The Rangeland Avenger, Above the Law & Alcatraz (3 Wild West Adventures in One Edition). Max Brand
Читать онлайн книгу.
had made earlier in the day.
“Put it to them straight, Mac,” said Porky to Montgomery. “Give ‘em the whole idea, just the way you talked it over with me. They’re all set to listen. I sort of prepared the way.”
“All right,” agreed Montgomery, “I’ll tell you where I stand. I’m tired as hell of having Black Jim walk all over us. I say if we’re men we’ve got to put an end to it, savvy?”
Another of those little ominous silences fell on the circle.
“It appears to me, partner,” drawled Montana, “that you’re talkin’ a powerful lot, when a man might say you’re only jest come among us.”
“He ain’t askin’ you to come in on the plan,” broke in Porky aggressively. “Neither am I. Jest listen, an’ if you don’t like the idea a mighty sight, nobody’s goin’ to hurt you for staying out.”
“Nacherally,” agreed the Doctor, “but kick out with your hunch, Mac.”
Jerry went cold, yet she edged a little closer for fear that a single low-pitched word might escape her.
“I haven’t been here long,” said Montgomery, “but while I’ve been here I’ve learned enough about Black Jim for him to make me sick.”
“He generally makes folks feel that way,” said a voice, and a chuckle followed, which broke off short, for Porky was glowering from face to face.
“You remember what he did the day after he brought the girl into the valley?”
“I reckon he brought you-all in about the same time,” said the man of the pale face and yellow teeth, grinning.
Montgomery frowned black.
“He took me from behind,” he said savagely. “I didn’t have no chance to get at my gun, or maybe the story wouldn’t be the same.”
“Go on, Silent,” encouraged Porky. “Don’t let ‘em throw you off the trail.”
“All right. You remember he came down here and told us all he had a deadline drawn around his cabin at the edge of the trees and if any of us crossed it he was no better than dead meat?”
A general growl rose, for the memory angered them to their hearts.
“We all were pretty still when he spoke,” said Montgomery, “and my way of looking at it, we acted like a bunch of whipped dogs.”
“Kind of smile when you say that, partner,” said the pale-faced man, “or pretty soon maybe you’ll be riding your idea to death!”
“I’m telling you what it seemed to me,” said Montgomery. “I say, what right has Black Jim got to make rules up here? This valley is above the law, isn’t it?”
“It ain’t the first thing he done,” said Porky. “He’s been makin’ laws of his own all the time, an’, by God, I ain’t the man to stand for it no longer, which I say, Black Jim is always a bluffin’ from a four-flush.”
“Me speakin’ personal,” added the Doctor, “I got no use for a man that won’t liquor up with the boys now an’ then. It shows he ain’t got any nacheral trust for his pals.”
“I say it’s come to a show down,” said Montgomery. “Either we’ve got to move out and leave the valley to Black Jim, or he’s got to move out and leave it to us. Am I right?”
“All savin’ one little thing,” drawled a voice. “You-all seem to be forgettin’ that Black Jim ain’t partic’lar willin’ to move for anybody. Ef it comes to movin’ him, he’ll have to be carried out feet first, in a way of speakin’.”
“And why not move him that way?” asked Montgomery.
Once more the breathless silence fell. Jerry could see each man flash a glance of question at his neighbor and then each pair of eyes fell glowering upon the fire. A little gritting sound caught her, and she found that she was grinding her teeth savagely. All her wild, loyal nature revolted against this cool and secret plotting.
“Because it ain’t no way possible,” said the Doctor, “to ride Black Jim without buckin’ straps an’ a Spanish bit.”
“Maybe not for one man,” said Montgomery softly, “but here’s twelve men can all shoot straight and every one knows his gun. Can Black Jim stand up against us all at one time?”
“Maybe not,” said the Doctor, “but he ain’t no gun-shy paint-pony, an’ before we’re through flashin’ guns, some of us are goin’ to start out on the long trail for the happy huntin’ grounds. You can stack your chips on that, partner!”
“Then, by God!” cried Porky, starting to his feet with such suddenness that the others shrank a little, “if you’re goin’ to quit cold, me an’ Silent Mac’ll take on the game by ourselves, and we split the loot between us. There’ll be a lot of it. He don’t never spend it any ways I can see—no liquor, no gamblin’, no nothin’. Boys, the stuff must be piled up to the roof!”
Without hardly knowing what she did Jerry drew out the revolver from her holster and drew a deadly bead on Porky’s breast. She checked herself with horror at the thought that a single pressure of her finger would bring a man to his death. Three or four other men rose around the circle.
“If it comes to a show down, Porky,” said one of them, “we’ll stack our chips with yours. I’m ag’in’ Black Jim, an’ I’d jest as soon tell him so from the talkin’ end of a gun.”
“Me, too,” said another, and a clamor of voices rose in affirmation.
Jerry began to draw back, her head whirling.
“Then there’s no time like tonight,” called Montgomery, “and I tell you how we can work best.”
He lowered his tone as he spoke, and as Jerry drew back behind the jutting angle of the rock, she heard only a confused murmur of sounds. There she crouched a long moment, thinking as she had never thought before.
The way out of the valley lay clear before her. If she rose and walked on she would be free within ten minutes and in fifteen escape beyond the reach of pursuit.
The other alternative was to turn back to the cabin of Black Jim and warn him of the danger which threatened. If she did this, it meant that she would be involved in the same ruin which was soon to involve the solitary bandit.
Thirteen men that night would attack him. When he fell, she would be the prize of the victors. Jerry moaned aloud.
Then she rose, still crouching, and hurried off among the trees towards the gap of the valley. Terror drove her faster and faster. When she reached the last rise of ground up to the gap, she broke into a stumbling run. In another moment she stood at the farther end of a narrow pass, and paused an instant to take her breath. Below her the ground pitched steeply down, down to freedom. On that outward trail she would be started again for happiness, for the applause of the gay hundreds, for the shimmer of the footlights, which had been to her like signal fires which led on finally to fame, She looked back to the valley. It was black as death. She looked up, and there were the cold, white stars very near. One of them seemed to burn in the top of a tall pine, a lordly tree.
A great weakness mastered Jerry, and she dropped to her knees, her shoulder pressing against the cliff which fenced the gap. Perhaps the thirteen were even then prowling toward the cabin of Black Jim. Perhaps Jim was stooped over the hearth, kindling the fire. Perhaps he even thought of her, at least to wonder carelessly where she had gone. Big tears formed in her eyes and ran hotly down her cheeks. She threw her arms up toward the pallid Stars, and her hands were fiercely clenched.
“O God,” she said, whispering the words, “tell me what’s the big-time thing to do! How’m I going to put over this act right? I’ve been on the small-time so long I don’t know what to do! I don’t know what to do!”
Surely there was an answer to that prayer,