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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, 'Drag' Harlan, by Charles Alden Seltzer,
+Illustrated by P. V. E. Ivory
+
+
+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: 'Drag' Harlan
+
+
+Author: Charles Alden Seltzer
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 13, 2008  [eBook #25779]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'DRAG' HARLAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 25779-h.htm or 25779-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/7/7/25779/25779-h/25779-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/7/7/25779/25779-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+"DRAG" HARLAN
+
+by
+
+CHARLES ALDEN SELTZER
+
+Author of
+The Boss of the Lazy Y,
+"Firebrand" Trevison,
+The Trail Horde,
+The Ranchman, Etc.
+
+Frontispiece by P. V. E. Ivory
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: She laid her head on his shoulder, sobbing, and talking
+incoherently. (Page 65)]
+
+
+
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers :: New York
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+Copyright
+A. C. McClurg & Co.
+1921
+
+Published May, 1921
+
+Copyrighted in Great Britain
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+   CHAPTER                          PAGE
+         I  A Desert Rider             1
+        II  A Man's Reputation         9
+       III  A Girl Waits              31
+        IV  His Shadow Before         38
+         V  A Prison                  48
+        VI  Chain-Lightning           58
+       VII  Single-Handed             66
+      VIII  Barbara Is Puzzled        78
+        IX  An Unwelcome Guest        88
+         X  On Guard                  96
+        XI  The Intruder             107
+       XII  Barbara Sees a Light     114
+      XIII  Harlan Takes Charge      119
+       XIV  Shadows                  129
+        XV  Linked                   142
+       XVI  Deep Water               153
+      XVII  Forging a Letter         159
+     XVIII  Harlan Rides Alone       169
+       XIX  Harlan Joins the Gang    174
+        XX  Left-Handed              191
+       XXI  The Black-Bearded Man    206
+      XXII  A Dead Man Walks         219
+     XXIII  Deveny Secedes           225
+      XXIV  Kidnapped                229
+       XXV  Ambushed                 238
+      XXVI  Rogers Takes a Hand      242
+     XXVII  A Dual Tragedy           248
+    XXVIII  Converging Trails        252
+      XXIX  World's End              258
+       XXX  The Ultimate Treachery   263
+      XXXI  Peace--and a Sunset      274
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"DRAG" HARLAN
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A DESERT RIDER
+
+
+From out of the shimmering haze that veiled the mystic eastern space came
+a big black horse bearing a rider. Swinging wide, to avoid the feathery
+dust that lay at the base of a huge sand dune, the black horse loped,
+making no sound, and seeming to glide forward without effort. Like a
+somber, gigantic ghost the animal moved, heroic of mold, embodying the
+spirit of the country, seeming to bear the sinister message of the
+desert, the whispered promise of death, the lingering threat, the grim
+mockery of life, and the conviction of futility.
+
+The black horse had come far. The glossy coat of him was thickly
+sprinkled with alkali dust, sifted upon him by the wind of his passage
+through the desert; his black muzzle was gray with it; ropes of it matted
+his mane, his forelock had become a gray-tinged wisp which he fretfully
+tossed; the dust had rimmed his eyes, causing them to loom large and
+wild; and as his rider pulled him to a halt on the western side of the
+sand dune--where both horse and rider would not be visible on the sky
+line--he drew a deep breath, shook his head vigorously, and blew a thin
+stream of dust from his nostrils.
+
+With head and ears erect, his eyes flaming his undying courage and his
+contempt for distance and the burning heat that the midday sun poured
+upon him, he gazed westward, snorting long breaths into his eager lungs.
+
+The rider sat motionless upon him--rigid and alert. His gaze also went
+into the west; and he blinked against the white glare of sun and
+distance, squinting his eyes and scanning the featureless waste with
+appraising glances.
+
+In the breathless, dead calm of the desert there was no sound or
+movement. On all sides the vast gray waste stretched, a yawning inferno
+of dead, dry sand overhung with a brassy, cloudless sky in which swam the
+huge ball of molten silver that for ages had ruled that baked and
+shriveled land.
+
+A score of miles westward--twoscore, perhaps--the shadowy peaks of some
+mountains loomed upward into the mystic haze, with purple bases melting
+into the horizon; southward were other mountains, equally distant and
+mysterious; northward--so far away that they blurred in the vision--were
+still other mountains. Intervening on all sides was the stretching,
+soundless, aching void of desolation, carrying to the rider its lurking
+threat of death, the promise of evil to come.
+
+The man, however, seemed unperturbed. In his narrowed, squinting eyes as
+he watched the desert was a gleam of comprehension, of knowledge intimate
+and sympathetic. They glowed with the serene calm of confidence; and far
+back in them lurked a glint of grim mockery. It was as though they
+visualized the threatened dangers upon which they looked, answering the
+threat with contempt.
+
+The man was tall. His slim waist was girded by a cartridge belt which was
+studded with leaden missiles for the rifle that reposed in the saddle
+holster, and for the two heavy pistols that sagged at his hips. A gray
+woolen shirt adorned his broad shoulders; a scarlet neckerchief at his
+throat which had covered his mouth as he rode was now drooping on his
+chest; and the big, wide-brimmed felt hat he wore was jammed far down
+over his forehead. The well-worn leather chaps that covered his legs
+could not conceal their sinewy strength, nor could the gauntleted leather
+gloves on his hands hide the capable size of them.
+
+He was a fixture of this great waste of world in whose center he sat. He
+belonged to the country; he was as much a part of it as the somber
+mountains, the sun-baked sand, the dead lava, and the hardy, evil-looking
+cacti growth that raised its spined and mocking green above the arid
+stretch. He symbolized the spirit of the country--from the slicker that
+bulged at the cantle of the saddle behind him, to the capable gloved
+hands that were now resting on the pommel of the saddle--he represented
+the force which was destined to conquer the waste places.
+
+For two days he had been fighting the desert; and in the serene calm of
+his eyes was the identical indomitability that had been in them when he
+had set forth. As he peered westward the strong lines around his mouth
+relaxed, his lips opened a trifle, and a mirthless smile wreathed them.
+He patted the shoulder of the black horse, and the dead dust ballooned
+from the animal's coat and floated heavily downward.
+
+"We're about halfway, Purgatory," he said aloud, his voice coming flat
+and expressionless in the dead, vacuum-like silence. He did not cease to
+peer westward nor to throw sharp glances north and south. He drew off a
+glove and pushed his hat back, using a pocket handkerchief to brush the
+dust from his face and running the fingers of the hand through his
+hair--thereby producing another ballooning dust cloud which splayed
+heavily downward.
+
+"What's botherin' me is that shootin'," he went on, still speaking to the
+black horse. "We sure enough heard it--didn't we?" He laughed, again
+patting the black's shoulder. "An' you heard it first--as usual--with me
+trailin' along about half a second behind. But we sure heard 'em, eh?"
+
+The black horse whinnied lowly, whereupon the rider dismounted, and
+stretched himself.
+
+From a water-bag at the cantle of the saddle he poured water into his big
+hat, watching sympathetically while the big horse drank. Some few drops
+that still remained in the hat after the horse had finished he playfully
+shook on the animal's head, smiling widely at the whinny of delight that
+greeted the action. He merely wet his own lips from the water-bag. Then
+for an instant, after replacing the bag, he stood at the black's
+shoulder, his face serious.
+
+"We'll hit the Kelso water-hole about sundown, I reckon, Purgatory," he
+said. "That's certain. There's only one thing can stop us--that shootin'.
+If it's Apaches, why, I reckon there's a long dry spell ahead of us; but
+if it's only Greasers----"
+
+He grinned with grim eloquence, patted the black again, and climbed into
+the saddle. Again, as before, he sat silent upon his mount, scanning the
+sun-scorched waste; and then he rode forward.
+
+An hour later, during which he loped the black horse slowly, he again
+drew the animal to a halt and gazed around him, frowning, his eyes
+gleaming with a savage intolerance.
+
+The shooting he had heard some time previous to his appearance at the
+base of the big sand dune had not been done by Indians. He was almost
+convinced of that now. Or, if Indians had done the shooting, they had not
+yet observed him. The fact that he had seen no smoke signals proved that.
+
+Still, there was the deep silence on every hand to bring doubt into his
+mind; and he knew that Indians--especially Apaches--were tricky,
+sometimes foregoing the smoke signals to lie in ambush. And very
+likely--if they had seen him coming--they were doing that very thing:
+waiting for him to ride into the trap they had prepared. He had not been
+able to locate the point from which the reports had come. It had seemed
+to him that they had come from a point directly westward; but he could
+not be sure, for he had seen no smoke.
+
+He talked no more to the horse, sitting rigidly in the saddle, erect, his
+head bent a little forward, his chin thrusting, his lips curving with a
+bitterly savage snarl. He felt the presence of living things with him in
+the desert; a presentiment had gripped him--a conviction that living men
+were close and hostile.
+
+Reaching downward, he drew the rifle from the saddle holster and examined
+its mechanism. Placing it across his knee, he drew out his heavy pistols,
+one after another, slowly twirling the cylinders. He replaced the
+pistols, making sure that the holster flaps were out of the way so that
+they would not catch or drag at the weapons when he wanted to use
+them--and with the rifle resting across his legs near the saddle horn, he
+rode slowly forward.
+
+He swung wide of even the small sand dunes as he passed them, and he kept
+a vigilant eye upon the dead rocks that dotted the level at infrequent
+intervals. Even the cactus clumps received flattering attention; and the
+little stretches of greasewood that came within range of his vision were
+examined closely.
+
+At the end of half an hour he had seen nothing unusual. Here and there he
+had noticed a rattler lurking in the shade of a rock or partly concealed
+under the thorny blade of a sprawling cactus; and he had seen a sage hen
+nestling in the hot sand. But these were fixtures--as was also the
+Mexican eagle that winged its slow way in mile-wide circles in the
+glaring, heat-pulsing sky.
+
+The rider again halted the black horse. The presentiment of evil had
+grown upon him, and he twisted around in the saddle, sweeping the
+desolate vast level with cold, alert, puzzled eyes.
+
+There was no object near him behind which an enemy might lie concealed;
+the gray floor of the desert within many hundred miles of him was smooth
+and flat and obstructionless. Far away, half a mile, perhaps, he saw a
+thrusting knob of rock, with some cactus fringing it. From where he sat
+in the saddle it seemed that the rock might be the peak of a mountain
+reaching upward out of the sea of sand and desert waste--but it was
+barren on sides and top, and would afford no concealment for an enemy,
+except at its base. And even the base was not large enough to conceal
+more than a few men.
+
+The rider gazed long at the rock, but could detect no sign of movement
+near it. He had turned from it, to look again into the western distance,
+when Purgatory whinnied lowly.
+
+Flashing around in the saddle, the rider again faced the rock. And he saw
+movement there now. The distance was great, but the clarity of the
+atmosphere brought a moving object distinctly into his vision. The object
+was a man, and, like a huge fly, he was crawling rapidly up the sloping
+side of the rock, toward its peak, which flattened abruptly at the
+summit.
+
+The man bore a rifle. The rider could see it dragging from the man's
+hand; and in a flash the rider was out of the saddle, throwing himself
+flat behind a low ridge of sand, his own rifle coming to a rest on a
+small boulder as he trained its muzzle upon the man, who by this time had
+reached the summit of the rocks in the distance. The rider waited,
+nursing the stock of the rifle, his eyes blazing, while Purgatory,
+seemingly aware of an impending tragedy, moved slowly away as though
+understanding that he must not expose himself.
+
+The rider waited, anticipating the bullet that would presently whine
+toward him. And then he heard the report of the man's rifle, saw that the
+smoke streak had been directed downward, as though the man on the summit
+of the rock were shooting at something below him.
+
+The rider had been pressing the trigger of his own weapon when he saw the
+smoke streak. He withheld his fire when he divined that the man was not
+shooting at him; and when he saw the man on the rock shoot again--downward
+once more--the rider frowned with embarrassment.
+
+"Don't even know I'm here!" he mused. "An' me gettin' ready to salivate
+him!"
+
+He got to his knees and watched, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. He saw
+the man on the rock fire again--downward--and he noted a smoke spurt
+answer the shot, coming upward from the base of the rock. The rider got
+to his feet and peered intently at the rock. And now he saw another man
+crouching near its base. This man, however, was not the one the man on
+the summit of the rock was shooting at, for smoke streaks were issuing
+from a weapon in that man's hand also, but they were horizontal streaks.
+
+Therefore the rider divined that the two men must be shooting at another
+who was on the far side of the rock; and he ran to Purgatory, speaking no
+word until he had vaulted into the saddle. Then he spoke shortly.
+
+"They're white men, Purgatory, an' they're havin' a private rukus, looks
+like. But we're doin' some investigatin' just to see if the game's on the
+level."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A MAN'S REPUTATION
+
+
+Purgatory moved fast, but warily. The black horse seemed to have caught
+something of his rider's caution. For part of the distance toward the
+rock the animal traveled straight, loping rapidly, but as he neared the
+little stretch of broken country that surrounded the rock he began to
+sheer off, advancing with mincing steps, his ears erect, his eyes wide
+and alert, snorting suspiciously.
+
+Knowing his horse, the rider made no attempt to guide him; he knew
+Purgatory was alert to any hostile movement on the part of the men who
+were shooting, and that at the first sign of danger to himself or to his
+rider he would do what was required of him.
+
+The man on the summit of the rock was still shooting, though
+intermittently. It seemed to the rider that the man's target must be
+elusive or concealed, for the shooter's actions showed that he was
+irritated. The other man, too, was still shooting. The rider noted that
+he, too, seemed to be meeting with failure, for as the rider drew nearer
+he heard the man curse.
+
+Neither of the two men who were visible to the rider had seen
+him--neither of them had heard the big black horse gliding over the deep
+sand of the desert. The rider grinned with grim mirthlessness, edging
+Purgatory around so that the two men, their backs toward him, were not
+more than twenty or thirty feet away and entirely exposed to his view.
+
+So intent were they upon their work that they did not even hear the
+rider's low laugh as he brought the big black horse to a halt and sat
+quietly in the saddle, a heavy pistol in each hand, watching them.
+
+The rock, the rider noted, was a huge granite block, rotted from long
+exposure to the elements, seamed and scarred and cracked. The action of
+the eternally moving sand had worn an irregular-shaped concave into its
+southern wall, so that the summit overhung the side. The man on the
+summit was lying flat on his stomach, leaning far over, still shooting
+downward. The other man, who was standing at the base, was flattened
+against it, facing the concave side, shooting occasionally, and cursing
+volubly.
+
+The rider was curious. Glancing sidelong, southward, he saw two horses
+not more than a hundred yards away. They were in a depression, behind a
+sand ridge, which accounted for the fact that the rider had not seen them
+before.
+
+Sight of the horses brought a widening grin to the rider's face. He had
+thought, at first, that the two men were shooting at another man,
+concealed behind the rock; but the fact that there were only two horses
+indicated that he had been in error. No man would be foolhardy enough to
+attempt to cross the desert on foot, and unless a man were a friend he
+would not be carried upon another man's horse. Therefore, it seemed to be
+evident that the target at which the men were shooting was not another
+man.
+
+And now, convinced that the men had cornered an animal of some kind, and
+that they feared it too greatly to face it openly, the rider laughed
+loudly and called to the men, his voice freighted with sarcasm.
+
+"Scared?" he said. "Oh, don't be. If you'll back off a little an' give
+him room, he'll just naturally slope, an' give you a chance to get to
+your cayuses."
+
+Both men wheeled almost at the same instant. The man at the base of the
+rock snarled--after the first gasp of astonishment, baring his teeth in
+hideous mirth and embarrassment; the other man, startled and caught off
+balance at the sound of the rider's voice, slipped, tried to catch
+himself, failed, and tumbled awkwardly down, scrambling and cursing, to
+the sand within a few feet of the rider.
+
+Sitting in the sand at the base of the rock, the man who had fallen also
+snarled as he sat, looking at the rider.
+
+Neither of the two men moved after the involuntary muscular action that
+had resulted from their astonishment. The man at the base of the rock
+stood in the position in which he had found himself when he had wheeled.
+
+The pistol in his right hand was held close to his side, the muzzle
+directed at the rider.
+
+But a change was coming over the man's face. The color was slowly going
+out of it, the lips were loosening as his jaws dropped, his body began to
+sag, and his eyes began to widen with fear, stark and naked. At length,
+the rider now watching him with a gaze in which there began to glow
+recognition and contempt, the man dropped his hands to his sides and
+leaned against the rock.
+
+"'Drag' Harlan!" he muttered hoarsely.
+
+The rider watched, his eyes glittering coldly, his lips twisting in a
+crooked sneer. Amusement was his dominating emotion, but there was hate
+in his gaze, mingling with a malignant joy and triumph. The pistols in
+his hands became steady as his wrist muscles stiffened; and he watched
+the two men warily, apparently looking straight at the standing man, but
+seeing the sitting man also.
+
+And now a silence fell--a strained, premonitory silence that had in it a
+hint of imminent tragedy. The sitting man stiffened, divining the promise
+of violence; the standing man shrank back a little and looked downward at
+the pistol in his right hand.
+
+The rider saw the glance and laughed lowly.
+
+"Keep her right where she is, Dolver," he warned. "You lift her one
+little wee lift, an' I bore you plumb in the brain-box. Sort of
+flabbergasted, eh? Didn't expect to run into me again so soon?"
+
+He laughed as the other cringed, his face dead white, his eyes fixed on
+the rider with a sort of dread fascination.
+
+"Dolver, didn't you know when you got my little partner, Davey Langan,
+that I'd be comin' for you?" said the rider in a slow, drawling whisper.
+"In the back you got him, not givin' him a chance. You're gettin' yours
+now. I'm givin' you a chance to take it like a man--standin', with your
+face to me. Lift her now--damn you!"
+
+There was no change in his expression as he watched the man he had called
+Dolver. There came no change in the cold, steady gleam of his eyes as he
+saw the man stiffen and swing the muzzle of his pistol upward with a
+quick, jerky motion. But he sneered as with the movement he sent a bullet
+into the man's chest; his lips curving with slight irony when Dolver's
+gun went off, the bullet throwing up sand at Purgatory's forehoofs.
+
+His eyes grew hard as he saw Dolver stagger, drop his pistol, and clutch
+at his chest; and he watched with seeming indifference as the man slowly
+sank to his knees and stretched out, face down, in the dust at the base
+of the rock.
+
+His lips were stiff with bitter rage, however, as he faced the other man,
+who had not moved.
+
+"Get up on your hind legs, you yellow coyote!" he commanded.
+
+For an instant it seemed that the other man was to share the fate of the
+first. The man seemed to think so, too, for he got up trembling, his
+hands outstretched along the rock, the fingers outspread and twitching
+from the paralysis of fear that had seized him.
+
+"Shoot your gab off quick!" commanded the rider. "Who are you?"
+
+"I'm Laskar," the man muttered.
+
+"Where you from?"
+
+"Lamo."
+
+The rider's eyes quickened. "Where did you meet up with that scum?" He
+indicated Dolver.
+
+"In town."
+
+"Lamo?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"How long ago?" asked the rider.
+
+"'Bout a week."
+
+The man's voice was hoarse; he seemed reluctant to talk more, and he cast
+furtive, dreading glances toward the base of the rock where Dolver had
+stood before the rider had surprised the men.
+
+Watching the man narrowly, the rider noted his nervous glance, and his
+shrinking, dreading manner. Harlan's eyes gleamed with suspicion, and in
+a flash he was off the black and standing before Laskar, forbidding and
+menacing.
+
+"Take off your gun-belt an' chuck it under my horse!" he directed
+sharply. "There's somethin' goin' on here that ain't been mentioned. I'm
+findin' out what it is."
+
+He watched while the man unbuckled his cartridge belt and threw it--the
+pistol still in the holster--into the sand at Purgatory's hoofs. Then he
+stepped to the man, sheathed one of his pistols, and ran the free hand
+over the other's clothing in search of other weapons. Finding none, he
+stooped and took up Dolver's pistol and rifle that had fallen from the
+man's hands when he had tumbled off the rock, throwing them near where
+the cartridge belt had fallen.
+
+"You freeze there while I take a look around this rock!" he commanded,
+with a cold look at the man.
+
+Half a dozen steps took him around the base of the rock. He went boldly,
+though his muscles were tensed and his eyes alert for surprises. But he
+had not taken a dozen steps in all when he halted and stiffened, his lips
+setting into straight, hard lines.
+
+For, stretched out on his left side in the sand close to the base of the
+rock--under the flattened summit which had afforded him protection from
+the bullets the man with the rifle had been sending at him--was a man.
+
+The man was apparently about fifty, with a seamed, pain-lined face. His
+beard was stained with dust, his hair was gray with it; his clothing
+looked as though he had been dragged through it. He was hatless, and one
+of his boots was off. The foot had been bandaged with a handkerchief, and
+through the handkerchief the dark stains of a wound appeared.
+
+The man's shirt was open in front; and the rider saw that another wound
+gaped in his chest, near the heart. The man had evidently made some
+attempt to care for that wound, too, for a piece of cloth from his shirt
+had been cut away, to permit him to get at the wound easily.
+
+The man's left side seemed to be helpless, for the arm was twisted
+queerly, the palm of the hand turned limply upward; but when the rider
+came upon him the man was trying to tuck a folded paper into one of the
+cylinders of a pistol.
+
+He had laid the weapon in the sand, and with his right hand was working
+with the cylinder and the paper. When he saw the rider he sneered and
+ceased working with the pistol, looking up into the rider's face, his
+eyes glowing with defiance.
+
+"No chance for that even, eh?" he said, glancing at the paper and the
+pistol. "Things is goin' plumb wrong!"
+
+He sagged back, resting his weight on the right elbow, and looked
+steadily at the rider--the look of a wounded animal defying his pursuers.
+
+"Get goin'!" he jeered. "Do your damnedest! I heard that sneak, Dolver,
+yappin' to you. You're 'Drag' Harlan--gun-fighter, outlaw, killer! I've
+heard of you," he went on as he saw Harlan scowl and stiffen. "Your
+reputation has got all over. I reckon you're in the game to salivate me."
+
+Harlan sheathed his gun.
+
+"You're talkin' extravagant, mister man." And now he permitted a cold
+smile to wreathe his lips. "If it'll do you any good to know," he added,
+"I've just put Dolver out of business."
+
+"I heard that, too," declared the man, laughing bitterly. "I heard you
+tellin' Dolver. He killed your partner--or somethin'. That's personal,
+an' I ain't interested. Get goin'--the sooner the better. If you'd hand
+it to me right now, I'd be much obliged to you; for I'm goin' fast. This
+hole in my chest--which I got last night while I was sleepin'--will do
+the business without any help from you."
+
+After a pause for breath, the man began to speak again, railing at his
+would-be murderers. He was talking ramblingly when there came a sound
+from the opposite side of the rock--a grunt, a curse, and, almost
+instantly, a shriek.
+
+The wounded man raised himself and threw a glance of startled inquiry at
+Harlan: "What's that?"
+
+Harlan watched the man steadily.
+
+"I reckon that'll be that man Laskar," he said slowly. "I lifted his gun
+an' his rifle, an' Dolver's gun, an' throwed them under Purgatory--my
+horse. Laskar has tried to get them, an' Purgatory's raised some
+objection."
+
+He stepped back and peered around the rock. Laskar was lying in the sand
+near the base of the rock, doubled up and groaning loudly, while
+Purgatory, his nostrils distended, his eyes ablaze, was standing over the
+weapons that lay in the sand, watching the groaning man malignantly.
+
+Harlan returned to the wounded man, to find that he had collapsed and was
+breathing heavily.
+
+For some minutes Harlan stood, looking down at him; then he knelt in the
+sand beside him and lifted his head. The man's eyes were closed, and
+Harlan laid his head down again and examined the wound in his chest.
+
+He shook his head as he got up, went to Purgatory, and got some water,
+which he used to wipe away the dust and blood which had become matted
+over the wound. He shook his head again after bathing the wound. The
+wound meant death for the man within a short time. Yet Harlan forced some
+water into the half-open mouth and bathed the man's face with it.
+
+For a long time after Harlan ceased to work with him the man lay in a
+stupor-like silence, limp and motionless, though his eyes opened
+occasionally, and by the light in them Harlan knew the man was aware of
+what he had been doing.
+
+The sun was going now; it had become a golden, blazing ball which was
+sinking over the peaks of some distant mountains, its fiery rays stabbing
+the pale azure of the sky with brilliantly glowing shafts that threw off
+ever-changing seas of color that blended together in perfect harmony.
+
+Harlan alternately watched the wounded man and Laskar.
+
+Laskar was still groaning, and finally Harlan walked to him and pushed
+him with a contemptuous foot.
+
+"Get up, you sneak!" he ordered. And Laskar, groaning, holding his
+chest--where Purgatory's hoofs had struck him--staggered to his feet and
+looked with piteously pleading eyes at the big man who stood near him,
+unmoved by the spectacle of suffering he presented.
+
+And when he found that Harlan gave him no sympathy, he cursed horribly.
+This drew a cold threat from Harlan.
+
+"Shut your rank mouth or I'll turn Purgatory loose on you--again. Lookin'
+for sympathy, eh? How much sympathy did you give that hombre who's
+cashin' in behind the rocks? None--damn you!"
+
+It was the first flash of feeling Harlan had exhibited, and Laskar shrank
+from him in terror.
+
+But Harlan followed him, grasping him by a shoulder and gripping it with
+iron fingers, so that Laskar screamed with pain.
+
+"Who is that man?" Harlan motioned toward the rock.
+
+"Lane Morgan. He owns the Rancho Seco--about forty miles south of Lamo,"
+returned Laskar after a long look into Harlan's eyes.
+
+"Who set you guys onto him--what you wantin' him for?"
+
+"I don't know," whined Laskar. "Day before yesterday Dolver an' me meets
+up in Lamo, an' Dolver asks me to help him give Morgan his pass-out
+checks on the ride over to Pardo--which Morgan's intendin' to make. I
+ain't got any love for Morgan, an' so I took Dolver up."
+
+"You're a liar!"
+
+Harlan's fingers were sinking into Laskar's shoulder again, and once more
+the man screamed with pain and impotent fury.
+
+"I swear--" began Laskar.
+
+Harlan's grin was bitterly contemptuous. He placed the other hand on
+Laskar's shoulder and forced the man to look into his eyes.
+
+"You're a liar, but I'm lettin' you off. You're a sneak with Greaser
+blood in you. I don't ever want to see you again. I'm goin' to Lamo--soon
+as this man Morgan cashes in. I'll be there some time tomorrow. Lamo
+wouldn't please me none if I was to find you there when I ride in. You
+slope, now--an' keep on hittin' the breeze until there ain't no more of
+it. I'd blow you apart if this man Morgan was anything to me. But it
+ain't my game unless I see you again."
+
+He watched until Laskar, still holding his chest, walked to where the two
+horses were concealed, and mounted one of them. When Laskar, leaning over
+the pommel of the saddle, had grown dim in the haze that was settling
+over the desert, Harlan scowled and returned to the wounded man.
+
+To his astonishment, Morgan was conscious--and a cold calmness seemed to
+have come over him. His eyes were filled with a light that told of
+complete knowledge and resignation. He half smiled as Harlan knelt beside
+him.
+
+"I'm about due, I reckon," he said. "I heard you talkin' to the man you
+just let get away. It don't make any difference--about _him_. I reckon he
+was just a tool, anyway. There's someone behind this bigger than Dolver
+an' that man Laskar. He didn't tell you?"
+
+Harlan shook his head negatively, watching the other intently.
+
+"I didn't reckon he would," said Morgan. "But there's _somebody_." He
+gazed long into Harlan's face, and the latter gazed steadily back at him.
+He seemed to be searching Harlan's face for signs of character.
+
+Harlan stood the probing glance well--so that at last Morgan smiled,
+saying slowly: "It's funny--damned funny. About faces, I mean. Your
+reputation--it's bad. I've been hearin' about you for a couple of years
+now. An' I've been lookin' at you an' tryin' to make myself say, 'Yes,
+he's the kind of a guy which would do the things they say he's done.'
+
+"I can't make myself say it; I can't even make myself think it. Either
+you're a mighty good actor, or you're the worst-judged man I ever met.
+Which is it?"
+
+"Mostly all of us get reputations we don't deserve," said Harlan lowly.
+
+Morgan's eyes gleamed with satisfaction. "Meanin' that you don't deserve
+yours?" he said.
+
+"I reckon there's been a heap of lyin' goin' on about me."
+
+For a long time Morgan watched the other, studying him. The long twilight
+of the desert descended and found them--Morgan staring at Harlan; the
+latter enduring the gaze--for he knew that the end would not long be
+delayed.
+
+At last Morgan sighed.
+
+"Well," he said, "I've got to take a chance on you. An', somehow, it
+seems to me that I ain't takin' much of a chance, either. For a man
+that's supposed to be the hell-raisin' outlaw that folks say you are,
+you've got the straightest eyes I ever seen. I've seen killers--an'
+outlaws, an' gun-fighters, an' I never seen one that could look at a man
+like you've looked at me. Harlan," he went on slowly, "I'm goin' to tell
+you about some gold I've hid--a hundred thousand dollars!"
+
+Keenly, suspicion lurking deep in his eyes, his mouth half open,
+seemingly ready to snap shut the instant he detected greed or cupidity in
+Harlan's eyes, he watched the latter.
+
+It seemed that he expected Harlan to betray a lust for the gold he had
+mentioned; and he was ready to close his lips and to die with his secret.
+And when he saw that apparently Harlan was unmoved, that he betrayed,
+seemingly, not the slightest interest, that even his eyelids did not
+flicker at his words, nor his face change color--Morgan drew a tremulous
+sigh.
+
+"You've got me guessin'," he confessed weakly. "I don't know whether
+you're a devil or a saint."
+
+"I ain't claimin' nothin'," said Harlan. "An' I ain't carin' a damn about
+your gold. I'd a heap rather you wouldn't mention it. More than one man
+has busted his character chasin' that rainbow."
+
+"You ain't interested?" demanded Morgan.
+
+"Not none."
+
+Morgan's eyes glowed with an eager light. For now that Harlan betrayed
+lack of interest, Morgan was convinced--almost--that the man's reputation
+for committing evil deeds had been exaggerated.
+
+"You've got to be interested," he declared, lifting himself on his good
+arm and leaning toward Harlan. "It ain't the gold that is botherin' me so
+much, anyway--it's my daughter.
+
+"It's all my own fault, too," he went on when he saw Harlan's eyes
+quicken. "I've felt all along that somethin' was wrong, but I didn't have
+sense enough to look into it. An' now, trustin' folks so much, an' not
+payin' strict attention to what was goin' on around me, I've got to the
+point where I've got to put everything into the hands of a man I never
+saw before--an outlaw."
+
+"There ain't nobody crowdin' you to put anything into his hands," sneered
+Harlan. "I ain't a heap anxious to go around buttin' into trouble for
+you. Keep your yap shut, an' die like a man!"
+
+Morgan laughed, almost triumphantly. "I'll do my dyin' like a man, all
+right--don't be afraid of that. You want to hear what I've got to tell
+you?"
+
+"I've got to listen. Shoot!"
+
+"There's a gang of outlaws operatin' in the Lamo country. Luke Deveny is
+the chief. It's generally known that Deveny's the boss, but he keeps his
+tracks pretty well covered, an' Sheriff Gage ain't been able to get
+anything on him. Likely Gage is scared of him, anyway.
+
+"Anyway, Gage don't do nothin'. Deveny's a bad man with a gun; there
+ain't his equal in the Territory. He's got a fellow that runs with
+him--Strom Rogers--who's almost as good as he is with a gun. They're holy
+terrors; they've got the cattlemen for two hundred miles around eatin'
+out of their hands. They're roarin', rippin' devils!
+
+"There ain't no man knows how big their gang is--seems like half the
+people in the Lamo country must belong to it. There's spies all around;
+there ain't a thing done that the outlaws don't seem to know of it. They
+drive stock off right in front of the eyes of the owners; they rob the
+banks in the country; they drink an' kill an' riot without anyone
+interferin'.
+
+"There ain't anyone knows where their hang-out is--no one seems to know
+anything about them, except that they're on hand when there's any
+devilment to be done.
+
+"I've got to talk fast, for I ain't got long. I've never had any trouble
+with Deveny or Rogers, or any of the rest of them, because I've always
+tended to my own business. I've seen the thing gettin' worse an' worse,
+though; an' I ought to have got out of there when I had a chance. Lately
+there ain't been no chance. They watch me like a hawk. I can't trust my
+men. The Rancho Seco is a mighty big place, an' I've got thirty men
+workin' for me. But I can't trust a damned one of them.
+
+"About a year ago I found some gold in the Cisco Mountains near the
+ranch. It was nugget gold--only a pocket. I packed it home, lettin'
+nobody see me doin' it; an' I got it all hid in the house, except the
+last batch, before anybody knowed anything about it. Then, comin' home
+with the last of it, the damned bottom had to bust out of the bag right
+near the corral gate, where Meeder Lawson, my foreman, was standin'
+watchin' me.
+
+"It turned out that he'd been watchin' me for a long time. I never liked
+the cuss, but he's a good cowman, an' I had to hold onto him. When he saw
+the gold droppin' out an' hittin' the ground like big hailstones, he
+grinned that chessie-cat grin he's got, an' wanted to know if I was
+through totin' it home.
+
+"I wanted to know how he knowed there was more of it, an' he said he'd
+been keepin' an eye on me, an' knowed there was a heap more of it
+somewhere around.
+
+"I fired him on the spot. There'd have been gunplay, but I got the drop
+on him an' he had to slope. Well, the next mornin' Luke Deveny rode up to
+where I was saddlin', an' told me I'd have to take Lawson back.
+
+"I done so, for I knowed there'd be trouble with the outlaws if I didn't.
+I ain't never been able to get any of that gold to the assayer. They've
+been watchin' me like buzzards on a limb over some carrion. I don't get
+out of their sight.
+
+"An' now they've finally got me. I've got a little of the gold in my
+pocket now--here it is." He drew out a small buckskin bag and passed it
+to Harlan, who took it and held it loosely in his hands, not taking his
+gaze from Morgan.
+
+"Keep a-goin'," suggested Harlan.
+
+"Interested, eh?" grinned Morgan; "I knowed you'd be. Well, here I am--I
+didn't get to the assay office at Pardo; an' I'll never get there now."
+He paused and then went on:
+
+"Now they're after Barbara, my daughter. Deveny--an' Strom Rogers, an'
+some more--all of them, I reckon. I ought to have got out long ago. But
+it's too late now, I reckon.
+
+"That damned Deveny--he's a wolf with women. Handsome as hell, with ways
+that take with most any woman that meets him. An' he's as smooth an' cold
+an' heartless as the devil himself. He ain't got no pity for nobody or
+nothin'. An' Strom Rogers runs him a close second. An' there's more of
+them almost as bad.
+
+"They watch every trail that runs from the Rancho Seco to--to anywhere.
+If I ride north there's someone watchin' me. If I ride south there's a
+man on my trail. If I go east or west I run into a man or two who's
+takin' interest in me. When I go to Lamo, there'll be half a dozen men
+strike town about the same time.
+
+"I can't prove they are Deveny's men--but I know it, for they're always
+around. An' it's the same way with Barbara--she can't go anywhere without
+Deveny, or Rogers--or some of them--ain't trailin' her.
+
+"As I said, the sheriff can't do anything--or he won't. He looks worried
+when I meet him, an' gets out of my way, for fear I'll ask him to do
+somethin'.
+
+"That's the way it stands. An' now Barbara will have to play it a lone
+hand against them. Bill Morgan--that's my son--ain't home. He's
+gallivantin' around the country, doin' some secret work for the governor.
+Somethin' about rustlers an' outlaws. He ought to be home now, to protect
+Barbara. But instead he's wastin' his time somewheres else when he ought
+to be here--in Lamo--where's there's plenty of the kind of guys he's
+lookin' for.
+
+"There's only one man in the country I trust. He's John Haydon, of the
+Star ranch--about fifteen miles west of the Rancho Seco. Seems to me that
+Haydon's square. He's an upstandin' man of about thirty, an' he's dead
+stuck on Barbara. Seems to me that if it wasn't for Haydon, Deveny, or
+Lawson, or Rogers, or some of them scum would have run off with Barbara
+long ago.
+
+"You see how she shapes up?" he queried as he watched Harlan's face.
+
+"Looks bad for Barbara," said Harlan slowly.
+
+Morgan writhed and was silent for a time.
+
+"Look here, Harlan," he finally said; "you're considered to be a
+hell-raiser yourself, but I can see in your eyes that you ain't takin'
+advantage of women. An' Harlan"--Morgan's voice quavered--"there's my
+little Barbara all alone to take care of herself with that gang of wolves
+around. I'm wantin' you to go to the Rancho Seco an' look around. My wife
+died last year. There's mebbe two or three guys around the ranch would
+stick to Barbara, but that's all. Take a look at John Haydon, an' if you
+think he's on the level--an' you want to drift on--turn things over to
+him."
+
+Morgan shuddered, and was silent for a time, his lips tight-shut, his
+face whitening in the dusk as he fought the pain that racked him. When he
+at last spoke again his voice was so weak that Harlan had to kneel and
+lean close to him to hear the low-spoken words that issued from between
+his quavering lips:
+
+"Harlan--you're white; you've got to be white--to Barbara! That paper I
+was tryin' to stuff into my gun--when you come around the rock. You take
+it. It'll tell you where the gold is. You'll find my will--in my desk in
+my office--off the _patio_. Everything goes to Barbara. Everybody knows
+that. Haydon knows it--Deveny's found it out. You can't get me back--it's
+too far. Plant me here--an' tell Barbara." He laughed hollowly. "I reckon
+that's all." He felt for one of Harlan's hands, found it, and gripped it
+with all his remaining strength. His voice was hoarse, quavering:
+
+"You won't refuse, Harlan? You can't refuse! Why, my little Barbara will
+be all alone, man! What a damned fool I've been not to look out for her!"
+
+Night had come, and Morgan could not see Harlan's face. But he was
+conscious of the firm grip of Harlan's hands, and he laughed lowly and
+thankfully.
+
+"You'll do it--for Barbara--won't you? Say you will, man! Let me hear you
+say it--now!"
+
+"I'm givin' you my word," returned Harlan slowly. And now he leaned still
+closer to the dying man and whispered long to him.
+
+When he concluded Morgan fought hard to raise himself to a sitting
+posture; he strained, dragging himself in the sand in an effort to see
+Harlan's face. But the black desert night had settled over them, and all
+Morgan could see of Harlan was the dim outlines of his head.
+
+"Say it again, man! Say it again, an' light a match so's I can see you
+while you're sayin' it!"
+
+There was a pause. Then a match flared its light revealing Harlan's face,
+set in serious lines.
+
+"I wouldn't lie to you--now--Morgan," he said; "I'm goin' to the Lamo
+country to bust up Deveny's gang."
+
+Morgan stared hard at the other while the flickering light lasted with a
+strained intensity that transfigured his face, suffusing it with a glow
+that could not have been more eloquent with happiness had the supreme
+Master of the universe drawn back the mysterious veil of life to permit
+him to look upon the great secret.
+
+When the match flickered and went out, and the darkness of the desert
+reigned again, Morgan sank back with a tremulous, satisfied sigh.
+
+"I'm goin' now," he said; "I'm goin'--knowin' God has been good to me."
+He breathed fast, gaspingly. And for a moment he spoke hurriedly, as
+though fearful he would not be given time to say what he wanted to say:
+
+"Someone plugged me--last night while I was sleepin'. Shot me in the
+chest--here. Didn't give me no chance. There was three of them. My fire
+had gone out an' I couldn't see their faces. Likely Laskar an' Dolver was
+two. The other one must have sloped. It was him shot me. Tried to knife
+me, too; but I fought him, an' he broke away. It happened behind a
+rock--off to the left--a red boulder.
+
+"I grabbed at him an' caught somethin'. What it was busted. I couldn't
+wait to find out what it was. I'm hopin' it's somethin' that'll help you
+to find out who the man was. I ain't goin' to be mean--just when I'm
+dyin'; but if you was to look for that thing, find it, an' could tell who
+the man is, mebbe some day you'd find it agreeable to pay him for what he
+done to me."
+
+He became silent; no sound except his fast, labored breathing broke the
+dead calm of the desert night.
+
+"Somethin' more than the gold an' Barbara back of it all," he muttered
+thickly, seeming to lapse into a state of semiconsciousness in which the
+burden that was upon his mind took the form of involuntary speech:
+"Somethin' big back of it--somethin' they ain't sayin' nothin' about. But
+Harlan--he'll take care of--" He paused; then his voice leaped. "Why,
+there's Barbara now! Why, honey, I thought--I--why----"
+
+His voice broke, trailing off into incoherence.
+
+After a while Harlan rose to his feet. An hour later he found the red
+rock Morgan had spoken of--and with a flaming bunch of mesquite in hand
+he searched the vicinity.
+
+In a little depression caused by the heel of a boot he came upon a
+glittering object, which he examined in the light of the flaming
+mesquite, which he had thrown into the sand after picking up the
+glittering object. Kneeling beside the dying flame he discovered that the
+glittering trifle he had found was a two- or three-inch section of gold
+watch chain of peculiar pattern. He tucked it into a pocket of his
+trousers.
+
+Later, he mounted Purgatory and fled into the appalling blackness,
+heading westward--the big black horse loping easily.
+
+The first streaks of dawn found Purgatory drinking deeply from the
+green-streaked moisture of Kelso's water-hole. And when the sun stuck a
+glowing rim over the desert's horizon, to resume his rule over the baked
+and blighted land, the big black horse and his rider were traveling
+steadily, the only life visible in the wide area of desolation--a moving
+blot, an atom behind which was death and the eternal, whispered promise
+of death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A GIRL WAITS
+
+
+Lamo, sprawling on a sun-baked plain perhaps a mile from the edge of the
+desert, was one of those towns which owed its existence to the instinct
+of men to foregather. It also was indebted for its existence to the greed
+of a certain swarthy-faced saloon-keeper named Joel Ladron, who,
+anticipating the edict of a certain town marshal of another town that
+shall not be mentioned, had piled his effects into a prairie
+schooner--building and goods--and had taken the south trail--which would
+lead him wherever he wanted to stop.
+
+It had chanced that he had stopped at the present site of Lamo. Ladron
+saw a trail winding over the desert, vanishing into the eastern distance;
+and he knew that where trails led there were sure to be thirsty men who
+would be eager to look upon his wares.
+
+Ladron's history is not interesting. As time fled to the monotonous clink
+of coins over the bar he set up in the frame shack that faced the desert
+trail, Ladron's importance in Lamo was divided by six.
+
+The other dispensers had not come together; they had appeared as the
+needs of the population seemed to demand--and all had flourished.
+
+Lamo's other buildings had appeared without ostentation. There were
+twenty of them. A dozen of the twenty, for one reason or another, need
+receive no further mention. Of the remaining few, one was occupied by
+Sheriff Gage; two others by stores; one answered as an office and
+storage-room for the stage company; and still another was distinguished
+by a crude sign which ran across its weather-beaten front, bearing the
+legend: "Lamo Eating-House." The others were private residences.
+
+Lamo's buildings made some pretense of aping the architecture of
+buildings in other towns. The eating-house was a two-story structure,
+with an outside stairway leading to its upper floor. It had a flat roof
+and an adobe chimney. Its second floor had been subdivided into
+lodging-rooms. Its windows were small, grimy.
+
+Not one of Lamo's buildings knew paint. The structures, garish husks of
+squalor, befouled the calm, pure atmosphere, and mocked the serene
+majesty of nature.
+
+For, beginning at the edge of "town," a contrast to the desert was
+presented by nature. It was a mere step, figuratively, from that land
+from which came the whisper of death, to a wild, virgin section where the
+hills, the green-brown ridges, the wide sweeps of plain, and the cool
+shadows of timber clumps breathed of the promise, the existence, of life.
+
+To Barbara Morgan, seated at one of the east windows of the Lamo
+Eating-House--in the second story, where she could look far out into the
+desert--the contrast between the vivid color westward and the dun and
+dead flatness eastward, was startling. For she knew her father had
+entered the desert on his way to Pardo, on some business he had not
+mentioned; and the whispered threat that the desert carried was borne to
+her ears as she watched.
+
+On a morning, two days before, Morgan had left the Rancho Seco for Pardo.
+The girl had watched him go with a feeling--almost a conviction--that she
+should have kept him at home. She had not mentioned to him that she had a
+presentiment of evil, for she assured herself that she should have
+outgrown those puerile impulses of the senses. And yet, having watched
+him depart, she passed a sleepless night, and early the next morning had
+saddled her horse to ride to Lamo, there to await her father's return.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when she reached Lamo; and she had gone
+directly to the Eating-House, where she had passed another restless
+night--spending most of her time sitting at the window, where she was at
+this minute.
+
+Of course it was a three-day trip to Pardo, and she had no reason to
+expect Morgan to return until the end of the sixth day, at the very
+earliest. And yet some force sent her to the window at frequent
+intervals, where she would sit, as now, her chin resting in her hands,
+her eyes searching the vast waste land with an anxious light.
+
+An attaché of the Eating-House had put her horse away--where, she did
+not know; and her meals had been brought to her by a middle-aged
+slattern, whose probing, suspicion-laden glances had been full of mocking
+significance. She had heard the woman speak of her to other female
+employees of the place--and once she had overheard the woman refer to her
+as "that stuck-up Morgan heifer."
+
+Their coarse laughter and coarser language had disgusted the girl, and
+she had avoided them all as much as possible.
+
+It was the first time she had remained overnight in the Eating-House
+lodging-rooms, though she had seen the building many times during her
+visits to Lamo. It wasn't what she was accustomed to at the Rancho Seco,
+nor was it all that a lodging-house might be--but it provided shelter for
+her while she waited.
+
+The girl felt--as she looked--decidedly out of place in the shabby room.
+Many times during her vigil she had shuddered when looking at the dirty,
+threadbare ingrain carpet on the floor of the room; oftener, when her
+gaze went to the one picture that adorned the unpapered walls, she shrank
+back, her soul filled with repugnance.
+
+Art, as here represented, was a cheap lithograph in vivid colors, of an
+Indian--an Apache, judging from his trappings--scalping a white man. In
+the foreground, beside the man, was a woman, her hair disheveled, wild
+appeal in her eyes, gazing at the Indian, who was grinning at her.
+
+A cheap bureau, unadorned, with a broken mirror swinging in a rickety
+frame; one chair, and the bed in which she had tried to sleep, were the
+only articles of furniture in the room.
+
+The girl, arrayed in a neat riding habit; her hair arranged in graceful
+coils; her slender, lissom figure denoting youth and vigor; the clear,
+smooth skin of her face--slightly tanned--indicating health--was as
+foreign to her present surroundings as life is foreign to the desert. In
+her direct eyes was the glow of sturdy honesty that had instantly
+antagonized the slattern who had attended her.
+
+That glow was not so pronounced now--it was dulled by anxiety as she
+looked out of the window, watching the desert light fade as twilight
+came, blotting the hot sand from her sight, erasing the straight,
+unfeatured horizon, and creating a black void which pulsed with mystery.
+
+She sighed when at last she could no longer penetrate the wall of
+darkness; got up and moved her chair to one of the front windows, from
+where she could look down into Lamo's one street.
+
+Lamo's lights began to flicker; from the town's buildings sounds began to
+issue--multisonous, carrying the message of ribaldry unrestrained.
+
+From a point not very far away came the hideous screeching of a fiddle,
+accompanied by a discordant, monotonous wail, as of someone singing a
+song unfamiliar to him; from across the street floated a medley of other
+noises, above which could be heard the jangling music of a heavily
+drummed piano. There came to her ears coarse oaths and the maudlin
+laughter of women.
+
+She had heard it all the night before; but tonight it seemed that
+something had been added to the volume of it. And as on the night before,
+she sat at the window, watching--for it was all new and strange to
+her--even if unattractive. But at last the horror of it again seized her,
+and she closed the window, determined to endure the increased heat.
+
+Half an hour later, lying, fully dressed, on the bed, she heard a voice
+in the hallway beyond the closed door of her room--a man's voice.
+
+"It isn't what one might call elegant," said the voice; "but if it's the
+best you've got--why, of course, it will have to do."
+
+The girl sat straight up in bed, breathless, her face paling.
+
+"It's Luke Deveny!" she gasped in a suffocating whisper.
+
+The man's voice was answered by a woman's--low, mirthful. The girl in the
+room could not distinguish the words. But the man spoke again--in a
+whisper which carried through the thin board partition to the girl:
+
+"Barbara Morgan is in there--eh?" he said and the girl could almost see
+him nodding toward her room.
+
+This time the girl heard the woman's voice--and her words:
+
+"Yes she's there, the stuck-up hussy!"
+
+The voice was that of the slattern.
+
+The man laughed jeeringly.
+
+"Jealous, eh?" he said. "Well, she _is_ a mighty good-looking girl, for a
+fact!"
+
+That was all. The girl heard Deveny step into a room--the room adjoining
+hers; she could hear his heavy boots striking the floor as he removed
+them.
+
+For a long time the girl rested on her elbow, listening; but no further
+sounds came from the room into which Deveny had gone. At last, trembling,
+her face white with fear, the girl got up and stole noiselessly to the
+door.
+
+A light bolt was the door's only fastening; and the girl stood long, with
+a hand upon it, considering its frailty. How easy it would be for a big
+man like Deveny to force the door. One shove of his giant shoulder and
+the bolt would give.
+
+Stealthily, noiselessly, straining with every ounce of her strength, she
+managed to lift the cheap bureau and carry it to the door, placing it
+against the latter, barricading it. Not satisfied, she dragged the bed
+over against the bureau.
+
+Even when that had been accomplished, she was not satisfied and during
+the greater part of the night she sat on the edge of the bed, listening
+and watching the door. For in the days that had fled Deveny had said
+certain things to her that she had not repeated to her father; he had
+looked at her with a significance that no man could have understood; and
+there had been a gleam in his eyes at these times which had convinced her
+that behind the bland smoothness of him--back of the suave politeness of
+his manner--was a primitive animalism. His suave politeness was a velvet
+veil of character behind which he masked the slavering fangs of the beast
+he really was.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HIS SHADOW BEFORE
+
+
+At ten o'clock the following morning, in a rear room of "Balleau's First
+Chance" saloon--which was directly across the street from the Lamo
+Eating-House--Luke Deveny and two other men were sitting at a card-table
+with bottle and glasses between them. A window in the eastern side of the
+room gave the men an unobstructed view of the desert, and for half an
+hour, as they talked and drank, they looked out through the window.
+
+A tall, muscular man with a slightly hooked nose, keen blue eyes with a
+cold glint in them, black hair, and an equally black mustache which
+revealed a firm-lipped mouth with curves at the corners that hinted of
+cynicism, and, perhaps cruelty, was sitting at the table so that he faced
+the window. His smile, as he again glanced out of the window, roved to
+Deveny--who sat at his right.
+
+"One man--an' a led horse," he said shortly. "Looks like Laskar."
+
+Deveny--big, smooth-shaven--with black, glowing, attractive eyes that
+held a glint quite as hard as that which shone in the eyes of the
+speaker, looked long out of the window at a moving dot on the desert,
+which seemed to be traveling toward them. Deveny had looked before; but
+now he saw two dots where at other times he had seen only one. His lips
+held a slight pout as he glanced at the speaker.
+
+"You're right, Rogers," he said; "there's only one. The old fool must
+have put up a fight."
+
+Deveny filled a glass from the bottle and drank slowly. His features were
+large. His nose was well shaped, with wide nostrils that hinted of a
+fiery, passionate nature; his thrusting chin and the heavy neck muscles
+told of strength, both mental and physical--of mental strength that was
+of a tenacious character, of physical strength that would respond to any
+demand of the will.
+
+He was handsome, and yet the suggestion of ruthlessness in the atmosphere
+of him--lurking behind the genial, easy-going exterior that he wore for
+appearances--or because it was his nature to conceal his passions until
+he desired to unleash them--was felt by those who knew him intimately. It
+had been felt by Barbara Morgan.
+
+Deveny was king of the lawless element in the Lamo section. The magnetism
+of him; the arrogance, glossed over with the calm and cold politeness of
+his manner; his unvarying immaculateness; the air of large and complete
+confidence which marked his every action; the swiftness with which he
+struck when he was aroused, or when his authority was questioned, placed
+him without dissent at the head of the element that ruled the Lamo
+country.
+
+Deveny ruled, but Deveny's rule was irksome to Strom Rogers--the man to
+whom Deveny had just spoken. For while Deveny drank, Rogers watched him
+with covert vigilance, with a jeering gleam far back in his eyes, with a
+secret envy and jealousy, with hatred and contempt and mockery.
+
+Yet there was fear in Rogers' eyes, too--a mere glimmer of it. Yet it was
+there; and when Deveny set his glass down and looked straight at Rogers,
+it was that fear which brought the fawning, insincere smirk to Rogers'
+lips.
+
+"See the girl?" questioned Rogers.
+
+Deveny laughed lowly. Apparently he did not notice the glow in Rogers'
+eyes; but had Rogers looked closely he might have seen Deveny's lips
+straighten as he shot a glance at the other.
+
+"Had the room next to her last night. Heard her drag the bed in front of
+the door of her room. She knew I was there, all right!" Deveny laughed
+deeply. "She's wised up by this time. Lolly Kaye hates her--because
+Barbara's a good-looking girl, I suppose. That's like some women. Lolly
+would see Barbara roasting in hell and not give her a hand!"
+
+"Lolly's been disappointed in love--I reckon." Rogers' laugh was hollow,
+mirthless. And again Deveny shot a glance at him.
+
+"But you didn't bother her--Barbara?" questioned Rogers in a dry, light
+voice.
+
+"No," grinned Deveny; "that time hasn't come--yet. It's coming soon. I
+told Lolly to keep an eye on her; I've got Engle and Barthman and Kelmer
+watching at the doors so Barbara can't light out for the Rancho Seco. She
+don't get away until tomorrow. Then she goes with me to the end of Sunset
+Trail. I've sent Shorty Mallo to Willow's Wells for the parson."
+
+"Barbara know what's up?" Rogers' voice was low and throaty.
+
+Again Deveny glanced at him--sharply.
+
+"Hell, no!" he snapped. "It's none of her damned business--nor
+anybody's!" He grinned maliciously when he saw Rogers' face whiten.
