Show A r JF duijn MI A IN i t T al h 1 bmw Y rr i d 4 amra dw W t CHAPTER X continued 14 the central committee squatted round the tall wallboard board ot of a wagon ghost lr fly forma in ID the moonlight and the thadows shadows save for inarticulate whisperings from this group and murmurs terrifying in the implication of their wound from the huddled prisoners within the corral noisy optimistic cottonwood now lay under tile the maon moonlight as silent as death occasionally indeed distant footfalls re sounded from rom the board sidewalks they beat BO longer with a cheerful staccato but with the determined concerted thump of marching troops yet everywhere in the moonlight stood the bot ted indistinct forms forma of men waltin waiting the be night seemed full of devils the slight nervous form of sir mr orcutt walking beside the guard slashed into the lantern light the guard reported casually to the central committee received a nod vanished with tile the clergyman and now out from tile corral drifted his voice resonant rhythmic pr praying aSing into ills his prayer broke the hysterical squal equalling ling of red nell I 1 do not know by what curiosity of the human soul these sounds of comfort and despair tore away within me the last of those barriers which civill ration cultivation education had find built round the natural primitive killing killin savage avage something burst in my hend bead and I 1 became at one with the best and worst of this orderly mob they were going to kill hideously implacably and 1 I whose wrong was most of all I 1 wanted to kill with them at one moment I 1 seemed to myself an roget angel of justice a rebirth of my puritan forefathers who smote and spared not in the name of the lord I 1 at another merely the cheated tricked lover over burning for revenue revenge on him whose touch had polluted the unworthy beloved life and lifes normal desires were over for me it if I 1 died valiantly before another moon better so if only I 1 got him I 1 strode back and forth between ib the e wagons the one moving figure in that tense static moonlit landscape and then came opportunity the circle about the wagon had risen I 1 stepped up to marcus ile he bending beside a lantern to consult his bullseye bulls eye watch an hour or so before daybreak he be said better start tile the cavalry A jerk of taylors head brought one of the guards to attention there was a whispered order a nod and the guard vanished marcus stood a little aside from the rest and so when I 1 asked a question drawn from me by my emotions none else heard next I 1 inquired marcus hesitated and then j the boys out for tile the main performers perfo mers lie he replied the bandits marcus gave a slow meaning nod 1 I want to go too I 1 said my tongue filled a dry mouth month I 1 heard ru my I 1 voice as though someone else were speaking and it was thick marcus hesitated well it will be the story of the day he said as though finding an excuse then shorty Sh 1 he culled called im sending gilson along to report it you know shorty inspecting his sidearm side arm arranging ran ing the cartridges in hla his belt looked up no you dont he grow growled leL I 1 blazed I 1 found myself standing over shorty cursing him with round man oaths challenging him it if lie had anything against me to fight it out here and now whatever doubt shorty had of me this his blast of genuine emotion seemed to dissipate he ignored my insults and my challenge only regarded me critically from the shade of his hat and ill then en addressing marcus responded spon ded I 1 all right old hoss I 1 well take jilin him along alone but lies hes got to be a d n good boy 1 five minutes from now alley behind the courier bull building ding keep your mouth shut if anybody asks you what youre doing here joe give this nian man a long gun and a belt get your horse borse and rust rustle lel directed marcus we sat our horses in the shadows waiting so still that now and then a long breath drawn involuntarily from the laboring lungs of excitement would mould pull my spine up stiff as though I 1 had heard a pastol cliot the moonlight had begun to pale and the inspiration of death that announces the down dawn blew from the peaks must we walt wait there for ever the rattling lope of a horse sounded from the roadway beyond the rider filler came into sight bight from the sickly eha rha dows pulled up ul fell in beside at the bell head of the column lie ha was talking in a low tone but steadily emphatically I 1 began to catch ills words I 1 1 I says to him you cant bluff me I 1 says 1 I know what youre doln I 1 tays hays im just watch wa ln you I 1 says no you dont dare put nie ine off the force I 1 says 11 1 I suspect too much emphatic over emphatic to the point or insincerity whose voice was that ile he pushed back his sombrero and tile the vaden light caught hla his face it was waa charlie sleek meek into hla his monologue cut shortys Shor tys sharp command 2 orward ward march pt AS we emerged from the ulley alley rode et ln a sharp trot eo eu stward toward tap Plan aries of the pyrites I 1 saw aw V that charlie M meek eek still rode beside shorty leading the column CHAPTER XI now ns as early dawn and late moonlight began to blot out the blazi blazing fig mountain stars I 1 looked up from my I 1 own sulphurous misery to