
+formidable, challenging eye. Donnegan felt as never before the
+unassailable position of this fellow; not only from his own fighting
+qualities, but because he had behind him the whole unfathomable power of
+Lord Nick and his gang.
+
+Nelly approached in the arms of Landis in making the first circle of the
+dance floor; her eyes, grown dull as she surrendered herself wholly to
+the rhythm of the waltz, saw nothing. They were blank as unlighted
+charcoal. She came opposite Donnegan, her back was toward him; she swung
+in the arms of Landis, and then, past the shoulder of her partner, she
+flashed a glance at Donnegan. The spark had fallen on the charcoal, and
+her eyes were aflame. Aflame to Donnegan; the next instant the veil had
+dropped across her face once more.
+
+She was carried on, leaving Donnegan tingling.
+
+A wise man upon whom that look had fallen might have seen, not Nelly
+Lebrun in the cheap dance hall, but Helen of Sparta and all Troy's dead.
+But Donnegan was clever, not wise. And he saw only Nelly Lebrun and the
+broad shoulders of Jack Landis.
+
+Let the critic deal gently with Donnegan. He loved Lou Macon with all
+his heart and his soul, and yet because another beautiful girl had
+looked at him, there he sat at his table with his jaw set and the devil
+in his eye. And while she and Landis were whirling through the next
+circumference of the room, Donnegan was seeing all sides of the problem.
+If he tagged Landis it would be casting the glove in the face of the big
+man--and in the face of old Lebrun--and in the face of that mysterious
+and evil power, Lord Nick himself. And consider, that besides these he
+had already insulted all of The Corner.
+
+Why not let things go on as they were? Suppose he were to allow Landis
+to plunge deeper into his infatuation? Suppose he were to bring Lou
+Macon to this place and let her see Landis sitting with Nelly, making
+love to her with every tone in his voice, every light in his eye? Would
+not that cure Lou? And would not that open the door to Donnegan?
+
+And remember, in considering how Donnegan was tempted, that he was not a
+conscientious man. He was in fact what he seemed to be--a wanderer, a
+careless vagrant, living by his wits. For all this, he had been touched
+by the divine fire--a love that is greater than self. And the more
+deeply he hated Landis, the more profoundly he determined that he should
+be discarded by Nelly and forced back to Lou Macon. In the meantime,
+Nelly and Jack were coming again. They were close; they were passing;
+and this time her eye had no spark for Donnegan.
+
+Yet he rose from his table, reached the floor with a few steps, and
+touched Landis lightly on the shoulder. The challenge was passed. Landis
+stopped abruptly and turned his head; his face showed merely dull
+astonishment. The current of dancers split and washed past on either
+side of the motionless trio, and on every face there was a glittering
+curiosity. What would Landis do?
+
+Nothing. He was too stupefied to act. He, Jack Landis, had actually been
+tagged while he was dancing with the woman which all The Corner knew to
+be his girl! And before his befogged senses cleared the girl was in the
+arms of the red-haired man and was lost in the crowd.
+
+What a buzz went around the room! For a moment Landis could no more move
+than he could think; then he sent a sullen glance toward the girl and
+retreated to their table. A childish sullenness clouded his face while
+he sat there; only one decision came clearly to him: he must kill
+Donnegan!
+
+In the meantime people noted two things. The first was that Donnegan
+danced very well with Nelly Lebrun; and his red hair beside the silken
+black of the girl's was a startling contrast. It was not a common red.
+It flamed, as though with phosphoric properties of its own. But they
+danced well; and the eyes of both of them were gleaming. Another thing:
+men did not tag Donnegan any more than they had offered to tag Landis.
+One or two slipped out from the outskirts of the floor, but something in
+the face of Donnegan discouraged them and made them turn elsewhere as
+though they had never started for Nelly Lebrun in the first place.
+Indeed, to a two-year-old child it would have been apparent that Nelly
+and the red-headed chap were interested in each other.
+
+As a matter of fact they did not speak a single syllable until they had
+gone around the floor one complete turn and the dance was coming toward
+an end.
+
+It was he who spoke first, gloomily: "I shouldn't have done it; I
+shouldn't have tagged him!"
+
+At this she drew back a little so that she could meet his eyes.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"The whole crew will be on my trail."
+
+"What crew?"
+
+"Beginning with Lord Nick!"
+
+This shook her completely out of the thrall of the dance.
+
+"Lord Nick? What makes you think that?"
+
+"I know he's thick with Landis. It'll mean trouble."
+
+He was so simple about it that she began to laugh. It was not such a
+voice as Lou Macon's. It was high and light, and one could suspect that
+it might become shrill under a stress.
+
+"And yet it looks as though you've been hunting trouble," she said.
+
+"I couldn't help it," said Donnegan naïvely.
+
+It was a very subtle flattery, this frankness from a man who had puzzled
+all The Corner. Nelly Lebrun felt that she was about to look behind the
+scenes and she tingled with delight.
+
+"Tell me," she said. "Why not?"
+
+"Well," said Donnegan. "I had to make a noise because I wanted to be
+noticed."
+
+She glanced about her; every eye was upon them.
+
+"You've made your point," she murmured. "The whole town is talking of
+nothing else."
+
+"I don't care an ounce of lead about the rest of the town."
+
+"Then--"
+
+She stopped abruptly, seeing toward what he was tending. And the heart
+of Nelly Lebrun fluttered for the first time in many a month. She
+believed him implicitly. It was for her sake that he had made all this
+commotion; to draw her attention. For every lovely girl, no matter how
+cool-headed, has a foolish belief in the power of her beauty. As a
+matter of fact Donnegan had told her the truth. It had all been to win
+her attention, from the fight for the mint to the tagging for the dance.
+How could she dream that it sprang out of anything other than a wild
+devotion to her? And while Donnegan coldly calculated every effect,
+Nelly Lebrun began to see in him the man of a dream, a spirit out of a
+dead age, a soul of knightly, reckless chivalry. In that small
+confession he cast a halo about himself which no other hand could ever
+remove entirely so far as Nelly Lebrun was concerned.
+
+"You understand?" he was saying quietly.
+
+She countered with a question as direct as his confession.
+
+"What are you, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"A wanderer," said Donnegan instantly, "and an avoider of work."
+
+At that they laughed together. The strain was broken and in its place
+there was a mutual excitement. She saw Landis in the distance watching
+their laughter with a face contorted with anger, but it only increased
+her unreasoning happiness.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, let me give you friendly advice. I like you: I know you
+have courage; and I saw you meet Scar-faced Lewis. But if I were you I'd
+leave The Corner tonight and never come back. You've set every man
+against you. You've stepped on the toes of Landis and he's a big man
+here. And even if you were to prove too much for Jack you'd come against
+Lord Nick, as you say yourself. Do you know Nick?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then, Mr. Donnegan, leave The Corner!"
+
+The music, ending, left them face to face as he dropped his arm from
+about her. And she could appreciate now, for the first time, that he was
+smaller than he had seemed at a distance, or while he was dancing. He
+seemed a frail figure indeed to face the entire banded Corner--and Lord
+Nick.
+
+"Don't you see," said Donnegan, "that I can't stop now?"
+
+There was a double meaning that sent her color flaring.
+
+He added in a low, tense voice, "I've gone too far. Besides, I'm
+beginning to hope!"
+
+She paused, then made a little gesture of abandon.
+
+"Then stay, stay!" she whispered with eyes on fire. "And good luck to
+you, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+
+
+
+21
+
+
+As they went back, toward Nelly's table, where Jack Landis was trying to
+appear carelessly at ease, the face of Donnegan was pale. One might have
+thought that excitement and fear caused his pallor; but as a matter of
+fact it was in him an unfailing sign of happiness and success. Landis
+had manners enough to rise as they approached. He found himself being
+presented to the smaller man. He heard the cool, precise voice of
+Donnegan acknowledging the introduction; and then the red-headed man
+went back to his table; and Jack Landis was alone with Nelly Lebrun
+again.
+
+He scowled at her, and she tried to look repentant, but since she could
+not keep the dancing light out of her eyes, she compromised by looking
+steadfastly down at the table. Which convinced Landis that she was
+thinking of her late partner. He made a great effort, swallowed, and was
+able to speak smoothly enough.
+
+"Looked as if you were having a pretty good time with that--tramp."
+
+The color in her cheeks was anger; Landis took it for shame.
+
+"He dances beautifully," she replied.
+
+"Yeh; he's pretty smooth. Take a gent like that, it's hard for a girl
+to see through him."
+
+"Let's not talk about him, Jack."
+
+"All right. Is he going to dance with you again?"
+
+"I promised him the third dance after this."
+
+For a time Landis could not trust his voice. Then: "Kind of sorry about
+that. Because I'll be going home before then."
+
+At this she raised her eyes for the first time. He was astonished and a
+little horrified to see that she was not in the least flustered, but
+very angry.
+
+"You'll go home before I have a chance for that dance?" she asked.
+"You're acting like a two-year-old, Jack. You are!"
+
+He flushed. Burning would be too easy a death for Donnegan.
+
+"He's making a laughingstock out of me; look around the room!"
+
+"Nobody's thinking about you at all, Jack. You're just self-conscious."
+
+Of course, it was pouring acid upon an open wound. But she was past the
+point of caution.
+
+"Maybe they ain't," said Landis, controlling his rage. "I don't figure
+that I amount to much. But I rate myself as high as a skunk like him!"
+
+It may have been a smile that she gave him. At any rate, he caught the
+glint of teeth, and her eyes were as cold as steel points. If she had
+actually defended the stranger she would not have infuriated Landis so
+much.
+
+"Well, what does he say about himself?"
+
+"He says frankly that he's a vagrant."
+
+"And you don't believe him?"
+
+She did not speak.
+
+"Makin' a play for sympathy. Confound a man like that, I say!"
+
+Still she did not answer; and now Landis became alarmed.
+
+"D'you really like him, Nelly?"
+
+"I liked him well enough to introduce him to you, Jack."
+
+"I'm sorry I talked so plain if you put it that way," he admitted
+heavily. "I didn't know you picked up friends so fast as all that!" He
+could not avoid adding this last touch of the poison point.
+
+His back was to Donnegan, and consequently the girl, facing him, could
+look straight across the room at the red-headed man. She allowed herself
+one brief glance, and she saw that he was sitting with his elbow on the
+table, his chin in his hand, looking fixedly at her. It was the gaze of
+one who forgets all else and wraps himself in a dream. Other people in
+the room were noting that changeless stare and the whisper buzzed more
+and more loudly, but Donnegan had forgotten the rest of the world, it
+seemed. It was a very cunning piece of acting, not too much overdone,
+and once more the heart of Nelly Lebrun fluttered.
+
+She remembered that in spite of his frankness he had not talked with
+insolent presumption to her. He had merely answered her individual
+questions with an astonishing, childlike frankness. He had laid his
+heart before her, it seemed. And now he sat at a distance looking at her
+with the white, intense face of one who sees a dream.
+
+Nelly Lebrun was recalled by the heavy breathing of Jack Landis and she
+discovered that she had allowed her eyes to rest too long on the
+red-headed stranger. She had forgotten; her eyes had widened; and even
+Jack Landis was able to look into her mind and see things that startled
+him. For the first time he sensed that this was more than a careless
+flirtation. And he sat stiffly at the table, looking at her and through
+her with a fixed smile. Nelly, horrified, strove to cover her tracks.
+
+"You're right, Jack," she said. "I--I think there was something brazen
+in the way he tagged you. And--let's go home together!"
+
+Too late. The mind of Landis was not oversharp, but now jealousy gave it
+a point. He nodded his assent, and they got up, but there was no
+increase in his color. She read as plain as day in his face that he
+intended murder this night and Nelly was truly frightened.
+
+So she tried different tactics. All the way to the substantial little
+house which Lebrun had built at a little distance from the gambling
+hall, she kept up a running fire of steady conversation. But when she
+said good night to him, his face was still set. She had not deceived
+him. When he turned, she saw him go back into the night with long
+strides, and within half an hour she knew, as clearly as if she were
+remembering the picture instead of foreseeing it, that Jack and Donnegan
+would face each other gun in hand on the floor of Milligan's dance hall.
+
+Still, she was not foolish enough to run after Jack, take his arm, and
+make a direct appeal. It would be too much like begging for Donnegan,
+and even if Jack forgave her for this interest in his rival, she had
+sense enough to feel that Donnegan himself never would. Something,
+however, must be done to prevent the fight, and she took the straightest
+course.
+
+She went as fast as a run would carry her straight behind the
+intervening houses and came to the back entrance to the gaming hall.
+There she entered and stepped into the little office of her father.
+Black Lebrun was not there. She did not want him. In his place there sat
+the Pedlar and Joe Rix; they were members of Lord Nick's chosen crew,
+and since Nick's temporary alliance with Lebrun for the sake of
+plundering Jack Landis, Nick's men were Nelly's men. Indeed, this was a
+formidable pair. They were the kind of men about whom many whispers and
+no facts circulate: and yet the facts are far worse than the whispers.
+It was said that Joe Rix, who was a fat little man with a great aversion
+to a razor and a pair of shallow, pale blue eyes, was in reality a
+merciless fiend. He was; and he was more than that, if there be a
+stronger superlative. If Lord Nick had dirty work to be done, there was
+the man who did it with a relish. The Pedlar, on the other hand, was an
+exact opposite. He was long, lean, raw-boned, and prodigiously strong in
+spite of his lack of flesh. He had vast hands, all loose skin and
+outstanding tendons; he had a fleshless face over which his smile was
+capable of extending limitlessly. He was the sort of a man from whom one
+would expect shrewdness, some cunning, stubbornness, a dry humor, and
+many principles. All of which, except the last, was true of the Pedlar.
+
+There was this peculiarity about the Pedlar. In spite of his broad grins
+and his wise, bright eyes, none, even of Lord Nick's gang, extended a
+friendship or familiarity toward him. When they spoke of the Pedlar they
+never used his name. They referred to him as "him" or they indicated him
+with gestures. If he had a fondness for any living creature it was for
+fat Joe Rix.
+
+Yet on seeing this ominous pair, Nelly Lebrun cried out softly in
+delight. She ran to them, and dropped a hand on the bony shoulder of the
+Pedlar and one on the plump shoulder of Joe Rix, whose loose flesh
+rolled under her finger tips.
+
+"It's Jack Landis!" she cried. "He's gone to Milligan's to fight the
+new man. Stop him!"
+
+"Donnegan?" said Joe, and did not rise.
+
+"Him?" said the Pedlar, and moistened his broad lips like one on the
+verge of starvation.
+
+"Are you going to sit here?" she cried. "What will Lord Nick say if he
+finds out you've let Jack get into a fight?"
+
+"We ain't nursin' mothers," declared the Pedlar. "But I'd kind of like
+to look on!"
+
+And he rose. Unkinking joint after joint, straightening his legs, his
+back, his shoulders, his neck, he soared up and up until he stood a
+prodigious height. The girl controlled a shudder of disgust.
+
+"Joe!" she appealed.
+
+"You want us to clean up Donnegan?" he asked, rising, but without
+interest in his voice.
+
+To his surprise, she slipped back to the door and blocked it with her
+outcast arms.
+
+"Not a hair of his head!" she said fiercely. "Swear that you won't harm
+him, boys!"
+
+"What the devil!" ejaculated Joe, who was a blunt man in spite of his
+fat. "You want us to keep Jack from fightin', but you don't want us to
+hurt the other gent. What you want? Hogtie 'em both?"
+
+"Yes, yes; keep Jack out of Milligan's; but for heaven's sake don't try
+to put a hand on Donnegan."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"For your sakes; he'd kill you, Joe!"
+
+At this they both gaped in unison, and as one man they drawled in vast
+admiration: "Good heavens!"
+
+"But go, go, go!" cried the girl.
+
+And she shoved them through the door and into the night.
+
+
+
+
+22
+
+
+To the people in Milligan's it had been most incredible that Jack Landis
+should withdraw from a competition of any sort. And though the girls
+were able to understand his motives in taking Nelly Lebrun away they
+were not able to explain this fully to their men companions. For one and
+all they admitted that Jack was imperiling his hold on the girl in
+question if he allowed her to stay near this red-headed fiend. But one
+and all they swore that Jack Landis had ruined himself with her by
+taking her away. And this was a paradox which made masculine heads in
+The Corner spin. The main point was that Jack Landis had backed down
+before a rival; and this fact was stunning enough. Donnegan, however,
+was not confused. He sent big George to ask Milligan to come to him for
+a moment.
+
+Milligan, at this, cursed George, but he was drawn by curiosity to
+consent. A moment later he was seated at Donnegan's table, drinking his
+own liquor as it was served to him from the hands of big George. If the
+first emotions of the dance-hall proprietor were anger and intense
+curiosity, his second emotion was that never-failing surprise which all
+who came close to the wanderer felt. For he had that rare faculty of
+seeming larger when in action, even when actually near much bigger men.
+Only when one came close to Donnegan one stepped, as it were, through a
+veil, and saw the almost fragile reality. When Milligan had caught his
+breath and adjusted himself, he began as follows:
+
+"Now, Bud," he said, "you've made a pretty play. Not bad at all. But no
+more bluffs in Milligan's."
+
+"Bluff!" Donnegan repeated gently.
+
+"About your servant. I let it pass for one night, but not for another."
+
+"My dear Mr. Milligan! However"--changing the subject easily--"what I
+wish to speak to you about is a bit of trouble which I foresee. I think,
+sir, that Jack Landis is coming back."
+
+"What makes you think that?"
+
+"It's a feeling I have. I have queer premonitions, Mr. Milligan, I'm
+sure he's coming and I'm sure he's going to attempt a murder."
+
+Milligan's thick lips framed his question but he did not speak: fear
+made his face ludicrous.
+
+"Right here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A shootin' scrape here! You?"
+
+"He has me in mind. That's why I'm speaking to you."
+
+"Don't wait to speak to me about it. Get up and get out!"
+
+"Mr. Milligan, you're wrong. I'm going to stay here and you're going to
+protect me."
+
+"Well, confound your soul! They ain't much nerve about you, is there?"
+
+"You run a public place. You have to protect your patrons from insult."
+
+"And who began it, then? Who started walkin' on Jack's toes? Now you
+come whinin' to me! By heck, I hope Jack gets you!"
+
+"You're a genial soul," said Donnegan. "Here's to you!"
+
+But something in his smile as he sipped his liquor made Milligan sit
+straighter in his chair.
+
+As for Donnegan, he was thinking hard and fast. If there were a shooting
+affair and he won, he would nevertheless run a close chance of being
+hung by a mob. He must dispose that mob to look upon him as the
+defendant and Landis as the aggressor. He had not foreseen the crisis
+until it was fairly upon him. He had thought of Nelly playing Landis
+along more gradually and carefully, so that, while he was slowly
+learning that she was growing cold to him, he would have a chance to
+grow fond of Lou Macon once more. But even across the width of the room
+he had seen the girl fire up, and from that moment he knew the result.
+Landis already suspected him; Landis, with the feeling that he had been
+robbed, would do his best to kill the thief. He might take a chance with
+Landis, if it came to a fight, just as he had taken a chance with Lewis.
+But how different this case would be! Landis was no dull-nerved ruffian
+and drunkard. He was a keen boy with a hair-trigger balance, and in a
+gunplay he would be apt to beat the best of them all. Of all this
+Donnegan was fully aware. Either he must place his own life in terrible
+hazard or else he must shoot to kill; and if he killed, what of Lou
+Macon?
+
+While he smiled into the face of Milligan, perspiration was bursting out
+under his armpits.
+
+"Mr. Milligan, I implore you to give me your aid."
+
+"What's the difference?" Milligan asked in a changed tone. "If he don't
+fight you here he'll fight you later."
+
+"You're wrong, Mr. Milligan. He isn't the sort to hold malice. He'll
+come here tonight and try to get at me like a bulldog straining on a
+leash. If he is kept away he'll get over his bad temper."
+
+Milligan pushed back his chair.
+
+"You've tried to force yourself down the throat of The Corner," he said,
+"and now you yell for help when you see the teeth."
+
+He had raised his voice. Now he got up and strode noisily away. Donnegan
+waited until he was halfway across the dance floor and then rose in
+turn.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said.
+
+The quiet voice cut into every conversation; the musicians lowered the
+instruments.
+
+"I have just told Mr. Milligan that I am sure Jack Landis is coming back
+here to try to kill me. I have asked for his protection. He has refused
+it. I intend to stay here and wait for him, Jack Landis. In the meantime
+I ask any able-bodied man who will do so, to try to stop Landis when he
+enters."
+
+He sat down, raised his glass, and sipped the drink. Two hundred pairs
+of eyes were fastened with hawklike intensity upon him, and they could
+perceive no quiver of his hand.
+
+The sipping of his liquor was not an affectation. For he was drinking,
+at incredible cost, liquors from Milligan's store of rareties.
+
+The effect of Donnegan's announcement was first a silence, then a hum,
+then loud voices of protest, curiosity--and finally a scurrying toward
+the doors.
+
+Yet really very few left. The rest valued a chance to see the fight
+beyond the fear of random slugs of lead which might fly their way.
+Besides, where such men as Donnegan and big Jack Landis were concerned,
+there was not apt to be much wild shooting. The dancing stopped, of
+course. The music was ordered by Milligan to play, in a frantic endeavor
+to rouse custom again; but the music of its own accord fell away in the
+middle of the piece. For the musicians could not watch the notes and the
+door at the same time.
+
+As for Donnegan, he found that it was one thing to wait and another to
+be waited for. He, too, wished to turn and watch that door until it
+should be filled by the bulk of Jack Landis. Yet he fought the desire.
+
+And in the midst of this torturing suspense an idea came to him, and at
+the same instant Jack Landis entered the doorway. He stood there looking
+vast against the night. One glance around was sufficient to teach him
+the meaning of the silence. The stage was set, and the way opened to
+Donnegan. Without a word, big George stole to one side.
+
+Straight to the middle of the dance floor went Jack Landis, red-faced,
+with long, heavy steps. He faced Donnegan.
+
+"You skunk!" shouted Landis. "I've come for you!"
+
+And he went for his gun. Donnegan, too, stirred. But when the revolver
+leaped into the hand of Landis, it was seen that the hands of Donnegan
+rose past the line of his waist, past his shoulders, and presently
+locked easily behind his head. A terrible chance, for Landis had come
+within a breath of shooting. So great was the impulse that, as he
+checked the pressure of his forefinger, he stumbled a whole pace
+forward. He walked on.
+
+"You need cause to fight?" he cried, striking Donnegan across the face
+with the back of his left hand, jerking up the muzzle of the gun in his
+right.
+
+Now a dark trickle was seen to come from the broken lips of Donnegan,
+yet he was smiling faintly.
+
+Jack Landis muttered a curse and said sneeringly: "Are you afraid?"
+
+There were sick faces in that room; men turned their heads, for nothing
+is so ghastly as the sight of a man who is taking water.
+
+"Hush," said Donnegan. "I'm going to kill you, Jack. But I want to kill
+you fairly and squarely. There's no pleasure, you see, in beating a
+youngster like you to the draw. I want to give you a fighting chance.
+Besides"--he removed one hand from behind his head and waved it
+carelessly to where the men of The Corner crouched in the shadow--"you
+people have seen me drill one chap already, and I'd like to shoot you in
+a new way. Is that agreeable?"
+
+Two terrible, known figures detached themselves from the gloom near the
+door.
+
+"Hark to this gent sing," said one, and his name was the Pedlar. "Hark
+to him sing, Jack, and we'll see that you get fair play."
+
+"Good," said his friend, Joe Rix. "Let him take his try, Jack."
+
+As a matter of fact, had Donnegan reached for a gun, he would have been
+shot before even Landis could bring out a weapon, for the steady eye of
+Joe Rix, hidden behind the Pedlar, had been looking down a revolver
+barrel at the forehead of Donnegan, waiting for that first move. But
+something about the coolness of Donnegan fascinated them.
+
+"Don't shoot, Joe," the Pedlar had said. "That bird is the chief over
+again. Don't plug him!"
+
+And that was why Donnegan lived.
+
+
+
+
+23
+
+
+If he had taken the eye of the hardened Rix and the still harder Pedlar,
+he had stunned the men of The Corner. And breathlessly they waited for
+his proposal to Jack Landis.
+
+He spoke with his hands behind his head again, after he had slowly taken
+out a handkerchief and wiped his chin.
+
+"I'm a methodical fellow, Landis," he said. "I hate to do an untidy
+piece of work. I have been disgusted with myself since my little falling
+out with Lewis. I intended to shoot him cleanly through the hand, but
+instead of that I tore up his whole forearm. Sloppy work, Landis. I
+don't like it. Now, in meeting you, I want to do a clean, neat, precise
+job. One that I'll be proud of."
+
+A moaning voice was heard faintly in the distance. It was the Pedlar,
+who had wrapped himself in his gaunt arms and was crooning softly, with
+unspeakable joy: "Hark to him sing! Hark to him sing! A ringer for the
+chief!"
+
+"Why should we be in such a hurry?" continued Donnegan. "You see that
+clock in the corner? Tut, tut! Turn your head and look. Do you think
+I'll drop you while you look around?"
+
+Landis flung one glance over his shoulder at the big clock, whose
+pendulum worked solemnly back and forth.
+
+"In five minutes," said Donnegan, "it will be eleven o'clock. And when
+it's eleven o'clock the clock will chime. Now, Landis, you and I shall
+sit down here like gentlemen and drink our liquor and think our last
+thoughts. Heavens, man, is there anything more disagreeable than being
+hurried out of life? But when the clock chimes, we draw our guns and
+shoot each other through the heart--the brain--wherever we have chosen.
+But, Landis, if one of us should inadvertently--or through
+nervousness--beat the clock's chime by the split part of a second, the
+good people of The Corner will fill that one of us promptly full of
+lead."
+
+He turned to the crowd.
+
+"Gentlemen, is it a good plan?"
+
+As well as a Roman crowd if it wanted to see a gladiator die, the frayed
+nerves of The Corner responded to the stimulus of this delightful
+entertainment. There was a joyous chorus of approval.
+
+"When the clock strikes, then," said Landis, and flung himself down in a
+chair, setting his teeth over his rage.
+
+Donnegan smiled benevolently upon him; then he turned again and beckoned
+to George. The big man strode closer and leaned.
+
+"George," he said. "I'm not going to kill this fellow."
+
+"No, sir; certainly, sir," whispered the other. "George can kill him for
+you, sir."
+
+Donnegan smiled wanly.
+
+"I'm not going to kill him, George, on account of the girl on the hill.
+You know? And the reason is that she's fond of the lubber. I'll try to
+break his nerve, George, and drill him through the arm, say. No, I can't
+take chances like that. But if I have him shaking in time, I'll shoot
+him through the right shoulder, George.
+
+"But if I miss and he gets me instead, mind you, never raise a hand
+against him. If you so much as touch his skin, I'll rise out of my grave
+and haunt you. You hear? Good-by, George."
+
+But big George withdrew without a word, and the reason for his
+speechlessness was the glistening of his eyes.
+
+"If I live," said Donnegan, "I'll show that George that I appreciate
+him."
+
+He went on aloud to Landis: "So glum, my boy? Tush! We have still four
+minutes left. Are you going to spend your last four minutes hating me?"
+
+He turned: "Another liqueur, George. Two of them."
+
+The big man brought the drinks, and having put one on the table of
+Donnegan, he was directed to take the other to Landis.
+
+"It's really good stuff," said Donnegan. "I'm not an expert on these
+matters; but I like the taste. Will you try it?"
+
+It seemed that Landis dared not trust himself to speech. As though a
+vast and deadly hatred were gathered in him, and he feared lest it
+should escape in words the first time he parted his teeth.
+
+He took the glass of liqueur and slowly poured it upon the floor. From
+the crowd there was a deep murmur of disapproval. And Landis, feeling
+that he had advanced the wrong foot in the matter, glowered scornfully
+about him and then stared once more at Donnegan.
+
+"Just as you please," said Donnegan, sipping his glass. "But remember
+this, my young friend, that a fool is a fool, drunk or sober."
+
+Landis showed his teeth, but made no other answer. And Donnegan
+anxiously flashed a glance at the clock. He still had three minutes.
+Three minutes in which he must reduce this stalwart fellow to a
+trembling, nervous wreck. Otherwise, he must shoot to kill, or else sit
+there and become a certain sacrifice for the sake of Lou Macon. Yet he
+controlled the muscles of his face and was still able to smile as he
+turned again to Landis.
+
+"Three minutes left," he said. "Three minutes for you to compose
+yourself, Landis. Think of it, man! All the good life behind you. Have
+you nothing to remember? Nothing to soften your mind? Why die, Landis,
+with a curse in your heart and a scowl on your lips?"
+
+Once more Landis stirred his lips; but there was only the flash of his
+teeth; he maintained his resolute silence.
+
+"Ah," murmured Donnegan, "I am sorry to see this. And before all your
+admirers, Landis. Before all your friends. Look at them scattered there
+under the lights and in the shadows. No farewell word for them? Nothing
+kindly to say? Are you going to leave them without a syllable of
+goodfellowship?"
+
+"Confound you!" muttered Landis.
+
+There was another hum from the crowd; it was partly wonder, partly
+anger. Plainly they were not pleased with Jack Landis on this day.
+
+Donnegan shook his head sadly.
+
+"I hoped," he said, "that I could teach you how to die. But I fail. And
+yet you should be grateful to me for one thing, Jack. I have kept you
+from being a murderer in cold blood. I kept you from killing a
+defenseless man as you intended to do when you walked up to me a moment
+ago."
+
+He smiled genially in mockery, and there was a scowl on the face of
+Landis.
+
+"Two minutes," said Donnegan.
+
+Leaning back in his chair, he yawned. For a whole minute he did not
+stir.
+
+"One minute?" he murmured inquisitively.
+
+And there was a convulsive shudder through the limbs of Landis. It was
+the first sign that he was breaking down under the strain. There
+remained only one minute in which to reduce him to a nervous wreck!
+
+The strain was telling in other places. Donnegan turned and saw in the
+shadow and about the edges of the room a host of drawn, tense faces and
+burning eyes. Never while they lived would they forget that scene.
+
+"And now that the time is close," said Donnegan, "I must look to my
+gun."
+
+He made a gesture; how it was, no one was swift enough of eye to tell,
+but a gun appeared in his hand. At the flash of it, Landis' weapon
+leaped up to the mark and his face convulsed. But Donnegan calmly spun
+the cylinder of his revolver and held it toward Landis, dangling from
+his forefinger under the guard.
+
+"You see?" he said to Landis. "Clean as a whistle, and easy as a girl's
+smile. I hate a stiff action, Jack."
+
+And Landis slowly allowed the muzzle of his own gun to sink. For the
+first time his eyes left the eyes of Donnegan, and sinking, inch by
+inch, stared fascinated at the gun in the hand of the enemy.
+
+"Thirty seconds," said Donnegan by way of conversation.
+
+Landis jerked up his head and his eyes once more met the eyes of
+Donnegan, but this time they were wide, and the pointed glance of
+Donnegan sank into them. The lips of Landis parted. His tongue
+tremblingly moistened them.
+
+"Keep your nerve," said Donnegan in an undertone.
+
+"You hound!" gasped Landis.
+
+"I knew it," said Donnegan sadly. "You'll die with a curse on your
+lips."
+
+He added: "Ten seconds, Landis!"
+
+And then he achieved his third step toward victory, for Landis jerked
+his head around, saw the minute hand almost upon its mark, and swung
+back with a shudder toward Donnegan. From the crowd there was a deep
+breath.
+
+And then Landis was seen to raise the muzzle of his gun again, and
+crouch over it, leveling it straight at Donnegan. He, at least, would
+send his bullet straight to the mark when that first chime went humming
+through the big room.
+
+But Donnegan? He made his last play to shatter the nerve of Landis. With
+the minute hand on the very mark, he turned carelessly, the revolver
+still dangling by the trigger guard, and laughed toward the crowd.
+
+And out of the crowd there came a deep, sobbing breath of heartbreaking
+suspense.
+
+It told on Landis. Out of the corner of his eye Donnegan saw the muscles
+of the man's face sag and tremble; saw him allow his gun to fall, in
+imitation of Donnegan, to his side; and saw the long arm quivering.
+
+And then the chime rang, with a metallic, sharp click and then a long
+and reverberant clanging.
+
+With a gasp Landis whipped up his gun and fired. Once, twice, again, the
+weapon crashed. And, to the eternal wonder of all who saw it, at a
+distance of five paces Landis three times missed his man. But Donnegan,
+sitting back with a smile, raised his own gun almost with leisure,
+unhurried, dropped it upon the mark, and sent a forty-five slug through
+the right shoulder of Jack Landis.
+
+The blow of the slug, like the punch of a strong man's fist, knocked the
+victim out of his chair to the floor. He lay clutching at his shoulder.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Donnegan, rising, "is there a doctor here?"
+
+
+
+
+24
+
+
+That was the signal for the rush that swept across the floor and left a
+flood of marveling men around the fallen Landis. On the outskirts of
+this tide, Donnegan stepped up to two men, Joe Rix and the Pedlar. They
+greeted him with expectant glances.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Donnegan, "will you step aside?"
+
+They followed him to a distance from the clamoring group.
+
+"I have to thank you," said Donnegan.
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For changing your minds," said Donnegan, and left them.
+
+And afterward the Pedlar murmured with an oddly twisted face: "Cat-eye,
+Joe. He can see in the dark! But I told you he was worth savin'."
+
+"Speakin' in general," said Joe, "which you ain't hardly ever wrong when
+you get stirred up about a thing."
+
+"He's something new," the Pedlar said wisely.
+
+"Ay, he's rare."
+
+"But talkin' aside, suppose he was to meet up with Lord Nick?"
+
+The smile of Joe Rix was marvelously evil.
+
+"You got a great mind for great things," he declared. "You ought to of
+been in politics."
+
+In the meantime the doctor had been found. The wound had been cleansed.
+It was a cruel one, for the bullet had torn its way through flesh and
+sinew, and for many a week the fighting arm of Jack Landis would be
+useless. It had, moreover, carried a quantity of cloth into the wound,
+and it was almost impossible to cleanse the hole satisfactorily. As for
+the bullet itself, it had whipped cleanly through, at that short
+distance making nothing of its target.
+
+A door was knocked off its hinges. But before the wounded man was placed
+upon it, Lebrun appeared at the door into Milligan's. He was never a
+very cheery fellow in appearance, and now he looked like a demoniac. He
+went straight to Joe Rix and the skeleton form of the Pedlar. He raised
+one finger as he looked at them.
+
+"I've heard," said Lebrun. "Lord Nick likewise shall hear."
+
+Joe Rix changed color. He bustled about, together with the Pedlar, and
+lent a hand in carrying the wounded man to the house of Lebrun, for
+Nelly Lebrun was to be the nurse of Landis.
+
+In the meantime, Donnegan went up the hill with big George behind him.
+Already he was a sinisterly marked man. Working through the crowd near
+Lebrun's gambling hall, a drunkard in the midst of a song stumbled
+against him. But the sight of the man with whom he had collided, sobered
+him as swiftly as the lash of a whip across his face. It was impossible
+for him, in that condition, to grow pale. But he turned a vivid purple.
+
+"Sorry, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+Donnegan, with a shrug of his shoulders, passed on. The crowd split
+before him, for they had heard his name. There were brave men, he knew,
+among them. Men who would fight to the last drop of blood rather than be
+shamed, but they shrank from Donnegan without shame, as they would have
+shrunk from the coming of a rattler had their feet been bare. So he went
+easily through the crowd with big George in his wake, walking proudly.
+
+For George had stood to one side and watched Donnegan indomitably beat
+down the will of Jack Landis, and the sight would live in his mind
+forever. Indeed, if Donnegan had bidden the sun to stand in the heavens,
+the big man would have looked for obedience. That the forbearance of
+Donnegan should have been based on a desire to serve a girl certainly
+upset the mind of George, but it taught him an amazing thing--that
+Donnegan was capable of affection.
+
+The terrible Donnegan went on. In his wake the crowd closed slowly, for
+many had paused to look after the little man. Until they came to the
+outskirts of the town and climbed the hill toward the two shacks. The
+one was, of course, dark. But the shack in which Lou Macon lived burst
+with light. Donnegan paused to consider this miracle. He listened, and
+he heard voices--the voice of a man, laughing loudly. Thinking something
+was wrong, he hurried forward and called loudly.
+
+What he saw when he was admitted made him speechless. Colonel Macon,
+ensconced in his invalid chair, faced the door, and near him was Lou
+Macon. Lou rose, half-frightened by the unexpected interruption, but the
+liquid laughter of the colonel set all to rights at once.
+
+"Come in, Donnegan. Come in, lad," said the colonel.
+
+"I heard a man's voice," Donnegan said half apologetically. The sick
+color began to leave his face, and relief swept over it slowly. "I
+thought something might be wrong. I didn't think of you." And looking
+down, as all men will in moments of relaxation from a strain, he did not
+see the eyes of Lou Macon grow softly luminous as they dwelt upon him.
+
+"Come in, George," went on the colonel, "and make yourself comfortable
+in the kitchen. Close the door. Sit down, Donnegan. When your letter
+came I saw that I was needed here. Lou, have you looked into our
+friend's cabin? No? Nothing like a woman's touch to give a man the
+feeling of homeliness, Lou. Step over to Donnegan's cabin and put it to
+rights. Yes, I know that George takes care of it, but George is one
+thing, and your care will be another. Besides, I must be alone with him
+for a moment. Man talk confuses a girl, Lou. You shouldn't listen to
+it."
+
+She withdrew with that faint, dreamy smile with which she so often heard
+the instructions of her father; as though she were only listening with
+half of her mind. When she was gone, though the door to the kitchen
+stood wide open, and big George was in it, the colonel lowered his bass
+voice so successfully that it was as safe as being alone with Donnegan.
+
+"And now for facts," he began.
+
+"But," said Donnegan, "how--that chair--how in the world have you come
+here?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"My dear boy, you grieve and disappoint me. The manner in which a thing
+is done is not important. Mysteries are usually simply explained. As for
+my small mystery--a neighbor on the way to The Corner with a wagon
+stopped in, and I asked him to take me along. So here I am. But now for
+your work here, lad?"
+
+"Bad," said Donnegan.
+
+"I gathered you had been unfortunate. And now you have been fighting?"
+
+"You have heard?"
+
+"I see it in your eye, Donnegan. When a man has been looking fear in the
+face for a time, an image of it remains in his eyes. They are wider,
+glazed with the other thing."
+
+"It was forced on me," said Donnegan. "I have shot Landis."
+
+He was amazed to see the colonel was vitally affected. His lips remained
+parted over his next word, and one eyelid twitched violently. But the
+spasm passed over quickly. When he raised his perfect hands and pressed
+them together just under his chin. He smiled in a most winning manner
+that made the blood of Donnegan run cold.
+
+"Donnegan," he said softly, "I see that I have misjudged you. I
+underestimated you. I thought, indeed, that your rare qualities were
+qualified by painful weaknesses. But now I see that you are a man, and
+from this moment we shall act together with open minds. So you have done
+it? Tush, then I need not have taken my trip. The work is done; the
+mines come to me as the heir of Jack. And yet, poor boy, I pity him! He
+misjudged me; he should not have ventured to this deal with Lord Nick
+and his compatriots!"
+
+"Wait," exclaimed Donnegan. "You're wrong; Landis is not dead."
+
+Once more the colonel was checked, but this time the alteration in his
+face was no more than a comma's pause in a long balanced sentence. It
+was impossible to obtain more than one show of emotion from him in a
+single conversation.
+
+"Not dead? Well, Donnegan, that is unfortunate. And after you had
+punctured him you had no chance to send home the finishing shot?"
+
+Donnegan merely watched the colonel and tapped his bony finger against
+the point of his chin.
+
+"Ah," murmured the colonel, "I see another possibility. It is almost as
+good--it may even be better than his death. You have disabled him, and
+having done this you at once take him to a place where he shall be under
+your surveillance--this, in fact, is a very comfortable outlook--for me
+and my interests. But for you, Donnegan, how the devil do you benefit by
+having Jack flat on his back, sick, helpless, and in a perfect position
+to excite all the sympathies of Lou?"
+
+Now, Donnegan had known cold-blooded men in his day, but that there
+existed such a man as the colonel had never come into his mind. He
+looked upon the colonel, therefore, with neither disgust nor anger, but
+with a distant and almost admiring wonder. For perfect evil always wins
+something akin to admiration from more common people.
+
+"Well," continued the colonel, a little uneasy under this silent
+scrutiny--silence was almost the only thing in the world that could
+trouble him--"well, Donnegan, my lad, this is your plan, is it not?"
+
+"To shoot down Landis, then take possession of him and while I nurse him
+back to health hold a gun--metaphorically speaking--to his head and make
+him do as I please: sign some lease, say, of the mines to you?"
+
+The colonel shifted himself to a more comfortable position in his chair,
+brought the tips of his fingers together under his vast chin, and smiled
+benevolently upon Donnegan.
+
+"It is as I thought," he murmured. "Donnegan, you are rare; you are
+exquisite!"
+
+"And you," said Donnegan, "are a scoundrel."
+
+"Exactly. I am very base." The colonel laughed. "You and I alone can
+speak with intimate knowledge of me." His chuckle shook all his body,
+and set the folds of his face quivering. His mirth died away when he saw
+Donnegan come to his feet.
+
+"Eh?" he called.
+
+"Good-by," said Donnegan.
+
+"But where--Landis--Donnegan, what devil is in your eye?"
+
+"A foolish devil, Colonel Macon. I surrender the benefits of all my
+work for you and go to make sure that you do not lay your hands upon
+Jack Landis."
+
+The colonel opened and closed his lips foolishly like a fish gasping
+silently out of water. It was rare indeed for the colonel to appear
+foolish.
+
+"In heaven's name, Donnegan!"
+
+The little man smiled. He had a marvelously wicked smile, which came
+from the fact that his lips could curve while his eyes remained bright
+and straight, and malevolently unwrinkled. He laid his hand on the knob
+of the door.
+
+"Donnegan," cried the colonel, gray of face, "give me one minute."
+
+
+
+
+25
+
+
+Donnegan stepped to a chair and sat down. He took out his watch and held
+it in his hand, studying the dial, and the colonel knew that his time
+limit was taken literally.
+
+"I swear to you," he said, "that if you can help me to the possession of
+Landis while he is ill, I shall not lay a finger upon him or harm him in
+any way."
+
+"You swear?" said Donnegan with that ugly smile.
+
+"My dear boy, do you think I am reckless enough to break a promise I
+have given to you?"
+
+The cynical glance of Donnegan probed the colonel to the heart, but the
+eyes of the fat man did not wince. Neither did he speak again, but the
+two calmly stared at each other. At the end of the minute, Donnegan
+slipped the watch into his pocket.
+
+"I am ready to listen to reason," he said. And the colonel passed one of
+his strong hands across his forehead.
+
+"Now," and he sighed, "I feel that the crisis is passed. With a man of
+your caliber, Donnegan, I fear a snap judgment above all things. Since
+you give me a chance to appeal to your reason I feel safe. As from the
+first, I shall lay my cards upon the table. You are fond of Lou. I took
+it for granted that you would welcome a chance to brush Landis out of
+your path. It appears that I am wrong. I admit my error. Only fools
+cling to convictions; wise men are ready to meet new viewpoints. Very
+well. You wish to spare Landis for reasons of your own which I do not
+pretend to fathom. Perhaps, you pity him; I cannot tell. Now, you wonder
+why I wish to have Landis in my care if I do not intend to put an end to
+him and thereby become owner of his mines? I shall tell you frankly. I
+intend to own the mines, if not through the death of Jack, then through
+a legal act signed by the hand of Jack."
+
+"A willing signature?" asked Donnegan, calmly.
+
+A shadow came and went across the face of the colonel, and Donnegan
+caught his breath. There were times when he felt that if the colonel
+possessed strength of body as well as strength of mind even he,
+Donnegan, would be afraid of the fat man.
+
+"Willing or unwilling," said the colonel, "he shall do as I direct!"
+
+"Without force?"
+
+"Listen to me," said the colonel. "You and I are not children, and
+therefore we know that ordinary men are commanded rather by fear of what
+may happen to them than by being confronted with an actual danger. I
+have told you that I shall not so much as raise the weight of a finger
+against Jack Landis. I shall not. But a whisper adroitly put in his ear
+may accomplish the same ends." He added with a smile. "Personally, I
+dislike physical violence. In that, Mr. Donnegan, we belong to opposite
+schools of action."
+
+The picture came to Donnegan of Landis, lying in the cabin of the
+colonel, his childish mind worked upon by the devilish insinuation of
+the colonel. Truly, if Jack did not go mad under the strain he would be
+very apt to do as the colonel wished.
+
+"I have made a mess of this from the beginning," said Donnegan, quietly.
+"In the first place, I intended to play the role of the
+self-sacrificing. You don't understand? I didn't expect that you would.
+In short, I intended to send Landis back to Lou by making a flash that
+would dazzle The Corner, and dazzle Nelly Lebrun as well--win her away
+from Landis, you see? But the fool, as soon as he saw that I was
+flirting with the girl, lowered his head and charged at me like a bull.
+I had to strike him down in self-defense.
+
+"But now you ask me to put him wholly in your possession. Colonel, you
+omit one link in your chain of reasoning. The link is important--to me.
+What am I to gain by placing him within the range of your whispering?"
+
+"Tush! Do I need to tell you? I still presume you are interested in Lou,
+though you attempted to do so much to give Landis back to her. Well,
+Donnegan, you must know that when she learns it was a bullet from your
+gun that struck down Landis, she'll hate you, my boy, as if you were a
+snake. But if she knows that after all you were forced into the fight,
+and that you took the first opportunity to bring Jack into
+my--er--paternal care--her sentiments may change. No, they will
+change."
+
+Donnegan left his chair and began to pace the floor. He was no more
+self-conscious in the presence of the colonel than a man might be in the
+presence of his own evil instincts. And it was typical of the colonel's
+insight that he made no attempt to influence the decision of Donnegan
+after this point was reached. He allowed him to work out the matter in
+his own way. At length, Donnegan paused.
+
+"What's the next step?" he asked.
+
+The colonel sighed, and by that sigh he admitted more than words could
+tell.
+
+"A reasonable man," he said, "is the delight of my heart. The next step,
+Donnegan, is to bring Jack Landis to this house."
+
+"Tush!" said Donnegan. "Bring him away from Lebrun? Bring him away from
+the tigers of Lord Nick's gang? I saw them at Milligan's place tonight.
+A bad set, Colonel Macon."
+
+"A set you can handle," said the colonel, calmly.
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"The danger will in itself be the thing that tempts you," he went on.
+"To go among those fellows, wild as they are, and bring Jack Landis away
+to this house."
+
+"Bring him here," said Donnegan with indescribable bitterness, "so that
+she may pity his wounds? Bring him here where she may think of him and
+tend him and grow to hate me?"
+
+"Grow to fear you," said the colonel.
+
+"An excellent thing to accomplish," said Donnegan coldly.
+
+"I have found it so," remarked the colonel, and lighted a cigarette.
+
+He drew the smoke so deep that when it issued again from between his
+lips it was a most transparent, bluish vapor. Fear came upon Donnegan.
+Not fear, surely, of the fat man, helpless in his invalid's chair, but
+fear of the mind working ceaselessly behind those hazy eyes. He turned
+without a word and went to the door. The moment it opened under his
+hand, he felt a hysterical impulse to leap out of the room swiftly and
+slam the door behind him--to put a bar between him and the eye of the
+colonel, just as a child leaps from the dark room into the lighted and
+closes the door quickly to keep out the following night. He had to
+compel himself to move with proper dignity.
+
+When outside, he sighed; the quiet of the night was like a blessing
+compared with the ordeal of the colonel's devilish coldness. Macon's
+advice had seemed almost logical the moment before. Win Lou Macon by the
+power of fear, well enough, for was not fear the thing which she had
+followed all her life? Was it not through fear that the colonel himself
+had reduced her to such abject, unquestioning obedience?
+
+He went thoughtfully to his own cabin, and, down-headed in his musings,
+he became aware with a start of Lou Macon in the hut. She had changed
+the room as her father had bidden her to do. Just wherein the difference
+lay, Donnegan could not tell. There was a touch of evergreen in one
+corner; she had laid a strip of bright cloth over the rickety little
+table, and in ten minutes she had given the hut a semblance of permanent
+livableness. Donnegan saw her now, with some vestige of the smile of her
+art upon her face; but she immediately smoothed it to perfect gravity.
+He had never seen such perfect self-command in a woman.
+
+"Is there anything more that I can do?" she asked, moving toward the
+door.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Good night."
+
+"Wait."
+
+She still seemed to be under the authority which the colonel had
+delegated to Donnegan when they started for The Corner. She turned, and
+without a word came back to him. And a pang struck through Donnegan.
+What would he not have given if she had come at his call not with these
+dumb eyes, but with a spark of kindliness? Instead, she obeyed him as a
+soldier obeys a commander.
+
+"There has been trouble," said Donnegan.
+
+"Yes?" she said, but there was no change in her face.
+
+"It was forced upon me." Then he added: "It amounted to a shooting
+affair."
+
+There was a change in her face now, indeed. A glint came in her eyes,
+and the suggestion of the colonel which he had once or twice before
+sensed in her, now became more vivid than ever before. The same
+contemptuous heartlessness, which was the colonel's most habitual
+expression, now looked at Donnegan out of the lovely face of the girl.
+
+"They were fools to press you to the wall," she said. "I have no pity
+for them."
+
+For a moment Donnegan only stared at her; on what did she base her
+confidence in his prowess as a fighting man?
+
+"It was only one man," he said huskily.
+
+Ah, there he had struck her home! As though the words were a burden, she
+shrank from him; then she slipped suddenly close to him and caught both
+his hands. Her head was raised far back; she had pressed close to him;
+she seemed in every line of her body to plead with him against himself,
+and all the veils which had curtained her mind from him dropped away. He
+found himself looking down into eyes full of fire and shadow; and eager
+lips; and the fiber of her voice made her whole body tremble.
+
+"It isn't Jack?" she pleaded. "It isn't Jack that you've fought with?"
+
+And he said to himself: "She loves him with all her heart and soul!"
+
+"It is he," said Donnegan in an agony. Pain may be like a fire that
+tempers some strong men; and now Donnegan, because he was in torment,
+smiled, and his eye was as cold as steel.
+
+The girl flung away his hands.
+
+"You bought murderer!" she cried at him.
+
+"He is not dead."
+
+"But you shot him down!"
+
+"He attacked me; it was self-defense."
+
+She broke into a low-pitched, mirthless laughter. Where was the
+filmy-eyed girl he had known? The laughter broke off short--like a sob.
+
+"Don't you suppose I've known?" she said. "That I've read my father?
+That I knew he was sending a bloodhound when he sent you? But, oh, I
+thought you had a touch of the other thing!"
+
+He cringed under her tone.
+
+"I'll bring him to you," said Donnegan desperately. "I'll bring him here
+so that you can take care of him."
+
+"You'll take him away from Lord Nick--and Lebrun--and the rest?" And it
+was the cold smile of her father with which she mocked him.
+
+"I'll do it."
+
+"You play a deep game," said the girl bitterly. "Why would you do it?"
+
+"Because," said Donnegan faintly. "I love you."
+
+Her hand had been on the knob of the door; now she twitched it open and
+was gone; and the last that Donnegan saw was the width of the startled
+eyes.
+
+"As if I were a leper," muttered Donnegan. "By heaven, she looked at me
+as if I were unclean!"
+
+But once outside the door, the girl stood with both hands pressed to her
+face, stunned. When she dropped them, they folded against her breast,
+and her face tipped up.
+
+Even by starlight, had Donnegan been there to look, he would have seen
+the divinity which comes in the face of a woman when she loves.
+
+
+
+
+26
+
+
+Had he been there to see, even in the darkness he would have known, and
+he could have crossed the distance between their lives with a single
+step, and taken her into his heart. But he did not see. He had thrown
+himself upon his bunk and lay face down, his arms stretched rigidly out
+before him, his teeth set, his eyes closed.
+
+For what Donnegan had wanted in the world, he had taken; by force when
+he could, by subtlety when he must. And now, what he wanted most of all
+was gone from him, he felt, forever. There was no power in his arms to
+take that part of her which he wanted; he had no craft which could
+encompass her.
+
+Big George, stealing into the room, wondered at the lithe, slender form
+of the man in the bed. Seeing him thus, it seemed that with the power of
+one hand, George could crush him. But George would as soon have closed
+his fingers over a rattler. He slipped away into the kitchen and sat
+with his arms wrapped around his body, as frightened as though he had
+seen a ghost.
+
+But Donnegan lay on the bed without moving for hours and hours, until
+big George, who sat wakeful and terrified all that time, was sure that
+he slept. Then he stole in and covered Donnegan with a blanket, for it
+was the chill, gray time of the night.
+
+But Donnegan was not asleep, and when George rose in the morning, he
+found the master sitting at the table with his arms folded tightly
+across his breast and his eyes burning into vacancy.
+
+He spent the day in that chair.
+
+It was the middle of the afternoon when George came with a scared face
+and a message that a "gen'leman who looks riled, sir," wanted to see
+him. There was no answer, and George perforce took the silence as
+acquiescence. So he opened the door and announced: "Mr. Lester to see
+you, sir."
+
+Into the fiery haze of Donnegan's vision stepped a raw-boned fellow with
+sandy hair and a disagreeably strong jaw.
+
+"You're the gent that's here with the colonel, ain't you?" said Lester.
+
+Donnegan did not reply.
+
+"You're the gent that cleaned up on Landis, ain't you?" continued the
+sandy-haired man.
+
+There was still the same silence, and Lester burst out: "It don't work,
+Donnegan. You've showed you're man-sized several ways since you been in
+The Corner. Now I come to tell you to get out from under Colonel Macon.
+Why? Because he's crooked, because we know he's crooked; because he
+played crooked with me. You hear me talk?"
+
+Still Donnegan considered him without a word.
+
+"We're goin' to run him out, Donnegan. We want you on our side if we can
+get you; if we can't get you, then we'll run you out along with the
+colonel."
+
+He began to talk with difficulty, as though Donnegan's stare unnerved
+him. He even took a step back toward the door.
+
+"You can't bluff me out, Donnegan. I ain't alone. They's others behind
+me. I don't need to name no names. Here's another thing: you ain't alone
+yourself. You got a woman and a cripple on your hands. Now, Donnegan,
+you're a fast man with a gun and you're a fast man at thinkin', but I
+ask you personal: have you got a chance runnin' under that weight?"
+
+He added fiercely: "I'm through. Now, talk turkey, Donnegan, or you're
+done!"
+
+For the first time Donnegan moved. It was to make to big George a
+significant signal with his thumb, indicating the visitor. However,
+Lester did not wait to be thrown bodily from the cabin. One enormous
+oath exploded from his lips, and he backed sullenly through the door and
+slammed it after him.
+
+"It kind of looks," said big George, "like a war, sir."
+
+And still Donnegan did not speak, until the afternoon was gone, and the
+evening, and the full black of the night had swallowed up the hills
+around The Corner.
+
+Then he left the chair, shaved, and dressed carefully, looked to his
+revolver, stowed it carefully and invisibly away among his clothes, and
+walked leisurely down the hill. An outbreak of cursing, stamping,
+hair-tearing, shooting could not have affected big George as this quiet
+departure did. He followed, unordered, but as he stepped across the
+threshold of the hut he rolled up his eyes to the stars.
+
+"Oh, heavens above," muttered George, "have mercy on Mr. Donnegan. He
+ain't happy."
+
+And he went down the hill, making sure that he was fit for battle with
+knife and gun.
+
+He had sensed Donnegan's mental condition accurately enough. The heart
+of the little man was swelled to the point of breaking. A twenty-hour
+vigil had whitened his face, drawn in his cheeks, and painted his eyes
+with shadow; and now he wanted action. He wanted excitement, strife,
+competition; something to fill his mind. And naturally enough he had two
+places in mind--Lebrun's and Milligan's.
+
+It is hard to relate the state of Donnegan's mind at this time. Chiefly,
+he was conscious of a peculiar and cruel pain that made him hollow; it
+was like homesickness raised to the nth degree. Vaguely he realized
+that in some way, somehow, he must fulfill his promise to the girl and
+bring Jack Landis home. The colonel dared not harm the boy for fear of
+Donnegan; and the girl would be happy. For that very reason Donnegan
+wanted to tear Landis to shreds.
+
+It is not extremely heroic for a man tormented with sorrow to go to a
+gambling hall and then to a dance hall to seek relief. But Donnegan was
+not a hero. He was only a man, and, since his heart was empty, he wanted
+something that might fill it. Indeed, like most men, suffering made him
+a good deal of a boy.
+
+So the high heels of Donnegan tapped across the floor of Lebrun's. A
+murmur went before him whenever he appeared now, and a way opened for
+him. At the roulette wheel he stopped, placed fifty on red, and watched
+it double three times. George, at a signal from the master, raked in the
+winnings. And Donnegan sat at a faro table and won again, and again rose
+disconsolately and went on. For when men do not care how luck runs it
+never fails to favor them. The devotees of fortune are the ones she
+punishes.
+
+In the meantime the whisper ran swiftly through The Corner.
+
+"Donnegan is out hunting trouble."
+
+About the good that is in men rumor often makes mistakes, but for evil
+she has an infallible eye and at once sets all of her thousand tongues
+wagging. Indeed, any man with half an eye could not fail to get the
+meaning of his fixed glance, his hard set jaw, and the straightness of
+his mouth. If he had been a ghost, men could not have avoided him more
+sedulously, and the giant servant who stalked at his back. Not that The
+Corner was peopled with cowards. The true Westerner avoids trouble, but
+cornered, he will fight like a wildcat.
+
+So people watched from the corner of their eyes as Donnegan passed.
+
+He left Lebrun's. There was no competition. Luck blindly favored him,
+and Donnegan wanted contest, excitement. He crossed to Milligan's. Rumor
+was there before him. A whisper conveyed to a pair of mighty-limbed
+cow-punchers that they were sitting at the table which Donnegan had
+occupied the night before, and they wisely rose without further hint and
+sought other chairs. Milligan, anxious-eyed, hurried to the orchestra,
+and with a blast of sound they sought to cover up the entry of the
+gunman.
+
+As a matter of fact that blare of horns only served to announce him.
+Something was about to happen; the eyes of men grew shadowy; the eyes of
+women brightened. And then Donnegan appeared, with George behind him,
+and crossed the floor straight to his table of the night before. Not
+that he had forethought in going toward it, but he was moving
+absent-mindedly.
+
+Indeed, he had half forgotten that he was a public figure in The Corner,
+and sitting sipping the cordial which big George brought him at once, he
+let his glance rove swiftly around the room. The eye of more than one
+brave man sank under that glance; the eye of more than one woman smiled
+back at him; but where the survey of Donnegan halted was on the face of
+Nelly Lebrun.
+
+She was crossing the farther side of the floor alone, unescorted except
+for the whisper about her, but seeing Donnegan she stopped abruptly.
+Donnegan instantly rose. She would have gone on again in a flurry; but
+that would have been too pointed.
+
+A moment later Donnegan was threading his way across the dance floor to
+Nelly Lebrun, with all eyes turned in his direction. He had his hat
+under his arm; and in his black clothes, with his white stock, he made
+an old-fashioned figure as he bowed before the girl and straightened
+again.
+
+"Did you send for me?" Donnegan inquired.
+
+Nelly Lebrun was frankly afraid; and she was also delighted. She felt
+that she had been drawn into the circle of intense public interest which
+surrounded the red-headed stranger; she remembered on the other hand
+that her father would be furious if she exchanged two words with the
+man. And for that very reason she was intrigued. Donnegan, being
+forbidden fruit, was irresistible. So she let the smile come to her lips
+and eyes, and then laughed outright in her excitement.
+
+"No," she said with her lips, while her eyes said other things.
+
+"I've come to ask a favor: to talk with you one minute."
+
+"If I should--what would people say?";
+
+"Let's find out."
+
+"It would be--daring," said Nelly Lebrun. "After last night."
+
+"It would be delightful," said Donnegan. "Here's a table ready for us."
+
+She went a pace closer to it with him.
+
+"I think you've frightened the poor people away from it. I mustn't sit
+down with you, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+And she immediately slipped into the chair.
+
+
+
+
+27
+
+
+She qualified her surrender, of course, by sitting on the very edge of
+the chair. She had on a wine-colored dress, and, with the excitement
+whipping color into her cheeks and her eyes dancing, Nelly Lebrun was a
+lovely picture.
+
+"I must go at once," said Nelly.
+
+"Of course, I can't expect you to stay."
+
+She dropped one hand on the edge of the table. One would have thought
+that she was in the very act of rising.
+
+"Do you know that you frighten me?"
+
+"I?" said Donnegan, with appropriate inflection.
+
+"As if I were a man and you were angry."
+
+"But you see?" And he made a gesture with both of his palms turned up.
+"People have slandered me. I am harmless."
+
+"The minute is up, Mr. Donnegan. What is it you wish?"
+
+"Another minute."
+
+"Now you laugh at me."
+
+"No, no!"
+
+"And in the next minute?"
+
+"I hope to persuade you to stay till the third minute."
+
+"Of course, I can't."
+
+"I know; it's impossible."
+
+"Quite." She settled into the chair. "See how people stare at me! They
+remember poor Jack Landis and they think--the whole crowd--"
+
+"A crowd is always foolish. In the meantime, I'm happy."
+
+"You?"
+
+"To be here; to sit close to you; to watch you."
+
+Her glance was like the tip of a rapier, searching him through for some
+iota of seriousness under this banter.
+
+"Ah?" and Nelly Lebrun laughed.
+
+"Don't you see that I mean it?"
+
+"You can watch me from a distance, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"May I say a bold thing?"
+
+"You have said several."
+
+"No one can really watch you from a distance."
+
+She canted her head a little to one side; such an encounter of personal
+quips was a seventh heaven to her.
+
+"That's a riddle, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"A simple one. The answer is, because there's too much to watch."
+
+He joined her when she laughed, but the laughter of Donnegan made not a
+sound, and he broke in on her mirth suddenly.
+
+"Ah, don't you see I'm serious?"
+
+Her glance flicked on either side, as though she feared someone might
+have read his lips.
+
+"Not a soul can hear me," murmured Donnegan, "and I'm going to be bolder
+still, and tell you the truth."
+
+"It's the last thing I dare stay to hear."
+
+"You are too lovely to watch from a distance, Nelly Lebrun."
+
+He was so direct that even Nelly Lebrun, expert in flirtations, was
+given pause, and became sober. She shook her head and raised a
+cautioning finger. But Donnegan was not shaken.
+
+"Because there is a glamour about a beautiful girl," he said gravely.
+"One has to step into the halo to see her, to know her. Are you
+contented to look at a flower from a distance? That's an old comparison,
+isn't it? But there is something like a fragrance about you, Nelly
+Lebrun. Don't be afraid. No one can hear; no one shall ever dream I've
+said such bold things to you. In the meantime, we have a truth party.
+There is a fragrance, I say. It must be breathed. There is a glow which
+must touch one. As it touches me now, you see?"
+
+Indeed, there was a faint color in his cheeks. And the girl flushed more
+deeply; her eyes were still bright, but they no longer sharpened to such
+a penetrating point. She was believing at least a little part of what he
+said, and her disbelief only heightened her joy in what was real in this
+strangest of lovemakings.
+
+"I shall stay here to learn one thing," she said. "What deviltry is
+behind all this talk, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"Is that fair to me? Besides, I only follow a beaten trail in The
+Corner."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"Toward Nelly Lebrun."
+
+"A beaten trail? You?" she cried, with just a touch of anger. "I'm not a
+child, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"You are not; and that's why I am frank."
+
+"You have done all these things--following this trail you speak of?"
+
+"Remember," said Donnegan soberly. "What have I done?"
+
+"Shot down two men; played like an actor on a stage a couple of times at
+least, if I must be blunt; hunted danger like--like a reckless madman;
+dared all The Corner to cross you; flaunted the red rag in the face of
+the bull. Those are a few things you have done, sir! And all on one
+trail? That trail you spoke of?"
+
+"Nelly Lebrun--"
+
+"I'm listening; and do you know I'm persuading myself to believe you?"
+
+"It's because you feel the truth before I speak it. Truth speaks for
+itself, you know."
+
+"I have closed my eyes--you see? I have stepped into a masquerade. Now
+you can talk."
+
+"Masquerades are exciting," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"And they are sometimes beautiful."
+
+"But this sober truth of mine--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I came here unknown--and I saw you, Nelly Lebrun."
+
+He paused; she was looking a little past him.
+
+"I came in rags; no friends; no following. And I saw that I should have
+to make you notice me."
+
+"And why? No, I shouldn't have asked that."
+
+"You shouldn't ask that," agreed Donnegan. "But I saw you the queen of
+The Corner, worshiped by all men. What could I do? I am not rich. I am
+not big. You see?"
+
+He drew her attention to his smallness with a flush which never failed
+to touch the face of Donnegan when he thought of his size; and he seemed
+to swell and grow greater in the very instant she glanced at him.
+
+"What could I do? One thing; fight. I have fought. I fought to get the
+eye of The Corner, but most of all to attract your attention. I came
+closer to you. I saw that one man blocked the way--mostly. I decided to
+brush him aside. How?"
+
+"By fighting?" She had not been carried away by his argument. She was
+watching him like a lynx every moment.
+
+"Not by that. By bluffing. You see, I was not fool enough to think that
+you would--particularly notice a fighting bully."
+
+He laid his open hand on the table. It was like exposing both strength
+and weakness; and into such a trap it would have been a singularly
+hard-minded woman who might not have stepped. Nelly Lebrun leaned a
+little closer. She forgot to criticize.
+
+"It was bluff. I saw that Landis was big and good-looking. And what was
+I beside him? Nothing. I could only hope that he was hollow; yellow--you
+see? So I tried the bluff. You know about it. The clock, and all that
+claptrap. But Landis wasn't yellow. He didn't crumble. He lasted long
+enough to call my bluff, and I had to shoot in self-defense. And then,
+when he lay on the floor, I saw that I had failed."
+
+"Failed?"
+
+He lowered his eyes for fear that she would catch the glitter of them.
+
+"I knew that you would hate me for what I had done because I had only
+proved that Landis was a brave youngster with enough nerve for nine out
+of ten. And I came tonight--to ask you to forgive me. No, not that--only
+to ask you to understand. Do you?"
+
+He raised his glance suddenly at that, and their eyes met with one of
+these electric shocks which will go tingling through two people. And
+when the lips of Nelly Lebrun parted a little, he knew that she was in
+the trap. He closed his hand that lay on the table--curling the fingers
+slowly. In that way he expressed all his exultation.
+
+"There is something wrong," said the girl, in a tone of one who argues
+with herself. "It's all too logical to be real."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Was that your only reason for fighting Jack Landis?"
+
+"Do I have to confess even that?"
+
+She smiled in the triumph of her penetration, but it was a brief,
+unhappy smile. One might have thought that she would have been glad to
+be deceived.
+
+"I came to serve a girl who was unhappy," said Donnegan. "Her fiancé had
+left her; her fiancé was Jack Landis. And she's now in a hut up the hill
+waiting for him. And I thought that if I ruined him in your eyes he'd go
+back to a girl who wouldn't care so much about bravery. Who'd forgive
+him for having left her. But you see what a fool I was and how clumsily
+I worked? My bluff failed, and I only wounded him, put him in your
+house, under your care, where he'll be happiest, and where there'll
+never be a chance for this girl to get him back."
+
+Nelly Lebrun, with her folded hands under her chin, studied him.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," she said, "I wish I knew whether you are the most
+chivalrous, self-sacrificing of men, or simply the most gorgeous liar in
+the desert."
+
+"And it's hardly fair," said Donnegan, "to expect me to tell you that."
+
+
+
+
+28
+
+
+It gave them both a welcome opportunity to laugh, welcome to the girl
+because it broke into an excitement which was rapidly telling upon her,
+and welcome to Donnegan because the strain of so many distortions of the
+truth was telling upon him as well. They laughed together. One hasty
+glance told Donnegan that half the couples in the room were whispering
+about Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun; but when he looked across the table he
+saw that Nelly Lebrun had not a thought for what might be going on in
+the minds of others. She was quite content.
+
+"And the girl?" she said.
+
+Donnegan rested his forehead upon his hand in thought. He dared not let
+Nelly see his face at this moment, for the mention of Lou Macon had
+poured the old flood of sorrow back upon him And therefore, when he
+looked up, he was sneering.
+
+"You know these blond, pretty girls?" he said.
+
+"Oh, they are adorable!"
+
+"With dull eyes," said Donnegan coldly, and a twinkle came into the
+responsive eye of Nelly Lebrun. "The sort of a girl who sees a hero in
+such a fellow as Jack Landis."
+
+"And Jack is brave."
+
+"I shouldn't have said that."
+
+"Never mind. Brave, but such a boy."
+
+"Are you serious?"
+
+She looked questioningly at Donnegan and they smiled together, slowly.
+
+"I--I'm glad it's that way," and Donnegan sighed.
+
+"And did you really think it could be any other way?"
+
+"I didn't know. I'm afraid I was blind."
+
+"But the poor girl on the hill; I wish I could see her."
+
+She was watching Donnegan very sharply again.
+
+"A good idea. Why don't you?"
+
+"You seem to like her?"
+
+"Yes," said Donnegan judiciously. "She has an appealing way; I'm very
+sorry for her. But I've done my best; I can't help her."
+
+"Isn't there some way?"
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of helping her."
+
+Donnegan laughed. "Go to your father and persuade him to send Landis
+back to her."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Of course, that wouldn't do. There's business mixed up in all this, you
+know."
+
+"Business? Well, I guessed at that."
+
+"My part in it wasn't very pleasant," she remarked sadly.
+
+Donnegan was discreetly silent, knowing that silence extracts secrets.
+
+"They made me--flirt with poor Jack. I really liked him!"
+
+How much the past tense may mean!
+
+"Poor fellow," murmured the sympathetic Donnegan. "But why," with
+gathering heat, "couldn't you help me to do the thing I can't do alone?
+Why couldn't you get him away from the house?"
+
+"With Joe Rix and the Pedlar guarding him?"
+
+"They'll be asleep in the middle of the night."
+
+"But Jack would wake up and make a noise."
+
+"There are things that would make him sleep through anything."
+
+"But how could he be moved?"
+
+"On a horse litter kept ready outside."
+
+"And how carried to the litter?"
+
+"I would carry him." The girl looked at him with a question and then
+with a faint smile beginning. "Easily," said Donnegan, stiffening in his
+chair. "Very easily."
+
+It pleased her to find this weakness in the pride of the invincible
+Donnegan. It gave her a secure feeling of mastery. So she controlled her
+smile and looked with a sort of superior kindliness upon the red-headed
+little man.
+
+"It's no good," Nelly Lebrun said with a sigh. "Even if he were taken
+away--and then it would get you into a bad mess."
+
+"Would it? Worse than I'm in?"
+
+"Hush! Lord Nick is coming to The Corner; and no matter what you've done
+so far--I think I could quiet him. But if you were to take Landis
+away--then nothing could stop him."
+
+Donnegan sneered.
+
+"I begin to think Lord Nick is a bogie," he said. "Everyone whispers
+when they speak of him." He leaned forward. "I should like to meet him,
+Nelly Lebrun!"
+
+It staggered Nelly. "Do you mean that?" she cried softly.
+
+"I do."
+
+She caught her breath and then a spark of deviltry gleamed. "I wonder!"
+said Nelly Lebrun, and her glance weighed Donnegan.
+
+"All I ask is a fair chance," he said.
+
+"He is a big man," said the girl maliciously.
+
+The never-failing blush burned in the face of Donnegan.
+
+"A large target is more easily hit," he said through his teeth.
+
+Her thoughts played back and forth in her eyes.
+
+"I can't do it," she said.
+
+Donnegan played a random card.
+
+"I was mistaken," he said darkly. "Jack was not the man I should have
+faced. Lord Nick!"
+
+"No, no, no, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"You can't persuade me. Well, I was a fool not to guess it!"
+
+"I really think," said the girl gloomily, "that as soon as Lord Nick
+comes, you'll hunt him out!"
+
+He bowed to her with cold politeness. "In spite of his size," said
+Donnegan through his teeth once more.
+
+And at this the girl's face softened and grew merry.
+
+"I'm going to help you to take Jack away," she said, "on one
+condition."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"That you won't make a step toward Lord Nick when he comes."
+
+"I shall not avoid him," said Donnegan.
+
+"You're unreasonable! Well, not avoid him, but simply not provoke him.
+I'll arrange it so that Lord Nick won't come hunting trouble."
+
+"And he'll let Jack stay with the girl and her father?"
+
+"Perhaps he'll persuade them to let him go of their own free will."
+
+Donnegan thought of the colonel and smiled.
+
+"In that case, of course, I shouldn't care at all." He added: "But do
+you mean all this?"
+
+"You shall see."
+
+They talked only a moment longer and then Donnegan left the hall with
+the girl on his arm. Certainly the thoughts of all in Milligan's
+followed that pair; and it was seen that Donnegan took her to the door
+of her house and then went away through the town and up the hill. And
+big George followed him like a shadow cast from a lantern behind a man
+walking in a fog.
+
+In the hut on the hill, Donnegan put George quickly to work, and with a
+door and some bedding, a litter was hastily constructed and swung
+between the two horses. In the meantime, Donnegan climbed higher up the
+hill and watched steadily over the town until, in a house beneath him,
+two lights were shown. He came back at that and hurried down the hill
+with George behind and around the houses until they came to the
+pretentious cabin of the gambler, Lebrun.
+
+Once there, Donnegan went straight to an unlighted window, tapped; and
+it was opened from within, softly. Nelly Lebrun stood within.
+
+"It's done," she said. "Joe and the Pedlar are sound asleep. They drank
+too much."
+
+"Your father."
+
+"Hasn't come home."
+
+"And Jack Landis?"
+
+"No matter what you do, he won't wake up; but be careful of his
+shoulder. It's badly torn. How can you carry him?"
+
+She could not see Donnegan's flush, but she heard his teeth grit. And
+he slipped through the window, gesturing to George to come close. It was
+still darker inside the room--far darker than the starlit night outside.
+And the one path of lighter gray was the bed of Jack Landis. His heavy
+breathing was the only sound. Donnegan kneeled beside him and worked his
+arms under the limp figure.
+
+And while he kneeled there a door in the house was opened and closed
+softly. Donnegan stood up.
+
+"Is the door locked?"
+
+"No," whispered the girl.
+
+"Quick!"
+
+"Too late. It's father, and he'd hear the turning of the key."
+
+They waited, while the light, quick step came down the hall of the
+cabin. It came to the door, it went past; and then the steps retraced
+and the door was opened gently.
+
+There was a light in the hall; the form of Lebrun was outlined black and
+distinct..
+
+"Jack!" he whispered.
+
+No sound; he made as if to enter, and then he heard the heavy breathing
+of the sleeper, apparently.
+
+"Asleep, poor fool," murmured the gambler, and closed the door.
+
+The door was no sooner closed than Donnegan had raised the body of the
+sleeper. Once, as he rose, straining, it nearly slipped from his arms;
+and when he stood erect he staggered. But once he had gained his
+equilibrium, he carried the wounded man easily enough to the window
+through which George reached his long arms and lifted out the burden.
+
+"You see?" said Donnegan, panting, to the girl.
+
+"Yes; it was really wonderful!"
+
+"You are laughing, now."
+
+"I? But hurry. My father has a fox's ear for noises."
+
+"He will not hear this, I think." There was a swift scuffle, very soft
+of movement.
+
+"Nelly!" called a far-off voice.
+
+"Hurry, hurry! Don't you hear?"
+
+"You forgive me?"
+
+"No--yes--but hurry!"
+
+"You will remember me?"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+She caught a picture of him sitting in the window for the split part of
+a second, with his hat off, bowing to her. Then he was gone. And she
+went into the hall, panting with excitement.
+
+"Heavens!" Nelly Lebrun murmured. "I feel as if I had been hunted, and I
+must look it. What if he--" Whatever the thought was she did not
+complete it. "It may have been for the best," added Nelly Lebrun.
+
+
+
+
+29
+
+
+It is your phlegmatic person who can waken easily in the morning, but an
+active mind readjusts itself slowly to the day. So Nelly Lebrun roused
+herself with an effort and scowled toward the door at which the hand was
+still rapping.
+
+"Yes?" she called drowsily.
+
+"This is Nick. May I come in?"
+
+"This is who?"
+
+The name had brought her instantly into complete wakefulness; she was
+out of the bed, had slipped her feet into her slippers and whipped a
+dressing gown around her while she was asking the question. It was a
+luxurious little boudoir which she had managed to equip. Skins of the
+lynx, cunningly matched, had been sewn together to make her a rug, and
+the soft fur of the wildcat was the outer covering of her bed. She threw
+back the tumbled bedclothes, tossed half a dozen pillows into place,
+transforming it into a day couch, and ran to the mirror.
+
+And in the meantime, the deep voice outside the door was saying: "Yes,
+Nick. May I come in?"
+
+She gave a little ecstatic cry, but while it was still tingling on her
+lips, she was winding her hair into shape with lightning speed; had
+dipped the tips of her fingers in cold water and rubbed her eyes awake
+and brilliant, and with one circular rub had brought the color into her
+cheeks.
+
+Scarcely ten seconds from the time when she first answered the knock,
+Nelly was opening the door and peeping out into the hall.
+
+The rest was done by the man without; he cast the door open with the
+pressure of his foot, caught the girl in his arms, and kissed her; and
+while he closed the door the girl slipped back and stood with one hand
+pressed against her face, and her face held that delightful expression
+halfway between laughter and embarrassment. As for Lord Nick, he did not
+even smile. He was not, in fact, a man who was prone to gentle
+expressions, but having been framed by nature for a strong dominance
+over all around him, his habitual expression was a proud
+self-containment. It would have been insolence in another man; in Lord
+Nick it was rather leonine.
+
+He was fully as tall as Jack Landis, but he carried his height easily,
+and was so perfectly proportioned that unless he was seen beside another
+man he did not look large. The breadth of his shoulders was concealed by
+the depth of his chest; and the girth of his throat was made to appear
+quite normal by the lordly size of the head it supported. To crown and
+set off his magnificent body there was a handsome face; and he had the
+combination of active eyes and red hair, which was noticeable in
+Donnegan, too. In fact, there was a certain resemblance between the two
+men; in the set of the jaw for instance, in the gleam of the eye, and
+above all in an indescribable ardor of spirit, which exuded from them
+both. Except, of course, that in Donnegan, one was conscious of all
+spirit and very little body, but in Lord Nick hand and eye were terribly
+mated. Looking upon so splendid a figure, it was no wonder that the
+mountain desert had forgiven the crimes of Lord Nick because of the
+careless insolence with which he treated the law. It requires an
+exceptional man to make a legal life attractive and respected; it takes
+a genius to make law-breaking glorious.
+
+No wonder that Nelly Lebrun stood with her hand against her cheek,
+looking him over, smiling happily at him, and questioning him about his
+immediate past all in the same glance. He waved her back to her couch,
+and she hesitated. Then, as though she remembered that she now had to
+do with Lord Nick in person, she obediently curled up on the lounge, and
+waited expectantly.
+
+"I hear you've been raising the devil," said this singularly frank
+admirer.
+
+The girl merely looked at him.
+
+"Well?" he insisted.
+
+"I haven't done a thing," protested Nelly rather childishly.
+
+"No?" One felt that he could have crushed her with evidence to the
+contrary but that he was restraining himself--it was not worthwhile to
+bother with such a girl seriously. "Things have fallen into a tangle
+since I left, old Satan Macon is on the spot and your rat of a father
+has let Landis get away. What have you been doing, Nelly, while all this
+was going on? Sitting with your eyes closed?"
+
+He took a chair and lounged back in it gracefully.
+
+"How could I help it? I'm not a watchdog."
+
+He was silent for a time. "Well," he said, "if you told me the truth I
+suppose I shouldn't love you, my girl. But this time I'm in earnest.
+Landis is a mint, silly child. If we let him go we lose the mint."
+
+"I suppose you'll get him back?"
+
+"First, I want to find out how he got away."
+
+"I know how."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"Donnegan, Donnegan, Donnegan!" burst out Lord Nick, and though he did
+not raise the pitch of his voice, he allowed its volume to swell softly
+so that it filled the room like the humming of a great, angry tiger.
+"Nobody says three words without putting in the name of Donnegan as one
+of them! You, too!"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Donnegan thrills The Corner!" went on the big man in the same terrible
+voice. "Donnegan wears queer clothes; Donnegan shoots Scar-faced Lewis;
+Donnegan pumps the nerve out of poor Jack Landis and then drills him.
+Why, Nelly, it looks as though I'll have to kill this intruding fool!"
+
+She blanched at this, but did not appear to notice.
+
+"It's a long time since you've killed a man, isn't it?" she asked
+coldly.
+
+"It's an awful business," declared Lord Nick. "Always complications;
+have to throw the blame on the other fellow. And even these blockheads
+are beginning to get tired of my self-defense pleas."
+
+"Well," murmured the girl, "don't cross that bridge until you come to
+it; and you'll never come to it."
+
+"Never. Because I don't want him killed."
+
+"Ah," Lord Nick murmured. "And why?"
+
+"Because he's in love--with me."
+
+"Tush!" said Lord Nick. "I see you, my dear. Donnegan seems to be a rare
+fellow, but he couldn't have gotten Landis out of this house without
+help. Rix and the Pedlar may have been a bit sleepy, but Donnegan had to
+find out when they fell asleep. He had a confederate. Who? Not Rix; not
+the Pedlar; not Lebrun. They all know me. It had to be someone who
+doesn't fear me. Who? Only one person in the world. Nelly, you're the
+one!"
+
+She hesitated a breathless instant.
+
+"Yes," she said. "I am."
+
+She added, as he stared calmly at her, considering: "There's a girl in
+the case. She came up here to get Landis; seems he was in love with her
+once. And I pitied her. I sent him back to her. Suppose he is a mint;
+haven't we coined enough money out of him? Besides, I couldn't have kept
+on with it."
+
+"No?"
+
+"He was getting violent, and he talked marriage all day, every day. I
+haven't any nerves, you say, but he began to put me on edge. So I got
+rid of him."
+
+"Nelly, are you growing a conscience?"
+
+She flushed and then set her teeth.
+
+"But I'll have to teach you business methods, my dear. I have to bring
+him back."
+
+"You'll have to go through Donnegan to do it."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"You don't understand, Nick. He's different."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"He's like you."
+
+"What are you driving at?"
+
+"Nick, I tell you upon my word of honor, no matter what a terrible
+fighter you may be, Donnegan will give you trouble. He has your hair
+and your eyes and he moves like a cat. I've never seen such a
+man--except you. I'd rather see you fight the plague than fight
+Donnegan!"
+
+For the first time Lord Nick showed real emotion; he leaned a little
+forward.
+
+"Just what does he mean to you?" he asked. "I've stood for a good deal,
+Nelly; I've given you absolute freedom, but if I ever suspect you--"
+
+The lion was up in him unmistakably now. And the girl shrank.
+
+"If it were serious, do you suppose I'd talk like this?"
+
+"I don't know. You're a clever little devil, Nell. But I'm clever, too.
+And I begin to see through you. Do you still want to save Donnegan?"
+
+"For your own sake."
+
+He stood up.
+
+"I'm going up the hill today. If Donnegan's there, I'll go through him;
+but I'm going to have Landis back!"
+
+She, also, rose.
+
+"There's only one way out and I'll take that way. I'll get Donnegan to
+leave the house."
+
+"I don't care what you do about that."
+
+"And if he isn't there, will you give me your word that you won't hunt
+him out afterward?"
+
+"I never make promises, Nell."
+
+"But I'll trust you, Nick."
+
+"Very well. I start up the hill in an hour. You have that long."
+
+
+
+
+30
+
+
+The air was thin and chilly; snow had fallen in the mountains to the
+north, and the wind was bringing the cold down to The Corner. Nelly
+Lebrun noted this as she dressed and made up her mind accordingly. She
+sent out two messages: one to the cook to send breakfast to her room,
+which she ate while she finished dressing with care; and the other to
+the gambling house, summoning one of the waiters. When he came, she gave
+him a note for Donnegan. The fellow flashed a glance at her as he took
+the envelope. There was no need to give that name and address in The
+Corner, and the girl tingled under the glance.
+
+She finished her breakfast and then concentrated in polishing up her
+appearance. From all of which it may be gathered that Nelly Lebrun was
+in love with Donnegan, but she really was not. But he had touched in her
+that cord of romance which runs through every woman; whenever it is
+touched the vibration is music, and Nelly was filled with the sound of
+it. And except for Lord Nick, there is no doubt that she would have
+really lost her head; for she kept seeing the face of Donnegan, as he
+had leaned toward her across the little table in Milligan's. And that,
+as anyone may know, is a dangerous symptom.
+
+Her glances were alternating between her mirror and her watch, and the
+hands of the latter pointed to the fact that fifty minutes of her hour
+had elapsed when a message came up that she was waited for in the street
+below. So Nelly Lebrun went down in her riding costume, the corduroy
+swishing at each step, and tapping her shining boots with the riding
+crop. Her own horse she found at the hitching rack, and beside it
+Donnegan was on his chestnut horse. It was a tall horse, and he looked
+more diminutive than ever before, pitched so high in the saddle.
+
+He was on the ground in a flash with the reins tucked under one arm and
+his hat under the other; she became aware of gloves and white-linen
+stock, and pale, narrow face. Truly Donnegan made a natty appearance.
+
+"There's no day like a cool day for riding," she said, "and I thought
+you might agree with me."
+
+He untethered her horse while he murmured an answer. But for his
+attitude she cared little so long as she had him riding away from that
+house on the hill where Lord Nick in all his terror would appear in some
+few minutes. Besides, as they swung up the road--the chestnut at a
+long-strided canter and Nelly's black at a soft and choppy pace--the
+wind of the gallop struck into her face; Nelly was made to enjoy things
+one by one and not two by two. They hit over the hills, and when the
+first impulse of the ride was done they were a mile or more away from
+The Corner--and Lord Nick.
+
+The resemblance between the two men was less striking now that she had
+Donnegan beside her. He seemed more wizened, paler, and intense as a
+violin string screwed to the snapping point; there was none of the
+lordly tolerance of Nick about him; he was like a bull terrier compared
+with a stag hound. And only the color of his eyes and his hair made her
+make the comparison at all.
+
+"What could be better?" she said when they checked their horses on a
+hilltop to look over a gradual falling of the ground below. "What could
+be better?" The wind flattened a loose curl of hair against her cheek,
+and overhead the wild geese were flying and crying, small and far away.
+
+"One thing better," said Donnegan, "and that is to sit in a chair and
+see this."
+
+She frowned at such frankness; it was almost blunt discourtesy.
+
+"You see, I'm a lazy man."
+
+"How long has it been," the girl asked sharply, "since you have slept?"
+
+"Two days, I think."
+
+"What's wrong?"
+
+He lifted his eyes slowly from a glittering, distant rock, and brought
+his glance toward her by degrees. He had a way of exciting people even
+in the most commonplace conversation, and the girl felt a thrill under
+his look.
+
+"That," said Donnegan, "is a dangerous question."
+
+And he allowed such hunger to come into his eye that she caught her
+breath. The imp of perversity made her go on.
+
+"And why dangerous?"
+
+It was an excellent excuse for an outpouring of the heart from Donnegan,
+but, instead, his eyes twinkled at her.
+
+"You are not frank," he remarked.
+
+She could not help laughing, and her laughter trailed away musically in
+her excitement.
+
+"Having once let down the bars I cannot keep you at arm's length. After
+last night I suppose I should never have let you see me for--days and
+days."
+
+"That's why I'm curious," said Donnegan, "and not flattered. I'm trying
+to find what purpose you have in taking me riding."
+
+"I wonder," she said thoughtfully, "if you will."
+
+And since such fencing with the wits delighted her, she let all her
+delight come with a sparkle in her eyes.
+
+"I have one clue."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"And that is that you may have the old-woman curiosity to find out how
+many ways a man can tell her that he's fond of her."
+
+Though she flushed a little she kept her poise admirably.
+
+"I suppose that is part of my interest," she admitted.
+
+"I can think of a great many ways of saying it," said Donnegan. "I am
+the dry desert, you are the rain, and yet I remain dry and produce no
+grass." "A very pretty comparison," said the girl with a smile.
+
+"A very green one," and Donnegan smiled. "I am the wind and you are the
+wild geese, and yet I keep on blowing after you are gone and do not
+carry away a feather of you."
+
+"Pretty again."
+
+"And silly. But, really, you are very kind to me, and I shall try not to
+take too much advantage of it."
+
+"Will you answer a question?"
+
+"I had rather ask one: but go on."
+
+"What made you so dry a desert, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"There is a very leading question again."
+
+"I don't mean it that way. For you had the same sad, hungered look the
+first time I saw you--when you came into Milligan's in that beggarly
+disguise."
+
+"I shall confess one thing. It was not a disguise. It was the fact of
+me; I am a beggarly person."
+
+"Nonsense! I'm not witless, Mr. Donnegan. You talk well. You have an
+education."
+
+"In fact I have an educated taste; I disapprove of myself, you see, and
+long ago learned not to take myself too seriously."
+
+"Which leads to--"
+
+"The reason why I have wandered so much."
+
+"Like a hunter on a trail. Hunting for what?"
+
+"A chance to sit in a saddle--or a chair--and talk as we are talking."
+
+"Which seems to be idly."
+
+"Oh, you mistake me. Under the surface I am as serious as fire."
+
+"Or ice."
+
+At the random hit he glanced sharply at her, but she was looking a
+little past him, thinking.
+
+"I have tried to get at the reason behind all your reasons," she said.
+"You came on me in a haphazard fashion, and yet you are not a haphazard
+sort."
+
+"Do you see nothing serious about me?"
+
+"I see that you are unhappy," said the girl gently. "And I am sorry."
+
+Once again Donnegan was jarred, and he came within an ace of opening
+his mind to her, of pouring out the truth about Lou Macon. Love is a
+talking madness in all men and he came within an ace of confessing his
+troubles.
+
+"Let's go on," she said, loosening her rein.
+
+"Why not cut back in a semicircle toward The Corner?"
+
+"Toward The Corner? No, no!"
+
+There was a brightening of his eye as he noted her shudder of distaste
+or fear, and she strove to cover her traces.
+
+"I'm sick of the place," she said eagerly. "Let's get as far from it as
+we may."
+
+"But yonder is a very good trail leading past it."
+
+"Of course we'll ride that way if you wish, but I'd rather go straight
+ahead."
+
+If she had insisted stubbornly he would have thought nothing, but the
+moment she became politic he was on his guard.
+
+"You dislike something in The Corner," he said, thinking carelessly and
+aloud. "You are afraid of something back there. But what could you be
+afraid of? Then you may be afraid of something for me. Ah, I have it!
+They have decided to 'get' me for taking Jack Landis away; Joe Rix and
+the Pedlar are waiting for me to come back!"
+
+He looked steadily and she attempted to laugh.
+
+"Joe Rix and the Pedlar? I would not stack ten like them against you!"
+
+"Then it is someone else."
+
+"I haven't said so. Of course there's no one."
+
+She shook her rein again, but Donnegan sat still in his saddle and
+looked fixedly at her.
+
+"That's why you brought me out here," he announced. "Oh, Nelly Lebrun,
+what's behind your mind? Who is it? By heaven, it's this Lord Nick!"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, you're letting your imagination run wild."
+
+"It's gone straight to the point. But I'm not angry. I think I may get
+back in time."
+
+He turned his horse, and the girl swung hers beside him and caught his
+arm.
+
+"Don't go!" she pleaded. "You're right; it's Nick, and it's suicide to
+face him!"
+
+The face of Donnegan set cruelly.
+
+"The main obstacle," he said. "Come and watch me handle it!"
+
+But she dropped her head and buried her face in her hands, and, sitting
+there for a long time, she heard his careless whistling blow back to her
+as he galloped toward The Corner.
+
+
+
+
+31
+
+
+If Nelly Lebrun had consigned him mentally to the worms, that thought
+made not the slightest impression upon Donnegan. A chance for action was
+opening before him, and above all a chance of action in the eye of Lou
+Macon; and he welcomed with open arms the thought that he would have an
+opportunity to strike for her, and keep Landis with her. He went arrowy
+straight and arrowy fast to the cabin on the hill, and he found ample
+evidence that it had become a center of attention in The Corner. There
+was a scattering of people in the distance, apparently loitering with no
+particular purpose, but undoubtedly because they awaited an explosion of
+some sort. He went by a group at which the chestnut shied, and as
+Donnegan straightened out the horse again he caught a look of both
+interest and pity on the faces of the men.
+
+Did they give him up so soon as it was known that Lord Nick had entered
+the lists against him? Had all his display in The Corner gone for
+nothing as against the repute of this terrible mystery man? His vanity
+made him set his teeth again.
+
+Dismounting before the cabin of the colonel, he found that worthy in
+his invalid chair, enjoying a sun bath in front of his house. But there
+was no sign of Lord Nick--no sign of Lou. A grim fear came to Donnegan
+that he might have to attack Nick in his own stronghold, for Jack Landis
+might already have been taken away to the Lebrun house.
+
+So he went straight to the colonel, and when he came close he saw that
+the fat man was apparently in the grip of a chill. He had gathered a
+vast blanket about his shoulders and kept drawing it tighter; beneath
+his eyes, which looked down to the ground, there were violet shadows.
+
+"I've lost," said Donnegan through his teeth. "Lord Nick has been here?"
+
+The invalid lifted his eyes, and Donnegan saw a terrible thing--that the
+nerve of the fat man had been crushed. The folds of his face quivered as
+he answered huskily: "He has been here!"
+
+"And Landis is gone?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not gone? Then--"
+
+"Nick has gone to get a horse litter. He came up just to clear the way."
+
+"When he comes back he'll find me!"
+
+The glance of the colonel cleared long enough to survey Donnegan slowly
+from head to foot, and his amusement sent the familiar hot flush over
+the face of the little man. He straightened to his full height, which,
+in his high heels, was not insignificant. But the colonel was apparently
+so desperate that he was willing to throw caution away.
+
+"Compared with Lord Nick, Donnegan," he said, "you don't look half a
+man--even with those heels."
+
+And he smiled calmly at Donnegan in the manner of one who, having
+escaped the lightning bolt itself, does not fear mere thunder.
+
+"There is no fool like a fat fool," said Donnegan with childish
+viciousness. "What did Lord Nick, as you call him, do to you? He's
+brought out the yellow, my friend."
+
+The colonel accepted the insult without the quiver of an eyelid.
+Throughout he seemed to be looking expectantly beyond Donnegan.
+
+"My young friend," he said, "you have been very useful to me. But I
+must confess that you are no longer a tool equal to the task. I dismiss
+you. I thank you cordially for your efforts. They are worthless. You see
+that crowd gathering yonder? They have come to see Lord Nick prepare you
+for a hole in the ground. And make no mistake: if you are here when he
+returns that hole will have to be dug--unless they throw you out for the
+claws of the buzzards. In the meantime, our efforts have been wasted
+completely. I hadn't enough time. I had thrown the fear of sudden death
+into Landis, and in another hour he would have signed away his soul to
+me for fear of poison."
+
+The colonel paused to chuckle at some enjoyable memory.
+
+"Then Nick came. You see, I know all about Nick."
+
+"And Nick knows all about you?"
+
+For a moment the agate, catlike eyes of the colonel clouded and cleared
+again in their unfathomable manner.
+
+"At moments, Donnegan," he said, "you have rare perceptions. That is
+exactly it--Nick knows just about everything concerning me. And so--roll
+your pack and climb on your horse and get away. I think you may have
+another five minutes before he comes."
+
+Donnegan turned on his heel. He went to the door of the hut and threw it
+open. Lou sat beside Landis holding his hand, and the murmur of her
+voice was still pleasant as an echo through the room when she looked and
+saw Donnegan. At that she rose and her face hardened as she looked at
+him. Landis, also, lifted his head, and his face was convulsed with
+hatred. So Donnegan closed the door and went softly away to his own
+shack.
+
+She hated him even as Landis hated him, it seemed. He should have known
+that he would not be thanked for bringing back her lover to her with a
+bullet through his shoulder. Sitting in his cabin, he took his head
+between his hands and thought of life and death, and made up his mind.
+He was afraid. If Lord Nick had been the devil himself Donnegan could
+not have been more afraid. But if the big stranger had been ten devils
+instead of one Donnegan would not have found it in his soul to run away.
+
+Nothing remained for him in The Corner, it seemed, except his position
+as a man of power--a dangerous fighter. It was a less than worthless
+position, and yet, once having taken it up, he could not abandon it.
+More than one gunfighter has been in the same place, forced to act as a
+public menace long after he has ceased to feel any desire to fight. Of
+selfish motives there remained not a scruple to him, but there was still
+the happiness of Lou Macon. If the boy were taken back to Lebrun's, it
+would be fatal to her. For even if Nelly wished, she could not teach her
+eyes new habits, and she would ceaselessly play on the heart of the
+wounded man.
+
+It was the cessation of all talk from the gathering crowd outside that
+made Donnegan lift his head at length, and know that Lord Nick had come.
+But before he had time to prepare himself, the door was cast open and
+into it, filling it from side to side, stepped Lord Nick.
+
+There was no need of an introduction. Donnegan knew him by the aptness
+with which the name fitted that glorious figure of a man and by the
+calm, confident eye which now was looking him slowly over, from head to
+foot. Lord Nick closed the door carefully behind him.
+
+"The colonel told me," he said in his deep, smooth voice, "that you were
+waiting for me here."
+
+And Donnegan recognized the snakelike malice of the fat man in drawing
+him into the fight. But he dismissed that quickly from his mind. He was
+staring, fascinated, into the face of the other. He was a reader of men,
+was Donnegan; he was a reader of mind, too. In his life of battle he had
+learned to judge the prowess of others at a glance, just as a musician
+can tell the quality of a violin by the first note he hears played upon
+it. So Donnegan judged the quality of fighting men, and, looking into
+the face of Lord Nick, he knew that he had met his equal at last.
+
+It was a great and a bitter moment to him. The sense of physical
+smallness he had banished a thousand times by the recollection of his
+speed of hand and his surety with weapons. He had looked at men
+muscularly great and despised them in the knowledge that a gun or a
+knife would make him their master. But in Lord Nick he recognized his
+own nerveless speed of hand, his own hair-trigger balance, his own
+deadly seriousness and contempt of life. The experience in battle was
+there, too. And he began to feel that the size of the other crushed him
+to the floor and made him hopeless. It was unnatural, it was wrong, that
+this giant in the body should be a giant in adroitness also.
+
+Already Donnegan had died one death before he rose from his chair and
+stood to the full of his height ready to die again and summoning his
+nervous force to meet the enemy. He had seen that the big man had
+followed his own example and had measured him at a glance.
+
+Indeed the history of some lives of action held less than the
+concentrated silence of these two men during that second's space.
+
+And now Donnegan felt the cold eye of the other eating into his own,
+striving to beat him down, break his nerve. For an instant panic got
+hold on Donnegan. He, himself, had broken the nerve of other men by the
+weight of his unaided eye. Had he not reduced poor Jack Landis to a
+trembling wreck by five minutes of silence? And had he not seen other
+brave men become trembling cowards unable to face the light, and all
+because of that terrible power which lies in the eye of some? He fought
+away the panic, though perspiration was pouring out upon his forehead
+and beneath his armpits.
+
+"The colonel is very kind," said Donnegan.
+
+And that moment he sent up a prayer of thankfulness that his voice was
+smooth as silk, and that he was able to smile into the face of Lord
+Nick. The brow of the other clouded and then smoothed itself deftly.
+Perhaps he, too, recognized the clang of steel upon steel and knew the
+metal of his enemy.
+
+"And therefore," said Lord Nick, "since most of The Corner expects
+business from us, it seems much as if one of us must kill the other
+before we part."
+
+"As a matter of fact," said Donnegan, "I have been keeping that in
+mind." He added, with that deadly smile of his that never reached his
+eyes: "I never disappoint the public when it's possible to satisfy
+them."
+
+"No," and Lord Nick nodded, "you seem to have most of the habits of an
+actor--including an inclination to make up for your part."
+
+Donnegan bit his lip until it bled, and then smiled.
+
+"I have been playing to fools," he said. "Now I shall enjoy a
+discriminating critic."
+
+"Yes," remarked Lord Nick, "actors generally desire an intelligent
+audience for the death scene."
+
+"I applaud your penetration and I shall speak well of you when this
+disagreeable duty is finished."
+
+"Come," and Lord Nick smiled genially, "you are a game little cock!"
+
+The telltale flush crimsoned Donnegan's face. And if the fight had begun
+at that moment no power under heaven could have saved Lord Nick from the
+frenzy of the little man.
+
+"My size keeps me from stooping," said Donnegan, "I shall look up to
+you, sir, until the moment you fall."
+
+"Well hit again! You are also a wit, I see! Donnegan, I am almost sorry
+for the necessity of this meeting. And if it weren't for the audience--"
+
+"Say no more," said Donnegan, bowing. "I read your heart and appreciate
+all you intend."
+
+He had touched his stock as he bowed, and now he turned to the mirror
+and carefully adjusted it, for it was a little awry from the ride; but
+in reality he used that moment to examine his own face, and the set of
+his jaw and the clearness of his eye reassured him. Turning again, he
+surprised a glint of admiration in the glance of Lord Nick.
+
+"We are at one, sir, it appears," he said. "And there is no other way
+out of this disagreeable necessity?"
+
+"Unfortunately not. I have a certain position in these parts. People are
+apt to expect a good deal of me. And for my part I see no way out except
+a gunplay--no way out between the devil and the moon!"
+
+Astonishment swept suddenly across the face of the big man, for
+Donnegan, turning white as death, shrank toward the wall as though he
+had that moment received cold steel in his body.
+
+"Say that again!" said Donnegan hoarsely.
+
+"I said there was no way out," repeated Lord Nick, and though he kept
+his right hand in readiness, he passed his left through his red hair and
+stared at Donnegan with a tinge of contempt; he had seen men buckle like
+this at the last moment when their backs were to the wall.
+
+"Between--" repeated Donnegan.
+
+"The devil and the moon. Do you see a way yourself?"
+
+He was astonished again to see Donnegan wince as if from a blow. His
+lips were trembling and they writhed stiffly over his words.
+
+"Who taught you that expression?" said Donnegan.
+
+"A gentleman," said Lord Nick.
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"My father, sir!"
+
+"Oh, heaven," moaned Donnegan, catching his hands to his breast. "Oh,
+heaven, forgive us!"
+
+"What the devil is in you?" asked Lord Nick.
+
+The little man stood erect again and his eyes were now on fire.
+
+"You are Henry Nicholas Reardon," he said.
+
+Lord Nick set his teeth.
+
+"Now," he said, "it is certain that you must die!"
+
+But Donnegan cast out his arms and broke into a wild laughter.
+
+"Oh, you fool, you fool!" he cried. "Don't you know me? I am the
+cripple!"
+
+
+
+
+32
+
+
+The big man crossed the floor with one vast stride, and, seizing
+Donnegan by both shoulders, dragged him under the full light of the
+window; and still the crazy laughter shook Donnegan and made him
+helpless.
+
+"They tied me to a board--like a papoose," said Donnegan, "and they
+straightened my back--but they left me this way--wizened up." He was
+stammering; hysterical, and the words tumbled from his lips in a jumble.
+"That was a month after you ran away from home. I was going to find you.
+Got bigger. Took the road. Kept hunting. Then I met a yegg who told
+about Rusty Dick--described him like you--I thought--I thought you were
+dead!"
+
+And the tears rolled down his face; he sobbed like a woman.
+
+A strange thing happened then. Lord Nick lifted the little man in his
+arms as if he were a child and literally carried him in that fashion to
+the bunk. He put him down tenderly, still with one mighty arm around his
+back.
+
+"You are Garry? You!"
+
+"Garrison Donnegan Reardon. Aye, that's what I am. Henry, don't say
+that you don't know me!"
+
+"But--your back--I thought--"
+
+"I know--hopeless they said I was. But they brought in a young doctor.
+Now look at me. Little. I never grew big--but hard, Henry, as leather!"
+
+And he sprang to his feet. And knowing that Donnegan had begun life as a
+cripple it was easy to appreciate certain things about his expression--a
+cold wistfulness, and his manner of reading the minds of men. Lord Nick
+was like a man in a dream. He dragged Donnegan back to the bunk and
+forced him to sit down with the weight of his arms. And he could not
+keep his hands from his younger brother. As though he were blind and had
+to use the sense of touch to reassure him.
+
+"I heard lies. They said everybody was dead. I thought--"
+
+"The fever killed them all, except me. Uncle Toby took me in. He was a
+devil. Helped me along, but I left him when I could. And--"
+
+"Don't tell me any more. All that matters is that I have you at last,
+Garry. Heaven knows it's a horrible thing to be kithless and kinless,
+but I have you now! Ah, lad, but the old pain has left its mark on you.
+Poor Garry!"
+
+Donnegan shuddered.
+
+"I've forgotten it. Don't bring it back."
+
+"I keep feeling that you should be in that chair."
+
+"I know. But I'm not. I'm hard as nails, I tell you."
+
+He leaped to his feet again.
+
+"And not so small as you might think, Henry!"
+
+"Oh, big enough, Garry. Big enough to paralyze The Corner, from what
+I've heard."
+
+"I've been playing a game with 'em, Henry. And now--if one of us could
+clear the road, what will we do together? Eh?"
+
+The smile of Lord Nick showed his teeth.
+
+"Haven't I been hungry all my life for a man like you, lad? Somebody to
+stand and guard my back while I faced the rest of the world?"
+
+"And I'll do my share of the facing, too."
+
+"You will, Garry. But I'm your elder."
+
+"Man, man! Nobody's my elder except one that's spent half his life--as I
+have done!"
+
+"We'll teach you to forget the pain I'll make life roses for you,
+Garry."
+
+"And the fools outside thought--"
+
+Donnegan broke into a soundless laughter, and, running to the door,
+opened it a fraction of an inch and peeped out.
+
+"They're standing about in a circle. I can see 'em gaping. Even from
+here. What will they think, Henry?"
+
+Lord Nick ground his teeth.
+
+"They'll think I've backed down from you," he said gloomily. "They'll
+think I've taken water for the first time."
+
+"Why, confound 'em, the first man that opens his head--"
+
+"I know, I know. You'd fill his mouth with lead, and so would I. But if
+it ever gets about--as it's sure to--that Lord, Nick, as they call me,
+has been bluffed down without a fight, I'll have every Chinaman that
+cooks on the range talking back to me. I'll have to start all over
+again."
+
+"Don't say that, Henry. Don't you see that I'll go out and explain that
+I'm your brother?"
+
+"What good will that do? No, do we look alike?"
+
+Donnegan stopped short.
+
+"I'm not very big," he said rather coldly, "but then I'm not so very
+small, either. I've found myself big enough, speaking in general.
+Besides, we have the same hair and eyes."
+
+"Why, man, people will laugh when they hear that we call ourselves
+brothers."
+
+Donnegan ground his teeth and the old flush burned upon his face.
+
+"I'll cut some throats if they do," he said, trembling with his passion.
+
+"I can hear them say it. 'Lord Nick walked in on Donnegan prepared to
+eat him up. He measured him up and down, saw that he was a fighting
+wildcat in spite of his size, and decided to back out. And Donnegan was
+willing. They couldn't come out without a story of some kind--with the
+whole world expecting a death in that cabin--so they framed a crazy
+cock-and-bull story about being brothers.' I can hear them say that,
+Donnegan, and it makes me wild!"
+
+"Do you call me Donnegan?" said Donnegan sadly.
+
+"No, no. Garry, don't be so touchy. You've never got over that, I see.
+Still all pride and fire."
+
+"You're not very humble yourself, Henry."
+
+"Maybe not, maybe not. But I've been in a certain position around these
+parts, Don--Garry. And it's hard to see it go!"
+
+Donnegan closed his eyes in deep reverie. And then he forced out the
+words one by one.
+
+"Henry, I'll let everybody know that it was I who backed down. That we
+were about to fight." He was unable to speak; he tore the stock loose at
+his throat and went on: "We were about to fight; I lost my nerve; you
+couldn't shoot a helpless man. We began to talk. We found out we are
+brothers--"
+
+"Damnation!" broke out Lord Nick, and he struck himself violently across
+the forehead with the back of his hand. "I'm a skunk, Garry, lad. Why,
+for a minute I was about to let you do it. No. no, no! A thousand times
+no!"
+
+It was plain to be seen that he was arguing himself away from the
+temptation.
+
+"What do I care what they say? We'll cram the words back down their
+throats and be hanged to 'em. Here I am worrying about myself like a
+selfish dog without letting myself be happy over finding you. But I am
+happy, Garry. Heaven knows it. And you don't doubt it, do you, old
+fellow?"
+
+"Ah," said Donnegan, and he smiled to cover a touch of sadness. "I hope
+not. No, I don't doubt you, of course. I've spent my life wishing for
+you since you left us, you see. And then I followed you for three years
+on the road, hunting everywhere."
+
+"You did that?"
+
+"Yes. Three years. I liked the careless life. For to tell you the truth,
+I'm not worth much, Henry. I'm a loafer by instinct, and--"
+
+"Not another word." There were tears in the eyes of Lord Nick, and he
+frowned them away. "Confound it, Garry, you unman me. I'll be weeping
+like a woman in a minute. But now, sit down. We still have some things
+to talk over. And we'll get to a quick conclusion."
+
+"Ah, yes," said Donnegan, and at the emotion which had come in the face
+of Lord Nick, his own expression softened wonderfully. A light seemed to
+stand in his face. "We'll brush over the incidentals. And everything is
+incidental aside from the fact that we're together again. They can
+chisel iron chain apart, but we'll never be separated again, God
+willing!" He looked up as he spoke, and his face was for the moment as
+pure as the face of a child--Donnegan, the thief, the beggar, the liar
+by gift, and the man-killer by trade and artistry.
+
+But Lord Nick in the meantime was looking down to the floor and
+mustering his thoughts.
+
+"The main thing is entirely simple," he said. "You'll make one
+concession to my pride, Garry, boy?"
+
+"Can you ask me?" said Donnegan softly, and he cast out his hands in a
+gesture that offered his heart and his soul. "Can you ask me? Anything I
+have is yours!"
+
+"Don't say that," answered Lord Nick tenderly. "But this small thing--my
+pride, you know--I despise myself for caring what people think, but I'm
+weak. I admit it, but I can't help it."
+
+"Talk out, man. You'll see if there's a bottom to things that I can
+give!"
+
+"Well, it's this. Everyone knows that I came up here to get young Jack
+Landis and bring him back to Lebrun's--from which you stole him, you
+clever young devil! Well, I'll simply take him back there, Garry; and
+then I'll never have to ask another favor of you."
+
+He was astonished by a sudden silence, and looking up again, he saw that
+Donnegan sat with his hand at his breast. It was a singularly feminine
+gesture to which he resorted. It was a habit which had come to him in
+his youth in the invalid chair, when the ceaseless torment of his
+crippled back became too great for him to bear.
+
+And clearly, indeed, those days were brought home to Lord Nick as he
+glanced up, for Donnegan was staring at him in the same old, familiar
+agony, mute and helpless.
+
+
+
+
+33
+
+
+At this Lord Nick very frankly frowned in turn. And when he frowned his
+face grew marvelously dark, like some wrathful god, for there was a
+noble, a Grecian purity to the profile of Henry Nicholas Reardon, and
+when he frowned he seemed to be scorning, from a distance, ignoble,
+earthly things which troubled him.
+
+"I know it isn't exactly easy for you, Garry," he admitted. "You have
+your own pride; you have your own position here in The Corner. But I
+want you to notice that mine is different. You've spent a day for what
+you have in The Corner, here. I've spent ten years. You've played a
+prank, acted a part, and cast a jest for what you have. But for the
+place which I hold, brother mine, I've schemed with my wits, played fast
+and loose, and killed men. Do you hear? I've bought it with blood, and
+things you buy at such a price ought to stick, eh?"
+
+He banished his frown; the smile played suddenly across his features.
+
+"Why, I'm arguing with myself. But that look you gave me a minute ago
+had me worried for a little while."
+
+At this Donnegan, who had allowed his head to fall, so that he seemed
+to be nodding in acquiescence, now raised his face and Lord Nick
+perceived the same white pain upon it. The same look which had been on
+the face of the cripple so often in the other days.
+
+"Henry," said the younger brother, "I give you my oath that my pride has
+nothing to do with this. I'd let you drive me barefoot before you
+through the street yonder. I'd let every soul in The Corner know that I
+have no pride where you're concerned. I'll do whatever you wish--with
+one exception--and that one is the unlucky thing you ask. Pardner, you
+mustn't ask for Jack Landis! Anything else I'll work like a slave to get
+for you: I'll fight your battles, I'll serve you in any way you name:
+but don't take Landis back!"
+
+He had talked eagerly, the words coming with a rush, and he found at the
+end that Lord Nick was looking at him in bewilderment.
+
+"When a man is condemned to death," said Lord Nick slowly, "suppose
+somebody offers him anything in the world that he wants--palaces,
+riches, power--everything except his life. What would the condemned man
+say to a friend who made such an offer? He'd laugh at him and then call
+him a traitor. Eh? But I don't laugh at you, Garry. I simply explain to
+you why I have to have Landis back. Listen!"
+
+He counted off his points upon the tips of his fingers, in the confident
+manner of a teacher who deals with a stupid child, waiting patiently for
+the young mind to comprehend.
+
+"We've been bleeding Jack Landis. Do you know why? Because it was Lester
+who made the strike up here. He started out to file his claim. He
+stopped at the house of Colonel Macon. That old devil learned the
+location, learned everything; detained Lester with a trick, and rushed
+young Landis away to file the claims for himself. Then when Lester came
+up here he found that his claims had been jumped, and when he went to
+the law there was no law that could help him. He had nothing but his
+naked word for what he had discovered. And naturally the word of a
+ruffian like Lester had no weight against the word of Landis. And, you
+see, Landis thought that he was entirely in the right. Lester tried the
+other way; tried to jump the claims; and was shot down by Landis. So
+Lester sent for me. What was I to do? Kill Landis? The mine would go to
+his heirs. I tried a different way--bleeding him of his profits, after
+I'd explained to him that he was in the wrong. He half admitted that,
+but he naturally wouldn't give up the mines even after we'd almost
+proved to him that Lester had the first right. So Landis has been mining
+the gold and we've been drawing it away from him. It looks tricky, but
+really it's only just. And Lester and Lebrun split with me.
+
+"But I tell you, Garry, that I'd give up everything without an
+afterthought. I'll give up the money and I'll make Lebrun and Lester
+shut up without a word. I'll make them play square and not try to knife
+Landis in the back. I'll do all that willingly--for you! But, Garry, I
+can't give up taking Landis back to Lebrun's and keeping him there until
+he's well. Why, man, I saw him in the hut just now. He wants to go. He's
+afraid of the old colonel as if he were poison--and I think he's wise in
+being afraid."
+
+"The colonel won't touch him," said Donnegan.
+
+"No?"
+
+"No. I've told him what would happen if he does."
+
+"Tush. Garry, Colonel Macon is the coldest-blooded murderer I've ever
+known. But come out in the open, lad. You see that I'm ready to listen
+to reason--except on one point. Tell me why you're so set on this
+keeping of Landis here against my will and even against the lad's own
+will? I'm reasonable, Garry. Do you doubt that?"
+
+Explaining his own mildness, the voice of Lord Nick swelled again and
+filled the room, and he frowned on his brother. But Donnegan looked on
+him sadly.
+
+"There is a girl--" he began.
+
+"Why didn't I guess it?" exclaimed Lord Nick. "If ever you find a man
+unreasonable, stubborn and foolish, you'll always find a woman behind
+it! All this trouble because of a piece of calico?"
+
+He leaned back, laughing thunderously in his relief.
+
+"Come, come! I was prepared for a tragedy. Now tell me about this girl.
+Who and what is she?"
+
+"The daughter of the colonel."
+
+"You're in love with her? I'm glad to hear it, Garry. As a matter of
+fact I've been afraid that you were hunting in my own preserve, but if
+it's the colonel's daughter, you're welcome to her. So you love the
+girl? She's pretty, lad!"
+
+"I love her?" said Donnegan in an indescribably tender voice. "I love
+her? Who am I to love her? A thief, a man-killer, a miserable play
+actor, a gambler, a drunkard. I love her? Bah!"
+
+If there was one quality of the mind with which Lord Nick was less
+familiar than with all others, it was humbleness of spirit. He now
+abased his magnificent head, and resting his chin in the mighty palm of
+his hand, he stared with astonishment and commiseration into the face of
+Donnegan. He seemed to be learning new things every moment about his
+brother.
+
+"Leave me out of the question," said Donnegan.
+
+"Can't be done. If I leave you out, dear boy, there's not one of them
+that I care a hang about; I'd ride roughshod over the whole lot. I've
+done it before to better men than these!"
+
+"Then you'll change, I know. This is the fact of the matter. She loves
+Landis. And if you take Landis away where will you put him?"
+
+"Where he was stolen away. In Lebrun's."
+
+"And what will be in Lebrun's?"
+
+"Joe Rix to guard him and the old negress to nurse him."'
+
+"No, no! Nelly Lebrun will be there!"
+
+"Eh? Are you glancing at her, now?"
+
+"Henry, you yourself know that Landis is mad about that girl."
+
+"Oh, she's flirted a bit with him. Turned the fool's head. He'll come
+out of it safe. She won't break his heart. I've seen her work on
+others!"
+
+He chuckled at the memory.
+
+"What do I care about Landis?" said Donnegan with unutterable scorn.
+"It's the girl. You'll break her heart, Henry; and if you do I'll never
+forgive you."
+
+"Steady, lad. This is a good deal like a threat."
+
+"No, no, no! Not a threat, heaven knows!"
+
+"By heaven!" exclaimed Lord Nick. "I begin to be irritated to see you
+stick on a silly point like this. Listen to me, lad. Do you mean to say
+that you are making all! this trouble about a slip of a girl?"
+
+"The heart of a girl," said Donnegan calmly.
+
+"Let Landis go; then take her in your arms and kiss her worries away. I
+warrant you can do it! I gather from Nell that you're not tongue-tied
+around women!"
+
+"I?" echoed Donnegan, turning pale. "Don't jest at this, Henry. I'm as
+serious as death. She's the type of woman made to love one man, and one
+man only. Landis may be common as dirt; but she doesn't see it. She's
+fastened her heart on him. I looked in on her a little while ago. She
+turned white when she saw me. I brought Landis to her, but she hates me
+because I had to shoot him down."
+
+"Garry," said the big man with a twinkle in his eye, "you're in love!"
+
+It shook Donnegan to the core, but he replied instantly; "If I were in
+love, don't you suppose that I would have shot to kill when I met
+Landis?"
+
+At this his brother blinked, frowned, and shook his head. The point was
+apparently plain to him and wiped out his previous convictions. Also, it
+eased his mind.
+
+"Then you don't love the girl?"
+
+"I?"
+
+"Either way, my hands are cleared of the worry. If you want her, let me
+take Landis. If you don't want her, what difference does it make to you
+except silly sentiment?"
+
+Donnegan made no answer.
+
+"If she comes to Lebrun's house, I'll see that Nell doesn't bother him
+too much."
+
+"Can you control her? If she wants to see this fool can you keep her
+away, and if she goes to him can you control her smiling?"
+
+"Certainly," said Lord Nick, but he flushed heavily.
+
+Donnegan smiled.
+
+"She's a devil of a girl," admitted Henry Reardon. "But this is beside
+the point: which is, that you're sticking on a matter that means
+everything to me, and which is only a secondhand interest to you--a
+point of sentiment. You pity the girl. What's pity? Bah! I pity a dog in
+the street, but would I cross you, Garry, lad, to save the dog?
+Sentiment, I say, silly sentiment."
+
+Donnegan rose.
+
+"It was a silly sentiment," he said hoarsely, "that put me on the road
+following you, Henry. It was a silly sentiment that turned me into a
+wastrel, a wanderer, a man without a home and without friends."
+
+"It's wrong to throw that in my face," muttered Lord Nick.
+
+"It is. And I'm sorry for it. But I want you to see that matters of
+sentiment may be matters of life and death with me."
+
+"Aye, if it were for you it would be different. I might see my way
+clear--but for a girl you have only a distant interest in--"
+
+"It is a matter of whether or not her heart shall be broken."
+
+"Come, come. Let's talk man talk. Besides, girls' hearts don't break in
+this country. You're old-fashioned."
+
+"I tell you the question of her happiness is worth more than a dozen
+lives like yours and mine."
+
+There had been a gathering impatience in Lord Nick. Now he, also, leaped
+to his feet; a giant.
+
+"Tell me in one word: You stick on this point?"
+
+"In one word--yes!"
+
+"Then you deny me, Garry. You set me aside for a silly purpose of your
+own--a matter that really doesn't mean much to you. It shows me where I
+stand in your eyes--and nothing between the devil and the moon shall
+make me sidestep!"
+
+They remained silent, staring at each other. Lord Nick stood with a
+flush of anger growing; Donnegan became whiter than ever, and he
+stiffened himself to his full height, which, in all who knew him well,
+was the danger signal.
+
+"You take Landis?" he said softly.
+
+"I do."
+
+"Not," said Donnegan, "while I live!"
+
+"You mean--" cried Lord Nick.
+
+"I mean it!"
+
+They had been swept back to the point at which that strangest of scenes
+began, but this time there was an added element--horror.
+
+"You'd fight?"
+
+"To the death, Henry!"
+
+"Garry, if one of us should kill the other, he'd be cursed forever!"
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And she's worth even this?"
+
+"A thousand times more! What are we? Dust in the wind; dust in the wind.
+But a woman like that is divine, Henry!"
+
+Lord Nick swayed a little, setting himself in balance like an animal
+preparing for the leap.
+
+"If it comes to the pinch, it is you who will die," he said.
+
+"You've no chance against me, Garry. And I swear to you that I won't
+weaken. You prove that you don't care for me. You put another above me.
+It's my pride, my life, that you'd sacrifice to the whim of a girl!" His
+passion choked him.
+
+"Are you ready?" said Donnegan.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Move first!"
+
+"I have never formed the habit."
+
+"Nor I! You fool, take what little advantage you can, because it won't
+help you in the end."
+
+"You shall see. I have a second sight, Henry, and it shows me you dead
+on the floor there, looking bigger than ever, and I see the gun smoking
+in my hand and my heart as dead as ashes! Oh, Henry, if there were only
+some other way!"
+
+They were both pale now.
+
+"Aye," murmured Lord Nick, "if we could find a judge. My hand turns to
+lead when I think of fighting you, Garry."
+
+Perspiration stood on the face of Donnegan.
+
+"Name a judge; I'll abide by the decision."
+
+"Some man--"
+
+"No, no. What man could understand me? A woman, Henry!"
+
+"Nell Lebrun."
+
+"The girl who loves you? You want me to plead before her?"
+
+"Put her on her honor and she'll be as straight as a string with both of
+us."
+
+For a moment Donnegan considered, and at length: "She loves you, Henry.
+You have that advantage. You have only to let her know that this is a
+vital matter to you and she'll speak as you wish her to speak."
+
+"Nonsense. You don't know her. You've seen yourself that no man can
+control her absolutely."
+
+"Make a concession."
+
+"A thousand, Garry, dear boy, if they'll get us clear from this horrible
+mess."
+
+"Only this. Leave The Corner for a few hours. Give me until--tonight.
+Let me see Nelly during that time. You've had years to work on her. I
+want only this time to put my own case before her."
+
+"Thank heaven that we're coming to see light and a way out!"
+
+"Aye, Henry."
+
+The big man wiped his forehead and sighed in his relief.
+
+"A minute ago I was ready--but we'll forget all this. What will you do?
+How will you persuade Nelly? I almost think that you intend to make love
+to her, Garry!"
+
+The little man turned paler still.
+
+"It is exactly what I intend," he said quietly.
+
+The brow of Lord Nick darkened solemnly, and then he forced a laugh.
+
+"She'll be afraid to turn me down, Garry. But try your own way." He bit
+his lips. "Why, if you influence her that way--do it. What's a fickle
+jade to me? Nothing!"
+
+"However I do it, you'll stick by her judgment, Henry?"
+
+The perspiration had started on Lord Nick's forehead again. Doubt swayed
+him, but pride forced him on.
+
+"I'll come again tonight," he said gloomily. "I'll meet you
+in--Milligan's?"
+
+"In Milligan's, then."
+
+Lord Nick, without a word of farewell, stamped across the hut and out.
+
+As for Donnegan, he stepped backward, his legs buckled beneath him, and
+when big George entered, with a scared face, he found the little man
+half sitting on the bunk, half lying against the wall with the face and
+the staring eyes of a dead man.
+
+
+
+
+34
+
+
+It was a long time before Donnegan left the hut, and when he came out
+the crowd which had gathered to watch the fight, or at least to mark the
+reports of the guns when those two terrible warriors met, was scattered.
+There remained before Donnegan only the colonel in his invalid's chair.