+
+"Barbara will need a husband now," Deveny went on. "With old Morgan gone
+and her brother sloped from the home ranch, she'll be kind of lonesome. I
+aim to cure her of that."
+
+He laughed, and Rogers writhed inwardly. For Rogers had long nursed a
+secret hope that one day the fates might take a notion to give him the
+chance that Deveny intended to seize.
+
+But Rogers was forced to conceal his jealousy and disappointment. He
+laughed mirthlessly.
+
+"So she can't get away, eh?--she's corralled!"
+
+"Bah!" declared Deveny; "she won't want to get away--once she knows what
+I mean--that it's going to be a regular wedding. She'll raise a fuss,
+most likely, to make folks believe she's unwilling, but in the end she'll
+get over it."
+
+Deveny glanced out of the window at the blot that was now closer.
+
+"It's Laskar, all regular," he said. "He's leading a sorrel horse--Dolver's
+horse. Old Morgan got Dolver--looks like, the damned old gopher! Men as
+willing as Dolver are not found every day." He looked at the third man, who
+had not spoken.
+
+"Lawson," he said, "you mosey down the trail a little piece and meet
+Laskar. Bring him here!"
+
+Lawson, a thin-faced, medium-sized man with narrow shoulders, whose
+distinguishing mark was a set of projecting upper teeth that kept his
+mouth in a continual smirking smile, got up quickly and went out. Deveny
+and Rogers, their thoughts centered upon the same person--Barbara
+Morgan--sat silent, watching Lawson as he rode down the street toward the
+point where the trail, crossing the broken stretch of country that
+intervened, merged into the desert.
+
+Half an hour later Laskar, holding his chest, where Purgatory had kicked
+him, was sitting at the table in the rear room of the First Chance,
+cursing with a fluency that he had not yielded to in many years.
+
+"Dolver's wiped out!" he gasped hoarsely; "plugged so quick he didn't
+know he was hit. A center shot--plumb in the heart; his own gun goin' off
+while he was fallin'. I looked him over--after. He was croaked complete.
+Then that sober-faced hyena lifts my gun--an' the rifle--an' says things
+to me, which I don't try to cross him. Then he goes behind the
+rock--where we was havin' it out--an' while he's gone I tries to git my
+guns from under that devil-eyed cayuse of his'n.
+
+"An' I don't succeed--noways. That black devil turns on a half-dollar an'
+plants his hoofs plumb in my breast-bone. If I'd been an inch nearer, or
+if he'd have kicked me a foot lower, or a foot higher, I'd be layin' out
+there where Dolver is now, the coyotes an' the buzzards gnawin' at me."
+
+Unmoved by Laskar's incoherence, Deveny calmly watched him. And now, when
+Laskar paused for breath, Deveny spoke slowly:
+
+"A _black_ horse, you said. How did a black horse get there? Old Morgan
+rode a bay when he left Lamo--Balleau says."
+
+"Did I say Morgan rode a black horse?" queried Laskar, knowledge in his
+eyes that he had a thing to tell that would blanch their faces. He
+grinned, still holding his chest, his glance malicious.
+
+"Did I say a _black_ horse?" he repeated. "Did I say Morgan rode a black
+horse? Morgan didn't. Morgan rode a bay--an' the Chief run it off after
+he shot Morgan. But Morgan didn't die right away, an' the Chief he had to
+slope, he said--an' he did--leavin' me an' Dolver to finish old Morgan.
+
+"We was tryin' our damnedest when this guy on the black horse pops up out
+of nowhere an' salivates Dolver."
+
+"Who was it?"
+
+This was Deveny. He was now leaning forward, a pout on his lips, watching
+Laskar with an intent, glowering gaze.
+
+"'Drag' Harlan!" shouted Laskar. His face lighted with a hideous joy as
+he watched the effect of his news.
+
+"'Drag' Harlan! Do you hear?" he went on. "'Drag' Harlan, the Pardo
+'two-gun' man! He's headed toward Lamo. He bored Dolver, an' he said that
+soon as Morgan cashed in he was hittin' the breeze for here!"
+
+Lawson, the man who had gone to meet Laskar, ejaculated hoarsely, and
+stood rigid, his mouth open, his eyes bulging. It was the involuntary
+expression of the astonishment and fear that had seized him. Laskar
+forgot the pain in his chest long enough to straighten and grin at
+Lawson.
+
+Rogers' face had changed color. He, too, had become rigid. He had been in
+the act of reaching for the bottle on the table, and the hand that had
+been extended had been suddenly drawn back, so that the hand was now
+midway between his body and the bottle--and the fingers were clenched.
+The other hand, under the table, was likewise clenched, and the muscles
+of his jaws were corded. Into his eyes had come a furtive, restless
+gleam, and his face had paled.
+
+Deveny gave no visible sign of perturbation. He coolly reached out,
+grasped the bottle that Rogers had been reaching for, and poured some of
+the amber fluid into one of the glasses. The other men watched him
+silently--all of them intent to note the tremor they expected to see.
+
+Deveny's hand did not tremble. He noted the glances of the men--the
+admiration that came into their eyes as with steady muscles he raised the
+glass and drank--and he smiled with slight contempt.
+
+"Coming here, eh?" he said evenly. "So he said that. Did he mention what
+he was coming for?"
+
+"He didn't mention," replied Laskar.
+
+"So he downed Dolver. Did he say what for?"
+
+"Said Dolver had shot up his partner, Davey Langan--back in Pardo. Harlan
+was evenin' up."
+
+"What do you know about Harlan?"
+
+The question was addressed to all of them.
+
+Rogers answered.
+
+"He's a bad guy--all bad. He's an iceberg, an' he's got the snakiest
+gun-hand of any man in the country. Draws hesitatin'-like. A man don't
+know when he's goin' to uncork his smoke-wagons. I seen him put Lefty
+Blandin' out. He starts for his guns, an' then kind of stops, trickin'
+the other guy into goin' for his. Then, before the other guy can get his
+gun to workin', Harlan's stickin' his away, an' the guy's ready for the
+mourners.
+
+"Harlan got his handle that way. He goes for his guns so slow an'
+hesitatin' that he seems to drag 'em out. But some way he's always
+shootin' first. An' they always let him off because it's mighty plain
+that the other guy tried to draw first."
+
+"I've heard that," said Deveny slowly. "What's his record?"
+
+"Plays her a lone hand," returned Rogers. He watched the other steadily.
+
+Deveny toyed with a glass as he gazed out of the window. There was a
+cold, sullen gleam in his eyes when he finally looked at Laskar.
+
+"You said Harlan told you he was coming here as soon as Morgan cashed in.
+According to that, Morgan must have been hit bad."
+
+"The Chief said he bored him plenty. An' me an' Dolver must have got him
+some."
+
+"You didn't get a chance to search Morgan?"
+
+"No chance--he fit like a hyena; an' when he got behind that damned rock
+there was no way of gettin' at him."
+
+"Then," said Deveny, "according to what you say, Harlan will come here as
+soon as Morgan dies. And when you left there Morgan was in a bad way.
+Harlan is due most any time, then."
+
+"That's the way I figger," agreed Laskar.
+
+And now Laskar fidgeted. "I aim to be hittin' the breeze now--before
+Harlan hits town. This climate is gettin' unhealthy for me. Harlan give
+me notice."
+
+"To leave town?"
+
+It was Deveny who spoke. There was a snarl in his voice; he leaned
+forward and scowled at Laskar.
+
+Laskar nodded.
+
+Rogers cleared his throat, and Lawson moved his feet uneasily.
+
+Deveny's scowl faded; he grinned coldly.
+
+"Giving orders--is he?" he snapped. "Well, we'll see." He laughed. "When
+Harlan hits town it will be a sign that old Morgan's crossed the Divide.
+Well, there was no witnesses to Morgan's cashing in, and one man's word
+is as good as another's in this country."
+
+"Meanin'?" questioned Rogers, noting the light in Deveny's eyes.
+
+"Meaning that Laskar is going--right now--to whisper into Sheriff Gage's
+ear that he saw our friend, 'Drag' Harlan, killing old Morgan."
+
+Rogers got to his feet, grinning. The gleam in his eyes indicated that he
+felt some relief over the prospect presented by Deveny's suggestion.
+
+"Of course we ain't sure Harlan means to make trouble here," he told
+Deveny; "but it's just as well to shove him off onto the sheriff."
+
+The four men walked to the front door of the First Chance, after pausing
+for a few minutes at the bar.
+
+Outside, halting for an instant on the board platform in front of the
+saloon, Rogers, who had been the first to emerge, started as he glanced
+toward the desert, and then stood rigid, shading his hands with his eyes
+against the sun that poured into his face.
+
+"He's comin' now!" he said.
+
+Deveny and the others also looked into the blinding glare of the
+sun--likewise shading their eyes. And they saw, far out upon the vast sea
+of sand--yet not so far that they could not distinguish objects--a black
+horse coming steadily toward them.
+
+Deveny was strangely silent, glowering toward the desert; Rogers folded
+his arms and faced the oncoming rider and the somber-coated animal he
+bestrode; Lawson scowled; and Laskar nervously estimated the distance
+that stretched between himself and the steady-eyed man who had told him
+certain things in a voice that had been entirely convincing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PRISON
+
+
+Barbara Morgan had not been able to sleep except by fits and starts. A
+dozen times during the night she had caught herself on the verge of
+sinking into deep slumber, and each time she had got up and washed her
+eyes with some water from a pitcher on the bureau, determined that she
+would not take any chances of permitting Deveny to surprise her.
+
+When the dawn came she was haggard and tired; and she got up listlessly,
+combed her hair, and washed her face, and dragged away the pieces of
+furniture that had formed the barricade at the door.
+
+She felt more secure with the dawn, and when the sunlight began to stream
+into the east windows she opened the door of the room, descended the
+stairs, and took a short walk to the edge of town.
+
+Returning, she saw a man arrayed in overalls, boots, a blue woolen shirt,
+and broad felt hat, standing in the doorway of the stable that, she felt,
+belonged to the Eating-House. Sight of the stable brought to her thoughts
+of her horse--Billy--and she decided to determine if the man who had
+taken charge of him had put him into the stable.
+
+She paused before the door, directly in front of the man, who did not
+move aside to permit her to enter.
+
+She thought at first that he was not aware of her desire--until she
+observed an amused light in his eyes; and then she knew that he was
+purposely barring her way.
+
+"This is the Eating-House stable, I suppose?" she inquired quietly.
+
+"You're supposin' is a heap correct, ma'am," grinned the man.
+
+"Well," she said, "if you will kindly step aside I shall see if my horse
+is all right."
+
+"Your horse is all right, ma'am," returned the man. "I've just fed him."
+
+Irritated by his attitude, she spoke sharply:
+
+"Step aside, please; I am going into the stable!"
+
+The man grinned widely. "It's ag'in' orders, ma'am; you'll have to stay
+out."
+
+"Whose orders?"
+
+"Deveny's. You ain't to go into the stable."
+
+She hesitated, afflicted with a queer sensation of weakness and
+indecision.
+
+It was her fear of Deveny, she supposed, that made her feel that way,
+together with the conviction that Deveny must have known that she had
+been in the room next to the one he had taken, even before he had
+ascended the stairs. It seemed to her that this deliberate interference
+with her must be inspired by evil intentions, and for an instant panic
+overtook her.
+
+Then, yielding to the flash of anger that surged over her, she drew the
+small revolver she always carried with her on her rides, and presented
+it. She stepped back a little, so that the man might not strike the
+weapon from her hand, and spoke shortly, commandingly to him.
+
+"Get away from that door!"
+
+"Shootin', ma'am?" he drawled. "Oh, don't!"
+
+He grinned at her and calmly began to roll a cigarette, at which action
+she gulped with dismay, wheeled swiftly, and walked to the stairs. She
+went up proudly enough, her head held high, for she divined that the man
+would be watching her. But when she entered her room her pride forsook
+her, and she sank into a chair by the east window, dismayed and
+frightened.
+
+While she sat there the slatternly woman slowly opened the door and stuck
+her head in. She grinned widely at Barbara.
+
+"Goin' ridin' this mawnin', deary?"
+
+Barbara looked at her, saw the mockery in the jealous eyes, and turned
+her head again, making no reply.
+
+"Too stuck up to talk, eh?" jibed the slattern. "Well, before you get out
+of here you'll be tickled enough to shoot off your gab. Bah! You an' your
+airs! If you want any grub this mawnin' you'll come down an' grab it
+yourself, I'm tellin' you that."
+
+She slammed the door, her jeering laugh penetrating the partition with
+hideous resonance.
+
+After the woman had gone Barbara got up, her lips set in resolute lines.
+
+Once in the hall she started to walk toward the stairs, when she saw the
+cowboy of the stable lounging against the rail on the platform. He saw
+her at the instant she looked at him, and he grinned hugely.
+
+"I reckon you've noticed I've sort of shifted," he said. "I keep goin'
+up--gettin' higher in the world."
+
+"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
+
+"Just loafin', I reckon," grinned the other. "An' obeyin' orders," he
+added instantly. "Much as I hate to disconvenience a lady, I ain't takin'
+no chances on rilin' Deveny."
+
+"Do you mean that Deveny placed you here to watch me?"
+
+"He didn't issue no particular orders as to where I was to do my
+standin'. But he was sure earnest about sayin' that you wasn't to leave
+your room."
+
+"I left it once this morning."
+
+"My fault," he grinned. "I was sneakin' a drink in the Antler, an' you
+slipped me. I'm bettin' it don't happen ag'in!"
+
+Overcome with a cold terror that suddenly seized her, Barbara wheeled and
+re-entered her room, standing for an instant at the door as she locked
+it, and then walking to the chair and sinking nervelessly into it.
+
+Somehow, she sensed the futility of further effort at escape. She was
+aware of Deveny's power in the country; she knew that he ruled Lamo as he
+ruled every foot of land in the section; and she was convinced that it
+would be wasted effort to call for help. Even her own sex--represented by
+the slattern, and most of the women in Lamo were of that type, in
+character--seemed to be antagonistic toward her. It seemed to her that
+they would mock her as the slattern had mocked her, should she appeal to
+them.
+
+And as for the men of Lamo, they were not to be considered. She was
+certain she could not induce one of them to act contrary to Deveny's
+wishes. For her father had told her about Lamo's men--how they were
+slaves to the will of the man whose deeds of outlawry had made him feared
+wherever men congregated; and she knew Lamo itself was a sink-hole of
+iniquity where women were swallowed by the evil passions of men.
+
+She might have appealed to Gage, the sheriff, and she thought of Gage
+while she sat at the window. But Gage, her father had told her, with
+disgust in his eyes, was a man of colorless personality and of little
+courage--a negligible character upon whom the good people of the section,
+who were pitifully few, could not depend. Her father had told her that it
+was his opinion that Gage, too, was a slave to Deveny's will.
+
+She wished now that she had not yielded to the impulse which had brought
+her to Lamo; but her lips grew firm and her eyes defiant as she at last
+got up and walked to one of the front windows.
+
+Now, more vividly than ever, could she understand the significance of
+Deveny's glances at her in the past; the light in his eyes had been an
+expression of premeditated evil, awaiting an opportunity.
+
+She was pale, and her hands were trembling as she placed them on the sill
+of the front window and glanced down into the street, hoping that she
+might see a friendly face; praying that one of the Rancho Seco men might
+have come to town during the night.
+
+But she saw no one she knew. Indeed, except for a pony standing in front
+of a saloon down the street a little distance, and several others hitched
+to a rail across the street, in front of the First Chance saloon, Lamo
+seemed to be deserted. And a silence, deep and portentous of evil, seemed
+to have settled over the town.
+
+But as she leaned upon the sill a sound floated to her through the open
+window--a man's voice, so close to her that it made her start and
+stiffen. It was Deveny's voice, and it seemed to come from a point in the
+street directly beneath the window.
+
+"Did you find Gage?" it said.
+
+Barbara leaned forward a little and looked downward. Below her, on the
+narrow board-walk that ran in front of the Eating-House, were four men.
+She recognized three of them--Deveny, Strom Rogers, and Meeder Lawson,
+the Rancho Seco foreman.
+
+The other man was a stranger. Evidently it was the stranger to whom
+Deveny had spoken, for it was the stranger who answered.
+
+"He's in his office now."
+
+Deveny turned to Lawson and Rogers. "You two wait here, Laskar and myself
+will do the talking to Gage." He started away with the man who had
+answered him; then called back over his shoulder: "Hang around; if
+there's trouble, you'll want to get in on it."
+
+Deveny and Laskar walked down the street; the girl saw them enter the
+building occupied by the sheriff.
+
+Wondering, intensely curious--for that word "trouble" meant shooting in
+the vocabulary of men of the Deveny type--Barbara drew back until she was
+certain the men in the street could not see her.
+
+When Deveny and Laskar disappeared, Strom Rogers laughed sneeringly:
+
+"Deveny's scared of 'Drag' Harlan, I reckon. It's a cheap frame-up."
+
+"Aw, hell," jibed the other; "you're jealous, that's all. You'd like to
+see Harlan plug Deveny, eh; so's you'd have a chance with Barbara Morgan.
+I'd be a heap careful, if I was you, Rogers. Deveny knows you took a
+shine to Barbara Morgan. I seen him lookin' hostile at you when you was
+quizzin' him in Balleau's. He's next."
+
+"This is a free country," returned Rogers. The girl caught the malignant
+note in his voice, and she leaned outward a little, trying to see his
+face, while she shivered with dread.
+
+"Yes," laughed Lawson; "a man can cash in without any excuse, usual; all
+he's got to do is to cross Deveny. You're a damned fool, Strom, to go to
+takin' a shine to Barbara Morgan, when Deveny wants her. He's been
+waitin' for her, an' meanin' to have her, all along. He's only been
+waitin' until ol' Morgan cashed in, so's he'd have a chance to take her.
+Now that Morgan's dead his chance has come."
+
+Silently, her face dead white, her eyes closed, Barbara slipped backward
+and crumpled into a heap on the dirty carpet of the room.
+
+When she again opened her eyes it was to look wildly at the open window
+through which the terrible news had come. Then she dragged herself to it,
+and making no sound leaned her arms on the sill and listened again, her
+heart seeming to be in the clutch of icy fingers, her brain atrophied,
+reeling in a chaos of incoherent, agonized impulses.
+
+She did not know how long she had been unconscious. She saw that Rogers
+and Lawson were still below, and still talking. So keen was her sense of
+hearing--every nerve straining in the effort to learn more--that the
+voices of the men came in through the window with a resonance that, she
+felt, must be audible to every person in Lamo.
+
+"It ain't my style, that's all. I'd meet Harlan on the level, man to man,
+if he was lookin' for me. It's likely he ain't at that. I've heard, bad
+as he is, that he plays square. An' if I was runnin' things I'd take a
+look at him before chargin' him with killin' Lane Morgan, when the
+killin' had been done by the Chief, an' Dolver, an' Laskar."
+
+It was Strom Rogers' voice. It bore conviction with it, even though there
+was passionate feeling behind it, mingled strangely with personal hatred
+and jealousy.
+
+Dumbly, Barbara clutched the window-sill. One dry, agonized sob racked
+her; and then she sat on the floor, to stare vacantly at the dingy walls
+of the room.
+
+Once more she heard Rogers' voice; this time there was a note of savage
+glee in it:
+
+"There's Harlan now, just slippin' off his cayuse in front of Gage's
+place. 'Drag,' eh? Well, there don't seem to be nothin' impedin' his
+actions anywhere."
+
+Prompted by the urge of a curiosity that she could not resist, Barbara
+reeled to her feet, and with her hands resting on the window-sill leaned
+out and looked up the street.
+
+In front of the sheriff's office, not more than thirty or forty feet
+distant, she saw a tall, well-built man standing beside the hitching rail
+that fringed the board sidewalk. He had evidently just dismounted, and he
+was standing at the head of a big, coal-black horse. He was in the act of
+hitching the animal, and his back was toward her.
+
+She watched breathlessly until he turned. And then she stared hard at
+him, noting the steady, cold, alert eyes; the firm lips; the bigness of
+him, the atmosphere of capableness that seemed to surround him; the
+low-swung guns at his hips, with no flaps on the holster-tops, and the
+bottoms of the holsters tied to his leather chaps with rawhide thongs.
+
+Never had she seen a man like him. For some reason, as yet inexplicable
+to her, he brought into her troubled consciousness a feeling of cold
+calm, a refreshing influence that might be compared to the sweep of a
+cool and unexpected breeze in the middle of a hot day.
+
+He dominated the group of men that instantly surrounded him; and the
+dominance was not of attire, for he was arrayed like the others. She saw
+Deveny standing near him, and the man Laskar behind Deveny and Sheriff
+Gage and several other men. And she saw Rogers and Lawson as they walked
+slowly toward him.
+
+And then a realization of her loss, of the tragedy that had descended
+upon her, again assailed her; and a fury of intolerance against inaction
+seized her. She could not stay in this room and suffer the hideous
+uncertainty; she could not take Rogers' word that her father had been
+killed. There must be some mistake. Perhaps Rogers knew she was at the
+window, listening, and he had said that just to spite her. For she had
+discouraged Rogers' advances as she had discouraged Deveny's.
+
+Breathing fast, she unlocked the door and went out into the hall.
+
+The man whom Deveny had placed to guard her was still lounging on the
+stair platform, and he grinned when he saw her.
+
+"Comin' to try ag'in?" he grinned.
+
+She smiled--a disarming smile that brought a fatuous gleam into the man's
+eyes, so that he permitted her to come close to him.
+
+"Deveny's got damn' good judgment," he said as she halted near him. "He
+knows a thoroughbred when he sees--Hell!"
+
+The ejaculation came from his lips as Barbara leaped swiftly past him. He
+threw out a futile arm, and stood for an instant, shocked into inaction
+as Barbara ran down the stairs toward the street. Then the man leaped
+after her, cursing. She could hear him saying: "Damn your hide! Damn your
+hide!" as he came after her, his spurs jangling on the steps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CHAIN-LIGHTNING
+
+
+Turning from Purgatory, after he had dismounted in front of the sheriff's
+office, Harlan faced three men who stood just outside of the building,
+watching him.
+
+The slightly humorous smile that curved Harlan's lips might have betrayed
+his reason for dismounting in front of the sheriff's office, for he had
+seen Laskar standing with the two other men. But no man could have told
+that he looked at Laskar directly, except Laskar himself, who would have
+sworn that Harlan did not remove his gaze from him, once he had slipped
+from Purgatory's back.
+
+For Harlan's eyes told nothing. They seemed to be gazing at nothing, and
+at everything. For Gage, watching the man, was certain Harlan was looking
+directly at him as he grinned, and Deveny, like Laskar, was sure Harlan's
+gaze was upon him. And all of them, noting one another's embarrassment,
+stood silent, marveling.
+
+And now Deveny discovered that Harlan was watching the three of them
+together--a trick which is accomplished by fixing the gaze upon some
+object straight in front of one; in this case it was Deveny's collar--and
+then including other objects on each side of the center object.
+
+Steady nerves and an inflexible will are required to keep the gaze
+unwavering, and a complete absence of self-consciousness. Thus Deveny
+knew he was standing in the presence of a man whose poise and
+self-control were marvelous; and he knew, too, that Harlan would be aware
+of the slightest move made by either of the three; more, he could detect
+any sign of concerted action.
+
+And concerted action was what Deveny and Laskar and the sheriff had
+planned. And they had purposely dragged Laskar outside, expecting Harlan
+would do just as he had done, and as his eyes warned he intended to do.
+
+"I'm after you, Laskar," he said softly.
+
+Laskar stiffened. He made no move, keeping his hands at his sides, where
+they had been all the time that had elapsed since Harlan had dismounted.
+
+Laskar's eyes moved quickly, with an inquiring flash in them, toward
+Deveny and the sheriff. It was time for Deveny and the sheriff to
+precipitate the action they had agreed upon.
+
+But the sheriff did not move. Nor did Deveny change his position. A
+queer, cold chill had come over Deveny--a vague dread, a dragging
+reluctance--an indecision that startled him and made of his thoughts an
+odd jumble of half-formed impulses that seemed to die before they could
+become definite.
+
+He had faced gun-fighters before, and had felt no fear of them. But
+something kept drumming into his ears at this instant with irritating
+insistence that this was not an ordinary man; that standing before him,
+within three paces, his eyes swimming in an unfixed vacuity which
+indicated preparation for violent action, was Harlan--"Drag" Harlan, the
+Pardo two-gun man; Harlan, who had never been beaten in a gunfight.
+
+Could he--Deveny--beat him? Could he, now, with "Drag" Harlan watching
+the three of them, could he draw with any hope of success, with the hope
+of beating the other's lightning hand on the downward flash to life or
+death?
+
+Deveny paled; he was afraid to take the chance. His eyes wavered from
+Harlan's; he cast a furtive glance at the sheriff.
+
+Harlan caught the glance, smiled mirthlessly and spoke shortly to Laskar:
+
+"I told you to keep hittin' the breeze till there wasn't any more
+breeze," he said. "I ought to have bored you out there by the red rock. I
+gave you your chance. Flash your gun!"
+
+"Harlan!"
+
+This was Gage. His voice sounded as though it had been forced out: it was
+hoarse and hollow.
+
+Harlan did not move, nor did his eyes waver. There was feeling in them
+now: intense, savage, cold. And his voice snapped.
+
+"You're the sheriff, eh? You want to gas, I reckon. Do it quick before
+this coyote goes for his gun."
+
+The sheriff cleared his throat. "You're under arrest, Harlan, for killin'
+Lane Morgan out there in the desert yesterday."
+
+Harlan's eyes narrowed, his lips wreathed into a feline smile. But he did
+not change his position.
+
+"Who's the witness against me?"
+
+"Laskar."
+
+"Has he testified?"
+
+"He's goin' to."
+
+Harlan backed away a little. His grin was tiger-like, a yellow flame
+seemed to leap in his eyes. Laskar, realizing at last that he could hope
+for no assistance from Gage or Deveny, grew rigid with desperation.
+
+Death was in front of him; he knew it. Death or a deathless fame. The
+fates had willed one or the other, and he chose to take the gambler's
+chance, the chance he and Dolver and the Chief had refused Lane Morgan.
+
+Deathless fame, the respect and the admiration of every man in the
+section was his if he beat "Drag" Harlan to the draw. Forever afterward,
+if he beat Harlan, he would be pointed at as the man who had met the
+Pardo gunman on even terms and had downed him.
+
+He stepped out a little, away from the front of the building, edging off
+from Deveny and Gage so that Harlan would have to watch in two
+directions.
+
+Lawson and Rogers, having advanced to a position within a dozen paces of
+the group in front of the sheriff's office, now backed away, silent,
+watchful. Other men who had been standing near were on the move
+instantly. Some dove into convenient doorways, others withdrew to a
+little distance down the street. But all intently watched as Laskar
+showed by his actions that he intended to accept his chance.
+
+Deveny, too, watched intently. He kept his gaze fixed upon Harlan, not
+even glancing toward Laskar. For Deveny's fear had gone, now that the
+dread presence had centered its attention elsewhere, and he was
+determined to discover the secret of Harlan's hesitating "draw," the
+curious movement that had given the man his sobriquet, "Drag." The
+discovery of that secret might mean much to him in the future; it might
+even mean life to him if Harlan decided to remain in the section.
+
+Harlan had made no hostile movement as yet. He still stood where he had
+stood all along, except for the slight backward step he had taken before
+Laskar began to move. But he watched Laskar as the latter edged away from
+the other men, and when he saw Laskar's eyes widen with the thought that
+precedes action, with the gleam that reflects the command the brain
+transmutes to the muscles, his right hand flashed downward toward the
+hip.
+
+With a grunt, for Harlan had almost anticipated his thoughts, Laskar's
+right hand swept toward the butt of his pistol.
+
+But Harlan's hand had come to a poise, just above the stock of his
+weapon--a pause so infinitesimal that it was merely a suggestion of a
+pause.
+
+It was enough, however, to throw Laskar off his mental balance, and as he
+drew his weapon he glanced at Harlan's holster.
+
+A dozen men who watched swore afterward that Laskar drew his gun first;
+that it was in his hand when Harlan's bullet struck him. But Deveny knew
+better; he knew that Laskar was dead on his feet before the muzzle of his
+weapon had cleared the holster, and that the shot he had fired had been
+the result of involuntary muscular action; that he had pulled the trigger
+after Harlan's bullet struck him, and while his gun had been loosening in
+his hand.
+
+For Deveny had seen the bullet from Laskar's gun throw up sand at
+Harlan's feet after Harlan's weapon had sent its death to meet Laskar.
+And Deveny had discovered the secret of Harlan's "draw." The pause was a
+trick, of course, to disconcert an adversary. But the lightning flash of
+Harlan's hand to his gun-butt was no trick. It was sheer rapidity, his
+hand moving so fast that the eye could not follow.
+
+And Deveny could get no pleasure from his discovery. Harlan had waited
+until Laskar's fingers were wrapped around the stock of his pistol before
+he had drawn his own, and therefore in the minds of those who had
+witnessed the shooting, Harlan had been justified.
+
+Sheriff Gage thought so, too. For, after Laskar's body had been carried
+away, Harlan stepped to where the sheriff stood and spoke shortly:
+
+"You wantin' me for this?"
+
+Sheriff Gage shook his head. "I reckon everybody saw Laskar go for his
+gun. There was no _call_ for him to go for his gun. If you'd have shot
+him without him reachin' for it things would have been different."
+
+Harlan said coldly, "I'm ready for that trial, now."
+
+The sheriff's eyes glowed with some secret significance as they met
+Harlan's. He was standing at a little distance from Deveny, and he
+deliberately closed an eye at Harlan.
+
+"Trial--hell!" he declared, "you've destroyed the evidence."
+
+Harlan wheeled, to see Deveny standing near. And for an instant as their
+eyes met--Harlan's level and cold, Deveny's aflame with a hostility
+unmistakable--the crowd which had witnessed the shooting of Laskar again
+became motionless, while a silence, portending further violence,
+descended over the street.
+
+Then Deveny abruptly wheeled and began to walk across to the First
+Chance.
+
+He had not taken many steps, however, when there were sounds of commotion
+farther down the street toward the Eating-House--a man cursing and a girl
+screaming.
+
+Deveny halted and faced the point from which the sounds came, and a scowl
+appeared on his face.
+
+Harlan wheeled, also. And he saw, at a little distance down the street, a
+girl running, her hair tossing in a mass around her, her eyes wild with
+fright and terror. Behind her came a man, cursing as he ran.
+
+Harlan heard Sheriff Gage curse, too--heard him say:
+
+"That's Lane Morgan's daughter--Barbara! What in hell is she doin' here?"
+
+The girl, not more than a dozen feet ahead of her pursuer, ran straight
+toward Harlan. And when--as she drew closer and he saw that she was,
+indeed, actually coming toward him--her eyes on him as though she had
+singled him out as a protector--he advanced toward her, drawing one of
+his guns as he went.
+
+And, grinning as she neared him, he opened his arms wide and she ran
+straight into them, and laid her head on his shoulder, sobbing, and
+talking incoherently. While Harlan, his grin fading as he looked at her
+pursuer--who had halted within half a dozen paces of the girl--commanded
+lowly:
+
+"You're runnin' plumb into a heap of trouble, mister man. Throw your rope
+around the snubbin' post. Then get on your hind legs an' do some
+explainin'. What you chasin' this girl for?"
+
+The man reddened, looked downward, then up at Deveny. The latter, a pout
+on his lips, his eyes glowing savagely, walked to where Harlan stood with
+one arm around the girl, while Lawson, Rogers, Gage, and several other
+men advanced slowly and stood near him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SINGLE-HANDED
+
+
+Noting the concerted movement toward him, Harlan grinned at Barbara,
+gently disengaged himself from her grasp, and urged her toward the door
+of the sheriff's office. She made no objection, for she felt that further
+trouble impended, and she knew she must not impede any action her rescuer
+planned.
+
+Reaching the street a few minutes before, she had noted the preparations
+for the swift tragedy that had followed; and despite her wild desire to
+escape Deveny's man, she had halted, fascinated by the spectacle
+presented by the two men, gambling with death.
+
+She had halted at a little distance, crouching against the front of a
+building. And while she had been crouching there, trembling with a new
+apprehension, her pursuer had caught her.
+
+She had hardly been aware of him, and his grasp on her arm she had not
+resisted, so intense was her interest in what was transpiring. But the
+sudden ending of the affair brought again into her consciousness the
+recollection of her own peril, and when she saw Deveny cross the street
+she broke from the man's restraining grasp and ran to Harlan, convinced
+that he--because he seemed to be antagonistic toward the forces arrayed
+against her--would protect her.
+
+And now, shrinking into the open doorway of the sheriff's office, she
+watched breathlessly, with straining senses, the moving figures in the
+drama.
+
+Harlan had backed a little way toward the doorway in which Barbara stood.
+The movement was strategic, and had been accomplished with deliberation.
+He was facing Lamo's population--at least that proportion of it which was
+at home--with the comforting assurance that no part of it could get
+behind him.
+
+The gun he had drawn upon the approach of Barbara's pursuer was still in
+his right hand. It menaced no one, and yet it seemed to menace everyone
+within range of it.
+
+For though the gun was held loosely in Harlan's hand, the muzzle
+downward, there was a glow in the man's eyes that conveyed a warning.
+
+The smile on his face, too, was pregnant with the promise of violence. It
+was a surface smile, penetrating no deeper than his lips, and behind it,
+partially masked by the smile, the men in the group in the street could
+detect the destroying passion that ruled the man at this instant.
+
+Deveny, who had approached to a point within a dozen feet of Harlan, came
+to a slow, reluctant halt when he caught a glimpse of the strange glow in
+Harlan's eyes. All the others, Sheriff Gage included, likewise
+halted--most of them at a considerable distance, as their conceptions of
+prudence suggested.
+
+Harlan's grin grew ironic as he noted the pause--the concerted rigidity
+of Lamo's population.
+
+"Seems there's a heap of folks wantin' to palaver," he said lowly. "An'
+no one is crowdin' me. That's polite an' proper. Seems you all sort of
+guessed there's plenty of room, an' crowdin' ain't necessary. I'd thank
+every specimen to hook his thumbs in the armholes of his vest--same as
+though he's a member of the pussy-café outfit which I've seen in
+Chicago, makin' moon-eyes at girls. If there's any of you ain't got on
+vests, why, you can fasten your sky-hooks on your shoulders any way to
+suit your idee of safety. Get them up!"
+
+It seemed ludicrous to Barbara, despite the shadow of tragedy that lurked
+over it all--the embarrassed manner in which Lamo's citizens complied
+with the command, and the spectacle they presented afterward.
+
+Deveny's hands were the last to go up. There was a coldly malignant glare
+in his eyes as under Harlan's unwavering gaze he finally raised his hands
+and held them, palms outward, as for inspection.
+
+Rogers had complied instantly. There was a smile on his face, faint and
+suggestive of grim amusement, for he had been mentally tortured over the
+contemplation of Barbara's predicament, and had been unable to think of
+any plan by which he might assist her.
+
+Meeder Lawson's face was sullen and full of impotent rage, and he watched
+Deveny with a gaze of bitter accusation when he saw that the big man
+intended to obey Harlan's order. Barbara's pursuer, having felt Deveny's
+angry gaze upon him, and being uncomfortably conscious that Harlan had
+not forgotten him, was red of face and self-conscious. He started, and
+the red in his face deepened, when Harlan, in the silence which followed
+the concerted raising of hands, spoke sharply to him:
+
+"What was you tryin' to corral that girl for? Talk fast or I'll bust you
+wide open!"
+
+The man grinned foolishly, shooting a furtive glance at Deveny.
+
+"Why," he said, noting Deveny's scowl, "I reckon it was because I'd took
+a shine to her. I was tryin' to cotton up to her on the landin' about the
+Eatin'-House, an' she----"
+
+"You lie!"
+
+This was Barbara. Pale, her eyes flashing with indignation, she stepped
+down into the street, standing near Harlan.
+
+"That man," Barbara went on, pointing to the red-faced pursuer, "told me
+early this morning that Luke Deveny had told him to watch me, that I was
+not to leave my room until Deveny came for me. I was a prisoner. He
+didn't try to make love to me. I should have killed him."
+
+Speech had broken the tension under which Barbara had been laboring; the
+flow of words through her lips stimulated her thoughts and sent them
+skittering back to the salient incidents of her enforced confinement;
+they brought into her consciousness a recollection of the conversation
+she had heard between Meeder Lawson and Strom Rogers, regarding her
+father. She forgot Harlan, Deveny, and the others, and ran to Sheriff
+Gage.
+
+Gage, a tall, slender man of forty, was pale and uncomfortable as he
+looked down at the girl's white, upturned face. He shrank from the
+frenzied appeal of her eyes, and he endured the pain of her tightly
+gripping fingers on the flesh of his arms without flinching.
+
+"Did--is father _dead_!"
+
+She waited, frantically shaking Gage. And Gage did not answer until his
+gaze had roamed the crowd.
+
+Then he said slowly and reluctantly:
+
+"I reckon he's dead. Deveny was tellin' me--he was chargin' this man,
+Harlan, with killin' your father."
+
+Barbara wheeled and faced Deveny. Rage, furious and passionate, had
+overwhelmed the grief she felt over the death of her father. The shock
+had been tremendous, but it had come while she had been leaning out of
+the window listening to Rogers and Lawson--when she had lain for many
+minutes unconscious on the floor of the room. Therefore the emotion she
+experienced now was not entirely grief, it was rather a frantic yearning
+to punish the men who had killed her father.
+
+"You charged this man with murdering my father?" she demanded of Deveny
+as she walked to him and stood, her hands clenched, her face dead white
+and her eyes blazing hate. "You know better. I heard Strom Rogers tell
+Meeder Lawson that it was Dolver and Laskar and somebody he called the
+'Chief,' who did it. I want to know who those men are; I want to know
+where I can find them! I want you to tell me!"
+
+"You're unstrung, Barbara," said Deveny slowly, coolly, a faint smile on
+his face. "I know nothing about it. I merely repeated to Gage the word
+Laskar brought. Laskar said this man Harlan shot your father. It happened
+about a day's ride out--near Sentinel Rock. If Laskar lied, he was paid
+for his lying. For Harlan has----"
+
+Deveny paused, the sentence unfinished, for the girl turned abruptly from
+him and walked to Harlan.
+
+"That was Laskar--the man you killed just now?"
+
+"Laskar an' Dolver," relied Harlan. "There was three of them your father
+said. One got away in the night, leavin' Dolver an' Laskar to finish the
+job. I run plumb into them, crossin' here from Pardo. I bored Dolver, but
+I let Laskar off, not havin' the heart to muss up the desert with scum
+like him."
+
+The girl's eyes gleamed for an instant with venomous satisfaction. Then
+she said, tremulously:
+
+"And father?"
+
+"I buried him near the rock," returned Harlan, lowly.
+
+Soundlessly, closing her eyes, Barbara sank into the dust of the street.
+
+Harlan broke the force of her fall with his left hand, supporting her
+partially until she collapsed; then, his eyes alight with a cold flame,
+he called, sharply, his gaze still on the group of men:
+
+"Get her, Gage! Take her into your place!"
+
+He waited until Gage carried the slack form inside. Then, his shoulders
+sagging, the heavy pistol in his right hand coming to a poise, the
+fingers of the left hand brushing the butt of the weapon in the holster
+at his left hip, the vacuous gleam in his eyes telling them all that his
+senses were alert to catch the slightest movement, he spoke, to Deveny:
+
+"I seen that desert deal. It wasn't on the level. I ain't no angel, but
+when I down a man I do it fair an' square--givin' him his chance. I sent
+that sneak Dolver out--an' that coyote Laskar. It was a dirty, rotten
+deal, the way they framed up on Morgan. It's irritated me--I reckon you
+can hear my rattles right now. I'm stayin' in Lamo, an' I'm stickin' by
+this Barbara girl until you guys learn to walk straight up, like men!"
+
+He paused, and a heavy silence descended. No man moved. A sneer began to
+wreathe Harlan's lips--a twisting, mocking, sardonic sneer that expressed
+his contempt for the men who faced him.
+
+"Not havin' any thoughts, eh?" he jeered. "There's some guys that would
+rather do their fightin' with women, an' their thoughts wouldn't sound
+right if they put words around them. I ain't detainin' you no longer. Any
+man who thinks it's time to call for a show-down can do his yappin' right
+now. Them that's dead certain they're through can mosey along, takin'
+care not to try any monkey business!"
+
+He stood, watching, his wide gaze including them all, until, one after
+another the men in the group silently moved away. They did not go far.
+Some of them merely stepped into near-by doorways, others sauntered
+slowly down the street and halted at a little distance to look back.
+
+But no man made a hostile move, for they had seen the tragedy in which
+Laskar had figured, and they had no desire to provoke Harlan to express
+again the cold wrath that slumbered in his eyes.
+
+Meeder Lawson was the first of Deveny's intimates to leave the group. His
+face sullen, his eyes venomous, he walked across the street to the First
+Chance, and stood in the doorway, beside Balleau, who had been an
+interested onlooker.
+
+Then Strom Rogers moved. He wheeled slowly, flashing an inquiring glance
+at Deveny--who still stood motionless. Deveny had lowered his hands--they
+were hanging at his sides, the right hand having the palm toward Harlan,
+giving eloquent testimony of its owner's peaceable intentions.
+
+Rogers' glance included the out-turned palm, and his lips curved in a
+faint smile. The smile held as his glance went to Harlan's face, and for
+an instant as the eyes of the two men met, appraisal was the emotion that
+ruled in them. Harlan detected in Rogers' eyes a grim scorn of Deveny,
+and a malignant satisfaction; Rogers saw in Harlan's eyes a thing that
+not one of the men who had faced the man had seen--cold humor.
+
+Then Rogers was walking away, leaving Deveny to face the man who had
+disrupted his plans.
+
+Deveny had not changed his position, and for an instant following the
+departure of Rogers, there was no word spoken. Then for the first time
+since he had dismounted from Purgatory, Harlan's eyes lost their wide,
+inclusive vacuity. They met Deveny's fairly, with a steady, direct,
+boring intensity; a light in them that resembled the yellow flame that
+Deveny had once seen in the eyes of a Mexican jaguar some year before at
+a camp on the Neuces.
+
+Deveny knew what the light in Harlan's eyes meant. It meant the presence
+of a wild, rending passion, of elemental impulses; it meant that the man
+who faced him was eager to kill him, was awaiting his slightest hostile
+movement. It meant more. The gleam in Harlan's eyes indicated that the
+man possessed that strange and almost uncanny instinct of thought
+reading, that he could detect in another's eyes a mental impulse before
+the other's muscles could answer it. Also, it meant certain death to
+Deveny should he obey the half-formed determination to draw and shoot,
+that was in his mind at this instant.
+
+He dropped his lids, attempting to veil the thought from Harlan. But when
+he again looked up it was to see Harlan's lips twisting into a cold
+smile--to see Harlan slowly sheathing the gun he had held in his right
+hand.
+
+And now Harlan was standing before him, both weapons in their holsters.
+He and Deveny were facing each other upon a basis of equality. Harlan had
+disdained taking advantage.
+
+Apparently, if Deveny now elected to draw and shoot, his chances were as
+good as Harlan's.
+
+And yet Deveny knew they were not as good. For Harlan's action in
+sheathing his gun convinced Deveny that the man had divined his thoughts
+from the expression of his eyes before he had veiled them with the lids,
+and he was convinced that Harlan had sensed the chill of dread that had
+swept over him at that instant. He was sure of it when he heard Harlan's
+voice, low and taunting:
+
+"You waitin' for a show-down?"
+
+Deveny smiled, pallidly. "I don't mind telling you that I _did_ have a
+notion that way a moment ago. But I was afraid I might be a little slow.
+When you downed Laskar I watched you, trying to learn the secret of your
+draw. I didn't learn it, because there is no secret--you're just a
+natural gunslinger without a flaw. You're the fastest man with a gun I
+ever saw--and I'm taking my hat off to you."
+
+Harlan smiled faintly, but his eyes did not lose their alertness, nor did
+the flame in them cool visibly. Only his lips betrayed whatever emotion
+he felt. He distrusted Deveny, for he had seen the half-formed
+determination in the man's eyes, and his muscles were tensed in
+anticipation of a trick.
+
+"You didn't stay here to tell me that. Get goin' with the real talk."
+
+"That's right--I didn't," said Deveny. He was cool, now, and bland,
+having recovered his poise.
+
+"Higgins _was_ watching Barbara Morgan at my orders. But I meant no harm
+to the girl. I knew she was in town, and I heard there were a few of the
+boys that were making plans about her. So I set Higgins to guard her.
+Naturally, she thought I meant harm to her."
+
+"Naturally," said Harlan.
+
+Deveny said coolly: "I'll admit I have a bad reputation. But it doesn't
+run to women. It's more in your line." He looked significantly at the
+other.
+
+"Meanin'?"
+
+"Oh, hell--you know well enough what I mean. You're not such a
+law-abiding citizen, yourself. I've heard of you--often. And I've admired
+you. To get right down to the point--I could find a place where you'd fit
+in just right. We're needing another man--a man of your general size and
+character."
+
+Harlan grinned. "I'm thankin' you. An' I sure appreciate what you've
+said. You've been likin' me so much that you tried to frame up on me
+about sendin' Lane Morgan out."
+
+"That's business," laughed Deveny. "You were an unknown quantity, then."
+
+"But not now--eh?" returned Harlan, his eyes gleaming with a cold humor.
+"You've got me sized up right. The yappin' I done about stickin' to
+Barbara Morgan wasn't the real goods, eh?"
+
+"Certainly not!" laughed Deveny, "there must be some selfish motive
+behind that."
+
+"An' you sure didn't believe me?"
+
+"Of course not," chuckled Deveny, for he thought he saw a gleam of
+insincerity in Harlan's eyes.
+
+"Then I've got to do my yappin' all over again," said Harlan. "Now get
+this straight. I'm stickin' to Barbara Morgan. I'm runnin' the Rancho
+Seco from now on. I'm runnin' it _my_ way. Nobody is botherin' Barbara
+Morgan except them guys she wants to have bother her. That lets you out.
+You're a rank coyote, an' I don't have no truck with you except at the
+business end of a gun. Now take your damned, sneakin' grin over an' wet
+it down, or I'll blow you apart!"
+
+Deveny's face changed color. It became bloated with a poisonous wrath,
+his eyes gleamed evilly and his muscles tensed. He stood, straining
+against the murder lust that had seized him, almost persuaded to take the
+slender chance of beating Harlan to his weapon.
+
+"You got notions, eh?" he heard Harlan say, jeeringly. "Well, don't spoil
+'em. I'd admire to make you feel like you'd ought to have got started a
+week ago."
+
+Deveny smiled with hideous mirthlessness. But he again caught the flame
+in Harlan's eyes. He wheeled, saying nothing more, and walked across the
+street without looking back.
+
+Smiles followed him; several men commented humorously, and almost
+immediately, knowing that this last crisis had passed, Lamo's citizens
+resumed their interrupted pleasures.
+
+Harlan stood motionless until Deveny vanished into the First Chance, then
+he turned quickly and entered the sheriff's office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BARBARA IS PUZZLED
+
+
+Half an hour later, with Barbara Morgan, on "Billy"--a piebald
+pinto--riding beside him, Harlan loped Purgatory out of Lamo. They took a
+trail--faint and narrow--that led southward, for Barbara had said that
+the Rancho Seco lay in that direction.
+
+Harlan had not seen Deveny or Rogers or Lawson after the scene in front
+of the sheriff's office. He had talked for some time with Gage, waiting
+until Barbara Morgan recovered slightly from the shock she had suffered.
+Then when he had told her that he intended to accompany her to the Rancho
+Seco--and she had offered no objection--he had gone on a quest for her
+pony, finding him in the stable in the rear of the Eating-House.
+
+So far as Harlan knew, no one in Lamo besides Sheriff Gage had watched
+the departure of himself and Barbara. And there had been no word spoken
+between the two as they rode away--Lamo becoming at last an almost
+invisible dot in the great yawning space they left behind them.
+
+Barbara felt a curious unconcern for what was happening; her brain was in
+a state of dull apathy, resulting from shock and the period of dread
+under which she had lived for more than a day and a night.
+
+She did not seem to care what happened to her. She knew, to be sure, that
+she was riding toward the Rancho Seco with a man whom she had heard
+called an outlaw by other men; she was aware that she must be risking
+something by accepting his escort--and yet she could not bring herself to
+feel that dread fear that she knew any young woman in her position should
+feel.
+
+It seemed to her that nothing mattered now--very much. Her father was
+dead--murdered by some men--two of whom had been punished by death, and
+another--a mysterious person called the "Chief"--who would be killed as
+soon as she could find him. That resolution was deeply fixed in her mind.
+
+Her gaze though, after a while, went to Harlan, and for many miles she
+studied him without his suspecting. And gradually she began to think
+about him, to wonder why he had protected her from the man, Higgins, and
+why he was going with her to the Rancho Seco.
+
+She provided--after a while--an answer to her first question: He had
+protected her because she had run into his arms in her effort to escape
+the clutches of the man who had pursued her--Higgins. She remembered that
+while she had been at the window, watching Harlan when he had dismounted
+in front of the sheriff's office, he had seemed to make a favorable
+impression upon her.
+
+That was the reason, when she had seen him before her in the street, after
+he had shot Laskar, she had selected him as a protector. That had seemed
+to be the logical thing to do, for he had arrayed himself against her
+enemies in killing Laskar, and it was reasonable to suppose--conceding
+Laskar and Higgins were leagued with Deveny--that Harlan would protect
+her.
+
+It all seemed exceedingly natural, that far. It was when she began to
+wonder why Harlan was with her now that an element of mystery seemed to
+rule. And she was puzzled.
+
+She began to speculate over Harlan, and her mental efforts in that
+direction banished the somber thoughts that had almost overwhelmed her
+after the discovery of her father's death. Yet they had ridden more than
+ten miles before she spoke.
+
+"What made you decide to ride with me to the Rancho Seco?" she demanded
+sharply.
+
+Harlan flashed a grin at her. He was riding a little in advance of her,
+and he had to turn in the saddle to see her face.
+
+"I was headin' that way, an' wanted company. It sure gets lonesome ridin'
+alone."
+
+She caught her breath at this answer, for it seemed that he had not
+revealed the real reason. And she had got her first good look at his
+face. It was lean and strong. His eyes were deep-set and rimmed by heavy
+lashes and brows, and there was a glow in them as he looked at her--a
+compelling fixity that held her. Her own drooped, and were lifted to his
+again in sheer curiosity, she thought at first.
+
+It was only when she found herself, later, trying to catch his glance
+again that she realized they were magnetic eyes, and that the glow in
+them was of a subtle quality that could not be analyzed at a glance.
+
+The girl was alert to detect a certain expression in his eyes--a gleam
+that would tell her what she half feared--that the motive that had
+brought him with her was like that which had caused Deveny to hold her
+captive. But she could detect no such expression in Harlan's eyes, she
+could see a quizzical humor in his glances at times, or frank interest,
+and there were times when she saw a grim pity.
+
+And the pity affected her strangely. It brought him close to
+her--figuratively; it convinced her that he was a man of warm sympathies
+in spite of the reputation he held in the Territory.
+
+She had heard her father speak of him--always with a sort of awe in his
+voice; and tales of his reckless daring, his Satanic cleverness with a
+six-shooter, of his ruthlessness, had reached her ears from other
+sources. He had seemed, then, like some evil character of mythology,
+remote and far, and not likely to appear in the flesh in her section of
+the country.
+
+It seemed impossible that she had fled to such a man for protection--and
+that he had protected her; and that she was now riding beside him--or
+slightly behind him--and that, to all appearances, he was quite as
+respectful toward her as other men. That, she surmised, was what made it
+all seem so strange.
+
+Harlan did not seem disposed to talk; and he kept Purgatory slightly in
+the lead--except when the trail grew dim or disappeared altogether. Then
+he would pull the black horse up, look inquiringly at Barbara, and urge
+Purgatory after her when she took the lead.
+
+But there were many things that Barbara wanted to inquire about; and it
+was when they were crossing a big level between some rimming hills, where
+the trail was broad, that she urged her pony beside the black.
+
+"Won't you tell me about father--how he died?" she asked.
+
+He looked sharply at her, saw that she was now quite composed, and
+drawing Purgatory to a walk, began to relate to her the incident of the
+fight at Sentinel Rock. His story was brief--brutally brief, she might
+have thought, had she not been watching his face during the telling,
+noting the rage that flamed in his eyes when he spoke of Dolver and
+Laskar and the mysterious "Chief."
+
+It was plain to the girl that he had sympathized with her father; and it
+was quite as plain that he now sympathized with her. And thus she
+mentally recorded another point in his favor:
+
+He might be a gunman, a ruthless killer, an outlaw of such evil
+reputation that men mentioned his name with awe in their voices--but she
+_knew_, now, that he had a keen sense of justice, and that the murder of
+her father had aroused the retributive instinct in him.
+
+Also, she was convinced that compared to Deveny, Rogers, and Lawson, he
+was a gentleman. At least, so far he had not looked at her as those men
+had looked at her. He had been with her now for several hours, in a
+lonely country where there was no law except his own desires, and he had
+been as gravely courteous and considerate as it was possible for any man
+to be.
+
+When he finished his story, having neglected to mention the paper he had
+removed from one of the cylinders of Morgan's pistol--upon which was
+written instructions regarding the location of the gold Morgan had
+secreted--Barbara rode for a long time in silence, her head bowed, her
+eyes moist.
+
+At last she looked up. Harlan's gaze was straight ahead; he was watching
+the trail, where it vanished over the crest of a high ridge, and he did
+not seem to be aware of Barbara's presence.
+
+"And father told you to tell me--wanted you to bring the news to me?"
+
+Harlan nodded.
+
+"Then," she went on "your obligation--if you were under any--seems to
+have been completed. You need not have come out of your way."
+
+"I was headed this way."
+
+"To the Rancho Seco?" she questioned, astonished.
+
+Again he nodded. But this time there was a slight smile on his lips.
+
+Her own straightened, and her eyes glowed with a sudden suspicion.
+
+"That's odd," she said; "very odd."
+
+"What is?"
+
+"That you should be on your way to the Rancho Seco--and that you should
+encounter father--that you should happen to reach Sentinel Rock about the
+time he was murdered."
+
+He looked straight at her, noting the suspicion in her eyes. His low
+laugh had a hint of irony in it.
+
+"I've heard of such things," he said.