perceive that the expedition had swung round tile the camp turned the shoulder of liverpool hill fill cut into the forty rod road from the single file which we had maintained on the trail we tell fell without orders into double column shorty and charlie sleek meek still leading and as the road began its sharp ascent slackened our lope to a fast walk then when the posse broke into a lope on a level stretch and lost formation I 1 worked my fast and eager roan through the press like a jockey when a sharp grade com compelled belted pelted us again to slacken our pace I 1 was just behind shorty and charlie sleek meek charlie as though by shadow of his old authority scemer to be in command out of the shades came that castle rock beside which I 1 had met constance deane and kissed her so long ago I 1 why it was only a night since I 1 had dwelt in a tools fools paradise over tier her tricked myself into believing in lierl herl and I 1 found myself praying that I 1 might never see another night but the relaxing memory of her kiss would creep into my meditations so that I 1 closed my eyes and relived relieved that moment but the thought of her coming coining tainted to my arms from tier her cherished rogue relit delit the flames of my torment looking back as we topped a ridge I 1 could see that eliat it a faint pink glow was beginning to rim the snows of the giant range behind us its and that cottonwood camp a crazy pattern at the bottom of the vista was streaming through the violet valley mists trails of gray smoke from breakfast fires another ridge and we broke into sight of forty rod creek a cabin or so and a square fronted store beside the rond road a red dump or a gray root roof peeping here and there from the dwarf trees white patches of columbine fringing ginga a shallow gulch shorty and chart charlie e sleek pulled up shorty raising h his Is hand to halt the column tile the new dew idea now asked shorty almost deferentially sly notion that make for the ludlow pass pasa country replied charlie where held out before according to police information theres three trails cut out just below timberline all toward lud lows first breaks south about a mile above forty rod spose we look into them trails for tracks good idea I 1 guess responded shorty all right boys sure came from the nearer fringe ot of the posse then spose we start said shorty quiet now bowl I 1 at a fast walk we passed forty rod I 1 was riding just behind shorty to left of 0 the double filed column I 1 could see but dimly the saw toothed mustached profile of charlie meek there was a nervousness a special tension in his attitude lie ile was talking again but ills his voice jerked bad place here could shoot into us and git clean away I 1 saw his hand go to his pistol scabbard and wondered why the cowboy riding at my right had pushed forward until he was opposite charlies saddle my G d that I 1 jerked out charlie sleek meek and then things nap hap an hour or so before daybreak ht he said better start the cavalry bened ho so sIft swiftly ly that only long afterward could my mind arrange them into the memory of an ordered event charlie dr drawing aming had fired cred three times into the forest the first two sit shots came cluse close together the third after an interval like a serj single gle letter heard on a telegraphers key but hard on these two shots came two twi more in the same rhythm and though I 1 was looking in the other direction I 1 knew that this time it was shorty who fired bred my lly 0 own gun shy roan danced and bide stepped I 1 sat and curbed him by instinct for my eyes were on tile hie cowboy As with one motion he had forced his horse up beside charlies had vaulted from his bis saddle to the will irwin copyright by will irwin service rump of charlies horse had thrown the crook of his left arm about charlies charlies neck had with hla his rl right ht arm aria laid across charlies elbow a grip shorty leaped from ills his saddle hung like a squat bulldog to tile the bits of the snorting double loaded horte horse the gag quick 11 he be cried and as my own horse shied again into the shrubbery horsemen and footmen crowded past mei saw Ch charlie aTile with the cowboy still hanging like a barnacle to his back tumble into the roal road way saw a confused struggle in the shadows hy by the ground then charlie sleek meek was lifted to his feet I 1 dismounted now drew near ills his arms were mere trussed behind him his light eyes stared with inexpressible terror fr from om a gray face his jaws were mut V filing and slobbering slob bering over the wooden gag as though he were trying frantically to speak shorty poked a gun into his ribs shut up op he said or cash in premature weve learned all we wanted to know about you in case youre mixed up in your mind about these proceedings let me inform you that tile the one two one signal means scatter out and hide and was fired by somebody in the posse deanin you after the last stage robbery and one two one two three means all clear git to the claim it was fired similar after tile the holdup of the stonewall jackson payroll we were d n certain you was tile the party that fired it now weve got you dead the mechanical ch mouthing at the gag stopped charlies Cliar lles jaws seemed to drop and set lie he sagged down onto the shoulders of the men