+Even from the distance one could see that his expression was changed,
+and when the little red-headed man came near the colonel looked up to
+him with something akin to humility.
+
+"Donnegan," he said, stopping the other as Donnegan headed for the door
+of the hut, "Donnegan, don't go in there just now."
+
+Donnegan turned and came slowly toward him.
+
+"The reason," said the colonel, "is that you probably won't receive a
+very cheery reception. Unfortunate--very unfortunate. Lou has turned
+wrong-headed for the first time in her life and she won't listen to
+reason."
+
+He chuckled softly.
+
+"I never dreamed there was so much of my metal in her. Blood will tell,
+my boy; blood will tell. And when you finally get her you'll find that
+she's worth waiting for."
+
+"Let me tell you a secret," said Donnegan dryly. "I am no longer waiting
+for her!"
+
+"Ah?" smiled the colonel. "Of course not. This bringing of Landis to
+her--it was all pure self-sacrifice. It was not an attempt to soften her
+heart. It was not a cunning maneuver. Tush! Of course not!"
+
+"I am about to make a profound remark," said Donnegan carelessly.
+
+"By all means."
+
+"You read the minds of other people through a colored glass, colonel.
+You see yourself everywhere."
+
+"In other words I put my own motives into the actions and behind the
+actions of people? Perhaps. I am full of weaknesses. Very full. In the
+meantime let me tell you one important thing--if you have not made the
+heart of Lou tender toward you, you have at least frightened her."
+
+The jaw on Donnegan set.
+
+"Excellent!" he said huskily.
+
+"Perhaps better than you think; and to keep you abreast with the times,
+you must know another thing. Lou has a silly idea that you are a lost
+soul, Donnegan, but she attributes your fall entirely to my weakness.
+Nothing can convince her that you did not intend to kill Landis; nothing
+can convince her that you did not act on my inspiration. I have tried
+arguing. Bah! she overwhelmed me with her scorn. You are a villain, says
+Lou, and I have made you one. And for the first time in my memory of
+her, her eyes fill with tears."
+
+"Tears?"
+
+"Upon my honor, and when a girl begins to weep about a man I don't need
+to say he is close to her heart."
+
+"You are full of maxims, Colonel Macon."
+
+"As a nut is full of meat. Old experience, you know. In the meantime Lou
+is perfectly certain that I intend to make away with Landis. Ha, ha,
+ha!" The laughter of the colonel was a cheery thunder, and soft as with
+distance. "Landis is equally convinced. He begs Lou not to fall asleep
+lest I should steal in on him. She hardly dares leave him to cook his
+food. I actually think she would have been glad to see that fiend, Lord
+Nick, take Landis away!"
+
+Donnegan smiled wanly. But could he tell her, poor girl, the story of
+Nelly Lebrun? Landis, in fear of his life, was no doubt at this moment
+pouring out protestations of deathless affection.
+
+"And they both consider you an archdemon for keeping Lord Nick away!"
+
+Again Donnegan winced, and coughed behind his hand to cover it.
+
+"However," went on the colonel, "when it comes to matters with the
+hearts of women, I trust to time. Time alone will show her that Landis
+is a puppy."
+
+"In the meantime, colonel, she keeps you from coming near Landis?"
+
+"Not at all! You fail to understand me and my methods, dear boy. I have
+only to roll my chair into the room and sit and smile at Jack in order
+to send him into an hysteria of terror. It is amusing to watch. And I
+can be there while Lou is in the room and through a few careful
+innuendoes convey to Landis my undying determination to either remove
+him from my path and automatically become his heir, or else secure from
+him a legal transfer of his rights to the mines."
+
+"I have learned," said Donnegan, "that Landis has not the slightest
+claim to them himself. And that you set him on the trail of the claims
+by trickery."
+
+The colonel did not wince.
+
+"Of course not," said the fat trickster. "Not the slightest right. My
+claim is a claim of superior wits, you see. And in the end all your
+labor shall be rewarded, for my share will go to Lou and through her it
+shall come to you. No?"
+
+"Quite logical."
+
+The colonel disregarded the other's smile.
+
+"But I have a painful confession to make."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I misjudged you, Donnegan. A moment since, when I was nearly distraught
+with disappointment, I said some most unpleasant things to you."
+
+"I have forgotten them."
+
+But the colonel raised his strong forefinger and shook his head,
+smiling.
+
+"No, no, Donnegan. If you deny it, I shall know that you are harboring
+the most undying grudge against me. As a matter of fact, I have just
+had an interview with Lord Nick, and the cursed fellow put my nerves on
+edge."
+
+The colonel made a wry face.
+
+"And when you came, I saw no manner in which you could possibly thwart
+him."
+
+His eyes grew wistful.
+
+"Between friends--as a son to his future father," he said softly, "can't
+you tell me what the charm was that you used on. Nick to send him away?
+I watched him come out of the shack. He was in a fury. I could see that
+by the way his head thrust out between his big shoulders. And when he
+went down the hill he was striding like a giant, but every now and then
+he would stop short, and his head would go up as if he were tempted to
+turn around and go back, but didn't quite have the nerve. Donnegan, tell
+me the trick of it?"
+
+"Willingly. I appealed to his gambling instinct."
+
+"Which leaves me as much in the dark as ever."
+
+But Donnegan smiled in his own peculiar and mirthless manner and he went
+on to the hut. Not that he expected a cheery greeting from Lou Macon,
+but he was drawn by the same perverse instinct which tempts a man to
+throw himself from a great height. At the door he paused a moment. He
+could distinguish no words, but he caught the murmur of Lou's voice as
+she talked to Jack Landis, and it had that infinitely gentle quality
+which only a woman's voice can have, and only when she nurses the sick.
+It was a pleasant torture to Donnegan to hear it. At length he summoned
+his resolution and tapped at the door.
+
+The voice of Lou Macon stopped. He heard a hurried and whispered
+consultation. What did they expect? Then swift foot-falls on the floor,
+and she opened the door. There was a smile of expectancy on her lips;
+her eyes were bright; but when she saw Donnegan her lips pinched in. She
+stared at him as if he were a ghost.
+
+"I knew; I knew!" she said piteously, falling back a step but still
+keeping her hand upon the knob of the door as if to block the way to
+Donnegan. "Oh, Jack, he has killed Lord Nick and now he is here--"
+
+To do what? To kill Landis in turn? Her horrified eyes implied as much.
+He saw Landis in the distance raise himself upon one elbow and his face
+was gray, not with pain but with dread.
+
+"It can't be!" groaned Landis.
+
+"Lord Nick is alive," said Donnegan. "And I have not come here to
+torment you; I have only come to ask that you let me speak with you
+alone for a moment, Lou!"
+
+He watched her face intently. All the cabin was in deep shadow, but the
+golden hair of the girl glowed as if with an inherent light of its own,
+and the same light touched her face. Jack Landis was stricken with
+panic: he stammered in a dreadful eagerness of fear.
+
+"Don't leave me, Lou. You know what it means. He wants to get you out of
+the way so that the colonel can be alone with me. Don't go, Lou! Don't
+go!"
+
+As though she saw how hopeless it was to try to bar Donnegan by closing
+the door against him, she fell back to the bed. She kept her eye on the
+little man, as if to watch against a surprise attack, and, fumbling
+behind her, her hand found the hand of Landis and closed over it with
+the reassurance of a mother.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Jack. I won't leave you. Not unless they carry me away
+by force."
+
+"I give you my solemn word." said Donnegan in torment, "that the colonel
+shall not come near Landis while you're away with me."
+
+"Your word!" murmured the girl with a sort of horrified wonder. "Your
+word!"
+
+And Donnegan bowed his head.
+
+But all at once she cast out her free hand toward him, while the other
+still cherished the weakness of Jack Landis.
+
+"Oh, give them up!" she cried. "Give up my father and all his wicked
+plans. There is something good in you. Give him up; come with us;
+stand for us: and we shall be grateful all our lives!"
+
+The little man had removed his hat, so that the sunshine burned brightly
+on his red hair. Indeed, there was always a flamelike quality about him.
+In inaction he seemed femininely frail and pale; but when his spirit was
+roused his eyes blazed as his hair burned in the sunlight.
+
+"You shall learn in the end," he said to the girl, "that everything I
+do, I do for you."
+
+She cried out as if he had struck her.
+
+"It's not worthy of you," she said bitterly. "You are keeping Jack
+here--in peril--for my sake?"
+
+"For your sake," said Donnegan.
+
+She looked at him with a queer pain in her eyes.
+
+"To keep you from needless lying," she said, "let me tell you that Jack
+has told me everything. I am not angry because you come and pretend that
+you do all these horrible things for my sake. I know my father has
+tempted you with a promise of a great deal of money. But in the end you
+will get nothing. No, he will twist everything away from you and leave
+you nothing! But as for me--I know everything; Jack told me."
+
+"He has told you what? What?"
+
+"About the woman you love."
+
+"The woman I love?" echoed Donnegan, stupefied.
+
+It seemed that Lou Macon could only name her with an effort that left
+her trembling.
+
+"The Lebrun woman," she said. "Jack has told me."
+
+"Did you tell her that?" he asked Landis.
+
+"The whole town knows it," stammered the wounded man.
+
+The cunning hypocrisy spurred Donnegan. He put his foot on the threshold
+of the shack, and at this the girl cried out and shrank from him; but
+Landis was too paralyzed to stir or speak. For a moment Donnegan was
+wildly tempted to pour his torrent of contempt and accusation upon
+Landis. To what end? To prove to the girl that the big fellow had coolly
+tricked her? That it was to be near Nelly Lebrun as much as to be away
+from the colonel that he wished so ardently to leave the shack? After
+all, Lou Macon was made happy by an illusion; let her keep it.
+
+He looked at her sadly again. She stood defiant over Landis; ready to
+protect the helpless bulk of the man.
+
+So Donnegan closed the door softly and turned away with ashes in his
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+35
+
+
+When Nelly Lebrun raised her head from her hands, Donnegan was a far
+figure; yet even in the distance she could catch the lilt and easy sway
+of his body; he rode as he walked, lightly, his feet in the stirrups
+half taking his weight in a semi-English fashion. For a moment she was
+on the verge of spurring after him, but she kept the rein taut and
+merely stared until he dipped away among the hills. For one thing she
+was quite assured that she could not overtake that hard rider; and,
+again, she felt that it was useless to interfere. To step between Lord
+Nick and one of his purposes would have been like stepping before an
+avalanche and commanding it to halt with a raised hand.
+
+She watched miserably until even the dust cloud dissolved and the bare,
+brown hills alone remained before her. Then she turned away, and hour
+after hour let her black jog on.
+
+To Nelly Lebrun this day was one of those still times which come over
+the life of a person, and in which they see themselves in relation to
+the rest of the world clearly. It would not be true to say that Nelly
+loved Donnegan. Certainly not as yet, for the familiar figure of Lord
+Nick filled her imagination. But the little man was different. Lord
+Nick commanded respect, admiration, obedience; but there was about
+Donnegan something which touched her in an intimate and disturbing
+manner. She had felt the will-o'-the-wisp flame which burned in him in
+his great moments. It was possible for her to smile at Donnegan; it was
+possible even to pity him for his fragility, his touchy pride about his
+size; to criticize his fondness for taking the center of the stage even
+in a cheap little mining camp like this and strutting about, the center
+of all attention. Yet there were qualities in him which escaped her, a
+possibility of metallic hardness, a pitiless fire of purpose.
+
+To Lord Nick, he was as the bull terrier to the mastiff.
+
+But above all she could not dislodge the memory of his strange talk with
+her at Lebrun's. Not that she did not season the odd avowals of Donnegan
+with a grain of salt, but even when she had discounted all that he said,
+she retained a quivering interest. Somewhere beneath his words she
+sensed reality. Somewhere beneath his actions she felt a selfless
+willingness to throw himself away.
+
+As she rode she was comparing him steadily with Lord Nick. And as she
+made the comparisons she felt more and more assured that she could pick
+and choose between the two. They loved her, both of them. With Nick it
+was an old story; with Donnegan it might be equally true in spite of its
+newness. And Nelly Lebrun felt rich. Not that she would have been
+willing to give up Lord Nick. By no means. But neither was she willing
+to throw away Donnegan. Diamonds in one hand and pearls in the other.
+Which handful must she discard?
+
+She remained riding an unconscionable length of time, and when she drew
+rein again before her father's house, the black was flecked with foam
+from his clamped bit, and there was a thick lather under the stirrup
+leathers. She threw the reins to the servant who answered her call and
+went slowly into the house.
+
+Donnegan, by this time, was dead. She began to feel that it would be
+hard to look Lord Nick in the face again. His other killings had often
+seemed to her glorious. She had rejoiced in the invincibility of her
+lover.
+
+Now he suddenly took on the aspect of a murderer.
+
+She found the house hushed. Perhaps everyone was at the gaming house;
+for now it was midafternoon. But when she opened the door to the
+apartment which they used as a living room she found Joe Rix and the
+Pedlar and Lester sitting side by side, silent. There was no whisky in
+sight; there were no cards to be seen. Marvel of marvels, these three
+men were spending their time in solemn thought. A sudden thought rushed
+over her, and her cry told where her heart really lay, at least at this
+time.
+
+"Lord Nick--has he been--"
+
+The Pedlar lifted his gaunt head and stared at her without expression.
+It was Joe Rix who answered.
+
+"Nick's upstairs."
+
+"Safe?"
+
+"Not a scratch."
+
+She sank into a chair with a sigh, but was instantly on edge again with
+the second thought.
+
+"Donnegan?" she whispered.
+
+"Safe and sound," said Lester coldly.
+
+She could not gather the truth of the statement.
+
+"Then Nick got Landis back before Donnegan returned?"
+
+"No."
+
+Like any other girl, Nelly Lebrun hated a puzzle above all things in the
+world, at least a puzzle which affected her new friends.
+
+"Lester, what's happened?" she demanded.
+
+At this Lester, who had been brooding upon the floor, raised his eyes
+and then switched one leg over the other. He was a typical cowman, was
+Lester, from his crimson handkerchief knotted around his throat to his
+shop-made boots which fitted slenderly about his instep with the care of
+a gloved hand.
+
+"I dunno what happened," said Lester. "Which looks like what counts is
+the things that didn't happen. Landis is still with that devil, Macon.
+Donnegan is loose without a scratch, and Lord Nick is in his room with a
+face as black as a cloudy night."
+
+And briefly he described how Lord Nick had gone up the hill, seen the
+colonel, come back, taken a horse litter, and gone up the hill again,
+while the populace of The Corner waited for a crash. For Donnegan had
+arrived in the meantime. And how Nick had gone into the cabin, remained
+a singularly long time, and then come out, with a face half white and
+half red and an eye that dared anyone to ask questions. He had strode
+straight home to Lebrun's and gone to his room; and there he remained,
+never making a sound.
+
+"But I'll give you my way of readin' the sign on that trail," said
+Lester. "Nick goes up the hill to clean up on Donnegan. He sees him;
+they size each other up in a flash; they figure that if they's a gun it
+means a double killin'--and they simply haul off and say a perlite
+fare-thee-well."
+
+The girl paid no attention to these remarks. She was sunk in a brown
+study.
+
+"There's something behind it all," she said, more to herself than to the
+men. "Nick is proud as the devil himself. And I can't imagine why he'd
+let Donnegan go. Oh, it might have been done if they'd met alone in the
+desert. But with the whole town looking on and waiting for Nick to clean
+up on Donnegan--no, it isn't possible. There must have been a showdown
+of some kind."
+
+There was a grim little silence after this.
+
+"Maybe there was," said the Pedlar dryly. "Maybe there was a
+showdown--and the wind-up of it is that Nick comes home meek as a
+six-year-old broke down in front."
+
+She stared at him, first astonished, and then almost frightened.
+
+"You mean that Nick may have taken water?"
+
+The three, as one man, shrugged their shoulders, and met her glance with
+cold eyes.
+
+"You fools!" cried the girl, springing to her feet. "He'd rather die!"
+
+Joe Rix leaned forward, and to emphasize his point he stabbed one dirty
+forefinger into the fat palm of his other hand.
+
+"You just start thinkin' back," he said solemnly, "and you'll remember
+that Donnegan has done some pretty slick things."
+
+Lester added with a touch of contempt: "Like shootin' down Landis one
+day and then sittin' down and havin' a nice long chat with you the next.
+I dunno how he does it."
+
+"That hunch of yours," said the girl fiercely, "ought to be roped and
+branded--lie! Lester, don't look at me like that. And if you think Nick
+has lost his grip on things you're dead wrong. Step light, Lester--and
+the rest of you. Or Nick may hear you walk--and think."
+
+She flung out of the room and raced up the stairs to Lord Nick's room.
+There was an interval without response after her first knock. But when
+she rapped again he called out to know who was there. At her answer she
+heard his heavy stride cross the room, and the door opened slowly. His
+face, as she looked up to it, was so changed that she hardly knew him.
+His hair was unkempt, on end, where he had sat with his fingers thrust
+into it, buried in thought. And the marks of his palms were red upon his
+forehead.
+
+"Nick," she whispered, frightened, "what is it?"
+
+He looked down half fiercely, half sadly at her. And though his lips
+parted they closed again before he spoke. Fear jumped coldly in Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+"Did Donnegan--" she pleaded, white-faced. "Did he--"
+
+"Did he bluff me out?" finished Nick. "No, he didn't. That's what
+everybody'll say. I know it, don't I? And that's why I'm staying here by
+myself, because the first fool that looks at me with a question in his
+face, why--I'll break him in two."
+
+She pressed close to him, more frightened than before. That Lord Nick
+should have been driven to defend himself with words was almost too much
+for credence.
+
+"You know I don't believe it, Nick? You know that I'm not doubting you?"
+
+But he brushed her hands roughly away.
+
+"You want to know what it's all about? Then go over to--well, to
+Milligan's. Donnegan will be there. He'll explain things to you, I
+guess. He wants to see you. And maybe I'll come over later and join
+you."
+
+Seeing Lord Nick before her, so shaken, so gray of face, so dull of eye,
+she pictured Donnegan as a devil in human form, cunning, resistless.
+
+"Nick, dear--" she pleaded.
+
+He closed the door in her face, and she heard his heavy step go back
+across the room. In some mysterious manner she felt the Promethean fire
+had been stolen from Lord Nick, and Donnegan's was the hand that had
+robbed him of it.
+
+
+
+
+36
+
+
+It was fear that Nelly Lebrun felt first of all. It was fear because
+the impossible had happened and the immovable object had been at last
+moved. Going back to her own room, the record of Lord Nick flashed
+across her mind; one long series of thrilling deeds. He had been a great
+and widely known figure on the mountain desert while she herself was no
+more than a girl. When she first met him she had been prepared for the
+sight of a firebreathing monster; and she had never quite recovered from
+the first thrill of finding him not devil but man.
+
+Quite oddly, now that there seemed another man as powerful as Lord Nick
+or even more terrible, she felt for the big man more tenderly than ever;
+for like all women, there was a corner of her heart into which she
+wished to receive a thing she could cherish and protect. Lord Nick, the
+invincible, had seemed without any real need of other human beings. His
+love for her had seemed unreal because his need of her seemed a
+superficial thing. Now that he was in sorrow and defeat she suddenly
+visualized a Lord Nick to whom she could truly be a helpmate. Tears came
+to her eyes at the thought.
+
+Yet, very contradictorily and very humanly, the moment she was in her
+room she began preparing her toilet for that evening at Lebrun's. Let no
+one think that she was already preparing to cast Lord Nick away and turn
+to the new star in the sky of the mountain desert. By no means. No doubt
+her own heart was not quite clear to Nelly. Indeed, she put on her most
+lovely gown with a desire for revenge. If Lord Nick had been humbled by
+this singular Donnegan, would it not be a perfect revenge to bring
+Donnegan himself to her feet? Would it not be a joy to see him turn pale
+under her smile, and then, when he was well-nigh on his knees, spurn the
+love which he offered her?
+
+She set her teeth and her eyes gleamed with the thought. But
+nevertheless she went on lavishing care in the preparation for that
+night.
+
+As she visioned the scene, the many curious eyes that watched her with
+Donnegan; the keen envy in the faces of the women; the cold watchfulness
+of the men, were what she pictured.
+
+In a way she almost regretted that she was admired by such fighting men,
+Landis, Lord Nick, and now Donnegan, who frightened away the rank and
+file of other would-be admirers. But it was a pang which she could
+readily control and subdue.
+
+To tell the truth the rest of the day dragged through a weary length. At
+the dinner table her father leaned to her and talked in his usual
+murmuring voice which could reach her own ear and no other by any
+chance.
+
+"Nelly, there's going to be the devil to pay around The Corner. You know
+why. Now, be a good girl and wise girl and play your cards. Donnegan is
+losing his head; he's losing it over you. So play your cards."
+
+"Turn down Nick and take up Donnegan?" she asked coldly.
+
+"I've said enough already," said her father, and would not speak again.
+But it was easy to see that he already felt Lord Nick's star to be past
+its full glory.
+
+Afterward, Lebrun himself took his daughter over to Milligan's and left
+her under the care of the dance-hall proprietor.
+
+"I'm waiting for someone," said Nelly, and Milligan sat willingly at her
+table and made talk. He was like the rest of The Corner--full of the
+subject of the strange encounter between Lord Nick and Donnegan. What
+had Donnegan done to the big man? Nelly merely smiled and said they
+would all know in time: one thing was certain--Lord Nick had not taken
+water. But at this Milligan smiled behind his hand.
+
+Ten minutes later there was that stir which announced the arrival of
+some public figures; and Donnegan with big George behind him came into
+the room. This evening he went straight to the table to Nelly Lebrun.
+Milligan, a little uneasy, rose. But Donnegan was gravely polite and
+regretted that he had interrupted.
+
+"I have only come to ask you for five minutes of your time," he said to
+the girl.
+
+She was about to put him off merely to make sure of her hold over him,
+but something she saw in his face fascinated her. She could not play her
+game. Milligan had slipped away before she knew it, and Donnegan was in
+his place at the table. He was as much changed as Lord Nick, she
+thought. Not that his clothes were less carefully arranged than ever,
+but in the compression of his lips and something behind his eyes she
+felt the difference. She would have given a great deal indeed to have
+learned what went on behind the door of Donnegan's shack when Lord Nick
+was there.
+
+"Last time you asked for one minute and stayed half an hour," she said.
+"This time it's five minutes."
+
+No matter what was on his mind he was able to answer fully as lightly.
+
+"When I talk about myself, I'm always long-winded."
+
+"Tonight it's someone else?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She was, being a woman, intensely disappointed, but her smile was as
+bright as ever.
+
+"Of course I'm listening."
+
+"You remember what I told you of Landis and the girl on the hill?"
+
+"She seems to stick in your thoughts, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"Yes, she's a lovely child."
+
+And by his frankness he very cunningly disarmed her. Even if he had
+hesitated an instant she would have been on the track of the truth, but
+he had foreseen the question and his reply came back instantly.
+
+He added: "Also, what I say has to do with Lord Nick."
+
+"Ah," said the girl a little coldly.
+
+Donnegan went on. He had chosen frankness to be his role and he played
+it to the full.
+
+"It is a rather wonderful story," he went on. "You know that Lord Nick
+went up the hill for Landis? And The Corner was standing around waiting
+for him to bring the youngster down?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"There was only one obstacle--which you had so kindly removed--myself."
+
+"For your own sake, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"Ah, don't you suppose that I know?" And his voice touched her. "He came
+to kill me. And no doubt he could have done so."
+
+Such frankness shocked her into a new attention.
+
+Perhaps Donnegan overdid his part a little at this point, for in her
+heart of hearts she knew that the little man would a thousand times
+rather die than give way to any living man.
+
+"But I threw my case bodily before him--the girl--her love for
+Landis--and the fear which revolved around your own unruly eyes, you
+know, if he were sent back to your father's house. I placed it all
+before him. At first he was for fighting at once. But the story appealed
+to him. He pitied the girl. And in the end he decided to let the matter
+be judged by a third person. He suggested a man. But I know that a man
+would see in my attitude nothing but foolishness. No man could have
+appreciated the position of that girl on the hill. I myself named
+another referee--yourself."
+
+She gasped.
+
+"And so I have come to place the question before you, because I know
+that you will decide honestly."
+
+"Then I shall be honest," said the girl.
+
+She was thinking: Why not have Landis back? It would keep the three men
+revolving around her. Landis on his feet and well would have been
+nothing; either of these men would have killed him. But Landis sick she
+might balance in turn against them both. Nelly had the instincts of a
+fencer; she loved balance.
+
+But Donnegan was heaping up his effects. For by the shadow in her eyes
+he well knew what was passing through her mind, and he dared not let her
+speak too quickly.
+
+"There is more hanging upon it. In the first place, if Landis is left
+with the girl it gives the colonel a chance to work on him, and like as
+not the colonel will get the young fool to sign away the mines to
+him--frighten him, you see, though I've made sure that the colonel will
+not actually harm him."
+
+"How have you made sure? They say the colonel is a devil."
+
+"I have spoken with him. The colonel is not altogether without
+sensibility to fear."
+
+She caught the glint in the little man's eye and she believed.
+
+"So much for that. Landis is safe, but his money may not be. Another
+thing still hangs upon your decision. Lord Nick wanted to know why I
+trusted to you? Because I felt you were honest. Why did I feel that?
+There was nothing to do. Besides, how could I conceal myself from such a
+man? I spoke frankly and told him that I trusted you because I love
+you."
+
+She closed her hand hard on the edge of the table to steady herself.
+
+"And he made no move at you?"
+
+"He restrained himself."
+
+"Lord Nick?" gasped the incredulous girl.
+
+"He is a gentleman," said Donnegan with a singular pride which she could
+not understand.
+
+He went on: "And unfortunately I fear that if you decide in favor of my
+side of the argument, I fear that Lord Nick will feel that you--that
+you--"
+
+He was apparently unable to complete his sentence.
+
+"He will feel that you no longer care for him," said Donnegan at length.
+
+The girl pondered him with cloudy eyes.
+
+"What is behind all this frankness?" she asked coldly.
+
+"I shall tell you. Hopelessness is behind it. Last night I poured my
+heart at your feet. And I had hope. Today I have seen Lord Nick and I no
+longer hope."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"He is worthy of a lovely woman's affection; and I--" He called her
+attention to himself with a deprecatory gesture.
+
+"Do you ask me to hurt him like this?" said the girl. "His pride is the
+pride of the fiend. Love me? He would hate me!"
+
+"It might be true. Still I know you would risk it, because--" he paused.
+
+"Well?" asked the girl, whispering in her excitement.
+
+"Because you are a lady."
+
+He bowed to her.
+
+"Because you are fair; because you are honest, Nelly Lebrun. Personally
+I think that you can win Lord Nick back with one minute of smiling. But
+you might not. You might alienate him forever. It will be clumsy to
+explain to him that you were influenced not by me, but by justice. He
+will make it a personal matter, whereas you and I know that it is only
+the right that you are seeing."
+
+She propped her chin on the tips of her fingers, and her arm was a thing
+of grace. For the last moments that clouded expression had not cleared.
+
+"If I only could read your mind," she murmured now. "There is something
+behind it all."
+
+"I shall tell you what it is. It is the restraint that has fallen upon
+me. It is because I wish to lean closer to you across the table and
+speak to you of things which are at the other end of the world from
+Landis and the other girl. It is because I have to keep my hands gripped
+hard to control myself. Because, though I have given up hope, I would
+follow a forlorn chance, a lost cause, and tell you again and again that
+I love you, Nelly Lebrun!"
+
+He had half lowered his eyes as he spoke; he had called up a vision, and
+the face of Lou Macon hovered dimly between him and Nelly Lebrun. If all
+that he spoke was a lie, let him be forgiven for it; it was the
+golden-haired girl whom he addressed, and it was she who gave the tremor
+and the fiber to his voice. And after all was he not pleading for her
+happiness as he believed?
+
+He covered his eyes with his hand; but when he looked up again she could
+see the shadow of the pain which was slowly passing. She had never seen
+such emotion in any man's face, and if it was for another, how could she
+guess it? Her blood was singing in her veins, and the old, old question
+was flying back and forth through her brain like a shuttle through a
+loom: Which shall it be?
+
+She called up the picture of Lord Nick, half-broken, but still terrible,
+she well knew. She pitied him, but when did pity wholly rule the heart
+of a woman? And as for Nelly Lebrun, she had the ambition of a young
+Caesar; she could not fill a second place. He who loved her must stand
+first, and she saw Donnegan as the invincible man. She had not believed
+half of his explanation. No, he was shielding Lord Nick; behind that
+shield the truth was that the big man had quailed before the small.
+
+Of course she saw that Donnegan, pretending to be constrained by his
+agreement with Lord Nick, was in reality cunningly pleading his own
+cause. But his passion excused him. When has a woman condemned a man for
+loving her beyond the rules of fair play?
+
+"Whatever you may decide," Donnegan was saying. "I shall be prepared to
+stand by it without a murmur. Send Landis back to your father's house
+and I submit: I leave The Corner and say farewell. But now, think
+quickly. For Lord Nick is coming to receive your answer."
+
+
+
+
+37
+
+
+If the meeting between Lord Nick and Donnegan earlier that day had
+wrought up the nerves of The Corner to the point of hysteria; if the
+singular end of that meeting had piled mystery upon excitement; if the
+appearance of Donnegan, sitting calmly at the table of the girl who was
+known to be engaged to Nick, had further stimulated public curiosity,
+the appearance of Lord Nick was now a crowning burden under which The
+Corner staggered.
+
+Yet not a man or a woman stirred from his chair, for everyone knew that
+if the long-delayed battle between these two gunfighters was at length
+to take place, neither bullet was apt to fly astray.
+
+But what happened completed the wreck of The Corner's nerves, for Lord
+Nick walked quietly across the floor and sat down with Nelly Lebrun and
+his somber rival.
+
+Oddly enough, he looked at Donnegan, not at the girl, and this token of
+the beaten man decided her.
+
+"Well?" said Lord Nick.
+
+"I have decided," said the girl. "Landis should stay where he is."
+
+Neither of the two men stirred hand or eye. But Lord Nick turned gray.
+At length he rose and asked Donnegan, quietly, to step aside with him.
+Seeing them together, the difference between their sizes was more
+apparent: Donnegan seemed hardly larger than a child beside the splendid
+bulk of Lord Nick. But she could not overhear their talk.
+
+"You've won," said Lord Nick, "both Landis and Nelly. And--"
+
+"Wait," broke in Donnegan eagerly. "Henry, I've persuaded Nelly to see
+my side of the case, but that doesn't mean that she has turned from you
+to--"
+
+"Stop!" put in Lord Nick, between his teeth. "I've not come to argue
+with you or ask advice or opinions. I've come to state facts. You've
+crawled in between me and Nelly like a snake in the grass. Very well.
+You're my brother. That keeps me from handling you. You've broken my
+reputation just as I said you would do. The bouncer at the door looked
+me in the eye and smiled when I came in."
+
+He had to pause a little, breathing heavily, and avoiding Donnegan's
+eyes. Finally he was able to continue.
+
+"I'm going to roll my blankets and leave The Corner and everything I
+have in it. You'll get my share of most things, it seems." He smiled
+after a ghastly, mirthless fashion. "I give you a free road. I surrender
+everything to you, Donnegan. But there are two things I want to warn you
+about. It may be that my men will not agree with me. It may be that
+they'll want to put up a fight for the mine. They can't get at it
+without getting at Macon. They can't get at him without removing you.
+And they'll probably try it. I warn you now.
+
+"Another thing: from this moment there's no blood tie between us. I've
+found a brother and lost him in the same day. And if I ever cross you
+again, Donnegan, I'll shoot you on sight. Remember, I'm not threatening.
+I simply warn you in advance. If I were you, I'd get out of the country.
+Avoid me, Donnegan, as you'd avoid the devil."
+
+And he turned on his heel. He felt the eyes of the people in the room
+follow him by jerks, dwelling on every one of his steps. Near the door,
+stepping aside to avoid a group of people coming in, he half turned and
+he could not avoid the sight of Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun at the other
+end of the room. He was leaning across the table, talking with a smile
+on his lips--at that distance he could not mark the pallor of the little
+man's face--and Nelly Lebrun was laughing. Laughing already, and
+oblivious of the rest of the world.
+
+Lord Nick turned, a blur coming before his eyes, and made blindly for
+the door. A body collided with him; without a word he drew back his
+massive right fist and knocked the man down. The stunned body struck
+against the wall and collapsed along the floor. Lord Nick felt a great
+madness swell in his heart. Yet he set his teeth, controlled himself,
+and went on toward the house of Lebrun. He had come within an eyelash of
+running amuck, and the quivering hunger for action was still swelling
+and ebbing in him when he reached the gambler's house.
+
+Lebrun was not in the gaming house, no doubt, at this time of night--but
+the rest of Nick's chosen men were there. They stood up as he entered
+the room--Harry Masters, newly arrived--the Pedlar--Joe Rix--three names
+famous in the mountain desert for deeds which were not altogether a
+pleasant aroma in the nostrils of the law-abiding, but whose sins had
+been deftly covered from legal proof by the cunning of Nick, and whose
+bravery itself had half redeemed them. They rose now as three wolves
+rise at the coming of the leader. But this time there was a question
+behind their eyes, and he read it in gloomy silence.
+
+"Well?" asked Harry Masters.
+
+In the old days not one of them would have dared to voice the question,
+but now things were changing, and well Lord Nick could read the change
+and its causes.
+
+"Are you talking to me?" asked Nick, and he looked straight between the
+eyes of Masters.
+
+The glance of the other did not falter, and it maddened Nick.
+
+"I'm talking to you," said Masters coolly enough. "What happened between
+you and Donnegan?"
+
+"What should happen?" asked Lord Nick.
+
+"Maybe all this is a joke," said Masters bitterly. He was a square-built
+man, with a square face and a wrinkled, fleshy forehead. In
+intelligence, Nick ranked him first among the men. And if a new leader
+were to be chosen there was no doubt as to where the choice of the men
+would fall. No doubt that was why Masters put himself forward now, ready
+to brave the wrath of the chief. "Maybe we're fooled," went on Masters.
+"Maybe they ain't any call for you to fall out with Donnegan?"
+
+"Maybe there's a call to find out this," answered Lord Nick. "Why did
+you leave the mines? What are you doing up here?"
+
+The other swallowed so hard that he blinked.
+
+"I left the mines," he declared through his set teeth, "because I was
+run off 'em."
+
+"Ah," said Lord Nick, for the devil was rising in him, "I always had an
+idea that you might be yellow, Masters."
+
+The right hand of Masters swayed toward his gun, hesitated, and then
+poised idly.
+
+"You heard me talk?" persisted Lord Nick brutally. "I call you yellow.
+Why don't you draw on me? I called you yellow, you swine, and I call the
+rest of you yellow. You think you have me down? Why, curse you, if there
+were thirty of your cut, I'd say the same to you!"
+
+There was a quick shift, the three men faced Lord Nick, but each from a
+different angle. And opposing them, he stood superbly indifferent, his
+arms folded, his feet braced. His arms were folded, but each hand, for
+all they knew, might be grasping the butt of a gun hidden away in his
+clothes. Once they flashed a glance from face to face; but there was no
+action. They were remembering only too well some of the wild deeds of
+this giant.
+
+"You think I'm through," went on Lord Nick. "Maybe I am--through with
+you. You hear me talk?"
+
+One by one, his eyes dared them, and one by one they took up the
+challenge, struggled, and lowered their glances. He was still their
+master and in that mute moment the three admitted it, the Pedlar last of
+all.
+
+Masters saw fit to fall back on the last remark.
+
+"I've swallowed a lot from you, Nick," he said gravely.
+
+"Maybe there'll be an end to what we take one of these days. But now
+I'll tell you how yellow I was. A couple of gents come to me and tell me
+I'm through at the mine. I told them they were crazy. They said old
+Colonel Macon had sent them down to take charge. I laughed at 'em. They
+went away and came back. Who with? With the sheriff. And he flashed a
+paper on me. It was all drawn up clean as a whistle. Trimmed up with a
+lot of 'whereases' and 'as hereinbefore mentioned' and such like things.
+But the sheriff just gimme a look and then he tells me what it's about.
+Jack Landis has signed over all the mines to the colonel and the
+colonel has taken possession."
+
+As he stopped, a growl came from the others.
+
+"Lester is the man that has the complaint," said Lord Nick. "Where do
+the rest of you figure in it? Lester had the mines; he lost 'em because
+he couldn't drop Landis with his gun. He'd never have had a smell of the
+gold if I hadn't come in. Who made Landis see light? I did! Who worked
+it so that every nickel that came out of the mines went through the
+fingers of Landis and came back to us? I did! But I'm through with you.
+You can hunt for yourselves now. I've kept you together to guard one
+another's backs. I've kept the law off your trail. You, Masters, you'd
+have swung for killing the McKay brothers. Who saved you? Who was it
+bribed the jury that tried you for the shooting up of Derbyville,
+Pedlar? Who took the marshal off your trail after you'd knifed Lefty
+Waller, Joe Rix? I've saved you all a dozen times. Now you whine at me.
+I'm through with you forever!"
+
+Stopping, he glared about him. His knuckles stung from the impact of the
+blow he had delivered in Milligan's place. He hungered to have one of
+these three stir a hand and get into action.
+
+And they knew it. All at once they crumbled and became clay in his
+hands.
+
+"Chief," said Joe Rix, the smoothest spoken of the lot, and one who was
+supposed to stand specially well with Lord Nick on account of his
+ability to bake beans, Spanish. "Chief, you've said a whole pile. You're
+worth more'n the rest of us all rolled together. Sure. We know that.
+There ain't any argument. But here's just one little point that I want
+to make.
+
+"We was doing fine. The gold was running fine and free. Along comes this
+Donnegan. He busts up our good time. He forks in on your girl--"
+
+A convulsion of the chief's face made Rix waver in his speech and then
+he went on: "He shoots Landis, and when he misses killing him--by some
+accident, he comes down here and grabs him out of Lebrun's own house.
+Smooth, eh? Then he makes Landis sign that deed to the mines. Oh, very
+nice work, I say. Too nice.
+
+"'Now, speakin' man to man, they ain't any doubt that you'd like to get
+rid of Donnegan. Why don't you? Because everybody has a jinx, and he's
+yours. I ain't easy scared, maybe, but I knew an albino with white eyes
+once, and just to look at him made me some sick. Well, chief, they ain't
+nobody can say that you ever took water or ever will. But maybe the fact
+that this Donnegan has hair just as plumb red as yours may sort of get
+you off your feed. I'm just suggesting. Now, what I say is, let the rest
+of us take a crack at Donnegan, and you sit back and come in on the
+results when we've cleaned up. D'you give us a free road?"
+
+How much went through the brain of Lord Nick? But in the end he gave his
+brother up to death. For he remembered how Nelly Lebrun had sat in
+Milligan's laughing.
+
+"Do what you want," he said suddenly. "But I want to know none of your
+plans--and the man that tells me Donnegan is dead gets paid--in lead!"
+
+
+
+
+38
+
+
+The smile of Joe Rix was the smile of a diplomat. It could be maintained
+upon his face as unwaveringly as if it were wrought out of marble while
+Joe heard insult and lie. As a matter of fact Joe had smiled in the face
+of death more than once, and this is a school through which even
+diplomats rarely pass. Yet it was with an effort that he maintained the
+characteristic good-natured expression when the door to Donnegan's shack
+opened and he saw big George and, beyond him, Donnegan himself.
+
+"Booze," said Joe Rix to himself instantly.
+
+For Donnegan was a wreck. The unshaven beard--it was the middle of
+morning--was a reddish mist over his face. His eyes were sunken in
+shadow. His hair was uncombed. He sat with his shoulders hunched up like
+one who suffers from cold. Altogether his appearance was that of one
+whose energy has been utterly sapped.
+
+"The top of the morning, Mr. Donnegan," said Joe Rix, and put his foot
+on the threshold.
+
+But since big George did not move it was impossible to enter.
+
+"Who's there?" asked Donnegan.
+
+It was a strange question to ask, for by raising his eyes he could have
+seen. But Donnegan was staring down at the floor. Even his voice was a
+weak murmur.
+
+"What a party! What a party he's had!" thought Joe Rix, and after all,
+there was cause for a celebration. Had not the little man in almost one
+stroke won the heart of the prettiest girl in The Corner, and also did
+he not probably have a working share in the richest of the diggings?
+
+"I'm Joe Rix," he said.
+
+"Joe Rix?" murmured Donnegan softly. "Then you're one of Lord Nick's
+men?"
+
+"I was," said Joe Rix, "sort of attached to him, maybe."
+
+Perhaps this pointed remark won the interest of Donnegan. He raised his
+eyes, and Joe Rix beheld the most unhappy face he had ever seen. "A bad
+hangover," he decided, "and that makes it bad for me!"
+
+"Come in," said Donnegan in the same monotonous, lifeless voice.
+
+Big George reluctantly, it seemed, withdrew to one side, and Rix was
+instantly in the room and drawing out a chair so that he could face
+Donnegan.
+
+"I was," he proceeded "sort of tied up with Lord Nick. But"--and here he
+winked broadly--"it ain't much of a secret that Nick ain't altogether a
+lord any more. Nope. Seems he turned out sort of common, they say."
+
+"What fool," murmured Donnegan, "has told you that? What ass had told
+you that Lord Nick is a common sort?"
+
+It shocked Joe Rix, but being a diplomat he avoided friction by changing
+his tactics.
+
+"Between you and me," he said calmly enough, "I took what I heard with a
+grain of salt. There's something about Nick that ain't common, no matter
+what they say. Besides, they's some men that nobody but a fool would
+stand up to. It ain't hardly a shame for a man to back down from 'em."
+
+He pointed this remark with a nod to Donnegan.
+
+"I'll give you a bit of free information," said the little man, with his
+weary eyes lighted a little. "There's no man on the face of the earth
+who could make Lord Nick back down."
+
+Once more Joe Rix was shocked to the verge of gaping, but again he
+exercised a power of marvelous self control "About that," he remarked
+as pointedly as before, "I got my doubts. Because there's some things
+that any gent with sense will always clear away from. Maybe not one
+man--but say a bunch of all standin' together."
+
+Donnegan leaned back in his chair and waited. Both of his hands remained
+drooping from the edge of the table, and the tired eyes drifted slowly
+across the face of Joe Rix.
+
+It was obviously not the aftereffects of liquor. The astonishing
+possibility occurred to Joe Rix that this seemed to be a man with a
+broken spirit and a great sorrow. He blinked that absurdity away.
+
+"Coming to cases," he went on, "there's yourself, Mr. Donnegan. Now,
+you're the sort of a man that don't sidestep nobody. Too proud to do it.
+But even you, I guess, would step careful if there was a whole bunch
+agin' you."
+
+"No doubt," remarked Donnegan.
+
+"I don't mean any ordinary bunch," explained Joe Rix, "but a lot of hard
+fellows. Gents that handle their guns like they was born with a holster
+on the hip."
+
+"Fellows like Nick's crowd," suggested Donnegan quietly.
+
+At this thrust the eyes of Joe narrowed a little.
+
+"Yes," he admitted, "I see you get my drift."
+
+"I think so."
+
+"Two hard fighters would give the best man that ever pulled a gun a lot
+of trouble. Eh?"
+
+"No doubt."
+
+"And three men--they ain't any question, Mr. Donnegan--would get him
+ready for a hole in the ground."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"And four men would make it no fight--jest a plain butchery."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Now, I don't mean that Nick's crowd has any hard feeling about you, Mr.
+Donnegan."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that."
+
+"I knew you'd be. That's why I've come, all friendly, to talk things
+over. Suppose you look at it this way--"
+
+"Joe Rix," broke in Donnegan, sighing, "I'm very tired. Won't you cut
+this short? Tell me in ten words just how you stand."
+
+Joe Rix blinked once more, caught his breath, and fired his volley.
+
+"Short talk is straight talk, mostly," he declared. "This is what Lester
+and the rest of us want--the mines!"
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Macon stole 'em. We got 'em back through Landis. Now we've got to get
+'em back through the colonel himself. But we can't get at the colonel
+while you're around."
+
+"In short, you're going to start out to get me? I expected it, but it's
+kind of you to warn me."
+
+"Wait, wait, wait! Don't rush along to conclusions. We ain't so much in
+a hurry. We don't want you out of the way. We just want you on our
+side."
+
+"Shoot me up and then bring me back to life, eh?"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," said the other, spreading out his hands solemnly on the
+table, "you ain't doin' us justice. We don't hanker none for trouble
+with you. Any way it comes, a fight with you means somebody dead besides
+you. We'd get you. Four to one is too much for any man. But one or two
+of us might go down. Who would it be? Maybe the Pedlar, maybe Harry
+Masters, maybe Lester, maybe me! Oh, we know all that. No gunplay if we
+can keep away from it."
+
+"You've left out the name of Lord Nick," said Donnegan.
+
+Joe Rix winked.
+
+"Seems like you tended to him once and for all when you got him alone in
+this cabin. Must have thrown a mighty big scare into him. He won't lift
+a hand agin' you now."
+
+"No?" murmured Donnegan hoarsely.
+
+"Not him! But that leaves four of us, and four is plenty, eh?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"But I'm not here to insist on that point. No, we put a value on keepin'
+up good feeling between us and you, Mr. Donnegan. We ain't fools. We
+know a man when we see him--and the fastest gunman that ever slid a gun
+out of leather ain't the sort of a man that me and the rest of the boys
+pass over lightly. Not us! We know you, Mr. Donnegan; we respect you; we
+want you with us; we're going to have you with us."
+
+"You flatter me and I thank you. But I'm glad to see that you are at
+last coming to the point."
+
+"I am, and the point is five thousand dollars that's tied behind the
+hoss that stands outside your door."
+
+He pushed his fat hand a little way across the table, as though the gold
+even then were resting in it, a yellow tide of fortune.
+
+"For which," said Donnegan, "I'm to step aside and let you at the
+colonel?"
+
+"Right."
+
+Donnegan smiled.
+
+"Wait," said Joe Rix. "I was makin' a first offer to see how you stood,
+but you're right. Five thousand ain't enough and we ain't cheapskates.
+Not us. Mr. Donnegan, they's ten thousand cold iron men behind that
+saddle out there and every cent of it belongs to you when you come over
+on our side."
+
+But Donnegan merely dropped his chin upon his hand and smiled
+mirthlessly at Joe Rix. A wild thought came to the other man. Both of
+Donnegan's hands were far from his weapons. Why not a quick draw, a snap
+shot, and then the glory of having killed this manslayer in single
+battle for Joe Rix?
+
+The thought rushed red across his brain and then faded slowly. Something
+kept him back. Perhaps it was the singular calm of Donnegan; no matter
+how quiet he sat he suggested the sleeping cat which can leap out of
+dead sleep into fighting action at a touch. By the time a second thought
+had come to Joe Rix the idea of an attack was like an idea of suicide.
+
+"Is that final?" he asked, though Donnegan had not said a word.
+
+"It is."
+
+Joe Rix stood up.
+
+"You put it to us kind of hard. But we want you, Mr. Donnegan. And
+here's the whole thing in a nutshell. Come over to us. We'll stand
+behind you. Lord Nick is slipping. We'll put you in his place. You won't
+even have to face him; we'll get rid of him."
+
+"You'll kill him and give his place to me?" asked Donnegan.
+
+"We will. And when you're with us, you cut in on the whole amount of
+coin that the mines turn out--and it'll be something tidy. And right
+now, to show where we stand and how high we put you, I'll let you in on
+the rock-bottom truth. Mr. Donnegan. out there tied behind my saddle
+there's thirty thousand dollars in pure gold. You can take it in here
+and weigh it out!"
+
+He stepped back to watch this blow take effect. To his unutterable
+astonishment the little man had not moved. His chin still rested upon
+the back of his hand, and the smile which was on the lips and not in the
+eyes of Donnegan remained there, fixed.
+
+"Donnegan," muttered Joe Rix, "if we can't get you, we'll get rid of
+you. You understand?"
+
+But the other continued to smile.
+
+It gave Joe Rix a shuddering feeling that someone was stealing behind
+him to block his way to the door. He cast one swift glance over his
+shoulder and then, seeing that the way was clear, he slunk back, always
+keeping his face to the red-headed man. But when he came to the doorway
+his nerve collapsed. He whirled, covered the rest of the distance with a
+leap, and emerged from the cabin in a fashion ludicrously like one who
+has been kicked through a door.
+
+His nerve returned as soon as the sunlight fell warmly upon him again;
+and he looked around hastily to see if anyone had observed his flight.
+
+There was no one on the whole hillside except Colonel Macon in the
+invalid chair, and the colonel was smiling broadly, beneficently. He had
+his perfect hands folded across his breast and seemed to cast a prayer
+of peace and goodwill upon Joe Rix.
+
+
+
+
+39
+
+
+Nelly Lebrun smelled danger. She sensed it as plainly as the deer when
+the puma comes between her and the wind. The many tokens that something
+was wrong came to her by small hints which had to be put together before
+they assumed any importance.
+
+First of all, her father, who should have burst out at her in a tirade
+for having left Lord Nick for Donnegan said nothing at all, but kept a
+dark smile on his face when she was near him. He even insinuated that
+Nick's time was done and that another was due to supersede him.
+
+In the second place, she had passed into a room where Masters, Joe Rix,
+and the Pedlar sat cheek by jowl in close conference with a hum of deep
+voice. But at her appearance all talk was broken off.
+
+It was not strange that they should not invite her into their confidence
+if they had some dark work ahead of them; but it was exceedingly
+suspicious that Joe Rix attempted to pass off their whispers by
+immediately breaking off the soft talk and springing into the midst of a
+full-fledged jest; also, it was strangest of all that when the jest
+ended even the Pedlar, who rarely smiled, now laughed uproariously and
+smote Joe soundingly upon the back.
+
+Even a child could have strung these incidents into a chain of evidence
+which pointed toward danger. Obviously the danger was not directly hers,
+but then it must be directed at some one near to her. Her father? No, he
+was more apt to be the mainspring of their action. Lord Nick? There was
+nothing to gain by attacking him. Who was left? Donnegan!
+
+As the realization came upon her it took her breath away for a moment.
+Donnegan was the man. At breakfast everyone had been talking about him.
+Lebrun had remarked that he had a face for the cards--emotionless. Joe
+Rix had commented upon his speed of hand, and the Pedlar had
+complimented the little man on his dress.
+
+But at lunch not a word was spoken about Donnegan even after she had
+dexterously introduced the subject twice. Why the sudden silence?
+Between morning and noon Donnegan must have grievously offended them.
+
+Fear for his sake stimulated her; but above and beyond this, indeed,
+there was a mighty feminine curiosity. She smelled the secret; it reeked
+through the house, and she was devoured by eagerness to know. She
+handpicked Lord Nick's gang in the hope of finding a weakness among
+them; some weakness upon which she could play in one of them and draw
+out what they were all concealing. The Pedlar was as unapproachable as a
+crag on a mountaintop. Masters was wise as an outlaw broncho. Lester was
+probably not even in the confidence of the others because since the
+affair with Landis his nerve had been shattered to bits and the others
+secretly despised him for being beaten by the youngster at the draw.
+There remained, therefore, only Joe Rix.
+
+But Joe Rix was a fox of the first quality. He lied with the smoothness
+of silk. He could show a dozen colors in as many moments. Come to the
+windward of Joe Rix? It was a delicate business! But since there was
+nothing else to do, she fixed her mind upon it, working out this puzzle.
+Joe Rix wished to destroy Donnegan for reasons that were evidently
+connected with the mines. And she must step into his confidence to
+discover his plans. How should it be done? And there was a vital need
+for speed, for they might be within a step of executing whatever
+mischief it was that they were planning.
+
+She went down from her room; they were there still, only Joe Rix was
+not with them. She went to the apartment where he and the other three of
+Nick's gang slept and rapped at the door. He maintained his smile when
+he saw her, but there was an uncertain quiver of his eyebrows that told
+her much. Plainly he was ill at ease. Suspicious? Ay, there were always
+clouds of suspicion drifting over the red, round face of Joe Rix. She
+put a tremor of excitement and trouble in her voice.
+
+"Come into my room, Joe, where we won't be interrupted."
+
+He followed her without a word, and since she led the way she was able
+to relax her expression for a necessary moment. When she closed the door
+behind him and faced Joe again she was once more ready to step into her
+part. She did not ask him to sit down. She remained for a moment with
+her hand on the knob and searched the face of Joe Rix eagerly.
+
+"Do you think he can hear?" she whispered, gesturing over her shoulder.
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Who but Lord Nick!" she exclaimed softly.
+
+The bewilderment of Joe clouded his face a second and then he was able
+to smooth it away. What on earth was the reason of her concern about
+Lord Nick he was obviously wondering.
+
+"I'll tell you why," she said, answering the unspoken question at once.
+"He's as jealous as the devil, Joe!"
+
+The fat little man sighed as he looked at her.
+
+"He can't hear. Not through that log wall. But we'll talk soft, if you
+want."
+
+"Yes, yes. Keep your voice down. He's already jealous of you, Joe."
+
+"Of me?"
+
+"He knows I like you, that I trust you; and just now he's on edge about
+everyone I look at."
+
+The surprising news which the first part of this sentence contained
+caused Joe to gape, and the girl looked away in concern, enabling him to
+control his expression. For she knew well enough that men hate to appear
+foolishly surprised. And particularly a fox like Joe Rix.
+
+"But what's the trouble, Nelly?" He added with a touch of venom: "I
+thought everything was going smoothly with you. And I thought you
+weren't worrying much about what Lord Nick had in his mind."
+
+She stared at him as though astonished.
+
+"Do you think just the same as the rest of them?" she asked sadly. "Do
+you mean to say that you're fooled just the same as Harry Masters and
+the Pedlar and the rest of those fools--including Nick himself?"
+
+Joe Rix was by no means willing to declare himself a fool beforehand. He
+now mustered a look of much reserved wisdom.
+
+"I have my own doubts, Nell, but I'm not talking about them."
+
+He was so utterly at sea that she had to bite her lip hard to keep from
+breaking into ringing laughter.
+
+"Oh, I knew that you'd seen through it, Joe," she cried softly. "You see
+what an awful mess I've gotten into?"
+
+He passed a hurried hand across his forehead and then looked at her
+searchingly. But he could not penetrate her pretense of concern.
+
+"No matter what I think," said Joe Rix, "you come out with it frankly.
+I'll listen."
+
+"As a friend, Joe?"
+
+She managed to throw a plea into her voice that made Joe sigh.
+
+"Sure. You've already said that I'm your friend, and you're right."
+
+"I'm in terrible, terrible trouble! You know how it happened. I was a
+fool. I tried to play with Lord Nick. And now he thinks I was in
+earnest."
+
+As though the strength of his legs had given way, Joe Rix slipped down
+into a chair.
+
+"Go on," he said huskily. "You were playing with Lord Nick?"
+
+"Can't you put yourself in my place, Joe? It's always been taken for
+granted that I'm to marry Nick. And the moment he comes around everybody
+else avoids me as if I were poison. I was sick of it. And when he showed
+up this time it was the same old story. A man would as soon sign his own
+death warrant as ask me for a dance. You know how it is?"
+
+He nodded, still at sea, but with a light beginning to dawn in his
+little eyes.
+
+"I'm only a girl, Joe. I have all the weakness of other girls. I don't
+want to be locked up in a cage just because I--love one man!"
+
+The avowal made Joe blink. It was the second time that day that he had
+been placed in an astonishing scene. But some of his old cunning
+remained to him.
+
+"Nell," he said suddenly, rising from his chair and going to her. "What
+are you trying to do to me? Pull the wool over my eyes?"
+
+It was too much for Nelly Lebrun. She knew that she could not face him
+without betraying her guilt and therefore she did not attempt it. She
+whirled and flung herself on her bed, face down, and began to sob
+violently, suppressing the sounds. And so she waited.
+
+Presently a hand touched her shoulder lightly.
+
+"Go away," cried Nelly in a choked voice. "I hate you, Joe Rix. You're
+like all the rest!"
+
+His knee struck the floor with a soft thud.
+
+"Come on, Nell. Don't be hard on me. I thought you were stringing me a
+little. But if you're playing straight, tell me what you want?"
+
+At that she bounced upright on the bed, and before he could rise she
+caught him by both shoulders.
+
+"I want Donnegan," she said fiercely.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I want him dead!"
+
+Joe Rix gasped.
+
+"Here's the cause of all my trouble. Just because I flirted with him
+once or twice, Nick thought I was in earnest and now he's sulking. And
+Donnegan puts on airs and acts as if I belonged to him. I hate him, Joe.
+And if he's gone Nick will come back to me. He'll come back to me, Joe;
+and I want him so!"
+
+She found that Joe Rix was staring straight into her eyes, striving to
+probe her soul to its depths, and by a great effort she was enabled to
+meet that gaze. Finally the fat little man rose slowly to his feet. Her
+hands trailed from his shoulders as he stood up and fell helplessly upon
+her lap.
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged, Nell!" exclaimed Joe Rix.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You're not acting a part? No, I can see you mean it. But what a
+cold-blooded little--" He checked himself. His face was suddenly
+jubilant. "Then we've got him, Nell. We've got him if you're with us. We
+had him anyway, but we'll make sure of him if you're with us. Look at
+this! You saw me put a paper in my pocket when I opened the door of my
+room? Here it is!"
+
+He displayed before the astonished eyes of Nelly Lebrun a paper covered
+with an exact duplicate of her own swift, dainty script. And she read:
+
+  Nick is terribly angry and is making trouble. I have to get
+  away. It isn't safe for me to stay here. Will you help me?
+  Will you meet me at the shack by Donnell's ford tomorrow
+  morning at ten o'clock?
+
+"But I didn't write it," cried Nelly Lebrun, bewildered.
+
+"Nelly," Joe Rix chuckled, flushing with pleasure, "you didn't. It was
+me. I kind of had an idea that you wanted to get rid of this Donnegan,
+and I was going to do it for you and then surprise you with the good
+news."
+
+"Joe, you forged it?"
+
+"Don't bother sayin' pretty things about me and my pen," said Rix
+modestly. "This is nothin'! But if you want to help me, Nelly--"
+
+His voice faded partly out of her consciousness as she fought against a
+tigerish desire to spring at the throat of the little fat man. But
+gradually it dawned on her that he was asking her to write out that note
+herself. Why? Because it was possible that Donnegan might have seen her
+handwriting and in that case, though the imitation had been good enough
+to deceive Nelly herself, it probably would not for a moment fool the
+keen eyes of Donnegan. But if she herself wrote out the note, Donnegan
+was already as good as dead.
+
+"That is," concluded Joe Rix, "if he really loves you, Nell."
+
+"The fool!" cried Nelly. "He worships the ground I walk on, Joe. And I
+hate him for it."
+
+Even Joe Rix shivered, for he saw the hate in her eyes and could not
+dream that he himself was the cause and the object of it. There was a
+red haze of horror and confusion in front of her eyes, and yet she was
+able to smile while she copied the note for Joe Rix.
+
+"But how are you going to work it?" she asked. "How are you going to
+kill him, Joe?"
+
+"Don't bother your pretty head," said the fat man, smiling. "Just wait
+till we bring you the good news."
+
+"But are you sure?" she asked eagerly. "See what he's done already. He's
+taken Landis away from us; he's baffled Nick himself, in some manner;
+and he's gathered the mines away from all of us. He's a devil, Joe, and
+if you want to get him you'd better take ten men for the job."
+
+"You hate him, Nell, don't you?" queried Joe Rix, and his voice was both
+hard and curious. "But how has he harmed you?"
+
+"Hasn't he taken Nick away from me? Isn't that enough?"
+
+The fat man shivered again.
+
+"All right. I'll tell you how it works. Now, listen!"
+
+And he began to check off the details of his plan.
+
+
+
+
+40
+
+
+The day passed and the night, but how very slowly for Nelly Lebrun; she
+went up to her room early for she could no longer bear the meaning
+glances which Joe Rix cast at her from time to time. But once in her
+room it was still harder to bear the suspense as she waited for the
+noise to die away in the house. Midnight, and half an hour more went by,
+and then, at last, the murmurs and the laughter stopped; she alone was
+wakeful in Lebrun's. And when that time came she caught a scarf around
+her hair and her shoulders, made of a filmy material which would veil
+her face but through which she could see, and ventured out of her room
+and down the hall.
+
+There was no particular need for such caution, however, it seemed.
+Nothing stirred. And presently she was outside the house and hurrying
+behind the houses and up the hill. Still she met nothing. If The Corner
+lived tonight, its life was confined to Milligan's and the gambling
+house.
+
+She found Donnegan's shack and the one next to it, which the terrible
+colonel occupied, entirely dark, but only a moment after she tapped at
+the door it was opened. Donnegan, fully dressed, stood in the entrance,
+outlined blackly by the light which came faintly from the hooded lantern
+hanging on the wall. Was he sitting up all the night, unable to sleep
+because he waited breathlessly for that false tryst on the morrow? A
+great tenderness came over the heart of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"It is I," she whispered.
+
+There was a soft exclamation, then she was drawn into the room.
+
+"Is there anyone here?"
+
+"Only big George. But he's in the kitchen and he won't hear. He never
+hears anything except what's meant for his ear. Take this chair!"
+
+He was putting a blanket over the rough wood to make it more
+comfortable, and she submitted dumbly to his ministrations. It seemed
+terrible and strange to her that one so gentle should be the object of
+so much hate--such deadly hate as the members of Nick's gang felt for
+him. And now that he was sitting before her she could see that he had
+indeed been wakeful for a long time. His face was grimly wasted; the
+lips were compressed as one who has endured long pain; and his eyes
+gleamed at her out of a profound shadow. He remained in the gloom; the
+light from the lantern fell brightly upon his hands alone--meager,
+fleshless hands which seemed to represent hardly more strength than that
+of a child. Truly this man was all a creature of spirit and nerve.
+Therein lay his strength, as also his weakness, and again the cherishing
+instinct grew strong and swept over her.
+
+"There is no one near," he said, "except the colonel and his daughter.
+They are up the hillside, somewhere. Did you see them?"
+
+"No. What in the world are they out for at this time of night?"
+
+"Because the colonel only wakes up when the sun goes down. And now he's
+out there humming to himself and never speaking a word to the girl. But
+they won't be far away. They'll stay close to see that no one comes near
+the cabin to get at Landis."
+
+He added: "They must have seen you come into my cabin!"
+
+And his lips set even harder than before. Was it fear because of her?
+
+"They may have seen me enter, but they won't know who it was. You have
+the note from me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It's a lie! It's a ruse. I was forced to write it to save you! For
+they're planning to murder you. Oh, my dear!"
+
+"Hush! Hush! Murder?"
+
+"I've been nearly hysterical all day and all the night. But. thank
+heaven, I'm here to warn you in time! You mustn't go. You mustn't go!"
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+He had drawn his chair closer: he had taken her hands, and she noted
+that his own were icy cold, but steady as a rock. Their pressure soothed
+her infinitely.
+
+"Joe Rix, the Pedlar, Harry Masters. They'll be at the shack at ten
+o'clock, but not I!"
+
+"Murder, but a very clumsy scheme. Three men leave town and commit a
+murder and then expect to go undetected? Not even in the mountain
+desert!"
+
+"But you don't understand, you don't understand! They're wise as foxes.
+They'll take no risk. They don't even leave town together or travel by
+the same routes. Harry Masters starts first. He rides out at eight
+o'clock in the morning and takes the north trail. He rides down the
+gulch and winds out of it and strikes for the shack at the ford. At half
+past eight the Pedlar starts. He goes past Sandy's place and then over
+the trail through the marsh. You know it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Last of all, Joe Rix starts at nine o'clock. Half an hour between
+them."
+
+"How does he go to the shack?"
+
+"By the south trail. He takes the ridge of the hills. But they'll all be
+at the shack long before you and they'll shoot you down from a distance
+as you come up to it. Plain murder, but even for cowardly murder they
+daren't face you except three to one."
+
+He was thoughtful.
+
+"Suppose they were to be met on the way?"
+
+"You're mad to think of it!"
+
+"But if they fail this time they'll try again. They must be taught a
+lesson."
+
+"Three men? Oh, my dear, my dear! Promise!"
+
+"Very well. I shall do nothing rash. And I shall never forget that
+you've come to tell me this and been in peril, Nell, for if they found
+you had come to me--"
+
+"The Pedlar would cut my throat. I know him!"
+
+"Ah! But now you must go. I'll take you down the hill, dear."
+
+"No, no! It's much easier to get back alone. My face will be covered.
+But there's no way you could be disguised. You have a way of
+walking--good night--and God bless you!"
+
+She was in his arms, straining him to her; and then she slipped out the
+door.
+
+And sure enough, there was the colonel in his chair not fifty feet away
+with a girl pushing him. The moonlight was too dim for Nelly Lebrun to
+make out the face of Lou Macon, but even the light which escaped through
+the filter of clouds was enough to set her golden hair glowing. The
+color was not apparent, but its luster was soft silver in the night.
+There was a murmur of the colonel's voice as Nelly came out of the
+cabin.
+
+And then, from the girl, a low cry.
+
+It brought the blood to the cheeks of Nelly as she hurried down the
+hill, for she recognized the pain that was in it; and it occurred to her
+that if the girl was in love with Jack Landis she was strangely
+interested in Donnegan also.
+
+The thought came so sharply home to her that she paused abruptly on the
+way down the hill. After all, this Macon girl would be a very strange
+sort if she were not impressed by the little red-headed man, with his
+gentle voice and his fiery ways, and his easy way of making himself a
+brilliant spectacle whenever he appeared in public. And Nelly
+remembered, also, with the keen suspicion of a woman in love how weakly
+Donnegan had responded to her embrace this night. How absent-mindedly
+his arms had held her, and how numbly they had fallen away when she
+turned at the door.
+
+But she shook her head and made the suspicion shudder its way out of
+her. Lou Macon, she decided, was just the sort of girl who would think
+Jack Landis an ideal. Besides, she had never had an opportunity to see
+Donnegan in his full glory at Milligan's. And as for Donnegan? He was
+wearied out; his nerves relaxed; and for the deeds with which he had
+startled The Corner and won her own heart he was now paying the penalty
+in the shape of ruined nerves. Pity again swelled in her heart, and a
+consuming hatred for the three murderers who lived in her father's
+house.
+
+And when she reached her room again her heart was filled with a singing
+happiness and a glorious knowledge that she had saved the man she loved.
+
+And Donnegan himself?
+
+He had seen Lou and her father: he had heard that low cry of pain; and
+now he sat bowed again over his table, his face in his hands and a
+raging devil in his heart.
+
+
+
+
+41
+
+
+There was one complication which Nelly Lebrun might have foreseen after
+her pretended change of heart and her simulated confession to Joe Rix
+that she still loved the lionlike Lord Nick. But strangely enough she
+did not think of this phase: and even when her father the next morning
+approached her in the hall and tapping her arm whispered: "Good girl!
+Nick has just heard and he's hunting for you now!" Even then the full
+meaning did not come home to her. It was not until she saw the great
+form of Lord Nick stalking swiftly down the hall that she knew. He came
+with a glory in his face which the last day had graven with unfamiliar
+lines; and when he saw her he threw up his hand so that it almost
+brushed the ceiling, and cried out.
+
+What could she do? Try to push him away; to explain?
+
+There was nothing to be done. She had to submit when he swept her into
+his arms.
+
+"Rix has told me. Rix has told me. Ah, Nell, you little fox!"
+
+"Told you what, Nick?"
+
+Was he, too, a party to the murderous plan?
+
+But he allowed himself to be pushed away.
+
+"I've gone through something in the last few days. Why did you do it,
+girl?"
+
+She saw suddenly that she must continue to play her part.
+
+"Some day I'll tell you why it was that I gave you up so easily, Nell.
+You thought I was afraid of Donnegan?" He ground his teeth and turned
+pale at the thought. "But that wasn't it. Some day I can tell you. But
+after this, the first man who comes between us--Donnegan or any
+other--I'll turn him into powder--under my heel!"
+
+He ground it into the floor as he spoke. She decided that she would see
+how much he knew.
+
+"It will never be Donnegan, at least," she said. "He's done for today.
+And I'm almost sorry for him in spite of all that he's done."
+
+He became suddenly grave.
+
+"What are you saying, Nell?"
+
+"Why, Joe told you, didn't he? They've drawn Donnegan out of town, and
+now they're lying in wait for him. Yes, they must have him, by this
+time. It's ten o'clock!"
+
+A strangely tense exclamation broke from Lord Nick. "They've gone for
+Donnegan?"
+
+"Yes. Are you angry?"
+
+The big man staggered; one would have said that he had been stunned with
+a blow.
+
+"Garry!" he whispered.
+
+"What are you saying?"
+
+"Nell," he muttered hoarsely, "did you know about it?"
+
+"But I did it for you, Nick. I knew you hated--"
+
+"No, no! Don't say it!" He added bitterly, after a moment. "This is for
+my sins."
+
+And then, to her: "But you knew about it and didn't warn him? You hated
+him all the time you were laughing with him and smiling at him? Oh,
+Nell! What a merciless witch of a woman you are! For the rest of
+them--I'll wait till they come back!"
+
+"What are you going to do, Nick?"
+
+"I told them I'd pay the man who killed Donnegan--with lead. Did the
+fools think I didn't mean it?"
+
+Truly, no matter what shadow had passed over the big man, he was the
+lion again, and Nell shrank from him.
+
+"We'll wait for them," he said. "We'll wait for them here."
+
+And they sat down together in the room. She attempted to speak once in a
+shaken voice, but he silenced her with a gesture, and after that she sat
+and watched in quiet the singular play of varying expressions across his
+face. Grief, rage, tenderness, murderous hate--they followed like a
+puppet play.
+
+What was Donnegan to him? And then there was a tremor of fear. Would the
+three suspect when they reached the shack by the ford and no Donnegan
+came to them? The moments stole on. Then the soft beat of a galloping
+horse in the sand. The horse stopped. Presently they saw Joe Rix and
+Harry Masters pass in front of the window. And they looked as though a
+cyclone had caught them up, juggled them a dizzy distance in the air,
+and then flung them down carelessly upon bruising rocks. Their hats were
+gone; and the clothes of burly Harry Masters were literally torn from
+his back. Joe Rix was evidently far more terribly hurt, for he leaned on
+the arm of Masters and they came on together, staggering.
+
+"They've done the business!" exclaimed Lord Nick. "And now, curse them,
+I'll do theirs!"
+
+But the girl could not speak. A black haze crossed before her eyes. Had
+Donnegan gone out madly to fight the three men in spite of her warning?
+
+The door opened. They stood in the doorway, and if they had seemed a
+horrible sight passing the window, they were a deadly picture at close
+range. And opposite them stood Lord Nick; in spite of their wounds there
+was murder in his face and his revolver was out.
+
+"You've met him? You've met Donnegan?" he asked angrily.
+
+Masters literally carried Joe Rix to a chair and placed him in it. He
+had been shot through both shoulders, and though tight bandages had
+stanched the wound he was still in agony. Then Masters raised his head.
+
+"We've met him," he said.
+
+"What happened?"
+
+But Masters, in spite of the naked gun in the hand of Lord Nick, was
+looking straight at Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"We fought him."
+
+"Then say your prayers, Masters."
+
+"Say prayers for the Pedlar, you fool," said Masters bitterly. "He's
+dead, and Donnegan's still living!"
+
+There was a faint cry from Nelly Lebrun. She sank into her chair again.
+
+"We've been double-crossed," said Masters, still looking at the girl. "I
+was going down the gulch the way we planned. I come to the narrow place
+where the cliffs almost touch, and right off the wall above me drops a
+wildcat. I thought it was a cat at first. And then I found it was
+Donnegan.
+
+"The way he hit me from above knocked me off the horse. Then we hit the
+ground. I started for my gun; he got it out of my hand; I pulled my
+knife. He got that away, too. His fingers work with steel springs and
+act like a cat's claws. Then we fought barehanded. He didn't say a word.
+But kept snarling in his throat. Always like a cat. And his face was
+devilish. Made me sick inside. Pretty soon he dived under my arms. Got
+me up in the air. I came down on my head.
+
+"Of course I went out cold. When I came to there was still a mist in
+front of my eyes and this lump on the back of my head. He'd figured that
+my head was cracked and that I was dead. That's the only reason he left
+me. Later I climbed on my hoss and fed him the spur.
+
+"But I was too late. I took the straight cut for the ford, and when I
+got there I found that Donnegan had been there before me. Joe Rix was
+lyin' on the floor. When he got to the shack Donnegan was waitin' for
+him. They went for their guns and Donnegan beat him to it. The hound
+didn't shoot to kill. He plugged him through both shoulders, and left
+him lyin' helpless. But I got a couple of bandages on him and saved him.
+
+"Then we cut back for home and crossed the marsh. And there we found the
+Pedlar.
+
+"Too late to help him. Maybe Donnegan knew that the Pedlar was something
+of a flash with a gun himself, and he didn't take any chances. He'd met
+him face to face the same way he met Joe Rix and killed him. Shot him
+clean between the eyes. Think of shooting for the head with a snap shot!
+That's what he done and Joe didn't have time to think twice after that
+slug hit him. His gun wasn't even fired, he was beat so bad on the draw.
+
+"So Joe and me come back home. And we come full of questions!"
+
+"Let me tell you something," muttered Lord Nick, putting up the weapon
+which he had kept exposed during all of the recital. "You've got what
+was coming to you. If Donnegan hadn't cleaned up on you, you'd have had
+to talk turkey with me. Understand?"
+
+"Wait a minute," protested Harry Masters.
+
+And Joe Rix, almost too far gone for speech, set his teeth over a groan
+and cast a look of hatred at the girl.
+
+"Wait a minute, chief. There's one thing we all got to get straight.
+Somebody had tipped off Donnegan about our whole plan. Was it the Pedlar
+or Rix or me? I guess good sense'll tell a man that it wasn't none of
+us, eh? Then who was it? The only other person that knew about the
+plan--Nell--Nell, the crooked witch--and it's her that murdered the
+Pedlar--curse her!"
+
+He thrust out his bulky arm as he spoke.
+
+"Her that lied her way into our confidence with a lot of talk about you,
+Nick. Then what did she do? She goes runnin' to the gent that she said
+she hated. Don't you see her play? She makes fools of us--she makes a
+fool out of you!"
+
+She dared not meet the glance of Lord Nick. Even now she might have
+acted out her part and filled in with lies, but she was totally
+unnerved.
+
+"Get Rix to bed," was all he said, and he did not even glance at Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+Masters glowered at him, and then silently obeyed, lifting Joe as a
+helpless bulk, for the fat man was nearly fainting with pain. Not until
+they had gone and he had closed the door after them and upon the murmurs
+of the servants in the hall did Lord Nick turn to Nelly.
+
+"Is it true?" he asked shortly.
+
+Between relief and terror her mind was whirling.
+
+"Is what true?"
+
+"You haven't even sense enough to lie, Nell, eh? It's all true, then?
+And last night, after you'd wormed it out of Joe, you went to Donnegan?"
+
+She could only stare miserably at him.
+
+"And that was why you pushed me away when I kissed you a little while
+ago?"
+
+Once more she was dumb. But she was beginning to be afraid. Not for
+herself, but for Donnegan.
+
+"Nell, I told you I'd never let another man come between us again. I
+meant it. I know you're treacherous now; but that doesn't keep me from
+wanting you. It's Donnegan again--Donnegan still? Nell, you've killed
+him. As sure as if your own finger pulled the trigger when I shoot him.
+He's a dead one, and you've done it!"
+
+If words would only come! But her throat was stiff and cold and aching.
+She could not speak.
+
+"You've done more than kill him," said Lord Nick. "You've put a curse on
+me as well. And afterward I'm going to even up with you. You hear me?
+Nell, when I shoot Donnegan I'm doing a thing worse than if he was a
+girl--or a baby. You can't understand that; I don't want you to know.
+But some time when you're happy again and you're through grieving for
+Donnegan, I'll tell you the truth and make your heart black for the rest
+of your life."
+
+Still words would not come. She strove to cling to him and stop him, but
+he cast her away with a single gesture and strode out the door.
+
+
+
+
+42
+
+
+There was no crowd to block the hill at this second meeting of Donnegan
+and Lord Nick. There was a blank stretch of brown hillside with the wind
+whispering stealthily through the dead grass when Lord Nick thrust open
+the door of Donnegan's shack and entered.
+
+The little man had just finished shaving and was getting back into his
+coat while George carried out the basin of water. And Donnegan, as he
+buttoned the coat, was nodding slightly to the rhythm of a song which
+came from the cabin of the colonel near by. It was a clear, high music,
+and though the voice was light it carried the sound far. Donnegan looked
+up to Lord Nick; but still he kept the beat of the music.
+
+He seemed even more fragile this morning than ever before. Yet Lord Nick
+was fresh from the sight of the torn bodies of the two fighting men whom
+this fellow had struck and left for dead, or dying, as he thought.
+
+"Dismiss your servant," said Lord Nick.
+
+"George, you may go out."
+
+"And keep him out."
+
+"Don't come back until I call for you."
+
+Big George disappeared into the kitchen and the outside door was closed.
+Yet even with all the doors closed the singing of Lou Macon kept running
+through the cabin in a sweet and continuous thread.
+
+  What made the ball so fine?
+      Robin Adair!
+  What made the assembly shine?
+      Robin Adair!
+
+And no matter what Lord Nick could say, it seemed that with half his
+mind Donnegan was listening to the song of the girl.
+
+"First," said the big man, "I've broken my word."
+
+Donnegan waved his hand and dismissed the charge. He pointed to a chair,
+but Lord Nick paid no heed.
+
+"I've broken my word," he went on. "I promised that I'd give you a clear
+road to win over Nelly Lebrun. I gave you the road and you've won her,
+but now I'm taking her back!"
+
+"Ah, Henry," said Donnegan, and a flash of eagerness came in his eyes.
+"You're a thousand times welcome to her."
+
+Lord Nick quivered.
+
+"Do you mean it?"
+
+"Henry, don't you see that I was only playing for a purpose all the
+time? And if you've opened the eyes of Nelly to the fact that you truly
+love her and I've been only acting out of a heartless sham--why, I'm
+glad of it--I rejoice, Henry, I swear I do!"
+
+He came forward, smiling, and held out his hand; Lord Nick struck it
+down, and Donnegan shrank back, holding his wrist tight in the fingers
+of his other hand.
+
+"Is it possible?" murmured Henry Reardon. "Is it possible that she loves
+a man who despises her?"
+
+"Not that! If any other man said this to me, I'd call for an explanation
+of his meaning, Henry. No, no! I honor and respect her, I tell you. By
+heaven, Nick, she has a thread of pure, generous gold in her nature!"
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"She has saved my life no longer ago than this morning."
+
+"It's perfect," said Lord Nick. And he writhed under a torment. "I am
+discarded for the sake of a man who despises her!"
+
+Donnegan, frowning with thought, watched his older brother. And still
+the thin singing entered the room, that matchless old melody of "Robin
+Adair;" the day shall never come when that song does not go straight
+from heart to heart. But because Donnegan still listened to it, Lord
+Nick felt that he was contemptuously received, and a fresh spur was
+driven into his tender pride.
+
+"Donnegan!" he said sharply.
+
+Donnegan raised his hand slowly.
+
+"Do you call me by that name?"
+
+"Aye. You've ceased to be a brother. There's no blood tie between us
+now, as I warned you before."
+
+Donnegan, very white, moved back toward the wall and rested his
+shoulders lightly against it, as though he needed the support. He made
+no answer.
+
+"I warned you not to cross me again." exclaimed Lord Nick.
+
+"I have not."
+
+"Donnegan, you've murdered my men!"
+
+"Murder? I've met them fairly. Not murder, Henry."
+
+"Leave out that name, I say!"
+
+"If you wish," said Donnegan very faintly.
+
+The sight of his resistlessness seemed to madden Lord Nick. He made one
+of his huge strides and came to the center of the room and dominated all
+that was in it, including his brother.
+
+"You murdered my men," repeated Lord Nick. "You turned my girl against
+me with your lying love-making and turned her into a spy. You made her
+set the trap and then you saw that it was worked. You showed her how she
+could wind me around her finger again."
+
+"Will you let me speak?"
+
+"Aye, but be short."
+
+"I swear to you, Henry, that I've never influenced her to act against
+you; except to win her away for just one little time, and she will
+return to you again. It is only a fancy that makes her interested in me.
+Look at us! How could any woman in her senses prefer me?"
+
+"Are you done?"
+
+"No, no! I have more to say: I have a thousand things!"
+
+"I shall not hear them"
+
+"Henry, there is a black devil in your face. Beware of it."
+
+"Who put it there?"
+
+"It was not I."
+
+"What power then?"
+
+"Something over which I have no control."
+
+"Are you trying to mystify me?"
+
+"Listen!" And as Donnegan raised his hand, the singing poured clear and
+small into the room.
+
+"That is the power," said Donnegan.
+
+"You're talking gibberish'" exclaimed the other pettishly.
+
+"I suppose I shouldn't expect you to understand."
+
+"On the other hand, what I have to say is short and to the point. A
+child could comprehend it. You've stolen the girl. I tried to let her
+go. I can't. I have to have her. Willing or unwilling she has to belong
+to me, Donnegan."
+
+"If you wish, I shall promise that I shall never see her again or speak
+to her."
+
+"You fool' Won't she find you out? Do you think I could trust you? Only
+in one place--underground."
+
+Donnegan had clasped his hands upon his breast and his eyes were wide.
+
+"What is it you mean, Henry?"
+
+"I'll trust you--dead!"
+
+"Henry!"
+
+"That name means nothing to me I've forgotten it. The worlds has
+forgotten it."
+
+"Henry, I implore you to keep cool--to give me five minutes for talk--"
+
+"No, not one. I know your cunning tongue!"
+
+"For the sake of the days when you loved me, my brother. For the sake of
+the days when you used to wheel my chair and be kind to me."
+
+"You're wasting your time. You're torturing us both for nothing.
+Donnegan, my will is a rock. It won't change."
+
+And drawing closer his right hand gripped his gun and the trembling
+passion of the gunfighter set him shuddering.
+
+"You're armed, Garry. Go for your gun!"
+
+"No, no!"
+
+"Then I'll give you cause to fight."
+
+And as he spoke, he drew back his massive arm and with his open hand
+smote Donnegan heavily across the face. The weight of that blow crushed
+the little man against the wall.
+
+"Your gun!" cried Lord Nick, swaying from side to side as the passion
+choked him.
+
+Donnegan fell upon his knees and raised his arms.
+
+"God have mercy on me, and on yourself!"
+
+At that the blackness cleared slowly on the face of the big man; he
+thrust his revolver into the holster.
+
+"This time," he said, "there's no death. But sooner or later we meet,
+Donnegan, and then, I swear by all that lives, I'll shoot you
+down--without mercy--like a mad dog. You've robbed me; you've hounded
+me: you've killed my men: you've taken the heart of the woman I love.
+And now nothing can save you from the end."
+
+He turned on his heel and left the room.
+
+And Donnegan remained kneeling, holding a stained handkerchief to his
+face.
+
+All at once his strength seemed to desert him like a tree chopped at the
+root, and he wilted down against the wall with closed eyes.
+
+But the music still came out of the throat and the heart of Lou, and it
+entered the room and came into the ears of Donnegan. He became aware
+that there was a strength beyond himself which had sustained him, and
+then he knew it had been the singing of Lou from first to last which had
+kept the murder out of his own heart and restrained the hand of Lord
+Nick.
+
+Perhaps of all Donnegan's life, this was the first moment of true
+humility.
+
+
+
+
+43
+
+
+One thing was now clear. He must not remain in The Corner unless he was
+prepared for Lord Nick again: and in a third meeting guns must be drawn.
+From that greater sin he shrank, and prepared to leave. His order to
+George made the big man's eyes widen, but George had long since passed
+the point where he cared to question the decision of his master. He
+began to build the packs.
+
+As for Donnegan, he could see that there was little to be won by
+remaining. That would save Landis to Lou Macon, to be sure, but after
+all, he was beginning to wonder if it were not better to let the big
+fellow go back to his own kind--Lebrun and the rest. For if it needed
+compulsion to keep him with Lou now, might it not be the same story
+hereafter?
+
+Indeed, Donnegan began to feel that all his labor in The Corner had been
+running on a treadmill. It had all been grouped about the main purpose,
+which was to keep Landis with the girl. To do that now he must be
+prepared to face Nick again; and to face Nick meant the bringing of the
+guilt of fratricide upon the head of one of them. There only remained
+flight. He saw at last that he had been fighting blindly from the
+first. He had won a girl whom he did not love--though doubtless her
+liking was only the most fickle fancy. And she for whom he would have
+died he had taught to hate him. It was a grim summing up. Donnegan
+walked the room whistling softly to himself as he checked up his
+accounts.
+
+One thing at least he had done; he had taken the joy out of his life
+forever.
+
+And here, answering a rap at the door, he opened it upon Lou Macon. She
+wore a dress of some very soft material. It was a pale blue--faded, no
+doubt--but the color blended exquisitely with her hair and with the
+flush of her face. It came to Donnegan that it was an unnecessary
+cruelty of chance that made him see the girl lovelier than he had ever
+seen her before at the very moment when he was surrendering the last
+shadow of a claim upon her.
+
+And it hurt him, also, to see the freshness of her face, the clear eyes;
+and to hear her smooth, untroubled voice. She had lived untouched by
+anything save the sunshine in The Corner.
+
+Her glance flicked across his face and then fluttered down, and her
+color increased guiltily.
+
+"I have come to ask you a favor," she said.
+
+"Step in," said Donnegan, recovering his poise at length.
+
+At this, she looked past him, and her eyes widened a little. There was
+an imperceptible shrug of her shoulders, as though the very thought of
+entering this cabin horrified her. And Donnegan had to bear that look as
+well.
+
+"I'll stay here; I haven't much to say. It's a small thing."
+
+"Large or small," said Donnegan eagerly. "Tell me!"
+
+"My father has asked me to take a letter for him down to the town and
+mail it. I--I understand that it would be dangerous for me to go alone.
+Will you walk with me?"
+
+And Donnegan turned cold. Go down into The Corner? Where by five chances
+out of ten he must meet his brother in the street?
+
+"I can do better still," he said, smiling. "I'll have George take the
+letter down for you."
+
+"Thank you. But you see, father would not trust it to anyone save me. I
+asked him; he was very firm about it."
+
+"Tush! I would trust George with my life."
+
+"Yes, yes It is not what I wish--but my father rarely changes his
+mind."
+
+Perspiration beaded the forehead of Donnegan. Was there no way to evade
+this easy request?
+
+"You see," he faltered, "I should be glad to go--"
+
+She raised her eyes slowly.
+
+"But I am terribly busy this morning."
+
+She did not answer, but half of her color left her face.
+
+"Upon my word of honor there is no danger to a woman in the town."
+
+"But some of the ruffians of Lord Nick--"
+
+"If they dared to even raise their voices at you, they would hear from
+him in a manner that they would never forget."
+
+"Then you don't wish to go?"
+
+She was very pale now; and to Donnegan it was more terrible than the gun
+in the hand of Lord Nick. Even if she thought he was slighting her why
+should she take it so mortally to heart? For Donnegan, who saw all
+things, was blind to read the face of this girl.
+
+"It doesn't really matter," she murmured and turned away.
+
+A gentle motion, but it wrenched the heart of Donnegan. He was instantly
+before her.
+
+"Wait here a moment. I'll be ready to go down immediately."
+
+"No. I can't take you from your--work."
+
+What work did she assign to him in her imagination? Endless planning of
+deviltry no doubt.
+
+"I shall go with you," said Donnegan. "At first--I didn't dream it could
+be so important. Let me get my hat."
+
+He left her and leaped back into the cabin.
+
+"I am going down into The Corner for a moment," he said over his
+shoulder to George, as he took his belt down from the wall.
+
+The big man strode to the wall and took his hat from a nail.
+
+"I shall not need you, George."
+
+But George merely grinned, and his big teeth flashed at the master. And
+in the second place he took up a gun from the drawer and offered it to
+Donnegan.
+
+"The gun in that holster ain't loaded," he said.
+
+Donnegan considered him soberly.
+
+"I know it. There'll be no need for a loaded gun."
+
+But once more George grinned. All at once Donnegan turned pale.
+
+"You dog," he whispered. "Did you listen at the door when Nick was
+here?"
+
+"Me?" murmured George. "No, I just been thinking."
+
+And so it was that while Donnegan went down the hill with Lou Macon,
+carrying an empty-chambered revolver, George followed at a distance of a
+few paces, and he carried a loaded weapon unknown to Donnegan.
+
+It was the dull time of the day in The Corner. There were very few
+people in the single street, and though most of them turned to look at
+the little man and the girl who walked beside him, not one of them
+either smiled or whispered.
+
+"You see?" said Donnegan. "You would have been perfectly safe--even from
+Lord Nick's ruffians. That was one of his men we passed back there."
+
+"Yes. I'm safe with you," said the girl.
+
+And when she looked up to him, the blood of Donnegan turned to fire.
+
+Out of a shop door before them came a girl with a parcel under her arm.
+She wore a gay, semi-masculine outfit, bright-colored, jaunty, and she
+walked with a lilt toward them. It was Nelly Lebrun. And as she passed
+them. Donnegan lifted his hat ceremoniously high. She nodded to him with
+a smile, but the smile aimed wan and small in an instant. There was a
+quick widening and then a narrowing of her eyes, and Donnegan knew that
+she had judged Lou Macon as only one girl can judge another who is
+lovelier.
+
+He glanced at Lou to see if she had noticed, and he saw her raise her
+head and go on with her glance proudly straight before her; but her face
+was very pale, and Donnegan knew that she had guessed everything that
+was true and far more than the truth. Her tone at the door of the post
+office was ice.
+
+"I think you are right, Mr. Donnegan. There's no danger. And if you have
+anything else to do, I can get back home easily enough."
+
+"I'll wait for you," murmured Donnegan sadly, and he stood as the door
+of the little building with bowed head.
+
+And then a murmur came down the street. How small it was, and how
+sinister! It consisted of exclamations begun, and then broken sharply
+off. A swirl of people divided as a cloud of dust divides before a blast
+of wind, and through them came the gigantic figure of Lord Nick!
+
+On he came, a gorgeous figure, a veritable king of men. He carried his
+hat in his hand and his red hair flamed, and he walked with great
+strides. Donnegan glanced behind him. The way was clear. If he turned,
+Lord Nick would not pursue him, he knew.
+
+But to flee even from his brother was more than he could do; for the
+woman he loved would know of it and could never understand.
+
+He touched the holster that held his empty gun--and waited!
+
+An eternity between every step of Lord Nick. Others seemed to have
+sensed the meaning of this silent scene. People seemed to stand frozen
+in the midst of gestures. Or was that because Donnegan's own thoughts
+were traveling at such lightning speed that the rest of the world seemed
+standing still? What kept Lou Macon? If she were with him, not even Lord
+Nick in his madness would force on a gunplay in the presence of a woman,
+no doubt.
+
+Lord Nick was suddenly close; he had paused; his voice rang over the
+street and struck upon Donnegan's ear as sounds come under water.
+
+"Donnegan!"
+
+"Aye!" called Donnegan softly.
+
+"It's the time!"
+
+"Aye," said Donnegan.
+
+Then a huge body leaped before him; it was big George. And as he sprang
+his gun went up with his hand in a line of light. The two reports came
+close together as finger taps on a table, and big George, completing his
+spring, lurched face downward into the sand.
+
+Dead? Not yet. All his faith and selflessness were nerving the big man.
+And Donnegan stood behind him, unarmed!
+
+He reared himself upon his knees--an imposing bulk, even then, and fired
+again. But his hand was trembling, and the bullet shattered a sign above
+the head of Lord Nick. He, in his turn, it seemed to Donnegan that the
+motion was slow, twitched up the muzzle of his weapon and fired once
+more from his hip. And big George lurched back on the sand, with his
+face upturned to Donnegan. He would have spoken, but a burst of blood
+choked him; yet his eyes fixed and glazed, he mustered his last
+strength and offered his revolver to Donnegan.
+
+But Donnegan let the hand fall limp to the ground. There were voices
+about him; steps running; but all that he clearly saw was Lord Nick with
+his feet braced, and his head high.
+
+"Donnegan! Your gun!"
+
+"Aye," said Donnegan.
+
+"Take it then!"
+
+But in the crisis, automatically Donnegan flipped his useless revolver
+out of its holster and into his hand. At the same instant the gun from
+Nick's hand seemed to blaze in his eyes. He was struck a crushing blow
+in his chest. He sank upon his knees: another blow struck his head, and
+Donnegan collapsed on the body of big George.
+
+
+
+
+44
+
+
+An ancient drunkard in the second story of one of the stores across the
+street had roused himself at the sound of the shots and now he dragged
+himself to the window and began to scream: "Murder! Murder!" over and
+over, and even The Corner shuddered at the sound of his voice.
+
+Lord Nick, his revolver still in his hand, stalked through the film of
+people who now swirled about him, eager to see the dead. There was no
+call for the law to make its appearance, and the representatives of the
+law were wisely dilatory in The Corner.
+
+He stood over the two motionless figures with a stony face.
+
+"You saw it, boys," he said. "You know what I've borne from this fellow.
+The big man pulled his gun first on me. I shot in self-defense. As
+for--the other--it was a square fight."
+
+"Square fight," someone answered. "You both went for your irons at the
+same time. Pretty work, Nick."
+
+It was a solid phalanx of men which had collected around the moveless
+bodies as swiftly as mercury sinks through water. Yet none of them
+touched either Donnegan or George. And then the solid group dissolved at
+one side. It was the moan of a woman which had scattered it, and a
+yellow-haired girl slipped through them. She glanced once, in horror, at
+the mute faces of the men, and then there was a wail as she threw
+herself on the body of Donnegan. Somewhere she found the strength of a
+man to lift him and place him face upward on the sand, the gun trailing
+limply in his hand. And then she lay, half crouched over him, her face
+pressed to his heart--listening--listening for the stir of life.
+
+Shootings were common in The Corner; the daily mortality ran high; but
+there had never been aftermaths like this one. Men looked at one
+another, and then at Lord Nick. A bright spot of color had come in his
+cheeks, but his face was as hard as ever.
+
+"Get her away from him," someone murmured.
+
+And then another man cried out, stooped, wrenched the gun from the limp
+hand of Donnegan and opened the cylinder. He spun it: daylight was
+glittering through the empty cylinder.
+
+At this the man stiffened, and with a low bow which would have done
+credit to a drawing-room, he presented the weapon butt first to Lord
+Nick.
+
+"Here's something the sheriff will want to see," he said, "but maybe
+you'll be interested, too."
+
+But Lord Nick, with the gun in his hand, stared at it dumbly, turned the
+empty cylinder. And the full horror crept slowly on his mind. He had not
+killed his brother, he had murdered him. As his eyes cleared, he caught
+the glitter of the eyes which surrounded him.
+
+And then Lou Macon was on her knees with her hands clasped at her breast
+and her face glorious.
+
+"Help!" she was crying. "Help me. He's not dead, but he's dying unless
+you help me!"
+
+Then Lord Nick cast away his own revolver and the empty gun of Donnegan.
+They heard him shout: "Garry!" and saw him stride forward.
+
+Instantly men pressed between, hard-jawed men who meant business. It was
+a cordon he would have to fight his way through: but he dissolved it
+with a word.
+
+"You fools! He's my brother!"
+
+And then he was on his knees opposite Lou Macon.
+
+"You?" she had stammered in horror.
+
+"His brother, girl."
+
+And ten minutes later, when the bandages had been wound, there was a
+strange sight of Lord Nick striding up the street with his victim in his
+arms. How lightly he walked; and he was talking to the calm, pale face
+which rested in the hollow of his shoulder.
+
+"He will live? He will live?" Lou Macon was pleading as she hurried at
+the side of Lord Nick.
+
+"God willing, he shall live!"
+
+
+It was three hours before Donnegan opened his eyes. It was three days
+before he recovered his senses, and looking aside toward the door he saw
+a brilliant shaft of sunlight falling into the room. In the midst of it
+sat Lou Macon. She had fallen asleep in her great weariness now that the
+crisis was over. Behind her, standing, his great arms folded, stood the
+indomitable figure of Lord Nick.
+
+Donnegan saw and wondered greatly. Then he closed his eyes dreamily.
+"Hush," said Donnegan to himself, as if afraid that what he saw was all
+a dream. "I'm in heaven, or if I'm not, it's still mighty good to be
+alive."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
+
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+<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN">
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+<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
+    <title>
+      The Project Gutenberg eBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
+    </title>
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Gunman's Reckoning
+
+Author: Max Brand
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2003 [EBook #10066]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUNMAN'S RECKONING ***
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+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+
+</pre>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+
+<a name="GUNMAN'S_RECKONING"></a><h2>GUNMAN'S RECKONING</h2>
+
+<h3>By</h3>
+
+<h2>Max Brand</h2>
+
+
+<h3>1921</h3>
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<h2>GUNMAN'S RECKONING</h2>
+
+
+<table summary="" align="center" border="1" cellpadding="2" cellspacing="0">
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#1">1</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#2">2</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#3">3</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#4">4</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#5">5</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#6">6</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#7">7</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#8">8</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#9">9</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#10">10</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#11">11</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#12">12</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#13">13</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#14">14</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#15">15</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#16">16</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#17">17</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#18">18</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#19">19</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#20">20</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#21">21</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#22">22</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#23">23</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#24">24</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#25">25</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#26">26</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#27">27</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#28">28</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#29">29</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#30">30</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#31">31</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#32">32</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#33">33</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#34">34</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#35">35</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#36">36</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#37">37</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#38">38</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#39">39</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#40">40</a></td></tr>
+<tr><td align="left"><a href="#41">41</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#42">42</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#43">43</a></td><td align="left"><a href="#44">44</a></td></tr>
+</table>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="1"></a><h2>1</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The fifty empty freights danced and rolled and rattled on the rough road
+bed and filled Jericho Pass with thunder; the big engine was laboring
+and grunting at the grade, but five cars back the noise of the
+locomotive was lost. Yet there is a way to talk above the noise of a
+freight train just as there is a way to whistle into the teeth of a
+stiff wind. This freight-car talk is pitched just above the ordinary
+tone&mdash;it is an overtone of conversation, one might say&mdash;and it is
+distinctly nasal. The brakie could talk above the racket, and so, of
+course, could Lefty Joe. They sat about in the center of the train, on
+the forward end of one of the cars. No matter how the train lurched and
+staggered over that fearful road bed, these two swayed in their places
+as easily and as safely as birds on swinging perches. The brakie had
+touched Lefty Joe for two dollars; he had secured fifty cents; and since
+the vigor of Lefty's oaths had convinced him that this was all the money
+the tramp had, the two now sat elbow to elbow and killed the distance
+with their talk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's like old times to have you here,&quot; said the brakie. &quot;You used to
+play this line when you jumped from coast to coast.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure,&quot; said Lefty Joe, and he scowled at the mountains on either side
+of the pass. The train was gathering speed, and the peaks lurched
+eastward in a confused, ragged procession. &quot;And a durned hard ride it's
+been many a time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kind of queer to see you,&quot; continued the brakie. &quot;Heard you was rising
+in the world.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He caught the face of the other with a rapid side glance, but Lefty Joe
+was sufficiently concealed by the dark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heard you were the main guy with a whole crowd behind you,&quot; went on the
+brakie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yeh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure. Heard you was riding the cushions, and all that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yeh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I guess it was all bunk; here you are back again, anyway.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yep,&quot; agreed Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>The brakie scratched his head, for the silence of the tramp convinced
+him that there had been, after all, a good deal of truth in the rumor.
+He ran back on another tack and slipped about Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never laid much on what they said,&quot; he averred. &quot;I know you, Lefty;
+you can do a lot, but when it comes to leading a whole gang, like they
+said you was, and all that&mdash;well, I knew it was a lie. Used to tell 'em
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You talked foolish, then,&quot; burst out Lefty suddenly. &quot;It was all
+straight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie could hear the click of his companion's teeth at the period
+to this statement, as though he regretted his outburst.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'll be hanged,&quot; murmured the brakie innocently.</p>
+
+<p>Ordinarily, Lefty was not easily lured, but this night he apparently was
+in the mood for talk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Kennebec Lou, the Clipper, and Suds. Them and a lot more. They was all
+with me; they was all under me; I was the Main Guy!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What a ring in his voice as he said it! The beaten general speaks thus
+of his past triumphs. The old man remembered his youth in such a voice.
+The brakie was impressed; he repeated the three names.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even Suds?&quot; he said. &quot;Was even Suds with you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even Suds!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie stirred a little, wabbling from side to side as he found a
+more comfortable position; instead of looking straight before him, he
+kept a side-glance steadily upon his companion, and one could see that
+he intended to remember what was said on this night.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even Suds,&quot; echoed the brakie. &quot;Good heavens, and ain't he a man for
+you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was a man,&quot; replied Lefty Joe with an indescribable emphasis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Huh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He ain't a man any more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Get bumped off?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. Busted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie considered this bit of news and rolled it back and forth and
+tried its flavor against his gossiping palate.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you fix him after he left you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see. You busted him while he was still with you. Then Kennebec Lou
+and the Clipper get sore at the way you treat Suds. So here you are back
+on the road with your gang all gone bust. Hard luck, Lefty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Lefty whined with rage at this careless diagnosis of his downfall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're all wrong,&quot; he said. &quot;You're all wrong. You don't know nothin'.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie waited, grinning securely into the night, and preparing his
+mind for the story. But the story consisted of one word, flung bitterly
+into the rushing air.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Him?&quot; cried the brakie, starting in his place.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot; cried Lefty, and his voice made the word into a curse.</p>
+
+<p>The brakie nodded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Them that get tangled with Donnegan don't last long. You ought to know
+that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this the grief, hate, and rage in Lefty Joe were blended and caused
+an explosion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confound Donnegan. Who's Donnegan? I ask you, who's Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A guy that makes trouble,&quot; replied the brakie, evidently hard put to it
+to find a definition.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, don't he make it, though? Confound him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You ought to of stayed shut of him, Lefty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did I hunt him up, I ask you? Am I a nut? No, I ain't. Do I go along
+stepping on the tail of a rattlesnake? No more do I look up Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He groaned as he remembered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was going fine. Nothing could of been better. I had the boys
+together. We was doing so well that I was riding the cushions and I went
+around planning the jobs. Nice, clean work. No cans tied to it. But one
+day I had to meet Suds down in the Meriton Jungle. You know?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've heard&mdash;plenty,&quot; said the brakie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, it ain't so bad&mdash;the Meriton. I've seen a lot worse. Found Suds
+there, and Suds was playing Black Jack with an ol gink. He was trimmin'
+him close. Get Suds going good and he could read 'em three down and bury
+'em as fast as they came under the bottom card. Takes a hand to do that
+sort of work. And that's the sort of work Suds was doing for the old
+man. Pretty soon the game was over and the old man was busted. He took
+up his pack and beat it, saying nothing and looking sick. I started
+talking to Suds.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And while he was talking, along comes a bo and gives us a once-over. He
+knew me. 'Is this here a friend of yours, Lefty? he says.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Sure,' says I.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Then, he's in Dutch. He trimmed that old dad, and the dad is one of
+Donnegan's pals. Wait till Donnegan hears how your friend made the cards
+talk while he was skinning the old boy!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He passes me the wink and goes on. Made me sick. I turned to Suds, and
+the fool hadn't batted an eye. Never even heard of Donnegan. You know
+how it is? Half the road never heard of it; part of the roads don't know
+nothin' else. He's like a jumpin tornado; hits every ten miles and don't
+bend a blade of grass in between.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Took me about five minutes to tell Suds about Donnegan. Then Suds let
+out a grunt and started down the trail for the old dad. Missed him. Dad
+had got out of the Jungle and copped a rattler. Suds come back half
+green and half yeller.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'I've done it; I've spilled the beans,' he says.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'That ain't half sayin' it,' says I.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, we lit out after that and beat it down the line as fast as we
+could. We got the rest of the boys together; I had a swell job planned
+up. Everything staked. Then, the first news come that Donnegan was after
+Suds.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;News just dropped on us out of the sky. Suds, you know how he is.
+Strong bluff. Didn't bat an eye. Laughed at this Donnegan. Got a hold of
+an old pal of his, named Levine, and he is a mighty hot scrapper. From a
+knife to a toenail, they was nothing that Levine couldn't use in a
+fight. Suds sent him out to cross Donnegan's trail.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He crossed it, well enough. Suds got a telegram a couple days later
+saying that Levine had run into a wild cat and was considerable chawed
+and would Suds send him a stake to pay the doctor?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, after that Suds got sort of nervous. Didn't take no interest in
+his work no more. Kept a weather eye out watching for the coming of
+Donnegan. And pretty soon he up and cleaned out of camp.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Next day, sure enough, along comes Donnegan and asks for Suds. We kept
+still&mdash;all but Kennebec Lou. Kennebec is some fighter himself. Two
+hundred pounds of mule muscle with the brain of a devil to tell what to
+do&mdash;yes, you can lay it ten to one that Kennebec is some fighter. That
+day he had a good edge from a bottle of rye he was trying for a friend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He didn't need to go far to find trouble in Donnegan. A wink and a grin
+was all they needed for a password, and then they went at each other's
+throats. Kennebec made the first pass and hit thin air; and before he
+got back on his heels, Donnegan had hit him four times. Then Kennebec
+jumped back and took a fresh start with a knife.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Lefty Joe paused and sighed.</p>
+
+<p>He continued, after a long interval: &quot;Five minutes later we was all busy
+tyin' up what was left of Kennebec; Donnegan was down the road whistlin'
+like a bird. And that was the end of my gang. What with Kennebec Lou and
+Suds both gone, what chance did I have to hold the boys together?&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="2"></a><h2>2</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The brakie heard this recital with the keenest interest, nodding from
+time to time.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What beats me, Lefty,&quot; he said at the end of the story, &quot;is why you
+didn't knife into the fight yourself and take a hand with Donnegan&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Lefty was silent. It was rather the silence of one which cannot
+tell whether or not it is worth while to speak than it was the silence
+of one who needs time for thought.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you why, bo. It's because when I take a trail like that it
+only has one end I'm going to bump off the other bird or he's going to
+bump off me&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie cleared his throat</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Look here,&quot; he said, &quot;looks to me like a queer thing that you're on
+this train&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Does it&quot; queried Lefty softly &quot;Why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because Donnegan is two cars back, asleep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil you say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The brakie broke into laughter</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't kid yourself along,&quot; he warned. &quot;Don't do it. It ain't
+wise&mdash;with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come on, Lefty. Come clean. You better do a fade off this train.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, you fool&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It don't work, Joe. Why, the minute I seen you I knew why you was here.
+I knew you meant to croak Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me croak him? Why should I croak him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you been trailing him two thousand miles. Because you ain't got
+the nerve to meet him face to face and you got to sneak in and take a
+crack at him while he's lying asleep. That's you, Lefty Joe!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He saw Lefty sway toward him; but, all stories aside, it is a very bold
+tramp that cares for argument of a serious nature with a brakie. And
+even Lefty Joe was deterred from violent action. In the darkness his
+upper lip twitched, but he carefully smoothed his voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know nothing, pal,&quot; he declared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; repeated Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>He reached into his clothes and produced something which rustled in the
+rush of wind. He fumbled, and finally passed a scrap of the paper into
+the hand of the brakie.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My heavens,&quot; drawled the latter. &quot;D'you think you can fix me with a
+buck for a job like this? You can't bribe me to stand around while you
+bump off Donnegan. Can't be done, Lefty!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One buck, did you say?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty Joe expertly lighted a match in spite of the roaring wind, and by
+this wild light the brakie read the denomination of the bill with a
+gasp. He rolled up his face and was in time to catch the sneer on the
+face of Lefty before a gust snatched away the light of the match.</p>
+
+<p>They had topped the highest point in Jericho Pass and now the long train
+dropped into the down grade with terrific speed. The wind became a
+hurricane. But to the brakie all this was no more than a calm night. His
+thoughts were raging in him, and if he looked back far enough he
+remembered the dollar which Donnegan had given him; and how he had
+promised Donnegan to give the warning before anything went wrong. He
+thought of this, but rustling against the palm of his right hand was
+the bill whose denomination he had read, and that figure ate into his
+memory, ate into his brain.</p>
+
+<p>After all what was Donnegan to him? What was Donnegan but a worthless
+tramp? Without any answer to that last monosyllabic query, the brakie
+hunched forward, and began to work his way up the train.</p>
+
+<p>The tramp watched him go with laughter. It was silent laughter. In the
+most quiet room it would not have sounded louder than a continual, light
+hissing noise. Then he, in turn, moved from his place, and worked his
+way along the train in the opposite direction to that in which the
+brakie had disappeared.</p>
+
+<p>He went expertly, swinging from car to car with apelike clumsiness&mdash;and
+surety. Two cars back. It was not so easy to reach the sliding side door
+of that empty car. Considering the fact that it was night, that the
+train was bucking furiously over the old roadbed, Lefty had a not
+altogether simple task before him. But he managed it with the same
+apelike adroitness. He could climb with his feet as well as his hands.
+He would trust a ledge as well as he would trust the rung of a ladder.</p>
+
+<p>Under his discreet manipulations from above the door loosened and it
+became possible to work it back. But even this the tramp did with
+considerable care. He took advantage of the lurching of the train, and
+every time the car jerked he forced the door to roll a little, so that
+it might seem for all the world as though the motion of the train alone
+were operating it.</p>
+
+<p>For suppose that Donnegan wakened out of his sound sleep and observed
+the motion of the door; he would be suspicious if the door opened in a
+single continued motion; but if it worked in these degrees he would be
+hypersuspicious if he dreamed of danger. So the tramp gave five whole
+minutes to that work.</p>
+
+<p>When it was done he waited for a time, another five minutes, perhaps, to
+see if the door would be moved back. And when it was not disturbed, but
+allowed to stand open, he knew that Donnegan still slept.</p>
+
+<p>It was time then for action, and Lefty Joe prepared for the descent into
+the home of the enemy. Let it not be thought that he approached this
+moment with a fallen heart, and with a cringing, snaky feeling as a man
+might be expected to feel when he approached to murder a sleeping
+foeman. For that was not Lefty's emotion at all. Rather he was overcome
+by a tremendous happiness. He could have sung with joy at the thought
+that he was about to rid himself of this pest.</p>
+
+<p>True, the gang was broken up. But it might rise again. Donnegan had
+fallen upon it like a blight. But with Donnegan out of the way would not
+Suds come back to him instantly? And would not Kennebec Lou himself
+return in admiration of a man who had done what he, Kennebec, could not
+do? With those two as a nucleus, how greatly might he not build!</p>
+
+<p>Justice must be done to Lefty Joe. He approached this murder as a
+statesman approaches the removal of a foe from the path of public
+prosperity. There was no more rancor in his attitude. It was rather the
+blissful largeness of the heart that comes to the politician when he
+unearths the scandal which will blight the race of his rival.</p>
+
+<p>With the peaceful smile of a child, therefore, Lefty Joe lay stretched
+at full length along the top of the car and made his choice of weapons.
+On the whole, his usual preference, day or night, was for a revolver.
+Give him a gat and Lefty was at home in any company. But he had reasons
+for transferring his alliance on this occasion. In the first place, a
+box car which is reeling and pitching to and fro, from side to side, is
+not a very good shooting platform&mdash;even for a snapshot like Lefty Joe.
+Also, the pitch darkness in the car would be a further annoyance to good
+aim. And in the third and most decisive place, if he were to miss his
+first shot he would not be extremely apt to place his second bullet. For
+Donnegan had a reputation with his own revolver. Indeed, it was said
+that he rarely carried the weapon, because when he did he was always
+tempted too strongly to use it. So that the chances were large that
+Donnegan would not have the gun now. Yet if he did have it&mdash;if he,
+Lefty, did miss his first shot&mdash;then the story would be brief and bitter
+indeed.</p>
+
+<p>On the other hand, a knife offered advantages almost too numerous to be
+listed. It gave one the deadly assurance which only comes with the
+knowledge of an edge of steel in one's hand. And when the knife reaches
+its mark it ends a battle at a stroke.</p>
+
+<p>Of course these doubts and considerations pro and con went through the
+mind of the tramp in about the same space of time that it requires for a
+dog to waken, snap at a fly, and drowse again. Eventually, he took out
+his knife. It was a sheath knife which he wore from a noose of silk
+around his throat, and it always lay closest to his heart. The blade of
+the knife was of the finest Spanish steel, in the days when Spanish
+smiths knew how to draw out steel to a streak of light; the handle of
+the knife was from Milan. On the whole, it was a delicate and beautiful
+weapon&mdash;and it had the durable suppleness of&mdash;say&mdash;hatred itself.</p>
+
+<p>Lefty Joe, like a pirate in a tale, took this weapon between his teeth;
+allowed his squat, heavy bulk to swing down and dangle at arm's length
+for an instant, and then he swung himself a little and landed softly on
+the floor of the car.</p>
+
+<p>Who has not heard snow drop from the branch upon other snow beneath?
+That was the way Lefty Joe dropped to the floor of the car. He remained
+as he had fallen; crouched, alert, with one hand spread out on the
+boards to balance him and give him a leverage and a start in case he
+should wish to spring in any direction.</p>
+
+<p>Then he began to probe the darkness in every direction; with every
+glance he allowed his head to dart out a little. The movement was like a
+chicken pecking at imaginary grains of corn. But eventually he satisfied
+himself that his quarry lay in the forward end of the car; that he was
+prone; that he, Lefty, had accomplished nine-tenths of his purpose by
+entering the place of his enemy unobserved.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="3"></a><h2>3</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>But even though this major step was accomplished successfully, Lefty Joe
+was not the man to abandon caution in the midst of an enterprise. The
+roar of the train would have covered sounds ten times as loud as those
+of his snaky approach, yet he glided forward with as much care as though
+he were stepping on old stairs in a silent house. He could see a vague
+shadow&mdash;Donnegan; but chiefly he worked by that peculiar sense of
+direction which some people possess in a dim light. The blind, of
+course, have that sense in a high degree of sensitiveness, but even
+those who are not blind may learn to trust the peculiar and inverted
+sense of direction.</p>
+
+<p>With this to aid him, Lefty Joe went steadily, slowly across the first
+and most dangerous stage of his journey. That is, he got away from the
+square of the open door, where the faint starlight might vaguely serve
+to silhouette his body. After this, it was easier work.</p>
+
+<p>Of course, when he alighted on the floor of the car, the knife had been
+transferred from his teeth to his left hand; and all during his progress
+forward the knife was being balanced delicately, as though he were not
+yet quite sure of the weight of the weapon. Just as a prize fighter
+keeps his deadly, poised hands in play, moving them as though he fears
+to lose his intimate touch with them.</p>
+
+<p>This stalking had occupied a matter of split seconds. Now Lefty Joe rose
+slowly. He was leaning very far forward, and he warded against the roll
+of the car by spreading out his right hand close to the floor; his left
+hand he poised with the knife, and he began to gather his muscles for
+the leap. He had already taken the last preliminary movement&mdash;he had
+swung himself to the right side a little and, lightening his left foot,
+had thrown all his weight upon the right&mdash;in fact, his body was
+literally suspended in the instant of springing, catlike, when the
+shadow which was Donnegan came to life.</p>
+
+<p>The shadow convulsed as shadows are apt to swirl in a green pool when a
+stone is dropped into it; and a bit of board two feet long and some
+eight inches wide cracked against the shins of Lefty Joe.</p>
+
+<p>It was about the least dramatic weapon that could have been chosen under
+those circumstances, but certainly no other defense could have
+frustrated Lefty's spring so completely. Instead of launching out in a
+compact mass whose point of contact was the reaching knife, Lefty
+crawled stupidly forward upon his knees, and had to throw out his knife
+hand to save his balance.</p>
+
+<p>It is a singular thing to note how important balance is to men. Animals
+fight, as a rule, just as well on their backs as they do on their feet.
+They can lie on their sides and bite; they can swing their claws even
+while they are dropping through the air. But man needs poise and balance
+before he can act. What is speed in a fighter? It is not so much an
+affair of the muscles as it is the power of the brain to adapt itself
+instantly to each new move and put the body in a state of balance. In
+the prize ring speed does not mean the ability to strike one lightning
+blow, but rather that, having finished one drive, the fighter is in
+position to hit again, and then again, so that no matter where the
+impetus of his last lunge has placed him he is ready and poised to shoot
+all his weight behind his fist again and drive it accurately at a
+vulnerable spot. Individually the actions may be slow; but the series of
+efforts seem rapid. That is why a superior boxer seems to hypnotize his
+antagonist with movements which to the spectator seem perfectly easy,
+slow, and sure.</p>
+
+<p>But if Lefty lacked much in agility, he had an animallike sense of
+balance. Sprawling, helpless, he saw the convulsed shadow that was
+Donnegan take form as a straight shooting body that plunged through the
+air above him. Lefty Joe dug his left elbow into the floor of the car
+and whirled back upon his shoulders, bunching his knees high over his
+stomach. Nine chances out of ten, if Donnegan had fallen flatwise upon
+this alert enemy, he would have received those knees in the pit of his
+own stomach and instantly been paralyzed. But in the jumping, rattling
+car even Donnegan was capable of making mistakes. His mistake in this
+instance saved his life, for springing too far, he came down not in
+reaching distance of Lefty's throat, but with his chest on the knees of
+the older tramp.</p>
+
+<p>As a result, Donnegan was promptly kicked head over heels and tumbled
+the length of the car. Lefty was on his feet and plunging after the
+tumbling form in the twinkling of an eye, literally speaking, and he was
+only kept from burying his knife in the flesh of his foe by a sway of
+the car that staggered him in the act of striking. Donnegan, the next
+instant, was beyond reach. He had struck the end of the car and
+rebounded like a ball of rubber at a tangent. He slid into the shadows,
+and Lefty, putting his own shoulders to the wall, felt for his revolver
+and knew that he was lost. He had failed in his first surprise attack,
+and without surprise to help him now he was gone. He weighed his
+revolver, decided that it would be madness to use it, for if he missed,
+Donnegan would instantly be guided by the flash to shoot him full of
+holes.</p>
+
+<p>Something slipped by the open door&mdash;something that glimmered faintly;
+and Lefty Joe knew that it was the red head of Donnegan. Donnegan,
+soft-footed as a shadow among shadows. Donnegan on a blood trail. It
+lowered the heartbeat of Lefty Joe to a tremendous, slow pulse. In that
+moment he gave up hope and, resigning himself to die, determined to
+fight to the last gasp, as became one of his reputation and national
+celebrity on &quot;the road.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Yet Lefty Joe was no common man and no common fighter. No, let the shade
+of Rusty Dick, whom Lefty met and beat in his glorious prime&mdash;let this
+shade arise and speak for the prowess of Lefty Joe. In fact it was
+because he was such a good fighter himself that he recognized his
+helplessness in the hands of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>The faint glimmer of color had passed the door. It was dissolved in
+deeper shadows at once, and soundlessly; Lefty knew that Donnegan was
+closer and closer.</p>
+
+<p>Of one thing he felt more and more confident, that Donnegan did not have
+his revolver with him. Otherwise, he would have used it before. For what
+was darkness to this devil, Donnegan. He walked like a cat, and most
+likely he could see like a cat in the dark. Instinctively the older
+tramp braced himself with his right hand held at a guard before his
+breast and the knife poised in his left, just as a man would prepare to
+meet the attack of a panther. He even took to probing the darkness in a
+strange hope to catch the glimmer of the eyes of Donnegan as he moved to
+the attack. If there were a hair's breadth of light, then Donnegan
+himself must go down. A single blow would do it.</p>
+
+<p>But the devil had instructed his favorite Donnegan how to fight. He did
+not come lunging through the shadows to meet the point of that knife.
+Instead, he had worked a snaky way along the floor and now he leaped in
+and up at Lefty, taking him under the arms.</p>
+
+<p>A dozen hands, it seemed, laid hold on Lefty. He fought like a demon and
+tore himself away, but the multitude of hands pursued him. They were
+small hands. Where they closed they tore the clothes and bit into his
+very flesh. Once a hand had him by the throat, and when Lefty jerked
+himself away it was with a feeling that his flesh had been seared by
+five points of red-hot iron. All this time his knife was darting; once
+it ripped through cloth, but never once did it find the target. And half
+a second later Donnegan got his hold. The flash of the knife as Lefty
+raised it must have guided the other. He shot his right hand up behind
+the left shoulder of the other and imprisoned the wrist. Not only did it
+make the knife hand helpless, but by bearing down with his own weight
+Donnegan could put his enemy in most exquisite torture.</p>
+
+<p>For an instant they whirled; then they went down, and Lefty was on top.
+Only for a moment. The impetus which had sent him to the floor was used
+by Donnegan to turn them over, and once fairly on top his left hand was
+instantly at the throat of Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>Twice Lefty made enormous efforts, but then he was done. About his body
+the limbs of Donnegan were twisted, tightening with incredible force;
+just as hot iron bands sink resistlessly into place. The strangle-hold
+cut away life at its source. Once he strove to bury his teeth in the arm
+of Donnegan. Once, as the horror caught at him, he strove to shriek for
+help. All he succeeded in doing was in raising an awful, sobbing
+whisper. Then, looking death in the face, Lefty plunged into the great
+darkness.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="4"></a><h2>4</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>When he wakened, he jumped at a stride into the full possession of his
+faculties. He had been placed near the open door, and the rush of night
+air had done its work in reviving him. But Lefty, drawn back to life,
+felt only a vague wonder that his life had not been taken. Perhaps he
+was being reserved by the victor for an Indian death of torment. He felt
+cautiously and found that not only were his hands free, but his revolver
+had not been taken from him. A familiar weight was on his chest&mdash;the
+very knife had been returned to its sheath.</p>
+
+<p>Had Donnegan returned these things to show how perfectly he despised his
+enemy?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's gone!&quot; groaned the tramp, sitting up quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's here,&quot; said a voice that cut easily through the roar of the train.
+&quot;Waiting for you, Lefty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The tramp was staggered again. But then, who had ever been able to
+fathom the ways of Donnegan?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot; he cried with a sudden recklessness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For not finishing the job.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan began to laugh. In the uproar of the train it was impossible
+really to hear the sound, but Lefty caught the pulse of it. He fingered
+his bruised throat; swallowing was a painful effort. And an
+indescribable feeling came over him as he realized that he sat armed to
+the teeth within a yard of the man he wanted to kill, and yet he was as
+effectively rendered helpless as though iron shackles had been locked on
+his wrists and legs. The night light came through the doorway, and he
+could make out the slender outline of Donnegan and again he caught the
+faint luster of that red hair; and out of the shadowy form a singular
+power emanated and sapped his strength at the root.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he went on viciously: &quot;Sooner or later, Donnegan, I'll get you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The red head of Donnegan moved, and Lefty Joe knew that the younger man
+was laughing again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why are you after me?&quot; he asked at length.</p>
+
+<p>It was another blow in the face of Lefty. He sat for a time blinking
+with owlish stupidity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why?&quot; he echoed. And he spoke his astonishment from the heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why am I after you?&quot; he said again. &quot;Why, confound you, ain't you
+Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't the whole road know that I'm after you and you after me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole road is crazy. I'm not after you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty choked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe I been dreaming. Maybe you didn't bust up the gang? Maybe you
+didn't clean up on Suds and Kennebec?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suds? Kennebec? I sort of remember meeting them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You sort of&mdash;the devil!&quot; Lefty Joe sputtered the words. &quot;And after you
+cleaned up my crowd, ain't it natural and good sense for you to go on
+and try to clean up on me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sounds like it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I figured to beat you to it. I cut in on your trail, Donnegan, and
+before I leave it you'll know a lot more about me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're warning me ahead of time?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've played this game square with me; I'll play square with you.
+Next time there'll be no slips, Donnegan. I dunno why you should of
+picked on me, though. Just the natural devil in you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't picked on you,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll give you my word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A tingle ran through the blood of Lefty Joe. Somewhere he had heard, in
+rumor, that the word of Donnegan was as good as gold. He recalled that
+rumor now and something of dignity in the manner with which Donnegan
+made his announcement carried a heavy weight. As a rule, the tramps
+vowed with many oaths; here was one of the nights of the road who made
+his bare word sufficient. And Lefty Joe heard with great wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All I ask,&quot; he said, &quot;is why you hounded my gang, if you wasn't after
+me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't hound them. I ran into Suds by accident. We had trouble. Then
+Levine. Then Kennebec Lou tried to take a fall out of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A note of whimsical protest crept into the voice of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Somehow there's always a fight wherever I go,&quot; he said. &quot;Fights just
+sort of grow up around me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty Joe snarled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You didn't mean nothing by just 'happening' to run into three of my
+boys one after another?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty rocked himself back and forth in an ecstasy of impatience.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why don't you stay put?&quot; he complained. &quot;Why don't you stake out your
+own ground and stay put in it? You cut in on every guy's territory.