+
+"What?"
+
+"About guys happenin' to run plumb into a murder when they was innocent
+of it--an' of them bein' accused of the murder."
+
+It was the mocking light in his eyes that angered her, she believed--and
+the knowledge that he had been aware of her suspicion before it had
+become half formed in her mind.
+
+"I'm not accusing you!" she declared.
+
+"You said it was odd that I'd be headed this way--after I'd told you all
+there was to tell."
+
+"It is!" she maintained.
+
+"Well," he conceded; "mebbe it's odd. But I'm still headin' for the
+Rancho Seco. Mebbe I forgot to tell you that your father said I was to
+go--that he made me promise to go."
+
+He had not mentioned that before; and the girl glanced sharply at him. He
+met the glance with a slow grin which had in it a quality of that
+subtleness she had noticed in him before. A shiver of trepidation ran
+over her. But she sat rigid in the saddle, determined she would not be
+afraid of him. For the exchange of talk between them, and his considerate
+manner--everything about him--had convinced her that he was much like
+other men--men who respect women.
+
+"There is no evidence that father made you promise to go to the Rancho
+Seco."
+
+"There wasn't no evidence that I made any promise to keep that man Deveny
+from herd-ridin' you," he said shortly, with a grin. "I'm sure goin' to
+the Rancho Seco."
+
+"Suppose I should not wish it--what then?"
+
+"I'd keep right on headin' for there--keepin' my promise."
+
+"Do you always keep your promises?" she asked, mockery in her voice.
+
+"When I make 'em. Usually, I don't do any promisin'. But when I do--that
+promise is goin' to be kept. If you ain't likin' my company, ma'am, why,
+I reckon there's a heap of trail ahead. An' I ain't afraid of gettin'
+lost."
+
+"Isn't that remarkable!" she jeered.
+
+He looked at her with sober eyes. "If we're figurin' on hittin' the
+Rancho Seco before night we'll have to quit our gassin' an' do some
+travelin'," he advised. "Accordin' to the figures we've got about forty
+miles to ride, altogether. We've come about fifteen--an'," he looked at a
+silver watch which he drew from a pocket, "it's pretty near two now."
+
+Without further words--for it seemed useless to argue the point upon
+which he was so obviously determined--Barbara urged Billy on, taking the
+lead.
+
+For more than an hour she maintained the lead, riding a short distance in
+advance, and seemingly paying no attention to Harlan. Yet she noted that
+he kept about the same distance from her always--though she never
+permitted him to observe that she watched him, for her backward glances
+were taken out of the corners of her eyes, when she pretended to be
+looking at the country on one side or the other.
+
+Harlan, however, noted the glances. And his lips curved into a faint grin
+as he rode. Once when he had dropped behind a little farther than usual,
+he leaned over and whispered into Purgatory's ear:
+
+"She's sure ignorin' us, ain't she, you black son-of-a-gun! She ain't
+looked back here more'n three times in the last five minutes!"
+
+And yet Harlan's jocular mood did not endure long. During those intervals
+in which Barbara kept her gaze straight ahead on the trail, Harlan
+regarded her with a grave intentness that betrayed the soberness of his
+thoughts.
+
+In all his days he had seen no woman like her; and when she had come
+toward him in Lamo, with Higgins close behind her, he had been so
+astonished that he had momentarily forgotten Deveny and all the rest of
+them.
+
+Women of the kind he had met had never affected him as Barbara had
+affected him. He had still a mental picture of her as she had come toward
+him, with her hair flying in a golden-brown mass over her shoulders; her
+wide, fear-lighted eyes seeking his with an expression of appeal so
+eloquent that it had sent a queer, thrilling, protective sensation over
+him.
+
+And as she rode ahead of him it was the picture she had made _then_ that
+he saw; and the emotions that assailed him were the identical emotions
+that had beset him when for a brief instant, in Lamo, he had held her in
+his arms, with her head resting on his shoulder.
+
+That, he felt, had been the real Barbara Morgan. Her manner now--the
+constrained and distant pose she had adopted, her suspicions, her
+indignation--all those were outward manifestations of the reaction that
+had seized her. The real Barbara Morgan was she who had run to him for
+protection and she would always be to him as she had appeared then--a
+soft, yielding, trembling girl who, at a glance had trusted him enough to
+run straight into his arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AN UNWELCOME GUEST
+
+
+It was late afternoon when Barbara and Harlan--the girl still riding a
+little in advance of the man--rode their horses out of a stretch of
+broken country featured by low, barren hills and ragged draws, and came
+to the edge of a vast level of sage and mesquite that stretched southward
+an interminable distance.
+
+The sun was low--a flaming red disk that swam in a sea of ever-changing
+color between the towering peaks of two mighty mountains miles
+westward--and the sky above the big level upon which Barbara and Harlan
+rode was a pale amethyst set in the dull gray frame of the dusk that was
+rising from the southern and eastern horizons.
+
+Eastward the gray was pierced by the burning, flaming prismatic streaks
+that stretched straight from the cleft in the mountains where the sun was
+sinking--the sun seemed to be sending floods of new color into the
+streaks as he went, deepening those that remained; tinging it all with
+harmonious tones--rose and pearl and violet and saffron blending them
+with a giant, magic brush--recreating them, making the whole background
+of amethyst sky glow like a huge jewel touched by the myriad colors of a
+mighty rainbow.
+
+The trail taken by Barbara Morgan ran now, in a southeasterly direction,
+and it seemed to Harlan that they were riding straight into the folds of
+a curtain of gauze. For a haze was rising into the effulgent expanse of
+color, and the sun's rays, striking it, wrought their magic upon it.
+
+Harlan, accustomed to sunsets--with a matter-of-fact attitude toward all
+of nature's phenomena--caught himself admiring this one. So intent was he
+that he looked around with a start when Purgatory halted, to find that
+Barbara had drawn Billy down and was sitting in the saddle close to him,
+watching him, her eyes luminous with an emotion that thrilled Harlan
+strangely.
+
+"This is the most beautiful place in the world," she declared in a voice
+that seemed to quaver with awe.
+
+"It's sure a beauty," agreed Harlan. "I've been in a heap of places where
+they had sunsets, but dump 'em all together an' they wouldn't make an
+edge on this display. She's sure a hummer!"
+
+The girl's eyes seemed to leap at his praise.
+
+"I never want to leave this place," she said. "There is nothing like it.
+Those two mountains that you see far out into the west--where the sun is
+going down--are about forty miles distant. If you will notice, you can
+see that there are other mountains--much smaller--connected with them.
+They are two small ranges, and they melt into the plains there--and
+there."
+
+She pointed to the south and to the north, where the two ranges,
+seemingly extending straight westward, merged into the edge of the big
+level where Barbara and Harlan sat on their horses.
+
+The two ranges were perhaps a dozen miles apart, separated by a low level
+valley through which ran a narrow river, its surface glowing like
+burnished gold in the rays of the sinking sun.
+
+Gazing westward--straight into the glow--Harlan noted the virgin wildness
+of the immense valley. It lay, serene, slumberous; its salient
+features--ridges, low hills, rocky promontories and wooded slopes--touched
+by the rose tints that descended upon them; while in the depressions
+reigned purple shadows, soft-toned, blending perfectly with the brighter
+colors.
+
+With the sunset glow upon it; with the bastioned hills--barren at their
+peaks, ridged and seamed--looming clear and definite above the vast
+expanse of green, the colossal valley stretched, with no movement in it
+or above it--in a vacuum-like stillness that might have reigned over the
+world on the dawn of creation's first morning.
+
+Harlan looked covertly at Barbara. The girl's face was pale, and her eyes
+were glowing with a light that made him draw a long breath of sympathy
+and understanding. But it had been many years since he had felt the
+thrill of awe that she was experiencing at this minute.
+
+He knew that presently the spell would pass, and that material things
+would exact their due. And the resulting contrast between the beauty of
+the picture upon which she was gazing, and the solemn realization of loss
+that memory would bring, instantly, would almost crush her.
+
+Therefore he spoke seriously when he caught her looking at him.
+
+"There's sunsets _an'_ sunsets," he said. "They tell me that they're a
+heap common in some parts of the world. Wyoming, now--Wyoming prides
+herself on sunsets. An' I've heard they have 'em in Italy, an'
+France--an' some more of them foreign places--where guys go to look at
+'em. But it's always seemed to me that there ain't a heap of sense in
+gettin' fussed up over a sunset. The sun has got his work to do; an' he
+does it without any fussin'. An' they tell me that it's the same sun that
+sets in all them places I've been tellin' you about.
+
+"Well, it's always been my idee that the sun ain't got no compliments due
+him--he'll set mighty beautiful--sometimes; an' folks will get awed an'
+thrilly over him. But the next day--if a man happens to be ridin' in the
+desert, where there ain't any water, he'll cuss the sun pretty
+thorough--forgettin' the nice things he said about it once."
+
+Barbara scowled at him.
+
+"You haven't a bit of poetry in your soul!" she charged. "I'm sorry we
+stopped to look at the valley or the sun--or anything. You don't--you
+can't appreciate the beautiful!"
+
+He was silent as she urged Billy onward. And as they fled southwestward,
+with Purgatory far behind, Harlan swept his hat from his head and bowed
+toward the mighty valley, saying lowly:
+
+"You're sure a hummer--an' no mistake. But if a man had any poetry in his
+soul--why----"
+
+He rode on, gulping his delight over having accomplished what he had
+intended to accomplish.
+
+"She'll be givin' it to me pretty regular; an' she won't have time for no
+solemn thoughts. They'll come later, though, when she gets to the Rancho
+Seco."
+
+It was the lowing of cattle that at last brought to Harlan the conviction
+that they were near the Rancho Seco--that and the sight of the roofs of
+some buildings that presently came into view.
+
+But they had been riding for half an hour before they came upon the
+cattle and buildings, and the flaming colors had faded into somber gray
+tones. The filmy dusk that precedes darkness was beginning to settle over
+the land; and into the atmosphere had come that solemn hush with which
+the wide, open places greet the night.
+
+Barbara had no further word to say to Harlan until they reached a group
+of buildings that were scattered on a big level near a river. They had
+passed a long stretch of wire fence, which Harlan suspected, enclosed a
+section of land reserved for a pasture; and the girl brought her pony to
+a halt in front of an adobe building near a high rail fence.
+
+"This is the Rancho Seco," she said shortly. "This is the stable. Over
+there is the ranchhouse. Evidently the men are all away somewhere."
+
+She got off the pony, removed the saddle and bridle, carried them into
+the stable, came out again, and opened a gate in the fence, through which
+she sent "Billy." Then she closed the gate and turned to Harlan, who had
+dismounted and was standing at Purgatory's head.
+
+"I thank you for what you have done for me," she said, coldly. "And now,
+I should like to know just what you purpose to do--and why you have
+come."
+
+Harlan's eyes narrowed as he returned her gaze. He remembered Lane
+Morgan's words: "John Haydon is dead stuck on Barbara;" and he had
+wondered ever since the meeting in Lamo if Barbara returned Haydon's
+affection, or if she trusted Haydon enough to confide in him.
+
+Barbara's attitude toward Haydon would affect Harlan's attitude toward
+the girl. For if she loved Haydon, or trusted him enough to confide in
+him--or even to communicate with him concerning ordinary details, Harlan
+could not apprise her of the significance of his presence at the Rancho
+Seco.
+
+For Haydon was unknown to Harlan and Harlan was not inclined to accept
+Morgan's praise of him as conclusive evidence of the man's worthiness.
+Besides, Morgan had qualified his instructions with: "Take a look at John
+Haydon, an' if you think he's on the level--an' you want to drift
+on--turn things over to him."
+
+Harlan did not want to "drift on." Into his heart since his meeting in
+Lamo with Barbara--and during the ride to the Rancho Seco--had grown a
+decided reluctance toward "drifting." And not even the girl's scorn could
+have forced him to leave her at the ranch, unprotected.
+
+But he could not tell her why he could not go. Despite her protests he
+must remain--at least until he was able to determine the character of
+John Haydon.
+
+A gleam of faint mockery came into his eyes as he looked at Barbara.
+
+"I'm keepin' my promise to your dad--I'm stayin' at the Rancho Seco
+because he told me to stay. He wanted me to sort of look out that nothin'
+happened to you. I reckon we'll get along."
+
+The girl caught her breath sharply. In the growing darkness Harlan's
+smile seemed to hold an evil significance; it seemed to express a thought
+that took into consideration the loneliness of the surroundings, the fact
+that she was alone, and that she was helpless. More--it seemed to be a
+presumptuous smile, insinuating, full of dire promise.
+
+For Harlan was an outlaw--she could not forget that! He bore a reputation
+for evil that had made him feared wherever men congregated; and as she
+watched him it seemed to her that his face betrayed signs of his
+ruthlessness, his recklessness, and his readiness for violence of every
+kind.
+
+He might not have killed her father--Rogers and Lawson had acquitted him
+of that. But he might be lying about the promise to her father merely for
+the purpose of providing an excuse to come to the Rancho Seco. It seemed
+to her that if her father had really exacted a promise from him he would
+have written to her, or sent her some token to prove the genuineness of
+it. There was no visible evidence of Harlan's truthfulness.
+
+"Do you mean to say you are going to stay here--indefinitely?" she
+demanded, her voice a little hoarse from the fright that was stealing
+over her.
+
+He smiled at her. "You've hit it about right, ma'am."
+
+"I don't want you to stay here!" she declared, angrily.
+
+"I'm stayin', ma'am." His smile faded, and his eyes became
+serious--earnest.
+
+"Later on--when things shape themselves up--I'll tell you why I'm
+stayin'. But just now----"
+
+She shrank from him, incredulous, a growing fear plain in her eyes. And
+before he could finish what he intended to say she had wheeled, and was
+running toward the ranchhouse.
+
+He watched until she vanished through an open doorway; he heard the door
+slam, and caught the sound of bars being hurriedly dropped into place.
+And after that he stood for a time watching the house. No light came from
+within, and no other sound.
+
+He frowned slightly, drawing a mental picture of the girl inside,
+yielding to the terror that had seized her. Then after a while he walked
+down along the corral fence until he came to another building--a
+bunkhouse. And for a long time he stood in the doorway of the building,
+watching the ranchhouse, afflicted with grim sympathy.
+
+"It ain't so damn' cheerful, at that," he mused. "I reckon she thinks
+she's landed into trouble with both feet--with her dad cashin' in like he
+did, an' Deveny after her. It sure must be pretty hard to consider all
+them things. An' on top of that I mosey along, with a reputation as a
+no-good son-of-a-gun, an' scare the wits out of her with my homely mug.
+An' I can't tell her why she hadn't ought to be scared. I call that
+mighty mean."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ON GUARD
+
+
+The man whose soul held no love of the poetic sat for two or three hours
+on the threshold of the bunkhouse door, his gaze on the ranchhouse. He
+was considering his "reputation," and he had reached the conclusion that
+Barbara Morgan had reason to fear him--if rumor's tongues had related to
+her all of the crimes that had been attributed to him. And he knew she
+must have heard a great many tales about him, for rumor is a tireless
+worker.
+
+And for the first time in his life Harlan regretted that he had permitted
+rumor to weave her fabric of lies. For not one of the stories that
+luridly portrayed him in the rôle of a ruthless killer and outlaw was
+true.
+
+It was easy enough for him to understand how he had gained that
+reputation. He grinned mirthlessly now, as he mentally reviewed a past
+which _had_ been rather like the record of a professional man-killer. And
+yet, reviewing his past--from the day about five years ago, when he had
+shot a Taos bully who had drawn a gun on him with murderous intent, until
+today, when he had sent Laskar to his death--he could not remember one
+shooting affray for which he could be blamed. As a matter of fact, he
+had--by the courts in some instances, and by witnesses in others, where
+there were no courts--been held blameless.
+
+There had been men who had seen Harlan draw his weapons with deadly
+intent--men who insisted that the man's purpose was plain, to goad an
+enemy to draw a weapon, permitting him partially to draw it, and then to
+depend upon his superior swiftness and unerring aim. And this theory of
+Harlan's character had gone abroad.
+
+And because the theory had been accepted, Harlan's name became associated
+with certain crimes which are inseparable from the type of character
+which the popular imagination had given him. Strangers--criminals--in
+certain towns in the Territory and out of it must have heard with
+considerable satisfaction that their depredations had been charged to
+Harlan. Only once had Harlan been able to refute the charge of rumor.
+That was when, having passed a night in the company of Dave Hallowell,
+the marshal of Pardo, word was brought by a stage-driver that "Drag"
+Harlan had killed a man in Dry Bottom--a town two hundred miles
+north--and that Harlan had escaped, though a posse had been on his trail.
+
+Even when the driver was confronted by Harlan in the flesh he was
+doubtful, surrendering grudgingly, as though half convinced that Harlan
+had been able to transport himself over the distance from Dry Bottom to
+Pardo by some magic not mentioned.
+
+So it had gone. But the terrible record of evil deeds attributed to
+Harlan had not affected him greatly. In the beginning--when he had killed
+the Taos bully--he had been reluctant to take life; and he had avoided,
+as much as possible, company in which he would be forced to kill to
+protect himself.
+
+And through it all he had been able to maintain his poise, his
+self-control. The reputation he had achieved would have ruined some
+men--would have filled them with an ambition to fulfil the specifications
+of the mythical terror men thought him. There was a danger there; Harlan
+had felt it. There was a certain satisfaction in being pointed out as a
+man with whom other men dared not trifle; respect of a fearsome equality
+was granted him--he had seen it in the eyes of men, as he had seen an
+awed adulation in the eyes of women.
+
+He had felt them all--all the emotions that a real desperado could feel.
+He had experienced the impulse to swagger, to pose--really to live the
+part that his ill-fame had given him.
+
+But he had resisted those impulses; and the glow in his eyes when in the
+presence of men who feared him was not the passion to kill, but a
+humorous contempt of all men who abased themselves before him.
+
+On the night he had been with Dave Hallowell, the marshal of Pardo, he
+had listened with steady interest to a story told him by the latter. It
+concerned the Lamo region and the great basin at which he and Barbara
+Morgan had been looking when the girl had accused him of a lack of poetic
+feeling.
+
+"I've heard reports about Sunset Valley," Hallowell had said, squinting
+his eyes at Harlan. "I've met Sheriff Gage two or three times, an' he's
+had somethin' to say about it. Accordin' to Gage, everything ain't on the
+surface over there; there's somethin' behind all that robbin' an'
+stealin' that's goin' on. There's somethin' big, but it's hid--an' no man
+ain't ever been able to find out what it is. But it's somethin'.
+
+"In the first place, Deveny's gang ain't never been heard of as pullin'
+off anything anywheres else but in Sunset Valley. As for that, there's
+plenty of room in the valley for them without gettin' out of it. But it
+seems they'd get out once in a while. They don't--they stay right in the
+valley, or close around it. Seems to me they've got a grudge ag'in' them
+Sunset Valley ranchers, an' are workin' it off.
+
+"Why? That question has got Gage guessin'. It's got everybody guessin'.
+Stock is bein' run off in big bunches; men is bein' murdered without no
+cause; no man is able to get any money in or out of the valley--an'
+they're doin' other things that is makin' the cattlemen feel nervous an'
+flighty.
+
+"They've scared one man out--a Pole named Launski--from the far end. He
+pulled stakes an' hit the breeze runnin' sellin' out for a song to a guy
+named Haydon. I seen Launski when he clumb on the Lamo stage, headin'
+this way, an' he sure was a heap relieved to get out with a whole skin."
+
+Hallowell talked long, and the mystery that seemed to surround Sunset
+Valley appealed to Harlan's imagination. Yet he did not reveal his
+interest to Hallowell until the latter mentioned Barbara Morgan. Then his
+eyes glowed, and he leaned closer to the marshal.
+
+And when Hallowell remarked that Lane Morgan, of the Rancho Seco had
+declared he would give half his ranch to a trustworthy man who could be
+depended upon to "work his guns" in the interest of the Morgan family,
+the slow tensing of Harlan's muscles might have betrayed the man's
+emotions--for Hallowell grinned faintly.
+
+Hallowell had said more. But he did not say that word had come to him
+from Sheriff Gage--an appeal, rather--to the effect that Morgan had sent
+to him for such a man, and that Gage had transmitted the appeal to
+Hallowell. Hallowell thought he knew Harlan, and he was convinced that if
+he told Harlan flatly that Morgan wanted to employ him for that definite
+purpose, Harlan would refuse.
+
+And so Hallowell had gone about his work obliquely. He knew Harlan more
+intimately than he knew any other man in the country; and he was aware
+that the chivalric impulse was stronger in Harlan than in any man he
+knew.
+
+And he was aware, too, that Harlan was scrupulously honest and square,
+despite the evil structure which had been built around him by rumor. He
+had watched Harlan for years, and knew him for exactly what he was--an
+imaginative, reckless, impulsive spirit who faced danger with the steady,
+unwavering eye of complete unconcern.
+
+As Hallowell had talked of the Rancho Seco he had seen Harlan's eyes
+gleam; seen his lips curve with a faint smile in which there was a hint
+of waywardness. And so Hallowell knew he had scattered his words on
+fertile mental soil.
+
+And yet Harlan would not have taken the trail that led to the Rancho Seco
+had not the killing of his friend, Davey Langan, followed closely upon
+the story related to him by the marshal.
+
+Harlan had ridden eastward, to Lazette--a matter of two hundred
+miles--trailing a herd of cattle from the T Down--the ranch where he and
+Langan were employed.
+
+When he returned he heard the story of the killing of his friend by
+Dolver and another man, not identified, but who rode a horse branded with
+the L Bar M--which was the Rancho Seco brand.
+
+It was Hallowell who broke the news of the murder to Harlan, together
+with the story of his pursuit of Dolver and the other man, and of his
+failure to capture them.
+
+There was no thought of romance in Harlan's mind when he mounted
+Purgatory to take up Dolver's trail; and when he came upon Dolver at
+Sentinel Rock--and later, until he had talked with Lane Morgan--he had no
+thought of offering himself to Morgan, to become that trustworthy man who
+would "work his guns" for the Rancho Seco owner.
+
+But after he had questioned Laskar--and had felt that Laskar was not the
+accomplice of Dolver in the murder of Langan--he had determined to go to
+the ranch, and had told Morgan of his determination.
+
+Now, sitting on the threshold of the Rancho Seco bunkhouse, he realized
+that his talk with Morgan had brought him here in a different rôle than
+he had anticipated.
+
+From where he sat he had a good view of all the buildings--low,
+flat-roofed adobe structures, scattered on the big level with no regard
+for system, apparently--erected as the needs of a growing ranch required.
+Yet all were well kept and substantial, indicating that Lane Morgan had
+been a man who believed in neatness and permanency.
+
+The ranchhouse was the largest of the buildings. It was two stories high
+on the side fronting the slope that led to the river, and another
+section--in what appeared to be the rear, facing the bunkhouse, also had
+a second story--a narrow, boxlike, frowning section which had the
+appearance of a blockhouse on the parapet wall of a fort.
+
+And that, Harlan divined, was just what it had been built for--for
+defensive purposes. For the entire structure bore the appearance of age,
+and the style of its architecture was an imitation of the Spanish type.
+It was evident that Lane Morgan had considered the warlike instincts of
+wandering bands of Apache Indians when he had built his house.
+
+The walls connecting the fortlike section in the rear with the two-story
+front were about ten feet in height, with few windows; and the entire
+structure was built in a huge square, with an inner court, or _patio_,
+reached by an entrance that penetrated the lower center of the two-story
+section in front.
+
+Harlan's interest centered heavily upon the ranchhouse, for it was there
+that Barbara Morgan had hidden herself, fearing him.
+
+She had entered a door that opened in the wall directly beneath the
+fortlike second story, and it was upon this door that Harlan's gaze was
+fixed. He smiled wryly, for sight of the door brought Barbara into his
+thoughts--though he was not sure she had been out of them since the first
+instant of his meeting with her in Lamo.
+
+"They've been tellin' her them damn stories about me bein' a
+hell-raiser--an' she believes 'em," he mused. And then his smile faded.
+"An she ain't none reassured by my mug."
+
+But it was upon the incident of his meeting with Barbara, and the odd
+coincidence of his coming upon her father at Sentinel Rock, that his
+thoughts dwelt longest.
+
+It was odd--that meeting at Sentinel Rock. And yet not so odd, either,
+considering everything.
+
+For he had been coming to the Rancho Seco. Before he had reached Sentinel
+Rock he had been determined to begin his campaign against the outlaws at
+the Rancho Seco. It was his plan to ask Morgan for a job, and to spend as
+much of his time as possible in getting information about Deveny and his
+men, in the hope of learning the identity of the man who had assisted in
+the murder of Langan.
+
+What was odd about the incident was that Morgan should attempt to cross
+to Pardo to have his gold assayed at just about the time Harlan had
+decided to begin his trip to the Rancho Seco.
+
+Harlan smiled as his gaze rested on the ranchhouse. He was glad he had
+met Lane Morgan; he was glad he had headed straight for Lamo after
+leaving Morgan. For by going straight to Lamo he had been able to balk
+Deveny's evil intentions toward the girl who, in the house now, was so
+terribly afraid of him.
+
+He had told Morgan why he was headed toward the Rancho Seco section, but
+he had communicated to Morgan that information only because he had wanted
+to cheer the man in his last moments. That was what had made Morgan's
+face light up as his life had ebbed away. And Harlan's eyes glowed now
+with the recollection.
+
+"The damned cuss--how he did brighten up!" he mused. "He sure was a heap
+tickled to know that the deck wasn't all filled with dirty deuces."
+
+And then Harlan's thoughts went again to Lamo, and to the picture Barbara
+had made running toward him. It seemed to him that he could still feel
+her in his arms, and a great regret that she distrusted him assailed him.
+
+He had sat for a long time on the threshold of the bunkhouse door, and
+after a time he noted that the moon was swimming high, almost overhead.
+He got up, unhurriedly, and again walked to the stable door, looking in
+at Purgatory. For Harlan did not intend to sleep tonight; he had
+resolved, since the Rancho Seco seemed to be deserted except for his and
+Barbara's presence, to guard the ranchhouse.
+
+For he knew that the passions of Deveny for the girl were thoroughly
+aroused. He had seen in Deveny's eyes there in Lamo a flame--when Deveny
+looked at Barbara--that told him more about the man's passions than
+Deveny himself suspected. He grinned coldly as he leaned easily against
+the stable door; for men of the Deveny type always aroused him--their
+personality had always seemed to strike discord into his soul; had always
+fanned into flame the smoldering hatred he had of such men; had always
+brought into his heart those savage impulses which he had sometimes felt
+when he was on the verge of yielding to the urge to become what men had
+thought him--and what they still thought him--a conscienceless killer.
+
+His smile now was bitter with the hatred that was in his heart for
+Deveny--for Deveny had cast longing, lustful eyes upon Barbara
+Morgan--and the smile grew into a sneer as he drew out paper and tobacco
+and began to roll a cigarette.
+
+But as he rolled the cigarette his fingers stiffened; the paper and the
+tobacco in it dropped into the dust at his feet; and he stiffened, his
+lips straightening, his eyes flaming with rage, his muscles tensing.
+
+For a horseman had appeared from out of the moonlit haze beyond the
+river. Rigid in the doorway--standing back a little so that he might not
+be seen--Harlan watched the man.
+
+The latter brought his horse to a halt when he reached the far corner of
+the ranchhouse, dismounted, and stole stealthily along the wall of the
+building.
+
+Harlan was not more than a hundred feet distant, and the glare of the
+moonlight shining full on the man as he paused before the door into which
+Barbara Morgan had gone, revealed him plainly to Harlan.
+
+The man was Meeder Lawson. Harlan's lips wreathed into a grin of cold
+contempt. He stepped quickly to Purgatory, drew his rifle from its saddle
+sheath and returned to the doorway. And there, standing in the shadows,
+he watched Lawson as the latter tried the door and, failing to open it,
+left it and crept along the wall of the building, going toward a window.
+
+The window also was fastened, it seemed, for Lawson stole away from it
+after a time and continued along the wall of the house until he reached
+the southeast corner. Around that, after a fleeting glance about him,
+Lawson vanished.
+
+Still grinning--though there was now a quality in the grin that might
+have warned Lawson, had he seen it--Harlan stepped down from the doorway,
+slipped into the shadow of the corral fence, and made his way toward the
+corner where Lawson had disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE INTRUDER
+
+
+After closing the door through which she had entered, Barbara Morgan
+slipped the fastenings into place and stood, an ear pressed against the
+door, listening for sounds that would tell her Harlan had followed her.
+But beyond the door all was silence.
+
+Breathing fast, yielding to the panic of fear that had seized her, over
+the odd light she had seen in Harlan's eyes--a gleam, that to her, seemed
+to have been a reflection of some evil passion in the man's heart--she
+ran through the dark room she had entered, opened a door that led to the
+_patio_, and peered fearfully outward, as though she half expected to see
+Harlan there.
+
+But the court was deserted, apparently, though there were somber shadows
+ranging the enclosing walls that would afford concealment for Harlan, had
+he succeeded in gaining entrance. As she stepped out of the doorway she
+peered intently around.
+
+Then, further frightened by the brooding silence that seemed to envelop
+the place, and tortured by tragic thoughts in which her father occupied a
+prominent position--almost crazed by the memory of what had happened
+during the preceding twenty-four hours--she fled across the _patio_
+swiftly, her terror growing with each step.
+
+She knew the house thoroughly; she could have found her way in complete
+darkness; and when she reached the opposite side of the court she almost
+threw herself at a door which, she knew, opened into the big room in
+which she and her father had usually passed their leisure.
+
+Entering, she closed the door, and barred it. Then, feeling more secure,
+she stood for an instant in the center of the room, gazing about,
+afflicted with an appalling sense of loss, of loneliness, and of
+helplessness.
+
+For this was the first time she had entered the house since the news of
+her father's death had reached her; and she missed him, feeling more
+keenly than ever the grief she had endured thus far with a certain stoic
+calm; yielding to the tears that had been very close for hours.
+
+She did not light the kerosene lamp that stood on a big center table in
+the room. For there was light enough for her to see objects around her;
+and she went at last to an arm-chair which had been her father's
+favorite, knelt beside it, and sobbed convulsively.
+
+Later, yielding to a dull apathy which had stolen over her, she made her
+way upstairs, to her room--which was directly over the front entrance to
+the _patio_--and sank into a chair beside one of the windows.
+
+She had locked her door after entering; and for the first time since
+arriving at the Rancho Seco she felt comparatively safe.
+
+Her thoughts were incoherent--a queer jumble of mental impulses which
+seemed to lead her always back to the harrowing realization that she had
+lost her father. That was the gigantic axis around which her whole mental
+structure revolved. It was staggering, stupefying, and her brain reeled
+under it.
+
+Other thoughts came, flickered like feeble lights, and went out--thoughts
+of what had happened to her at Lamo; a dull wonder over Meeder Lawson's
+presence in town when he should have been with the men on the range;
+speculation as to the whereabouts of the men--why none of them had
+remained at the ranchhouse; and a sort of dumb, vague wonder over what
+her future would be.
+
+She thought, too, of John Haydon of the Star ranch--the big, smiling,
+serene-eyed man who seemed to bring a breath of romance with him each
+time he visited the Rancho Seco. Haydon would help her, she knew, and she
+would go to him in the morning.
+
+Her father had trusted Haydon, and she would trust him. Haydon was the
+one man in the section who seemed to have no fear of Deveny and his
+men--many times he had told her that most of the stories told of Deveny's
+crimes were untrue--that he had not committed all those that were
+attributed to him.
+
+Not that Haydon condoned those offenses upon which Deveny stood convicted
+by circumstantial evidence. Nor had Haydon ever sought to defend Deveny.
+On the other hand, Haydon's condemnation of the outlaw and his men had
+been vigorous--almost too vigorous for Haydon's safety, she had heard her
+father say.
+
+It was when her thoughts dwelt upon Harlan that she was most puzzled--and
+impressed. For though she was acquainted with the man's reputation--knowing
+him to be an outlaw of the reckless, dare-devil type--she felt the force of
+him, the compelling originality of him--as he differed from the outlaw of
+popular conception--his odd personality, which seemed to be a mingling of
+the elements of character embracing both good and evil.
+
+For though an outlaw himself, he had protected her from outlaws. And she
+had seen in his eyes certain expressions that told her that he felt
+impulses of sympathy and of tenderness. And his words to Deveny and
+others had seemed to hint of a fairly high honorableness.
+
+And though she had seen in his eyes a cold gleam that was convincing
+evidence of the presence of those ruthless passions which had made him an
+enemy of the law, she had also detected expressions in his eyes that told
+plainly of genial humor, of gentleness, and of consideration for other
+humans.
+
+But whatever she had seen in him, she felt his force--the terrible power
+of him when aroused. It was in the atmosphere that surrounded him; it was
+in the steady gleam of his eyes, in the poise of his head, and in the
+thrust of his jaw, all around him. She feared him, yet he fascinated
+her--compelled her--seemed to insist that she consider him in her scheme
+of life.
+
+In fact, he had made it plain to her that he intended to be considered.
+"I'm stayin' here," he had told her in his slow, deliberate way.
+
+And that seemed to end it--she knew he _would_ stay; that he was
+determined, and that nothing short of force would dissuade him. And what
+force could she bring against him? A man whose name, mentioned in the
+presence of other men, made their faces blanch.
+
+Deep in her heart, though, lurked a conviction that Harlan had not told
+her everything that had happened at Sentinel Rock. She was afflicted with
+a suspicion that he was holding something back. She had seen that in his
+eyes, too, she thought. It seemed to her that her father _might_ have
+told him to come to the Rancho Seco, and to stay there. And for that
+reason--because she suspected that Harlan had not told all he knew--she
+felt that she ought not order him away. If only he had not looked at her
+with that queer, insinuating smile!
+
+She had sat at the window for, it seemed to her, many hours before she
+became aware that the moon had risen and was directly overhead, flooding
+the ground in the vicinity of the ranchhouse with a soft, silver
+radiance.
+
+She got up with a start, remembering that she had left Harlan standing
+outside the door in the rear. She had almost forgotten that!
+
+She went to a window that opened into the _patio_, and looked downward.
+Every nook and corner of the _patio_ was visible now; the dark, somber
+shadows had been driven away, and in the silvery flood that poured down
+from above the enclosure was brilliant, clearly defined--and deserted.
+
+And yet as the girl looked, a presentiment of evil assailed her,
+whitening her cheeks and widening her eyes. The quiet peace and
+tranquillity of the _patio_ seemed to mock her; she felt that it held a
+sinister promise, a threat of dire things to come.
+
+The feeling was so strong that it drove her back from the window to the
+center of the room, where she stood, holding her breath, her hands
+clasped in front of her, the fingers twining stiffly. It seemed to her
+that she was waiting--waiting for something to happen--something that
+threatened.
+
+And when she heard a slight sound, seeming to arise from the room below
+her, she caught her breath with a gasp of horror.
+
+But she did not move. She stood there, with no breath issuing from
+between her lips, for many minutes, it seemed--waiting, dreading, a cold
+paralysis stealing over her.
+
+And then again it came--an odd sound--slow, creaking, seeming to come
+always nearer. It was not until she heard the sound directly outside her
+door that she realized that what she heard was a step on the stairs. And
+then, convinced that Harlan had gained entrance, she slipped noiselessly
+across the room to the front wall, where she took down a heavy pistol
+that hung from a wooden peg.
+
+With the huge weapon in hand she returned to a point near the center of
+the room, and with bated breath and glowing, determined eyes, faced the
+door.
+
+And when, after a time, she heard the door creak with a weight that
+seemed to be against it--after she saw it give; heard the lock break, and
+saw a man's form darken the opening as the door was flung wide--she
+pressed the trigger of the weapon once--twice--three times--in rapid
+succession.
+
+She heard the man curse, saw him catch at his chest, and tumble headlong
+toward her. And she fired again, thinking he was trying to grasp her.
+
+She laughed hysterically when she saw him sink to the floor and stretch
+out with a queer inertness. Then, swaying, her brain reeling with the
+horror of the thing, she managed to get to the bed at the other side of
+the room. When she reached it she collapsed gently, a long, convulsive
+shudder running over her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+BARBARA SEES A LIGHT
+
+
+When Barbara regained consciousness it was with a gasp of horror over the
+realization of what had happened. She stiffened immediately, however, and
+lay, straining at the dread paralysis that had gripped her; for she saw
+Harlan standing at her side, looking down into her face, his own set in a
+grim smile.
+
+She must have fainted again, for it seemed to her that a long period of
+time elapsed until she again became conscious of her surroundings. Harlan
+had moved off a little, though he was still watching her with the grimly
+humorous expression.
+
+She sat up, staring wildly at him; then shrank back, getting as far away
+from him as she could.
+
+"You!" she gasped, "You! Didn't I----"
+
+He interrupted her, drawling his words a little:
+
+"The guy you shot was Lawson. You bored him a heap. I've toted him
+downstairs. He's plenty dead. It was plumb good shootin'--for a woman."
+
+His words shocked her to action, and she got up and walked around the
+foot of the bed, from where she could see the spot where the intruder
+must have fallen after she had shot him. A dark stain showed on the floor
+where the man had lain, and the sight of it sent her a step backward, so
+that she struck the foot of the bed. She caught at the bed and grasped
+one of the posts, holding tightly to it while she looked Harlan over with
+dreading, incredulous eyes.
+
+"It--it wasn't _you_!" she demanded. "Are you sure?"
+
+He smiled and said, slowly and consolingly: "I reckon if you'd shot _me_
+I'd be knowin' it. Don't take it so hard, ma'am. Why, if a man goes to
+breakin' into a woman's room that way he sure ain't fit to go on livin'
+in a world where there _is_ a woman."
+
+"It was Lawson--you say? Meeder Lawson--the Rancho Seco foreman? I
+thought--why, I thought it was you!"
+
+"I'm thankin' you, ma'am," he said, ironically. "But if you'll just stick
+your head out of that window, you'll see it was Lawson, right enough.
+He's layin' right below the window."
+
+She did as bidden, and she saw Lawson lying on the ground beneath the
+window, flat on his back, his face turned upward with the radiant
+moonlight shining full upon his wide-open, staring eyes.
+
+Barbara glanced swiftly, and then drew back into the room, shuddering.
+
+Harlan stood, silently regarding her, while she walked again to the bed
+and sat upon it, staring out into the flood of moonlight, her face
+ghastly, her hands hanging limply at her sides.
+
+She had killed a man. And though there was justification for the deed,
+she could not fight down the shivering horror that had seized her, the
+overpowering and terrible knowledge that she had taken human life.
+
+She sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, and Harlan said no word
+to her, standing motionless, his arms folded, one hand slowly caressing
+his chin, as he watched her.
+
+After a time, drawing a long, shuddering breath, she looked up at him.
+
+"How did you know--what made you come--here?" she asked.
+
+"I wasn't reckonin' to sleep tonight--havin' thoughts--about things," he
+said. "I was puttin' in a heap of my time settin' in the doorway of the
+bunkhouse, wonderin' what had made you so scared of me. While I was
+tryin' to figure it out I saw Lawson comin'. There was somethin' in his
+actions which didn't jibe with my ideas of square dealin', an' so I kept
+lookin' at him. An' when I saw him prowlin' around, tryin' to open doors
+an' windows, why, I just naturally trailed him. An' I found the window he
+opened. I reckon that's all."
+
+She got up, swaying a little, a wan smile on her face that reflected her
+astonishment and wonder over the way she had jumbled things. For this
+man--the man she had feared when she had left him standing outside the
+door some hours before--had been eager to protect her from the other, who
+had attacked her. He had been waiting, watching.
+
+Moreover, there was in Harlan's eyes as he stood in the room a
+considerate, deferential gleam that told her more than words could have
+conveyed to her--a something that convinced her that he was not the type
+of man she had thought him.
+
+The knowledge filled her with a strange delight. There was relief in her
+eyes, and her voice was almost steady when she again spoke to him:
+
+"Harlan," she said, "did father really send you here? Did he make you
+promise to come?"
+
+"I reckon he did, ma'am," he said.
+
+For an instant she looked fairly at him, intently searching his eyes for
+indications of untruthfulness. Then she drew a long breath of conviction.
+
+"I believe you," she said.
+
+Harlan swept his hat from his head. He bowed, and there was an odd leap
+in his voice:
+
+"That tickles me a heap, ma'am. I don't know when I've heard anything
+that pleased me more."
+
+He backed away from her until he reached the doorway. And she saw his
+eyes--wide and eloquent--even in the subdued light of the doorway.
+
+"I'd go to sleep now, ma'am, if I was you. You need it a heap. It's been
+a long day for you--an' things ain't gone just right. I don't reckon
+there'll be anybody botherin' you any more tonight."
+
+"And you?" she asked, "won't you try to get some sleep, too?"
+
+He laughed, telling her that he would "ketch a wink or two." Then he
+turned and went down the stairs--she could hear him as he opened a lower
+door and went out.
+
+Looking out of the window an instant later, she saw him taking Lawson's
+body away. And still later, hearing a sound outside, she stole to the
+window again.
+
+Below, seated on the threshold of the door that led into the room she had
+entered when she had crossed the _patio_, she saw Harlan. He was smoking
+a cigarette, leaning against the door jamb in an attitude of complete
+relaxation.
+
+There was something in his manner that comforted her--a calm confidence,
+a slow ease of movement as he fingered his cigarette that indicated
+perfect tranquility--an atmosphere of peace that could not have
+surrounded him had he meditated any evil whatever.
+
+She knew, now, that she had misjudged him. For he had made no attempt to
+take advantage of her loneliness and helplessness. And whatever his
+reputation--whatever the crimes he had committed against the laws--he had
+been a gentleman in his attitude toward her. That feature of his conduct
+dominated her thoughts as she stretched out on the bed; it was her last
+coherent thought as she went to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HARLAN TAKES CHARGE
+
+
+Barbara could not have told why she had not acted upon her determination
+to ride westward to the Star ranch to acquaint John Haydon with the
+predicament into which the events of the past few hours had plunged her.
+She could not have explained why she permitted the first day--after
+Harlan's coming--to pass without going to see Haydon, any more than she
+could have explained why she permitted many other days to pass in the
+same manner.
+
+She was almost convinced, though, that it was because of the manner in
+which Harlan took charge of the ranch--the capable and business-like way
+he had of treating the men.
+
+For the outfit came in late in the afternoon following the night which
+had marked the death of Lawson--the straw-boss explaining that he had
+received explicit orders from Lawson to "work" a grass level several
+miles down the river.
+
+One other reason for Barbara's failure to ride to the Star--a reason that
+she did not permit to dwell prominently in her thoughts--was resentment.
+
+She had permitted the first day to pass without going to see Haydon. But
+when it had gone and another day dawned without Haydon coming to see
+_her_, she felt that he was deliberately absenting himself. For certainly
+he must have heard what had happened, and if he thought as much of her as
+he had led her to believe he would have come to her instantly.
+
+Had Haydon seen the defiant gleam of her eyes when she gazed westward--in
+the direction of the Star--he might have realized that each day he stayed
+away from the Rancho Seco would make it that much more difficult for him
+to explain.
+
+Barbara stayed indoors much of the time during the first days of Harlan's
+control of the ranch, but from the windows she saw him--noted that the
+men obeyed him promptly and without question.
+
+A sense of loss, of emptiness, still afflicted the girl, and yet through
+it all there ran a thrill of satisfaction, of assurance that the
+steady-eyed man who had saved her from Deveny, and who had treated her
+like a courtier of old on the night she had killed Lawson, seemed to have
+her welfare in mind, seemed--despite the reputation the people of the
+country had given him--to have constituted himself her guardian, without
+expectation of reward of the kind she had feared he sought.
+
+Harlan's method of assuming control of the Rancho Seco had been direct
+and simple. When the twenty-seven men of the outfit had straggled into
+the yard surrounding the big corral--the chuck-wagon, bearing the cook
+and his assistant, trailing a little behind, and followed by the horses
+of the _remuda_ with the wrangler hurling vitriolic language in the
+rear--Harlan was standing beside Purgatory near the corral fence in front
+of one of the bunkhouses.
+
+He had paid--apparently--no attention to the men as they dismounted,
+unsaddled, and turned their horses into the corral, and he did not even
+look at the belligerent-eyed cook whose sardonic glance roved over him.
+
+But the men of the outfit watched him out of the corners of their eyes;
+as they passed him to go to the bunkhouses, they shot inquiring,
+speculating glances at one another, full of curiosity, not unmixed with
+astonishment over his continued silence.
+
+It was when, drawn by the wonder that consumed them, they gathered in a
+group near the door of one of the bunkhouses, that Harlan moved toward
+them.
+
+For he had noted that they had become grouped, and that into the
+atmosphere had come a tension.
+
+Harlan's actions had been governed by design. His continued silence had
+been strategy of a subtle order. It had attracted the attention of the
+men, it had intrigued their interest.
+
+If he had spoken to them while they had been moving about on their
+different errands, telling them that henceforth he was to manage the
+Rancho Seco, they would have given him scant attention. Also, he would
+not have been able to study their faces as he had studied them while they
+had been watching him, and he would not have gained the knowledge of
+their characters that he now possessed.
+
+Besides, a humorous malice possessed Harlan--he wanted to view them
+collectively when he gave them his news, to note the various ways in
+which they would receive it.
+
+Absolute silence greeted Harlan's forward movement. He could hear the
+labored breathing of some of the men--men of violent temper who sensed
+trouble--and his grin grew broad as he halted within a dozen feet of the
+group.
+
+"Boys," he said, slowly, "you've got a new boss. It's me. A day or so
+ago, crossin' from Pardo, I run into a ruckus at Sentinel Rock. Lane
+Morgan was the center of the ruckus--an' he got perforated--plenty. But
+before he cashed in he got a gleam of downright sense an' told me he'd
+been lookin' for me, to make me manager of the Rancho Seco.
+
+"I'm reckonin' to be manager--beginnin' now. If there's any of you men
+that ain't admirin' to do the jumpin' when I yap orders to you, you're
+doin' your gassin' right now. Them that's pinin' to work under me is sure
+of a square deal, beginnin' now, and continuin' henceforth. I reckon
+that's all."
+
+Into Harlan's eyes as he talked had come that vacuous light that had been
+in them when he had faced Deveny's men in Lamo--the light that was always
+in his eyes whenever he faced more than one man, with trouble imminent.
+
+He saw the face of every man in the group--while seeming not to be
+looking at any of them. He noted the various shades of expression that
+came into their faces as they digested his words, he saw how some of them
+watched him with sober interest and how others permitted themselves a
+sneer of incredulity or dislike.
+
+He noted that a tall, slender, swarthy man on the extreme left of the
+group watched him with a malevolent gaze, his eyes flaming hate; he saw a
+black-haired, hook-nosed fellow near the center of the group watching him
+with a grin of cold contempt.
+
+It seemed to Harlan that a fair proportion of the men were willing to
+acknowledge his authority--for they were frankly studying him, ready to
+greet him as their employer. Many others, however, were as frankly
+hostile.
+
+After Harlan ceased speaking there came a short silence, during which
+many of the men looked at one another inquiringly.
+
+It was a moment during which, had a leader appeared to take the
+initiative for those who intended to dissent from Harlan's rule, the
+outfit might have been divided.
+
+Evidently the tall, swarthy man divined that the time to dissent had
+come, for he cleared his throat, and grinned felinely.
+
+Before he could speak, however, a short man with keen eyes that, since
+the instant they had rested upon Harlan, had been glowing with something
+that might have been defined as mingled astonishment and delight thinly
+concealed by a veneer of humor--said distinctly:
+
+"You crossed over from Pardo--you say?"
+
+Harlan nodded, and a pin-point of recognition glowed in his eyes as he
+looked at the man.
+
+The other laughed, lowly. "Seems I know you," he said. "You're 'Drag'
+Harlan!"
+
+A tremor ran through the group. There was a concerted stiffening of
+bodies, a general sigh from lungs in process of deflation. And then the
+group stood silent, every man watching Harlan with that intent curiosity
+that comes with one's first glimpse of a noted character, introduced
+without expectation.
+
+Harlan noted that a change had come over the men. Those whose faces had
+betrayed their inclination to accept his authority had taken--without
+exception--a glum, disappointed expression. On the other hand, those who
+had formerly betrayed hostility, were now grinning with satisfaction.
+
+A tremor of malicious amusement, expressed visibly by a flicker of his
+eyelids, was Harlan's only emotion over the change that had come in the
+men of the group. He could now have selected those of the men who--as
+Lane Morgan had said--could not be trusted, and he could have pointed out
+those who had been loyal to Morgan, and who would be loyal to Barbara and
+himself.
+
+Among the former were the tall, swarthy man on the extreme left, and the
+hook-nosed fellow near the center. There were perhaps ten of the latter,
+and it was plain to Harlan that the short man who had spoken was their
+leader.
+
+"'Drag' Harlan--eh?"
+
+This was the tall, swarthy man. The malevolence had gone from his eyes,
+he was grinning broadly, though there was respect of a fawning character
+in his manner as he stepped out from the group and halted within a few
+feet of Harlan.
+
+"Me an' my friends wasn't none tickled to find that we was goin' to have
+a new manager. We was sort of expectin' Miss Barbara to do the runnin'
+herself. But if _you_ say you're runnin' things, that makes it a whole
+lot different. We ain't buckin' 'Drag' Harlan's game."
+
+"Thank you," grinned Harlan. "I saw you reportin' to Miss Morgan. You're
+straw-boss, I reckon."
+
+"You've hit it. I'm Stroud--Lafe Stroud."
+
+"You'll keep on bein' straw-boss," said Harlan, shortly. "I'm appointin'
+a foreman."
+
+"Where's Lawson?"
+
+It was Stroud who spoke. There was a shadow of disappointment in his
+eyes.
+
+"Lawson won't be needin' a title any more," said Harlan, narrowing his
+eyes at the other. "He needs plantin'. Soon as we get set some of you
+boys can go over an' take care of him. You'll find him in the harness
+shop. He busted down the door of Miss Barbara's room last night, an' she
+made a colander out of him."
+
+Harlan ignored the effect of his news on the men, fixing his gaze on the
+short man who had spoken first, and who was now standing silent, in an
+attitude that hinted of dejection.
+
+"You'll be foreman, Linton," he stated shortly.
+
+Linton, who had been glumly listening, was so startled by the sudden
+descent upon his shoulders of the mantle of authority that he
+straightened with a snap and grabbed wildly at his hat--which dropped
+from his head despite his effort to clutch it, revealing a mop of fiery
+red hair. When he straightened, after recovering the hat, his freckled
+face was crimson with embarrassment and astonishment.
+
+"I'm obliged to you," he mumbled.
+
+That had ended it. The following morning Linton came to Harlan for
+orders, and a little later the entire outfit, headed by Stroud, and
+trailed by the chuck-wagon and the horses of the _remuda_, started
+southward to a distant section of the big level, leaving Linton and
+Harlan at the ranchhouse.
+
+And as the outfit faded into the southern distance, Harlan, walking near
+the larger of the two bunkhouses, came upon Linton.
+
+Harlan grinned when he saw the other.
+
+"You didn't go with the outfit, Red?" he said. "Seems a foreman ought to
+be mighty eager to be with his men on their first trip after he's
+appointed."
+
+Linton's face was pale, his gaze was direct.
+
+"Look here, Harlan," he said, steadily. "I've knowed you a long time, an'
+I know that you're a damn' sight straighter than a lot of men which has
+got reputations better than yourn. But there's some things want
+explainin'. I've sort of took a shine to that little girl in there.
+There's things brewin' which is goin' to make it mighty bad for her. It
+wasn't so bad while old Morgan was here, but now he's gone, an' she's got
+to play it a lone hand.
+
+"You git riled an' sling your gun on me if you want to. I know I wouldn't
+have a chance. But just the same, I'm tellin' you. You know that more'n
+half that outfit you've put me at the head of is Deveny's men--sneakin',
+thievin', murderin' outlaws?"
+
+"You wantin' to quit, Red?" said Harlan, smoothly.
+
+"Quit! Hell's fire! I'm hangin' on to the finish. But I'm findin' out
+where you stand. What you meanin' to do with Barbara Morgan?"
+
+Harlan grinned. "I answered that question when I appointed you foreman,
+Red. But I reckon I made a mistake--I ought to have appointed a man who
+knows what his think-box is for."
+
+Linton flushed, and peered intently at the other.
+
+"Meanin' that you're backin' Barbara in this here deal?" he demanded.
+
+"A real thoughtful man would have tumbled to it quicker," was Harlan's
+soft, ironical reply.
+
+For an instant Linton's gaze was intense with searching, probing inquiry.
+And Harlan's steady eyes were agleam with a light that was so quietly
+honest that it made Linton gasp:
+
+"Damn me! You mean it! You're playin' 'em straight, face up. That talk of
+yourn about Lane Morgan makin' you manager was straight goods. I know
+Dolver an' Laskar an' the guy they call 'Chief' plugged Morgan--for I
+heard Stroud an' some more of them talkin' about it. An' I heard that you
+got Dolver an' Laskar, an' kept Deveny from grabbin' off Barbara Morgan,
+over in Lamo. But I thought you was playin' for Barbara, too--an' I
+wasn't figurin' on lettin' you."
+
+Harlan laughed lowly.
+
+"Things don't always shape up the way a man thinks they will, Red. I
+started for Lamo, figurin' to salivate Dolver an' the other guy who
+killed Davey Langan. I got Dolver at Sentinel Rock, an' I figured I'd be
+likely to run into the other guy somewheres--mebbe findin' him in
+Deveny's gang. But runnin' into Lane Morgan sort of changed the deal. An'
+now I'm postponin' a lot of things until Barbara Morgan is runnin' free,
+with no coyotes from the Deveny crowd tryin' to rope her."
+
+Linton's eyes were glowing, he crowded close to Harlan, so close that his
+body touched Harlan's, and he stood thus for an instant, breathing fast.
+Then, noting the unwavering, genial gleam in Harlan's eyes--a visible
+sign of Harlan's knowledge of his deep emotion--Linton seized one of the
+other's hands and gripped it tightly.
+
+"Damn your hide," he said, lowly, "you had me goin'. I'm dead set on
+seein' that girl git a square deal, an' when I saw you makin' a play for
+them damned outlaws that are in the outfit, I sure figured there'd be
+hell a-poppin' around the Rancho Seco. You sure had me flabbergasted when
+you named me foreman, for I couldn't anticipate your trail none.