supporting him and you tried to hitch the blame onto that poor foot fool cliffs chris mcgrathy McG concluded shorty I lorty ile he turned to the posse now grouped about him on foot steady boys and keep your auni guns quiet im coln to repeat that signal just to make sure ile he drew a second revolver aiming at tle bole of a tree he fanned ills his hammer in five fire shots with that same rhythm pop pop pop pop pop now said shorty as the reverberations died out leave your horses here hitch those that wont stand you matt this to the cowboy youre guard to this prisoner bring him and his horse along but keep to the roar rear so you wont show if ile he tries any monkey business kill him blar dont anybody try to git ahead ot of roe me ive looked over the land ills eye fell ou on me you ton leave your horse and you keep entirely to the rear you aint in this something of shortys Shor tys old suspicion seemed to sharpen his black eyes as he added orders Is to shoot anybody who tries to spoil this performance per the posse shifted alx shooters to mor workable kable positions drew rifles from the scabbards of their saddles and hitched their mounts to bushes come out on 1 cracked shortys Shor tys voice lie he turned round the thick bole of a pine ducked between two bushes the posse followed in single file 1 I as ordered at the rear some twenty yards of tiptoeing through the sparse underbrush and we had taken an abrupt tur turn n to the right on a well defined trail B behind me I 1 could hear the padding of the led horse once charlies vol voice ce mumbled through the sag gag and the cowboy muttered shut cupl up I 1 could imagine the swift motion toward his gun the trail came out into an open dip beyond rose a low sharp ridge bristling with dwarf urs firs which topped thick underbrush and no one ww was watching me ine even the cowboy auard inard ing charlie meek had his eyes bejes oil nil tile the focus of interest fully realizing that I 1 was taking a chance with iny life and for the wholly indifferent 1 I dipped into the underbrush tit at th the left of tile clearing worked as quietly as I 1 could through it came out at last into a trail evidently an offshoot of tile one down which ve me had in arched it ran rail in the general direction which I 1 wanted to follow suddenly I 1 was aware that there was no longer a hillside at my right but the bright morn ing air I 1 dropped at the foot of t spruce which edged tile the trail crouched among its low lying branches in I 1 the I 1 le dim light I 1 reflected I 1 must be inai invisible s ible I 1 looked about me below lay a bowl of the mountain side traer traversed sed by the head waters of forty rod creek at tile bottom of the bowl tood stood a prospect hole with winch and bucket beside a 0 small duiel of citow bellow earth and red rock instinct and tile the lay of the land told me that tills this was the center of interest tile the foe focus of if those ain isable eyes along the ridge I 1 lay and waited five minutes pe per haps though jt it seemed hours the claim below lay desert deserted pd 0 or 1 was it my aly perceptions sharpened by 13 all hateful emotions and now by suspense I 1 felt about it a sense of tire life of interior movement somehow 1 II 11 seemed inhabited packed quiver aquiver a with life I 1 could have sworn that I 1 even heard something stirring within it how much longer must I 1 await the beginning of that ac tion lion for which my hell burned soul longed my hand went instinctively instinctive i to the revolver at my belt then I 1 re and remembering curbed myself tor for au an ln inept ept fool that I 1 had left my rifle in its scabbard with an fn mi horse no mutter matter it if battle there was wa 1 to ile be I 1 would charge in with my mj pla tol or charge in naked handed so ao I 1 got my man and then a figure emerged slowly cautiously from the tangle of bushes beyond the dump lie he stood a moment yes tes there was life in the cabin A hand bond waving a white cloth had been thrust from the window the solitary figure stepped back into the bushes A moment more and four men emerged walking in petri pairs each pair carrying between it a box and then far ar oft to my right sounded a light shot as of a pistol a heavier one its as of a rifle and there was a distant crashing of brunches branches I 1 had jumped involuntarily at this sound but my eyes never left the tour four men by the dump I 1 saw the leading pair straighten up saw the nearest flash a hand toward ills his hip saw the trolling trailing pair drop the box turn and the bowl below reverberated with explosion from the cabin front from some place near the dump damp from the woodpile streaks of red flame laced the dawn one of the leading pair went down with will the slow motion of a toppling building he fell across the box as limply as a bag of old clothes clothe L the other dropped ills his handle and spun half way round before he pitched onto his face behind him a man was flopping on the ground A scattering burst of fire from the ridge to my right where my fellows of the lay concealed find and he was still I 1 could even hear between reverberations the hollow sound of the bullets striking ills his flesh it was over and I 1 had not acted only stood aside an inert spectator or was it over only three bodies lay down there by the |