+There ain't any privacy any more since you hit the road. What you got? A
+roving commission?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan waited for a moment before he answered. And when he spoke his
+voice had altered. Indeed, he had remarkable ability to pitch his voice
+into the roar of the freight train, and above or beneath it, and give it
+a quality such as he pleased.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm following a trail, but not yours,&quot; he admitted at length. &quot;I'm
+following a trail. I've been at it these two years and nothing has
+come of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who you after?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man with red hair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That tells me a lot.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan refused to explain.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What you got against him&mdash;the color of his hair?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Lefty roared contentedly at his own stale jest.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's no good,&quot; replied Donnegan. &quot;I'll never get on the trail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lefty broke in: &quot;You mean to say you've been working two solid years and
+all on a trail that you ain't even found?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The silence answered him in the affirmative.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ain't nobody been able to tip you off to him?&quot; went on Lefty, intensely
+interested.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nobody. You see, he's a hard sort to describe. Red hair, that's all
+there was about him for a clue. But if any one ever saw him stripped
+they'd remember him by a big blotchy birthmark on his left shoulder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh?&quot; grunted Lefty Joe.</p>
+
+<p>He added: &quot;What was his name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't know. He changed monikers when he took to the road.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What was he to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A man I'm going to find.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter where the trail takes you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter where.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Lefty was seized with unaccountable laughter. He literally
+strained his lungs with that Homeric outburst. When he wiped the tears
+from his eyes, at length, the shadow on the opposite side of the doorway
+had disappeared. He found his companion leaning over him, and this time
+he could catch the dull glint of starlight on both hair and eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What d'you know?&quot; asked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How do you stand toward this bird with the birthmark and the red hair?&quot;
+queried Lefty with caution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What d'you know?&quot; insisted Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>All at once passion shook him; he fastened his grip in the shoulder of
+the larger man, and his fingertips worked toward the bone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you know?&quot; he repeated for the third time, and now there was no
+hint of laughter in the hard voice of Lefty.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fool, if you follow that trail you'll go to the devil. It was
+Rusty Dick; and he's dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His triumphant laughter came again, but Donnegan cut into it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rusty Dick was the one you&mdash;killed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure. What of it? We fought fair and square.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then Rusty wasn't the man I want. The man I want would of eaten two
+like you, Lefty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What about the birthmark? It sure was on his shoulder; Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heavens!&quot; whispered Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the matter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rusty Dick,&quot; gasped Donnegan. &quot;Yes, it must have been he.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure it was. What did you have against him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a matter of blood&mdash;between us,&quot; stammered Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>His voice rose in a peculiar manner, so that Lefty shrank involuntarily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You killed Rusty?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ask any of the boys. But between you and me, it was the booze that
+licked Rusty Dick. I just finished up the job and surprised everybody.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The train was out of the mountains and in a country of scattering hills,
+but here it struck a steep grade and settled down to a grind of slow
+labor; the rails hummed, and suspense filled the freight car.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hey,&quot; cried Lefty suddenly. &quot;You fool, you'll do a flop out the door in
+about a minute!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He even reached out to steady the toppling figure, but Donnegan pitched
+straight out into the night. Lefty craned his neck from the door,
+studying the roadbed, but at that moment the locomotive topped the
+little rise and the whole train lurched forward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;After all,&quot; murmured Lefty Joe, &quot;it sounds like Donnegan. Hated a guy
+so bad that he hadn't any use for livin' when he heard the other guy was
+dead. But I'm never goin' to cross his path again, I hope.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="5"></a><h2>5</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>But Donnegan had leaped clear of the roadbed, and he struck almost to
+the knees in a drift of sand. Otherwise, he might well have broken his
+legs with that foolhardy chance. As it was, the fall whirled him over
+and over, and by the time he had picked himself up the lighted caboose
+of the train was rocking past him. Donnegan watched it grow small in the
+distance, and then, when it was only a red, uncertain star far down the
+track, he turned to the vast country around him.</p>
+
+<p>The mountains were to his right, not far away, but caught up behind the
+shadows so that it seemed a great distance. Like all huge, half-seen
+things they seemed in motion toward him. For the rest, he was in bare,
+rolling country. The sky line everywhere was clean; there was hardly a
+sign of a tree. He knew, by a little reflection, that this must be
+cattle country, for the brakie had intimated as much in their talk just
+before dusk. Now it was early night, and a wind began to rise, blowing
+down the valley with a keen motion and a rapidly lessening temperature,
+so that Donnegan saw he must get to a shelter. He could, if necessary,
+endure any privation, but his tastes were for luxurious comfort.
+Accordingly he considered the landscape with gloomy disapproval. He was
+almost inclined to regret his plunge from the lumbering freight train.
+Two things had governed him in making that move. First, when he
+discovered that the long trail he followed was definitely fruitless, he
+was filled with a great desire to cut himself away from his past and
+make a new start. Secondly, when he learned that Rusty Dick had been
+killed by Joe, he wanted desperately to get the throttle of the latter
+under his thumb. If ever a man risked his life to avoid a sin, it was
+Donnegan jumping from the train to keep from murder.</p>
+
+<p>He stooped to sight along the ground, for this is the best way at night
+and often horizon lights are revealed in this manner. But now Donnegan
+saw nothing to serve as a guide. He therefore drew in his belt until it
+fitted snug about his gaunt waist, settled his cap firmly, and headed
+straight into the wind.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing could have shown his character more distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>When in doubt, head into the wind.</p>
+
+<p>With a jaunty, swinging step he sauntered along, and this time, at
+least, his tactics found an early reward. Topping the first large rise
+of ground, he saw in the hollow beneath him the outline of a large
+building. And as he approached it, the wind clearing a high blowing mist
+from the stars, he saw a jumble of outlying houses. Sheds, barns,
+corrals&mdash;it was the nucleus of a big ranch. It is a maxim that, if you
+wish to know a man look at his library and if you wish to know a
+rancher, look at his barn. Donnegan made a small detour to the left and
+headed for the largest of the barns.</p>
+
+<p>He entered it by the big, sliding door, which stood open; he looked up,
+and saw the stars shining through a gap in the roof. And then he stood
+quietly for a time, listening to the voices of the wind in the ruin.
+Oddly enough, it was pleasant to Donnegan. His own troubles and sorrow
+had poured upon him so thickly in the past hour or so that it was
+soothing to find evidence of the distress of others. But perhaps this
+meant that the entire establishment was deserted.</p>
+
+<p>He left the barn and went toward the house. Not until he was close under
+its wall did he come to appreciate its size. It was one of those great,
+rambling, two-storied structures which the cattle kings of the past
+generation were fond of building. Standing close to it, he heard none of
+the intimate sounds of the storm blowing through cracks and broken
+walls; no matter into what disrepair the barns had fallen, the house was
+still solid; only about the edges of the building the storm kept
+murmuring.</p>
+
+<p>Yet there was not a light, neither above nor below. He came to the front
+of the house. Still no sign of life. He stood at the door and knocked
+loudly upon it, and though, when he tried the knob, he found that the
+door was latched, yet no one came in response. He knocked again, and
+putting his ear close he heard the echoes walk through the interior of
+the building.</p>
+
+<p>After this, the wind rose in sudden strength and deafened him with
+rattlings; above him, a shutter was swung open and then crashed to, so
+that the opening of the door was a shock of surprise to Donnegan. A dim
+light from a source which he could not direct suffused the interior of
+the hall; the door itself was worked open a matter of inches and
+Donnegan was aware of two keen old eyes glittering out at him. Beyond
+this he could distinguish nothing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who are you?&quot; asked a woman's voice. &quot;And what do you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm a stranger, and I want something to eat and a place to sleep. This
+house looks as if it might have spare rooms.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where d'you come from?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yonder,&quot; said Donnegan, with a sufficiently noncommittal gesture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's your name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know you. Be off with you, Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He inserted his foot in the closing crack of the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me where I'm to go?&quot; he persisted.</p>
+
+<p>At this her voice rose in pitch, with squeaky rage.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll raise the house on you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Raise 'em. Call down the man of the house. I can talk to him better
+than I can to you; but I won't walk off like this. If you can feed me,
+I'll pay you for what I eat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A shrill cackling&mdash;he could not make out the words. And since patience
+was not the first of Donnegan's virtues, he seized on the knob of the
+door and deliberately pressed it wide. Standing in the hall, now, and
+closing the door slowly behind him, he saw a woman with old, keen eyes
+shrinking away toward the staircase. She was evidently in great fear,
+but there was something infinitely malicious in the manner in which she
+kept working her lips soundlessly. She was shrinking, and half turned
+away, yet there was a suggestion that in an instant she might whirl and
+fly at his face. The door now clicked, and with the windstorm shut away
+Donnegan had a queer feeling of being trapped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now call the man of the house,&quot; he repeated. &quot;See if I can't come to
+terms with him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He'd make short work of you if he came,&quot; she replied. She broke into a
+shrill laughter, and Donnegan thought he had never seen a face so ugly.
+&quot;If he came,&quot; she said, &quot;you'd rue the day.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'll talk to you, then. I'm not asking charity. I want to pay for
+what I get.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This ain't a hotel. You go on down the road. Inside eight miles you'll
+come to the town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eight miles!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's nothing for a man to ride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all, if I had something to ride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You ain't got a horse?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then how do you come here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I walked.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If this sharpened her suspicions, it sharpened her fear also. She put
+one foot on the lowest step of the stairs.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Be off with you, Mr. Donnegally, or whatever your outlandish name is.
+You'll get nothing here. What brings you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A door closed and a footstep sounded lightly on the floor above. And
+Donnegan, already alert in the strange atmosphere of this house, gave
+back a pace so as to get an honest wall behind him. He noted that the
+step was quick and small, and preparing himself to meet a wisp of
+manhood&mdash;which, for that matter, was the type he was most inclined to
+fear&mdash;Donnegan kept a corner glance upon the old woman at the foot of
+the stairs and steadily surveyed the shadows at the head of the rise.</p>
+
+<p>Out of that darkness a foot slipped; not even a boy's foot&mdash;a very
+child's. The shock of it made Donnegan relax his caution for an instant,
+and in that instant she came into the reach of the light. It was a
+wretched light at best, for it came from a lamp with smoky chimney
+which the old hag carried, and at the raising and lowering of her hand
+the flame jumped and died in the throat of the chimney and set the hall
+awash with shadows. Falling away to a point of yellow, the lamp allowed
+the hall to assume a certain indefinite dignity of height and breadth
+and calm proportions; but when the flame rose Donnegan could see the
+broken balusters of the balustrade, the carpet, faded past any design
+and worn to rattiness, wall paper which had rotted or dried away and
+hung in crisp tatters here and there, and on the ceiling an irregular
+patch from which the plaster had fallen and exposed the lathwork. But at
+the coming of the girl the old woman had turned, and as she did the
+flame tossed up in the lamp and Donnegan could see the newcomer
+distinctly.</p>
+
+<p>Once before his heart had risen as it rose now. It had been the fag end
+of a long party, and Donnegan, rousing from a drunken sleep, staggered
+to the window. Leaning there to get the freshness of the night air
+against his hot face, he had looked up, and saw the white face of the
+moon going up the sky; and a sudden sense of the blackness and loathing
+against the city had come upon Donnegan, and the murky color of his own
+life; and when he turned away from the window he was sober. And so it
+was that he now stared up at the girl. At her breast she held a cloak
+together with one hand and the other hand touched the railing of the
+stairs. He saw one foot suspended for the next step, as though the sight
+of him kept her back in fear. To the miserable soul of Donnegan she
+seemed all that was lovely, young, and pure; and her hair, old gold in
+the shadow and pale gold where the lamp struck it, was to Donnegan like
+a miraculous light about her face.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, that little pause was a great and awful moment. For considering
+that Donnegan, who had gone through his whole life with his eyes ready
+either to mock or hate, and who had rarely used his hand except to make
+a fist of it; Donnegan who had never, so far as is known, had a
+companion; who had asked the world for action, not kindness; this
+Donnegan now stood straight with his back against the wall, and poured
+out the story of his wayward life to a mere slip of a girl.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="6"></a><h2>6</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Even the old woman, whose eyes were sharpened by her habit of looking
+constantly for the weaknesses and vices of men, could not guess what was
+going on behind the thin, rather ugly face of Donnegan; the girl,
+perhaps, may have seen more. For she caught the glitter of his active
+eyes even at that distance. The hag began to explain with vicious
+gestures that set the light flaring up and down.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He ain't come from nowhere, Lou,&quot; she said. &quot;He ain't going nowhere; he
+wants to stay here for the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The foot which had been suspended to take the next step was now
+withdrawn. Donnegan, remembered at last, whipped off his cap, and at
+once the light flared and burned upon his hair. It was a wonderful red;
+it shone, and it had a terrible blood tinge so that his face seemed pale
+beneath it. There were three things that made up the peculiar dominance
+of Donnegan's countenance. The three things were the hair, the uneasy,
+bright eyes, and the rather thin, compressed lips. When Donnegan slept
+he seemed about to waken from a vigorous dream; when he sat down he
+seemed about to leap to his feet; and when he was standing he gave that
+impression of a poise which is ready for anything. It was no wonder that
+the girl, seeing that face and that alert, aggressive body, shrank a
+little on the stairs. Donnegan, that instant, knew that these two women
+were really alone in the house as far as fighting men were concerned.</p>
+
+<p>And the fact disturbed him more than a leveled gun would have done. He
+went to the foot of the stairs, even past the old woman, and, raising
+his head, he spoke to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My name's Donnegan. I came over from the railroad&mdash;walked. I don't want
+to walk that other eight miles unless there's a real need for it. I&mdash;&quot;
+Why did he pause? &quot;I'll pay for anything I get here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His voice was not too certain; behind his teeth there was knocking a
+desire to cry out to her the truth. &quot;I am Donnegan. Donnegan the tramp.
+Donnegan the shiftless. Donnegan the fighter. Donnegan the killer.
+Donnegan the penniless, worthless. But for heaven's sake let me stay
+until morning and let me look at you&mdash;from a distance!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But, after all, perhaps he did not need to say all these things. His
+clothes were rags, upon his face there was a stubble of unshaven red,
+which made the pallor about his eyes more pronounced. If the girl had
+been half blind she must have felt that here was a man of fire. He saw
+her gather the wrap a little closer about her shoulders, and that sign
+of fear made him sick at heart.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan,&quot; said the girl. &quot;I am sorry. We cannot take you into the
+house. Eight miles&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Did she expect to turn a sinner from the gates of heaven with a mere
+phrase? He cast out his hand, and she winced as though he had shaken his
+fist at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you afraid?&quot; cried Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't control the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused, not that her reply had baffled him, but the mere pleasure of
+hearing her speak accounted for it. It was one of those low, light
+voices which are apt to have very little range or volume, and which
+break and tremble absurdly under any stress of emotion; and often they
+become shrill in a higher register; but inside conversational limits, if
+such a term may be used, there is no fiber so delightful, so purely
+musical. Suppose the word &quot;velvet&quot; applied to a sound. That voice came
+soothingly and delightfully upon the ear of Donnegan, from which the
+roar and rattle of the empty freight train had not quite departed. He
+smiled at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; he protested, &quot;this is west of the Rockies&mdash;and I don't see any
+other way out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl, all this time, was studying him intently, a little sadly, he
+thought. Now she shook her head, but there was more warmth in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry. I can't ask you to stay without first consulting my father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go ahead. Ask him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised her hand a little; the thought seemed to bring her to the
+verge of trembling, as though he were asking a sacrilege.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot; he urged.</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer, but, instead, her eyes sought the old, woman, as if
+to gain her interposition; she burst instantly into speech.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which there's no good talking any more,&quot; declared the ancient vixen.
+&quot;Are you wanting to make trouble for her with the colonel? Be off, young
+man. It ain't the first time I've told you you'd get nowhere in this
+house!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was no possible answer left to Donnegan, and he did as usual the
+surprising thing. He broke into laughter of such clear and ringing
+tone&mdash;such infectious laughter&mdash;that the old woman blinked in the midst
+of her wrath as though she were seeing a new man, and he saw the lips of
+the girl parted in wonder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father is an invalid,&quot; said the girl. &quot;And he lives by strict rules.
+I could not break in on him at this time of the evening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that's all&quot;&mdash;Donnegan actually began to mount the steps&mdash;&quot;I'll go in
+and talk to your father myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She had retired one pace as he began advancing, but as the import of
+what he said became clear to her she was rooted to one position by
+astonishment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Colonel Macon&mdash;my father&mdash;&quot; she began. Then: &quot;Do you really wish to see
+him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The hushed voice made Donnegan smile&mdash;it was such a voice as one boy
+uses when he asks the other if he really dares enter the pasture of the
+red bull. He chuckled again, and this time she smiled, and her eyes were
+widened, partly by fear of his purpose and partly from his nearness.
+They seemed to be suddenly closer together. As though they were on one
+side against a common enemy, and that enemy was her father. The old
+woman was cackling sharply from the bottom of the stairs, and then
+bobbing in pursuit and calling on Donnegan to come back. At length the
+girl raised her hand and silenced her with a gesture.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan was now hardly a pace away; and he saw that she lived up to all
+the promise of that first glance. Yet still she seemed unreal. There is
+a quality of the unearthly about a girl's beauty; it is, after all, only
+a gay moment between the formlessness of childhood and the hardness of
+middle age. This girl was pale, Donnegan saw, and yet she had color. She
+had the luster, say, of a white rose, and the same bloom. Lou, the old
+woman had called her, and Macon was her father's name. Lou Macon&mdash;the
+name fitted her, Donnegan thought. For that matter, if her name had been
+Sally Smith, Donnegan would probably have thought it beautiful. The
+keener a man's mind is and the more he knows about men and women and the
+ways of the world, the more apt he is to be intoxicated by a touch of
+grace and thoughtfulness; and all these age-long seconds the perfume of
+girlhood had been striking up to Donnegan's brain.</p>
+
+<p>She brushed her timidity away and with the same gesture accepted
+Donnegan as something more than a dangerous vagrant. She took the lamp
+from the hands of the crone and sent her about her business,
+disregarding the mutterings and the warnings which trailed behind the
+departing form. Now she faced Donnegan, screening the light from her
+eyes with a cupped hand and by the same device focusing it upon the face
+of Donnegan. He mutely noted the small maneuver and gave her credit; but
+for the pleasure of seeing the white of her fingers and the way they
+tapered to a pink transparency at the tips, he forgot the poor figure he
+must make with his soiled, ragged shirt, his unshaven face, his gaunt
+cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, he looked so straight at her that in spite of her advantage with
+the light she had to avoid his glance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sorry,&quot; said Lou Macon, &quot;and ashamed because we can't take you in.
+The only house on the range where you wouldn't be welcome, I know. But
+my father leads a very close life; he has set ways. The ways of an
+invalid, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you're bothered about speaking to him of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm almost afraid of letting you go in yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me take the risk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She considered him again for a moment, and then turned with a nod and he
+followed her up the stairs into the upper hall. The moment they stepped
+into it he heard her clothes flutter and a small gale poured on them. It
+was criminal to allow such a building to fall into this ruinous
+condition. And a gloomy picture rose in Donnegan's mind of the invalid,
+thin-faced, sallow-eyed, white-haired, lying in his bed listening to the
+storm and silently gathering bitterness out of the pain of living. Lou
+Macon paused again in the hall, close to a door on the right.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going to send you in to speak to my father,&quot; she said gravely.
+&quot;First I have to tell you that he's different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan replied by looking straight at her, and this time she did not
+wince from the glance. Indeed, she seemed to be probing him, searching
+with a peculiar hope. What could she expect to find in him? What that
+was useful to her? Not once in all his life had such a sense of
+impotence descended upon Donnegan. Her father? Bah! Invalid or no
+invalid he would handle that fellow, and if the old man had an acrid
+temper, Donnegan at will could file his own speech to a point. But the
+girl! In the meager hand which held the lamp there was a power which all
+the muscles of Donnegan could not compass; and in his weakness he looked
+wistfully at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope your talk will be pleasant. I hope so.&quot; She laid her hand on the
+knob of the door and withdrew it hastily; then, summoning great
+resolution, she opened the door and showed Donnegan in.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Father,&quot; she said, &quot;this is Mr. Donnegan. He wishes to speak to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The door closed behind Donnegan, and hearing that whishing sound which
+the door of a heavy safe will make, he looked down at this, and saw that
+it was actually inches thick! Once more the sense of being in a trap
+descended upon him.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="7"></a><h2>7</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>He found himself in a large room which, before he could examine a single
+feature of it, was effectively curtained from his sight. Straight into
+his face shot a current of violent white light that made him blink.
+There was the natural recoil, but in Donnegan recoils were generally
+protected by several strata of willpower and seldom showed in any
+physical action. On the present occasion his first dismay was swiftly
+overwhelmed by a cold anger at the insulting trick. This was not the
+trick of a helpless invalid; Donnegan could not see a single thing
+before him, but he obeyed a very deep instinct and advanced straight
+into the current of light.</p>
+
+<p>He was glad to see the light switched away. The comparative darkness
+washed across his eyes in a pleasant wave and he was now able to
+distinguish a few things in the room. It was, as he had first surmised,
+quite large. The ceiling was high; the proportions comfortably spacious;
+but what astounded Donnegan was the real elegance of the furnishings.
+There was no mistaking the deep, silken texture of the rug upon which he
+stepped; the glow of light barely reached the wall, and there showed
+faintly in streaks along yellowish hangings. Beside a table which
+supported a big reading lamp&mdash;gasoline, no doubt, from the intensity of
+its light&mdash;sat Colonel Macon with a large volume spread across his
+knees. Donnegan saw two highlights&mdash;fine silver hair that covered the
+head of the invalid and a pair of white hands fallen idly upon the
+surface of the big book, for if the silver hair suggested age the
+smoothly finished hands suggested perennial youth. They were strong,
+carefully tended, complacent hands. They suggested to Donnegan a man
+sufficient unto himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan, I am sorry that I cannot rise to receive you. Now, what
+pleasant accident has brought me the favor of this call?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan was taken aback again, and this time more strongly than by the
+flare of light against his eyes. For in the voice he recognized the
+quality of the girl&mdash;the same softness, the same velvety richness,
+though the pitch was a bass. In the voice of this man there was the same
+suggestion that the tone would crack if it were forced either up or
+down. With this great difference, one could hardly conceive of a
+situation which would push that man's voice beyond its monotone. It
+flowed with deadly, all-embracing softness. It clung about one; it
+fascinated and baffled the mind of the listener.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan was not in the habit of being baffled by voices. Neither
+was he a lover of formality. He looked about for a place to sit down,
+and immediately discovered that while the invalid sat in an enormous
+easy-chair bordered by shelves and supplied with wheels for raising and
+lowering the back and for propelling the chair about the room on its
+rubber tires, it was the only chair in the room which could make any
+pretensions toward comfort. As a matter of fact, aside from this one
+immense chair, devoted to the pleasure of the invalid, there was nothing
+in the room for his visitors to sit upon except two or three miserable
+backless stools.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan was not long taken aback. He tucked his cap under his arm,
+bowed profoundly in honor of the colonel's compliments, and brought one
+of the stools to a place where it was no nearer the rather ominous
+circle of the lamplight than was the invalid himself. With his eyes
+accustomed to the new light, Donnegan could now take better stock of his
+host. He saw a rather handsome face, with eyes exceedingly blue, young,
+and active; but the features of Macon as well as his body were blurred
+and obscured by a great fatness. He was truly a prodigious man, and one
+could understand the stoutness with which the invalid chair was made.
+His great wrist dimpled like the wrist of a healthy baby, and his face
+was so enlarged with superfluous flesh that the lower part of it quite
+dwarfed the upper. He seemed, at first glance, a man with a low forehead
+and bright, careless eyes and a body made immobile by flesh and
+sickness. A man whose spirits despised and defied pain. Yet a second
+glance showed that the forehead was, after all, a nobly proportioned
+one, and for all the bulk of that figure, for all the cripple-chair,
+Donnegan would not have been surprised to see the bulk spring lightly
+out of the chair to meet him.</p>
+
+<p>For his own part, sitting back on the stool with his cap tucked under
+his arm and his hands folded about one knee, he met the faint, cold
+smile of the colonel with a broad grin of his own.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can put it in a nutshell,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I was tired; dead beat;
+needed a handout, and rapped at your door. Along comes a mystery in the
+shape of an ugly-looking woman and opens the door to me. Tries to shut
+me out; I decided to come in. She insists on keeping me outside; all at
+once I see that I have to get into the house. I am brought in; your
+daughter tries to steer me off, sees that the job is more than she can
+get away with, and shelves me off upon you. And that, Colonel Macon, is
+the pleasant accident which brings you the favor of this call.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It would have been a speech both stupid and pert in the mouth of
+another; but Donnegan knew how to flavor words with a touch of mockery
+of himself as well as another. There were two manners in which this
+speech could have been received&mdash;with a wink or with a smile. But it
+would have been impossible to hear it and grow frigid. As for the
+colonel, he smiled.</p>
+
+<p>It was a tricky smile, however, as Donnegan felt. It spread easily upon
+that vast face and again went out and left all to the dominion of the
+cold, bright eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A case of curiosity,&quot; commented the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A case of hunger,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Mr. Donnegan, put it that way if you wish!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And a case of blankets needed for one night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Really? Have you ventured into such a country as this without any
+equipment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Outside of my purse, my equipment is of the invisible kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wits,&quot; suggested the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all. You hinted at it yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However, a hint is harder to take than to make.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel raised his faultless right hand&mdash;and oddly enough his great
+corpulence did not extend in the slightest degree to his hand, but
+stopped short at the wrists&mdash;and stroked his immense chin. His skin was
+like Lou Macon's, except that in place of the white-flower bloom his was
+a parchment, dead pallor. He lowered his hand with the same slow
+precision and folded it with the other, all the time probing Donnegan
+with his difficult eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unfortunately&mdash;most unfortunately, it is impossible for me to
+accommodate you, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The reply was not flippant, but quick. &quot;Not at all. I am the easiest
+person in the world to accommodate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man smiled sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My fortune has fallen upon evil days, sir. It is no longer what it was.
+There are in this house three habitable rooms; this one; my daughter's
+apartment; the kitchen where old Haggie sleeps. Otherwise you are in a
+rat trap of a place.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He shook his head, a slow, decisive motion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A spare blanket,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;will be enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was another sigh and another shake of the head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Even a corner of a rug to roll up in will do perfectly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see, it is impossible for me to entertain you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bare boards will do well enough for me, Colonel Macon. And if I have a
+piece of bread, a plate of cold beans&mdash;anything&mdash;I can entertain
+myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sorry to see you so compliant, Mr. Donnegan, because that makes my
+refusal seem the more unkind. But I cannot have you sleeping on the bare
+floor. Not on such a night. Pneumonia comes on one like a cat in the
+dark in such weather. It is really impossible to keep you here, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;H'm-m,&quot; said Donnegan. He began to feel that he was stumped, and it was
+a most unusual feeling for him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Besides, for a young fellow like you, with your agility, what is eight
+miles? Walk down the road and you will come to a place where you will be
+made at home and fed like a king.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eight miles, that's not much! But on such a night as this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint glint in the eyes of the colonel; was he not
+sharpening his wits for his contest of words, and enjoying it?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The wind will be at your back and buoy your steps. It will shorten the
+eight miles to four.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Very definitely Donnegan felt that the other was reading him. What was
+it that he saw as he turned the pages?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is one thing you fail to take into your accounting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have an irresistible aversion to walking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot; repeated Macon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or exercise in any form.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you are unfortunate to be in this country without a horse.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unfortunate, perhaps, but the fact is that I'm here. Very sorry to
+trouble you, though, colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am rarely troubled,&quot; said the colonel coldly. &quot;And since I have no
+means of accommodation, the laws of hospitality rest light on my
+shoulders.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet I have an odd thought,&quot; replied Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well? You have expressed a number already, it seems to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's this: that you've already made up your mind to keep me here.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="8"></a><h2>8</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The colonel stiffened in his chair, and under his bulk even those
+ponderous timbers quaked a little. Once more Donnegan gained an
+impression of chained activity ready to rise to any emergency. The
+colonel's jaw set and the last vestige of the smile left his eyes. Yet
+it was not anger that showed in its place. Instead, it was rather a
+hungry searching. He looked keenly into the face and the soul of
+Donnegan as a searchlight sweeps over waters by night.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a mind reader, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No more of a mind reader than a Chinaman is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, they are great readers of mind, my friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan grinned, and at this the colonel frowned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A great and mysterious people, sir. I keep evidences of them always
+about me. Look!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He swept the shaft of the reading light up and it fell upon a red vase
+against the yellow hangings. Even Donnegan's inexperienced eye read a
+price into that shimmering vase.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Queer color,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dusty claret. Ah, they have the only names for their colors. Think!
+Peach bloom&mdash;liquid dawn&mdash;ripe cherry&mdash;oil green&mdash;green of powdered
+tea&mdash;blue of the sky after rain&mdash;what names for color! What other land
+possesses such a tongue that goes straight to the heart!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel waved his faultless hands and then dropped them back upon
+the book with the tenderness of a benediction.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And their terms for texture&mdash;pear's rind&mdash;lime peel&mdash;millet seed! Do
+not scoff at China, Mr. Donnegan. She is the fairy godmother, and we are
+the poor children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He changed the direction of the light; Donnegan watched him, fascinated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what convinced you that I wished to keep you here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To amuse you, Colonel Macon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel exposed gleaming white teeth and laughed in that soft,
+smooth-flowing voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Amuse me? For fifteen years I have sat in this room and amused myself
+by taking in what I would and shutting out the rest of the world. I have
+made the walls thick and padded them to keep out all sound. You observe
+that there is no evidence here of the storm that is going on tonight.
+Amuse me? Indeed!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan thought of Lou Macon in her old, drab dress, huddling the
+poor cloak around her shoulders to keep out the cold, while her father
+lounged here in luxury. He could gladly have buried his lean fingers in
+that fat throat. From the first he had had an aversion to this man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well, I shall go. It has been a pleasant chat, colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very pleasant. And thank you. But before you go, taste this whisky. It
+will help you when you enter the wind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He opened a cabinet in the side of the chair and brought out a black
+bottle and a pair of glasses and put them on the broad arm of the chair.
+Donnegan sauntered back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see,&quot; he murmured, &quot;you will not let me go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this the colonel raised his head suddenly and glared into the eyes of
+his guest, and yet so perfect was his muscular and nerve control that he
+did not interrupt the thin stream of amber which trickled into one of
+the glasses. Looking down again, he finished pouring the drinks. They
+pledged each other with a motion, and drank. It was very old, very oily.
+And Donnegan smiled as he put down the empty glass.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sit down,&quot; said the colonel in a new voice.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan obeyed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fate,&quot; went on the colonel, &quot;rules our lives. We give our honest
+endeavors, but the deciding touch is the hand of Fate.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He garnished this absurd truism with a wave of his hand so solemn that
+Donnegan was chilled; as though the fat man were actually conversant
+with the Three Sisters.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fate has brought you to me; therefore, I intend to keep you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In my service. I am about to place a great mission and a great trust in
+your hands.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the hands of a man you know nothing about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know you as if I had raised you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled, and shaking his head, the red hair flashed and
+shimmered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As long as there is no work attached to the mission, it may be
+agreeable to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But there is work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then the contract is broken before it is made.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are rash. But I had rather begin with a dissent and then work
+upward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan waited.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To balance against work&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excuse me. Nothing balances against work for me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To balance against work,&quot; continued the colonel, raising a white hand
+and by that gesture crushing the protest of Donnegan, &quot;there is a great
+reward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Colonel Macon, I have never worked for money before and I shall not
+work for it now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You trouble me with interruptions. Who mentioned money? You shall not
+have a penny!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reward shall grow out of the work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the work?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is fighting.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan narrowed his eyes and searched the fat man thoroughly.
+It sounded like the talk of a charlatan, and yet there was a crispness
+to these sentences that made him suspect something underneath. For that
+matter, in certain districts his name and his career were known. He had
+never dreamed that that reputation could have come within a thousand
+miles of this part of the mountain desert.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You should have told me in the first place,&quot; he said with some anger,
+&quot;that you knew me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan, upon my honor, I never heard your name before my daughter
+uttered it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan waited soberly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I despise charlatanry as much as the next man. You shall see the steps
+by which I judged you. When you entered the room I threw a strong light
+upon you. You did not blanch; you immediately walked straight into the
+shaft of light although you could not see a foot before you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that proved?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A combative instinct, and coolness; not the sort of brute
+vindictiveness that fights for a rage, for a cool-minded love of
+conflict. Is that clear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shrugged his shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And above all, I need a fighter. Then I watched your eyes and your
+hands. The first were direct and yet they were alert. And your hands
+were perfectly steady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Qualifications for a fighter, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you wish further proof?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What of the fight to the death which you went through this same night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan started. It was a small movement, that flinching, and he
+covered it by continuing the upward gesture of his hand to his coat; he
+drew out tobacco and cigarette papers and commenced to roll his smoke.
+Looking up, he saw that the eyes of Colonel Macon were smiling, although
+his face was grave.</p>
+
+<p>A glint of understanding passed between the two men, but not a spoken
+word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I assure you, there was no death tonight,&quot; said Donnegan at length.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush! Of course not! But the tear on the shoulder of your coat&mdash;ah,
+that is too smooth edged for a tear, too long for the bite of a
+scissors. Am I right? Tush! Not a word!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel beamed with an almost tender pride, and Donnegan, knowing
+that the fat man looked upon him as a murderer, newly come from a
+death, considered the beaming face and thought many things in silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So it was easy to see that in coolness, courage, fighting instinct,
+skill, you were probably what I want. Yet something more than all these
+qualifications is necessary for the task which lies ahead of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You pile up the bad features, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To entice you, Donnegan. For one man, paint a rosy beginning, and once
+under way he will manage the hard parts. For you, show you the hard
+shell and you will trust it contains the choice flesh. I was saying,
+that I waited to see other qualities in you; qualities of the judgment.
+And suddenly you flashed upon me a single glance; I felt it clash
+against my willpower. I felt your look go past my guard like a rapier
+slipping around my blade. I, Colonel Macon, was for the first time
+outfaced, out-maneuvered. I admit it, for I rejoice in meeting such a
+man. And the next instant you told me that I should keep you here out of
+my own wish! Admirable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The admiration of the colonel, indeed, almost overwhelmed Donnegan, but
+he saw that in spite of the genial smile, the face suffused with warmth,
+the colonel was watching him every instant, flinty-eyed. Donnegan did as
+he had done on the stairs; he burst into laughter.</p>
+
+<p>When he had done, the colonel was leaning forward in his chair with his
+fingers interlacing, examining his guest from beneath somber brows. As
+he sat lurched forward he gave a terrible impression of that reserved
+energy which Donnegan had sensed before.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; said the colonel, &quot;I shall talk no more nonsense to you. You
+are a terrible fellow!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan knew that, for the first time in the colonel's life, he was
+meeting another man upon equal ground.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="9"></a><h2>9</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>In a way, it was an awful tribute, for one great fact grew upon him:
+that the colonel represented almost perfectly the power of absolute
+evil. Donnegan was not a squeamish sort, but the fat, smiling face of
+Macon filled him with unutterable aversion. A dozen times he would have
+left the room, but a silken thread held him back, the thought of Lou.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall be terse and entirely frank,&quot; said the colonel, and at once
+Donnegan reared triple guard and balanced himself for attack or defense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between you and me,&quot; went on the fat man, &quot;deceptive words are folly. A
+waste of energy.&quot; He flushed a little. &quot;You are, I believe, the first
+man who has ever laughed at me.&quot; The click of his teeth as he snapped
+them on this sentence seemed to promise that he should also be the last.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So I tear away the veils which made me ridiculous, I grant you.
+Donnegan, we have met each other just in time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;True,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;you have a task for me that promises a lot of
+fighting; and in return I get lodgings for the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wrong, wrong! I offer you much more. I offer you a career of action in
+which you may forget the great sorrow which has fallen upon you: and in
+the battles which lie before you, you will find oblivion for the sad
+past which lies behind you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Donnegan sprang to his feet with his hand caught at his breast; and
+he stood quivering, in an agony. Pain worked him as anger would do, and,
+his slender frame swelling, his muscles taut, he stood like a panther
+enduring the torture because knows it is folly to attempt to escape.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are a human devil!&quot; Donnegan said at last, and sank back upon his
+stool. For a moment he was overcome, his head falling upon his breast,
+and even when he looked up his face was terribly pale, and his eyes
+dull. His expression, however, cleared swiftly, and aside from the
+perspiration which shone on his forehead it would have been impossible
+ten seconds later to discover that the blow of the colonel had fallen
+upon him.</p>
+
+<p>All of this the colonel had observed and noted with grim satisfaction.
+Not once did he speak until he saw that all was well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am sorry,&quot; he said at length in a voice almost as delicate as the
+voice of Lou Macon. &quot;I am sorry, but you forced me to say more than I
+wished to say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan brushed the apology aside.</p>
+
+<p>His voice became low and hurried. &quot;Let us get on in the matter. I am
+eager to learn from you, colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. Since it seems that there is a place for both our interests
+in this matter, I shall run on in my tale and make it, as I promised you
+before, absolutely frank and curt. I shall not descend into small
+details. I shall give you a main sketch of the high points; for all men
+of mind are apt to be confused by the face of a thing, whereas the heart
+of it is perfectly clear to them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He settled into his narrative.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have heard of The Corner? No? Well, that is not strange; but a few
+weeks ago gold was found in the sands where the valleys of Young Muddy
+and Christobel Rivers join. The Corner is a long, wide triangle of sand,
+and the sand is filled with a gold deposit brought down from the
+headwaters of both rivers and precipitated here, where one current meets
+the other and reduces the resultant stream to sluggishness. The sands
+are rich&mdash;very rich!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had become a trifle flushed as he talked, and now, perhaps to cover
+his emotion, he carefully selected a cigarette from the humidor beside
+him and lighted it without haste before he spoke another word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Long ago I prospected over that valley; a few weeks ago it was brought
+to my attention again. I determined to stake some claims and work them.
+But I could not go myself. I had to send a trustworthy man. Whom should
+I select? There was only one possible. Jack Landis is my ward. A dozen
+years ago his parents died and they sent him to my care, for my fortune
+was then comfortable. I raised him with as much tenderness as I could
+have shown my own son; I lavished on him the affection and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here Donnegan coughed lightly; the fat man paused, and observing that
+this hypocrisy did not draw the veil over the bright eyes of his guest,
+he continued: &quot;In a word, I made him one of my family. And when the need
+for a man came I turned to him. He is young, strong, active, able to
+take care of himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan pricked his ears.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He went, accordingly, to The Corner and staked the claims and filed
+them as I directed. I was right. There was gold. Much gold. It panned
+out in nuggets.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He made an indescribable gesture, and through his strong fingers
+Donnegan had a vision of yellow gold pouring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But there is seldom a discovery of importance claimed by one man alone.
+This was no exception. A villain named William Lester, known as a
+scoundrel over the length and breadth of the cattle country, claimed
+that he had made the discovery first. He even went so far as to claim
+that I had obtained my information from him and he tried to jump the
+claims staked by Jack Landis, whereupon Jack, very properly, shot Lester
+down. Not dead, unfortunately, but slightly wounded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the meantime the rush for The Corner started. In a week there was a
+village; in a fortnight there was a town; in a month The Corner had
+become the talk of the ranges. Jack Landis found in the claims a mint.
+He sent me back a mere souvenir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fat man produced from his vest pocket a little chunk of yellow and
+with a dexterous motion whipped it at Donnegan. It was done so suddenly,
+so unexpectedly that the wanderer was well-nigh taken by surprise. But
+his hand flashed up and caught the metal before it struck his face. He
+found in the palm of his hand a nugget weighing perhaps five ounces,
+and he flicked it back to the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He sent me the souvenir, but that was all. Since that time I have
+waited. Nothing has come. I sent for word, and I learned that Jack
+Landis had betrayed his trust, fallen in love with some undesirable
+woman of the mining camp, denied my claim to any of the gold to which I
+had sent him. Unpleasant news? Yes. Ungrateful boy? Yes. But my mind is
+hardened against adversity.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yet this blow struck me close to the heart. Because Landis is engaged
+to marry my daughter, Lou. At first I could hardly believe in his
+disaffection. But the truth has at length been borne home to me. The
+scoundrel has abandoned both Lou and me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan repeated slowly: &quot;Your daughter loves this chap?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel allowed his glance to narrow, and he could do this the more
+safely because at this moment Donnegan's eyes were wandering into the
+distance. In that unguarded second Donnegan was defenseless and the
+colonel read something that set him beaming.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She loves him, of course,&quot; he said, &quot;and he is breaking her heart with
+his selfishness.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is breaking her heart?&quot; echoed Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel raised his hand and stroked his enormous chin. Decidedly he
+believed that things were getting on very well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is the position,&quot; he declared. &quot;Jack Landis was threatened by the
+wretch Lester, and shot him down. But Lester was not single-handed. He
+belongs to a wild crew, led by a mysterious fellow of whom no one knows
+very much, a deadly fighter, it is said, and a keen organizer and
+handler of men. Red-haired, wild, smooth. A bundle of contradictions.
+They call him Lord Nick because he has the pride of a nobleman and the
+cunning of the devil. He has gathered a few chosen spirits and cool
+fighters&mdash;the Pedlar, Joe Rix, Harry Masters&mdash;all celebrated names in
+the cattle country.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They worship Lord Nick partly because he is a genius of crime and
+partly because he understands how to guide them so that they may rob and
+even kill with impunity. His peculiarity is his ability to keep within
+the bounds of the law. If he commits a robbery he always first
+establishes marvelous alibis and throws the blame toward someone else;
+if it is the case of a killing, it is always the other man who is the
+aggressor. He has been before a jury half a dozen times, but the devil
+knows the law and pleads his own case with a tongue that twists the
+hearts out of the stupid jurors. You see? No common man. And this is the
+leader of the group of which Lester is one of the most debased members.
+He had no sooner been shot than Lord Nick himself appeared. He had his
+followers with him. He saw Jack Landis, threatened him with death, and
+made Jack swear that he would hand over half of the profits of the mines
+to the gang&mdash;of which, I suppose, Lester gets his due proportion. At the
+same time, Lord Nick attempted to persuade Jack that I, his adopted
+father, you might say, was really in the wrong, and that I had stolen
+the claims from this wretched Lester!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He waved this disgusting accusation into a mist and laughed with hateful
+softness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The result is this: Jack Landis draws a vast revenue from the mines.
+Half of it he turns over to Lord Nick, and Lord Nick in return gives him
+absolute freedom and backing in the camp, where he is, and probably will
+continue the dominant factor. As for the other half, Landis spends it on
+this woman with whom he has become infatuated. And not a penny comes
+through to me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Colonel Macon leaned back in his chair and his eyes became fixed upon a
+great distance. He smiled, and the blood turned cold in the veins of
+Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course this adventuress, this Nelly Lebrun, plays hand in glove with
+Lord Nick and his troupe; unquestionably she shares her spoils, so that
+nine-tenths of the revenue from the mines is really flowing back through
+the hands of Lord Nick and Jack Landis has become a silly figurehead. He
+struts about the streets of The Corner as a great mine owner, and with
+the power of Lord Nick behind him, not one of the people of the gambling
+houses and dance halls dares cross him. So that Jack has come to
+consider himself a great man. Is it clear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan had not yet drawn his gaze entirely back from the distance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is the possible solution,&quot; went on the colonel. &quot;Jack Landis must
+be drawn away from the influence of this Nelly Lebrun. He must be
+brought back to us and shown his folly both as regards the adventuress
+and Lord Nick; for so long as Nelly has a hold on him, just so long
+Lord Nick will have his hand in Jack's pocket. You see how beautifully
+their plans and their work dovetail? How, therefore, am I to draw him
+from Nelly? There is only one way: send my daughter to the camp&mdash;send
+Lou to The Corner and let one glimpse of her beauty turn the shabby
+prettiness of this woman to a shadow! Lou is my last hope!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan wakened. His sneer was not a pleasant thing to see.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Send her to a new mining camp. Colonel Macon, you have the gambling
+spirit; you are willing to take great chances!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So! So!&quot; murmured the colonel, a little taken aback. &quot;But I should
+never send her except with an adequate protector.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An adequate protector even against these celebrated gunmen who run the
+camp as you have already admitted?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An adequate protector&mdash;you are the man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I? I take your daughter to the camp and play her against Nelly Lebrun
+to win back Jack Landis? Is that the scheme?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; murmured Donnegan. And he got up and began to walk the room,
+white-faced; the colonel watched him in a silent agony of anxiety.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She truly loves this Landis?&quot; asked Donnegan, swallowing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A love that has grown out of their long intimacy together since they
+were children.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bah! Calf love! Let the fellow go and she will forget him. Hearts are
+not broken in these days by disappointments in love affairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel writhed in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Lou&mdash;you do not know her heart!&quot; he suggested. &quot;If you looked
+closely at her you would have seen that she is pale. She does not
+suspect the truth, but I think she is wasting away because Jack hasn't
+written for weeks.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He saw Donnegan wince under the whip.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is true,&quot; murmured the wanderer. &quot;She is not like others, heaven
+knows!&quot; He turned. &quot;And what if I fail to bring over Jack Landis with
+the sight of Lou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel relaxed; the great crisis was past and Donnegan would
+undertake the journey.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that case, my dear lad, there is an expedient so simple that you
+astonish me by not perceiving it. If there is no way to wean Landis away
+from the woman, then get him alone and shoot him through the heart. In
+that way you remove from the life of Lou a man unworthy of her and you
+also make the mines come to the heir of Jack Landis&mdash;namely, myself. And
+in the latter case, Mr. Donnegan, be sure&mdash;oh, be sure that I should not
+forget who brought the mines into my hands!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="10"></a><h2>10</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Fifty miles over any sort of going is a stiff march. Fifty miles uphill
+and down and mostly over districts where there was only a rough cow path
+in lieu of a road made a prodigious day's work; and certainly it was an
+almost incredible feat for one who professed to hate work with a
+consuming passion and who had looked upon an eight-mile jaunt the night
+before as an insuperable burden. Yet such was the distance which
+Donnegan had covered, and now he drove the pack mule out on the shoulder
+of the hill in full view of The Corner with the triangle of the Young
+Muddy and Christobel Rivers embracing the little town. Even the gaunt,
+leggy mule was tired to the dropping point, and the tough buckskin which
+trailed up behind went with downward head. When Louise Macon turned to
+him, he had reached the point where he swung his head around first and
+then grudgingly followed the movement with his body. The girl was tired,
+also, in spite of the fact that she had covered every inch of the
+distance in the saddle. There was that violet shade of weariness under
+her eyes and her shoulders slumped forward. Only Donnegan, the hater of
+labor, was fresh.</p>
+
+<p>They had started in the first dusk of the coming day; it was now the
+yellow time of the slant afternoon sunlight; between these two points
+there had been a body of steady plodding. The girl had looked askance at
+that gaunt form of Donnegan's when they began; but before three hours,
+seeing that the spring never left his step nor the swinging rhythm his
+stride, she began to wonder. This afternoon, nothing he did could have
+surprised her. From the moment he entered the house the night before he
+had been a mystery. Till her death day she would not forget the fire
+with which he had stared up at her from the foot of the stairs. But when
+he came out of her father's room&mdash;not cowed and whipped as most men left
+it&mdash;he had looked at her with a veiled glance, and since that moment
+there had always been a mist of indifference over his eyes when he
+looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>In the beginning of that day's march all she knew was that her father
+trusted her to this stranger, Donnegan, to take her to The Corner, where
+he was to find Jack Landis and bring Jack back to his old allegiance and
+find what he was doing with his time and his money. It was a quite
+natural proceeding, for Jack was a wild sort, and he was probably
+gambling away all the gold that was dug in his mines. It was perfectly
+natural throughout, except that she should have been trusted so entirely
+to a stranger. That was a remarkable thing, but, then, her father was a
+remarkable man, and it was not the first time that his actions had been
+inscrutable, whether concerning her or the affairs of other people. She
+had heard men come into their house cursing Colonel Macon with death in
+their faces; she had seen them sneak out after a soft-voiced interview
+and never appear again. In her eyes, her father was invincible,
+all-powerful. When she thought of superlatives, she thought of him. Her
+conception of mystery was the smile of the colonel, and her conception
+of tenderness was bounded by the gentle voice of the same man.
+Therefore, it was entirely sufficient to her that the colonel had said:
+&quot;Go, and trust everything to Donnegan. He has the power to command you
+and you must obey&mdash;until Jack comes back to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>That was odd, for, as far as she knew, Jack had never left her. But she
+had early discarded any will to question her father. Curiosity was a
+thing which the fat man hated above all else.</p>
+
+<p>Therefore, it was really not strange to her that throughout the journey
+her guide did not speak half a dozen words to her. Once or twice when
+she attempted to open the conversation he had replied with crushing
+monosyllables, and there was an end. For the rest, he was always
+swinging down the trail ahead of her at a steady, unchanging, rapid
+stride. Uphill and down it never varied. And so they came out upon the
+shoulder of the hill and saw the storm center of The Corner. They were
+in the hills behind the town; two miles would bring them into it. And
+now Donnegan came back to her from the mule. He took off his hat and
+shook the dust away; he brushed a hand across his face. He was still
+unshaven. The red stubble made him hideous, and the dust and
+perspiration covered his face as with a mask. Only his eyes were rimmed
+with white skin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'd better get off the horse, here,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>He held her stirrup, and she obeyed without a word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sit down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sat down on the flat-topped boulder which he designated, and,
+looking up, observed the first sign of emotion in his face. He was
+frowning, and his face was drawn a little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are tired,&quot; he stated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A little.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are tired,&quot; said the wanderer in a tone that implied dislike of any
+denial. Therefore she made no answer. &quot;I'm going down into the town to
+look things over. I don't want to parade you through the streets until I
+know where Landis is to be found and how he'll receive you. The Corner
+is a wild town; you understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; she said blankly, and noted nervously that the reply did not
+please him. He actually scowled at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll be all right here. I'll leave the pack mule with you; if
+anything should happen&mdash;but nothing is going to happen, I'll be back in
+an hour or so. There's a pool of water. You can get a cold drink there
+and wash up if you want to while I'm gone. But don't go to sleep!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A place like this is sure to have a lot of stragglers hunting around
+it. Bad characters. You understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She could not understand why he should make a mystery of it; but then,
+he was almost as strange as her father. His careful English and his
+ragged clothes were typical of him inside and out.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have a gun there in your holster. Can you use it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Try it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a thirty-two, a woman's light weapon. She took it out and
+balanced it in her hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The blue rock down the hillside. Let me see you chip it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her hand went up, and without pausing to sight along the barrel, she
+fired; fire flew from the rock, and there appeared a white, small scar.
+Donnegan sighed with relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you squeezed the butt rather than pulled the trigger,&quot; he commented,
+&quot;you would have made a bull's-eye that time. Now, I don't mean that in
+any likelihood you'll have to defend yourself. I simply want you to be
+aware that there's plenty of trouble around The Corner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not afraid?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan settled his hat a little more firmly upon his head. He had been
+on the verge of attributing her gentleness to a blank, stupid mind; he
+began to realize that there was metal under the surface. He felt that
+some of the qualities of the father were echoed faintly, and at a
+distance, in the child. In a way, she made him think of an unawakened
+creature. When she was roused, if the time ever came, it might be that
+her eye could become a thing alternately of fire and ice, and her voice
+might carry with a ring.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This business has to be gotten through quickly,&quot; he went on. &quot;One
+meeting with Jack Landis will be enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She wondered why he set his jaw when he said this, but he was wondering
+how deeply the colonel's ward had fallen into the clutches of Nelly
+Lebrun. If that first meeting did not bring Landis to his senses, what
+followed? One of two things. Either the girl must stay on in The Corner
+and try her hand with her fianc&eacute; again, or else the final brutal
+suggestion of the colonel must be followed; he must kill Landis. It was
+a cold-blooded suggestion, but Donnegan was a cold-blooded man. As he
+looked at the girl, where she sat on the boulder, he knew definitely,
+first and last, that he loved her, and that he would never again love
+any other woman. Every instinct drew him toward the necessity of
+destroying Landis. There was his stumbling block. But what if she truly
+loved Landis?</p>
+
+<p>He would have to wait in order to find that out. And as he stood there
+with the sun shining on the red stubble on his face he made a resolution
+the more profound because it was formed in silence: if she truly loved
+Landis he would serve her hand and foot until she had her will.</p>
+
+<p>But all he said was simply: &quot;I shall be back before it's dark.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall be comfortable here,&quot; replied the girl, and smiled farewell at
+him.</p>
+
+<p>And while Donnegan went down the slope full of darkness he thought of
+that smile.</p>
+
+<p>The Corner spread more clearly before him with every step he made. It
+was a type of the gold-rush town. Of course most of the dwellings were
+tents&mdash;dog tents many of them; but there was a surprising sprinkling of
+wooden shacks, some of them of considerable size. Beginning at the very
+edge of the town and spread over the sand flats were the mines and the
+black sprinkling of laborers. And the town itself was roughly jumbled
+around one street. Over to the left the main road into The Corner
+crossed the wide, shallow ford of the Young Muddy River and up this road
+he saw half a dozen wagons coming, wagons of all sizes; but nothing went
+out of The Corner. People who came stayed there, it seemed.</p>
+
+<p>He dropped over the lower hills, and the voice of the gold town rose to
+him. It was a murmur like that of an army preparing for battle. Now and
+then a blast exploded, for what purpose he could not imagine in this
+school of mining. But as a rule the sounds were subdued by the distance.
+He caught the muttering of many voices, in which laughter and shouts
+were brought to the level of a whisper at close hand; and through all
+this there was a persistent clangor of metallic sounds. No doubt from
+the blacksmith shops where picks and other implements were made or
+sharpened and all sorts of repairing carried on. But the predominant
+tone of the voice of The Corner was this persistent ringing of metal. It
+suggested to Donnegan that here was a town filled with men of iron and
+all the gentler parts of their natures forgotten. An odd place to bring
+such a woman as Lou Macon, surely!</p>
+
+<p>He reached the level, and entered the town.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="11"></a><h2>11</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Hunting for news, he went naturally to the news emporium which took the
+place of the daily paper&mdash;namely, he went to the saloons. But on the way
+he ran through a liberal cross-section of The Corner's populace. First
+of all, the tents and the ruder shacks. He saw little sheet-iron stoves
+with the tin dishes piled, unwashed, upon the tops of them when the
+miners rushed back to their work; broken handles of picks and shovels;
+worn-out shirts and overalls lay where they had been tossed; here was a
+flat strip of canvas supported by four four-foot poles and without
+shelter at the sides, and the belongings of one careless miner tumbled
+beneath this miserable shelter; another man had striven for some
+semblance of a home and he had framed a five-foot walk leading up to the
+closed flap of his tent with stones of a regular size. But nowhere was
+there a sign of life, and would not be until semidarkness brought the
+unwilling workers back to the tents.</p>
+
+<p>Out of this district he passed quickly onto the main street, and here
+there was a different atmosphere. The first thing he saw was a man
+dressed as a cowpuncher from belt to spurs&mdash;spurs on a miner&mdash;but above
+the waist he blossomed in a frock coat and a silk hat. Around the coat
+he had fastened his belt, and the shirt beneath the coat was common
+flannel, open at the throat. He walked, or rather staggered, on the arm
+of an equally strange companion who was arrayed in a white silk shirt,
+white flannel trousers, white dancing pumps, and a vast sombrero! But as
+if this was not sufficient protection for his head, he carried a parasol
+of the most brilliant green silk and twirled it above his head. The two
+held a wavering course and went blindly past Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>It was sufficiently clear that the storekeeper had followed the gold.</p>
+
+<p>He noted a cowboy sitting in his saddle while he rolled a cigarette.
+Obviously he had come in to look things over rather than to share in the
+mining, and he made the one sane, critical note in the carnival of noise
+and color. Donnegan began to pass stores. There was the jeweler's; the
+gent's furnishing; a real estate office&mdash;what could real estate be doing
+on the Young Muddy's desert? Here was the pawnshop, the windows of which
+were already packed. The blacksmith had a great establishment, and the
+roar of the anvils never died away; feed and grain and a dozen
+lunch-counter restaurants. All this had come to The Corner within six
+weeks.</p>
+
+<p>Liquor seemed to be plentiful, too. In the entire length of the street
+he hardly saw a sober man, except the cowboy. Half a dozen in one group
+pitched silver dollars at a mark. But he was in the saloon district now,
+and dominant among the rest was the big, unpainted front of a building
+before which hung an enormous sign:</p>
+
+<h3 align=center>LEBRUN'S JOY EMPORIUM</h3>
+
+<p>Donnegan turned in under the sign.</p>
+
+<p>It was one big room. The bar stretched completely around two sides of
+it. The floor was dirt, but packed to the hardness of wood. The low roof
+was supported by a scattering of wooden pillars, and across the floor
+the gaming tables were spread. At that vast bar not ten men were
+drinking now; at the crowding tables there were not half a dozen
+players; yet behind the bar stood a dozen tenders ready to meet the
+evening rush from the mines. And at the tables waited an equal number of
+the professional gamblers of the house.</p>
+
+<p>From the door Donnegan observed these things with one sweeping glance,
+and then proceeded to transform himself. One jerk at the visor of his
+cap brought it down over his eyes and covered his face with shadow; a
+single shrug bunched the ragged coat high around his shoulders, and the
+shoulders themselves he allowed to drop forward. With his hands in his
+pockets he glided slowly across the room toward the bar, for all the
+world a picture of the guttersnipe who had been kicked from pillar to
+post until self-respect is dead in him. And pausing in his advance, he
+leaned against one of the pillars and looked hungrily toward the bar.</p>
+
+<p>He was immediately hailed from behind the bar with: &quot;Hey, you. No tramps
+in here. Pay and stay in Lebrun's!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The command brought an immediate protest. A big fellow stepped from the
+bar, his sombrero pushed to the back of his head, his shirt sleeves
+rolled to the elbow away from vast hairy forearms. One of his long arms
+swept out and brought Donnegan to the bar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I ain't no prophet,&quot; declared the giant, &quot;but I can spot a man that's
+dry. What'll you have, bud?&quot; And to the bartender he added: &quot;Leave him
+be, pardner, unless you're all set for considerable noise in here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Long as his drinks are paid for,&quot; muttered the bartender, &quot;here he
+stays. But these floaters do make me tired!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He jabbed the bottle across the bar at Donnegan and spun a glass noisily
+at him, and the &quot;floater&quot; observed the angry bartender with a frightened
+side glance, and then poured his drink gingerly. When the glass was half
+full he hesitated and sought the face of the bartender again, for
+permission to go on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fill her up!&quot; commanded the giant. &quot;Fill her up, lad, and drink
+hearty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never yet,&quot; observed the bartender darkly, &quot;seen a beggar that wasn't
+a hog.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan's protector shifted his belt so that the holster came a
+little more forward on his thigh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Son,&quot; he said, &quot;how long you been in these parts?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Long enough,&quot; declared the other, and lowered his black brows. &quot;Long
+enough to be sick of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe, maybe,&quot; returned the cowpuncher-miner, &quot;meantime you tie to
+this. We got queer ways out here. When a gent drinks with us he's our
+friend. This lad here is my pardner, just now. If I was him I would of
+knocked your head off before now for what you've said&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't want no trouble,&quot; Donnegan said whiningly.</p>
+
+<p>At this the bartender chuckled, and the miner showed his teeth in his
+disgust.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Every gent has got his own way,&quot; he said sourly. &quot;But while you drink
+with Hal Stern you drink with your chin up, bud. And don't forget it.
+And them that tries to run over you got to run over me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Saying this, he laid his large left hand on the bar and leaned a little
+toward the bartender, but his right hand remained hanging loosely at his
+side. It was near the holster, as Donnegan noticed. And the bartender,
+having met the boring glance of the big man for a moment, turned surlily
+away. The giant looked to Donnegan and observed: &quot;Know a good definition
+of the word, skunk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nope,&quot; said Donnegan, brightening now that the stern eye, of the
+bartender was turned away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's one that might do. A skunk is a critter that bites when your
+back is turned and runs when you look it in the eye. Here's how!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He drained his own glass, and Donnegan dexterously followed the example.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what might you be doing around these parts?&quot; asked the big man,
+veiling his contempt under a mild geniality.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me? Oh, nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Looking for a job, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shrugged.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Work ain't my line,&quot; he confided.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;H'm-m-m,&quot; said Hal Stern. &quot;Well, you don't make no bones about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But just now,&quot; continued Donnegan, &quot;I thought maybe I'd pick up some
+sort of a job for a while.&quot; He looked ruefully at the palms of his hands
+which were as tender as the hands of a woman. &quot;Heard a fellow say that
+Jack Landis was a good sort to work for&mdash;didn't rush his men none. They
+said I might find him here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man grunted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Too early for him. He don't circulate around much till the sun goes
+down. Kind of hard on his skin, the sun, maybe. So you're going to work
+for him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was figuring on it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, tie to this, bud. If you work for him you won't have him over
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, you'll have&quot;&mdash;he glanced a little uneasily around him&mdash;&quot;Lord Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's he?&quot; The big man started in astonishment. &quot;Sufferin' catamounts!
+Who is he?&quot; He laughed in a disagreeable manner. &quot;Well, son, you'll
+find out, right enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The way you talk, he don't sound none too good.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Hal Stern grew anxious. &quot;The way I talk? Have I said anything agin' him?
+Not a word! He's&mdash;he's&mdash;well, there ain't ever been trouble between us
+and there never ain't going to be.&quot; He flushed and looked steadily at
+Donnegan. &quot;Maybe he sent you to talk to me?&quot; he asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan's eyes took on a childish wideness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, I never seen him,&quot; he declared. Hall Stern allowed the muscles of
+his face to relax. &quot;All right,&quot; he said, &quot;they's no harm done. But Lord
+Nick is a name that ain't handled none too free in these here parts.
+Remember that!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how,&quot; pondered Donnegan, &quot;can I be working for Lord Nick when I
+sign up to work under Jack Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you how. Nick and Lebrun work together. Split profits. And
+Nelly Lebrun works Landis for his dust. So the stuff goes in a
+circle&mdash;Landis to Nelly to Lebrun to Nick. That clear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't quite see it,&quot; murmured Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't think you would,&quot; declared the other, and snorted his disgust.
+&quot;But that's all I'm going to say. Here come the boys&mdash;and dead dry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the afternoon was verging upon evening, and the first drift of
+laborers from the mines was pouring into The Corner. One thing at least
+was clear to Donnegan: that everyone knew how infatuated Landis had
+become with Nelly Lebrun and that Landis had not built up an
+extraordinarily good name for himself.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="12"></a><h2>12</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>By the time absolute darkness had set in, Donnegan, in the new role of
+lady's chaperon, sat before a dying fire with Louise Macon beside him.
+He had easily seen from his talk with Stern that Landis was a public
+figure, whether from the richness of his claims or his relations with
+Lord Nick and Lebrun, or because of all these things; but as a public
+figure it would be impossible to see him alone in his own tent, and
+unless Louise could meet him alone half her power over him&mdash;supposing
+that she still retained any&mdash;would be lost. Better by far that Landis
+should come to her than that she should come to him, so Donnegan had
+rented two tents by the day at an outrageous figure from the
+enterprising real estate company of The Corner and to this new home he
+brought the girl.</p>
+
+<p>She accepted the arrangement with surprising equanimity. It seemed that
+her father's training had eliminated from her mind any questioning of
+the motives of others. She became even cheerful as she set about
+arranging the pack which Donnegan put in her tent. Afterward she cooked
+their supper over the fire which he built for her. Never was there such
+a quick house-settling. And by the time it was absolutely dark they had
+washed the dishes and sat before Lou's tent looking over the night
+lights of The Corner and hearing the voice of its Great White Way
+opening.</p>
+
+<p>She had not even asked why he did not bring her straight to Jack Landis.
+She had looked into Donnegan's tent, furnished with a single blanket and
+his canvas kit, and had offered to share her pack with him. And now they
+sat side by side before the tent and still she asked no questions about
+what was to come.</p>
+
+<p>Her silence was to Donnegan the dropping of the water upon the hard
+rock. He was crumbling under it, and a wild hatred for the colonel rose
+in him. No doubt that spirit of evil had foreseen all this; and he knew
+that every moment spent with the girl would drive Donnegan on closer to
+the accomplishment of the colonel's great purpose&mdash;the death of Jack
+Landis. For the colonel, as Jack's next of kin, would take over all his
+mining interests and free them at a stroke from the silent partnership
+which apparently existed with Lord Nick and Lester. One bullet would do
+all this: and with Jack dead, who else stood close to the girl? It was
+only necessary that she should not know who sped the bullet home.</p>
+
+<p>A horrible fancy grew up in Donnegan, as he sat there, that between him
+and the girl lay a dead body.</p>
+
+<p>He was glad when the time came and he could tell her that he was going
+down to The Corner to find Jack Landis and bring him to her. She rose to
+watch him go and he heard her say &quot;Come soon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It shocked Donnegan into realization that for all her calm exterior she
+was perfectly aware of the danger of her position in the wild mining
+camp. She must know, also, that her reputation would be compromised; yet
+never once had she winced, and Donnegan was filled with wonder as he
+went down the hill toward the camp which was spread beneath him; for
+their tents were a little detached from the main body of the town.
+Behind her gentle eyes, he now felt, and under the softness of her
+voice, there was the same iron nerve that was in her father. Her hatred
+could be a deathless passion, and her love also; and the great question
+to be answered now was, did she truly love Jack Landis?</p>
+
+<p>The Corner at night was like a scene at a circus. There was the same
+rush of people, the same irregular flush of lights, the same glimmer of
+lanterns through canvas, the same air of impermanence. Once, in one of
+those hushes which will fall upon every crowd, he heard a coyote wailing
+sharply and far away, as though the desert had sent out this voice to
+mock at The Corner and all it contained.</p>
+
+<p>He had only to ask once to discover where Landis was: Milligan's dance
+hall. Before Milligan's place a bonfire burned from the beginning of
+dusk to the coming of day; and until the time when that fire was
+quenched with buckets of water, it was a sign to all that the merriment
+was under way in the dance hall. If Lebrun's was the sun of the
+amusement world in The Corner, Milligan's was the moon. Everybody who
+had money to lose went to Lebrun's. Every one who was out for gayety
+went to Milligan's. Milligan was a plunger. He had brought up an
+orchestra which demanded fifteen dollars a day and he paid them that and
+more. He not only was able to do this, but he established a bar at the
+entrance from which all who entered were served with a free drink. The
+entrance, also, was not subject to charge. The initial drink at the door
+was spiced to encourage thirst, so Milligan made money as fast, and far
+more easily, than if he had been digging it out of the ground.</p>
+
+<p>To the door of this pleasure emporium came Donnegan. He had transformed
+himself into the ragged hobo by the jerking down of his cap again, and
+the hunching of his shoulders. And shrinking past the bar with a hungry
+sidewise glance, as one who did not dare present himself for free
+liquor, he entered Milligan's.</p>
+
+<p>That is, he had put his foot across the threshold when he was caught
+roughly by the shoulder and dragged to one side. He found himself
+looking up into the face of a strapping fellow who served Milligan as
+bouncer. Milligan had an eye for color. Andy Lewis was tolerably well
+known as a fighting man of parts, who not only wore two guns but could
+use them both at once, which is much more difficult than is generally
+understood. But far more than for his fighting parts Milligan hired his
+bouncer for the sake of his face. It was a countenance made to
+discourage trouble makers. A mule had kicked Lewis in the chin, and a
+great white welt deformed his lower lip. Scars of smallpox added to his
+decorative effect, and he had those extremely bushy brows which for some
+reason are generally considered to denote ferocity. Now, Donnegan was
+not above middle height at best, and in his present shrinking attitude
+he found himself looking up a full head into the formidable face of the
+bouncer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what are you doing in here?&quot; asked the genial Andy. &quot;Don't you know
+this joint is for white folks?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I ain't colored,&quot; murmured Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You took considerable yaller to me,&quot; declared Lewis. He straightway
+chuckled, and his own keen appreciation of his wit softened his
+expression. &quot;What you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shivered under his rags.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want to see Jack Landis,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>It had a wonderful effect upon the doorkeeper. Donnegan found that the
+very name of Landis was a charm of power in The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You want to see him?&quot; he queried in amazement. &quot;You?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked Donnegan over again, and then grinned broadly, as if in
+anticipation. &quot;Well, go ahead. There he sits&mdash;no, he's dancing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The music was in full swing; it was chiefly brass; but now and then, in
+softer moments, one could hear a violin squeaking uncertainly. At least
+it went along with a marked, regular rhythm, and the dancers swirled
+industriously around the floor. A very gay crowd; color was apparently
+appreciated in The Corner. And Donnegan, standing modestly out of sight
+behind a pillar until the dance ended, noted twenty phases of life in
+twenty faces. And Donnegan saw the flushes of liquor, and heard the loud
+voices of happy fellows who had made their &quot;strikes&quot;; but in all that
+brilliant crew he had no trouble in picking out Jack Landis and Nelly
+Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>They danced together, and where they passed, the others steered a little
+off so as to give them room on the dance floor, as if the men feared
+that they might cross the formidable Landis, and as if the women feared
+to be brought into too close comparison with Nelly Lebrun. She was,
+indeed, a brilliant figure. She had eyes of the Creole duskiness, a
+delicate olive skin, with a pastel coloring. The hand on the shoulder of
+Landis was a thing of fairy beauty. And her eyes had that peculiar
+quality of seeming to see everything, and rest on every face
+particularly. So that, as she whirled toward Donnegan, he winced,
+feeling that she had found him out among the shadows.</p>
+
+<p>She had a glorious partner to set her off. And Donnegan saw bitterly
+why Lou Macon could love him. Height without clumsiness, bulk and a
+light foot at once, a fine head, well poised, blond hair and a Grecian
+profile&mdash;such was Jack Landis. He wore a vest of fawn skin; his boots
+were black in the foot and finished with the softest red leather for the
+leg. And he had yellow buckskin trousers, laced in a Mexican fashion
+with silver at the sides; a narrow belt, a long, red silk handkerchief
+flying from behind his neck in cowboy fashion. So much flashing
+splendor, even in that gay assembly, would have been childishly
+conspicuous on another man. But in big Jack Landis there was patently a
+great deal of the unaffected child. He was having a glorious time on
+this evening, and his eye roved the room challenging admiration in a
+manner that was amusing rather than offensive. He was so overflowingly
+proud of having the prettiest girl in The Corner upon his arm and so
+conscious of being himself probably the finest-looking man that he
+escaped conceit, it might almost be said, by his very excess of it.</p>
+
+<p>Upon this splendid individual, then, the obscure Donnegan bent his gaze.
+He saw the dancers pause and scatter as the music ended, saw them drift
+to the tables along the edges of the room, saw the scurry of waiters
+hurrying drinks up in the interval, saw Nelly Lebrun sip a lemonade, saw
+Jack Landis toss off something stronger. And then Donnegan skirted
+around the room and came to the table of Jack Landis at the very moment
+when the latter was tossing a gold piece to the waiter and giving a new
+order.</p>
+
+<p>Prodigal sons in the distance of thought are apt to be both silly: and
+disgusting, but at close hand they usually dazzle the eye. Even the cold
+brain of Donnegan was daunted a little as he drew near.</p>
+
+<p>He came behind the chair of the tall master of The Corner, and while
+Nelly Lebrun stopped her glass halfway to her lips and stared at the
+ragged stranger, Donnegan was whispering in the ear of Jack Landis:
+&quot;I've got to see you alone.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Landis turned his head slowly and his eye darkened a little as he met
+the reddish, unshaven face of the stranger. Then, with a careless shrug
+of distaste, he drew out a few coins and poured them into Donnegan's
+palm; the latter pocketed them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lou Macon,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Landis rose from his chair, and it was not until he stood so close
+to Donnegan that the latter realized the truly Herculean proportions of
+the young fellow. He bowed his excuses to Nelly Lebrun, not without
+grace of manner, and then huddled Donnegan into a corner with a wave of
+his vast arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now what do you want? Who are you? Who put that name in your mouth?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's in The Corner,&quot; said Donnegan, and he dwelt upon the face of Jack
+Landis with feverish suspense. A moment later a great weight had slipped
+from his heart. If Lou Macon loved Landis it was beyond peradventure
+that Landis was not breaking his heart because of the girl. For at her
+name he flushed darkly, and then, that rush of color fading, he was left
+with a white spot in the center of each cheek.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="13"></a><h2>13</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>First his glance plunged into vacancy; then it flicked over his shoulder
+at Nelly Lebrun and he bit his lip. Plainly, it was not the most welcome
+news that Jack Landis had ever heard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where is she?&quot; he asked nervously of Donnegan, and he looked over the
+ragged fellow again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll take you to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man swayed back and forth from foot to foot, balancing in his
+hesitation. &quot;Wait a moment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He strode to Nelly Lebrun and bent over her; Donnegan saw her eyes flash
+up&mdash;oh, heart of the south, what eyes of shadow and fire! Jack Landis
+trembled under the glance; yes, he was deeply in love with the girl. And
+Donnegan watched her face shade with suspicion, stiffen with cold anger,
+warm and soften again under the explanations of Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, looking from the distance, could read everything; it is
+nearness that bewitches a man when he talks to a woman. When Odysseus
+talked to Circe, no doubt he stood on the farther side of the room!</p>
+
+<p>When Landis came again, he was perspiring from the trial of fire
+through which he had just passed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come,&quot; he ordered, and set out at a sweeping stride.</p>
+
+<p>Plainly he was anxious to get this matter done with as soon as possible.
+As for Donnegan, he saw a man whom Landis had summoned to take his place
+sit down at the table with Nelly Lebrun. She was laughing with the
+newcomer as though nothing troubled her at all, but over his shoulder
+her glance probed the distance and followed Jack Landis. She wanted to
+see the messenger again, the man who had called her companion away; but
+in this it was fox challenging fox. Donnegan took note and was careful
+to place between him and the girl every pillar and every group of
+people. As far as he was concerned, her first glance must do to read and
+judge and remember him by.</p>
+
+<p>Outside Landis shot several questions at him in swift succession; he
+wanted to know how the girl had happened to make the trip. Above all,
+what the colonel was thinking and doing and if the colonel himself had
+come. But Donnegan replied with monosyllables, and Landis, apparently
+reconciling himself to the fact that the messenger was a fool, ceased
+his questions. They kept close to a run all the way out of the camp and
+up the hillside to the two detached tents where Donnegan and the girl
+slept that night. A lantern burned in both the tents.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has made things ready for me,&quot; thought Donnegan, his heart opening.
+&quot;She has kept house for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed out Lou's tent to his companion and the big man, with a
+single low word of warning, threw open the flap of the tent and strode
+in.</p>
+
+<p>There was only the split part of a second between the rising and the
+fall of the canvas, but in that swift interval, Donnegan saw the girl
+starting up to receive Landis. Her calm was broken at last. Her cheeks
+were flushed; her eyes were starry with what? Expectancy? Love?</p>
+
+<p>It stopped Donnegan like a blow in the face and turned his heart to
+lead; and then, shamelessly, he glided around the tent and dropped down
+beside it to eavesdrop. After all, there was some excuse. If she loved
+the man he, Donnegan, would let him live; if she did not love him, he,
+Donnegan, would kill him like a worthless rat under heel. That is, if he
+could. No wonder that the wanderer listened with heart and soul!</p>
+
+<p>He missed the first greeting. It was only a jumble of exclamations, but
+now he heard: &quot;But, Lou, what a wild idea. Across the mountains&mdash;with
+whom?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The man who brought you here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know? He looks like a shifty little rat to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's big enough, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such small praise was enough to set Donnegan's heart thumping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Besides, father told me to go with him, to trust him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah!&quot; There was an abrupt chilling and lowering of Landis' voice. &quot;The
+colonel knows him? He's one of the colonel's men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Plainly the colonel was to him as the rod to the child.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why didn't you come directly to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We thought it would be better not to.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;H'm-m. Your guide&mdash;well, what was the colonel's idea in sending you
+here? Heavens above, doesn't he know that a mining camp is no place for
+a young girl? And you haven't a sign of a chaperon, Lou! What the devil
+can I do? What was in his mind?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You haven't written for a long time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good Lord! Written! Letters! Does he think I have time for letters?&quot;
+The lie came smoothly enough. &quot;Working day and night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smoothed his whiskers and grinned into the night. Landis might
+prove better game than he had anticipated.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He worried,&quot; said the girl, and her voice was as even as ever. &quot;He
+worried, and sent me to find out if anything is wrong.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then: &quot;Nonsense! What is there to worry about? Lou, I'm half inclined to
+think that the colonel doesn't trust me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer. Was she reading beneath the boisterous assurance of
+Landis?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One thing is clear to me&mdash;and to you, too, I hope. The first thing is
+to send you back in a hurry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still no answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lou, do you distrust me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At length she managed to speak, but it was with some difficulty: &quot;There
+is another reason for sending me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you guess, Jack?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not a mind reader.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The cad,&quot; said Donnegan through his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the old reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Money?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A shadow swept across the side of the tent; it was Landis waving his arm
+carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If that's all, I can fix you up and send you back with enough to carry
+the colonel along. Look here&mdash;why, I have five hundred with me. Take it,
+Lou. There's more behind it, but the colonel mustn't think that there's
+as much money in the mines as people say. No idea how much living costs
+up here. Heavens, no! And the prices for labor! And then they shirk the
+job from dawn to dark. I have to watch 'em every minute, I tell you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He sighed noisily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the end of it is, dear&quot;&mdash;how that small word tore into the heart of
+Donnegan, who crouched outside&mdash;&quot;that you must go back tomorrow morning.
+I'd send you tonight, if I could. As a matter of fact, I don't trust the
+red-haired rat who&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl interrupted while Donnegan still had control of his
+hair-trigger temper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You forget, Jack. Father sent me here, but he did not tell me to come
+back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Jack Landis burst into an enormous laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't mean, Lou, that you actually intend to stay on?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What else can I mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course it makes it awkward if the colonel didn't expressly tell you
+just what to do. I suppose he left it to my discretion, and I decide
+definitely that you must go back at once.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lou, don't you hear me saying that I'll take the responsibility? If
+your father blames you let him tell me&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He broke down in the middle of his sentence and another of those
+uncomfortable little pauses ensued. Donnegan knew that their eyes were
+miserably upon each other; the man tongue-tied by his guilt; the girl
+wretchedly guessing at the things which lay behind her fianc&eacute;'s words.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry you don't want me here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't that, but&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He apparently expected to be interrupted, but she waited coolly for him
+to finish the sentence, and, of course, he could not. After all, for a
+helpless girl she had a devilish effective way of muzzling Landis.
+Donnegan chuckled softly in admiration.</p>
+
+<p>All at once she broke through the scene; her voice did not rise or
+harden, but it was filled with finality, as though she were weary of the
+interview.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm tired out; it's been a hard ride, Jack. You go home now and look me
+up again any time tomorrow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I&mdash;Lou&mdash;I feel mighty bad about having you up here in this infernal
+tent, when the camp is full, and&mdash;&quot;:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't lie across the entrance to my tent and guard me, Jack.
+Besides, I don't need you for that. The man who's with me will protect
+me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He doesn't look capable of protecting a cat!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father said that in any circumstances he would be able to take care
+of me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This reply seemed to overwhelm Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The colonel trusts him as far as all that?&quot; he muttered. &quot;Then I
+suppose you're safe enough. But what about comfort, Lou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've done without comfort all my life. Run along, Jack. And take this
+money with you. I can't have it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But, didn't the colonel send&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can express it through to him. To me it's&mdash;not pleasant to take
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Lou, you don't mean&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good night, Jack. I don't mean anything, except that I'm tired.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The shadow swept along the wall of the tent again. Donnegan, with a
+shaking pulse, saw the profile of the girl and the man approach as he
+strove to take her in his arms and kiss her good night. And then one
+slender bar of shadow checked Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not tonight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lou, you aren't angry with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. But you know I have queer ways. Just put this down as one of them.
+I can't explain.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a muffled exclamation and Landis went from the tent and strode
+down the hill; he was instantly lost in the night. But Donnegan, turning
+to the entrance flap, called softly. He was bidden to come in, and when
+he raised the flap he saw her sitting with her hands clasped loosely and
+resting upon her knees. Her lips were a little parted, and colorless;
+her eyes were dull with a mist; and though she rallied herself a little,
+the wanderer could see that she was only half-aware of him.</p>
+
+<p>The face which he saw was a milestone in his life. For he had loved her
+jealously, fiercely before; but seeing her now, dazed, hurt, and
+uncomplaining, tenderness came into Donnegan. It spread to his heart
+with a strange pain and made his hands tremble.</p>
+
+<p>All that he said was: &quot;Is there anything you need?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing,&quot; she replied, and he backed out and away.</p>
+
+<p>But in that small interval he had turned out of the course of his gay,
+selfish life. If Jack Landis had hurt her like this&mdash;if she loved him so
+truly&mdash;then Jack Landis she should have.</p>
+
+<p>There was an odd mixture of emotions in Donnegan; but he felt most
+nearly like the poor man from whose hand his daughter tugs back and
+looks wistfully, hopelessly, into the bright window at all the toys.
+What pain is there greater than the pain that comes to the poor man in
+such a time? He huddles his coat about him, for his heart is as cold as
+a Christmas day; and if it would make his child happy, he would pour out
+his heart's blood on the snow.</p>
+
+<p>Such was the grief of Donnegan as he backed slowly out into the night.
+Though Jack Landis were fixed as high as the moon he would tear him out
+of his place and give him to the girl.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="14"></a><h2>14</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The lantern went out in the tent; she was asleep; and when he knew that,
+Donnegan went down into The Corner. He had been trying to think out a
+plan of action, and finding nothing better than to thrust a gun stupidly
+under Landis' nose and make him mark time, Donnegan went into Lebrun's
+place. As if he hoped the bustle there would supply him with ideas.</p>
+
+<p>Lebrun's was going full blast. It was not filled with the shrill mirth
+of Milligan's. Instead, all voices were subdued to a point here. The
+pitch was never raised. If a man laughed, he might show his teeth but he
+took good care that he did not break into the atmosphere of the room.
+For there was a deadly undercurrent of silence which would not tolerate
+more than murmurs on the part of others. Men sat grim-faced over the
+cards, the man who was winning, with his cold, eager eye; the chronic
+loser of the night with his iron smile; the professional, ever debonair,
+with the dull eye which comes from looking too often and too closely
+into the terrible face of chance. A very keen observer might have
+observed a resemblance between those men and Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan roved swiftly here and there. The calm eye and the smooth play
+of an obvious professional in a linen suit kept him for a moment at one
+table, looking on; then he went to the games, and after changing the
+gold which Jack Landis had given as alms so silver dollars, he lost it
+with precision upon the wheel.</p>
+
+<p>He went on, from table to table, from group to group. In Lebrun's his
+clothes were not noticed. It was no matter whether he played or did not
+play, whether he won or lost; they were too busy to notice. But he came
+back, at length, to the man who wore the linen coat and who won so
+easily. Something in his method of dealing appeared to interest Donnegan
+greatly.</p>
+
+<p>It was jackpot; the chips were piled high; and the man in the linen coat
+was dealing again. How deftly he mixed the cards!</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, all about him was elegant, from the turn of his black cravat to
+the cut of the coat. An inebriate passed, shouldered and disturbed his
+chair, and rising to put it straight again, the gambler was seen to be
+about the height and build of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan studied him with the interest of an artist. Here was a man,
+harking back to Nelly Lebrun and her love of brilliance, who would
+probably win her preference over Jack Landis for the simple reason that
+he was different. That is, there was more in his cravat to attract
+astonished attention in The Corner than there was in all the silver lace
+of Landis. And he was a man's man, no doubt of that. On the inebriate he
+had flashed one glance of fire, and his lean hand had stirred uneasily
+toward the breast of his coat. Donnegan, who missed nothing, saw and
+understood.</p>
+
+<p>Interested? He was fascinated by this man because he recognized the
+kinship which existed between them. They might almost have been blood
+brothers, except for differences in the face. He knew, for instance,
+just what each glance of the man in the linen coat meant, and how he was
+weighing his antagonists. As for the others, they were cool players
+themselves, but here they had met their master. It was the difference
+between the amateur and the professional. They played good chancey
+poker, but the man in the linen coat did more&mdash;he stacked the cards!</p>
+
+<p>For the first moment Donnegan was not sure; it was not until there was a
+slight faltering in the deal&mdash;an infinitely small hesitation which only
+a practiced eye like that of Donnegan's could have noticed&mdash;that he was
+sure. The winner was crooked. Yet the hand was interesting for all that.
+He had done the master trick, not only giving himself the winning hand
+but also giving each of the others a fine set of cards.</p>
+
+<p>And the betting was wild on that historic pot! To begin with the
+smallest hand was three of a kind; and after the draw the weakest was a
+straight. And they bet furiously. The stranger had piqued them with his
+consistent victories. Now they were out for blood. Chips having been
+exhausted, solid gold was piled up on the table&mdash;a small fortune!</p>
+
+<p>The man in the linen coat, in the middle of the hand, called for drinks.
+They drank. They went on with the betting. And then at last came the
+call.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan could have clapped his hands to applaud the smooth rascal. It
+was not an affair of breaking the others who sat in. They were all
+prosperous mine owners, and probably they had been carefully selected
+according to the size of purse, in preparation for the sacrifice. But
+the stakes were swept into the arms and then the canvas bag of the
+winner. If it was not enough to ruin the miners it was at least enough
+to clean them out of ready cash and discontinue the game on that basis.
+They rose; they went to the bar for a drink; but while the winner led
+the way, two of the losers dropped back a trifle and fell into earnest
+conversation, frowning. Donnegan knew perfectly what the trouble was.
+They had noticed that slight faltering in the deal; they were putting
+their mental notes on the game together.</p>
+
+<p>But the winner, apparently unconscious of suspicion, lined up his
+victims at the bar. The first drink went hastily down; the second was on
+the way&mdash;it was standing on the bar. And here he excused himself; he
+broke off in the very middle of a story, and telling them that he would
+be back any moment, stepped into a crowd of newcomers.</p>
+
+<p>The moment he disappeared, Donnegan saw the other four put their heads
+close together, and saw a sudden darkening of faces; but as for the
+genial winner, he had no sooner passed to the other side of the crowd
+and out of view, than he turned directly toward the door. His careless
+saunter was exchanged for a brisk walk; and Donnegan, without making
+himself conspicuous, was hard pressed to follow that pace.</p>
+
+<p>At the door he found that the gambler, with his canvas sack under his
+arm, had turned to the right toward the line of saddle horses which
+stood in the shadow; and no sooner did he reach the gloom at the side of
+the building than he broke into a soft, swift run. He darted down the
+line of horses until he came to one which was already mounted. This
+Donnegan saw as he followed somewhat more leisurely and closer to the
+horses to avoid observance. He made out that the man already on
+horseback was a big Negro and that he had turned his own mount and a
+neighboring horse out from the rest of the horses, so that they were
+both pointing down the street of The Corner. Donnegan saw the Negro
+throw the lines of his lead horse into the air. In exchange he caught
+the sack which the runner tossed to him, and then the gambler leaped
+into his saddle.</p>
+
+<p>It was a simple but effective plan. Suppose he were caught in the midst
+of a cheat; his play would be to break away to the outside of the
+building, shooting out the lights, if possible&mdash;trusting to the
+confusion to help him&mdash;and there he would find his horse held ready for
+him at a time when a second might be priceless. On this occasion no
+doubt the clever rascal had sensed the suspicion of the others.</p>
+
+<p>At any rate, he lost no time. He waited neither to find his stirrups nor
+grip the reins firmly, but the same athletic leap which carried him into
+the saddle set the horse in motion, and from a standing start the animal
+broke into a headlong gallop. He received, however, an additional burden
+at once.</p>
+
+<p>For Donnegan, from the second time he saw the man of the linen coat, had
+been revolving a daring plan, and during the poker game the plan had
+slowly matured. The moment he made sure that the gambler was heading for
+a horse, he increased his own speed. Ordinarily he would have been
+noted, but now, no doubt, the gambler feared no pursuit except one
+accompanied by a hue and cry. He did not hear the shadow-footed Donnegan
+racing over the soft ground behind him; but when he had gained the
+saddle, Donnegan was close behind with the impetus of his run to aid
+him. It was comparatively simple, therefore, to spring high in the air,
+and he struck fairly and squarely behind the saddle of the man in the
+linen coat. When he landed his revolver was in his hand and the muzzle
+jabbed into the back of the gambler.</p>
+
+<p>The other made one frantic effort to twist around, then recognized the
+pressure of the revolver and was still. The horses, checking their
+gallops in unison, were softly dog-trotting down the street.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Call off your man!&quot; warned Donnegan, for the big Negro had reined back;
+the gun already gleamed in his hand.</p>
+
+<p>A gesture from the gambler sent the gun into obscurity, yet still the
+fellow continued to fall back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him to ride ahead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep in front, George.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And not too far.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. And now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll talk later. Go straight on, George, to the clump of trees beyond
+the end of the street. And ride straight. No dodging!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a good hand you played,&quot; continued Donnegan; taking note that of
+the many people who were now passing them none paid the slightest
+attention to two men riding on one horse and chatting together as they
+rode. &quot;It was a good hand, but a bad deal. Your thumb slipped on the
+card, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You saw, eh?&quot; muttered the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And two of the others saw it. But they weren't sure till afterward.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know. The blockheads! But I spoiled their game for them. Are you one
+of us, pal?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan smiled to himself. For once at least the appeal of gambler
+to gambler should fail.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep straight on,&quot; he said. &quot;We'll talk later on.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="15"></a><h2>15</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Before Donnegan gave the signal to halt in a clear space where the
+starlight was least indistinct, they reached the center of the trees.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, George,&quot; he said, &quot;drop your gun to the ground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a flash and faint thud.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now the other gun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They ain't any more, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your other gun,&quot; repeated Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>A little pause. &quot;Do what he tells you, George,&quot; said the gambler at
+length, and a second weapon fell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now keep on your horse and keep a little off to the side,&quot; went on
+Donnegan, &quot;and remember that if you try to give me the jump I might miss
+you in this light, but I'd be sure to hit your horse. So don't take
+chances, George. Now, sir, just hold your hands over your head and then
+dismount.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had already gone through the gambler and taken his weapons; he was
+now obeyed. The man of the linen coat tossed up his arms, flung his
+right leg over the horn of the saddle, and slipped to the ground.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan joined his captive. &quot;I warn you first,&quot; he said gently, &quot;that
+I am quite expert with a revolver, and that it will be highly dangerous
+to attempt to trick me. Lower your arms if you wish, but please be
+careful of what you do with your hands. There are such things as knife
+throwing, I know, but it takes a fast wrist to flip a knife faster than
+a bullet. We understand each other?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perfectly,&quot; agreed the other. &quot;By the way, my name is Godwin. And
+suppose we become frank. You are in temporary distress. It was
+impossible for you to make a loan at the moment and you are driven to
+this forced&mdash;touch. Now, if half&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;You are too generous. But the present question
+is not one of money. I have long since passed over that. The money is
+now mine. Steady!&quot; This to George, who lurched in the saddle; but Godwin
+was calm as stone. &quot;It is not the question of the money that troubles
+me, but the question of the men. I could easily handle one of you. But I
+fear to allow both of you to go free. You would return on my trail;
+there are such things as waylayings by night, eh? And so, Mr. Godwin, I
+think my best way out is to shoot you through the head. When your body
+is found it will be taken for granted that the servant killed the master
+for the sake of the money which he won by crooked card play. I think
+that's simple. Put your hands up, George, or, by heck, I'll let the
+starlight shine through you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The huge arms of George were raised above his head; Godwin, in the
+meantime, had not spoken.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I almost think you mean it,&quot; he said after a short pause.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I do not wish to kill you unprepared.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a strangled sound deep in the throat of Godwin; then he was
+able to speak again, but now his voice was made into a horrible jumble
+by fear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pal,&quot; he said, &quot;you're dead wrong. George here&mdash;he's a devil. If you
+let him live he'll kill you&mdash;as sure as you're standing here. You don't
+know him. He's George Green. He's got a record as long as my arm and as
+bad as the devil's name. He&mdash;he's the man to get rid of. Me? Why, man,
+you and I could team it together. But George&mdash;not&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan began to laugh, and the gambler stammered to a halt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew you when I laid eyes on you for the first time,&quot; said Donnegan.
+&quot;You have the hands of a craftsman, but your eyes are put too close
+together. A coward's eyes&mdash;a cur's face, Godwin. But you, George&mdash;have
+you heard what he said?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No answer from George but a snarl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It sounds logical what he said, eh, George?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Dead silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;there are flaws in the plan. Godwin, get out of
+your clothes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The other fell on his knees.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For heaven's sake,&quot; he pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shut up,&quot; commanded Donnegan. &quot;I'm not going to shoot you. I never
+intended to, you fool. But I wanted to see if you were worth splitting
+the coin with. You're not. Now get out of your clothes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was obeyed in fumbling haste, and while that operation went on, he
+succeeded in jumping out of his own rags and still kept the two fairly
+steadily under the nose of his gun. He tossed this bundle to Godwin, who
+accepted it with a faint oath; and Donnegan stepped calmly and swiftly
+into the clothes of his victim.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A perfect fit,&quot; he said at length, &quot;and to show that I'm pleased,
+here's your purse back. Must be close to two hundred in that, from the
+weight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Godwin muttered some unintelligible curse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush. Now, get out! If you show your face in The Corner again, some of
+those miners will spot you, and they'll dress you in tar and feathers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fool. If they see you in my clothes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'll never see these after tonight, probably. You have other clothes
+in your packs, Godwin. Lots of 'em. You're the sort who knows how to
+dress, and I'll borrow your outfit. Get out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The other made no reply; a weight seemed to have fallen upon him along
+with his new outfit, and he slunk into the darkness. George made a move
+to follow; there was a muffled shriek from Godwin, who fled headlong;
+and then a sharp command from Donnegan stopped the big man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come here,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>George Washington Green rode slowly closer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I let you go what would you do?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a glint of teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'd find him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And break him in two, eh? Instead, I'm going to take you home, where
+you'll have a chance of breaking me in two instead. There's something
+about the cut of your shoulders and your head that I like, Green; and if
+you don't murder me in the first hour or so, I think we'll get on very
+well together. You hear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The silence of George Washington Green was a tremendous thing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now ride ahead of me. I'll direct you how to go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He went first straight back through the town and up the hill to the two
+tents. He made George go before him into the tent and take up the roll
+of bedding; and then, with George and the bedding leading the way, and
+Donnegan leading the two horses behind, they went across the hillside to
+a shack which he had seen vacated that evening. It certainly could not
+be rented again before morning, and in the meantime Donnegan would be in
+possession, which was a large part of the law in The Corner, as he knew.</p>
+
+<p>A little lean-to against the main shack served as a stable; the creek
+down the hillside was the watering trough. And Donnegan stood by while
+the big Negro silently tended to the horses&mdash;removing the packs and
+preparing them for the night. Still in silence he produced a small
+lantern and lighted it. It showed his face for the first time&mdash;the skin
+ebony black and polished over the cheekbones, but the rest of the face
+almost handsome, except that the slight flare of his nostrils gave him a
+cast of inhuman ferocity. And the fierceness was given point by a pair
+of arms of gorilla length; broad shoulders padded with rolling muscles,
+and the neck of a bull. On the whole, Donnegan, a connoisseur of
+fighting men, had never seen such promise of strength.</p>
+
+<p>At his gesture, George led the way into the house. It was more
+commodious than most of the shacks of The Corner. In place of a single
+room this had two compartments&mdash;one for the kitchen and another for the
+living room. In vacating the hut, the last occupants had left some of
+the furnishings behind them. There was a mirror, for instance, in the
+corner; and beneath the mirror a cheap table in whose open drawer
+appeared a tumble of papers. Donnegan dropped the heavy sack of Godwin's
+winnings to the floor, and while George hung the lantern on a nail on
+the wall, Donnegan crossed to the table and appeared to run through the
+papers.</p>
+
+<p>He was humming carelessly while he did it, but all the time he watched
+with catlike intensity the reflection of George in the mirror above him.
+He saw&mdash;rather dimly, for the cheap glass showed all its images in
+waves&mdash;that George turned abruptly after hanging up the lantern, paused,
+and then whipped a hand into his coat pocket and out again.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan leaped lightly to one side, and the knife, hissing past his
+head, buried itself in the wall, and its vibrations set up a vicious
+humming. As for Donnegan, the leap that carried him to one side whirled
+him about also; he faced the big man, who was now crouched in the very
+act of following the knife cast with the lunge of his powerful body.
+There was no weapon in Donnegan's hand, and yet George hesitated,
+balanced&mdash;and then slowly drew himself erect.</p>
+
+<p>He was puzzled. An outburst of oaths, the flash of a gun, and he would
+have been at home in the brawl, but the silence, the smile of Donnegan
+and the steady glance were too much for him. He moistened his lips, and
+yet he could not speak. And Donnegan knew that what paralyzed George was
+the manner in which he had received warning. Evidently the simple
+explanation of the mirror did not occur to the fellow; and the whole
+incident took on supernatural colorings. A phrase of explanation and
+Donnegan would become again an ordinary human being; but while the small
+link was a mystery the brain and body of George were numb. It was
+necessary above all to continue inexplicable. Donnegan, turning, drew
+the knife from the wall with a jerk. Half the length of the keen blade
+had sunk into the wood&mdash;a mute tribute to the force and speed of
+George's hand&mdash;and now Donnegan took the bright little weapon by the
+point and gave it back to the other.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you throw for the body instead of the head,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;you
+have a better chance of sending the point home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned his back again upon the gaping giant, and drawing up a broken
+box before the open door he sat down to contemplate the night. Not a
+sound behind him. It might be that the big fellow had regained his nerve
+and was stealing up for a second attempt; but Donnegan would have
+wagered his soul that George Washington Green had his first and last
+lesson and that he would rather play with bare lightning than ever again
+cross his new master.</p>
+
+<p>At length: &quot;When you make down the bunks,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;put mine
+farthest from the kitchen. You had better do that first.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes&mdash;sir,&quot; came the deep bass murmur behind him.</p>
+
+<p>And the heart of Donnegan stirred, for that &quot;sir&quot; meant many things.</p>
+
+<p>Presently George crossed the floor with a burden; there was the &quot;whish&quot;
+of the blankets being unrolled&mdash;and then a slight pause. It seemed to
+him that he could hear a heavier breathing. Why? And searching swiftly
+back through his memory he recalled that his other gun, a stub-nosed
+thirty-eight, was in the center of his blanket roll.</p>
+
+<p>And he knew that George had the weapon in his big hand. One pressure of
+the trigger would put an end to Donnegan; one bullet would give George
+the canvas sack and its small treasure.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When you clean my gun,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;take the action to pieces and
+go over every part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He could actually feel the start of George.</p>
+
+<p>Then: &quot;Yes, sir,&quot; in a subdued whisper.</p>
+
+<p>If the escape from the knife had startled George, this second incident
+had convinced him that his new master possessed eyes in the back of his
+head.</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan, paying no further heed to him, looked steadily across the
+hillside to the white tent of Lou Macon, fifty yards away.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="16"></a><h2>16</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>His plan, grown to full stature so swiftly, and springing out of
+nothing, well nigh, had come out of his first determination to bring
+Jack Landis back to Lou Macon; for he could interpret those blank, misty
+eyes with which she had sat after the departure of Landis in only one
+way. Yet to rule even the hand of big Jack Landis would be hard enough
+and to rule his heart was quite another story. Remembering Nelly Lebrun,
+he saw clearly that the only way in which he could be brought back to
+Lou was first to remove Nelly as a possibility in his eyes. But how
+remove Nelly as long as it was her cue from her father to play Landis
+for his money? How remove her, unless it were possible to sweep Nelly
+off her feet with another man? She might, indeed, be taken by storm, and
+if she once slighted Landis for the sake of another, his boyish pride
+would probably do the rest, and his next step would be to return to Lou
+Macon.</p>
+
+<p>All this seemed logical, but where find the man to storm the heart of
+Nelly and dazzle her bright, clever eyes? His own rags had made him
+shrug his shoulders; and it was the thought of clothes which had made
+him fasten his attention so closely on the man of the linen suit in
+Lebrun's. Donnegan with money, with well-fitted clothes, and with a few
+notorious escapades behind him&mdash;yes, Donnegan with such a flying start
+might flutter the heart of Nelly Lebrun for a moment. But he must have
+the money, the clothes, and then he must deliberately set out to startle
+The Corner, make himself a public figure, talked of, pointed at, known,
+feared, respected, and even loved by at least a few. He must accomplish
+all these things beginning at a literal zero.</p>
+
+<p>It was the impossible nature of this that tempted Donnegan. But the
+paradoxical picture of the ragged skulker in Milligan's actually sitting
+at the same table with Nelly Lebrun and receiving her smiles stayed with
+him. He intended to rise, literally Phoenixlike, out of ashes. And the
+next morning, in the red time of the dawn, he sat drinking the coffee
+which George Washington Green had made for him and considering the
+details of the problem. Clothes, which had been a main obstacle, were
+now accounted for, since, as he had suspected, the packs of Godwin
+contained a luxurious wardrobe of considerable compass. At that moment,
+for instance, Donnegan was wrapped in a dressing gown of padded silk and
+his feet were encased in slippers.</p>
+
+<p>But clothes were the least part of his worries. To startle The Corner,
+and thereby make himself attractive in the eyes of Nelly Lebrun,
+overshadowing Jack Landis&mdash;that was the thing! But to startle The
+Corner, where gold strikes were events of every twenty-four hours, just
+now&mdash;where robberies were common gossip, and where the killings now
+averaged nearly three a day&mdash;to startle The Corner was like trying to
+startle the theatrical world with a sensational play. Indeed, this
+parallel could have been pursued, for Donnegan was the nameless actor
+and the mountain desert was the stage on which he intended to become a
+headliner. No wonder, then, that his lean face was compressed in
+thought. Yet no one could have guessed it by his conversation. At the
+moment he was interrupted, his talk ran somewhat as follows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;George, Godwin taught you how to make coffee?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sir,&quot; from George. Since the night before he had appeared totally
+subdued. Never once did he venture a comment. And ever Donnegan was
+conscious of big, bright eyes watching him in a reverent fear not
+untinged by superstition. Once, in the middle of the night, he had
+wakened and seen the vast shadow of George's form leaning over the sack
+of money. Murder by stealth in the dark had been in the giant's mind, no
+doubt. But when, after that, he came and leaned over Donnegan's bunk,
+the master closed his eyes and kept on breathing regularly, and finally
+George returned to his own place&mdash;softly as a gigantic cat. Even in the
+master's sleep he found something to be dreaded, and Donnegan knew that
+he could now trust the fellow through anything. In the morning, at the
+first touch of light, he had gone to the stores and collected
+provisions. And a comfortable breakfast followed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Godwin,&quot; resumed Donnegan, &quot;was talented in many ways.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man showed his teeth in silence; for since Godwin proposed the
+sacrifice of the servant to preserve himself, George had apparently
+altered his opinion of the gambler.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A talented man, George, but he knew nothing about coffee. It should
+never boil. It should only begin to cream through the crust. Let that
+happen; take the pot from the fire; put it back and let the surface
+cream again. Do this three times, and then pour the liquid from the
+grounds and you have the right strength and the right heating. You
+understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And concerning the frying of bacon&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this point the interruption came in the shape of four men at the open
+door; and one of these Donnegan recognized as the real estate dealer,
+who had shrewdly set up tents and shacks on every favorable spot in The
+Corner and was now reaping a rich harvest. Gloster was his name. It was
+patent that he did not see in the man in the silk dressing robe the
+unshaven miscreant of the day before who had rented the two tents.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How'dee,&quot; he said, standing on the threshold, with the other three in
+the background.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan looked at him and through him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My name is Gloster. I own this shack and I've come to find out why
+you're in it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;George,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;speak to him. Tel! him that I know houses are
+scarce in The Corner; that I found this place by accident vacant; that I
+intend to stay in it on purpose.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>George Washington Green instantly rose to the situation; he swallowed a
+vast grin and strode to the door. And though Mr. Gloster's face
+crimsoned with rage at such treatment he controlled his voice. In The
+Corner manhood was apt to be reckoned by the pound, and George was a
+giant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard what your boss said, buddie,&quot; said Gloster. &quot;But I've rented
+this cabin and the next one to these three gents and their party, and
+they want a home. Nothing to do but vacate. Which speed is the thing I
+want. Thirty minutes will&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thirty minutes don't change nothing,&quot; declared George in his deep, soft
+voice.</p>
+
+<p>The real estate man choked. Then: &quot;You tell your boss that jumping a
+cabin is like jumping a claim. They's a law in The Corner for gents like
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>George made a gesture of helplessness; but Gloster turned to the three.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Both shacks or none at all,&quot; said the spokesman. &quot;One ain't big enough
+to do us any good. But if this bird won't vamoose&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was a tolerably rough-appearing sort and he was backed by two of a
+kind. No doubt dangerous action would have followed had not George shown
+himself capable of rising to a height. He stepped from the door; he
+approached Gloster and said in a confidential whisper that reached
+easily to the other three: &quot;They ain't any call for a quick play,
+mister. Watch yo'selves. Maybe you don't know who the boss is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what's more, I don't care,&quot; said Gloster defiantly but with his
+voice instinctively lowered. He stared past George, and behold, the man
+in the dressing gown still sat in quiet and sipped his coffee.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's Donnegan,&quot; whispered George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don&mdash;who's he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't know Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The mingled contempt and astonishment of George would have moved a thing
+of stone. It certainly troubled Gloster. And he turned to the three.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gents,&quot; he said, &quot;they's two things we can do. Try the law&mdash;and law's a
+lame lady in these parts&mdash;or throw him out. Say which?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The three looked from Gloster to the shack; from the shack to Donnegan,
+absently sipping his coffee; from Donnegan to George, who stood
+exhibiting a broad grin of anticipated delight. The contrast was too
+much for them.</p>
+
+<p>There is one great and deep-seated terror in the mountain desert, and
+that is for the man who may be other than he seems. The giant with the
+rough voice and the boisterous ways is generally due for a stormy
+passage west of the Rockies; but the silent man with the gentle manners
+receives respect. Traditions live of desperadoes with exteriors of
+womanish calm and the action of devils. And Donnegan sipping his morning
+coffee fitted into the picture which rumor had painted. The three looked
+at one another, declared that they had not come to fight for a house but
+to rent one, that the real estate agent could go to the devil for all of
+them, and that they were bound elsewhere. So they departed and left
+Gloster both relieved and gloomy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; said Donnegan to George, &quot;tell him that we'll take both the
+shacks, and he can add fifty per cent to his old price.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The bargain was concluded on the spot; the money was paid by George.
+Gloster went down the hill to tell The Corner that a mystery had hit the
+town and George brought the canvas bag back to Donnegan with the top
+still untied&mdash;as though to let it be seen that he had not pocketed any
+of the gold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't want to count it,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Keep the bag, George. Keep
+money in your pocket. Treat both of us well. And when that's gone I'll
+get more.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If the manner in which Donnegan had handled the renting of the cabins
+had charmed George, he was wholly entranced by this last touch of free
+spending. To serve a man who was his master was one thing; to serve one
+who trusted him so completely was quite another. To live under the same
+roof with a man who was a riddle was sufficiently delightful; but to be
+allowed actually to share in the mystery was a superhappiness. He was
+singing when he started to wash the dishes, and Donnegan went across the
+hill to the tent of Lou Macon.</p>
+
+<p>She was laying the fire before the tent; and the morning freshness had
+cleared from her face any vestige of the trouble of the night before;
+and in the slant light her hair was glorious, all ruffling gold,
+semitransparent. She did not smile at him; but she could give the effect
+of smiling while her face remained grave; it was her inward calm content
+of which people were aware.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You missed me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You were worried?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He felt himself put quietly at a distance. So he took her up the hill to
+her new home&mdash;the shack beside his own; and George cooked her breakfast.
+When she had been served, Donnegan drew the big man to one side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's your mistress,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Everything you do for her is
+worth two things you do for me. Watch her as if she were in your eye.
+And if a hair of her head is ever harmed&mdash;you see that fire burning
+yonder&mdash;the bed of coals?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sir?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll catch you and make a fire like that and feed you into it&mdash;by
+inches!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And the pale face of Donnegan became for an instant the face of a demon.
+George Washington Green saw, and never forgot.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward, in order that he might think, Donnegan got on one of the
+horses he had taken from Godwin and rode over the hills. They were both
+leggy chestnuts, with surprising signs of blood' and all the earmarks of
+sprinters; but in Godwin's trade sharp getaways were probably often
+necessary. The pleasure he took in the action of the animal kept him
+from getting into his problem.</p>
+
+<p>How to startle The Corner? How follow up the opening gun which he had
+fired at the expense of Gloster and the three miners?</p>
+
+<p>He broke off, later in the day, to write a letter to Colonel Macon,
+informing him that Jack Landis was tied hard and fast by Nelly Lebrun
+and that for the present nothing could be done except wait, unless the
+colonel had suggestions to offer.</p>
+
+<p>The thought of the colonel, however, stimulated Donnegan. And before
+midafternoon he had thought of a thing to do.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="17"></a><h2>17</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The bar in Milligan's was not nearly so pretentious an affair as the bar
+in Lebrun's, but it was of a far higher class. Milligan had even managed
+to bring in a few bottles of wine, and he had dispensed cheap claret at
+two dollars a glass when the miners wished to celebrate a rare occasion.
+There were complaints, not of the taste, but of the lack of strength. So
+Milligan fortified his liquor with pure alcohol and after that the
+claret went like a sweet song in The Corner. Among other things, he sold
+mint juleps; and it was the memory of the big sign proclaiming this fact
+that furnished Donnegan with his idea.</p>
+
+<p>He had George Washington Green put on his town clothes&mdash;a riding suit in
+which Godwin had had him dress for the sake of formal occasions.
+Resplendent in black boots, yellow riding breeches, and blue silk shirt,
+the big man came before Donnegan for instructions.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go down to Milligan's,&quot; said the master. &quot;They don't allow colored
+people to enter the door, but you go to the door and start for the bar.
+They won't let you go very far. When they stop you, tell them you come
+from Donnegan and that you have to get me some mint for a julep.
+Insist. The bouncer will start to throw you out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>George showed his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No fighting back. Don't lift your hand. When you find that you can't
+get in, come back here. Now, ride.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So George mounted the horse and went. Straight to Milligan's he rode and
+dismounted; and half of The Corner's scant daytime population came into
+the street to see the brilliant horseman pass.</p>
+
+<p>Scar-faced Lewis met the big man at the door. And size meant little to
+Andy, except an easier target.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, confound my soul,&quot; said Lewis, blocking the way. &quot;A Negro in
+Milligan's? Get out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Big George did not move.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I been sent, mister,&quot; he said mildly. &quot;I been sent for enough mint to
+make a julep.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You been sent to the wrong place,&quot; declared Andy, hitching at his
+cartridge belt. &quot;Ain't you seen that sign?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he pointed to the one which eliminated colored patrons.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Signs don't mean nothin' to my boss,&quot; said George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's he?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who's Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It puzzled George. He scratched his head in bewilderment seeking for an
+explanation. &quot;Donnegan is&mdash;Donnegan,&quot; he explained.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard Gloster talk about him,&quot; offered someone in the rapidly growing
+group. &quot;He's the gent that rented the two places on the hill.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell him to come himse'f,&quot; said Andy Lewis. &quot;We don't play no favorites
+at Milligan's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mister,&quot; said big George, &quot;I don't want to bring no trouble on this
+heah place, but&mdash;don't make me go back and bring Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even Andy Lewis was staggered by this assurance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rules is rules,&quot; he finally decided. &quot;And out you go.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Big George stepped from the doorway and mounted his horse.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I call on all you gen'lemen,&quot; he said to the assembled group, &quot;to say
+that I done tried my best to do this peaceable. It ain't me that's sent
+for Donnegan; it's him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He rode away, leaving Scar-faced Lewis biting his long mustaches in
+anxiety. He was not exactly afraid, but he waited in the suspense which
+comes before a battle. Moreover, an audience was gathering. The word
+went about as only a rumor of mischief can travel. New men had gathered.
+The few day gamblers tumbled out of Lebrun's across the street to watch
+the fun. The storekeepers were in their doors. Lebrun himself, withered
+and dark and yellow of eye, came to watch. And here and there through
+the crowd there was a spot of color where the women of the town
+appeared. And among others, Nelly Lebrun with Jack Landis beside her. On
+the whole it was not a large crowd, but what it lacked in size it made
+up in intense interest.</p>
+
+<p>For though The Corner had had its share of troubles of fist and gun,
+most of them were entirely impromptu affairs. Here was a fight in the
+offing for which the stage was set, the actors set in full view of a
+conveniently posted audience, and all the suspense of a curtain rising.
+The waiting bore in upon Andy Lewis. Without a doubt he intended to kill
+his man neatly and with dispatch, but the possibility of missing before
+such a crowd as this sent a chill up and down his spine. If he failed
+now his name would be a sign for laughter ever after in The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>A hum passed down the street; it rose to a chuckle, and then fell away
+to sudden silence, for Donnegan was coming.</p>
+
+<p>He came on a prancing chestnut horse which sidled uneasily on a weaving
+course, as though it wished to show off for the benefit of the rider and
+the crowd at once. It was a hot afternoon and Donnegan's linen riding
+suit shone an immaculate white. He came straight down the street, as
+unaware of the audience which awaited him as though he rode in a park
+where crowds were the common thing. Behind him came George Green, just a
+careful length back. Rumor went before the two with a whisper on either
+side.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's Donnegan. There he comes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gloster's man. The one who bluffed out Gloster and three others.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He pulled his shooting iron and trimmed the whiskers of one of 'em with
+a chunk of lead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;D'you mean that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's that kind of a gent doing in The Corner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come to buy, I guess. He looks like money.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Looks like a confounded dude.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll see his hand in a minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan was now opposite the dance hall, and Andy Lewis had his hand
+touching the butt of his gun, but though Donnegan was looking straight
+at him, he kept his reins in one hand and his heavy riding crop in the
+other. And without a move toward his own gun, he rode straight up to the
+door of the dance hall, with Andy in front of it. George drew rein
+behind him and turned upon the crowd one broad, superior grin.</p>
+
+<p>As who should say: &quot;I promised you lightning; now watch it strike!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If the crowd had been expectant before, it was now reduced to wire-drawn
+tenseness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you the fellow who turned back my man?&quot; asked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>His quiet voice fell coldly upon the soul of Andy. He strove to warm
+himself by an outbreak of temper.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They ain't any poor fool dude can call me a fellow!&quot; he shouted.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd blinked; but when it opened its eyes the gunplay had not
+occurred. The hand of Andy was relaxing from the butt of his gun and an
+expression of astonishment and contempt was growing upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't come to curse you,&quot; said the rider, still occupying his hands
+with crop and reins. &quot;I've come to ask you a question and get an answer.
+Are you the fellow who turned back my man?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I guess you ain't the kind I was expectin' to call on me,&quot; drawled
+Andy, his fear gone, and he winked at the crowd. But the others were not
+yet ready to laugh. Something about the calm face of Donnegan had
+impressed them. &quot;Sure, I'm the one that kicked him out. He ain't allowed
+in there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the last of my thoughts to break in upon a convention in your
+city,&quot; replied the grave rider, &quot;but my man was sent on an errand and
+therefore he had a right to expect courtesy. George, get off your horse
+and go into Milligan's place. I want that mint!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Andy was too stunned to answer. Then his voice came harshly
+and he swayed from side to side, gathering and summoning his wrath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep out boy! Keep out, or you're buzzard meat. I'm warnin'&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time his glance left the rider to find George, and that
+instant was fatal. The hand of Donnegan licked out as the snake's tongue
+darts&mdash;the loaded quirt slipped over in his hand, and holding it by the
+lash he brought the butt of it thudding on the head of Andy.</p>
+
+<p>Even then the instinct to fight remained in the stunned man; while he
+fell, he was drawing the revolver; he lay in a crumpling heap at the
+feet of Donnegan's horse with the revolver shoved muzzle first into the
+sand.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan's voice did not rise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go in and get that mint, George,&quot; he ordered. &quot;And hurry. This rascal
+has kept me waiting until I'm thirsty.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Big George hesitated only one instant&mdash;it was to sweep the crowd for the
+second time with his confident grin&mdash;and he strode through the door of
+the dance hall. As for Donnegan, his only movement was to swing his
+horse around and shift riding crop and reins into the grip of his left
+hand. His other hand was dropped carelessly upon his hip. Now, both
+these things were very simple maneuvers, but The Corner noted that his
+change of face had enabled Donnegan to bring the crowd under his eye,
+and that his right hand was now ready for a more serious bit of work if
+need be. Moreover, he was probing faces with his glance. And every armed
+man in that group felt that the eye of the rider was directed
+particularly toward him.</p>
+
+<p>There had been one brief murmur; then the silence lay heavily again, for
+it was seen that Andy had been only slightly stunned&mdash;knocked out, as a
+boxer might be. Now his sturdy brains were clearing. His body stiffened
+into a human semblance once more; he fumbled, found the butt of his gun
+with his first move. He pushed his hat straight: and so doing he raked
+the welt which the blow had left on his head. The pain finished clearing
+the mist from his mind; in an instant he was on his feet, maddened with
+shame. He saw the semicircle of white faces, and the whole episode
+flashed back on him. He had been knocked down like a dog.</p>
+
+<p>For a moment he looked into the blank faces of the crowd; someone noted
+that there was no gun strapped at the side of Donnegan. A voice shouted
+a warning.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop, Lewis. The dude ain't got a gun. It's murder!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was now that Lewis saw Donnegan sitting the saddle directly behind
+him, and he whirled with a moan of fury. It was a twist of his body&mdash;in
+his eagerness&mdash;rather than a turning upon his feet. And he was half
+around before the rider moved. Then he conjured a gun from somewhere in
+his clothes. There was the flash of the steel, an explosion, and
+Scar-faced Lewis was on his knees with a scream of pain holding his
+right forearm with his left hand.</p>
+
+<p>The crowd hesitated still for a second, as though it feared to
+interfere; but Donnegan had already put up his weapon. A wave of the
+curious spectators rushed across the street and gathered around the
+injured man. They found that he had been shot through the fleshy part of
+the thumb, and the bullet, ranging down the arm, had sliced a furrow to
+the bone all the way to the elbow. It was a grisly wound.</p>
+
+<p>Big George Washington Green came running to the door of the dance hall
+with a sprig of something green in his hand; one glance assured him that
+all was well; and once more that wide, confident grin spread upon his
+face. He came to the master and offered the mint; and Donnegan, raising
+it to his face, inhaled the scent deeply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good,&quot; he said. &quot;And now for a julep, George! Let's go home!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Across the street a dark-eyed girl had clasped the arm of her companion
+in hysterical excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you see?&quot; she asked of her tall companion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I saw a murderer shoot down a man; he ought to be hung for it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the mint! Did you see him smile over it? Oh, what a devil he is;
+and what a man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jack Landis flashed a glance of suspicion down at her, but her dancing
+eyes had quite forgotten him. They were following the progress of
+Donnegan down the street. He rode slowly, and George kept that formal
+distance, just a length behind.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="18"></a><h2>18</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Before Milligan's the crowd began to buzz like murmuring hornets around
+a nest that has been tapped, when they pour out and cannot find the
+disturber. It was a rather helpless milling around the wounded man, and
+Nelly Lebrun was the one who worked her way through the crowd and came
+to Andy Lewis. She did not like Andy. She had been known to refer to him
+as a cowardly hawk of a man; but now she bullied the crowd in a shrill
+voice and made them bring water and cloth. Then she cleansed and
+bandaged the wound in Andy Lewis' arm and had some of them take him
+away.</p>
+
+<p>By this time the outskirts of the crowd had melted away; but those who
+had really seen all parts of the little drama remained to talk. The
+subject was a real one. Had Donnegan aimed at the hand of Andy and
+risked his own life on his ability to disable the other without killing
+him? Or had he fired at Lewis' body and struck the hand and arm only by
+a random lucky chance?</p>
+
+<p>If the second were the case, he was only a fair shot with plenty of
+nerve and a great deal of luck. If the first were true, then this was a
+nerve of ice-tempered steel, an eye vulture-sharp, and a hand,
+miraculous, fast, and certain. To strike that swinging hand with a snap
+shot, when a miss meant a bullet fired at his own body at deadly short
+range&mdash;truly it would take a credulous man to believe that Donnegan had
+coldly planned to disable his man without killing him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A murderer by intention,&quot; exclaimed Milligan. He had hunted long and
+hard before he found a man with a face like that of Lewis, capable of
+maintaining order by a glance; now he wanted revenge. &quot;A murder by
+intention!&quot; he cried to the crowd, standing beside the place where the
+imprint of Andy's knees was still in the sand. &quot;And like a murderer he
+ought to be treated. He aimed to kill Andy; he had luck and only broke
+his hand. Now, boys, I say it ain't so much what he's done as the way
+he's done it. He's given us the laugh. He's come in here in his dude
+clothes and tried to walk over us. But it don't work. Not in The Corner.
+If Andy was dead, I'd say lynch the dude. But he ain't, and all I say
+is: Run him out of town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Here there was a brief outburst of applause, but when it ended, it was
+observed that there was a low, soft laughter. The crowd gave way between
+Milligan and the mocker. It was seen that he who laughed was old Lebrun,
+rubbing his olive-skinned hands together and showing his teeth in his
+mirth. There was no love lost between Lebrun and Milligan, even if Nelly
+was often in the dance hall and the center of its merriment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It takes a thief to catch a thief,&quot; said Lebrun enigmatically, when he
+saw that he had the ear of the crowd, &quot;and it takes a man to catch a
+man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What the devil do you mean by that?&quot; a dozen voices asked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I mean, that if you got men enough to run out this man Donnegan, The
+Corner is a better town than I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It brought a growl, but no answer. Lebrun had never been seen to lift
+his hand, but he was more dreaded than a rattler.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll try,&quot; said Milligan dryly. &quot;I ain't much of a man myself&quot;&mdash;there
+were dark rumors about Milligan's past and the crowd chuckled at this
+modesty&mdash;&quot;but I'll try my hand agin' him with a bit of backing. And
+first I want to tell you boys that they ain't any danger of him having
+aimed at Andy's hand. I tell you, it ain't possible, hardly, for him to
+have planned to hit a swingin' target like that. Maybe some could do it.
+I dunno.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How about Lord Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure, Lord Nick might do anything. But Donnegan ain't Lord Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not by twenty pounds and three inches.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This brought a laugh. And by comparison with the terrible and familiar
+name of Lord Nick, Donnegan became a smaller danger. Besides, as
+Milligan said, it was undoubtedly luck. And when he called for
+volunteers, three or four stepped up at once. The others made a general
+milling, as though each were trying to get forward and each were
+prevented by the crowd in front. But in the background big Jack Landis
+was seriously trying to get to the firing line. He was encumbered with
+the clinging weight of Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't go, Jack,&quot; she pleaded. &quot;Please! Please! Be sensible. For my
+sake!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She backed this appeal with a lifting of her eyes and a parting of her
+lips, and Jack Landis paused.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You won't go, dear Jack?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now, Jack knew perfectly well that the girl was only half sincere. It is
+the peculiar fate of men that they always know when a woman is playing
+with them, but, from Samson down, they always go to the slaughter with
+open eyes, hoping each moment that the girl has been seriously impressed
+at last. As for Jack Landis, his slow mind did not readily get under the
+surface of the arts of Nelly, but he knew that there was at least a
+tinge of real concern in the girl's desire to keep him from the posse
+which Milligan was raising.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But they's something about him that I don't like, Nelly. Something sort
+of familiar that I don't like.&quot; For naturally enough he did not
+recognize the transformed Donnegan, and the name he had never heard
+before. &quot;A gunfighter, that's what he is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Jack, sometimes they call you the same thing; say that you hunt
+for trouble now and then!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do they say that?&quot; asked the young chap quickly, flushing with vanity.
+&quot;Oh, I aim to take care of myself. And I'd like to take a hand with this
+murdering Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack, listen! Don't go; keep away from him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why do you look like that? As if I was a dead one already.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell you, Jack, he'd kill you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Something in her terrible assurance whitened the cheeks of Landis, but
+he was also angered. When a very young man becomes both afraid and angry
+he is apt to be dangerous. &quot;What do you know of him?&quot; he asked
+suspiciously.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You silly! But I saw his face when he lifted that mint. He'd already
+forgotten about the man he had just shot down. He was thinking of
+nothing but the scent of the mint. And did you notice his giant servant?
+He never had a moment's doubt of Donnegan's ability to handle the entire
+crowd. I tell you, it gave me a chill of ghosts to see the big black
+fellow's eyes. He knew that Donnegan would win. And Donnegan won! Jack,
+you're a big man and a strong man and a brave man, and we all know it.