+
+"But I reckon I'm wised up, now. You're goin' to run a whizzer in on
+'em--playin' 'em for suckers. An' I'm your right-hand man--stickin' with
+you until hell runs long on icebergs!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SHADOWS
+
+
+A desire to ride once more in the peaceful sunshine of the land she loved
+was one of the first indications that Barbara was recovering from the
+shock occasioned by her father's death. For two or three days she had not
+stirred from her room, except to go downstairs to cook her meals. She had
+spent much of her time sitting at a window nursing her sorrow.
+
+But on this morning she got out of bed feeling more composed than usual,
+with several new emotions struggling for the mastery. One of those
+emotions was that of intolerance.
+
+Harlan's assumption of authority enraged her. He had come to the Rancho
+Seco with no credentials other than his mere word that her father had
+forced him to promise to "take hold" of "things." And she intended, this
+very morning, to send Harlan away, and to assume control of the ranch
+herself.
+
+This determination held until after she had breakfasted, and then she
+stood for a long time in the kitchen door, looking out into the brilliant
+sunshine, afflicted with a strange indecision.
+
+Harlan _had_ helped to fill the void created by her father's death--that
+was certain. There had been something satisfying in his presence at the
+ranch; it had seemed to mean an assurance for her safety; she had felt
+almost as fully protected as when her father had been with her. It
+angered her to see him moving about the place as though he had a perfect
+right to be there, but at the same time she felt comfortably certain that
+as long as he was around no harm could come to her.
+
+Her emotions were so contradictory that she could not reach a decision
+regarding the action she should take and she bit her lips with vexation
+as she stood in the doorway.
+
+Later, her cheeks a little flushed with the realization that she was
+surrendering to an emotion that she could not understand--but which, she
+decided guiltily, her face crimson, had its inception in a conviction
+that she would regret seeing Harlan ride away, to return no more--she
+went to the corral, roped her pony, threw saddle and bridle on it,
+mounted the animal, and rode away--westward.
+
+She had not traveled more than half a mile when she heard the rapid
+beating of hoofs behind her. Glancing swiftly backward, she saw Purgatory
+coming, Harlan in the saddle, smoking a cigarette.
+
+Her pulses leaped, unaccountably, and the crimson flush again stained her
+cheeks; but she sat rigid in the saddle, and looked straight ahead,
+pretending she had not discovered the presence of horse and rider behind
+her.
+
+She rode another half mile before the flush died out of her cheeks. And
+then, responding to a swift indignation, she brought Billy to a halt,
+wheeled him, and sat motionless in the saddle, her face pale, her eyes
+flashing.
+
+With apparent unconcern Harlan rode toward her. The big black horse did
+not change his pace, nor did Harlan change expression. It seemed to the
+girl that in both horse and rider were a steadfastness of purpose that
+nothing could change. And despite her indignation, she felt a thrill of
+admiration for both man and horse.
+
+Yet her eyes were still flashing ominously when Harlan rode to within a
+dozen paces of her and brought the big black to a halt.
+
+There was an expression of grave respect on Harlan's face; but she saw a
+lurking devil in his eyes--a gleam of steady, quizzical humor--that made
+her yearn to use her quirt on him. For by that gleam she knew he had
+purposely followed her; that he expected her to be angry with him for
+doing so. And the gleam also told her that he had determined to bear with
+her anger.
+
+"Well?" she inquired, icily.
+
+"Good mornin', ma'am." He bowed to her, sweeping his broad-brimmed hat
+from his head with, it seemed to her, an ironical flourish.
+
+"Is there something you want to speak to me about?" she asked, her chin
+elevated, disdain in her eyes. She assured herself that when he glanced
+at her as he was doing at this instant, she positively hated him. She
+wondered why she had tolerated his presence.
+
+"I wasn't havin' any thoughts about speakin' to you, ma'am. Kind of a
+nice mornin' for a ride, ain't it?"
+
+"If one rides alone," she returned, significantly.
+
+"I enjoy ridin' a whole lot better when I've got company," he stated,
+gravely, with equal significance.
+
+"Meaning that you have made up your mind to ride with me, I suppose?" she
+said coldly.
+
+"You've hit it, ma'am."
+
+"Well," she declared, her voice quivering with passion; "I don't want you
+to ride with me. You came here and usurped whatever power and authority
+there is; and you are running the Rancho Seco as though it belongs to
+you. But you shan't ride with me--I don't want you to!"
+
+Had she been standing she must have stamped one foot on the ground, so
+vehement was her manner. And the flashing scorn of her eyes should have
+been enough to discourage most men.
+
+But not Harlan. His eyelids flickered with some emotion; and his
+eyes--she noted now, even though she could have killed him for his
+maddening insistence--were blue, and rimmed by heavy lashes that sun and
+sand had bleached until the natural brown of them threatened to become a
+light tan.
+
+She studied him, even while hating him for she saw the force of him--felt
+it. And though she was thinking spiteful things of him, she found that
+she was forming a new impression of him--of his character, his
+appearance, and of the motives that controlled him.
+
+And she thought she knew why men avoided having trouble with him. She
+told herself that if she were a man and she were facing him with violence
+in her heart, she would consider seriously before she betrayed it to him.
+For in his eyes, in the lips, in the thrust of his chin--even in the
+atmosphere that surrounded him at this instant, was a threat, an unspoken
+promise, lingering and dormant, of complete readiness--almost eagerness,
+she was convinced--for violence.
+
+She drew a sharp breath as she watched him. And when she saw his lips
+curving into a slight smile--wholesome, though grave; with a hint of
+boyish amusement in them--she got another quick impression of his
+character, new and startling and illuminating.
+
+For behind the hard, unyielding exterior that he presented to men; back
+of the promise and the threat of violence, was the impulsiveness and the
+gentleness that would have ruled him had not the stern necessity of
+self-preservation forced him to conceal them.
+
+The smile disarmed her. It _did_ seem ludicrous--that she should try to
+force this man to do anything he did not want to do. And she had known
+that he would not obey her, and ride back to the ranchhouse; she was
+convinced that she must either go back or suffer him to follow her as he
+pleased.
+
+And she was determined not to give up her ride. She was determined to be
+very haughty about it, though; but when she wheeled Billy, to head him
+again into the western distance, her eyes twinkled her surrender, and her
+lips trembled on the verge of a defiant smile.
+
+Then Billy felt the quirt on his flank; he snorted with astonishment and
+disgust, and charged forward, tossing his head intolerantly.
+
+Looking sidelong, after Billy had traveled two or three hundred yards,
+Barbara observed that the big black horse was not more than half a dozen
+steps behind. And curiously, Barbara again experienced that comfortable
+assurance of protection, and of satisfaction over the nearness of Harlan.
+
+Moved by an entirely unaccountable impulse, she drew the reins slightly
+on Billy, slowing him, almost imperceptibly, so that both horses had
+traveled more than a quarter of a mile before the distance between them
+lessened noticeably.
+
+And then, with an impatience that caused her cheeks to glow, Barbara
+noted that Purgatory had slowed also, Harlan seemingly accommodating the
+animal's pace to her own. It was plain to see that Harlan did not intend
+to assume that she had relented.
+
+For another quarter of a mile the distance remained the same, and the
+silence was unbroken except by the rhythmical beating of hoofs through
+the rustling, matted mesquite.
+
+Then Barbara, yielding to an impulse of righteous anger, brought on by
+Harlan's obvious intention to remain at a respectful distance,
+deliberately brought Billy to a walk and waited until Harlan rode beside
+her.
+
+"You don't need to be a brute--even if I did tell you to go back to the
+ranchhouse!"
+
+"Meanin' what, ma'am? Why, I don't remember to have done anything. I was
+doin' a heap of thinkin' just now--if that's what you mean."
+
+"Thinking mean things of me--I suppose--for what I said to you."
+
+He had been thinking of her--seriously. And his thoughts were far from
+fickle as he watched her now, riding within a few feet of him, her
+profile toward him, her head having a rigid set, her chin held high, her
+lips tight-pressed, and her hair drooping in graceful coils over her
+ears, and bulging in alluring disorder at the nape of her neck.
+
+He was thinking that he had braved, to answer a mere whim, greater
+dangers than he would be likely to meet in defending her from the
+wolf-pack which circumstances had set upon her. He was thinking that
+heretofore his life had been lived without regard to order or
+system--that he had led a will-o'-the-wisp existence, never knowing that
+such women as she graced the world. He was thinking of what might have
+happened to her had not Davey Langan been killed, and if he had not
+started out to avenge him.
+
+Into his thoughts at this minute flashed a mental picture that paled his
+face and brought his lips into straight, hard lines--a picture of Barbara
+at the mercy of Deveny.
+
+With a quick turn he brought Purgatory around in front of Billy, blocking
+the animal's further progress westward. The girl started at the rapid
+movement, and watched him fearfully, dreading--she knew not what.
+
+But his smile--grim and mirthless though it was--partially reassured her,
+and she sat silent, looking at him as he spoke, rapidly, earnestly.
+
+"I was thinkin' of you; an' I wasn't thinkin' mean things--about you. I
+was thinkin' of Deveny--an' of what your dad told me over there by
+Sentinel Rock.
+
+"Your dad told me that you was in danger--that Deveny an' Strom Rogers
+an' some more of them had their eyes turned on you. Your dad made me
+promise that I'd come here an' look out for you--an' I mean to do it.
+That's why I went to Lamo when I had no call to go there an' that's why I
+brought Deveny to a show-down in front of you.
+
+"There's somethin' goin' on around here that ain't showin' on the
+surface--somethin' that's hidden an' sneakin'. You heard some of them
+guys in Lamo gassin' about the 'Chief' bein' one of the three that sent
+your dad over the Divide.
+
+"Well, your dad told me that, too--that there was three of them pitched
+onto him. It was the fellow they call Chief that shot your dad while he
+was sleepin'--when it was too dark for your dad to see his face. Your dad
+made me promise to hunt that guy up an' square things for him. That's
+what I'm here for. Anyway, it's one reason I'm here. The other reason is
+that I'm goin' to see that you get a square deal from them guys.
+
+"An' you won't get a square deal ridin' out alone, like this--especially
+when you head toward Sunset Trail, where Deveny an' his gang hang out.
+An' I'm settin' down hard on you ridin' that way. I'm keepin' you from
+runnin' any chances."
+
+Silently Barbara had watched Harlan's face while he had been talking.
+There was no doubt that he was in earnest, and there was likewise no
+doubt that he was concerned for her safety. But why? It seemed absurd
+that Harlan, an outlaw himself, should protect her from other outlaws.
+Yet in Lamo he had done just that.
+
+Behind his actions, his expressed concern for her, must be a motive. What
+was it? Was it possible that he was doing this thing unselfishly; that
+the promise her father had exacted from him had changed him; that in his
+heart at this instant dwelt those finer impulses which must be dormant in
+all men, however bad?
+
+The light of that great inquiry was in her eyes; they searched his face
+for subtlety and craft and cunning--for something that would give her a
+clue to his thoughts. And when she could find in his expression only a
+grave concern she pulled Billy around and started him back toward the
+ranchhouse.
+
+They had not ridden more than a hundred yards before she stole a glance
+at Harlan.
+
+He was now riding beside her, looking straight ahead, his face
+expressionless. Had he betrayed the slightest sign of triumph she would
+have changed her mind about going back to the ranchhouse with him.
+
+As it was, she felt a pulse of rage over her readiness in yielding to his
+orders. Yet the rage was softened by a lurking, stealthy joy she got out
+of his masterfulness.
+
+"I presume I may ride in another direction--east, for instance--or north,
+or south?"
+
+He apparently took no notice of the mockery in her voice.
+
+"You'll not be ridin' alone, anywhere," he declared.
+
+"Oh!" she returned, raising her chin and looking at him with a cold scorn
+that, she thought, would embarrass him; "I am to have a guardian."
+
+He looked straight back to her, steadily, seemingly unaffected by the
+hostility of her gaze.
+
+"It amounts to that. But mebbe I wouldn't put it just that way.
+Somebody's got to look out for you--to see that you don't go to rushin'
+into trouble. There was trouble over in Lamo--if you'll remember."
+
+And now he smiled gravely at her, and her face reddened over the memory
+of the incident. She had been eager enough, then, to seek his protection;
+she had trusted him.
+
+"That wasn't your fault," he went on gently. "You didn't know then,
+mebbe, just what kind of a guy Deveny is. But you know now, an' it
+_would_ be your fault if you run into him again."
+
+He saw how she took it--how her color came and went, and how her eyes
+drooped from his. He smiled soberly.
+
+"Looks to me that you've got to pin your faith to a mighty small chance,
+ma'am."
+
+"What chance?" She looked at him in startled wonderment, for it had not
+occurred to her that she faced any real danger, despite the threatening
+attitude of Deveny, and her isolation. For the great, peaceful world, and
+the swimming sunlight were full of the promise of the triumph of right
+and virtue; and the sturdy self-reliance of youth was in her heart.
+
+"What chance?" she repeated, watching him keenly.
+
+"The chance that me an' Red Linton will be able to get things into shape
+to look out for you." He was gravely serious.
+
+"It must seem a mighty slim chance to you--me comin' here with a
+reputation that ain't any too good, an' Linton, with his red head an' his
+freckles. Seems like a woman would go all wrong, pinnin' her faith to red
+hair an' freckles an' a hell-raisin' outlaw. But there's been worse
+combinations, ma'am--if I do say it myself. An' me an' Red is figurin' to
+come through, no matter what you think of us."
+
+"Red Linton?" she said. "That is the little, short, red-haired man you
+put in Lawson's place, isn't it? I have never noticed him--particularly.
+It seems that I have always thought him rather unimportant."
+
+Harlan grinned. "That's a trick Red's got--seemin' unimportant. Red
+spends a heap of his time not sayin' anything, an' hangin' around lookin'
+like he's been misplaced. But when there's any trouble, you'll find Red
+like the banty rooster that's figurin' to rule the roost.
+
+"I knowed him over in Pardo, ma'am--he rode for the T Down for two or
+three seasons."
+
+"You are anticipating trouble--with Deveny?" she asked, a tremor in her
+voice.
+
+"There ain't any use of tryin' to hide it, ma'am. Mebbe your dad thought
+you'd be better off by him not mentionin' it to you. But I've got a
+different idea. Anyone--man or woman--knows a heap more about how to go
+about things if they're sort of able to anticipate trouble. Your dad told
+me things was in a mixup over here with Deveny an' some more of his kind;
+an' I ain't aimin' to let you go ramblin' around in the dark.
+
+"About half the Rancho Seco men belong to Deveny's gang, Linton says.
+That's why I put Linton in Lawson's place; an' that's why I'm askin' you
+to stick pretty close to the Rancho Seco, an' requestin' you not to go
+rummagin' around the country."
+
+She rode on silently, her face pale, digesting this disquieting news. She
+remembered now that her father _had_ seemed rather worried at times, and
+that upon several occasions he had hinted that he was distrustful of some
+of the Rancho Seco men. But as Harlan had said, he had never taken her
+completely into his confidence--no doubt because he had not wanted her to
+worry. That was very like her father--always making life easy for her.
+
+However, covertly watching Harlan, she was conscious of an emotion that
+the latter did not suspect. The emotion was confidence--not in Harlan,
+for, though she had seen that he, apparently, was eager to become her
+champion, she could not forget that he, too, was an outlaw, with no proof
+that he had been sent to the Rancho Seco by her father; with nothing but
+his actions to convince her that his motives were founded upon
+consideration for her welfare.
+
+She thought of John Haydon as she rode beside Harlan; and it was
+confidence in him that was expressed in her glances at Harlan; she was
+convinced that she did not have to depend entirely upon Harlan. And when,
+as they neared the ranchhouse, and she saw a big gray horse standing near
+the entrance to the _patio_, her face reddened and her eyes grew
+brilliant with a light that drew a cold smile to Harlan's face.
+
+"That will be John Haydon's horse, I reckon," he said slowly.
+
+"Why," she returned, startled; "how did you know?"
+
+He rode on, not replying. When they reached the ranchhouse, Harlan loped
+Purgatory toward one of the bunkhouses, in front of which he saw Red
+Linton standing. Barbara directed Billy to the _patio_ entrance, and
+dismounted, her face flushed, to meet a man who came out of the open
+gateway to greet her, his face wreathed in a delighted smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+LINKED
+
+
+"So you came at last?"
+
+Barbara had some difficulty in keeping resentment prominent in her voice
+as she faced John Haydon, for other emotions were clamoring within
+her--joy because Haydon _had_ come, even though tardily; self-reproach
+because she saw in Haydon's eyes a glowing anxiety and sympathy that
+looked as though they were of recent birth.
+
+There was repressed excitement in Haydon's manner; it was as though he
+had only just heard of the girl's affliction and had ridden hard to come
+to her.
+
+She was sure of the sincerity in his voice when he grasped her hands
+tightly and said:
+
+"At last, Barbara! I heard it only this morning, and I have nearly killed
+my horse getting over here! Look at him!"
+
+The gray horse certainly did have the appearance of having been ridden
+hard. He stood, his legs braced, his head drooping, his muzzle and chest
+flecked with foam. Barbara murmured pityingly as she stroked the beast's
+neck; and there was quick forgiveness in her eyes when she again looked
+at Haydon.
+
+Haydon was big--fully as tall as Harlan, and broader. His shoulders
+bulged the blue flannel shirt he wore; and it was drawn into folds at his
+slim waist, where a cartridge-studded belt encircled him, sagging at the
+right hip with the weight of a heavy pistol.
+
+He wore a plain gray silk handkerchief at his throat; it sagged at the
+front, revealing a muscular development that had excited the envious
+admiration of men. His hair was coal-black, wavy and abundant--though he
+wore it short--with design, it seemed, for he must have known that it
+gave him an alert, virile appearance.
+
+His face, despite the tan upon it, and the little wrinkles brought by the
+sun and wind, had a clear, healthy color, and his eyes black as his hair,
+had a keen glint behind which lurked humor of a quality not to be
+determined at a glance--it was changeable, fleeting, mysterious.
+
+Barbara was silent. The steady courage that had sustained her until this
+instant threatened to fail her in the presence of this big, sympathetic
+man who seemed, to her, to embody that romance for which she had always
+longed. She looked at him, her lips trembling with emotion.
+
+Until now she had had no confidant--no one she could be sure of. And so,
+with Haydon standing close to her, though not too close--for he had never
+been able to achieve that intimacy for which he had yearned--she told him
+what had happened, including details of her father's death, as related to
+her by Harlan; finishing by describing the incident with Deveny in Lamo
+(at which Haydon muttered a threat) and the subsequent coming of Harlan
+to the Rancho Seco, together with the story of his assumption of
+authority.
+
+When she concluded Haydon laid a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.
+
+"It's too bad, Barbara. And on top of it all, Lawson had to play the
+beast, too, eh? Why didn't you send someone to me?"
+
+"There was no one to send." Her voice threatened to break, despite the
+brave gleam that flashed through the moisture in her eyes. "Lawson had
+sent the men away; and when they came in Harlan took charge of them.
+And--besides," she admitted, dropping her gaze, "I--I thought you ought
+to--I thought you would----"
+
+He shook her, reprovingly, laughing deeply as he led her through the
+gateway into the _patio_, where they sat on a bench for a long time,
+talking, while the aspect of the _patio_ began to change, becoming again
+a place of cheerfulness flooded with the soft, radiant light of returning
+happiness--reflected in her eyes; while the sunlight streaming down into
+the enclosure took on a brightness that made the girl's eyes glisten;
+while the drab and empty days since her father's death began to slip back
+into the limbo of memory--the sting and the sorrow of them removed. So
+does the heart of youth respond to the nearness of romance.
+
+They had been talking for half an hour when Barbara remembered that
+Haydon had not expressed a desire to meet Harlan.
+
+Haydon's face lost a little of its color as he replied to her suggestion
+that they find the man.
+
+But he laughed, rather mirthlessly, she thought.
+
+"I intend to see him, Barbara--but alone. There are several things of
+importance that I want to say to him--chiefly concerning his conduct
+toward you."
+
+He got up. Barbara rose also, and walked with him, outside the gate,
+where he got on his horse, smiling down at her.
+
+"Harlan was right about your riding out alone. I'd stay as close to the
+ranchhouse as possible. There's no telling what Deveny might try to do.
+But don't worry. If it wasn't so soon after--after what has happened--I
+would--" He smiled, and Barbara knew he meant what he had said to her
+many times--about there being a parson in Lazette, a hundred miles or so
+northeastward--and of his eagerness to be present with her while the
+parson "tied the knot." His manner had always been jocose, and yet she
+knew of the earnestness behind it.
+
+Still, she had not yielded to his importunities, because she had not been
+quite sure that she wanted him. Nor was she certain now, though she liked
+him better at this moment than she had ever liked him before.
+
+She shook her head negatively, answering his smile; and watched him as he
+rode around a corner of the ranchhouse toward the corral where, no doubt,
+he would find Harlan.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Harlan had ridden directly to the bunkhouse door and dismounted. Red
+Linton said nothing until Harlan seated himself on a bench just outside
+the bunkhouse door. Then Linton grinned at him.
+
+"There's a geezer come a-wooin'," he said.
+
+Harlan glared at the red-haired man--a truculent, savage glare that made
+Linton stretch his lips until the corners threatened to retreat to his
+ears. Then Linton assumed a deprecatory manner.
+
+"They ain't no chance for _him_, I reckon. He's been burnin' up the
+breeze between here an' the Star for more'n a year--an' she ain't as much
+as kissed him, I'd swear!"
+
+Harlan did not answer.
+
+"You saw him?" questioned Linton.
+
+"Shut your rank mouth."
+
+Linton chuckled. "I didn't know you'd been hit that bad. Howsomever, if
+you _have_ been, why, there's no sense of me wastin' time gassin' to you.
+They ain't nothin' will cure that complaint but petticoats an'
+smiles--the which is mighty dangerous an' uncertain. I knowed a man
+once----"
+
+Harlan got up and walked to the bunkhouse. And Linton, grinning, called
+loudly after him, pretending astonishment.
+
+"Why, he's gone. Disappeared complete. An' me tryin' to jam some sense
+into his head."
+
+Grinning, Linton sauntered away, vanishing within the blacksmith-shop.
+
+He had hardly disappeared when Haydon appeared from around a corner of
+the ranchhouse, at about the instant Harlan, sensing the departure of
+Linton, came to the door, frowning.
+
+The frown still narrowed Harlan's eyes when they rested upon the
+horseman; and his brows were drawn together with unmistakable truculence
+when Haydon dismounted near the corral fence.
+
+Haydon's manner had undergone a change. When in the presence of Barbara
+he had been confident, nonchalant. When he dismounted from his horse and
+walked toward Harlan there was about him an atmosphere that suggested
+carefulness. Before Haydon had taken half a dozen steps Harlan was aware
+that the man knew him--knew of his reputation--and feared him.
+
+Respect was in Haydon's eyes, in the droop of his shoulders, in his
+hesitating step. And into Harlan's eyes came a gleam of that contempt
+which had always seized him when in the presence of men who feared him.
+
+And yet, had not Harlan possessed the faculty of reading character at a
+glance; had he not had that uncanny instinct of divining the thoughts of
+men who meditated violence, he could not have known that Haydon feared
+him.
+
+For Haydon's fear was not abject. It was that emotion which counsels
+caution, which warns of a worthy antagonist, which respects force that is
+elemental and destroying.
+
+Haydon smiled as he halted within a few paces of Harlan and turned the
+palms of his hands outward.
+
+"You're 'Drag' Harlan, of Pardo," he said.
+
+Harlan nodded.
+
+"My name's Haydon. I own the Star--about fifteen miles west--on Sunset
+Trail. I happen to be a friend of Miss Morgan's, and I'd like to talk
+with you about the Rancho Seco."
+
+"Get goin'."
+
+Haydon's smile grew less expansive.
+
+"It's a rather difficult subject to discuss. It rather seems to be none
+of my affair. But you will understand, being interested in Barbara's
+future, and in the welfare of the ranch, why I am presuming to question
+you. What do you intend to do with the ranch?"
+
+"Run it."
+
+"Of course," smiled Haydon. "I mean, of course, to refer to the financial
+end of it. Miss Morgan will handle the money, I suppose."
+
+"You got orders from Miss Barbara to gas to me about the ranch?"
+
+"Well, no, I can't say that I have. But I have a natural desire to know."
+
+"I'll be tellin' her what I'm goin' to do."
+
+Haydon smiled faintly. Twice, during the silence that followed Harlan's
+reply, Haydon shifted his gaze from Harlan's face to the ground between
+himself and the other, and then back again. It was plain to Haydon that
+he could proceed no farther in that direction without incurring the wrath
+that slumbered in Harlan's heart, revealed by his narrowing eyes.
+
+In Harlan's heart was a bitter, savage passion. Hatred for this man,
+which had been aroused by Barbara's reference to him, and intensified by
+his visit to the girl, had been made malignant by his appearance now in
+the rôle of inquisitor.
+
+Jealousy, Harlan would not have admitted; yet the conviction that Haydon
+was handsome, and that women would like him--that no doubt Barbara
+already liked him--brought a cold rage to Harlan. He stood, during the
+momentary silence, his lips curving with contempt, his eyes glinting with
+a passion that was unmistakable to Haydon.
+
+He stepped down from the doorway and walked slowly to Haydon, coming to a
+halt within a yard of him. His hands were hanging at his sides, his chin
+had gone a little forward; and in his manner was the threat that had
+brought a paralysis of fear to more than one man.
+
+Yet, except for a slow stiffening of his muscles, Haydon betrayed no
+fear. There was a slight smile on his lips; his eyes met Harlan's
+steadily and unblinkingly. In them was a glint of that mysterious humor
+which other men had seen in them.
+
+"I know you're lightning on the draw, Harlan," he said, his faint smile
+fading a trifle. "I wouldn't have a chance with you; I'm not a
+gun-fighter. For that reason I don't want any disagreement with you. And
+I've heard enough about you to know that you don't shoot unless the other
+fellow is out to 'get' you.
+
+"We won't have any trouble. Be fair. As the man who will ultimately take
+charge of the Rancho Seco--since Miss Barbara has been good enough to
+encourage me--I would like to know some things. I've heard that Lane
+Morgan was killed at Sentinel Rock, and that you were with him when he
+died--and just before. Did he give you authority to take charge of the
+Rancho Seco?"
+
+"He told me to take hold."
+
+"A written order?"
+
+"His word."
+
+"He said nothing else; there were no papers on him--nothing of value?"
+
+Neither man had permitted his eyes to waver from the other's since Harlan
+had advanced; and they now stood, with only the few feet of space between
+them, looking steadily at each other.
+
+Harlan saw in Haydon's eyes a furtive, stealthy gleam as of cupidity
+glossed over with a pretense of frank curiosity. He sensed greed in
+Haydon's gaze, and knowledge of a mysterious quality.
+
+Haydon knew something about Lane Morgan's errand to Pardo; he knew why
+the man had started for Pardo, and what had been on his person at the
+time of his death.
+
+Harlan was convinced of that; and the light in his eyes as he looked into
+Haydon's reflected the distrust and the contempt he had for the man.
+
+"What do you think Morgan had in his clothes?" he questioned suddenly.
+
+A slow flush of color stole into Haydon's cheeks, then receded, leaving
+him a trifle pale. He laughed, with a pretense of mockery.
+
+"You ought to know," he said, a snarl in his voice. "You must have
+searched him."
+
+Harlan grinned with feline mirthlessness. And he stepped back a little,
+knowledge and satisfaction in his eyes.
+
+For he had "looked Haydon over," following Morgan's instructions. He had
+purposely permitted Haydon to question him, expecting that during the
+exchange of talk the man would say something that would corroborate the
+opinion that Harlan had instantly formed, that Haydon was not to be
+trusted.
+
+And Haydon's snarl; the cupidity in his eyes, and his ill-veiled
+eagerness had convinced Harlan.
+
+Harlan did not resent Haydon's manner; he was too pleased over his
+discovery that Haydon possessed traits of character that unfitted him for
+an alliance with Barbara. And it would be his business to bring those
+traits out, so that Barbara could see them unmistakably.
+
+He laughed lowly, dropping his gaze to Haydon's belt; to his right hand,
+which hung limply near his pistol holster; and to the woolen shirt, with
+the silk handkerchief at the throat sagging picturesquely.
+
+His gaze roved over Haydon--insolently, contemptuously; his lips
+twitching with the grim humor that had seized him. And Haydon stood, not
+moving a muscle, undergoing the scrutiny with rigid body, with eyes that
+had become wide with a queer sensation of dread wonder that was stealing
+over him; and with a pallor that was slowly becoming ghastly.
+
+For he had no doubt that at last he had unwittingly aroused the demon in
+Harlan, and that violence, which he had wished to avoid, was imminent.
+
+But Harlan's roving gaze, as he backed slightly away from Haydon, came to
+the breast-pocket of the man's shirt. His gaze centered there definitely,
+his eyes narrowing, his muscles leaping a little.
+
+For out of the pocket stretched a gold chain, broken, its upper
+end--where it entered the buttonhole of the shirt--fastened to the
+buttonhole with a rawhide thong, as though the gold section were not long
+enough to reach.
+
+And the gold section of the chain was of the peculiar pattern of the
+section that Harlan had picked up on the desert near Sentinel Rock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+DEEP WATER
+
+
+Despite his conviction that he stood in the presence of the mysterious
+"Chief" of whom he had heard much, Harlan's expression did not change.
+There was a new interest added to it, and a deeper glow in his eyes. But
+he gave no outward evidence of surprise.
+
+"I reckon I searched him," he said, answering Haydon's charge. "If I
+found anything on him I'm turnin' it over to Barbara Morgan--or hangin'
+onto it. That's my business."
+
+Haydon laughed, for Harlan's voice had broken the tension that had come
+with the interval of threatening silence.
+
+Since he could not induce Harlan to divulge anything of interest there
+was nothing to do but to withdraw as gracefully as possible. And he
+backed away, smiling, saying placatively:
+
+"No offense intended, Harlan. I was merely curious on Barbara's account."
+He mounted his horse, urged it along the corral fence, and sent back a
+smiling:
+
+"So-long."
+
+Motionless, still standing where he had stood when Haydon climbed on his
+horse, Harlan watched while the man rode the short distance to the house.
+At the corner around which he had appeared some minutes before, Haydon
+brought his horse to a halt, waved a hand--at Barbara, Harlan
+supposed--and then rode on, heading westward toward Sunset Trail.
+
+Harlan watched him until he had penetrated far into the big valley; then
+he turned, slowly, and sought Red Linton--finding him in the
+blacksmith-shop.
+
+Later in the day--after Harlan and Linton had talked long, standing in
+the door of the blacksmith-shop--Linton mounted his horse and rode to
+where Harlan stood.
+
+Linton was prepared for a long ride. Folded in the slicker that was
+strapped to the cantle of his saddle was food; he carried his rifle in
+the saddle sheath, and a water-bag bulged above the horse's withers.
+
+"You won't find all the T Down boys yearnin' to bust into this ruckus,"
+Harlan said as he stood near Linton's horse as Linton grinned down at
+him; "but there'll be some. Put it right up to them that it ain't goin'
+to be no pussy-kitten job, an' that it's likely some of them won't ever
+see the T Down again. But to offset that, you can tell 'em that if we
+make good, the Rancho Seco will owe them a heap--an' they'll get what's
+comin' to them."
+
+He watched while Linton rode eastward over the big level; then he grinned
+and walked to the ranchhouse, going around the front and standing in the
+wide gateway where he saw Barbara sitting on a bench in the _patio_,
+staring straight ahead, meditatively, unaware that he was standing in the
+gateway, watching her.
+
+Harlan watched the girl for a long time--until she turned and saw him.
+Then she blushed and stood up, looking at him in slight wonderment as he
+came toward her and stood within a few feet of her.
+
+On Harlan's face was a slow, genial grin.
+
+"Sunnin' yourself, eh?" he said. "Well, it's a mighty nice day--not too
+hot. Have you knowed him long?"
+
+The startling irrelevance of the question caused Barbara to gaze sharply
+at Harlan, and when their eyes met she noted that his were twinkling with
+a light that she could not fathom. She hated him when she could not
+understand him.
+
+"Mr. Haydon, do you mean?" she questioned, a sudden coldness in her
+voice.
+
+Harlan nodded.
+
+"A little more than a year, I think. It was just after I returned from
+school, at Denver."
+
+He watched her, saying lowly:
+
+"So it was Denver. I'd been wonderin'. I knowed it must have been some
+place. Schoolin' is a thing that I never had time to monkey with--I
+reckon my folks didn't believe a heap in 'em."
+
+"You've lived in the West all your life--you were born in the West, I
+suppose?"
+
+He looked keenly at her. "I expect you knowed that without askin'. I've
+been wonderin' if it would have made any difference."
+
+"How?"
+
+"In me. Do you think an education makes a man act different--gives him
+different ideas about his actions--in his dealin's with women, for
+instance?"
+
+"I expect it does. Education should make a man more considerate of
+women--it is refining."
+
+"Then you reckon a man that ain't had any education is coarse, an' don't
+know how to treat a woman?"
+
+"I didn't say that; I said education _should_ make a man treat women that
+way."
+
+"But it don't always?"
+
+"I think not. I have known men--well educated men--who failed to treat
+women as they should be treated."
+
+"Then that ain't what you might call a hard-an'-fast rule--it don't
+always work. An' there's hope for any man who ain't had schoolin'--if
+he's wantin' to be a man."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"But an educated man can't claim ignorance when he aims to mistreat a
+woman. That's how it figures up, ain't it?"
+
+She laughed. "It would seem to point to that conclusion."
+
+"So you've knowed Haydon about a year? I reckon he's educated?"
+
+"Yes." She watched him closely, wondering at his meaning--why he had
+brought Haydon's name into the discussion. She was marveling at the
+subtle light in his eyes.
+
+"Your father liked Haydon--he told me Haydon was the only square man in
+the country--besides himself an' Sheriff Gage."
+
+"Father liked Haydon. I'm beginning to believe you really _did_ have a
+talk with father before he died!"
+
+He smiled. "Goin' back to Haydon. I had a talk with him a little while
+ago. I sort of took a shine to him." He drew from a pocket the section of
+gold chain he had found on the desert, holding it out to her.
+
+"Here's a piece of Haydon's watch chain," he said slowly, watching her
+face. "The next time Haydon comes to see you, give it to him, tellin' him
+I found it. It's likely he'll ask you where I found it. But you can say I
+wasn't mentionin'."
+
+He turned, looking back over his shoulder at her as he walked toward the
+gate.
+
+She stood, holding the glittering links in the palm of one hand, doubt
+and suspicion in her eyes.
+
+"Why," she called after him; "he was just here, and you say you talked
+with him! Why didn't you give it to him?"
+
+"Forgot it, ma'am. An' I reckon you'll be seein' him before I do."
+
+Then he strode out through the gate, leaving her to speculate upon the
+mystery of his words and his odd action in leaving the chain with her
+when he could have personally returned it to Haydon.
+
+Harlan, however, was grinning as he returned to the bunkhouse. For he
+wanted Barbara to see Haydon's face when the section of chain was
+returned to him, to gain whatever illumination she could from the
+incident. He did not care to tell her--yet--that Haydon had killed her
+father; but he did desire to create in her mind a doubt of Haydon, so
+that she would hesitate to confide to him everything that happened at the
+Rancho Seco.
+
+For himself, he wanted to intimate delicately to Haydon his knowledge of
+what had really occurred at Sentinel Rock; it was a message to the man
+conveying a significance that Haydon could not mistake. It meant that for
+some reason, known only to himself, Harlan did not intend to tell what he
+knew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+FORGING A LETTER
+
+
+The impulse which had moved Harlan to send Red Linton to the T Down ranch
+to enlist the services of some of his old friends had resulted from a
+conviction that he could not depend upon those men of the Rancho Seco
+outfit who had seemed to him, to be unfriendly to Stroud, the straw-boss.
+He knew nothing about them, and their loyalty to Barbara Morgan might be
+of a quality that would not endure through the sort of trouble that
+seemed to be imminent.
+
+The T Down men--those who would come--would stand with him no matter what
+happened--they would do his will without question.
+
+There was no doubt in Harlan's mind that John Haydon was the mysterious
+"Chief"--the man who had sent into Lane Morgan's breast the bullet that
+had ultimately killed him; and there was no doubt that some powerful,
+secret force was at work in the country, and that the force was directing
+its attention to the Rancho Seco and the defenseless girl who was at the
+nominal head of it. For some reason the secret force had killed her
+father, had isolated the ranch, had encompassed it with enemies, and was
+working slowly and surely to enmesh the girl herself.
+
+Harlan was convinced that one of the motives behind the subtle
+aggressions of the men was a yearning for the gold that Morgan had
+left--in fact the presence of Dolver and Laskar at Sentinel Rock--and
+Morgan's word to him about the gold--provided sufficient evidence on that
+score.
+
+They had watched Morgan; they suspected he was taking gold to Pardo to
+have it assayed, and they had killed him in the hope of finding something
+on his person which would reveal to them where he had hidden the rest of
+it.
+
+One other motive was that of the eternal, ages-old passion of a man for
+woman. Evidence of that passion had been revealed to Harlan at Lamo, by
+the attack on Barbara by Deveny's hireling--Higgins; by the subtle
+advances of John Haydon. It seemed to Harlan that all of these men had
+been--and were--equally determined to possess the girl.
+
+And yet back of it all--behind that which had been rendered visible by
+the actions of the man and by Harlan's own deductions--was something
+else--something stealthy and hidden; a secret threat of dire things to
+come--a lingering promise of trickery.
+
+Standing at one of the gates of the corral upon the third morning
+following Linton's departure, Harlan considered this phase of the
+situation. He felt the hidden threat of something sinister that lurked in
+the atmosphere.
+
+It was all around him. It seemed to lie secreted in the yawning space
+that engulfed the Rancho Seco--south, north, and east. From the haze that
+stretched into the unending distance westward it seemed to come, bearing
+its whispered promise. The solemn hills that flanked the wide stretches
+of Sunset Valley seemed to hint of it--somberly.
+
+Mystery was in the serene calm that seemed to encompass the big basin;
+from the far reaches westward, in the misty veil that seemed to hang from
+the far-flung shafts of sunlight that penetrated the fleecy clouds, came
+the sinister threat--the whole section seemed to pulse with it.
+
+And yet Harlan knew there could be no mystery except the mysteries of
+men. Nature was the same here as in any other section of the world, and
+her secrets were not more profound than usual.
+
+He grinned mirthlessly at the wonderful basin, noting that the Rancho
+Seco buildings seemed to lie on a direct line with its center; that the
+faint trail that ran through the basin--the trail men traveled--came on
+in its undulating way straight toward the Rancho Seco ranchhouse, seemed
+to bring the mystery of the big basin with it; seemed to be a link that
+connected the Rancho Seco with the promise of trouble.
+
+That impression might have engaged the serious thoughts of some men. It
+widened the smile on Harlan's face. For he knew there was no threat in
+the beauty of the valley; that it did not hide its secrets from the
+prying eyes of men. Whatever secret the valley held was in the minds of
+men--the minds of Deveny and the mysterious "Chief," and their followers.
+
+Harlan had not absented himself from the ranchhouse since the departure
+of Linton. He had lounged in the vicinity of the buildings during the
+day--and Barbara had seen him many times from the windows; and he had
+spent his nights watching the ranchhouse, half expecting another attack
+on Barbara.
+
+The girl had seen him at night, too; and she had smiled at the picture he
+made with the moonlight shining upon him--or standing in some
+shadow--somber, motionless, undoubtedly guarding her.
+
+She saw him this morning, too, as he stood beside the corral gate, and
+there was a glow in her eyes that, had he seen it, might have thrilled
+him with its gratitude.
+
+She came out of a rear door after a while, and Harlan was still standing
+at the gate.
+
+He watched her as she came toward him--it was the first time she had
+ventured in that direction since the return from Lamo with him--noting
+that she seemed to be in better spirits--that she was smiling.
+
+"You looked lonesome," she said, as she halted near him. "Did Linton join
+the outfit?"
+
+"It's likely; he went three days ago."
+
+"I knew he had gone; I saw you several times, and you were always alone.
+And," she added, looking keenly at him; "I saw you several times, at
+night. Don't you ever sleep?"
+
+"I reckon I'm a sort of restless cuss."
+
+Her face took on serious lines.
+
+"Look here, Harlan," she said, reprovingly, "you are keeping something
+back. You have been watching the ranchhouse at night--and during the day.
+You are guarding me. Why is it? Do you think I am going to run away?"
+
+"From me?" he queried; "I was hopin' you wouldn't."
+
+She stiffened with exasperation, for she felt the insincerity in his
+manner--caught the humorous note in his voice.
+
+"You are treating me as you would treat a child," she declared; "and I
+won't have it. Are you watching me because you fear there might be
+another--Lawson?"
+
+"There might be."
+
+"Nonsense! There isn't another man in the section would dare what Lawson
+dared!"
+
+"Gentlemen--eh?" he said, tauntingly. "Well, I've nosed around quite
+considerable, an' I don't remember to have ever run into a place where
+there was fewer _men_ than in this neck of the woods."
+
+"There are plenty of gentlemen. Do you think John Haydon----"
+
+Harlan grinned faintly. "He's been fannin' it right along for half an
+hour," he said, with seeming irrelevance.
+
+"Who?" she asked, with a swift, uncomprehending glance at him.
+
+"Your gentleman," he said slowly.
+
+She followed the direction of his gaze, and saw, on the trail that led
+downward from a little table-land to the level that stretched toward the
+ranchhouse, a horseman, coming rapidly toward them.
+
+"It's Mr. Haydon!" she ejaculated, her voice leaping.
+
+"So it is," said Harlan, dryly. He looked keenly at her, noting the flush
+on her face, the brightness of her eyes. "You ain't forgettin' to give
+him that piece of chain."
+
+"Why," she said, drawing the glittering links from a pocket of her skirt;
+"I have it here. You may return it to him."
+
+"Me an' Haydon ain't on speakin' terms," he smiled. "He wouldn't
+appreciate it none, if I give it to him."
+
+"Why--" she began, only to pause and look at him with a sudden
+comprehension in her eyes. For into Harlan's face had come an expression
+that, she thought, she could analyze. It was jealousy. That was why he
+was reluctant to return the chain to Haydon.
+
+The situation was so positively puerile, she thought, that she almost
+felt like laughing. She would have laughed had it not been that she knew
+of Harlan's unfailing vigilance--and that she felt differently toward him
+now than she had felt during the first days of their acquaintance. His
+steadfast vigilance, she decided, must have been responsible for the
+change, together with the steady consideration he revealed for her.
+
+At any rate, something about him had affected her. She felt more gentle
+toward him; more inclined to believe in him; and there had been times
+during the past few days when she had been astonished at the subtle, warm
+sensation that had stolen over her whenever she saw him or whenever she
+thought of him.
+
+Something of that warmth toward him was in her eyes now as she watched
+him and she decided that she should humor his whim; that she should
+perform the action that he was reluctant to perform.
+
+She smiled, with the wisdom of a woman to whom a secret had been
+unwittingly revealed.
+
+"You don't like Haydon?"
+
+"Him an' me ain't goin' to be bosom friends."
+
+"Why don't you like him?" she asked banteringly.
+
+She thought his grin was brazen. "Why don't you like me?"
+
+"I don't know," she said coldly. But her face reddened a little.
+
+"Well," he laughed; "that's why I don't like Haydon."
+
+Haydon had crossed the big level, and was close to the ranchhouse.
+
+The girl had determined to remain where she was, to return the piece of
+chain to Haydon in the presence of Harlan--in order to learn what she
+could of the depth of Harlan's dislike for Haydon when in the presence of
+the latter. And so a silence came between them as they watched Haydon
+ride toward them.
+
+When Haydon rode close to them he halted his horse and sat in the saddle,
+an expression of cold inquiry on his face. His smile at Miss Barbara was
+a trifle forced; his glance at Harlan had a fair measure of frank dislike
+and suspicion in it.
+
+Harlan deliberately turned his back toward Barbara and Haydon when the
+latter dismounted; walked a little distance, and pretended to be
+interested in a snubbing post in the corral.
+
+Yet he cast furtive glances toward the two, and when he saw the girl
+reaching into a pocket for the section of chain he had given her, he
+slowly sauntered forward, and was within hearing distance when Barbara
+spoke to Haydon.
+
+"I was to give you this," she said--and she extended a hand toward
+Haydon, the chain dangling from her fingers.
+
+Harlan saw Haydon's muscles leap and become tense. He saw the man's color
+go, saw his cheeks whiten; observed that his eyes widened and gleamed
+with mingled astonishment and alarm.
+
+He regained control of himself instantly, however, but Harlan had seen
+enough to strengthen his convictions, and he grinned as Haydon flashed a
+sharp glance at him.
+
+Barbara, too, had noted the strange light in Haydon's eyes; she had seen
+that Haydon had seemed about to shrink from the chain when she held it
+out to him. She looked from Haydon to Harlan inquiringly and when her
+glance again returned to Haydon he was smiling.
+
+However, he had not taken the chain from her hand.
+
+"Is it yours?" she asked.
+
+"Yes--mine," he answered, hesitatingly. "Where did you find it?"
+
+"Mr. Harlan found it." Barbara noted Haydon's quick start, the searching
+glance he gave Harlan--who was now leaning on a rail of the corral fence,
+seemingly uninterested.
+
+Haydon laughed, a little hoarsely, it seemed to Barbara, and more loudly
+than the occasion seemed to demand. She thought, though, that the laugh
+might have been a jeer for Harlan's action in turning the chain over to
+her instead of returning it directly to the owner.
+
+She did not catch the searching inquiry of Haydon's glance at Harlan, nor
+did she see Harlan's odd smile at Haydon, and the slow wink that
+accompanied it.
+
+But the wink and the smile conveyed to Haydon the intelligence that
+Harlan knew the story connected with the loss of the chain, and that he
+had not communicated it to the girl. They also expressed to Haydon the
+message that Harlan and Haydon were kindred souls--the smile and the wink
+told Haydon that this man who knew his secret was secretly applauding
+him, even while inwardly laughing at him for his fear that the secret
+would be betrayed.
+
+Harlan's voice broke a short silence.
+
+"Found it right about here--the other day. It must have laid there a long
+time, for it took a heap of polishin' to brighten it up." Again he closed
+an eye at Haydon, and the latter grinned broadly.
+
+Barbara silently endured a pang of disappointment. She had caught
+Harlan's wink. The man had betrayed jealousy only a few minutes ago, and
+he had refused personally to return the chain to Haydon. And yet he stood
+there now, smiling and winking at the other, evidently with the desire to
+ingratiate himself. Sycophant, weakling, or fool--which was he? She
+shuddered with disgust, deliberately turned her back to Harlan, and began
+to walk toward the ranchhouse, Haydon following.
+
+And Harlan, standing at the fence, leaned an elbow on one of the rails
+and watched the two, an enigmatic smile on his face.
+
+For he had succeeded in opening a gate which disclosed a trail that would
+lead him straight to the mystery, a breath of which had been borne to him
+that morning upon the slight breeze that had swept down to him from the
+mighty valley out of which Haydon had ridden.
+
+Between him and Haydon a bond had been established, fashioned from the
+links of the section of chain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+HARLAN RIDES ALONE
+
+
+Upon the morning of the fourth day following Haydon's visit to the Rancho
+Seco, a dust cloud developed on the northwestern horizon. Harlan observed
+the cloud; he had been watching for it since dawn, when he had emerged
+from the stable door, where he had been looking after Purgatory.
+
+From the ranchhouse Barbara also saw the cloud, and she ran upstairs to
+one of the north windows. There, with her face pressed against the glass,
+she watched the cloud grow in size, observed that it was dotted with the
+forms of horsemen; saw at last that the horsemen were headed straight for
+the Rancho Seco. Then, wondering, anxious, eager, she descended the
+stairs and ran out to where Harlan was standing, speaking breathlessly:
+
+"What does it mean? Who are they?"
+
+"It'll be Red Linton an' some T Down boys."
+
+"'T Down'?"
+
+"Pardo men. From where I used to work. I sent Linton for them. If I'm
+going to run a ranch I aim to run it with men I can depend on."
+
+She had hardly spoken to him in the four days that had elapsed since
+Haydon's last visit, for the disgust she had felt that day had endured.
+But there was something new in his manner now--a briskness, a
+business-like air that made her look sharply at him.
+
+He smiled at her, and in the smile was a snapping humor that puzzled her.
+
+She stood, watching for a while--until the group of horsemen became
+clearly defined--and then, with a sudden fear that the men might be
+outlaws of the same type as Harlan--possibly he had sent for them because
+they were--she returned to the ranchhouse and watched from one of the
+windows.
+
+When the T Down men rode up to the corral gate they dismounted and
+surrounded Harlan. There were ten of them--rugged-looking fellows of
+various ages, bepistoled, begrimed with dust, and articulate with profane
+expressions of delight.
+
+"Hell's a-poppin', Red says!" yelled one. "He says there's geezers here
+which is pinin' for yore gore. Turn me loose on 'em--oh, turn me loose!"
+
+The men, tired, dusty, and hungry, swarmed into one of the bunkhouses
+immediately after they had turned their horses into the corral and cared
+for their saddles.
+
+The men were in good spirits, despite their long ride; and for half an
+hour after they descended upon the bunkhouse the air pulsed with their
+talk and their laughter, as they washed their dust-stained faces from the
+tin washbasin on the bench outside the door, and combed their hair with a
+comb attached to a rawhide thong that swung from the wall above the
+basin.
+
+They had been informed by Red Linton regarding the situation that had
+developed at the Rancho Seco--fully informed before they had begun their
+trip westward--Linton scrupulously and faithfully presenting to them the
+dangers that confronted them. And though some of them were still curious,
+and sought a word with Harlan in confirmation, they seemed to be
+satisfied to trust to Harlan's judgment. Their faith was of the kind that
+needs but little verbal reassurance.
+
+That they admired the man who had sent for them there was little doubt;
+for they watched him with glowing eyes as he talked with them, revealing
+their pride that they had been selected. Hardy, clear-eyed, serenely
+unafraid, they instantly adapted themselves to the new "job," and before
+their first meal was finished they were thoroughly at home.
+
+Shortly afterward--while the men were lounging about inside--Harlan drew
+Linton outside.
+
+"That's the bunch I would have picked if I had gone myself," complimented
+Harlan. "I'm thankin' you a heap."
+
+He whispered to Linton the story of Haydon's last visit and for the first
+time Linton heard about the section of chain which convicted Haydon of
+the murder of Lane Morgan. Linton's eyes gleamed.
+
+"I've always sort of suspected the son-of-a-gun!" he declared. "An' him
+makin' love to Barbara! The sneakin' coyote! An' so you're goin' to see
+him? I'd be a whole lot careful."
+
+Harlan's smile was grave. "I'm reckonin' to be. I'd have gone before
+this, but I was waitin' for you boys. Nobody is sayin' anything to
+anybody. You're stickin' close to the Rancho Seco, not lettin' Barbara
+out of your sight. That's what I wanted you an' the other guys for. I'm
+playin' the rest of it a lone hand."
+
+Leaving Linton standing near the bunkhouse, he went to the stable, where
+he threw saddle and bridle on Purgatory. Then he mounted, waved a hand at
+Linton, who was watching him, and rode to the ranchhouse. At the
+northwest corner--around which Haydon had ridden on the occasion of his
+last visit--he brought Purgatory to a halt, for he saw Barbara just
+emerging from the _patio_ gate.
+
+She halted in the opening when she observed him; making a picture that
+was vivid in his memory for many days afterward--for her eyes were alight
+with wonder, her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing fast.
+
+For she had watched from a window the coming of the T Down men; she had
+noted the conference between Harlan and Linton; and she had seen Harlan
+waving a hand at the red-haired man, seemingly in farewell. She stood
+now, afflicted with a strange regret, suddenly aware that she would feel
+the absence of the man who sat on his horse before her--for she divined
+that he was going.
+
+"I'm sayin' so-long to you, ma'am," smiled Harlan.
+
+"Oh!" she said, aware of the flatness of her tone. "Are you going away?"
+
+"I'm figurin' to go. I ain't used to hangin' around one place very long.
+But I'm comin' back some day. Red Linton an' the boys will be seein' that
+things go smooth with you. You can depend on Red, and all the boys.
+They're Simon-pure, dyed-in-the-wool, eighteen-carat men." And now he
+grinned, gravely. "Remember this, Barbara: A man will do things when he's
+handlin' a gold chain--things that he wouldn't do if there didn't happen
+to be any chain."
+
+He doffed his hat and slapped Purgatory sharply, heading the animal
+westward, toward the yawning mouth of the big basin that stretched its
+mighty length into the mystery of distance.
+
+But his words left her with a conviction that she had again misjudged
+him, and that when he had appeared to fawn on Haydon he had been merely
+acting, merely pretending. She watched him, regretfully, longingly,
+assailed by emotions that she could not understand--until he and
+Purgatory grew small in the gulf of distance; until horse and rider were
+swallowed in the glowing haze.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+HARLAN JOINS THE GANG
+
+
+At the edge of the big level, where it merged into the floor of the
+basin, Harlan drew Purgatory to a halt. For an instant he sat in the
+saddle scrutinizing a section of buffalo grass that fringed a clump of
+willows near the almost dry bed of the river that doubled slightly as it
+came from the basin. Something in the appearance of the grass had
+attracted his attention--it was matted, as though something had lain or
+rolled in it.
+
+He rode closer, cautiously, for the little trees formed a covert behind
+which any one of several dangers might lie concealed--and looked down at
+the grass. As he examined the place his lips twisted into a grim smile,
+and his eyes grew bright with comprehension.
+
+He rode around the clump of trees, making sure it was not occupied; then
+he dismounted.
+
+Someone had been concealed in the covert for many days--a man. For he saw
+the imprints of heels, and indentations where spurs had gashed the earth.
+The marks were all fresh--recently made. While he watched he saw some
+blades of the long grass slowly rise--as though, relieved from some
+pressure that had been upon them, they were eager to regain an upright
+position. He also saw scraps of food--jerked beef and biscuit--scattered
+here and there.
+
+He frowned, convinced that for days a man had occupied the covert,
+watching the Rancho Seco; convinced also, that the mystery he had sensed
+some days ago had been man-made, as he had felt. The man who had been
+there had been a sentinel, a spy, sent by Deveny or Haydon to observe his
+movements, and to report them, of course, to one or the other of the two
+outlaws.
