The Max Brand Megapack. Max Brand
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grey giant as it would have been to attempt to stop the progress of a landslide.
“I’ll pay you double what you wish to charge.”
“Does this man’s life mean so much to you?”
“A priceless thing. If you save him, you take the burden of murder off the soul of another.”
“I’ll do what I can.”
“I know you will.”
He laid the broad hand on Young’s shoulder. “Doctor, you must do more than you can; you must accomplish the impossible; I tell you, it is impossible for this man to die; he must live!”
He turned to Glendin.
“I suppose you want the details of what happened here?”
“Right.”
“Follow me. Doctor, I’ll be gone only a moment.”
He led the way into an adjoining room, and lighted a lamp. The sudden flare cast deep shadows on the face leaning above, and Glendin started. For the moment it seemed to him that he was seeing a face which had looked on hell and lived to speak of it.
“Mr. Drew,” he said, “you’d better hit the hay yourself; you look pretty badly done up.”
The other looked up with a singular smile, clenching and unclenching his fingers as if he strove to relax muscles which had been tense for hours.
“Glendin, the surface of my strength has not been scratched; I could keep going every hour for ten days if it would save the life of the poor fellow who lies in there.”
He took a long breath.
“Now, then, let’s get after this business. I’ll tell you the naked facts. Anthony Bard was approaching my house yesterday and word of his coming was brought to me. For reasons of my own it was necessary that I should detain him here for an uncertain length of time. For other reasons it was necessary that I go to any length to accomplish my ends.
“I had another man—Lawlor, who looks something like me—take my place in the eyes of Bard. But Bard grew suspicious of the deception. Finally a girl entered and called Lawlor by name, as they were sitting at the table with all the men around them. Bard rose at once with a gun in his hand.
“Put yourself in his place. He found that he had been deceived, he knew that he was surrounded by armed men, he must have felt like a cornered rat. He drew his gun and started for the door, warning the others that he meant to go the limit in order to get free. Mind you, it was no sudden gun-play.
“Then I ordered the men to keep him at all costs within the room. He saw that they were prepared to obey me, and then he took a desperate chance and shot down the gasoline lamp which hung over the table. In the explosion and fire which resulted he made for the door. One man blocked the way, levelled a revolver at him, and then Bard shot in self-defence and downed Calamity Ben. I ask you, Glendin, is that self defence?”
The other drummed his finger-tips nervously against his chin; he was thinking hard, and every thought was of Steve Nash.
“So far, all right. I ain’t askin’ your reasons for doin’ some pretty queer things, Mr. Drew.”
“I’ll stand every penalty of the law, sir. I only ask that you see that punishment falls where it is deserved only. The case is clear. Bard acted in self-defence.”
Glendin was desperate.
He said at length: “When a man’s tried in court they bring up his past career. This feller Bard has gone along the range raisin’ a different brand of hell everywhere he went. He had a run-in with two gunmen, Ferguson and Conklin. He had Eldara within an ace of a riot the first night he hit the town. Mr. Drew, that chap looks the part of a killer; he acts the part of a killer; and by God, he is a killer.”
“You seem to have come with your mind already made up, Glendin,” said the rancher coldly.
“Not a bit. But go through the whole town or Eldara and ask the boys what they think of this tenderfoot. They feel so strong that if he was jailed they’d lynch him.”
Drew raised a clenched fist and then let his arm fall suddenly limp at his side.
“Then surely he must not be jailed.”
“Want me to let him wander around loose and kill another man—in self-defence?”
“I want you to use reason—and mercy, Glendin!
“From what I’ve heard, you ain’t the man to talk of mercy, Mr. Drew.”
The other, as if he had received a stunning blow, slipped into a chair and buried his face in his hands. It was a long moment before he could speak, and when his hands were lowered, Glendin winced at what he saw in the other’s face.
“God knows I’m not,” said Drew.
“Suppose we let the shootin’ of Calamity go. What of hoss-liftin’, sir?”
“Horse stealing? Impossible! Anthony—he could not be guilty of it!”
“Ask your man Duffy. Bard’s ridin’ Duffy’s grey right now.”
“But Duffy will press no claim,” said the rancher eagerly. “I’ll see to that. I’ll pay him ten times the value of his horse. Glendin, you can’t punish a man for a theft of which Duffy will not complain.”
“Drew, you know what the boys on the range think of a hoss thief. It ain’t the price of what they steal; it’s the low-down soul of the dog that would steal it. It ain’t the money. But what’s a man without a hoss on the range? Suppose his hoss is stole while he’s hundred miles from nowhere? What does it mean? You know; it means dyin’ of thirst and goin’ through a hundred hells before the finish. I say shootin’ a man is nothin’ compared with stealin’ a hoss. A man that’ll steal a hoss will shoot his own brother; that’s what he’ll do. But I don’t need to tell you. You know it better’n me. What was it you done with your own hands to Louis Borgen, the hoss-rustler, back ten years ago?”
A dead voice answered Glendin: “What has set you on the trail of Bard?”
“His own wrong doin’.”
The rancher waved a hand of careless dismissal.
“I know you, Glendin,” he said.
The deputy stirred in his chair, and then cleared his throat.
He said in a rising tone: “What d’you know?”
“I don’t think you really care to hear it. To put it lightly, Glendin, you’ve done many things for money. I don’t accuse you of them. But if you want to do one thing more, you can make more money at a stroke than you’ve made in all the rest.”
With all his soul the deputy was cursing Nash, but now the thing was done, and he must see it through.
He rose glowering on Drew.
“I’ve stood a pile already from you; this is one beyond the limit. Bribery ain’t my way, Drew, no matter what I’ve done before.”
“Is it war, then?”
And Glendin answered, forcing his tone into fierceness: “Anything you want—any way you want it!”
“Glendin,” said the other with a sudden lowering of his voice, “has some other man been talking to you?”
“Who? Me? Certainly not.”
“Don’t lie.”
“Drew, rein up. They’s one thing no man can say to me and get away with it.”
“I tell you, man, I’m holding myself in harder than I’ve ever done before. Answer me!”
He did not even rise, but Glendin, his hand twitching close to the butt of his gun, moved step by step away from those keen eyes.
“Answer