+But don't be foolish. Stay away from Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He wavered just an instant. If she could have sustained her pleading
+gaze a moment longer she would have won him, but at the critical instant
+her gaze became distant. She was seeing the calm face of Donnegan as he
+raised the mint. And as though he understood, Jack Landis hardened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad you don't want me shot up, Nelly,&quot; he said coldly. &quot;Mighty
+good of you to watch out for me. But&mdash;I'm going to run this Donnegan out
+of town!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's never harmed you; why&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't like his looks. For a man like me that's enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he strode away toward Milligan. He was greeted by a cheer just as
+the girl reached the side of her father.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack is going,&quot; she said. &quot;Make him come back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the old man was still rubbing his hands; there seemed to be a
+perpetual chill in the tips of the fingers.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is a jackass. The moment I first saw his face I knew that he was
+meant for gun fodder&mdash;buzzard food! Let him go. Bah!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl shivered. &quot;And then the mines?&quot; she asked, changing her
+tactics.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, yes. The mines! But leave that to Lord Nick. He'll handle it well
+enough!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>So Jack Landis strode up the hill first and foremost of the six stalwart
+men who wished to correct the stranger's apparent misunderstandings of
+the status of The Corner. They were each armed to the teeth and each
+provided with enough bullets to disturb a small city. All this in honor
+of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>They found the shack wrapped in the warm, mellow light of the late
+afternoon; and on a flat-topped rock outside it big George sat
+whittling a stick into a grotesque imitation of a snake coiled. He did
+not rise when the posse approached. He merely rocked back upon the rock,
+embraced his knees in both of his enormous arms, and, in a word,
+transformed himself into a round ball of mirth. But having hugged away
+his laughter he was able to convert his joy into a vast grin. That smile
+stopped the posse. When a mob starts for a scene of violence the least
+exhibition of fear incenses it, but mockery is apt to pour water on its
+flames of anger.</p>
+
+<p>Decidedly the fury of the posse was chilled by the grin of George.
+Milligan, who had lived south of the Mason-Dixon line, stepped up to
+impress George properly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Boy,&quot; he said, frowning, &quot;go in and tell your man that we've come for
+him. Tell him to step right out here and get ready to talk. We don't
+mean him no harm less'n he can't explain one or two things. Hop along!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The &quot;boy&quot; did not stir. Only he shifted his eyes from face to face and
+his grin broadened. Ripples of mirth waved along his chest and convulsed
+his face, but still he did not laugh. &quot;Go in and tell them things to
+Donnegan,&quot; he said. &quot;But don't ask me to wake him up. He's sleepin'
+soun' an' fas'. Like a baby; mostly, he sleeps every day to get rested
+up for the night. Now, can't you-all wait till Donnegan wakes up
+tonight? No? Then step right in, gen'lemen; but if you-all is set on
+wakin' him up now, George will jus' step over the hill, because he don't
+want to be near the explosion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this, he allowed his mirth free rein. His laughter shook up to his
+throat, to his enormous mouth; it rolled and bellowed across the
+hillside; and the posse stood, each man in his place, and looked
+frigidly upon one another. But having been laughed at, they felt it
+necessary to go on, and do or die. So they strode across the hill and
+were almost to the door when another phenomenon occurred. A girl in a
+cheap calico dress of blue was seen to run out of a neighboring shack
+and spring up before the door of Donnegan's hut. When she faced the
+crowd it stopped again.</p>
+
+<p>The soft wind was blowing the blue dress into lovely, long, curving
+lines; about her throat a white collar of some sheer stuff was being
+lifted into waves, or curling against her cheek; and the golden hair, in
+disorder, was tousled low upon her forehead.</p>
+
+<p>Whirling thus upon the crowd, she shocked them to a pause, with her
+parted lips, her flare of delicate color.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Have you come here,&quot; she cried, &quot;for&mdash;for Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lady,&quot; began someone, and then looked about for Jack Landis, who was
+considered quite a hand with the ladies. But Jack Landis was discovered
+fading out of view down the hillside. One glance at that blue dress had
+quite routed him, for now he remembered the red-haired man who had
+escorted Lou Macon to The Corner&mdash;and the colonel's singular trust in
+this fellow. It explained much, and he fled before he should be noticed.</p>
+
+<p>Before the spokesman could continue his speech, the girl had whipped
+inside the door. And the posse was dumbfounded. Milligan saw that the
+advance was ruined. &quot;Boys,&quot; he said, &quot;we came to fight a man; not to
+storm a house with a woman in it. Let's go back. We'll tend to Donnegan
+later on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll drill him clean!&quot; muttered the others furiously, and straightway
+the posse departed down the hill.</p>
+
+<p>But inside the girl had found, to her astonishment, that Donnegan was
+stretched upon his bunk wrapped again in the silken dressing gown and
+with a smile upon his lips. He looked much younger, as he slept, and
+perhaps it was this that made the girl steal forward upon tiptoe and
+touch his shoulder so gently.</p>
+
+<p>He was up on his feet in an instant. Alas, vanity, vanity! Donnegan in
+shoes was one thing, for his shoes were of a particular kind; but
+Donnegan in his slippers was a full two inches shorter. He was hardly
+taller than the girl; he was, if the bitter truth must be known, almost
+a small man. And Donnegan was furious at having been found by her in
+such careless attire&mdash;and without those dignity-building shoes. First
+he wanted to cut the throat of big George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What have you done, what have you done?&quot; cried the girl, in one of
+those heart-piercing whispers of fear. &quot;They have come for you&mdash;a whole
+crowd&mdash;of armed men&mdash;they're outside the door! What have you done? It
+was something done for me, I know!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan suddenly transferred his wrath from big George to the mob.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Outside my door?&quot; he asked. And as he spoke he slipped on a belt at
+which a heavy holster tugged down on one side, and buckled it around
+him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, no, no, no!&quot; she pleaded, and caught him in her arms.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan allowed her to stop him with that soft power for a moment,
+until his face went white&mdash;as if with pain. Then he adroitly gathered
+both her wrists into one of his bony hands; and having rendered her
+powerless, he slipped by her and cast open the door.</p>
+
+<p>It was an empty scene upon which they looked, with big George rocking
+back and forth upon a rock, convulsed with silent laughter. Donnegan
+looked sternly at the girl and swallowed. He was fearfully susceptible
+to mockery.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There seems to have been a jest?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>But she lifted him a happy, tearful face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, thank heaven!&quot; she cried gently.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, Donnegan at this set his teeth and turned upon his heel,
+and the girl stole out the door again, and closed it softly behind her.
+As a matter of fact, not even the terrible colonel inspired in her quite
+the fear which Donnegan instilled.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="19"></a><h2>19</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>&quot;Big Landis lost his nerve and sidestepped at the last minute, and then
+the whole gang faded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>That was the way the rumors of the affair always ended at each
+repetition in Lebrun's and Milligan's that night. The Corner had had
+many things to talk about during its brief existence, but nothing to
+compare with a man who entered a shooting scrape with such a fellow as
+Scar-faced Lewis all for the sake of a spray of mint. And the main topic
+of conversation was: Did Donnegan aim at the body or the hand of the
+bouncer?</p>
+
+<p>On the whole, it was an excellent thing for Milligan's. The place was
+fairly well crowded, with a few vacant tables. For everyone wanted to
+hear Milligan's version of the affair. He had a short and vigorous one,
+trimmed with neat oaths. It was all the girl in the blue calico dress,
+according to him. The posse couldn't storm a house with a woman in it or
+even conduct a proper lynching in her presence. And no one was able to
+smile when Milligan said this. Neither was anyone nervy enough to
+question the courage of Landis. It looked strange, that sudden flight of
+his, but then, he was a proven man. Everyone remembered the affair of
+Lester. It had been a clean-cut fight, and Jack Landis had won cleanly
+on his merits.</p>
+
+<p>Nevertheless some of the whispers had not failed to come to the big man,
+and his brow was black.</p>
+
+<p>The most terribly heartless and selfish passion of all is shame in a
+young man. To repay the sidelong glances which he met on every side,
+Jack Landis would have willingly crowded every living soul in The Corner
+into one house and touched a match to it. And chiefly because he felt
+the injustice of the suspicion. He had no fear of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>He had a theory that little men had little souls. Not that he ever
+formulated the theory in words, but he vaguely felt it and adhered to
+it. He had more fear of one man of six two than a dozen under five ten.
+He reserved in his heart of hearts a place of awe for one man whom he
+had never seen. That was for Lord Nick, for that celebrated character
+was said to be as tall and as finely built as Jack Landis himself. But
+as for Donnegan&mdash;Landis wished there were three Donnegans instead of
+one.</p>
+
+<p>Tonight his cue was surly silence. For Nelly Lebrun had been warned by
+her father, and she was making desperate efforts to recover any ground
+she might have lost. Besides, to lose Jack Landis would be to lose the
+most spectacular fellow in The Corner, to say nothing of the one who
+held the largest and the choicest of the mines. The blond, good looks of
+Landis made a perfect background for her dark beauty. With all these
+stakes to play for, Nelly outdid herself. If she were attractive enough
+ordinarily, when she exerted herself to fascinate, Nelly was
+intoxicating. What chance had poor Jack Landis against her? He did not
+call for her that night but went to play gloomily at Lebrun's until
+Nelly walked into Lebrun's and drew him away from a table. Half an hour
+later she had him whirling through a dance in Milligan's and had danced
+the gloom out of his mind for the moment. Before the evening was well
+under way, Landis was making love to her openly, and Nelly was in the
+position of one who had roused the bear.</p>
+
+<p>It was a dangerous flirtation and it was growing clumsy. In any place
+other than The Corner it would have been embarrassing long ago; and when
+Jack Landis, after a dance, put his one big hand over both of Nelly's
+and held her moveless while he poured out a passionate declaration,
+Nelly realized that something must be done. Just what she could not
+tell.</p>
+
+<p>And it was at this very moment that a wave of silence, beginning at the
+door, rushed across Milligan's dance floor. It stopped the bartenders in
+the act of mixing drinks; it put the musicians out of key, and in the
+midst of a waltz phrase they broke down and came to a discordant pause.</p>
+
+<p>What was it?</p>
+
+<p>The men faced the door, wondering, and then the swift rumor passed from
+lip to lip&mdash;almost from eye to eye, so rapidly it sped&mdash;Donnegan is
+coming! Donnegan, and big George with him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Someone tell Milligan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Milligan had already heard; he was back of the bar giving
+directions; guns were actually unlimbering. What would happen?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shall I get you out of this?&quot; Landis asked the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave now?&quot; She laughed fiercely and silently. &quot;I'm just beginning to
+live! Miss Donnegan in action? No, sir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She would have given a good deal to retract that sentence, for it washed
+the face of Landis white with jealousy.</p>
+
+<p>Surely Donnegan had built greater than he knew.</p>
+
+<p>And suddenly he was there in the midst of the house. No one had stopped
+him&mdash;at least, no one had interfered with his servant. Big George had on
+a white suit and a dappled green necktie; he stood directly behind his
+master and made him look like a small boy. For Donnegan was in black,
+and he had a white neckcloth wrapped as high and stiffly as an
+old-fashioned stock. Altogether he was a queer, drab figure compared
+with the brilliant Donnegan of that afternoon. He looked older, more
+weary. His lean face was pale; and his hair flamed with redoubled ardor
+on that account. Never was hair as red as that, not even the hair of
+Lord Nick, said the people in Milligan's this night.</p>
+
+<p>He was perfectly calm even in the midst of that deadly silence. He stood
+looking about him. He saw Gloster, the real estate man, and bowed to him
+deliberately.</p>
+
+<p>For some reason that drew a gasp.</p>
+
+<p>Then he observed a table which was apparently to his fancy and crossed
+the floor with a light, noiseless step, big George padding heavily
+behind him. At the little round table he waited until George had drawn
+out the chair for him and then he sat down. He folded his arms lightly
+upon his breast and once more surveyed the scene, and big George drew
+himself up behind Donnegan. Just once his eyes rolled and flashed
+savagely in delight at the sensation that they were making, then the
+face of George was once again impassive.</p>
+
+<p>If Donnegan had not carried it off with a certain air, the whole
+entrance would have seemed decidedly stagey, but The Corner, as it was,
+found much to wonder at and little to criticize. And in the West grown
+men are as shrewd judges of affectation as children are in other places.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Putting on a lot of style, eh?&quot; said Jack Landis, and with fierce
+intensity he watched the face of Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>For once she was unguarded.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's superb!&quot; she exclaimed. &quot;The big fellow is going to bring a drink
+for him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked up, surprised by the silence of Landis, and found that his
+face was actually yellow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you something. Do you remember the little red-headed tramp
+who came in here the other night and spoke to me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. You seemed to be bothered.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe. I dunno. But that's the man&mdash;the one who's sitting over there
+now all dressed up&mdash;the man The Corner is talking about&mdash;Donnegan! A
+tramp!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught her breath.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that the one?&quot; A pause. &quot;Well, I believe it. He's capable of
+anything!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you like him all the better for knowing that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack, you're angry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should I be? I hate to see you fooled by the bluff of a tramp,
+though.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush! Do you think I'm fooled by it? But it's an interesting bluff,
+Jack, don't you think?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly, he's interesting enough to make you blush; by heaven, the hound
+is lookin' right at you now, Nelly!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had pressed her suddenly against the wall and she struck back
+desperately in self-defense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By the way, what did he want to see you about?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It spiked the guns of Landis for the time being, at least. And the girl
+followed by striving to prove that her interest in Donnegan was purely
+impersonal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's clever,&quot; she ran on, not daring to look at the set face of her
+companion. &quot;See how he fails to notice that he's making a sensation?
+You'd think he was in a big restaurant in a city. He takes the drink off
+the tray from that fellow as if it were a common thing to be waited on
+by a body-servant in The Corner. Jack, I'll wager that there's something
+crooked about him. A professional gambler, say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Jack Landis thawed a little under this careless chatter. He still did
+not quite trust her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know what they're whispering? That I was afraid to face him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She tilted her head back, so that the light gleamed on her young throat,
+and she broke into laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Jack, that's foolish. You proved yourself when you first came to
+The Corner. Maybe some of the newcomers may have said something, but all
+the old-timers know you had some different reason for leaving the rest
+of them. By the way, what was the reason?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sent a keen little glance at him from the corner of her eyes, but
+the moment she saw that he was embarrassed and at sea because of the
+query she instantly slipped into a fresh tide of careless chatter and
+covered up his confusion for him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;See how the girls are making eyes at him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you why,&quot; Jack replied. &quot;A girl likes to be with the man
+who's making the town talk.&quot; He added pointedly: &quot;Oh, I've found that
+out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged that comment away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He isn't paying the slightest attention to any of them,&quot; she murmured.
+&quot;He's queer! Has he just come here hunting trouble?&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="20"></a><h2>20</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>It should be understood that before this the men in Milligan's had
+reached a subtly unspoken agreement that red-haired Donnegan was not one
+of them. In a word, they did not like him because he made a mystery of
+himself. And, also, because he was different. Yet there was a growing
+feeling that the shooting of Lewis through the hand had not been an
+accident, for the whole demeanor of Donnegan composed the action of a
+man who is a professional trouble maker. There was no reason why he
+should go to Milligan's and take his servant with him unless he wished a
+fight. And why a man should wish to fight the entire Corner was
+something no one could guess.</p>
+
+<p>That he should have done all this merely to focus all eyes upon him, and
+particularly the eyes of a girl, did not occur to anyone. It looked
+rather like the bravado of a man who lived for the sake of fighting.
+Now, men who hunt trouble in the mountain desert generally find all that
+they may desire, but for the time being everyone held back, wolfishly,
+waiting for another to take the first step toward Donnegan. Indeed,
+there was an unspoken conviction that the man who took the first step
+would probably not live to take another. In the meantime both men and
+women gave Donnegan the lion's share of their attention. There was only
+one who was clever enough to conceal it, and that one was the pair of
+eyes to which the red-haired man was playing&mdash;Nelly Lebrun. She confined
+herself strictly to Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>So it was that when Milligan announced a tag dance and the couples
+swirled onto the floor gayly, Donnegan decided to take matters into his
+own hands and offer the first overt act. It was clumsy; he did not like
+it; but he hated this delay. And he knew that every moment he stayed on
+there with big George behind his chair was another red rag flaunted in
+the face of The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>He saw the men who had no girl with them brighten at the announcement of
+the tag dance. And when the dance began he saw the prettiest girls
+tagged quickly, one after the other. All except Nelly Lebrun. She swung
+securely around the circle in the big arms of Jack Landis. She seemed to
+be set apart and protected from the common touch by his size, and by his
+formidable, challenging eye. Donnegan felt as never before the
+unassailable position of this fellow; not only from his own fighting
+qualities, but because he had behind him the whole unfathomable power of
+Lord Nick and his gang.</p>
+
+<p>Nelly approached in the arms of Landis in making the first circle of the
+dance floor; her eyes, grown dull as she surrendered herself wholly to
+the rhythm of the waltz, saw nothing. They were blank as unlighted
+charcoal. She came opposite Donnegan, her back was toward him; she swung
+in the arms of Landis, and then, past the shoulder of her partner, she
+flashed a glance at Donnegan. The spark had fallen on the charcoal, and
+her eyes were aflame. Aflame to Donnegan; the next instant the veil had
+dropped across her face once more.</p>
+
+<p>She was carried on, leaving Donnegan tingling.</p>
+
+<p>A wise man upon whom that look had fallen might have seen, not Nelly
+Lebrun in the cheap dance hall, but Helen of Sparta and all Troy's dead.
+But Donnegan was clever, not wise. And he saw only Nelly Lebrun and the
+broad shoulders of Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>Let the critic deal gently with Donnegan. He loved Lou Macon with all
+his heart and his soul, and yet because another beautiful girl had
+looked at him, there he sat at his table with his jaw set and the devil
+in his eye. And while she and Landis were whirling through the next
+circumference of the room, Donnegan was seeing all sides of the problem.
+If he tagged Landis it would be casting the glove in the face of the big
+man&mdash;and in the face of old Lebrun&mdash;and in the face of that mysterious
+and evil power, Lord Nick himself. And consider, that besides these he
+had already insulted all of The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>Why not let things go on as they were? Suppose he were to allow Landis
+to plunge deeper into his infatuation? Suppose he were to bring Lou
+Macon to this place and let her see Landis sitting with Nelly, making
+love to her with every tone in his voice, every light in his eye? Would
+not that cure Lou? And would not that open the door to Donnegan?</p>
+
+<p>And remember, in considering how Donnegan was tempted, that he was not a
+conscientious man. He was in fact what he seemed to be&mdash;a wanderer, a
+careless vagrant, living by his wits. For all this, he had been touched
+by the divine fire&mdash;a love that is greater than self. And the more
+deeply he hated Landis, the more profoundly he determined that he should
+be discarded by Nelly and forced back to Lou Macon. In the meantime,
+Nelly and Jack were coming again. They were close; they were passing;
+and this time her eye had no spark for Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Yet he rose from his table, reached the floor with a few steps, and
+touched Landis lightly on the shoulder. The challenge was passed. Landis
+stopped abruptly and turned his head; his face showed merely dull
+astonishment. The current of dancers split and washed past on either
+side of the motionless trio, and on every face there was a glittering
+curiosity. What would Landis do?</p>
+
+<p>Nothing. He was too stupefied to act. He, Jack Landis, had actually been
+tagged while he was dancing with the woman which all The Corner knew to
+be his girl! And before his befogged senses cleared the girl was in the
+arms of the red-haired man and was lost in the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>What a buzz went around the room! For a moment Landis could no more move
+than he could think; then he sent a sullen glance toward the girl and
+retreated to their table. A childish sullenness clouded his face while
+he sat there; only one decision came clearly to him: he must kill
+Donnegan!</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime people noted two things. The first was that Donnegan
+danced very well with Nelly Lebrun; and his red hair beside the silken
+black of the girl's was a startling contrast. It was not a common red.
+It flamed, as though with phosphoric properties of its own. But they
+danced well; and the eyes of both of them were gleaming. Another thing:
+men did not tag Donnegan any more than they had offered to tag Landis.
+One or two slipped out from the outskirts of the floor, but something in
+the face of Donnegan discouraged them and made them turn elsewhere as
+though they had never started for Nelly Lebrun in the first place.
+Indeed, to a two-year-old child it would have been apparent that Nelly
+and the red-headed chap were interested in each other.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact they did not speak a single syllable until they had
+gone around the floor one complete turn and the dance was coming toward
+an end.</p>
+
+<p>It was he who spoke first, gloomily: &quot;I shouldn't have done it; I
+shouldn't have tagged him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this she drew back a little so that she could meet his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole crew will be on my trail.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What crew?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Beginning with Lord Nick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>This shook her completely out of the thrall of the dance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Nick? What makes you think that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know he's thick with Landis. It'll mean trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was so simple about it that she began to laugh. It was not such a
+voice as Lou Macon's. It was high and light, and one could suspect that
+it might become shrill under a stress.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And yet it looks as though you've been hunting trouble,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I couldn't help it,&quot; said Donnegan na&iuml;vely.</p>
+
+<p>It was a very subtle flattery, this frankness from a man who had puzzled
+all The Corner. Nelly Lebrun felt that she was about to look behind the
+scenes and she tingled with delight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me,&quot; she said. &quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I had to make a noise because I wanted to be
+noticed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She glanced about her; every eye was upon them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've made your point,&quot; she murmured. &quot;The whole town is talking of
+nothing else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't care an ounce of lead about the rest of the town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stopped abruptly, seeing toward what he was tending. And the heart
+of Nelly Lebrun fluttered for the first time in many a month. She
+believed him implicitly. It was for her sake that he had made all this
+commotion; to draw her attention. For every lovely girl, no matter how
+cool-headed, has a foolish belief in the power of her beauty. As a
+matter of fact Donnegan had told her the truth. It had all been to win
+her attention, from the fight for the mint to the tagging for the dance.
+How could she dream that it sprang out of anything other than a wild
+devotion to her? And while Donnegan coldly calculated every effect,
+Nelly Lebrun began to see in him the man of a dream, a spirit out of a
+dead age, a soul of knightly, reckless chivalry. In that small
+confession he cast a halo about himself which no other hand could ever
+remove entirely so far as Nelly Lebrun was concerned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You understand?&quot; he was saying quietly.</p>
+
+<p>She countered with a question as direct as his confession.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you, Mr. Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A wanderer,&quot; said Donnegan instantly, &quot;and an avoider of work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At that they laughed together. The strain was broken and in its place
+there was a mutual excitement. She saw Landis in the distance watching
+their laughter with a face contorted with anger, but it only increased
+her unreasoning happiness.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan, let me give you friendly advice. I like you: I know you
+have courage; and I saw you meet Scar-faced Lewis. But if I were you I'd
+leave The Corner tonight and never come back. You've set every man
+against you. You've stepped on the toes of Landis and he's a big man
+here. And even if you were to prove too much for Jack you'd come against
+Lord Nick, as you say yourself. Do you know Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then, Mr. Donnegan, leave The Corner!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The music, ending, left them face to face as he dropped his arm from
+about her. And she could appreciate now, for the first time, that he was
+smaller than he had seemed at a distance, or while he was dancing. He
+seemed a frail figure indeed to face the entire banded Corner&mdash;and Lord
+Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you see,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;that I can't stop now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a double meaning that sent her color flaring.</p>
+
+<p>He added in a low, tense voice, &quot;I've gone too far. Besides, I'm
+beginning to hope!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She paused, then made a little gesture of abandon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then stay, stay!&quot; she whispered with eyes on fire. &quot;And good luck to
+you, Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="21"></a><h2>21</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>As they went back, toward Nelly's table, where Jack Landis was trying to
+appear carelessly at ease, the face of Donnegan was pale. One might have
+thought that excitement and fear caused his pallor; but as a matter of
+fact it was in him an unfailing sign of happiness and success. Landis
+had manners enough to rise as they approached. He found himself being
+presented to the smaller man. He heard the cool, precise voice of
+Donnegan acknowledging the introduction; and then the red-headed man
+went back to his table; and Jack Landis was alone with Nelly Lebrun
+again.</p>
+
+<p>He scowled at her, and she tried to look repentant, but since she could
+not keep the dancing light out of her eyes, she compromised by looking
+steadfastly down at the table. Which convinced Landis that she was
+thinking of her late partner. He made a great effort, swallowed, and was
+able to speak smoothly enough.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Looked as if you were having a pretty good time with that&mdash;tramp.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The color in her cheeks was anger; Landis took it for shame.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He dances beautifully,&quot; she replied.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yeh; he's pretty smooth. Take a gent like that, it's hard for a girl
+to see through him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let's not talk about him, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right. Is he going to dance with you again?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I promised him the third dance after this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a time Landis could not trust his voice. Then: &quot;Kind of sorry about
+that. Because I'll be going home before then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this she raised her eyes for the first time. He was astonished and a
+little horrified to see that she was not in the least flustered, but
+very angry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll go home before I have a chance for that dance?&quot; she asked.
+&quot;You're acting like a two-year-old, Jack. You are!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He flushed. Burning would be too easy a death for Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's making a laughingstock out of me; look around the room!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nobody's thinking about you at all, Jack. You're just self-conscious.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Of course, it was pouring acid upon an open wound. But she was past the
+point of caution.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe they ain't,&quot; said Landis, controlling his rage. &quot;I don't figure
+that I amount to much. But I rate myself as high as a skunk like him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It may have been a smile that she gave him. At any rate, he caught the
+glint of teeth, and her eyes were as cold as steel points. If she had
+actually defended the stranger she would not have infuriated Landis so
+much.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, what does he say about himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He says frankly that he's a vagrant.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you don't believe him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She did not speak.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Makin' a play for sympathy. Confound a man like that, I say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still she did not answer; and now Landis became alarmed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;D'you really like him, Nelly?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I liked him well enough to introduce him to you, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sorry I talked so plain if you put it that way,&quot; he admitted
+heavily. &quot;I didn't know you picked up friends so fast as all that!&quot; He
+could not avoid adding this last touch of the poison point.</p>
+
+<p>His back was to Donnegan, and consequently the girl, facing him, could
+look straight across the room at the red-headed man. She allowed herself
+one brief glance, and she saw that he was sitting with his elbow on the
+table, his chin in his hand, looking fixedly at her. It was the gaze of
+one who forgets all else and wraps himself in a dream. Other people in
+the room were noting that changeless stare and the whisper buzzed more
+and more loudly, but Donnegan had forgotten the rest of the world, it
+seemed. It was a very cunning piece of acting, not too much overdone,
+and once more the heart of Nelly Lebrun fluttered.</p>
+
+<p>She remembered that in spite of his frankness he had not talked with
+insolent presumption to her. He had merely answered her individual
+questions with an astonishing, childlike frankness. He had laid his
+heart before her, it seemed. And now he sat at a distance looking at her
+with the white, intense face of one who sees a dream.</p>
+
+<p>Nelly Lebrun was recalled by the heavy breathing of Jack Landis and she
+discovered that she had allowed her eyes to rest too long on the
+red-headed stranger. She had forgotten; her eyes had widened; and even
+Jack Landis was able to look into her mind and see things that startled
+him. For the first time he sensed that this was more than a careless
+flirtation. And he sat stiffly at the table, looking at her and through
+her with a fixed smile. Nelly, horrified, strove to cover her tracks.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're right, Jack,&quot; she said. &quot;I&mdash;I think there was something brazen
+in the way he tagged you. And&mdash;let's go home together!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Too late. The mind of Landis was not oversharp, but now jealousy gave it
+a point. He nodded his assent, and they got up, but there was no
+increase in his color. She read as plain as day in his face that he
+intended murder this night and Nelly was truly frightened.</p>
+
+<p>So she tried different tactics. All the way to the substantial little
+house which Lebrun had built at a little distance from the gambling
+hall, she kept up a running fire of steady conversation. But when she
+said good night to him, his face was still set. She had not deceived
+him. When he turned, she saw him go back into the night with long
+strides, and within half an hour she knew, as clearly as if she were
+remembering the picture instead of foreseeing it, that Jack and Donnegan
+would face each other gun in hand on the floor of Milligan's dance hall.</p>
+
+<p>Still, she was not foolish enough to run after Jack, take his arm, and
+make a direct appeal. It would be too much like begging for Donnegan,
+and even if Jack forgave her for this interest in his rival, she had
+sense enough to feel that Donnegan himself never would. Something,
+however, must be done to prevent the fight, and she took the straightest
+course.</p>
+
+<p>She went as fast as a run would carry her straight behind the
+intervening houses and came to the back entrance to the gaming hall.
+There she entered and stepped into the little office of her father.
+Black Lebrun was not there. She did not want him. In his place there sat
+the Pedlar and Joe Rix; they were members of Lord Nick's chosen crew,
+and since Nick's temporary alliance with Lebrun for the sake of
+plundering Jack Landis, Nick's men were Nelly's men. Indeed, this was a
+formidable pair. They were the kind of men about whom many whispers and
+no facts circulate: and yet the facts are far worse than the whispers.
+It was said that Joe Rix, who was a fat little man with a great aversion
+to a razor and a pair of shallow, pale blue eyes, was in reality a
+merciless fiend. He was; and he was more than that, if there be a
+stronger superlative. If Lord Nick had dirty work to be done, there was
+the man who did it with a relish. The Pedlar, on the other hand, was an
+exact opposite. He was long, lean, raw-boned, and prodigiously strong in
+spite of his lack of flesh. He had vast hands, all loose skin and
+outstanding tendons; he had a fleshless face over which his smile was
+capable of extending limitlessly. He was the sort of a man from whom one
+would expect shrewdness, some cunning, stubbornness, a dry humor, and
+many principles. All of which, except the last, was true of the Pedlar.</p>
+
+<p>There was this peculiarity about the Pedlar. In spite of his broad grins
+and his wise, bright eyes, none, even of Lord Nick's gang, extended a
+friendship or familiarity toward him. When they spoke of the Pedlar they
+never used his name. They referred to him as &quot;him&quot; or they indicated him
+with gestures. If he had a fondness for any living creature it was for
+fat Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>Yet on seeing this ominous pair, Nelly Lebrun cried out softly in
+delight. She ran to them, and dropped a hand on the bony shoulder of the
+Pedlar and one on the plump shoulder of Joe Rix, whose loose flesh
+rolled under her finger tips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's Jack Landis!&quot; she cried. &quot;He's gone to Milligan's to fight the
+new man. Stop him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan?&quot; said Joe, and did not rise.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Him?&quot; said the Pedlar, and moistened his broad lips like one on the
+verge of starvation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you going to sit here?&quot; she cried. &quot;What will Lord Nick say if he
+finds out you've let Jack get into a fight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We ain't nursin' mothers,&quot; declared the Pedlar. &quot;But I'd kind of like
+to look on!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he rose. Unkinking joint after joint, straightening his legs, his
+back, his shoulders, his neck, he soared up and up until he stood a
+prodigious height. The girl controlled a shudder of disgust.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe!&quot; she appealed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You want us to clean up Donnegan?&quot; he asked, rising, but without
+interest in his voice.</p>
+
+<p>To his surprise, she slipped back to the door and blocked it with her
+outcast arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a hair of his head!&quot; she said fiercely. &quot;Swear that you won't harm
+him, boys!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What the devil!&quot; ejaculated Joe, who was a blunt man in spite of his
+fat. &quot;You want us to keep Jack from fightin', but you don't want us to
+hurt the other gent. What you want? Hogtie 'em both?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, yes; keep Jack out of Milligan's; but for heaven's sake don't try
+to put a hand on Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For your sakes; he'd kill you, Joe!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this they both gaped in unison, and as one man they drawled in vast
+admiration: &quot;Good heavens!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But go, go, go!&quot; cried the girl.</p>
+
+<p>And she shoved them through the door and into the night.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="22"></a><h2>22</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>To the people in Milligan's it had been most incredible that Jack Landis
+should withdraw from a competition of any sort. And though the girls
+were able to understand his motives in taking Nelly Lebrun away they
+were not able to explain this fully to their men companions. For one and
+all they admitted that Jack was imperiling his hold on the girl in
+question if he allowed her to stay near this red-headed fiend. But one
+and all they swore that Jack Landis had ruined himself with her by
+taking her away. And this was a paradox which made masculine heads in
+The Corner spin. The main point was that Jack Landis had backed down
+before a rival; and this fact was stunning enough. Donnegan, however,
+was not confused. He sent big George to ask Milligan to come to him for
+a moment.</p>
+
+<p>Milligan, at this, cursed George, but he was drawn by curiosity to
+consent. A moment later he was seated at Donnegan's table, drinking his
+own liquor as it was served to him from the hands of big George. If the
+first emotions of the dance-hall proprietor were anger and intense
+curiosity, his second emotion was that never-failing surprise which all
+who came close to the wanderer felt. For he had that rare faculty of
+seeming larger when in action, even when actually near much bigger men.
+Only when one came close to Donnegan one stepped, as it were, through a
+veil, and saw the almost fragile reality. When Milligan had caught his
+breath and adjusted himself, he began as follows:</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, Bud,&quot; he said, &quot;you've made a pretty play. Not bad at all. But no
+more bluffs in Milligan's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bluff!&quot; Donnegan repeated gently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;About your servant. I let it pass for one night, but not for another.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear Mr. Milligan! However&quot;&mdash;changing the subject easily&mdash;&quot;what I
+wish to speak to you about is a bit of trouble which I foresee. I think,
+sir, that Jack Landis is coming back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What makes you think that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a feeling I have. I have queer premonitions, Mr. Milligan, I'm
+sure he's coming and I'm sure he's going to attempt a murder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Milligan's thick lips framed his question but he did not speak: fear
+made his face ludicrous.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A shootin' scrape here! You?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has me in mind. That's why I'm speaking to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't wait to speak to me about it. Get up and get out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Milligan, you're wrong. I'm going to stay here and you're going to
+protect me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, confound your soul! They ain't much nerve about you, is there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You run a public place. You have to protect your patrons from insult.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And who began it, then? Who started walkin' on Jack's toes? Now you
+come whinin' to me! By heck, I hope Jack gets you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're a genial soul,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Here's to you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But something in his smile as he sipped his liquor made Milligan sit
+straighter in his chair.</p>
+
+<p>As for Donnegan, he was thinking hard and fast. If there were a shooting
+affair and he won, he would nevertheless run a close chance of being
+hung by a mob. He must dispose that mob to look upon him as the
+defendant and Landis as the aggressor. He had not foreseen the crisis
+until it was fairly upon him. He had thought of Nelly playing Landis
+along more gradually and carefully, so that, while he was slowly
+learning that she was growing cold to him, he would have a chance to
+grow fond of Lou Macon once more. But even across the width of the room
+he had seen the girl fire up, and from that moment he knew the result.
+Landis already suspected him; Landis, with the feeling that he had been
+robbed, would do his best to kill the thief. He might take a chance with
+Landis, if it came to a fight, just as he had taken a chance with Lewis.
+But how different this case would be! Landis was no dull-nerved ruffian
+and drunkard. He was a keen boy with a hair-trigger balance, and in a
+gunplay he would be apt to beat the best of them all. Of all this
+Donnegan was fully aware. Either he must place his own life in terrible
+hazard or else he must shoot to kill; and if he killed, what of Lou
+Macon?</p>
+
+<p>While he smiled into the face of Milligan, perspiration was bursting out
+under his armpits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Milligan, I implore you to give me your aid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the difference?&quot; Milligan asked in a changed tone. &quot;If he don't
+fight you here he'll fight you later.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're wrong, Mr. Milligan. He isn't the sort to hold malice. He'll
+come here tonight and try to get at me like a bulldog straining on a
+leash. If he is kept away he'll get over his bad temper.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Milligan pushed back his chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've tried to force yourself down the throat of The Corner,&quot; he said,
+&quot;and now you yell for help when you see the teeth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had raised his voice. Now he got up and strode noisily away. Donnegan
+waited until he was halfway across the dance floor and then rose in
+turn.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>The quiet voice cut into every conversation; the musicians lowered the
+instruments.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have just told Mr. Milligan that I am sure Jack Landis is coming back
+here to try to kill me. I have asked for his protection. He has refused
+it. I intend to stay here and wait for him, Jack Landis. In the meantime
+I ask any able-bodied man who will do so, to try to stop Landis when he
+enters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He sat down, raised his glass, and sipped the drink. Two hundred pairs
+of eyes were fastened with hawklike intensity upon him, and they could
+perceive no quiver of his hand.</p>
+
+<p>The sipping of his liquor was not an affectation. For he was drinking,
+at incredible cost, liquors from Milligan's store of rareties.</p>
+
+<p>The effect of Donnegan's announcement was first a silence, then a hum,
+then loud voices of protest, curiosity&mdash;and finally a scurrying toward
+the doors.</p>
+
+<p>Yet really very few left. The rest valued a chance to see the fight
+beyond the fear of random slugs of lead which might fly their way.
+Besides, where such men as Donnegan and big Jack Landis were concerned,
+there was not apt to be much wild shooting. The dancing stopped, of
+course. The music was ordered by Milligan to play, in a frantic endeavor
+to rouse custom again; but the music of its own accord fell away in the
+middle of the piece. For the musicians could not watch the notes and the
+door at the same time.</p>
+
+<p>As for Donnegan, he found that it was one thing to wait and another to
+be waited for. He, too, wished to turn and watch that door until it
+should be filled by the bulk of Jack Landis. Yet he fought the desire.</p>
+
+<p>And in the midst of this torturing suspense an idea came to him, and at
+the same instant Jack Landis entered the doorway. He stood there looking
+vast against the night. One glance around was sufficient to teach him
+the meaning of the silence. The stage was set, and the way opened to
+Donnegan. Without a word, big George stole to one side.</p>
+
+<p>Straight to the middle of the dance floor went Jack Landis, red-faced,
+with long, heavy steps. He faced Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You skunk!&quot; shouted Landis. &quot;I've come for you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he went for his gun. Donnegan, too, stirred. But when the revolver
+leaped into the hand of Landis, it was seen that the hands of Donnegan
+rose past the line of his waist, past his shoulders, and presently
+locked easily behind his head. A terrible chance, for Landis had come
+within a breath of shooting. So great was the impulse that, as he
+checked the pressure of his forefinger, he stumbled a whole pace
+forward. He walked on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You need cause to fight?&quot; he cried, striking Donnegan across the face
+with the back of his left hand, jerking up the muzzle of the gun in his
+right.</p>
+
+<p>Now a dark trickle was seen to come from the broken lips of Donnegan,
+yet he was smiling faintly.</p>
+
+<p>Jack Landis muttered a curse and said sneeringly: &quot;Are you afraid?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There were sick faces in that room; men turned their heads, for nothing
+is so ghastly as the sight of a man who is taking water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I'm going to kill you, Jack. But I want to kill
+you fairly and squarely. There's no pleasure, you see, in beating a
+youngster like you to the draw. I want to give you a fighting chance.
+Besides&quot;&mdash;he removed one hand from behind his head and waved it
+carelessly to where the men of The Corner crouched in the shadow&mdash;&quot;you
+people have seen me drill one chap already, and I'd like to shoot you in
+a new way. Is that agreeable?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Two terrible, known figures detached themselves from the gloom near the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hark to this gent sing,&quot; said one, and his name was the Pedlar. &quot;Hark
+to him sing, Jack, and we'll see that you get fair play.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good,&quot; said his friend, Joe Rix. &quot;Let him take his try, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact, had Donnegan reached for a gun, he would have been
+shot before even Landis could bring out a weapon, for the steady eye of
+Joe Rix, hidden behind the Pedlar, had been looking down a revolver
+barrel at the forehead of Donnegan, waiting for that first move. But
+something about the coolness of Donnegan fascinated them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't shoot, Joe,&quot; the Pedlar had said. &quot;That bird is the chief over
+again. Don't plug him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And that was why Donnegan lived.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="23"></a><h2>23</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>If he had taken the eye of the hardened Rix and the still harder Pedlar,
+he had stunned the men of The Corner. And breathlessly they waited for
+his proposal to Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>He spoke with his hands behind his head again, after he had slowly taken
+out a handkerchief and wiped his chin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm a methodical fellow, Landis,&quot; he said. &quot;I hate to do an untidy
+piece of work. I have been disgusted with myself since my little falling
+out with Lewis. I intended to shoot him cleanly through the hand, but
+instead of that I tore up his whole forearm. Sloppy work, Landis. I
+don't like it. Now, in meeting you, I want to do a clean, neat, precise
+job. One that I'll be proud of.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A moaning voice was heard faintly in the distance. It was the Pedlar,
+who had wrapped himself in his gaunt arms and was crooning softly, with
+unspeakable joy: &quot;Hark to him sing! Hark to him sing! A ringer for the
+chief!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why should we be in such a hurry?&quot; continued Donnegan. &quot;You see that
+clock in the corner? Tut, tut! Turn your head and look. Do you think
+I'll drop you while you look around?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Landis flung one glance over his shoulder at the big clock, whose
+pendulum worked solemnly back and forth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In five minutes,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;it will be eleven o'clock. And when
+it's eleven o'clock the clock will chime. Now, Landis, you and I shall
+sit down here like gentlemen and drink our liquor and think our last
+thoughts. Heavens, man, is there anything more disagreeable than being
+hurried out of life? But when the clock chimes, we draw our guns and
+shoot each other through the heart&mdash;the brain&mdash;wherever we have chosen.
+But, Landis, if one of us should inadvertently&mdash;or through
+nervousness&mdash;beat the clock's chime by the split part of a second, the
+good people of The Corner will fill that one of us promptly full of
+lead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned to the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen, is it a good plan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As well as a Roman crowd if it wanted to see a gladiator die, the frayed
+nerves of The Corner responded to the stimulus of this delightful
+entertainment. There was a joyous chorus of approval.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When the clock strikes, then,&quot; said Landis, and flung himself down in a
+chair, setting his teeth over his rage.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled benevolently upon him; then he turned again and beckoned
+to George. The big man strode closer and leaned.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;George,&quot; he said. &quot;I'm not going to kill this fellow.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, sir; certainly, sir,&quot; whispered the other. &quot;George can kill him for
+you, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled wanly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not going to kill him, George, on account of the girl on the hill.
+You know? And the reason is that she's fond of the lubber. I'll try to
+break his nerve, George, and drill him through the arm, say. No, I can't
+take chances like that. But if I have him shaking in time, I'll shoot
+him through the right shoulder, George.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But if I miss and he gets me instead, mind you, never raise a hand
+against him. If you so much as touch his skin, I'll rise out of my grave
+and haunt you. You hear? Good-by, George.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But big George withdrew without a word, and the reason for his
+speechlessness was the glistening of his eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I live,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I'll show that George that I appreciate
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He went on aloud to Landis: &quot;So glum, my boy? Tush! We have still four
+minutes left. Are you going to spend your last four minutes hating me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned: &quot;Another liqueur, George. Two of them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man brought the drinks, and having put one on the table of
+Donnegan, he was directed to take the other to Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's really good stuff,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I'm not an expert on these
+matters; but I like the taste. Will you try it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that Landis dared not trust himself to speech. As though a
+vast and deadly hatred were gathered in him, and he feared lest it
+should escape in words the first time he parted his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>He took the glass of liqueur and slowly poured it upon the floor. From
+the crowd there was a deep murmur of disapproval. And Landis, feeling
+that he had advanced the wrong foot in the matter, glowered scornfully
+about him and then stared once more at Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just as you please,&quot; said Donnegan, sipping his glass. &quot;But remember
+this, my young friend, that a fool is a fool, drunk or sober.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Landis showed his teeth, but made no other answer. And Donnegan
+anxiously flashed a glance at the clock. He still had three minutes.
+Three minutes in which he must reduce this stalwart fellow to a
+trembling, nervous wreck. Otherwise, he must shoot to kill, or else sit
+there and become a certain sacrifice for the sake of Lou Macon. Yet he
+controlled the muscles of his face and was still able to smile as he
+turned again to Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Three minutes left,&quot; he said. &quot;Three minutes for you to compose
+yourself, Landis. Think of it, man! All the good life behind you. Have
+you nothing to remember? Nothing to soften your mind? Why die, Landis,
+with a curse in your heart and a scowl on your lips?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more Landis stirred his lips; but there was only the flash of his
+teeth; he maintained his resolute silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; murmured Donnegan, &quot;I am sorry to see this. And before all your
+admirers, Landis. Before all your friends. Look at them scattered there
+under the lights and in the shadows. No farewell word for them? Nothing
+kindly to say? Are you going to leave them without a syllable of
+goodfellowship?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Confound you!&quot; muttered Landis.</p>
+
+<p>There was another hum from the crowd; it was partly wonder, partly
+anger. Plainly they were not pleased with Jack Landis on this day.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shook his head sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hoped,&quot; he said, &quot;that I could teach you how to die. But I fail. And
+yet you should be grateful to me for one thing, Jack. I have kept you
+from being a murderer in cold blood. I kept you from killing a
+defenseless man as you intended to do when you walked up to me a moment
+ago.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He smiled genially in mockery, and there was a scowl on the face of
+Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two minutes,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Leaning back in his chair, he yawned. For a whole minute he did not
+stir.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One minute?&quot; he murmured inquisitively.</p>
+
+<p>And there was a convulsive shudder through the limbs of Landis. It was
+the first sign that he was breaking down under the strain. There
+remained only one minute in which to reduce him to a nervous wreck!</p>
+
+<p>The strain was telling in other places. Donnegan turned and saw in the
+shadow and about the edges of the room a host of drawn, tense faces and
+burning eyes. Never while they lived would they forget that scene.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now that the time is close,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I must look to my
+gun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He made a gesture; how it was, no one was swift enough of eye to tell,
+but a gun appeared in his hand. At the flash of it, Landis' weapon
+leaped up to the mark and his face convulsed. But Donnegan calmly spun
+the cylinder of his revolver and held it toward Landis, dangling from
+his forefinger under the guard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see?&quot; he said to Landis. &quot;Clean as a whistle, and easy as a girl's
+smile. I hate a stiff action, Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Landis slowly allowed the muzzle of his own gun to sink. For the
+first time his eyes left the eyes of Donnegan, and sinking, inch by
+inch, stared fascinated at the gun in the hand of the enemy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thirty seconds,&quot; said Donnegan by way of conversation.</p>
+
+<p>Landis jerked up his head and his eyes once more met the eyes of
+Donnegan, but this time they were wide, and the pointed glance of
+Donnegan sank into them. The lips of Landis parted. His tongue
+tremblingly moistened them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Keep your nerve,&quot; said Donnegan in an undertone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You hound!&quot; gasped Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew it,&quot; said Donnegan sadly. &quot;You'll die with a curse on your
+lips.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He added: &quot;Ten seconds, Landis!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And then he achieved his third step toward victory, for Landis jerked
+his head around, saw the minute hand almost upon its mark, and swung
+back with a shudder toward Donnegan. From the crowd there was a deep
+breath.</p>
+
+<p>And then Landis was seen to raise the muzzle of his gun again, and
+crouch over it, leveling it straight at Donnegan. He, at least, would
+send his bullet straight to the mark when that first chime went humming
+through the big room.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan? He made his last play to shatter the nerve of Landis. With
+the minute hand on the very mark, he turned carelessly, the revolver
+still dangling by the trigger guard, and laughed toward the crowd.</p>
+
+<p>And out of the crowd there came a deep, sobbing breath of heartbreaking
+suspense.</p>
+
+<p>It told on Landis. Out of the corner of his eye Donnegan saw the muscles
+of the man's face sag and tremble; saw him allow his gun to fall, in
+imitation of Donnegan, to his side; and saw the long arm quivering.</p>
+
+<p>And then the chime rang, with a metallic, sharp click and then a long
+and reverberant clanging.</p>
+
+<p>With a gasp Landis whipped up his gun and fired. Once, twice, again, the
+weapon crashed. And, to the eternal wonder of all who saw it, at a
+distance of five paces Landis three times missed his man. But Donnegan,
+sitting back with a smile, raised his own gun almost with leisure,
+unhurried, dropped it upon the mark, and sent a forty-five slug through
+the right shoulder of Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>The blow of the slug, like the punch of a strong man's fist, knocked the
+victim out of his chair to the floor. He lay clutching at his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; said Donnegan, rising, &quot;is there a doctor here?&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="24"></a><h2>24</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>That was the signal for the rush that swept across the floor and left a
+flood of marveling men around the fallen Landis. On the outskirts of
+this tide, Donnegan stepped up to two men, Joe Rix and the Pedlar. They
+greeted him with expectant glances.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Gentlemen,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;will you step aside?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They followed him to a distance from the clamoring group.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have to thank you,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For changing your minds,&quot; said Donnegan, and left them.</p>
+
+<p>And afterward the Pedlar murmured with an oddly twisted face: &quot;Cat-eye,
+Joe. He can see in the dark! But I told you he was worth savin'.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Speakin' in general,&quot; said Joe, &quot;which you ain't hardly ever wrong when
+you get stirred up about a thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's something new,&quot; the Pedlar said wisely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ay, he's rare.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But talkin' aside, suppose he was to meet up with Lord Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The smile of Joe Rix was marvelously evil.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You got a great mind for great things,&quot; he declared. &quot;You ought to of
+been in politics.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the doctor had been found. The wound had been cleansed.
+It was a cruel one, for the bullet had torn its way through flesh and
+sinew, and for many a week the fighting arm of Jack Landis would be
+useless. It had, moreover, carried a quantity of cloth into the wound,
+and it was almost impossible to cleanse the hole satisfactorily. As for
+the bullet itself, it had whipped cleanly through, at that short
+distance making nothing of its target.</p>
+
+<p>A door was knocked off its hinges. But before the wounded man was placed
+upon it, Lebrun appeared at the door into Milligan's. He was never a
+very cheery fellow in appearance, and now he looked like a demoniac. He
+went straight to Joe Rix and the skeleton form of the Pedlar. He raised
+one finger as he looked at them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've heard,&quot; said Lebrun. &quot;Lord Nick likewise shall hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix changed color. He bustled about, together with the Pedlar, and
+lent a hand in carrying the wounded man to the house of Lebrun, for
+Nelly Lebrun was to be the nurse of Landis.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime, Donnegan went up the hill with big George behind him.
+Already he was a sinisterly marked man. Working through the crowd near
+Lebrun's gambling hall, a drunkard in the midst of a song stumbled
+against him. But the sight of the man with whom he had collided, sobered
+him as swiftly as the lash of a whip across his face. It was impossible
+for him, in that condition, to grow pale. But he turned a vivid purple.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sorry, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, with a shrug of his shoulders, passed on. The crowd split
+before him, for they had heard his name. There were brave men, he knew,
+among them. Men who would fight to the last drop of blood rather than be
+shamed, but they shrank from Donnegan without shame, as they would have
+shrunk from the coming of a rattler had their feet been bare. So he went
+easily through the crowd with big George in his wake, walking proudly.</p>
+
+<p>For George had stood to one side and watched Donnegan indomitably beat
+down the will of Jack Landis, and the sight would live in his mind
+forever. Indeed, if Donnegan had bidden the sun to stand in the heavens,
+the big man would have looked for obedience. That the forbearance of
+Donnegan should have been based on a desire to serve a girl certainly
+upset the mind of George, but it taught him an amazing thing&mdash;that
+Donnegan was capable of affection.</p>
+
+<p>The terrible Donnegan went on. In his wake the crowd closed slowly, for
+many had paused to look after the little man. Until they came to the
+outskirts of the town and climbed the hill toward the two shacks. The
+one was, of course, dark. But the shack in which Lou Macon lived burst
+with light. Donnegan paused to consider this miracle. He listened, and
+he heard voices&mdash;the voice of a man, laughing loudly. Thinking something
+was wrong, he hurried forward and called loudly.</p>
+
+<p>What he saw when he was admitted made him speechless. Colonel Macon,
+ensconced in his invalid chair, faced the door, and near him was Lou
+Macon. Lou rose, half-frightened by the unexpected interruption, but the
+liquid laughter of the colonel set all to rights at once.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come in, Donnegan. Come in, lad,&quot; said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard a man's voice,&quot; Donnegan said half apologetically. The sick
+color began to leave his face, and relief swept over it slowly. &quot;I
+thought something might be wrong. I didn't think of you.&quot; And looking
+down, as all men will in moments of relaxation from a strain, he did not
+see the eyes of Lou Macon grow softly luminous as they dwelt upon him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come in, George,&quot; went on the colonel, &quot;and make yourself comfortable
+in the kitchen. Close the door. Sit down, Donnegan. When your letter
+came I saw that I was needed here. Lou, have you looked into our
+friend's cabin? No? Nothing like a woman's touch to give a man the
+feeling of homeliness, Lou. Step over to Donnegan's cabin and put it to
+rights. Yes, I know that George takes care of it, but George is one
+thing, and your care will be another. Besides, I must be alone with him
+for a moment. Man talk confuses a girl, Lou. You shouldn't listen to
+it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She withdrew with that faint, dreamy smile with which she so often heard
+the instructions of her father; as though she were only listening with
+half of her mind. When she was gone, though the door to the kitchen
+stood wide open, and big George was in it, the colonel lowered his bass
+voice so successfully that it was as safe as being alone with Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And now for facts,&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;how&mdash;that chair&mdash;how in the world have you come
+here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shook his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear boy, you grieve and disappoint me. The manner in which a thing
+is done is not important. Mysteries are usually simply explained. As for
+my small mystery&mdash;a neighbor on the way to The Corner with a wagon
+stopped in, and I asked him to take me along. So here I am. But now for
+your work here, lad?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bad,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I gathered you had been unfortunate. And now you have been fighting?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have heard?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see it in your eye, Donnegan. When a man has been looking fear in the
+face for a time, an image of it remains in his eyes. They are wider,
+glazed with the other thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was forced on me,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I have shot Landis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was amazed to see the colonel was vitally affected. His lips remained
+parted over his next word, and one eyelid twitched violently. But the
+spasm passed over quickly. When he raised his perfect hands and pressed
+them together just under his chin. He smiled in a most winning manner
+that made the blood of Donnegan run cold.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; he said softly, &quot;I see that I have misjudged you. I
+underestimated you. I thought, indeed, that your rare qualities were
+qualified by painful weaknesses. But now I see that you are a man, and
+from this moment we shall act together with open minds. So you have done
+it? Tush, then I need not have taken my trip. The work is done; the
+mines come to me as the heir of Jack. And yet, poor boy, I pity him! He
+misjudged me; he should not have ventured to this deal with Lord Nick
+and his compatriots!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait,&quot; exclaimed Donnegan. &quot;You're wrong; Landis is not dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more the colonel was checked, but this time the alteration in his
+face was no more than a comma's pause in a long balanced sentence. It
+was impossible to obtain more than one show of emotion from him in a
+single conversation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not dead? Well, Donnegan, that is unfortunate. And after you had
+punctured him you had no chance to send home the finishing shot?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan merely watched the colonel and tapped his bony finger against
+the point of his chin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; murmured the colonel, &quot;I see another possibility. It is almost as
+good&mdash;it may even be better than his death. You have disabled him, and
+having done this you at once take him to a place where he shall be under
+your surveillance&mdash;this, in fact, is a very comfortable outlook&mdash;for me
+and my interests. But for you, Donnegan, how the devil do you benefit by
+having Jack flat on his back, sick, helpless, and in a perfect position
+to excite all the sympathies of Lou?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Now, Donnegan had known cold-blooded men in his day, but that there
+existed such a man as the colonel had never come into his mind. He
+looked upon the colonel, therefore, with neither disgust nor anger, but
+with a distant and almost admiring wonder. For perfect evil always wins
+something akin to admiration from more common people.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; continued the colonel, a little uneasy under this silent
+scrutiny&mdash;silence was almost the only thing in the world that could
+trouble him&mdash;&quot;well, Donnegan, my lad, this is your plan, is it not?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To shoot down Landis, then take possession of him and while I nurse him
+back to health hold a gun&mdash;metaphorically speaking&mdash;to his head and make
+him do as I please: sign some lease, say, of the mines to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel shifted himself to a more comfortable position in his chair,
+brought the tips of his fingers together under his vast chin, and smiled
+benevolently upon Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is as I thought,&quot; he murmured. &quot;Donnegan, you are rare; you are
+exquisite!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And you,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;are a scoundrel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Exactly. I am very base.&quot; The colonel laughed. &quot;You and I alone can
+speak with intimate knowledge of me.&quot; His chuckle shook all his body,
+and set the folds of his face quivering. His mirth died away when he saw
+Donnegan come to his feet.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh?&quot; he called.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good-by,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But where&mdash;Landis&mdash;Donnegan, what devil is in your eye?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A foolish devil, Colonel Macon. I surrender the benefits of all my
+work for you and go to make sure that you do not lay your hands upon
+Jack Landis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel opened and closed his lips foolishly like a fish gasping
+silently out of water. It was rare indeed for the colonel to appear
+foolish.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In heaven's name, Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little man smiled. He had a marvelously wicked smile, which came
+from the fact that his lips could curve while his eyes remained bright
+and straight, and malevolently unwrinkled. He laid his hand on the knob
+of the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; cried the colonel, gray of face, &quot;give me one minute.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="25"></a><h2>25</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Donnegan stepped to a chair and sat down. He took out his watch and held
+it in his hand, studying the dial, and the colonel knew that his time
+limit was taken literally.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear to you,&quot; he said, &quot;that if you can help me to the possession of
+Landis while he is ill, I shall not lay a finger upon him or harm him in
+any way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You swear?&quot; said Donnegan with that ugly smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My dear boy, do you think I am reckless enough to break a promise I
+have given to you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The cynical glance of Donnegan probed the colonel to the heart, but the
+eyes of the fat man did not wince. Neither did he speak again, but the
+two calmly stared at each other. At the end of the minute, Donnegan
+slipped the watch into his pocket.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am ready to listen to reason,&quot; he said. And the colonel passed one of
+his strong hands across his forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; and he sighed, &quot;I feel that the crisis is passed. With a man of
+your caliber, Donnegan, I fear a snap judgment above all things. Since
+you give me a chance to appeal to your reason I feel safe. As from the
+first, I shall lay my cards upon the table. You are fond of Lou. I took
+it for granted that you would welcome a chance to brush Landis out of
+your path. It appears that I am wrong. I admit my error. Only fools
+cling to convictions; wise men are ready to meet new viewpoints. Very
+well. You wish to spare Landis for reasons of your own which I do not
+pretend to fathom. Perhaps, you pity him; I cannot tell. Now, you wonder
+why I wish to have Landis in my care if I do not intend to put an end to
+him and thereby become owner of his mines? I shall tell you frankly. I
+intend to own the mines, if not through the death of Jack, then through
+a legal act signed by the hand of Jack.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A willing signature?&quot; asked Donnegan, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>A shadow came and went across the face of the colonel, and Donnegan
+caught his breath. There were times when he felt that if the colonel
+possessed strength of body as well as strength of mind even he,
+Donnegan, would be afraid of the fat man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Willing or unwilling,&quot; said the colonel, &quot;he shall do as I direct!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Without force?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen to me,&quot; said the colonel. &quot;You and I are not children, and
+therefore we know that ordinary men are commanded rather by fear of what
+may happen to them than by being confronted with an actual danger. I
+have told you that I shall not so much as raise the weight of a finger
+against Jack Landis. I shall not. But a whisper adroitly put in his ear
+may accomplish the same ends.&quot; He added with a smile. &quot;Personally, I
+dislike physical violence. In that, Mr. Donnegan, we belong to opposite
+schools of action.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The picture came to Donnegan of Landis, lying in the cabin of the
+colonel, his childish mind worked upon by the devilish insinuation of
+the colonel. Truly, if Jack did not go mad under the strain he would be
+very apt to do as the colonel wished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have made a mess of this from the beginning,&quot; said Donnegan, quietly.
+&quot;In the first place, I intended to play the role of the
+self-sacrificing. You don't understand? I didn't expect that you would.
+In short, I intended to send Landis back to Lou by making a flash that
+would dazzle The Corner, and dazzle Nelly Lebrun as well&mdash;win her away
+from Landis, you see? But the fool, as soon as he saw that I was
+flirting with the girl, lowered his head and charged at me like a bull.
+I had to strike him down in self-defense.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But now you ask me to put him wholly in your possession. Colonel, you
+omit one link in your chain of reasoning. The link is important&mdash;to me.
+What am I to gain by placing him within the range of your whispering?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush! Do I need to tell you? I still presume you are interested in Lou,
+though you attempted to do so much to give Landis back to her. Well,
+Donnegan, you must know that when she learns it was a bullet from your
+gun that struck down Landis, she'll hate you, my boy, as if you were a
+snake. But if she knows that after all you were forced into the fight,
+and that you took the first opportunity to bring Jack into
+my&mdash;er&mdash;paternal care&mdash;her sentiments may change. No, they will
+change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan left his chair and began to pace the floor. He was no more
+self-conscious in the presence of the colonel than a man might be in the
+presence of his own evil instincts. And it was typical of the colonel's
+insight that he made no attempt to influence the decision of Donnegan
+after this point was reached. He allowed him to work out the matter in
+his own way. At length, Donnegan paused.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's the next step?&quot; he asked.</p>
+
+<p>The colonel sighed, and by that sigh he admitted more than words could
+tell.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A reasonable man,&quot; he said, &quot;is the delight of my heart. The next step,
+Donnegan, is to bring Jack Landis to this house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush!&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Bring him away from Lebrun? Bring him away from
+the tigers of Lord Nick's gang? I saw them at Milligan's place tonight.
+A bad set, Colonel Macon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A set you can handle,&quot; said the colonel, calmly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The danger will in itself be the thing that tempts you,&quot; he went on.
+&quot;To go among those fellows, wild as they are, and bring Jack Landis away
+to this house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Bring him here,&quot; said Donnegan with indescribable bitterness, &quot;so that
+she may pity his wounds? Bring him here where she may think of him and
+tend him and grow to hate me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Grow to fear you,&quot; said the colonel.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;An excellent thing to accomplish,&quot; said Donnegan coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have found it so,&quot; remarked the colonel, and lighted a cigarette.</p>
+
+<p>He drew the smoke so deep that when it issued again from between his
+lips it was a most transparent, bluish vapor. Fear came upon Donnegan.
+Not fear, surely, of the fat man, helpless in his invalid's chair, but
+fear of the mind working ceaselessly behind those hazy eyes. He turned
+without a word and went to the door. The moment it opened under his
+hand, he felt a hysterical impulse to leap out of the room swiftly and
+slam the door behind him&mdash;to put a bar between him and the eye of the
+colonel, just as a child leaps from the dark room into the lighted and
+closes the door quickly to keep out the following night. He had to
+compel himself to move with proper dignity.</p>
+
+<p>When outside, he sighed; the quiet of the night was like a blessing
+compared with the ordeal of the colonel's devilish coldness. Macon's
+advice had seemed almost logical the moment before. Win Lou Macon by the
+power of fear, well enough, for was not fear the thing which she had
+followed all her life? Was it not through fear that the colonel himself
+had reduced her to such abject, unquestioning obedience?</p>
+
+<p>He went thoughtfully to his own cabin, and, down-headed in his musings,
+he became aware with a start of Lou Macon in the hut. She had changed
+the room as her father had bidden her to do. Just wherein the difference
+lay, Donnegan could not tell. There was a touch of evergreen in one
+corner; she had laid a strip of bright cloth over the rickety little
+table, and in ten minutes she had given the hut a semblance of permanent
+livableness. Donnegan saw her now, with some vestige of the smile of her
+art upon her face; but she immediately smoothed it to perfect gravity.
+He had never seen such perfect self-command in a woman.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there anything more that I can do?&quot; she asked, moving toward the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nothing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Good night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She still seemed to be under the authority which the colonel had
+delegated to Donnegan when they started for The Corner. She turned, and
+without a word came back to him. And a pang struck through Donnegan.
+What would he not have given if she had come at his call not with these
+dumb eyes, but with a spark of kindliness? Instead, she obeyed him as a
+soldier obeys a commander.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There has been trouble,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot; she said, but there was no change in her face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was forced upon me.&quot; Then he added: &quot;It amounted to a shooting
+affair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a change in her face now, indeed. A glint came in her eyes,
+and the suggestion of the colonel which he had once or twice before
+sensed in her, now became more vivid than ever before. The same
+contemptuous heartlessness, which was the colonel's most habitual
+expression, now looked at Donnegan out of the lovely face of the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They were fools to press you to the wall,&quot; she said. &quot;I have no pity
+for them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Donnegan only stared at her; on what did she base her
+confidence in his prowess as a fighting man?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was only one man,&quot; he said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>Ah, there he had struck her home! As though the words were a burden, she
+shrank from him; then she slipped suddenly close to him and caught both
+his hands. Her head was raised far back; she had pressed close to him;
+she seemed in every line of her body to plead with him against himself,
+and all the veils which had curtained her mind from him dropped away. He
+found himself looking down into eyes full of fire and shadow; and eager
+lips; and the fiber of her voice made her whole body tremble.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It isn't Jack?&quot; she pleaded. &quot;It isn't Jack that you've fought with?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he said to himself: &quot;She loves him with all her heart and soul!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is he,&quot; said Donnegan in an agony. Pain may be like a fire that
+tempers some strong men; and now Donnegan, because he was in torment,
+smiled, and his eye was as cold as steel.</p>
+
+<p>The girl flung away his hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You bought murderer!&quot; she cried at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is not dead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you shot him down!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He attacked me; it was self-defense.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She broke into a low-pitched, mirthless laughter. Where was the
+filmy-eyed girl he had known? The laughter broke off short&mdash;like a sob.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you suppose I've known?&quot; she said. &quot;That I've read my father?
+That I knew he was sending a bloodhound when he sent you? But, oh, I
+thought you had a touch of the other thing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He cringed under her tone.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll bring him to you,&quot; said Donnegan desperately. &quot;I'll bring him here
+so that you can take care of him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll take him away from Lord Nick&mdash;and Lebrun&mdash;and the rest?&quot; And it
+was the cold smile of her father with which she mocked him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You play a deep game,&quot; said the girl bitterly. &quot;Why would you do it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because,&quot; said Donnegan faintly. &quot;I love you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her hand had been on the knob of the door; now she twitched it open and
+was gone; and the last that Donnegan saw was the width of the startled
+eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As if I were a leper,&quot; muttered Donnegan. &quot;By heaven, she looked at me
+as if I were unclean!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But once outside the door, the girl stood with both hands pressed to her
+face, stunned. When she dropped them, they folded against her breast,
+and her face tipped up.</p>
+
+<p>Even by starlight, had Donnegan been there to look, he would have seen
+the divinity which comes in the face of a woman when she loves.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="26"></a><h2>26</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Had he been there to see, even in the darkness he would have known, and
+he could have crossed the distance between their lives with a single
+step, and taken her into his heart. But he did not see. He had thrown
+himself upon his bunk and lay face down, his arms stretched rigidly out
+before him, his teeth set, his eyes closed.</p>
+
+<p>For what Donnegan had wanted in the world, he had taken; by force when
+he could, by subtlety when he must. And now, what he wanted most of all
+was gone from him, he felt, forever. There was no power in his arms to
+take that part of her which he wanted; he had no craft which could
+encompass her.</p>
+
+<p>Big George, stealing into the room, wondered at the lithe, slender form
+of the man in the bed. Seeing him thus, it seemed that with the power of
+one hand, George could crush him. But George would as soon have closed
+his fingers over a rattler. He slipped away into the kitchen and sat
+with his arms wrapped around his body, as frightened as though he had
+seen a ghost.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan lay on the bed without moving for hours and hours, until
+big George, who sat wakeful and terrified all that time, was sure that
+he slept. Then he stole in and covered Donnegan with a blanket, for it
+was the chill, gray time of the night.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan was not asleep, and when George rose in the morning, he
+found the master sitting at the table with his arms folded tightly
+across his breast and his eyes burning into vacancy.</p>
+
+<p>He spent the day in that chair.</p>
+
+<p>It was the middle of the afternoon when George came with a scared face
+and a message that a &quot;gen'leman who looks riled, sir,&quot; wanted to see
+him. There was no answer, and George perforce took the silence as
+acquiescence. So he opened the door and announced: &quot;Mr. Lester to see
+you, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Into the fiery haze of Donnegan's vision stepped a raw-boned fellow with
+sandy hair and a disagreeably strong jaw.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're the gent that's here with the colonel, ain't you?&quot; said Lester.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan did not reply.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're the gent that cleaned up on Landis, ain't you?&quot; continued the
+sandy-haired man.</p>
+
+<p>There was still the same silence, and Lester burst out: &quot;It don't work,
+Donnegan. You've showed you're man-sized several ways since you been in
+The Corner. Now I come to tell you to get out from under Colonel Macon.
+Why? Because he's crooked, because we know he's crooked; because he
+played crooked with me. You hear me talk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still Donnegan considered him without a word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We're goin' to run him out, Donnegan. We want you on our side if we can
+get you; if we can't get you, then we'll run you out along with the
+colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He began to talk with difficulty, as though Donnegan's stare unnerved
+him. He even took a step back toward the door.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't bluff me out, Donnegan. I ain't alone. They's others behind
+me. I don't need to name no names. Here's another thing: you ain't alone
+yourself. You got a woman and a cripple on your hands. Now, Donnegan,
+you're a fast man with a gun and you're a fast man at thinkin', but I
+ask you personal: have you got a chance runnin' under that weight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He added fiercely: &quot;I'm through. Now, talk turkey, Donnegan, or you're
+done!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time Donnegan moved. It was to make to big George a
+significant signal with his thumb, indicating the visitor. However,
+Lester did not wait to be thrown bodily from the cabin. One enormous
+oath exploded from his lips, and he backed sullenly through the door and
+slammed it after him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It kind of looks,&quot; said big George, &quot;like a war, sir.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And still Donnegan did not speak, until the afternoon was gone, and the
+evening, and the full black of the night had swallowed up the hills
+around The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>Then he left the chair, shaved, and dressed carefully, looked to his
+revolver, stowed it carefully and invisibly away among his clothes, and
+walked leisurely down the hill. An outbreak of cursing, stamping,
+hair-tearing, shooting could not have affected big George as this quiet
+departure did. He followed, unordered, but as he stepped across the
+threshold of the hut he rolled up his eyes to the stars.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, heavens above,&quot; muttered George, &quot;have mercy on Mr. Donnegan. He
+ain't happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he went down the hill, making sure that he was fit for battle with
+knife and gun.</p>
+
+<p>He had sensed Donnegan's mental condition accurately enough. The heart
+of the little man was swelled to the point of breaking. A twenty-hour
+vigil had whitened his face, drawn in his cheeks, and painted his eyes
+with shadow; and now he wanted action. He wanted excitement, strife,
+competition; something to fill his mind. And naturally enough he had two
+places in mind&mdash;Lebrun's and Milligan's.</p>
+
+<p>It is hard to relate the state of Donnegan's mind at this time. Chiefly,
+he was conscious of a peculiar and cruel pain that made him hollow; it
+was like homesickness raised to the nth degree. Vaguely he realized
+that in some way, somehow, he must fulfill his promise to the girl and
+bring Jack Landis home. The colonel dared not harm the boy for fear of
+Donnegan; and the girl would be happy. For that very reason Donnegan
+wanted to tear Landis to shreds.</p>
+
+<p>It is not extremely heroic for a man tormented with sorrow to go to a
+gambling hall and then to a dance hall to seek relief. But Donnegan was
+not a hero. He was only a man, and, since his heart was empty, he wanted
+something that might fill it. Indeed, like most men, suffering made him
+a good deal of a boy.</p>
+
+<p>So the high heels of Donnegan tapped across the floor of Lebrun's. A
+murmur went before him whenever he appeared now, and a way opened for
+him. At the roulette wheel he stopped, placed fifty on red, and watched
+it double three times. George, at a signal from the master, raked in the
+winnings. And Donnegan sat at a faro table and won again, and again rose
+disconsolately and went on. For when men do not care how luck runs it
+never fails to favor them. The devotees of fortune are the ones she
+punishes.</p>
+
+<p>In the meantime the whisper ran swiftly through The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan is out hunting trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>About the good that is in men rumor often makes mistakes, but for evil
+she has an infallible eye and at once sets all of her thousand tongues
+wagging. Indeed, any man with half an eye could not fail to get the
+meaning of his fixed glance, his hard set jaw, and the straightness of
+his mouth. If he had been a ghost, men could not have avoided him more
+sedulously, and the giant servant who stalked at his back. Not that The
+Corner was peopled with cowards. The true Westerner avoids trouble, but
+cornered, he will fight like a wildcat.</p>
+
+<p>So people watched from the corner of their eyes as Donnegan passed.</p>
+
+<p>He left Lebrun's. There was no competition. Luck blindly favored him,
+and Donnegan wanted contest, excitement. He crossed to Milligan's. Rumor
+was there before him. A whisper conveyed to a pair of mighty-limbed
+cow-punchers that they were sitting at the table which Donnegan had
+occupied the night before, and they wisely rose without further hint and
+sought other chairs. Milligan, anxious-eyed, hurried to the orchestra,
+and with a blast of sound they sought to cover up the entry of the
+gunman.</p>
+
+<p>As a matter of fact that blare of horns only served to announce him.
+Something was about to happen; the eyes of men grew shadowy; the eyes of
+women brightened. And then Donnegan appeared, with George behind him,
+and crossed the floor straight to his table of the night before. Not
+that he had forethought in going toward it, but he was moving
+absent-mindedly.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, he had half forgotten that he was a public figure in The Corner,
+and sitting sipping the cordial which big George brought him at once, he
+let his glance rove swiftly around the room. The eye of more than one
+brave man sank under that glance; the eye of more than one woman smiled
+back at him; but where the survey of Donnegan halted was on the face of
+Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>She was crossing the farther side of the floor alone, unescorted except
+for the whisper about her, but seeing Donnegan she stopped abruptly.
+Donnegan instantly rose. She would have gone on again in a flurry; but
+that would have been too pointed.</p>
+
+<p>A moment later Donnegan was threading his way across the dance floor to
+Nelly Lebrun, with all eyes turned in his direction. He had his hat
+under his arm; and in his black clothes, with his white stock, he made
+an old-fashioned figure as he bowed before the girl and straightened
+again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you send for me?&quot; Donnegan inquired.</p>
+
+<p>Nelly Lebrun was frankly afraid; and she was also delighted. She felt
+that she had been drawn into the circle of intense public interest which
+surrounded the red-headed stranger; she remembered on the other hand
+that her father would be furious if she exchanged two words with the
+man. And for that very reason she was intrigued. Donnegan, being
+forbidden fruit, was irresistible. So she let the smile come to her lips
+and eyes, and then laughed outright in her excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; she said with her lips, while her eyes said other things.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've come to ask a favor: to talk with you one minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I should&mdash;what would people say?&quot;;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let's find out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be&mdash;daring,&quot; said Nelly Lebrun. &quot;After last night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It would be delightful,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Here's a table ready for us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She went a pace closer to it with him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you've frightened the poor people away from it. I mustn't sit
+down with you, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And she immediately slipped into the chair.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="27"></a><h2>27</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>She qualified her surrender, of course, by sitting on the very edge of
+the chair. She had on a wine-colored dress, and, with the excitement
+whipping color into her cheeks and her eyes dancing, Nelly Lebrun was a
+lovely picture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I must go at once,&quot; said Nelly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course, I can't expect you to stay.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She dropped one hand on the edge of the table. One would have thought
+that she was in the very act of rising.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you know that you frighten me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I?&quot; said Donnegan, with appropriate inflection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As if I were a man and you were angry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you see?&quot; And he made a gesture with both of his palms turned up.
+&quot;People have slandered me. I am harmless.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The minute is up, Mr. Donnegan. What is it you wish?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now you laugh at me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And in the next minute?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hope to persuade you to stay till the third minute.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course, I can't.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know; it's impossible.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite.&quot; She settled into the chair. &quot;See how people stare at me! They
+remember poor Jack Landis and they think&mdash;the whole crowd&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A crowd is always foolish. In the meantime, I'm happy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To be here; to sit close to you; to watch you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her glance was like the tip of a rapier, searching him through for some
+iota of seriousness under this banter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot; and Nelly Lebrun laughed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't you see that I mean it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can watch me from a distance, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;May I say a bold thing?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have said several.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No one can really watch you from a distance.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She canted her head a little to one side; such an encounter of personal
+quips was a seventh heaven to her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's a riddle, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A simple one. The answer is, because there's too much to watch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He joined her when she laughed, but the laughter of Donnegan made not a
+sound, and he broke in on her mirth suddenly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, don't you see I'm serious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Her glance flicked on either side, as though she feared someone might
+have read his lips.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a soul can hear me,&quot; murmured Donnegan, &quot;and I'm going to be bolder
+still, and tell you the truth.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the last thing I dare stay to hear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are too lovely to watch from a distance, Nelly Lebrun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was so direct that even Nelly Lebrun, expert in flirtations, was
+given pause, and became sober. She shook her head and raised a
+cautioning finger. But Donnegan was not shaken.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because there is a glamour about a beautiful girl,&quot; he said gravely.
+&quot;One has to step into the halo to see her, to know her. Are you
+contented to look at a flower from a distance? That's an old comparison,
+isn't it? But there is something like a fragrance about you, Nelly
+Lebrun. Don't be afraid. No one can hear; no one shall ever dream I've
+said such bold things to you. In the meantime, we have a truth party.
+There is a fragrance, I say. It must be breathed. There is a glow which
+must touch one. As it touches me now, you see?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, there was a faint color in his cheeks. And the girl flushed more
+deeply; her eyes were still bright, but they no longer sharpened to such
+a penetrating point. She was believing at least a little part of what he
+said, and her disbelief only heightened her joy in what was real in this
+strangest of lovemakings.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall stay here to learn one thing,&quot; she said. &quot;What deviltry is
+behind all this talk, Mr. Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that fair to me? Besides, I only follow a beaten trail in The
+Corner.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Toward Nelly Lebrun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A beaten trail? You?&quot; she cried, with just a touch of anger. &quot;I'm not a
+child, Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are not; and that's why I am frank.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You have done all these things&mdash;following this trail you speak of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Remember,&quot; said Donnegan soberly. &quot;What have I done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shot down two men; played like an actor on a stage a couple of times at
+least, if I must be blunt; hunted danger like&mdash;like a reckless madman;
+dared all The Corner to cross you; flaunted the red rag in the face of
+the bull. Those are a few things you have done, sir! And all on one
+trail? That trail you spoke of?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly Lebrun&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm listening; and do you know I'm persuading myself to believe you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's because you feel the truth before I speak it. Truth speaks for
+itself, you know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have closed my eyes&mdash;you see? I have stepped into a masquerade. Now
+you can talk.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Masquerades are exciting,&quot; murmured Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And they are sometimes beautiful.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But this sober truth of mine&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came here unknown&mdash;and I saw you, Nelly Lebrun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He paused; she was looking a little past him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came in rags; no friends; no following. And I saw that I should have
+to make you notice me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why? No, I shouldn't have asked that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shouldn't ask that,&quot; agreed Donnegan. &quot;But I saw you the queen of
+The Corner, worshiped by all men. What could I do? I am not rich. I am
+not big. You see?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He drew her attention to his smallness with a flush which never failed
+to touch the face of Donnegan when he thought of his size; and he seemed
+to swell and grow greater in the very instant she glanced at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What could I do? One thing; fight. I have fought. I fought to get the
+eye of The Corner, but most of all to attract your attention. I came
+closer to you. I saw that one man blocked the way&mdash;mostly. I decided to
+brush him aside. How?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By fighting?&quot; She had not been carried away by his argument. She was
+watching him like a lynx every moment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not by that. By bluffing. You see, I was not fool enough to think that
+you would&mdash;particularly notice a fighting bully.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He laid his open hand on the table. It was like exposing both strength
+and weakness; and into such a trap it would have been a singularly
+hard-minded woman who might not have stepped. Nelly Lebrun leaned a
+little closer. She forgot to criticize.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was bluff. I saw that Landis was big and good-looking. And what was
+I beside him? Nothing. I could only hope that he was hollow; yellow&mdash;you
+see? So I tried the bluff. You know about it. The clock, and all that
+claptrap. But Landis wasn't yellow. He didn't crumble. He lasted long
+enough to call my bluff, and I had to shoot in self-defense. And then,
+when he lay on the floor, I saw that I had failed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Failed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He lowered his eyes for fear that she would catch the glitter of them.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew that you would hate me for what I had done because I had only
+proved that Landis was a brave youngster with enough nerve for nine out
+of ten. And I came tonight&mdash;to ask you to forgive me. No, not that&mdash;only
+to ask you to understand. Do you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He raised his glance suddenly at that, and their eyes met with one of
+these electric shocks which will go tingling through two people. And
+when the lips of Nelly Lebrun parted a little, he knew that she was in
+the trap. He closed his hand that lay on the table&mdash;curling the fingers
+slowly. In that way he expressed all his exultation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is something wrong,&quot; said the girl, in a tone of one who argues
+with herself. &quot;It's all too logical to be real.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Was that your only reason for fighting Jack Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do I have to confess even that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She smiled in the triumph of her penetration, but it was a brief,
+unhappy smile. One might have thought that she would have been glad to
+be deceived.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I came to serve a girl who was unhappy,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;Her fianc&eacute; had
+left her; her fianc&eacute; was Jack Landis. And she's now in a hut up the hill
+waiting for him. And I thought that if I ruined him in your eyes he'd go
+back to a girl who wouldn't care so much about bravery. Who'd forgive
+him for having left her. But you see what a fool I was and how clumsily
+I worked? My bluff failed, and I only wounded him, put him in your
+house, under your care, where he'll be happiest, and where there'll
+never be a chance for this girl to get him back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Nelly Lebrun, with her folded hands under her chin, studied him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan,&quot; she said, &quot;I wish I knew whether you are the most
+chivalrous, self-sacrificing of men, or simply the most gorgeous liar in
+the desert.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And it's hardly fair,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;to expect me to tell you that.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="28"></a><h2>28</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>It gave them both a welcome opportunity to laugh, welcome to the girl
+because it broke into an excitement which was rapidly telling upon her,
+and welcome to Donnegan because the strain of so many distortions of the
+truth was telling upon him as well. They laughed together. One hasty
+glance told Donnegan that half the couples in the room were whispering
+about Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun; but when he looked across the table he
+saw that Nelly Lebrun had not a thought for what might be going on in
+the minds of others. She was quite content.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the girl?&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan rested his forehead upon his hand in thought. He dared not let
+Nelly see his face at this moment, for the mention of Lou Macon had
+poured the old flood of sorrow back upon him And therefore, when he
+looked up, he was sneering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know these blond, pretty girls?&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, they are adorable!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With dull eyes,&quot; said Donnegan coldly, and a twinkle came into the
+responsive eye of Nelly Lebrun. &quot;The sort of a girl who sees a hero in
+such a fellow as Jack Landis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Jack is brave.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shouldn't have said that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never mind. Brave, but such a boy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you serious?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She looked questioningly at Donnegan and they smiled together, slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I&mdash;I'm glad it's that way,&quot; and Donnegan sighed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And did you really think it could be any other way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I didn't know. I'm afraid I was blind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But the poor girl on the hill; I wish I could see her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was watching Donnegan very sharply again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A good idea. Why don't you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You seem to like her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; said Donnegan judiciously. &quot;She has an appealing way; I'm very
+sorry for her. But I've done my best; I can't help her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Isn't there some way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of helping her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan laughed. &quot;Go to your father and persuade him to send Landis
+back to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course, that wouldn't do. There's business mixed up in all this, you
+know.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Business? Well, I guessed at that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My part in it wasn't very pleasant,&quot; she remarked sadly.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan was discreetly silent, knowing that silence extracts secrets.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They made me&mdash;flirt with poor Jack. I really liked him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>How much the past tense may mean!</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Poor fellow,&quot; murmured the sympathetic Donnegan. &quot;But why,&quot; with
+gathering heat, &quot;couldn't you help me to do the thing I can't do alone?
+Why couldn't you get him away from the house?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;With Joe Rix and the Pedlar guarding him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'll be asleep in the middle of the night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But Jack would wake up and make a noise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There are things that would make him sleep through anything.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how could he be moved?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On a horse litter kept ready outside.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And how carried to the litter?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I would carry him.&quot; The girl looked at him with a question and then
+with a faint smile beginning. &quot;Easily,&quot; said Donnegan, stiffening in his
+chair. &quot;Very easily.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It pleased her to find this weakness in the pride of the invincible
+Donnegan. It gave her a secure feeling of mastery. So she controlled her
+smile and looked with a sort of superior kindliness upon the red-headed
+little man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's no good,&quot; Nelly Lebrun said with a sigh. &quot;Even if he were taken
+away&mdash;and then it would get you into a bad mess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Would it? Worse than I'm in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush! Lord Nick is coming to The Corner; and no matter what you've done
+so far&mdash;I think I could quiet him. But if you were to take Landis
+away&mdash;then nothing could stop him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan sneered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I begin to think Lord Nick is a bogie,&quot; he said. &quot;Everyone whispers
+when they speak of him.&quot; He leaned forward. &quot;I should like to meet him,
+Nelly Lebrun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It staggered Nelly. &quot;Do you mean that?&quot; she cried softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught her breath and then a spark of deviltry gleamed. &quot;I wonder!&quot;
+said Nelly Lebrun, and her glance weighed Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All I ask is a fair chance,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is a big man,&quot; said the girl maliciously.</p>
+
+<p>The never-failing blush burned in the face of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A large target is more easily hit,&quot; he said through his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>Her thoughts played back and forth in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can't do it,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan played a random card.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was mistaken,&quot; he said darkly. &quot;Jack was not the man I should have
+faced. Lord Nick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no, no, Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You can't persuade me. Well, I was a fool not to guess it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I really think,&quot; said the girl gloomily, &quot;that as soon as Lord Nick
+comes, you'll hunt him out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He bowed to her with cold politeness. &quot;In spite of his size,&quot; said
+Donnegan through his teeth once more.</p>
+
+<p>And at this the girl's face softened and grew merry.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going to help you to take Jack away,&quot; she said, &quot;on one
+condition.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That you won't make a step toward Lord Nick when he comes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not avoid him,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're unreasonable! Well, not avoid him, but simply not provoke him.
+I'll arrange it so that Lord Nick won't come hunting trouble.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And he'll let Jack stay with the girl and her father?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps he'll persuade them to let him go of their own free will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan thought of the colonel and smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In that case, of course, I shouldn't care at all.&quot; He added: &quot;But do
+you mean all this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall see.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They talked only a moment longer and then Donnegan left the hall with
+the girl on his arm. Certainly the thoughts of all in Milligan's
+followed that pair; and it was seen that Donnegan took her to the door
+of her house and then went away through the town and up the hill. And
+big George followed him like a shadow cast from a lantern behind a man
+walking in a fog.</p>
+
+<p>In the hut on the hill, Donnegan put George quickly to work, and with a
+door and some bedding, a litter was hastily constructed and swung
+between the two horses. In the meantime, Donnegan climbed higher up the
+hill and watched steadily over the town until, in a house beneath him,
+two lights were shown. He came back at that and hurried down the hill
+with George behind and around the houses until they came to the
+pretentious cabin of the gambler, Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>Once there, Donnegan went straight to an unlighted window, tapped; and
+it was opened from within, softly. Nelly Lebrun stood within.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's done,&quot; she said. &quot;Joe and the Pedlar are sound asleep. They drank
+too much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your father.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hasn't come home.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Jack Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter what you do, he won't wake up; but be careful of his
+shoulder. It's badly torn. How can you carry him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She could not see Donnegan's flush, but she heard his teeth grit. And
+he slipped through the window, gesturing to George to come close. It was
+still darker inside the room&mdash;far darker than the starlit night outside.
+And the one path of lighter gray was the bed of Jack Landis. His heavy
+breathing was the only sound. Donnegan kneeled beside him and worked his
+arms under the limp figure.</p>
+
+<p>And while he kneeled there a door in the house was opened and closed
+softly. Donnegan stood up.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is the door locked?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; whispered the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Too late. It's father, and he'd hear the turning of the key.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They waited, while the light, quick step came down the hall of the
+cabin. It came to the door, it went past; and then the steps retraced
+and the door was opened gently.</p>
+
+<p>There was a light in the hall; the form of Lebrun was outlined black and
+distinct..</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Jack!&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>No sound; he made as if to enter, and then he heard the heavy breathing
+of the sleeper, apparently.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Asleep, poor fool,&quot; murmured the gambler, and closed the door.</p>
+
+<p>The door was no sooner closed than Donnegan had raised the body of the
+sleeper. Once, as he rose, straining, it nearly slipped from his arms;
+and when he stood erect he staggered. But once he had gained his
+equilibrium, he carried the wounded man easily enough to the window
+through which George reached his long arms and lifted out the burden.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see?&quot; said Donnegan, panting, to the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes; it was really wonderful!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are laughing, now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I? But hurry. My father has a fox's ear for noises.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will not hear this, I think.&quot; There was a swift scuffle, very soft
+of movement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly!&quot; called a far-off voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hurry, hurry! Don't you hear?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You forgive me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No&mdash;yes&mdash;but hurry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will remember me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Adieu!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught a picture of him sitting in the window for the split part of
+a second, with his hat off, bowing to her. Then he was gone. And she
+went into the hall, panting with excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Heavens!&quot; Nelly Lebrun murmured. &quot;I feel as if I had been hunted, and I
+must look it. What if he&mdash;&quot; Whatever the thought was she did not
+complete it. &quot;It may have been for the best,&quot; added Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="29"></a><h2>29</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>It is your phlegmatic person who can waken easily in the morning, but an
+active mind readjusts itself slowly to the day. So Nelly Lebrun roused
+herself with an effort and scowled toward the door at which the hand was
+still rapping.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot; she called drowsily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is Nick. May I come in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This is who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The name had brought her instantly into complete wakefulness; she was
+out of the bed, had slipped her feet into her slippers and whipped a
+dressing gown around her while she was asking the question. It was a
+luxurious little boudoir which she had managed to equip. Skins of the
+lynx, cunningly matched, had been sewn together to make her a rug, and
+the soft fur of the wildcat was the outer covering of her bed. She threw
+back the tumbled bedclothes, tossed half a dozen pillows into place,
+transforming it into a day couch, and ran to the mirror.</p>
+
+<p>And in the meantime, the deep voice outside the door was saying: &quot;Yes,
+Nick. May I come in?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She gave a little ecstatic cry, but while it was still tingling on her
+lips, she was winding her hair into shape with lightning speed; had
+dipped the tips of her fingers in cold water and rubbed her eyes awake
+and brilliant, and with one circular rub had brought the color into her
+cheeks.</p>
+
+<p>Scarcely ten seconds from the time when she first answered the knock,
+Nelly was opening the door and peeping out into the hall.</p>
+
+<p>The rest was done by the man without; he cast the door open with the
+pressure of his foot, caught the girl in his arms, and kissed her; and
+while he closed the door the girl slipped back and stood with one hand
+pressed against her face, and her face held that delightful expression
+halfway between laughter and embarrassment. As for Lord Nick, he did not
+even smile. He was not, in fact, a man who was prone to gentle
+expressions, but having been framed by nature for a strong dominance
+over all around him, his habitual expression was a proud
+self-containment. It would have been insolence in another man; in Lord
+Nick it was rather leonine.</p>
+
+<p>He was fully as tall as Jack Landis, but he carried his height easily,
+and was so perfectly proportioned that unless he was seen beside another
+man he did not look large. The breadth of his shoulders was concealed by
+the depth of his chest; and the girth of his throat was made to appear
+quite normal by the lordly size of the head it supported. To crown and
+set off his magnificent body there was a handsome face; and he had the
+combination of active eyes and red hair, which was noticeable in
+Donnegan, too. In fact, there was a certain resemblance between the two
+men; in the set of the jaw for instance, in the gleam of the eye, and
+above all in an indescribable ardor of spirit, which exuded from them
+both. Except, of course, that in Donnegan, one was conscious of all
+spirit and very little body, but in Lord Nick hand and eye were terribly
+mated. Looking upon so splendid a figure, it was no wonder that the
+mountain desert had forgiven the crimes of Lord Nick because of the
+careless insolence with which he treated the law. It requires an
+exceptional man to make a legal life attractive and respected; it takes
+a genius to make law-breaking glorious.</p>
+
+<p>No wonder that Nelly Lebrun stood with her hand against her cheek,
+looking him over, smiling happily at him, and questioning him about his
+immediate past all in the same glance. He waved her back to her couch,
+and she hesitated. Then, as though she remembered that she now had to
+do with Lord Nick in person, she obediently curled up on the lounge, and
+waited expectantly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I hear you've been raising the devil,&quot; said this singularly frank
+admirer.</p>
+
+<p>The girl merely looked at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; he insisted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't done a thing,&quot; protested Nelly rather childishly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot; One felt that he could have crushed her with evidence to the
+contrary but that he was restraining himself&mdash;it was not worthwhile to
+bother with such a girl seriously. &quot;Things have fallen into a tangle
+since I left, old Satan Macon is on the spot and your rat of a father
+has let Landis get away. What have you been doing, Nelly, while all this
+was going on? Sitting with your eyes closed?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He took a chair and lounged back in it gracefully.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How could I help it? I'm not a watchdog.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was silent for a time. &quot;Well,&quot; he said, &quot;if you told me the truth I
+suppose I shouldn't love you, my girl. But this time I'm in earnest.
+Landis is a mint, silly child. If we let him go we lose the mint.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose you'll get him back?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First, I want to find out how he got away.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know how.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan, Donnegan, Donnegan!&quot; burst out Lord Nick, and though he did
+not raise the pitch of his voice, he allowed its volume to swell softly
+so that it filled the room like the humming of a great, angry tiger.
+&quot;Nobody says three words without putting in the name of Donnegan as one
+of them! You, too!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shrugged her shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan thrills The Corner!&quot; went on the big man in the same terrible
+voice. &quot;Donnegan wears queer clothes; Donnegan shoots Scar-faced Lewis;
+Donnegan pumps the nerve out of poor Jack Landis and then drills him.
+Why, Nelly, it looks as though I'll have to kill this intruding fool!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She blanched at this, but did not appear to notice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a long time since you've killed a man, isn't it?&quot; she asked
+coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's an awful business,&quot; declared Lord Nick. &quot;Always complications;
+have to throw the blame on the other fellow. And even these blockheads
+are beginning to get tired of my self-defense pleas.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well,&quot; murmured the girl, &quot;don't cross that bridge until you come to
+it; and you'll never come to it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Never. Because I don't want him killed.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; Lord Nick murmured. &quot;And why?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because he's in love&mdash;with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush!&quot; said Lord Nick. &quot;I see you, my dear. Donnegan seems to be a rare
+fellow, but he couldn't have gotten Landis out of this house without
+help. Rix and the Pedlar may have been a bit sleepy, but Donnegan had to
+find out when they fell asleep. He had a confederate. Who? Not Rix; not
+the Pedlar; not Lebrun. They all know me. It had to be someone who
+doesn't fear me. Who? Only one person in the world. Nelly, you're the
+one!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She hesitated a breathless instant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; she said. &quot;I am.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She added, as he stared calmly at her, considering: &quot;There's a girl in
+the case. She came up here to get Landis; seems he was in love with her
+once. And I pitied her. I sent him back to her. Suppose he is a mint;
+haven't we coined enough money out of him? Besides, I couldn't have kept
+on with it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He was getting violent, and he talked marriage all day, every day. I
+haven't any nerves, you say, but he began to put me on edge. So I got
+rid of him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly, are you growing a conscience?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She flushed and then set her teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I'll have to teach you business methods, my dear. I have to bring
+him back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll have to go through Donnegan to do it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You don't understand, Nick. He's different.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He's like you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you driving at?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick, I tell you upon my word of honor, no matter what a terrible
+fighter you may be, Donnegan will give you trouble. He has your hair
+and your eyes and he moves like a cat. I've never seen such a
+man&mdash;except you. I'd rather see you fight the plague than fight
+Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For the first time Lord Nick showed real emotion; he leaned a little
+forward.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Just what does he mean to you?&quot; he asked. &quot;I've stood for a good deal,
+Nelly; I've given you absolute freedom, but if I ever suspect you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The lion was up in him unmistakably now. And the girl shrank.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it were serious, do you suppose I'd talk like this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't know. You're a clever little devil, Nell. But I'm clever, too.
+And I begin to see through you. Do you still want to save Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For your own sake.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stood up.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going up the hill today. If Donnegan's there, I'll go through him;
+but I'm going to have Landis back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She, also, rose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's only one way out and I'll take that way. I'll get Donnegan to
+leave the house.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't care what you do about that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And if he isn't there, will you give me your word that you won't hunt
+him out afterward?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never make promises, Nell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I'll trust you, Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. I start up the hill in an hour. You have that long.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="30"></a><h2>30</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The air was thin and chilly; snow had fallen in the mountains to the
+north, and the wind was bringing the cold down to The Corner. Nelly
+Lebrun noted this as she dressed and made up her mind accordingly. She
+sent out two messages: one to the cook to send breakfast to her room,
+which she ate while she finished dressing with care; and the other to
+the gambling house, summoning one of the waiters. When he came, she gave
+him a note for Donnegan. The fellow flashed a glance at her as he took
+the envelope. There was no need to give that name and address in The
+Corner, and the girl tingled under the glance.</p>
+
+<p>She finished her breakfast and then concentrated in polishing up her
+appearance. From all of which it may be gathered that Nelly Lebrun was
+in love with Donnegan, but she really was not. But he had touched in her
+that cord of romance which runs through every woman; whenever it is
+touched the vibration is music, and Nelly was filled with the sound of
+it. And except for Lord Nick, there is no doubt that she would have
+really lost her head; for she kept seeing the face of Donnegan, as he
+had leaned toward her across the little table in Milligan's. And that,
+as anyone may know, is a dangerous symptom.</p>
+
+<p>Her glances were alternating between her mirror and her watch, and the
+hands of the latter pointed to the fact that fifty minutes of her hour
+had elapsed when a message came up that she was waited for in the street
+below. So Nelly Lebrun went down in her riding costume, the corduroy
+swishing at each step, and tapping her shining boots with the riding
+crop. Her own horse she found at the hitching rack, and beside it
+Donnegan was on his chestnut horse. It was a tall horse, and he looked
+more diminutive than ever before, pitched so high in the saddle.</p>
+
+<p>He was on the ground in a flash with the reins tucked under one arm and
+his hat under the other; she became aware of gloves and white-linen
+stock, and pale, narrow face. Truly Donnegan made a natty appearance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's no day like a cool day for riding,&quot; she said, &quot;and I thought
+you might agree with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He untethered her horse while he murmured an answer. But for his
+attitude she cared little so long as she had him riding away from that
+house on the hill where Lord Nick in all his terror would appear in some
+few minutes. Besides, as they swung up the road&mdash;the chestnut at a
+long-strided canter and Nelly's black at a soft and choppy pace&mdash;the
+wind of the gallop struck into her face; Nelly was made to enjoy things
+one by one and not two by two. They hit over the hills, and when the
+first impulse of the ride was done they were a mile or more away from
+The Corner&mdash;and Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>The resemblance between the two men was less striking now that she had
+Donnegan beside her. He seemed more wizened, paler, and intense as a
+violin string screwed to the snapping point; there was none of the
+lordly tolerance of Nick about him; he was like a bull terrier compared
+with a stag hound. And only the color of his eyes and his hair made her
+make the comparison at all.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What could be better?&quot; she said when they checked their horses on a
+hilltop to look over a gradual falling of the ground below. &quot;What could
+be better?&quot; The wind flattened a loose curl of hair against her cheek,
+and overhead the wild geese were flying and crying, small and far away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;One thing better,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;and that is to sit in a chair and
+see this.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She frowned at such frankness; it was almost blunt discourtesy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see, I'm a lazy man.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How long has it been,&quot; the girl asked sharply, &quot;since you have slept?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two days, I think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What's wrong?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He lifted his eyes slowly from a glittering, distant rock, and brought
+his glance toward her by degrees. He had a way of exciting people even
+in the most commonplace conversation, and the girl felt a thrill under
+his look.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;is a dangerous question.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he allowed such hunger to come into his eye that she caught her
+breath. The imp of perversity made her go on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And why dangerous?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was an excellent excuse for an outpouring of the heart from Donnegan,
+but, instead, his eyes twinkled at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are not frank,&quot; he remarked.</p>
+
+<p>She could not help laughing, and her laughter trailed away musically in
+her excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Having once let down the bars I cannot keep you at arm's length. After
+last night I suppose I should never have let you see me for&mdash;days and
+days.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's why I'm curious,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;and not flattered. I'm trying
+to find what purpose you have in taking me riding.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I wonder,&quot; she said thoughtfully, &quot;if you will.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And since such fencing with the wits delighted her, she let all her
+delight come with a sparkle in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have one clue.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that is that you may have the old-woman curiosity to find out how
+many ways a man can tell her that he's fond of her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Though she flushed a little she kept her poise admirably.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose that is part of my interest,&quot; she admitted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can think of a great many ways of saying it,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;I am
+the dry desert, you are the rain, and yet I remain dry and produce no
+grass.&quot; &quot;A very pretty comparison,&quot; said the girl with a smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A very green one,&quot; and Donnegan smiled. &quot;I am the wind and you are the
+wild geese, and yet I keep on blowing after you are gone and do not
+carry away a feather of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Pretty again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And silly. But, really, you are very kind to me, and I shall try not to
+take too much advantage of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you answer a question?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I had rather ask one: but go on.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What made you so dry a desert, Mr. Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a very leading question again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't mean it that way. For you had the same sad, hungered look the
+first time I saw you&mdash;when you came into Milligan's in that beggarly
+disguise.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall confess one thing. It was not a disguise. It was the fact of
+me; I am a beggarly person.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense! I'm not witless, Mr. Donnegan. You talk well. You have an
+education.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In fact I have an educated taste; I disapprove of myself, you see, and
+long ago learned not to take myself too seriously.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which leads to&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reason why I have wandered so much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Like a hunter on a trail. Hunting for what?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A chance to sit in a saddle&mdash;or a chair&mdash;and talk as we are talking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which seems to be idly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, you mistake me. Under the surface I am as serious as fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Or ice.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At the random hit he glanced sharply at her, but she was looking a
+little past him, thinking.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have tried to get at the reason behind all your reasons,&quot; she said.
+&quot;You came on me in a haphazard fashion, and yet you are not a haphazard
+sort.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you see nothing serious about me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I see that you are unhappy,&quot; said the girl gently. &quot;And I am sorry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once again Donnegan was jarred, and he came within an ace of opening
+his mind to her, of pouring out the truth about Lou Macon. Love is a
+talking madness in all men and he came within an ace of confessing his
+troubles.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let's go on,&quot; she said, loosening her rein.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why not cut back in a semicircle toward The Corner?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Toward The Corner? No, no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a brightening of his eye as he noted her shudder of distaste
+or fear, and she strove to cover her traces.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm sick of the place,&quot; she said eagerly. &quot;Let's get as far from it as
+we may.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But yonder is a very good trail leading past it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course we'll ride that way if you wish, but I'd rather go straight
+ahead.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If she had insisted stubbornly he would have thought nothing, but the
+moment she became politic he was on his guard.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You dislike something in The Corner,&quot; he said, thinking carelessly and
+aloud. &quot;You are afraid of something back there. But what could you be
+afraid of? Then you may be afraid of something for me. Ah, I have it!
+They have decided to 'get' me for taking Jack Landis away; Joe Rix and
+the Pedlar are waiting for me to come back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked steadily and she attempted to laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix and the Pedlar? I would not stack ten like them against you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then it is someone else.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I haven't said so. Of course there's no one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She shook her rein again, but Donnegan sat still in his saddle and
+looked fixedly at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That's why you brought me out here,&quot; he announced. &quot;Oh, Nelly Lebrun,
+what's behind your mind? Who is it? By heaven, it's this Lord Nick!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan, you're letting your imagination run wild.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's gone straight to the point. But I'm not angry. I think I may get
+back in time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned his horse, and the girl swung hers beside him and caught his
+arm.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't go!&quot; she pleaded. &quot;You're right; it's Nick, and it's suicide to
+face him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The face of Donnegan set cruelly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The main obstacle,&quot; he said. &quot;Come and watch me handle it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But she dropped her head and buried her face in her hands, and, sitting
+there for a long time, she heard his careless whistling blow back to her
+as he galloped toward The Corner.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="31"></a><h2>31</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>If Nelly Lebrun had consigned him mentally to the worms, that thought
+made not the slightest impression upon Donnegan. A chance for action was
+opening before him, and above all a chance of action in the eye of Lou
+Macon; and he welcomed with open arms the thought that he would have an
+opportunity to strike for her, and keep Landis with her. He went arrowy
+straight and arrowy fast to the cabin on the hill, and he found ample
+evidence that it had become a center of attention in The Corner. There
+was a scattering of people in the distance, apparently loitering with no
+particular purpose, but undoubtedly because they awaited an explosion of
+some sort. He went by a group at which the chestnut shied, and as
+Donnegan straightened out the horse again he caught a look of both
+interest and pity on the faces of the men.</p>
+
+<p>Did they give him up so soon as it was known that Lord Nick had entered
+the lists against him? Had all his display in The Corner gone for
+nothing as against the repute of this terrible mystery man? His vanity
+made him set his teeth again.</p>
+
+<p>Dismounting before the cabin of the colonel, he found that worthy in
+his invalid chair, enjoying a sun bath in front of his house. But there
+was no sign of Lord Nick&mdash;no sign of Lou. A grim fear came to Donnegan
+that he might have to attack Nick in his own stronghold, for Jack Landis
+might already have been taken away to the Lebrun house.</p>
+
+<p>So he went straight to the colonel, and when he came close he saw that
+the fat man was apparently in the grip of a chill. He had gathered a
+vast blanket about his shoulders and kept drawing it tighter; beneath
+his eyes, which looked down to the ground, there were violet shadows.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've lost,&quot; said Donnegan through his teeth. &quot;Lord Nick has been here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The invalid lifted his eyes, and Donnegan saw a terrible thing&mdash;that the
+nerve of the fat man had been crushed. The folds of his face quivered as
+he answered huskily: &quot;He has been here!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Landis is gone?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not gone? Then&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick has gone to get a horse litter. He came up just to clear the way.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When he comes back he'll find me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The glance of the colonel cleared long enough to survey Donnegan slowly
+from head to foot, and his amusement sent the familiar hot flush over
+the face of the little man. He straightened to his full height, which,
+in his high heels, was not insignificant. But the colonel was apparently
+so desperate that he was willing to throw caution away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Compared with Lord Nick, Donnegan,&quot; he said, &quot;you don't look half a
+man&mdash;even with those heels.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he smiled calmly at Donnegan in the manner of one who, having
+escaped the lightning bolt itself, does not fear mere thunder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no fool like a fat fool,&quot; said Donnegan with childish
+viciousness. &quot;What did Lord Nick, as you call him, do to you? He's
+brought out the yellow, my friend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel accepted the insult without the quiver of an eyelid.
+Throughout he seemed to be looking expectantly beyond Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My young friend,&quot; he said, &quot;you have been very useful to me. But I
+must confess that you are no longer a tool equal to the task. I dismiss
+you. I thank you cordially for your efforts. They are worthless. You see
+that crowd gathering yonder? They have come to see Lord Nick prepare you
+for a hole in the ground. And make no mistake: if you are here when he
+returns that hole will have to be dug&mdash;unless they throw you out for the
+claws of the buzzards. In the meantime, our efforts have been wasted
+completely. I hadn't enough time. I had thrown the fear of sudden death
+into Landis, and in another hour he would have signed away his soul to
+me for fear of poison.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel paused to chuckle at some enjoyable memory.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then Nick came. You see, I know all about Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And Nick knows all about you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment the agate, catlike eyes of the colonel clouded and cleared
+again in their unfathomable manner.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;At moments, Donnegan,&quot; he said, &quot;you have rare perceptions. That is
+exactly it&mdash;Nick knows just about everything concerning me. And so&mdash;roll
+your pack and climb on your horse and get away. I think you may have
+another five minutes before he comes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan turned on his heel. He went to the door of the hut and threw it
+open. Lou sat beside Landis holding his hand, and the murmur of her
+voice was still pleasant as an echo through the room when she looked and
+saw Donnegan. At that she rose and her face hardened as she looked at
+him. Landis, also, lifted his head, and his face was convulsed with
+hatred. So Donnegan closed the door and went softly away to his own
+shack.</p>
+
+<p>She hated him even as Landis hated him, it seemed. He should have known
+that he would not be thanked for bringing back her lover to her with a
+bullet through his shoulder. Sitting in his cabin, he took his head
+between his hands and thought of life and death, and made up his mind.
+He was afraid. If Lord Nick had been the devil himself Donnegan could
+not have been more afraid. But if the big stranger had been ten devils
+instead of one Donnegan would not have found it in his soul to run away.</p>
+
+<p>Nothing remained for him in The Corner, it seemed, except his position
+as a man of power&mdash;a dangerous fighter. It was a less than worthless
+position, and yet, once having taken it up, he could not abandon it.
+More than one gunfighter has been in the same place, forced to act as a
+public menace long after he has ceased to feel any desire to fight. Of
+selfish motives there remained not a scruple to him, but there was still
+the happiness of Lou Macon. If the boy were taken back to Lebrun's, it
+would be fatal to her. For even if Nelly wished, she could not teach her
+eyes new habits, and she would ceaselessly play on the heart of the
+wounded man.</p>
+
+<p>It was the cessation of all talk from the gathering crowd outside that
+made Donnegan lift his head at length, and know that Lord Nick had come.
+But before he had time to prepare himself, the door was cast open and
+into it, filling it from side to side, stepped Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>There was no need of an introduction. Donnegan knew him by the aptness
+with which the name fitted that glorious figure of a man and by the
+calm, confident eye which now was looking him slowly over, from head to
+foot. Lord Nick closed the door carefully behind him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The colonel told me,&quot; he said in his deep, smooth voice, &quot;that you were
+waiting for me here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan recognized the snakelike malice of the fat man in drawing
+him into the fight. But he dismissed that quickly from his mind. He was
+staring, fascinated, into the face of the other. He was a reader of men,
+was Donnegan; he was a reader of mind, too. In his life of battle he had
+learned to judge the prowess of others at a glance, just as a musician
+can tell the quality of a violin by the first note he hears played upon
+it. So Donnegan judged the quality of fighting men, and, looking into
+the face of Lord Nick, he knew that he had met his equal at last.</p>
+
+<p>It was a great and a bitter moment to him. The sense of physical
+smallness he had banished a thousand times by the recollection of his
+speed of hand and his surety with weapons. He had looked at men
+muscularly great and despised them in the knowledge that a gun or a
+knife would make him their master. But in Lord Nick he recognized his
+own nerveless speed of hand, his own hair-trigger balance, his own
+deadly seriousness and contempt of life. The experience in battle was
+there, too. And he began to feel that the size of the other crushed him
+to the floor and made him hopeless. It was unnatural, it was wrong, that
+this giant in the body should be a giant in adroitness also.</p>
+
+<p>Already Donnegan had died one death before he rose from his chair and
+stood to the full of his height ready to die again and summoning his
+nervous force to meet the enemy. He had seen that the big man had
+followed his own example and had measured him at a glance.</p>
+
+<p>Indeed the history of some lives of action held less than the
+concentrated silence of these two men during that second's space.</p>
+
+<p>And now Donnegan felt the cold eye of the other eating into his own,
+striving to beat him down, break his nerve. For an instant panic got
+hold on Donnegan. He, himself, had broken the nerve of other men by the
+weight of his unaided eye. Had he not reduced poor Jack Landis to a
+trembling wreck by five minutes of silence? And had he not seen other
+brave men become trembling cowards unable to face the light, and all
+because of that terrible power which lies in the eye of some? He fought
+away the panic, though perspiration was pouring out upon his forehead
+and beneath his armpits.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The colonel is very kind,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>And that moment he sent up a prayer of thankfulness that his voice was
+smooth as silk, and that he was able to smile into the face of Lord
+Nick. The brow of the other clouded and then smoothed itself deftly.
+Perhaps he, too, recognized the clang of steel upon steel and knew the
+metal of his enemy.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And therefore,&quot; said Lord Nick, &quot;since most of The Corner expects
+business from us, it seems much as if one of us must kill the other
+before we part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a matter of fact,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I have been keeping that in
+mind.&quot; He added, with that deadly smile of his that never reached his
+eyes: &quot;I never disappoint the public when it's possible to satisfy
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No,&quot; and Lord Nick nodded, &quot;you seem to have most of the habits of an
+actor&mdash;including an inclination to make up for your part.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan bit his lip until it bled, and then smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have been playing to fools,&quot; he said. &quot;Now I shall enjoy a
+discriminating critic.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; remarked Lord Nick, &quot;actors generally desire an intelligent
+audience for the death scene.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I applaud your penetration and I shall speak well of you when this
+disagreeable duty is finished.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come,&quot; and Lord Nick smiled genially, &quot;you are a game little cock!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The telltale flush crimsoned Donnegan's face. And if the fight had begun
+at that moment no power under heaven could have saved Lord Nick from the
+frenzy of the little man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My size keeps me from stooping,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I shall look up to
+you, sir, until the moment you fall.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well hit again! You are also a wit, I see! Donnegan, I am almost sorry
+for the necessity of this meeting. And if it weren't for the audience&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say no more,&quot; said Donnegan, bowing. &quot;I read your heart and appreciate
+all you intend.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had touched his stock as he bowed, and now he turned to the mirror
+and carefully adjusted it, for it was a little awry from the ride; but
+in reality he used that moment to examine his own face, and the set of
+his jaw and the clearness of his eye reassured him. Turning again, he
+surprised a glint of admiration in the glance of Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We are at one, sir, it appears,&quot; he said. &quot;And there is no other way
+out of this disagreeable necessity?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Unfortunately not. I have a certain position in these parts. People are
+apt to expect a good deal of me. And for my part I see no way out except
+a gunplay&mdash;no way out between the devil and the moon!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Astonishment swept suddenly across the face of the big man, for
+Donnegan, turning white as death, shrank toward the wall as though he
+had that moment received cold steel in his body.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say that again!&quot; said Donnegan hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I said there was no way out,&quot; repeated Lord Nick, and though he kept
+his right hand in readiness, he passed his left through his red hair and
+stared at Donnegan with a tinge of contempt; he had seen men buckle like
+this at the last moment when their backs were to the wall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between&mdash;&quot; repeated Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The devil and the moon. Do you see a way yourself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was astonished again to see Donnegan wince as if from a blow. His
+lips were trembling and they writhed stiffly over his words.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who taught you that expression?&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A gentleman,&quot; said Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father, sir!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, heaven,&quot; moaned Donnegan, catching his hands to his breast. &quot;Oh,
+heaven, forgive us!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What the devil is in you?&quot; asked Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>The little man stood erect again and his eyes were now on fire.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Henry Nicholas Reardon,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick set his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now,&quot; he said, &quot;it is certain that you must die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan cast out his arms and broke into a wild laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, you fool, you fool!&quot; he cried. &quot;Don't you know me? I am the
+cripple!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="32"></a><h2>32</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The big man crossed the floor with one vast stride, and, seizing
+Donnegan by both shoulders, dragged him under the full light of the
+window; and still the crazy laughter shook Donnegan and made him
+helpless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They tied me to a board&mdash;like a papoose,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;and they
+straightened my back&mdash;but they left me this way&mdash;wizened up.&quot; He was
+stammering; hysterical, and the words tumbled from his lips in a jumble.
+&quot;That was a month after you ran away from home. I was going to find you.
+Got bigger. Took the road. Kept hunting. Then I met a yegg who told
+about Rusty Dick&mdash;described him like you&mdash;I thought&mdash;I thought you were
+dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And the tears rolled down his face; he sobbed like a woman.</p>
+
+<p>A strange thing happened then. Lord Nick lifted the little man in his
+arms as if he were a child and literally carried him in that fashion to
+the bunk. He put him down tenderly, still with one mighty arm around his
+back.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are Garry? You!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Garrison Donnegan Reardon. Aye, that's what I am. Henry, don't say
+that you don't know me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But&mdash;your back&mdash;I thought&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know&mdash;hopeless they said I was. But they brought in a young doctor.
+Now look at me. Little. I never grew big&mdash;but hard, Henry, as leather!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he sprang to his feet. And knowing that Donnegan had begun life as a
+cripple it was easy to appreciate certain things about his expression&mdash;a
+cold wistfulness, and his manner of reading the minds of men. Lord Nick
+was like a man in a dream. He dragged Donnegan back to the bunk and
+forced him to sit down with the weight of his arms. And he could not
+keep his hands from his younger brother. As though he were blind and had
+to use the sense of touch to reassure him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I heard lies. They said everybody was dead. I thought&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The fever killed them all, except me. Uncle Toby took me in. He was a
+devil. Helped me along, but I left him when I could. And&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't tell me any more. All that matters is that I have you at last,
+Garry. Heaven knows it's a horrible thing to be kithless and kinless,
+but I have you now! Ah, lad, but the old pain has left its mark on you.
+Poor Garry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan shuddered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've forgotten it. Don't bring it back.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I keep feeling that you should be in that chair.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know. But I'm not. I'm hard as nails, I tell you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He leaped to his feet again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And not so small as you might think, Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, big enough, Garry. Big enough to paralyze The Corner, from what
+I've heard.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been playing a game with 'em, Henry. And now&mdash;if one of us could
+clear the road, what will we do together? Eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The smile of Lord Nick showed his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Haven't I been hungry all my life for a man like you, lad? Somebody to
+stand and guard my back while I faced the rest of the world?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And I'll do my share of the facing, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You will, Garry. But I'm your elder.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Man, man! Nobody's my elder except one that's spent half his life&mdash;as I
+have done!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll teach you to forget the pain I'll make life roses for you,
+Garry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And the fools outside thought&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan broke into a soundless laughter, and, running to the door,
+opened it a fraction of an inch and peeped out.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They're standing about in a circle. I can see 'em gaping. Even from
+here. What will they think, Henry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick ground his teeth.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They'll think I've backed down from you,&quot; he said gloomily. &quot;They'll
+think I've taken water for the first time.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, confound 'em, the first man that opens his head&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know, I know. You'd fill his mouth with lead, and so would I. But if
+it ever gets about&mdash;as it's sure to&mdash;that Lord, Nick, as they call me,
+has been bluffed down without a fight, I'll have every Chinaman that
+cooks on the range talking back to me. I'll have to start all over
+again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't say that, Henry. Don't you see that I'll go out and explain that
+I'm your brother?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What good will that do? No, do we look alike?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan stopped short.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm not very big,&quot; he said rather coldly, &quot;but then I'm not so very
+small, either. I've found myself big enough, speaking in general.
+Besides, we have the same hair and eyes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, man, people will laugh when they hear that we call ourselves
+brothers.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan ground his teeth and the old flush burned upon his face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll cut some throats if they do,&quot; he said, trembling with his passion.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can hear them say it. 'Lord Nick walked in on Donnegan prepared to
+eat him up. He measured him up and down, saw that he was a fighting
+wildcat in spite of his size, and decided to back out. And Donnegan was
+willing. They couldn't come out without a story of some kind&mdash;with the
+whole world expecting a death in that cabin&mdash;so they framed a crazy
+cock-and-bull story about being brothers.' I can hear them say that,
+Donnegan, and it makes me wild!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you call me Donnegan?&quot; said Donnegan sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no. Garry, don't be so touchy. You've never got over that, I see.
+Still all pride and fire.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not very humble yourself, Henry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe not, maybe not. But I've been in a certain position around these
+parts, Don&mdash;Garry. And it's hard to see it go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan closed his eyes in deep reverie. And then he forced out the
+words one by one.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, I'll let everybody know that it was I who backed down. That we
+were about to fight.&quot; He was unable to speak; he tore the stock loose at
+his throat and went on: &quot;We were about to fight; I lost my nerve; you
+couldn't shoot a helpless man. We began to talk. We found out we are
+brothers&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Damnation!&quot; broke out Lord Nick, and he struck himself violently across
+the forehead with the back of his hand. &quot;I'm a skunk, Garry, lad. Why,
+for a minute I was about to let you do it. No. no, no! A thousand times
+no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was plain to be seen that he was arguing himself away from the
+temptation.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do I care what they say? We'll cram the words back down their
+throats and be hanged to 'em. Here I am worrying about myself like a
+selfish dog without letting myself be happy over finding you. But I am
+happy, Garry. Heaven knows it. And you don't doubt it, do you, old
+fellow?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; said Donnegan, and he smiled to cover a touch of sadness. &quot;I hope
+not. No, I don't doubt you, of course. I've spent my life wishing for
+you since you left us, you see. And then I followed you for three years
+on the road, hunting everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You did that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. Three years. I liked the careless life. For to tell you the truth,
+I'm not worth much, Henry. I'm a loafer by instinct, and&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not another word.&quot; There were tears in the eyes of Lord Nick, and he
+frowned them away. &quot;Confound it, Garry, you unman me. I'll be weeping
+like a woman in a minute. But now, sit down. We still have some things
+to talk over. And we'll get to a quick conclusion.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, yes,&quot; said Donnegan, and at the emotion which had come in the face
+of Lord Nick, his own expression softened wonderfully. A light seemed to
+stand in his face. &quot;We'll brush over the incidentals. And everything is
+incidental aside from the fact that we're together again. They can
+chisel iron chain apart, but we'll never be separated again, God
+willing!&quot; He looked up as he spoke, and his face was for the moment as
+pure as the face of a child&mdash;Donnegan, the thief, the beggar, the liar
+by gift, and the man-killer by trade and artistry.</p>
+
+<p>But Lord Nick in the meantime was looking down to the floor and
+mustering his thoughts.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The main thing is entirely simple,&quot; he said. &quot;You'll make one
+concession to my pride, Garry, boy?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you ask me?&quot; said Donnegan softly, and he cast out his hands in a
+gesture that offered his heart and his soul. &quot;Can you ask me? Anything I
+have is yours!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't say that,&quot; answered Lord Nick tenderly. &quot;But this small thing&mdash;my
+pride, you know&mdash;I despise myself for caring what people think, but I'm
+weak. I admit it, but I can't help it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Talk out, man. You'll see if there's a bottom to things that I can
+give!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, it's this. Everyone knows that I came up here to get young Jack
+Landis and bring him back to Lebrun's&mdash;from which you stole him, you
+clever young devil! Well, I'll simply take him back there, Garry; and
+then I'll never have to ask another favor of you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was astonished by a sudden silence, and looking up again, he saw that
+Donnegan sat with his hand at his breast. It was a singularly feminine
+gesture to which he resorted. It was a habit which had come to him in
+his youth in the invalid chair, when the ceaseless torment of his
+crippled back became too great for him to bear.</p>
+
+<p>And clearly, indeed, those days were brought home to Lord Nick as he
+glanced up, for Donnegan was staring at him in the same old, familiar
+agony, mute and helpless.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="33"></a><h2>33</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>At this Lord Nick very frankly frowned in turn. And when he frowned his
+face grew marvelously dark, like some wrathful god, for there was a
+noble, a Grecian purity to the profile of Henry Nicholas Reardon, and
+when he frowned he seemed to be scorning, from a distance, ignoble,
+earthly things which troubled him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it isn't exactly easy for you, Garry,&quot; he admitted. &quot;You have
+your own pride; you have your own position here in The Corner. But I
+want you to notice that mine is different. You've spent a day for what
+you have in The Corner, here. I've spent ten years. You've played a
+prank, acted a part, and cast a jest for what you have. But for the
+place which I hold, brother mine, I've schemed with my wits, played fast
+and loose, and killed men. Do you hear? I've bought it with blood, and
+things you buy at such a price ought to stick, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He banished his frown; the smile played suddenly across his features.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, I'm arguing with myself. But that look you gave me a minute ago
+had me worried for a little while.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this Donnegan, who had allowed his head to fall, so that he seemed
+to be nodding in acquiescence, now raised his face and Lord Nick
+perceived the same white pain upon it. The same look which had been on
+the face of the cripple so often in the other days.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry,&quot; said the younger brother, &quot;I give you my oath that my pride has
+nothing to do with this. I'd let you drive me barefoot before you
+through the street yonder. I'd let every soul in The Corner know that I
+have no pride where you're concerned. I'll do whatever you wish&mdash;with
+one exception&mdash;and that one is the unlucky thing you ask. Pardner, you
+mustn't ask for Jack Landis! Anything else I'll work like a slave to get
+for you: I'll fight your battles, I'll serve you in any way you name:
+but don't take Landis back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had talked eagerly, the words coming with a rush, and he found at the
+end that Lord Nick was looking at him in bewilderment.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When a man is condemned to death,&quot; said Lord Nick slowly, &quot;suppose
+somebody offers him anything in the world that he wants&mdash;palaces,
+riches, power&mdash;everything except his life. What would the condemned man
+say to a friend who made such an offer? He'd laugh at him and then call
+him a traitor. Eh? But I don't laugh at you, Garry. I simply explain to
+you why I have to have Landis back. Listen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He counted off his points upon the tips of his fingers, in the confident
+manner of a teacher who deals with a stupid child, waiting patiently for
+the young mind to comprehend.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've been bleeding Jack Landis. Do you know why? Because it was Lester
+who made the strike up here. He started out to file his claim. He
+stopped at the house of Colonel Macon. That old devil learned the
+location, learned everything; detained Lester with a trick, and rushed
+young Landis away to file the claims for himself. Then when Lester came
+up here he found that his claims had been jumped, and when he went to
+the law there was no law that could help him. He had nothing but his
+naked word for what he had discovered. And naturally the word of a
+ruffian like Lester had no weight against the word of Landis. And, you
+see, Landis thought that he was entirely in the right. Lester tried the
+other way; tried to jump the claims; and was shot down by Landis. So
+Lester sent for me. What was I to do? Kill Landis? The mine would go to
+his heirs. I tried a different way&mdash;bleeding him of his profits, after
+I'd explained to him that he was in the wrong. He half admitted that,
+but he naturally wouldn't give up the mines even after we'd almost
+proved to him that Lester had the first right. So Landis has been mining
+the gold and we've been drawing it away from him. It looks tricky, but
+really it's only just. And Lester and Lebrun split with me.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I tell you, Garry, that I'd give up everything without an
+afterthought. I'll give up the money and I'll make Lebrun and Lester
+shut up without a word. I'll make them play square and not try to knife
+Landis in the back. I'll do all that willingly&mdash;for you! But, Garry, I
+can't give up taking Landis back to Lebrun's and keeping him there until
+he's well. Why, man, I saw him in the hut just now. He wants to go. He's
+afraid of the old colonel as if he were poison&mdash;and I think he's wise in
+being afraid.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The colonel won't touch him,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. I've told him what would happen if he does.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush. Garry, Colonel Macon is the coldest-blooded murderer I've ever
+known. But come out in the open, lad. You see that I'm ready to listen
+to reason&mdash;except on one point. Tell me why you're so set on this
+keeping of Landis here against my will and even against the lad's own
+will? I'm reasonable, Garry. Do you doubt that?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Explaining his own mildness, the voice of Lord Nick swelled again and
+filled the room, and he frowned on his brother. But Donnegan looked on
+him sadly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is a girl&mdash;&quot; he began.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why didn't I guess it?&quot; exclaimed Lord Nick. &quot;If ever you find a man
+unreasonable, stubborn and foolish, you'll always find a woman behind
+it! All this trouble because of a piece of calico?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He leaned back, laughing thunderously in his relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come, come! I was prepared for a tragedy. Now tell me about this girl.