+
+Harlan remounted Purgatory. His caution had not been wasted, and his
+vigilance in guarding the ranchhouse must have been irritating to the man
+who had been watching.
+
+He urged Purgatory on again--heading him westward, as before. And when he
+reached the crest of a slight rise in the valley--from where he could see
+the trail as it twisted and undulated around hills and into depressions--he
+saw, far up the valley--and yet not so far, either--not more than two
+miles--a horseman, riding slowly--away from him.
+
+The horseman was the spy, of course. Harlan had no doubt that if he
+lingered in the vicinity of the covert long enough he would discover the
+place where the horse had been concealed. But that was not important, now
+that he had discovered enough to satisfy himself that there had been a
+spy--and so he rode on, smiling faintly, knowing that the rider was
+headed into the valley--possibly to the outlaw rendezvous to appraise
+Deveny and the others of his coming.
+
+The trail was clearly defined, and there were places where it ran over
+broad levels of grass where he presented a good target to men who might
+be eager to send a shot at him. There were other spots where the trail
+led into timber clumps and through tangles of brush where an ambuscade
+might be planned in perfect safety by an enemy; and there were the
+bastioned cliffs that towered above the trail at intervals, offering
+admirable hinding-places for any man with hostile intentions.
+
+Harlan, however, rode steadily, outwardly unconcerned; inwardly convinced
+that no attempt would be made to ambush him. For Haydon has passed that
+way on his return to the Star, and Harlan had no doubt that since the
+incident of the smile and the wink, Haydon had passed word that he was
+not to be molested.
+
+Haydon would be curious--as he had been curious at the Rancho Seco--to
+learn the significance of the smile and the wink. Haydon would want to
+discover just how much Harlan knew about the murder of Lane Morgan; and
+he would want to know what Harlan knew of the gold that Morgan had
+secreted. And so Harlan rode on, watching the country through which he
+passed, but feeling assured there would be no shot to greet him from one
+of the many natural vantage-points he encountered.
+
+He rode for an hour, not making very good time, for it was a new trail,
+and he was examining the country intently as he passed, fixing it in his
+memory for future convenience, perhaps--no one ever knew just when it
+might be necessary to use one's knowledge--when he reached a low ridge
+which crossed the valley.
+
+Here he halted Purgatory and gazed about him.
+
+Before him stretched a green grass level, about two miles long, running
+the entire width of the valley. It was dotted with mesquite, sage, and
+here and there the thorny blade of a cactus rose. Some cattle were
+grazing on the level; they were several miles south, and he could see
+some horsemen near them.
+
+He decided he must be close to the Star; and he urged Purgatory on again,
+down upon the level, toward some timber that grew at the farther edge of
+the level. Just as he slipped down the slope of the ridge, he saw, far
+ahead of him, the horseman he had seen when he had entered the valley.
+The horseman was on the crest of a bald hill--low, and small--but Harlan
+caught a glimpse of him as he crossed it, riding fast.
+
+Harlan smiled again, and rode on his way, resuming his scrutiny of the
+country.
+
+The valley was mighty, magnificent; it deserved all the praise Barbara
+Morgan had heaped upon it. From the low mountain range on the north to
+the taller mountains southward, it was a virgin paradise in which reigned
+a peace so profound that it brought a reverent awe into the soul of the
+beholder.
+
+It thrilled Harlan despite the certain blasé, matter-of-fact attitude he
+had for all of nature's phenomena; he found himself admiring the majestic
+buttes that fringed it; there was a glint of appreciation in his eyes for
+the colossal bigness of it--for the gigantic, sweeping curves which
+seemed to make of it an oblong bowl, a cosmic hollow, boundless, hinting
+of the infinite power of its builder.
+
+The trail that ran through it, drawled to threadlike proportions by the
+mightiness of the space through which it ran, was, for the greater part
+of the distance traveled by Harlan, a mere scratch upon a low rock ridge.
+And as he rode he could look down upon the floor of the valley, green and
+inviting.
+
+When he entered the timber at the edge of the grass level, he was
+conscious of a stealthy sound behind him. He turned quickly in the
+saddle, to see a man standing at the edge of some brush that fringed the
+trail.
+
+The man was big, a heavy black beard covered his chin and portions of his
+cheeks; his hat was drawn well down over his forehead, partially
+shielding his eyes.
+
+A rifle in his hands was held loosely, and though it appeared that the
+man did not intend to use the weapon immediately, Harlan could see that
+his right forefinger was touching the trigger, and that the muzzle of the
+weapon was suggestively toward him.
+
+For the past few miles of his ride Harlan had been expecting an
+apparition of this sort to appear, and so he now gave no sign of
+surprise. Instead, he slowly raised both hands until they were on a level
+with his shoulders--and, still twisted about in the saddle, he grinned
+faintly at the man.
+
+"From now on I'm to have company, eh?" he said.
+
+The man smirked grimly at him.
+
+"You've hit it," he answered. "You're Harlan, ain't you? 'Drag' Harlan,
+the Pardo two-gun man?"
+
+The man's eyes were glowing with interest--critical, almost cynical, and
+they roved over Harlan with a probing intensity that left no doubt in
+Harlan's mind that the man had heard of him and was examining him with
+intent to discover what sort of a character he was.
+
+Apparently satisfied--and also plainly impressed with what he saw, the
+man grinned--this time almost genially--and answered Harlan's affirmative
+nod with:
+
+"Well, Haydon is expectin' you. You c'n let your paws down--takin' a heap
+of care not to go to foolin' with your guns. I ain't takin' them; Haydon
+didn't say anything about it. You're ridin' that trail that forks off to
+the left."
+
+Harlan lowered his hands, resting them on the pommel of his saddle, and
+rode on, taking, as advised, a narrow trail that diverged from the other
+a short distance from where he had met the man. As he struck the other
+trail he heard the man coming behind him--on a horse.
+
+There were no further words. Harlan kept to the trail, riding slowly; the
+man behind him following at a short distance.
+
+In this manner they rode for perhaps a mile. Then the timber grew sparse,
+and Purgatory and his rider at last emerged upon a level that extended
+about a hundred feet and then sloped down abruptly to another level,
+through which flowed a narrow stream of water, shallow and clear.
+
+Close to the bank of the stream was an adobe ranchhouse, and surrounding
+it were several other buildings. At a slight distance from the house was
+a corral in which were several horses. In front of a bunkhouse were
+several men who, when they saw Harlan and the other man coming, faced
+toward them and stood, motionless, watching.
+
+The men maintained silence as Harlan rode to the ranchhouse and sat in
+the saddle, awaiting the pleasure of his escort. He saw the latter grin
+at the other men as he passed them; and he grinned at Harlan as he
+brought his horse to a halt near Purgatory and dismounted.
+
+"I reckon you're to git off an' visit," he said; "Haydon is inside." As
+he dismounted and trailed the reins over the head of his beast he cast a
+sharp, critical eye over Purgatory.
+
+"There's a heap of hoss in that black, eh?"
+
+"Plenty." Harlan got down and ran a hand over Purgatory's neck, while
+trailing the reins over his head. "Man-killer," he warned. "Don't touch
+him. He ain't been rode by nobody but me, an' he won't stand for nobody
+foolin' around him."
+
+Harlan had raised his voice until he was sure the men in front of the
+bunkhouse heard him; then he grinned genially at them all and followed
+the black-bearded man into the ranchhouse.
+
+An instant later, in a big room which had the appearance of an office,
+Harlan was confronting Haydon.
+
+The latter was sitting in a chair at a desk, and when Harlan entered
+Haydon got up and grinned at him, shallowly, without mirth.
+
+"So you got here," he said; "I've been expecting you."
+
+"I've been notin' that. That guy you left at the edge of the level to
+keep an eye on the Rancho Seco didn't cover his tracks. I run onto
+them--an' I saw him hittin' the breeze--comin' here. I reckon nobody is
+surprised." Harlan grinned widely.
+
+"So you noticed that," said Haydon, answering Harlan's grin. "Well, I
+don't mind admitting that we've kept an eye on you. You've had me
+guessing."
+
+Haydon's manner was that of the man who is careful not to say too much,
+his constraint was of the quality that hints of a desire to become
+confidential--a smooth, bland courtesy; a flattering voice--encouraging,
+suggesting frankness.
+
+Harlan's manner was that of a certain reckless carelessness. He seemed to
+be perfectly at ease, confident, deliberate, and unwatchful. He knew
+Haydon was an outlaw; that the men who had been grouped in front of the
+bunkhouse were members of Haydon's band; he knew the man who had escorted
+him to the Star had been deliberately stationed in the timber to watch
+for him. And he had no doubt that other outlaws had lain concealed along
+the trail to observe his movements.
+
+He knew, too, that he had placed himself in a precarious predicament--that
+his life was in danger, and that he must be exceedingly careful.
+
+Yet outwardly he was cool, composed. With Haydon's eyes upon him he drew
+a chair to a point near the desk, seated himself in it, drew out paper
+and tobacco, and rolled a cigarette. Lighting it, he puffed slowly,
+watching while Haydon dropped into the chair he had vacated at Harlan's
+appearance.
+
+When Haydon dropped into his chair he grinned admiringly at Harlan.
+
+"You're a cool one, Harlan," he said; "I've got to say that for you. But
+there's no use in four-flushing. You've come here to tell me something
+about the chain. Where did you find it?"
+
+"At Sentinel Rock--not far from where you plugged Lane Morgan."
+
+"You're assuming that I shot Morgan?" charged Haydon.
+
+"Morgan was assumin', too, I reckon," grinned Harlan. "He told me it was
+you who shot him--he saw your face by the flash of your gun. An' he told
+me where to look for the chain--him not knowin' it was a chain--but
+somethin'."
+
+Haydon's eyes gleamed with a cold rage--which he concealed by passing a
+hand over his forehead, veiling his eyes from Harlan. His lips were
+wreathed in a smile.
+
+"Why didn't you tell me that the other day--the first time I met you?"
+
+Harlan laughed. "I was havin' notions then--notions that I'd be playin'
+her a lone hand."
+
+"And now?" Haydon's eyes were steady with cold inquiry.
+
+"I've got other notions. I'm acceptin' Deveny's invitation to throw in
+with you."
+
+Haydon was silent for an instant, and during the silence his gaze met
+Harlan's fairly. By the humorous gleam in Harlan's eyes Haydon divined
+that the man could not be misled--that he knew something of the situation
+in the valley, and that he had come here with the deliberate intention of
+joining the outlaw band.
+
+There was, as Haydon had intimated, little use for an attempt at
+equivocation or pretense. It was a situation that must be faced squarely
+by both himself and Harlan. Harlan's reputation, and his action in
+keeping secret from Barbara Morgan the identity of her father's murderer,
+indicated sincerity on the man's part. And since Harlan knew him to be
+the murderer of Morgan it would be absurd for Haydon to pretend that he
+had no connection with Deveny's band. He could not fool this man.
+
+Yet a jealous hatred of Harlan was thinly concealed by the steady smile
+with which he regarded his visitor. He had felt the antagonism of Harlan
+that day when he had talked with him at the bunkhouse door; Harlan's
+manner that day had convinced him that Harlan was jealous of his
+attentions to Barbara Morgan. Also, there was in his heart a professional
+jealousy--jealousy of Harlan's reputation.
+
+For this man who sat in his chair so calmly, with danger encompassing
+him, was greater than he. Haydon knew it. Had there been any doubt in his
+mind on that score it must have been removed by a memory of the manner in
+which his men had received the news that Harlan had left the Rancho Seco
+and was on his way up the valley.
+
+The rider Harlan had seen had come in with that news--and Haydon had been
+standing with the group at the bunkhouse when the man arrived. And he had
+not failed to note the nervous glances of some of the men, and the
+restless eagerness, not unmixed with anxiety, with which they watched the
+trail.
+
+And now, facing Harlan, he felt the man's greatness--his especial fitness
+for the career he had adopted. Harlan was the ideal outlaw. He was cool,
+deep, subtle. He was indomitable; he felt no fear; his will was
+inflexible, adamant. Haydon felt it. The fear he had experienced at his
+first meeting with Harlan had endured until this minute--it was strong as
+ever.
+
+Yet he admired the man; and knew that since he had come to the valley he
+must be considered an important factor. Haydon could not flatly tell him
+to get out of the valley; he could not order him away from the Rancho
+Seco. Harlan was in control there--for the rider who had come in with the
+news that Harlan had set out for the valley had also apprised Haydon of
+the coming, to the Rancho Seco, of the men of the T Down outfit.
+
+The rider had not been able to tell Haydon who the men were, of course;
+but it made little difference. They were friends of Harlan's, for they
+had come from the direction of the desert--from Pardo.
+
+It was plain to Haydon that Harlan had come to the valley to stay. It was
+equally plain that he must be either propitiated or antagonized. He felt
+that Harlan was giving him his choice.
+
+"What do you want--if you throw in with us?" Haydon asked, following the
+trend of his own thoughts.
+
+"That's straight talk," said Harlan. "I'm givin' you a straight answer.
+If I join your bunch I join on the same footing with you an'
+Deveny--nothin' less. We split everything three ways--the other boys
+takin' their regular share after we take ours. I bring my boys in under
+the rules you've got that govern the others. I run the Rancho Seco--no
+one interferin'. When I rustle up that gold old Morgan hid, we split it
+three ways. Barbara Morgan goes with the ranch--no one interferin'."
+
+Color surged into Haydon's face.
+
+"You don't want much, do you?" he sneered.
+
+"I want what's comin' to me--what I'm goin' to take, if I come in. That's
+my proposition. You can take it or leave it."
+
+Haydon was silent for an instant, studying Harlan's face. What he saw
+there brought a frown to his own.
+
+"Harlan," he said softly, "some of the boys feel a little resentful over
+the way you sent Dolver and Laskar out. There are several friends of
+those two men outside now. Suppose I should call them in and tell them
+that the bars are down on you--eh?"
+
+If Haydon expected his threat to intimidate Harlan, he was mistaken.
+Harlan sat, motionless, watching the outlaw chief steadily. And into his
+eyes came a glitter of that cold contempt which Haydon had seen in them
+on the day he had faced Harlan near the bunkhouse at the Rancho Seco.
+
+"You're doin' the honors, Haydon," he said. "If you're that kind of a
+coyote I don't want to deal with you. If you think you want to pass up a
+share of that hundred thousand, start yappin' to them boys. It's likely
+there's some of them hangin' around, close. Mebbe you've got some of them
+peekin' around corners at me now. I ain't runnin' from no trouble that
+comes my way. Get goin' if you're yearnin' to requisition the mourners."
+
+Rage over the threat was now plain in his eyes, for they were aflame with
+a cold fire as he got up from his chair and stood, crouching a little,
+his hands lingering near the butts of his guns.
+
+Haydon did not move, but his face grew pallid and he smiled nervously,
+with shallow mirth.
+
+"You are not in a joking mood today, Harlan?" he said.
+
+"There's jokes, _an'_ jokes, Haydon. I've come here in good faith. I've
+been in camps like this before--in Kelso's, Dave Rance's, Blondy
+Larkin's, an' some others. Them men are outlaws--like you an' me; an'
+they've done things that make them greater than you an' me--in our line.
+But I've visited them, free an' easy--goin' an' comin' whenever I
+pleased. An' no man threatenin' me.
+
+"Your manners is irritatin' to me--I'm tellin' you so. I'm through!
+You're takin' me out, now--back to the Rancho Seco. You're ridin' behind
+me--minus your guns, your mouth shut tighter than you ever shut it
+before. An' if there's any shootin' you'll know it--plenty!"
+
+Harlan had brought matters to a crisis--suddenly, in a flash. The time
+for pretense had gone. Haydon could accept Harlan upon the terms he had
+mentioned, or he could take up the man's challenge with all it
+implied--bitter warfare between the two factions, which would be
+unprofitable to both, and especially to Haydon.
+
+It was for Haydon to decide; and he sat for some seconds motionless in
+the chair, before he spoke.
+
+Then he got up--taking care to keep his right hand at a respectable
+distance from the butt of his pistol, and smilingly held out his hand.
+
+"It goes your way, Harlan--we take you in on your terms. I beg your
+pardon for saying what I did. That was just to try you out. I've heard a
+lot about you, and I wanted to see if you were in earnest--if you really
+wanted to come in. I'm satisfied."
+
+They shook hands; their gaze meeting as they stood close together. The
+gaze endured for an instant; and then Haydon's fell. The handshake lasted
+for several seconds, and it was curious to see how Haydon's eyes, after
+they had become veiled from Harlan's by the drooping lids, glowed with a
+malignant triumph and cunning.
+
+It was also curious to note that something of the same passion was
+revealed in Harlan's eyes as they rested on the partially closed lids of
+the other--for there was triumph there, too--and comprehension, and craft
+of a kind that might have disturbed Haydon, had he seen it.
+
+Then their hands parted, mutually, and Haydon grinned smoothly and with
+apparent cordiality at Harlan. He grasped Harlan by an elbow and urged
+him toward the door through which the latter had entered.
+
+"I'll give you a knockdown to the boys, now--those that are here," he
+said.
+
+An hour later--after Haydon and the dozen men to whom he had introduced
+Harlan had watched Harlan ride eastward through the valley toward the
+Rancho Seco--Haydon rode westward, accompanied by several of the men.
+
+They rode for many miles into the heart of the big basin, coming at last
+to a gorge that wound a serpentine way southward, through some concealing
+hills, into a smaller basin. A heavy timber clump grew at the mouth of
+the gorge, hiding it from view from the trail that ran through the
+valley. Some rank underbrush that fringed the timber gave the mouth of
+the gorge the appearance of a shallow cave, and a wall of rock, forming a
+ragged arch over the entrance, heightened the impression. At first glance
+the place seemed to be impenetrable.
+
+But the horsemen filed through easily enough, and the underbrush closed
+behind them, so that, had they been seen, the watcher might have been
+startled by their sudden disappearance.
+
+Near the center of the little basin stood a huge cabin, built of adobe,
+with a flat roof. In a small corral were a number of cattle. Grazing upon
+the grass, with which the place was carpeted, were many horses; and
+lounging in the grass near the cabin, and upon some benches that ranged
+its walls, were perhaps a dozen men, heavily armed.
+
+Several of the men grinned as the newcomers rode in and dismounted, and
+one or two spoke a short greeting to Haydon, calling him "Chief."
+
+Haydon did not linger to talk with the men, though; he dismounted and
+entered the cabin, where, an instant later, he was talking with Deveny.
+
+Haydon's eyes were still triumphant--glowing with a malignant
+satisfaction.
+
+"He's wise--and dead tickled to join," he told Deveny, referring to
+Harlan. "And I took him in on his own terms. We'll play him along, making
+him believe he's regular and right, until we get what we want. Then we'll
+down him!"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+At about the time Haydon was talking with Deveny, Harlan was dismounting
+at the Rancho Seco corral.
+
+The T Down men were variously engaged--some of them in the corral; others
+in the stable, and still others in the blacksmith-shop--all attending to
+their new duties--and only Red Linton was at the corral gate to greet
+Harlan.
+
+Triumph was in Harlan's eyes as he grinned at Linton.
+
+"I'm a Simon-pure outlaw now, Red," he stated. "Haydon didn't hesitate
+none. He's a sneakin', schemin' devil, an' he hates me like poison. But
+he took me in, reckonin' to play me for a sucker. Looks like things might
+be interestin'." He grinned. "I'm yearnin' for grub, Red."
+
+Later, while Harlan was seated at a table in the cook shanty, he became
+aware of a shadow at the door; and he wheeled, to see Barbara Morgan
+looking in at him, her face flushed, a glow in her eyes that was entirely
+comprehensible to Harlan.
+
+She was glad he had returned--any man with half Harlan's wisdom could
+have told that! And color of a kind not caused by the wind and sun
+suffused Harlan's face.
+
+She had seen him from one of the kitchen windows, and curiosity--and an
+impatience that would not permit of delay--had brought her to search for
+him.
+
+"Why," she said, "I--I thought--didn't you say that you were going away?"
+
+"Didn't I go?" he grinned.
+
+"For a day," she taunted, her voice leaping.
+
+"A day," he said gravely; "why, it was longer than that, wasn't it? Seems
+that I ain't seen you for years an' years!"
+
+He got up, his hunger forgotten. But when he reached the door he saw her
+running toward the ranchhouse, not even looking back. He stood watching
+her until she opened a door and vanished. Then he grinned and returned to
+his neglected food, saying aloud, after the manner of men who spend much
+time in open places: "I'll sure take care of her, Morgan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+LEFT-HANDED
+
+
+Harlan's statement to Haydon, to the effect that he had visited the camps
+of Kelso, Rance, Larkin, and other outlaws had been strictly accurate. At
+one time or another each of those outlaw leaders had sent for Harlan, to
+endeavor to prevail upon him to cast his lot with them--so common was the
+report that Harlan was of their type.
+
+And he had been able--as he had told Haydon--to go among them with
+impunity--unmolested, respected. And even after he had refused to join
+they had extended him the courtesy of faith--not even swearing him to
+secrecy. And he had vindicated their faith by keeping silent regarding
+them.
+
+Knowing, however, that the ethics of men of the type of Kelso, Rance,
+Larkin, and others provided a safe conduct for any man of their kind that
+came among them, Harlan had felt contempt for Haydon for his threat. And
+yet Harlan's rage on that occasion had been largely surface; it had been
+displayed for effect--to force an instant decision from Haydon.
+
+Harlan was aware that his only hope of protecting Barbara Morgan from
+Haydon and Deveny was in an offensive war. He could not expect to wage
+such a war by remaining idly at the Rancho Seco, to await the inevitable
+aggressions of the outlaws, for he did not know when they would strike,
+nor how. It was certain they would strike, and it was as certain they
+would strike when he least expected them to.
+
+Therefore he had determined to join them, depending upon his reputation
+to allay any suspicion they might have regarding his motives. Haydon had
+taken him into the band, but Harlan had been convinced that Haydon
+distrusted him. He had seen distrust in Haydon's eyes; and he had known,
+when Haydon dropped his gaze at the instant they had shaken hands, that
+the man meditated duplicity.
+
+Yet Harlan was determined to appear ignorant that Haydon meditated
+trickery. He intended to go among the men and deliberately to ignore the
+threatened dangers--more, to conduct himself in such a manner that Haydon
+would not suspect that he knew of any danger.
+
+It had been a slight incident that had suggested the plan to him--merely
+a glance at Strom Rogers, while the latter, in Lamo, had been watching
+Deveny.
+
+Harlan had seen hatred in Rogers' face, and contempt and jealousy; and he
+knew that where such passion existed it could be made to grow and
+flourish by suggestion and by example.
+
+And he was determined to furnish the example.
+
+He knew something of the passions of men of the type which constituted the
+band headed by Deveny and Haydon; he knew how their passions might be
+played upon; he was aware of their respect and admiration for men of
+notorious reputation, with records for evil deeds and rapid "gunslinging."
+
+He had seen how Strom Rogers had watched him--with awed respect; he had
+seen approval in Rogers' eyes when they had exchanged glances in Lamo;
+and he had heard men in the group in front of the sheriff's office
+speaking of him in awed whispers.
+
+He had never been affected by that sort of adulation--in Lamo or in the
+days that preceded his visit to the town. But he was not unmindful of the
+advantage such adulation would give him in his campaign for control of
+the outlaw camp. And that was what he had determined to achieve.
+
+Three times in as many days he rode up the valley to the Star, each time
+talking with Haydon--then leaving the latter to go out and lounge around
+among the men, listening to their talk, but taking little part in it. He
+did not speak until he was spoken to, and thus he challenged their
+interest, and they began to make advances to him.
+
+Their social structure was flimsy and thin, their fellowship as
+spontaneous as it was insincere; and within a few days the edge had worn
+off the strangeness that had surrounded Harlan, and he had been accepted
+with hardly a ripple of excitement.
+
+And yet no man among them had achieved intimacy with Harlan. There was a
+cold constraint in his manner that held them off, figuratively, barring
+them from becoming familiar with him. Several of them tried familiarity,
+and were astonished to discover that they had somehow failed--though they
+had been repelled so cleverly that they could not resent it.
+
+Harlan had established a barrier without them being aware of how he had
+done it--the barrier of authority and respect, behind which he stood, an
+engaging, saturnine, interesting, awe-compelling figure.
+
+At the end of a week the men of the Star outfit were addressing him as
+"boss;" listening to him with respect when he spoke, striving for his
+attention, and trying to win from him one of those rare smiles with which
+he honored those among them whose personalities interested him.
+
+At the end of two weeks half of the Star outfit was eager to obey any order
+he issued, while the remainder betrayed some slight hesitation--which,
+however, vanished when Harlan turned his steady gaze upon them.
+
+Behind their acceptance of him, though--back of their seeming willingness
+to admit him to their peculiar fellowship--was a reservation. Harlan felt
+it, saw it in their eyes, and noted it in their manner toward him. They
+had heard about him; they knew something of his record; reports of his
+cleverness with a weapon had come to them. And they were curious.
+
+There was speculation in the glances they threw at him; there was some
+suspicion, cynicism, skepticism, and not a little doubt. It seemed to
+Harlan that though they had accepted him they were impatiently awaiting a
+practical demonstration of those qualities that had made him famous in
+the country. They wanted to be "shown."
+
+Their wild, unruly passions and lurid imaginations were the urges that
+drove them--that shaped their conduct toward their fellows. Some of them
+were rapid gunslingers--in the picturesque idioms of their speech--and
+there was not a man among them who did not take pride in his ability to
+"work" his gun. They had accepted Harlan, but it was obvious that among
+them were some that doubted the veracity of rumor--some who felt that
+Harlan had been overrated.
+
+It did not take Harlan long to discover who those doubting spirits were.
+He saw them watching him--always with curling lip and truculent eye; he
+heard references to his ability from them--scraps of conversation in
+which such terms and phrases as "a false alarm, mebbe," "he don't look
+it," "wears 'em for show, I reckon," were used. He had learned the names
+of the men; there were three of them, known merely as "Lanky," "Poggs,"
+and "Latimer."
+
+Their raids upon the cattle in the basin took place at night; and their
+other depredations occurred at that time also. Harlan did not fail to
+hear of them, for their successes figured prominently in their daytime
+conversations; and he had watched the herd of cattle in the Star corrals
+grow in size until the enclosure grew too small to hold them comfortably.
+He had noted, too, the cleverness with which the men obliterated the
+brands on the stolen cattle--or refashioned them until proof of their
+identity was obscure.
+
+He had taken no part in any of the raids, though he had passed a few
+nights at the Star, directing, with the help of Strom Rogers, the
+altering of the brands and the other work attending the disguising of the
+cattle.
+
+Haydon he had seen but a few times, and Deveny not at all. He learned
+from Rogers that Haydon spent most of his time upon mysterious missions
+which took him to Lamo, to Lazette, and to Las Vegas; and that Deveny
+operated from a place that Rogers referred to as the "Cache," several
+miles up the valley.
+
+Latimer, a tawny giant of a man with a long, hooked nose, and thin, cruel
+lips, interested Harlan. He watched the man when the other was not
+conscious of his glances, noting the bigness of him, his slow,
+panther-like movements; the glowing, savage truculence of his eyes; the
+hard, bitter droop of his lips under the yellow mustache he wore. He felt
+the threat of the man when the latter looked at him--it was personal,
+intense--seeming to have motive behind it. It aroused in Harlan a
+responsive passion.
+
+One day, seated on a bench in front of the long bunkhouse near the Star
+ranchhouse, Harlan was watching some of the men who were playing cards
+near him. They were lounging in the grass, laughingly pitting their skill
+against one another, while another group, in front of the stable, was
+diligently repairing saddles.
+
+Apart from the two groups were Lanky, Poggs, and Latimer. They were
+standing near the corral fence, about a hundred feet from where Harlan
+sat. The subject of their talk was unpleasant, for their faces reflected
+the venomous passions that inspired it.
+
+Latimer had been watching Harlan--his gaze boldly hostile and full of a
+hate that was unmistakable.
+
+And Harlan had not been unaware of Latimer's gaze; he had noted the
+wolfish gleam in the other's eyes--and because he was interested in
+Latimer, he watched him covertly.
+
+But Harlan had betrayed no sign that he knew Latimer was watching him;
+and when he saw Strom Rogers coming toward him from the stable, he
+grinned at him and made room for him when the latter headed for the bench
+upon which Harlan was sitting.
+
+"Lazy day," offered Rogers as he dropped on the bench beside Harlan; "not
+a heap doin'." He did not look at Harlan, but leaned forward, took up a
+cinch buckle that had been lying in the sand at his feet, and turned it
+idly over and over in his hands, apparently intent on its construction.
+
+With his head down, so that even the card-players could not see his lips
+move, he whispered to Harlan:
+
+"Don't let 'em see you know I'm talkin'! They're framin' up on you!"
+
+Harlan grinned, shielding his lips with a hand that he passed casually
+over them.
+
+"Meanin' Latimer--an' his friends?" he said.
+
+"Yep. Latimer's jealous of you. Been jealous. Thinks he can match your
+gunplay--itchin' for trouble--bound to have it out with you. We was at
+the Cache last night, an' I heard him an' Deveny yappin' about it.
+Deveny's back of him--he's sore about the way you handed it to him in
+Lamo. Keep your eyes peeled; they're pullin' it off pretty soon.
+Latimer's doin' the shootin'--he's tryin' to work himself up to it. Be
+careful."
+
+"I'm thankin' you." Harlan leaned back, crossed his legs, and stared off
+into space, the light in his eyes becoming vacuous. He seemed not to be
+interested in Latimer and the other two, but in reality he saw them
+distinctly. But they had their backs to him now, and were slowly
+sauntering toward the stable door.
+
+"So Deveny ain't admirin' me none?" he said to Rogers.
+
+"Not scarcely. No more than a gopher is admirin' a side-winder."
+
+"Latimer," said Harlan, "don't like my style of beauty either. I've been
+noticin' it. He's a mighty interestin' man. If I wasn't dead sure he
+ain't the kind of a guy which goes around shootin' folks in the back, I'd
+say he pretty near fits the description I got of the man who helped
+Dolver salivate my side-kicker, Davey Langan, over in Pardo--a couple of
+months ago."
+
+Rogers' side glance was pregnant with a grim, unsmiling humor.
+
+"So you've picked him out? I've been wonderin' how long it would take
+you."
+
+The emotion that passed over Harlan was not visible. It might have been
+detected, however, by the slight leap in his voice.
+
+"You an' Latimer is bosom friends, I reckon?"
+
+"Shucks!"
+
+Rogers' glance met Harlan's for a fleeting instant.
+
+"This gang needs cleanin' up," said Rogers. He got up, and stood in front
+of Harlan, holding out the cinch buckle, as though offering it to the
+other. For both men had seen that Latimer had left his friends at the
+stable door and was coming slowly toward the bunkhouse.
+
+"You'll have to be slick," warned Rogers. "He's comin'. I'll be moseyin'
+out of the way."
+
+He moved slowly from the bench, passed the group of card-players, and
+walked to the ranchhouse, where he hung the cinch buckle on a nail driven
+into the wall of the building. Then he slowly turned, facing the bench
+upon which Harlan still sat, and toward which Latimer was walking.
+
+It was evident that all of the men in the vicinity were aware of the
+threatened clash, for their manner, upon the approach of Latimer,
+indicated as much.
+
+For weeks they had been eager to test the traditional quickness of Harlan
+with the weapons that swung at his hips--those weapons had been a
+constant irritation to some of them, and an object of speculation to all.
+And when the night before some of them had heard the whispered word that
+Latimer--with Deveny's sanction--indeed with Deveny's encouragement--was
+determined to clash with Harlan, they had realized that the moment for
+which they had yearned was at hand.
+
+For they had seen in Harlan's eyes--and had felt in the atmosphere that
+surrounded the man--the certainty that he would not refuse the clash with
+Latimer. The only question in their minds concerning Harlan was that of
+his speed and accuracy. And so when they saw Latimer coming they ceased
+playing cards and sat, interestedly watching--alert to note how Latimer
+would bring about the clash, and how Harlan would meet it.
+
+Latimer had nerved himself for the ordeal by talking with his friends.
+The will to kill Harlan had been in his heart for a long time, but he
+needed to reinforce it with an artificial rage. And, dwelling, with his
+friends, upon the irritating fact that Harlan had come among them to
+usurp authority to which he had no visible claim, he had succeeded in
+working his rage to a frenzy that took little account of consequences.
+
+Yet Latimer would not have been able to reach that frenzy had he not been
+convinced that he was Harlan's master with the six-shooter. He really
+believed that Harlan had been overrated. He believed that because he
+wanted to believe it, and because his contempt for the man had bred that
+conviction in his heart.
+
+Also, he thought he knew why Harlan had come to the Star--why he had
+joined the outlaw camp. And the night before, he had communicated that
+suspicion to Deveny. It was because Harlan knew he had been with Dolver
+when Davey Langan had been killed. Latimer thought he had seen a slight
+relief in Deveny's eyes when he had told the latter that, but he could
+not be sure, and it was not important.
+
+The important thing was that he must kill Harlan--and he meant to do it.
+He would kill him fairly, if possible, thereby enhancing his
+reputation--but he was certain to kill him, no matter what the method.
+
+That conviction blazed in his eyes as he came to a halt within a dozen
+paces of where Harlan was sitting. He had worked himself to such a pitch
+of rage that it gripped him like some strong fever--bloating his face,
+tensing his muscles, bulging his eyes.
+
+Harlan had watched him; and his gaze was on the other now with a steady,
+unwavering alertness that advertised his knowledge of what was impending.
+But he sat, motionless, rigid, waiting Latimer's first hostile movement.
+
+Harlan had turned a very little when Latimer had begun his walk toward
+the bench; his right side was slightly toward the man, the leg partially
+extended; while the left leg was doubled under the bench--seemingly to
+give him leverage should he decide to rise.
+
+But he gave no indication of meditating such a move. It was plain to the
+watchers that if he attempted it Latimer would draw his gun and begin to
+shoot.
+
+Latimer was convinced also that Harlan would not attempt to rise. He had
+Harlan at a disadvantage, and he laughed loudly, sardonically,
+contemptuously as he stood, his right hand hovering close to his pistol
+holster, his eyes aflame with hate and passion.
+
+"Keep a-settin', you buzzard's whelp!" he sneered; "keep a-settin'!
+Latimer's out to git you. You know it--eh? You've knowed it right
+along--pretendin' not to. 'Drag' Harlan--bah! Gunslinger with a
+record--an' caught a-settin'. Caught with the goods on, sneakin' in here,
+tryin' to ketch a man unawares.
+
+"Bah! Don't I know what you're here for? It's me! You blowed Dolver apart
+for killin' that damned, slick-eyed pardner of yourn--Davey Langan. Do
+you want to know who sent Langan out? I'm tellin' you--it was me!
+Me--me!"
+
+He fairly yelled the last words, and stiffened, holding the fingers of
+his right hand clawlike, above the butt of the holstered pistol.
+
+And when he saw that Harlan did not move; that he sat there rigid, his
+eyes unblinking and expressionless; his right hand hanging limply at his
+side, near the partially extended leg; his left hand resting upon the
+thigh of the doubled leg--he stepped closer, watching Harlan's right
+hand.
+
+For a space--while one might have counted ten--neither man moved a
+muscle. Something in Harlan's manner sent into Latimer's frenzied brain
+the message that all was not what it seemed--that Harlan was meditating
+some astonishing action. Ten seconds is not long, as times goes, but
+during that slight interval the taut nerves of Latimer's were twanged
+with a torturing doubt that began to creep over him.
+
+Would Harlan never make that move? That question was dinned insistently
+into Latimer's ears. He began to believe that Harlan did not intend to
+draw.
+
+And then----
+
+"Ah!"
+
+It was Latimer's lungs that breathed the ejaculation.
+
+For Harlan's right hand had moved slightly upward, toward the pistol at
+his right hip. It went only a few inches; it was still far below the
+holster when Latimer's clawlike fingers descended to the butt of his own
+weapon. The thought that he would beat Harlan in a fair draw was in his
+mind--that he would beat him despite the confusion of the hesitating
+motion with which Harlan got his gun out.
+
+Something was happening, though--something odd and unexplainable. For
+though Latimer had seemed to have plenty of time, he was conscious that
+Harlan's gun was belching fire and death at him. He saw the smoke
+streaks, felt the bullets striking him, searing their way through him,
+choking him, weakening his knees.
+
+He went down, his eyes wide with incredulity, filling with hideous
+self-derision when he saw that the pistol which had sent his death to him
+was not in Harlan's right hand at all, but in his left.
+
+Harlan got up slowly as Latimer stretched out in the dust at his
+feet--casting one swift glance at the fallen man to satisfy himself that
+for _him_ the incident was ended. Then, with the gaze of every man in the
+outfit upon him, he strode toward the stable, where Lanky and Poggs were
+standing, having witnessed the death of their confederate.
+
+They stiffened to immobility as they watched Harlan's approach, knowing
+that for them the incident was not closed--their guilt plain in their
+faces.
+
+And when Harlan halted in front of them they stood, not moving a muscle,
+their eyes searching Harlan's face for signs that they too, were to
+receive a demonstration of the man's uncanny cleverness.
+
+"You was backin' Latimer's play," said Harlan, shortly. "I'm aimin' to
+play the string out. Pull--or I'll blow you apart!"
+
+Poggs and Lanky did not "pull." They stood there, ghastly color stealing
+into their faces, their eyes wide with the knowledge that death would be
+the penalty of a hostile movement.
+
+Harlan's pistol was again in its holster, and yet they had no desire to
+provoke the man to draw it. The furtive gleam in the eyes of both
+revealed the hope that gripped them--that some of the watchers would
+interfere.
+
+But not a man moved. Most of them had been stunned by the rapidity of
+Harlan's action--by the deftness with which he had brought his left hand
+into use. They had received the practical demonstration for which they
+all had longed, and each man's manner plainly revealed his decision to
+take no part in what was transpiring.
+
+They remained in their places while Harlan--understanding that Poggs and
+Lanky would not accept his invitation--spoke gruffly to them:
+
+"This camp ain't got any room for skunks that go to framin' up on any of
+the boys. Today you done it to me--tomorrow you'd try to pull it off on
+some other guy.
+
+"You're travelin'--pronto. You're gettin' your cayuses. Then you're
+hittin' the breeze away from here--an' not comin' back. That lets you
+out. Mosey!"
+
+He stood watchful, alert, while the men roped their horses, got their
+"war-bags," from the bunkhouse, mounted, and rode away without looking
+back. Then he walked over to the bench where he had been sitting when
+Rogers had warned him of the plan to kill him; ordered several of the men
+to take Latimer's body away, and then resumed his place on the bench,
+where he rolled a cigarette.
+
+Later, when the men who had gone with Latimer's body returned to the
+vicinity of the ranchhouse, Harlan was still sitting on the bench.
+
+No man said a word to him, but he saw a new respect in the eyes of all of
+them--even in Rogers' gaze--which had not strayed from him for an instant
+during the trouble.
+
+And a little later, when Rogers walked to the bench and sat beside him,
+the other men had resumed their various pastimes as though nothing had
+happened.
+
+Again Rogers whispered to him, lowly, admiringly:
+
+"This camp is yours, man, whenever you say the word!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE BLACK-BEARDED MAN
+
+
+It was Strom Rogers who indicated to the outlaws at the Star that
+henceforth Harlan was to exercise authority of a kind that had formerly
+been vested in Haydon and Deveny.
+
+The corral was packed to suffocation with cattle, threatening the health
+of the animals; Deveny had sent no word from the Cache regarding the
+disposal of the stock, and Haydon's whereabouts were unknown.
+
+Rogers had moved stock on his own initiative in former days--for he had
+been an able assistant to both leaders. And Rogers could have moved the
+stock out of the corral and to the point far south where the outlaws had
+always sold them.
+
+But there was malice in Rogers' heart toward the two outlaw leaders, and
+a perverse devil lurked in him. For many months he had worshiped Barbara
+Morgan from a distance, vaguely aware that his passion for her could
+never be realized. But there was a spark of honesty and justice in Rogers
+despite his profession, and a sincere admiration for the girl that
+admitted of no thought of evil toward her.
+
+He had almost betrayed his resentment to Deveny when in Lamo, on the day
+of the coming of Harlan, Deveny had boldly announced his intentions
+toward the girl; and it had been a dread of clashing with Deveny that had
+kept him from interfering. The will to protect the girl had been in
+Rogers' mind, but he lacked the physical courage to risk his life for
+her.
+
+This man who had boldly entered the outlaw camp, after first defying
+Deveny in Lamo, had made a stirring appeal to the good in Rogers; and he
+foresaw that trouble, in which Harlan had a chance to emerge victorious,
+was certain. And he had decided to align himself with the Pardo gunman.
+
+Therefore, on this morning, when it was certain that the cattle in the
+corral must be moved, he deliberately refused to exercise his
+prerogative. Instead, he waited until after breakfast--when the men were
+congregated outside the bunkhouse door--when he was certain they would
+all hear him.
+
+Harlan had come out, too. He had not visited the Rancho Seco for more
+than a week, fearing that his absence might jeopardize the advantage he
+had gained over the men through the killing of Latimer.
+
+With the attention of all the men centered upon him, Rogers walked close
+to Harlan, speaking loudly:
+
+"Them cattle ought to hit the trail, Harlan. It's up to you--you're the
+boss. Do we move 'em--an' where?"
+
+A comprehensive light gleamed in Harlan's eyes.
+
+"They move," he said shortly. "Drive them where you've been drivin'
+them."
+
+As though he had been giving orders to the outlaws all his life, he
+briskly mentioned the names of the men who were to form the trail herd.
+
+Not a man dissented. Those whose names were called quickly detached
+themselves from the group, and sought the horse corral; where they roped
+their horses and began to make preparations to obey Harlan's order. And
+later, when the cattle were driven out of the corral, and the trail herd
+crew straggled behind them over the level that led southward, the men
+were grinning.
+
+For Harlan had told them that their share of the spoils resulting from
+the sale of the cattle was to be materially increased. He had likewise
+told them that they might spend an extra day in "town" before their
+return.
+
+Only one man besides Harlan remained at the Star after the herd vanished
+into the southern distance. That man was the black-bearded fellow who had
+escorted Harlan to the ranchhouse on the occasion of his first
+visit--Lafe Woodward.
+
+This man's admiration for Harlan had never been concealed. He had stayed
+as close to Harlan as possible; and from his manner Harlan had divined
+that the man was eager to ingratiate himself.
+
+Woodward stood near Harlan as the herd and the men vanished. He had
+grinned widely when, just before the outfit had departed, he had heard
+Rogers whisper to Harlan:
+
+"You've made yourself solid with the bunch, for sure, by offerin' 'em a
+bigger divvy. They've been grumblin' about it for a long time. They're
+all sore at Haydon an' Deveny for bein' greedy. But you're sure cookin'
+up a heap of trouble with Haydon an' Deveny!"
+
+Harlan grinned with grim mirthlessness. It had been his first opportunity
+to stir up dissension and strife in the outlaw camp, and he had taken
+instant advantage of it. He had created factional feeling, and he was
+prepared to accept the consequences.
+
+And, later in the day, when he saw Haydon ride in, dismount and cast a
+surprised glance at the empty corral, he knew that the moment for which
+he had planned, had come.
+
+Woodward was nowhere in sight; and Harlan, who had been in the
+blacksmith-shop, made himself visible to Haydon by stepping outside.
+
+Haydon called to him, sharply; and Harlan walked slowly to where the
+outlaw chief stood, a saturnine grin on his face, his eyes alight with a
+cold humor that might have been illuminating to Haydon had he taken the
+trouble to look into them.
+
+Haydon was laboring under some strong passion. He was suppressing it with
+an effort, but it showed in his tensed muscles and in his flushed face.
+
+"Where are the cattle?" he demanded, his voice a trifle hoarse.
+
+"They're headed for Willow Wells--where you've been sellin' them."
+
+"By whose orders?" Haydon's voice was choked with passion.
+
+"Mine," drawled Harlan. Harlan might have explained that the stock had
+been suffering in the crowded enclosure, thus assuaging Haydon's wrath.
+But he gave no explanation--that would have been a revelation of
+eagerness to escape blame and the possible consequences of his act.
+Instead of explaining he looked steadily into Haydon's eyes, his own cold
+and unblinking.
+
+He saw Haydon's wrath flare up--it was in the heightened color that
+spread upward above the collar of his shirt; he saw the man's terrific
+effort at self-control; and his look grew bitter with insolence.
+
+"What's botherin' you?" he said.
+
+"The cattle--damn it!" shouted Haydon. "What in hell do you mean by
+sending them away without orders?"
+
+"I'm havin' my say, Haydon. We agreed to split everything three ways.
+Authority to give orders goes with that. That was the agreement. A man's
+got to be either a captain or a private, an' I've never played second to
+any man. I ain't beginnin' now."
+
+"Why, damn you!" gasped Haydon. His eyes were aglare with a terrible rage
+and hate; he stepped backward a little, bending his right arm, spreading
+the fingers.
+
+Harlan had made no move, but the light in his eyes betrayed his complete
+readiness for the trouble that Haydon plainly meditated.
+
+"Yes," he said, slowly, drawling his words, a little! "It's come to that,
+I reckon. You've got to flash your gun now, or take it back. No man
+cusses me an' gets away with it. Get goin'!"
+
+Haydon stood, swaying from side to side, in the grip of a mighty
+indecision. The fingers of his right hand spread wider; the hand
+descended to a point nearer to his pistol holster.
+
+There it poised, the fingers hooked, like the talons of some giant bird
+about to clutch a victim.
+
+Had Haydon faced a man with less courage; had Harlan's iron control
+lacked that quality which permitted him to give an enemy that small
+chance for life which he always gave them, death might have reigned at
+the Star again. Haydon owed his life to that hesitation which had made
+Harlan famous.
+
+And as the strained, tense seconds passed with both men holding the
+positions they had assumed, it seemed Haydon was slowly beginning to
+realize that Harlan was reluctant, was deliberately giving him a chance.
+
+A change came over Haydon. The clawlike fingers began to straighten;
+imperceptibly at first, and then with a spasmodic motion that flexed the
+muscles in little jerks. The hand became limp; it dropped slowly to his
+side--down beyond the pistol holster. Then it came up, and the man swept
+it over his eyes, as though to brush away a vision that frightened him.
+
+His face grew pale, he shuddered; and at last he stood, swaying a little,
+his mouth open with wonder for the phenomenal thing that had happened to
+him.
+
+Harlan's voice, cold and expressionless, startled him:
+
+"You wasn't meanin' to cuss me?"
+
+"No!" The denial was blurted forth. Haydon grinned, faintly, with hideous
+embarrassment; the knowledge that he had been beaten, and that he owed
+his life to Harlan, was plain in his eyes.
+
+He laughed, uncertainly, as he made an effort to stiffen his lagging
+muscles.
+
+"I was a bit flustered, Harlan; I talked rather recklessly, I admit. You
+see, I've been used to giving orders myself. I was riled for a minute."
+
+"That goes!" said Harlan, shortly. His voice had changed. The slow drawl
+had gone, and a snapping, authoritative sharpness had replaced it.
+
+Haydon gazed at him with a new wonder. He sensed in Harlan's manner the
+consciousness of power, the determination to command. At a stroke, it
+seemed, Harlan had wrenched from him the right to rule. He felt himself
+being relegated to a subordinate position; he felt at this minute the
+ruthless force of the man who stood before him; he felt oddly impotent
+and helpless, and he listened to Harlan with a queer feeling of wonder
+for the absence of the rage that should have gripped him.
+
+"I'm runnin' things from now on," Harlan said. "I ain't interferin' with
+the Star. But I'm runnin' things for the boys. I told Rogers to drive the
+cattle to Willow's Wells--an' to sell them. I've promised the boys a
+bigger divvy. They get it. I've told them to take a day off, in town,
+after they turn the cattle over.
+
+"There's got to be a new deal. The boys are fussed up--claimin' they
+ain't gettin' their share. I'm seein' that they do. You can't run a camp
+like this an' not treat the boys right."
+
+The wonder that had been aroused in Haydon grew as Harlan talked; it
+increased in intensity until, when Harlan's voice died away, it developed
+into suspicion.
+
+That was what Harlan had come to the Star for! He wanted to run the camp,
+to direct the activities of the outlaws in the valley. Power! Authority!
+Those were the things Harlan craved for.
+
+Haydon saw it all, now. He saw that Harlan wanted to dominate--everything.
+He wanted to rule the outlaw camp; he wanted to run the Rancho Seco; he
+intended to get possession of the gold that Morgan had left, and he wanted
+Barbara Morgan.
+
+The rage that had held Haydon in its clutch when he had called Harlan to
+him was reviving. Haydon's face was still white, but the fury in his
+eyes--slowly growing--was not to be mistaken.
+
+Harlan saw it, and his lips straightened. He had expected Haydon would
+rage over what he had determined to tell him; and he was not surprised.
+He had deliberately goaded the man into his present fury. He had
+determined to kill him, and he had been disappointed when he had seen
+Haydon lose his courage when the crisis arrived. And now his deliberate
+and premeditated plan was to bear fruit.
+
+Harlan was reluctant to kill, but there seemed to be no other way. Haydon
+was a murderer. He had killed Lane Morgan; he was an outlaw whose rule
+had oppressed the valley for many months. If Harlan could have devised
+some plan that would make it possible for him to attain his end without
+killing anybody, he would have eagerly adopted it.
+
+But in this country force must be fought with force. It was a grim game,
+and the rules were inflexible--kill or be killed.
+
+His own life would be safe in this section so long as he guarded it.
+Eternal vigilance and the will to take life when his own was threatened
+was a principle which custom had established. If he expected to save the
+girl at the Rancho Seco he could not temper his actions with mercy. And
+he knew that if he was to succeed in his design to disrupt the outlaw
+gang he would have to remove the man who stood before him, working
+himself into a new frenzy. There seemed to be no other way.
+
+But Haydon seemed to have control of himself, now, despite the frenzied
+glare of his eyes. He was outwardly cool; his movements were
+deliberate--he had conquered his fear of Harlan, it seemed.
+
+He laughed, harshly.
+
+"Harlan," he said; "you had me going--talking that way. By Heaven! you
+almost convinced me that I'd _let_ you run things here. I was beginning
+to believe I'd lost my nerve. But see here!"
+
+He held out his right hand toward Harlan--it was steady, rigid, not a
+nerve in it quivered.
+
+"You're fast with your guns, but you can't run any whizzer in on me--you
+can't intimidate me. You killed Latimer the other day; and you've got the
+boys with you. But you can't run things here. Have all the boys gone?"
+
+"Woodward's here."
+
+Harlan spoke lowly; his eyes were keenly watchful. This flare-up on
+Haydon's part was merely a phase of his confused mental condition. He saw
+that Haydon did not mean to use his gun--that he intended to ignore it,
+no doubt planning to regain his authority when the men of the outfit
+returned--when he might enlist the support of some of them.
+
+"Woodward's here--eh?" laughed Haydon. He raised his voice, shouting for
+the man. And Harlan saw Woodward come from behind an outbuilding, look
+toward the ranchhouse, and then walk slowly toward them.
+
+Woodward halted when within several paces of the two, and looked from one
+to the other curiously, his eyes narrowed with speculation.
+
+"Woodward," directed Haydon; "hit the breeze after the outfit and tell
+them to drive those cattle back here!"
+
+Harlan grinned. "Woodward," he said, gently; "you climb on your cayuse
+an' do as Haydon tells you. Haydon is figurin' on cashin' in when you
+do."
+
+Haydon blustered. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that if Woodward goes after the boys I'm goin' to blow you apart.
+I'm givin' the orders around here!"
+
+Watching Haydon, Harlan saw that he was not exhibiting rage, but intense
+interest. He was not looking at Harlan, but at Woodward. And, turning
+swiftly, his guns both leaping into his hands with the movement--for he
+had a swift suspicion that Woodward might be standing with Haydon against
+him--he saw that Woodward had fallen into a crouch; that the man's right
+hand was hovering over his pistol holster, and that his eyes were
+gleaming with a light that could mean only the one thing--murder.
+
+Backing slowly away from both Haydon and Woodward, Harlan watched them,
+his guns ready for instant action should he catch any sign that would
+indicate trickery toward himself.
+
+He saw no such signs. It became plain to him that Woodward had no eyes
+for anyone but Haydon, and that Haydon's attention was fixed upon
+Woodward with an intentness that meant he had divined that Woodward's
+peculiar manner had a definite, personal meaning.
+
+Woodward continued to advance on Haydon. He was waving his left hand as
+though giving Harlan a silent order to get out of his way, while his gaze
+was centered upon Haydon with an unspoken promise of violence,
+fascinating to behold.
+
+It seemed to have fascinated Haydon. Harlan saw him shrink back, the
+bluster gone out of him, his face the color of ashes. He kept stepping
+back, until he brought up against the rear wall of the ranchhouse; and
+there he stood, watching Woodward, his eyes bulging with dread wonder.
+
+Harlan saw his lips move; heard his voice, hoarse and throaty:
+
+"It's a frame-up--a frame-up. Both of you are out to get me!"
+
+"Frame-up!"
+
+This was Woodward. He was a sinister figure, with his black beard seeming
+to bristle with passion, his eyes flaming with it; all his muscles tensed
+and quivering, and his right hand, with clawlike fingers, poised above
+the butt of his pistol.
+
+"Frame-up!" he repeated, laughing hoarsely between his teeth. "Hell's
+fire! Do you think it takes two men to 'get' you--you miserable whelp?
+
+"I've been waitin' for this day--waitin' for it, waitin' to get you
+alone--waitin' for the boys to go so's I could tell you somethin'.
+
+"You know what it is. You ain't guessin', eh? Listen while I tell you
+somethin'. The day 'Drag' Harlan got in Lamo he brought news that Lane
+Morgan had been killed out in the desert. I heard the boys sayin' you had
+a hand in it. But I thought that was just talk. I didn't believe you was
+that kind of a skunk. I waited.
+
+"Then you sent me over to the edge of the level, near the Rancho
+Seco--where Harlan found that flattened grass when he rode over here. You
+told me to watch Harlan and Barbara Morgan. You said you thought Harlan
+would try some sneak game with her.
+
+"You can gamble I watched. I saw Harlan standin' guard over her; I saw
+him follow that sneak Lawson. I heard the shot that killed Lawson, an' I
+saw Harlan tote him downstairs, an' then set on the door-sill all night,
+guardin' Barbara Morgan.
