The Max Brand Megapack. Max Brand
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got the say as to what’s to be done with a prisoner.”
“Morris,” said Haines earnestly, “if I’m taken to Elkhead it’ll be simply a matter of lynching. You know the crowd in that town.”
“Right—right,” said Morris, eagerly picking up the word. “It’d be plain lynchin’—murder—”
Dan broke in: “Haines, step over here behind me!”
For one instant Haines hesitated, and then obeyed silently.
“This is contempt of the law and an officer of the law,” said Morris. “An” I’ll see that you get fined so that—”
“Better cut it short there, sheriff,” said one of the men. “I wouldn’t go callin’ the attention of folks to the way Jim Silent walked into your own house an’ made his getaway without you tryin’ to raise a hand. Law or no law, I’m with this stranger.”
“Me too,” said another; “any man who can fan a gun like him don’t need no law.”
The sheriff saw that the tide of opinion had set strongly against him and abandoned his position with speed if not with grace. Dan ordered Haines to walk before him outside the house. They faced each other in the dim moonlight.
“I’ve got one question to ask you,” he said.
“Make it short,” said Haines calmly. “I’ve got to do my talking before the lynching crowd.”
“You can answer it in one word. Does Kate Cumberland—what is she to you?”
Lee Haines set his teeth.
“All the world,” he said.
Even in the dim light he saw the yellow glow of Dan’s eyes and he felt as if a wolf stood there trembling with eagerness to leap at his throat.
“An’ what are you to her?”
“No more than the dirt under her feet!”
“Haines, you lie!”
“I tell you that if she cared for me as much as she does for the horse she rides on, I’d let the whole world know if I had to die for it the next moment.”
Truth has a ring of its own.
“Haines, if I could hear that from her own lips, I’d let you go free. If you’ll show me the way to Kate, I’ll set you loose the minute I see her.”
“I can’t do it. I’ve given my faith to Silent and his men. Where she is, they are.”
“Haines, that means death for you.”
“I know it.”
Another plan had come to Dan as they talked. He took Haines inside again and coming out once more, whistled for Bart. The wolf appeared as if by magic through the dark. He took out Kate’s glove, which the wolf had brought to him in the willows, and allowed him to smell it. Bart whined eagerly. If he had that glove he would range the hills until he found its owner, directed to her by that strange instinct of the wild things. If Kate still loved him the glove would be more eloquent than a thousand messages. And if she managed to escape, the wolf would guide her back to his master.
He sat on his heels, caught the wolf on either side of the shaggy head, and stared into the glow of the yellow green eyes. It was as if the man were speaking to the wolf.
At last, as if satisfied, he drew a deep breath, rose, and dropped the glove. It was caught in the flashing teeth. For another moment Bart stood whining and staring up to the face of his master. Then he whirled and fled out into the night.
CHAPTER XXI
ONE WAY OUT
In a room of the Salton place, on the evening of the next day after Calder’s death, sat Silent, with Kilduff, Rhinehart, and Jordan about him. Purvis was out scouting for the news of Haines, whose long absence commenced to worry the gang. Several times they tried to induce Kate to come out and talk with them, but she was resolute in staying alone in the room which they had assigned to her. Consequently, to while away the time, Bill Kilduff produced his mouth organ and commenced a dolorous ballad. He broke short in the midst of it and stared at the door. The others followed the direction of his eyes and saw Black Bart standing framed against the fading daylight. They started up with curses; Rhinehart drew his gun.
“Wait a minute,” ordered Silent.
“Damn it!” exclaimed Jordan, “don’t you see Whistling Dan’s wolf? If the wolf’s here, Dan isn’t far behind.”
Silent shook his head.
“If there’s goin’ to be any shootin’ of that wolf leave it to Hal Purvis. He’s jest nacherally set his heart on it. An’ Whistlin’ Dan ain’t with the wolf. Look! there’s a woman’s glove hangin’ out of his mouth. He picked that up in the willows, maybe, an’ followed the girl here. Watch him!”
The wolf slunk across the room to the door which opened on Kate’s apartment. Kate threw the door open—cried out at the sight of Bart—and then snatched up the glove he let drop at her feet.
“No cause for gettin’ excited,” said Silent. “Whistlin’ Dan ain’t comin’ here after the wolf.”
For answer she slammed the door.
At the same moment Hal Purvis entered. He stepped directly to Silent, and stood facing him with his hands resting on his hips. His smile was marvellously unpleasant.
“Well,” said the chief, “what’s the news? You got eloquent eyes, Hal, but I want words.”
“The news is plain hell,” said Purvis, “Haines—”
“What of him?”
“He’s in Elkhead!”
“Elkhead?”
“Whistling Dan got him at Morris’s place and took him in along with the body of Tex Calder. Jim, you got to answer for it to all of us. You went to Morris’s with Lee. You come away without him and let him stay behind to be nabbed by that devil Whistlin’ Dan.”
“Right,” said Kilduff, and his teeth clicked. “Is that playin’ fair?”
“Boys,” said Silent solemnly, “if I had knowed that Whistlin’ Dan was there, I’d of never left Haines to stay behind. Morris said nothin’ about Calder havin’ a runnin’ mate. Me an’ Haines was in the upstairs room an’ about suppertime up came a feller an’ told us that Tex Calder had jest come into the dinin’-room. That was all. Did Whistlin’ Dan get Lee from behind?”
“He got him from the front. He beat Lee to the draw so bad that Haines hardly got his gun out of its leather!”
“The feller that told you that lied,” said Silent. “Haines is as fast with his shootin’ iron as I am—almost!”
The rest of the outlaws nodded to each other significantly.
Purvis went on without heeding the interruption. “After I found out about the fight I swung towards Elkhead. About five miles out of town I met up with Rogers, the deputy sheriff at Elkhead. I thought you had him fixed for us, Jim?”
“Damn his hide, I did. Is he playing us dirt now?”
“A frosty mornin’ in December was nothin’ to the way he talked.”
“Cut all that short,” said Rhinehart, “an’ let’s know if Rogers is goin’ to be able to keep the lynching party away from Haines!”
“He says he thinks it c’n be done for a couple of days,” said Purvis, “but the whole range is risin’. All the punchers are ridin’ into Elkhead an’ wantin’ to take a look at the famous Lee Haines. Rogers says that when enough of ’em get together they’ll take the law in their own hands an’ nothin’ can stop ’em then.”
“Why