+Who and what is she?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The daughter of the colonel.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're in love with her? I'm glad to hear it, Garry. As a matter of
+fact I've been afraid that you were hunting in my own preserve, but if
+it's the colonel's daughter, you're welcome to her. So you love the
+girl? She's pretty, lad!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I love her?&quot; said Donnegan in an indescribably tender voice. &quot;I love
+her? Who am I to love her? A thief, a man-killer, a miserable play
+actor, a gambler, a drunkard. I love her? Bah!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If there was one quality of the mind with which Lord Nick was less
+familiar than with all others, it was humbleness of spirit. He now
+abased his magnificent head, and resting his chin in the mighty palm of
+his hand, he stared with astonishment and commiseration into the face of
+Donnegan. He seemed to be learning new things every moment about his
+brother.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave me out of the question,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't be done. If I leave you out, dear boy, there's not one of them
+that I care a hang about; I'd ride roughshod over the whole lot. I've
+done it before to better men than these!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you'll change, I know. This is the fact of the matter. She loves
+Landis. And if you take Landis away where will you put him?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Where he was stolen away. In Lebrun's.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And what will be in Lebrun's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix to guard him and the old negress to nurse him.&quot;'</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no! Nelly Lebrun will be there!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Eh? Are you glancing at her, now?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, you yourself know that Landis is mad about that girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, she's flirted a bit with him. Turned the fool's head. He'll come
+out of it safe. She won't break his heart. I've seen her work on
+others!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled at the memory.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do I care about Landis?&quot; said Donnegan with unutterable scorn.
+&quot;It's the girl. You'll break her heart, Henry; and if you do I'll never
+forgive you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Steady, lad. This is a good deal like a threat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no, no! Not a threat, heaven knows!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By heaven!&quot; exclaimed Lord Nick. &quot;I begin to be irritated to see you
+stick on a silly point like this. Listen to me, lad. Do you mean to say
+that you are making all! this trouble about a slip of a girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The heart of a girl,&quot; said Donnegan calmly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let Landis go; then take her in your arms and kiss her worries away. I
+warrant you can do it! I gather from Nell that you're not tongue-tied
+around women!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I?&quot; echoed Donnegan, turning pale. &quot;Don't jest at this, Henry. I'm as
+serious as death. She's the type of woman made to love one man, and one
+man only. Landis may be common as dirt; but she doesn't see it. She's
+fastened her heart on him. I looked in on her a little while ago. She
+turned white when she saw me. I brought Landis to her, but she hates me
+because I had to shoot him down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Garry,&quot; said the big man with a twinkle in his eye, &quot;you're in love!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It shook Donnegan to the core, but he replied instantly; &quot;If I were in
+love, don't you suppose that I would have shot to kill when I met
+Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At this his brother blinked, frowned, and shook his head. The point was
+apparently plain to him and wiped out his previous convictions. Also, it
+eased his mind.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you don't love the girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Either way, my hands are cleared of the worry. If you want her, let me
+take Landis. If you don't want her, what difference does it make to you
+except silly sentiment?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan made no answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If she comes to Lebrun's house, I'll see that Nell doesn't bother him
+too much.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can you control her? If she wants to see this fool can you keep her
+away, and if she goes to him can you control her smiling?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Certainly,&quot; said Lord Nick, but he flushed heavily.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She's a devil of a girl,&quot; admitted Henry Reardon. &quot;But this is beside
+the point: which is, that you're sticking on a matter that means
+everything to me, and which is only a secondhand interest to you&mdash;a
+point of sentiment. You pity the girl. What's pity? Bah! I pity a dog in
+the street, but would I cross you, Garry, lad, to save the dog?
+Sentiment, I say, silly sentiment.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan rose.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was a silly sentiment,&quot; he said hoarsely, &quot;that put me on the road
+following you, Henry. It was a silly sentiment that turned me into a
+wastrel, a wanderer, a man without a home and without friends.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's wrong to throw that in my face,&quot; muttered Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is. And I'm sorry for it. But I want you to see that matters of
+sentiment may be matters of life and death with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, if it were for you it would be different. I might see my way
+clear&mdash;but for a girl you have only a distant interest in&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a matter of whether or not her heart shall be broken.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come, come. Let's talk man talk. Besides, girls' hearts don't break in
+this country. You're old-fashioned.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I tell you the question of her happiness is worth more than a dozen
+lives like yours and mine.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There had been a gathering impatience in Lord Nick. Now he, also, leaped
+to his feet; a giant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tell me in one word: You stick on this point?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In one word&mdash;yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you deny me, Garry. You set me aside for a silly purpose of your
+own&mdash;a matter that really doesn't mean much to you. It shows me where I
+stand in your eyes&mdash;and nothing between the devil and the moon shall
+make me sidestep!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They remained silent, staring at each other. Lord Nick stood with a
+flush of anger growing; Donnegan became whiter than ever, and he
+stiffened himself to his full height, which, in all who knew him well,
+was the danger signal.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You take Landis?&quot; he said softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I do.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;while I live!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean&mdash;&quot; cried Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I mean it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They had been swept back to the point at which that strangest of scenes
+began, but this time there was an added element&mdash;horror.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'd fight?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To the death, Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Garry, if one of us should kill the other, he'd be cursed forever!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And she's worth even this?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand times more! What are we? Dust in the wind; dust in the wind.
+But a woman like that is divine, Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick swayed a little, setting himself in balance like an animal
+preparing for the leap.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If it comes to the pinch, it is you who will die,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've no chance against me, Garry. And I swear to you that I won't
+weaken. You prove that you don't care for me. You put another above me.
+It's my pride, my life, that you'd sacrifice to the whim of a girl!&quot; His
+passion choked him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you ready?&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Move first!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have never formed the habit.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nor I! You fool, take what little advantage you can, because it won't
+help you in the end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall see. I have a second sight, Henry, and it shows me you dead
+on the floor there, looking bigger than ever, and I see the gun smoking
+in my hand and my heart as dead as ashes! Oh, Henry, if there were only
+some other way!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>They were both pale now.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye,&quot; murmured Lord Nick, &quot;if we could find a judge. My hand turns to
+lead when I think of fighting you, Garry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Perspiration stood on the face of Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Name a judge; I'll abide by the decision.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some man&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no. What man could understand me? A woman, Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nell Lebrun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The girl who loves you? You want me to plead before her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Put her on her honor and she'll be as straight as a string with both of
+us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>For a moment Donnegan considered, and at length: &quot;She loves you, Henry.
+You have that advantage. You have only to let her know that this is a
+vital matter to you and she'll speak as you wish her to speak.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nonsense. You don't know her. You've seen yourself that no man can
+control her absolutely.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Make a concession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A thousand, Garry, dear boy, if they'll get us clear from this horrible
+mess.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only this. Leave The Corner for a few hours. Give me until&mdash;tonight.
+Let me see Nelly during that time. You've had years to work on her. I
+want only this time to put my own case before her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank heaven that we're coming to see light and a way out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, Henry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man wiped his forehead and sighed in his relief.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;A minute ago I was ready&mdash;but we'll forget all this. What will you do?
+How will you persuade Nelly? I almost think that you intend to make love
+to her, Garry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little man turned paler still.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is exactly what I intend,&quot; he said quietly.</p>
+
+<p>The brow of Lord Nick darkened solemnly, and then he forced a laugh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She'll be afraid to turn me down, Garry. But try your own way.&quot; He bit
+his lips. &quot;Why, if you influence her that way&mdash;do it. What's a fickle
+jade to me? Nothing!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However I do it, you'll stick by her judgment, Henry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The perspiration had started on Lord Nick's forehead again. Doubt swayed
+him, but pride forced him on.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll come again tonight,&quot; he said gloomily. &quot;I'll meet you
+in&mdash;Milligan's?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In Milligan's, then.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick, without a word of farewell, stamped across the hut and out.</p>
+
+<p>As for Donnegan, he stepped backward, his legs buckled beneath him, and
+when big George entered, with a scared face, he found the little man
+half sitting on the bunk, half lying against the wall with the face and
+the staring eyes of a dead man.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="34"></a><h2>34</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>It was a long time before Donnegan left the hut, and when he came out
+the crowd which had gathered to watch the fight, or at least to mark the
+reports of the guns when those two terrible warriors met, was scattered.
+There remained before Donnegan only the colonel in his invalid's chair.
+Even from the distance one could see that his expression was changed,
+and when the little red-headed man came near the colonel looked up to
+him with something akin to humility.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; he said, stopping the other as Donnegan headed for the door
+of the hut, &quot;Donnegan, don't go in there just now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan turned and came slowly toward him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The reason,&quot; said the colonel, &quot;is that you probably won't receive a
+very cheery reception. Unfortunate&mdash;very unfortunate. Lou has turned
+wrong-headed for the first time in her life and she won't listen to
+reason.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He chuckled softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I never dreamed there was so much of my metal in her. Blood will tell,
+my boy; blood will tell. And when you finally get her you'll find that
+she's worth waiting for.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me tell you a secret,&quot; said Donnegan dryly. &quot;I am no longer waiting
+for her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot; smiled the colonel. &quot;Of course not. This bringing of Landis to
+her&mdash;it was all pure self-sacrifice. It was not an attempt to soften her
+heart. It was not a cunning maneuver. Tush! Of course not!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am about to make a profound remark,&quot; said Donnegan carelessly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By all means.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You read the minds of other people through a colored glass, colonel.
+You see yourself everywhere.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In other words I put my own motives into the actions and behind the
+actions of people? Perhaps. I am full of weaknesses. Very full. In the
+meantime let me tell you one important thing&mdash;if you have not made the
+heart of Lou tender toward you, you have at least frightened her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The jaw on Donnegan set.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Excellent!&quot; he said huskily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps better than you think; and to keep you abreast with the times,
+you must know another thing. Lou has a silly idea that you are a lost
+soul, Donnegan, but she attributes your fall entirely to my weakness.
+Nothing can convince her that you did not intend to kill Landis; nothing
+can convince her that you did not act on my inspiration. I have tried
+arguing. Bah! she overwhelmed me with her scorn. You are a villain, says
+Lou, and I have made you one. And for the first time in my memory of
+her, her eyes fill with tears.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tears?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Upon my honor, and when a girl begins to weep about a man I don't need
+to say he is close to her heart.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You are full of maxims, Colonel Macon.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a nut is full of meat. Old experience, you know. In the meantime Lou
+is perfectly certain that I intend to make away with Landis. Ha, ha,
+ha!&quot; The laughter of the colonel was a cheery thunder, and soft as with
+distance. &quot;Landis is equally convinced. He begs Lou not to fall asleep
+lest I should steal in on him. She hardly dares leave him to cook his
+food. I actually think she would have been glad to see that fiend, Lord
+Nick, take Landis away!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled wanly. But could he tell her, poor girl, the story of
+Nelly Lebrun? Landis, in fear of his life, was no doubt at this moment
+pouring out protestations of deathless affection.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And they both consider you an archdemon for keeping Lord Nick away!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Again Donnegan winced, and coughed behind his hand to cover it.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;However,&quot; went on the colonel, &quot;when it comes to matters with the
+hearts of women, I trust to time. Time alone will show her that Landis
+is a puppy.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In the meantime, colonel, she keeps you from coming near Landis?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not at all! You fail to understand me and my methods, dear boy. I have
+only to roll my chair into the room and sit and smile at Jack in order
+to send him into an hysteria of terror. It is amusing to watch. And I
+can be there while Lou is in the room and through a few careful
+innuendoes convey to Landis my undying determination to either remove
+him from my path and automatically become his heir, or else secure from
+him a legal transfer of his rights to the mines.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have learned,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;that Landis has not the slightest
+claim to them himself. And that you set him on the trail of the claims
+by trickery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel did not wince.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course not,&quot; said the fat trickster. &quot;Not the slightest right. My
+claim is a claim of superior wits, you see. And in the end all your
+labor shall be rewarded, for my share will go to Lou and through her it
+shall come to you. No?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Quite logical.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel disregarded the other's smile.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I have a painful confession to make.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I misjudged you, Donnegan. A moment since, when I was nearly distraught
+with disappointment, I said some most unpleasant things to you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have forgotten them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the colonel raised his strong forefinger and shook his head,
+smiling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no, Donnegan. If you deny it, I shall know that you are harboring
+the most undying grudge against me. As a matter of fact, I have just
+had an interview with Lord Nick, and the cursed fellow put my nerves on
+edge.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The colonel made a wry face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And when you came, I saw no manner in which you could possibly thwart
+him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His eyes grew wistful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between friends&mdash;as a son to his future father,&quot; he said softly, &quot;can't
+you tell me what the charm was that you used on. Nick to send him away?
+I watched him come out of the shack. He was in a fury. I could see that
+by the way his head thrust out between his big shoulders. And when he
+went down the hill he was striding like a giant, but every now and then
+he would stop short, and his head would go up as if he were tempted to
+turn around and go back, but didn't quite have the nerve. Donnegan, tell
+me the trick of it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Willingly. I appealed to his gambling instinct.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Which leaves me as much in the dark as ever.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan smiled in his own peculiar and mirthless manner and he went
+on to the hut. Not that he expected a cheery greeting from Lou Macon,
+but he was drawn by the same perverse instinct which tempts a man to
+throw himself from a great height. At the door he paused a moment. He
+could distinguish no words, but he caught the murmur of Lou's voice as
+she talked to Jack Landis, and it had that infinitely gentle quality
+which only a woman's voice can have, and only when she nurses the sick.
+It was a pleasant torture to Donnegan to hear it. At length he summoned
+his resolution and tapped at the door.</p>
+
+<p>The voice of Lou Macon stopped. He heard a hurried and whispered
+consultation. What did they expect? Then swift foot-falls on the floor,
+and she opened the door. There was a smile of expectancy on her lips;
+her eyes were bright; but when she saw Donnegan her lips pinched in. She
+stared at him as if he were a ghost.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew; I knew!&quot; she said piteously, falling back a step but still
+keeping her hand upon the knob of the door as if to block the way to
+Donnegan. &quot;Oh, Jack, he has killed Lord Nick and now he is here&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>To do what? To kill Landis in turn? Her horrified eyes implied as much.
+He saw Landis in the distance raise himself upon one elbow and his face
+was gray, not with pain but with dread.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It can't be!&quot; groaned Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Nick is alive,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;And I have not come here to
+torment you; I have only come to ask that you let me speak with you
+alone for a moment, Lou!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He watched her face intently. All the cabin was in deep shadow, but the
+golden hair of the girl glowed as if with an inherent light of its own,
+and the same light touched her face. Jack Landis was stricken with
+panic: he stammered in a dreadful eagerness of fear.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't leave me, Lou. You know what it means. He wants to get you out of
+the way so that the colonel can be alone with me. Don't go, Lou! Don't
+go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As though she saw how hopeless it was to try to bar Donnegan by closing
+the door against him, she fell back to the bed. She kept her eye on the
+little man, as if to watch against a surprise attack, and, fumbling
+behind her, her hand found the hand of Landis and closed over it with
+the reassurance of a mother.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't be afraid, Jack. I won't leave you. Not unless they carry me away
+by force.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I give you my solemn word.&quot; said Donnegan in torment, &quot;that the colonel
+shall not come near Landis while you're away with me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your word!&quot; murmured the girl with a sort of horrified wonder. &quot;Your
+word!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan bowed his head.</p>
+
+<p>But all at once she cast out her free hand toward him, while the other
+still cherished the weakness of Jack Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, give them up!&quot; she cried. &quot;Give up my father and all his wicked
+plans. There is something good in you. Give him up; come with us;
+stand for us: and we shall be grateful all our lives!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The little man had removed his hat, so that the sunshine burned brightly
+on his red hair. Indeed, there was always a flamelike quality about him.
+In inaction he seemed femininely frail and pale; but when his spirit was
+roused his eyes blazed as his hair burned in the sunlight.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You shall learn in the end,&quot; he said to the girl, &quot;that everything I
+do, I do for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She cried out as if he had struck her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's not worthy of you,&quot; she said bitterly. &quot;You are keeping Jack
+here&mdash;in peril&mdash;for my sake?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For your sake,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>She looked at him with a queer pain in her eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;To keep you from needless lying,&quot; she said, &quot;let me tell you that Jack
+has told me everything. I am not angry because you come and pretend that
+you do all these horrible things for my sake. I know my father has
+tempted you with a promise of a great deal of money. But in the end you
+will get nothing. No, he will twist everything away from you and leave
+you nothing! But as for me&mdash;I know everything; Jack told me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He has told you what? What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;About the woman you love.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The woman I love?&quot; echoed Donnegan, stupefied.</p>
+
+<p>It seemed that Lou Macon could only name her with an effort that left
+her trembling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Lebrun woman,&quot; she said. &quot;Jack has told me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did you tell her that?&quot; he asked Landis.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The whole town knows it,&quot; stammered the wounded man.</p>
+
+<p>The cunning hypocrisy spurred Donnegan. He put his foot on the threshold
+of the shack, and at this the girl cried out and shrank from him; but
+Landis was too paralyzed to stir or speak. For a moment Donnegan was
+wildly tempted to pour his torrent of contempt and accusation upon
+Landis. To what end? To prove to the girl that the big fellow had coolly
+tricked her? That it was to be near Nelly Lebrun as much as to be away
+from the colonel that he wished so ardently to leave the shack? After
+all, Lou Macon was made happy by an illusion; let her keep it.</p>
+
+<p>He looked at her sadly again. She stood defiant over Landis; ready to
+protect the helpless bulk of the man.</p>
+
+<p>So Donnegan closed the door softly and turned away with ashes in his
+heart.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="35"></a><h2>35</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>When Nelly Lebrun raised her head from her hands, Donnegan was a far
+figure; yet even in the distance she could catch the lilt and easy sway
+of his body; he rode as he walked, lightly, his feet in the stirrups
+half taking his weight in a semi-English fashion. For a moment she was
+on the verge of spurring after him, but she kept the rein taut and
+merely stared until he dipped away among the hills. For one thing she
+was quite assured that she could not overtake that hard rider; and,
+again, she felt that it was useless to interfere. To step between Lord
+Nick and one of his purposes would have been like stepping before an
+avalanche and commanding it to halt with a raised hand.</p>
+
+<p>She watched miserably until even the dust cloud dissolved and the bare,
+brown hills alone remained before her. Then she turned away, and hour
+after hour let her black jog on.</p>
+
+<p>To Nelly Lebrun this day was one of those still times which come over
+the life of a person, and in which they see themselves in relation to
+the rest of the world clearly. It would not be true to say that Nelly
+loved Donnegan. Certainly not as yet, for the familiar figure of Lord
+Nick filled her imagination. But the little man was different. Lord
+Nick commanded respect, admiration, obedience; but there was about
+Donnegan something which touched her in an intimate and disturbing
+manner. She had felt the will-o'-the-wisp flame which burned in him in
+his great moments. It was possible for her to smile at Donnegan; it was
+possible even to pity him for his fragility, his touchy pride about his
+size; to criticize his fondness for taking the center of the stage even
+in a cheap little mining camp like this and strutting about, the center
+of all attention. Yet there were qualities in him which escaped her, a
+possibility of metallic hardness, a pitiless fire of purpose.</p>
+
+<p>To Lord Nick, he was as the bull terrier to the mastiff.</p>
+
+<p>But above all she could not dislodge the memory of his strange talk with
+her at Lebrun's. Not that she did not season the odd avowals of Donnegan
+with a grain of salt, but even when she had discounted all that he said,
+she retained a quivering interest. Somewhere beneath his words she
+sensed reality. Somewhere beneath his actions she felt a selfless
+willingness to throw himself away.</p>
+
+<p>As she rode she was comparing him steadily with Lord Nick. And as she
+made the comparisons she felt more and more assured that she could pick
+and choose between the two. They loved her, both of them. With Nick it
+was an old story; with Donnegan it might be equally true in spite of its
+newness. And Nelly Lebrun felt rich. Not that she would have been
+willing to give up Lord Nick. By no means. But neither was she willing
+to throw away Donnegan. Diamonds in one hand and pearls in the other.
+Which handful must she discard?</p>
+
+<p>She remained riding an unconscionable length of time, and when she drew
+rein again before her father's house, the black was flecked with foam
+from his clamped bit, and there was a thick lather under the stirrup
+leathers. She threw the reins to the servant who answered her call and
+went slowly into the house.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, by this time, was dead. She began to feel that it would be
+hard to look Lord Nick in the face again. His other killings had often
+seemed to her glorious. She had rejoiced in the invincibility of her
+lover.</p>
+
+<p>Now he suddenly took on the aspect of a murderer.</p>
+
+<p>She found the house hushed. Perhaps everyone was at the gaming house;
+for now it was midafternoon. But when she opened the door to the
+apartment which they used as a living room she found Joe Rix and the
+Pedlar and Lester sitting side by side, silent. There was no whisky in
+sight; there were no cards to be seen. Marvel of marvels, these three
+men were spending their time in solemn thought. A sudden thought rushed
+over her, and her cry told where her heart really lay, at least at this
+time.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Nick&mdash;has he been&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The Pedlar lifted his gaunt head and stared at her without expression.
+It was Joe Rix who answered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick's upstairs.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Safe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not a scratch.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She sank into a chair with a sigh, but was instantly on edge again with
+the second thought.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan?&quot; she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Safe and sound,&quot; said Lester coldly.</p>
+
+<p>She could not gather the truth of the statement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then Nick got Landis back before Donnegan returned?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Like any other girl, Nelly Lebrun hated a puzzle above all things in the
+world, at least a puzzle which affected her new friends.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lester, what's happened?&quot; she demanded.</p>
+
+<p>At this Lester, who had been brooding upon the floor, raised his eyes
+and then switched one leg over the other. He was a typical cowman, was
+Lester, from his crimson handkerchief knotted around his throat to his
+shop-made boots which fitted slenderly about his instep with the care of
+a gloved hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I dunno what happened,&quot; said Lester. &quot;Which looks like what counts is
+the things that didn't happen. Landis is still with that devil, Macon.
+Donnegan is loose without a scratch, and Lord Nick is in his room with a
+face as black as a cloudy night.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And briefly he described how Lord Nick had gone up the hill, seen the
+colonel, come back, taken a horse litter, and gone up the hill again,
+while the populace of The Corner waited for a crash. For Donnegan had
+arrived in the meantime. And how Nick had gone into the cabin, remained
+a singularly long time, and then come out, with a face half white and
+half red and an eye that dared anyone to ask questions. He had strode
+straight home to Lebrun's and gone to his room; and there he remained,
+never making a sound.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I'll give you my way of readin' the sign on that trail,&quot; said
+Lester. &quot;Nick goes up the hill to clean up on Donnegan. He sees him;
+they size each other up in a flash; they figure that if they's a gun it
+means a double killin'&mdash;and they simply haul off and say a perlite
+fare-thee-well.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The girl paid no attention to these remarks. She was sunk in a brown
+study.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There's something behind it all,&quot; she said, more to herself than to the
+men. &quot;Nick is proud as the devil himself. And I can't imagine why he'd
+let Donnegan go. Oh, it might have been done if they'd met alone in the
+desert. But with the whole town looking on and waiting for Nick to clean
+up on Donnegan&mdash;no, it isn't possible. There must have been a showdown
+of some kind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a grim little silence after this.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe there was,&quot; said the Pedlar dryly. &quot;Maybe there was a
+showdown&mdash;and the wind-up of it is that Nick comes home meek as a
+six-year-old broke down in front.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stared at him, first astonished, and then almost frightened.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You mean that Nick may have taken water?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The three, as one man, shrugged their shoulders, and met her glance with
+cold eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fools!&quot; cried the girl, springing to her feet. &quot;He'd rather die!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix leaned forward, and to emphasize his point he stabbed one dirty
+forefinger into the fat palm of his other hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You just start thinkin' back,&quot; he said solemnly, &quot;and you'll remember
+that Donnegan has done some pretty slick things.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lester added with a touch of contempt: &quot;Like shootin' down Landis one
+day and then sittin' down and havin' a nice long chat with you the next.
+I dunno how he does it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That hunch of yours,&quot; said the girl fiercely, &quot;ought to be roped and
+branded&mdash;lie! Lester, don't look at me like that. And if you think Nick
+has lost his grip on things you're dead wrong. Step light, Lester&mdash;and
+the rest of you. Or Nick may hear you walk&mdash;and think.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She flung out of the room and raced up the stairs to Lord Nick's room.
+There was an interval without response after her first knock. But when
+she rapped again he called out to know who was there. At her answer she
+heard his heavy stride cross the room, and the door opened slowly. His
+face, as she looked up to it, was so changed that she hardly knew him.
+His hair was unkempt, on end, where he had sat with his fingers thrust
+into it, buried in thought. And the marks of his palms were red upon his
+forehead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick,&quot; she whispered, frightened, &quot;what is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He looked down half fiercely, half sadly at her. And though his lips
+parted they closed again before he spoke. Fear jumped coldly in Nelly
+Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did Donnegan&mdash;&quot; she pleaded, white-faced. &quot;Did he&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Did he bluff me out?&quot; finished Nick. &quot;No, he didn't. That's what
+everybody'll say. I know it, don't I? And that's why I'm staying here by
+myself, because the first fool that looks at me with a question in his
+face, why&mdash;I'll break him in two.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She pressed close to him, more frightened than before. That Lord Nick
+should have been driven to defend himself with words was almost too much
+for credence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You know I don't believe it, Nick? You know that I'm not doubting you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But he brushed her hands roughly away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You want to know what it's all about? Then go over to&mdash;well, to
+Milligan's. Donnegan will be there. He'll explain things to you, I
+guess. He wants to see you. And maybe I'll come over later and join
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Seeing Lord Nick before her, so shaken, so gray of face, so dull of eye,
+she pictured Donnegan as a devil in human form, cunning, resistless.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nick, dear&mdash;&quot; she pleaded.</p>
+
+<p>He closed the door in her face, and she heard his heavy step go back
+across the room. In some mysterious manner she felt the Promethean fire
+had been stolen from Lord Nick, and Donnegan's was the hand that had
+robbed him of it.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="36"></a><h2>36</h2>
+<br>
+
+
+<p>It was fear that Nelly Lebrun felt first of all. It was fear because
+the impossible had happened and the immovable object had been at last
+moved. Going back to her own room, the record of Lord Nick flashed
+across her mind; one long series of thrilling deeds. He had been a great
+and widely known figure on the mountain desert while she herself was no
+more than a girl. When she first met him she had been prepared for the
+sight of a firebreathing monster; and she had never quite recovered from
+the first thrill of finding him not devil but man.</p>
+
+<p>Quite oddly, now that there seemed another man as powerful as Lord Nick
+or even more terrible, she felt for the big man more tenderly than ever;
+for like all women, there was a corner of her heart into which she
+wished to receive a thing she could cherish and protect. Lord Nick, the
+invincible, had seemed without any real need of other human beings. His
+love for her had seemed unreal because his need of her seemed a
+superficial thing. Now that he was in sorrow and defeat she suddenly
+visualized a Lord Nick to whom she could truly be a helpmate. Tears came
+to her eyes at the thought.</p>
+
+<p>Yet, very contradictorily and very humanly, the moment she was in her
+room she began preparing her toilet for that evening at Lebrun's. Let no
+one think that she was already preparing to cast Lord Nick away and turn
+to the new star in the sky of the mountain desert. By no means. No doubt
+her own heart was not quite clear to Nelly. Indeed, she put on her most
+lovely gown with a desire for revenge. If Lord Nick had been humbled by
+this singular Donnegan, would it not be a perfect revenge to bring
+Donnegan himself to her feet? Would it not be a joy to see him turn pale
+under her smile, and then, when he was well-nigh on his knees, spurn the
+love which he offered her?</p>
+
+<p>She set her teeth and her eyes gleamed with the thought. But
+nevertheless she went on lavishing care in the preparation for that
+night.</p>
+
+<p>As she visioned the scene, the many curious eyes that watched her with
+Donnegan; the keen envy in the faces of the women; the cold watchfulness
+of the men, were what she pictured.</p>
+
+<p>In a way she almost regretted that she was admired by such fighting men,
+Landis, Lord Nick, and now Donnegan, who frightened away the rank and
+file of other would-be admirers. But it was a pang which she could
+readily control and subdue.</p>
+
+<p>To tell the truth the rest of the day dragged through a weary length. At
+the dinner table her father leaned to her and talked in his usual
+murmuring voice which could reach her own ear and no other by any
+chance.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly, there's going to be the devil to pay around The Corner. You know
+why. Now, be a good girl and wise girl and play your cards. Donnegan is
+losing his head; he's losing it over you. So play your cards.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Turn down Nick and take up Donnegan?&quot; she asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've said enough already,&quot; said her father, and would not speak again.
+But it was easy to see that he already felt Lord Nick's star to be past
+its full glory.</p>
+
+<p>Afterward, Lebrun himself took his daughter over to Milligan's and left
+her under the care of the dance-hall proprietor.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm waiting for someone,&quot; said Nelly, and Milligan sat willingly at her
+table and made talk. He was like the rest of The Corner&mdash;full of the
+subject of the strange encounter between Lord Nick and Donnegan. What
+had Donnegan done to the big man? Nelly merely smiled and said they
+would all know in time: one thing was certain&mdash;Lord Nick had not taken
+water. But at this Milligan smiled behind his hand.</p>
+
+<p>Ten minutes later there was that stir which announced the arrival of
+some public figures; and Donnegan with big George behind him came into
+the room. This evening he went straight to the table to Nelly Lebrun.
+Milligan, a little uneasy, rose. But Donnegan was gravely polite and
+regretted that he had interrupted.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have only come to ask you for five minutes of your time,&quot; he said to
+the girl.</p>
+
+<p>She was about to put him off merely to make sure of her hold over him,
+but something she saw in his face fascinated her. She could not play her
+game. Milligan had slipped away before she knew it, and Donnegan was in
+his place at the table. He was as much changed as Lord Nick, she
+thought. Not that his clothes were less carefully arranged than ever,
+but in the compression of his lips and something behind his eyes she
+felt the difference. She would have given a great deal indeed to have
+learned what went on behind the door of Donnegan's shack when Lord Nick
+was there.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Last time you asked for one minute and stayed half an hour,&quot; she said.
+&quot;This time it's five minutes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>No matter what was on his mind he was able to answer fully as lightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;When I talk about myself, I'm always long-winded.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tonight it's someone else?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was, being a woman, intensely disappointed, but her smile was as
+bright as ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I'm listening.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You remember what I told you of Landis and the girl on the hill?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She seems to stick in your thoughts, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, she's a lovely child.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And by his frankness he very cunningly disarmed her. Even if he had
+hesitated an instant she would have been on the track of the truth, but
+he had foreseen the question and his reply came back instantly.</p>
+
+<p>He added: &quot;Also, what I say has to do with Lord Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; said the girl a little coldly.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan went on. He had chosen frankness to be his role and he played
+it to the full.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is a rather wonderful story,&quot; he went on. &quot;You know that Lord Nick
+went up the hill for Landis? And The Corner was standing around waiting
+for him to bring the youngster down?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There was only one obstacle&mdash;which you had so kindly removed&mdash;myself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For your own sake, Mr. Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, don't you suppose that I know?&quot; And his voice touched her. &quot;He came
+to kill me. And no doubt he could have done so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Such frankness shocked her into a new attention.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps Donnegan overdid his part a little at this point, for in her
+heart of hearts she knew that the little man would a thousand times
+rather die than give way to any living man.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I threw my case bodily before him&mdash;the girl&mdash;her love for
+Landis&mdash;and the fear which revolved around your own unruly eyes, you
+know, if he were sent back to your father's house. I placed it all
+before him. At first he was for fighting at once. But the story appealed
+to him. He pitied the girl. And in the end he decided to let the matter
+be judged by a third person. He suggested a man. But I know that a man
+would see in my attitude nothing but foolishness. No man could have
+appreciated the position of that girl on the hill. I myself named
+another referee&mdash;yourself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She gasped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And so I have come to place the question before you, because I know
+that you will decide honestly.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I shall be honest,&quot; said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>She was thinking: Why not have Landis back? It would keep the three men
+revolving around her. Landis on his feet and well would have been
+nothing; either of these men would have killed him. But Landis sick she
+might balance in turn against them both. Nelly had the instincts of a
+fencer; she loved balance.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan was heaping up his effects. For by the shadow in her eyes
+he well knew what was passing through her mind, and he dared not let her
+speak too quickly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is more hanging upon it. In the first place, if Landis is left
+with the girl it gives the colonel a chance to work on him, and like as
+not the colonel will get the young fool to sign away the mines to
+him&mdash;frighten him, you see, though I've made sure that the colonel will
+not actually harm him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How have you made sure? They say the colonel is a devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have spoken with him. The colonel is not altogether without
+sensibility to fear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She caught the glint in the little man's eye and she believed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So much for that. Landis is safe, but his money may not be. Another
+thing still hangs upon your decision. Lord Nick wanted to know why I
+trusted to you? Because I felt you were honest. Why did I feel that?
+There was nothing to do. Besides, how could I conceal myself from such a
+man? I spoke frankly and told him that I trusted you because I love
+you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She closed her hand hard on the edge of the table to steady herself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And he made no move at you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He restrained himself.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lord Nick?&quot; gasped the incredulous girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is a gentleman,&quot; said Donnegan with a singular pride which she could
+not understand.</p>
+
+<p>He went on: &quot;And unfortunately I fear that if you decide in favor of my
+side of the argument, I fear that Lord Nick will feel that you&mdash;that
+you&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was apparently unable to complete his sentence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will feel that you no longer care for him,&quot; said Donnegan at length.</p>
+
+<p>The girl pondered him with cloudy eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is behind all this frankness?&quot; she asked coldly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall tell you. Hopelessness is behind it. Last night I poured my
+heart at your feet. And I had hope. Today I have seen Lord Nick and I no
+longer hope.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He is worthy of a lovely woman's affection; and I&mdash;&quot; He called her
+attention to himself with a deprecatory gesture.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you ask me to hurt him like this?&quot; said the girl. &quot;His pride is the
+pride of the fiend. Love me? He would hate me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It might be true. Still I know you would risk it, because&mdash;&quot; he paused.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; asked the girl, whispering in her excitement.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you are a lady.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He bowed to her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because you are fair; because you are honest, Nelly Lebrun. Personally
+I think that you can win Lord Nick back with one minute of smiling. But
+you might not. You might alienate him forever. It will be clumsy to
+explain to him that you were influenced not by me, but by justice. He
+will make it a personal matter, whereas you and I know that it is only
+the right that you are seeing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She propped her chin on the tips of her fingers, and her arm was a thing
+of grace. For the last moments that clouded expression had not cleared.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If I only could read your mind,&quot; she murmured now. &quot;There is something
+behind it all.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall tell you what it is. It is the restraint that has fallen upon
+me. It is because I wish to lean closer to you across the table and
+speak to you of things which are at the other end of the world from
+Landis and the other girl. It is because I have to keep my hands gripped
+hard to control myself. Because, though I have given up hope, I would
+follow a forlorn chance, a lost cause, and tell you again and again that
+I love you, Nelly Lebrun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had half lowered his eyes as he spoke; he had called up a vision, and
+the face of Lou Macon hovered dimly between him and Nelly Lebrun. If all
+that he spoke was a lie, let him be forgiven for it; it was the
+golden-haired girl whom he addressed, and it was she who gave the tremor
+and the fiber to his voice. And after all was he not pleading for her
+happiness as he believed?</p>
+
+<p>He covered his eyes with his hand; but when he looked up again she could
+see the shadow of the pain which was slowly passing. She had never seen
+such emotion in any man's face, and if it was for another, how could she
+guess it? Her blood was singing in her veins, and the old, old question
+was flying back and forth through her brain like a shuttle through a
+loom: Which shall it be?</p>
+
+<p>She called up the picture of Lord Nick, half-broken, but still terrible,
+she well knew. She pitied him, but when did pity wholly rule the heart
+of a woman? And as for Nelly Lebrun, she had the ambition of a young
+Caesar; she could not fill a second place. He who loved her must stand
+first, and she saw Donnegan as the invincible man. She had not believed
+half of his explanation. No, he was shielding Lord Nick; behind that
+shield the truth was that the big man had quailed before the small.</p>
+
+<p>Of course she saw that Donnegan, pretending to be constrained by his
+agreement with Lord Nick, was in reality cunningly pleading his own
+cause. But his passion excused him. When has a woman condemned a man for
+loving her beyond the rules of fair play?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Whatever you may decide,&quot; Donnegan was saying. &quot;I shall be prepared to
+stand by it without a murmur. Send Landis back to your father's house
+and I submit: I leave The Corner and say farewell. But now, think
+quickly. For Lord Nick is coming to receive your answer.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="37"></a><h2>37</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>If the meeting between Lord Nick and Donnegan earlier that day had
+wrought up the nerves of The Corner to the point of hysteria; if the
+singular end of that meeting had piled mystery upon excitement; if the
+appearance of Donnegan, sitting calmly at the table of the girl who was
+known to be engaged to Nick, had further stimulated public curiosity,
+the appearance of Lord Nick was now a crowning burden under which The
+Corner staggered.</p>
+
+<p>Yet not a man or a woman stirred from his chair, for everyone knew that
+if the long-delayed battle between these two gunfighters was at length
+to take place, neither bullet was apt to fly astray.</p>
+
+<p>But what happened completed the wreck of The Corner's nerves, for Lord
+Nick walked quietly across the floor and sat down with Nelly Lebrun and
+his somber rival.</p>
+
+<p>Oddly enough, he looked at Donnegan, not at the girl, and this token of
+the beaten man decided her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; said Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have decided,&quot; said the girl. &quot;Landis should stay where he is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Neither of the two men stirred hand or eye. But Lord Nick turned gray.
+At length he rose and asked Donnegan, quietly, to step aside with him.
+Seeing them together, the difference between their sizes was more
+apparent: Donnegan seemed hardly larger than a child beside the splendid
+bulk of Lord Nick. But she could not overhear their talk.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've won,&quot; said Lord Nick, &quot;both Landis and Nelly. And&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait,&quot; broke in Donnegan eagerly. &quot;Henry, I've persuaded Nelly to see
+my side of the case, but that doesn't mean that she has turned from you
+to&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Stop!&quot; put in Lord Nick, between his teeth. &quot;I've not come to argue
+with you or ask advice or opinions. I've come to state facts. You've
+crawled in between me and Nelly like a snake in the grass. Very well.
+You're my brother. That keeps me from handling you. You've broken my
+reputation just as I said you would do. The bouncer at the door looked
+me in the eye and smiled when I came in.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had to pause a little, breathing heavily, and avoiding Donnegan's
+eyes. Finally he was able to continue.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm going to roll my blankets and leave The Corner and everything I
+have in it. You'll get my share of most things, it seems.&quot; He smiled
+after a ghastly, mirthless fashion. &quot;I give you a free road. I surrender
+everything to you, Donnegan. But there are two things I want to warn you
+about. It may be that my men will not agree with me. It may be that
+they'll want to put up a fight for the mine. They can't get at it
+without getting at Macon. They can't get at him without removing you.
+And they'll probably try it. I warn you now.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Another thing: from this moment there's no blood tie between us. I've
+found a brother and lost him in the same day. And if I ever cross you
+again, Donnegan, I'll shoot you on sight. Remember, I'm not threatening.
+I simply warn you in advance. If I were you, I'd get out of the country.
+Avoid me, Donnegan, as you'd avoid the devil.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he turned on his heel. He felt the eyes of the people in the room
+follow him by jerks, dwelling on every one of his steps. Near the door,
+stepping aside to avoid a group of people coming in, he half turned and
+he could not avoid the sight of Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun at the other
+end of the room. He was leaning across the table, talking with a smile
+on his lips&mdash;at that distance he could not mark the pallor of the little
+man's face&mdash;and Nelly Lebrun was laughing. Laughing already, and
+oblivious of the rest of the world.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick turned, a blur coming before his eyes, and made blindly for
+the door. A body collided with him; without a word he drew back his
+massive right fist and knocked the man down. The stunned body struck
+against the wall and collapsed along the floor. Lord Nick felt a great
+madness swell in his heart. Yet he set his teeth, controlled himself,
+and went on toward the house of Lebrun. He had come within an eyelash of
+running amuck, and the quivering hunger for action was still swelling
+and ebbing in him when he reached the gambler's house.</p>
+
+<p>Lebrun was not in the gaming house, no doubt, at this time of night&mdash;but
+the rest of Nick's chosen men were there. They stood up as he entered
+the room&mdash;Harry Masters, newly arrived&mdash;the Pedlar&mdash;Joe Rix&mdash;three names
+famous in the mountain desert for deeds which were not altogether a
+pleasant aroma in the nostrils of the law-abiding, but whose sins had
+been deftly covered from legal proof by the cunning of Nick, and whose
+bravery itself had half redeemed them. They rose now as three wolves
+rise at the coming of the leader. But this time there was a question
+behind their eyes, and he read it in gloomy silence.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well?&quot; asked Harry Masters.</p>
+
+<p>In the old days not one of them would have dared to voice the question,
+but now things were changing, and well Lord Nick could read the change
+and its causes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you talking to me?&quot; asked Nick, and he looked straight between the
+eyes of Masters.</p>
+
+<p>The glance of the other did not falter, and it maddened Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm talking to you,&quot; said Masters coolly enough. &quot;What happened between
+you and Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What should happen?&quot; asked Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe all this is a joke,&quot; said Masters bitterly. He was a square-built
+man, with a square face and a wrinkled, fleshy forehead. In
+intelligence, Nick ranked him first among the men. And if a new leader
+were to be chosen there was no doubt as to where the choice of the men
+would fall. No doubt that was why Masters put himself forward now, ready
+to brave the wrath of the chief. &quot;Maybe we're fooled,&quot; went on Masters.
+&quot;Maybe they ain't any call for you to fall out with Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe there's a call to find out this,&quot; answered Lord Nick. &quot;Why did
+you leave the mines? What are you doing up here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The other swallowed so hard that he blinked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I left the mines,&quot; he declared through his set teeth, &quot;because I was
+run off 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah,&quot; said Lord Nick, for the devil was rising in him, &quot;I always had an
+idea that you might be yellow, Masters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The right hand of Masters swayed toward his gun, hesitated, and then
+poised idly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You heard me talk?&quot; persisted Lord Nick brutally. &quot;I call you yellow.
+Why don't you draw on me? I called you yellow, you swine, and I call the
+rest of you yellow. You think you have me down? Why, curse you, if there
+were thirty of your cut, I'd say the same to you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a quick shift, the three men faced Lord Nick, but each from a
+different angle. And opposing them, he stood superbly indifferent, his
+arms folded, his feet braced. His arms were folded, but each hand, for
+all they knew, might be grasping the butt of a gun hidden away in his
+clothes. Once they flashed a glance from face to face; but there was no
+action. They were remembering only too well some of the wild deeds of
+this giant.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You think I'm through,&quot; went on Lord Nick. &quot;Maybe I am&mdash;through with
+you. You hear me talk?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>One by one, his eyes dared them, and one by one they took up the
+challenge, struggled, and lowered their glances. He was still their
+master and in that mute moment the three admitted it, the Pedlar last of
+all.</p>
+
+<p>Masters saw fit to fall back on the last remark.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've swallowed a lot from you, Nick,&quot; he said gravely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Maybe there'll be an end to what we take one of these days. But now
+I'll tell you how yellow I was. A couple of gents come to me and tell me
+I'm through at the mine. I told them they were crazy. They said old
+Colonel Macon had sent them down to take charge. I laughed at 'em. They
+went away and came back. Who with? With the sheriff. And he flashed a
+paper on me. It was all drawn up clean as a whistle. Trimmed up with a
+lot of 'whereases' and 'as hereinbefore mentioned' and such like things.
+But the sheriff just gimme a look and then he tells me what it's about.
+Jack Landis has signed over all the mines to the colonel and the
+colonel has taken possession.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As he stopped, a growl came from the others.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Lester is the man that has the complaint,&quot; said Lord Nick. &quot;Where do
+the rest of you figure in it? Lester had the mines; he lost 'em because
+he couldn't drop Landis with his gun. He'd never have had a smell of the
+gold if I hadn't come in. Who made Landis see light? I did! Who worked
+it so that every nickel that came out of the mines went through the
+fingers of Landis and came back to us? I did! But I'm through with you.
+You can hunt for yourselves now. I've kept you together to guard one
+another's backs. I've kept the law off your trail. You, Masters, you'd
+have swung for killing the McKay brothers. Who saved you? Who was it
+bribed the jury that tried you for the shooting up of Derbyville,
+Pedlar? Who took the marshal off your trail after you'd knifed Lefty
+Waller, Joe Rix? I've saved you all a dozen times. Now you whine at me.
+I'm through with you forever!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Stopping, he glared about him. His knuckles stung from the impact of the
+blow he had delivered in Milligan's place. He hungered to have one of
+these three stir a hand and get into action.</p>
+
+<p>And they knew it. All at once they crumbled and became clay in his
+hands.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Chief,&quot; said Joe Rix, the smoothest spoken of the lot, and one who was
+supposed to stand specially well with Lord Nick on account of his
+ability to bake beans, Spanish. &quot;Chief, you've said a whole pile. You're
+worth more'n the rest of us all rolled together. Sure. We know that.
+There ain't any argument. But here's just one little point that I want
+to make.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We was doing fine. The gold was running fine and free. Along comes this
+Donnegan. He busts up our good time. He forks in on your girl&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A convulsion of the chief's face made Rix waver in his speech and then
+he went on: &quot;He shoots Landis, and when he misses killing him&mdash;by some
+accident, he comes down here and grabs him out of Lebrun's own house.
+Smooth, eh? Then he makes Landis sign that deed to the mines. Oh, very
+nice work, I say. Too nice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;'Now, speakin' man to man, they ain't any doubt that you'd like to get
+rid of Donnegan. Why don't you? Because everybody has a jinx, and he's
+yours. I ain't easy scared, maybe, but I knew an albino with white eyes
+once, and just to look at him made me some sick. Well, chief, they ain't
+nobody can say that you ever took water or ever will. But maybe the fact
+that this Donnegan has hair just as plumb red as yours may sort of get
+you off your feed. I'm just suggesting. Now, what I say is, let the rest
+of us take a crack at Donnegan, and you sit back and come in on the
+results when we've cleaned up. D'you give us a free road?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>How much went through the brain of Lord Nick? But in the end he gave his
+brother up to death. For he remembered how Nelly Lebrun had sat in
+Milligan's laughing.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do what you want,&quot; he said suddenly. &quot;But I want to know none of your
+plans&mdash;and the man that tells me Donnegan is dead gets paid&mdash;in lead!&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="38"></a><h2>38</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The smile of Joe Rix was the smile of a diplomat. It could be maintained
+upon his face as unwaveringly as if it were wrought out of marble while
+Joe heard insult and lie. As a matter of fact Joe had smiled in the face
+of death more than once, and this is a school through which even
+diplomats rarely pass. Yet it was with an effort that he maintained the
+characteristic good-natured expression when the door to Donnegan's shack
+opened and he saw big George and, beyond him, Donnegan himself.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Booze,&quot; said Joe Rix to himself instantly.</p>
+
+<p>For Donnegan was a wreck. The unshaven beard&mdash;it was the middle of
+morning&mdash;was a reddish mist over his face. His eyes were sunken in
+shadow. His hair was uncombed. He sat with his shoulders hunched up like
+one who suffers from cold. Altogether his appearance was that of one
+whose energy has been utterly sapped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The top of the morning, Mr. Donnegan,&quot; said Joe Rix, and put his foot
+on the threshold.</p>
+
+<p>But since big George did not move it was impossible to enter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who's there?&quot; asked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>It was a strange question to ask, for by raising his eyes he could have
+seen. But Donnegan was staring down at the floor. Even his voice was a
+weak murmur.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What a party! What a party he's had!&quot; thought Joe Rix, and after all,
+there was cause for a celebration. Had not the little man in almost one
+stroke won the heart of the prettiest girl in The Corner, and also did
+he not probably have a working share in the richest of the diggings?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm Joe Rix,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix?&quot; murmured Donnegan softly. &quot;Then you're one of Lord Nick's
+men?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was,&quot; said Joe Rix, &quot;sort of attached to him, maybe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps this pointed remark won the interest of Donnegan. He raised his
+eyes, and Joe Rix beheld the most unhappy face he had ever seen. &quot;A bad
+hangover,&quot; he decided, &quot;and that makes it bad for me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come in,&quot; said Donnegan in the same monotonous, lifeless voice.</p>
+
+<p>Big George reluctantly, it seemed, withdrew to one side, and Rix was
+instantly in the room and drawing out a chair so that he could face
+Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I was,&quot; he proceeded &quot;sort of tied up with Lord Nick. But&quot;&mdash;and here he
+winked broadly&mdash;&quot;it ain't much of a secret that Nick ain't altogether a
+lord any more. Nope. Seems he turned out sort of common, they say.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What fool,&quot; murmured Donnegan, &quot;has told you that? What ass had told
+you that Lord Nick is a common sort?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It shocked Joe Rix, but being a diplomat he avoided friction by changing
+his tactics.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Between you and me,&quot; he said calmly enough, &quot;I took what I heard with a
+grain of salt. There's something about Nick that ain't common, no matter
+what they say. Besides, they's some men that nobody but a fool would
+stand up to. It ain't hardly a shame for a man to back down from 'em.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pointed this remark with a nod to Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll give you a bit of free information,&quot; said the little man, with his
+weary eyes lighted a little. &quot;There's no man on the face of the earth
+who could make Lord Nick back down.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more Joe Rix was shocked to the verge of gaping, but again he
+exercised a power of marvelous self control &quot;About that,&quot; he remarked
+as pointedly as before, &quot;I got my doubts. Because there's some things
+that any gent with sense will always clear away from. Maybe not one
+man&mdash;but say a bunch of all standin' together.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan leaned back in his chair and waited. Both of his hands remained
+drooping from the edge of the table, and the tired eyes drifted slowly
+across the face of Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>It was obviously not the aftereffects of liquor. The astonishing
+possibility occurred to Joe Rix that this seemed to be a man with a
+broken spirit and a great sorrow. He blinked that absurdity away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Coming to cases,&quot; he went on, &quot;there's yourself, Mr. Donnegan. Now,
+you're the sort of a man that don't sidestep nobody. Too proud to do it.
+But even you, I guess, would step careful if there was a whole bunch
+agin' you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No doubt,&quot; remarked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I don't mean any ordinary bunch,&quot; explained Joe Rix, &quot;but a lot of hard
+fellows. Gents that handle their guns like they was born with a holster
+on the hip.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Fellows like Nick's crowd,&quot; suggested Donnegan quietly.</p>
+
+<p>At this thrust the eyes of Joe narrowed a little.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes,&quot; he admitted, &quot;I see you get my drift.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Two hard fighters would give the best man that ever pulled a gun a lot
+of trouble. Eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No doubt.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And three men&mdash;they ain't any question, Mr. Donnegan&mdash;would get him
+ready for a hole in the ground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose so.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And four men would make it no fight&mdash;jest a plain butchery.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Now, I don't mean that Nick's crowd has any hard feeling about you, Mr.
+Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm glad to hear that.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I knew you'd be. That's why I've come, all friendly, to talk things
+over. Suppose you look at it this way&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix,&quot; broke in Donnegan, sighing, &quot;I'm very tired. Won't you cut
+this short? Tell me in ten words just how you stand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix blinked once more, caught his breath, and fired his volley.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Short talk is straight talk, mostly,&quot; he declared. &quot;This is what Lester
+and the rest of us want&mdash;the mines!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Macon stole 'em. We got 'em back through Landis. Now we've got to get
+'em back through the colonel himself. But we can't get at the colonel
+while you're around.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;In short, you're going to start out to get me? I expected it, but it's
+kind of you to warn me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait, wait, wait! Don't rush along to conclusions. We ain't so much in
+a hurry. We don't want you out of the way. We just want you on our
+side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Shoot me up and then bring me back to life, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Mr. Donnegan,&quot; said the other, spreading out his hands solemnly on the
+table, &quot;you ain't doin' us justice. We don't hanker none for trouble
+with you. Any way it comes, a fight with you means somebody dead besides
+you. We'd get you. Four to one is too much for any man. But one or two
+of us might go down. Who would it be? Maybe the Pedlar, maybe Harry
+Masters, maybe Lester, maybe me! Oh, we know all that. No gunplay if we
+can keep away from it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've left out the name of Lord Nick,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix winked.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Seems like you tended to him once and for all when you got him alone in
+this cabin. Must have thrown a mighty big scare into him. He won't lift
+a hand agin' you now.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No?&quot; murmured Donnegan hoarsely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not him! But that leaves four of us, and four is plenty, eh?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Perhaps.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I'm not here to insist on that point. No, we put a value on keepin'
+up good feeling between us and you, Mr. Donnegan. We ain't fools. We
+know a man when we see him&mdash;and the fastest gunman that ever slid a gun
+out of leather ain't the sort of a man that me and the rest of the boys
+pass over lightly. Not us! We know you, Mr. Donnegan; we respect you; we
+want you with us; we're going to have you with us.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You flatter me and I thank you. But I'm glad to see that you are at
+last coming to the point.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am, and the point is five thousand dollars that's tied behind the
+hoss that stands outside your door.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He pushed his fat hand a little way across the table, as though the gold
+even then were resting in it, a yellow tide of fortune.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For which,&quot; said Donnegan, &quot;I'm to step aside and let you at the
+colonel?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan smiled.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait,&quot; said Joe Rix. &quot;I was makin' a first offer to see how you stood,
+but you're right. Five thousand ain't enough and we ain't cheapskates.
+Not us. Mr. Donnegan, they's ten thousand cold iron men behind that
+saddle out there and every cent of it belongs to you when you come over
+on our side.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan merely dropped his chin upon his hand and smiled
+mirthlessly at Joe Rix. A wild thought came to the other man. Both of
+Donnegan's hands were far from his weapons. Why not a quick draw, a snap
+shot, and then the glory of having killed this manslayer in single
+battle for Joe Rix?</p>
+
+<p>The thought rushed red across his brain and then faded slowly. Something
+kept him back. Perhaps it was the singular calm of Donnegan; no matter
+how quiet he sat he suggested the sleeping cat which can leap out of
+dead sleep into fighting action at a touch. By the time a second thought
+had come to Joe Rix the idea of an attack was like an idea of suicide.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is that final?&quot; he asked, though Donnegan had not said a word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix stood up.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You put it to us kind of hard. But we want you, Mr. Donnegan. And
+here's the whole thing in a nutshell. Come over to us. We'll stand
+behind you. Lord Nick is slipping. We'll put you in his place. You won't
+even have to face him; we'll get rid of him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You'll kill him and give his place to me?&quot; asked Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We will. And when you're with us, you cut in on the whole amount of
+coin that the mines turn out&mdash;and it'll be something tidy. And right
+now, to show where we stand and how high we put you, I'll let you in on
+the rock-bottom truth. Mr. Donnegan. out there tied behind my saddle
+there's thirty thousand dollars in pure gold. You can take it in here
+and weigh it out!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He stepped back to watch this blow take effect. To his unutterable
+astonishment the little man had not moved. His chin still rested upon
+the back of his hand, and the smile which was on the lips and not in the
+eyes of Donnegan remained there, fixed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan,&quot; muttered Joe Rix, &quot;if we can't get you, we'll get rid of
+you. You understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the other continued to smile.</p>
+
+<p>It gave Joe Rix a shuddering feeling that someone was stealing behind
+him to block his way to the door. He cast one swift glance over his
+shoulder and then, seeing that the way was clear, he slunk back, always
+keeping his face to the red-headed man. But when he came to the doorway
+his nerve collapsed. He whirled, covered the rest of the distance with a
+leap, and emerged from the cabin in a fashion ludicrously like one who
+has been kicked through a door.</p>
+
+<p>His nerve returned as soon as the sunlight fell warmly upon him again;
+and he looked around hastily to see if anyone had observed his flight.</p>
+
+<p>There was no one on the whole hillside except Colonel Macon in the
+invalid chair, and the colonel was smiling broadly, beneficently. He had
+his perfect hands folded across his breast and seemed to cast a prayer
+of peace and goodwill upon Joe Rix.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="39"></a><h2>39</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>Nelly Lebrun smelled danger. She sensed it as plainly as the deer when
+the puma comes between her and the wind. The many tokens that something
+was wrong came to her by small hints which had to be put together before
+they assumed any importance.</p>
+
+<p>First of all, her father, who should have burst out at her in a tirade
+for having left Lord Nick for Donnegan said nothing at all, but kept a
+dark smile on his face when she was near him. He even insinuated that
+Nick's time was done and that another was due to supersede him.</p>
+
+<p>In the second place, she had passed into a room where Masters, Joe Rix,
+and the Pedlar sat cheek by jowl in close conference with a hum of deep
+voice. But at her appearance all talk was broken off.</p>
+
+<p>It was not strange that they should not invite her into their confidence
+if they had some dark work ahead of them; but it was exceedingly
+suspicious that Joe Rix attempted to pass off their whispers by
+immediately breaking off the soft talk and springing into the midst of a
+full-fledged jest; also, it was strangest of all that when the jest
+ended even the Pedlar, who rarely smiled, now laughed uproariously and
+smote Joe soundingly upon the back.</p>
+
+<p>Even a child could have strung these incidents into a chain of evidence
+which pointed toward danger. Obviously the danger was not directly hers,
+but then it must be directed at some one near to her. Her father? No, he
+was more apt to be the mainspring of their action. Lord Nick? There was
+nothing to gain by attacking him. Who was left? Donnegan!</p>
+
+<p>As the realization came upon her it took her breath away for a moment.
+Donnegan was the man. At breakfast everyone had been talking about him.
+Lebrun had remarked that he had a face for the cards&mdash;emotionless. Joe
+Rix had commented upon his speed of hand, and the Pedlar had
+complimented the little man on his dress.</p>
+
+<p>But at lunch not a word was spoken about Donnegan even after she had
+dexterously introduced the subject twice. Why the sudden silence?
+Between morning and noon Donnegan must have grievously offended them.</p>
+
+<p>Fear for his sake stimulated her; but above and beyond this, indeed,
+there was a mighty feminine curiosity. She smelled the secret; it reeked
+through the house, and she was devoured by eagerness to know. She
+handpicked Lord Nick's gang in the hope of finding a weakness among
+them; some weakness upon which she could play in one of them and draw
+out what they were all concealing. The Pedlar was as unapproachable as a
+crag on a mountaintop. Masters was wise as an outlaw broncho. Lester was
+probably not even in the confidence of the others because since the
+affair with Landis his nerve had been shattered to bits and the others
+secretly despised him for being beaten by the youngster at the draw.
+There remained, therefore, only Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>But Joe Rix was a fox of the first quality. He lied with the smoothness
+of silk. He could show a dozen colors in as many moments. Come to the
+windward of Joe Rix? It was a delicate business! But since there was
+nothing else to do, she fixed her mind upon it, working out this puzzle.
+Joe Rix wished to destroy Donnegan for reasons that were evidently
+connected with the mines. And she must step into his confidence to
+discover his plans. How should it be done? And there was a vital need
+for speed, for they might be within a step of executing whatever
+mischief it was that they were planning.</p>
+
+<p>She went down from her room; they were there still, only Joe Rix was
+not with them. She went to the apartment where he and the other three of
+Nick's gang slept and rapped at the door. He maintained his smile when
+he saw her, but there was an uncertain quiver of his eyebrows that told
+her much. Plainly he was ill at ease. Suspicious? Ay, there were always
+clouds of suspicion drifting over the red, round face of Joe Rix. She
+put a tremor of excitement and trouble in her voice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come into my room, Joe, where we won't be interrupted.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He followed her without a word, and since she led the way she was able
+to relax her expression for a necessary moment. When she closed the door
+behind him and faced Joe again she was once more ready to step into her
+part. She did not ask him to sit down. She remained for a moment with
+her hand on the knob and searched the face of Joe Rix eagerly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think he can hear?&quot; she whispered, gesturing over her shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who but Lord Nick!&quot; she exclaimed softly.</p>
+
+<p>The bewilderment of Joe clouded his face a second and then he was able
+to smooth it away. What on earth was the reason of her concern about
+Lord Nick he was obviously wondering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll tell you why,&quot; she said, answering the unspoken question at once.
+&quot;He's as jealous as the devil, Joe!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fat little man sighed as he looked at her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He can't hear. Not through that log wall. But we'll talk soft, if you
+want.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, yes. Keep your voice down. He's already jealous of you, Joe.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He knows I like you, that I trust you; and just now he's on edge about
+everyone I look at.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The surprising news which the first part of this sentence contained
+caused Joe to gape, and the girl looked away in concern, enabling him to
+control his expression. For she knew well enough that men hate to appear
+foolishly surprised. And particularly a fox like Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But what's the trouble, Nelly?&quot; He added with a touch of venom: &quot;I
+thought everything was going smoothly with you. And I thought you
+weren't worrying much about what Lord Nick had in his mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She stared at him as though astonished.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you think just the same as the rest of them?&quot; she asked sadly. &quot;Do
+you mean to say that you're fooled just the same as Harry Masters and
+the Pedlar and the rest of those fools&mdash;including Nick himself?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix was by no means willing to declare himself a fool beforehand. He
+now mustered a look of much reserved wisdom.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have my own doubts, Nell, but I'm not talking about them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was so utterly at sea that she had to bite her lip hard to keep from
+breaking into ringing laughter.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Oh, I knew that you'd seen through it, Joe,&quot; she cried softly. &quot;You see
+what an awful mess I've gotten into?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He passed a hurried hand across his forehead and then looked at her
+searchingly. But he could not penetrate her pretense of concern.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No matter what I think,&quot; said Joe Rix, &quot;you come out with it frankly.
+I'll listen.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;As a friend, Joe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She managed to throw a plea into her voice that made Joe sigh.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Sure. You've already said that I'm your friend, and you're right.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm in terrible, terrible trouble! You know how it happened. I was a
+fool. I tried to play with Lord Nick. And now he thinks I was in
+earnest.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>As though the strength of his legs had given way, Joe Rix slipped down
+into a chair.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go on,&quot; he said huskily. &quot;You were playing with Lord Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Can't you put yourself in my place, Joe? It's always been taken for
+granted that I'm to marry Nick. And the moment he comes around everybody
+else avoids me as if I were poison. I was sick of it. And when he showed
+up this time it was the same old story. A man would as soon sign his own
+death warrant as ask me for a dance. You know how it is?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He nodded, still at sea, but with a light beginning to dawn in his
+little eyes.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'm only a girl, Joe. I have all the weakness of other girls. I don't
+want to be locked up in a cage just because I&mdash;love one man!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The avowal made Joe blink. It was the second time that day that he had
+been placed in an astonishing scene. But some of his old cunning
+remained to him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nell,&quot; he said suddenly, rising from his chair and going to her. &quot;What
+are you trying to do to me? Pull the wool over my eyes?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was too much for Nelly Lebrun. She knew that she could not face him
+without betraying her guilt and therefore she did not attempt it. She
+whirled and flung herself on her bed, face down, and began to sob
+violently, suppressing the sounds. And so she waited.</p>
+
+<p>Presently a hand touched her shoulder lightly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Go away,&quot; cried Nelly in a choked voice. &quot;I hate you, Joe Rix. You're
+like all the rest!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His knee struck the floor with a soft thud.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Come on, Nell. Don't be hard on me. I thought you were stringing me a
+little. But if you're playing straight, tell me what you want?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At that she bounced upright on the bed, and before he could rise she
+caught him by both shoulders.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want Donnegan,&quot; she said fiercely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I want him dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Joe Rix gasped.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's the cause of all my trouble. Just because I flirted with him
+once or twice, Nick thought I was in earnest and now he's sulking. And
+Donnegan puts on airs and acts as if I belonged to him. I hate him, Joe.
+And if he's gone Nick will come back to me. He'll come back to me, Joe;
+and I want him so!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She found that Joe Rix was staring straight into her eyes, striving to
+probe her soul to its depths, and by a great effort she was enabled to
+meet that gaze. Finally the fat little man rose slowly to his feet. Her
+hands trailed from his shoulders as he stood up and fell helplessly upon
+her lap.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Well, I'll be hanged, Nell!&quot; exclaimed Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What do you mean?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're not acting a part? No, I can see you mean it. But what a
+cold-blooded little&mdash;&quot; He checked himself. His face was suddenly
+jubilant. &quot;Then we've got him, Nell. We've got him if you're with us. We
+had him anyway, but we'll make sure of him if you're with us. Look at
+this! You saw me put a paper in my pocket when I opened the door of my
+room? Here it is!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He displayed before the astonished eyes of Nelly Lebrun a paper covered
+with an exact duplicate of her own swift, dainty script. And she read:</p>
+
+<center>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Nick is terribly angry and is making trouble. I have to get away.</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">It isn't safe for me to stay here. Will you help me?</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">Will you meet me at the shack by Donnell's ford</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">tomorrow morning at ten o'clock?</span><br>
+</center>
+
+<p>&quot;But I didn't write it,&quot; cried Nelly Lebrun, bewildered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nelly,&quot; Joe Rix chuckled, flushing with pleasure, &quot;you didn't. It was
+me. I kind of had an idea that you wanted to get rid of this Donnegan,
+and I was going to do it for you and then surprise you with the good
+news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe, you forged it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't bother sayin' pretty things about me and my pen,&quot; said Rix
+modestly. &quot;This is nothin'! But if you want to help me, Nelly&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>His voice faded partly out of her consciousness as she fought against a
+tigerish desire to spring at the throat of the little fat man. But
+gradually it dawned on her that he was asking her to write out that note
+herself. Why? Because it was possible that Donnegan might have seen her
+handwriting and in that case, though the imitation had been good enough
+to deceive Nelly herself, it probably would not for a moment fool the
+keen eyes of Donnegan. But if she herself wrote out the note, Donnegan
+was already as good as dead.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is,&quot; concluded Joe Rix, &quot;if he really loves you, Nell.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The fool!&quot; cried Nelly. &quot;He worships the ground I walk on, Joe. And I
+hate him for it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Even Joe Rix shivered, for he saw the hate in her eyes and could not
+dream that he himself was the cause and the object of it. There was a
+red haze of horror and confusion in front of her eyes, and yet she was
+able to smile while she copied the note for Joe Rix.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But how are you going to work it?&quot; she asked. &quot;How are you going to
+kill him, Joe?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't bother your pretty head,&quot; said the fat man, smiling. &quot;Just wait
+till we bring you the good news.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But are you sure?&quot; she asked eagerly. &quot;See what he's done already. He's
+taken Landis away from us; he's baffled Nick himself, in some manner;
+and he's gathered the mines away from all of us. He's a devil, Joe, and
+if you want to get him you'd better take ten men for the job.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You hate him, Nell, don't you?&quot; queried Joe Rix, and his voice was both
+hard and curious. &quot;But how has he harmed you?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hasn't he taken Nick away from me? Isn't that enough?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The fat man shivered again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;All right. I'll tell you how it works. Now, listen!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And he began to check off the details of his plan.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="40"></a><h2>40</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>The day passed and the night, but how very slowly for Nelly Lebrun; she
+went up to her room early for she could no longer bear the meaning
+glances which Joe Rix cast at her from time to time. But once in her
+room it was still harder to bear the suspense as she waited for the
+noise to die away in the house. Midnight, and half an hour more went by,
+and then, at last, the murmurs and the laughter stopped; she alone was
+wakeful in Lebrun's. And when that time came she caught a scarf around
+her hair and her shoulders, made of a filmy material which would veil
+her face but through which she could see, and ventured out of her room
+and down the hall.</p>
+
+<p>There was no particular need for such caution, however, it seemed.
+Nothing stirred. And presently she was outside the house and hurrying
+behind the houses and up the hill. Still she met nothing. If The Corner
+lived tonight, its life was confined to Milligan's and the gambling
+house.</p>
+
+<p>She found Donnegan's shack and the one next to it, which the terrible
+colonel occupied, entirely dark, but only a moment after she tapped at
+the door it was opened. Donnegan, fully dressed, stood in the entrance,
+outlined blackly by the light which came faintly from the hooded lantern
+hanging on the wall. Was he sitting up all the night, unable to sleep
+because he waited breathlessly for that false tryst on the morrow? A
+great tenderness came over the heart of Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It is I,&quot; she whispered.</p>
+
+<p>There was a soft exclamation, then she was drawn into the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is there anyone here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Only big George. But he's in the kitchen and he won't hear. He never
+hears anything except what's meant for his ear. Take this chair!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was putting a blanket over the rough wood to make it more
+comfortable, and she submitted dumbly to his ministrations. It seemed
+terrible and strange to her that one so gentle should be the object of
+so much hate&mdash;such deadly hate as the members of Nick's gang felt for
+him. And now that he was sitting before her she could see that he had
+indeed been wakeful for a long time. His face was grimly wasted; the
+lips were compressed as one who has endured long pain; and his eyes
+gleamed at her out of a profound shadow. He remained in the gloom; the
+light from the lantern fell brightly upon his hands alone&mdash;meager,
+fleshless hands which seemed to represent hardly more strength than that
+of a child. Truly this man was all a creature of spirit and nerve.
+Therein lay his strength, as also his weakness, and again the cherishing
+instinct grew strong and swept over her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;There is no one near,&quot; he said, &quot;except the colonel and his daughter.
+They are up the hillside, somewhere. Did you see them?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. What in the world are they out for at this time of night?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Because the colonel only wakes up when the sun goes down. And now he's
+out there humming to himself and never speaking a word to the girl. But
+they won't be far away. They'll stay close to see that no one comes near
+the cabin to get at Landis.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He added: &quot;They must have seen you come into my cabin!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And his lips set even harder than before. Was it fear because of her?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They may have seen me enter, but they won't know who it was. You have
+the note from me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's a lie! It's a ruse. I was forced to write it to save you! For
+they're planning to murder you. Oh, my dear!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Hush! Hush! Murder?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've been nearly hysterical all day and all the night. But. thank
+heaven, I'm here to warn you in time! You mustn't go. You mustn't go!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who is it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He had drawn his chair closer: he had taken her hands, and she noted
+that his own were icy cold, but steady as a rock. Their pressure soothed
+her infinitely.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Joe Rix, the Pedlar, Harry Masters. They'll be at the shack at ten
+o'clock, but not I!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Murder, but a very clumsy scheme. Three men leave town and commit a
+murder and then expect to go undetected? Not even in the mountain
+desert!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But you don't understand, you don't understand! They're wise as foxes.
+They'll take no risk. They don't even leave town together or travel by
+the same routes. Harry Masters starts first. He rides out at eight
+o'clock in the morning and takes the north trail. He rides down the
+gulch and winds out of it and strikes for the shack at the ford. At half
+past eight the Pedlar starts. He goes past Sandy's place and then over
+the trail through the marsh. You know it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Last of all, Joe Rix starts at nine o'clock. Half an hour between
+them.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;How does he go to the shack?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;By the south trail. He takes the ridge of the hills. But they'll all be
+at the shack long before you and they'll shoot you down from a distance
+as you come up to it. Plain murder, but even for cowardly murder they
+daren't face you except three to one.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He was thoughtful.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Suppose they were to be met on the way?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're mad to think of it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But if they fail this time they'll try again. They must be taught a
+lesson.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Three men? Oh, my dear, my dear! Promise!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Very well. I shall do nothing rash. And I shall never forget that
+you've come to tell me this and been in peril, Nell, for if they found
+you had come to me&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The Pedlar would cut my throat. I know him!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah! But now you must go. I'll take you down the hill, dear.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no! It's much easier to get back alone. My face will be covered.
+But there's no way you could be disguised. You have a way of
+walking&mdash;good night&mdash;and God bless you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was in his arms, straining him to her; and then she slipped out the
+door.</p>
+
+<p>And sure enough, there was the colonel in his chair not fifty feet away
+with a girl pushing him. The moonlight was too dim for Nelly Lebrun to
+make out the face of Lou Macon, but even the light which escaped through
+the filter of clouds was enough to set her golden hair glowing. The
+color was not apparent, but its luster was soft silver in the night.
+There was a murmur of the colonel's voice as Nelly came out of the
+cabin.</p>
+
+<p>And then, from the girl, a low cry.</p>
+
+<p>It brought the blood to the cheeks of Nelly as she hurried down the
+hill, for she recognized the pain that was in it; and it occurred to her
+that if the girl was in love with Jack Landis she was strangely
+interested in Donnegan also.</p>
+
+<p>The thought came so sharply home to her that she paused abruptly on the
+way down the hill. After all, this Macon girl would be a very strange
+sort if she were not impressed by the little red-headed man, with his
+gentle voice and his fiery ways, and his easy way of making himself a
+brilliant spectacle whenever he appeared in public. And Nelly
+remembered, also, with the keen suspicion of a woman in love how weakly
+Donnegan had responded to her embrace this night. How absent-mindedly
+his arms had held her, and how numbly they had fallen away when she
+turned at the door.</p>
+
+<p>But she shook her head and made the suspicion shudder its way out of
+her. Lou Macon, she decided, was just the sort of girl who would think
+Jack Landis an ideal. Besides, she had never had an opportunity to see
+Donnegan in his full glory at Milligan's. And as for Donnegan? He was
+wearied out; his nerves relaxed; and for the deeds with which he had
+startled The Corner and won her own heart he was now paying the penalty
+in the shape of ruined nerves. Pity again swelled in her heart, and a
+consuming hatred for the three murderers who lived in her father's
+house.</p>
+
+<p>And when she reached her room again her heart was filled with a singing
+happiness and a glorious knowledge that she had saved the man she loved.</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan himself?</p>
+
+<p>He had seen Lou and her father: he had heard that low cry of pain; and
+now he sat bowed again over his table, his face in his hands and a
+raging devil in his heart.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="41"></a><h2>41</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>There was one complication which Nelly Lebrun might have foreseen after
+her pretended change of heart and her simulated confession to Joe Rix
+that she still loved the lionlike Lord Nick. But strangely enough she
+did not think of this phase: and even when her father the next morning
+approached her in the hall and tapping her arm whispered: &quot;Good girl!
+Nick has just heard and he's hunting for you now!&quot; Even then the full
+meaning did not come home to her. It was not until she saw the great
+form of Lord Nick stalking swiftly down the hall that she knew. He came
+with a glory in his face which the last day had graven with unfamiliar
+lines; and when he saw her he threw up his hand so that it almost
+brushed the ceiling, and cried out.</p>
+
+<p>What could she do? Try to push him away; to explain?</p>
+
+<p>There was nothing to be done. She had to submit when he swept her into
+his arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Rix has told me. Rix has told me. Ah, Nell, you little fox!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Told you what, Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Was he, too, a party to the murderous plan?</p>
+
+<p>But he allowed himself to be pushed away.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've gone through something in the last few days. Why did you do it,
+girl?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She saw suddenly that she must continue to play her part.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Some day I'll tell you why it was that I gave you up so easily, Nell.
+You thought I was afraid of Donnegan?&quot; He ground his teeth and turned
+pale at the thought. &quot;But that wasn't it. Some day I can tell you. But
+after this, the first man who comes between us&mdash;Donnegan or any
+other&mdash;I'll turn him into powder&mdash;under my heel!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He ground it into the floor as he spoke. She decided that she would see
+how much he knew.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It will never be Donnegan, at least,&quot; she said. &quot;He's done for today.
+And I'm almost sorry for him in spite of all that he's done.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He became suddenly grave.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you saying, Nell?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Why, Joe told you, didn't he? They've drawn Donnegan out of town, and
+now they're lying in wait for him. Yes, they must have him, by this
+time. It's ten o'clock!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>A strangely tense exclamation broke from Lord Nick. &quot;They've gone for
+Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. Are you angry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>The big man staggered; one would have said that he had been stunned with
+a blow.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Garry!&quot; he whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you saying?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nell,&quot; he muttered hoarsely, &quot;did you know about it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I did it for you, Nick. I knew you hated&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no! Don't say it!&quot; He added bitterly, after a moment. &quot;This is for
+my sins.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And then, to her: &quot;But you knew about it and didn't warn him? You hated
+him all the time you were laughing with him and smiling at him? Oh,
+Nell! What a merciless witch of a woman you are! For the rest of
+them&mdash;I'll wait till they come back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What are you going to do, Nick?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I told them I'd pay the man who killed Donnegan&mdash;with lead. Did the
+fools think I didn't mean it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Truly, no matter what shadow had passed over the big man, he was the
+lion again, and Nell shrank from him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We'll wait for them,&quot; he said. &quot;We'll wait for them here.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And they sat down together in the room. She attempted to speak once in a
+shaken voice, but he silenced her with a gesture, and after that she sat
+and watched in quiet the singular play of varying expressions across his
+face. Grief, rage, tenderness, murderous hate&mdash;they followed like a
+puppet play.</p>
+
+<p>What was Donnegan to him? And then there was a tremor of fear. Would the
+three suspect when they reached the shack by the ford and no Donnegan
+came to them? The moments stole on. Then the soft beat of a galloping
+horse in the sand. The horse stopped. Presently they saw Joe Rix and
+Harry Masters pass in front of the window. And they looked as though a
+cyclone had caught them up, juggled them a dizzy distance in the air,
+and then flung them down carelessly upon bruising rocks. Their hats were
+gone; and the clothes of burly Harry Masters were literally torn from
+his back. Joe Rix was evidently far more terribly hurt, for he leaned on
+the arm of Masters and they came on together, staggering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;They've done the business!&quot; exclaimed Lord Nick. &quot;And now, curse them,
+I'll do theirs!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But the girl could not speak. A black haze crossed before her eyes. Had
+Donnegan gone out madly to fight the three men in spite of her warning?</p>
+
+<p>The door opened. They stood in the doorway, and if they had seemed a
+horrible sight passing the window, they were a deadly picture at close
+range. And opposite them stood Lord Nick; in spite of their wounds there
+was murder in his face and his revolver was out.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've met him? You've met Donnegan?&quot; he asked angrily.</p>
+
+<p>Masters literally carried Joe Rix to a chair and placed him in it. He
+had been shot through both shoulders, and though tight bandages had
+stanched the wound he was still in agony. Then Masters raised his head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've met him,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What happened?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Masters, in spite of the naked gun in the hand of Lord Nick, was
+looking straight at Nelly Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We fought him.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then say your prayers, Masters.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Say prayers for the Pedlar, you fool,&quot; said Masters bitterly. &quot;He's
+dead, and Donnegan's still living!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>There was a faint cry from Nelly Lebrun. She sank into her chair again.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;We've been double-crossed,&quot; said Masters, still looking at the girl. &quot;I
+was going down the gulch the way we planned. I come to the narrow place
+where the cliffs almost touch, and right off the wall above me drops a
+wildcat. I thought it was a cat at first. And then I found it was
+Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The way he hit me from above knocked me off the horse. Then we hit the
+ground. I started for my gun; he got it out of my hand; I pulled my
+knife. He got that away, too. His fingers work with steel springs and
+act like a cat's claws. Then we fought barehanded. He didn't say a word.
+But kept snarling in his throat. Always like a cat. And his face was
+devilish. Made me sick inside. Pretty soon he dived under my arms. Got
+me up in the air. I came down on my head.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Of course I went out cold. When I came to there was still a mist in
+front of my eyes and this lump on the back of my head. He'd figured that
+my head was cracked and that I was dead. That's the only reason he left
+me. Later I climbed on my hoss and fed him the spur.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I was too late. I took the straight cut for the ford, and when I
+got there I found that Donnegan had been there before me. Joe Rix was
+lyin' on the floor. When he got to the shack Donnegan was waitin' for
+him. They went for their guns and Donnegan beat him to it. The hound
+didn't shoot to kill. He plugged him through both shoulders, and left
+him lyin' helpless. But I got a couple of bandages on him and saved him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then we cut back for home and crossed the marsh. And there we found the
+Pedlar.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Too late to help him. Maybe Donnegan knew that the Pedlar was something
+of a flash with a gun himself, and he didn't take any chances. He'd met
+him face to face the same way he met Joe Rix and killed him. Shot him
+clean between the eyes. Think of shooting for the head with a snap shot!
+That's what he done and Joe didn't have time to think twice after that
+slug hit him. His gun wasn't even fired, he was beat so bad on the draw.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;So Joe and me come back home. And we come full of questions!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Let me tell you something,&quot; muttered Lord Nick, putting up the weapon
+which he had kept exposed during all of the recital. &quot;You've got what
+was coming to you. If Donnegan hadn't cleaned up on you, you'd have had
+to talk turkey with me. Understand?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait a minute,&quot; protested Harry Masters.</p>
+
+<p>And Joe Rix, almost too far gone for speech, set his teeth over a groan
+and cast a look of hatred at the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait a minute, chief. There's one thing we all got to get straight.
+Somebody had tipped off Donnegan about our whole plan. Was it the Pedlar
+or Rix or me? I guess good sense'll tell a man that it wasn't none of
+us, eh? Then who was it? The only other person that knew about the
+plan&mdash;Nell&mdash;Nell, the crooked witch&mdash;and it's her that murdered the
+Pedlar&mdash;curse her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He thrust out his bulky arm as he spoke.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Her that lied her way into our confidence with a lot of talk about you,
+Nick. Then what did she do? She goes runnin' to the gent that she said
+she hated. Don't you see her play? She makes fools of us&mdash;she makes a
+fool out of you!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She dared not meet the glance of Lord Nick. Even now she might have
+acted out her part and filled in with lies, but she was totally
+unnerved.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Get Rix to bed,&quot; was all he said, and he did not even glance at Nelly
+Lebrun.</p>
+
+<p>Masters glowered at him, and then silently obeyed, lifting Joe as a
+helpless bulk, for the fat man was nearly fainting with pain. Not until
+they had gone and he had closed the door after them and upon the murmurs
+of the servants in the hall did Lord Nick turn to Nelly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it true?&quot; he asked shortly.</p>
+
+<p>Between relief and terror her mind was whirling.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is what true?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You haven't even sense enough to lie, Nell, eh? It's all true, then?
+And last night, after you'd wormed it out of Joe, you went to Donnegan?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She could only stare miserably at him.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And that was why you pushed me away when I kissed you a little while
+ago?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Once more she was dumb. But she was beginning to be afraid. Not for
+herself, but for Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Nell, I told you I'd never let another man come between us again. I
+meant it. I know you're treacherous now; but that doesn't keep me from
+wanting you. It's Donnegan again&mdash;Donnegan still? Nell, you've killed
+him. As sure as if your own finger pulled the trigger when I shoot him.
+He's a dead one, and you've done it!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>If words would only come! But her throat was stiff and cold and aching.
+She could not speak.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You've done more than kill him,&quot; said Lord Nick. &quot;You've put a curse on
+me as well. And afterward I'm going to even up with you. You hear me?
+Nell, when I shoot Donnegan I'm doing a thing worse than if he was a
+girl&mdash;or a baby. You can't understand that; I don't want you to know.
+But some time when you're happy again and you're through grieving for
+Donnegan, I'll tell you the truth and make your heart black for the rest
+of your life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Still words would not come. She strove to cling to him and stop him, but
+he cast her away with a single gesture and strode out the door.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="42"></a><h2>42</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>There was no crowd to block the hill at this second meeting of Donnegan
+and Lord Nick. There was a blank stretch of brown hillside with the wind
+whispering stealthily through the dead grass when Lord Nick thrust open
+the door of Donnegan's shack and entered.</p>
+
+<p>The little man had just finished shaving and was getting back into his
+coat while George carried out the basin of water. And Donnegan, as he
+buttoned the coat, was nodding slightly to the rhythm of a song which
+came from the cabin of the colonel near by. It was a clear, high music,
+and though the voice was light it carried the sound far. Donnegan looked
+up to Lord Nick; but still he kept the beat of the music.</p>
+
+<p>He seemed even more fragile this morning than ever before. Yet Lord Nick
+was fresh from the sight of the torn bodies of the two fighting men whom
+this fellow had struck and left for dead, or dying, as he thought.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Dismiss your servant,&quot; said Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;George, you may go out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;And keep him out.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Don't come back until I call for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Big George disappeared into the kitchen and the outside door was closed.
+Yet even with all the doors closed the singing of Lou Macon kept running
+through the cabin in a sweet and continuous thread.</p>
+
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">What made the ball so fine?</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1.5em;">Robin Adair!</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 0.5em;">What made the assembly shine?</span><br>
+<span style="layout-flow: horizontal; margin-left: 1.5em;">Robin Adair!</span><br>
+
+<p>And no matter what Lord Nick could say, it seemed that with half his
+mind Donnegan was listening to the song of the girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;First,&quot; said the big man, &quot;I've broken my word.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan waved his hand and dismissed the charge. He pointed to a chair,
+but Lord Nick paid no heed.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I've broken my word,&quot; he went on. &quot;I promised that I'd give you a clear
+road to win over Nelly Lebrun. I gave you the road and you've won her,
+but now I'm taking her back!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah, Henry,&quot; said Donnegan, and a flash of eagerness came in his eyes.
+&quot;You're a thousand times welcome to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick quivered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you mean it?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, don't you see that I was only playing for a purpose all the
+time? And if you've opened the eyes of Nelly to the fact that you truly
+love her and I've been only acting out of a heartless sham&mdash;why, I'm
+glad of it&mdash;I rejoice, Henry, I swear I do!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He came forward, smiling, and held out his hand; Lord Nick struck it
+down, and Donnegan shrank back, holding his wrist tight in the fingers
+of his other hand.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Is it possible?&quot; murmured Henry Reardon. &quot;Is it possible that she loves
+a man who despises her?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Not that! If any other man said this to me, I'd call for an explanation
+of his meaning, Henry. No, no! I honor and respect her, I tell you. By
+heaven, Nick, she has a thread of pure, generous gold in her nature!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Ah?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;She has saved my life no longer ago than this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's perfect,&quot; said Lord Nick. And he writhed under a torment. &quot;I am
+discarded for the sake of a man who despises her!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, frowning with thought, watched his older brother. And still
+the thin singing entered the room, that matchless old melody of &quot;Robin
+Adair;&quot; the day shall never come when that song does not go straight
+from heart to heart. But because Donnegan still listened to it, Lord
+Nick felt that he was contemptuously received, and a fresh spur was
+driven into his tender pride.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot; he said sharply.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan raised his hand slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Do you call me by that name?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye. You've ceased to be a brother. There's no blood tie between us
+now, as I warned you before.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan, very white, moved back toward the wall and rested his
+shoulders lightly against it, as though he needed the support. He made
+no answer.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I warned you not to cross me again.&quot; exclaimed Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have not.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan, you've murdered my men!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Murder? I've met them fairly. Not murder, Henry.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Leave out that name, I say!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you wish,&quot; said Donnegan very faintly.</p>
+
+<p>The sight of his resistlessness seemed to madden Lord Nick. He made one
+of his huge strides and came to the center of the room and dominated all
+that was in it, including his brother.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You murdered my men,&quot; repeated Lord Nick. &quot;You turned my girl against
+me with your lying love-making and turned her into a spy. You made her
+set the trap and then you saw that it was worked. You showed her how she
+could wind me around her finger again.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Will you let me speak?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye, but be short.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I swear to you, Henry, that I've never influenced her to act against
+you; except to win her away for just one little time, and she will
+return to you again. It is only a fancy that makes her interested in me.
+Look at us! How could any woman in her senses prefer me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you done?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no! I have more to say: I have a thousand things!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not hear them&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, there is a black devil in your face. Beware of it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Who put it there?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It was not I.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What power then?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Something over which I have no control.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Are you trying to mystify me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Listen!&quot; And as Donnegan raised his hand, the singing poured clear and
+small into the room.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That is the power,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're talking gibberish'&quot; exclaimed the other pettishly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I suppose I shouldn't expect you to understand.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;On the other hand, what I have to say is short and to the point. A
+child could comprehend it. You've stolen the girl. I tried to let her
+go. I can't. I have to have her. Willing or unwilling she has to belong
+to me, Donnegan.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If you wish, I shall promise that I shall never see her again or speak
+to her.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fool' Won't she find you out? Do you think I could trust you? Only
+in one place&mdash;underground.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan had clasped his hands upon his breast and his eyes were wide.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;What is it you mean, Henry?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll trust you&mdash;dead!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;That name means nothing to me I've forgotten it. The worlds has
+forgotten it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Henry, I implore you to keep cool&mdash;to give me five minutes for talk&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, not one. I know your cunning tongue!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;For the sake of the days when you loved me, my brother. For the sake of
+the days when you used to wheel my chair and be kind to me.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're wasting your time. You're torturing us both for nothing.
+Donnegan, my will is a rock. It won't change.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And drawing closer his right hand gripped his gun and the trembling
+passion of the gunfighter set him shuddering.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You're armed, Garry. Go for your gun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No, no!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then I'll give you cause to fight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And as he spoke, he drew back his massive arm and with his open hand
+smote Donnegan heavily across the face. The weight of that blow crushed
+the little man against the wall.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Your gun!&quot; cried Lord Nick, swaying from side to side as the passion
+choked him.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan fell upon his knees and raised his arms.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God have mercy on me, and on yourself!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>At that the blackness cleared slowly on the face of the big man; he
+thrust his revolver into the holster.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;This time,&quot; he said, &quot;there's no death. But sooner or later we meet,
+Donnegan, and then, I swear by all that lives, I'll shoot you
+down&mdash;without mercy&mdash;like a mad dog. You've robbed me; you've hounded
+me: you've killed my men: you've taken the heart of the woman I love.
+And now nothing can save you from the end.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He turned on his heel and left the room.</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan remained kneeling, holding a stained handkerchief to his
+face.</p>
+
+<p>All at once his strength seemed to desert him like a tree chopped at the
+root, and he wilted down against the wall with closed eyes.</p>
+
+<p>But the music still came out of the throat and the heart of Lou, and it
+entered the room and came into the ears of Donnegan. He became aware
+that there was a strength beyond himself which had sustained him, and
+then he knew it had been the singing of Lou from first to last which had
+kept the murder out of his own heart and restrained the hand of Lord
+Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Perhaps of all Donnegan's life, this was the first moment of true
+humility.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="43"></a><h2>43</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>One thing was now clear. He must not remain in The Corner unless he was
+prepared for Lord Nick again: and in a third meeting guns must be drawn.
+From that greater sin he shrank, and prepared to leave. His order to
+George made the big man's eyes widen, but George had long since passed
+the point where he cared to question the decision of his master. He
+began to build the packs.</p>
+
+<p>As for Donnegan, he could see that there was little to be won by
+remaining. That would save Landis to Lou Macon, to be sure, but after
+all, he was beginning to wonder if it were not better to let the big
+fellow go back to his own kind&mdash;Lebrun and the rest. For if it needed
+compulsion to keep him with Lou now, might it not be the same story
+hereafter?</p>
+
+<p>Indeed, Donnegan began to feel that all his labor in The Corner had been
+running on a treadmill. It had all been grouped about the main purpose,
+which was to keep Landis with the girl. To do that now he must be
+prepared to face Nick again; and to face Nick meant the bringing of the
+guilt of fratricide upon the head of one of them. There only remained
+flight. He saw at last that he had been fighting blindly from the
+first. He had won a girl whom he did not love&mdash;though doubtless her
+liking was only the most fickle fancy. And she for whom he would have
+died he had taught to hate him. It was a grim summing up. Donnegan
+walked the room whistling softly to himself as he checked up his
+accounts.</p>
+
+<p>One thing at least he had done; he had taken the joy out of his life
+forever.</p>
+
+<p>And here, answering a rap at the door, he opened it upon Lou Macon. She
+wore a dress of some very soft material. It was a pale blue&mdash;faded, no
+doubt&mdash;but the color blended exquisitely with her hair and with the
+flush of her face. It came to Donnegan that it was an unnecessary
+cruelty of chance that made him see the girl lovelier than he had ever
+seen her before at the very moment when he was surrendering the last
+shadow of a claim upon her.</p>
+
+<p>And it hurt him, also, to see the freshness of her face, the clear eyes;
+and to hear her smooth, untroubled voice. She had lived untouched by
+anything save the sunshine in The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>Her glance flicked across his face and then fluttered down, and her
+color increased guiltily.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I have come to ask you a favor,&quot; she said.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Step in,&quot; said Donnegan, recovering his poise at length.</p>
+
+<p>At this, she looked past him, and her eyes widened a little. There was
+an imperceptible shrug of her shoulders, as though the very thought of
+entering this cabin horrified her. And Donnegan had to bear that look as
+well.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll stay here; I haven't much to say. It's a small thing.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Large or small,&quot; said Donnegan eagerly. &quot;Tell me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;My father has asked me to take a letter for him down to the town and
+mail it. I&mdash;I understand that it would be dangerous for me to go alone.
+Will you walk with me?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And Donnegan turned cold. Go down into The Corner? Where by five chances
+out of ten he must meet his brother in the street?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I can do better still,&quot; he said, smiling. &quot;I'll have George take the
+letter down for you.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Thank you. But you see, father would not trust it to anyone save me. I
+asked him; he was very firm about it.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Tush! I would trust George with my life.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes, yes It is not what I wish&mdash;but my father rarely changes his
+mind.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Perspiration beaded the forehead of Donnegan. Was there no way to evade
+this easy request?</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see,&quot; he faltered, &quot;I should be glad to go&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She raised her eyes slowly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But I am terribly busy this morning.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She did not answer, but half of her color left her face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Upon my word of honor there is no danger to a woman in the town.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;But some of the ruffians of Lord Nick&mdash;&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;If they dared to even raise their voices at you, they would hear from
+him in a manner that they would never forget.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Then you don't wish to go?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>She was very pale now; and to Donnegan it was more terrible than the gun
+in the hand of Lord Nick. Even if she thought he was slighting her why
+should she take it so mortally to heart? For Donnegan, who saw all
+things, was blind to read the face of this girl.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It doesn't really matter,&quot; she murmured and turned away.</p>
+
+<p>A gentle motion, but it wrenched the heart of Donnegan. He was instantly
+before her.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Wait here a moment. I'll be ready to go down immediately.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;No. I can't take you from your&mdash;work.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>What work did she assign to him in her imagination? Endless planning of
+deviltry no doubt.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall go with you,&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;At first&mdash;I didn't dream it could
+be so important. Let me get my hat.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>He left her and leaped back into the cabin.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I am going down into The Corner for a moment,&quot; he said over his
+shoulder to George, as he took his belt down from the wall.</p>
+
+<p>The big man strode to the wall and took his hat from a nail.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I shall not need you, George.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But George merely grinned, and his big teeth flashed at the master. And
+in the second place he took up a gun from the drawer and offered it to
+Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;The gun in that holster ain't loaded,&quot; he said.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan considered him soberly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I know it. There'll be no need for a loaded gun.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But once more George grinned. All at once Donnegan turned pale.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You dog,&quot; he whispered. &quot;Did you listen at the door when Nick was
+here?&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Me?&quot; murmured George. &quot;No, I just been thinking.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And so it was that while Donnegan went down the hill with Lou Macon,
+carrying an empty-chambered revolver, George followed at a distance of a
+few paces, and he carried a loaded weapon unknown to Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>It was the dull time of the day in The Corner. There were very few
+people in the single street, and though most of them turned to look at
+the little man and the girl who walked beside him, not one of them
+either smiled or whispered.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You see?&quot; said Donnegan. &quot;You would have been perfectly safe&mdash;even from
+Lord Nick's ruffians. That was one of his men we passed back there.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Yes. I'm safe with you,&quot; said the girl.</p>
+
+<p>And when she looked up to him, the blood of Donnegan turned to fire.</p>
+
+<p>Out of a shop door before them came a girl with a parcel under her arm.
+She wore a gay, semi-masculine outfit, bright-colored, jaunty, and she
+walked with a lilt toward them. It was Nelly Lebrun. And as she passed
+them. Donnegan lifted his hat ceremoniously high. She nodded to him with
+a smile, but the smile aimed wan and small in an instant. There was a
+quick widening and then a narrowing of her eyes, and Donnegan knew that
+she had judged Lou Macon as only one girl can judge another who is
+lovelier.</p>
+
+<p>He glanced at Lou to see if she had noticed, and he saw her raise her
+head and go on with her glance proudly straight before her; but her face
+was very pale, and Donnegan knew that she had guessed everything that
+was true and far more than the truth. Her tone at the door of the post
+office was ice.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I think you are right, Mr. Donnegan. There's no danger. And if you have
+anything else to do, I can get back home easily enough.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;I'll wait for you,&quot; murmured Donnegan sadly, and he stood as the door
+of the little building with bowed head.</p>
+
+<p>And then a murmur came down the street. How small it was, and how
+sinister! It consisted of exclamations begun, and then broken sharply
+off. A swirl of people divided as a cloud of dust divides before a blast
+of wind, and through them came the gigantic figure of Lord Nick!</p>
+
+<p>On he came, a gorgeous figure, a veritable king of men. He carried his
+hat in his hand and his red hair flamed, and he walked with great
+strides. Donnegan glanced behind him. The way was clear. If he turned,
+Lord Nick would not pursue him, he knew.</p>
+
+<p>But to flee even from his brother was more than he could do; for the
+woman he loved would know of it and could never understand.</p>
+
+<p>He touched the holster that held his empty gun&mdash;and waited!</p>
+
+<p>An eternity between every step of Lord Nick. Others seemed to have
+sensed the meaning of this silent scene. People seemed to stand frozen
+in the midst of gestures. Or was that because Donnegan's own thoughts
+were traveling at such lightning speed that the rest of the world seemed
+standing still? What kept Lou Macon? If she were with him, not even Lord
+Nick in his madness would force on a gunplay in the presence of a woman,
+no doubt.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick was suddenly close; he had paused; his voice rang over the
+street and struck upon Donnegan's ear as sounds come under water.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye!&quot; called Donnegan softly.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;It's the time!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>Then a huge body leaped before him; it was big George. And as he sprang
+his gun went up with his hand in a line of light. The two reports came
+close together as finger taps on a table, and big George, completing his
+spring, lurched face downward into the sand.</p>
+
+<p>Dead? Not yet. All his faith and selflessness were nerving the big man.
+And Donnegan stood behind him, unarmed!</p>
+
+<p>He reared himself upon his knees&mdash;an imposing bulk, even then, and fired
+again. But his hand was trembling, and the bullet shattered a sign above
+the head of Lord Nick. He, in his turn, it seemed to Donnegan that the
+motion was slow, twitched up the muzzle of his weapon and fired once
+more from his hip. And big George lurched back on the sand, with his
+face upturned to Donnegan. He would have spoken, but a burst of blood
+choked him; yet his eyes fixed and glazed, he mustered his last
+strength and offered his revolver to Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>But Donnegan let the hand fall limp to the ground. There were voices
+about him; steps running; but all that he clearly saw was Lord Nick with
+his feet braced, and his head high.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Donnegan! Your gun!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Aye,&quot; said Donnegan.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Take it then!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But in the crisis, automatically Donnegan flipped his useless revolver
+out of its holster and into his hand. At the same instant the gun from
+Nick's hand seemed to blaze in his eyes. He was struck a crushing blow
+in his chest. He sank upon his knees: another blow struck his head, and
+Donnegan collapsed on the body of big George.</p>
+
+
+
+<br><br><hr style="width: 65%;"><br><br>
+<a name="44"></a><h2>44</h2>
+<br>
+
+<p>An ancient drunkard in the second story of one of the stores across the
+street had roused himself at the sound of the shots and now he dragged
+himself to the window and began to scream: &quot;Murder! Murder!&quot; over and
+over, and even The Corner shuddered at the sound of his voice.</p>
+
+<p>Lord Nick, his revolver still in his hand, stalked through the film of
+people who now swirled about him, eager to see the dead. There was no
+call for the law to make its appearance, and the representatives of the
+law were wisely dilatory in The Corner.</p>
+
+<p>He stood over the two motionless figures with a stony face.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You saw it, boys,&quot; he said. &quot;You know what I've borne from this fellow.
+The big man pulled his gun first on me. I shot in self-defense. As
+for&mdash;the other&mdash;it was a square fight.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Square fight,&quot; someone answered. &quot;You both went for your irons at the
+same time. Pretty work, Nick.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>It was a solid phalanx of men which had collected around the moveless
+bodies as swiftly as mercury sinks through water. Yet none of them
+touched either Donnegan or George. And then the solid group dissolved at
+one side. It was the moan of a woman which had scattered it, and a
+yellow-haired girl slipped through them. She glanced once, in horror, at
+the mute faces of the men, and then there was a wail as she threw
+herself on the body of Donnegan. Somewhere she found the strength of a
+man to lift him and place him face upward on the sand, the gun trailing
+limply in his hand. And then she lay, half crouched over him, her face
+pressed to his heart&mdash;listening&mdash;listening for the stir of life.</p>
+
+<p>Shootings were common in The Corner; the daily mortality ran high; but
+there had never been aftermaths like this one. Men looked at one
+another, and then at Lord Nick. A bright spot of color had come in his
+cheeks, but his face was as hard as ever.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Get her away from him,&quot; someone murmured.</p>
+
+<p>And then another man cried out, stooped, wrenched the gun from the limp
+hand of Donnegan and opened the cylinder. He spun it: daylight was
+glittering through the empty cylinder.</p>
+
+<p>At this the man stiffened, and with a low bow which would have done
+credit to a drawing-room, he presented the weapon butt first to Lord
+Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Here's something the sheriff will want to see,&quot; he said, &quot;but maybe
+you'll be interested, too.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>But Lord Nick, with the gun in his hand, stared at it dumbly, turned the
+empty cylinder. And the full horror crept slowly on his mind. He had not
+killed his brother, he had murdered him. As his eyes cleared, he caught
+the glitter of the eyes which surrounded him.</p>
+
+<p>And then Lou Macon was on her knees with her hands clasped at her breast
+and her face glorious.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;Help!&quot; she was crying. &quot;Help me. He's not dead, but he's dying unless
+you help me!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>Then Lord Nick cast away his own revolver and the empty gun of Donnegan.
+They heard him shout: &quot;Garry!&quot; and saw him stride forward.</p>
+
+<p>Instantly men pressed between, hard-jawed men who meant business. It was
+a cordon he would have to fight his way through: but he dissolved it
+with a word.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You fools! He's my brother!&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And then he was on his knees opposite Lou Macon.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;You?&quot; she had stammered in horror.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;His brother, girl.&quot;</p>
+
+<p>And ten minutes later, when the bandages had been wound, there was a
+strange sight of Lord Nick striding up the street with his victim in his
+arms. How lightly he walked; and he was talking to the calm, pale face
+which rested in the hollow of his shoulder.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;He will live? He will live?&quot; Lou Macon was pleading as she hurried at
+the side of Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>&quot;God willing, he shall live!&quot;</p>
+<br>
+
+<p>It was three hours before Donnegan opened his eyes. It was three days
+before he recovered his senses, and looking aside toward the door he saw
+a brilliant shaft of sunlight falling into the room. In the midst of it
+sat Lou Macon. She had fallen asleep in her great weariness now that the
+crisis was over. Behind her, standing, his great arms folded, stood the
+indomitable figure of Lord Nick.</p>
+
+<p>Donnegan saw and wondered greatly. Then he closed his eyes dreamily.
+&quot;Hush,&quot; said Donnegan to himself, as if afraid that what he saw was all
+a dream. &quot;I'm in heaven, or if I'm not, it's still mighty good to be
+alive.&quot;</p>
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+<pre>
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
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diff --git a/old/10066.txt b/old/10066.txt
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@@ -0,0 +1,10679 @@
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: Gunman's Reckoning
+
+Author: Max Brand
+
+Release Date: November 22, 2003 [EBook #10066]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ASCII
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK GUNMAN'S RECKONING ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Suzanne Shell, Dave Morgan and PG Distributed Proofreaders
+
+
+
+
+GUNMAN'S RECKONING
+
+By
+
+Max Brand
+
+
+
+1921
+
+
+
+GUNMAN'S RECKONING
+
+
+
+1
+
+
+The fifty empty freights danced and rolled and rattled on the rough road
+bed and filled Jericho Pass with thunder; the big engine was laboring
+and grunting at the grade, but five cars back the noise of the
+locomotive was lost. Yet there is a way to talk above the noise of a
+freight train just as there is a way to whistle into the teeth of a
+stiff wind. This freight-car talk is pitched just above the ordinary
+tone--it is an overtone of conversation, one might say--and it is
+distinctly nasal. The brakie could talk above the racket, and so, of
+course, could Lefty Joe. They sat about in the center of the train, on
+the forward end of one of the cars. No matter how the train lurched and
+staggered over that fearful road bed, these two swayed in their places
+as easily and as safely as birds on swinging perches. The brakie had
+touched Lefty Joe for two dollars; he had secured fifty cents; and since
+the vigor of Lefty's oaths had convinced him that this was all the money
+the tramp had, the two now sat elbow to elbow and killed the distance
+with their talk.
+
+"It's like old times to have you here," said the brakie. "You used to
+play this line when you jumped from coast to coast."
+
+"Sure," said Lefty Joe, and he scowled at the mountains on either side
+of the pass. The train was gathering speed, and the peaks lurched
+eastward in a confused, ragged procession. "And a durned hard ride it's
+been many a time."
+
+"Kind of queer to see you," continued the brakie. "Heard you was rising
+in the world."
+
+He caught the face of the other with a rapid side glance, but Lefty Joe
+was sufficiently concealed by the dark.
+
+"Heard you were the main guy with a whole crowd behind you," went on the
+brakie.
+
+"Yeh?"
+
+"Sure. Heard you was riding the cushions, and all that."
+
+"Yeh?"
+
+"But I guess it was all bunk; here you are back again, anyway."
+
+"Yep," agreed Lefty.
+
+The brakie scratched his head, for the silence of the tramp convinced
+him that there had been, after all, a good deal of truth in the rumor.
+He ran back on another tack and slipped about Lefty.
+
+"I never laid much on what they said," he averred. "I know you, Lefty;
+you can do a lot, but when it comes to leading a whole gang, like they
+said you was, and all that--well, I knew it was a lie. Used to tell 'em
+that."
+
+"You talked foolish, then," burst out Lefty suddenly. "It was all
+straight."
+
+The brakie could hear the click of his companion's teeth at the period
+to this statement, as though he regretted his outburst.
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged," murmured the brakie innocently.
+
+Ordinarily, Lefty was not easily lured, but this night he apparently was
+in the mood for talk.
+
+"Kennebec Lou, the Clipper, and Suds. Them and a lot more. They was all
+with me; they was all under me; I was the Main Guy!"
+
+What a ring in his voice as he said it! The beaten general speaks thus
+of his past triumphs. The old man remembered his youth in such a voice.
+The brakie was impressed; he repeated the three names.
+
+"Even Suds?" he said. "Was even Suds with you?"
+
+"Even Suds!"
+
+The brakie stirred a little, wabbling from side to side as he found a
+more comfortable position; instead of looking straight before him, he
+kept a side-glance steadily upon his companion, and one could see that
+he intended to remember what was said on this night.
+
+"Even Suds," echoed the brakie. "Good heavens, and ain't he a man for
+you?"
+
+"He was a man," replied Lefty Joe with an indescribable emphasis.
+
+"Huh?"
+
+"He ain't a man any more."
+
+"Get bumped off?"
+
+"No. Busted."
+
+The brakie considered this bit of news and rolled it back and forth and
+tried its flavor against his gossiping palate.
+
+"Did you fix him after he left you?"
+
+"No."
+
+"I see. You busted him while he was still with you. Then Kennebec Lou
+and the Clipper get sore at the way you treat Suds. So here you are back
+on the road with your gang all gone bust. Hard luck, Lefty."
+
+But Lefty whined with rage at this careless diagnosis of his downfall.
+
+"You're all wrong," he said. "You're all wrong. You don't know nothin'."
+
+The brakie waited, grinning securely into the night, and preparing his
+mind for the story. But the story consisted of one word, flung bitterly
+into the rushing air.
+
+"Donnegan!"
+
+"Him?" cried the brakie, starting in his place.
+
+"Donnegan!" cried Lefty, and his voice made the word into a curse.
+
+The brakie nodded.
+
+"Them that get tangled with Donnegan don't last long. You ought to know
+that."
+
+At this the grief, hate, and rage in Lefty Joe were blended and caused
+an explosion.
+
+"Confound Donnegan. Who's Donnegan? I ask you, who's Donnegan?"
+
+"A guy that makes trouble," replied the brakie, evidently hard put to it
+to find a definition.
+
+"Oh, don't he make it, though? Confound him!"
+
+"You ought to of stayed shut of him, Lefty."
+
+"Did I hunt him up, I ask you? Am I a nut? No, I ain't. Do I go along
+stepping on the tail of a rattlesnake? No more do I look up Donnegan."
+
+He groaned as he remembered.
+
+"I was going fine. Nothing could of been better. I had the boys
+together. We was doing so well that I was riding the cushions and I went
+around planning the jobs. Nice, clean work. No cans tied to it. But one
+day I had to meet Suds down in the Meriton Jungle. You know?"
+
+"I've heard--plenty," said the brakie.
+
+"Oh, it ain't so bad--the Meriton. I've seen a lot worse. Found Suds
+there, and Suds was playing Black Jack with an ol gink. He was trimmin'
+him close. Get Suds going good and he could read 'em three down and bury
+'em as fast as they came under the bottom card. Takes a hand to do that
+sort of work. And that's the sort of work Suds was doing for the old
+man. Pretty soon the game was over and the old man was busted. He took
+up his pack and beat it, saying nothing and looking sick. I started
+talking to Suds.
+
+"And while he was talking, along comes a bo and gives us a once-over. He
+knew me. 'Is this here a friend of yours, Lefty? he says.
+
+"'Sure,' says I.
+
+"'Then, he's in Dutch. He trimmed that old dad, and the dad is one of
+Donnegan's pals. Wait till Donnegan hears how your friend made the cards
+talk while he was skinning the old boy!
+
+"He passes me the wink and goes on. Made me sick. I turned to Suds, and
+the fool hadn't batted an eye. Never even heard of Donnegan. You know
+how it is? Half the road never heard of it; part of the roads don't know
+nothin' else. He's like a jumpin tornado; hits every ten miles and don't
+bend a blade of grass in between.
+
+"Took me about five minutes to tell Suds about Donnegan. Then Suds let
+out a grunt and started down the trail for the old dad. Missed him. Dad
+had got out of the Jungle and copped a rattler. Suds come back half
+green and half yeller.
+
+"'I've done it; I've spilled the beans,' he says.
+
+"'That ain't half sayin' it,' says I.
+
+"Well, we lit out after that and beat it down the line as fast as we
+could. We got the rest of the boys together; I had a swell job planned
+up. Everything staked. Then, the first news come that Donnegan was after
+Suds.
+
+"News just dropped on us out of the sky. Suds, you know how he is.
+Strong bluff. Didn't bat an eye. Laughed at this Donnegan. Got a hold of
+an old pal of his, named Levine, and he is a mighty hot scrapper. From a
+knife to a toenail, they was nothing that Levine couldn't use in a
+fight. Suds sent him out to cross Donnegan's trail.
+
+"He crossed it, well enough. Suds got a telegram a couple days later
+saying that Levine had run into a wild cat and was considerable chawed
+and would Suds send him a stake to pay the doctor?
+
+"Well, after that Suds got sort of nervous. Didn't take no interest in
+his work no more. Kept a weather eye out watching for the coming of
+Donnegan. And pretty soon he up and cleaned out of camp.
+
+"Next day, sure enough, along comes Donnegan and asks for Suds. We kept
+still--all but Kennebec Lou. Kennebec is some fighter himself. Two
+hundred pounds of mule muscle with the brain of a devil to tell what to
+do--yes, you can lay it ten to one that Kennebec is some fighter. That
+day he had a good edge from a bottle of rye he was trying for a friend.
+
+"He didn't need to go far to find trouble in Donnegan. A wink and a grin
+was all they needed for a password, and then they went at each other's
+throats. Kennebec made the first pass and hit thin air; and before he
+got back on his heels, Donnegan had hit him four times. Then Kennebec
+jumped back and took a fresh start with a knife."
+
+Here Lefty Joe paused and sighed.
+
+He continued, after a long interval: "Five minutes later we was all busy
+tyin' up what was left of Kennebec; Donnegan was down the road whistlin'
+like a bird. And that was the end of my gang. What with Kennebec Lou and
+Suds both gone, what chance did I have to hold the boys together?"
+
+
+
+
+2
+
+
+The brakie heard this recital with the keenest interest, nodding from
+time to time.
+
+"What beats me, Lefty," he said at the end of the story, "is why you
+didn't knife into the fight yourself and take a hand with Donnegan"
+
+At this Lefty was silent. It was rather the silence of one which cannot
+tell whether or not it is worth while to speak than it was the silence
+of one who needs time for thought.
+
+"I'll tell you why, bo. It's because when I take a trail like that it
+only has one end I'm going to bump off the other bird or he's going to
+bump off me"
+
+The brakie cleared his throat
+
+"Look here," he said, "looks to me like a queer thing that you're on
+this train"
+
+"Does it" queried Lefty softly "Why?"
+
+"Because Donnegan is two cars back, asleep."
+
+"The devil you say!"
+
+The brakie broke into laughter
+
+"Don't kid yourself along," he warned. "Don't do it. It ain't
+wise--with me."
+
+"What you mean?"
+
+"Come on, Lefty. Come clean. You better do a fade off this train."
+
+"Why, you fool--"
+
+"It don't work, Joe. Why, the minute I seen you I knew why you was here.
+I knew you meant to croak Donnegan."
+
+"Me croak him? Why should I croak him?"
+
+"Because you been trailing him two thousand miles. Because you ain't got
+the nerve to meet him face to face and you got to sneak in and take a
+crack at him while he's lying asleep. That's you, Lefty Joe!"
+
+He saw Lefty sway toward him; but, all stories aside, it is a very bold
+tramp that cares for argument of a serious nature with a brakie. And
+even Lefty Joe was deterred from violent action. In the darkness his
+upper lip twitched, but he carefully smoothed his voice.
+
+"You don't know nothing, pal," he declared.
+
+"Don't I?"
+
+"Nothing," repeated Lefty.
+
+He reached into his clothes and produced something which rustled in the
+rush of wind. He fumbled, and finally passed a scrap of the paper into
+the hand of the brakie.
+
+"My heavens," drawled the latter. "D'you think you can fix me with a
+buck for a job like this? You can't bribe me to stand around while you
+bump off Donnegan. Can't be done, Lefty!"
+
+"One buck, did you say?"
+
+Lefty Joe expertly lighted a match in spite of the roaring wind, and by
+this wild light the brakie read the denomination of the bill with a
+gasp. He rolled up his face and was in time to catch the sneer on the
+face of Lefty before a gust snatched away the light of the match.
+
+They had topped the highest point in Jericho Pass and now the long train
+dropped into the down grade with terrific speed. The wind became a
+hurricane. But to the brakie all this was no more than a calm night. His
+thoughts were raging in him, and if he looked back far enough he
+remembered the dollar which Donnegan had given him; and how he had
+promised Donnegan to give the warning before anything went wrong. He
+thought of this, but rustling against the palm of his right hand was
+the bill whose denomination he had read, and that figure ate into his
+memory, ate into his brain.
+
+After all what was Donnegan to him? What was Donnegan but a worthless
+tramp? Without any answer to that last monosyllabic query, the brakie
+hunched forward, and began to work his way up the train.
+
+The tramp watched him go with laughter. It was silent laughter. In the
+most quiet room it would not have sounded louder than a continual, light
+hissing noise. Then he, in turn, moved from his place, and worked his
+way along the train in the opposite direction to that in which the
+brakie had disappeared.
+
+He went expertly, swinging from car to car with apelike clumsiness--and
+surety. Two cars back. It was not so easy to reach the sliding side door
+of that empty car. Considering the fact that it was night, that the
+train was bucking furiously over the old roadbed, Lefty had a not
+altogether simple task before him. But he managed it with the same
+apelike adroitness. He could climb with his feet as well as his hands.
+He would trust a ledge as well as he would trust the rung of a ladder.
+
+Under his discreet manipulations from above the door loosened and it
+became possible to work it back. But even this the tramp did with
+considerable care. He took advantage of the lurching of the train, and
+every time the car jerked he forced the door to roll a little, so that
+it might seem for all the world as though the motion of the train alone
+were operating it.
+
+For suppose that Donnegan wakened out of his sound sleep and observed
+the motion of the door; he would be suspicious if the door opened in a
+single continued motion; but if it worked in these degrees he would be
+hypersuspicious if he dreamed of danger. So the tramp gave five whole
+minutes to that work.
+
+When it was done he waited for a time, another five minutes, perhaps, to
+see if the door would be moved back. And when it was not disturbed, but
+allowed to stand open, he knew that Donnegan still slept.
+
+It was time then for action, and Lefty Joe prepared for the descent into
+the home of the enemy. Let it not be thought that he approached this
+moment with a fallen heart, and with a cringing, snaky feeling as a man
+might be expected to feel when he approached to murder a sleeping
+foeman. For that was not Lefty's emotion at all. Rather he was overcome
+by a tremendous happiness. He could have sung with joy at the thought
+that he was about to rid himself of this pest.
+
+True, the gang was broken up. But it might rise again. Donnegan had
+fallen upon it like a blight. But with Donnegan out of the way would not
+Suds come back to him instantly? And would not Kennebec Lou himself
+return in admiration of a man who had done what he, Kennebec, could not
+do? With those two as a nucleus, how greatly might he not build!
+
+Justice must be done to Lefty Joe. He approached this murder as a
+statesman approaches the removal of a foe from the path of public
+prosperity. There was no more rancor in his attitude. It was rather the
+blissful largeness of the heart that comes to the politician when he
+unearths the scandal which will blight the race of his rival.
+
+With the peaceful smile of a child, therefore, Lefty Joe lay stretched
+at full length along the top of the car and made his choice of weapons.
+On the whole, his usual preference, day or night, was for a revolver.
+Give him a gat and Lefty was at home in any company. But he had reasons
+for transferring his alliance on this occasion. In the first place, a
+box car which is reeling and pitching to and fro, from side to side, is
+not a very good shooting platform--even for a snapshot like Lefty Joe.
+Also, the pitch darkness in the car would be a further annoyance to good
+aim. And in the third and most decisive place, if he were to miss his
+first shot he would not be extremely apt to place his second bullet. For
+Donnegan had a reputation with his own revolver. Indeed, it was said
+that he rarely carried the weapon, because when he did he was always
+tempted too strongly to use it. So that the chances were large that
+Donnegan would not have the gun now. Yet if he did have it--if he,
+Lefty, did miss his first shot--then the story would be brief and bitter
+indeed.
+
+On the other hand, a knife offered advantages almost too numerous to be
+listed. It gave one the deadly assurance which only comes with the
+knowledge of an edge of steel in one's hand. And when the knife reaches
+its mark it ends a battle at a stroke.
+
+Of course these doubts and considerations pro and con went through the
+mind of the tramp in about the same space of time that it requires for a
+dog to waken, snap at a fly, and drowse again. Eventually, he took out
+his knife. It was a sheath knife which he wore from a noose of silk
+around his throat, and it always lay closest to his heart. The blade of
+the knife was of the finest Spanish steel, in the days when Spanish
+smiths knew how to draw out steel to a streak of light; the handle of
+the knife was from Milan. On the whole, it was a delicate and beautiful
+weapon--and it had the durable suppleness of--say--hatred itself.
+
+Lefty Joe, like a pirate in a tale, took this weapon between his teeth;
+allowed his squat, heavy bulk to swing down and dangle at arm's length
+for an instant, and then he swung himself a little and landed softly on
+the floor of the car.
+
+Who has not heard snow drop from the branch upon other snow beneath?
+That was the way Lefty Joe dropped to the floor of the car. He remained
+as he had fallen; crouched, alert, with one hand spread out on the
+boards to balance him and give him a leverage and a start in case he
+should wish to spring in any direction.
+
+Then he began to probe the darkness in every direction; with every
+glance he allowed his head to dart out a little. The movement was like a
+chicken pecking at imaginary grains of corn. But eventually he satisfied
+himself that his quarry lay in the forward end of the car; that he was
+prone; that he, Lefty, had accomplished nine-tenths of his purpose by
+entering the place of his enemy unobserved.
+
+
+
+
+3
+
+
+But even though this major step was accomplished successfully, Lefty Joe
+was not the man to abandon caution in the midst of an enterprise. The
+roar of the train would have covered sounds ten times as loud as those
+of his snaky approach, yet he glided forward with as much care as though
+he were stepping on old stairs in a silent house. He could see a vague
+shadow--Donnegan; but chiefly he worked by that peculiar sense of
+direction which some people possess in a dim light. The blind, of
+course, have that sense in a high degree of sensitiveness, but even
+those who are not blind may learn to trust the peculiar and inverted
+sense of direction.
+
+With this to aid him, Lefty Joe went steadily, slowly across the first
+and most dangerous stage of his journey. That is, he got away from the
+square of the open door, where the faint starlight might vaguely serve
+to silhouette his body. After this, it was easier work.
+
+Of course, when he alighted on the floor of the car, the knife had been
+transferred from his teeth to his left hand; and all during his progress
+forward the knife was being balanced delicately, as though he were not
+yet quite sure of the weight of the weapon. Just as a prize fighter
+keeps his deadly, poised hands in play, moving them as though he fears
+to lose his intimate touch with them.
+
+This stalking had occupied a matter of split seconds. Now Lefty Joe rose
+slowly. He was leaning very far forward, and he warded against the roll
+of the car by spreading out his right hand close to the floor; his left
+hand he poised with the knife, and he began to gather his muscles for
+the leap. He had already taken the last preliminary movement--he had
+swung himself to the right side a little and, lightening his left foot,
+had thrown all his weight upon the right--in fact, his body was
+literally suspended in the instant of springing, catlike, when the
+shadow which was Donnegan came to life.
+
+The shadow convulsed as shadows are apt to swirl in a green pool when a
+stone is dropped into it; and a bit of board two feet long and some
+eight inches wide cracked against the shins of Lefty Joe.
+
+It was about the least dramatic weapon that could have been chosen under
+those circumstances, but certainly no other defense could have
+frustrated Lefty's spring so completely. Instead of launching out in a
+compact mass whose point of contact was the reaching knife, Lefty
+crawled stupidly forward upon his knees, and had to throw out his knife
+hand to save his balance.
+
+It is a singular thing to note how important balance is to men. Animals
+fight, as a rule, just as well on their backs as they do on their feet.
+They can lie on their sides and bite; they can swing their claws even
+while they are dropping through the air. But man needs poise and balance
+before he can act. What is speed in a fighter? It is not so much an
+affair of the muscles as it is the power of the brain to adapt itself
+instantly to each new move and put the body in a state of balance. In
+the prize ring speed does not mean the ability to strike one lightning
+blow, but rather that, having finished one drive, the fighter is in
+position to hit again, and then again, so that no matter where the
+impetus of his last lunge has placed him he is ready and poised to shoot
+all his weight behind his fist again and drive it accurately at a
+vulnerable spot. Individually the actions may be slow; but the series of
+efforts seem rapid. That is why a superior boxer seems to hypnotize his
+antagonist with movements which to the spectator seem perfectly easy,
+slow, and sure.
+
+But if Lefty lacked much in agility, he had an animallike sense of
+balance. Sprawling, helpless, he saw the convulsed shadow that was
+Donnegan take form as a straight shooting body that plunged through the
+air above him. Lefty Joe dug his left elbow into the floor of the car
+and whirled back upon his shoulders, bunching his knees high over his
+stomach. Nine chances out of ten, if Donnegan had fallen flatwise upon
+this alert enemy, he would have received those knees in the pit of his
+own stomach and instantly been paralyzed. But in the jumping, rattling
+car even Donnegan was capable of making mistakes. His mistake in this
+instance saved his life, for springing too far, he came down not in
+reaching distance of Lefty's throat, but with his chest on the knees of
+the older tramp.