+
+"The sneakin' game was played by you, Haydon. When I saw Harlan headin'
+toward the valley the day he come here, I lit out ahead of him. And when
+he got to the timber over there I brought him in.
+
+"An' I heard you talk that day. I heard him sayin' that you killed Lane
+Morgan. He said my dad told him you fired the shot that killed him."
+
+Harlan started and leaned forward, amazed. But Haydon swayed, and then
+steadied himself with an effort, and stared at Woodward with bulging,
+incredulous eyes.
+
+"Your _dad_?" he almost shrieked; "Lane Morgan was your father?"
+
+Woodward's grin was wolfish. He took two or three steps toward
+Haydon--panther-like steps that betrayed the lust that was upon him.
+
+"I'm Billy Morgan," he said, his teeth showing in a merciless grin;
+"Barbara's brother. Flash your gun, Haydon; I'm goin' to kill you!"
+
+Haydon clawed for his pistol, missing the butt in his eagerness, and
+striving wildly to draw it. It snagged on a rawhide thong that supported
+the holster and his fingers were loosening in the partial grip when Billy
+Morgan shot him.
+
+He flattened against the wall of the ranchhouse for an instant, staring
+wildly around him; then his head sagged forward and he slid down the wall
+of the ranchhouse into the deep dust that was mounded near it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A DEAD MAN WALKS
+
+
+Harlan had paid strict attention to Lane Morgan's words at Sentinel Rock,
+and he remembered that Morgan had told him that his son, whom he had
+called "Bill," had left the Rancho Seco on some mission for the governor.
+Evidently it had not occurred to Morgan that his son's mission had taken
+him only to the valley in which reigned those outlaws Morgan had reviled.
+
+But it was plain to Harlan that "Billy" was here--he had said so himself,
+and he had given proof that he had been watchful and alert to Barbara's
+interests. And now was explained young Morgan's interest in himself. The
+thought that during all the days he had spent at the Rancho Seco, his
+movements had been watched by the man who had just killed Haydon, brought
+a glow of ironic humor to Harlan's eyes.
+
+During a long interval, through which Billy Morgan stood over Haydon,
+watching him with a cold savagery, Harlan kept at a respectable distance,
+also watching.
+
+He saw that for Haydon the incident had been fatal. The man's body did
+not move after it slipped to the ground beside the ranchhouse wall. Yet
+Morgan watched until he was certain; then he slowly wheeled and looked at
+Harlan.
+
+"That settles him--damn him!" he said, with a breathlessness that told of
+the intense strain he had been laboring under.
+
+Still Harlan did not speak; and his guns were in their holsters when
+Morgan walked close to him, grinning wanly.
+
+"I had to do it. There's no use tryin' to depend on the law in this
+country. You've seen that, yourself."
+
+"I've noticed it," grinned Harlan. "You're feelin' bad over it. I
+wouldn't. If it had been my dad he killed I couldn't have done any
+different. I reckon any man with blood in him would feel that way about a
+coyote like that killin' his father. If men don't feel that way, why do
+they drag murderers to courts--where they have courts--an' ask the law to
+kill them. That's just shovin' the responsibility onto some other guy.
+
+"I've handed several guys their pass-out checks, an' I ain't regrettin'
+one of them. There wasn't one of them that didn't have it comin' to him.
+They was lookin' for it, mostly, an' had to have it. I've heard of guys
+that had killed a man feelin' squeamish over it--with ghosts visitin'
+them at night; an' sufferin' a lot of mental torture. I reckon any man
+would feel that way if he'd killed an inoffensive man--or a good man, or
+one that hadn't been tryin' to murder him." He grinned again. "Why, I'm
+preachin'!"
+
+And now into his gaze as he looked at Morgan, came cold reproach.
+
+"You wasn't figurin' to let Barbara play it a lone hand?" he said.
+
+"Hell's fire--no!" denied Morgan, his eyes blazing. "I've been watchin'
+the Rancho Seco--as I told Haydon. I saw Barbara set out for Lamo. There
+was no one followin' her, an' so I thought she'd be all right. That mixup
+at Lamo slipped me. But I seen you an' Barbara come back, an' I heard the
+boys talkin' about what happened at Lamo. I'd heard of you, too; an' when
+I seen you come back with Barbara I watched you. An' I seen you was
+square, so I trusted you a heap.
+
+"An' I had a talk with Sheriff Gage about you, an' he told me my dad had
+sent to Pardo for you, through Dave Hallowell, the marshal of Pardo. Gage
+said you was out to clean up Deveny an' Haydon, an' so I knowed I could
+depend on you."
+
+"Barbara don't know you're hangin' around here--she ain't known it?"
+
+"Shucks, I reckon not," grinned Morgan. "I didn't come here for six
+months after I left the Rancho Seco--until I growed a beard. Barbara's
+been within a dozen feet of me, an' never knowed me. I've been thinkin'
+of telling her, but I seen Haydon was sweet on her, an' I didn't dare
+tell her. Women ain't reliable. She'd have showed it some way, an' then
+there'd have been hell to pay."
+
+"An' I've been pridin' myself on takin' care of Barbara," said Harlan. "I
+feel a heap embarrassed an' useless--just like I'd been fooled."
+
+"You've done a thing I couldn't do," confessed Morgan; "you've busted
+Haydon's gang wide open. If you hadn't showed up there'd have been
+nothin' done. There's some of the boys that ain't outlaws--boys that are
+with me, havin' sneaked into the gang to help me out. But we wan't makin'
+no headway to speak of."
+
+Harlan looked at Haydon. "That guy was educated," he said. "What was his
+game? I've felt all along that there was somethin' big back of him--that
+he wasn't here just to steal cattle an' rob folks, an' such."
+
+"You ain't heard," smiled Morgan. "Of course you wouldn't--unless Gage
+had gassed to you.
+
+"There's a gang of big men in Frisco, an' in the East, figurin' to run a
+railroad through the basin. A year or so ago there was secret talk of it
+in the capital. It leaked out that the railroad guys was intendin' to run
+their road through the basin. They was goin' to build a town right where
+the Rancho Seco lays; an' they was plannin' to irrigate a lot of the land
+around there. The governor says it was to be big--an' likely it'll be
+big, when they get around to it.
+
+"But them things go slow, an' a gang of cheap crooks got wise to it. They
+sent Haydon down here, to scare the folks in the basin into sellin' out
+for a song. They've scared one man out--a Pole from the west end. But the
+others have stuck. Looks like they was figurin' on grabbin' the Rancho
+Seco without payin' _anything_ for it--Haydon intendin', I reckon, to put
+dad an' me out of the way an' marry Barbara. Then he could have cut the
+ranch up into town lots an' made a mint of coin."
+
+"An' Deveny?"
+
+"Deveny's a wolf. Haydon brought him here from Arizona--where he'd
+terrorized a whole county, runnin' it regardless. He figured to cash in,
+I reckon, but he's been grabbin' up everything he could lay his hands on,
+on the way."
+
+"You'll be tellin' Barbara, now?" suggested Harlan.
+
+"You're shoutin'!" said Morgan, his eyes glowing. "I'm hittin' the breeze
+to the Rancho Seco for fair." He looked at Haydon, and his eyes took on a
+new expression. "I was almost forgettin' what the governor sent me here
+for," he added. "The governor was wantin' to know who is behind Haydon
+an' Deveny, an' I'm rummagin' around in Haydon's office to find out.
+Goin'?" he invited.
+
+Both looked down at Haydon as they passed him, and an instant later they
+were entering a door of the ranchhouse.
+
+They had hardly disappeared when Haydon's head moved slightly.
+
+His eyes were open; he glanced at the door of the ranchhouse through
+which Harlan and Morgan had entered. Then he raised his head, dragged
+himself to an elbow--upon which he rested momentarily, his face betraying
+the bitter malignance and triumph that had seized him.
+
+He had realized that Morgan had meant to kill him, even before Morgan had
+revealed his identity, and his backward movement, which had brought him
+against the wall of the ranchhouse had been made with design. He had felt
+that even if he should succeed in beating Morgan, Harlan would have taken
+up the quarrel, for he knew that Harlan also had designs on his life. And
+with a cupidity aroused over the desperate predicament in which he found
+himself, he had decided to take a forlorn chance.
+
+Morgan's bullet had struck him, but by a convulsive side movement at the
+instant Morgan's gun roared Haydon had escaped a fatal wound, and the
+bullet had entered his left side above the heart, paralyzing one of the
+big muscles of the shoulder.
+
+His left arm was limp and useless, and dragged in the dust as he squirmed
+around and gained his feet. There was no window in the wall of the
+ranchhouse on that side; and he backed away, staggering a little, for he
+had lost much blood. He kept the blank wall before him as he backed away
+from the house; and when he reached his horse he was a long time getting
+into the saddle. But he accomplished it at last; and sent the horse
+slowly up the slope and into the timber out of which Harlan had ridden
+with the black-bearded man on the day of his first visit to the Star.
+
+Back where the trail converged with the main trail that ran directly up
+the valley, Haydon, reeling in the saddle, sent his horse at a faster
+pace, heading it toward the Cache where he was certain he would find
+Deveny. And as he rode the triumph in his eyes grew. For he had heard
+every word of the conversation between Harlan and Morgan, and he hoped to
+get to the Cache before the two men discovered the trick he had played
+upon them--before they could escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+DEVENY SECEDES
+
+
+Since the day he had heard that Harlan had appeared at the Star and had
+been taken into the outlaw band by Haydon, Deveny had exhibited fits of a
+sullen moroseness that had kept his closest friends from seeking his
+companionship. Those friends were few, for Deveny's attitude toward his
+men had always been that of the ruthless tyrant; he had treated them with
+an aloofness that had in it a contempt which they could not ignore.
+More--he was merciless, and had a furious temper which found its outlet
+in physical violence.
+
+Deveny was a fast man with the big Colt that swung at his hip, a deadly
+marksman, and he needed but little provocation to exhibit his skill. For
+that reason his men kept the distance Deveny had established between
+them--never attempting familiarity with him.
+
+Deveny had heard from a Star man the story of Harlan's coming to the Star
+and when a day or so later Haydon rode into the Cache, Deveny was in a
+state of furious resentment.
+
+There had been harsh words between Haydon and Deveny; the men of the
+Cache had no difficulty in comprehending that Deveny's rage was bitter.
+
+Not even when Haydon told him that his acceptance of Harlan had been
+forced by circumstances, and that he was tricking Harlan into a state of
+fancied security in which he could the more easily bring confusion upon
+him did Deveny agree.
+
+"You're a damned fool, Haydon!" he told the other, his face black with
+passion. "That guy is slick as greased lightning--and faster. And he
+don't mean any good to the camp. He's out for himself."
+
+Deveny did not intimate that his dislike of Harlan had been caused by the
+latter's interference with his plans the day he had held Barbara Morgan a
+prisoner in the room above the Eating-House in Lamo; but Haydon, who had
+heard the details of the affair from one of his men, smiled knowingly.
+
+It was not Haydon's plan to let Deveny know he knew of the affair, or
+that he cared about it if he had heard. And so he did not mention it.
+
+But in his heart was a rage that made his thoughts venomous; though he
+concealed his emotions behind the bland, smooth smile of good-natured
+tolerance.
+
+"I'll handle him, Deveny," he said as he took leave of the other. "He'll
+get his when he isn't expecting it."
+
+Deveny, however, had no faith in Haydon's ability to "handle" Harlan. He
+had seen in the man's eyes that day in Lamo something that had troubled
+him--an indomitability that seemed to indicate that the man would do
+whatever he set out to do.
+
+But Deveny did not ride to the Star to see Harlan; he was reluctant to
+stir outside the Cache, and for many days, while Harlan was attaining
+supremacy at the Star, and while Haydon was absent on a mysterious
+mission, Deveny kept close to the Cache, nursing his resentment against
+Haydon, and deepening--with fancied situations--his hatred for Harlan.
+
+It did not surprise Deveny when a Star man rode into the Cache one day
+and told him that Harlan had killed Latimer in a gunfight, and that
+Harlan was slowly but surely gaining a following among the men. The
+information did not surprise Deveny; but it sent his mind into a chaos of
+conjecture and speculation, out of which at last a conviction came--that
+Harlan was seeking control of the outlaw band; that Haydon's days as a
+leader were almost over, so far as he was concerned. For if Haydon
+insisted on taking Harlan into the secret councils of the camp
+he--Deveny--was going to operate independently.
+
+The more his thoughts dwelt upon that feature the more attractive it
+seemed to him. Independence of Haydon meant that he could do as he
+pleased without the necessity of consulting anybody. He could rustle
+whatever cattle he wanted--getting them where he could without following
+Haydon's plans--which had always seemed rather nonsensical, embracing as
+they did the scheme of railroad building and town sites; and he could do
+as he pleased with Barbara Morgan, not having to consider Haydon at all.
+
+It was that last consideration that finally decided Deveny. He was an
+outlaw--not a politician; he robbed for gain, and not for the doubtful
+benefits that might be got out of the building of a town. And when he
+looked with desire upon a woman he didn't care to share her with another
+man--not even Haydon.
+
+For two or three days after the conviction seized Deveny, he pondered
+over his chances, and when he reached a decision he acted with the
+volcanic energy that had characterized his depredations in the basin.
+
+On the morning of the day upon which Haydon returned to the Star to find
+the cattle gone and Harlan in control, Deveny appeared to a dozen Cache
+men who were variously engaged near the corral, ordering them to saddle
+their horses.
+
+Later, Deveny and his men rode southward across a low plateau that
+connected the buttes near the entrance to the Cache with the low hills
+that rimmed the basin. They traveled fast, and when they reached the
+rimming hills they veered eastward upon a broad sand plain.
+
+There was a grin on Deveny's face now--a grin which expressed craft,
+duplicity, and bestial desire. And as he rode at the head of his men he
+drew mental pictures that broadened his grin and brought into his eyes an
+abysmal gleam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+KIDNAPPED
+
+
+Barbara Morgan had yielded to the fever of impatience which had afflicted
+her during the latter days of Harlan's absence from the Rancho Seco. She
+had been impatient ever since she had been forced to stay close to the
+house by Harlan's orders; but she had fought it off until now, for she
+had been interested in Harlan, and had felt a deep wonder over his
+probable actions regarding her future.
+
+She had known, of course, that real danger from Deveny existed, for the
+incident in Lamo had convinced her of that, but she felt that Harlan's
+fears for her were rather extravagant--it was rather improbable that
+Deveny would come boldly to the Rancho Seco and attempt to carry her away
+by force.
+
+The clear, brilliant sunshine of the country dispelled so grotesque a
+thought; the peaceful hills seemed to smile their denial; and the broad
+level near the entrance to the basin sent a calm message of reassurance
+to her.
+
+She had known Red Linton for a long time--for he had been with her father
+for nearly two seasons--and she had respected him for what he had seemed
+to be, a quiet, rather humorous man who did his work well, though without
+flourishes. He had never figured prominently in her thoughts, however,
+until the day Harlan had appointed him foreman of the Rancho Seco, and
+then her attention had been attracted to him because he had seemed
+interested in her.
+
+And she had noted that Linton's interest in her seemed to grow after
+Harlan's departure. He had talked with her several times, and she had
+questioned him about Harlan's whereabouts. But Linton had not seemed to
+know; at least, if he did know, he kept his knowledge strictly to
+himself, not even intimating that he knew where Harlan had gone.
+
+Another thing she noted was that Linton seemed to have her under
+surveillance. Whenever she left the house--even for a short ride
+eastward--where Harlan had told her she might ride without danger--she
+discovered that Linton immediately mounted his horse, to linger somewhere
+in sight.
+
+The knowledge that she was watched began to irritate her and this morning
+she had got up with a determination to ride without company. With that
+end in view she had kept Billy all night in the patio; and when rather
+late in the morning she saw Linton riding eastward, she hurriedly threw
+saddle and bridle on the horse and rode westward, toward the big basin.
+
+She kept the house between her and the point where she had seen
+Linton--until a turn northward became inevitable; and then she urged
+Billy to a faster pace, in an endeavor to cross the wide plain that
+reached to the entrance to the basin before Linton could see her.
+
+Many times during the days before the coming of Deveny and Haydon to the
+valley she had ridden there; it had been a place in which reigned a
+mighty silence which she had loved, which had thrilled her. During those
+other days she was in the habit of riding to a point several miles up the
+valley--between the little basin where the Star was now and the Rancho
+Seco.
+
+The trail led upward in a slow, gradual slope to that point--a rugged
+promontory that jutted out from a mesa that rose above the floor of the
+valley. The mesa was fringed at the southern edge with stunt oak and
+nondescript brush. But there were breaks in the fringe which permitted
+her to ride close to the edge of the mesa; and from there she could look
+many miles up the valley--and across it, where the solemn hills rimmed
+the southern horizon, to a trail--called the South Trail by cattlemen in
+the valley, to distinguish it from the main trail leading through the
+mighty hollow in which she rode.
+
+When she reached the mesa she headed Billy directly for the break on the
+promontory. Dismounting, she stretched her legs to disperse the saddle
+weariness; then she found a huge rock which had been the seat from which
+she had viewed the wondrous landscape in the past.
+
+The reverent awe with which she had always viewed the valley was as
+strong in her today as it had ever been--stronger, in fact, because she
+had not seen the place for some time, and because in her heart there now
+dwelt a sadness that had not been there in those other days--at least
+since her mother had died.
+
+She was high above the floor of the valley; and she could see the main
+trail below her weaving around low mounds and sinking into depressions;
+disappearing into timber groves, reappearing farther on, disappearing
+again, and again reappearing until it grew blurred and indistinct in her
+vision.
+
+In the marvelous clarity of the atmosphere this morning every beauteous
+feature of the valley was disclosed to her inspection. The early morning
+haze had lifted, and the few fleecy clouds that floated in the blue bowl
+of sky were motionless, their majestic billows glowing in the sun. She
+saw a Mexican eagle swoop over the cloud, sailing on slow wing high above
+it, and growing so distant in her vision that he became a mere speck
+moving in the limitless expanse of space.
+
+It was a colossal landscape, and its creator had neglected no detail. And
+it was harmonious, from the emerald green that carpeted the floor of the
+valley near the gleaming river to the gigantic shoulders of the rugged
+hills that lifted their huge, bastioned walls into the blue of the sky.
+Some tall rock spires that thrust their peaks skyward far over on the
+southern side of the valley had always interested her; they seemed to be
+sentinels that guarded the place, hinting of an ages-old mystery that
+seemed to reign all about them.
+
+But there was mystery in everything in the valley, she felt; for it lay
+before her, spreading, slumbrous, basking in the brilliant
+sunlight--seeming to wait, as it seemed to have waited from the dawn of
+the first day, for man to wonder over it.
+
+She saw the Mexican eagle again after a while. It was making a wide
+circle beyond the rock spires, floating lazily above them in long,
+graceful swoops that were so lacking in effort that she longed to be up
+there with him--to ride the air with him, to feel the exhilaration he
+must feel.
+
+As she looked, however, she caught a faint blur on the southern horizon
+of the big picture--a yellowish-black cloud that hugged the horizon and
+traveled rapidly eastward. It was some time before she realized that what
+she saw was a dust cloud, and there were men in it--horsemen.
+
+She got up from the rock, her face slowly whitening. And into her heart
+came a presentiment that those men in the dust cloud were abroad upon an
+errand of evil.
+
+No doubt the presentiment was caused from the dread and fear she had
+lived under for days--the consciousness that Deveny was in the valley,
+and a recollection of the warnings that Harlan had given her. And she
+knew the horsemen could not be Rancho Seco men--for they had gone
+southward from the ranch, and there was no grass range where the horsemen
+were riding. Also, the men were riding eastward, toward the Rancho Seco.
+
+Trembling a little with apprehension, she mounted Billy and sent him down
+the slope to the floor of the valley. The descent was hazardous, and
+Billy did not make good time, but when he reached the level at the foot
+of the slope he stretched his neck and fell into a steady, rapid pace
+that took him down the valley swiftly.
+
+As the girl rode, the presentiment of evil increased, and she grew
+nervous with a conviction that she would not be able to reach the Rancho
+Seco much in advance of the men. For she could see them more clearly now,
+because they were in the valley, traveling a shelving trail that sloped
+down from the hills toward the level that stretched to the ranchhouse.
+
+It was several miles from where she rode to the point where the horsemen
+were riding, and she was traversing a long ridge which must have revealed
+her to the men if they looked toward her.
+
+She had thought--after she had left the promontory--of concealing herself
+somewhere in the valley, to wait until she discovered who the men were
+and what their errand was; but she had a fear that if the men were
+Deveny's outlaws they might return up the valley and accidentally come
+upon her. Also, she had yielded to the homing instinct which is strong in
+all living beings, for at home was safety that could not be found
+elsewhere.
+
+The South Trail, she knew, converged with the valley trail at the edge of
+the level. If she could reach that point a few minutes before the
+horsemen reached it she would rely on Billy to maintain his lead. Billy
+would have to maintain it!
+
+Leaning far over Billy's mane she urged him on, coaxing him, flattering
+him, calling to him in terms of endearment. And the loyal little animal
+did his best, running as he had never run before.
+
+Barbara though, watching the horsemen with eyes into which there had come
+a glow of doubt, began to realize that Billy was losing the race. Also,
+by the time she had gone four or five miles, she discovered that the men
+had seen her. For the trails were growing close together now--not more
+than half a mile of slightly broken country stretched between them, and
+she could see the men waving their hats; could hear their voices above
+the whir and clatter of Billy's passing.
+
+Still, she was determined to win, and Billy's flanks felt the sting of
+the quirt that, hitherto, had swung from Barbara's wrist.
+
+Billy revealed a marvelous burst of speed. But it did not last, and the
+horsemen, after hanging for an instant abreast of Billy, began to forge
+ahead.
+
+The courageous little animal had almost reached the covert that Harlan
+had discovered the day he had visited the Star the first time, and was
+nobly answering the stern urge of the quirt when another horseman
+suddenly appeared on the trail directly ahead of the girl, seemingly
+having ridden out of the covert.
+
+The trail was narrow, and Billy could not swerve around the new rider.
+So, sensing the danger of a collision he stiffened his legs, making a
+sliding halt that carried him a dozen feet, leaving him upon his haunches
+with Barbara frantically trying to keep to the saddle.
+
+Then Billy's forehoofs came down; he grunted, heaved a tremendous sigh
+and stood, his legs braced, awaiting orders.
+
+No order came. For no words escaped Barbara's lips. She sat in the
+saddle, her face ashen, terror clutching her.
+
+For the horseman who had ridden out of the covert was Stroud, the Rancho
+Seco straw-boss. He was grinning, and in his eyes was a gloating triumph
+that she could not mistake.
+
+"Lucky I took a notion to come in this mornin'," he said. "I just got
+here. I seen you hittin' the breeze for fair while you was quite a piece
+up the basin; an' I seen Deveny an' the boys a-fannin' it, too. An' I
+says to myself: 'Stroud, here's Deveny racin' to see Miss Barbara, an'
+her actin' like she don't want to see him. But I'll fix it so she does.'"
+
+The girl touched Billy with the quirt, and the little animal lunged
+forward, close to Stroud's horse. As the two beasts came close together
+Barbara struck at Stroud with the quirt, hoping to disconcert him so that
+she could send Billy past him.
+
+Stroud ducked and shot a hand out, seized the quirt and wrenched it from
+her hand. She screamed as the hairloop scraped the flesh of her wrist.
+And then she heard a thundering clatter of hoofs and saw Deveny and his
+men appear from beyond the covert and race toward her.
+
+Deveny spoke no word. But as he rode toward her she saw the gleam in his
+eyes, and she silently fought Stroud, who had grasped her and was pulling
+her toward him.
+
+It seemed to her that Deveny must have misunderstood Stroud's action, for
+it was clear to her--even in the stress and confusion of the moment--that
+Deveny thought Stroud had attacked her through motives that were strictly
+personal.
+
+Anyway, before Stroud could speak Deveny's pistol glittered. And
+malignantly, his eyes blazing with a jealous, evil light, he shot
+Stroud--twice.
+
+He sat in the saddle, his lips twitching into a sneer as he watched the
+straw-boss tumble from his horse and fall limply into the grass. Then
+with a smile that was hideous with a triumphant passion, he spurred his
+horse to Billy's side, pulled the girl from the saddle, and sent his
+horse up the valley, motioning his men to follow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+AMBUSHED
+
+
+Red Linton had ridden eastward to examine the grass of the range in that
+direction, for it had been some days since he had sent Stroud to the
+southern range, and since the cattle had been there for some time before
+that Linton felt they should be driven to fresh grass.
+
+And yet, perhaps, Linton's search for good grass should not have taken
+him so far from the ranchhouse, for he remembered his promise to Harlan
+that he would not let Barbara out of his sight. But Barbara had made no
+objection to his guardianship of her, so far, and he had longed for a
+ride.
+
+He worried a little, though, and felt guilty of something very like
+treason to Harlan; and at last, not being able to ride farther with the
+thoughts that fought with his desires, he wheeled his horse and sent it
+scampering back toward the ranchhouse.
+
+When he reached the ranchhouse he saw none of the men, for he had set
+them at tasks inside the buildings; and he rode down to the ranchhouse,
+resolved to have a talk with the girl.
+
+When he rode around the near corner he saw that the _patio_ gate was
+open. His horse leaped with the stern word he spoke to it, bringing him
+swiftly to the gate, where he dismounted and threw open a door that led
+into the house.
+
+He called to Barbara, and receiving no answer, he ran from room to room,
+not hesitating until he had explored them all.
+
+Emerging from the house, he mounted his horse and sent him westward,
+while he scanned the big level around him for sight of the girl.
+
+She had always ridden into the valley in former days, he remembered--and
+during the days of his guardianship she had more than once threatened to
+ride there. And he had no doubt she had gone there now, out of
+perverseness, just to irritate him.
+
+He held his horse to a rapid pace as he crossed the level, and he was
+still a mile distant from the covert where Barbara had met Stroud when he
+saw a group of horsemen traveling rapidly up the valley.
+
+Linton rode on, his anxiety acute, a grave suspicion afflicting him. And
+when, after he had ridden a little farther, he saw Barbara's horse
+trotting slowly toward him, the stirrups swinging and flopping emptily
+against the saddle skirts, he drew a deep breath and brought his own
+horse to a halt, while he sat motionless in the saddle, tortured by
+bitter thoughts.
+
+He had no doubt that what Harlan feared would happen, had happened--that
+Deveny had come for Barbara. And Deveny had found her, through _his_
+dereliction. He had relaxed his vigilance for only a short time, and
+during that time Deveny had come.
+
+Linton looked back toward the Rancho Seco. The distance to the ranchhouse
+seemed to be interminable. He looked again up the valley, and saw that
+the horsemen were growing indistinct. Within a few minutes, so rapid was
+their pace, they would vanish altogether.
+
+Linton thought of going back to the ranchhouse for the other men--that
+was why he had looked in that direction. But if he wished to keep the
+horsemen in sight he would not have time to get the other men. Before he
+could get the men and return to where he now stood Deveny would have
+taken the girl to that mysterious and unknown rendezvous in the hills in
+which his band had always concealed themselves, and Barbara would be
+lost.
+
+Linton's lips straightened. He was to blame.
+
+He knew the danger that would attend the action of following Deveny's men
+up the valley. Other men had attempted to trail them, and they had been
+found murdered, often with warnings upon them.
+
+But Linton hesitated only momentarily. With a grim smile for his chances
+of emerging unscathed from the valley, he urged his horse up the trail,
+riding hard.
+
+Several miles he had traveled, keeping the horsemen in sight, and he was
+beginning to believe that he would succeed where others had failed, when,
+passing through a clump of timber he detected movement in some brush at a
+little distance back.
+
+Divining that Deveny had seen him and had sent a man into the timber to
+ambush him, Linton threw himself flat on the horse's mane. He felt a
+bullet sing past him, coming from the right, and he got his pistol out
+and was swinging its muzzle toward the point from which the bullet had
+come when a gun roared at his left.
+
+He felt a hot, searing pain in his side, and he reeled in the saddle from
+the shock. Instantly another bullet struck him, coming from the right.
+His pistol dropped from his weakening fingers, he toppled sidewise and
+tumbled limply into the dust.
+
+Shortly afterward, seemingly while he was in a state of coma, he heard
+hoofbeats, rapidly growing distant.
+
+He knew they were Deveny's men and he yielded to a vague wonder as to why
+they had not made sure of their work.
+
+Doggedly, and with long and bitter effort, Linton began to turn himself
+so that he could get up. The pain from his wounds was excruciating, so
+that each muscular effort brought a retching groan from him. Yet he kept
+moving, twisting himself around until he got on his knees. From that
+position he tried a number of times to get to his feet, but he failed
+each time.
+
+At last, though, with the help of a boulder that lay beside the trail, he
+got his feet under him and stood for an instant, staggering weakly. Then
+he began to move forward to his horse. When he managed at last to clutch
+the saddle skirt he was reeling, his knees bending under him. However, he
+managed to get one leg over the saddle, taking a long time to do it; and
+eventually he was in the seat.
+
+He spent another long interval lashing himself to the saddle with the
+rope that he carried at the pommel; and then headed the horse toward the
+Rancho Seco.
+
+He began to ride, urging the horse to what seemed to him a rapid pace.
+But he had not gone very far when he sagged against the pommel,
+lifelessly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ROGERS TAKES A HAND
+
+
+The trail herd had made good progress through the valley, and Rogers,
+aided by the Star men, had kept them going. The men feared no
+interference with the work, for they had terrorized the ranchers in the
+valley until the latter well knew the futility of retaliatory measures.
+Still, a certain furtive quickness of movement had always characterized
+the operations of the outlaws--the instinct to move secretly, if
+possible, and to strike swiftly when they struck was always strong in
+them.
+
+Besides, the drive to Willow's Wells was not a long one, and the cattle
+could stand a fast pace. So it was not long after the herd had left the
+Star until it straggled up a defile in the hills and out upon the level
+where Deveny's men had to ride to take the south trail to the Rancho
+Seco.
+
+The level extended southward for a distance of several miles to a grass
+range that the Star men knew well--for there had been times when they had
+grazed cattle there, making camp on their frequent trips to the Wells.
+
+A range of low, flat hills marked the northern limits of the grazing
+section; and Rogers and his men trailed the cattle through the hills
+while the morning was still young.
+
+The herd was through the hills, and Rogers, twisting in the saddle, was
+taking a last look over the plain to make certain there had been no
+prying eyes watching the movements of himself and the men, when he saw,
+far to the west, a group of horsemen just coming into view at the edge of
+the plain--seemingly having ridden out of the big valley.
+
+Rogers wheeled his horse and watched the horsemen as they traveled
+eastward, making good time. He called to a man, named Colver, who was
+riding close to him.
+
+"Them's Deveny's men--from the Cache. What in blazes are they up to?
+Somethin's in the wind, Colver--they're ridin' like the devil was after
+them an' burnin' the breeze for fair!"
+
+Rogers sent his horse scampering to the crest of one of the hills where,
+concealed behind some brush, he watched the progress of Deveny's men
+eastward.
+
+When they passed the point on the plain where they would have to veer
+northward if they intended to visit the Star, he breathed with relief.
+For he had almost yielded to a conviction that Deveny _was_ headed for
+the Star.
+
+But after the horsemen passed the point that led to the Star trail, a new
+anxiety seized Rogers--and a passion that sent the blood to his face
+swept over him.
+
+His eyes were glowing with an excitement that he could not repress when
+he turned to Colver.
+
+"Somethin's up!" he snapped. "Deveny's been sullen as hell for a good
+many days--ever since Harlan came to the Star. One of the boys was
+tellin' me he heard Deveny an' Haydon havin' it out over at the Cache. If
+there's goin' to be a ruckus I'm goin' to be in on it!"
+
+He leaped his horse off the hill, racing him down into the grass plain
+after the other men. When he reached them he yelled sharply, and they
+spurred quickly to him, anticipating from his manner that danger
+threatened.
+
+"I've got a hunch that hell's a-goin' to pop right sudden, boys," he told
+them. "An' we're goin' away from it. If there's any trouble we want to be
+in on it. Deveny's up to somethin'. You-all know about the agreement made
+between Haydon an' Harlan--that Harlan was to run the Rancho Seco without
+interference. Deveny's headed that way, an' Haydon ain't around. It's up
+to us boys to keep our eyes open.
+
+"Harlan's at the Star. He won't be knowin' that Deveny is headin' for the
+Rancho Seco. Harlan's white, boys; he's done more for us guys since he's
+been at the Star than Haydon or Deveny ever done for us. He's promised us
+things that Haydon an' Deveny would never do. He's a white man, an' I'm
+for him. An' I'm for takin' orders from him from now on. Who's with me?"
+
+"You're shoutin'!" declared Colver.
+
+"It's time for a new deal," muttered another.
+
+"You're doin' the yappin'," grimly announced a big man who was close to
+Rogers; "we're followin' your lead."
+
+"I'm jumpin' for the Star then!" declared Rogers; "to put Harlan wise to
+where Deveny's headed for. We're leavin' the herd here until we find out
+what's goin' on. Half of you guys beat it to the Rancho Seco--trailin'
+Deveny an' his boys, to find out what they're doin'. You're herd-ridin'
+them if they go to monkeyin' with the Rancho Seco. Slope!"
+
+Rogers had hardly ceased speaking when the outfit was on the move. There
+were eleven men, including Rogers; and they sent their horses leaping
+over the crest of the hill nearest them--dividing, as they reached the
+level on the other side with seemingly no previous arrangement, into two
+groups--one group going northeastward, toward the South Trail, and the
+other fading into the space that yawned between it and the point where
+the trail to the Star led downward into the big basin.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Haydon, holding hard to the pommel of the saddle, urging his horse along
+the trail that led up the valley, looked back whenever he reached a rise,
+his eyes searching the space behind him for the dread apparition that he
+expected momentarily.
+
+He knew that it would not be long before Morgan and Harlan would emerge
+from the ranchhouse to discover that he had escaped; and he knew, too,
+that they would suspect that he had gone to the Cache.
+
+He expected they would delay riding after him, however, until they
+searched for him in some of the buildings, and that delay, he hoped,
+would give him time to reach the Cache.
+
+He was handicapped by his useless arm--for it made riding awkward, and
+the numbness was stealing down his side, toward his leg. He paid little
+attention to the pain; indeed, he entirely forgot it in his frenzied
+eagerness to reach the Cache.
+
+More prominent in his brain at this minute than any other emotion was a
+dread of Billy Morgan. He had yielded to terror when Morgan had revealed
+his identity; but the terror he had felt then had not been nearly so
+paralyzing as that which was now upon him.
+
+His eyes were bulging as he rode; his lips were slavering, and he
+shuddered and cringed as he leaned over his horse's mane, urging him to
+greater effort--even though there were times when his lurches almost
+threw him out of the saddle.
+
+For his previous terror had been somewhat tempered with a doubt of
+Morgan's veracity. Even when he had seen Morgan reaching for his pistol
+he had felt the doubt--had felt that Morgan was not Morgan at all, but
+Woodward, perpetrating a grotesque joke. To be sure, when he had seen
+that Morgan really intended to kill him, he had been convinced that the
+man was in deadly earnest. It had been then that he had desperately
+twisted himself so that Morgan's bullet had not touched a vital spot.
+
+But now his terror had grown; it was a thing that had got into his
+soul--for he had had time to meditate over what Morgan's vengeance meant
+to him.
+
+It meant that Morgan would kill him, if he caught him; that the life he
+treasured would be taken from him; that the magnificent body which he had
+always so greatly admired would be shattered and broken. The mental
+picture he drew further increased his terror, and he began to mutter
+incoherent blasphemies as he raced his horse at a breakneck pace toward
+the Cache.
+
+But when he had ridden several miles and knew from the appearance of the
+valley that he was nearing the Cache and that he would reach it in
+safety, there came a change in him.
+
+He grew calmer; he began to feel a rage that sent the blood racing
+through his veins again. He looked back over the trail as often as
+formerly, but it was with a new expression--malevolent hatred. And when
+he finally reached the entrance to the Cache and rode through it, heading
+toward the building in which, he expected, he would find Deveny, the
+malevolence in his expression was mingled with triumph and cunning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+A DUAL TRAGEDY
+
+
+Harlan and Morgan had made a thorough search of Haydon's desk in the
+latter's office in the ranchhouse, and they had found letters addressed
+to Haydon--received at various towns in the vicinity and proving Morgan's
+charges against him. And upon several of the letters were names that
+provided damaging evidence of the connection of influential men with the
+scheme to gain unlawful possession of much land in the basin.
+
+"This cinches it!" declared Morgan as he carefully placed the letters
+into a pocket when he and Harlan emerged from the ranchhouse. "I reckon
+we've got proof now. An' the governor'll be plumb tickled."
+
+They stepped down from the doorway and turned the corner of the house.
+Instantly they noted the disappearance of Haydon's body. But they did not
+search among the other buildings for Haydon--as he had expected them to
+do. For they saw that his horse was also missing.
+
+Morgan ran for the corral, saying no word, his lips set in grim, vengeful
+lines. He had been a fool for not making sure that he had killed Haydon,
+but he would not make that mistake again. The gleam in his eyes revealed
+that.
+
+Harlan, too, divined what had happened. Purgatory was in the
+stable--which was farther from the ranchhouse than the corral. And though
+Harlan moved swiftly Morgan was already on his horse and racing toward
+the timber when Purgatory emerged from the stable, saddled and bridled.
+
+Harlan noted that Morgan had not stopped to saddle his horse, and that
+omission revealed the man's intense desire for haste. Harlan, however,
+headed Purgatory into the timber, but he was more than half a mile behind
+Morgan when he reached the main trail.
+
+He saw Morgan riding the trail that led up the valley, and he set out
+after him, giving the big black horse the rein. He divined that Morgan
+suspected Haydon had ridden in that direction; and while Harlan had never
+seen the Cache, he had heard the Star men speak of it, and he had noticed
+that when setting out for it they had always traveled the trail Morgan
+was traveling. Therefore, it was evident that Morgan thought Haydon had
+gone to the Cache. In that case he depended upon Deveny to assist him--if
+Morgan followed; and Harlan was determined to see the incident through.
+
+He sent Purgatory ahead at a good pace, but he noted soon that Morgan was
+increasing the distance between them. He began to urge Purgatory forward,
+and gradually the distance between the two riders grew shorter.
+
+Both were traveling rapidly, however, and it seemed to Harlan that they
+had not gone more than three or four miles when--watching Morgan closely,
+he saw him ride pell-mell into some timber that--apparently--fringed the
+front of a cave.
+
+It was some time before Harlan reached the timber, and when he did he
+could not immediately discover the spot into which Morgan had ridden.
+When he did discover it he rode Purgatory through, and found himself in a
+narrow gorge.
+
+He raced Purgatory through the gorge, and out of it to the sloping side
+of a little basin.
+
+He saw a house near the center of the basin--and Morgan riding close to
+it.
+
+The distance to the house was not great--not more than a quarter of a
+mile, it seemed; and Harlan felt some wonder that Morgan--who had been
+quite a little in advance of him--had not reached the house sooner. That
+mystery was explained to him almost instantly, though, when he saw that
+Morgan's horse was walking, going forward with a pronounced limp.
+Evidently Morgan had met with an accident.
+
+Harlan was riding across the floor of the little basin, watching Morgan
+and wondering at the seeming absence of Deveny's men, when he saw a smoke
+streak issue from one of the windows of the house, saw Morgan reel in the
+saddle, and slide to the ground.
+
+But before Harlan could reach the spot where Morgan had fallen, the man
+staggered to his feet and was running toward the house, swaying as he
+went.
+
+Harlan heard a muffled report as he sent Purgatory scampering after
+Morgan. He saw Morgan reel again, and he knew someone in the house was
+using a rifle.
+
+There was another report as Morgan lurched through an open doorway of the
+house. Then Harlan knew Morgan was using his gun, for its roaring crash
+mingled with the whiplike crack of a rifle.
+
+The firing had ceased when Harlan slipped off Purgatory at the open door;
+and both his guns were out as he leaped over the threshold.
+
+He halted, though, standing rigid, his guns slowly swagging in his hands,
+their muzzles drooping.
+
+For on the floor of the room--flat on his back near a corner--was Haydon.
+He was dead--there was no doubt of that.
+
+Nor was there any doubt that the bullets Haydon had sent had finished
+Morgan. He was lying on his right side, his right arm under him,
+extended; the palm of the hand upward, the fingers limply holding the
+pistol he had used, some smoke curling lazily from the muzzle.
+
+Harlan knelt beside Morgan, examining him for signs of life. He got up a
+little later and stood for some time looking down at the man, thinking of
+Barbara. Twice had tragedy cast its sinister shadow over her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+CONVERGING TRAILS
+
+
+An hour or so later, Harlan, having finished his labors in a clearing at
+the edge of the level near the gorge, climbed slowly on Purgatory and
+sent him back down the valley trail toward the Star.
+
+From the first his sympathies for Barbara had been deep, beginning on the
+evening Lane Morgan had mentioned her in his presence--when the man
+seemed to see her in that strange, awesome moment before his death--when
+he had seemed to hold out his arms to her. Later, at Lamo, when Harlan
+had held the girl in his arms, he felt that at that instant he must have
+experienced much the same protective impulse that Morgan would have felt,
+had the experience occurred to him. Harlan had been slightly cynical
+until that minute; but since then he had known that his rage against the
+outlaws was deeply personal.
+
+That rage, though, had centered most heavily upon Deveny. He had hated
+Haydon, too--from the first. In the beginning it had been a jealous
+hatred, aroused over the conviction that Barbara loved the man. But
+later--when he had discovered that Haydon was the mysterious "Chief,"
+that he was the real murderer of Lane Morgan, and that behind his
+professed love for the girl was meditated trickery--his hatred had become
+a passion in which Barbara did not figure.
+
+His hatred for Haydon, though, could not be compared with the passionate
+contempt and loathing he felt for Deveny. The man had attempted, in Lamo,
+a thing that Harlan had always abhorred, and the memory of that time was
+still vivid in Harlan's brain.
+
+Into Harlan's heart as he rode toward the Star flamed that ancient
+loathing, paling his face and bringing a gleam to his eyes that had been
+in them often of late--a lust for the lives of the men whose evil deeds
+and sinister influence had kept Barbara a virtual prisoner at the Rancho
+Seco.
+
+He rode the valley trail slowly, his thoughts upon Barbara, his lips
+straightening when he thought of how he would have to return to the
+Rancho Seco, some day, to tell her of her brother's death. Twice had
+tragedy visited her, and again he would be the messenger to bring her the
+grim news.
+
+When he reached the Star he rode up to the corral fence and dismounted.
+He stood for a long time at the fence, his elbows on one of the rails,
+his thoughts dwelling upon Barbara. Pity for her whitened his face, set
+his lips in rigid lines.
+
+She had been in danger, but it seemed to him that it would soon be over.
+For Haydon would bother the girl no more, and as soon as he could meet
+Deveny he would remove another menace to Barbara's life and happiness.
+
+He had no regrets for the men he had killed; they deserved what he had
+given them. As he had told Morgan, he had considered himself merely an
+instrument of the law of right and justice--which law was based upon the
+very principle that governed men in civilized communities.
+
+He was facing south, and he raised his head after a few minutes, for upon
+the slight breeze was borne to him the rapid drumming of hoofs. As he
+looked up he saw, far out toward the southern edge of the valley, a dust
+cloud, moving swiftly toward him.
+
+At first he suspected that the men in the group belonged to Deveny, and
+he drew out his pistols, one after the other, and examined them--for he
+decided--if Deveny was among the men--to settle for good the question of
+power and authority that Haydon had raised.
+
+When the men came closer, though, swooping toward the ranchhouse like
+feathers before a hurricane, he saw that Rogers was among them.
+
+Then, as the men came toward him down along the corral fence, Harlan saw
+that Rogers' eyes were wide with excitement. And he stood, his face
+darkening, as Rogers told him what he had seen, and voiced his
+suspicions.
+
+"We're with you, Harlan," declared Rogers, sweeping a hand toward the
+men; "an' them other boys which have trailed Deveny, are with you. We're
+out to 'get' Deveny if you say the word; and that thief, Haydon, too."
+
+Harlan did not answer. He grinned at the men, though, and at
+Rogers--acknowledging his gratitude for their decision to be "with" him;
+then he turned, leaped on Purgatory, and sent the big beast thundering
+toward the timber that led to the main trail.
+
+Their voices silent, their horses falling quickly into the pace set by
+the big black, Rogers and the other men followed.
+
+The other half of Rogers' men, headed by Colver, were several miles
+behind Deveny's horsemen when they reached the South Trail. They gained
+very little on the other men, though, for Deveny and his men were just
+then racing Barbara to the point where the trails converged, having seen
+her. But during Deveny's halt at the covert, where he had shot Stroud,
+Colver's men gained, and they were not more than two or three miles from
+the covert when Deveny's men left it.
+
+From the shelving trail, ever sweeping toward the trail in the valley,
+Colver had noted the halt at the covert, though he had not seen Barbara,
+nor Stroud. He had seen, of course, that Deveny had not gone to the
+Rancho Seco, that for some reason or other he had swerved, taking the
+trail up the valley.
+
+Colver was puzzled, but he remembered Rogers' orders, and when he and his
+men reached the covert, they halted. They came upon Stroud, lying near
+some bushes, and they saw his horse, grazing on the tall grass near by.
+They had reached the covert too late to see Barbara's pony; and when they
+remounted, after taking a look at Stroud, they caught a glimpse of a lone
+horseman racing up the valley in the direction taken by Deveny and his
+men.
+
+The lone horseman was Red Linton, though Colver did not know it, for the
+South Trail dipped into the basin miles before it emerged to the level at
+the point of convergence with the other trail, and Colver had not seen
+Linton when he had passed.
+
+Colver and his men fled up the valley, following the trail taken by
+Deveny and the lone horseman, and when they had gone two or three miles
+they saw a rider coming toward them. They raced toward him, for they saw
+he was in trouble; that he had lashed himself to the pommel of the
+saddle, and that he was leaning far over it, limp and inert.
+
+Linton was not unconscious, but he was very near it; so near that he
+seemed to dream that men were around him and that voices were directed at
+him.
+
+Into his mind as he straightened and looked at the men finally came the
+conviction that this was not a dream; and after an instant of intense
+effort, during which he fixed his gaze on Colver, he recognized the
+other.
+
+He laughed, grimly, mockingly:
+
+"Front an' rear--eh?" he said. "You got me, goin' an' comin'. Well, go to
+it--I deserve it, for lettin' Barbara out of my sight. If you don't kill
+me, Harlan will. But if you guys are _men_, you won't let Deveny----"
+
+"Deveny's got Barbara Morgan?"
+
+This was Colver. Something in his voice straightened Linton further, and
+he steadied himself in the saddle and looked fairly at the man.
+
+"Deveny's got her. An' they got me--chasin' 'em. I was headin' back to
+the Rancho Seco, to get the T Down boys--all Harlan's friends--to wipe
+Deveny out. If you guys are _men_----"
+
+Sheer will could no longer support Linton's failing muscles--and he again
+collapsed over the pommel.
+
+For an instant only did Colver hesitate. Then he turned to a lean rider
+who bestrode a tall, rangy horse. He spoke sharply to the rider:
+
+"Hit the breeze to the Rancho Seco, an' get them T Down boys. Fan it,
+damn you!"
+
+The rider was off with the word, leaping his horse down the trail with
+dizzying speed. Then Colver loosed the rope that held Linton to the
+saddle, and with the help of the other men lifted the man down and
+stretched him in a plot of grass beside the trail, where they worked over
+him until they saw, far out on the level toward the Rancho Seco, a number
+of horsemen coming, seemingly abreast, as though they were racing, each
+man trying his best to outstrip the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+WORLD'S END
+
+
+Barbara Morgan had fought Deveny until she became exhausted. Thereafter
+she lay quiet, breathing fast, yielding to the nameless terror that held
+her in its icy clutch.
+
+The appearance of Deveny so soon after the end of the heartbreaking ride
+down the trail had brought into her heart a sense of the futility of
+resistance--and yet she had resisted, involuntarily, instinctively. Yet
+resistance had merely served to increase the exhaustion that had come
+upon her.
+
+She had not known--until she lay passive in Deveny's arms--how taut her
+nerves had been, nor how the physical ordeal had drained her strength.
+
+She felt the strain, now, but consideration for her body was overwhelmed
+by what she saw in Deveny's eyes as she lay watching him.
+
+There were a dozen men with Deveny--she had seen them, counted them when
+they had been racing down the shelving trail on the other side of the
+valley. And she knew they were following Deveny, for she could hear the
+thudding of hoofs behind.
+
+Deveny's big arms were around her; she could feel the rippling of his
+muscles as he swayed from side to side, balancing himself in the saddle.
+He was not using the reins; he was giving his attention to her, letting
+the horse follow his own inclinations.
+
+Yet she noted that the animal held to the trail, that he traveled
+steadily, requiring no word from his rider.
+
+Once, after they had ridden some distance up the valley, Barbara heard a
+man behind them call Deveny's attention to some horsemen who were riding
+the shelving trail that Deveny and his men had taken on their way to the
+level; and she heard Deveny laugh.
+
+"Some of the Star gang, I reckon. Mebbe Haydon, goin' to the Rancho Seco,
+to see his girl." He grinned down into Barbara's face, his own alight
+with a triumph that made a shiver run over her.
+
+Later--only a few minutes, it seemed--she heard a man call to Deveny
+again, telling him that a lone rider was "fannin' it" up the valley.
+
+"Looks like that guy, Linton," said the man.
+
+"Two of you drop back and lay for him!" ordered Deveny. "Make it sure!"
+he added, after a short pause.
+
+Barbara yielded to a quick horror. She fought with Deveny, trying in vain
+to free her arms--which he held tightly to her sides with his own. She
+gave it up at last, and lay, looking up into his face, her eyes blazing
+with impotent rage and repugnance.
+
+"You mean to kill him?" she charged.
+
+"Sure," he laughed; "there's no one interfering with what's going on
+now."
+
+Overcome with nausea over the conviction that Deveny's order meant death
+to Red Linton, Barbara lay slack in Deveny's arms for a long time. A
+premonitory silence had settled over the valley; she heard the dull thud
+of hoofs behind her, regular and swift, the creaking of the saddle
+leather as the animal under her loped forward.
+
+There was no other sound. For the men behind her were strangely silent,
+and even Deveny seemed to be listening.
+
+After what seemed to be a long interval, she heard a shot, and then
+almost instantly, another. She shuddered, closing her eyes, for she knew
+they had killed Linton. And she had blamed Linton for guarding her
+from--from the very thing that had happened to her. And Linton had given
+his life for her!
+
+How long she had her eyes closed she did not know. The time could not
+have been more than a few minutes though, for she heard a voice behind
+her saying to Deveny:
+
+"They got him."
+
+Then she looked up, to see Deveny grinning at her.
+
+"I reckon that's all," he said. "We're headin' for the Cache--my
+hang-out. If you'd have been good over in Lamo, the day that damned
+Harlan came, this wouldn't have happened. I'd sent for a parson, an' I
+intended to give you a square deal. But now it's different. Then I was
+scared of running foul of Haydon--I didn't want to make trouble. But I'm
+running my own game now--Haydon and me have agreed to call it quits. Me
+not liking the idea of Haydon adopting Harlan."
+
+She stared up at him, her eyes widening.
+
+"You and Haydon were--what do you mean?" she asked, her heart seeming to
+be a dead weight in her breast, heavy with suspicion over the dread
+significance in his voice and words. She watched him, breathlessly.
+
+"I'm meaning that Haydon and me were running things in the valley--that
+we were partners, splitting equal. But I'm playing a lone hand now."
+
+He seemed to enjoy her astonishment--the light in her eyes which showed
+that comprehension, freighted with hopelessness, was stealing over her.
+
+He grinned hugely as he watched her face.
+
+"Haydon is the guy we called 'Chief,'" he said, enjoying her further
+amazement and noting the sudden paleness that swept over her face. "He's
+the guy who killed your father at Sentinel Rock. He was after you,
+meaning to make a fool of you. Hurts--does it?" he jeered, when he saw
+her eyes glow with a rage that he could understand. "I've heard of that
+chain deal--Haydon was telling me. When he shot your father he lost a bit
+of chain. Harlan found it and gave it back to him, with you looking on. I
+reckon that's why him and Harlan hit it off together so well--Harlan
+knowing he killed your father and not telling you about it."
+
+The long shudder that shook the girl betrayed something of the terrible
+emotion under which she was laboring; and when she finally opened her
+eyes to gaze again into Deveny's, they were filled with a haunting
+hopelessness--a complete surrender to the sinister circumstances which
+seemed to have surrounded her from the beginning.
+
+"Harlan," she said weakly, as though upon him she had pinned her last
+hope; "Harlan has joined you after all--he is against me--too?"
+
+"Him and Haydon are after the Rancho Seco. Harlan's been playing with
+Haydon right along."
+
+Barbara said nothing more. She was incapable of coherent thought or of
+definite action--or even of knowledge of her surroundings.
+
+For it seemed to her that Deveny had spoken truthfully. She had seen the
+incident of the broken chain; she had seen Harlan's hypocritical grin
+upon that occasion--how he had seemed to be eager to ingratiate himself
+with Haydon.
+
+All were against her--everybody. Everybody, it seemed, but Red Linton.
+And they had killed Linton.
+
+She seemed to be drifting off into a place which was peopled with demons
+that schemed and planned for her honor and her life; and not one of them
+who planned and schemed against her gave the slightest indication of
+mercy or manliness. The world became chaotic with swirling objects--then
+a blank, aching void into which she drifted, feeling nothing, seeing
+nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE ULTIMATE TREACHERY
+
+
+When Barbara regained consciousness she was lying in some long, dusty
+grass beside the trail where she seemed to have been thrown, or where she
+had fallen. For she was lying on her right side, her right arm doubled
+under her, and she felt a pain in her shoulder which must have been where
+she had struck when she had fallen.
+
+She twisted around and sat up, bewildered, almost succumbing to the
+hideous terror which instantly gripped her when she remembered what had
+happened.
+
+Deveny's horse stood near her, nipping the tips of the grass that grew at
+her feet. Beyond the animal--a little to her right, and perhaps fifty
+feet from her--were other horses, with riders.
+
+As she staggered to her feet she recognized the men who had been with
+Deveny. They were on their horses--all facing away from her. Facing
+Deveny's men were all the T Down boys--she recognized them instantly.