+
+As a result, Donnegan was promptly kicked head over heels and tumbled
+the length of the car. Lefty was on his feet and plunging after the
+tumbling form in the twinkling of an eye, literally speaking, and he was
+only kept from burying his knife in the flesh of his foe by a sway of
+the car that staggered him in the act of striking. Donnegan, the next
+instant, was beyond reach. He had struck the end of the car and
+rebounded like a ball of rubber at a tangent. He slid into the shadows,
+and Lefty, putting his own shoulders to the wall, felt for his revolver
+and knew that he was lost. He had failed in his first surprise attack,
+and without surprise to help him now he was gone. He weighed his
+revolver, decided that it would be madness to use it, for if he missed,
+Donnegan would instantly be guided by the flash to shoot him full of
+holes.
+
+Something slipped by the open door--something that glimmered faintly;
+and Lefty Joe knew that it was the red head of Donnegan. Donnegan,
+soft-footed as a shadow among shadows. Donnegan on a blood trail. It
+lowered the heartbeat of Lefty Joe to a tremendous, slow pulse. In that
+moment he gave up hope and, resigning himself to die, determined to
+fight to the last gasp, as became one of his reputation and national
+celebrity on "the road."
+
+Yet Lefty Joe was no common man and no common fighter. No, let the shade
+of Rusty Dick, whom Lefty met and beat in his glorious prime--let this
+shade arise and speak for the prowess of Lefty Joe. In fact it was
+because he was such a good fighter himself that he recognized his
+helplessness in the hands of Donnegan.
+
+The faint glimmer of color had passed the door. It was dissolved in
+deeper shadows at once, and soundlessly; Lefty knew that Donnegan was
+closer and closer.
+
+Of one thing he felt more and more confident, that Donnegan did not have
+his revolver with him. Otherwise, he would have used it before. For what
+was darkness to this devil, Donnegan. He walked like a cat, and most
+likely he could see like a cat in the dark. Instinctively the older
+tramp braced himself with his right hand held at a guard before his
+breast and the knife poised in his left, just as a man would prepare to
+meet the attack of a panther. He even took to probing the darkness in a
+strange hope to catch the glimmer of the eyes of Donnegan as he moved to
+the attack. If there were a hair's breadth of light, then Donnegan
+himself must go down. A single blow would do it.
+
+But the devil had instructed his favorite Donnegan how to fight. He did
+not come lunging through the shadows to meet the point of that knife.
+Instead, he had worked a snaky way along the floor and now he leaped in
+and up at Lefty, taking him under the arms.
+
+A dozen hands, it seemed, laid hold on Lefty. He fought like a demon and
+tore himself away, but the multitude of hands pursued him. They were
+small hands. Where they closed they tore the clothes and bit into his
+very flesh. Once a hand had him by the throat, and when Lefty jerked
+himself away it was with a feeling that his flesh had been seared by
+five points of red-hot iron. All this time his knife was darting; once
+it ripped through cloth, but never once did it find the target. And half
+a second later Donnegan got his hold. The flash of the knife as Lefty
+raised it must have guided the other. He shot his right hand up behind
+the left shoulder of the other and imprisoned the wrist. Not only did it
+make the knife hand helpless, but by bearing down with his own weight
+Donnegan could put his enemy in most exquisite torture.
+
+For an instant they whirled; then they went down, and Lefty was on top.
+Only for a moment. The impetus which had sent him to the floor was used
+by Donnegan to turn them over, and once fairly on top his left hand was
+instantly at the throat of Lefty.
+
+Twice Lefty made enormous efforts, but then he was done. About his body
+the limbs of Donnegan were twisted, tightening with incredible force;
+just as hot iron bands sink resistlessly into place. The strangle-hold
+cut away life at its source. Once he strove to bury his teeth in the arm
+of Donnegan. Once, as the horror caught at him, he strove to shriek for
+help. All he succeeded in doing was in raising an awful, sobbing
+whisper. Then, looking death in the face, Lefty plunged into the great
+darkness.
+
+
+
+
+4
+
+
+When he wakened, he jumped at a stride into the full possession of his
+faculties. He had been placed near the open door, and the rush of night
+air had done its work in reviving him. But Lefty, drawn back to life,
+felt only a vague wonder that his life had not been taken. Perhaps he
+was being reserved by the victor for an Indian death of torment. He felt
+cautiously and found that not only were his hands free, but his revolver
+had not been taken from him. A familiar weight was on his chest--the
+very knife had been returned to its sheath.
+
+Had Donnegan returned these things to show how perfectly he despised his
+enemy?
+
+"He's gone!" groaned the tramp, sitting up quickly.
+
+"He's here," said a voice that cut easily through the roar of the train.
+"Waiting for you, Lefty."
+
+The tramp was staggered again. But then, who had ever been able to
+fathom the ways of Donnegan?
+
+"Donnegan!" he cried with a sudden recklessness.
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"You're a fool!"
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"For not finishing the job."
+
+Donnegan began to laugh. In the uproar of the train it was impossible
+really to hear the sound, but Lefty caught the pulse of it. He fingered
+his bruised throat; swallowing was a painful effort. And an
+indescribable feeling came over him as he realized that he sat armed to
+the teeth within a yard of the man he wanted to kill, and yet he was as
+effectively rendered helpless as though iron shackles had been locked on
+his wrists and legs. The night light came through the doorway, and he
+could make out the slender outline of Donnegan and again he caught the
+faint luster of that red hair; and out of the shadowy form a singular
+power emanated and sapped his strength at the root.
+
+Yet he went on viciously: "Sooner or later, Donnegan, I'll get you!"
+
+The red head of Donnegan moved, and Lefty Joe knew that the younger man
+was laughing again.
+
+"Why are you after me?" he asked at length.
+
+It was another blow in the face of Lefty. He sat for a time blinking
+with owlish stupidity.
+
+"Why?" he echoed. And he spoke his astonishment from the heart.
+
+"Why am I after you?" he said again. "Why, confound you, ain't you
+Donnegan?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Don't the whole road know that I'm after you and you after me?"
+
+"The whole road is crazy. I'm not after you."
+
+Lefty choked.
+
+"Maybe I been dreaming. Maybe you didn't bust up the gang? Maybe you
+didn't clean up on Suds and Kennebec?"
+
+"Suds? Kennebec? I sort of remember meeting them."
+
+"You sort of--the devil!" Lefty Joe sputtered the words. "And after you
+cleaned up my crowd, ain't it natural and good sense for you to go on
+and try to clean up on me?"
+
+"Sounds like it."
+
+"But I figured to beat you to it. I cut in on your trail, Donnegan, and
+before I leave it you'll know a lot more about me."
+
+"You're warning me ahead of time?"
+
+"You've played this game square with me; I'll play square with you.
+Next time there'll be no slips, Donnegan. I dunno why you should of
+picked on me, though. Just the natural devil in you."
+
+"I haven't picked on you," said Donnegan.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I'll give you my word."
+
+A tingle ran through the blood of Lefty Joe. Somewhere he had heard, in
+rumor, that the word of Donnegan was as good as gold. He recalled that
+rumor now and something of dignity in the manner with which Donnegan
+made his announcement carried a heavy weight. As a rule, the tramps
+vowed with many oaths; here was one of the nights of the road who made
+his bare word sufficient. And Lefty Joe heard with great wonder.
+
+"All I ask," he said, "is why you hounded my gang, if you wasn't after
+me?"
+
+"I didn't hound them. I ran into Suds by accident. We had trouble. Then
+Levine. Then Kennebec Lou tried to take a fall out of me."
+
+A note of whimsical protest crept into the voice of Donnegan.
+
+"Somehow there's always a fight wherever I go," he said. "Fights just
+sort of grow up around me."
+
+Lefty Joe snarled.
+
+"You didn't mean nothing by just 'happening' to run into three of my
+boys one after another?"
+
+"Not a thing."
+
+Lefty rocked himself back and forth in an ecstasy of impatience.
+
+"Why don't you stay put?" he complained. "Why don't you stake out your
+own ground and stay put in it? You cut in on every guy's territory.
+There ain't any privacy any more since you hit the road. What you got? A
+roving commission?"
+
+Donnegan waited for a moment before he answered. And when he spoke his
+voice had altered. Indeed, he had remarkable ability to pitch his voice
+into the roar of the freight train, and above or beneath it, and give it
+a quality such as he pleased.
+
+"I'm following a trail, but not yours," he admitted at length. "I'm
+following a trail. I've been at it these two years and nothing has
+come of it."
+
+"Who you after?"
+
+"A man with red hair."
+
+"That tells me a lot."
+
+Donnegan refused to explain.
+
+"What you got against him--the color of his hair?"
+
+And Lefty roared contentedly at his own stale jest.
+
+"It's no good," replied Donnegan. "I'll never get on the trail."
+
+Lefty broke in: "You mean to say you've been working two solid years and
+all on a trail that you ain't even found?"
+
+The silence answered him in the affirmative.
+
+"Ain't nobody been able to tip you off to him?" went on Lefty, intensely
+interested.
+
+"Nobody. You see, he's a hard sort to describe. Red hair, that's all
+there was about him for a clue. But if any one ever saw him stripped
+they'd remember him by a big blotchy birthmark on his left shoulder."
+
+"Eh?" grunted Lefty Joe.
+
+He added: "What was his name?"
+
+"Don't know. He changed monikers when he took to the road."
+
+"What was he to you?"
+
+"A man I'm going to find."
+
+"No matter where the trail takes you?"
+
+"No matter where."
+
+At this Lefty was seized with unaccountable laughter. He literally
+strained his lungs with that Homeric outburst. When he wiped the tears
+from his eyes, at length, the shadow on the opposite side of the doorway
+had disappeared. He found his companion leaning over him, and this time
+he could catch the dull glint of starlight on both hair and eyes.
+
+"What d'you know?" asked Donnegan.
+
+"How do you stand toward this bird with the birthmark and the red hair?"
+queried Lefty with caution.
+
+"What d'you know?" insisted Donnegan.
+
+All at once passion shook him; he fastened his grip in the shoulder of
+the larger man, and his fingertips worked toward the bone.
+
+"What do you know?" he repeated for the third time, and now there was no
+hint of laughter in the hard voice of Lefty.
+
+"You fool, if you follow that trail you'll go to the devil. It was
+Rusty Dick; and he's dead!"
+
+His triumphant laughter came again, but Donnegan cut into it.
+
+"Rusty Dick was the one you--killed!"
+
+"Sure. What of it? We fought fair and square."
+
+"Then Rusty wasn't the man I want. The man I want would of eaten two
+like you, Lefty."
+
+"What about the birthmark? It sure was on his shoulder; Donnegan."
+
+"Heavens!" whispered Donnegan.
+
+"What's the matter?"
+
+"Rusty Dick," gasped Donnegan. "Yes, it must have been he."
+
+"Sure it was. What did you have against him?"
+
+"It was a matter of blood--between us," stammered Donnegan.
+
+His voice rose in a peculiar manner, so that Lefty shrank involuntarily.
+
+"You killed Rusty?"
+
+"Ask any of the boys. But between you and me, it was the booze that
+licked Rusty Dick. I just finished up the job and surprised everybody."
+
+The train was out of the mountains and in a country of scattering hills,
+but here it struck a steep grade and settled down to a grind of slow
+labor; the rails hummed, and suspense filled the freight car.
+
+"Hey," cried Lefty suddenly. "You fool, you'll do a flop out the door in
+about a minute!"
+
+He even reached out to steady the toppling figure, but Donnegan pitched
+straight out into the night. Lefty craned his neck from the door,
+studying the roadbed, but at that moment the locomotive topped the
+little rise and the whole train lurched forward.
+
+"After all," murmured Lefty Joe, "it sounds like Donnegan. Hated a guy
+so bad that he hadn't any use for livin' when he heard the other guy was
+dead. But I'm never goin' to cross his path again, I hope."
+
+
+
+
+5
+
+
+But Donnegan had leaped clear of the roadbed, and he struck almost to
+the knees in a drift of sand. Otherwise, he might well have broken his
+legs with that foolhardy chance. As it was, the fall whirled him over
+and over, and by the time he had picked himself up the lighted caboose
+of the train was rocking past him. Donnegan watched it grow small in the
+distance, and then, when it was only a red, uncertain star far down the
+track, he turned to the vast country around him.
+
+The mountains were to his right, not far away, but caught up behind the
+shadows so that it seemed a great distance. Like all huge, half-seen
+things they seemed in motion toward him. For the rest, he was in bare,
+rolling country. The sky line everywhere was clean; there was hardly a
+sign of a tree. He knew, by a little reflection, that this must be
+cattle country, for the brakie had intimated as much in their talk just
+before dusk. Now it was early night, and a wind began to rise, blowing
+down the valley with a keen motion and a rapidly lessening temperature,
+so that Donnegan saw he must get to a shelter. He could, if necessary,
+endure any privation, but his tastes were for luxurious comfort.
+Accordingly he considered the landscape with gloomy disapproval. He was
+almost inclined to regret his plunge from the lumbering freight train.
+Two things had governed him in making that move. First, when he
+discovered that the long trail he followed was definitely fruitless, he
+was filled with a great desire to cut himself away from his past and
+make a new start. Secondly, when he learned that Rusty Dick had been
+killed by Joe, he wanted desperately to get the throttle of the latter
+under his thumb. If ever a man risked his life to avoid a sin, it was
+Donnegan jumping from the train to keep from murder.
+
+He stooped to sight along the ground, for this is the best way at night
+and often horizon lights are revealed in this manner. But now Donnegan
+saw nothing to serve as a guide. He therefore drew in his belt until it
+fitted snug about his gaunt waist, settled his cap firmly, and headed
+straight into the wind.
+
+Nothing could have shown his character more distinctly.
+
+When in doubt, head into the wind.
+
+With a jaunty, swinging step he sauntered along, and this time, at
+least, his tactics found an early reward. Topping the first large rise
+of ground, he saw in the hollow beneath him the outline of a large
+building. And as he approached it, the wind clearing a high blowing mist
+from the stars, he saw a jumble of outlying houses. Sheds, barns,
+corrals--it was the nucleus of a big ranch. It is a maxim that, if you
+wish to know a man look at his library and if you wish to know a
+rancher, look at his barn. Donnegan made a small detour to the left and
+headed for the largest of the barns.
+
+He entered it by the big, sliding door, which stood open; he looked up,
+and saw the stars shining through a gap in the roof. And then he stood
+quietly for a time, listening to the voices of the wind in the ruin.
+Oddly enough, it was pleasant to Donnegan. His own troubles and sorrow
+had poured upon him so thickly in the past hour or so that it was
+soothing to find evidence of the distress of others. But perhaps this
+meant that the entire establishment was deserted.
+
+He left the barn and went toward the house. Not until he was close under
+its wall did he come to appreciate its size. It was one of those great,
+rambling, two-storied structures which the cattle kings of the past
+generation were fond of building. Standing close to it, he heard none of
+the intimate sounds of the storm blowing through cracks and broken
+walls; no matter into what disrepair the barns had fallen, the house was
+still solid; only about the edges of the building the storm kept
+murmuring.
+
+Yet there was not a light, neither above nor below. He came to the front
+of the house. Still no sign of life. He stood at the door and knocked
+loudly upon it, and though, when he tried the knob, he found that the
+door was latched, yet no one came in response. He knocked again, and
+putting his ear close he heard the echoes walk through the interior of
+the building.
+
+After this, the wind rose in sudden strength and deafened him with
+rattlings; above him, a shutter was swung open and then crashed to, so
+that the opening of the door was a shock of surprise to Donnegan. A dim
+light from a source which he could not direct suffused the interior of
+the hall; the door itself was worked open a matter of inches and
+Donnegan was aware of two keen old eyes glittering out at him. Beyond
+this he could distinguish nothing.
+
+"Who are you?" asked a woman's voice. "And what do you want?"
+
+"I'm a stranger, and I want something to eat and a place to sleep. This
+house looks as if it might have spare rooms."
+
+"Where d'you come from?"
+
+"Yonder," said Donnegan, with a sufficiently noncommittal gesture.
+
+"What's your name?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"I don't know you. Be off with you, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+He inserted his foot in the closing crack of the door.
+
+"Tell me where I'm to go?" he persisted.
+
+At this her voice rose in pitch, with squeaky rage.
+
+"I'll raise the house on you!"
+
+"Raise 'em. Call down the man of the house. I can talk to him better
+than I can to you; but I won't walk off like this. If you can feed me,
+I'll pay you for what I eat."
+
+A shrill cackling--he could not make out the words. And since patience
+was not the first of Donnegan's virtues, he seized on the knob of the
+door and deliberately pressed it wide. Standing in the hall, now, and
+closing the door slowly behind him, he saw a woman with old, keen eyes
+shrinking away toward the staircase. She was evidently in great fear,
+but there was something infinitely malicious in the manner in which she
+kept working her lips soundlessly. She was shrinking, and half turned
+away, yet there was a suggestion that in an instant she might whirl and
+fly at his face. The door now clicked, and with the windstorm shut away
+Donnegan had a queer feeling of being trapped.
+
+"Now call the man of the house," he repeated. "See if I can't come to
+terms with him."
+
+"He'd make short work of you if he came," she replied. She broke into a
+shrill laughter, and Donnegan thought he had never seen a face so ugly.
+"If he came," she said, "you'd rue the day."
+
+"Well, I'll talk to you, then. I'm not asking charity. I want to pay for
+what I get."
+
+"This ain't a hotel. You go on down the road. Inside eight miles you'll
+come to the town."
+
+"Eight miles!"
+
+"That's nothing for a man to ride."
+
+"Not at all, if I had something to ride."
+
+"You ain't got a horse?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then how do you come here?"
+
+"I walked."
+
+If this sharpened her suspicions, it sharpened her fear also. She put
+one foot on the lowest step of the stairs.
+
+"Be off with you, Mr. Donnegally, or whatever your outlandish name is.
+You'll get nothing here. What brings you--"
+
+A door closed and a footstep sounded lightly on the floor above. And
+Donnegan, already alert in the strange atmosphere of this house, gave
+back a pace so as to get an honest wall behind him. He noted that the
+step was quick and small, and preparing himself to meet a wisp of
+manhood--which, for that matter, was the type he was most inclined to
+fear--Donnegan kept a corner glance upon the old woman at the foot of
+the stairs and steadily surveyed the shadows at the head of the rise.
+
+Out of that darkness a foot slipped; not even a boy's foot--a very
+child's. The shock of it made Donnegan relax his caution for an instant,
+and in that instant she came into the reach of the light. It was a
+wretched light at best, for it came from a lamp with smoky chimney
+which the old hag carried, and at the raising and lowering of her hand
+the flame jumped and died in the throat of the chimney and set the hall
+awash with shadows. Falling away to a point of yellow, the lamp allowed
+the hall to assume a certain indefinite dignity of height and breadth
+and calm proportions; but when the flame rose Donnegan could see the
+broken balusters of the balustrade, the carpet, faded past any design
+and worn to rattiness, wall paper which had rotted or dried away and
+hung in crisp tatters here and there, and on the ceiling an irregular
+patch from which the plaster had fallen and exposed the lathwork. But at
+the coming of the girl the old woman had turned, and as she did the
+flame tossed up in the lamp and Donnegan could see the newcomer
+distinctly.
+
+Once before his heart had risen as it rose now. It had been the fag end
+of a long party, and Donnegan, rousing from a drunken sleep, staggered
+to the window. Leaning there to get the freshness of the night air
+against his hot face, he had looked up, and saw the white face of the
+moon going up the sky; and a sudden sense of the blackness and loathing
+against the city had come upon Donnegan, and the murky color of his own
+life; and when he turned away from the window he was sober. And so it
+was that he now stared up at the girl. At her breast she held a cloak
+together with one hand and the other hand touched the railing of the
+stairs. He saw one foot suspended for the next step, as though the sight
+of him kept her back in fear. To the miserable soul of Donnegan she
+seemed all that was lovely, young, and pure; and her hair, old gold in
+the shadow and pale gold where the lamp struck it, was to Donnegan like
+a miraculous light about her face.
+
+Indeed, that little pause was a great and awful moment. For considering
+that Donnegan, who had gone through his whole life with his eyes ready
+either to mock or hate, and who had rarely used his hand except to make
+a fist of it; Donnegan who had never, so far as is known, had a
+companion; who had asked the world for action, not kindness; this
+Donnegan now stood straight with his back against the wall, and poured
+out the story of his wayward life to a mere slip of a girl.
+
+
+
+
+6
+
+
+Even the old woman, whose eyes were sharpened by her habit of looking
+constantly for the weaknesses and vices of men, could not guess what was
+going on behind the thin, rather ugly face of Donnegan; the girl,
+perhaps, may have seen more. For she caught the glitter of his active
+eyes even at that distance. The hag began to explain with vicious
+gestures that set the light flaring up and down.
+
+"He ain't come from nowhere, Lou," she said. "He ain't going nowhere; he
+wants to stay here for the night."
+
+The foot which had been suspended to take the next step was now
+withdrawn. Donnegan, remembered at last, whipped off his cap, and at
+once the light flared and burned upon his hair. It was a wonderful red;
+it shone, and it had a terrible blood tinge so that his face seemed pale
+beneath it. There were three things that made up the peculiar dominance
+of Donnegan's countenance. The three things were the hair, the uneasy,
+bright eyes, and the rather thin, compressed lips. When Donnegan slept
+he seemed about to waken from a vigorous dream; when he sat down he
+seemed about to leap to his feet; and when he was standing he gave that
+impression of a poise which is ready for anything. It was no wonder that
+the girl, seeing that face and that alert, aggressive body, shrank a
+little on the stairs. Donnegan, that instant, knew that these two women
+were really alone in the house as far as fighting men were concerned.
+
+And the fact disturbed him more than a leveled gun would have done. He
+went to the foot of the stairs, even past the old woman, and, raising
+his head, he spoke to the girl.
+
+"My name's Donnegan. I came over from the railroad--walked. I don't want
+to walk that other eight miles unless there's a real need for it. I--"
+Why did he pause? "I'll pay for anything I get here."
+
+His voice was not too certain; behind his teeth there was knocking a
+desire to cry out to her the truth. "I am Donnegan. Donnegan the tramp.
+Donnegan the shiftless. Donnegan the fighter. Donnegan the killer.
+Donnegan the penniless, worthless. But for heaven's sake let me stay
+until morning and let me look at you--from a distance!"
+
+But, after all, perhaps he did not need to say all these things. His
+clothes were rags, upon his face there was a stubble of unshaven red,
+which made the pallor about his eyes more pronounced. If the girl had
+been half blind she must have felt that here was a man of fire. He saw
+her gather the wrap a little closer about her shoulders, and that sign
+of fear made him sick at heart.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," said the girl. "I am sorry. We cannot take you into the
+house. Eight miles--"
+
+Did she expect to turn a sinner from the gates of heaven with a mere
+phrase? He cast out his hand, and she winced as though he had shaken his
+fist at her.
+
+"Are you afraid?" cried Donnegan.
+
+"I don't control the house."
+
+He paused, not that her reply had baffled him, but the mere pleasure of
+hearing her speak accounted for it. It was one of those low, light
+voices which are apt to have very little range or volume, and which
+break and tremble absurdly under any stress of emotion; and often they
+become shrill in a higher register; but inside conversational limits, if
+such a term may be used, there is no fiber so delightful, so purely
+musical. Suppose the word "velvet" applied to a sound. That voice came
+soothingly and delightfully upon the ear of Donnegan, from which the
+roar and rattle of the empty freight train had not quite departed. He
+smiled at her.
+
+"But," he protested, "this is west of the Rockies--and I don't see any
+other way out."
+
+The girl, all this time, was studying him intently, a little sadly, he
+thought. Now she shook her head, but there was more warmth in her voice.
+
+"I'm sorry. I can't ask you to stay without first consulting my father."
+
+"Go ahead. Ask him."
+
+She raised her hand a little; the thought seemed to bring her to the
+verge of trembling, as though he were asking a sacrilege.
+
+"Why not?" he urged.
+
+She did not answer, but, instead, her eyes sought the old, woman, as if
+to gain her interposition; she burst instantly into speech.
+
+"Which there's no good talking any more," declared the ancient vixen.
+"Are you wanting to make trouble for her with the colonel? Be off, young
+man. It ain't the first time I've told you you'd get nowhere in this
+house!"
+
+There was no possible answer left to Donnegan, and he did as usual the
+surprising thing. He broke into laughter of such clear and ringing
+tone--such infectious laughter--that the old woman blinked in the midst
+of her wrath as though she were seeing a new man, and he saw the lips of
+the girl parted in wonder.
+
+"My father is an invalid," said the girl. "And he lives by strict rules.
+I could not break in on him at this time of the evening."
+
+"If that's all"--Donnegan actually began to mount the steps--"I'll go in
+and talk to your father myself."
+
+She had retired one pace as he began advancing, but as the import of
+what he said became clear to her she was rooted to one position by
+astonishment.
+
+"Colonel Macon--my father--" she began. Then: "Do you really wish to see
+him?"
+
+The hushed voice made Donnegan smile--it was such a voice as one boy
+uses when he asks the other if he really dares enter the pasture of the
+red bull. He chuckled again, and this time she smiled, and her eyes were
+widened, partly by fear of his purpose and partly from his nearness.
+They seemed to be suddenly closer together. As though they were on one
+side against a common enemy, and that enemy was her father. The old
+woman was cackling sharply from the bottom of the stairs, and then
+bobbing in pursuit and calling on Donnegan to come back. At length the
+girl raised her hand and silenced her with a gesture.
+
+Donnegan was now hardly a pace away; and he saw that she lived up to all
+the promise of that first glance. Yet still she seemed unreal. There is
+a quality of the unearthly about a girl's beauty; it is, after all, only
+a gay moment between the formlessness of childhood and the hardness of
+middle age. This girl was pale, Donnegan saw, and yet she had color. She
+had the luster, say, of a white rose, and the same bloom. Lou, the old
+woman had called her, and Macon was her father's name. Lou Macon--the
+name fitted her, Donnegan thought. For that matter, if her name had been
+Sally Smith, Donnegan would probably have thought it beautiful. The
+keener a man's mind is and the more he knows about men and women and the
+ways of the world, the more apt he is to be intoxicated by a touch of
+grace and thoughtfulness; and all these age-long seconds the perfume of
+girlhood had been striking up to Donnegan's brain.
+
+She brushed her timidity away and with the same gesture accepted
+Donnegan as something more than a dangerous vagrant. She took the lamp
+from the hands of the crone and sent her about her business,
+disregarding the mutterings and the warnings which trailed behind the
+departing form. Now she faced Donnegan, screening the light from her
+eyes with a cupped hand and by the same device focusing it upon the face
+of Donnegan. He mutely noted the small maneuver and gave her credit; but
+for the pleasure of seeing the white of her fingers and the way they
+tapered to a pink transparency at the tips, he forgot the poor figure he
+must make with his soiled, ragged shirt, his unshaven face, his gaunt
+cheeks.
+
+Indeed, he looked so straight at her that in spite of her advantage with
+the light she had to avoid his glance.
+
+"I am sorry," said Lou Macon, "and ashamed because we can't take you in.
+The only house on the range where you wouldn't be welcome, I know. But
+my father leads a very close life; he has set ways. The ways of an
+invalid, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"And you're bothered about speaking to him of me?"
+
+"I'm almost afraid of letting you go in yourself."
+
+"Let me take the risk."
+
+She considered him again for a moment, and then turned with a nod and he
+followed her up the stairs into the upper hall. The moment they stepped
+into it he heard her clothes flutter and a small gale poured on them. It
+was criminal to allow such a building to fall into this ruinous
+condition. And a gloomy picture rose in Donnegan's mind of the invalid,
+thin-faced, sallow-eyed, white-haired, lying in his bed listening to the
+storm and silently gathering bitterness out of the pain of living. Lou
+Macon paused again in the hall, close to a door on the right.
+
+"I'm going to send you in to speak to my father," she said gravely.
+"First I have to tell you that he's different."
+
+Donnegan replied by looking straight at her, and this time she did not
+wince from the glance. Indeed, she seemed to be probing him, searching
+with a peculiar hope. What could she expect to find in him? What that
+was useful to her? Not once in all his life had such a sense of
+impotence descended upon Donnegan. Her father? Bah! Invalid or no
+invalid he would handle that fellow, and if the old man had an acrid
+temper, Donnegan at will could file his own speech to a point. But the
+girl! In the meager hand which held the lamp there was a power which all
+the muscles of Donnegan could not compass; and in his weakness he looked
+wistfully at her.
+
+"I hope your talk will be pleasant. I hope so." She laid her hand on the
+knob of the door and withdrew it hastily; then, summoning great
+resolution, she opened the door and showed Donnegan in.
+
+"Father," she said, "this is Mr. Donnegan. He wishes to speak to you."
+
+The door closed behind Donnegan, and hearing that whishing sound which
+the door of a heavy safe will make, he looked down at this, and saw that
+it was actually inches thick! Once more the sense of being in a trap
+descended upon him.
+
+
+
+
+7
+
+
+He found himself in a large room which, before he could examine a single
+feature of it, was effectively curtained from his sight. Straight into
+his face shot a current of violent white light that made him blink.
+There was the natural recoil, but in Donnegan recoils were generally
+protected by several strata of willpower and seldom showed in any
+physical action. On the present occasion his first dismay was swiftly
+overwhelmed by a cold anger at the insulting trick. This was not the
+trick of a helpless invalid; Donnegan could not see a single thing
+before him, but he obeyed a very deep instinct and advanced straight
+into the current of light.
+
+He was glad to see the light switched away. The comparative darkness
+washed across his eyes in a pleasant wave and he was now able to
+distinguish a few things in the room. It was, as he had first surmised,
+quite large. The ceiling was high; the proportions comfortably spacious;
+but what astounded Donnegan was the real elegance of the furnishings.
+There was no mistaking the deep, silken texture of the rug upon which he
+stepped; the glow of light barely reached the wall, and there showed
+faintly in streaks along yellowish hangings. Beside a table which
+supported a big reading lamp--gasoline, no doubt, from the intensity of
+its light--sat Colonel Macon with a large volume spread across his
+knees. Donnegan saw two highlights--fine silver hair that covered the
+head of the invalid and a pair of white hands fallen idly upon the
+surface of the big book, for if the silver hair suggested age the
+smoothly finished hands suggested perennial youth. They were strong,
+carefully tended, complacent hands. They suggested to Donnegan a man
+sufficient unto himself.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, I am sorry that I cannot rise to receive you. Now, what
+pleasant accident has brought me the favor of this call?"
+
+Donnegan was taken aback again, and this time more strongly than by the
+flare of light against his eyes. For in the voice he recognized the
+quality of the girl--the same softness, the same velvety richness,
+though the pitch was a bass. In the voice of this man there was the same
+suggestion that the tone would crack if it were forced either up or
+down. With this great difference, one could hardly conceive of a
+situation which would push that man's voice beyond its monotone. It
+flowed with deadly, all-embracing softness. It clung about one; it
+fascinated and baffled the mind of the listener.
+
+But Donnegan was not in the habit of being baffled by voices. Neither
+was he a lover of formality. He looked about for a place to sit down,
+and immediately discovered that while the invalid sat in an enormous
+easy-chair bordered by shelves and supplied with wheels for raising and
+lowering the back and for propelling the chair about the room on its
+rubber tires, it was the only chair in the room which could make any
+pretensions toward comfort. As a matter of fact, aside from this one
+immense chair, devoted to the pleasure of the invalid, there was nothing
+in the room for his visitors to sit upon except two or three miserable
+backless stools.
+
+But Donnegan was not long taken aback. He tucked his cap under his arm,
+bowed profoundly in honor of the colonel's compliments, and brought one
+of the stools to a place where it was no nearer the rather ominous
+circle of the lamplight than was the invalid himself. With his eyes
+accustomed to the new light, Donnegan could now take better stock of his
+host. He saw a rather handsome face, with eyes exceedingly blue, young,
+and active; but the features of Macon as well as his body were blurred
+and obscured by a great fatness. He was truly a prodigious man, and one
+could understand the stoutness with which the invalid chair was made.
+His great wrist dimpled like the wrist of a healthy baby, and his face
+was so enlarged with superfluous flesh that the lower part of it quite
+dwarfed the upper. He seemed, at first glance, a man with a low forehead
+and bright, careless eyes and a body made immobile by flesh and
+sickness. A man whose spirits despised and defied pain. Yet a second
+glance showed that the forehead was, after all, a nobly proportioned
+one, and for all the bulk of that figure, for all the cripple-chair,
+Donnegan would not have been surprised to see the bulk spring lightly
+out of the chair to meet him.
+
+For his own part, sitting back on the stool with his cap tucked under
+his arm and his hands folded about one knee, he met the faint, cold
+smile of the colonel with a broad grin of his own.
+
+"I can put it in a nutshell," said Donnegan. "I was tired; dead beat;
+needed a handout, and rapped at your door. Along comes a mystery in the
+shape of an ugly-looking woman and opens the door to me. Tries to shut
+me out; I decided to come in. She insists on keeping me outside; all at
+once I see that I have to get into the house. I am brought in; your
+daughter tries to steer me off, sees that the job is more than she can
+get away with, and shelves me off upon you. And that, Colonel Macon, is
+the pleasant accident which brings you the favor of this call."
+
+It would have been a speech both stupid and pert in the mouth of
+another; but Donnegan knew how to flavor words with a touch of mockery
+of himself as well as another. There were two manners in which this
+speech could have been received--with a wink or with a smile. But it
+would have been impossible to hear it and grow frigid. As for the
+colonel, he smiled.
+
+It was a tricky smile, however, as Donnegan felt. It spread easily upon
+that vast face and again went out and left all to the dominion of the
+cold, bright eyes.
+
+"A case of curiosity," commented the colonel.
+
+"A case of hunger," said Donnegan.
+
+"My dear Mr. Donnegan, put it that way if you wish!"
+
+"And a case of blankets needed for one night."
+
+"Really? Have you ventured into such a country as this without any
+equipment?"
+
+"Outside of my purse, my equipment is of the invisible kind."
+
+"Wits," suggested the colonel.
+
+"Thank you."
+
+"Not at all. You hinted at it yourself."
+
+"However, a hint is harder to take than to make."
+
+The colonel raised his faultless right hand--and oddly enough his great
+corpulence did not extend in the slightest degree to his hand, but
+stopped short at the wrists--and stroked his immense chin. His skin was
+like Lou Macon's, except that in place of the white-flower bloom his was
+a parchment, dead pallor. He lowered his hand with the same slow
+precision and folded it with the other, all the time probing Donnegan
+with his difficult eyes.
+
+"Unfortunately--most unfortunately, it is impossible for me to
+accommodate you, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+The reply was not flippant, but quick. "Not at all. I am the easiest
+person in the world to accommodate."
+
+The big man smiled sadly.
+
+"My fortune has fallen upon evil days, sir. It is no longer what it was.
+There are in this house three habitable rooms; this one; my daughter's
+apartment; the kitchen where old Haggie sleeps. Otherwise you are in a
+rat trap of a place."
+
+He shook his head, a slow, decisive motion.
+
+"A spare blanket," said Donnegan, "will be enough."
+
+There was another sigh and another shake of the head.
+
+"Even a corner of a rug to roll up in will do perfectly."
+
+"You see, it is impossible for me to entertain you."
+
+"Bare boards will do well enough for me, Colonel Macon. And if I have a
+piece of bread, a plate of cold beans--anything--I can entertain
+myself."
+
+"I am sorry to see you so compliant, Mr. Donnegan, because that makes my
+refusal seem the more unkind. But I cannot have you sleeping on the bare
+floor. Not on such a night. Pneumonia comes on one like a cat in the
+dark in such weather. It is really impossible to keep you here, sir."
+
+"H'm-m," said Donnegan. He began to feel that he was stumped, and it was
+a most unusual feeling for him.
+
+"Besides, for a young fellow like you, with your agility, what is eight
+miles? Walk down the road and you will come to a place where you will be
+made at home and fed like a king."
+
+"Eight miles, that's not much! But on such a night as this?"
+
+There was a faint glint in the eyes of the colonel; was he not
+sharpening his wits for his contest of words, and enjoying it?
+
+"The wind will be at your back and buoy your steps. It will shorten the
+eight miles to four."
+
+Very definitely Donnegan felt that the other was reading him. What was
+it that he saw as he turned the pages?
+
+"There is one thing you fail to take into your accounting."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"I have an irresistible aversion to walking."
+
+"Ah?" repeated Macon.
+
+"Or exercise in any form."
+
+"Then you are unfortunate to be in this country without a horse."
+
+"Unfortunate, perhaps, but the fact is that I'm here. Very sorry to
+trouble you, though, colonel."
+
+"I am rarely troubled," said the colonel coldly. "And since I have no
+means of accommodation, the laws of hospitality rest light on my
+shoulders."
+
+"Yet I have an odd thought," replied Donnegan.
+
+"Well? You have expressed a number already, it seems to me."
+
+"It's this: that you've already made up your mind to keep me here."
+
+
+
+
+8
+
+
+The colonel stiffened in his chair, and under his bulk even those
+ponderous timbers quaked a little. Once more Donnegan gained an
+impression of chained activity ready to rise to any emergency. The
+colonel's jaw set and the last vestige of the smile left his eyes. Yet
+it was not anger that showed in its place. Instead, it was rather a
+hungry searching. He looked keenly into the face and the soul of
+Donnegan as a searchlight sweeps over waters by night.
+
+"You are a mind reader, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"No more of a mind reader than a Chinaman is."
+
+"Ah, they are great readers of mind, my friend."
+
+Donnegan grinned, and at this the colonel frowned.
+
+"A great and mysterious people, sir. I keep evidences of them always
+about me. Look!"
+
+He swept the shaft of the reading light up and it fell upon a red vase
+against the yellow hangings. Even Donnegan's inexperienced eye read a
+price into that shimmering vase.
+
+"Queer color," he said.
+
+"Dusty claret. Ah, they have the only names for their colors. Think!
+Peach bloom--liquid dawn--ripe cherry--oil green--green of powdered
+tea--blue of the sky after rain--what names for color! What other land
+possesses such a tongue that goes straight to the heart!"
+
+The colonel waved his faultless hands and then dropped them back upon
+the book with the tenderness of a benediction.
+
+"And their terms for texture--pear's rind--lime peel--millet seed! Do
+not scoff at China, Mr. Donnegan. She is the fairy godmother, and we are
+the poor children."
+
+He changed the direction of the light; Donnegan watched him, fascinated.
+
+"But what convinced you that I wished to keep you here?"
+
+"To amuse you, Colonel Macon."
+
+The colonel exposed gleaming white teeth and laughed in that soft,
+smooth-flowing voice.
+
+"Amuse me? For fifteen years I have sat in this room and amused myself
+by taking in what I would and shutting out the rest of the world. I have
+made the walls thick and padded them to keep out all sound. You observe
+that there is no evidence here of the storm that is going on tonight.
+Amuse me? Indeed!"
+
+And Donnegan thought of Lou Macon in her old, drab dress, huddling the
+poor cloak around her shoulders to keep out the cold, while her father
+lounged here in luxury. He could gladly have buried his lean fingers in
+that fat throat. From the first he had had an aversion to this man.
+
+"Very well, I shall go. It has been a pleasant chat, colonel."
+
+"Very pleasant. And thank you. But before you go, taste this whisky. It
+will help you when you enter the wind."
+
+He opened a cabinet in the side of the chair and brought out a black
+bottle and a pair of glasses and put them on the broad arm of the chair.
+Donnegan sauntered back.
+
+"You see," he murmured, "you will not let me go."
+
+At this the colonel raised his head suddenly and glared into the eyes of
+his guest, and yet so perfect was his muscular and nerve control that he
+did not interrupt the thin stream of amber which trickled into one of
+the glasses. Looking down again, he finished pouring the drinks. They
+pledged each other with a motion, and drank. It was very old, very oily.
+And Donnegan smiled as he put down the empty glass.
+
+"Sit down," said the colonel in a new voice.
+
+Donnegan obeyed.
+
+"Fate," went on the colonel, "rules our lives. We give our honest
+endeavors, but the deciding touch is the hand of Fate."
+
+He garnished this absurd truism with a wave of his hand so solemn that
+Donnegan was chilled; as though the fat man were actually conversant
+with the Three Sisters.
+
+"Fate has brought you to me; therefore, I intend to keep you."
+
+"Here?"
+
+"In my service. I am about to place a great mission and a great trust in
+your hands."
+
+"In the hands of a man you know nothing about?"
+
+"I know you as if I had raised you."
+
+Donnegan smiled, and shaking his head, the red hair flashed and
+shimmered.
+
+"As long as there is no work attached to the mission, it may be
+agreeable to me."
+
+"But there is work."
+
+"Then the contract is broken before it is made."
+
+"You are rash. But I had rather begin with a dissent and then work
+upward."
+
+Donnegan waited.
+
+"To balance against work--"
+
+"Excuse me. Nothing balances against work for me."
+
+"To balance against work," continued the colonel, raising a white hand
+and by that gesture crushing the protest of Donnegan, "there is a great
+reward."
+
+"Colonel Macon, I have never worked for money before and I shall not
+work for it now."
+
+"You trouble me with interruptions. Who mentioned money? You shall not
+have a penny!"
+
+"No?"
+
+"The reward shall grow out of the work."
+
+"And the work?"
+
+"Is fighting."
+
+At this Donnegan narrowed his eyes and searched the fat man thoroughly.
+It sounded like the talk of a charlatan, and yet there was a crispness
+to these sentences that made him suspect something underneath. For that
+matter, in certain districts his name and his career were known. He had
+never dreamed that that reputation could have come within a thousand
+miles of this part of the mountain desert.
+
+"You should have told me in the first place," he said with some anger,
+"that you knew me."
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, upon my honor, I never heard your name before my daughter
+uttered it."
+
+Donnegan waited soberly.
+
+"I despise charlatanry as much as the next man. You shall see the steps
+by which I judged you. When you entered the room I threw a strong light
+upon you. You did not blanch; you immediately walked straight into the
+shaft of light although you could not see a foot before you."
+
+"And that proved?"
+
+"A combative instinct, and coolness; not the sort of brute
+vindictiveness that fights for a rage, for a cool-minded love of
+conflict. Is that clear?"
+
+Donnegan shrugged his shoulders.
+
+"And above all, I need a fighter. Then I watched your eyes and your
+hands. The first were direct and yet they were alert. And your hands
+were perfectly steady."
+
+"Qualifications for a fighter, eh?"
+
+"Do you wish further proof?"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"What of the fight to the death which you went through this same night?"
+
+Donnegan started. It was a small movement, that flinching, and he
+covered it by continuing the upward gesture of his hand to his coat; he
+drew out tobacco and cigarette papers and commenced to roll his smoke.
+Looking up, he saw that the eyes of Colonel Macon were smiling, although
+his face was grave.
+
+A glint of understanding passed between the two men, but not a spoken
+word.
+
+"I assure you, there was no death tonight," said Donnegan at length.
+
+"Tush! Of course not! But the tear on the shoulder of your coat--ah,
+that is too smooth edged for a tear, too long for the bite of a
+scissors. Am I right? Tush! Not a word!"
+
+The colonel beamed with an almost tender pride, and Donnegan, knowing
+that the fat man looked upon him as a murderer, newly come from a
+death, considered the beaming face and thought many things in silence.
+
+"So it was easy to see that in coolness, courage, fighting instinct,
+skill, you were probably what I want. Yet something more than all these
+qualifications is necessary for the task which lies ahead of you."
+
+"You pile up the bad features, eh?"
+
+"To entice you, Donnegan. For one man, paint a rosy beginning, and once
+under way he will manage the hard parts. For you, show you the hard
+shell and you will trust it contains the choice flesh. I was saying,
+that I waited to see other qualities in you; qualities of the judgment.
+And suddenly you flashed upon me a single glance; I felt it clash
+against my willpower. I felt your look go past my guard like a rapier
+slipping around my blade. I, Colonel Macon, was for the first time
+outfaced, out-maneuvered. I admit it, for I rejoice in meeting such a
+man. And the next instant you told me that I should keep you here out of
+my own wish! Admirable!"
+
+The admiration of the colonel, indeed, almost overwhelmed Donnegan, but
+he saw that in spite of the genial smile, the face suffused with warmth,
+the colonel was watching him every instant, flinty-eyed. Donnegan did as
+he had done on the stairs; he burst into laughter.
+
+When he had done, the colonel was leaning forward in his chair with his
+fingers interlacing, examining his guest from beneath somber brows. As
+he sat lurched forward he gave a terrible impression of that reserved
+energy which Donnegan had sensed before.
+
+"Donnegan," said the colonel, "I shall talk no more nonsense to you. You
+are a terrible fellow!"
+
+And Donnegan knew that, for the first time in the colonel's life, he was
+meeting another man upon equal ground.
+
+
+
+
+9
+
+
+In a way, it was an awful tribute, for one great fact grew upon him:
+that the colonel represented almost perfectly the power of absolute
+evil. Donnegan was not a squeamish sort, but the fat, smiling face of
+Macon filled him with unutterable aversion. A dozen times he would have
+left the room, but a silken thread held him back, the thought of Lou.
+
+"I shall be terse and entirely frank," said the colonel, and at once
+Donnegan reared triple guard and balanced himself for attack or defense.
+
+"Between you and me," went on the fat man, "deceptive words are folly. A
+waste of energy." He flushed a little. "You are, I believe, the first
+man who has ever laughed at me." The click of his teeth as he snapped
+them on this sentence seemed to promise that he should also be the last.
+
+"So I tear away the veils which made me ridiculous, I grant you.
+Donnegan, we have met each other just in time."
+
+"True," said Donnegan, "you have a task for me that promises a lot of
+fighting; and in return I get lodgings for the night."
+
+"Wrong, wrong! I offer you much more. I offer you a career of action in
+which you may forget the great sorrow which has fallen upon you: and in
+the battles which lie before you, you will find oblivion for the sad
+past which lies behind you."
+
+Here Donnegan sprang to his feet with his hand caught at his breast; and
+he stood quivering, in an agony. Pain worked him as anger would do, and,
+his slender frame swelling, his muscles taut, he stood like a panther
+enduring the torture because knows it is folly to attempt to escape.
+
+"You are a human devil!" Donnegan said at last, and sank back upon his
+stool. For a moment he was overcome, his head falling upon his breast,
+and even when he looked up his face was terribly pale, and his eyes
+dull. His expression, however, cleared swiftly, and aside from the
+perspiration which shone on his forehead it would have been impossible
+ten seconds later to discover that the blow of the colonel had fallen
+upon him.
+
+All of this the colonel had observed and noted with grim satisfaction.
+Not once did he speak until he saw that all was well.
+
+"I am sorry," he said at length in a voice almost as delicate as the
+voice of Lou Macon. "I am sorry, but you forced me to say more than I
+wished to say."
+
+Donnegan brushed the apology aside.
+
+His voice became low and hurried. "Let us get on in the matter. I am
+eager to learn from you, colonel."
+
+"Very well. Since it seems that there is a place for both our interests
+in this matter, I shall run on in my tale and make it, as I promised you
+before, absolutely frank and curt. I shall not descend into small
+details. I shall give you a main sketch of the high points; for all men
+of mind are apt to be confused by the face of a thing, whereas the heart
+of it is perfectly clear to them."
+
+He settled into his narrative.
+
+"You have heard of The Corner? No? Well, that is not strange; but a few
+weeks ago gold was found in the sands where the valleys of Young Muddy
+and Christobel Rivers join. The Corner is a long, wide triangle of sand,
+and the sand is filled with a gold deposit brought down from the
+headwaters of both rivers and precipitated here, where one current meets
+the other and reduces the resultant stream to sluggishness. The sands
+are rich--very rich!"
+
+He had become a trifle flushed as he talked, and now, perhaps to cover
+his emotion, he carefully selected a cigarette from the humidor beside
+him and lighted it without haste before he spoke another word.
+
+"Long ago I prospected over that valley; a few weeks ago it was brought
+to my attention again. I determined to stake some claims and work them.
+But I could not go myself. I had to send a trustworthy man. Whom should
+I select? There was only one possible. Jack Landis is my ward. A dozen
+years ago his parents died and they sent him to my care, for my fortune
+was then comfortable. I raised him with as much tenderness as I could
+have shown my own son; I lavished on him the affection and--"
+
+Here Donnegan coughed lightly; the fat man paused, and observing that
+this hypocrisy did not draw the veil over the bright eyes of his guest,
+he continued: "In a word, I made him one of my family. And when the need
+for a man came I turned to him. He is young, strong, active, able to
+take care of himself."
+
+At this Donnegan pricked his ears.
+
+"He went, accordingly, to The Corner and staked the claims and filed
+them as I directed. I was right. There was gold. Much gold. It panned
+out in nuggets."
+
+He made an indescribable gesture, and through his strong fingers
+Donnegan had a vision of yellow gold pouring.
+
+"But there is seldom a discovery of importance claimed by one man alone.
+This was no exception. A villain named William Lester, known as a
+scoundrel over the length and breadth of the cattle country, claimed
+that he had made the discovery first. He even went so far as to claim
+that I had obtained my information from him and he tried to jump the
+claims staked by Jack Landis, whereupon Jack, very properly, shot Lester
+down. Not dead, unfortunately, but slightly wounded.
+
+"In the meantime the rush for The Corner started. In a week there was a
+village; in a fortnight there was a town; in a month The Corner had
+become the talk of the ranges. Jack Landis found in the claims a mint.
+He sent me back a mere souvenir."
+
+The fat man produced from his vest pocket a little chunk of yellow and
+with a dexterous motion whipped it at Donnegan. It was done so suddenly,
+so unexpectedly that the wanderer was well-nigh taken by surprise. But
+his hand flashed up and caught the metal before it struck his face. He
+found in the palm of his hand a nugget weighing perhaps five ounces,
+and he flicked it back to the colonel.
+
+"He sent me the souvenir, but that was all. Since that time I have
+waited. Nothing has come. I sent for word, and I learned that Jack
+Landis had betrayed his trust, fallen in love with some undesirable
+woman of the mining camp, denied my claim to any of the gold to which I
+had sent him. Unpleasant news? Yes. Ungrateful boy? Yes. But my mind is
+hardened against adversity.
+
+"Yet this blow struck me close to the heart. Because Landis is engaged
+to marry my daughter, Lou. At first I could hardly believe in his
+disaffection. But the truth has at length been borne home to me. The
+scoundrel has abandoned both Lou and me!"
+
+Donnegan repeated slowly: "Your daughter loves this chap?"
+
+The colonel allowed his glance to narrow, and he could do this the more
+safely because at this moment Donnegan's eyes were wandering into the
+distance. In that unguarded second Donnegan was defenseless and the
+colonel read something that set him beaming.
+
+"She loves him, of course," he said, "and he is breaking her heart with
+his selfishness."
+
+"He is breaking her heart?" echoed Donnegan.
+
+The colonel raised his hand and stroked his enormous chin. Decidedly he
+believed that things were getting on very well.
+
+"This is the position," he declared. "Jack Landis was threatened by the
+wretch Lester, and shot him down. But Lester was not single-handed. He
+belongs to a wild crew, led by a mysterious fellow of whom no one knows
+very much, a deadly fighter, it is said, and a keen organizer and
+handler of men. Red-haired, wild, smooth. A bundle of contradictions.
+They call him Lord Nick because he has the pride of a nobleman and the
+cunning of the devil. He has gathered a few chosen spirits and cool
+fighters--the Pedlar, Joe Rix, Harry Masters--all celebrated names in
+the cattle country.
+
+"They worship Lord Nick partly because he is a genius of crime and
+partly because he understands how to guide them so that they may rob and
+even kill with impunity. His peculiarity is his ability to keep within
+the bounds of the law. If he commits a robbery he always first
+establishes marvelous alibis and throws the blame toward someone else;
+if it is the case of a killing, it is always the other man who is the
+aggressor. He has been before a jury half a dozen times, but the devil
+knows the law and pleads his own case with a tongue that twists the
+hearts out of the stupid jurors. You see? No common man. And this is the
+leader of the group of which Lester is one of the most debased members.
+He had no sooner been shot than Lord Nick himself appeared. He had his
+followers with him. He saw Jack Landis, threatened him with death, and
+made Jack swear that he would hand over half of the profits of the mines
+to the gang--of which, I suppose, Lester gets his due proportion. At the
+same time, Lord Nick attempted to persuade Jack that I, his adopted
+father, you might say, was really in the wrong, and that I had stolen
+the claims from this wretched Lester!"
+
+He waved this disgusting accusation into a mist and laughed with hateful
+softness.
+
+"The result is this: Jack Landis draws a vast revenue from the mines.
+Half of it he turns over to Lord Nick, and Lord Nick in return gives him
+absolute freedom and backing in the camp, where he is, and probably will
+continue the dominant factor. As for the other half, Landis spends it on
+this woman with whom he has become infatuated. And not a penny comes
+through to me!"
+
+Colonel Macon leaned back in his chair and his eyes became fixed upon a
+great distance. He smiled, and the blood turned cold in the veins of
+Donnegan.
+
+"Of course this adventuress, this Nelly Lebrun, plays hand in glove with
+Lord Nick and his troupe; unquestionably she shares her spoils, so that
+nine-tenths of the revenue from the mines is really flowing back through
+the hands of Lord Nick and Jack Landis has become a silly figurehead. He
+struts about the streets of The Corner as a great mine owner, and with
+the power of Lord Nick behind him, not one of the people of the gambling
+houses and dance halls dares cross him. So that Jack has come to
+consider himself a great man. Is it clear?"
+
+Donnegan had not yet drawn his gaze entirely back from the distance.
+
+"This is the possible solution," went on the colonel. "Jack Landis must
+be drawn away from the influence of this Nelly Lebrun. He must be
+brought back to us and shown his folly both as regards the adventuress
+and Lord Nick; for so long as Nelly has a hold on him, just so long
+Lord Nick will have his hand in Jack's pocket. You see how beautifully
+their plans and their work dovetail? How, therefore, am I to draw him
+from Nelly? There is only one way: send my daughter to the camp--send
+Lou to The Corner and let one glimpse of her beauty turn the shabby
+prettiness of this woman to a shadow! Lou is my last hope!"
+
+At this Donnegan wakened. His sneer was not a pleasant thing to see.
+
+"Send her to a new mining camp. Colonel Macon, you have the gambling
+spirit; you are willing to take great chances!"
+
+"So! So!" murmured the colonel, a little taken aback. "But I should
+never send her except with an adequate protector."
+
+"An adequate protector even against these celebrated gunmen who run the
+camp as you have already admitted?"
+
+"An adequate protector--you are the man!"
+
+Donnegan shivered.
+
+"I? I take your daughter to the camp and play her against Nelly Lebrun
+to win back Jack Landis? Is that the scheme?"
+
+"It is."
+
+"Ah," murmured Donnegan. And he got up and began to walk the room,
+white-faced; the colonel watched him in a silent agony of anxiety.
+
+"She truly loves this Landis?" asked Donnegan, swallowing.
+
+"A love that has grown out of their long intimacy together since they
+were children."
+
+"Bah! Calf love! Let the fellow go and she will forget him. Hearts are
+not broken in these days by disappointments in love affairs."
+
+The colonel writhed in his chair.
+
+"But Lou--you do not know her heart!" he suggested. "If you looked
+closely at her you would have seen that she is pale. She does not
+suspect the truth, but I think she is wasting away because Jack hasn't
+written for weeks."
+
+He saw Donnegan wince under the whip.
+
+"It is true," murmured the wanderer. "She is not like others, heaven
+knows!" He turned. "And what if I fail to bring over Jack Landis with
+the sight of Lou?"
+
+The colonel relaxed; the great crisis was past and Donnegan would
+undertake the journey.
+
+"In that case, my dear lad, there is an expedient so simple that you
+astonish me by not perceiving it. If there is no way to wean Landis away
+from the woman, then get him alone and shoot him through the heart. In
+that way you remove from the life of Lou a man unworthy of her and you
+also make the mines come to the heir of Jack Landis--namely, myself. And
+in the latter case, Mr. Donnegan, be sure--oh, be sure that I should not
+forget who brought the mines into my hands!"
+
+
+
+
+10
+
+
+Fifty miles over any sort of going is a stiff march. Fifty miles uphill
+and down and mostly over districts where there was only a rough cow path
+in lieu of a road made a prodigious day's work; and certainly it was an
+almost incredible feat for one who professed to hate work with a
+consuming passion and who had looked upon an eight-mile jaunt the night
+before as an insuperable burden. Yet such was the distance which
+Donnegan had covered, and now he drove the pack mule out on the shoulder
+of the hill in full view of The Corner with the triangle of the Young
+Muddy and Christobel Rivers embracing the little town. Even the gaunt,
+leggy mule was tired to the dropping point, and the tough buckskin which
+trailed up behind went with downward head. When Louise Macon turned to
+him, he had reached the point where he swung his head around first and
+then grudgingly followed the movement with his body. The girl was tired,
+also, in spite of the fact that she had covered every inch of the
+distance in the saddle. There was that violet shade of weariness under
+her eyes and her shoulders slumped forward. Only Donnegan, the hater of
+labor, was fresh.
+
+They had started in the first dusk of the coming day; it was now the
+yellow time of the slant afternoon sunlight; between these two points
+there had been a body of steady plodding. The girl had looked askance at
+that gaunt form of Donnegan's when they began; but before three hours,
+seeing that the spring never left his step nor the swinging rhythm his
+stride, she began to wonder. This afternoon, nothing he did could have
+surprised her. From the moment he entered the house the night before he
+had been a mystery. Till her death day she would not forget the fire
+with which he had stared up at her from the foot of the stairs. But when
+he came out of her father's room--not cowed and whipped as most men left
+it--he had looked at her with a veiled glance, and since that moment
+there had always been a mist of indifference over his eyes when he
+looked at her.
+
+In the beginning of that day's march all she knew was that her father
+trusted her to this stranger, Donnegan, to take her to The Corner, where
+he was to find Jack Landis and bring Jack back to his old allegiance and
+find what he was doing with his time and his money. It was a quite
+natural proceeding, for Jack was a wild sort, and he was probably
+gambling away all the gold that was dug in his mines. It was perfectly
+natural throughout, except that she should have been trusted so entirely
+to a stranger. That was a remarkable thing, but, then, her father was a
+remarkable man, and it was not the first time that his actions had been
+inscrutable, whether concerning her or the affairs of other people. She
+had heard men come into their house cursing Colonel Macon with death in
+their faces; she had seen them sneak out after a soft-voiced interview
+and never appear again. In her eyes, her father was invincible,
+all-powerful. When she thought of superlatives, she thought of him. Her
+conception of mystery was the smile of the colonel, and her conception
+of tenderness was bounded by the gentle voice of the same man.
+Therefore, it was entirely sufficient to her that the colonel had said:
+"Go, and trust everything to Donnegan. He has the power to command you
+and you must obey--until Jack comes back to you."
+
+That was odd, for, as far as she knew, Jack had never left her. But she
+had early discarded any will to question her father. Curiosity was a
+thing which the fat man hated above all else.
+
+Therefore, it was really not strange to her that throughout the journey
+her guide did not speak half a dozen words to her. Once or twice when
+she attempted to open the conversation he had replied with crushing
+monosyllables, and there was an end. For the rest, he was always
+swinging down the trail ahead of her at a steady, unchanging, rapid
+stride. Uphill and down it never varied. And so they came out upon the
+shoulder of the hill and saw the storm center of The Corner. They were
+in the hills behind the town; two miles would bring them into it. And
+now Donnegan came back to her from the mule. He took off his hat and
+shook the dust away; he brushed a hand across his face. He was still
+unshaven. The red stubble made him hideous, and the dust and
+perspiration covered his face as with a mask. Only his eyes were rimmed
+with white skin.
+
+"You'd better get off the horse, here," said Donnegan.
+
+He held her stirrup, and she obeyed without a word.
+
+"Sit down."
+
+She sat down on the flat-topped boulder which he designated, and,
+looking up, observed the first sign of emotion in his face. He was
+frowning, and his face was drawn a little.
+
+"You are tired," he stated.
+
+"A little."
+
+"You are tired," said the wanderer in a tone that implied dislike of any
+denial. Therefore she made no answer. "I'm going down into the town to
+look things over. I don't want to parade you through the streets until I
+know where Landis is to be found and how he'll receive you. The Corner
+is a wild town; you understand?"
+
+"Yes," she said blankly, and noted nervously that the reply did not
+please him. He actually scowled at her.
+
+"You'll be all right here. I'll leave the pack mule with you; if
+anything should happen--but nothing is going to happen, I'll be back in
+an hour or so. There's a pool of water. You can get a cold drink there
+and wash up if you want to while I'm gone. But don't go to sleep!"
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"A place like this is sure to have a lot of stragglers hunting around
+it. Bad characters. You understand?"
+
+She could not understand why he should make a mystery of it; but then,
+he was almost as strange as her father. His careful English and his
+ragged clothes were typical of him inside and out.
+
+"You have a gun there in your holster. Can you use it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Try it."
+
+It was a thirty-two, a woman's light weapon. She took it out and
+balanced it in her hand.
+
+"The blue rock down the hillside. Let me see you chip it."
+
+Her hand went up, and without pausing to sight along the barrel, she
+fired; fire flew from the rock, and there appeared a white, small scar.
+Donnegan sighed with relief.
+
+"If you squeezed the butt rather than pulled the trigger," he commented,
+"you would have made a bull's-eye that time. Now, I don't mean that in
+any likelihood you'll have to defend yourself. I simply want you to be
+aware that there's plenty of trouble around The Corner."
+
+"Yes," said the girl.
+
+"You're not afraid?"
+
+"Oh, no."
+
+Donnegan settled his hat a little more firmly upon his head. He had been
+on the verge of attributing her gentleness to a blank, stupid mind; he
+began to realize that there was metal under the surface. He felt that
+some of the qualities of the father were echoed faintly, and at a
+distance, in the child. In a way, she made him think of an unawakened
+creature. When she was roused, if the time ever came, it might be that
+her eye could become a thing alternately of fire and ice, and her voice
+might carry with a ring.
+
+"This business has to be gotten through quickly," he went on. "One
+meeting with Jack Landis will be enough."
+
+She wondered why he set his jaw when he said this, but he was wondering
+how deeply the colonel's ward had fallen into the clutches of Nelly
+Lebrun. If that first meeting did not bring Landis to his senses, what
+followed? One of two things. Either the girl must stay on in The Corner
+and try her hand with her fiance again, or else the final brutal
+suggestion of the colonel must be followed; he must kill Landis. It was
+a cold-blooded suggestion, but Donnegan was a cold-blooded man. As he
+looked at the girl, where she sat on the boulder, he knew definitely,
+first and last, that he loved her, and that he would never again love
+any other woman. Every instinct drew him toward the necessity of
+destroying Landis. There was his stumbling block. But what if she truly
+loved Landis?
+
+He would have to wait in order to find that out. And as he stood there
+with the sun shining on the red stubble on his face he made a resolution
+the more profound because it was formed in silence: if she truly loved
+Landis he would serve her hand and foot until she had her will.
+
+But all he said was simply: "I shall be back before it's dark."
+
+"I shall be comfortable here," replied the girl, and smiled farewell at
+him.
+
+And while Donnegan went down the slope full of darkness he thought of
+that smile.
+
+The Corner spread more clearly before him with every step he made. It
+was a type of the gold-rush town. Of course most of the dwellings were
+tents--dog tents many of them; but there was a surprising sprinkling of
+wooden shacks, some of them of considerable size. Beginning at the very
+edge of the town and spread over the sand flats were the mines and the
+black sprinkling of laborers. And the town itself was roughly jumbled
+around one street. Over to the left the main road into The Corner
+crossed the wide, shallow ford of the Young Muddy River and up this road
+he saw half a dozen wagons coming, wagons of all sizes; but nothing went
+out of The Corner. People who came stayed there, it seemed.
+
+He dropped over the lower hills, and the voice of the gold town rose to
+him. It was a murmur like that of an army preparing for battle. Now and
+then a blast exploded, for what purpose he could not imagine in this
+school of mining. But as a rule the sounds were subdued by the distance.
+He caught the muttering of many voices, in which laughter and shouts
+were brought to the level of a whisper at close hand; and through all
+this there was a persistent clangor of metallic sounds. No doubt from
+the blacksmith shops where picks and other implements were made or
+sharpened and all sorts of repairing carried on. But the predominant
+tone of the voice of The Corner was this persistent ringing of metal. It
+suggested to Donnegan that here was a town filled with men of iron and
+all the gentler parts of their natures forgotten. An odd place to bring
+such a woman as Lou Macon, surely!
+
+He reached the level, and entered the town.
+
+
+
+
+11
+
+
+Hunting for news, he went naturally to the news emporium which took the
+place of the daily paper--namely, he went to the saloons. But on the way
+he ran through a liberal cross-section of The Corner's populace. First
+of all, the tents and the ruder shacks. He saw little sheet-iron stoves
+with the tin dishes piled, unwashed, upon the tops of them when the
+miners rushed back to their work; broken handles of picks and shovels;
+worn-out shirts and overalls lay where they had been tossed; here was a
+flat strip of canvas supported by four four-foot poles and without
+shelter at the sides, and the belongings of one careless miner tumbled
+beneath this miserable shelter; another man had striven for some
+semblance of a home and he had framed a five-foot walk leading up to the
+closed flap of his tent with stones of a regular size. But nowhere was
+there a sign of life, and would not be until semidarkness brought the
+unwilling workers back to the tents.
+
+Out of this district he passed quickly onto the main street, and here
+there was a different atmosphere. The first thing he saw was a man
+dressed as a cowpuncher from belt to spurs--spurs on a miner--but above
+the waist he blossomed in a frock coat and a silk hat. Around the coat
+he had fastened his belt, and the shirt beneath the coat was common
+flannel, open at the throat. He walked, or rather staggered, on the arm
+of an equally strange companion who was arrayed in a white silk shirt,
+white flannel trousers, white dancing pumps, and a vast sombrero! But as
+if this was not sufficient protection for his head, he carried a parasol
+of the most brilliant green silk and twirled it above his head. The two
+held a wavering course and went blindly past Donnegan.
+
+It was sufficiently clear that the storekeeper had followed the gold.
+
+He noted a cowboy sitting in his saddle while he rolled a cigarette.
+Obviously he had come in to look things over rather than to share in the
+mining, and he made the one sane, critical note in the carnival of noise
+and color. Donnegan began to pass stores. There was the jeweler's; the
+gent's furnishing; a real estate office--what could real estate be doing
+on the Young Muddy's desert? Here was the pawnshop, the windows of which
+were already packed. The blacksmith had a great establishment, and the
+roar of the anvils never died away; feed and grain and a dozen
+lunch-counter restaurants. All this had come to The Corner within six
+weeks.
+
+Liquor seemed to be plentiful, too. In the entire length of the street
+he hardly saw a sober man, except the cowboy. Half a dozen in one group
+pitched silver dollars at a mark. But he was in the saloon district now,
+and dominant among the rest was the big, unpainted front of a building
+before which hung an enormous sign:
+
+LEBRUN'S JOY EMPORIUM
+
+Donnegan turned in under the sign.
+
+It was one big room. The bar stretched completely around two sides of
+it. The floor was dirt, but packed to the hardness of wood. The low roof
+was supported by a scattering of wooden pillars, and across the floor
+the gaming tables were spread. At that vast bar not ten men were
+drinking now; at the crowding tables there were not half a dozen
+players; yet behind the bar stood a dozen tenders ready to meet the
+evening rush from the mines. And at the tables waited an equal number of
+the professional gamblers of the house.
+
+From the door Donnegan observed these things with one sweeping glance,
+and then proceeded to transform himself. One jerk at the visor of his
+cap brought it down over his eyes and covered his face with shadow; a
+single shrug bunched the ragged coat high around his shoulders, and the
+shoulders themselves he allowed to drop forward. With his hands in his
+pockets he glided slowly across the room toward the bar, for all the
+world a picture of the guttersnipe who had been kicked from pillar to
+post until self-respect is dead in him. And pausing in his advance, he
+leaned against one of the pillars and looked hungrily toward the bar.
+
+He was immediately hailed from behind the bar with: "Hey, you. No tramps
+in here. Pay and stay in Lebrun's!"
+
+The command brought an immediate protest. A big fellow stepped from the
+bar, his sombrero pushed to the back of his head, his shirt sleeves
+rolled to the elbow away from vast hairy forearms. One of his long arms
+swept out and brought Donnegan to the bar.
+
+"I ain't no prophet," declared the giant, "but I can spot a man that's
+dry. What'll you have, bud?" And to the bartender he added: "Leave him
+be, pardner, unless you're all set for considerable noise in here."
+
+"Long as his drinks are paid for," muttered the bartender, "here he
+stays. But these floaters do make me tired!"
+
+He jabbed the bottle across the bar at Donnegan and spun a glass noisily
+at him, and the "floater" observed the angry bartender with a frightened
+side glance, and then poured his drink gingerly. When the glass was half
+full he hesitated and sought the face of the bartender again, for
+permission to go on.
+
+"Fill her up!" commanded the giant. "Fill her up, lad, and drink
+hearty."
+
+"I never yet," observed the bartender darkly, "seen a beggar that wasn't
+a hog."
+
+At this Donnegan's protector shifted his belt so that the holster came a
+little more forward on his thigh.
+
+"Son," he said, "how long you been in these parts?"
+
+"Long enough," declared the other, and lowered his black brows. "Long
+enough to be sick of it."
+
+"Maybe, maybe," returned the cowpuncher-miner, "meantime you tie to
+this. We got queer ways out here. When a gent drinks with us he's our
+friend. This lad here is my pardner, just now. If I was him I would of
+knocked your head off before now for what you've said--"
+
+"I don't want no trouble," Donnegan said whiningly.
+
+At this the bartender chuckled, and the miner showed his teeth in his
+disgust.
+
+"Every gent has got his own way," he said sourly. "But while you drink
+with Hal Stern you drink with your chin up, bud. And don't forget it.
+And them that tries to run over you got to run over me."
+
+Saying this, he laid his large left hand on the bar and leaned a little
+toward the bartender, but his right hand remained hanging loosely at his
+side. It was near the holster, as Donnegan noticed. And the bartender,
+having met the boring glance of the big man for a moment, turned surlily
+away. The giant looked to Donnegan and observed: "Know a good definition
+of the word, skunk?"
+
+"Nope," said Donnegan, brightening now that the stern eye, of the
+bartender was turned away.
+
+"Here's one that might do. A skunk is a critter that bites when your
+back is turned and runs when you look it in the eye. Here's how!"
+
+He drained his own glass, and Donnegan dexterously followed the example.
+
+"And what might you be doing around these parts?" asked the big man,
+veiling his contempt under a mild geniality.
+
+"Me? Oh, nothing."
+
+"Looking for a job, eh?"
+
+Donnegan shrugged.
+
+"Work ain't my line," he confided.
+
+"H'm-m-m," said Hal Stern. "Well, you don't make no bones about it."
+
+"But just now," continued Donnegan, "I thought maybe I'd pick up some
+sort of a job for a while." He looked ruefully at the palms of his hands
+which were as tender as the hands of a woman. "Heard a fellow say that
+Jack Landis was a good sort to work for--didn't rush his men none. They
+said I might find him here."
+
+The big man grunted.
+
+"Too early for him. He don't circulate around much till the sun goes
+down. Kind of hard on his skin, the sun, maybe. So you're going to work
+for him?"
+
+"I was figuring on it."
+
+"Well, tie to this, bud. If you work for him you won't have him over
+you."
+
+"No?"
+
+"No, you'll have"--he glanced a little uneasily around him--"Lord Nick."
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"Who's he?" The big man started in astonishment. "Sufferin' catamounts!
+Who is he?" He laughed in a disagreeable manner. "Well, son, you'll
+find out, right enough!"
+
+"The way you talk, he don't sound none too good."
+
+Hal Stern grew anxious. "The way I talk? Have I said anything agin' him?
+Not a word! He's--he's--well, there ain't ever been trouble between us
+and there never ain't going to be." He flushed and looked steadily at
+Donnegan. "Maybe he sent you to talk to me?" he asked coldly.
+
+But Donnegan's eyes took on a childish wideness.
+
+"Why, I never seen him," he declared. Hall Stern allowed the muscles of
+his face to relax. "All right," he said, "they's no harm done. But Lord
+Nick is a name that ain't handled none too free in these here parts.
+Remember that!"
+
+"But how," pondered Donnegan, "can I be working for Lord Nick when I
+sign up to work under Jack Landis?"
+
+"I'll tell you how. Nick and Lebrun work together. Split profits. And
+Nelly Lebrun works Landis for his dust. So the stuff goes in a
+circle--Landis to Nelly to Lebrun to Nick. That clear?"
+
+"I don't quite see it," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"I didn't think you would," declared the other, and snorted his disgust.
+"But that's all I'm going to say. Here come the boys--and dead dry!"
+
+For the afternoon was verging upon evening, and the first drift of
+laborers from the mines was pouring into The Corner. One thing at least
+was clear to Donnegan: that everyone knew how infatuated Landis had
+become with Nelly Lebrun and that Landis had not built up an
+extraordinarily good name for himself.
+
+
+
+
+12
+
+
+By the time absolute darkness had set in, Donnegan, in the new role of
+lady's chaperon, sat before a dying fire with Louise Macon beside him.
+He had easily seen from his talk with Stern that Landis was a public
+figure, whether from the richness of his claims or his relations with
+Lord Nick and Lebrun, or because of all these things; but as a public
+figure it would be impossible to see him alone in his own tent, and
+unless Louise could meet him alone half her power over him--supposing
+that she still retained any--would be lost. Better by far that Landis
+should come to her than that she should come to him, so Donnegan had
+rented two tents by the day at an outrageous figure from the
+enterprising real estate company of The Corner and to this new home he
+brought the girl.
+
+She accepted the arrangement with surprising equanimity. It seemed that
+her father's training had eliminated from her mind any questioning of
+the motives of others. She became even cheerful as she set about
+arranging the pack which Donnegan put in her tent. Afterward she cooked
+their supper over the fire which he built for her. Never was there such
+a quick house-settling. And by the time it was absolutely dark they had
+washed the dishes and sat before Lou's tent looking over the night
+lights of The Corner and hearing the voice of its Great White Way
+opening.
+
+She had not even asked why he did not bring her straight to Jack Landis.
+She had looked into Donnegan's tent, furnished with a single blanket and
+his canvas kit, and had offered to share her pack with him. And now they
+sat side by side before the tent and still she asked no questions about
+what was to come.
+
+Her silence was to Donnegan the dropping of the water upon the hard
+rock. He was crumbling under it, and a wild hatred for the colonel rose
+in him. No doubt that spirit of evil had foreseen all this; and he knew
+that every moment spent with the girl would drive Donnegan on closer to
+the accomplishment of the colonel's great purpose--the death of Jack
+Landis. For the colonel, as Jack's next of kin, would take over all his
+mining interests and free them at a stroke from the silent partnership
+which apparently existed with Lord Nick and Lester. One bullet would do
+all this: and with Jack dead, who else stood close to the girl? It was
+only necessary that she should not know who sped the bullet home.
+
+A horrible fancy grew up in Donnegan, as he sat there, that between him
+and the girl lay a dead body.
+
+He was glad when the time came and he could tell her that he was going
+down to The Corner to find Jack Landis and bring him to her. She rose to
+watch him go and he heard her say "Come soon!"
+
+It shocked Donnegan into realization that for all her calm exterior she
+was perfectly aware of the danger of her position in the wild mining
+camp. She must know, also, that her reputation would be compromised; yet
+never once had she winced, and Donnegan was filled with wonder as he
+went down the hill toward the camp which was spread beneath him; for
+their tents were a little detached from the main body of the town.
+Behind her gentle eyes, he now felt, and under the softness of her
+voice, there was the same iron nerve that was in her father. Her hatred
+could be a deathless passion, and her love also; and the great question
+to be answered now was, did she truly love Jack Landis?
+
+The Corner at night was like a scene at a circus. There was the same
+rush of people, the same irregular flush of lights, the same glimmer of
+lanterns through canvas, the same air of impermanence. Once, in one of
+those hushes which will fall upon every crowd, he heard a coyote wailing
+sharply and far away, as though the desert had sent out this voice to
+mock at The Corner and all it contained.
+
+He had only to ask once to discover where Landis was: Milligan's dance
+hall. Before Milligan's place a bonfire burned from the beginning of
+dusk to the coming of day; and until the time when that fire was
+quenched with buckets of water, it was a sign to all that the merriment
+was under way in the dance hall. If Lebrun's was the sun of the
+amusement world in The Corner, Milligan's was the moon. Everybody who
+had money to lose went to Lebrun's. Every one who was out for gayety
+went to Milligan's. Milligan was a plunger. He had brought up an
+orchestra which demanded fifteen dollars a day and he paid them that and
+more. He not only was able to do this, but he established a bar at the
+entrance from which all who entered were served with a free drink. The
+entrance, also, was not subject to charge. The initial drink at the door
+was spiced to encourage thirst, so Milligan made money as fast, and far
+more easily, than if he had been digging it out of the ground.
+
+To the door of this pleasure emporium came Donnegan. He had transformed
+himself into the ragged hobo by the jerking down of his cap again, and
+the hunching of his shoulders. And shrinking past the bar with a hungry
+sidewise glance, as one who did not dare present himself for free
+liquor, he entered Milligan's.
+
+That is, he had put his foot across the threshold when he was caught
+roughly by the shoulder and dragged to one side. He found himself
+looking up into the face of a strapping fellow who served Milligan as
+bouncer. Milligan had an eye for color. Andy Lewis was tolerably well
+known as a fighting man of parts, who not only wore two guns but could
+use them both at once, which is much more difficult than is generally
+understood. But far more than for his fighting parts Milligan hired his
+bouncer for the sake of his face. It was a countenance made to
+discourage trouble makers. A mule had kicked Lewis in the chin, and a
+great white welt deformed his lower lip. Scars of smallpox added to his
+decorative effect, and he had those extremely bushy brows which for some
+reason are generally considered to denote ferocity. Now, Donnegan was
+not above middle height at best, and in his present shrinking attitude
+he found himself looking up a full head into the formidable face of the
+bouncer.
+
+"And what are you doing in here?" asked the genial Andy. "Don't you know
+this joint is for white folks?"
+
+"I ain't colored," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"You took considerable yaller to me," declared Lewis. He straightway
+chuckled, and his own keen appreciation of his wit softened his
+expression. "What you want?"
+
+Donnegan shivered under his rags.
+
+"I want to see Jack Landis," he said.
+
+It had a wonderful effect upon the doorkeeper. Donnegan found that the
+very name of Landis was a charm of power in The Corner.
+
+"You want to see him?" he queried in amazement. "You?"
+
+He looked Donnegan over again, and then grinned broadly, as if in
+anticipation. "Well, go ahead. There he sits--no, he's dancing."
+
+The music was in full swing; it was chiefly brass; but now and then, in
+softer moments, one could hear a violin squeaking uncertainly. At least
+it went along with a marked, regular rhythm, and the dancers swirled
+industriously around the floor. A very gay crowd; color was apparently
+appreciated in The Corner. And Donnegan, standing modestly out of sight
+behind a pillar until the dance ended, noted twenty phases of life in
+twenty faces. And Donnegan saw the flushes of liquor, and heard the loud
+voices of happy fellows who had made their "strikes"; but in all that
+brilliant crew he had no trouble in picking out Jack Landis and Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+They danced together, and where they passed, the others steered a little
+off so as to give them room on the dance floor, as if the men feared
+that they might cross the formidable Landis, and as if the women feared
+to be brought into too close comparison with Nelly Lebrun. She was,
+indeed, a brilliant figure. She had eyes of the Creole duskiness, a
+delicate olive skin, with a pastel coloring. The hand on the shoulder of
+Landis was a thing of fairy beauty. And her eyes had that peculiar
+quality of seeming to see everything, and rest on every face
+particularly. So that, as she whirled toward Donnegan, he winced,
+feeling that she had found him out among the shadows.
+
+She had a glorious partner to set her off. And Donnegan saw bitterly
+why Lou Macon could love him. Height without clumsiness, bulk and a
+light foot at once, a fine head, well poised, blond hair and a Grecian
+profile--such was Jack Landis. He wore a vest of fawn skin; his boots
+were black in the foot and finished with the softest red leather for the
+leg. And he had yellow buckskin trousers, laced in a Mexican fashion
+with silver at the sides; a narrow belt, a long, red silk handkerchief
+flying from behind his neck in cowboy fashion. So much flashing
+splendor, even in that gay assembly, would have been childishly
+conspicuous on another man. But in big Jack Landis there was patently a
+great deal of the unaffected child. He was having a glorious time on
+this evening, and his eye roved the room challenging admiration in a
+manner that was amusing rather than offensive. He was so overflowingly
+proud of having the prettiest girl in The Corner upon his arm and so
+conscious of being himself probably the finest-looking man that he
+escaped conceit, it might almost be said, by his very excess of it.
+
+Upon this splendid individual, then, the obscure Donnegan bent his gaze.
+He saw the dancers pause and scatter as the music ended, saw them drift
+to the tables along the edges of the room, saw the scurry of waiters
+hurrying drinks up in the interval, saw Nelly Lebrun sip a lemonade, saw
+Jack Landis toss off something stronger. And then Donnegan skirted
+around the room and came to the table of Jack Landis at the very moment
+when the latter was tossing a gold piece to the waiter and giving a new
+order.
+
+Prodigal sons in the distance of thought are apt to be both silly: and
+disgusting, but at close hand they usually dazzle the eye. Even the cold
+brain of Donnegan was daunted a little as he drew near.
+
+He came behind the chair of the tall master of The Corner, and while
+Nelly Lebrun stopped her glass halfway to her lips and stared at the
+ragged stranger, Donnegan was whispering in the ear of Jack Landis:
+"I've got to see you alone."
+
+Landis turned his head slowly and his eye darkened a little as he met
+the reddish, unshaven face of the stranger. Then, with a careless shrug
+of distaste, he drew out a few coins and poured them into Donnegan's
+palm; the latter pocketed them.
+
+"Lou Macon," said Donnegan.
+
+Jack Landis rose from his chair, and it was not until he stood so close
+to Donnegan that the latter realized the truly Herculean proportions of
+the young fellow. He bowed his excuses to Nelly Lebrun, not without
+grace of manner, and then huddled Donnegan into a corner with a wave of
+his vast arm.
+
+"Now what do you want? Who are you? Who put that name in your mouth?"
+
+"She's in The Corner," said Donnegan, and he dwelt upon the face of Jack
+Landis with feverish suspense. A moment later a great weight had slipped
+from his heart. If Lou Macon loved Landis it was beyond peradventure
+that Landis was not breaking his heart because of the girl. For at her
+name he flushed darkly, and then, that rush of color fading, he was left
+with a white spot in the center of each cheek.
+
+
+
+
+13
+
+
+First his glance plunged into vacancy; then it flicked over his shoulder
+at Nelly Lebrun and he bit his lip. Plainly, it was not the most welcome
+news that Jack Landis had ever heard.
+
+"Where is she?" he asked nervously of Donnegan, and he looked over the
+ragged fellow again.
+
+"I'll take you to her."
+
+The big man swayed back and forth from foot to foot, balancing in his
+hesitation. "Wait a moment."
+
+He strode to Nelly Lebrun and bent over her; Donnegan saw her eyes flash
+up--oh, heart of the south, what eyes of shadow and fire! Jack Landis
+trembled under the glance; yes, he was deeply in love with the girl. And
+Donnegan watched her face shade with suspicion, stiffen with cold anger,
+warm and soften again under the explanations of Jack Landis.
+
+Donnegan, looking from the distance, could read everything; it is
+nearness that bewitches a man when he talks to a woman. When Odysseus
+talked to Circe, no doubt he stood on the farther side of the room!
+
+When Landis came again, he was perspiring from the trial of fire
+through which he had just passed.
+
+"Come," he ordered, and set out at a sweeping stride.
+
+Plainly he was anxious to get this matter done with as soon as possible.
+As for Donnegan, he saw a man whom Landis had summoned to take his place
+sit down at the table with Nelly Lebrun. She was laughing with the
+newcomer as though nothing troubled her at all, but over his shoulder
+her glance probed the distance and followed Jack Landis. She wanted to
+see the messenger again, the man who had called her companion away; but
+in this it was fox challenging fox. Donnegan took note and was careful
+to place between him and the girl every pillar and every group of
+people. As far as he was concerned, her first glance must do to read and
+judge and remember him by.
+
+Outside Landis shot several questions at him in swift succession; he
+wanted to know how the girl had happened to make the trip. Above all,
+what the colonel was thinking and doing and if the colonel himself had
+come. But Donnegan replied with monosyllables, and Landis, apparently
+reconciling himself to the fact that the messenger was a fool, ceased
+his questions. They kept close to a run all the way out of the camp and
+up the hillside to the two detached tents where Donnegan and the girl
+slept that night. A lantern burned in both the tents.
+
+"She has made things ready for me," thought Donnegan, his heart opening.
+"She has kept house for me!"
+
+He pointed out Lou's tent to his companion and the big man, with a
+single low word of warning, threw open the flap of the tent and strode
+in.
+
+There was only the split part of a second between the rising and the
+fall of the canvas, but in that swift interval, Donnegan saw the girl
+starting up to receive Landis. Her calm was broken at last. Her cheeks
+were flushed; her eyes were starry with what? Expectancy? Love?
+
+It stopped Donnegan like a blow in the face and turned his heart to
+lead; and then, shamelessly, he glided around the tent and dropped down
+beside it to eavesdrop. After all, there was some excuse. If she loved
+the man he, Donnegan, would let him live; if she did not love him, he,
+Donnegan, would kill him like a worthless rat under heel. That is, if he
+could. No wonder that the wanderer listened with heart and soul!
+
+He missed the first greeting. It was only a jumble of exclamations, but
+now he heard: "But, Lou, what a wild idea. Across the mountains--with
+whom?"
+
+"The man who brought you here."
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"I don't know."
+
+"You don't know? He looks like a shifty little rat to me."
+
+"He's big enough, Jack."
+
+Such small praise was enough to set Donnegan's heart thumping.
+
+"Besides, father told me to go with him, to trust him."
+
+"Ah!" There was an abrupt chilling and lowering of Landis' voice. "The
+colonel knows him? He's one of the colonel's men?"
+
+Plainly the colonel was to him as the rod to the child.
+
+"Why didn't you come directly to me?"
+
+"We thought it would be better not to."
+
+"H'm-m. Your guide--well, what was the colonel's idea in sending you
+here? Heavens above, doesn't he know that a mining camp is no place for
+a young girl? And you haven't a sign of a chaperon, Lou! What the devil
+can I do? What was in his mind?"
+
+"You haven't written for a long time."
+
+"Good Lord! Written! Letters! Does he think I have time for letters?"
+The lie came smoothly enough. "Working day and night?"
+
+Donnegan smoothed his whiskers and grinned into the night. Landis might
+prove better game than he had anticipated.
+
+"He worried," said the girl, and her voice was as even as ever. "He
+worried, and sent me to find out if anything is wrong."
+
+Then: "Nonsense! What is there to worry about? Lou, I'm half inclined to
+think that the colonel doesn't trust me!"
+
+She did not answer. Was she reading beneath the boisterous assurance of
+Landis?
+
+"One thing is clear to me--and to you, too, I hope. The first thing is
+to send you back in a hurry."
+
+Still no answer.
+
+"Lou, do you distrust me?"
+
+At length she managed to speak, but it was with some difficulty: "There
+is another reason for sending me."
+
+"Tell me."
+
+"Can't you guess, Jack?"
+
+"I'm not a mind reader."
+
+"The cad," said Donnegan through his teeth.
+
+"It's the old reason."
+
+"Money?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+A shadow swept across the side of the tent; it was Landis waving his arm
+carelessly.
+
+"If that's all, I can fix you up and send you back with enough to carry
+the colonel along. Look here--why, I have five hundred with me. Take it,
+Lou. There's more behind it, but the colonel mustn't think that there's
+as much money in the mines as people say. No idea how much living costs
+up here. Heavens, no! And the prices for labor! And then they shirk the
+job from dawn to dark. I have to watch 'em every minute, I tell you!"
+
+He sighed noisily.
+
+"But the end of it is, dear"--how that small word tore into the heart of
+Donnegan, who crouched outside--"that you must go back tomorrow morning.
+I'd send you tonight, if I could. As a matter of fact, I don't trust the
+red-haired rat who--"
+
+The girl interrupted while Donnegan still had control of his
+hair-trigger temper.
+
+"You forget, Jack. Father sent me here, but he did not tell me to come
+back."
+
+At this Jack Landis burst into an enormous laughter.
+
+"You don't mean, Lou, that you actually intend to stay on?"
+
+"What else can I mean?"
+
+"Of course it makes it awkward if the colonel didn't expressly tell you
+just what to do. I suppose he left it to my discretion, and I decide
+definitely that you must go back at once."
+
+"I can't do it."
+
+"Lou, don't you hear me saying that I'll take the responsibility? If
+your father blames you let him tell me--"
+
+He broke down in the middle of his sentence and another of those
+uncomfortable little pauses ensued. Donnegan knew that their eyes were
+miserably upon each other; the man tongue-tied by his guilt; the girl
+wretchedly guessing at the things which lay behind her fiance's words.
+
+"I'm sorry you don't want me here."
+
+"It isn't that, but--"
+
+He apparently expected to be interrupted, but she waited coolly for him
+to finish the sentence, and, of course, he could not. After all, for a
+helpless girl she had a devilish effective way of muzzling Landis.
+Donnegan chuckled softly in admiration.
+
+All at once she broke through the scene; her voice did not rise or
+harden, but it was filled with finality, as though she were weary of the
+interview.
+
+"I'm tired out; it's been a hard ride, Jack. You go home now and look me
+up again any time tomorrow."
+
+"I--Lou--I feel mighty bad about having you up here in this infernal
+tent, when the camp is full, and--":
+
+"You can't lie across the entrance to my tent and guard me, Jack.
+Besides, I don't need you for that. The man who's with me will protect
+me."
+
+"He doesn't look capable of protecting a cat!"
+
+"My father said that in any circumstances he would be able to take care
+of me."
+
+This reply seemed to overwhelm Landis.
+
+"The colonel trusts him as far as all that?" he muttered. "Then I
+suppose you're safe enough. But what about comfort, Lou?"
+
+"I've done without comfort all my life. Run along, Jack. And take this
+money with you. I can't have it."
+
+"But, didn't the colonel send--"
+
+"You can express it through to him. To me it's--not pleasant to take
+it."
+
+"Why, Lou, you don't mean--"
+
+"Good night, Jack. I don't mean anything, except that I'm tired."
+
+The shadow swept along the wall of the tent again. Donnegan, with a
+shaking pulse, saw the profile of the girl and the man approach as he
+strove to take her in his arms and kiss her good night. And then one
+slender bar of shadow checked Landis.
+
+"Not tonight."
+
+"Lou, you aren't angry with me?"
+
+"No. But you know I have queer ways. Just put this down as one of them.
+I can't explain."
+
+There was a muffled exclamation and Landis went from the tent and strode
+down the hill; he was instantly lost in the night. But Donnegan, turning
+to the entrance flap, called softly. He was bidden to come in, and when
+he raised the flap he saw her sitting with her hands clasped loosely and
+resting upon her knees. Her lips were a little parted, and colorless;
+her eyes were dull with a mist; and though she rallied herself a little,
+the wanderer could see that she was only half-aware of him.
+
+The face which he saw was a milestone in his life. For he had loved her
+jealously, fiercely before; but seeing her now, dazed, hurt, and
+uncomplaining, tenderness came into Donnegan. It spread to his heart
+with a strange pain and made his hands tremble.
+
+All that he said was: "Is there anything you need?"
+
+"Nothing," she replied, and he backed out and away.
+
+But in that small interval he had turned out of the course of his gay,
+selfish life. If Jack Landis had hurt her like this--if she loved him so
+truly--then Jack Landis she should have.
+
+There was an odd mixture of emotions in Donnegan; but he felt most
+nearly like the poor man from whose hand his daughter tugs back and
+looks wistfully, hopelessly, into the bright window at all the toys.
+What pain is there greater than the pain that comes to the poor man in
+such a time? He huddles his coat about him, for his heart is as cold as
+a Christmas day; and if it would make his child happy, he would pour out
+his heart's blood on the snow.
+
+Such was the grief of Donnegan as he backed slowly out into the night.
+Though Jack Landis were fixed as high as the moon he would tear him out
+of his place and give him to the girl.
+
+
+
+
+14
+
+
+The lantern went out in the tent; she was asleep; and when he knew that,
+Donnegan went down into The Corner. He had been trying to think out a
+plan of action, and finding nothing better than to thrust a gun stupidly
+under Landis' nose and make him mark time, Donnegan went into Lebrun's
+place. As if he hoped the bustle there would supply him with ideas.
+
+Lebrun's was going full blast. It was not filled with the shrill mirth
+of Milligan's. Instead, all voices were subdued to a point here. The
+pitch was never raised. If a man laughed, he might show his teeth but he
+took good care that he did not break into the atmosphere of the room.
+For there was a deadly undercurrent of silence which would not tolerate
+more than murmurs on the part of others. Men sat grim-faced over the
+cards, the man who was winning, with his cold, eager eye; the chronic
+loser of the night with his iron smile; the professional, ever debonair,
+with the dull eye which comes from looking too often and too closely
+into the terrible face of chance. A very keen observer might have
+observed a resemblance between those men and Donnegan.
+
+Donnegan roved swiftly here and there. The calm eye and the smooth play
+of an obvious professional in a linen suit kept him for a moment at one
+table, looking on; then he went to the games, and after changing the
+gold which Jack Landis had given as alms so silver dollars, he lost it
+with precision upon the wheel.
+
+He went on, from table to table, from group to group. In Lebrun's his
+clothes were not noticed. It was no matter whether he played or did not
+play, whether he won or lost; they were too busy to notice. But he came
+back, at length, to the man who wore the linen coat and who won so
+easily. Something in his method of dealing appeared to interest Donnegan
+greatly.
+
+It was jackpot; the chips were piled high; and the man in the linen coat
+was dealing again. How deftly he mixed the cards!
+
+Indeed, all about him was elegant, from the turn of his black cravat to
+the cut of the coat. An inebriate passed, shouldered and disturbed his
+chair, and rising to put it straight again, the gambler was seen to be
+about the height and build of Donnegan.
+
+Donnegan studied him with the interest of an artist. Here was a man,
+harking back to Nelly Lebrun and her love of brilliance, who would
+probably win her preference over Jack Landis for the simple reason that
+he was different. That is, there was more in his cravat to attract
+astonished attention in The Corner than there was in all the silver lace
+of Landis. And he was a man's man, no doubt of that. On the inebriate he
+had flashed one glance of fire, and his lean hand had stirred uneasily
+toward the breast of his coat. Donnegan, who missed nothing, saw and
+understood.
+
+Interested? He was fascinated by this man because he recognized the
+kinship which existed between them. They might almost have been blood
+brothers, except for differences in the face. He knew, for instance,
+just what each glance of the man in the linen coat meant, and how he was
+weighing his antagonists. As for the others, they were cool players
+themselves, but here they had met their master. It was the difference
+between the amateur and the professional. They played good chancey
+poker, but the man in the linen coat did more--he stacked the cards!
+
+For the first moment Donnegan was not sure; it was not until there was a
+slight faltering in the deal--an infinitely small hesitation which only
+a practiced eye like that of Donnegan's could have noticed--that he was
+sure. The winner was crooked. Yet the hand was interesting for all that.
+He had done the master trick, not only giving himself the winning hand
+but also giving each of the others a fine set of cards.
+
+And the betting was wild on that historic pot! To begin with the
+smallest hand was three of a kind; and after the draw the weakest was a
+straight. And they bet furiously. The stranger had piqued them with his
+consistent victories. Now they were out for blood. Chips having been
+exhausted, solid gold was piled up on the table--a small fortune!
+
+The man in the linen coat, in the middle of the hand, called for drinks.
+They drank. They went on with the betting. And then at last came the
+call.
+
+Donnegan could have clapped his hands to applaud the smooth rascal. It
+was not an affair of breaking the others who sat in. They were all
+prosperous mine owners, and probably they had been carefully selected
+according to the size of purse, in preparation for the sacrifice. But
+the stakes were swept into the arms and then the canvas bag of the
+winner. If it was not enough to ruin the miners it was at least enough
+to clean them out of ready cash and discontinue the game on that basis.
+They rose; they went to the bar for a drink; but while the winner led
+the way, two of the losers dropped back a trifle and fell into earnest
+conversation, frowning. Donnegan knew perfectly what the trouble was.
+They had noticed that slight faltering in the deal; they were putting
+their mental notes on the game together.
+
+But the winner, apparently unconscious of suspicion, lined up his
+victims at the bar. The first drink went hastily down; the second was on
+the way--it was standing on the bar. And here he excused himself; he
+broke off in the very middle of a story, and telling them that he would
+be back any moment, stepped into a crowd of newcomers.
+
+The moment he disappeared, Donnegan saw the other four put their heads
+close together, and saw a sudden darkening of faces; but as for the
+genial winner, he had no sooner passed to the other side of the crowd
+and out of view, than he turned directly toward the door. His careless
+saunter was exchanged for a brisk walk; and Donnegan, without making
+himself conspicuous, was hard pressed to follow that pace.
+
+At the door he found that the gambler, with his canvas sack under his
+arm, had turned to the right toward the line of saddle horses which
+stood in the shadow; and no sooner did he reach the gloom at the side of
+the building than he broke into a soft, swift run. He darted down the
+line of horses until he came to one which was already mounted. This
+Donnegan saw as he followed somewhat more leisurely and closer to the
+horses to avoid observance. He made out that the man already on
+horseback was a big Negro and that he had turned his own mount and a
+neighboring horse out from the rest of the horses, so that they were
+both pointing down the street of The Corner. Donnegan saw the Negro
+throw the lines of his lead horse into the air. In exchange he caught
+the sack which the runner tossed to him, and then the gambler leaped
+into his saddle.
+
+It was a simple but effective plan. Suppose he were caught in the midst
+of a cheat; his play would be to break away to the outside of the
+building, shooting out the lights, if possible--trusting to the
+confusion to help him--and there he would find his horse held ready for
+him at a time when a second might be priceless. On this occasion no
+doubt the clever rascal had sensed the suspicion of the others.
+
+At any rate, he lost no time. He waited neither to find his stirrups nor
+grip the reins firmly, but the same athletic leap which carried him into
+the saddle set the horse in motion, and from a standing start the animal
+broke into a headlong gallop. He received, however, an additional burden
+at once.
+
+For Donnegan, from the second time he saw the man of the linen coat, had
+been revolving a daring plan, and during the poker game the plan had
+slowly matured. The moment he made sure that the gambler was heading for
+a horse, he increased his own speed. Ordinarily he would have been
+noted, but now, no doubt, the gambler feared no pursuit except one
+accompanied by a hue and cry. He did not hear the shadow-footed Donnegan
+racing over the soft ground behind him; but when he had gained the
+saddle, Donnegan was close behind with the impetus of his run to aid
+him. It was comparatively simple, therefore, to spring high in the air,
+and he struck fairly and squarely behind the saddle of the man in the
+linen coat. When he landed his revolver was in his hand and the muzzle
+jabbed into the back of the gambler.
+
+The other made one frantic effort to twist around, then recognized the
+pressure of the revolver and was still. The horses, checking their
+gallops in unison, were softly dog-trotting down the street.
+
+"Call off your man!" warned Donnegan, for the big Negro had reined back;
+the gun already gleamed in his hand.
+
+A gesture from the gambler sent the gun into obscurity, yet still the
+fellow continued to fall back.
+
+"Tell him to ride ahead."
+
+"Keep in front, George."
+
+"And not too far."
+
+"Very well. And now?"
+
+"We'll talk later. Go straight on, George, to the clump of trees beyond
+the end of the street. And ride straight. No dodging!"
+
+"It was a good hand you played," continued Donnegan; taking note that of
+the many people who were now passing them none paid the slightest
+attention to two men riding on one horse and chatting together as they
+rode. "It was a good hand, but a bad deal. Your thumb slipped on the
+card, eh?"
+
+"You saw, eh?" muttered the other.
+
+"And two of the others saw it. But they weren't sure till afterward."
+
+"I know. The blockheads! But I spoiled their game for them. Are you one
+of us, pal?"
+
+But Donnegan smiled to himself. For once at least the appeal of gambler
+to gambler should fail.
+
+"Keep straight on," he said. "We'll talk later on."
+
+
+
+
+15
+
+
+Before Donnegan gave the signal to halt in a clear space where the
+starlight was least indistinct, they reached the center of the trees.
+
+"Now, George," he said, "drop your gun to the ground."
+
+There was a flash and faint thud.
+
+"Now the other gun."
+
+"They ain't any more, sir."
+
+"Your other gun," repeated Donnegan.
+
+A little pause. "Do what he tells you, George," said the gambler at
+length, and a second weapon fell.
+
+"Now keep on your horse and keep a little off to the side," went on
+Donnegan, "and remember that if you try to give me the jump I might miss
+you in this light, but I'd be sure to hit your horse. So don't take
+chances, George. Now, sir, just hold your hands over your head and then
+dismount."
+
+He had already gone through the gambler and taken his weapons; he was
+now obeyed. The man of the linen coat tossed up his arms, flung his
+right leg over the horn of the saddle, and slipped to the ground.
+
+Donnegan joined his captive. "I warn you first," he said gently, "that
+I am quite expert with a revolver, and that it will be highly dangerous
+to attempt to trick me. Lower your arms if you wish, but please be
+careful of what you do with your hands. There are such things as knife
+throwing, I know, but it takes a fast wrist to flip a knife faster than
+a bullet. We understand each other?"
+
+"Perfectly," agreed the other. "By the way, my name is Godwin. And
+suppose we become frank. You are in temporary distress. It was
+impossible for you to make a loan at the moment and you are driven to
+this forced--touch. Now, if half--"
+
+"Hush," said Donnegan. "You are too generous. But the present question
+is not one of money. I have long since passed over that. The money is
+now mine. Steady!" This to George, who lurched in the saddle; but Godwin
+was calm as stone. "It is not the question of the money that troubles
+me, but the question of the men. I could easily handle one of you. But I
+fear to allow both of you to go free. You would return on my trail;
+there are such things as waylayings by night, eh? And so, Mr. Godwin, I
+think my best way out is to shoot you through the head. When your body
+is found it will be taken for granted that the servant killed the master
+for the sake of the money which he won by crooked card play. I think
+that's simple. Put your hands up, George, or, by heck, I'll let the
+starlight shine through you!"
+
+The huge arms of George were raised above his head; Godwin, in the
+meantime, had not spoken.
+
+"I almost think you mean it," he said after a short pause.
+
+"Good," said Donnegan. "I do not wish to kill you unprepared."
+
+There was a strangled sound deep in the throat of Godwin; then he was
+able to speak again, but now his voice was made into a horrible jumble
+by fear.
+
+"Pal," he said, "you're dead wrong. George here--he's a devil. If you
+let him live he'll kill you--as sure as you're standing here. You don't
+know him. He's George Green. He's got a record as long as my arm and as
+bad as the devil's name. He--he's the man to get rid of. Me? Why, man,
+you and I could team it together. But George--not--"
+
+Donnegan began to laugh, and the gambler stammered to a halt.
+
+"I knew you when I laid eyes on you for the first time," said Donnegan.
+"You have the hands of a craftsman, but your eyes are put too close
+together. A coward's eyes--a cur's face, Godwin. But you, George--have
+you heard what he said?"
+
+No answer from George but a snarl.
+
+"It sounds logical what he said, eh, George?"
+
+Dead silence.
+
+"But," said Donnegan, "there are flaws in the plan. Godwin, get out of
+your clothes."
+
+The other fell on his knees.
+
+"For heaven's sake," he pleaded.
+
+"Shut up," commanded Donnegan. "I'm not going to shoot you. I never
+intended to, you fool. But I wanted to see if you were worth splitting
+the coin with. You're not. Now get out of your clothes."
+
+He was obeyed in fumbling haste, and while that operation went on, he
+succeeded in jumping out of his own rags and still kept the two fairly
+steadily under the nose of his gun. He tossed this bundle to Godwin, who
+accepted it with a faint oath; and Donnegan stepped calmly and swiftly
+into the clothes of his victim.
+
+"A perfect fit," he said at length, "and to show that I'm pleased,
+here's your purse back. Must be close to two hundred in that, from the
+weight."
+
+Godwin muttered some unintelligible curse.
+
+"Tush. Now, get out! If you show your face in The Corner again, some of
+those miners will spot you, and they'll dress you in tar and feathers."
+
+"You fool. If they see you in my clothes?"
+
+"They'll never see these after tonight, probably. You have other clothes
+in your packs, Godwin. Lots of 'em. You're the sort who knows how to
+dress, and I'll borrow your outfit. Get out!"
+
+The other made no reply; a weight seemed to have fallen upon him along
+with his new outfit, and he slunk into the darkness. George made a move
+to follow; there was a muffled shriek from Godwin, who fled headlong;
+and then a sharp command from Donnegan stopped the big man.
+
+"Come here," said Donnegan.
+
+George Washington Green rode slowly closer.
+
+"If I let you go what would you do?"
+
+There was a glint of teeth.
+
+"I'd find him."
+
+"And break him in two, eh? Instead, I'm going to take you home, where
+you'll have a chance of breaking me in two instead. There's something
+about the cut of your shoulders and your head that I like, Green; and if
+you don't murder me in the first hour or so, I think we'll get on very
+well together. You hear?"
+
+The silence of George Washington Green was a tremendous thing.
+
+"Now ride ahead of me. I'll direct you how to go."
+
+He went first straight back through the town and up the hill to the two
+tents. He made George go before him into the tent and take up the roll
+of bedding; and then, with George and the bedding leading the way, and
+Donnegan leading the two horses behind, they went across the hillside to
+a shack which he had seen vacated that evening. It certainly could not
+be rented again before morning, and in the meantime Donnegan would be in
+possession, which was a large part of the law in The Corner, as he knew.
+
+A little lean-to against the main shack served as a stable; the creek
+down the hillside was the watering trough. And Donnegan stood by while
+the big Negro silently tended to the horses--removing the packs and
+preparing them for the night. Still in silence he produced a small
+lantern and lighted it. It showed his face for the first time--the skin
+ebony black and polished over the cheekbones, but the rest of the face
+almost handsome, except that the slight flare of his nostrils gave him a
+cast of inhuman ferocity. And the fierceness was given point by a pair
+of arms of gorilla length; broad shoulders padded with rolling muscles,
+and the neck of a bull. On the whole, Donnegan, a connoisseur of
+fighting men, had never seen such promise of strength.
+
+At his gesture, George led the way into the house. It was more
+commodious than most of the shacks of The Corner. In place of a single
+room this had two compartments--one for the kitchen and another for the
+living room. In vacating the hut, the last occupants had left some of
+the furnishings behind them. There was a mirror, for instance, in the
+corner; and beneath the mirror a cheap table in whose open drawer
+appeared a tumble of papers. Donnegan dropped the heavy sack of Godwin's
+winnings to the floor, and while George hung the lantern on a nail on
+the wall, Donnegan crossed to the table and appeared to run through the
+papers.
+
+He was humming carelessly while he did it, but all the time he watched
+with catlike intensity the reflection of George in the mirror above him.
+He saw--rather dimly, for the cheap glass showed all its images in
+waves--that George turned abruptly after hanging up the lantern, paused,
+and then whipped a hand into his coat pocket and out again.
+
+Donnegan leaped lightly to one side, and the knife, hissing past his
+head, buried itself in the wall, and its vibrations set up a vicious
+humming. As for Donnegan, the leap that carried him to one side whirled
+him about also; he faced the big man, who was now crouched in the very
+act of following the knife cast with the lunge of his powerful body.
+There was no weapon in Donnegan's hand, and yet George hesitated,
+balanced--and then slowly drew himself erect.
+
+He was puzzled. An outburst of oaths, the flash of a gun, and he would
+have been at home in the brawl, but the silence, the smile of Donnegan
+and the steady glance were too much for him. He moistened his lips, and
+yet he could not speak. And Donnegan knew that what paralyzed George was
+the manner in which he had received warning. Evidently the simple
+explanation of the mirror did not occur to the fellow; and the whole
+incident took on supernatural colorings. A phrase of explanation and
+Donnegan would become again an ordinary human being; but while the small
+link was a mystery the brain and body of George were numb. It was
+necessary above all to continue inexplicable. Donnegan, turning, drew
+the knife from the wall with a jerk. Half the length of the keen blade
+had sunk into the wood--a mute tribute to the force and speed of
+George's hand--and now Donnegan took the bright little weapon by the
+point and gave it back to the other.
+
+"If you throw for the body instead of the head," said Donnegan, "you
+have a better chance of sending the point home."
+
+He turned his back again upon the gaping giant, and drawing up a broken
+box before the open door he sat down to contemplate the night. Not a
+sound behind him. It might be that the big fellow had regained his nerve
+and was stealing up for a second attempt; but Donnegan would have
+wagered his soul that George Washington Green had his first and last
+lesson and that he would rather play with bare lightning than ever again
+cross his new master.
+
+At length: "When you make down the bunks," said Donnegan, "put mine
+farthest from the kitchen. You had better do that first."
+
+"Yes--sir," came the deep bass murmur behind him.
+
+And the heart of Donnegan stirred, for that "sir" meant many things.
+
+Presently George crossed the floor with a burden; there was the "whish"
+of the blankets being unrolled--and then a slight pause. It seemed to
+him that he could hear a heavier breathing. Why? And searching swiftly
+back through his memory he recalled that his other gun, a stub-nosed
+thirty-eight, was in the center of his blanket roll.
+
+And he knew that George had the weapon in his big hand. One pressure of
+the trigger would put an end to Donnegan; one bullet would give George
+the canvas sack and its small treasure.
+
+"When you clean my gun," said Donnegan, "take the action to pieces and
+go over every part."
+
+He could actually feel the start of George.
+
+Then: "Yes, sir," in a subdued whisper.
+
+If the escape from the knife had startled George, this second incident
+had convinced him that his new master possessed eyes in the back of his
+head.
+
+And Donnegan, paying no further heed to him, looked steadily across the
+hillside to the white tent of Lou Macon, fifty yards away.
+
+
+
+
+16
+
+
+His plan, grown to full stature so swiftly, and springing out of
+nothing, well nigh, had come out of his first determination to bring
+Jack Landis back to Lou Macon; for he could interpret those blank, misty
+eyes with which she had sat after the departure of Landis in only one
+way. Yet to rule even the hand of big Jack Landis would be hard enough
+and to rule his heart was quite another story. Remembering Nelly Lebrun,
+he saw clearly that the only way in which he could be brought back to
+Lou was first to remove Nelly as a possibility in his eyes. But how
+remove Nelly as long as it was her cue from her father to play Landis
+for his money? How remove her, unless it were possible to sweep Nelly
+off her feet with another man? She might, indeed, be taken by storm, and
+if she once slighted Landis for the sake of another, his boyish pride
+would probably do the rest, and his next step would be to return to Lou
+Macon.
+
+All this seemed logical, but where find the man to storm the heart of
+Nelly and dazzle her bright, clever eyes? His own rags had made him
+shrug his shoulders; and it was the thought of clothes which had made
+him fasten his attention so closely on the man of the linen suit in
+Lebrun's. Donnegan with money, with well-fitted clothes, and with a few
+notorious escapades behind him--yes, Donnegan with such a flying start
+might flutter the heart of Nelly Lebrun for a moment. But he must have
+the money, the clothes, and then he must deliberately set out to startle
+The Corner, make himself a public figure, talked of, pointed at, known,
+feared, respected, and even loved by at least a few. He must accomplish
+all these things beginning at a literal zero.
+
+It was the impossible nature of this that tempted Donnegan. But the
+paradoxical picture of the ragged skulker in Milligan's actually sitting
+at the same table with Nelly Lebrun and receiving her smiles stayed with
+him. He intended to rise, literally Phoenixlike, out of ashes. And the
+next morning, in the red time of the dawn, he sat drinking the coffee
+which George Washington Green had made for him and considering the
+details of the problem. Clothes, which had been a main obstacle, were
+now accounted for, since, as he had suspected, the packs of Godwin
+contained a luxurious wardrobe of considerable compass. At that moment,
+for instance, Donnegan was wrapped in a dressing gown of padded silk and
+his feet were encased in slippers.
+
+But clothes were the least part of his worries. To startle The Corner,
+and thereby make himself attractive in the eyes of Nelly Lebrun,
+overshadowing Jack Landis--that was the thing! But to startle The
+Corner, where gold strikes were events of every twenty-four hours, just
+now--where robberies were common gossip, and where the killings now
+averaged nearly three a day--to startle The Corner was like trying to
+startle the theatrical world with a sensational play. Indeed, this
+parallel could have been pursued, for Donnegan was the nameless actor
+and the mountain desert was the stage on which he intended to become a
+headliner. No wonder, then, that his lean face was compressed in
+thought. Yet no one could have guessed it by his conversation. At the
+moment he was interrupted, his talk ran somewhat as follows.
+
+"George, Godwin taught you how to make coffee?"
+
+"Yes, sir," from George. Since the night before he had appeared totally
+subdued. Never once did he venture a comment. And ever Donnegan was
+conscious of big, bright eyes watching him in a reverent fear not
+untinged by superstition. Once, in the middle of the night, he had
+wakened and seen the vast shadow of George's form leaning over the sack
+of money. Murder by stealth in the dark had been in the giant's mind, no
+doubt. But when, after that, he came and leaned over Donnegan's bunk,
+the master closed his eyes and kept on breathing regularly, and finally
+George returned to his own place--softly as a gigantic cat. Even in the
+master's sleep he found something to be dreaded, and Donnegan knew that
+he could now trust the fellow through anything. In the morning, at the
+first touch of light, he had gone to the stores and collected
+provisions. And a comfortable breakfast followed.
+
+"Godwin," resumed Donnegan, "was talented in many ways."
+
+The big man showed his teeth in silence; for since Godwin proposed the
+sacrifice of the servant to preserve himself, George had apparently
+altered his opinion of the gambler.
+
+"A talented man, George, but he knew nothing about coffee. It should
+never boil. It should only begin to cream through the crust. Let that
+happen; take the pot from the fire; put it back and let the surface
+cream again. Do this three times, and then pour the liquid from the
+grounds and you have the right strength and the right heating. You
+understand?"
+
+"Yes, sir."
+
+"And concerning the frying of bacon--"
+
+At this point the interruption came in the shape of four men at the open
+door; and one of these Donnegan recognized as the real estate dealer,
+who had shrewdly set up tents and shacks on every favorable spot in The
+Corner and was now reaping a rich harvest. Gloster was his name. It was
+patent that he did not see in the man in the silk dressing robe the
+unshaven miscreant of the day before who had rented the two tents.
+
+"How'dee," he said, standing on the threshold, with the other three in
+the background.
+
+Donnegan looked at him and through him.
+
+"My name is Gloster. I own this shack and I've come to find out why
+you're in it."
+
+"George," said Donnegan, "speak to him. Tel! him that I know houses are
+scarce in The Corner; that I found this place by accident vacant; that I
+intend to stay in it on purpose."
+
+George Washington Green instantly rose to the situation; he swallowed a
+vast grin and strode to the door. And though Mr. Gloster's face
+crimsoned with rage at such treatment he controlled his voice. In The
+Corner manhood was apt to be reckoned by the pound, and George was a
+giant.
+
+"I heard what your boss said, buddie," said Gloster. "But I've rented
+this cabin and the next one to these three gents and their party, and
+they want a home. Nothing to do but vacate. Which speed is the thing I
+want. Thirty minutes will--"
+
+"Thirty minutes don't change nothing," declared George in his deep, soft
+voice.
+
+The real estate man choked. Then: "You tell your boss that jumping a
+cabin is like jumping a claim. They's a law in The Corner for gents like
+him."
+
+George made a gesture of helplessness; but Gloster turned to the three.
+
+"Both shacks or none at all," said the spokesman. "One ain't big enough
+to do us any good. But if this bird won't vamoose--"
+
+He was a tolerably rough-appearing sort and he was backed by two of a
+kind. No doubt dangerous action would have followed had not George shown
+himself capable of rising to a height. He stepped from the door; he
+approached Gloster and said in a confidential whisper that reached
+easily to the other three: "They ain't any call for a quick play,
+mister. Watch yo'selves. Maybe you don't know who the boss is?"
+
+"And what's more, I don't care," said Gloster defiantly but with his
+voice instinctively lowered. He stared past George, and behold, the man
+in the dressing gown still sat in quiet and sipped his coffee.
+
+"It's Donnegan," whispered George.
+
+"Don--who's he?"
+
+"You don't know Donnegan?"
+
+The mingled contempt and astonishment of George would have moved a thing
+of stone. It certainly troubled Gloster. And he turned to the three.
+
+"Gents," he said, "they's two things we can do. Try the law--and law's a
+lame lady in these parts--or throw him out. Say which?"
+
+The three looked from Gloster to the shack; from the shack to Donnegan,
+absently sipping his coffee; from Donnegan to George, who stood
+exhibiting a broad grin of anticipated delight. The contrast was too
+much for them.
+
+There is one great and deep-seated terror in the mountain desert, and
+that is for the man who may be other than he seems. The giant with the
+rough voice and the boisterous ways is generally due for a stormy
+passage west of the Rockies; but the silent man with the gentle manners
+receives respect. Traditions live of desperadoes with exteriors of
+womanish calm and the action of devils. And Donnegan sipping his morning
+coffee fitted into the picture which rumor had painted. The three looked
+at one another, declared that they had not come to fight for a house but
+to rent one, that the real estate agent could go to the devil for all of
+them, and that they were bound elsewhere. So they departed and left
+Gloster both relieved and gloomy.
+
+"Now," said Donnegan to George, "tell him that we'll take both the
+shacks, and he can add fifty per cent to his old price."
+
+The bargain was concluded on the spot; the money was paid by George.
+Gloster went down the hill to tell The Corner that a mystery had hit the
+town and George brought the canvas bag back to Donnegan with the top
+still untied--as though to let it be seen that he had not pocketed any
+of the gold.
+
+"I don't want to count it," said Donnegan. "Keep the bag, George. Keep
+money in your pocket. Treat both of us well. And when that's gone I'll
+get more."
+
+If the manner in which Donnegan had handled the renting of the cabins
+had charmed George, he was wholly entranced by this last touch of free
+spending. To serve a man who was his master was one thing; to serve one
+who trusted him so completely was quite another. To live under the same
+roof with a man who was a riddle was sufficiently delightful; but to be
+allowed actually to share in the mystery was a superhappiness. He was
+singing when he started to wash the dishes, and Donnegan went across the
+hill to the tent of Lou Macon.
+
+She was laying the fire before the tent; and the morning freshness had
+cleared from her face any vestige of the trouble of the night before;
+and in the slant light her hair was glorious, all ruffling gold,
+semitransparent. She did not smile at him; but she could give the effect
+of smiling while her face remained grave; it was her inward calm content
+of which people were aware.
+
+"You missed me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"You were worried?"
+
+"No."
+
+He felt himself put quietly at a distance. So he took her up the hill to
+her new home--the shack beside his own; and George cooked her breakfast.
+When she had been served, Donnegan drew the big man to one side.
+
+"She's your mistress," said Donnegan. "Everything you do for her is
+worth two things you do for me. Watch her as if she were in your eye.
+And if a hair of her head is ever harmed--you see that fire burning
+yonder--the bed of coals?"
+
+"Sir?"
+
+"I'll catch you and make a fire like that and feed you into it--by
+inches!"
+
+And the pale face of Donnegan became for an instant the face of a demon.
+George Washington Green saw, and never forgot.
+
+Afterward, in order that he might think, Donnegan got on one of the
+horses he had taken from Godwin and rode over the hills. They were both
+leggy chestnuts, with surprising signs of blood' and all the earmarks of
+sprinters; but in Godwin's trade sharp getaways were probably often
+necessary. The pleasure he took in the action of the animal kept him
+from getting into his problem.
+
+How to startle The Corner? How follow up the opening gun which he had
+fired at the expense of Gloster and the three miners?
+
+He broke off, later in the day, to write a letter to Colonel Macon,
+informing him that Jack Landis was tied hard and fast by Nelly Lebrun
+and that for the present nothing could be done except wait, unless the
+colonel had suggestions to offer.
+
+The thought of the colonel, however, stimulated Donnegan. And before
+midafternoon he had thought of a thing to do.
+
+
+
+
+17
+
+
+The bar in Milligan's was not nearly so pretentious an affair as the bar
+in Lebrun's, but it was of a far higher class. Milligan had even managed
+to bring in a few bottles of wine, and he had dispensed cheap claret at
+two dollars a glass when the miners wished to celebrate a rare occasion.
+There were complaints, not of the taste, but of the lack of strength. So
+Milligan fortified his liquor with pure alcohol and after that the
+claret went like a sweet song in The Corner. Among other things, he sold
+mint juleps; and it was the memory of the big sign proclaiming this fact
+that furnished Donnegan with his idea.
+
+He had George Washington Green put on his town clothes--a riding suit in
+which Godwin had had him dress for the sake of formal occasions.
+Resplendent in black boots, yellow riding breeches, and blue silk shirt,
+the big man came before Donnegan for instructions.
+
+"Go down to Milligan's," said the master. "They don't allow colored
+people to enter the door, but you go to the door and start for the bar.
+They won't let you go very far. When they stop you, tell them you come
+from Donnegan and that you have to get me some mint for a julep.
+Insist. The bouncer will start to throw you out."
+
+George showed his teeth.
+
+"No fighting back. Don't lift your hand. When you find that you can't
+get in, come back here. Now, ride."
+
+So George mounted the horse and went. Straight to Milligan's he rode and
+dismounted; and half of The Corner's scant daytime population came into
+the street to see the brilliant horseman pass.
+
+Scar-faced Lewis met the big man at the door. And size meant little to
+Andy, except an easier target.
+
+"Well, confound my soul," said Lewis, blocking the way. "A Negro in
+Milligan's? Get out!"
+
+Big George did not move.
+
+"I been sent, mister," he said mildly. "I been sent for enough mint to
+make a julep."
+
+"You been sent to the wrong place," declared Andy, hitching at his
+cartridge belt. "Ain't you seen that sign?"
+
+And he pointed to the one which eliminated colored patrons.
+
+"Signs don't mean nothin' to my boss," said George.
+
+"Who's he?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"And who's Donnegan?"
+
+It puzzled George. He scratched his head in bewilderment seeking for an
+explanation. "Donnegan is--Donnegan," he explained.
+
+"I heard Gloster talk about him," offered someone in the rapidly growing
+group. "He's the gent that rented the two places on the hill."
+
+"Tell him to come himse'f," said Andy Lewis. "We don't play no favorites
+at Milligan's."
+
+"Mister," said big George, "I don't want to bring no trouble on this
+heah place, but--don't make me go back and bring Donnegan."
+
+Even Andy Lewis was staggered by this assurance.
+
+"Rules is rules," he finally decided. "And out you go."
+
+Big George stepped from the doorway and mounted his horse.
+
+"I call on all you gen'lemen," he said to the assembled group, "to say
+that I done tried my best to do this peaceable. It ain't me that's sent
+for Donnegan; it's him!"
+
+He rode away, leaving Scar-faced Lewis biting his long mustaches in
+anxiety. He was not exactly afraid, but he waited in the suspense which
+comes before a battle. Moreover, an audience was gathering. The word
+went about as only a rumor of mischief can travel. New men had gathered.
+The few day gamblers tumbled out of Lebrun's across the street to watch
+the fun. The storekeepers were in their doors. Lebrun himself, withered
+and dark and yellow of eye, came to watch. And here and there through
+the crowd there was a spot of color where the women of the town
+appeared. And among others, Nelly Lebrun with Jack Landis beside her. On
+the whole it was not a large crowd, but what it lacked in size it made
+up in intense interest.
+
+For though The Corner had had its share of troubles of fist and gun,
+most of them were entirely impromptu affairs. Here was a fight in the
+offing for which the stage was set, the actors set in full view of a
+conveniently posted audience, and all the suspense of a curtain rising.
+The waiting bore in upon Andy Lewis. Without a doubt he intended to kill
+his man neatly and with dispatch, but the possibility of missing before
+such a crowd as this sent a chill up and down his spine. If he failed
+now his name would be a sign for laughter ever after in The Corner.
+
+A hum passed down the street; it rose to a chuckle, and then fell away
+to sudden silence, for Donnegan was coming.
+
+He came on a prancing chestnut horse which sidled uneasily on a weaving
+course, as though it wished to show off for the benefit of the rider and
+the crowd at once. It was a hot afternoon and Donnegan's linen riding
+suit shone an immaculate white. He came straight down the street, as
+unaware of the audience which awaited him as though he rode in a park
+where crowds were the common thing. Behind him came George Green, just a
+careful length back. Rumor went before the two with a whisper on either
+side.
+
+"That's Donnegan. There he comes!"
+
+"Who's Donnegan?"
+
+"Gloster's man. The one who bluffed out Gloster and three others."
+
+"He pulled his shooting iron and trimmed the whiskers of one of 'em with
+a chunk of lead."
+
+"D'you mean that?"
+
+"What's that kind of a gent doing in The Corner?"
+
+"Come to buy, I guess. He looks like money."
+
+"Looks like a confounded dude."
+
+"We'll see his hand in a minute."
+
+Donnegan was now opposite the dance hall, and Andy Lewis had his hand
+touching the butt of his gun, but though Donnegan was looking straight
+at him, he kept his reins in one hand and his heavy riding crop in the
+other. And without a move toward his own gun, he rode straight up to the
+door of the dance hall, with Andy in front of it. George drew rein
+behind him and turned upon the crowd one broad, superior grin.
+
+As who should say: "I promised you lightning; now watch it strike!"
+
+If the crowd had been expectant before, it was now reduced to wire-drawn
+tenseness.
+
+"Are you the fellow who turned back my man?" asked Donnegan.
+
+His quiet voice fell coldly upon the soul of Andy. He strove to warm
+himself by an outbreak of temper.
+
+"They ain't any poor fool dude can call me a fellow!" he shouted.
+
+The crowd blinked; but when it opened its eyes the gunplay had not
+occurred. The hand of Andy was relaxing from the butt of his gun and an
+expression of astonishment and contempt was growing upon his face.
+
+"I haven't come to curse you," said the rider, still occupying his hands
+with crop and reins. "I've come to ask you a question and get an answer.
+Are you the fellow who turned back my man?"
+
+"I guess you ain't the kind I was expectin' to call on me," drawled
+Andy, his fear gone, and he winked at the crowd. But the others were not
+yet ready to laugh. Something about the calm face of Donnegan had
+impressed them. "Sure, I'm the one that kicked him out. He ain't allowed
+in there."
+
+"It's the last of my thoughts to break in upon a convention in your
+city," replied the grave rider, "but my man was sent on an errand and
+therefore he had a right to expect courtesy. George, get off your horse
+and go into Milligan's place. I want that mint!"
+
+For a moment Andy was too stunned to answer. Then his voice came harshly
+and he swayed from side to side, gathering and summoning his wrath.
+
+"Keep out boy! Keep out, or you're buzzard meat. I'm warnin'--"
+
+For the first time his glance left the rider to find George, and that
+instant was fatal. The hand of Donnegan licked out as the snake's tongue
+darts--the loaded quirt slipped over in his hand, and holding it by the
+lash he brought the butt of it thudding on the head of Andy.
+
+Even then the instinct to fight remained in the stunned man; while he
+fell, he was drawing the revolver; he lay in a crumpling heap at the
+feet of Donnegan's horse with the revolver shoved muzzle first into the
+sand.
+
+Donnegan's voice did not rise.
+
+"Go in and get that mint, George," he ordered. "And hurry. This rascal
+has kept me waiting until I'm thirsty."
+
+Big George hesitated only one instant--it was to sweep the crowd for the
+second time with his confident grin--and he strode through the door of
+the dance hall. As for Donnegan, his only movement was to swing his
+horse around and shift riding crop and reins into the grip of his left
+hand. His other hand was dropped carelessly upon his hip. Now, both
+these things were very simple maneuvers, but The Corner noted that his
+change of face had enabled Donnegan to bring the crowd under his eye,
+and that his right hand was now ready for a more serious bit of work if
+need be. Moreover, he was probing faces with his glance. And every armed
+man in that group felt that the eye of the rider was directed
+particularly toward him.
+
+There had been one brief murmur; then the silence lay heavily again, for
+it was seen that Andy had been only slightly stunned--knocked out, as a
+boxer might be. Now his sturdy brains were clearing. His body stiffened
+into a human semblance once more; he fumbled, found the butt of his gun
+with his first move. He pushed his hat straight: and so doing he raked
+the welt which the blow had left on his head. The pain finished clearing
+the mist from his mind; in an instant he was on his feet, maddened with
+shame. He saw the semicircle of white faces, and the whole episode
+flashed back on him. He had been knocked down like a dog.
+
+For a moment he looked into the blank faces of the crowd; someone noted
+that there was no gun strapped at the side of Donnegan. A voice shouted
+a warning.
+
+"Stop, Lewis. The dude ain't got a gun. It's murder!"
+
+It was now that Lewis saw Donnegan sitting the saddle directly behind
+him, and he whirled with a moan of fury. It was a twist of his body--in
+his eagerness--rather than a turning upon his feet. And he was half
+around before the rider moved. Then he conjured a gun from somewhere in
+his clothes. There was the flash of the steel, an explosion, and
+Scar-faced Lewis was on his knees with a scream of pain holding his
+right forearm with his left hand.
+
+The crowd hesitated still for a second, as though it feared to
+interfere; but Donnegan had already put up his weapon. A wave of the
+curious spectators rushed across the street and gathered around the
+injured man. They found that he had been shot through the fleshy part of
+the thumb, and the bullet, ranging down the arm, had sliced a furrow to
+the bone all the way to the elbow. It was a grisly wound.
+
+Big George Washington Green came running to the door of the dance hall
+with a sprig of something green in his hand; one glance assured him that
+all was well; and once more that wide, confident grin spread upon his
+face. He came to the master and offered the mint; and Donnegan, raising
+it to his face, inhaled the scent deeply.
+
+"Good," he said. "And now for a julep, George! Let's go home!"
+
+Across the street a dark-eyed girl had clasped the arm of her companion
+in hysterical excitement.
+
+"Did you see?" she asked of her tall companion.
+
+"I saw a murderer shoot down a man; he ought to be hung for it!"
+
+"But the mint! Did you see him smile over it? Oh, what a devil he is;
+and what a man!"
+
+Jack Landis flashed a glance of suspicion down at her, but her dancing
+eyes had quite forgotten him. They were following the progress of
+Donnegan down the street. He rode slowly, and George kept that formal
+distance, just a length behind.
+
+
+
+
+18
+
+
+Before Milligan's the crowd began to buzz like murmuring hornets around
+a nest that has been tapped, when they pour out and cannot find the
+disturber. It was a rather helpless milling around the wounded man, and
+Nelly Lebrun was the one who worked her way through the crowd and came
+to Andy Lewis. She did not like Andy. She had been known to refer to him
+as a cowardly hawk of a man; but now she bullied the crowd in a shrill
+voice and made them bring water and cloth. Then she cleansed and
+bandaged the wound in Andy Lewis' arm and had some of them take him
+away.
+
+By this time the outskirts of the crowd had melted away; but those who
+had really seen all parts of the little drama remained to talk. The
+subject was a real one. Had Donnegan aimed at the hand of Andy and
+risked his own life on his ability to disable the other without killing
+him? Or had he fired at Lewis' body and struck the hand and arm only by
+a random lucky chance?
+
+If the second were the case, he was only a fair shot with plenty of
+nerve and a great deal of luck. If the first were true, then this was a
+nerve of ice-tempered steel, an eye vulture-sharp, and a hand,
+miraculous, fast, and certain. To strike that swinging hand with a snap
+shot, when a miss meant a bullet fired at his own body at deadly short
+range--truly it would take a credulous man to believe that Donnegan had
+coldly planned to disable his man without killing him.
+
+"A murderer by intention," exclaimed Milligan. He had hunted long and
+hard before he found a man with a face like that of Lewis, capable of
+maintaining order by a glance; now he wanted revenge. "A murder by
+intention!" he cried to the crowd, standing beside the place where the
+imprint of Andy's knees was still in the sand. "And like a murderer he
+ought to be treated. He aimed to kill Andy; he had luck and only broke
+his hand. Now, boys, I say it ain't so much what he's done as the way
+he's done it. He's given us the laugh. He's come in here in his dude
+clothes and tried to walk over us. But it don't work. Not in The Corner.
+If Andy was dead, I'd say lynch the dude. But he ain't, and all I say
+is: Run him out of town."
+
+Here there was a brief outburst of applause, but when it ended, it was
+observed that there was a low, soft laughter. The crowd gave way between
+Milligan and the mocker. It was seen that he who laughed was old Lebrun,
+rubbing his olive-skinned hands together and showing his teeth in his
+mirth. There was no love lost between Lebrun and Milligan, even if Nelly
+was often in the dance hall and the center of its merriment.
+
+"It takes a thief to catch a thief," said Lebrun enigmatically, when he
+saw that he had the ear of the crowd, "and it takes a man to catch a
+man."
+
+"What the devil do you mean by that?" a dozen voices asked.
+
+"I mean, that if you got men enough to run out this man Donnegan, The
+Corner is a better town than I think."
+
+It brought a growl, but no answer. Lebrun had never been seen to lift
+his hand, but he was more dreaded than a rattler.
+
+"We'll try," said Milligan dryly. "I ain't much of a man myself"--there
+were dark rumors about Milligan's past and the crowd chuckled at this
+modesty--"but I'll try my hand agin' him with a bit of backing. And
+first I want to tell you boys that they ain't any danger of him having
+aimed at Andy's hand. I tell you, it ain't possible, hardly, for him to
+have planned to hit a swingin' target like that. Maybe some could do it.
+I dunno."
+
+"How about Lord Nick?"
+
+"Sure, Lord Nick might do anything. But Donnegan ain't Lord Nick."
+
+"Not by twenty pounds and three inches."
+
+This brought a laugh. And by comparison with the terrible and familiar
+name of Lord Nick, Donnegan became a smaller danger. Besides, as
+Milligan said, it was undoubtedly luck. And when he called for
+volunteers, three or four stepped up at once. The others made a general
+milling, as though each were trying to get forward and each were
+prevented by the crowd in front. But in the background big Jack Landis
+was seriously trying to get to the firing line. He was encumbered with
+the clinging weight of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"Don't go, Jack," she pleaded. "Please! Please! Be sensible. For my
+sake!"
+
+She backed this appeal with a lifting of her eyes and a parting of her
+lips, and Jack Landis paused.
+
+"You won't go, dear Jack?"
+
+Now, Jack knew perfectly well that the girl was only half sincere. It is
+the peculiar fate of men that they always know when a woman is playing
+with them, but, from Samson down, they always go to the slaughter with
+open eyes, hoping each moment that the girl has been seriously impressed
+at last. As for Jack Landis, his slow mind did not readily get under the
+surface of the arts of Nelly, but he knew that there was at least a
+tinge of real concern in the girl's desire to keep him from the posse
+which Milligan was raising.
+
+"But they's something about him that I don't like, Nelly. Something sort
+of familiar that I don't like." For naturally enough he did not
+recognize the transformed Donnegan, and the name he had never heard
+before. "A gunfighter, that's what he is!"
+
+"Why, Jack, sometimes they call you the same thing; say that you hunt
+for trouble now and then!"
+
+"Do they say that?" asked the young chap quickly, flushing with vanity.
+"Oh, I aim to take care of myself. And I'd like to take a hand with this
+murdering Donnegan."
+
+"Jack, listen! Don't go; keep away from him!"
+
+"Why do you look like that? As if I was a dead one already."
+
+"I tell you, Jack, he'd kill you!"
+
+Something in her terrible assurance whitened the cheeks of Landis, but
+he was also angered. When a very young man becomes both afraid and angry
+he is apt to be dangerous. "What do you know of him?" he asked
+suspiciously.
+
+"You silly! But I saw his face when he lifted that mint. He'd already
+forgotten about the man he had just shot down. He was thinking of
+nothing but the scent of the mint. And did you notice his giant servant?
+He never had a moment's doubt of Donnegan's ability to handle the entire
+crowd. I tell you, it gave me a chill of ghosts to see the big black
+fellow's eyes. He knew that Donnegan would win. And Donnegan won! Jack,
+you're a big man and a strong man and a brave man, and we all know it.
+But don't be foolish. Stay away from Donnegan!"
+
+He wavered just an instant. If she could have sustained her pleading
+gaze a moment longer she would have won him, but at the critical instant
+her gaze became distant. She was seeing the calm face of Donnegan as he
+raised the mint. And as though he understood, Jack Landis hardened.
+
+"I'm glad you don't want me shot up, Nelly," he said coldly. "Mighty
+good of you to watch out for me. But--I'm going to run this Donnegan out
+of town!"
+
+"He's never harmed you; why--"
+
+"I don't like his looks. For a man like me that's enough!"
+
+And he strode away toward Milligan. He was greeted by a cheer just as
+the girl reached the side of her father.
+
+"Jack is going," she said. "Make him come back!"
+
+But the old man was still rubbing his hands; there seemed to be a
+perpetual chill in the tips of the fingers.
+
+"He is a jackass. The moment I first saw his face I knew that he was
+meant for gun fodder--buzzard food! Let him go. Bah!"
+
+The girl shivered. "And then the mines?" she asked, changing her
+tactics.
+
+"Ah, yes. The mines! But leave that to Lord Nick. He'll handle it well
+enough!"
+
+So Jack Landis strode up the hill first and foremost of the six stalwart
+men who wished to correct the stranger's apparent misunderstandings of
+the status of The Corner. They were each armed to the teeth and each
+provided with enough bullets to disturb a small city. All this in honor
+of Donnegan.
+
+They found the shack wrapped in the warm, mellow light of the late
+afternoon; and on a flat-topped rock outside it big George sat
+whittling a stick into a grotesque imitation of a snake coiled. He did
+not rise when the posse approached. He merely rocked back upon the rock,
+embraced his knees in both of his enormous arms, and, in a word,
+transformed himself into a round ball of mirth. But having hugged away
+his laughter he was able to convert his joy into a vast grin. That smile
+stopped the posse. When a mob starts for a scene of violence the least
+exhibition of fear incenses it, but mockery is apt to pour water on its
+flames of anger.
+
+Decidedly the fury of the posse was chilled by the grin of George.
+Milligan, who had lived south of the Mason-Dixon line, stepped up to
+impress George properly.
+
+"Boy," he said, frowning, "go in and tell your man that we've come for
+him. Tell him to step right out here and get ready to talk. We don't
+mean him no harm less'n he can't explain one or two things. Hop along!"
+
+The "boy" did not stir. Only he shifted his eyes from face to face and
+his grin broadened. Ripples of mirth waved along his chest and convulsed
+his face, but still he did not laugh. "Go in and tell them things to
+Donnegan," he said. "But don't ask me to wake him up. He's sleepin'
+soun' an' fas'. Like a baby; mostly, he sleeps every day to get rested
+up for the night. Now, can't you-all wait till Donnegan wakes up
+tonight? No? Then step right in, gen'lemen; but if you-all is set on
+wakin' him up now, George will jus' step over the hill, because he don't
+want to be near the explosion."
+
+At this, he allowed his mirth free rein. His laughter shook up to his
+throat, to his enormous mouth; it rolled and bellowed across the
+hillside; and the posse stood, each man in his place, and looked
+frigidly upon one another. But having been laughed at, they felt it
+necessary to go on, and do or die. So they strode across the hill and
+were almost to the door when another phenomenon occurred. A girl in a
+cheap calico dress of blue was seen to run out of a neighboring shack
+and spring up before the door of Donnegan's hut. When she faced the
+crowd it stopped again.
+
+The soft wind was blowing the blue dress into lovely, long, curving
+lines; about her throat a white collar of some sheer stuff was being
+lifted into waves, or curling against her cheek; and the golden hair, in
+disorder, was tousled low upon her forehead.
+
+Whirling thus upon the crowd, she shocked them to a pause, with her
+parted lips, her flare of delicate color.
+
+"Have you come here," she cried, "for--for Donnegan?"
+
+"Lady," began someone, and then looked about for Jack Landis, who was
+considered quite a hand with the ladies. But Jack Landis was discovered
+fading out of view down the hillside. One glance at that blue dress had
+quite routed him, for now he remembered the red-haired man who had
+escorted Lou Macon to The Corner--and the colonel's singular trust in
+this fellow. It explained much, and he fled before he should be noticed.
+
+Before the spokesman could continue his speech, the girl had whipped
+inside the door. And the posse was dumbfounded. Milligan saw that the
+advance was ruined. "Boys," he said, "we came to fight a man; not to
+storm a house with a woman in it. Let's go back. We'll tend to Donnegan
+later on."
+
+"We'll drill him clean!" muttered the others furiously, and straightway
+the posse departed down the hill.
+
+But inside the girl had found, to her astonishment, that Donnegan was
+stretched upon his bunk wrapped again in the silken dressing gown and
+with a smile upon his lips. He looked much younger, as he slept, and
+perhaps it was this that made the girl steal forward upon tiptoe and
+touch his shoulder so gently.
+
+He was up on his feet in an instant. Alas, vanity, vanity! Donnegan in
+shoes was one thing, for his shoes were of a particular kind; but
+Donnegan in his slippers was a full two inches shorter. He was hardly
+taller than the girl; he was, if the bitter truth must be known, almost
+a small man. And Donnegan was furious at having been found by her in
+such careless attire--and without those dignity-building shoes. First
+he wanted to cut the throat of big George.
+
+"What have you done, what have you done?" cried the girl, in one of
+those heart-piercing whispers of fear. "They have come for you--a whole
+crowd--of armed men--they're outside the door! What have you done? It
+was something done for me, I know!"
+
+Donnegan suddenly transferred his wrath from big George to the mob.
+
+"Outside my door?" he asked. And as he spoke he slipped on a belt at
+which a heavy holster tugged down on one side, and buckled it around
+him.
+
+"Oh, no, no, no!" she pleaded, and caught him in her arms.
+
+Donnegan allowed her to stop him with that soft power for a moment,
+until his face went white--as if with pain. Then he adroitly gathered
+both her wrists into one of his bony hands; and having rendered her
+powerless, he slipped by her and cast open the door.
+
+It was an empty scene upon which they looked, with big George rocking
+back and forth upon a rock, convulsed with silent laughter. Donnegan
+looked sternly at the girl and swallowed. He was fearfully susceptible
+to mockery.
+
+"There seems to have been a jest?" he said.
+
+But she lifted him a happy, tearful face.
+
+"Ah, thank heaven!" she cried gently.
+
+Oddly enough, Donnegan at this set his teeth and turned upon his heel,
+and the girl stole out the door again, and closed it softly behind her.
+As a matter of fact, not even the terrible colonel inspired in her quite
+the fear which Donnegan instilled.
+
+
+
+
+19
+
+
+"Big Landis lost his nerve and sidestepped at the last minute, and then
+the whole gang faded."
+
+That was the way the rumors of the affair always ended at each
+repetition in Lebrun's and Milligan's that night. The Corner had had
+many things to talk about during its brief existence, but nothing to
+compare with a man who entered a shooting scrape with such a fellow as
+Scar-faced Lewis all for the sake of a spray of mint. And the main topic
+of conversation was: Did Donnegan aim at the body or the hand of the
+bouncer?
+
+On the whole, it was an excellent thing for Milligan's. The place was
+fairly well crowded, with a few vacant tables. For everyone wanted to
+hear Milligan's version of the affair. He had a short and vigorous one,
+trimmed with neat oaths. It was all the girl in the blue calico dress,
+according to him. The posse couldn't storm a house with a woman in it or
+even conduct a proper lynching in her presence. And no one was able to
+smile when Milligan said this. Neither was anyone nervy enough to
+question the courage of Landis. It looked strange, that sudden flight of
+his, but then, he was a proven man. Everyone remembered the affair of
+Lester. It had been a clean-cut fight, and Jack Landis had won cleanly
+on his merits.
+
+Nevertheless some of the whispers had not failed to come to the big man,
+and his brow was black.
+
+The most terribly heartless and selfish passion of all is shame in a
+young man. To repay the sidelong glances which he met on every side,
+Jack Landis would have willingly crowded every living soul in The Corner
+into one house and touched a match to it. And chiefly because he felt
+the injustice of the suspicion. He had no fear of Donnegan.
+
+He had a theory that little men had little souls. Not that he ever
+formulated the theory in words, but he vaguely felt it and adhered to
+it. He had more fear of one man of six two than a dozen under five ten.
+He reserved in his heart of hearts a place of awe for one man whom he
+had never seen. That was for Lord Nick, for that celebrated character
+was said to be as tall and as finely built as Jack Landis himself. But
+as for Donnegan--Landis wished there were three Donnegans instead of
+one.
+
+Tonight his cue was surly silence. For Nelly Lebrun had been warned by
+her father, and she was making desperate efforts to recover any ground
+she might have lost. Besides, to lose Jack Landis would be to lose the
+most spectacular fellow in The Corner, to say nothing of the one who
+held the largest and the choicest of the mines. The blond, good looks of
+Landis made a perfect background for her dark beauty. With all these
+stakes to play for, Nelly outdid herself. If she were attractive enough
+ordinarily, when she exerted herself to fascinate, Nelly was
+intoxicating. What chance had poor Jack Landis against her? He did not
+call for her that night but went to play gloomily at Lebrun's until
+Nelly walked into Lebrun's and drew him away from a table. Half an hour
+later she had him whirling through a dance in Milligan's and had danced
+the gloom out of his mind for the moment. Before the evening was well
+under way, Landis was making love to her openly, and Nelly was in the
+position of one who had roused the bear.
+
+It was a dangerous flirtation and it was growing clumsy. In any place
+other than The Corner it would have been embarrassing long ago; and when
+Jack Landis, after a dance, put his one big hand over both of Nelly's
+and held her moveless while he poured out a passionate declaration,
+Nelly realized that something must be done. Just what she could not
+tell.
+
+And it was at this very moment that a wave of silence, beginning at the
+door, rushed across Milligan's dance floor. It stopped the bartenders in
+the act of mixing drinks; it put the musicians out of key, and in the
+midst of a waltz phrase they broke down and came to a discordant pause.
+
+What was it?
+
+The men faced the door, wondering, and then the swift rumor passed from
+lip to lip--almost from eye to eye, so rapidly it sped--Donnegan is
+coming! Donnegan, and big George with him.
+
+"Someone tell Milligan!"
+
+But Milligan had already heard; he was back of the bar giving
+directions; guns were actually unlimbering. What would happen?
+
+"Shall I get you out of this?" Landis asked the girl.
+
+"Leave now?" She laughed fiercely and silently. "I'm just beginning to
+live! Miss Donnegan in action? No, sir!"
+
+She would have given a good deal to retract that sentence, for it washed
+the face of Landis white with jealousy.
+
+Surely Donnegan had built greater than he knew.
+
+And suddenly he was there in the midst of the house. No one had stopped
+him--at least, no one had interfered with his servant. Big George had on
+a white suit and a dappled green necktie; he stood directly behind his
+master and made him look like a small boy. For Donnegan was in black,
+and he had a white neckcloth wrapped as high and stiffly as an
+old-fashioned stock. Altogether he was a queer, drab figure compared
+with the brilliant Donnegan of that afternoon. He looked older, more
+weary. His lean face was pale; and his hair flamed with redoubled ardor
+on that account. Never was hair as red as that, not even the hair of
+Lord Nick, said the people in Milligan's this night.
+
+He was perfectly calm even in the midst of that deadly silence. He stood
+looking about him. He saw Gloster, the real estate man, and bowed to him
+deliberately.
+
+For some reason that drew a gasp.
+
+Then he observed a table which was apparently to his fancy and crossed
+the floor with a light, noiseless step, big George padding heavily
+behind him. At the little round table he waited until George had drawn
+out the chair for him and then he sat down. He folded his arms lightly
+upon his breast and once more surveyed the scene, and big George drew
+himself up behind Donnegan. Just once his eyes rolled and flashed
+savagely in delight at the sensation that they were making, then the
+face of George was once again impassive.
+
+If Donnegan had not carried it off with a certain air, the whole
+entrance would have seemed decidedly stagey, but The Corner, as it was,
+found much to wonder at and little to criticize. And in the West grown
+men are as shrewd judges of affectation as children are in other places.
+
+"Putting on a lot of style, eh?" said Jack Landis, and with fierce
+intensity he watched the face of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+For once she was unguarded.
+
+"He's superb!" she exclaimed. "The big fellow is going to bring a drink
+for him."
+
+She looked up, surprised by the silence of Landis, and found that his
+face was actually yellow.
+
+"I'll tell you something. Do you remember the little red-headed tramp
+who came in here the other night and spoke to me?"
+
+"Very well. You seemed to be bothered."
+
+"Maybe. I dunno. But that's the man--the one who's sitting over there
+now all dressed up--the man The Corner is talking about--Donnegan! A
+tramp!"
+
+She caught her breath.
+
+"Is that the one?" A pause. "Well, I believe it. He's capable of
+anything!"
+
+"I think you like him all the better for knowing that."
+
+"Jack, you're angry."
+
+"Why should I be? I hate to see you fooled by the bluff of a tramp,
+though."
+
+"Tush! Do you think I'm fooled by it? But it's an interesting bluff,
+Jack, don't you think?"
+
+"Nelly, he's interesting enough to make you blush; by heaven, the hound
+is lookin' right at you now, Nelly!"
+
+He had pressed her suddenly against the wall and she struck back
+desperately in self-defense.
+
+"By the way, what did he want to see you about?"
+
+It spiked the guns of Landis for the time being, at least. And the girl
+followed by striving to prove that her interest in Donnegan was purely
+impersonal.
+
+"He's clever," she ran on, not daring to look at the set face of her
+companion. "See how he fails to notice that he's making a sensation?
+You'd think he was in a big restaurant in a city. He takes the drink off
+the tray from that fellow as if it were a common thing to be waited on
+by a body-servant in The Corner. Jack, I'll wager that there's something
+crooked about him. A professional gambler, say!"
+
+Jack Landis thawed a little under this careless chatter. He still did
+not quite trust her.
+
+"Do you know what they're whispering? That I was afraid to face him!"
+
+She tilted her head back, so that the light gleamed on her young throat,
+and she broke into laughter.
+
+"Why, Jack, that's foolish. You proved yourself when you first came to
+The Corner. Maybe some of the newcomers may have said something, but all
+the old-timers know you had some different reason for leaving the rest
+of them. By the way, what was the reason?"
+
+She sent a keen little glance at him from the corner of her eyes, but
+the moment she saw that he was embarrassed and at sea because of the
+query she instantly slipped into a fresh tide of careless chatter and
+covered up his confusion for him.
+
+"See how the girls are making eyes at him."
+
+"I'll tell you why," Jack replied. "A girl likes to be with the man
+who's making the town talk." He added pointedly: "Oh, I've found that
+out!"
+
+She shrugged that comment away.
+
+"He isn't paying the slightest attention to any of them," she murmured.
+"He's queer! Has he just come here hunting trouble?"
+
+
+
+
+20
+
+
+It should be understood that before this the men in Milligan's had
+reached a subtly unspoken agreement that red-haired Donnegan was not one
+of them. In a word, they did not like him because he made a mystery of
+himself. And, also, because he was different. Yet there was a growing
+feeling that the shooting of Lewis through the hand had not been an
+accident, for the whole demeanor of Donnegan composed the action of a
+man who is a professional trouble maker. There was no reason why he
+should go to Milligan's and take his servant with him unless he wished a
+fight. And why a man should wish to fight the entire Corner was
+something no one could guess.
+
+That he should have done all this merely to focus all eyes upon him, and
+particularly the eyes of a girl, did not occur to anyone. It looked
+rather like the bravado of a man who lived for the sake of fighting.
+Now, men who hunt trouble in the mountain desert generally find all that
+they may desire, but for the time being everyone held back, wolfishly,
+waiting for another to take the first step toward Donnegan. Indeed,
+there was an unspoken conviction that the man who took the first step
+would probably not live to take another. In the meantime both men and
+women gave Donnegan the lion's share of their attention. There was only
+one who was clever enough to conceal it, and that one was the pair of
+eyes to which the red-haired man was playing--Nelly Lebrun. She confined
+herself strictly to Jack Landis.
+
+So it was that when Milligan announced a tag dance and the couples
+swirled onto the floor gayly, Donnegan decided to take matters into his
+own hands and offer the first overt act. It was clumsy; he did not like
+it; but he hated this delay. And he knew that every moment he stayed on
+there with big George behind his chair was another red rag flaunted in
+the face of The Corner.
+
+He saw the men who had no girl with them brighten at the announcement of
+the tag dance. And when the dance began he saw the prettiest girls
+tagged quickly, one after the other. All except Nelly Lebrun. She swung
+securely around the circle in the big arms of Jack Landis. She seemed to
+be set apart and protected from the common touch by his size, and by his
+formidable, challenging eye. Donnegan felt as never before the
+unassailable position of this fellow; not only from his own fighting
+qualities, but because he had behind him the whole unfathomable power of
+Lord Nick and his gang.
+
+Nelly approached in the arms of Landis in making the first circle of the
+dance floor; her eyes, grown dull as she surrendered herself wholly to
+the rhythm of the waltz, saw nothing. They were blank as unlighted
+charcoal. She came opposite Donnegan, her back was toward him; she swung
+in the arms of Landis, and then, past the shoulder of her partner, she
+flashed a glance at Donnegan. The spark had fallen on the charcoal, and
+her eyes were aflame. Aflame to Donnegan; the next instant the veil had
+dropped across her face once more.
+
+She was carried on, leaving Donnegan tingling.
+
+A wise man upon whom that look had fallen might have seen, not Nelly
+Lebrun in the cheap dance hall, but Helen of Sparta and all Troy's dead.
+But Donnegan was clever, not wise. And he saw only Nelly Lebrun and the
+broad shoulders of Jack Landis.
+
+Let the critic deal gently with Donnegan. He loved Lou Macon with all
+his heart and his soul, and yet because another beautiful girl had
+looked at him, there he sat at his table with his jaw set and the devil
+in his eye. And while she and Landis were whirling through the next
+circumference of the room, Donnegan was seeing all sides of the problem.
+If he tagged Landis it would be casting the glove in the face of the big
+man--and in the face of old Lebrun--and in the face of that mysterious
+and evil power, Lord Nick himself. And consider, that besides these he
+had already insulted all of The Corner.
+
+Why not let things go on as they were? Suppose he were to allow Landis
+to plunge deeper into his infatuation? Suppose he were to bring Lou
+Macon to this place and let her see Landis sitting with Nelly, making
+love to her with every tone in his voice, every light in his eye? Would
+not that cure Lou? And would not that open the door to Donnegan?
+
+And remember, in considering how Donnegan was tempted, that he was not a
+conscientious man. He was in fact what he seemed to be--a wanderer, a
+careless vagrant, living by his wits. For all this, he had been touched
+by the divine fire--a love that is greater than self. And the more
+deeply he hated Landis, the more profoundly he determined that he should
+be discarded by Nelly and forced back to Lou Macon. In the meantime,
+Nelly and Jack were coming again. They were close; they were passing;
+and this time her eye had no spark for Donnegan.
+
+Yet he rose from his table, reached the floor with a few steps, and
+touched Landis lightly on the shoulder. The challenge was passed. Landis
+stopped abruptly and turned his head; his face showed merely dull
+astonishment. The current of dancers split and washed past on either
+side of the motionless trio, and on every face there was a glittering
+curiosity. What would Landis do?
+
+Nothing. He was too stupefied to act. He, Jack Landis, had actually been
+tagged while he was dancing with the woman which all The Corner knew to
+be his girl! And before his befogged senses cleared the girl was in the
+arms of the red-haired man and was lost in the crowd.
+
+What a buzz went around the room! For a moment Landis could no more move
+than he could think; then he sent a sullen glance toward the girl and
+retreated to their table. A childish sullenness clouded his face while
+he sat there; only one decision came clearly to him: he must kill
+Donnegan!
+
+In the meantime people noted two things. The first was that Donnegan
+danced very well with Nelly Lebrun; and his red hair beside the silken
+black of the girl's was a startling contrast. It was not a common red.
+It flamed, as though with phosphoric properties of its own. But they
+danced well; and the eyes of both of them were gleaming. Another thing:
+men did not tag Donnegan any more than they had offered to tag Landis.
+One or two slipped out from the outskirts of the floor, but something in
+the face of Donnegan discouraged them and made them turn elsewhere as
+though they had never started for Nelly Lebrun in the first place.
+Indeed, to a two-year-old child it would have been apparent that Nelly
+and the red-headed chap were interested in each other.
+
+As a matter of fact they did not speak a single syllable until they had
+gone around the floor one complete turn and the dance was coming toward
+an end.
+
+It was he who spoke first, gloomily: "I shouldn't have done it; I
+shouldn't have tagged him!"
+
+At this she drew back a little so that she could meet his eyes.
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"The whole crew will be on my trail."
+
+"What crew?"
+
+"Beginning with Lord Nick!"
+
+This shook her completely out of the thrall of the dance.
+
+"Lord Nick? What makes you think that?"
+
+"I know he's thick with Landis. It'll mean trouble."
+
+He was so simple about it that she began to laugh. It was not such a
+voice as Lou Macon's. It was high and light, and one could suspect that
+it might become shrill under a stress.
+
+"And yet it looks as though you've been hunting trouble," she said.
+
+"I couldn't help it," said Donnegan naively.
+
+It was a very subtle flattery, this frankness from a man who had puzzled
+all The Corner. Nelly Lebrun felt that she was about to look behind the
+scenes and she tingled with delight.
+
+"Tell me," she said. "Why not?"
+
+"Well," said Donnegan. "I had to make a noise because I wanted to be
+noticed."
+
+She glanced about her; every eye was upon them.
+
+"You've made your point," she murmured. "The whole town is talking of
+nothing else."
+
+"I don't care an ounce of lead about the rest of the town."
+
+"Then--"
+
+She stopped abruptly, seeing toward what he was tending. And the heart
+of Nelly Lebrun fluttered for the first time in many a month. She
+believed him implicitly. It was for her sake that he had made all this
+commotion; to draw her attention. For every lovely girl, no matter how
+cool-headed, has a foolish belief in the power of her beauty. As a
+matter of fact Donnegan had told her the truth. It had all been to win
+her attention, from the fight for the mint to the tagging for the dance.
+How could she dream that it sprang out of anything other than a wild
+devotion to her? And while Donnegan coldly calculated every effect,
+Nelly Lebrun began to see in him the man of a dream, a spirit out of a
+dead age, a soul of knightly, reckless chivalry. In that small
+confession he cast a halo about himself which no other hand could ever
+remove entirely so far as Nelly Lebrun was concerned.
+
+"You understand?" he was saying quietly.
+
+She countered with a question as direct as his confession.
+
+"What are you, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"A wanderer," said Donnegan instantly, "and an avoider of work."
+
+At that they laughed together. The strain was broken and in its place
+there was a mutual excitement. She saw Landis in the distance watching
+their laughter with a face contorted with anger, but it only increased
+her unreasoning happiness.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, let me give you friendly advice. I like you: I know you
+have courage; and I saw you meet Scar-faced Lewis. But if I were you I'd
+leave The Corner tonight and never come back. You've set every man
+against you. You've stepped on the toes of Landis and he's a big man
+here. And even if you were to prove too much for Jack you'd come against
+Lord Nick, as you say yourself. Do you know Nick?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Then, Mr. Donnegan, leave The Corner!"
+
+The music, ending, left them face to face as he dropped his arm from
+about her. And she could appreciate now, for the first time, that he was
+smaller than he had seemed at a distance, or while he was dancing. He
+seemed a frail figure indeed to face the entire banded Corner--and Lord
+Nick.
+
+"Don't you see," said Donnegan, "that I can't stop now?"
+
+There was a double meaning that sent her color flaring.
+
+He added in a low, tense voice, "I've gone too far. Besides, I'm
+beginning to hope!"
+
+She paused, then made a little gesture of abandon.
+
+"Then stay, stay!" she whispered with eyes on fire. "And good luck to
+you, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+
+
+
+21
+
+
+As they went back, toward Nelly's table, where Jack Landis was trying to
+appear carelessly at ease, the face of Donnegan was pale. One might have
+thought that excitement and fear caused his pallor; but as a matter of
+fact it was in him an unfailing sign of happiness and success. Landis
+had manners enough to rise as they approached. He found himself being
+presented to the smaller man. He heard the cool, precise voice of
+Donnegan acknowledging the introduction; and then the red-headed man
+went back to his table; and Jack Landis was alone with Nelly Lebrun
+again.
+
+He scowled at her, and she tried to look repentant, but since she could
+not keep the dancing light out of her eyes, she compromised by looking
+steadfastly down at the table. Which convinced Landis that she was
+thinking of her late partner. He made a great effort, swallowed, and was
+able to speak smoothly enough.
+
+"Looked as if you were having a pretty good time with that--tramp."
+
+The color in her cheeks was anger; Landis took it for shame.
+
+"He dances beautifully," she replied.
+
+"Yeh; he's pretty smooth. Take a gent like that, it's hard for a girl
+to see through him."
+
+"Let's not talk about him, Jack."
+
+"All right. Is he going to dance with you again?"
+
+"I promised him the third dance after this."
+
+For a time Landis could not trust his voice. Then: "Kind of sorry about
+that. Because I'll be going home before then."
+
+At this she raised her eyes for the first time. He was astonished and a
+little horrified to see that she was not in the least flustered, but
+very angry.
+
+"You'll go home before I have a chance for that dance?" she asked.
+"You're acting like a two-year-old, Jack. You are!"
+
+He flushed. Burning would be too easy a death for Donnegan.
+
+"He's making a laughingstock out of me; look around the room!"
+
+"Nobody's thinking about you at all, Jack. You're just self-conscious."
+
+Of course, it was pouring acid upon an open wound. But she was past the
+point of caution.
+
+"Maybe they ain't," said Landis, controlling his rage. "I don't figure
+that I amount to much. But I rate myself as high as a skunk like him!"
+
+It may have been a smile that she gave him. At any rate, he caught the
+glint of teeth, and her eyes were as cold as steel points. If she had
+actually defended the stranger she would not have infuriated Landis so
+much.
+
+"Well, what does he say about himself?"
+
+"He says frankly that he's a vagrant."
+
+"And you don't believe him?"
+
+She did not speak.
+
+"Makin' a play for sympathy. Confound a man like that, I say!"
+
+Still she did not answer; and now Landis became alarmed.
+
+"D'you really like him, Nelly?"
+
+"I liked him well enough to introduce him to you, Jack."
+
+"I'm sorry I talked so plain if you put it that way," he admitted
+heavily. "I didn't know you picked up friends so fast as all that!" He
+could not avoid adding this last touch of the poison point.
+
+His back was to Donnegan, and consequently the girl, facing him, could
+look straight across the room at the red-headed man. She allowed herself
+one brief glance, and she saw that he was sitting with his elbow on the
+table, his chin in his hand, looking fixedly at her. It was the gaze of
+one who forgets all else and wraps himself in a dream. Other people in
+the room were noting that changeless stare and the whisper buzzed more
+and more loudly, but Donnegan had forgotten the rest of the world, it
+seemed. It was a very cunning piece of acting, not too much overdone,
+and once more the heart of Nelly Lebrun fluttered.
+
+She remembered that in spite of his frankness he had not talked with
+insolent presumption to her. He had merely answered her individual
+questions with an astonishing, childlike frankness. He had laid his
+heart before her, it seemed. And now he sat at a distance looking at her
+with the white, intense face of one who sees a dream.
+
+Nelly Lebrun was recalled by the heavy breathing of Jack Landis and she
+discovered that she had allowed her eyes to rest too long on the
+red-headed stranger. She had forgotten; her eyes had widened; and even
+Jack Landis was able to look into her mind and see things that startled
+him. For the first time he sensed that this was more than a careless
+flirtation. And he sat stiffly at the table, looking at her and through
+her with a fixed smile. Nelly, horrified, strove to cover her tracks.
+
+"You're right, Jack," she said. "I--I think there was something brazen
+in the way he tagged you. And--let's go home together!"
+
+Too late. The mind of Landis was not oversharp, but now jealousy gave it
+a point. He nodded his assent, and they got up, but there was no
+increase in his color. She read as plain as day in his face that he
+intended murder this night and Nelly was truly frightened.
+
+So she tried different tactics. All the way to the substantial little
+house which Lebrun had built at a little distance from the gambling
+hall, she kept up a running fire of steady conversation. But when she
+said good night to him, his face was still set. She had not deceived
+him. When he turned, she saw him go back into the night with long
+strides, and within half an hour she knew, as clearly as if she were
+remembering the picture instead of foreseeing it, that Jack and Donnegan
+would face each other gun in hand on the floor of Milligan's dance hall.
+
+Still, she was not foolish enough to run after Jack, take his arm, and
+make a direct appeal. It would be too much like begging for Donnegan,
+and even if Jack forgave her for this interest in his rival, she had
+sense enough to feel that Donnegan himself never would. Something,
+however, must be done to prevent the fight, and she took the straightest
+course.
+
+She went as fast as a run would carry her straight behind the
+intervening houses and came to the back entrance to the gaming hall.
+There she entered and stepped into the little office of her father.
+Black Lebrun was not there. She did not want him. In his place there sat
+the Pedlar and Joe Rix; they were members of Lord Nick's chosen crew,
+and since Nick's temporary alliance with Lebrun for the sake of
+plundering Jack Landis, Nick's men were Nelly's men. Indeed, this was a
+formidable pair. They were the kind of men about whom many whispers and
+no facts circulate: and yet the facts are far worse than the whispers.
+It was said that Joe Rix, who was a fat little man with a great aversion
+to a razor and a pair of shallow, pale blue eyes, was in reality a
+merciless fiend. He was; and he was more than that, if there be a
+stronger superlative. If Lord Nick had dirty work to be done, there was
+the man who did it with a relish. The Pedlar, on the other hand, was an
+exact opposite. He was long, lean, raw-boned, and prodigiously strong in
+spite of his lack of flesh. He had vast hands, all loose skin and
+outstanding tendons; he had a fleshless face over which his smile was
+capable of extending limitlessly. He was the sort of a man from whom one
+would expect shrewdness, some cunning, stubbornness, a dry humor, and
+many principles. All of which, except the last, was true of the Pedlar.
+
+There was this peculiarity about the Pedlar. In spite of his broad grins
+and his wise, bright eyes, none, even of Lord Nick's gang, extended a
+friendship or familiarity toward him. When they spoke of the Pedlar they
+never used his name. They referred to him as "him" or they indicated him
+with gestures. If he had a fondness for any living creature it was for
+fat Joe Rix.
+
+Yet on seeing this ominous pair, Nelly Lebrun cried out softly in
+delight. She ran to them, and dropped a hand on the bony shoulder of the
+Pedlar and one on the plump shoulder of Joe Rix, whose loose flesh
+rolled under her finger tips.
+
+"It's Jack Landis!" she cried. "He's gone to Milligan's to fight the
+new man. Stop him!"
+
+"Donnegan?" said Joe, and did not rise.
+
+"Him?" said the Pedlar, and moistened his broad lips like one on the
+verge of starvation.
+
+"Are you going to sit here?" she cried. "What will Lord Nick say if he
+finds out you've let Jack get into a fight?"
+
+"We ain't nursin' mothers," declared the Pedlar. "But I'd kind of like
+to look on!"
+
+And he rose. Unkinking joint after joint, straightening his legs, his
+back, his shoulders, his neck, he soared up and up until he stood a
+prodigious height. The girl controlled a shudder of disgust.
+
+"Joe!" she appealed.
+
+"You want us to clean up Donnegan?" he asked, rising, but without
+interest in his voice.
+
+To his surprise, she slipped back to the door and blocked it with her
+outcast arms.
+
+"Not a hair of his head!" she said fiercely. "Swear that you won't harm
+him, boys!"
+
+"What the devil!" ejaculated Joe, who was a blunt man in spite of his
+fat. "You want us to keep Jack from fightin', but you don't want us to
+hurt the other gent. What you want? Hogtie 'em both?"
+
+"Yes, yes; keep Jack out of Milligan's; but for heaven's sake don't try
+to put a hand on Donnegan."
+
+"Why not?"
+
+"For your sakes; he'd kill you, Joe!"
+
+At this they both gaped in unison, and as one man they drawled in vast
+admiration: "Good heavens!"
+
+"But go, go, go!" cried the girl.
+
+And she shoved them through the door and into the night.
+
+
+
+
+22
+
+
+To the people in Milligan's it had been most incredible that Jack Landis
+should withdraw from a competition of any sort. And though the girls
+were able to understand his motives in taking Nelly Lebrun away they
+were not able to explain this fully to their men companions. For one and
+all they admitted that Jack was imperiling his hold on the girl in
+question if he allowed her to stay near this red-headed fiend. But one
+and all they swore that Jack Landis had ruined himself with her by
+taking her away. And this was a paradox which made masculine heads in
+The Corner spin. The main point was that Jack Landis had backed down
+before a rival; and this fact was stunning enough. Donnegan, however,
+was not confused. He sent big George to ask Milligan to come to him for
+a moment.
+
+Milligan, at this, cursed George, but he was drawn by curiosity to
+consent. A moment later he was seated at Donnegan's table, drinking his
+own liquor as it was served to him from the hands of big George. If the
+first emotions of the dance-hall proprietor were anger and intense
+curiosity, his second emotion was that never-failing surprise which all
+who came close to the wanderer felt. For he had that rare faculty of
+seeming larger when in action, even when actually near much bigger men.
+Only when one came close to Donnegan one stepped, as it were, through a
+veil, and saw the almost fragile reality. When Milligan had caught his
+breath and adjusted himself, he began as follows:
+
+"Now, Bud," he said, "you've made a pretty play. Not bad at all. But no
+more bluffs in Milligan's."
+
+"Bluff!" Donnegan repeated gently.
+
+"About your servant. I let it pass for one night, but not for another."
+
+"My dear Mr. Milligan! However"--changing the subject easily--"what I
+wish to speak to you about is a bit of trouble which I foresee. I think,
+sir, that Jack Landis is coming back."
+
+"What makes you think that?"
+
+"It's a feeling I have. I have queer premonitions, Mr. Milligan, I'm
+sure he's coming and I'm sure he's going to attempt a murder."
+
+Milligan's thick lips framed his question but he did not speak: fear
+made his face ludicrous.
+
+"Right here?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"A shootin' scrape here! You?"
+
+"He has me in mind. That's why I'm speaking to you."
+
+"Don't wait to speak to me about it. Get up and get out!"
+
+"Mr. Milligan, you're wrong. I'm going to stay here and you're going to
+protect me."
+
+"Well, confound your soul! They ain't much nerve about you, is there?"
+
+"You run a public place. You have to protect your patrons from insult."
+
+"And who began it, then? Who started walkin' on Jack's toes? Now you
+come whinin' to me! By heck, I hope Jack gets you!"
+
+"You're a genial soul," said Donnegan. "Here's to you!"
+
+But something in his smile as he sipped his liquor made Milligan sit
+straighter in his chair.
+
+As for Donnegan, he was thinking hard and fast. If there were a shooting
+affair and he won, he would nevertheless run a close chance of being
+hung by a mob. He must dispose that mob to look upon him as the
+defendant and Landis as the aggressor. He had not foreseen the crisis
+until it was fairly upon him. He had thought of Nelly playing Landis
+along more gradually and carefully, so that, while he was slowly
+learning that she was growing cold to him, he would have a chance to
+grow fond of Lou Macon once more. But even across the width of the room
+he had seen the girl fire up, and from that moment he knew the result.
+Landis already suspected him; Landis, with the feeling that he had been
+robbed, would do his best to kill the thief. He might take a chance with
+Landis, if it came to a fight, just as he had taken a chance with Lewis.
+But how different this case would be! Landis was no dull-nerved ruffian
+and drunkard. He was a keen boy with a hair-trigger balance, and in a
+gunplay he would be apt to beat the best of them all. Of all this
+Donnegan was fully aware. Either he must place his own life in terrible
+hazard or else he must shoot to kill; and if he killed, what of Lou
+Macon?
+
+While he smiled into the face of Milligan, perspiration was bursting out
+under his armpits.
+
+"Mr. Milligan, I implore you to give me your aid."
+
+"What's the difference?" Milligan asked in a changed tone. "If he don't
+fight you here he'll fight you later."
+
+"You're wrong, Mr. Milligan. He isn't the sort to hold malice. He'll
+come here tonight and try to get at me like a bulldog straining on a
+leash. If he is kept away he'll get over his bad temper."
+
+Milligan pushed back his chair.
+
+"You've tried to force yourself down the throat of The Corner," he said,
+"and now you yell for help when you see the teeth."
+
+He had raised his voice. Now he got up and strode noisily away. Donnegan
+waited until he was halfway across the dance floor and then rose in
+turn.
+
+"Gentlemen," he said.
+
+The quiet voice cut into every conversation; the musicians lowered the
+instruments.
+
+"I have just told Mr. Milligan that I am sure Jack Landis is coming back
+here to try to kill me. I have asked for his protection. He has refused
+it. I intend to stay here and wait for him, Jack Landis. In the meantime
+I ask any able-bodied man who will do so, to try to stop Landis when he
+enters."
+
+He sat down, raised his glass, and sipped the drink. Two hundred pairs
+of eyes were fastened with hawklike intensity upon him, and they could
+perceive no quiver of his hand.
+
+The sipping of his liquor was not an affectation. For he was drinking,
+at incredible cost, liquors from Milligan's store of rareties.
+
+The effect of Donnegan's announcement was first a silence, then a hum,
+then loud voices of protest, curiosity--and finally a scurrying toward
+the doors.
+
+Yet really very few left. The rest valued a chance to see the fight
+beyond the fear of random slugs of lead which might fly their way.
+Besides, where such men as Donnegan and big Jack Landis were concerned,
+there was not apt to be much wild shooting. The dancing stopped, of
+course. The music was ordered by Milligan to play, in a frantic endeavor
+to rouse custom again; but the music of its own accord fell away in the
+middle of the piece. For the musicians could not watch the notes and the
+door at the same time.
+
+As for Donnegan, he found that it was one thing to wait and another to
+be waited for. He, too, wished to turn and watch that door until it
+should be filled by the bulk of Jack Landis. Yet he fought the desire.
+
+And in the midst of this torturing suspense an idea came to him, and at
+the same instant Jack Landis entered the doorway. He stood there looking
+vast against the night. One glance around was sufficient to teach him
+the meaning of the silence. The stage was set, and the way opened to
+Donnegan. Without a word, big George stole to one side.
+
+Straight to the middle of the dance floor went Jack Landis, red-faced,
+with long, heavy steps. He faced Donnegan.
+
+"You skunk!" shouted Landis. "I've come for you!"
+
+And he went for his gun. Donnegan, too, stirred. But when the revolver
+leaped into the hand of Landis, it was seen that the hands of Donnegan
+rose past the line of his waist, past his shoulders, and presently
+locked easily behind his head. A terrible chance, for Landis had come
+within a breath of shooting. So great was the impulse that, as he
+checked the pressure of his forefinger, he stumbled a whole pace
+forward. He walked on.
+
+"You need cause to fight?" he cried, striking Donnegan across the face
+with the back of his left hand, jerking up the muzzle of the gun in his
+right.
+
+Now a dark trickle was seen to come from the broken lips of Donnegan,
+yet he was smiling faintly.
+
+Jack Landis muttered a curse and said sneeringly: "Are you afraid?"
+
+There were sick faces in that room; men turned their heads, for nothing
+is so ghastly as the sight of a man who is taking water.
+
+"Hush," said Donnegan. "I'm going to kill you, Jack. But I want to kill
+you fairly and squarely. There's no pleasure, you see, in beating a
+youngster like you to the draw. I want to give you a fighting chance.
+Besides"--he removed one hand from behind his head and waved it
+carelessly to where the men of The Corner crouched in the shadow--"you
+people have seen me drill one chap already, and I'd like to shoot you in
+a new way. Is that agreeable?"
+
+Two terrible, known figures detached themselves from the gloom near the
+door.
+
+"Hark to this gent sing," said one, and his name was the Pedlar. "Hark
+to him sing, Jack, and we'll see that you get fair play."
+
+"Good," said his friend, Joe Rix. "Let him take his try, Jack."
+
+As a matter of fact, had Donnegan reached for a gun, he would have been
+shot before even Landis could bring out a weapon, for the steady eye of
+Joe Rix, hidden behind the Pedlar, had been looking down a revolver
+barrel at the forehead of Donnegan, waiting for that first move. But
+something about the coolness of Donnegan fascinated them.
+
+"Don't shoot, Joe," the Pedlar had said. "That bird is the chief over
+again. Don't plug him!"
+
+And that was why Donnegan lived.
+
+
+
+
+23
+
+
+If he had taken the eye of the hardened Rix and the still harder Pedlar,
+he had stunned the men of The Corner. And breathlessly they waited for
+his proposal to Jack Landis.
+
+He spoke with his hands behind his head again, after he had slowly taken
+out a handkerchief and wiped his chin.
+
+"I'm a methodical fellow, Landis," he said. "I hate to do an untidy
+piece of work. I have been disgusted with myself since my little falling
+out with Lewis. I intended to shoot him cleanly through the hand, but
+instead of that I tore up his whole forearm. Sloppy work, Landis. I
+don't like it. Now, in meeting you, I want to do a clean, neat, precise
+job. One that I'll be proud of."
+
+A moaning voice was heard faintly in the distance. It was the Pedlar,
+who had wrapped himself in his gaunt arms and was crooning softly, with
+unspeakable joy: "Hark to him sing! Hark to him sing! A ringer for the
+chief!"
+
+"Why should we be in such a hurry?" continued Donnegan. "You see that
+clock in the corner? Tut, tut! Turn your head and look. Do you think
+I'll drop you while you look around?"
+
+Landis flung one glance over his shoulder at the big clock, whose
+pendulum worked solemnly back and forth.
+
+"In five minutes," said Donnegan, "it will be eleven o'clock. And when
+it's eleven o'clock the clock will chime. Now, Landis, you and I shall
+sit down here like gentlemen and drink our liquor and think our last
+thoughts. Heavens, man, is there anything more disagreeable than being
+hurried out of life? But when the clock chimes, we draw our guns and
+shoot each other through the heart--the brain--wherever we have chosen.
+But, Landis, if one of us should inadvertently--or through
+nervousness--beat the clock's chime by the split part of a second, the
+good people of The Corner will fill that one of us promptly full of
+lead."
+
+He turned to the crowd.
+
+"Gentlemen, is it a good plan?"
+
+As well as a Roman crowd if it wanted to see a gladiator die, the frayed
+nerves of The Corner responded to the stimulus of this delightful
+entertainment. There was a joyous chorus of approval.
+
+"When the clock strikes, then," said Landis, and flung himself down in a
+chair, setting his teeth over his rage.
+
+Donnegan smiled benevolently upon him; then he turned again and beckoned
+to George. The big man strode closer and leaned.
+
+"George," he said. "I'm not going to kill this fellow."
+
+"No, sir; certainly, sir," whispered the other. "George can kill him for
+you, sir."
+
+Donnegan smiled wanly.
+
+"I'm not going to kill him, George, on account of the girl on the hill.
+You know? And the reason is that she's fond of the lubber. I'll try to
+break his nerve, George, and drill him through the arm, say. No, I can't
+take chances like that. But if I have him shaking in time, I'll shoot
+him through the right shoulder, George.
+
+"But if I miss and he gets me instead, mind you, never raise a hand
+against him. If you so much as touch his skin, I'll rise out of my grave
+and haunt you. You hear? Good-by, George."
+
+But big George withdrew without a word, and the reason for his
+speechlessness was the glistening of his eyes.
+
+"If I live," said Donnegan, "I'll show that George that I appreciate
+him."
+
+He went on aloud to Landis: "So glum, my boy? Tush! We have still four
+minutes left. Are you going to spend your last four minutes hating me?"
+
+He turned: "Another liqueur, George. Two of them."
+
+The big man brought the drinks, and having put one on the table of
+Donnegan, he was directed to take the other to Landis.
+
+"It's really good stuff," said Donnegan. "I'm not an expert on these
+matters; but I like the taste. Will you try it?"
+
+It seemed that Landis dared not trust himself to speech. As though a
+vast and deadly hatred were gathered in him, and he feared lest it
+should escape in words the first time he parted his teeth.
+
+He took the glass of liqueur and slowly poured it upon the floor. From
+the crowd there was a deep murmur of disapproval. And Landis, feeling
+that he had advanced the wrong foot in the matter, glowered scornfully
+about him and then stared once more at Donnegan.
+
+"Just as you please," said Donnegan, sipping his glass. "But remember
+this, my young friend, that a fool is a fool, drunk or sober."
+
+Landis showed his teeth, but made no other answer. And Donnegan
+anxiously flashed a glance at the clock. He still had three minutes.
+Three minutes in which he must reduce this stalwart fellow to a
+trembling, nervous wreck. Otherwise, he must shoot to kill, or else sit
+there and become a certain sacrifice for the sake of Lou Macon. Yet he
+controlled the muscles of his face and was still able to smile as he
+turned again to Landis.
+
+"Three minutes left," he said. "Three minutes for you to compose
+yourself, Landis. Think of it, man! All the good life behind you. Have
+you nothing to remember? Nothing to soften your mind? Why die, Landis,
+with a curse in your heart and a scowl on your lips?"
+
+Once more Landis stirred his lips; but there was only the flash of his
+teeth; he maintained his resolute silence.
+
+"Ah," murmured Donnegan, "I am sorry to see this. And before all your
+admirers, Landis. Before all your friends. Look at them scattered there
+under the lights and in the shadows. No farewell word for them? Nothing
+kindly to say? Are you going to leave them without a syllable of
+goodfellowship?"
+
+"Confound you!" muttered Landis.
+
+There was another hum from the crowd; it was partly wonder, partly
+anger. Plainly they were not pleased with Jack Landis on this day.
+
+Donnegan shook his head sadly.
+
+"I hoped," he said, "that I could teach you how to die. But I fail. And
+yet you should be grateful to me for one thing, Jack. I have kept you
+from being a murderer in cold blood. I kept you from killing a
+defenseless man as you intended to do when you walked up to me a moment
+ago."
+
+He smiled genially in mockery, and there was a scowl on the face of
+Landis.
+
+"Two minutes," said Donnegan.
+
+Leaning back in his chair, he yawned. For a whole minute he did not
+stir.
+
+"One minute?" he murmured inquisitively.
+
+And there was a convulsive shudder through the limbs of Landis. It was
+the first sign that he was breaking down under the strain. There
+remained only one minute in which to reduce him to a nervous wreck!
+
+The strain was telling in other places. Donnegan turned and saw in the
+shadow and about the edges of the room a host of drawn, tense faces and
+burning eyes. Never while they lived would they forget that scene.
+
+"And now that the time is close," said Donnegan, "I must look to my
+gun."
+
+He made a gesture; how it was, no one was swift enough of eye to tell,
+but a gun appeared in his hand. At the flash of it, Landis' weapon
+leaped up to the mark and his face convulsed. But Donnegan calmly spun
+the cylinder of his revolver and held it toward Landis, dangling from
+his forefinger under the guard.
+
+"You see?" he said to Landis. "Clean as a whistle, and easy as a girl's
+smile. I hate a stiff action, Jack."
+
+And Landis slowly allowed the muzzle of his own gun to sink. For the
+first time his eyes left the eyes of Donnegan, and sinking, inch by
+inch, stared fascinated at the gun in the hand of the enemy.
+
+"Thirty seconds," said Donnegan by way of conversation.
+
+Landis jerked up his head and his eyes once more met the eyes of
+Donnegan, but this time they were wide, and the pointed glance of
+Donnegan sank into them. The lips of Landis parted. His tongue
+tremblingly moistened them.
+
+"Keep your nerve," said Donnegan in an undertone.
+
+"You hound!" gasped Landis.
+
+"I knew it," said Donnegan sadly. "You'll die with a curse on your
+lips."
+
+He added: "Ten seconds, Landis!"
+
+And then he achieved his third step toward victory, for Landis jerked
+his head around, saw the minute hand almost upon its mark, and swung
+back with a shudder toward Donnegan. From the crowd there was a deep
+breath.
+
+And then Landis was seen to raise the muzzle of his gun again, and
+crouch over it, leveling it straight at Donnegan. He, at least, would
+send his bullet straight to the mark when that first chime went humming
+through the big room.
+
+But Donnegan? He made his last play to shatter the nerve of Landis. With
+the minute hand on the very mark, he turned carelessly, the revolver
+still dangling by the trigger guard, and laughed toward the crowd.
+
+And out of the crowd there came a deep, sobbing breath of heartbreaking
+suspense.
+
+It told on Landis. Out of the corner of his eye Donnegan saw the muscles
+of the man's face sag and tremble; saw him allow his gun to fall, in
+imitation of Donnegan, to his side; and saw the long arm quivering.
+
+And then the chime rang, with a metallic, sharp click and then a long
+and reverberant clanging.
+
+With a gasp Landis whipped up his gun and fired. Once, twice, again, the
+weapon crashed. And, to the eternal wonder of all who saw it, at a
+distance of five paces Landis three times missed his man. But Donnegan,
+sitting back with a smile, raised his own gun almost with leisure,
+unhurried, dropped it upon the mark, and sent a forty-five slug through
+the right shoulder of Jack Landis.
+
+The blow of the slug, like the punch of a strong man's fist, knocked the
+victim out of his chair to the floor. He lay clutching at his shoulder.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Donnegan, rising, "is there a doctor here?"
+
+
+
+
+24
+
+
+That was the signal for the rush that swept across the floor and left a
+flood of marveling men around the fallen Landis. On the outskirts of
+this tide, Donnegan stepped up to two men, Joe Rix and the Pedlar. They
+greeted him with expectant glances.
+
+"Gentlemen," said Donnegan, "will you step aside?"
+
+They followed him to a distance from the clamoring group.
+
+"I have to thank you," said Donnegan.
+
+"For what?"
+
+"For changing your minds," said Donnegan, and left them.
+
+And afterward the Pedlar murmured with an oddly twisted face: "Cat-eye,
+Joe. He can see in the dark! But I told you he was worth savin'."
+
+"Speakin' in general," said Joe, "which you ain't hardly ever wrong when
+you get stirred up about a thing."
+
+"He's something new," the Pedlar said wisely.
+
+"Ay, he's rare."
+
+"But talkin' aside, suppose he was to meet up with Lord Nick?"
+
+The smile of Joe Rix was marvelously evil.
+
+"You got a great mind for great things," he declared. "You ought to of
+been in politics."
+
+In the meantime the doctor had been found. The wound had been cleansed.
+It was a cruel one, for the bullet had torn its way through flesh and
+sinew, and for many a week the fighting arm of Jack Landis would be
+useless. It had, moreover, carried a quantity of cloth into the wound,
+and it was almost impossible to cleanse the hole satisfactorily. As for
+the bullet itself, it had whipped cleanly through, at that short
+distance making nothing of its target.
+
+A door was knocked off its hinges. But before the wounded man was placed
+upon it, Lebrun appeared at the door into Milligan's. He was never a
+very cheery fellow in appearance, and now he looked like a demoniac. He
+went straight to Joe Rix and the skeleton form of the Pedlar. He raised
+one finger as he looked at them.
+
+"I've heard," said Lebrun. "Lord Nick likewise shall hear."
+
+Joe Rix changed color. He bustled about, together with the Pedlar, and
+lent a hand in carrying the wounded man to the house of Lebrun, for
+Nelly Lebrun was to be the nurse of Landis.
+
+In the meantime, Donnegan went up the hill with big George behind him.
+Already he was a sinisterly marked man. Working through the crowd near
+Lebrun's gambling hall, a drunkard in the midst of a song stumbled
+against him. But the sight of the man with whom he had collided, sobered
+him as swiftly as the lash of a whip across his face. It was impossible
+for him, in that condition, to grow pale. But he turned a vivid purple.
+
+"Sorry, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+Donnegan, with a shrug of his shoulders, passed on. The crowd split
+before him, for they had heard his name. There were brave men, he knew,
+among them. Men who would fight to the last drop of blood rather than be
+shamed, but they shrank from Donnegan without shame, as they would have
+shrunk from the coming of a rattler had their feet been bare. So he went
+easily through the crowd with big George in his wake, walking proudly.
+
+For George had stood to one side and watched Donnegan indomitably beat
+down the will of Jack Landis, and the sight would live in his mind
+forever. Indeed, if Donnegan had bidden the sun to stand in the heavens,
+the big man would have looked for obedience. That the forbearance of
+Donnegan should have been based on a desire to serve a girl certainly
+upset the mind of George, but it taught him an amazing thing--that
+Donnegan was capable of affection.
+
+The terrible Donnegan went on. In his wake the crowd closed slowly, for
+many had paused to look after the little man. Until they came to the
+outskirts of the town and climbed the hill toward the two shacks. The
+one was, of course, dark. But the shack in which Lou Macon lived burst
+with light. Donnegan paused to consider this miracle. He listened, and
+he heard voices--the voice of a man, laughing loudly. Thinking something
+was wrong, he hurried forward and called loudly.
+
+What he saw when he was admitted made him speechless. Colonel Macon,
+ensconced in his invalid chair, faced the door, and near him was Lou
+Macon. Lou rose, half-frightened by the unexpected interruption, but the
+liquid laughter of the colonel set all to rights at once.
+
+"Come in, Donnegan. Come in, lad," said the colonel.
+
+"I heard a man's voice," Donnegan said half apologetically. The sick
+color began to leave his face, and relief swept over it slowly. "I
+thought something might be wrong. I didn't think of you." And looking
+down, as all men will in moments of relaxation from a strain, he did not
+see the eyes of Lou Macon grow softly luminous as they dwelt upon him.
+
+"Come in, George," went on the colonel, "and make yourself comfortable
+in the kitchen. Close the door. Sit down, Donnegan. When your letter
+came I saw that I was needed here. Lou, have you looked into our
+friend's cabin? No? Nothing like a woman's touch to give a man the
+feeling of homeliness, Lou. Step over to Donnegan's cabin and put it to
+rights. Yes, I know that George takes care of it, but George is one
+thing, and your care will be another. Besides, I must be alone with him
+for a moment. Man talk confuses a girl, Lou. You shouldn't listen to
+it."
+
+She withdrew with that faint, dreamy smile with which she so often heard
+the instructions of her father; as though she were only listening with
+half of her mind. When she was gone, though the door to the kitchen
+stood wide open, and big George was in it, the colonel lowered his bass
+voice so successfully that it was as safe as being alone with Donnegan.
+
+"And now for facts," he began.
+
+"But," said Donnegan, "how--that chair--how in the world have you come
+here?"
+
+The colonel shook his head.
+
+"My dear boy, you grieve and disappoint me. The manner in which a thing
+is done is not important. Mysteries are usually simply explained. As for
+my small mystery--a neighbor on the way to The Corner with a wagon
+stopped in, and I asked him to take me along. So here I am. But now for
+your work here, lad?"
+
+"Bad," said Donnegan.
+
+"I gathered you had been unfortunate. And now you have been fighting?"
+
+"You have heard?"
+
+"I see it in your eye, Donnegan. When a man has been looking fear in the
+face for a time, an image of it remains in his eyes. They are wider,
+glazed with the other thing."
+
+"It was forced on me," said Donnegan. "I have shot Landis."
+
+He was amazed to see the colonel was vitally affected. His lips remained
+parted over his next word, and one eyelid twitched violently. But the
+spasm passed over quickly. When he raised his perfect hands and pressed
+them together just under his chin. He smiled in a most winning manner
+that made the blood of Donnegan run cold.
+
+"Donnegan," he said softly, "I see that I have misjudged you. I
+underestimated you. I thought, indeed, that your rare qualities were
+qualified by painful weaknesses. But now I see that you are a man, and
+from this moment we shall act together with open minds. So you have done
+it? Tush, then I need not have taken my trip. The work is done; the
+mines come to me as the heir of Jack. And yet, poor boy, I pity him! He
+misjudged me; he should not have ventured to this deal with Lord Nick
+and his compatriots!"
+
+"Wait," exclaimed Donnegan. "You're wrong; Landis is not dead."
+
+Once more the colonel was checked, but this time the alteration in his
+face was no more than a comma's pause in a long balanced sentence. It
+was impossible to obtain more than one show of emotion from him in a
+single conversation.
+
+"Not dead? Well, Donnegan, that is unfortunate. And after you had
+punctured him you had no chance to send home the finishing shot?"
+
+Donnegan merely watched the colonel and tapped his bony finger against
+the point of his chin.
+
+"Ah," murmured the colonel, "I see another possibility. It is almost as
+good--it may even be better than his death. You have disabled him, and
+having done this you at once take him to a place where he shall be under
+your surveillance--this, in fact, is a very comfortable outlook--for me
+and my interests. But for you, Donnegan, how the devil do you benefit by
+having Jack flat on his back, sick, helpless, and in a perfect position
+to excite all the sympathies of Lou?"
+
+Now, Donnegan had known cold-blooded men in his day, but that there
+existed such a man as the colonel had never come into his mind. He
+looked upon the colonel, therefore, with neither disgust nor anger, but
+with a distant and almost admiring wonder. For perfect evil always wins
+something akin to admiration from more common people.
+
+"Well," continued the colonel, a little uneasy under this silent
+scrutiny--silence was almost the only thing in the world that could
+trouble him--"well, Donnegan, my lad, this is your plan, is it not?"
+
+"To shoot down Landis, then take possession of him and while I nurse him
+back to health hold a gun--metaphorically speaking--to his head and make
+him do as I please: sign some lease, say, of the mines to you?"
+
+The colonel shifted himself to a more comfortable position in his chair,
+brought the tips of his fingers together under his vast chin, and smiled
+benevolently upon Donnegan.
+
+"It is as I thought," he murmured. "Donnegan, you are rare; you are
+exquisite!"
+
+"And you," said Donnegan, "are a scoundrel."
+
+"Exactly. I am very base." The colonel laughed. "You and I alone can
+speak with intimate knowledge of me." His chuckle shook all his body,
+and set the folds of his face quivering. His mirth died away when he saw
+Donnegan come to his feet.
+
+"Eh?" he called.
+
+"Good-by," said Donnegan.
+
+"But where--Landis--Donnegan, what devil is in your eye?"
+
+"A foolish devil, Colonel Macon. I surrender the benefits of all my
+work for you and go to make sure that you do not lay your hands upon
+Jack Landis."
+
+The colonel opened and closed his lips foolishly like a fish gasping
+silently out of water. It was rare indeed for the colonel to appear
+foolish.
+
+"In heaven's name, Donnegan!"
+
+The little man smiled. He had a marvelously wicked smile, which came
+from the fact that his lips could curve while his eyes remained bright
+and straight, and malevolently unwrinkled. He laid his hand on the knob
+of the door.
+
+"Donnegan," cried the colonel, gray of face, "give me one minute."
+
+
+
+
+25
+
+
+Donnegan stepped to a chair and sat down. He took out his watch and held
+it in his hand, studying the dial, and the colonel knew that his time
+limit was taken literally.
+
+"I swear to you," he said, "that if you can help me to the possession of
+Landis while he is ill, I shall not lay a finger upon him or harm him in
+any way."
+
+"You swear?" said Donnegan with that ugly smile.
+
+"My dear boy, do you think I am reckless enough to break a promise I
+have given to you?"
+
+The cynical glance of Donnegan probed the colonel to the heart, but the
+eyes of the fat man did not wince. Neither did he speak again, but the
+two calmly stared at each other. At the end of the minute, Donnegan
+slipped the watch into his pocket.
+
+"I am ready to listen to reason," he said. And the colonel passed one of
+his strong hands across his forehead.
+
+"Now," and he sighed, "I feel that the crisis is passed. With a man of
+your caliber, Donnegan, I fear a snap judgment above all things. Since
+you give me a chance to appeal to your reason I feel safe. As from the
+first, I shall lay my cards upon the table. You are fond of Lou. I took
+it for granted that you would welcome a chance to brush Landis out of
+your path. It appears that I am wrong. I admit my error. Only fools
+cling to convictions; wise men are ready to meet new viewpoints. Very
+well. You wish to spare Landis for reasons of your own which I do not
+pretend to fathom. Perhaps, you pity him; I cannot tell. Now, you wonder
+why I wish to have Landis in my care if I do not intend to put an end to
+him and thereby become owner of his mines? I shall tell you frankly. I
+intend to own the mines, if not through the death of Jack, then through
+a legal act signed by the hand of Jack."
+
+"A willing signature?" asked Donnegan, calmly.
+
+A shadow came and went across the face of the colonel, and Donnegan
+caught his breath. There were times when he felt that if the colonel
+possessed strength of body as well as strength of mind even he,
+Donnegan, would be afraid of the fat man.
+
+"Willing or unwilling," said the colonel, "he shall do as I direct!"
+
+"Without force?"
+
+"Listen to me," said the colonel. "You and I are not children, and
+therefore we know that ordinary men are commanded rather by fear of what
+may happen to them than by being confronted with an actual danger. I
+have told you that I shall not so much as raise the weight of a finger
+against Jack Landis. I shall not. But a whisper adroitly put in his ear
+may accomplish the same ends." He added with a smile. "Personally, I
+dislike physical violence. In that, Mr. Donnegan, we belong to opposite
+schools of action."
+
+The picture came to Donnegan of Landis, lying in the cabin of the
+colonel, his childish mind worked upon by the devilish insinuation of
+the colonel. Truly, if Jack did not go mad under the strain he would be
+very apt to do as the colonel wished.
+
+"I have made a mess of this from the beginning," said Donnegan, quietly.
+"In the first place, I intended to play the role of the
+self-sacrificing. You don't understand? I didn't expect that you would.
+In short, I intended to send Landis back to Lou by making a flash that
+would dazzle The Corner, and dazzle Nelly Lebrun as well--win her away
+from Landis, you see? But the fool, as soon as he saw that I was
+flirting with the girl, lowered his head and charged at me like a bull.
+I had to strike him down in self-defense.
+
+"But now you ask me to put him wholly in your possession. Colonel, you
+omit one link in your chain of reasoning. The link is important--to me.
+What am I to gain by placing him within the range of your whispering?"
+
+"Tush! Do I need to tell you? I still presume you are interested in Lou,
+though you attempted to do so much to give Landis back to her. Well,
+Donnegan, you must know that when she learns it was a bullet from your
+gun that struck down Landis, she'll hate you, my boy, as if you were a
+snake. But if she knows that after all you were forced into the fight,
+and that you took the first opportunity to bring Jack into
+my--er--paternal care--her sentiments may change. No, they will
+change."
+
+Donnegan left his chair and began to pace the floor. He was no more
+self-conscious in the presence of the colonel than a man might be in the
+presence of his own evil instincts. And it was typical of the colonel's
+insight that he made no attempt to influence the decision of Donnegan
+after this point was reached. He allowed him to work out the matter in
+his own way. At length, Donnegan paused.
+
+"What's the next step?" he asked.
+
+The colonel sighed, and by that sigh he admitted more than words could
+tell.
+
+"A reasonable man," he said, "is the delight of my heart. The next step,
+Donnegan, is to bring Jack Landis to this house."
+
+"Tush!" said Donnegan. "Bring him away from Lebrun? Bring him away from
+the tigers of Lord Nick's gang? I saw them at Milligan's place tonight.
+A bad set, Colonel Macon."
+
+"A set you can handle," said the colonel, calmly.
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"The danger will in itself be the thing that tempts you," he went on.
+"To go among those fellows, wild as they are, and bring Jack Landis away
+to this house."
+
+"Bring him here," said Donnegan with indescribable bitterness, "so that
+she may pity his wounds? Bring him here where she may think of him and
+tend him and grow to hate me?"
+
+"Grow to fear you," said the colonel.
+
+"An excellent thing to accomplish," said Donnegan coldly.
+
+"I have found it so," remarked the colonel, and lighted a cigarette.
+
+He drew the smoke so deep that when it issued again from between his
+lips it was a most transparent, bluish vapor. Fear came upon Donnegan.
+Not fear, surely, of the fat man, helpless in his invalid's chair, but
+fear of the mind working ceaselessly behind those hazy eyes. He turned
+without a word and went to the door. The moment it opened under his
+hand, he felt a hysterical impulse to leap out of the room swiftly and
+slam the door behind him--to put a bar between him and the eye of the
+colonel, just as a child leaps from the dark room into the lighted and
+closes the door quickly to keep out the following night. He had to
+compel himself to move with proper dignity.
+
+When outside, he sighed; the quiet of the night was like a blessing
+compared with the ordeal of the colonel's devilish coldness. Macon's
+advice had seemed almost logical the moment before. Win Lou Macon by the
+power of fear, well enough, for was not fear the thing which she had
+followed all her life? Was it not through fear that the colonel himself
+had reduced her to such abject, unquestioning obedience?
+
+He went thoughtfully to his own cabin, and, down-headed in his musings,
+he became aware with a start of Lou Macon in the hut. She had changed
+the room as her father had bidden her to do. Just wherein the difference
+lay, Donnegan could not tell. There was a touch of evergreen in one
+corner; she had laid a strip of bright cloth over the rickety little
+table, and in ten minutes she had given the hut a semblance of permanent
+livableness. Donnegan saw her now, with some vestige of the smile of her
+art upon her face; but she immediately smoothed it to perfect gravity.
+He had never seen such perfect self-command in a woman.
+
+"Is there anything more that I can do?" she asked, moving toward the
+door.
+
+"Nothing."
+
+"Good night."
+
+"Wait."
+
+She still seemed to be under the authority which the colonel had
+delegated to Donnegan when they started for The Corner. She turned, and
+without a word came back to him. And a pang struck through Donnegan.
+What would he not have given if she had come at his call not with these
+dumb eyes, but with a spark of kindliness? Instead, she obeyed him as a
+soldier obeys a commander.
+
+"There has been trouble," said Donnegan.
+
+"Yes?" she said, but there was no change in her face.
+
+"It was forced upon me." Then he added: "It amounted to a shooting
+affair."
+
+There was a change in her face now, indeed. A glint came in her eyes,
+and the suggestion of the colonel which he had once or twice before
+sensed in her, now became more vivid than ever before. The same
+contemptuous heartlessness, which was the colonel's most habitual
+expression, now looked at Donnegan out of the lovely face of the girl.
+
+"They were fools to press you to the wall," she said. "I have no pity
+for them."
+
+For a moment Donnegan only stared at her; on what did she base her
+confidence in his prowess as a fighting man?
+
+"It was only one man," he said huskily.
+
+Ah, there he had struck her home! As though the words were a burden, she
+shrank from him; then she slipped suddenly close to him and caught both
+his hands. Her head was raised far back; she had pressed close to him;
+she seemed in every line of her body to plead with him against himself,
+and all the veils which had curtained her mind from him dropped away. He
+found himself looking down into eyes full of fire and shadow; and eager
+lips; and the fiber of her voice made her whole body tremble.
+
+"It isn't Jack?" she pleaded. "It isn't Jack that you've fought with?"
+
+And he said to himself: "She loves him with all her heart and soul!"
+
+"It is he," said Donnegan in an agony. Pain may be like a fire that
+tempers some strong men; and now Donnegan, because he was in torment,
+smiled, and his eye was as cold as steel.
+
+The girl flung away his hands.
+
+"You bought murderer!" she cried at him.
+
+"He is not dead."
+
+"But you shot him down!"
+
+"He attacked me; it was self-defense."
+
+She broke into a low-pitched, mirthless laughter. Where was the
+filmy-eyed girl he had known? The laughter broke off short--like a sob.
+
+"Don't you suppose I've known?" she said. "That I've read my father?
+That I knew he was sending a bloodhound when he sent you? But, oh, I
+thought you had a touch of the other thing!"
+
+He cringed under her tone.
+
+"I'll bring him to you," said Donnegan desperately. "I'll bring him here
+so that you can take care of him."
+
+"You'll take him away from Lord Nick--and Lebrun--and the rest?" And it
+was the cold smile of her father with which she mocked him.
+
+"I'll do it."
+
+"You play a deep game," said the girl bitterly. "Why would you do it?"
+
+"Because," said Donnegan faintly. "I love you."
+
+Her hand had been on the knob of the door; now she twitched it open and
+was gone; and the last that Donnegan saw was the width of the startled
+eyes.
+
+"As if I were a leper," muttered Donnegan. "By heaven, she looked at me
+as if I were unclean!"
+
+But once outside the door, the girl stood with both hands pressed to her
+face, stunned. When she dropped them, they folded against her breast,
+and her face tipped up.
+
+Even by starlight, had Donnegan been there to look, he would have seen
+the divinity which comes in the face of a woman when she loves.
+
+
+
+
+26
+
+
+Had he been there to see, even in the darkness he would have known, and
+he could have crossed the distance between their lives with a single
+step, and taken her into his heart. But he did not see. He had thrown
+himself upon his bunk and lay face down, his arms stretched rigidly out
+before him, his teeth set, his eyes closed.
+
+For what Donnegan had wanted in the world, he had taken; by force when
+he could, by subtlety when he must. And now, what he wanted most of all
+was gone from him, he felt, forever. There was no power in his arms to
+take that part of her which he wanted; he had no craft which could
+encompass her.
+
+Big George, stealing into the room, wondered at the lithe, slender form
+of the man in the bed. Seeing him thus, it seemed that with the power of
+one hand, George could crush him. But George would as soon have closed
+his fingers over a rattler. He slipped away into the kitchen and sat
+with his arms wrapped around his body, as frightened as though he had
+seen a ghost.
+
+But Donnegan lay on the bed without moving for hours and hours, until
+big George, who sat wakeful and terrified all that time, was sure that
+he slept. Then he stole in and covered Donnegan with a blanket, for it
+was the chill, gray time of the night.
+
+But Donnegan was not asleep, and when George rose in the morning, he
+found the master sitting at the table with his arms folded tightly
+across his breast and his eyes burning into vacancy.
+
+He spent the day in that chair.
+
+It was the middle of the afternoon when George came with a scared face
+and a message that a "gen'leman who looks riled, sir," wanted to see
+him. There was no answer, and George perforce took the silence as
+acquiescence. So he opened the door and announced: "Mr. Lester to see
+you, sir."
+
+Into the fiery haze of Donnegan's vision stepped a raw-boned fellow with
+sandy hair and a disagreeably strong jaw.
+
+"You're the gent that's here with the colonel, ain't you?" said Lester.
+
+Donnegan did not reply.
+
+"You're the gent that cleaned up on Landis, ain't you?" continued the
+sandy-haired man.
+
+There was still the same silence, and Lester burst out: "It don't work,
+Donnegan. You've showed you're man-sized several ways since you been in
+The Corner. Now I come to tell you to get out from under Colonel Macon.
+Why? Because he's crooked, because we know he's crooked; because he
+played crooked with me. You hear me talk?"
+
+Still Donnegan considered him without a word.
+
+"We're goin' to run him out, Donnegan. We want you on our side if we can
+get you; if we can't get you, then we'll run you out along with the
+colonel."
+
+He began to talk with difficulty, as though Donnegan's stare unnerved
+him. He even took a step back toward the door.
+
+"You can't bluff me out, Donnegan. I ain't alone. They's others behind
+me. I don't need to name no names. Here's another thing: you ain't alone
+yourself. You got a woman and a cripple on your hands. Now, Donnegan,
+you're a fast man with a gun and you're a fast man at thinkin', but I
+ask you personal: have you got a chance runnin' under that weight?"
+
+He added fiercely: "I'm through. Now, talk turkey, Donnegan, or you're
+done!"
+
+For the first time Donnegan moved. It was to make to big George a
+significant signal with his thumb, indicating the visitor. However,
+Lester did not wait to be thrown bodily from the cabin. One enormous
+oath exploded from his lips, and he backed sullenly through the door and
+slammed it after him.
+
+"It kind of looks," said big George, "like a war, sir."
+
+And still Donnegan did not speak, until the afternoon was gone, and the
+evening, and the full black of the night had swallowed up the hills
+around The Corner.
+
+Then he left the chair, shaved, and dressed carefully, looked to his
+revolver, stowed it carefully and invisibly away among his clothes, and
+walked leisurely down the hill. An outbreak of cursing, stamping,
+hair-tearing, shooting could not have affected big George as this quiet
+departure did. He followed, unordered, but as he stepped across the
+threshold of the hut he rolled up his eyes to the stars.
+
+"Oh, heavens above," muttered George, "have mercy on Mr. Donnegan. He
+ain't happy."
+
+And he went down the hill, making sure that he was fit for battle with
+knife and gun.
+
+He had sensed Donnegan's mental condition accurately enough. The heart
+of the little man was swelled to the point of breaking. A twenty-hour
+vigil had whitened his face, drawn in his cheeks, and painted his eyes
+with shadow; and now he wanted action. He wanted excitement, strife,
+competition; something to fill his mind. And naturally enough he had two
+places in mind--Lebrun's and Milligan's.
+
+It is hard to relate the state of Donnegan's mind at this time. Chiefly,
+he was conscious of a peculiar and cruel pain that made him hollow; it
+was like homesickness raised to the nth degree. Vaguely he realized
+that in some way, somehow, he must fulfill his promise to the girl and
+bring Jack Landis home. The colonel dared not harm the boy for fear of
+Donnegan; and the girl would be happy. For that very reason Donnegan
+wanted to tear Landis to shreds.
+
+It is not extremely heroic for a man tormented with sorrow to go to a
+gambling hall and then to a dance hall to seek relief. But Donnegan was
+not a hero. He was only a man, and, since his heart was empty, he wanted
+something that might fill it. Indeed, like most men, suffering made him
+a good deal of a boy.
+
+So the high heels of Donnegan tapped across the floor of Lebrun's. A
+murmur went before him whenever he appeared now, and a way opened for
+him. At the roulette wheel he stopped, placed fifty on red, and watched
+it double three times. George, at a signal from the master, raked in the
+winnings. And Donnegan sat at a faro table and won again, and again rose
+disconsolately and went on. For when men do not care how luck runs it
+never fails to favor them. The devotees of fortune are the ones she
+punishes.
+
+In the meantime the whisper ran swiftly through The Corner.
+
+"Donnegan is out hunting trouble."
+
+About the good that is in men rumor often makes mistakes, but for evil
+she has an infallible eye and at once sets all of her thousand tongues
+wagging. Indeed, any man with half an eye could not fail to get the
+meaning of his fixed glance, his hard set jaw, and the straightness of
+his mouth. If he had been a ghost, men could not have avoided him more
+sedulously, and the giant servant who stalked at his back. Not that The
+Corner was peopled with cowards. The true Westerner avoids trouble, but
+cornered, he will fight like a wildcat.
+
+So people watched from the corner of their eyes as Donnegan passed.
+
+He left Lebrun's. There was no competition. Luck blindly favored him,
+and Donnegan wanted contest, excitement. He crossed to Milligan's. Rumor
+was there before him. A whisper conveyed to a pair of mighty-limbed
+cow-punchers that they were sitting at the table which Donnegan had
+occupied the night before, and they wisely rose without further hint and
+sought other chairs. Milligan, anxious-eyed, hurried to the orchestra,
+and with a blast of sound they sought to cover up the entry of the
+gunman.
+
+As a matter of fact that blare of horns only served to announce him.
+Something was about to happen; the eyes of men grew shadowy; the eyes of
+women brightened. And then Donnegan appeared, with George behind him,
+and crossed the floor straight to his table of the night before. Not
+that he had forethought in going toward it, but he was moving
+absent-mindedly.
+
+Indeed, he had half forgotten that he was a public figure in The Corner,
+and sitting sipping the cordial which big George brought him at once, he
+let his glance rove swiftly around the room. The eye of more than one
+brave man sank under that glance; the eye of more than one woman smiled
+back at him; but where the survey of Donnegan halted was on the face of
+Nelly Lebrun.
+
+She was crossing the farther side of the floor alone, unescorted except
+for the whisper about her, but seeing Donnegan she stopped abruptly.
+Donnegan instantly rose. She would have gone on again in a flurry; but
+that would have been too pointed.
+
+A moment later Donnegan was threading his way across the dance floor to
+Nelly Lebrun, with all eyes turned in his direction. He had his hat
+under his arm; and in his black clothes, with his white stock, he made
+an old-fashioned figure as he bowed before the girl and straightened
+again.
+
+"Did you send for me?" Donnegan inquired.
+
+Nelly Lebrun was frankly afraid; and she was also delighted. She felt
+that she had been drawn into the circle of intense public interest which
+surrounded the red-headed stranger; she remembered on the other hand
+that her father would be furious if she exchanged two words with the
+man. And for that very reason she was intrigued. Donnegan, being
+forbidden fruit, was irresistible. So she let the smile come to her lips
+and eyes, and then laughed outright in her excitement.
+
+"No," she said with her lips, while her eyes said other things.
+
+"I've come to ask a favor: to talk with you one minute."
+
+"If I should--what would people say?";
+
+"Let's find out."
+
+"It would be--daring," said Nelly Lebrun. "After last night."
+
+"It would be delightful," said Donnegan. "Here's a table ready for us."
+
+She went a pace closer to it with him.
+
+"I think you've frightened the poor people away from it. I mustn't sit
+down with you, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+And she immediately slipped into the chair.
+
+
+
+
+27
+
+
+She qualified her surrender, of course, by sitting on the very edge of
+the chair. She had on a wine-colored dress, and, with the excitement
+whipping color into her cheeks and her eyes dancing, Nelly Lebrun was a
+lovely picture.
+
+"I must go at once," said Nelly.
+
+"Of course, I can't expect you to stay."
+
+She dropped one hand on the edge of the table. One would have thought
+that she was in the very act of rising.
+
+"Do you know that you frighten me?"
+
+"I?" said Donnegan, with appropriate inflection.
+
+"As if I were a man and you were angry."
+
+"But you see?" And he made a gesture with both of his palms turned up.
+"People have slandered me. I am harmless."
+
+"The minute is up, Mr. Donnegan. What is it you wish?"
+
+"Another minute."
+
+"Now you laugh at me."
+
+"No, no!"
+
+"And in the next minute?"
+
+"I hope to persuade you to stay till the third minute."
+
+"Of course, I can't."
+
+"I know; it's impossible."
+
+"Quite." She settled into the chair. "See how people stare at me! They
+remember poor Jack Landis and they think--the whole crowd--"
+
+"A crowd is always foolish. In the meantime, I'm happy."
+
+"You?"
+
+"To be here; to sit close to you; to watch you."
+
+Her glance was like the tip of a rapier, searching him through for some
+iota of seriousness under this banter.
+
+"Ah?" and Nelly Lebrun laughed.
+
+"Don't you see that I mean it?"
+
+"You can watch me from a distance, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"May I say a bold thing?"
+
+"You have said several."
+
+"No one can really watch you from a distance."
+
+She canted her head a little to one side; such an encounter of personal
+quips was a seventh heaven to her.
+
+"That's a riddle, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"A simple one. The answer is, because there's too much to watch."
+
+He joined her when she laughed, but the laughter of Donnegan made not a
+sound, and he broke in on her mirth suddenly.
+
+"Ah, don't you see I'm serious?"
+
+Her glance flicked on either side, as though she feared someone might
+have read his lips.
+
+"Not a soul can hear me," murmured Donnegan, "and I'm going to be bolder
+still, and tell you the truth."
+
+"It's the last thing I dare stay to hear."
+
+"You are too lovely to watch from a distance, Nelly Lebrun."
+
+He was so direct that even Nelly Lebrun, expert in flirtations, was
+given pause, and became sober. She shook her head and raised a
+cautioning finger. But Donnegan was not shaken.
+
+"Because there is a glamour about a beautiful girl," he said gravely.
+"One has to step into the halo to see her, to know her. Are you
+contented to look at a flower from a distance? That's an old comparison,
+isn't it? But there is something like a fragrance about you, Nelly
+Lebrun. Don't be afraid. No one can hear; no one shall ever dream I've
+said such bold things to you. In the meantime, we have a truth party.
+There is a fragrance, I say. It must be breathed. There is a glow which
+must touch one. As it touches me now, you see?"
+
+Indeed, there was a faint color in his cheeks. And the girl flushed more
+deeply; her eyes were still bright, but they no longer sharpened to such
+a penetrating point. She was believing at least a little part of what he
+said, and her disbelief only heightened her joy in what was real in this
+strangest of lovemakings.
+
+"I shall stay here to learn one thing," she said. "What deviltry is
+behind all this talk, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"Is that fair to me? Besides, I only follow a beaten trail in The
+Corner."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"Toward Nelly Lebrun."
+
+"A beaten trail? You?" she cried, with just a touch of anger. "I'm not a
+child, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"You are not; and that's why I am frank."
+
+"You have done all these things--following this trail you speak of?"
+
+"Remember," said Donnegan soberly. "What have I done?"
+
+"Shot down two men; played like an actor on a stage a couple of times at
+least, if I must be blunt; hunted danger like--like a reckless madman;
+dared all The Corner to cross you; flaunted the red rag in the face of
+the bull. Those are a few things you have done, sir! And all on one
+trail? That trail you spoke of?"
+
+"Nelly Lebrun--"
+
+"I'm listening; and do you know I'm persuading myself to believe you?"
+
+"It's because you feel the truth before I speak it. Truth speaks for
+itself, you know."
+
+"I have closed my eyes--you see? I have stepped into a masquerade. Now
+you can talk."
+
+"Masquerades are exciting," murmured Donnegan.
+
+"And they are sometimes beautiful."
+
+"But this sober truth of mine--"
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I came here unknown--and I saw you, Nelly Lebrun."
+
+He paused; she was looking a little past him.
+
+"I came in rags; no friends; no following. And I saw that I should have
+to make you notice me."
+
+"And why? No, I shouldn't have asked that."
+
+"You shouldn't ask that," agreed Donnegan. "But I saw you the queen of
+The Corner, worshiped by all men. What could I do? I am not rich. I am
+not big. You see?"
+
+He drew her attention to his smallness with a flush which never failed
+to touch the face of Donnegan when he thought of his size; and he seemed
+to swell and grow greater in the very instant she glanced at him.
+
+"What could I do? One thing; fight. I have fought. I fought to get the
+eye of The Corner, but most of all to attract your attention. I came
+closer to you. I saw that one man blocked the way--mostly. I decided to
+brush him aside. How?"
+
+"By fighting?" She had not been carried away by his argument. She was
+watching him like a lynx every moment.
+
+"Not by that. By bluffing. You see, I was not fool enough to think that
+you would--particularly notice a fighting bully."
+
+He laid his open hand on the table. It was like exposing both strength
+and weakness; and into such a trap it would have been a singularly
+hard-minded woman who might not have stepped. Nelly Lebrun leaned a
+little closer. She forgot to criticize.
+
+"It was bluff. I saw that Landis was big and good-looking. And what was
+I beside him? Nothing. I could only hope that he was hollow; yellow--you
+see? So I tried the bluff. You know about it. The clock, and all that
+claptrap. But Landis wasn't yellow. He didn't crumble. He lasted long
+enough to call my bluff, and I had to shoot in self-defense. And then,
+when he lay on the floor, I saw that I had failed."
+
+"Failed?"
+
+He lowered his eyes for fear that she would catch the glitter of them.
+
+"I knew that you would hate me for what I had done because I had only
+proved that Landis was a brave youngster with enough nerve for nine out
+of ten. And I came tonight--to ask you to forgive me. No, not that--only
+to ask you to understand. Do you?"
+
+He raised his glance suddenly at that, and their eyes met with one of
+these electric shocks which will go tingling through two people. And
+when the lips of Nelly Lebrun parted a little, he knew that she was in
+the trap. He closed his hand that lay on the table--curling the fingers
+slowly. In that way he expressed all his exultation.
+
+"There is something wrong," said the girl, in a tone of one who argues
+with herself. "It's all too logical to be real."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Was that your only reason for fighting Jack Landis?"
+
+"Do I have to confess even that?"
+
+She smiled in the triumph of her penetration, but it was a brief,
+unhappy smile. One might have thought that she would have been glad to
+be deceived.
+
+"I came to serve a girl who was unhappy," said Donnegan. "Her fiance had
+left her; her fiance was Jack Landis. And she's now in a hut up the hill
+waiting for him. And I thought that if I ruined him in your eyes he'd go
+back to a girl who wouldn't care so much about bravery. Who'd forgive
+him for having left her. But you see what a fool I was and how clumsily
+I worked? My bluff failed, and I only wounded him, put him in your
+house, under your care, where he'll be happiest, and where there'll
+never be a chance for this girl to get him back."
+
+Nelly Lebrun, with her folded hands under her chin, studied him.
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," she said, "I wish I knew whether you are the most
+chivalrous, self-sacrificing of men, or simply the most gorgeous liar in
+the desert."
+
+"And it's hardly fair," said Donnegan, "to expect me to tell you that."
+
+
+
+
+28
+
+
+It gave them both a welcome opportunity to laugh, welcome to the girl
+because it broke into an excitement which was rapidly telling upon her,
+and welcome to Donnegan because the strain of so many distortions of the
+truth was telling upon him as well. They laughed together. One hasty
+glance told Donnegan that half the couples in the room were whispering
+about Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun; but when he looked across the table he
+saw that Nelly Lebrun had not a thought for what might be going on in
+the minds of others. She was quite content.
+
+"And the girl?" she said.
+
+Donnegan rested his forehead upon his hand in thought. He dared not let
+Nelly see his face at this moment, for the mention of Lou Macon had
+poured the old flood of sorrow back upon him And therefore, when he
+looked up, he was sneering.
+
+"You know these blond, pretty girls?" he said.
+
+"Oh, they are adorable!"
+
+"With dull eyes," said Donnegan coldly, and a twinkle came into the
+responsive eye of Nelly Lebrun. "The sort of a girl who sees a hero in
+such a fellow as Jack Landis."
+
+"And Jack is brave."
+
+"I shouldn't have said that."
+
+"Never mind. Brave, but such a boy."
+
+"Are you serious?"
+
+She looked questioningly at Donnegan and they smiled together, slowly.
+
+"I--I'm glad it's that way," and Donnegan sighed.
+
+"And did you really think it could be any other way?"
+
+"I didn't know. I'm afraid I was blind."
+
+"But the poor girl on the hill; I wish I could see her."
+
+She was watching Donnegan very sharply again.
+
+"A good idea. Why don't you?"
+
+"You seem to like her?"
+
+"Yes," said Donnegan judiciously. "She has an appealing way; I'm very
+sorry for her. But I've done my best; I can't help her."
+
+"Isn't there some way?"
+
+"Of what?"
+
+"Of helping her."
+
+Donnegan laughed. "Go to your father and persuade him to send Landis
+back to her."
+
+She shook her head.
+
+"Of course, that wouldn't do. There's business mixed up in all this, you
+know."
+
+"Business? Well, I guessed at that."
+
+"My part in it wasn't very pleasant," she remarked sadly.
+
+Donnegan was discreetly silent, knowing that silence extracts secrets.
+
+"They made me--flirt with poor Jack. I really liked him!"
+
+How much the past tense may mean!
+
+"Poor fellow," murmured the sympathetic Donnegan. "But why," with
+gathering heat, "couldn't you help me to do the thing I can't do alone?
+Why couldn't you get him away from the house?"
+
+"With Joe Rix and the Pedlar guarding him?"
+
+"They'll be asleep in the middle of the night."
+
+"But Jack would wake up and make a noise."
+
+"There are things that would make him sleep through anything."
+
+"But how could he be moved?"
+
+"On a horse litter kept ready outside."
+
+"And how carried to the litter?"
+
+"I would carry him." The girl looked at him with a question and then
+with a faint smile beginning. "Easily," said Donnegan, stiffening in his
+chair. "Very easily."
+
+It pleased her to find this weakness in the pride of the invincible
+Donnegan. It gave her a secure feeling of mastery. So she controlled her
+smile and looked with a sort of superior kindliness upon the red-headed
+little man.
+
+"It's no good," Nelly Lebrun said with a sigh. "Even if he were taken
+away--and then it would get you into a bad mess."
+
+"Would it? Worse than I'm in?"
+
+"Hush! Lord Nick is coming to The Corner; and no matter what you've done
+so far--I think I could quiet him. But if you were to take Landis
+away--then nothing could stop him."
+
+Donnegan sneered.
+
+"I begin to think Lord Nick is a bogie," he said. "Everyone whispers
+when they speak of him." He leaned forward. "I should like to meet him,
+Nelly Lebrun!"
+
+It staggered Nelly. "Do you mean that?" she cried softly.
+
+"I do."
+
+She caught her breath and then a spark of deviltry gleamed. "I wonder!"
+said Nelly Lebrun, and her glance weighed Donnegan.
+
+"All I ask is a fair chance," he said.
+
+"He is a big man," said the girl maliciously.
+
+The never-failing blush burned in the face of Donnegan.
+
+"A large target is more easily hit," he said through his teeth.
+
+Her thoughts played back and forth in her eyes.
+
+"I can't do it," she said.
+
+Donnegan played a random card.
+
+"I was mistaken," he said darkly. "Jack was not the man I should have
+faced. Lord Nick!"
+
+"No, no, no, Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"You can't persuade me. Well, I was a fool not to guess it!"
+
+"I really think," said the girl gloomily, "that as soon as Lord Nick
+comes, you'll hunt him out!"
+
+He bowed to her with cold politeness. "In spite of his size," said
+Donnegan through his teeth once more.
+
+And at this the girl's face softened and grew merry.
+
+"I'm going to help you to take Jack away," she said, "on one
+condition."
+
+"And that?"
+
+"That you won't make a step toward Lord Nick when he comes."
+
+"I shall not avoid him," said Donnegan.
+
+"You're unreasonable! Well, not avoid him, but simply not provoke him.
+I'll arrange it so that Lord Nick won't come hunting trouble."
+
+"And he'll let Jack stay with the girl and her father?"
+
+"Perhaps he'll persuade them to let him go of their own free will."
+
+Donnegan thought of the colonel and smiled.
+
+"In that case, of course, I shouldn't care at all." He added: "But do
+you mean all this?"
+
+"You shall see."
+
+They talked only a moment longer and then Donnegan left the hall with
+the girl on his arm. Certainly the thoughts of all in Milligan's
+followed that pair; and it was seen that Donnegan took her to the door
+of her house and then went away through the town and up the hill. And
+big George followed him like a shadow cast from a lantern behind a man
+walking in a fog.
+
+In the hut on the hill, Donnegan put George quickly to work, and with a
+door and some bedding, a litter was hastily constructed and swung
+between the two horses. In the meantime, Donnegan climbed higher up the
+hill and watched steadily over the town until, in a house beneath him,
+two lights were shown. He came back at that and hurried down the hill
+with George behind and around the houses until they came to the
+pretentious cabin of the gambler, Lebrun.
+
+Once there, Donnegan went straight to an unlighted window, tapped; and
+it was opened from within, softly. Nelly Lebrun stood within.
+
+"It's done," she said. "Joe and the Pedlar are sound asleep. They drank
+too much."
+
+"Your father."
+
+"Hasn't come home."
+
+"And Jack Landis?"
+
+"No matter what you do, he won't wake up; but be careful of his
+shoulder. It's badly torn. How can you carry him?"
+
+She could not see Donnegan's flush, but she heard his teeth grit. And
+he slipped through the window, gesturing to George to come close. It was
+still darker inside the room--far darker than the starlit night outside.
+And the one path of lighter gray was the bed of Jack Landis. His heavy
+breathing was the only sound. Donnegan kneeled beside him and worked his
+arms under the limp figure.
+
+And while he kneeled there a door in the house was opened and closed
+softly. Donnegan stood up.
+
+"Is the door locked?"
+
+"No," whispered the girl.
+
+"Quick!"
+
+"Too late. It's father, and he'd hear the turning of the key."
+
+They waited, while the light, quick step came down the hall of the
+cabin. It came to the door, it went past; and then the steps retraced
+and the door was opened gently.
+
+There was a light in the hall; the form of Lebrun was outlined black and
+distinct..
+
+"Jack!" he whispered.
+
+No sound; he made as if to enter, and then he heard the heavy breathing
+of the sleeper, apparently.
+
+"Asleep, poor fool," murmured the gambler, and closed the door.
+
+The door was no sooner closed than Donnegan had raised the body of the
+sleeper. Once, as he rose, straining, it nearly slipped from his arms;
+and when he stood erect he staggered. But once he had gained his
+equilibrium, he carried the wounded man easily enough to the window
+through which George reached his long arms and lifted out the burden.
+
+"You see?" said Donnegan, panting, to the girl.
+
+"Yes; it was really wonderful!"
+
+"You are laughing, now."
+
+"I? But hurry. My father has a fox's ear for noises."
+
+"He will not hear this, I think." There was a swift scuffle, very soft
+of movement.
+
+"Nelly!" called a far-off voice.
+
+"Hurry, hurry! Don't you hear?"
+
+"You forgive me?"
+
+"No--yes--but hurry!"
+
+"You will remember me?"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan!"
+
+"Adieu!"
+
+She caught a picture of him sitting in the window for the split part of
+a second, with his hat off, bowing to her. Then he was gone. And she
+went into the hall, panting with excitement.
+
+"Heavens!" Nelly Lebrun murmured. "I feel as if I had been hunted, and I
+must look it. What if he--" Whatever the thought was she did not
+complete it. "It may have been for the best," added Nelly Lebrun.
+
+
+
+
+29
+
+
+It is your phlegmatic person who can waken easily in the morning, but an
+active mind readjusts itself slowly to the day. So Nelly Lebrun roused
+herself with an effort and scowled toward the door at which the hand was
+still rapping.
+
+"Yes?" she called drowsily.
+
+"This is Nick. May I come in?"
+
+"This is who?"
+
+The name had brought her instantly into complete wakefulness; she was
+out of the bed, had slipped her feet into her slippers and whipped a
+dressing gown around her while she was asking the question. It was a
+luxurious little boudoir which she had managed to equip. Skins of the
+lynx, cunningly matched, had been sewn together to make her a rug, and
+the soft fur of the wildcat was the outer covering of her bed. She threw
+back the tumbled bedclothes, tossed half a dozen pillows into place,
+transforming it into a day couch, and ran to the mirror.
+
+And in the meantime, the deep voice outside the door was saying: "Yes,
+Nick. May I come in?"
+
+She gave a little ecstatic cry, but while it was still tingling on her
+lips, she was winding her hair into shape with lightning speed; had
+dipped the tips of her fingers in cold water and rubbed her eyes awake
+and brilliant, and with one circular rub had brought the color into her
+cheeks.
+
+Scarcely ten seconds from the time when she first answered the knock,
+Nelly was opening the door and peeping out into the hall.
+
+The rest was done by the man without; he cast the door open with the
+pressure of his foot, caught the girl in his arms, and kissed her; and
+while he closed the door the girl slipped back and stood with one hand
+pressed against her face, and her face held that delightful expression
+halfway between laughter and embarrassment. As for Lord Nick, he did not
+even smile. He was not, in fact, a man who was prone to gentle
+expressions, but having been framed by nature for a strong dominance
+over all around him, his habitual expression was a proud
+self-containment. It would have been insolence in another man; in Lord
+Nick it was rather leonine.
+
+He was fully as tall as Jack Landis, but he carried his height easily,
+and was so perfectly proportioned that unless he was seen beside another
+man he did not look large. The breadth of his shoulders was concealed by
+the depth of his chest; and the girth of his throat was made to appear
+quite normal by the lordly size of the head it supported. To crown and
+set off his magnificent body there was a handsome face; and he had the
+combination of active eyes and red hair, which was noticeable in
+Donnegan, too. In fact, there was a certain resemblance between the two
+men; in the set of the jaw for instance, in the gleam of the eye, and
+above all in an indescribable ardor of spirit, which exuded from them
+both. Except, of course, that in Donnegan, one was conscious of all
+spirit and very little body, but in Lord Nick hand and eye were terribly
+mated. Looking upon so splendid a figure, it was no wonder that the
+mountain desert had forgiven the crimes of Lord Nick because of the
+careless insolence with which he treated the law. It requires an
+exceptional man to make a legal life attractive and respected; it takes
+a genius to make law-breaking glorious.
+
+No wonder that Nelly Lebrun stood with her hand against her cheek,
+looking him over, smiling happily at him, and questioning him about his
+immediate past all in the same glance. He waved her back to her couch,
+and she hesitated. Then, as though she remembered that she now had to
+do with Lord Nick in person, she obediently curled up on the lounge, and
+waited expectantly.
+
+"I hear you've been raising the devil," said this singularly frank
+admirer.
+
+The girl merely looked at him.
+
+"Well?" he insisted.
+
+"I haven't done a thing," protested Nelly rather childishly.
+
+"No?" One felt that he could have crushed her with evidence to the
+contrary but that he was restraining himself--it was not worthwhile to
+bother with such a girl seriously. "Things have fallen into a tangle
+since I left, old Satan Macon is on the spot and your rat of a father
+has let Landis get away. What have you been doing, Nelly, while all this
+was going on? Sitting with your eyes closed?"
+
+He took a chair and lounged back in it gracefully.
+
+"How could I help it? I'm not a watchdog."
+
+He was silent for a time. "Well," he said, "if you told me the truth I
+suppose I shouldn't love you, my girl. But this time I'm in earnest.
+Landis is a mint, silly child. If we let him go we lose the mint."
+
+"I suppose you'll get him back?"
+
+"First, I want to find out how he got away."
+
+"I know how."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Donnegan."
+
+"Donnegan, Donnegan, Donnegan!" burst out Lord Nick, and though he did
+not raise the pitch of his voice, he allowed its volume to swell softly
+so that it filled the room like the humming of a great, angry tiger.
+"Nobody says three words without putting in the name of Donnegan as one
+of them! You, too!"
+
+She shrugged her shoulders.
+
+"Donnegan thrills The Corner!" went on the big man in the same terrible
+voice. "Donnegan wears queer clothes; Donnegan shoots Scar-faced Lewis;
+Donnegan pumps the nerve out of poor Jack Landis and then drills him.
+Why, Nelly, it looks as though I'll have to kill this intruding fool!"
+
+She blanched at this, but did not appear to notice.
+
+"It's a long time since you've killed a man, isn't it?" she asked
+coldly.
+
+"It's an awful business," declared Lord Nick. "Always complications;
+have to throw the blame on the other fellow. And even these blockheads
+are beginning to get tired of my self-defense pleas."
+
+"Well," murmured the girl, "don't cross that bridge until you come to
+it; and you'll never come to it."
+
+"Never. Because I don't want him killed."
+
+"Ah," Lord Nick murmured. "And why?"
+
+"Because he's in love--with me."
+
+"Tush!" said Lord Nick. "I see you, my dear. Donnegan seems to be a rare
+fellow, but he couldn't have gotten Landis out of this house without
+help. Rix and the Pedlar may have been a bit sleepy, but Donnegan had to
+find out when they fell asleep. He had a confederate. Who? Not Rix; not
+the Pedlar; not Lebrun. They all know me. It had to be someone who
+doesn't fear me. Who? Only one person in the world. Nelly, you're the
+one!"
+
+She hesitated a breathless instant.
+
+"Yes," she said. "I am."
+
+She added, as he stared calmly at her, considering: "There's a girl in
+the case. She came up here to get Landis; seems he was in love with her
+once. And I pitied her. I sent him back to her. Suppose he is a mint;
+haven't we coined enough money out of him? Besides, I couldn't have kept
+on with it."
+
+"No?"
+
+"He was getting violent, and he talked marriage all day, every day. I
+haven't any nerves, you say, but he began to put me on edge. So I got
+rid of him."
+
+"Nelly, are you growing a conscience?"
+
+She flushed and then set her teeth.
+
+"But I'll have to teach you business methods, my dear. I have to bring
+him back."
+
+"You'll have to go through Donnegan to do it."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"You don't understand, Nick. He's different."
+
+"Eh?"
+
+"He's like you."
+
+"What are you driving at?"
+
+"Nick, I tell you upon my word of honor, no matter what a terrible
+fighter you may be, Donnegan will give you trouble. He has your hair
+and your eyes and he moves like a cat. I've never seen such a
+man--except you. I'd rather see you fight the plague than fight
+Donnegan!"
+
+For the first time Lord Nick showed real emotion; he leaned a little
+forward.
+
+"Just what does he mean to you?" he asked. "I've stood for a good deal,
+Nelly; I've given you absolute freedom, but if I ever suspect you--"
+
+The lion was up in him unmistakably now. And the girl shrank.
+
+"If it were serious, do you suppose I'd talk like this?"
+
+"I don't know. You're a clever little devil, Nell. But I'm clever, too.
+And I begin to see through you. Do you still want to save Donnegan?"
+
+"For your own sake."
+
+He stood up.
+
+"I'm going up the hill today. If Donnegan's there, I'll go through him;
+but I'm going to have Landis back!"
+
+She, also, rose.
+
+"There's only one way out and I'll take that way. I'll get Donnegan to
+leave the house."
+
+"I don't care what you do about that."
+
+"And if he isn't there, will you give me your word that you won't hunt
+him out afterward?"
+
+"I never make promises, Nell."
+
+"But I'll trust you, Nick."
+
+"Very well. I start up the hill in an hour. You have that long."
+
+
+
+
+30
+
+
+The air was thin and chilly; snow had fallen in the mountains to the
+north, and the wind was bringing the cold down to The Corner. Nelly
+Lebrun noted this as she dressed and made up her mind accordingly. She
+sent out two messages: one to the cook to send breakfast to her room,
+which she ate while she finished dressing with care; and the other to
+the gambling house, summoning one of the waiters. When he came, she gave
+him a note for Donnegan. The fellow flashed a glance at her as he took
+the envelope. There was no need to give that name and address in The
+Corner, and the girl tingled under the glance.
+
+She finished her breakfast and then concentrated in polishing up her
+appearance. From all of which it may be gathered that Nelly Lebrun was
+in love with Donnegan, but she really was not. But he had touched in her
+that cord of romance which runs through every woman; whenever it is
+touched the vibration is music, and Nelly was filled with the sound of
+it. And except for Lord Nick, there is no doubt that she would have
+really lost her head; for she kept seeing the face of Donnegan, as he
+had leaned toward her across the little table in Milligan's. And that,
+as anyone may know, is a dangerous symptom.
+
+Her glances were alternating between her mirror and her watch, and the
+hands of the latter pointed to the fact that fifty minutes of her hour
+had elapsed when a message came up that she was waited for in the street
+below. So Nelly Lebrun went down in her riding costume, the corduroy
+swishing at each step, and tapping her shining boots with the riding
+crop. Her own horse she found at the hitching rack, and beside it
+Donnegan was on his chestnut horse. It was a tall horse, and he looked
+more diminutive than ever before, pitched so high in the saddle.
+
+He was on the ground in a flash with the reins tucked under one arm and
+his hat under the other; she became aware of gloves and white-linen
+stock, and pale, narrow face. Truly Donnegan made a natty appearance.
+
+"There's no day like a cool day for riding," she said, "and I thought
+you might agree with me."
+
+He untethered her horse while he murmured an answer. But for his
+attitude she cared little so long as she had him riding away from that
+house on the hill where Lord Nick in all his terror would appear in some
+few minutes. Besides, as they swung up the road--the chestnut at a
+long-strided canter and Nelly's black at a soft and choppy pace--the
+wind of the gallop struck into her face; Nelly was made to enjoy things
+one by one and not two by two. They hit over the hills, and when the
+first impulse of the ride was done they were a mile or more away from
+The Corner--and Lord Nick.
+
+The resemblance between the two men was less striking now that she had
+Donnegan beside her. He seemed more wizened, paler, and intense as a
+violin string screwed to the snapping point; there was none of the
+lordly tolerance of Nick about him; he was like a bull terrier compared
+with a stag hound. And only the color of his eyes and his hair made her
+make the comparison at all.
+
+"What could be better?" she said when they checked their horses on a
+hilltop to look over a gradual falling of the ground below. "What could
+be better?" The wind flattened a loose curl of hair against her cheek,
+and overhead the wild geese were flying and crying, small and far away.
+
+"One thing better," said Donnegan, "and that is to sit in a chair and
+see this."
+
+She frowned at such frankness; it was almost blunt discourtesy.
+
+"You see, I'm a lazy man."
+
+"How long has it been," the girl asked sharply, "since you have slept?"
+
+"Two days, I think."
+
+"What's wrong?"
+
+He lifted his eyes slowly from a glittering, distant rock, and brought
+his glance toward her by degrees. He had a way of exciting people even
+in the most commonplace conversation, and the girl felt a thrill under
+his look.
+
+"That," said Donnegan, "is a dangerous question."
+
+And he allowed such hunger to come into his eye that she caught her
+breath. The imp of perversity made her go on.
+
+"And why dangerous?"
+
+It was an excellent excuse for an outpouring of the heart from Donnegan,
+but, instead, his eyes twinkled at her.
+
+"You are not frank," he remarked.
+
+She could not help laughing, and her laughter trailed away musically in
+her excitement.
+
+"Having once let down the bars I cannot keep you at arm's length. After
+last night I suppose I should never have let you see me for--days and
+days."
+
+"That's why I'm curious," said Donnegan, "and not flattered. I'm trying
+to find what purpose you have in taking me riding."
+
+"I wonder," she said thoughtfully, "if you will."
+
+And since such fencing with the wits delighted her, she let all her
+delight come with a sparkle in her eyes.
+
+"I have one clue."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"And that is that you may have the old-woman curiosity to find out how
+many ways a man can tell her that he's fond of her."
+
+Though she flushed a little she kept her poise admirably.
+
+"I suppose that is part of my interest," she admitted.
+
+"I can think of a great many ways of saying it," said Donnegan. "I am
+the dry desert, you are the rain, and yet I remain dry and produce no
+grass." "A very pretty comparison," said the girl with a smile.
+
+"A very green one," and Donnegan smiled. "I am the wind and you are the
+wild geese, and yet I keep on blowing after you are gone and do not
+carry away a feather of you."
+
+"Pretty again."
+
+"And silly. But, really, you are very kind to me, and I shall try not to
+take too much advantage of it."
+
+"Will you answer a question?"
+
+"I had rather ask one: but go on."
+
+"What made you so dry a desert, Mr. Donnegan?"
+
+"There is a very leading question again."
+
+"I don't mean it that way. For you had the same sad, hungered look the
+first time I saw you--when you came into Milligan's in that beggarly
+disguise."
+
+"I shall confess one thing. It was not a disguise. It was the fact of
+me; I am a beggarly person."
+
+"Nonsense! I'm not witless, Mr. Donnegan. You talk well. You have an
+education."
+
+"In fact I have an educated taste; I disapprove of myself, you see, and
+long ago learned not to take myself too seriously."
+
+"Which leads to--"
+
+"The reason why I have wandered so much."
+
+"Like a hunter on a trail. Hunting for what?"
+
+"A chance to sit in a saddle--or a chair--and talk as we are talking."
+
+"Which seems to be idly."
+
+"Oh, you mistake me. Under the surface I am as serious as fire."
+
+"Or ice."
+
+At the random hit he glanced sharply at her, but she was looking a
+little past him, thinking.
+
+"I have tried to get at the reason behind all your reasons," she said.
+"You came on me in a haphazard fashion, and yet you are not a haphazard
+sort."
+
+"Do you see nothing serious about me?"
+
+"I see that you are unhappy," said the girl gently. "And I am sorry."
+
+Once again Donnegan was jarred, and he came within an ace of opening
+his mind to her, of pouring out the truth about Lou Macon. Love is a
+talking madness in all men and he came within an ace of confessing his
+troubles.
+
+"Let's go on," she said, loosening her rein.
+
+"Why not cut back in a semicircle toward The Corner?"
+
+"Toward The Corner? No, no!"
+
+There was a brightening of his eye as he noted her shudder of distaste
+or fear, and she strove to cover her traces.
+
+"I'm sick of the place," she said eagerly. "Let's get as far from it as
+we may."
+
+"But yonder is a very good trail leading past it."
+
+"Of course we'll ride that way if you wish, but I'd rather go straight
+ahead."
+
+If she had insisted stubbornly he would have thought nothing, but the
+moment she became politic he was on his guard.
+
+"You dislike something in The Corner," he said, thinking carelessly and
+aloud. "You are afraid of something back there. But what could you be
+afraid of? Then you may be afraid of something for me. Ah, I have it!
+They have decided to 'get' me for taking Jack Landis away; Joe Rix and
+the Pedlar are waiting for me to come back!"
+
+He looked steadily and she attempted to laugh.
+
+"Joe Rix and the Pedlar? I would not stack ten like them against you!"
+
+"Then it is someone else."
+
+"I haven't said so. Of course there's no one."
+
+She shook her rein again, but Donnegan sat still in his saddle and
+looked fixedly at her.
+
+"That's why you brought me out here," he announced. "Oh, Nelly Lebrun,
+what's behind your mind? Who is it? By heaven, it's this Lord Nick!"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan, you're letting your imagination run wild."
+
+"It's gone straight to the point. But I'm not angry. I think I may get
+back in time."
+
+He turned his horse, and the girl swung hers beside him and caught his
+arm.
+
+"Don't go!" she pleaded. "You're right; it's Nick, and it's suicide to
+face him!"
+
+The face of Donnegan set cruelly.
+
+"The main obstacle," he said. "Come and watch me handle it!"
+
+But she dropped her head and buried her face in her hands, and, sitting
+there for a long time, she heard his careless whistling blow back to her
+as he galloped toward The Corner.
+
+
+
+
+31
+
+
+If Nelly Lebrun had consigned him mentally to the worms, that thought
+made not the slightest impression upon Donnegan. A chance for action was
+opening before him, and above all a chance of action in the eye of Lou
+Macon; and he welcomed with open arms the thought that he would have an
+opportunity to strike for her, and keep Landis with her. He went arrowy
+straight and arrowy fast to the cabin on the hill, and he found ample
+evidence that it had become a center of attention in The Corner. There
+was a scattering of people in the distance, apparently loitering with no
+particular purpose, but undoubtedly because they awaited an explosion of
+some sort. He went by a group at which the chestnut shied, and as
+Donnegan straightened out the horse again he caught a look of both
+interest and pity on the faces of the men.
+
+Did they give him up so soon as it was known that Lord Nick had entered
+the lists against him? Had all his display in The Corner gone for
+nothing as against the repute of this terrible mystery man? His vanity
+made him set his teeth again.
+
+Dismounting before the cabin of the colonel, he found that worthy in
+his invalid chair, enjoying a sun bath in front of his house. But there
+was no sign of Lord Nick--no sign of Lou. A grim fear came to Donnegan
+that he might have to attack Nick in his own stronghold, for Jack Landis
+might already have been taken away to the Lebrun house.
+
+So he went straight to the colonel, and when he came close he saw that
+the fat man was apparently in the grip of a chill. He had gathered a
+vast blanket about his shoulders and kept drawing it tighter; beneath
+his eyes, which looked down to the ground, there were violet shadows.
+
+"I've lost," said Donnegan through his teeth. "Lord Nick has been here?"
+
+The invalid lifted his eyes, and Donnegan saw a terrible thing--that the
+nerve of the fat man had been crushed. The folds of his face quivered as
+he answered huskily: "He has been here!"
+
+"And Landis is gone?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Not gone? Then--"
+
+"Nick has gone to get a horse litter. He came up just to clear the way."
+
+"When he comes back he'll find me!"
+
+The glance of the colonel cleared long enough to survey Donnegan slowly
+from head to foot, and his amusement sent the familiar hot flush over
+the face of the little man. He straightened to his full height, which,
+in his high heels, was not insignificant. But the colonel was apparently
+so desperate that he was willing to throw caution away.
+
+"Compared with Lord Nick, Donnegan," he said, "you don't look half a
+man--even with those heels."
+
+And he smiled calmly at Donnegan in the manner of one who, having
+escaped the lightning bolt itself, does not fear mere thunder.
+
+"There is no fool like a fat fool," said Donnegan with childish
+viciousness. "What did Lord Nick, as you call him, do to you? He's
+brought out the yellow, my friend."
+
+The colonel accepted the insult without the quiver of an eyelid.
+Throughout he seemed to be looking expectantly beyond Donnegan.
+
+"My young friend," he said, "you have been very useful to me. But I
+must confess that you are no longer a tool equal to the task. I dismiss
+you. I thank you cordially for your efforts. They are worthless. You see
+that crowd gathering yonder? They have come to see Lord Nick prepare you
+for a hole in the ground. And make no mistake: if you are here when he
+returns that hole will have to be dug--unless they throw you out for the
+claws of the buzzards. In the meantime, our efforts have been wasted
+completely. I hadn't enough time. I had thrown the fear of sudden death
+into Landis, and in another hour he would have signed away his soul to
+me for fear of poison."
+
+The colonel paused to chuckle at some enjoyable memory.
+
+"Then Nick came. You see, I know all about Nick."
+
+"And Nick knows all about you?"
+
+For a moment the agate, catlike eyes of the colonel clouded and cleared
+again in their unfathomable manner.
+
+"At moments, Donnegan," he said, "you have rare perceptions. That is
+exactly it--Nick knows just about everything concerning me. And so--roll
+your pack and climb on your horse and get away. I think you may have
+another five minutes before he comes."
+
+Donnegan turned on his heel. He went to the door of the hut and threw it
+open. Lou sat beside Landis holding his hand, and the murmur of her
+voice was still pleasant as an echo through the room when she looked and
+saw Donnegan. At that she rose and her face hardened as she looked at
+him. Landis, also, lifted his head, and his face was convulsed with
+hatred. So Donnegan closed the door and went softly away to his own
+shack.
+
+She hated him even as Landis hated him, it seemed. He should have known
+that he would not be thanked for bringing back her lover to her with a
+bullet through his shoulder. Sitting in his cabin, he took his head
+between his hands and thought of life and death, and made up his mind.
+He was afraid. If Lord Nick had been the devil himself Donnegan could
+not have been more afraid. But if the big stranger had been ten devils
+instead of one Donnegan would not have found it in his soul to run away.
+
+Nothing remained for him in The Corner, it seemed, except his position
+as a man of power--a dangerous fighter. It was a less than worthless
+position, and yet, once having taken it up, he could not abandon it.
+More than one gunfighter has been in the same place, forced to act as a
+public menace long after he has ceased to feel any desire to fight. Of
+selfish motives there remained not a scruple to him, but there was still
+the happiness of Lou Macon. If the boy were taken back to Lebrun's, it
+would be fatal to her. For even if Nelly wished, she could not teach her
+eyes new habits, and she would ceaselessly play on the heart of the
+wounded man.