+Pistols glittered in their hands; they seemed to be in the grip of some
+strong passion, which wreathed their faces into grim, bitter lines.
+
+Near the T Down men--flanking them--were other men. Among them she saw
+faces she knew--Colver, Strom Rogers, and others.
+
+There must have been twenty-five or thirty men, altogether, and they were
+all on a little level beside the trail. It seemed to Barbara that they
+all appeared to have forgotten her; seemed not to know that she was in
+the vicinity.
+
+She saw Deveny standing on the little level. His profile was toward her;
+there was a wild, savage glare in his eyes.
+
+Not more than a dozen feet from him was Harlan.
+
+She saw Harlan's face from the side also. There was a grin on his
+lips--bitter, mirthless, terrible.
+
+She stood for what seemed to her a long time, watching all of them; her
+heart throbbing with a dread heaviness that threatened to choke her; her
+body in a state of icy paralysis.
+
+She thought she knew what had happened, for it seemed to her that
+everything in the world--all the passions and the desires of
+men--centered upon her. She felt that there were two factions--one headed
+by Deveny, and the other by Harlan, representing Haydon--and that they
+were about to fight for her. The T Down men seemed to be standing with
+Harlan--as, of course, they would, since he had sent for them to come to
+the Rancho Seco.
+
+Oddly, though, they apparently seemed to pay no attention to her; not one
+of them looked at her.
+
+If they were to fight it made no difference to her which faction won, for
+her fate would be the same, if she stayed.
+
+She did not know what put the thought into her mind, but as she stood
+there watching the men she repeated mentally over and over the words: "If
+I stay."
+
+Why should she stay? She answered the question by stealing toward
+Deveny's horse. When she reached the animal she paused, glancing
+apprehensively at the men, her breathing suspended--hoping, dreading, her
+nerves and muscles taut. It seemed they must see her.
+
+Not a man moved as she climbed upon the back of the horse; it seemed to
+her as she urged the animal gently and slowly away from the men that they
+heard nothing and saw nothing but Harlan and Deveny, and that Harlan and
+Deveny saw nothing but each other.
+
+She sent the horse away, walking him for a dozen yards or more, until he
+crossed the little level and sank into a shallow depression in the trail.
+Still looking back, she saw that none of the men had changed
+position--that they seemed to be more intent upon Harlan and Deveny. And
+she could hear Harlan's voice, now, low, husky.
+
+She urged the horse into a lope; and when she had ridden perhaps a
+hundred yards, the conviction that she would escape grew strong in her.
+Once out of the valley she would ride straight to Lamo, to ask Sheriff
+Gage to protect her.
+
+She rode faster as she widened the distance that separated her from the
+men; and soon the horse was covering the trail rapidly; and she leaned
+forward in the saddle, praying that the men might not see her.
+
+She had gone several miles when she noticed a dark object beside the
+trail ahead of her. She drew the horse down and approached the spot
+cautiously. And when she saw that the object was a man, her thoughts flew
+to the shot she had heard, and to Deveny's words:
+
+"Make sure of it."
+
+It _was_ Linton, she saw, as she halted the horse near the object she had
+seen. He was lying on his right side, resting his weight on an elbow, as
+though trying to rise.
+
+In an instant she was out of the saddle and at his side, raising his
+head.
+
+He looked at her, smiled, and said weakly:
+
+"You got away, eh? I reckon they met Harlan. I was hopin' they would. Did
+they?"
+
+"Yes," she answered quickly. She had seen that Linton was badly wounded,
+and she knew that she must give up hope of getting to Lamo in order to
+give him the care he needed.
+
+So without speaking further, though with an effort that required the last
+ounce of her strength, she lifted Linton, he helping a little, and led
+him toward her horse. Somehow, with Linton doing all he could, she got
+him into the saddle, climbed up behind him, and sent the horse toward the
+Rancho Seco.
+
+Back at the little level where the men were grouped there was a tension
+that seemed to charge the atmosphere with tragedy. Deveny's men sat
+silent in their saddles, watching their leader and Harlan with sullen,
+savage eyes. The T Down men, facing them, were equally sullen. Guns in
+hand, they alertly watched the men who were with Deveny, plainly
+determined that there should be no interference from them in the tragedy
+that seemed imminent.
+
+Rogers and his men, and the riders who had come with Colver, were also
+watching the Deveny group. All of these held weapons, too; and Rogers,
+who had dismounted, was standing beside his horse, a rifle resting on the
+saddle seat, his cheek snuggling the stock, the muzzle trained on Deveny.
+
+Harlan, Rogers, and the others, racing down the valley, had met Deveny
+and his men coming up. And when Deveny had recognized Harlan and the
+others he had quickly dismounted, bearing his unconscious burden. Because
+he felt that trouble would result from the meeting, Deveny had thrown
+Barbara from him.
+
+He had instantly forgotten the girl. For when Harlan came up Deveny saw a
+gleam in his eyes that sent his brain to throbbing with those
+unmistakable impulses of fear which had seized him the day, in Lamo, when
+Harlan had faced him.
+
+There had been a moment of silence when the two groups met; a stiffening
+of muscles and the heavy, strained breathing that, in men, tells of
+mental preparation for violence, swift and deadly.
+
+It had been Harlan who had prevented concerted action--action that would
+have brought about a battle in which all would have figured. His guns
+came out before the thought of trouble could definitely form in the
+brains of the Deveny men; and he had held them--the men in the saddles,
+Deveny standing--until the T Down men, whom he had seen from a distance,
+coming toward him, could arrive.
+
+Then, still menacing the Deveny men with weapons, he had dismounted to
+face Deveny--where he had been when Barbara Morgan had recovered
+consciousness.
+
+And while the girl had been stealing away he had been talking to Deveny,
+though loud enough for all of them to hear.
+
+There was about Harlan as this moment a threat that brought awe into the
+hearts of Deveny's men--a cold, savage alertness that told them,
+unmistakably, that the man's rage was at a pitch where the slightest
+movement by any of them would precipitate that action for which, plainly,
+Harlan longed.
+
+"So you got Barbara Morgan?" he said as he stood close to Deveny. There
+was a taunt in his voice, and an irony that made Deveny squirm with fury.
+
+And yet Deveny fought hard for composure. He could see in Harlan's manner
+something akin to what he had seen that day, in Lamo, when Harlan had
+baited him. His manner was the same, yet somehow it was not the same.
+There was this difference:
+
+In Lamo, Harlan had betrayed the threat of violence that Deveny had felt.
+But he had seemed to be composed, saturnine--willing to wait. It had
+seemed, then, that he wanted trouble, but he would not force it.
+
+Now, he plainly intended to bring a clash quickly. The determination was
+in his eyes, in the set of his head, and in his straight, stiff lips.
+
+He seemed to have forgotten the other men; his gaze was on Deveny with a
+boring intensity that sent a chill of stealthy dread over the outlaw.
+
+Deveny had faced many men in whose hearts lurked the lust to kill; he had
+shot down men who had faced him with that lust in their eyes--and he knew
+the passion when he saw it.
+
+He saw it now, in Harlan's eyes--they were wanton--in them was
+concentrated all the hate and contempt that Harlan felt for him. But back
+of it all was that iron self-control that Deveny had seen in the man when
+he had faced him in Lamo.
+
+Deveny had avoided Harlan since that day. He had known why--and he knew
+at this minute. It was because he was afraid of Harlan--he feared him as
+a coward fears the death that confronts him. The sensation was
+premonitory. Nor was it that. It _had_ been premonitory--it was now a
+conviction. In the time, in Lamo, when he had faced Harlan some
+prescience had warned him that before him was the man whom the fates had
+selected to bring death to him.
+
+He had felt it during all the days of Harlan's presence in the section;
+he had felt it, and he had avoided the man. He felt it now, and his
+breathing grew fast and difficult--his chest laboring as he shrilled
+breath into his lungs.
+
+He knew what was coming; he knew that presently Harlan's passion would
+reach the point where action would be imperative; that presently would
+come that slow, halting movement of Harlan's hands toward his gun--which
+gun? He would witness, with himself as one of the chief actors, the
+hesitating movement which had brought fame of a dread kind to the man who
+stood before him.
+
+Could he beat Harlan to the "draw?" Could he? That question was dinned
+into his ears and into his consciousness by his brain and his heart. He
+heard nothing of what was going on around him; he did not hear Harlan's
+voice, though he saw the man's lips moving. He did not see any of the men
+who stood near, nor did he see his men, sitting in their saddles,
+watching him.
+
+He saw nothing but Harlan; felt nothing except the blood that throbbed in
+his temples; was conscious of nothing but the question that filled his
+heart, his brain, and his soul--could he beat Harlan to the "draw?"
+
+Presently, when he saw, with astonishment, that Harlan was slowly backing
+away from him, crouching a little, he divined vaguely that the moment had
+come. And now, curiously, he heard Harlan's voice--low, distinct, even.
+What an iceberg the man was!
+
+"Haydon's dead," he heard Harlan saying--and he stared at Harlan, finding
+it difficult to comprehend. "Lafe Woodward killed him," Harlan went on
+"killed him at the Cache. Now get this straight--all of you." It seemed
+strange to Deveny that Harlan seemed to be speaking to the men, while
+watching him, only.
+
+"Woodward was killed, too. His real name was Bill Morgan. He was Lane
+Morgan's son. Bill Morgan was sent here by the governor, to get evidence
+against Haydon. He got it. I took it from his pockets when I planted
+him--an' it's goin' straight to the governor.
+
+"You guys are through here--" again he seemed to speak to all the men.
+"Morgan told me he had some men with the Cache gang. They're to ride out
+an' join my boys--the T Down outfit."
+
+Deveny was conscious that several men detached themselves from the group
+of riders he had brought with him, and rode to where the T Down men were
+standing. Then Harlan spoke again:
+
+"Now, she shapes up like this. If there's any of the Star gang wantin' to
+go straight, they can throw in with the T Down boys, too. If there's some
+that figure on pullin' their freight out of the valley--an' stayin'
+out--they can hit the breeze right now--drivin' that Star herd to
+Willow's Wells, sellin' them, an' dividin' the money. Whoever is takin'
+up that proposition is startin' right now!"
+
+About half the Star men began to move; heading up the valley. There was a
+momentary pause, and then those that were left of Deveny's men moved
+uneasily.
+
+"Does that go for us guys too?"
+
+"It's wide open," announced Harlan, cold humor seeming to creep into his
+voice. "It's your chance to get out of this deal without gettin' what's
+comin' to you."
+
+There was a rush and clatter as Deveny's men joined the men of the Star,
+who were already on the move. And then there followed a long silence,
+during which Deveny glanced up the valley and saw the men riding away.
+
+He turned again, to face Harlan, with the consciousness that he stood
+alone. The T Down men, half of the Star men, and a large proportion of
+the Cache men were standing with Harlan. Deveny saw Colver and Rogers
+among those who had aligned themselves with Harlan.
+
+No invitation to withdraw had been extended to Deveny. The knowledge
+strengthened his conviction that Harlan intended to kill him. And yet,
+now, facing Harlan, he knew that he would never take up the slender
+thread of chance that was offered him--to draw his gun, kill Harlan and
+resume his authority over the men who were left.
+
+The possibility, dangling at the other end of the slender thread of
+chance, did not allure him. For he knew he could not draw the pistol at
+his hip with Harlan's gaze upon him--that would be suicide.
+
+"Deveny!"
+
+Harlan's voice, snapping with menace roused him, straightened him,
+brought an ashen pallor to his face.
+
+"It's your turn, Deveny. You stay here. Flash your gun!"
+
+Here it was--the dreaded moment. Deveny saw the men around him stiffen
+rigidly; he heard their slow-drawn breaths. The thought to draw his gun
+was strong in him, and he fought hard to force his recreant muscles to do
+the will of his mind. For an instant he stood, his right hand poised
+above the holster of his pistol, the elbow crooked, ready to straighten.
+
+And then, with the steady, coldly flaming eyes of Harlan upon him,
+Harlan's right hand extended slightly, the fingers spread a little as
+though he was about to offer his hand to the other. Deveny became aware
+that he was doing an astonishing thing. He was raising his right hand!
+
+Already it was at his shoulder. And as he marveled, it went higher,
+finally coming to a level with his head, where it stopped. He had
+publicly advertised his refusal to settle his differences with Harlan
+with the pistol.
+
+"Yellow!"
+
+It was Harlan's voice. "You won't fight an' you won't run. Well, we'll
+keep you, savin' you for the governor. I reckon he'll be glad to see
+you."
+
+Harlan turned, sheathing his pistol, and began to walk toward his horse,
+his back toward Deveny.
+
+Then Deveny acted. His eyes flaming hate, he drew his pistol with a
+flashing movement, his face hideous with malignant passion.
+
+He sent one bullet into Harlan's back and two more as Harlan tumbled
+forward, sinking to his knees from the shock. But Deveny's two last
+bullets went wild, tearing up the grass of the level as the gun loosened
+in his hand.
+
+For Rogers' rifle was spitting fire and smoke with venomous rapidity, and
+Deveny was sinking, his knees doubling under him, his body shuddering
+with the impact of each bullet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+PEACE--AND A SUNSET
+
+
+Red Linton had recovered--there was no doubt of that. For Linton, though
+a trifle pale, was vigorous. Vigor was in the look of him as he stood, a
+slow grin on his face, beside Barbara Morgan at the entrance of the
+_patio_ of the Rancho Seco ranchhouse.
+
+Barbara was sitting on a bench that ranged the front wall of the
+building. She was arrayed in a dress of some soft, fluffy material, in
+which she made a picture that brought a breathless longing into Linton's
+heart--a longing which made him feel strangely tender and sympathetic.
+
+But Barbara was not smiling. There was a wistfulness in her eyes that
+made Linton gulp with jealous thoughts that came to him.
+
+"He don't deserve it, the durned scalawag!"
+
+"Deserve what?" questioned Barbara.
+
+"You," muttered Linton, with an embarrassed grin. "Shucks, I wasn't
+thinkin' I was talkin' out loud. I'm sure gettin' locoed."
+
+"Who doesn't deserve me?" asked Barbara.
+
+"Harlan!" declared Linton, with a subtle glance at the girl. "He ain't in
+no ways fit to be thinkin' serious thoughts about a girl like you."
+
+"Has he been thinking serious thoughts?" Her eyes dropped from Linton's
+and the latter grinned widely.
+
+"Thinkin' them! He's been talkin' them. Talked them all the time him an'
+me was stretched out in the big room, gettin' over our scratches. That
+man is plumb locoed. I couldn't get him to talk nothin' else. When I told
+him about the governor sendin' him congratulations, an' offerin' to do
+somethin' handsome for him, he says: 'You say she ain't worryin' none
+about things? Red, do you think she'd hook up with a guy like me--that's
+got a bad reputation?'"
+
+Linton shot a side glance at Barbara and saw a flush steal into her
+cheeks. He concealed a broad grin with the palm of his hand and then
+said, gruffly:
+
+"I answers him as such a impertinent question ought to be answered. Says
+I--'Harlan, you're a damned fool!'--askin' your pardon, ma'am. A girl
+like Barbara Morgan ain't goin' to throw herself away on a no-good
+outlaw. Not none! Why, ma'am, he's an outlaw at heart as well as by
+reputation. He's clean bad--there ain't a bit of good in him. Didn't he
+go to Haydon deliberate? An' didn't he keep you in suspense about what
+was goin' on--not tellin' you anything until he had to? Shucks!"
+
+"But there was a method in that, Linton," said Barbara; "he told me he
+was afraid I'd unconsciously betray him, and then he could not have done
+what he did."
+
+Linton grinned again--again concealing the grin.
+
+"You don't mean to say that you believe the cuss done the best he could?"
+
+"I think I do, Linton."
+
+"Shucks. Women is odd that way, ain't they? You ain't tellin' me that you
+think he's on the level--that his reputation ain't as bad as some folks
+make believe it is, an' that he's _square_?"
+
+"I believe he's square, Linton!" the girl answered, firmly.
+
+Linton was silent for an instant, during which he stood on one foot,
+looking westward where the sun was swimming low above the big valley.
+
+"Ma'am," he said lowly, breaking the silence: "I'm damned if I ain't
+beginnin' to believe it, myself. There's some things that seem to prove
+it.
+
+"First, there's him takin' your part over in Lamo. Then there's him
+comin' here with you, knowin' you was alone--an' not botherin' you. Then
+he guarded you right steady, not lettin' Haydon or Deveny run in on you.
+Then he makes me foreman--which seems to prove that he's got sense. Then
+he goes up the valley an' helps your brother bust up the outlaw gang,
+riskin' his life a lot.
+
+"An' all the time he knows where your dad hid that gold. But he didn't
+touch it until he got over that scratch Deveny give him--or until he
+could take you where it was hid an' show you he hadn't touched it. Yes,
+ma'am," he added with a hyprocritical grin--which he did not permit the
+girl to see--"I'm beginnin' to believe the cuss is on the level."
+
+"Oh, he _is_, Linton!" said Barbara, in a low, earnest voice.
+
+Again there was a silence. Then----
+
+"Do you think he's a pretty good looker, ma'am?"
+
+"I think he is handsome!" Again the girl blushed.
+
+And again Linton grinned. He cleared his throat before he again spoke:
+
+"Well," he drawled; "mebbe I wouldn't go that far. Mostly I don't care
+for a handsome man, anyway. I wouldn't say he's ugly, an' I won't say
+he's handsome. I'd light on a spot about halfway between them two
+extremes. I'd say he ain't a bad looker. That would be about right."
+
+"He _is_ handsome, Linton!"
+
+"Well, likely he is--to a woman. I've heard that there's _been_ women
+which thought him a heap good lookin'."
+
+"Where, Linton?" she asked, quickly.
+
+"Why, in Pardo, ma'am. There was a biscuit shooter in a eatin'-house
+there that was sure wild about Harlan--she followed him around a heap."
+
+"He didn't have anything to do with her, Linton?" she questioned,
+stiffening.
+
+"Shucks! Not him. Women never bothered him none. He always fought shy of
+them--until now. He's changed a lot. I don't understand him no more.
+Keeps a-moonin' regular about you. I'm gettin' a heap sick of hangin'
+around him. Ain't you?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Well, that's a heap odd, ma'am. I was thinkin' you didn't like him a
+heap. Accordin' to that, I reckon you'd be right glad to see him--comin'
+home from Pardo--where's he been to have that gold assayed?"
+
+"He ought to be here before dark, Linton. And I shall be glad to see
+him."
+
+"Hopin' the gold will assay good, I reckon?"
+
+"Hoping he will come back, safe."
+
+"You don't care about the gold?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Only about him?"
+
+"Yes, Linton," she said, gently.
+
+"Well, that's odd, ma'am," drawled Linton.
+
+"What is?"
+
+"That I feel the same way about the cuss."
+
+She looked keenly at him, saw the dancing, wayward gleam in his eyes, and
+gave him a reproachful glance.
+
+"You've been pumping me, Linton," she charged.
+
+"Well," he defended; "he's my friend, ma'am; an' I was sure worried,
+thinkin' you wouldn't take him--if he offered himself."
+
+She smiled, wisely.
+
+"He did that long ago, Linton--right after he--well, the day he got up,
+after the doctor told him he could."
+
+"That he could offer himself?"
+
+"That he could get up. Linton," she said, severely; "you want to know too
+much."
+
+Linton did not answer. He took her by an arm, raised her to her feet, and
+turned her face toward the northeast--where a rider came, not more than
+two or three miles distant.
+
+Linton left her to stand there, while he made his way into one of the
+bunkhouses, where, with an appearance of unconcern that he did not feel,
+he watched the coming rider. And when he saw the rider head his horse
+straight for the gate of the patio, Linton grinned widely and sought some
+of the other men in the cook-house.
+
+The sun was between the two huge mountains at the western end of the big
+valley when Harlan dismounted at the _patio_ gate and dropped, tired and
+dusty, to the bench upon which Barbara sat. Had Linton seen what occurred
+when Harlan dismounted he would have ceased to speculate over certain
+phases of the relations between the man and the girl.
+
+Barbara did not seem to mind the dust on Harlan's sleeve, nor did she
+feel it on his shoulder where her head was nestling.
+
+For both were looking out into the big valley, where the sun was sinking
+with a splendor that reminded them of another day.
+
+"The gold isn't worth mining," said Harlan, gently. "The assayer used
+names that didn't mean anything to me, but he told me enough in plain
+talk, to prove that your dad wasted his time."
+
+"I'm satisfied," said the girl.
+
+"Me too," smiled Harlan. "There's somethin' better than gold."
+
+"It's peace--and happiness," said Barbara, gently.
+
+"An' a girl," smiled Harlan.
+
+"And a man," declared Barbara stoutly.
+
+"Well, then," he conceded, "we won't quarrel. We'll say it's both."
+
+And they sat, saying little, watching the colors of the sunset flame over
+the mighty valley--stealing over the vast, silent space that spread
+between the two mountain ranges. And the big valley smiled back at them,
+softening the sadness that dwelt in the heart of the girl, and holding
+out to both of them a promise of good to come--telling them of a mystery
+that had been solved, and of a menace removed.
+
+
+
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+<h1>The Project Gutenberg eBook, 'Drag' Harlan, by Charles Alden Seltzer,
+Illustrated by P. V. E. Ivory</h1>
+<pre>
+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 <a href = "http://www.gutenberg.org">www.gutenberg.org</a></pre>
+<p>Title: 'Drag' Harlan</p>
+<p>Author: Charles Alden Seltzer</p>
+<p>Release Date: June 13, 2008  [eBook #25779]</p>
+<p>Language: English</p>
+<p>Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1</p>
+<p>***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'DRAG' HARLAN***</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<h3 class="pg">E-text prepared by Roger Frank<br />
+    and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team<br />
+    (http://www.pgdp.net)</h3>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:2em; margin-top:0.5em; margin-bottom:0.5em;'>&#8220;DRAG&#8221; HARLAN</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<a name='linki_1' id='linki_1'></a>
+<img src='images/illus-fpc.jpg' alt='' title='' /><br />
+<span class='caption'>
+She laid her head on his shoulder, sobbing, and talking incoherently. <i>Page 65</i>
+<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:2em; margin-top:1em;'>&#8220;DRAG&#8221; HARLAN</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1em;'>BY</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>CHARLES ALDEN SELTZER</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>AUTHOR OF</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>THE BOSS OF THE LAZY Y,</p>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>&#8220;FIREBRAND&#8221; TREVISON,</p>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>THE TRAIL HORDE,</p>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>THE RANCHMAN, <span style='font-variant: small-caps'>Etc</span>.</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>FRONTISPIECE BY</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>P. V. E. IVORY</p>
+</div>
+
+<div class='figcenter'>
+<img src='images/illus-emb.png' alt='' title='' /><br />
+<span class='caption'>
+
+<br />
+</span>
+</div>
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.2em;'>GROSSET &amp; DUNLAP</p>
+<p style=' font-size:1.0em;'>PUBLISHERS&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;NEW YORK</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>Made in the United States of America</p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>Copyright</p>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>A. C. McClurg &amp; Co.</p>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>1921</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'>Published May, 1921</p>
+<div style='margin-top:1em'></div>
+<p style=' font-size:0.8em;'><i>Copyrighted in Great Britain</i></p>
+</div>
+
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:1.4em;'>CONTENTS</p>
+</div>
+
+<p style='line-height: 1'>&nbsp;</p>
+
+<table border='0' cellpadding='2' cellspacing='0' summary='Contents' style='margin:1em auto;'>
+<tr>
+  <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>CHAPTER</span></td>
+  <td></td>
+  <td align='right'><span style='font-size:small;'>PAGE</span></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>I&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Desert Rider&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#I_A_DESERT_RIDER'>1</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>II&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Man&#8217;s Reputation&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#II_A_MAN_S_REPUTATION'>9</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>III&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Girl Waits&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#III_A_GIRL_WAITS'>31</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>IV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>His Shadow Before&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IV_HIS_SHADOW_BEFORE'>38</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>V&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Prison&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#V_A_PRISON'>48</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>VI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Chain-Lightning&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VI_CHAINLIGHTNING'>58</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>VII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Single-Handed&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VII_SINGLEHANDED'>66</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>VIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Barbara Is Puzzled&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#VIII_BARBARA_IS_PUZZLED'>78</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>IX&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>An Unwelcome Guest&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#IX_AN_UNWELCOME_GUEST'>88</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>X&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>On Guard&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#X_ON_GUARD'>96</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>The Intruder&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XI_THE_INTRUDER'>107</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Barbara Sees a Light&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XII_BARBARA_SEES_A_LIGHT'>114</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Harlan Takes Charge&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIII_HARLAN_TAKES_CHARGE'>119</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XIV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Shadows&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIV_SHADOWS'>129</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Linked&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XV_LINKED'>142</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XVI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Deep Water&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVI_DEEP_WATER'>153</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XVII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Forging a Letter&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVII_FORGING_A_LETTER'>159</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XVIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Harlan Rides Alone&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XVIII_HARLAN_RIDES_ALONE'>169</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XIX&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Harlan Joins the Gang&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XIX_HARLAN_JOINS_THE_GANG'>174</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XX&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Left-Handed&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XX_LEFTHANDED'>191</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>The Black-Bearded Man&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXI_THE_BLACKBEARDED_MAN'>206</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Dead Man Walks&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXII_A_DEAD_MAN_WALKS'>219</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Deveny Secedes&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIII_DEVENY_SECEDES'>225</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXIV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Kidnapped&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIV_KIDNAPPED'>229</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXV&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Ambushed&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXV_AMBUSHED'>238</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXVI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Rogers Takes a Hand&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVI_ROGERS_TAKES_A_HAND'>242</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXVII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>A Dual Tragedy&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVII_A_DUAL_TRAGEDY'>248</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXVIII&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Converging Trails&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXVIII_CONVERGING_TRAILS'>252</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXIX&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>World&#8217;s End&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXIX_WORLD_S_END'>258</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXX&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>The Ultimate Treachery&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXX_THE_ULTIMATE_TREACHERY'>263</a></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+  <td valign='top' align='right'>XXXI&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='top' align='left'>Peace&mdash;and a Sunset&nbsp;&nbsp;</td>
+  <td valign='bottom' align='right'><a href='#XXXI_PEACE_AND_A_SUNSET'>274</a></td>
+</tr>
+</table>
+<hr class='silver' />
+
+<div><span class='pagenum'><a id='page_1' name='page_1'></a>1</span></div>
+<div class='ce'>
+<p style=' font-size:2em;'>&#8220;DRAG&#8221; HARLAN</p>
+</div>
+
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 0em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='I_A_DESERT_RIDER' id='I_A_DESERT_RIDER'></a>
+<h2>CHAPTER I</h2>
+<h3>A DESERT RIDER</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>From out of the shimmering haze that veiled the
+mystic eastern space came a big black horse bearing
+a rider. Swinging wide, to avoid the feathery dust that
+lay at the base of a huge sand dune, the black horse
+loped, making no sound, and seeming to glide forward
+without effort. Like a somber, gigantic ghost the animal
+moved, heroic of mold, embodying the spirit of
+the country, seeming to bear the sinister message of
+the desert, the whispered promise of death, the lingering
+threat, the grim mockery of life, and the conviction
+of futility.
+</p>
+<p>The black horse had come far. The glossy coat of
+him was thickly sprinkled with alkali dust, sifted upon
+him by the wind of his passage through the desert; his
+black muzzle was gray with it; ropes of it matted his
+mane, his forelock had become a gray-tinged wisp
+which he fretfully tossed; the dust had rimmed his eyes,
+causing them to loom large and wild; and as his rider
+pulled him to a halt on the western side of the sand
+dune&mdash;where both horse and rider would not be visible
+on the sky line&mdash;he drew a deep breath, shook
+his head vigorously, and blew a thin stream of dust
+from his nostrils.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_2' name='page_2'></a>2</span></p>
+<p>With head and ears erect, his eyes flaming his undying
+courage and his contempt for distance and the
+burning heat that the midday sun poured upon him, he
+gazed westward, snorting long breaths into his eager
+lungs.
+</p>
+<p>The rider sat motionless upon him&mdash;rigid and alert.
+His gaze also went into the west; and he blinked
+against the white glare of sun and distance, squinting
+his eyes and scanning the featureless waste with appraising
+glances.
+</p>
+<p>In the breathless, dead calm of the desert there was
+no sound or movement. On all sides the vast gray
+waste stretched, a yawning inferno of dead, dry sand
+overhung with a brassy, cloudless sky in which swam
+the huge ball of molten silver that for ages had ruled
+that baked and shriveled land.
+</p>
+<p>A score of miles westward&mdash;twoscore, perhaps&mdash;the
+shadowy peaks of some mountains loomed upward
+into the mystic haze, with purple bases melting into the
+horizon; southward were other mountains, equally distant
+and mysterious; northward&mdash;so far away that
+they blurred in the vision&mdash;were still other mountains.
+Intervening on all sides was the stretching, soundless,
+aching void of desolation, carrying to the rider its lurking
+threat of death, the promise of evil to come.
+</p>
+<p>The man, however, seemed unperturbed. In his
+narrowed, squinting eyes as he watched the desert was
+a gleam of comprehension, of knowledge intimate and
+sympathetic. They glowed with the serene calm of
+confidence; and far back in them lurked a glint of grim
+mockery. It was as though they visualized the threatened
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_3' name='page_3'></a>3</span>
+dangers upon which they looked, answering the
+threat with contempt.
+</p>
+<p>The man was tall. His slim waist was girded by a
+cartridge belt which was studded with leaden missiles
+for the rifle that reposed in the saddle holster, and for
+the two heavy pistols that sagged at his hips. A gray
+woolen shirt adorned his broad shoulders; a scarlet
+neckerchief at his throat which had covered his mouth
+as he rode was now drooping on his chest; and the big,
+wide-brimmed felt hat he wore was jammed far down
+over his forehead. The well-worn leather chaps that
+covered his legs could not conceal their sinewy strength,
+nor could the gauntleted leather gloves on his hands
+hide the capable size of them.
+</p>
+<p>He was a fixture of this great waste of world in
+whose center he sat. He belonged to the country; he
+was as much a part of it as the somber mountains, the
+sun-baked sand, the dead lava, and the hardy, evil-looking
+cacti growth that raised its spined and mocking
+green above the arid stretch. He symbolized the spirit
+of the country&mdash;from the slicker that bulged at the
+cantle of the saddle behind him, to the capable gloved
+hands that were now resting on the pommel of the
+saddle&mdash;he represented the force which was destined
+to conquer the waste places.
+</p>
+<p>For two days he had been fighting the desert; and
+in the serene calm of his eyes was the identical indomitability
+that had been in them when he had set forth.
+As he peered westward the strong lines around his
+mouth relaxed, his lips opened a trifle, and a mirthless
+smile wreathed them. He patted the shoulder of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_4' name='page_4'></a>4</span>
+black horse, and the dead dust ballooned from the
+animal&#8217;s coat and floated heavily downward.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re about halfway, Purgatory,&#8221; he said aloud,
+his voice coming flat and expressionless in the dead,
+vacuum-like silence. He did not cease to peer westward
+nor to throw sharp glances north and south. He
+drew off a glove and pushed his hat back, using a
+pocket handkerchief to brush the dust from his face
+and running the fingers of the hand through his hair&mdash;thereby
+producing another ballooning dust cloud which
+splayed heavily downward.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s botherin&#8217; me is that shootin&#8217;,&#8221; he went on,
+still speaking to the black horse. &#8220;We sure enough
+heard it&mdash;didn&#8217;t we?&#8221; He laughed, again patting the
+black&#8217;s shoulder. &#8220;An&#8217; you heard it first&mdash;as usual&mdash;with
+me trailin&#8217; along about half a second behind. But
+we sure heard &#8217;em, eh?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The black horse whinnied lowly, whereupon the
+rider dismounted, and stretched himself.
+</p>
+<p>From a water-bag at the cantle of the saddle he
+poured water into his big hat, watching sympathetically
+while the big horse drank. Some few drops that still
+remained in the hat after the horse had finished he
+playfully shook on the animal&#8217;s head, smiling widely
+at the whinny of delight that greeted the action. He
+merely wet his own lips from the water-bag. Then for
+an instant, after replacing the bag, he stood at the
+black&#8217;s shoulder, his face serious.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;ll hit the Kelso water-hole about sundown, I
+reckon, Purgatory,&#8221; he said. &#8220;That&#8217;s certain. There&#8217;s
+only one thing can stop us&mdash;that shootin&#8217;. If it&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_5' name='page_5'></a>5</span>
+Apaches, why, I reckon there&#8217;s a long dry spell ahead
+of us; but if it&#8217;s only Greasers&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He grinned with grim eloquence, patted the black
+again, and climbed into the saddle. Again, as before,
+he sat silent upon his mount, scanning the sun-scorched
+waste; and then he rode forward.
+</p>
+<p>An hour later, during which he loped the black horse
+slowly, he again drew the animal to a halt and gazed
+around him, frowning, his eyes gleaming with a savage
+intolerance.
+</p>
+<p>The shooting he had heard some time previous to
+his appearance at the base of the big sand dune had
+not been done by Indians. He was almost convinced
+of that now. Or, if Indians had done the shooting,
+they had not yet observed him. The fact that he had
+seen no smoke signals proved that.
+</p>
+<p>Still, there was the deep silence on every hand to
+bring doubt into his mind; and he knew that Indians&mdash;especially
+Apaches&mdash;were tricky, sometimes foregoing
+the smoke signals to lie in ambush. And very likely&mdash;if
+they had seen him coming&mdash;they were doing that
+very thing: waiting for him to ride into the trap they
+had prepared. He had not been able to locate the
+point from which the reports had come. It had seemed
+to him that they had come from a point directly westward;
+but he could not be sure, for he had seen no
+smoke.
+</p>
+<p>He talked no more to the horse, sitting rigidly in
+the saddle, erect, his head bent a little forward, his
+chin thrusting, his lips curving with a bitterly savage
+snarl. He felt the presence of living things with him
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_6' name='page_6'></a>6</span>
+in the desert; a presentiment had gripped him&mdash;a conviction
+that living men were close and hostile.
+</p>
+<p>Reaching downward, he drew the rifle from the
+saddle holster and examined its mechanism. Placing it
+across his knee, he drew out his heavy pistols, one after
+another, slowly twirling the cylinders. He replaced
+the pistols, making sure that the holster flaps were out
+of the way so that they would not catch or drag at the
+weapons when he wanted to use them&mdash;and with the
+rifle resting across his legs near the saddle horn, he
+rode slowly forward.
+</p>
+<p>He swung wide of even the small sand dunes as he
+passed them, and he kept a vigilant eye upon the dead
+rocks that dotted the level at infrequent intervals.
+Even the cactus clumps received flattering attention;
+and the little stretches of greasewood that came within
+range of his vision were examined closely.
+</p>
+<p>At the end of half an hour he had seen nothing unusual.
+Here and there he had noticed a rattler lurking
+in the shade of a rock or partly concealed under the
+thorny blade of a sprawling cactus; and he had seen a
+sage hen nestling in the hot sand. But these were fixtures&mdash;as
+was also the Mexican eagle that winged its
+slow way in mile-wide circles in the glaring, heat-pulsing
+sky.
+</p>
+<p>The rider again halted the black horse. The presentiment
+of evil had grown upon him, and he twisted
+around in the saddle, sweeping the desolate vast level
+with cold, alert, puzzled eyes.
+</p>
+<p>There was no object near him behind which an
+enemy might lie concealed; the gray floor of the desert
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_7' name='page_7'></a>7</span>
+within many hundred miles of him was smooth and flat
+and obstructionless. Far away, half a mile, perhaps,
+he saw a thrusting knob of rock, with some cactus
+fringing it. From where he sat in the saddle it seemed
+that the rock might be the peak of a mountain reaching
+upward out of the sea of sand and desert waste&mdash;but
+it was barren on sides and top, and would afford no
+concealment for an enemy, except at its base. And
+even the base was not large enough to conceal more
+than a few men.
+</p>
+<p>The rider gazed long at the rock, but could detect no
+sign of movement near it. He had turned from it, to
+look again into the western distance, when Purgatory
+whinnied lowly.
+</p>
+<p>Flashing around in the saddle, the rider again faced
+the rock. And he saw movement there now. The distance
+was great, but the clarity of the atmosphere
+brought a moving object distinctly into his vision. The
+object was a man, and, like a huge fly, he was crawling
+rapidly up the sloping side of the rock, toward its
+peak, which flattened abruptly at the summit.
+</p>
+<p>The man bore a rifle. The rider could see it dragging
+from the man&#8217;s hand; and in a flash the rider was
+out of the saddle, throwing himself flat behind a low
+ridge of sand, his own rifle coming to a rest on a small
+boulder as he trained its muzzle upon the man, who
+by this time had reached the summit of the rocks in
+the distance. The rider waited, nursing the stock of
+the rifle, his eyes blazing, while Purgatory, seemingly
+aware of an impending tragedy, moved slowly away as
+though understanding that he must not expose himself.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_8' name='page_8'></a>8</span></p>
+<p>The rider waited, anticipating the bullet that would
+presently whine toward him. And then he heard the
+report of the man&#8217;s rifle, saw that the smoke streak
+had been directed downward, as though the man on the
+summit of the rock were shooting at something below
+him.
+</p>
+<p>The rider had been pressing the trigger of his own
+weapon when he saw the smoke streak. He withheld
+his fire when he divined that the man was not shooting
+at him; and when he saw the man on the rock shoot
+again&mdash;downward once more&mdash;the rider frowned
+with embarrassment.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t even know I&#8217;m here!&#8221; he mused. &#8220;An&#8217; me
+gettin&#8217; ready to salivate him!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He got to his knees and watched, curiosity gleaming
+in his eyes. He saw the man on the rock fire again&mdash;downward&mdash;and
+he noted a smoke spurt answer the
+shot, coming upward from the base of the rock. The
+rider got to his feet and peered intently at the rock.
+And now he saw another man crouching near its base.
+This man, however, was not the one the man on the
+summit of the rock was shooting at, for smoke streaks
+were issuing from a weapon in that man&#8217;s hand also,
+but they were horizontal streaks.
+</p>
+<p>Therefore the rider divined that the two men must
+be shooting at another who was on the far side of the
+rock; and he ran to Purgatory, speaking no word until
+he had vaulted into the saddle. Then he spoke shortly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re white men, Purgatory, an&#8217; they&#8217;re havin&#8217;
+a private rukus, looks like. But we&#8217;re doin&#8217; some investigatin&#8217;
+just to see if the game&#8217;s on the level.&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='II_A_MAN_S_REPUTATION' id='II_A_MAN_S_REPUTATION'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_9' name='page_9'></a>9</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER II</h2>
+<h3>A MAN&#8217;S REPUTATION</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Purgatory moved fast, but warily. The black
+horse seemed to have caught something of his
+rider&#8217;s caution. For part of the distance toward the
+rock the animal traveled straight, loping rapidly, but
+as he neared the little stretch of broken country that
+surrounded the rock he began to sheer off, advancing
+with mincing steps, his ears erect, his eyes wide and
+alert, snorting suspiciously.
+</p>
+<p>Knowing his horse, the rider made no attempt to
+guide him; he knew Purgatory was alert to any hostile
+movement on the part of the men who were shooting,
+and that at the first sign of danger to himself or to his
+rider he would do what was required of him.
+</p>
+<p>The man on the summit of the rock was still shooting,
+though intermittently. It seemed to the rider that
+the man&#8217;s target must be elusive or concealed, for the
+shooter&#8217;s actions showed that he was irritated. The
+other man, too, was still shooting. The rider noted
+that he, too, seemed to be meeting with failure, for as
+the rider drew nearer he heard the man curse.
+</p>
+<p>Neither of the two men who were visible to the rider
+had seen him&mdash;neither of them had heard the big
+black horse gliding over the deep sand of the desert.
+The rider grinned with grim mirthlessness, edging Purgatory
+around so that the two men, their backs toward
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_10' name='page_10'></a>10</span>
+him, were not more than twenty or thirty feet away
+and entirely exposed to his view.
+</p>
+<p>So intent were they upon their work that they did
+not even hear the rider&#8217;s low laugh as he brought the
+big black horse to a halt and sat quietly in the saddle,
+a heavy pistol in each hand, watching them.
+</p>
+<p>The rock, the rider noted, was a huge granite block,
+rotted from long exposure to the elements, seamed and
+scarred and cracked. The action of the eternally moving
+sand had worn an irregular-shaped concave into its
+southern wall, so that the summit overhung the side.
+The man on the summit was lying flat on his stomach,
+leaning far over, still shooting downward. The other
+man, who was standing at the base, was flattened
+against it, facing the concave side, shooting occasionally,
+and cursing volubly.
+</p>
+<p>The rider was curious. Glancing sidelong, southward,
+he saw two horses not more than a hundred
+yards away. They were in a depression, behind a sand
+ridge, which accounted for the fact that the rider had
+not seen them before.
+</p>
+<p>Sight of the horses brought a widening grin to the
+rider&#8217;s face. He had thought, at first, that the two
+men were shooting at another man, concealed behind
+the rock; but the fact that there were only two horses
+indicated that he had been in error. No man would
+be foolhardy enough to attempt to cross the desert on
+foot, and unless a man were a friend he would not be
+carried upon another man&#8217;s horse. Therefore, it
+seemed to be evident that the target at which the men
+were shooting was not another man.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_11' name='page_11'></a>11</span></p>
+<p>And now, convinced that the men had cornered an
+animal of some kind, and that they feared it too
+greatly to face it openly, the rider laughed loudly and
+called to the men, his voice freighted with sarcasm.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Scared?&#8221; he said. &#8220;Oh, don&#8217;t be. If you&#8217;ll back
+off a little an&#8217; give him room, he&#8217;ll just naturally slope,
+an&#8217; give you a chance to get to your cayuses.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Both men wheeled almost at the same instant. The
+man at the base of the rock snarled&mdash;after the first
+gasp of astonishment, baring his teeth in hideous mirth
+and embarrassment; the other man, startled and caught
+off balance at the sound of the rider&#8217;s voice, slipped,
+tried to catch himself, failed, and tumbled awkwardly
+down, scrambling and cursing, to the sand within a few
+feet of the rider.
+</p>
+<p>Sitting in the sand at the base of the rock, the man
+who had fallen also snarled as he sat, looking at the
+rider.
+</p>
+<p>Neither of the two men moved after the involuntary
+muscular action that had resulted from their astonishment.
+The man at the base of the rock stood
+in the position in which he had found himself when
+he had wheeled.
+</p>
+<p>The pistol in his right hand was held close to his
+side, the muzzle directed at the rider.
+</p>
+<p>But a change was coming over the man&#8217;s face. The
+color was slowly going out of it, the lips were loosening
+as his jaws dropped, his body began to sag, and his
+eyes began to widen with fear, stark and naked. At
+length, the rider now watching him with a gaze in
+which there began to glow recognition and contempt,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_12' name='page_12'></a>12</span>
+the man dropped his hands to his sides and leaned
+against the rock.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan!&#8221; he muttered hoarsely.
+</p>
+<p>The rider watched, his eyes glittering coldly, his lips
+twisting in a crooked sneer. Amusement was his dominating
+emotion, but there was hate in his gaze, mingling
+with a malignant joy and triumph. The pistols
+in his hands became steady as his wrist muscles stiffened;
+and he watched the two men warily, apparently
+looking straight at the standing man, but seeing the
+sitting man also.
+</p>
+<p>And now a silence fell&mdash;a strained, premonitory
+silence that had in it a hint of imminent tragedy. The
+sitting man stiffened, divining the promise of violence;
+the standing man shrank back a little and looked downward
+at the pistol in his right hand.
+</p>
+<p>The rider saw the glance and laughed lowly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Keep her right where she is, Dolver,&#8221; he warned.
+&#8220;You lift her one little wee lift, an&#8217; I bore you plumb
+in the brain-box. Sort of flabbergasted, eh? Didn&#8217;t
+expect to run into me again so soon?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He laughed as the other cringed, his face dead
+white, his eyes fixed on the rider with a sort of dread
+fascination.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dolver, didn&#8217;t you know when you got my little
+partner, Davey Langan, that I&#8217;d be comin&#8217; for you?&#8221;
+said the rider in a slow, drawling whisper. &#8220;In the
+back you got him, not givin&#8217; him a chance. You&#8217;re
+gettin&#8217; yours now. I&#8217;m givin&#8217; you a chance to take it
+like a man&mdash;standin&#8217;, with your face to me. Lift her
+now&mdash;damn you!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_13' name='page_13'></a>13</span></p>
+<p>There was no change in his expression as he watched
+the man he had called Dolver. There came no change
+in the cold, steady gleam of his eyes as he saw the man
+stiffen and swing the muzzle of his pistol upward with
+a quick, jerky motion. But he sneered as with the
+movement he sent a bullet into the man&#8217;s chest; his
+lips curving with slight irony when Dolver&#8217;s gun went
+off, the bullet throwing up sand at Purgatory&#8217;s forehoofs.
+</p>
+<p>His eyes grew hard as he saw Dolver stagger, drop
+his pistol, and clutch at his chest; and he watched with
+seeming indifference as the man slowly sank to his
+knees and stretched out, face down, in the dust at the
+base of the rock.
+</p>
+<p>His lips were stiff with bitter rage, however, as he
+faced the other man, who had not moved.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Get up on your hind legs, you yellow coyote!&#8221; he
+commanded.
+</p>
+<p>For an instant it seemed that the other man was to
+share the fate of the first. The man seemed to think
+so, too, for he got up trembling, his hands outstretched
+along the rock, the fingers outspread and twitching
+from the paralysis of fear that had seized him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shoot your gab off quick!&#8221; commanded the rider.
+&#8220;Who are you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m Laskar,&#8221; the man muttered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where you from?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Lamo.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The rider&#8217;s eyes quickened. &#8220;Where did you meet
+up with that scum?&#8221; He indicated Dolver.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;In town.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_14' name='page_14'></a>14</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Lamo?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The man nodded.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;How long ago?&#8221; asked the rider.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8217;Bout a week.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The man&#8217;s voice was hoarse; he seemed reluctant to
+talk more, and he cast furtive, dreading glances toward
+the base of the rock where Dolver had stood before
+the rider had surprised the men.
+</p>
+<p>Watching the man narrowly, the rider noted his
+nervous glance, and his shrinking, dreading manner.
+Harlan&#8217;s eyes gleamed with suspicion, and in a flash
+he was off the black and standing before Laskar, forbidding
+and menacing.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Take off your gun-belt an&#8217; chuck it under my
+horse!&#8221; he directed sharply. &#8220;There&#8217;s somethin&#8217;
+goin&#8217; on here that ain&#8217;t been mentioned. I&#8217;m findin&#8217;
+out what it is.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He watched while the man unbuckled his cartridge
+belt and threw it&mdash;the pistol still in the holster&mdash;into
+the sand at Purgatory&#8217;s hoofs. Then he stepped to the
+man, sheathed one of his pistols, and ran the free hand
+over the other&#8217;s clothing in search of other weapons.
+Finding none, he stooped and took up Dolver&#8217;s pistol
+and rifle that had fallen from the man&#8217;s hands when he
+had tumbled off the rock, throwing them near where
+the cartridge belt had fallen.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You freeze there while I take a look around this
+rock!&#8221; he commanded, with a cold look at the man.
+</p>
+<p>Half a dozen steps took him around the base of the
+rock. He went boldly, though his muscles were tensed
+and his eyes alert for surprises. But he had not taken
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_15' name='page_15'></a>15</span>
+a dozen steps in all when he halted and stiffened, his
+lips setting into straight, hard lines.
+</p>
+<p>For, stretched out on his left side in the sand close
+to the base of the rock&mdash;under the flattened summit
+which had afforded him protection from the bullets the
+man with the rifle had been sending at him&mdash;was a
+man.
+</p>
+<p>The man was apparently about fifty, with a seamed,
+pain-lined face. His beard was stained with dust, his
+hair was gray with it; his clothing looked as though
+he had been dragged through it. He was hatless, and
+one of his boots was off. The foot had been bandaged
+with a handkerchief, and through the handkerchief
+the dark stains of a wound appeared.
+</p>
+<p>The man&#8217;s shirt was open in front; and the rider
+saw that another wound gaped in his chest, near the
+heart. The man had evidently made some attempt to
+care for that wound, too, for a piece of cloth from his
+shirt had been cut away, to permit him to get at the
+wound easily.
+</p>
+<p>The man&#8217;s left side seemed to be helpless, for the
+arm was twisted queerly, the palm of the hand turned
+limply upward; but when the rider came upon him the
+man was trying to tuck a folded paper into one of the
+cylinders of a pistol.
+</p>
+<p>He had laid the weapon in the sand, and with his
+right hand was working with the cylinder and the
+paper. When he saw the rider he sneered and ceased
+working with the pistol, looking up into the rider&#8217;s
+face, his eyes glowing with defiance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No chance for that even, eh?&#8221; he said, glancing
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_16' name='page_16'></a>16</span>
+at the paper and the pistol. &#8220;Things is goin&#8217; plumb
+wrong!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He sagged back, resting his weight on the right elbow,
+and looked steadily at the rider&mdash;the look of a
+wounded animal defying his pursuers.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Get goin&#8217;!&#8221; he jeered. &#8220;Do your damnedest! I
+heard that sneak, Dolver, yappin&#8217; to you. You&#8217;re
+&#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan&mdash;gun-fighter, outlaw, killer! I&#8217;ve
+heard of you,&#8221; he went on as he saw Harlan scowl
+and stiffen. &#8220;Your reputation has got all over. I
+reckon you&#8217;re in the game to salivate me.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan sheathed his gun.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re talkin&#8217; extravagant, mister man.&#8221; And now
+he permitted a cold smile to wreathe his lips. &#8220;If it&#8217;ll
+do you any good to know,&#8221; he added, &#8220;I&#8217;ve just put
+Dolver out of business.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I heard that, too,&#8221; declared the man, laughing bitterly.
+&#8220;I heard you tellin&#8217; Dolver. He killed your
+partner&mdash;or somethin&#8217;. That&#8217;s personal, an&#8217; I ain&#8217;t
+interested. Get goin&#8217;&mdash;the sooner the better. If
+you&#8217;d hand it to me right now, I&#8217;d be much obliged to
+you; for I&#8217;m goin&#8217; fast. This hole in my chest&mdash;which
+I got last night while I was sleepin&#8217;&mdash;will do
+the business without any help from you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>After a pause for breath, the man began to speak
+again, railing at his would-be murderers. He was
+talking ramblingly when there came a sound from the
+opposite side of the rock&mdash;a grunt, a curse, and,
+almost instantly, a shriek.
+</p>
+<p>The wounded man raised himself and threw a glance
+of startled inquiry at Harlan: &#8220;What&#8217;s that?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_17' name='page_17'></a>17</span></p>
+<p>Harlan watched the man steadily.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon that&#8217;ll be that man Laskar,&#8221; he said
+slowly. &#8220;I lifted his gun an&#8217; his rifle, an&#8217; Dolver&#8217;s
+gun, an&#8217; throwed them under Purgatory&mdash;my horse.
+Laskar has tried to get them, an&#8217; Purgatory&#8217;s raised
+some objection.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He stepped back and peered around the rock.
+Laskar was lying in the sand near the base of the
+rock, doubled up and groaning loudly, while Purgatory,
+his nostrils distended, his eyes ablaze, was standing
+over the weapons that lay in the sand, watching
+the groaning man malignantly.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan returned to the wounded man, to find that
+he had collapsed and was breathing heavily.
+</p>
+<p>For some minutes Harlan stood, looking down at
+him; then he knelt in the sand beside him and lifted
+his head. The man&#8217;s eyes were closed, and Harlan
+laid his head down again and examined the wound in
+his chest.
+</p>
+<p>He shook his head as he got up, went to Purgatory,
+and got some water, which he used to wipe away the
+dust and blood which had become matted over the
+wound. He shook his head again after bathing the
+wound. The wound meant death for the man within
+a short time. Yet Harlan forced some water into the
+half-open mouth and bathed the man&#8217;s face with it.
+</p>
+<p>For a long time after Harlan ceased to work with
+him the man lay in a stupor-like silence, limp and
+motionless, though his eyes opened occasionally, and
+by the light in them Harlan knew the man was aware
+of what he had been doing.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_18' name='page_18'></a>18</span></p>
+<p>The sun was going now; it had become a golden,
+blazing ball which was sinking over the peaks of some
+distant mountains, its fiery rays stabbing the pale azure
+of the sky with brilliantly glowing shafts that threw off
+ever-changing seas of color that blended together in
+perfect harmony.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan alternately watched the wounded man and
+Laskar.
+</p>
+<p>Laskar was still groaning, and finally Harlan
+walked to him and pushed him with a contemptuous
+foot.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Get up, you sneak!&#8221; he ordered. And Laskar,
+groaning, holding his chest&mdash;where Purgatory&#8217;s hoofs
+had struck him&mdash;staggered to his feet and looked
+with piteously pleading eyes at the big man who stood
+near him, unmoved by the spectacle of suffering he
+presented.
+</p>
+<p>And when he found that Harlan gave him no sympathy,
+he cursed horribly. This drew a cold threat
+from Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shut your rank mouth or I&#8217;ll turn Purgatory loose
+on you&mdash;again. Lookin&#8217; for sympathy, eh? How
+much sympathy did you give that hombre who&#8217;s cashin&#8217;
+in behind the rocks? None&mdash;damn you!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was the first flash of feeling Harlan had exhibited,
+and Laskar shrank from him in terror.
+</p>
+<p>But Harlan followed him, grasping him by a shoulder
+and gripping it with iron fingers, so that Laskar
+screamed with pain.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who is that man?&#8221; Harlan motioned toward the
+rock.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_19' name='page_19'></a>19</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Lane Morgan. He owns the Rancho Seco&mdash;about
+forty miles south of Lamo,&#8221; returned Laskar
+after a long look into Harlan&#8217;s eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who set you guys onto him&mdash;what you wantin&#8217;
+him for?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; whined Laskar. &#8220;Day before yesterday
+Dolver an&#8217; me meets up in Lamo, an&#8217; Dolver
+asks me to help him give Morgan his pass-out checks
+on the ride over to Pardo&mdash;which Morgan&#8217;s intendin&#8217;
+to make. I ain&#8217;t got any love for Morgan, an&#8217; so I
+took Dolver up.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a liar!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s fingers were sinking into Laskar&#8217;s shoulder
+again, and once more the man screamed with pain and
+impotent fury.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I swear&mdash;&#8221; began Laskar.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s grin was bitterly contemptuous. He placed
+the other hand on Laskar&#8217;s shoulder and forced the
+man to look into his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a liar, but I&#8217;m lettin&#8217; you off. You&#8217;re a
+sneak with Greaser blood in you. I don&#8217;t ever want to
+see you again. I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to Lamo&mdash;soon as this man
+Morgan cashes in. I&#8217;ll be there some time tomorrow.