+
+It was the cessation of all talk from the gathering crowd outside that
+made Donnegan lift his head at length, and know that Lord Nick had come.
+But before he had time to prepare himself, the door was cast open and
+into it, filling it from side to side, stepped Lord Nick.
+
+There was no need of an introduction. Donnegan knew him by the aptness
+with which the name fitted that glorious figure of a man and by the
+calm, confident eye which now was looking him slowly over, from head to
+foot. Lord Nick closed the door carefully behind him.
+
+"The colonel told me," he said in his deep, smooth voice, "that you were
+waiting for me here."
+
+And Donnegan recognized the snakelike malice of the fat man in drawing
+him into the fight. But he dismissed that quickly from his mind. He was
+staring, fascinated, into the face of the other. He was a reader of men,
+was Donnegan; he was a reader of mind, too. In his life of battle he had
+learned to judge the prowess of others at a glance, just as a musician
+can tell the quality of a violin by the first note he hears played upon
+it. So Donnegan judged the quality of fighting men, and, looking into
+the face of Lord Nick, he knew that he had met his equal at last.
+
+It was a great and a bitter moment to him. The sense of physical
+smallness he had banished a thousand times by the recollection of his
+speed of hand and his surety with weapons. He had looked at men
+muscularly great and despised them in the knowledge that a gun or a
+knife would make him their master. But in Lord Nick he recognized his
+own nerveless speed of hand, his own hair-trigger balance, his own
+deadly seriousness and contempt of life. The experience in battle was
+there, too. And he began to feel that the size of the other crushed him
+to the floor and made him hopeless. It was unnatural, it was wrong, that
+this giant in the body should be a giant in adroitness also.
+
+Already Donnegan had died one death before he rose from his chair and
+stood to the full of his height ready to die again and summoning his
+nervous force to meet the enemy. He had seen that the big man had
+followed his own example and had measured him at a glance.
+
+Indeed the history of some lives of action held less than the
+concentrated silence of these two men during that second's space.
+
+And now Donnegan felt the cold eye of the other eating into his own,
+striving to beat him down, break his nerve. For an instant panic got
+hold on Donnegan. He, himself, had broken the nerve of other men by the
+weight of his unaided eye. Had he not reduced poor Jack Landis to a
+trembling wreck by five minutes of silence? And had he not seen other
+brave men become trembling cowards unable to face the light, and all
+because of that terrible power which lies in the eye of some? He fought
+away the panic, though perspiration was pouring out upon his forehead
+and beneath his armpits.
+
+"The colonel is very kind," said Donnegan.
+
+And that moment he sent up a prayer of thankfulness that his voice was
+smooth as silk, and that he was able to smile into the face of Lord
+Nick. The brow of the other clouded and then smoothed itself deftly.
+Perhaps he, too, recognized the clang of steel upon steel and knew the
+metal of his enemy.
+
+"And therefore," said Lord Nick, "since most of The Corner expects
+business from us, it seems much as if one of us must kill the other
+before we part."
+
+"As a matter of fact," said Donnegan, "I have been keeping that in
+mind." He added, with that deadly smile of his that never reached his
+eyes: "I never disappoint the public when it's possible to satisfy
+them."
+
+"No," and Lord Nick nodded, "you seem to have most of the habits of an
+actor--including an inclination to make up for your part."
+
+Donnegan bit his lip until it bled, and then smiled.
+
+"I have been playing to fools," he said. "Now I shall enjoy a
+discriminating critic."
+
+"Yes," remarked Lord Nick, "actors generally desire an intelligent
+audience for the death scene."
+
+"I applaud your penetration and I shall speak well of you when this
+disagreeable duty is finished."
+
+"Come," and Lord Nick smiled genially, "you are a game little cock!"
+
+The telltale flush crimsoned Donnegan's face. And if the fight had begun
+at that moment no power under heaven could have saved Lord Nick from the
+frenzy of the little man.
+
+"My size keeps me from stooping," said Donnegan, "I shall look up to
+you, sir, until the moment you fall."
+
+"Well hit again! You are also a wit, I see! Donnegan, I am almost sorry
+for the necessity of this meeting. And if it weren't for the audience--"
+
+"Say no more," said Donnegan, bowing. "I read your heart and appreciate
+all you intend."
+
+He had touched his stock as he bowed, and now he turned to the mirror
+and carefully adjusted it, for it was a little awry from the ride; but
+in reality he used that moment to examine his own face, and the set of
+his jaw and the clearness of his eye reassured him. Turning again, he
+surprised a glint of admiration in the glance of Lord Nick.
+
+"We are at one, sir, it appears," he said. "And there is no other way
+out of this disagreeable necessity?"
+
+"Unfortunately not. I have a certain position in these parts. People are
+apt to expect a good deal of me. And for my part I see no way out except
+a gunplay--no way out between the devil and the moon!"
+
+Astonishment swept suddenly across the face of the big man, for
+Donnegan, turning white as death, shrank toward the wall as though he
+had that moment received cold steel in his body.
+
+"Say that again!" said Donnegan hoarsely.
+
+"I said there was no way out," repeated Lord Nick, and though he kept
+his right hand in readiness, he passed his left through his red hair and
+stared at Donnegan with a tinge of contempt; he had seen men buckle like
+this at the last moment when their backs were to the wall.
+
+"Between--" repeated Donnegan.
+
+"The devil and the moon. Do you see a way yourself?"
+
+He was astonished again to see Donnegan wince as if from a blow. His
+lips were trembling and they writhed stiffly over his words.
+
+"Who taught you that expression?" said Donnegan.
+
+"A gentleman," said Lord Nick.
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"My father, sir!"
+
+"Oh, heaven," moaned Donnegan, catching his hands to his breast. "Oh,
+heaven, forgive us!"
+
+"What the devil is in you?" asked Lord Nick.
+
+The little man stood erect again and his eyes were now on fire.
+
+"You are Henry Nicholas Reardon," he said.
+
+Lord Nick set his teeth.
+
+"Now," he said, "it is certain that you must die!"
+
+But Donnegan cast out his arms and broke into a wild laughter.
+
+"Oh, you fool, you fool!" he cried. "Don't you know me? I am the
+cripple!"
+
+
+
+
+32
+
+
+The big man crossed the floor with one vast stride, and, seizing
+Donnegan by both shoulders, dragged him under the full light of the
+window; and still the crazy laughter shook Donnegan and made him
+helpless.
+
+"They tied me to a board--like a papoose," said Donnegan, "and they
+straightened my back--but they left me this way--wizened up." He was
+stammering; hysterical, and the words tumbled from his lips in a jumble.
+"That was a month after you ran away from home. I was going to find you.
+Got bigger. Took the road. Kept hunting. Then I met a yegg who told
+about Rusty Dick--described him like you--I thought--I thought you were
+dead!"
+
+And the tears rolled down his face; he sobbed like a woman.
+
+A strange thing happened then. Lord Nick lifted the little man in his
+arms as if he were a child and literally carried him in that fashion to
+the bunk. He put him down tenderly, still with one mighty arm around his
+back.
+
+"You are Garry? You!"
+
+"Garrison Donnegan Reardon. Aye, that's what I am. Henry, don't say
+that you don't know me!"
+
+"But--your back--I thought--"
+
+"I know--hopeless they said I was. But they brought in a young doctor.
+Now look at me. Little. I never grew big--but hard, Henry, as leather!"
+
+And he sprang to his feet. And knowing that Donnegan had begun life as a
+cripple it was easy to appreciate certain things about his expression--a
+cold wistfulness, and his manner of reading the minds of men. Lord Nick
+was like a man in a dream. He dragged Donnegan back to the bunk and
+forced him to sit down with the weight of his arms. And he could not
+keep his hands from his younger brother. As though he were blind and had
+to use the sense of touch to reassure him.
+
+"I heard lies. They said everybody was dead. I thought--"
+
+"The fever killed them all, except me. Uncle Toby took me in. He was a
+devil. Helped me along, but I left him when I could. And--"
+
+"Don't tell me any more. All that matters is that I have you at last,
+Garry. Heaven knows it's a horrible thing to be kithless and kinless,
+but I have you now! Ah, lad, but the old pain has left its mark on you.
+Poor Garry!"
+
+Donnegan shuddered.
+
+"I've forgotten it. Don't bring it back."
+
+"I keep feeling that you should be in that chair."
+
+"I know. But I'm not. I'm hard as nails, I tell you."
+
+He leaped to his feet again.
+
+"And not so small as you might think, Henry!"
+
+"Oh, big enough, Garry. Big enough to paralyze The Corner, from what
+I've heard."
+
+"I've been playing a game with 'em, Henry. And now--if one of us could
+clear the road, what will we do together? Eh?"
+
+The smile of Lord Nick showed his teeth.
+
+"Haven't I been hungry all my life for a man like you, lad? Somebody to
+stand and guard my back while I faced the rest of the world?"
+
+"And I'll do my share of the facing, too."
+
+"You will, Garry. But I'm your elder."
+
+"Man, man! Nobody's my elder except one that's spent half his life--as I
+have done!"
+
+"We'll teach you to forget the pain I'll make life roses for you,
+Garry."
+
+"And the fools outside thought--"
+
+Donnegan broke into a soundless laughter, and, running to the door,
+opened it a fraction of an inch and peeped out.
+
+"They're standing about in a circle. I can see 'em gaping. Even from
+here. What will they think, Henry?"
+
+Lord Nick ground his teeth.
+
+"They'll think I've backed down from you," he said gloomily. "They'll
+think I've taken water for the first time."
+
+"Why, confound 'em, the first man that opens his head--"
+
+"I know, I know. You'd fill his mouth with lead, and so would I. But if
+it ever gets about--as it's sure to--that Lord, Nick, as they call me,
+has been bluffed down without a fight, I'll have every Chinaman that
+cooks on the range talking back to me. I'll have to start all over
+again."
+
+"Don't say that, Henry. Don't you see that I'll go out and explain that
+I'm your brother?"
+
+"What good will that do? No, do we look alike?"
+
+Donnegan stopped short.
+
+"I'm not very big," he said rather coldly, "but then I'm not so very
+small, either. I've found myself big enough, speaking in general.
+Besides, we have the same hair and eyes."
+
+"Why, man, people will laugh when they hear that we call ourselves
+brothers."
+
+Donnegan ground his teeth and the old flush burned upon his face.
+
+"I'll cut some throats if they do," he said, trembling with his passion.
+
+"I can hear them say it. 'Lord Nick walked in on Donnegan prepared to
+eat him up. He measured him up and down, saw that he was a fighting
+wildcat in spite of his size, and decided to back out. And Donnegan was
+willing. They couldn't come out without a story of some kind--with the
+whole world expecting a death in that cabin--so they framed a crazy
+cock-and-bull story about being brothers.' I can hear them say that,
+Donnegan, and it makes me wild!"
+
+"Do you call me Donnegan?" said Donnegan sadly.
+
+"No, no. Garry, don't be so touchy. You've never got over that, I see.
+Still all pride and fire."
+
+"You're not very humble yourself, Henry."
+
+"Maybe not, maybe not. But I've been in a certain position around these
+parts, Don--Garry. And it's hard to see it go!"
+
+Donnegan closed his eyes in deep reverie. And then he forced out the
+words one by one.
+
+"Henry, I'll let everybody know that it was I who backed down. That we
+were about to fight." He was unable to speak; he tore the stock loose at
+his throat and went on: "We were about to fight; I lost my nerve; you
+couldn't shoot a helpless man. We began to talk. We found out we are
+brothers--"
+
+"Damnation!" broke out Lord Nick, and he struck himself violently across
+the forehead with the back of his hand. "I'm a skunk, Garry, lad. Why,
+for a minute I was about to let you do it. No. no, no! A thousand times
+no!"
+
+It was plain to be seen that he was arguing himself away from the
+temptation.
+
+"What do I care what they say? We'll cram the words back down their
+throats and be hanged to 'em. Here I am worrying about myself like a
+selfish dog without letting myself be happy over finding you. But I am
+happy, Garry. Heaven knows it. And you don't doubt it, do you, old
+fellow?"
+
+"Ah," said Donnegan, and he smiled to cover a touch of sadness. "I hope
+not. No, I don't doubt you, of course. I've spent my life wishing for
+you since you left us, you see. And then I followed you for three years
+on the road, hunting everywhere."
+
+"You did that?"
+
+"Yes. Three years. I liked the careless life. For to tell you the truth,
+I'm not worth much, Henry. I'm a loafer by instinct, and--"
+
+"Not another word." There were tears in the eyes of Lord Nick, and he
+frowned them away. "Confound it, Garry, you unman me. I'll be weeping
+like a woman in a minute. But now, sit down. We still have some things
+to talk over. And we'll get to a quick conclusion."
+
+"Ah, yes," said Donnegan, and at the emotion which had come in the face
+of Lord Nick, his own expression softened wonderfully. A light seemed to
+stand in his face. "We'll brush over the incidentals. And everything is
+incidental aside from the fact that we're together again. They can
+chisel iron chain apart, but we'll never be separated again, God
+willing!" He looked up as he spoke, and his face was for the moment as
+pure as the face of a child--Donnegan, the thief, the beggar, the liar
+by gift, and the man-killer by trade and artistry.
+
+But Lord Nick in the meantime was looking down to the floor and
+mustering his thoughts.
+
+"The main thing is entirely simple," he said. "You'll make one
+concession to my pride, Garry, boy?"
+
+"Can you ask me?" said Donnegan softly, and he cast out his hands in a
+gesture that offered his heart and his soul. "Can you ask me? Anything I
+have is yours!"
+
+"Don't say that," answered Lord Nick tenderly. "But this small thing--my
+pride, you know--I despise myself for caring what people think, but I'm
+weak. I admit it, but I can't help it."
+
+"Talk out, man. You'll see if there's a bottom to things that I can
+give!"
+
+"Well, it's this. Everyone knows that I came up here to get young Jack
+Landis and bring him back to Lebrun's--from which you stole him, you
+clever young devil! Well, I'll simply take him back there, Garry; and
+then I'll never have to ask another favor of you."
+
+He was astonished by a sudden silence, and looking up again, he saw that
+Donnegan sat with his hand at his breast. It was a singularly feminine
+gesture to which he resorted. It was a habit which had come to him in
+his youth in the invalid chair, when the ceaseless torment of his
+crippled back became too great for him to bear.
+
+And clearly, indeed, those days were brought home to Lord Nick as he
+glanced up, for Donnegan was staring at him in the same old, familiar
+agony, mute and helpless.
+
+
+
+
+33
+
+
+At this Lord Nick very frankly frowned in turn. And when he frowned his
+face grew marvelously dark, like some wrathful god, for there was a
+noble, a Grecian purity to the profile of Henry Nicholas Reardon, and
+when he frowned he seemed to be scorning, from a distance, ignoble,
+earthly things which troubled him.
+
+"I know it isn't exactly easy for you, Garry," he admitted. "You have
+your own pride; you have your own position here in The Corner. But I
+want you to notice that mine is different. You've spent a day for what
+you have in The Corner, here. I've spent ten years. You've played a
+prank, acted a part, and cast a jest for what you have. But for the
+place which I hold, brother mine, I've schemed with my wits, played fast
+and loose, and killed men. Do you hear? I've bought it with blood, and
+things you buy at such a price ought to stick, eh?"
+
+He banished his frown; the smile played suddenly across his features.
+
+"Why, I'm arguing with myself. But that look you gave me a minute ago
+had me worried for a little while."
+
+At this Donnegan, who had allowed his head to fall, so that he seemed
+to be nodding in acquiescence, now raised his face and Lord Nick
+perceived the same white pain upon it. The same look which had been on
+the face of the cripple so often in the other days.
+
+"Henry," said the younger brother, "I give you my oath that my pride has
+nothing to do with this. I'd let you drive me barefoot before you
+through the street yonder. I'd let every soul in The Corner know that I
+have no pride where you're concerned. I'll do whatever you wish--with
+one exception--and that one is the unlucky thing you ask. Pardner, you
+mustn't ask for Jack Landis! Anything else I'll work like a slave to get
+for you: I'll fight your battles, I'll serve you in any way you name:
+but don't take Landis back!"
+
+He had talked eagerly, the words coming with a rush, and he found at the
+end that Lord Nick was looking at him in bewilderment.
+
+"When a man is condemned to death," said Lord Nick slowly, "suppose
+somebody offers him anything in the world that he wants--palaces,
+riches, power--everything except his life. What would the condemned man
+say to a friend who made such an offer? He'd laugh at him and then call
+him a traitor. Eh? But I don't laugh at you, Garry. I simply explain to
+you why I have to have Landis back. Listen!"
+
+He counted off his points upon the tips of his fingers, in the confident
+manner of a teacher who deals with a stupid child, waiting patiently for
+the young mind to comprehend.
+
+"We've been bleeding Jack Landis. Do you know why? Because it was Lester
+who made the strike up here. He started out to file his claim. He
+stopped at the house of Colonel Macon. That old devil learned the
+location, learned everything; detained Lester with a trick, and rushed
+young Landis away to file the claims for himself. Then when Lester came
+up here he found that his claims had been jumped, and when he went to
+the law there was no law that could help him. He had nothing but his
+naked word for what he had discovered. And naturally the word of a
+ruffian like Lester had no weight against the word of Landis. And, you
+see, Landis thought that he was entirely in the right. Lester tried the
+other way; tried to jump the claims; and was shot down by Landis. So
+Lester sent for me. What was I to do? Kill Landis? The mine would go to
+his heirs. I tried a different way--bleeding him of his profits, after
+I'd explained to him that he was in the wrong. He half admitted that,
+but he naturally wouldn't give up the mines even after we'd almost
+proved to him that Lester had the first right. So Landis has been mining
+the gold and we've been drawing it away from him. It looks tricky, but
+really it's only just. And Lester and Lebrun split with me.
+
+"But I tell you, Garry, that I'd give up everything without an
+afterthought. I'll give up the money and I'll make Lebrun and Lester
+shut up without a word. I'll make them play square and not try to knife
+Landis in the back. I'll do all that willingly--for you! But, Garry, I
+can't give up taking Landis back to Lebrun's and keeping him there until
+he's well. Why, man, I saw him in the hut just now. He wants to go. He's
+afraid of the old colonel as if he were poison--and I think he's wise in
+being afraid."
+
+"The colonel won't touch him," said Donnegan.
+
+"No?"
+
+"No. I've told him what would happen if he does."
+
+"Tush. Garry, Colonel Macon is the coldest-blooded murderer I've ever
+known. But come out in the open, lad. You see that I'm ready to listen
+to reason--except on one point. Tell me why you're so set on this
+keeping of Landis here against my will and even against the lad's own
+will? I'm reasonable, Garry. Do you doubt that?"
+
+Explaining his own mildness, the voice of Lord Nick swelled again and
+filled the room, and he frowned on his brother. But Donnegan looked on
+him sadly.
+
+"There is a girl--" he began.
+
+"Why didn't I guess it?" exclaimed Lord Nick. "If ever you find a man
+unreasonable, stubborn and foolish, you'll always find a woman behind
+it! All this trouble because of a piece of calico?"
+
+He leaned back, laughing thunderously in his relief.
+
+"Come, come! I was prepared for a tragedy. Now tell me about this girl.
+Who and what is she?"
+
+"The daughter of the colonel."
+
+"You're in love with her? I'm glad to hear it, Garry. As a matter of
+fact I've been afraid that you were hunting in my own preserve, but if
+it's the colonel's daughter, you're welcome to her. So you love the
+girl? She's pretty, lad!"
+
+"I love her?" said Donnegan in an indescribably tender voice. "I love
+her? Who am I to love her? A thief, a man-killer, a miserable play
+actor, a gambler, a drunkard. I love her? Bah!"
+
+If there was one quality of the mind with which Lord Nick was less
+familiar than with all others, it was humbleness of spirit. He now
+abased his magnificent head, and resting his chin in the mighty palm of
+his hand, he stared with astonishment and commiseration into the face of
+Donnegan. He seemed to be learning new things every moment about his
+brother.
+
+"Leave me out of the question," said Donnegan.
+
+"Can't be done. If I leave you out, dear boy, there's not one of them
+that I care a hang about; I'd ride roughshod over the whole lot. I've
+done it before to better men than these!"
+
+"Then you'll change, I know. This is the fact of the matter. She loves
+Landis. And if you take Landis away where will you put him?"
+
+"Where he was stolen away. In Lebrun's."
+
+"And what will be in Lebrun's?"
+
+"Joe Rix to guard him and the old negress to nurse him."'
+
+"No, no! Nelly Lebrun will be there!"
+
+"Eh? Are you glancing at her, now?"
+
+"Henry, you yourself know that Landis is mad about that girl."
+
+"Oh, she's flirted a bit with him. Turned the fool's head. He'll come
+out of it safe. She won't break his heart. I've seen her work on
+others!"
+
+He chuckled at the memory.
+
+"What do I care about Landis?" said Donnegan with unutterable scorn.
+"It's the girl. You'll break her heart, Henry; and if you do I'll never
+forgive you."
+
+"Steady, lad. This is a good deal like a threat."
+
+"No, no, no! Not a threat, heaven knows!"
+
+"By heaven!" exclaimed Lord Nick. "I begin to be irritated to see you
+stick on a silly point like this. Listen to me, lad. Do you mean to say
+that you are making all! this trouble about a slip of a girl?"
+
+"The heart of a girl," said Donnegan calmly.
+
+"Let Landis go; then take her in your arms and kiss her worries away. I
+warrant you can do it! I gather from Nell that you're not tongue-tied
+around women!"
+
+"I?" echoed Donnegan, turning pale. "Don't jest at this, Henry. I'm as
+serious as death. She's the type of woman made to love one man, and one
+man only. Landis may be common as dirt; but she doesn't see it. She's
+fastened her heart on him. I looked in on her a little while ago. She
+turned white when she saw me. I brought Landis to her, but she hates me
+because I had to shoot him down."
+
+"Garry," said the big man with a twinkle in his eye, "you're in love!"
+
+It shook Donnegan to the core, but he replied instantly; "If I were in
+love, don't you suppose that I would have shot to kill when I met
+Landis?"
+
+At this his brother blinked, frowned, and shook his head. The point was
+apparently plain to him and wiped out his previous convictions. Also, it
+eased his mind.
+
+"Then you don't love the girl?"
+
+"I?"
+
+"Either way, my hands are cleared of the worry. If you want her, let me
+take Landis. If you don't want her, what difference does it make to you
+except silly sentiment?"
+
+Donnegan made no answer.
+
+"If she comes to Lebrun's house, I'll see that Nell doesn't bother him
+too much."
+
+"Can you control her? If she wants to see this fool can you keep her
+away, and if she goes to him can you control her smiling?"
+
+"Certainly," said Lord Nick, but he flushed heavily.
+
+Donnegan smiled.
+
+"She's a devil of a girl," admitted Henry Reardon. "But this is beside
+the point: which is, that you're sticking on a matter that means
+everything to me, and which is only a secondhand interest to you--a
+point of sentiment. You pity the girl. What's pity? Bah! I pity a dog in
+the street, but would I cross you, Garry, lad, to save the dog?
+Sentiment, I say, silly sentiment."
+
+Donnegan rose.
+
+"It was a silly sentiment," he said hoarsely, "that put me on the road
+following you, Henry. It was a silly sentiment that turned me into a
+wastrel, a wanderer, a man without a home and without friends."
+
+"It's wrong to throw that in my face," muttered Lord Nick.
+
+"It is. And I'm sorry for it. But I want you to see that matters of
+sentiment may be matters of life and death with me."
+
+"Aye, if it were for you it would be different. I might see my way
+clear--but for a girl you have only a distant interest in--"
+
+"It is a matter of whether or not her heart shall be broken."
+
+"Come, come. Let's talk man talk. Besides, girls' hearts don't break in
+this country. You're old-fashioned."
+
+"I tell you the question of her happiness is worth more than a dozen
+lives like yours and mine."
+
+There had been a gathering impatience in Lord Nick. Now he, also, leaped
+to his feet; a giant.
+
+"Tell me in one word: You stick on this point?"
+
+"In one word--yes!"
+
+"Then you deny me, Garry. You set me aside for a silly purpose of your
+own--a matter that really doesn't mean much to you. It shows me where I
+stand in your eyes--and nothing between the devil and the moon shall
+make me sidestep!"
+
+They remained silent, staring at each other. Lord Nick stood with a
+flush of anger growing; Donnegan became whiter than ever, and he
+stiffened himself to his full height, which, in all who knew him well,
+was the danger signal.
+
+"You take Landis?" he said softly.
+
+"I do."
+
+"Not," said Donnegan, "while I live!"
+
+"You mean--" cried Lord Nick.
+
+"I mean it!"
+
+They had been swept back to the point at which that strangest of scenes
+began, but this time there was an added element--horror.
+
+"You'd fight?"
+
+"To the death, Henry!"
+
+"Garry, if one of us should kill the other, he'd be cursed forever!"
+
+"I know it."
+
+"And she's worth even this?"
+
+"A thousand times more! What are we? Dust in the wind; dust in the wind.
+But a woman like that is divine, Henry!"
+
+Lord Nick swayed a little, setting himself in balance like an animal
+preparing for the leap.
+
+"If it comes to the pinch, it is you who will die," he said.
+
+"You've no chance against me, Garry. And I swear to you that I won't
+weaken. You prove that you don't care for me. You put another above me.
+It's my pride, my life, that you'd sacrifice to the whim of a girl!" His
+passion choked him.
+
+"Are you ready?" said Donnegan.
+
+"Yes!"
+
+"Move first!"
+
+"I have never formed the habit."
+
+"Nor I! You fool, take what little advantage you can, because it won't
+help you in the end."
+
+"You shall see. I have a second sight, Henry, and it shows me you dead
+on the floor there, looking bigger than ever, and I see the gun smoking
+in my hand and my heart as dead as ashes! Oh, Henry, if there were only
+some other way!"
+
+They were both pale now.
+
+"Aye," murmured Lord Nick, "if we could find a judge. My hand turns to
+lead when I think of fighting you, Garry."
+
+Perspiration stood on the face of Donnegan.
+
+"Name a judge; I'll abide by the decision."
+
+"Some man--"
+
+"No, no. What man could understand me? A woman, Henry!"
+
+"Nell Lebrun."
+
+"The girl who loves you? You want me to plead before her?"
+
+"Put her on her honor and she'll be as straight as a string with both of
+us."
+
+For a moment Donnegan considered, and at length: "She loves you, Henry.
+You have that advantage. You have only to let her know that this is a
+vital matter to you and she'll speak as you wish her to speak."
+
+"Nonsense. You don't know her. You've seen yourself that no man can
+control her absolutely."
+
+"Make a concession."
+
+"A thousand, Garry, dear boy, if they'll get us clear from this horrible
+mess."
+
+"Only this. Leave The Corner for a few hours. Give me until--tonight.
+Let me see Nelly during that time. You've had years to work on her. I
+want only this time to put my own case before her."
+
+"Thank heaven that we're coming to see light and a way out!"
+
+"Aye, Henry."
+
+The big man wiped his forehead and sighed in his relief.
+
+"A minute ago I was ready--but we'll forget all this. What will you do?
+How will you persuade Nelly? I almost think that you intend to make love
+to her, Garry!"
+
+The little man turned paler still.
+
+"It is exactly what I intend," he said quietly.
+
+The brow of Lord Nick darkened solemnly, and then he forced a laugh.
+
+"She'll be afraid to turn me down, Garry. But try your own way." He bit
+his lips. "Why, if you influence her that way--do it. What's a fickle
+jade to me? Nothing!"
+
+"However I do it, you'll stick by her judgment, Henry?"
+
+The perspiration had started on Lord Nick's forehead again. Doubt swayed
+him, but pride forced him on.
+
+"I'll come again tonight," he said gloomily. "I'll meet you
+in--Milligan's?"
+
+"In Milligan's, then."
+
+Lord Nick, without a word of farewell, stamped across the hut and out.
+
+As for Donnegan, he stepped backward, his legs buckled beneath him, and
+when big George entered, with a scared face, he found the little man
+half sitting on the bunk, half lying against the wall with the face and
+the staring eyes of a dead man.
+
+
+
+
+34
+
+
+It was a long time before Donnegan left the hut, and when he came out
+the crowd which had gathered to watch the fight, or at least to mark the
+reports of the guns when those two terrible warriors met, was scattered.
+There remained before Donnegan only the colonel in his invalid's chair.
+Even from the distance one could see that his expression was changed,
+and when the little red-headed man came near the colonel looked up to
+him with something akin to humility.
+
+"Donnegan," he said, stopping the other as Donnegan headed for the door
+of the hut, "Donnegan, don't go in there just now."
+
+Donnegan turned and came slowly toward him.
+
+"The reason," said the colonel, "is that you probably won't receive a
+very cheery reception. Unfortunate--very unfortunate. Lou has turned
+wrong-headed for the first time in her life and she won't listen to
+reason."
+
+He chuckled softly.
+
+"I never dreamed there was so much of my metal in her. Blood will tell,
+my boy; blood will tell. And when you finally get her you'll find that
+she's worth waiting for."
+
+"Let me tell you a secret," said Donnegan dryly. "I am no longer waiting
+for her!"
+
+"Ah?" smiled the colonel. "Of course not. This bringing of Landis to
+her--it was all pure self-sacrifice. It was not an attempt to soften her
+heart. It was not a cunning maneuver. Tush! Of course not!"
+
+"I am about to make a profound remark," said Donnegan carelessly.
+
+"By all means."
+
+"You read the minds of other people through a colored glass, colonel.
+You see yourself everywhere."
+
+"In other words I put my own motives into the actions and behind the
+actions of people? Perhaps. I am full of weaknesses. Very full. In the
+meantime let me tell you one important thing--if you have not made the
+heart of Lou tender toward you, you have at least frightened her."
+
+The jaw on Donnegan set.
+
+"Excellent!" he said huskily.
+
+"Perhaps better than you think; and to keep you abreast with the times,
+you must know another thing. Lou has a silly idea that you are a lost
+soul, Donnegan, but she attributes your fall entirely to my weakness.
+Nothing can convince her that you did not intend to kill Landis; nothing
+can convince her that you did not act on my inspiration. I have tried
+arguing. Bah! she overwhelmed me with her scorn. You are a villain, says
+Lou, and I have made you one. And for the first time in my memory of
+her, her eyes fill with tears."
+
+"Tears?"
+
+"Upon my honor, and when a girl begins to weep about a man I don't need
+to say he is close to her heart."
+
+"You are full of maxims, Colonel Macon."
+
+"As a nut is full of meat. Old experience, you know. In the meantime Lou
+is perfectly certain that I intend to make away with Landis. Ha, ha,
+ha!" The laughter of the colonel was a cheery thunder, and soft as with
+distance. "Landis is equally convinced. He begs Lou not to fall asleep
+lest I should steal in on him. She hardly dares leave him to cook his
+food. I actually think she would have been glad to see that fiend, Lord
+Nick, take Landis away!"
+
+Donnegan smiled wanly. But could he tell her, poor girl, the story of
+Nelly Lebrun? Landis, in fear of his life, was no doubt at this moment
+pouring out protestations of deathless affection.
+
+"And they both consider you an archdemon for keeping Lord Nick away!"
+
+Again Donnegan winced, and coughed behind his hand to cover it.
+
+"However," went on the colonel, "when it comes to matters with the
+hearts of women, I trust to time. Time alone will show her that Landis
+is a puppy."
+
+"In the meantime, colonel, she keeps you from coming near Landis?"
+
+"Not at all! You fail to understand me and my methods, dear boy. I have
+only to roll my chair into the room and sit and smile at Jack in order
+to send him into an hysteria of terror. It is amusing to watch. And I
+can be there while Lou is in the room and through a few careful
+innuendoes convey to Landis my undying determination to either remove
+him from my path and automatically become his heir, or else secure from
+him a legal transfer of his rights to the mines."
+
+"I have learned," said Donnegan, "that Landis has not the slightest
+claim to them himself. And that you set him on the trail of the claims
+by trickery."
+
+The colonel did not wince.
+
+"Of course not," said the fat trickster. "Not the slightest right. My
+claim is a claim of superior wits, you see. And in the end all your
+labor shall be rewarded, for my share will go to Lou and through her it
+shall come to you. No?"
+
+"Quite logical."
+
+The colonel disregarded the other's smile.
+
+"But I have a painful confession to make."
+
+"Well?"
+
+"I misjudged you, Donnegan. A moment since, when I was nearly distraught
+with disappointment, I said some most unpleasant things to you."
+
+"I have forgotten them."
+
+But the colonel raised his strong forefinger and shook his head,
+smiling.
+
+"No, no, Donnegan. If you deny it, I shall know that you are harboring
+the most undying grudge against me. As a matter of fact, I have just
+had an interview with Lord Nick, and the cursed fellow put my nerves on
+edge."
+
+The colonel made a wry face.
+
+"And when you came, I saw no manner in which you could possibly thwart
+him."
+
+His eyes grew wistful.
+
+"Between friends--as a son to his future father," he said softly, "can't
+you tell me what the charm was that you used on. Nick to send him away?
+I watched him come out of the shack. He was in a fury. I could see that
+by the way his head thrust out between his big shoulders. And when he
+went down the hill he was striding like a giant, but every now and then
+he would stop short, and his head would go up as if he were tempted to
+turn around and go back, but didn't quite have the nerve. Donnegan, tell
+me the trick of it?"
+
+"Willingly. I appealed to his gambling instinct."
+
+"Which leaves me as much in the dark as ever."
+
+But Donnegan smiled in his own peculiar and mirthless manner and he went
+on to the hut. Not that he expected a cheery greeting from Lou Macon,
+but he was drawn by the same perverse instinct which tempts a man to
+throw himself from a great height. At the door he paused a moment. He
+could distinguish no words, but he caught the murmur of Lou's voice as
+she talked to Jack Landis, and it had that infinitely gentle quality
+which only a woman's voice can have, and only when she nurses the sick.
+It was a pleasant torture to Donnegan to hear it. At length he summoned
+his resolution and tapped at the door.
+
+The voice of Lou Macon stopped. He heard a hurried and whispered
+consultation. What did they expect? Then swift foot-falls on the floor,
+and she opened the door. There was a smile of expectancy on her lips;
+her eyes were bright; but when she saw Donnegan her lips pinched in. She
+stared at him as if he were a ghost.
+
+"I knew; I knew!" she said piteously, falling back a step but still
+keeping her hand upon the knob of the door as if to block the way to
+Donnegan. "Oh, Jack, he has killed Lord Nick and now he is here--"
+
+To do what? To kill Landis in turn? Her horrified eyes implied as much.
+He saw Landis in the distance raise himself upon one elbow and his face
+was gray, not with pain but with dread.
+
+"It can't be!" groaned Landis.
+
+"Lord Nick is alive," said Donnegan. "And I have not come here to
+torment you; I have only come to ask that you let me speak with you
+alone for a moment, Lou!"
+
+He watched her face intently. All the cabin was in deep shadow, but the
+golden hair of the girl glowed as if with an inherent light of its own,
+and the same light touched her face. Jack Landis was stricken with
+panic: he stammered in a dreadful eagerness of fear.
+
+"Don't leave me, Lou. You know what it means. He wants to get you out of
+the way so that the colonel can be alone with me. Don't go, Lou! Don't
+go!"
+
+As though she saw how hopeless it was to try to bar Donnegan by closing
+the door against him, she fell back to the bed. She kept her eye on the
+little man, as if to watch against a surprise attack, and, fumbling
+behind her, her hand found the hand of Landis and closed over it with
+the reassurance of a mother.
+
+"Don't be afraid, Jack. I won't leave you. Not unless they carry me away
+by force."
+
+"I give you my solemn word." said Donnegan in torment, "that the colonel
+shall not come near Landis while you're away with me."
+
+"Your word!" murmured the girl with a sort of horrified wonder. "Your
+word!"
+
+And Donnegan bowed his head.
+
+But all at once she cast out her free hand toward him, while the other
+still cherished the weakness of Jack Landis.
+
+"Oh, give them up!" she cried. "Give up my father and all his wicked
+plans. There is something good in you. Give him up; come with us;
+stand for us: and we shall be grateful all our lives!"
+
+The little man had removed his hat, so that the sunshine burned brightly
+on his red hair. Indeed, there was always a flamelike quality about him.
+In inaction he seemed femininely frail and pale; but when his spirit was
+roused his eyes blazed as his hair burned in the sunlight.
+
+"You shall learn in the end," he said to the girl, "that everything I
+do, I do for you."
+
+She cried out as if he had struck her.
+
+"It's not worthy of you," she said bitterly. "You are keeping Jack
+here--in peril--for my sake?"
+
+"For your sake," said Donnegan.
+
+She looked at him with a queer pain in her eyes.
+
+"To keep you from needless lying," she said, "let me tell you that Jack
+has told me everything. I am not angry because you come and pretend that
+you do all these horrible things for my sake. I know my father has
+tempted you with a promise of a great deal of money. But in the end you
+will get nothing. No, he will twist everything away from you and leave
+you nothing! But as for me--I know everything; Jack told me."
+
+"He has told you what? What?"
+
+"About the woman you love."
+
+"The woman I love?" echoed Donnegan, stupefied.
+
+It seemed that Lou Macon could only name her with an effort that left
+her trembling.
+
+"The Lebrun woman," she said. "Jack has told me."
+
+"Did you tell her that?" he asked Landis.
+
+"The whole town knows it," stammered the wounded man.
+
+The cunning hypocrisy spurred Donnegan. He put his foot on the threshold
+of the shack, and at this the girl cried out and shrank from him; but
+Landis was too paralyzed to stir or speak. For a moment Donnegan was
+wildly tempted to pour his torrent of contempt and accusation upon
+Landis. To what end? To prove to the girl that the big fellow had coolly
+tricked her? That it was to be near Nelly Lebrun as much as to be away
+from the colonel that he wished so ardently to leave the shack? After
+all, Lou Macon was made happy by an illusion; let her keep it.
+
+He looked at her sadly again. She stood defiant over Landis; ready to
+protect the helpless bulk of the man.
+
+So Donnegan closed the door softly and turned away with ashes in his
+heart.
+
+
+
+
+35
+
+
+When Nelly Lebrun raised her head from her hands, Donnegan was a far
+figure; yet even in the distance she could catch the lilt and easy sway
+of his body; he rode as he walked, lightly, his feet in the stirrups
+half taking his weight in a semi-English fashion. For a moment she was
+on the verge of spurring after him, but she kept the rein taut and
+merely stared until he dipped away among the hills. For one thing she
+was quite assured that she could not overtake that hard rider; and,
+again, she felt that it was useless to interfere. To step between Lord
+Nick and one of his purposes would have been like stepping before an
+avalanche and commanding it to halt with a raised hand.
+
+She watched miserably until even the dust cloud dissolved and the bare,
+brown hills alone remained before her. Then she turned away, and hour
+after hour let her black jog on.
+
+To Nelly Lebrun this day was one of those still times which come over
+the life of a person, and in which they see themselves in relation to
+the rest of the world clearly. It would not be true to say that Nelly
+loved Donnegan. Certainly not as yet, for the familiar figure of Lord
+Nick filled her imagination. But the little man was different. Lord
+Nick commanded respect, admiration, obedience; but there was about
+Donnegan something which touched her in an intimate and disturbing
+manner. She had felt the will-o'-the-wisp flame which burned in him in
+his great moments. It was possible for her to smile at Donnegan; it was
+possible even to pity him for his fragility, his touchy pride about his
+size; to criticize his fondness for taking the center of the stage even
+in a cheap little mining camp like this and strutting about, the center
+of all attention. Yet there were qualities in him which escaped her, a
+possibility of metallic hardness, a pitiless fire of purpose.
+
+To Lord Nick, he was as the bull terrier to the mastiff.
+
+But above all she could not dislodge the memory of his strange talk with
+her at Lebrun's. Not that she did not season the odd avowals of Donnegan
+with a grain of salt, but even when she had discounted all that he said,
+she retained a quivering interest. Somewhere beneath his words she
+sensed reality. Somewhere beneath his actions she felt a selfless
+willingness to throw himself away.
+
+As she rode she was comparing him steadily with Lord Nick. And as she
+made the comparisons she felt more and more assured that she could pick
+and choose between the two. They loved her, both of them. With Nick it
+was an old story; with Donnegan it might be equally true in spite of its
+newness. And Nelly Lebrun felt rich. Not that she would have been
+willing to give up Lord Nick. By no means. But neither was she willing
+to throw away Donnegan. Diamonds in one hand and pearls in the other.
+Which handful must she discard?
+
+She remained riding an unconscionable length of time, and when she drew
+rein again before her father's house, the black was flecked with foam
+from his clamped bit, and there was a thick lather under the stirrup
+leathers. She threw the reins to the servant who answered her call and
+went slowly into the house.
+
+Donnegan, by this time, was dead. She began to feel that it would be
+hard to look Lord Nick in the face again. His other killings had often
+seemed to her glorious. She had rejoiced in the invincibility of her
+lover.
+
+Now he suddenly took on the aspect of a murderer.
+
+She found the house hushed. Perhaps everyone was at the gaming house;
+for now it was midafternoon. But when she opened the door to the
+apartment which they used as a living room she found Joe Rix and the
+Pedlar and Lester sitting side by side, silent. There was no whisky in
+sight; there were no cards to be seen. Marvel of marvels, these three
+men were spending their time in solemn thought. A sudden thought rushed
+over her, and her cry told where her heart really lay, at least at this
+time.
+
+"Lord Nick--has he been--"
+
+The Pedlar lifted his gaunt head and stared at her without expression.
+It was Joe Rix who answered.
+
+"Nick's upstairs."
+
+"Safe?"
+
+"Not a scratch."
+
+She sank into a chair with a sigh, but was instantly on edge again with
+the second thought.
+
+"Donnegan?" she whispered.
+
+"Safe and sound," said Lester coldly.
+
+She could not gather the truth of the statement.
+
+"Then Nick got Landis back before Donnegan returned?"
+
+"No."
+
+Like any other girl, Nelly Lebrun hated a puzzle above all things in the
+world, at least a puzzle which affected her new friends.
+
+"Lester, what's happened?" she demanded.
+
+At this Lester, who had been brooding upon the floor, raised his eyes
+and then switched one leg over the other. He was a typical cowman, was
+Lester, from his crimson handkerchief knotted around his throat to his
+shop-made boots which fitted slenderly about his instep with the care of
+a gloved hand.
+
+"I dunno what happened," said Lester. "Which looks like what counts is
+the things that didn't happen. Landis is still with that devil, Macon.
+Donnegan is loose without a scratch, and Lord Nick is in his room with a
+face as black as a cloudy night."
+
+And briefly he described how Lord Nick had gone up the hill, seen the
+colonel, come back, taken a horse litter, and gone up the hill again,
+while the populace of The Corner waited for a crash. For Donnegan had
+arrived in the meantime. And how Nick had gone into the cabin, remained
+a singularly long time, and then come out, with a face half white and
+half red and an eye that dared anyone to ask questions. He had strode
+straight home to Lebrun's and gone to his room; and there he remained,
+never making a sound.
+
+"But I'll give you my way of readin' the sign on that trail," said
+Lester. "Nick goes up the hill to clean up on Donnegan. He sees him;
+they size each other up in a flash; they figure that if they's a gun it
+means a double killin'--and they simply haul off and say a perlite
+fare-thee-well."
+
+The girl paid no attention to these remarks. She was sunk in a brown
+study.
+
+"There's something behind it all," she said, more to herself than to the
+men. "Nick is proud as the devil himself. And I can't imagine why he'd
+let Donnegan go. Oh, it might have been done if they'd met alone in the
+desert. But with the whole town looking on and waiting for Nick to clean
+up on Donnegan--no, it isn't possible. There must have been a showdown
+of some kind."
+
+There was a grim little silence after this.
+
+"Maybe there was," said the Pedlar dryly. "Maybe there was a
+showdown--and the wind-up of it is that Nick comes home meek as a
+six-year-old broke down in front."
+
+She stared at him, first astonished, and then almost frightened.
+
+"You mean that Nick may have taken water?"
+
+The three, as one man, shrugged their shoulders, and met her glance with
+cold eyes.
+
+"You fools!" cried the girl, springing to her feet. "He'd rather die!"
+
+Joe Rix leaned forward, and to emphasize his point he stabbed one dirty
+forefinger into the fat palm of his other hand.
+
+"You just start thinkin' back," he said solemnly, "and you'll remember
+that Donnegan has done some pretty slick things."
+
+Lester added with a touch of contempt: "Like shootin' down Landis one
+day and then sittin' down and havin' a nice long chat with you the next.
+I dunno how he does it."
+
+"That hunch of yours," said the girl fiercely, "ought to be roped and
+branded--lie! Lester, don't look at me like that. And if you think Nick
+has lost his grip on things you're dead wrong. Step light, Lester--and
+the rest of you. Or Nick may hear you walk--and think."
+
+She flung out of the room and raced up the stairs to Lord Nick's room.
+There was an interval without response after her first knock. But when
+she rapped again he called out to know who was there. At her answer she
+heard his heavy stride cross the room, and the door opened slowly. His
+face, as she looked up to it, was so changed that she hardly knew him.
+His hair was unkempt, on end, where he had sat with his fingers thrust
+into it, buried in thought. And the marks of his palms were red upon his
+forehead.
+
+"Nick," she whispered, frightened, "what is it?"
+
+He looked down half fiercely, half sadly at her. And though his lips
+parted they closed again before he spoke. Fear jumped coldly in Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+"Did Donnegan--" she pleaded, white-faced. "Did he--"
+
+"Did he bluff me out?" finished Nick. "No, he didn't. That's what
+everybody'll say. I know it, don't I? And that's why I'm staying here by
+myself, because the first fool that looks at me with a question in his
+face, why--I'll break him in two."
+
+She pressed close to him, more frightened than before. That Lord Nick
+should have been driven to defend himself with words was almost too much
+for credence.
+
+"You know I don't believe it, Nick? You know that I'm not doubting you?"
+
+But he brushed her hands roughly away.
+
+"You want to know what it's all about? Then go over to--well, to
+Milligan's. Donnegan will be there. He'll explain things to you, I
+guess. He wants to see you. And maybe I'll come over later and join
+you."
+
+Seeing Lord Nick before her, so shaken, so gray of face, so dull of eye,
+she pictured Donnegan as a devil in human form, cunning, resistless.
+
+"Nick, dear--" she pleaded.
+
+He closed the door in her face, and she heard his heavy step go back
+across the room. In some mysterious manner she felt the Promethean fire
+had been stolen from Lord Nick, and Donnegan's was the hand that had
+robbed him of it.
+
+
+
+
+36
+
+
+It was fear that Nelly Lebrun felt first of all. It was fear because
+the impossible had happened and the immovable object had been at last
+moved. Going back to her own room, the record of Lord Nick flashed
+across her mind; one long series of thrilling deeds. He had been a great
+and widely known figure on the mountain desert while she herself was no
+more than a girl. When she first met him she had been prepared for the
+sight of a firebreathing monster; and she had never quite recovered from
+the first thrill of finding him not devil but man.
+
+Quite oddly, now that there seemed another man as powerful as Lord Nick
+or even more terrible, she felt for the big man more tenderly than ever;
+for like all women, there was a corner of her heart into which she
+wished to receive a thing she could cherish and protect. Lord Nick, the
+invincible, had seemed without any real need of other human beings. His
+love for her had seemed unreal because his need of her seemed a
+superficial thing. Now that he was in sorrow and defeat she suddenly
+visualized a Lord Nick to whom she could truly be a helpmate. Tears came
+to her eyes at the thought.
+
+Yet, very contradictorily and very humanly, the moment she was in her
+room she began preparing her toilet for that evening at Lebrun's. Let no
+one think that she was already preparing to cast Lord Nick away and turn
+to the new star in the sky of the mountain desert. By no means. No doubt
+her own heart was not quite clear to Nelly. Indeed, she put on her most
+lovely gown with a desire for revenge. If Lord Nick had been humbled by
+this singular Donnegan, would it not be a perfect revenge to bring
+Donnegan himself to her feet? Would it not be a joy to see him turn pale
+under her smile, and then, when he was well-nigh on his knees, spurn the
+love which he offered her?
+
+She set her teeth and her eyes gleamed with the thought. But
+nevertheless she went on lavishing care in the preparation for that
+night.
+
+As she visioned the scene, the many curious eyes that watched her with
+Donnegan; the keen envy in the faces of the women; the cold watchfulness
+of the men, were what she pictured.
+
+In a way she almost regretted that she was admired by such fighting men,
+Landis, Lord Nick, and now Donnegan, who frightened away the rank and
+file of other would-be admirers. But it was a pang which she could
+readily control and subdue.
+
+To tell the truth the rest of the day dragged through a weary length. At
+the dinner table her father leaned to her and talked in his usual
+murmuring voice which could reach her own ear and no other by any
+chance.
+
+"Nelly, there's going to be the devil to pay around The Corner. You know
+why. Now, be a good girl and wise girl and play your cards. Donnegan is
+losing his head; he's losing it over you. So play your cards."
+
+"Turn down Nick and take up Donnegan?" she asked coldly.
+
+"I've said enough already," said her father, and would not speak again.
+But it was easy to see that he already felt Lord Nick's star to be past
+its full glory.
+
+Afterward, Lebrun himself took his daughter over to Milligan's and left
+her under the care of the dance-hall proprietor.
+
+"I'm waiting for someone," said Nelly, and Milligan sat willingly at her
+table and made talk. He was like the rest of The Corner--full of the
+subject of the strange encounter between Lord Nick and Donnegan. What
+had Donnegan done to the big man? Nelly merely smiled and said they
+would all know in time: one thing was certain--Lord Nick had not taken
+water. But at this Milligan smiled behind his hand.
+
+Ten minutes later there was that stir which announced the arrival of
+some public figures; and Donnegan with big George behind him came into
+the room. This evening he went straight to the table to Nelly Lebrun.
+Milligan, a little uneasy, rose. But Donnegan was gravely polite and
+regretted that he had interrupted.
+
+"I have only come to ask you for five minutes of your time," he said to
+the girl.
+
+She was about to put him off merely to make sure of her hold over him,
+but something she saw in his face fascinated her. She could not play her
+game. Milligan had slipped away before she knew it, and Donnegan was in
+his place at the table. He was as much changed as Lord Nick, she
+thought. Not that his clothes were less carefully arranged than ever,
+but in the compression of his lips and something behind his eyes she
+felt the difference. She would have given a great deal indeed to have
+learned what went on behind the door of Donnegan's shack when Lord Nick
+was there.
+
+"Last time you asked for one minute and stayed half an hour," she said.
+"This time it's five minutes."
+
+No matter what was on his mind he was able to answer fully as lightly.
+
+"When I talk about myself, I'm always long-winded."
+
+"Tonight it's someone else?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+She was, being a woman, intensely disappointed, but her smile was as
+bright as ever.
+
+"Of course I'm listening."
+
+"You remember what I told you of Landis and the girl on the hill?"
+
+"She seems to stick in your thoughts, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"Yes, she's a lovely child."
+
+And by his frankness he very cunningly disarmed her. Even if he had
+hesitated an instant she would have been on the track of the truth, but
+he had foreseen the question and his reply came back instantly.
+
+He added: "Also, what I say has to do with Lord Nick."
+
+"Ah," said the girl a little coldly.
+
+Donnegan went on. He had chosen frankness to be his role and he played
+it to the full.
+
+"It is a rather wonderful story," he went on. "You know that Lord Nick
+went up the hill for Landis? And The Corner was standing around waiting
+for him to bring the youngster down?"
+
+"Of course."
+
+"There was only one obstacle--which you had so kindly removed--myself."
+
+"For your own sake, Mr. Donnegan."
+
+"Ah, don't you suppose that I know?" And his voice touched her. "He came
+to kill me. And no doubt he could have done so."
+
+Such frankness shocked her into a new attention.
+
+Perhaps Donnegan overdid his part a little at this point, for in her
+heart of hearts she knew that the little man would a thousand times
+rather die than give way to any living man.
+
+"But I threw my case bodily before him--the girl--her love for
+Landis--and the fear which revolved around your own unruly eyes, you
+know, if he were sent back to your father's house. I placed it all
+before him. At first he was for fighting at once. But the story appealed
+to him. He pitied the girl. And in the end he decided to let the matter
+be judged by a third person. He suggested a man. But I know that a man
+would see in my attitude nothing but foolishness. No man could have
+appreciated the position of that girl on the hill. I myself named
+another referee--yourself."
+
+She gasped.
+
+"And so I have come to place the question before you, because I know
+that you will decide honestly."
+
+"Then I shall be honest," said the girl.
+
+She was thinking: Why not have Landis back? It would keep the three men
+revolving around her. Landis on his feet and well would have been
+nothing; either of these men would have killed him. But Landis sick she
+might balance in turn against them both. Nelly had the instincts of a
+fencer; she loved balance.
+
+But Donnegan was heaping up his effects. For by the shadow in her eyes
+he well knew what was passing through her mind, and he dared not let her
+speak too quickly.
+
+"There is more hanging upon it. In the first place, if Landis is left
+with the girl it gives the colonel a chance to work on him, and like as
+not the colonel will get the young fool to sign away the mines to
+him--frighten him, you see, though I've made sure that the colonel will
+not actually harm him."
+
+"How have you made sure? They say the colonel is a devil."
+
+"I have spoken with him. The colonel is not altogether without
+sensibility to fear."
+
+She caught the glint in the little man's eye and she believed.
+
+"So much for that. Landis is safe, but his money may not be. Another
+thing still hangs upon your decision. Lord Nick wanted to know why I
+trusted to you? Because I felt you were honest. Why did I feel that?
+There was nothing to do. Besides, how could I conceal myself from such a
+man? I spoke frankly and told him that I trusted you because I love
+you."
+
+She closed her hand hard on the edge of the table to steady herself.
+
+"And he made no move at you?"
+
+"He restrained himself."
+
+"Lord Nick?" gasped the incredulous girl.
+
+"He is a gentleman," said Donnegan with a singular pride which she could
+not understand.
+
+He went on: "And unfortunately I fear that if you decide in favor of my
+side of the argument, I fear that Lord Nick will feel that you--that
+you--"
+
+He was apparently unable to complete his sentence.
+
+"He will feel that you no longer care for him," said Donnegan at length.
+
+The girl pondered him with cloudy eyes.
+
+"What is behind all this frankness?" she asked coldly.
+
+"I shall tell you. Hopelessness is behind it. Last night I poured my
+heart at your feet. And I had hope. Today I have seen Lord Nick and I no
+longer hope."
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"He is worthy of a lovely woman's affection; and I--" He called her
+attention to himself with a deprecatory gesture.
+
+"Do you ask me to hurt him like this?" said the girl. "His pride is the
+pride of the fiend. Love me? He would hate me!"
+
+"It might be true. Still I know you would risk it, because--" he paused.
+
+"Well?" asked the girl, whispering in her excitement.
+
+"Because you are a lady."
+
+He bowed to her.
+
+"Because you are fair; because you are honest, Nelly Lebrun. Personally
+I think that you can win Lord Nick back with one minute of smiling. But
+you might not. You might alienate him forever. It will be clumsy to
+explain to him that you were influenced not by me, but by justice. He
+will make it a personal matter, whereas you and I know that it is only
+the right that you are seeing."
+
+She propped her chin on the tips of her fingers, and her arm was a thing
+of grace. For the last moments that clouded expression had not cleared.
+
+"If I only could read your mind," she murmured now. "There is something
+behind it all."
+
+"I shall tell you what it is. It is the restraint that has fallen upon
+me. It is because I wish to lean closer to you across the table and
+speak to you of things which are at the other end of the world from
+Landis and the other girl. It is because I have to keep my hands gripped
+hard to control myself. Because, though I have given up hope, I would
+follow a forlorn chance, a lost cause, and tell you again and again that
+I love you, Nelly Lebrun!"
+
+He had half lowered his eyes as he spoke; he had called up a vision, and
+the face of Lou Macon hovered dimly between him and Nelly Lebrun. If all
+that he spoke was a lie, let him be forgiven for it; it was the
+golden-haired girl whom he addressed, and it was she who gave the tremor
+and the fiber to his voice. And after all was he not pleading for her
+happiness as he believed?
+
+He covered his eyes with his hand; but when he looked up again she could
+see the shadow of the pain which was slowly passing. She had never seen
+such emotion in any man's face, and if it was for another, how could she
+guess it? Her blood was singing in her veins, and the old, old question
+was flying back and forth through her brain like a shuttle through a
+loom: Which shall it be?
+
+She called up the picture of Lord Nick, half-broken, but still terrible,
+she well knew. She pitied him, but when did pity wholly rule the heart
+of a woman? And as for Nelly Lebrun, she had the ambition of a young
+Caesar; she could not fill a second place. He who loved her must stand
+first, and she saw Donnegan as the invincible man. She had not believed
+half of his explanation. No, he was shielding Lord Nick; behind that
+shield the truth was that the big man had quailed before the small.
+
+Of course she saw that Donnegan, pretending to be constrained by his
+agreement with Lord Nick, was in reality cunningly pleading his own
+cause. But his passion excused him. When has a woman condemned a man for
+loving her beyond the rules of fair play?
+
+"Whatever you may decide," Donnegan was saying. "I shall be prepared to
+stand by it without a murmur. Send Landis back to your father's house
+and I submit: I leave The Corner and say farewell. But now, think
+quickly. For Lord Nick is coming to receive your answer."
+
+
+
+
+37
+
+
+If the meeting between Lord Nick and Donnegan earlier that day had
+wrought up the nerves of The Corner to the point of hysteria; if the
+singular end of that meeting had piled mystery upon excitement; if the
+appearance of Donnegan, sitting calmly at the table of the girl who was
+known to be engaged to Nick, had further stimulated public curiosity,
+the appearance of Lord Nick was now a crowning burden under which The
+Corner staggered.
+
+Yet not a man or a woman stirred from his chair, for everyone knew that
+if the long-delayed battle between these two gunfighters was at length
+to take place, neither bullet was apt to fly astray.
+
+But what happened completed the wreck of The Corner's nerves, for Lord
+Nick walked quietly across the floor and sat down with Nelly Lebrun and
+his somber rival.
+
+Oddly enough, he looked at Donnegan, not at the girl, and this token of
+the beaten man decided her.
+
+"Well?" said Lord Nick.
+
+"I have decided," said the girl. "Landis should stay where he is."
+
+Neither of the two men stirred hand or eye. But Lord Nick turned gray.
+At length he rose and asked Donnegan, quietly, to step aside with him.
+Seeing them together, the difference between their sizes was more
+apparent: Donnegan seemed hardly larger than a child beside the splendid
+bulk of Lord Nick. But she could not overhear their talk.
+
+"You've won," said Lord Nick, "both Landis and Nelly. And--"
+
+"Wait," broke in Donnegan eagerly. "Henry, I've persuaded Nelly to see
+my side of the case, but that doesn't mean that she has turned from you
+to--"
+
+"Stop!" put in Lord Nick, between his teeth. "I've not come to argue
+with you or ask advice or opinions. I've come to state facts. You've
+crawled in between me and Nelly like a snake in the grass. Very well.
+You're my brother. That keeps me from handling you. You've broken my
+reputation just as I said you would do. The bouncer at the door looked
+me in the eye and smiled when I came in."
+
+He had to pause a little, breathing heavily, and avoiding Donnegan's
+eyes. Finally he was able to continue.
+
+"I'm going to roll my blankets and leave The Corner and everything I
+have in it. You'll get my share of most things, it seems." He smiled
+after a ghastly, mirthless fashion. "I give you a free road. I surrender
+everything to you, Donnegan. But there are two things I want to warn you
+about. It may be that my men will not agree with me. It may be that
+they'll want to put up a fight for the mine. They can't get at it
+without getting at Macon. They can't get at him without removing you.
+And they'll probably try it. I warn you now.
+
+"Another thing: from this moment there's no blood tie between us. I've
+found a brother and lost him in the same day. And if I ever cross you
+again, Donnegan, I'll shoot you on sight. Remember, I'm not threatening.
+I simply warn you in advance. If I were you, I'd get out of the country.
+Avoid me, Donnegan, as you'd avoid the devil."
+
+And he turned on his heel. He felt the eyes of the people in the room
+follow him by jerks, dwelling on every one of his steps. Near the door,
+stepping aside to avoid a group of people coming in, he half turned and
+he could not avoid the sight of Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun at the other
+end of the room. He was leaning across the table, talking with a smile
+on his lips--at that distance he could not mark the pallor of the little
+man's face--and Nelly Lebrun was laughing. Laughing already, and
+oblivious of the rest of the world.
+
+Lord Nick turned, a blur coming before his eyes, and made blindly for
+the door. A body collided with him; without a word he drew back his
+massive right fist and knocked the man down. The stunned body struck
+against the wall and collapsed along the floor. Lord Nick felt a great
+madness swell in his heart. Yet he set his teeth, controlled himself,
+and went on toward the house of Lebrun. He had come within an eyelash of
+running amuck, and the quivering hunger for action was still swelling
+and ebbing in him when he reached the gambler's house.
+
+Lebrun was not in the gaming house, no doubt, at this time of night--but
+the rest of Nick's chosen men were there. They stood up as he entered
+the room--Harry Masters, newly arrived--the Pedlar--Joe Rix--three names
+famous in the mountain desert for deeds which were not altogether a
+pleasant aroma in the nostrils of the law-abiding, but whose sins had
+been deftly covered from legal proof by the cunning of Nick, and whose
+bravery itself had half redeemed them. They rose now as three wolves
+rise at the coming of the leader. But this time there was a question
+behind their eyes, and he read it in gloomy silence.
+
+"Well?" asked Harry Masters.
+
+In the old days not one of them would have dared to voice the question,
+but now things were changing, and well Lord Nick could read the change
+and its causes.
+
+"Are you talking to me?" asked Nick, and he looked straight between the
+eyes of Masters.
+
+The glance of the other did not falter, and it maddened Nick.
+
+"I'm talking to you," said Masters coolly enough. "What happened between
+you and Donnegan?"
+
+"What should happen?" asked Lord Nick.
+
+"Maybe all this is a joke," said Masters bitterly. He was a square-built
+man, with a square face and a wrinkled, fleshy forehead. In
+intelligence, Nick ranked him first among the men. And if a new leader
+were to be chosen there was no doubt as to where the choice of the men
+would fall. No doubt that was why Masters put himself forward now, ready
+to brave the wrath of the chief. "Maybe we're fooled," went on Masters.
+"Maybe they ain't any call for you to fall out with Donnegan?"
+
+"Maybe there's a call to find out this," answered Lord Nick. "Why did
+you leave the mines? What are you doing up here?"
+
+The other swallowed so hard that he blinked.
+
+"I left the mines," he declared through his set teeth, "because I was
+run off 'em."
+
+"Ah," said Lord Nick, for the devil was rising in him, "I always had an
+idea that you might be yellow, Masters."
+
+The right hand of Masters swayed toward his gun, hesitated, and then
+poised idly.
+
+"You heard me talk?" persisted Lord Nick brutally. "I call you yellow.
+Why don't you draw on me? I called you yellow, you swine, and I call the
+rest of you yellow. You think you have me down? Why, curse you, if there
+were thirty of your cut, I'd say the same to you!"
+
+There was a quick shift, the three men faced Lord Nick, but each from a
+different angle. And opposing them, he stood superbly indifferent, his
+arms folded, his feet braced. His arms were folded, but each hand, for
+all they knew, might be grasping the butt of a gun hidden away in his
+clothes. Once they flashed a glance from face to face; but there was no
+action. They were remembering only too well some of the wild deeds of
+this giant.
+
+"You think I'm through," went on Lord Nick. "Maybe I am--through with
+you. You hear me talk?"
+
+One by one, his eyes dared them, and one by one they took up the
+challenge, struggled, and lowered their glances. He was still their
+master and in that mute moment the three admitted it, the Pedlar last of
+all.
+
+Masters saw fit to fall back on the last remark.
+
+"I've swallowed a lot from you, Nick," he said gravely.
+
+"Maybe there'll be an end to what we take one of these days. But now
+I'll tell you how yellow I was. A couple of gents come to me and tell me
+I'm through at the mine. I told them they were crazy. They said old
+Colonel Macon had sent them down to take charge. I laughed at 'em. They
+went away and came back. Who with? With the sheriff. And he flashed a
+paper on me. It was all drawn up clean as a whistle. Trimmed up with a
+lot of 'whereases' and 'as hereinbefore mentioned' and such like things.
+But the sheriff just gimme a look and then he tells me what it's about.
+Jack Landis has signed over all the mines to the colonel and the
+colonel has taken possession."
+
+As he stopped, a growl came from the others.
+
+"Lester is the man that has the complaint," said Lord Nick. "Where do
+the rest of you figure in it? Lester had the mines; he lost 'em because
+he couldn't drop Landis with his gun. He'd never have had a smell of the
+gold if I hadn't come in. Who made Landis see light? I did! Who worked
+it so that every nickel that came out of the mines went through the
+fingers of Landis and came back to us? I did! But I'm through with you.
+You can hunt for yourselves now. I've kept you together to guard one
+another's backs. I've kept the law off your trail. You, Masters, you'd
+have swung for killing the McKay brothers. Who saved you? Who was it
+bribed the jury that tried you for the shooting up of Derbyville,
+Pedlar? Who took the marshal off your trail after you'd knifed Lefty
+Waller, Joe Rix? I've saved you all a dozen times. Now you whine at me.
+I'm through with you forever!"
+
+Stopping, he glared about him. His knuckles stung from the impact of the
+blow he had delivered in Milligan's place. He hungered to have one of
+these three stir a hand and get into action.
+
+And they knew it. All at once they crumbled and became clay in his
+hands.
+
+"Chief," said Joe Rix, the smoothest spoken of the lot, and one who was
+supposed to stand specially well with Lord Nick on account of his
+ability to bake beans, Spanish. "Chief, you've said a whole pile. You're
+worth more'n the rest of us all rolled together. Sure. We know that.
+There ain't any argument. But here's just one little point that I want
+to make.
+
+"We was doing fine. The gold was running fine and free. Along comes this
+Donnegan. He busts up our good time. He forks in on your girl--"
+
+A convulsion of the chief's face made Rix waver in his speech and then
+he went on: "He shoots Landis, and when he misses killing him--by some
+accident, he comes down here and grabs him out of Lebrun's own house.
+Smooth, eh? Then he makes Landis sign that deed to the mines. Oh, very
+nice work, I say. Too nice.
+
+"'Now, speakin' man to man, they ain't any doubt that you'd like to get
+rid of Donnegan. Why don't you? Because everybody has a jinx, and he's
+yours. I ain't easy scared, maybe, but I knew an albino with white eyes
+once, and just to look at him made me some sick. Well, chief, they ain't
+nobody can say that you ever took water or ever will. But maybe the fact
+that this Donnegan has hair just as plumb red as yours may sort of get
+you off your feed. I'm just suggesting. Now, what I say is, let the rest
+of us take a crack at Donnegan, and you sit back and come in on the
+results when we've cleaned up. D'you give us a free road?"
+
+How much went through the brain of Lord Nick? But in the end he gave his
+brother up to death. For he remembered how Nelly Lebrun had sat in
+Milligan's laughing.
+
+"Do what you want," he said suddenly. "But I want to know none of your
+plans--and the man that tells me Donnegan is dead gets paid--in lead!"
+
+
+
+
+38
+
+
+The smile of Joe Rix was the smile of a diplomat. It could be maintained
+upon his face as unwaveringly as if it were wrought out of marble while
+Joe heard insult and lie. As a matter of fact Joe had smiled in the face
+of death more than once, and this is a school through which even
+diplomats rarely pass. Yet it was with an effort that he maintained the
+characteristic good-natured expression when the door to Donnegan's shack
+opened and he saw big George and, beyond him, Donnegan himself.
+
+"Booze," said Joe Rix to himself instantly.
+
+For Donnegan was a wreck. The unshaven beard--it was the middle of
+morning--was a reddish mist over his face. His eyes were sunken in
+shadow. His hair was uncombed. He sat with his shoulders hunched up like
+one who suffers from cold. Altogether his appearance was that of one
+whose energy has been utterly sapped.
+
+"The top of the morning, Mr. Donnegan," said Joe Rix, and put his foot
+on the threshold.
+
+But since big George did not move it was impossible to enter.
+
+"Who's there?" asked Donnegan.
+
+It was a strange question to ask, for by raising his eyes he could have
+seen. But Donnegan was staring down at the floor. Even his voice was a
+weak murmur.
+
+"What a party! What a party he's had!" thought Joe Rix, and after all,
+there was cause for a celebration. Had not the little man in almost one
+stroke won the heart of the prettiest girl in The Corner, and also did
+he not probably have a working share in the richest of the diggings?
+
+"I'm Joe Rix," he said.
+
+"Joe Rix?" murmured Donnegan softly. "Then you're one of Lord Nick's
+men?"
+
+"I was," said Joe Rix, "sort of attached to him, maybe."
+
+Perhaps this pointed remark won the interest of Donnegan. He raised his
+eyes, and Joe Rix beheld the most unhappy face he had ever seen. "A bad
+hangover," he decided, "and that makes it bad for me!"
+
+"Come in," said Donnegan in the same monotonous, lifeless voice.
+
+Big George reluctantly, it seemed, withdrew to one side, and Rix was
+instantly in the room and drawing out a chair so that he could face
+Donnegan.
+
+"I was," he proceeded "sort of tied up with Lord Nick. But"--and here he
+winked broadly--"it ain't much of a secret that Nick ain't altogether a
+lord any more. Nope. Seems he turned out sort of common, they say."
+
+"What fool," murmured Donnegan, "has told you that? What ass had told
+you that Lord Nick is a common sort?"
+
+It shocked Joe Rix, but being a diplomat he avoided friction by changing
+his tactics.
+
+"Between you and me," he said calmly enough, "I took what I heard with a
+grain of salt. There's something about Nick that ain't common, no matter
+what they say. Besides, they's some men that nobody but a fool would
+stand up to. It ain't hardly a shame for a man to back down from 'em."
+
+He pointed this remark with a nod to Donnegan.
+
+"I'll give you a bit of free information," said the little man, with his
+weary eyes lighted a little. "There's no man on the face of the earth
+who could make Lord Nick back down."
+
+Once more Joe Rix was shocked to the verge of gaping, but again he
+exercised a power of marvelous self control "About that," he remarked
+as pointedly as before, "I got my doubts. Because there's some things
+that any gent with sense will always clear away from. Maybe not one
+man--but say a bunch of all standin' together."
+
+Donnegan leaned back in his chair and waited. Both of his hands remained
+drooping from the edge of the table, and the tired eyes drifted slowly
+across the face of Joe Rix.
+
+It was obviously not the aftereffects of liquor. The astonishing
+possibility occurred to Joe Rix that this seemed to be a man with a
+broken spirit and a great sorrow. He blinked that absurdity away.
+
+"Coming to cases," he went on, "there's yourself, Mr. Donnegan. Now,
+you're the sort of a man that don't sidestep nobody. Too proud to do it.
+But even you, I guess, would step careful if there was a whole bunch
+agin' you."
+
+"No doubt," remarked Donnegan.
+
+"I don't mean any ordinary bunch," explained Joe Rix, "but a lot of hard
+fellows. Gents that handle their guns like they was born with a holster
+on the hip."
+
+"Fellows like Nick's crowd," suggested Donnegan quietly.
+
+At this thrust the eyes of Joe narrowed a little.
+
+"Yes," he admitted, "I see you get my drift."
+
+"I think so."
+
+"Two hard fighters would give the best man that ever pulled a gun a lot
+of trouble. Eh?"
+
+"No doubt."
+
+"And three men--they ain't any question, Mr. Donnegan--would get him
+ready for a hole in the ground."
+
+"I suppose so."
+
+"And four men would make it no fight--jest a plain butchery."
+
+"Yes?"
+
+"Now, I don't mean that Nick's crowd has any hard feeling about you, Mr.
+Donnegan."
+
+"I'm glad to hear that."
+
+"I knew you'd be. That's why I've come, all friendly, to talk things
+over. Suppose you look at it this way--"
+
+"Joe Rix," broke in Donnegan, sighing, "I'm very tired. Won't you cut
+this short? Tell me in ten words just how you stand."
+
+Joe Rix blinked once more, caught his breath, and fired his volley.
+
+"Short talk is straight talk, mostly," he declared. "This is what Lester
+and the rest of us want--the mines!"
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"Macon stole 'em. We got 'em back through Landis. Now we've got to get
+'em back through the colonel himself. But we can't get at the colonel
+while you're around."
+
+"In short, you're going to start out to get me? I expected it, but it's
+kind of you to warn me."
+
+"Wait, wait, wait! Don't rush along to conclusions. We ain't so much in
+a hurry. We don't want you out of the way. We just want you on our
+side."
+
+"Shoot me up and then bring me back to life, eh?"
+
+"Mr. Donnegan," said the other, spreading out his hands solemnly on the
+table, "you ain't doin' us justice. We don't hanker none for trouble
+with you. Any way it comes, a fight with you means somebody dead besides
+you. We'd get you. Four to one is too much for any man. But one or two
+of us might go down. Who would it be? Maybe the Pedlar, maybe Harry
+Masters, maybe Lester, maybe me! Oh, we know all that. No gunplay if we
+can keep away from it."
+
+"You've left out the name of Lord Nick," said Donnegan.
+
+Joe Rix winked.
+
+"Seems like you tended to him once and for all when you got him alone in
+this cabin. Must have thrown a mighty big scare into him. He won't lift
+a hand agin' you now."
+
+"No?" murmured Donnegan hoarsely.
+
+"Not him! But that leaves four of us, and four is plenty, eh?"
+
+"Perhaps."
+
+"But I'm not here to insist on that point. No, we put a value on keepin'
+up good feeling between us and you, Mr. Donnegan. We ain't fools. We
+know a man when we see him--and the fastest gunman that ever slid a gun
+out of leather ain't the sort of a man that me and the rest of the boys
+pass over lightly. Not us! We know you, Mr. Donnegan; we respect you; we
+want you with us; we're going to have you with us."
+
+"You flatter me and I thank you. But I'm glad to see that you are at
+last coming to the point."
+
+"I am, and the point is five thousand dollars that's tied behind the
+hoss that stands outside your door."
+
+He pushed his fat hand a little way across the table, as though the gold
+even then were resting in it, a yellow tide of fortune.
+
+"For which," said Donnegan, "I'm to step aside and let you at the
+colonel?"
+
+"Right."
+
+Donnegan smiled.
+
+"Wait," said Joe Rix. "I was makin' a first offer to see how you stood,
+but you're right. Five thousand ain't enough and we ain't cheapskates.
+Not us. Mr. Donnegan, they's ten thousand cold iron men behind that
+saddle out there and every cent of it belongs to you when you come over
+on our side."
+
+But Donnegan merely dropped his chin upon his hand and smiled
+mirthlessly at Joe Rix. A wild thought came to the other man. Both of
+Donnegan's hands were far from his weapons. Why not a quick draw, a snap
+shot, and then the glory of having killed this manslayer in single
+battle for Joe Rix?
+
+The thought rushed red across his brain and then faded slowly. Something
+kept him back. Perhaps it was the singular calm of Donnegan; no matter
+how quiet he sat he suggested the sleeping cat which can leap out of
+dead sleep into fighting action at a touch. By the time a second thought
+had come to Joe Rix the idea of an attack was like an idea of suicide.
+
+"Is that final?" he asked, though Donnegan had not said a word.
+
+"It is."
+
+Joe Rix stood up.
+
+"You put it to us kind of hard. But we want you, Mr. Donnegan. And
+here's the whole thing in a nutshell. Come over to us. We'll stand
+behind you. Lord Nick is slipping. We'll put you in his place. You won't
+even have to face him; we'll get rid of him."
+
+"You'll kill him and give his place to me?" asked Donnegan.
+
+"We will. And when you're with us, you cut in on the whole amount of
+coin that the mines turn out--and it'll be something tidy. And right
+now, to show where we stand and how high we put you, I'll let you in on
+the rock-bottom truth. Mr. Donnegan. out there tied behind my saddle
+there's thirty thousand dollars in pure gold. You can take it in here
+and weigh it out!"
+
+He stepped back to watch this blow take effect. To his unutterable
+astonishment the little man had not moved. His chin still rested upon
+the back of his hand, and the smile which was on the lips and not in the
+eyes of Donnegan remained there, fixed.
+
+"Donnegan," muttered Joe Rix, "if we can't get you, we'll get rid of
+you. You understand?"
+
+But the other continued to smile.
+
+It gave Joe Rix a shuddering feeling that someone was stealing behind
+him to block his way to the door. He cast one swift glance over his
+shoulder and then, seeing that the way was clear, he slunk back, always
+keeping his face to the red-headed man. But when he came to the doorway
+his nerve collapsed. He whirled, covered the rest of the distance with a
+leap, and emerged from the cabin in a fashion ludicrously like one who
+has been kicked through a door.
+
+His nerve returned as soon as the sunlight fell warmly upon him again;
+and he looked around hastily to see if anyone had observed his flight.
+
+There was no one on the whole hillside except Colonel Macon in the
+invalid chair, and the colonel was smiling broadly, beneficently. He had
+his perfect hands folded across his breast and seemed to cast a prayer
+of peace and goodwill upon Joe Rix.
+
+
+
+
+39
+
+
+Nelly Lebrun smelled danger. She sensed it as plainly as the deer when
+the puma comes between her and the wind. The many tokens that something
+was wrong came to her by small hints which had to be put together before
+they assumed any importance.
+
+First of all, her father, who should have burst out at her in a tirade
+for having left Lord Nick for Donnegan said nothing at all, but kept a
+dark smile on his face when she was near him. He even insinuated that
+Nick's time was done and that another was due to supersede him.
+
+In the second place, she had passed into a room where Masters, Joe Rix,
+and the Pedlar sat cheek by jowl in close conference with a hum of deep
+voice. But at her appearance all talk was broken off.
+
+It was not strange that they should not invite her into their confidence
+if they had some dark work ahead of them; but it was exceedingly
+suspicious that Joe Rix attempted to pass off their whispers by
+immediately breaking off the soft talk and springing into the midst of a
+full-fledged jest; also, it was strangest of all that when the jest
+ended even the Pedlar, who rarely smiled, now laughed uproariously and
+smote Joe soundingly upon the back.
+
+Even a child could have strung these incidents into a chain of evidence
+which pointed toward danger. Obviously the danger was not directly hers,
+but then it must be directed at some one near to her. Her father? No, he
+was more apt to be the mainspring of their action. Lord Nick? There was
+nothing to gain by attacking him. Who was left? Donnegan!
+
+As the realization came upon her it took her breath away for a moment.
+Donnegan was the man. At breakfast everyone had been talking about him.
+Lebrun had remarked that he had a face for the cards--emotionless. Joe
+Rix had commented upon his speed of hand, and the Pedlar had
+complimented the little man on his dress.
+
+But at lunch not a word was spoken about Donnegan even after she had
+dexterously introduced the subject twice. Why the sudden silence?
+Between morning and noon Donnegan must have grievously offended them.
+
+Fear for his sake stimulated her; but above and beyond this, indeed,
+there was a mighty feminine curiosity. She smelled the secret; it reeked
+through the house, and she was devoured by eagerness to know. She
+handpicked Lord Nick's gang in the hope of finding a weakness among
+them; some weakness upon which she could play in one of them and draw
+out what they were all concealing. The Pedlar was as unapproachable as a
+crag on a mountaintop. Masters was wise as an outlaw broncho. Lester was
+probably not even in the confidence of the others because since the
+affair with Landis his nerve had been shattered to bits and the others
+secretly despised him for being beaten by the youngster at the draw.
+There remained, therefore, only Joe Rix.
+
+But Joe Rix was a fox of the first quality. He lied with the smoothness
+of silk. He could show a dozen colors in as many moments. Come to the
+windward of Joe Rix? It was a delicate business! But since there was
+nothing else to do, she fixed her mind upon it, working out this puzzle.
+Joe Rix wished to destroy Donnegan for reasons that were evidently
+connected with the mines. And she must step into his confidence to
+discover his plans. How should it be done? And there was a vital need
+for speed, for they might be within a step of executing whatever
+mischief it was that they were planning.
+
+She went down from her room; they were there still, only Joe Rix was
+not with them. She went to the apartment where he and the other three of
+Nick's gang slept and rapped at the door. He maintained his smile when
+he saw her, but there was an uncertain quiver of his eyebrows that told
+her much. Plainly he was ill at ease. Suspicious? Ay, there were always
+clouds of suspicion drifting over the red, round face of Joe Rix. She
+put a tremor of excitement and trouble in her voice.
+
+"Come into my room, Joe, where we won't be interrupted."
+
+He followed her without a word, and since she led the way she was able
+to relax her expression for a necessary moment. When she closed the door
+behind him and faced Joe again she was once more ready to step into her
+part. She did not ask him to sit down. She remained for a moment with
+her hand on the knob and searched the face of Joe Rix eagerly.
+
+"Do you think he can hear?" she whispered, gesturing over her shoulder.
+
+"Who?"
+
+"Who but Lord Nick!" she exclaimed softly.
+
+The bewilderment of Joe clouded his face a second and then he was able
+to smooth it away. What on earth was the reason of her concern about
+Lord Nick he was obviously wondering.
+
+"I'll tell you why," she said, answering the unspoken question at once.
+"He's as jealous as the devil, Joe!"
+
+The fat little man sighed as he looked at her.
+
+"He can't hear. Not through that log wall. But we'll talk soft, if you
+want."
+
+"Yes, yes. Keep your voice down. He's already jealous of you, Joe."
+
+"Of me?"
+
+"He knows I like you, that I trust you; and just now he's on edge about
+everyone I look at."
+
+The surprising news which the first part of this sentence contained
+caused Joe to gape, and the girl looked away in concern, enabling him to
+control his expression. For she knew well enough that men hate to appear
+foolishly surprised. And particularly a fox like Joe Rix.
+
+"But what's the trouble, Nelly?" He added with a touch of venom: "I
+thought everything was going smoothly with you. And I thought you
+weren't worrying much about what Lord Nick had in his mind."
+
+She stared at him as though astonished.
+
+"Do you think just the same as the rest of them?" she asked sadly. "Do
+you mean to say that you're fooled just the same as Harry Masters and
+the Pedlar and the rest of those fools--including Nick himself?"
+
+Joe Rix was by no means willing to declare himself a fool beforehand. He
+now mustered a look of much reserved wisdom.
+
+"I have my own doubts, Nell, but I'm not talking about them."
+
+He was so utterly at sea that she had to bite her lip hard to keep from
+breaking into ringing laughter.
+
+"Oh, I knew that you'd seen through it, Joe," she cried softly. "You see
+what an awful mess I've gotten into?"
+
+He passed a hurried hand across his forehead and then looked at her
+searchingly. But he could not penetrate her pretense of concern.
+
+"No matter what I think," said Joe Rix, "you come out with it frankly.
+I'll listen."
+
+"As a friend, Joe?"
+
+She managed to throw a plea into her voice that made Joe sigh.
+
+"Sure. You've already said that I'm your friend, and you're right."
+
+"I'm in terrible, terrible trouble! You know how it happened. I was a
+fool. I tried to play with Lord Nick. And now he thinks I was in
+earnest."
+
+As though the strength of his legs had given way, Joe Rix slipped down
+into a chair.
+
+"Go on," he said huskily. "You were playing with Lord Nick?"
+
+"Can't you put yourself in my place, Joe? It's always been taken for
+granted that I'm to marry Nick. And the moment he comes around everybody
+else avoids me as if I were poison. I was sick of it. And when he showed
+up this time it was the same old story. A man would as soon sign his own
+death warrant as ask me for a dance. You know how it is?"
+
+He nodded, still at sea, but with a light beginning to dawn in his
+little eyes.
+
+"I'm only a girl, Joe. I have all the weakness of other girls. I don't
+want to be locked up in a cage just because I--love one man!"
+
+The avowal made Joe blink. It was the second time that day that he had
+been placed in an astonishing scene. But some of his old cunning
+remained to him.
+
+"Nell," he said suddenly, rising from his chair and going to her. "What
+are you trying to do to me? Pull the wool over my eyes?"
+
+It was too much for Nelly Lebrun. She knew that she could not face him
+without betraying her guilt and therefore she did not attempt it. She
+whirled and flung herself on her bed, face down, and began to sob
+violently, suppressing the sounds. And so she waited.
+
+Presently a hand touched her shoulder lightly.
+
+"Go away," cried Nelly in a choked voice. "I hate you, Joe Rix. You're
+like all the rest!"
+
+His knee struck the floor with a soft thud.
+
+"Come on, Nell. Don't be hard on me. I thought you were stringing me a
+little. But if you're playing straight, tell me what you want?"
+
+At that she bounced upright on the bed, and before he could rise she
+caught him by both shoulders.
+
+"I want Donnegan," she said fiercely.
+
+"What?"
+
+"I want him dead!"
+
+Joe Rix gasped.
+
+"Here's the cause of all my trouble. Just because I flirted with him
+once or twice, Nick thought I was in earnest and now he's sulking. And
+Donnegan puts on airs and acts as if I belonged to him. I hate him, Joe.
+And if he's gone Nick will come back to me. He'll come back to me, Joe;
+and I want him so!"
+
+She found that Joe Rix was staring straight into her eyes, striving to
+probe her soul to its depths, and by a great effort she was enabled to
+meet that gaze. Finally the fat little man rose slowly to his feet. Her
+hands trailed from his shoulders as he stood up and fell helplessly upon
+her lap.
+
+"Well, I'll be hanged, Nell!" exclaimed Joe Rix.
+
+"What do you mean?"
+
+"You're not acting a part? No, I can see you mean it. But what a
+cold-blooded little--" He checked himself. His face was suddenly
+jubilant. "Then we've got him, Nell. We've got him if you're with us. We
+had him anyway, but we'll make sure of him if you're with us. Look at
+this! You saw me put a paper in my pocket when I opened the door of my
+room? Here it is!"
+
+He displayed before the astonished eyes of Nelly Lebrun a paper covered
+with an exact duplicate of her own swift, dainty script. And she read:
+
+  Nick is terribly angry and is making trouble. I have to get
+  away. It isn't safe for me to stay here. Will you help me?
+  Will you meet me at the shack by Donnell's ford tomorrow
+  morning at ten o'clock?
+
+"But I didn't write it," cried Nelly Lebrun, bewildered.
+
+"Nelly," Joe Rix chuckled, flushing with pleasure, "you didn't. It was
+me. I kind of had an idea that you wanted to get rid of this Donnegan,
+and I was going to do it for you and then surprise you with the good
+news."
+
+"Joe, you forged it?"
+
+"Don't bother sayin' pretty things about me and my pen," said Rix
+modestly. "This is nothin'! But if you want to help me, Nelly--"
+
+His voice faded partly out of her consciousness as she fought against a
+tigerish desire to spring at the throat of the little fat man. But
+gradually it dawned on her that he was asking her to write out that note
+herself. Why? Because it was possible that Donnegan might have seen her
+handwriting and in that case, though the imitation had been good enough
+to deceive Nelly herself, it probably would not for a moment fool the
+keen eyes of Donnegan. But if she herself wrote out the note, Donnegan
+was already as good as dead.
+
+"That is," concluded Joe Rix, "if he really loves you, Nell."
+
+"The fool!" cried Nelly. "He worships the ground I walk on, Joe. And I
+hate him for it."
+
+Even Joe Rix shivered, for he saw the hate in her eyes and could not
+dream that he himself was the cause and the object of it. There was a
+red haze of horror and confusion in front of her eyes, and yet she was
+able to smile while she copied the note for Joe Rix.
+
+"But how are you going to work it?" she asked. "How are you going to
+kill him, Joe?"
+
+"Don't bother your pretty head," said the fat man, smiling. "Just wait
+till we bring you the good news."
+
+"But are you sure?" she asked eagerly. "See what he's done already. He's
+taken Landis away from us; he's baffled Nick himself, in some manner;
+and he's gathered the mines away from all of us. He's a devil, Joe, and
+if you want to get him you'd better take ten men for the job."
+
+"You hate him, Nell, don't you?" queried Joe Rix, and his voice was both
+hard and curious. "But how has he harmed you?"
+
+"Hasn't he taken Nick away from me? Isn't that enough?"
+
+The fat man shivered again.
+
+"All right. I'll tell you how it works. Now, listen!"
+
+And he began to check off the details of his plan.
+
+
+
+
+40
+
+
+The day passed and the night, but how very slowly for Nelly Lebrun; she
+went up to her room early for she could no longer bear the meaning
+glances which Joe Rix cast at her from time to time. But once in her
+room it was still harder to bear the suspense as she waited for the
+noise to die away in the house. Midnight, and half an hour more went by,
+and then, at last, the murmurs and the laughter stopped; she alone was
+wakeful in Lebrun's. And when that time came she caught a scarf around
+her hair and her shoulders, made of a filmy material which would veil
+her face but through which she could see, and ventured out of her room
+and down the hall.
+
+There was no particular need for such caution, however, it seemed.
+Nothing stirred. And presently she was outside the house and hurrying
+behind the houses and up the hill. Still she met nothing. If The Corner
+lived tonight, its life was confined to Milligan's and the gambling
+house.
+
+She found Donnegan's shack and the one next to it, which the terrible
+colonel occupied, entirely dark, but only a moment after she tapped at
+the door it was opened. Donnegan, fully dressed, stood in the entrance,
+outlined blackly by the light which came faintly from the hooded lantern
+hanging on the wall. Was he sitting up all the night, unable to sleep
+because he waited breathlessly for that false tryst on the morrow? A
+great tenderness came over the heart of Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"It is I," she whispered.
+
+There was a soft exclamation, then she was drawn into the room.
+
+"Is there anyone here?"
+
+"Only big George. But he's in the kitchen and he won't hear. He never
+hears anything except what's meant for his ear. Take this chair!"
+
+He was putting a blanket over the rough wood to make it more
+comfortable, and she submitted dumbly to his ministrations. It seemed
+terrible and strange to her that one so gentle should be the object of
+so much hate--such deadly hate as the members of Nick's gang felt for
+him. And now that he was sitting before her she could see that he had
+indeed been wakeful for a long time. His face was grimly wasted; the
+lips were compressed as one who has endured long pain; and his eyes
+gleamed at her out of a profound shadow. He remained in the gloom; the
+light from the lantern fell brightly upon his hands alone--meager,
+fleshless hands which seemed to represent hardly more strength than that
+of a child. Truly this man was all a creature of spirit and nerve.
+Therein lay his strength, as also his weakness, and again the cherishing
+instinct grew strong and swept over her.
+
+"There is no one near," he said, "except the colonel and his daughter.
+They are up the hillside, somewhere. Did you see them?"
+
+"No. What in the world are they out for at this time of night?"
+
+"Because the colonel only wakes up when the sun goes down. And now he's
+out there humming to himself and never speaking a word to the girl. But
+they won't be far away. They'll stay close to see that no one comes near
+the cabin to get at Landis."
+
+He added: "They must have seen you come into my cabin!"
+
+And his lips set even harder than before. Was it fear because of her?
+
+"They may have seen me enter, but they won't know who it was. You have
+the note from me?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"It's a lie! It's a ruse. I was forced to write it to save you! For
+they're planning to murder you. Oh, my dear!"
+
+"Hush! Hush! Murder?"
+
+"I've been nearly hysterical all day and all the night. But. thank
+heaven, I'm here to warn you in time! You mustn't go. You mustn't go!"
+
+"Who is it?"
+
+He had drawn his chair closer: he had taken her hands, and she noted
+that his own were icy cold, but steady as a rock. Their pressure soothed
+her infinitely.
+
+"Joe Rix, the Pedlar, Harry Masters. They'll be at the shack at ten
+o'clock, but not I!"
+
+"Murder, but a very clumsy scheme. Three men leave town and commit a
+murder and then expect to go undetected? Not even in the mountain
+desert!"
+
+"But you don't understand, you don't understand! They're wise as foxes.
+They'll take no risk. They don't even leave town together or travel by
+the same routes. Harry Masters starts first. He rides out at eight
+o'clock in the morning and takes the north trail. He rides down the
+gulch and winds out of it and strikes for the shack at the ford. At half
+past eight the Pedlar starts. He goes past Sandy's place and then over
+the trail through the marsh. You know it?"
+
+"Yes."
+
+"Last of all, Joe Rix starts at nine o'clock. Half an hour between
+them."
+
+"How does he go to the shack?"
+
+"By the south trail. He takes the ridge of the hills. But they'll all be
+at the shack long before you and they'll shoot you down from a distance
+as you come up to it. Plain murder, but even for cowardly murder they
+daren't face you except three to one."
+
+He was thoughtful.
+
+"Suppose they were to be met on the way?"
+
+"You're mad to think of it!"
+
+"But if they fail this time they'll try again. They must be taught a
+lesson."
+
+"Three men? Oh, my dear, my dear! Promise!"
+
+"Very well. I shall do nothing rash. And I shall never forget that
+you've come to tell me this and been in peril, Nell, for if they found
+you had come to me--"
+
+"The Pedlar would cut my throat. I know him!"
+
+"Ah! But now you must go. I'll take you down the hill, dear."
+
+"No, no! It's much easier to get back alone. My face will be covered.
+But there's no way you could be disguised. You have a way of
+walking--good night--and God bless you!"
+
+She was in his arms, straining him to her; and then she slipped out the
+door.
+
+And sure enough, there was the colonel in his chair not fifty feet away
+with a girl pushing him. The moonlight was too dim for Nelly Lebrun to
+make out the face of Lou Macon, but even the light which escaped through
+the filter of clouds was enough to set her golden hair glowing. The
+color was not apparent, but its luster was soft silver in the night.
+There was a murmur of the colonel's voice as Nelly came out of the
+cabin.
+
+And then, from the girl, a low cry.
+
+It brought the blood to the cheeks of Nelly as she hurried down the
+hill, for she recognized the pain that was in it; and it occurred to her
+that if the girl was in love with Jack Landis she was strangely
+interested in Donnegan also.
+
+The thought came so sharply home to her that she paused abruptly on the
+way down the hill. After all, this Macon girl would be a very strange
+sort if she were not impressed by the little red-headed man, with his
+gentle voice and his fiery ways, and his easy way of making himself a
+brilliant spectacle whenever he appeared in public. And Nelly
+remembered, also, with the keen suspicion of a woman in love how weakly
+Donnegan had responded to her embrace this night. How absent-mindedly
+his arms had held her, and how numbly they had fallen away when she
+turned at the door.
+
+But she shook her head and made the suspicion shudder its way out of
+her. Lou Macon, she decided, was just the sort of girl who would think
+Jack Landis an ideal. Besides, she had never had an opportunity to see
+Donnegan in his full glory at Milligan's. And as for Donnegan? He was
+wearied out; his nerves relaxed; and for the deeds with which he had
+startled The Corner and won her own heart he was now paying the penalty
+in the shape of ruined nerves. Pity again swelled in her heart, and a
+consuming hatred for the three murderers who lived in her father's
+house.
+
+And when she reached her room again her heart was filled with a singing
+happiness and a glorious knowledge that she had saved the man she loved.
+
+And Donnegan himself?
+
+He had seen Lou and her father: he had heard that low cry of pain; and
+now he sat bowed again over his table, his face in his hands and a
+raging devil in his heart.
+
+
+
+
+41
+
+
+There was one complication which Nelly Lebrun might have foreseen after
+her pretended change of heart and her simulated confession to Joe Rix
+that she still loved the lionlike Lord Nick. But strangely enough she
+did not think of this phase: and even when her father the next morning
+approached her in the hall and tapping her arm whispered: "Good girl!
+Nick has just heard and he's hunting for you now!" Even then the full
+meaning did not come home to her. It was not until she saw the great
+form of Lord Nick stalking swiftly down the hall that she knew. He came
+with a glory in his face which the last day had graven with unfamiliar
+lines; and when he saw her he threw up his hand so that it almost
+brushed the ceiling, and cried out.
+
+What could she do? Try to push him away; to explain?
+
+There was nothing to be done. She had to submit when he swept her into
+his arms.
+
+"Rix has told me. Rix has told me. Ah, Nell, you little fox!"
+
+"Told you what, Nick?"
+
+Was he, too, a party to the murderous plan?
+
+But he allowed himself to be pushed away.
+
+"I've gone through something in the last few days. Why did you do it,
+girl?"
+
+She saw suddenly that she must continue to play her part.
+
+"Some day I'll tell you why it was that I gave you up so easily, Nell.
+You thought I was afraid of Donnegan?" He ground his teeth and turned
+pale at the thought. "But that wasn't it. Some day I can tell you. But
+after this, the first man who comes between us--Donnegan or any
+other--I'll turn him into powder--under my heel!"
+
+He ground it into the floor as he spoke. She decided that she would see
+how much he knew.
+
+"It will never be Donnegan, at least," she said. "He's done for today.
+And I'm almost sorry for him in spite of all that he's done."
+
+He became suddenly grave.
+
+"What are you saying, Nell?"
+
+"Why, Joe told you, didn't he? They've drawn Donnegan out of town, and
+now they're lying in wait for him. Yes, they must have him, by this
+time. It's ten o'clock!"
+
+A strangely tense exclamation broke from Lord Nick. "They've gone for
+Donnegan?"
+
+"Yes. Are you angry?"
+
+The big man staggered; one would have said that he had been stunned with
+a blow.
+
+"Garry!" he whispered.
+
+"What are you saying?"
+
+"Nell," he muttered hoarsely, "did you know about it?"
+
+"But I did it for you, Nick. I knew you hated--"
+
+"No, no! Don't say it!" He added bitterly, after a moment. "This is for
+my sins."
+
+And then, to her: "But you knew about it and didn't warn him? You hated
+him all the time you were laughing with him and smiling at him? Oh,
+Nell! What a merciless witch of a woman you are! For the rest of
+them--I'll wait till they come back!"
+
+"What are you going to do, Nick?"
+
+"I told them I'd pay the man who killed Donnegan--with lead. Did the
+fools think I didn't mean it?"
+
+Truly, no matter what shadow had passed over the big man, he was the
+lion again, and Nell shrank from him.
+
+"We'll wait for them," he said. "We'll wait for them here."
+
+And they sat down together in the room. She attempted to speak once in a
+shaken voice, but he silenced her with a gesture, and after that she sat
+and watched in quiet the singular play of varying expressions across his
+face. Grief, rage, tenderness, murderous hate--they followed like a
+puppet play.
+
+What was Donnegan to him? And then there was a tremor of fear. Would the
+three suspect when they reached the shack by the ford and no Donnegan
+came to them? The moments stole on. Then the soft beat of a galloping
+horse in the sand. The horse stopped. Presently they saw Joe Rix and
+Harry Masters pass in front of the window. And they looked as though a
+cyclone had caught them up, juggled them a dizzy distance in the air,
+and then flung them down carelessly upon bruising rocks. Their hats were
+gone; and the clothes of burly Harry Masters were literally torn from
+his back. Joe Rix was evidently far more terribly hurt, for he leaned on
+the arm of Masters and they came on together, staggering.
+
+"They've done the business!" exclaimed Lord Nick. "And now, curse them,
+I'll do theirs!"
+
+But the girl could not speak. A black haze crossed before her eyes. Had
+Donnegan gone out madly to fight the three men in spite of her warning?
+
+The door opened. They stood in the doorway, and if they had seemed a
+horrible sight passing the window, they were a deadly picture at close
+range. And opposite them stood Lord Nick; in spite of their wounds there
+was murder in his face and his revolver was out.
+
+"You've met him? You've met Donnegan?" he asked angrily.
+
+Masters literally carried Joe Rix to a chair and placed him in it. He
+had been shot through both shoulders, and though tight bandages had
+stanched the wound he was still in agony. Then Masters raised his head.
+
+"We've met him," he said.
+
+"What happened?"
+
+But Masters, in spite of the naked gun in the hand of Lord Nick, was
+looking straight at Nelly Lebrun.
+
+"We fought him."
+
+"Then say your prayers, Masters."
+
+"Say prayers for the Pedlar, you fool," said Masters bitterly. "He's
+dead, and Donnegan's still living!"
+
+There was a faint cry from Nelly Lebrun. She sank into her chair again.
+
+"We've been double-crossed," said Masters, still looking at the girl. "I
+was going down the gulch the way we planned. I come to the narrow place
+where the cliffs almost touch, and right off the wall above me drops a
+wildcat. I thought it was a cat at first. And then I found it was
+Donnegan.
+
+"The way he hit me from above knocked me off the horse. Then we hit the
+ground. I started for my gun; he got it out of my hand; I pulled my
+knife. He got that away, too. His fingers work with steel springs and
+act like a cat's claws. Then we fought barehanded. He didn't say a word.
+But kept snarling in his throat. Always like a cat. And his face was
+devilish. Made me sick inside. Pretty soon he dived under my arms. Got
+me up in the air. I came down on my head.
+
+"Of course I went out cold. When I came to there was still a mist in
+front of my eyes and this lump on the back of my head. He'd figured that
+my head was cracked and that I was dead. That's the only reason he left
+me. Later I climbed on my hoss and fed him the spur.
+
+"But I was too late. I took the straight cut for the ford, and when I
+got there I found that Donnegan had been there before me. Joe Rix was
+lyin' on the floor. When he got to the shack Donnegan was waitin' for
+him. They went for their guns and Donnegan beat him to it. The hound
+didn't shoot to kill. He plugged him through both shoulders, and left
+him lyin' helpless. But I got a couple of bandages on him and saved him.
+
+"Then we cut back for home and crossed the marsh. And there we found the
+Pedlar.
+
+"Too late to help him. Maybe Donnegan knew that the Pedlar was something
+of a flash with a gun himself, and he didn't take any chances. He'd met
+him face to face the same way he met Joe Rix and killed him. Shot him
+clean between the eyes. Think of shooting for the head with a snap shot!
+That's what he done and Joe didn't have time to think twice after that
+slug hit him. His gun wasn't even fired, he was beat so bad on the draw.
+
+"So Joe and me come back home. And we come full of questions!"
+
+"Let me tell you something," muttered Lord Nick, putting up the weapon
+which he had kept exposed during all of the recital. "You've got what
+was coming to you. If Donnegan hadn't cleaned up on you, you'd have had
+to talk turkey with me. Understand?"
+
+"Wait a minute," protested Harry Masters.
+
+And Joe Rix, almost too far gone for speech, set his teeth over a groan
+and cast a look of hatred at the girl.
+
+"Wait a minute, chief. There's one thing we all got to get straight.
+Somebody had tipped off Donnegan about our whole plan. Was it the Pedlar
+or Rix or me? I guess good sense'll tell a man that it wasn't none of
+us, eh? Then who was it? The only other person that knew about the
+plan--Nell--Nell, the crooked witch--and it's her that murdered the
+Pedlar--curse her!"
+
+He thrust out his bulky arm as he spoke.
+
+"Her that lied her way into our confidence with a lot of talk about you,
+Nick. Then what did she do? She goes runnin' to the gent that she said
+she hated. Don't you see her play? She makes fools of us--she makes a
+fool out of you!"
+
+She dared not meet the glance of Lord Nick. Even now she might have
+acted out her part and filled in with lies, but she was totally
+unnerved.
+
+"Get Rix to bed," was all he said, and he did not even glance at Nelly
+Lebrun.
+
+Masters glowered at him, and then silently obeyed, lifting Joe as a
+helpless bulk, for the fat man was nearly fainting with pain. Not until
+they had gone and he had closed the door after them and upon the murmurs
+of the servants in the hall did Lord Nick turn to Nelly.
+
+"Is it true?" he asked shortly.
+
+Between relief and terror her mind was whirling.
+
+"Is what true?"
+
+"You haven't even sense enough to lie, Nell, eh? It's all true, then?
+And last night, after you'd wormed it out of Joe, you went to Donnegan?"
+
+She could only stare miserably at him.
+
+"And that was why you pushed me away when I kissed you a little while
+ago?"
+
+Once more she was dumb. But she was beginning to be afraid. Not for
+herself, but for Donnegan.
+
+"Nell, I told you I'd never let another man come between us again. I
+meant it. I know you're treacherous now; but that doesn't keep me from
+wanting you. It's Donnegan again--Donnegan still? Nell, you've killed
+him. As sure as if your own finger pulled the trigger when I shoot him.
+He's a dead one, and you've done it!"
+
+If words would only come! But her throat was stiff and cold and aching.
+She could not speak.
+
+"You've done more than kill him," said Lord Nick. "You've put a curse on
+me as well. And afterward I'm going to even up with you. You hear me?
+Nell, when I shoot Donnegan I'm doing a thing worse than if he was a
+girl--or a baby. You can't understand that; I don't want you to know.
+But some time when you're happy again and you're through grieving for
+Donnegan, I'll tell you the truth and make your heart black for the rest
+of your life."
+
+Still words would not come. She strove to cling to him and stop him, but
+he cast her away with a single gesture and strode out the door.
+
+
+
+
+42
+
+
+There was no crowd to block the hill at this second meeting of Donnegan
+and Lord Nick. There was a blank stretch of brown hillside with the wind
+whispering stealthily through the dead grass when Lord Nick thrust open
+the door of Donnegan's shack and entered.
+
+The little man had just finished shaving and was getting back into his
+coat while George carried out the basin of water. And Donnegan, as he
+buttoned the coat, was nodding slightly to the rhythm of a song which
+came from the cabin of the colonel near by. It was a clear, high music,
+and though the voice was light it carried the sound far. Donnegan looked
+up to Lord Nick; but still he kept the beat of the music.
+
+He seemed even more fragile this morning than ever before. Yet Lord Nick
+was fresh from the sight of the torn bodies of the two fighting men whom
+this fellow had struck and left for dead, or dying, as he thought.
+
+"Dismiss your servant," said Lord Nick.
+
+"George, you may go out."
+
+"And keep him out."
+
+"Don't come back until I call for you."
+
+Big George disappeared into the kitchen and the outside door was closed.
+Yet even with all the doors closed the singing of Lou Macon kept running
+through the cabin in a sweet and continuous thread.
+
+  What made the ball so fine?
+      Robin Adair!
+  What made the assembly shine?
+      Robin Adair!
+
+And no matter what Lord Nick could say, it seemed that with half his
+mind Donnegan was listening to the song of the girl.
+
+"First," said the big man, "I've broken my word."
+
+Donnegan waved his hand and dismissed the charge. He pointed to a chair,
+but Lord Nick paid no heed.
+
+"I've broken my word," he went on. "I promised that I'd give you a clear
+road to win over Nelly Lebrun. I gave you the road and you've won her,
+but now I'm taking her back!"
+
+"Ah, Henry," said Donnegan, and a flash of eagerness came in his eyes.
+"You're a thousand times welcome to her."
+
+Lord Nick quivered.
+
+"Do you mean it?"
+
+"Henry, don't you see that I was only playing for a purpose all the
+time? And if you've opened the eyes of Nelly to the fact that you truly
+love her and I've been only acting out of a heartless sham--why, I'm
+glad of it--I rejoice, Henry, I swear I do!"
+
+He came forward, smiling, and held out his hand; Lord Nick struck it
+down, and Donnegan shrank back, holding his wrist tight in the fingers
+of his other hand.
+
+"Is it possible?" murmured Henry Reardon. "Is it possible that she loves
+a man who despises her?"
+
+"Not that! If any other man said this to me, I'd call for an explanation
+of his meaning, Henry. No, no! I honor and respect her, I tell you. By
+heaven, Nick, she has a thread of pure, generous gold in her nature!"
+
+"Ah?"
+
+"She has saved my life no longer ago than this morning."
+
+"It's perfect," said Lord Nick. And he writhed under a torment. "I am
+discarded for the sake of a man who despises her!"
+
+Donnegan, frowning with thought, watched his older brother. And still
+the thin singing entered the room, that matchless old melody of "Robin
+Adair;" the day shall never come when that song does not go straight
+from heart to heart. But because Donnegan still listened to it, Lord
+Nick felt that he was contemptuously received, and a fresh spur was
+driven into his tender pride.
+
+"Donnegan!" he said sharply.
+
+Donnegan raised his hand slowly.
+
+"Do you call me by that name?"
+
+"Aye. You've ceased to be a brother. There's no blood tie between us
+now, as I warned you before."
+
+Donnegan, very white, moved back toward the wall and rested his
+shoulders lightly against it, as though he needed the support. He made
+no answer.
+
+"I warned you not to cross me again." exclaimed Lord Nick.
+
+"I have not."
+
+"Donnegan, you've murdered my men!"
+
+"Murder? I've met them fairly. Not murder, Henry."
+
+"Leave out that name, I say!"
+
+"If you wish," said Donnegan very faintly.
+
+The sight of his resistlessness seemed to madden Lord Nick. He made one
+of his huge strides and came to the center of the room and dominated all
+that was in it, including his brother.
+
+"You murdered my men," repeated Lord Nick. "You turned my girl against
+me with your lying love-making and turned her into a spy. You made her
+set the trap and then you saw that it was worked. You showed her how she
+could wind me around her finger again."
+
+"Will you let me speak?"
+
+"Aye, but be short."
+
+"I swear to you, Henry, that I've never influenced her to act against
+you; except to win her away for just one little time, and she will
+return to you again. It is only a fancy that makes her interested in me.
+Look at us! How could any woman in her senses prefer me?"
+
+"Are you done?"
+
+"No, no! I have more to say: I have a thousand things!"
+
+"I shall not hear them"
+
+"Henry, there is a black devil in your face. Beware of it."
+
+"Who put it there?"
+
+"It was not I."
+
+"What power then?"
+
+"Something over which I have no control."
+
+"Are you trying to mystify me?"
+
+"Listen!" And as Donnegan raised his hand, the singing poured clear and
+small into the room.
+
+"That is the power," said Donnegan.
+
+"You're talking gibberish'" exclaimed the other pettishly.
+
+"I suppose I shouldn't expect you to understand."
+
+"On the other hand, what I have to say is short and to the point. A
+child could comprehend it. You've stolen the girl. I tried to let her
+go. I can't. I have to have her. Willing or unwilling she has to belong
+to me, Donnegan."
+
+"If you wish, I shall promise that I shall never see her again or speak
+to her."
+
+"You fool' Won't she find you out? Do you think I could trust you? Only
+in one place--underground."
+
+Donnegan had clasped his hands upon his breast and his eyes were wide.
+
+"What is it you mean, Henry?"
+
+"I'll trust you--dead!"
+
+"Henry!"
+
+"That name means nothing to me I've forgotten it. The worlds has
+forgotten it."
+
+"Henry, I implore you to keep cool--to give me five minutes for talk--"
+
+"No, not one. I know your cunning tongue!"
+
+"For the sake of the days when you loved me, my brother. For the sake of
+the days when you used to wheel my chair and be kind to me."
+
+"You're wasting your time. You're torturing us both for nothing.
+Donnegan, my will is a rock. It won't change."
+
+And drawing closer his right hand gripped his gun and the trembling
+passion of the gunfighter set him shuddering.
+
+"You're armed, Garry. Go for your gun!"
+
+"No, no!"
+
+"Then I'll give you cause to fight."
+
+And as he spoke, he drew back his massive arm and with his open hand
+smote Donnegan heavily across the face. The weight of that blow crushed
+the little man against the wall.
+
+"Your gun!" cried Lord Nick, swaying from side to side as the passion
+choked him.
+
+Donnegan fell upon his knees and raised his arms.
+
+"God have mercy on me, and on yourself!"
+
+At that the blackness cleared slowly on the face of the big man; he
+thrust his revolver into the holster.
+
+"This time," he said, "there's no death. But sooner or later we meet,
+Donnegan, and then, I swear by all that lives, I'll shoot you
+down--without mercy--like a mad dog. You've robbed me; you've hounded
+me: you've killed my men: you've taken the heart of the woman I love.
+And now nothing can save you from the end."
+
+He turned on his heel and left the room.
+
+And Donnegan remained kneeling, holding a stained handkerchief to his
+face.
+
+All at once his strength seemed to desert him like a tree chopped at the
+root, and he wilted down against the wall with closed eyes.
+
+But the music still came out of the throat and the heart of Lou, and it
+entered the room and came into the ears of Donnegan. He became aware
+that there was a strength beyond himself which had sustained him, and
+then he knew it had been the singing of Lou from first to last which had
+kept the murder out of his own heart and restrained the hand of Lord
+Nick.
+
+Perhaps of all Donnegan's life, this was the first moment of true
+humility.
+
+
+
+
+43
+
+
+One thing was now clear. He must not remain in The Corner unless he was
+prepared for Lord Nick again: and in a third meeting guns must be drawn.
+From that greater sin he shrank, and prepared to leave. His order to
+George made the big man's eyes widen, but George had long since passed
+the point where he cared to question the decision of his master. He
+began to build the packs.
+
+As for Donnegan, he could see that there was little to be won by
+remaining. That would save Landis to Lou Macon, to be sure, but after
+all, he was beginning to wonder if it were not better to let the big
+fellow go back to his own kind--Lebrun and the rest. For if it needed
+compulsion to keep him with Lou now, might it not be the same story
+hereafter?
+
+Indeed, Donnegan began to feel that all his labor in The Corner had been
+running on a treadmill. It had all been grouped about the main purpose,
+which was to keep Landis with the girl. To do that now he must be
+prepared to face Nick again; and to face Nick meant the bringing of the
+guilt of fratricide upon the head of one of them. There only remained
+flight. He saw at last that he had been fighting blindly from the
+first. He had won a girl whom he did not love--though doubtless her
+liking was only the most fickle fancy. And she for whom he would have
+died he had taught to hate him. It was a grim summing up. Donnegan
+walked the room whistling softly to himself as he checked up his
+accounts.
+
+One thing at least he had done; he had taken the joy out of his life
+forever.
+
+And here, answering a rap at the door, he opened it upon Lou Macon. She
+wore a dress of some very soft material. It was a pale blue--faded, no
+doubt--but the color blended exquisitely with her hair and with the
+flush of her face. It came to Donnegan that it was an unnecessary
+cruelty of chance that made him see the girl lovelier than he had ever
+seen her before at the very moment when he was surrendering the last
+shadow of a claim upon her.
+
+And it hurt him, also, to see the freshness of her face, the clear eyes;
+and to hear her smooth, untroubled voice. She had lived untouched by
+anything save the sunshine in The Corner.
+
+Her glance flicked across his face and then fluttered down, and her
+color increased guiltily.
+
+"I have come to ask you a favor," she said.
+
+"Step in," said Donnegan, recovering his poise at length.
+
+At this, she looked past him, and her eyes widened a little. There was
+an imperceptible shrug of her shoulders, as though the very thought of
+entering this cabin horrified her. And Donnegan had to bear that look as
+well.
+
+"I'll stay here; I haven't much to say. It's a small thing."
+
+"Large or small," said Donnegan eagerly. "Tell me!"
+
+"My father has asked me to take a letter for him down to the town and
+mail it. I--I understand that it would be dangerous for me to go alone.
+Will you walk with me?"
+
+And Donnegan turned cold. Go down into The Corner? Where by five chances
+out of ten he must meet his brother in the street?
+
+"I can do better still," he said, smiling. "I'll have George take the
+letter down for you."
+
+"Thank you. But you see, father would not trust it to anyone save me. I
+asked him; he was very firm about it."
+
+"Tush! I would trust George with my life."
+
+"Yes, yes It is not what I wish--but my father rarely changes his
+mind."
+
+Perspiration beaded the forehead of Donnegan. Was there no way to evade
+this easy request?
+
+"You see," he faltered, "I should be glad to go--"
+
+She raised her eyes slowly.
+
+"But I am terribly busy this morning."
+
+She did not answer, but half of her color left her face.
+
+"Upon my word of honor there is no danger to a woman in the town."
+
+"But some of the ruffians of Lord Nick--"
+
+"If they dared to even raise their voices at you, they would hear from
+him in a manner that they would never forget."
+
+"Then you don't wish to go?"
+
+She was very pale now; and to Donnegan it was more terrible than the gun
+in the hand of Lord Nick. Even if she thought he was slighting her why
+should she take it so mortally to heart? For Donnegan, who saw all
+things, was blind to read the face of this girl.
+
+"It doesn't really matter," she murmured and turned away.
+
+A gentle motion, but it wrenched the heart of Donnegan. He was instantly
+before her.
+
+"Wait here a moment. I'll be ready to go down immediately."
+
+"No. I can't take you from your--work."
+
+What work did she assign to him in her imagination? Endless planning of
+deviltry no doubt.
+
+"I shall go with you," said Donnegan. "At first--I didn't dream it could
+be so important. Let me get my hat."
+
+He left her and leaped back into the cabin.
+
+"I am going down into The Corner for a moment," he said over his
+shoulder to George, as he took his belt down from the wall.
+
+The big man strode to the wall and took his hat from a nail.
+
+"I shall not need you, George."
+
+But George merely grinned, and his big teeth flashed at the master. And
+in the second place he took up a gun from the drawer and offered it to
+Donnegan.
+
+"The gun in that holster ain't loaded," he said.
+
+Donnegan considered him soberly.
+
+"I know it. There'll be no need for a loaded gun."
+
+But once more George grinned. All at once Donnegan turned pale.
+
+"You dog," he whispered. "Did you listen at the door when Nick was
+here?"
+
+"Me?" murmured George. "No, I just been thinking."
+
+And so it was that while Donnegan went down the hill with Lou Macon,
+carrying an empty-chambered revolver, George followed at a distance of a
+few paces, and he carried a loaded weapon unknown to Donnegan.
+
+It was the dull time of the day in The Corner. There were very few
+people in the single street, and though most of them turned to look at
+the little man and the girl who walked beside him, not one of them
+either smiled or whispered.
+
+"You see?" said Donnegan. "You would have been perfectly safe--even from
+Lord Nick's ruffians. That was one of his men we passed back there."
+
+"Yes. I'm safe with you," said the girl.
+
+And when she looked up to him, the blood of Donnegan turned to fire.
+
+Out of a shop door before them came a girl with a parcel under her arm.
+She wore a gay, semi-masculine outfit, bright-colored, jaunty, and she
+walked with a lilt toward them. It was Nelly Lebrun. And as she passed
+them. Donnegan lifted his hat ceremoniously high. She nodded to him with
+a smile, but the smile aimed wan and small in an instant. There was a
+quick widening and then a narrowing of her eyes, and Donnegan knew that
+she had judged Lou Macon as only one girl can judge another who is
+lovelier.
+
+He glanced at Lou to see if she had noticed, and he saw her raise her
+head and go on with her glance proudly straight before her; but her face
+was very pale, and Donnegan knew that she had guessed everything that
+was true and far more than the truth. Her tone at the door of the post
+office was ice.
+
+"I think you are right, Mr. Donnegan. There's no danger. And if you have
+anything else to do, I can get back home easily enough."
+
+"I'll wait for you," murmured Donnegan sadly, and he stood as the door
+of the little building with bowed head.
+
+And then a murmur came down the street. How small it was, and how
+sinister! It consisted of exclamations begun, and then broken sharply
+off. A swirl of people divided as a cloud of dust divides before a blast
+of wind, and through them came the gigantic figure of Lord Nick!
+
+On he came, a gorgeous figure, a veritable king of men. He carried his
+hat in his hand and his red hair flamed, and he walked with great
+strides. Donnegan glanced behind him. The way was clear. If he turned,
+Lord Nick would not pursue him, he knew.
+
+But to flee even from his brother was more than he could do; for the
+woman he loved would know of it and could never understand.
+
+He touched the holster that held his empty gun--and waited!
+
+An eternity between every step of Lord Nick. Others seemed to have
+sensed the meaning of this silent scene. People seemed to stand frozen
+in the midst of gestures. Or was that because Donnegan's own thoughts
+were traveling at such lightning speed that the rest of the world seemed
+standing still? What kept Lou Macon? If she were with him, not even Lord
+Nick in his madness would force on a gunplay in the presence of a woman,
+no doubt.
+
+Lord Nick was suddenly close; he had paused; his voice rang over the
+street and struck upon Donnegan's ear as sounds come under water.
+
+"Donnegan!"
+
+"Aye!" called Donnegan softly.
+
+"It's the time!"
+
+"Aye," said Donnegan.
+
+Then a huge body leaped before him; it was big George. And as he sprang
+his gun went up with his hand in a line of light. The two reports came
+close together as finger taps on a table, and big George, completing his
+spring, lurched face downward into the sand.
+
+Dead? Not yet. All his faith and selflessness were nerving the big man.
+And Donnegan stood behind him, unarmed!
+
+He reared himself upon his knees--an imposing bulk, even then, and fired
+again. But his hand was trembling, and the bullet shattered a sign above
+the head of Lord Nick. He, in his turn, it seemed to Donnegan that the
+motion was slow, twitched up the muzzle of his weapon and fired once
+more from his hip. And big George lurched back on the sand, with his
+face upturned to Donnegan. He would have spoken, but a burst of blood
+choked him; yet his eyes fixed and glazed, he mustered his last
+strength and offered his revolver to Donnegan.
+
+But Donnegan let the hand fall limp to the ground. There were voices
+about him; steps running; but all that he clearly saw was Lord Nick with
+his feet braced, and his head high.
+
+"Donnegan! Your gun!"
+
+"Aye," said Donnegan.
+
+"Take it then!"
+
+But in the crisis, automatically Donnegan flipped his useless revolver
+out of its holster and into his hand. At the same instant the gun from
+Nick's hand seemed to blaze in his eyes. He was struck a crushing blow
+in his chest. He sank upon his knees: another blow struck his head, and
+Donnegan collapsed on the body of big George.
+
+
+
+
+44
+
+
+An ancient drunkard in the second story of one of the stores across the
+street had roused himself at the sound of the shots and now he dragged
+himself to the window and began to scream: "Murder! Murder!" over and
+over, and even The Corner shuddered at the sound of his voice.
+
+Lord Nick, his revolver still in his hand, stalked through the film of
+people who now swirled about him, eager to see the dead. There was no
+call for the law to make its appearance, and the representatives of the
+law were wisely dilatory in The Corner.
+
+He stood over the two motionless figures with a stony face.
+
+"You saw it, boys," he said. "You know what I've borne from this fellow.
+The big man pulled his gun first on me. I shot in self-defense. As
+for--the other--it was a square fight."
+
+"Square fight," someone answered. "You both went for your irons at the
+same time. Pretty work, Nick."
+
+It was a solid phalanx of men which had collected around the moveless
+bodies as swiftly as mercury sinks through water. Yet none of them
+touched either Donnegan or George. And then the solid group dissolved at
+one side. It was the moan of a woman which had scattered it, and a
+yellow-haired girl slipped through them. She glanced once, in horror, at
+the mute faces of the men, and then there was a wail as she threw
+herself on the body of Donnegan. Somewhere she found the strength of a
+man to lift him and place him face upward on the sand, the gun trailing
+limply in his hand. And then she lay, half crouched over him, her face
+pressed to his heart--listening--listening for the stir of life.
+
+Shootings were common in The Corner; the daily mortality ran high; but
+there had never been aftermaths like this one. Men looked at one
+another, and then at Lord Nick. A bright spot of color had come in his
+cheeks, but his face was as hard as ever.
+
+"Get her away from him," someone murmured.
+
+And then another man cried out, stooped, wrenched the gun from the limp
+hand of Donnegan and opened the cylinder. He spun it: daylight was
+glittering through the empty cylinder.
+
+At this the man stiffened, and with a low bow which would have done
+credit to a drawing-room, he presented the weapon butt first to Lord
+Nick.
+
+"Here's something the sheriff will want to see," he said, "but maybe
+you'll be interested, too."
+
+But Lord Nick, with the gun in his hand, stared at it dumbly, turned the
+empty cylinder. And the full horror crept slowly on his mind. He had not
+killed his brother, he had murdered him. As his eyes cleared, he caught
+the glitter of the eyes which surrounded him.
+
+And then Lou Macon was on her knees with her hands clasped at her breast
+and her face glorious.
+
+"Help!" she was crying. "Help me. He's not dead, but he's dying unless
+you help me!"
+
+Then Lord Nick cast away his own revolver and the empty gun of Donnegan.
+They heard him shout: "Garry!" and saw him stride forward.
+
+Instantly men pressed between, hard-jawed men who meant business. It was
+a cordon he would have to fight his way through: but he dissolved it
+with a word.
+
+"You fools! He's my brother!"
+
+And then he was on his knees opposite Lou Macon.
+
+"You?" she had stammered in horror.
+
+"His brother, girl."
+
+And ten minutes later, when the bandages had been wound, there was a
+strange sight of Lord Nick striding up the street with his victim in his
+arms. How lightly he walked; and he was talking to the calm, pale face
+which rested in the hollow of his shoulder.
+
+"He will live? He will live?" Lou Macon was pleading as she hurried at
+the side of Lord Nick.
+
+"God willing, he shall live!"
+
+
+It was three hours before Donnegan opened his eyes. It was three days
+before he recovered his senses, and looking aside toward the door he saw
+a brilliant shaft of sunlight falling into the room. In the midst of it
+sat Lou Macon. She had fallen asleep in her great weariness now that the
+crisis was over. Behind her, standing, his great arms folded, stood the
+indomitable figure of Lord Nick.
+
+Donnegan saw and wondered greatly. Then he closed his eyes dreamily.
+"Hush," said Donnegan to himself, as if afraid that what he saw was all
+a dream. "I'm in heaven, or if I'm not, it's still mighty good to be
+alive."
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Gunman's Reckoning, by Max Brand
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