+Lamo wouldn&#8217;t please me none if I was to find you
+there when I ride in. You slope, now&mdash;an&#8217; keep on
+hittin&#8217; the breeze until there ain&#8217;t no more of it. I&#8217;d
+blow you apart if this man Morgan was anything to
+me. But it ain&#8217;t my game unless I see you again.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He watched until Laskar, still holding his chest,
+walked to where the two horses were concealed, and
+mounted one of them. When Laskar, leaning over
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_20' name='page_20'></a>20</span>
+the pommel of the saddle, had grown dim in the haze
+that was settling over the desert, Harlan scowled and
+returned to the wounded man.
+</p>
+<p>To his astonishment, Morgan was conscious&mdash;and
+a cold calmness seemed to have come over him. His
+eyes were filled with a light that told of complete
+knowledge and resignation. He half smiled as Harlan
+knelt beside him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m about due, I reckon,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I heard you
+talkin&#8217; to the man you just let get away. It don&#8217;t
+make any difference&mdash;about <i>him</i>. I reckon he was
+just a tool, anyway. There&#8217;s someone behind this
+bigger than Dolver an&#8217; that man Laskar. He didn&#8217;t
+tell you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan shook his head negatively, watching the
+other intently.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t reckon he would,&#8221; said Morgan. &#8220;But
+there&#8217;s <i>somebody</i>.&#8221; He gazed long into Harlan&#8217;s face,
+and the latter gazed steadily back at him. He seemed
+to be searching Harlan&#8217;s face for signs of character.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan stood the probing glance well&mdash;so that at
+last Morgan smiled, saying slowly: &#8220;It&#8217;s funny&mdash;damned
+funny. About faces, I mean. Your reputation&mdash;it&#8217;s
+bad. I&#8217;ve been hearin&#8217; about you for a
+couple of years now. An&#8217; I&#8217;ve been lookin&#8217; at you an&#8217;
+tryin&#8217; to make myself say, &#8216;Yes, he&#8217;s the kind of a
+guy which would do the things they say he&#8217;s done.&#8217;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t make myself say it; I can&#8217;t even make myself
+think it. Either you&#8217;re a mighty good actor, or
+you&#8217;re the worst-judged man I ever met. Which
+is it?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_21' name='page_21'></a>21</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Mostly all of us get reputations we don&#8217;t deserve,&#8221;
+said Harlan lowly.
+</p>
+<p>Morgan&#8217;s eyes gleamed with satisfaction. &#8220;Meanin&#8217;
+that you don&#8217;t deserve yours?&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon there&#8217;s been a heap of lyin&#8217; goin&#8217; on about
+me.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>For a long time Morgan watched the other, studying
+him. The long twilight of the desert descended
+and found them&mdash;Morgan staring at Harlan; the latter
+enduring the gaze&mdash;for he knew that the end
+would not long be delayed.
+</p>
+<p>At last Morgan sighed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; he said, &#8220;I&#8217;ve got to take a chance on you.
+An&#8217;, somehow, it seems to me that I ain&#8217;t takin&#8217; much
+of a chance, either. For a man that&#8217;s supposed to be
+the hell-raisin&#8217; outlaw that folks say you are, you&#8217;ve
+got the straightest eyes I ever seen. I&#8217;ve seen killers&mdash;an&#8217;
+outlaws, an&#8217; gun-fighters, an&#8217; I never seen one
+that could look at a man like you&#8217;ve looked at me.
+Harlan,&#8221; he went on slowly, &#8220;I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to tell you
+about some gold I&#8217;ve hid&mdash;a hundred thousand
+dollars!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Keenly, suspicion lurking deep in his eyes, his mouth
+half open, seemingly ready to snap shut the instant he
+detected greed or cupidity in Harlan&#8217;s eyes, he watched
+the latter.
+</p>
+<p>It seemed that he expected Harlan to betray a lust
+for the gold he had mentioned; and he was ready to
+close his lips and to die with his secret. And when he
+saw that apparently Harlan was unmoved, that he
+betrayed, seemingly, not the slightest interest, that
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_22' name='page_22'></a>22</span>
+even his eyelids did not flicker at his words, nor his
+face change color&mdash;Morgan drew a tremulous sigh.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got me guessin&#8217;,&#8221; he confessed weakly.
+&#8220;I don&#8217;t know whether you&#8217;re a devil or a saint.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I ain&#8217;t claimin&#8217; nothin&#8217;,&#8221; said Harlan. &#8220;An&#8217; I
+ain&#8217;t carin&#8217; a damn about your gold. I&#8217;d a heap rather
+you wouldn&#8217;t mention it. More than one man has
+busted his character chasin&#8217; that rainbow.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You ain&#8217;t interested?&#8221; demanded Morgan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not none.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Morgan&#8217;s eyes glowed with an eager light. For
+now that Harlan betrayed lack of interest, Morgan
+was convinced&mdash;almost&mdash;that the man&#8217;s reputation
+for committing evil deeds had been exaggerated.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve got to be interested,&#8221; he declared, lifting
+himself on his good arm and leaning toward Harlan.
+&#8220;It ain&#8217;t the gold that is botherin&#8217; me so much, anyway&mdash;it&#8217;s
+my daughter.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s all my own fault, too,&#8221; he went on when he
+saw Harlan&#8217;s eyes quicken. &#8220;I&#8217;ve felt all along that
+somethin&#8217; was wrong, but I didn&#8217;t have sense enough
+to look into it. An&#8217; now, trustin&#8217; folks so much, an&#8217;
+not payin&#8217; strict attention to what was goin&#8217; on
+around me, I&#8217;ve got to the point where I&#8217;ve got to
+put everything into the hands of a man I never saw
+before&mdash;an outlaw.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There ain&#8217;t nobody crowdin&#8217; you to put anything
+into his hands,&#8221; sneered Harlan. &#8220;I ain&#8217;t a heap
+anxious to go around buttin&#8217; into trouble for you.
+Keep your yap shut, an&#8217; die like a man!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Morgan laughed, almost triumphantly. &#8220;I&#8217;ll do
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_23' name='page_23'></a>23</span>
+my dyin&#8217; like a man, all right&mdash;don&#8217;t be afraid of
+that. You want to hear what I&#8217;ve got to tell you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to listen. Shoot!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a gang of outlaws operatin&#8217; in the Lamo
+country. Luke Deveny is the chief. It&#8217;s generally
+known that Deveny&#8217;s the boss, but he keeps his tracks
+pretty well covered, an&#8217; Sheriff Gage ain&#8217;t been able
+to get anything on him. Likely Gage is scared of
+him, anyway.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Anyway, Gage don&#8217;t do nothin&#8217;. Deveny&#8217;s a bad
+man with a gun; there ain&#8217;t his equal in the Territory.
+He&#8217;s got a fellow that runs with him&mdash;Strom Rogers&mdash;who&#8217;s
+almost as good as he is with a gun. They&#8217;re
+holy terrors; they&#8217;ve got the cattlemen for two hundred
+miles around eatin&#8217; out of their hands. They&#8217;re
+roarin&#8217;, rippin&#8217; devils!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There ain&#8217;t no man knows how big their gang is&mdash;seems
+like half the people in the Lamo country
+must belong to it. There&#8217;s spies all around; there
+ain&#8217;t a thing done that the outlaws don&#8217;t seem to
+know of it. They drive stock off right in front of
+the eyes of the owners; they rob the banks in the
+country; they drink an&#8217; kill an&#8217; riot without anyone
+interferin&#8217;.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There ain&#8217;t anyone knows where their hang-out
+is&mdash;no one seems to know anything about them, except
+that they&#8217;re on hand when there&#8217;s any devilment
+to be done.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got to talk fast, for I ain&#8217;t got long. I&#8217;ve
+never had any trouble with Deveny or Rogers, or any
+of the rest of them, because I&#8217;ve always tended to my
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_24' name='page_24'></a>24</span>
+own business. I&#8217;ve seen the thing gettin&#8217; worse an&#8217;
+worse, though; an&#8217; I ought to have got out of there
+when I had a chance. Lately there ain&#8217;t been no
+chance. They watch me like a hawk. I can&#8217;t trust
+my men. The Rancho Seco is a mighty big place, an&#8217;
+I&#8217;ve got thirty men workin&#8217; for me. But I can&#8217;t trust
+a damned one of them.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;About a year ago I found some gold in the Cisco
+Mountains near the ranch. It was nugget gold&mdash;only
+a pocket. I packed it home, lettin&#8217; nobody see
+me doin&#8217; it; an&#8217; I got it all hid in the house, except
+the last batch, before anybody knowed anything about
+it. Then, comin&#8217; home with the last of it, the damned
+bottom had to bust out of the bag right near the corral
+gate, where Meeder Lawson, my foreman, was
+standin&#8217; watchin&#8217; me.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It turned out that he&#8217;d been watchin&#8217; me for a
+long time. I never liked the cuss, but he&#8217;s a good
+cowman, an&#8217; I had to hold onto him. When he saw
+the gold droppin&#8217; out an&#8217; hittin&#8217; the ground like big
+hailstones, he grinned that chessie-cat grin he&#8217;s got,
+an&#8217; wanted to know if I was through totin&#8217; it home.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wanted to know how he knowed there was more
+of it, an&#8217; he said he&#8217;d been keepin&#8217; an eye on me,
+an&#8217; knowed there was a heap more of it somewhere
+around.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I fired him on the spot. There&#8217;d have been gunplay,
+but I got the drop on him an&#8217; he had to slope.
+Well, the next mornin&#8217; Luke Deveny rode up to where
+I was saddlin&#8217;, an&#8217; told me I&#8217;d have to take Lawson
+back.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_25' name='page_25'></a>25</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I done so, for I knowed there&#8217;d be trouble with
+the outlaws if I didn&#8217;t. I ain&#8217;t never been able to
+get any of that gold to the assayer. They&#8217;ve been
+watchin&#8217; me like buzzards on a limb over some carrion.
+I don&#8217;t get out of their sight.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; now they&#8217;ve finally got me. I&#8217;ve got a little
+of the gold in my pocket now&mdash;here it is.&#8221; He drew
+out a small buckskin bag and passed it to Harlan,
+who took it and held it loosely in his hands, not taking
+his gaze from Morgan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Keep a-goin&#8217;,&#8221; suggested Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Interested, eh?&#8221; grinned Morgan; &#8220;I knowed
+you&#8217;d be. Well, here I am&mdash;I didn&#8217;t get to the assay
+office at Pardo; an&#8217; I&#8217;ll never get there now.&#8221; He
+paused and then went on:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now they&#8217;re after Barbara, my daughter. Deveny&mdash;an&#8217;
+Strom Rogers, an&#8217; some more&mdash;all of
+them, I reckon. I ought to have got out long ago.
+But it&#8217;s too late now, I reckon.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That damned Deveny&mdash;he&#8217;s a wolf with women.
+Handsome as hell, with ways that take with most any
+woman that meets him. An&#8217; he&#8217;s as smooth an&#8217; cold
+an&#8217; heartless as the devil himself. He ain&#8217;t got no
+pity for nobody or nothin&#8217;. An&#8217; Strom Rogers runs
+him a close second. An&#8217; there&#8217;s more of them almost
+as bad.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They watch every trail that runs from the Rancho
+Seco to&mdash;to anywhere. If I ride north there&#8217;s someone
+watchin&#8217; me. If I ride south there&#8217;s a man on
+my trail. If I go east or west I run into a man or
+two who&#8217;s takin&#8217; interest in me. When I go to Lamo,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_26' name='page_26'></a>26</span>
+there&#8217;ll be half a dozen men strike town about the
+same time.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I can&#8217;t prove they are Deveny&#8217;s men&mdash;but I
+know it, for they&#8217;re always around. An&#8217; it&#8217;s the same
+way with Barbara&mdash;she can&#8217;t go anywhere without
+Deveny, or Rogers&mdash;or some of them&mdash;ain&#8217;t trailin&#8217;
+her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;As I said, the sheriff can&#8217;t do anything&mdash;or he
+won&#8217;t. He looks worried when I meet him, an&#8217; gets
+out of my way, for fear I&#8217;ll ask him to do somethin&#8217;.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the way it stands. An&#8217; now Barbara will
+have to play it a lone hand against them. Bill Morgan&mdash;that&#8217;s
+my son&mdash;ain&#8217;t home. He&#8217;s gallivantin&#8217;
+around the country, doin&#8217; some secret work for the
+governor. Somethin&#8217; about rustlers an&#8217; outlaws. He
+ought to be home now, to protect Barbara. But instead
+he&#8217;s wastin&#8217; his time somewheres else when he
+ought to be here&mdash;in Lamo&mdash;where&#8217;s there&#8217;s plenty
+of the kind of guys he&#8217;s lookin&#8217; for.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s only one man in the country I trust. He&#8217;s
+John Haydon, of the Star ranch&mdash;about fifteen miles
+west of the Rancho Seco. Seems to me that Haydon&#8217;s
+square. He&#8217;s an upstandin&#8217; man of about thirty, an&#8217;
+he&#8217;s dead stuck on Barbara. Seems to me that if it
+wasn&#8217;t for Haydon, Deveny, or Lawson, or Rogers,
+or some of them scum would have run off with Barbara
+long ago.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You see how she shapes up?&#8221; he queried as he
+watched Harlan&#8217;s face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Looks bad for Barbara,&#8221; said Harlan slowly.
+</p>
+<p>Morgan writhed and was silent for a time.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_27' name='page_27'></a>27</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Look here, Harlan,&#8221; he finally said; &#8220;you&#8217;re considered
+to be a hell-raiser yourself, but I can see in
+your eyes that you ain&#8217;t takin&#8217; advantage of women.
+An&#8217; Harlan&#8221;&mdash;Morgan&#8217;s voice quavered&mdash;&#8220;there&#8217;s
+my little Barbara all alone to take care of herself
+with that gang of wolves around. I&#8217;m wantin&#8217; you to
+go to the Rancho Seco an&#8217; look around. My wife
+died last year. There&#8217;s mebbe two or three guys
+around the ranch would stick to Barbara, but that&#8217;s
+all. Take a look at John Haydon, an&#8217; if you think
+he&#8217;s on the level&mdash;an&#8217; you want to drift on&mdash;turn
+things over to him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Morgan shuddered, and was silent for a time, his
+lips tight-shut, his face whitening in the dusk as he
+fought the pain that racked him. When he at last
+spoke again his voice was so weak that Harlan had
+to kneel and lean close to him to hear the low-spoken
+words that issued from between his quavering lips:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan&mdash;you&#8217;re white; you&#8217;ve got to be white&mdash;to
+Barbara! That paper I was tryin&#8217; to stuff into my
+gun&mdash;when you come around the rock. You take it.
+It&#8217;ll tell you where the gold is. You&#8217;ll find my will&mdash;in
+my desk in my office&mdash;off the <i>patio</i>. Everything
+goes to Barbara. Everybody knows that. Haydon
+knows it&mdash;Deveny&#8217;s found it out. You can&#8217;t get
+me back&mdash;it&#8217;s too far. Plant me here&mdash;an&#8217; tell
+Barbara.&#8221; He laughed hollowly. &#8220;I reckon that&#8217;s
+all.&#8221; He felt for one of Harlan&#8217;s hands, found it,
+and gripped it with all his remaining strength. His
+voice was hoarse, quavering:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You won&#8217;t refuse, Harlan? You can&#8217;t refuse!
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_28' name='page_28'></a>28</span>
+Why, my little Barbara will be all alone, man! What
+a damned fool I&#8217;ve been not to look out for her!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Night had come, and Morgan could not see Harlan&#8217;s
+face. But he was conscious of the firm grip of
+Harlan&#8217;s hands, and he laughed lowly and thankfully.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll do it&mdash;for Barbara&mdash;won&#8217;t you? Say
+you will, man! Let me hear you say it&mdash;now!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m givin&#8217; you my word,&#8221; returned Harlan slowly.
+And now he leaned still closer to the dying man and
+whispered long to him.
+</p>
+<p>When he concluded Morgan fought hard to raise
+himself to a sitting posture; he strained, dragging
+himself in the sand in an effort to see Harlan&#8217;s face.
+But the black desert night had settled over them, and
+all Morgan could see of Harlan was the dim outlines
+of his head.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Say it again, man! Say it again, an&#8217; light a match
+so&#8217;s I can see you while you&#8217;re sayin&#8217; it!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>There was a pause. Then a match flared its light
+revealing Harlan&#8217;s face, set in serious lines.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t lie to you&mdash;now&mdash;Morgan,&#8221; he said;
+&#8220;I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to the Lamo country to bust up Deveny&#8217;s
+gang.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Morgan stared hard at the other while the flickering
+light lasted with a strained intensity that transfigured
+his face, suffusing it with a glow that could
+not have been more eloquent with happiness had the
+supreme Master of the universe drawn back the mysterious
+veil of life to permit him to look upon the great
+secret.
+</p>
+<p>When the match flickered and went out, and the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_29' name='page_29'></a>29</span>
+darkness of the desert reigned again, Morgan sank
+back with a tremulous, satisfied sigh.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m goin&#8217; now,&#8221; he said; &#8220;I&#8217;m goin&#8217;&mdash;knowin&#8217;
+God has been good to me.&#8221; He breathed fast, gaspingly.
+And for a moment he spoke hurriedly, as
+though fearful he would not be given time to say
+what he wanted to say:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Someone plugged me&mdash;last night while I was
+sleepin&#8217;. Shot me in the chest&mdash;here. Didn&#8217;t give
+me no chance. There was three of them. My fire had
+gone out an&#8217; I couldn&#8217;t see their faces. Likely Laskar
+an&#8217; Dolver was two. The other one must have
+sloped. It was him shot me. Tried to knife me, too;
+but I fought him, an&#8217; he broke away. It happened
+behind a rock&mdash;off to the left&mdash;a red boulder.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I grabbed at him an&#8217; caught somethin&#8217;. What it
+was busted. I couldn&#8217;t wait to find out what it was.
+I&#8217;m hopin&#8217; it&#8217;s somethin&#8217; that&#8217;ll help you to find out
+who the man was. I ain&#8217;t goin&#8217; to be mean&mdash;just
+when I&#8217;m dyin&#8217;; but if you was to look for that
+thing, find it, an&#8217; could tell who the man is, mebbe
+some day you&#8217;d find it agreeable to pay him for what
+he done to me.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He became silent; no sound except his fast, labored
+breathing broke the dead calm of the desert night.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Somethin&#8217; more than the gold an&#8217; Barbara back
+of it all,&#8221; he muttered thickly, seeming to lapse into
+a state of semiconsciousness in which the burden that
+was upon his mind took the form of involuntary
+speech: &#8220;Somethin&#8217; big back of it&mdash;somethin&#8217; they
+ain&#8217;t sayin&#8217; nothin&#8217; about. But Harlan&mdash;he&#8217;ll take
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_30' name='page_30'></a>30</span>
+care of&mdash;&#8221; He paused; then his voice leaped. &#8220;Why,
+there&#8217;s Barbara now! Why, honey, I thought&mdash;I&mdash;why&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>His voice broke, trailing off into incoherence.
+</p>
+<p>After a while Harlan rose to his feet. An hour later
+he found the red rock Morgan had spoken of&mdash;and
+with a flaming bunch of mesquite in hand he searched
+the vicinity.
+</p>
+<p>In a little depression caused by the heel of a boot
+he came upon a glittering object, which he examined in
+the light of the flaming mesquite, which he had thrown
+into the sand after picking up the glittering object.
+Kneeling beside the dying flame he discovered that the
+glittering trifle he had found was a two- or three-inch
+section of gold watch chain of peculiar pattern. He
+tucked it into a pocket of his trousers.
+</p>
+<p>Later, he mounted Purgatory and fled into the appalling
+blackness, heading westward&mdash;the big black
+horse loping easily.
+</p>
+<p>The first streaks of dawn found Purgatory drinking
+deeply from the green-streaked moisture of Kelso&#8217;s
+water-hole. And when the sun stuck a glowing rim
+over the desert&#8217;s horizon, to resume his rule over the
+baked and blighted land, the big black horse and his
+rider were traveling steadily, the only life visible in
+the wide area of desolation&mdash;a moving blot, an atom
+behind which was death and the eternal, whispered
+promise of death.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='III_A_GIRL_WAITS' id='III_A_GIRL_WAITS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_31' name='page_31'></a>31</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER III</h2>
+<h3>A GIRL WAITS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Lamo, sprawling on a sun-baked plain perhaps a
+mile from the edge of the desert, was one of
+those towns which owed its existence to the instinct of
+men to foregather. It also was indebted for its existence
+to the greed of a certain swarthy-faced saloon-keeper
+named Joel Ladron, who, anticipating the edict
+of a certain town marshal of another town that shall
+not be mentioned, had piled his effects into a prairie
+schooner&mdash;building and goods&mdash;and had taken the
+south trail&mdash;which would lead him wherever he
+wanted to stop.
+</p>
+<p>It had chanced that he had stopped at the present
+site of Lamo. Ladron saw a trail winding over the
+desert, vanishing into the eastern distance; and he
+knew that where trails led there were sure to be thirsty
+men who would be eager to look upon his wares.
+</p>
+<p>Ladron&#8217;s history is not interesting. As time fled to
+the monotonous clink of coins over the bar he set up
+in the frame shack that faced the desert trail, Ladron&#8217;s
+importance in Lamo was divided by six.
+</p>
+<p>The other dispensers had not come together; they
+had appeared as the needs of the population seemed
+to demand&mdash;and all had flourished.
+</p>
+<p>Lamo&#8217;s other buildings had appeared without ostentation.
+There were twenty of them. A dozen of the
+twenty, for one reason or another, need receive no
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_32' name='page_32'></a>32</span>
+further mention. Of the remaining few, one was occupied
+by Sheriff Gage; two others by stores; one answered
+as an office and storage-room for the stage
+company; and still another was distinguished by a
+crude sign which ran across its weather-beaten front,
+bearing the legend: &#8220;Lamo Eating-House.&#8221; The
+others were private residences.
+</p>
+<p>Lamo&#8217;s buildings made some pretense of aping
+the architecture of buildings in other towns. The eating-house
+was a two-story structure, with an outside
+stairway leading to its upper floor. It had a flat roof
+and an adobe chimney. Its second floor had been subdivided
+into lodging-rooms. Its windows were small,
+grimy.
+</p>
+<p>Not one of Lamo&#8217;s buildings knew paint. The
+structures, garish husks of squalor, befouled the calm,
+pure atmosphere, and mocked the serene majesty of
+nature.
+</p>
+<p>For, beginning at the edge of &#8220;town,&#8221; a contrast to
+the desert was presented by nature. It was a mere
+step, figuratively, from that land from which came the
+whisper of death, to a wild, virgin section where the
+hills, the green-brown ridges, the wide sweeps of plain,
+and the cool shadows of timber clumps breathed of the
+promise, the existence, of life.
+</p>
+<p>To Barbara Morgan, seated at one of the east windows
+of the Lamo Eating-House&mdash;in the second
+story, where she could look far out into the desert&mdash;the
+contrast between the vivid color westward and the
+dun and dead flatness eastward, was startling. For
+she knew her father had entered the desert on his way
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_33' name='page_33'></a>33</span>
+to Pardo, on some business he had not mentioned;
+and the whispered threat that the desert carried was
+borne to her ears as she watched.
+</p>
+<p>On a morning, two days before, Morgan had left
+the Rancho Seco for Pardo. The girl had watched
+him go with a feeling&mdash;almost a conviction&mdash;that
+she should have kept him at home. She had not mentioned
+to him that she had a presentiment of evil, for
+she assured herself that she should have outgrown
+those puerile impulses of the senses. And yet, having
+watched him depart, she passed a sleepless night, and
+early the next morning had saddled her horse to ride to
+Lamo, there to await her father&#8217;s return.
+</p>
+<p>It was late in the afternoon when she reached
+Lamo; and she had gone directly to the Eating-House,
+where she had passed another restless night&mdash;spending
+most of her time sitting at the window, where she
+was at this minute.
+</p>
+<p>Of course it was a three-day trip to Pardo, and she
+had no reason to expect Morgan to return until the end
+of the sixth day, at the very earliest. And yet some
+force sent her to the window at frequent intervals,
+where she would sit, as now, her chin resting in her
+hands, her eyes searching the vast waste land with an
+anxious light.
+</p>
+<p>An attaché of the Eating-House had put her horse
+away&mdash;where, she did not know; and her meals had
+been brought to her by a middle-aged slattern, whose
+probing, suspicion-laden glances had been full of mocking
+significance. She had heard the woman speak of
+her to other female employees of the place&mdash;and once
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_34' name='page_34'></a>34</span>
+she had overheard the woman refer to her as &#8220;that
+stuck-up Morgan heifer.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Their coarse laughter and coarser language had disgusted
+the girl, and she had avoided them all as much
+as possible.
+</p>
+<p>It was the first time she had remained overnight in
+the Eating-House lodging-rooms, though she had seen
+the building many times during her visits to Lamo. It
+wasn&#8217;t what she was accustomed to at the Rancho Seco,
+nor was it all that a lodging-house might be&mdash;but it
+provided shelter for her while she waited.
+</p>
+<p>The girl felt&mdash;as she looked&mdash;decidedly out of
+place in the shabby room. Many times during her vigil
+she had shuddered when looking at the dirty, threadbare
+ingrain carpet on the floor of the room; oftener,
+when her gaze went to the one picture that adorned
+the unpapered walls, she shrank back, her soul filled
+with repugnance.
+</p>
+<p>Art, as here represented, was a cheap lithograph in
+vivid colors, of an Indian&mdash;an Apache, judging from
+his trappings&mdash;scalping a white man. In the foreground,
+beside the man, was a woman, her hair disheveled,
+wild appeal in her eyes, gazing at the Indian,
+who was grinning at her.
+</p>
+<p>A cheap bureau, unadorned, with a broken mirror
+swinging in a rickety frame; one chair, and the bed in
+which she had tried to sleep, were the only articles of
+furniture in the room.
+</p>
+<p>The girl, arrayed in a neat riding habit; her hair
+arranged in graceful coils; her slender, lissom figure
+denoting youth and vigor; the clear, smooth skin of
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_35' name='page_35'></a>35</span>
+her face&mdash;slightly tanned&mdash;indicating health&mdash;was
+as foreign to her present surroundings as life is foreign
+to the desert. In her direct eyes was the glow of
+sturdy honesty that had instantly antagonized the slattern
+who had attended her.
+</p>
+<p>That glow was not so pronounced now&mdash;it was
+dulled by anxiety as she looked out of the window,
+watching the desert light fade as twilight came, blotting
+the hot sand from her sight, erasing the straight,
+unfeatured horizon, and creating a black void which
+pulsed with mystery.
+</p>
+<p>She sighed when at last she could no longer penetrate
+the wall of darkness; got up and moved her
+chair to one of the front windows, from where she
+could look down into Lamo&#8217;s one street.
+</p>
+<p>Lamo&#8217;s lights began to flicker; from the town&#8217;s
+buildings sounds began to issue&mdash;multisonous, carrying
+the message of ribaldry unrestrained.
+</p>
+<p>From a point not very far away came the hideous
+screeching of a fiddle, accompanied by a discordant,
+monotonous wail, as of someone singing a song unfamiliar
+to him; from across the street floated a medley
+of other noises, above which could be heard the
+jangling music of a heavily drummed piano. There
+came to her ears coarse oaths and the maudlin laughter
+of women.
+</p>
+<p>She had heard it all the night before; but tonight
+it seemed that something had been added to the volume
+of it. And as on the night before, she sat at the window,
+watching&mdash;for it was all new and strange to
+her&mdash;even if unattractive. But at last the horror of
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_36' name='page_36'></a>36</span>
+it again seized her, and she closed the window, determined
+to endure the increased heat.
+</p>
+<p>Half an hour later, lying, fully dressed, on the bed,
+she heard a voice in the hallway beyond the closed
+door of her room&mdash;a man&#8217;s voice.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It isn&#8217;t what one might call elegant,&#8221; said the voice;
+&#8220;but if it&#8217;s the best you&#8217;ve got&mdash;why, of course, it
+will have to do.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl sat straight up in bed, breathless, her face
+paling.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s Luke Deveny!&#8221; she gasped in a suffocating
+whisper.
+</p>
+<p>The man&#8217;s voice was answered by a woman&#8217;s&mdash;low,
+mirthful. The girl in the room could not distinguish
+the words. But the man spoke again&mdash;in a whisper
+which carried through the thin board partition to the
+girl:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Barbara Morgan is in there&mdash;eh?&#8221; he said and
+the girl could almost see him nodding toward her
+room.
+</p>
+<p>This time the girl heard the woman&#8217;s voice&mdash;and
+her words:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes she&#8217;s there, the stuck-up hussy!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The voice was that of the slattern.
+</p>
+<p>The man laughed jeeringly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Jealous, eh?&#8221; he said. &#8220;Well, she <i>is</i> a mighty
+good-looking girl, for a fact!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>That was all. The girl heard Deveny step into a
+room&mdash;the room adjoining hers; she could hear his
+heavy boots striking the floor as he removed them.
+</p>
+<p>For a long time the girl rested on her elbow, listening;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_37' name='page_37'></a>37</span>
+but no further sounds came from the room into
+which Deveny had gone. At last, trembling, her face
+white with fear, the girl got up and stole noiselessly
+to the door.
+</p>
+<p>A light bolt was the door&#8217;s only fastening; and the
+girl stood long, with a hand upon it, considering its
+frailty. How easy it would be for a big man like
+Deveny to force the door. One shove of his giant
+shoulder and the bolt would give.
+</p>
+<p>Stealthily, noiselessly, straining with every ounce of
+her strength, she managed to lift the cheap bureau and
+carry it to the door, placing it against the latter, barricading
+it. Not satisfied, she dragged the bed over
+against the bureau.
+</p>
+<p>Even when that had been accomplished, she was not
+satisfied and during the greater part of the night she
+sat on the edge of the bed, listening and watching the
+door. For in the days that had fled Deveny had said
+certain things to her that she had not repeated to her
+father; he had looked at her with a significance that
+no man could have understood; and there had been a
+gleam in his eyes at these times which had convinced
+her that behind the bland smoothness of him&mdash;back
+of the suave politeness of his manner&mdash;was a primitive
+animalism. His suave politeness was a velvet veil of
+character behind which he masked the slavering fangs
+of the beast he really was.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='IV_HIS_SHADOW_BEFORE' id='IV_HIS_SHADOW_BEFORE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_38' name='page_38'></a>38</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER IV</h2>
+<h3>HIS SHADOW BEFORE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>At ten o&#8217;clock the following morning, in a rear
+room of &#8220;Balleau&#8217;s First Chance&#8221; saloon&mdash;which
+was directly across the street from the Lamo
+Eating-House&mdash;Luke Deveny and two other men
+were sitting at a card-table with bottle and glasses
+between them. A window in the eastern side of the
+room gave the men an unobstructed view of the desert,
+and for half an hour, as they talked and drank, they
+looked out through the window.
+</p>
+<p>A tall, muscular man with a slightly hooked nose,
+keen blue eyes with a cold glint in them, black hair,
+and an equally black mustache which revealed a firm-lipped
+mouth with curves at the corners that hinted of
+cynicism, and, perhaps cruelty, was sitting at the table
+so that he faced the window. His smile, as he again
+glanced out of the window, roved to Deveny&mdash;who
+sat at his right.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;One man&mdash;an&#8217; a led horse,&#8221; he said shortly.
+&#8220;Looks like Laskar.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny&mdash;big, smooth-shaven&mdash;with black, glowing,
+attractive eyes that held a glint quite as hard as
+that which shone in the eyes of the speaker, looked
+long out of the window at a moving dot on the desert,
+which seemed to be traveling toward them. Deveny
+had looked before; but now he saw two dots where at
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_39' name='page_39'></a>39</span>
+other times he had seen only one. His lips held a
+slight pout as he glanced at the speaker.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re right, Rogers,&#8221; he said; &#8220;there&#8217;s only one.
+The old fool must have put up a fight.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny filled a glass from the bottle and drank
+slowly. His features were large. His nose was well
+shaped, with wide nostrils that hinted of a fiery, passionate
+nature; his thrusting chin and the heavy neck
+muscles told of strength, both mental and physical&mdash;of
+mental strength that was of a tenacious character,
+of physical strength that would respond to any demand
+of the will.
+</p>
+<p>He was handsome, and yet the suggestion of ruthlessness
+in the atmosphere of him&mdash;lurking behind the
+genial, easy-going exterior that he wore for appearances&mdash;or
+because it was his nature to conceal his
+passions until he desired to unleash them&mdash;was felt by
+those who knew him intimately. It had been felt by
+Barbara Morgan.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny was king of the lawless element in the Lamo
+section. The magnetism of him; the arrogance,
+glossed over with the calm and cold politeness of his
+manner; his unvarying immaculateness; the air of large
+and complete confidence which marked his every action;
+the swiftness with which he struck when he was
+aroused, or when his authority was questioned, placed
+him without dissent at the head of the element that
+ruled the Lamo country.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny ruled, but Deveny&#8217;s rule was irksome to
+Strom Rogers&mdash;the man to whom Deveny had just
+spoken. For while Deveny drank, Rogers watched
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_40' name='page_40'></a>40</span>
+him with covert vigilance, with a jeering gleam far
+back in his eyes, with a secret envy and jealousy, with
+hatred and contempt and mockery.
+</p>
+<p>Yet there was fear in Rogers&#8217; eyes, too&mdash;a mere
+glimmer of it. Yet it was there; and when Deveny set
+his glass down and looked straight at Rogers, it was
+that fear which brought the fawning, insincere smirk
+to Rogers&#8217; lips.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;See the girl?&#8221; questioned Rogers.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny laughed lowly. Apparently he did not notice
+the glow in Rogers&#8217; eyes; but had Rogers looked
+closely he might have seen Deveny&#8217;s lips straighten as
+he shot a glance at the other.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Had the room next to her last night. Heard her
+drag the bed in front of the door of her room. She
+knew I was there, all right!&#8221; Deveny laughed deeply.
+&#8220;She&#8217;s wised up by this time. Lolly Kaye hates her&mdash;because
+Barbara&#8217;s a good-looking girl, I suppose.
+That&#8217;s like some women. Lolly would see Barbara
+roasting in hell and not give her a hand!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Lolly&#8217;s been disappointed in love&mdash;I reckon.&#8221;
+Rogers&#8217; laugh was hollow, mirthless. And again Deveny
+shot a glance at him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But you didn&#8217;t bother her&mdash;Barbara?&#8221; questioned
+Rogers in a dry, light voice.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No,&#8221; grinned Deveny; &#8220;that time hasn&#8217;t come&mdash;yet.
+It&#8217;s coming soon. I told Lolly to keep an eye on
+her; I&#8217;ve got Engle and Barthman and Kelmer watching
+at the doors so Barbara can&#8217;t light out for the
+Rancho Seco. She don&#8217;t get away until tomorrow.
+Then she goes with me to the end of Sunset Trail.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_41' name='page_41'></a>41</span>
+I&#8217;ve sent Shorty Mallo to Willow&#8217;s Wells for the
+parson.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Barbara know what&#8217;s up?&#8221; Rogers&#8217; voice was
+low and throaty.
+</p>
+<p>Again Deveny glanced at him&mdash;sharply.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hell, no!&#8221; he snapped. &#8220;It&#8217;s none of her damned
+business&mdash;nor anybody&#8217;s!&#8221; He grinned maliciously
+when he saw Rogers&#8217; face whiten.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Barbara will need a husband now,&#8221; Deveny went
+on. &#8220;With old Morgan gone and her brother sloped
+from the home ranch, she&#8217;ll be kind of lonesome. I
+aim to cure her of that.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He laughed, and Rogers writhed inwardly. For
+Rogers had long nursed a secret hope that one day
+the fates might take a notion to give him the chance
+that Deveny intended to seize.
+</p>
+<p>But Rogers was forced to conceal his jealousy and
+disappointment. He laughed mirthlessly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So she can&#8217;t get away, eh?&mdash;she&#8217;s corralled!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bah!&#8221; declared Deveny; &#8220;she won&#8217;t want to get
+away&mdash;once she knows what I mean&mdash;that it&#8217;s going
+to be a regular wedding. She&#8217;ll raise a fuss, most
+likely, to make folks believe she&#8217;s unwilling, but in the
+end she&#8217;ll get over it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny glanced out of the window at the blot that
+was now closer.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s Laskar, all regular,&#8221; he said. &#8220;He&#8217;s leading
+a sorrel horse&mdash;Dolver&#8217;s horse. Old Morgan got
+Dolver&mdash;looks like, the damned old gopher! Men
+as willing as Dolver are not found every day.&#8221; He
+looked at the third man, who had not spoken.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_42' name='page_42'></a>42</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Lawson,&#8221; he said, &#8220;you mosey down the trail a
+little piece and meet Laskar. Bring him here!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Lawson, a thin-faced, medium-sized man with narrow
+shoulders, whose distinguishing mark was a set of
+projecting upper teeth that kept his mouth in a continual
+smirking smile, got up quickly and went out.
+Deveny and Rogers, their thoughts centered upon the
+same person&mdash;Barbara Morgan&mdash;sat silent, watching
+Lawson as he rode down the street toward the
+point where the trail, crossing the broken stretch of
+country that intervened, merged into the desert.
+</p>
+<p>Half an hour later Laskar, holding his chest, where
+Purgatory had kicked him, was sitting at the table in
+the rear room of the First Chance, cursing with a
+fluency that he had not yielded to in many years.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Dolver&#8217;s wiped out!&#8221; he gasped hoarsely;
+&#8220;plugged so quick he didn&#8217;t know he was hit. A center
+shot&mdash;plumb in the heart; his own gun goin&#8217; off
+while he was fallin&#8217;. I looked him over&mdash;after. He
+was croaked complete. Then that sober-faced hyena
+lifts my gun&mdash;an&#8217; the rifle&mdash;an&#8217; says things to me,
+which I don&#8217;t try to cross him. Then he goes behind
+the rock&mdash;where we was havin&#8217; it out&mdash;an&#8217; while he&#8217;s
+gone I tries to git my guns from under that devil-eyed
+cayuse of his&#8217;n.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; I don&#8217;t succeed&mdash;noways. That black devil
+turns on a half-dollar an&#8217; plants his hoofs plumb in my
+breast-bone. If I&#8217;d been an inch nearer, or if he&#8217;d
+have kicked me a foot lower, or a foot higher, I&#8217;d be
+layin&#8217; out there where Dolver is now, the coyotes an&#8217;
+the buzzards gnawin&#8217; at me.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_43' name='page_43'></a>43</span></p>
+<p>Unmoved by Laskar&#8217;s incoherence, Deveny calmly
+watched him. And now, when Laskar paused for
+breath, Deveny spoke slowly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A <i>black</i> horse, you said. How did a black horse
+get there? Old Morgan rode a bay when he left
+Lamo&mdash;Balleau says.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did I say Morgan rode a black horse?&#8221; queried
+Laskar, knowledge in his eyes that he had a thing to
+tell that would blanch their faces. He grinned, still
+holding his chest, his glance malicious.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did I say a <i>black</i> horse?&#8221; he repeated. &#8220;Did I
+say Morgan rode a black horse? Morgan didn&#8217;t.
+Morgan rode a bay&mdash;an&#8217; the Chief run it off after he
+shot Morgan. But Morgan didn&#8217;t die right away, an&#8217;
+the Chief he had to slope, he said&mdash;an&#8217; he did&mdash;leavin&#8217;
+me an&#8217; Dolver to finish old Morgan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We was tryin&#8217; our damnedest when this guy on the
+black horse pops up out of nowhere an&#8217; salivates Dolver.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who was it?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>This was Deveny. He was now leaning forward,
+a pout on his lips, watching Laskar with an intent,
+glowering gaze.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan!&#8221; shouted Laskar. His face
+lighted with a hideous joy as he watched the effect of
+his news.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan! Do you hear?&#8221; he went on.
+&#8220;&#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan, the Pardo &#8216;two-gun&#8217; man! He&#8217;s
+headed toward Lamo. He bored Dolver, an&#8217; he said
+that soon as Morgan cashed in he was hittin&#8217; the
+breeze for here!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_44' name='page_44'></a>44</span></p>
+<p>Lawson, the man who had gone to meet Laskar,
+ejaculated hoarsely, and stood rigid, his mouth open,
+his eyes bulging. It was the involuntary expression of
+the astonishment and fear that had seized him. Laskar
+forgot the pain in his chest long enough to
+straighten and grin at Lawson.
+</p>
+<p>Rogers&#8217; face had changed color. He, too, had become
+rigid. He had been in the act of reaching for
+the bottle on the table, and the hand that had been
+extended had been suddenly drawn back, so that the
+hand was now midway between his body and the bottle&mdash;and
+the fingers were clenched. The other hand,
+under the table, was likewise clenched, and the muscles
+of his jaws were corded. Into his eyes had come a
+furtive, restless gleam, and his face had paled.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny gave no visible sign of perturbation. He
+coolly reached out, grasped the bottle that Rogers had
+been reaching for, and poured some of the amber fluid
+into one of the glasses. The other men watched him
+silently&mdash;all of them intent to note the tremor they
+expected to see.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny&#8217;s hand did not tremble. He noted the
+glances of the men&mdash;the admiration that came into
+their eyes as with steady muscles he raised the glass
+and drank&mdash;and he smiled with slight contempt.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Coming here, eh?&#8221; he said evenly. &#8220;So he said
+that. Did he mention what he was coming for?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He didn&#8217;t mention,&#8221; replied Laskar.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So he downed Dolver. Did he say what for?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Said Dolver had shot up his partner, Davey
+Langan&mdash;back in Pardo. Harlan was evenin&#8217; up.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_45' name='page_45'></a>45</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you know about Harlan?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The question was addressed to all of them.
+</p>
+<p>Rogers answered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s a bad guy&mdash;all bad. He&#8217;s an iceberg, an&#8217;
+he&#8217;s got the snakiest gun-hand of any man in the
+country. Draws hesitatin&#8217;-like. A man don&#8217;t know
+when he&#8217;s goin&#8217; to uncork his smoke-wagons. I seen
+him put Lefty Blandin&#8217; out. He starts for his guns,
+an&#8217; then kind of stops, trickin&#8217; the other guy into goin&#8217;
+for his. Then, before the other guy can get his gun to
+workin&#8217;, Harlan&#8217;s stickin&#8217; his away, an&#8217; the guy&#8217;s ready
+for the mourners.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan got his handle that way. He goes for his
+guns so slow an&#8217; hesitatin&#8217; that he seems to drag &#8217;em
+out. But some way he&#8217;s always shootin&#8217; first. An&#8217;
+they always let him off because it&#8217;s mighty plain that
+the other guy tried to draw first.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard that,&#8221; said Deveny slowly. &#8220;What&#8217;s
+his record?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Plays her a lone hand,&#8221; returned Rogers. He
+watched the other steadily.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny toyed with a glass as he gazed out of the
+window. There was a cold, sullen gleam in his eyes
+when he finally looked at Laskar.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You said Harlan told you he was coming here as
+soon as Morgan cashed in. According to that, Morgan
+must have been hit bad.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The Chief said he bored him plenty. An&#8217; me an&#8217;
+Dolver must have got him some.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You didn&#8217;t get a chance to search Morgan?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No chance&mdash;he fit like a hyena; an&#8217; when he got
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_46' name='page_46'></a>46</span>
+behind that damned rock there was no way of gettin&#8217;
+at him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then,&#8221; said Deveny, &#8220;according to what you say,
+Harlan will come here as soon as Morgan dies. And
+when you left there Morgan was in a bad way. Harlan
+is due most any time, then.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the way I figger,&#8221; agreed Laskar.
+</p>
+<p>And now Laskar fidgeted. &#8220;I aim to be hittin&#8217; the
+breeze now&mdash;before Harlan hits town. This climate
+is gettin&#8217; unhealthy for me. Harlan give me notice.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;To leave town?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was Deveny who spoke. There was a snarl in
+his voice; he leaned forward and scowled at Laskar.
+</p>
+<p>Laskar nodded.
+</p>
+<p>Rogers cleared his throat, and Lawson moved his
+feet uneasily.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny&#8217;s scowl faded; he grinned coldly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Giving orders&mdash;is he?&#8221; he snapped. &#8220;Well,
+we&#8217;ll see.&#8221; He laughed. &#8220;When Harlan hits town
+it will be a sign that old Morgan&#8217;s crossed the Divide.
+Well, there was no witnesses to Morgan&#8217;s cashing in,
+and one man&#8217;s word is as good as another&#8217;s in this
+country.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Meanin&#8217;?&#8221; questioned Rogers, noting the light in
+Deveny&#8217;s eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Meaning that Laskar is going&mdash;right now&mdash;to
+whisper into Sheriff Gage&#8217;s ear that he saw our friend,
+&#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan, killing old Morgan.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Rogers got to his feet, grinning. The gleam in his
+eyes indicated that he felt some relief over the prospect
+presented by Deveny&#8217;s suggestion.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_47' name='page_47'></a>47</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course we ain&#8217;t sure Harlan means to make
+trouble here,&#8221; he told Deveny; &#8220;but it&#8217;s just as well to
+shove him off onto the sheriff.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The four men walked to the front door of the First
+Chance, after pausing for a few minutes at the bar.
+</p>
+<p>Outside, halting for an instant on the board platform
+in front of the saloon, Rogers, who had been the
+first to emerge, started as he glanced toward the desert,
+and then stood rigid, shading his hands with his eyes
+against the sun that poured into his face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s comin&#8217; now!&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny and the others also looked into the blinding
+glare of the sun&mdash;likewise shading their eyes.
+And they saw, far out upon the vast sea of sand&mdash;yet
+not so far that they could not distinguish objects&mdash;a
+black horse coming steadily toward them.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny was strangely silent, glowering toward the
+desert; Rogers folded his arms and faced the oncoming
+rider and the somber-coated animal he bestrode; Lawson
+scowled; and Laskar nervously estimated the distance
+that stretched between himself and the steady-eyed
+man who had told him certain things in a voice
+that had been entirely convincing.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='V_A_PRISON' id='V_A_PRISON'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_48' name='page_48'></a>48</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER V</h2>
+<h3>A PRISON</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Barbara Morgan had not been able to sleep
+except by fits and starts. A dozen times during
+the night she had caught herself on the verge of sinking
+into deep slumber, and each time she had got up
+and washed her eyes with some water from a pitcher
+on the bureau, determined that she would not take
+any chances of permitting Deveny to surprise her.
+</p>
+<p>When the dawn came she was haggard and tired;
+and she got up listlessly, combed her hair, and washed
+her face, and dragged away the pieces of furniture that
+had formed the barricade at the door.
+</p>
+<p>She felt more secure with the dawn, and when the
+sunlight began to stream into the east windows she
+opened the door of the room, descended the stairs, and
+took a short walk to the edge of town.
+</p>
+<p>Returning, she saw a man arrayed in overalls, boots,
+a blue woolen shirt, and broad felt hat, standing in
+the doorway of the stable that, she felt, belonged to
+the Eating-House. Sight of the stable brought to her
+thoughts of her horse&mdash;Billy&mdash;and she decided to
+determine if the man who had taken charge of him had
+put him into the stable.
+</p>
+<p>She paused before the door, directly in front of the
+man, who did not move aside to permit her to enter.
+</p>
+<p>She thought at first that he was not aware of her
+desire&mdash;until she observed an amused light in his eyes;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_49' name='page_49'></a>49</span>
+and then she knew that he was purposely barring her
+way.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is the Eating-House stable, I suppose?&#8221; she
+inquired quietly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re supposin&#8217; is a heap correct, ma&#8217;am,&#8221;
+grinned the man.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; she said, &#8220;if you will kindly step aside I
+shall see if my horse is all right.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your horse is all right, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; returned the man.
+&#8220;I&#8217;ve just fed him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Irritated by his attitude, she spoke sharply:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Step aside, please; I am going into the stable!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The man grinned widely. &#8220;It&#8217;s ag&#8217;in&#8217; orders,
+ma&#8217;am; you&#8217;ll have to stay out.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Whose orders?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Deveny&#8217;s. You ain&#8217;t to go into the stable.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She hesitated, afflicted with a queer sensation of
+weakness and indecision.
+</p>
+<p>It was her fear of Deveny, she supposed, that made
+her feel that way, together with the conviction that
+Deveny must have known that she had been in the
+room next to the one he had taken, even before he had
+ascended the stairs. It seemed to her that this deliberate
+interference with her must be inspired by evil
+intentions, and for an instant panic overtook her.
+</p>
+<p>Then, yielding to the flash of anger that surged over
+her, she drew the small revolver she always carried
+with her on her rides, and presented it. She stepped
+back a little, so that the man might not strike the
+weapon from her hand, and spoke shortly, commandingly
+to him.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_50' name='page_50'></a>50</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Get away from that door!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shootin&#8217;, ma&#8217;am?&#8221; he drawled. &#8220;Oh, don&#8217;t!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He grinned at her and calmly began to roll a cigarette,
+at which action she gulped with dismay, wheeled
+swiftly, and walked to the stairs. She went up proudly
+enough, her head held high, for she divined that the
+man would be watching her. But when she entered
+her room her pride forsook her, and she sank into a
+chair by the east window, dismayed and frightened.
+</p>
+<p>While she sat there the slatternly woman slowly
+opened the door and stuck her head in. She grinned
+widely at Barbara.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Goin&#8217; ridin&#8217; this mawnin&#8217;, deary?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Barbara looked at her, saw the mockery in the
+jealous eyes, and turned her head again, making no
+reply.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Too stuck up to talk, eh?&#8221; jibed the slattern.
+&#8220;Well, before you get out of here you&#8217;ll be tickled
+enough to shoot off your gab. Bah! You an&#8217; your
+airs! If you want any grub this mawnin&#8217; you&#8217;ll come
+down an&#8217; grab it yourself, I&#8217;m tellin&#8217; you that.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She slammed the door, her jeering laugh penetrating
+the partition with hideous resonance.
+</p>
+<p>After the woman had gone Barbara got up, her lips
+set in resolute lines.
+</p>
+<p>Once in the hall she started to walk toward the
+stairs, when she saw the cowboy of the stable lounging
+against the rail on the platform. He saw her at the
+instant she looked at him, and he grinned hugely.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon you&#8217;ve noticed I&#8217;ve sort of shifted,&#8221; he
+said. &#8220;I keep goin&#8217; up&mdash;gettin&#8217; higher in the world.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_51' name='page_51'></a>51</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;What are you doing here?&#8221; she demanded.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Just loafin&#8217;, I reckon,&#8221; grinned the other. &#8220;An&#8217;
+obeyin&#8217; orders,&#8221; he added instantly. &#8220;Much as I hate
+to disconvenience a lady, I ain&#8217;t takin&#8217; no chances on
+rilin&#8217; Deveny.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean that Deveny placed you here to
+watch me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He didn&#8217;t issue no particular orders as to where
+I was to do my standin&#8217;. But he was sure earnest about
+sayin&#8217; that you wasn&#8217;t to leave your room.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I left it once this morning.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;My fault,&#8221; he grinned. &#8220;I was sneakin&#8217; a drink
+in the Antler, an&#8217; you slipped me. I&#8217;m bettin&#8217; it don&#8217;t
+happen ag&#8217;in!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Overcome with a cold terror that suddenly seized
+her, Barbara wheeled and re-entered her room, standing
+for an instant at the door as she locked it, and
+then walking to the chair and sinking nervelessly into
+it.
+</p>
+<p>Somehow, she sensed the futility of further effort at
+escape. She was aware of Deveny&#8217;s power in the
+country; she knew that he ruled Lamo as he ruled
+every foot of land in the section; and she was convinced
+that it would be wasted effort to call for help.
+Even her own sex&mdash;represented by the slattern, and
+most of the women in Lamo were of that type, in
+character&mdash;seemed to be antagonistic toward her. It
+seemed to her that they would mock her as the slattern
+had mocked her, should she appeal to them.
+</p>
+<p>And as for the men of Lamo, they were not to be
+considered. She was certain she could not induce one
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_52' name='page_52'></a>52</span>
+of them to act contrary to Deveny&#8217;s wishes. For her
+father had told her about Lamo&#8217;s men&mdash;how they
+were slaves to the will of the man whose deeds of
+outlawry had made him feared wherever men congregated;
+and she knew Lamo itself was a sink-hole of
+iniquity where women were swallowed by the evil
+passions of men.
+</p>
+<p>She might have appealed to Gage, the sheriff, and
+she thought of Gage while she sat at the window. But
+Gage, her father had told her, with disgust in his eyes,
+was a man of colorless personality and of little courage&mdash;a
+negligible character upon whom the good people
+of the section, who were pitifully few, could not depend.
+Her father had told her that it was his opinion
+that Gage, too, was a slave to Deveny&#8217;s will.
+</p>
+<p>She wished now that she had not yielded to the
+impulse which had brought her to Lamo; but her lips
+grew firm and her eyes defiant as she at last got up and
+walked to one of the front windows.
+</p>
+<p>Now, more vividly than ever, could she understand
+the significance of Deveny&#8217;s glances at her in the past;
+the light in his eyes had been an expression of premeditated
+evil, awaiting an opportunity.
+</p>
+<p>She was pale, and her hands were trembling as she
+placed them on the sill of the front window and
+glanced down into the street, hoping that she might
+see a friendly face; praying that one of the Rancho
+Seco men might have come to town during the night.
+</p>
+<p>But she saw no one she knew. Indeed, except for a
+pony standing in front of a saloon down the street a
+little distance, and several others hitched to a rail
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_53' name='page_53'></a>53</span>
+across the street, in front of the First Chance saloon,
+Lamo seemed to be deserted. And a silence, deep and
+portentous of evil, seemed to have settled over the
+town.
+</p>
+<p>But as she leaned upon the sill a sound floated to her
+through the open window&mdash;a man&#8217;s voice, so close to
+her that it made her start and stiffen. It was Deveny&#8217;s
+voice, and it seemed to come from a point in the street
+directly beneath the window.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did you find Gage?&#8221; it said.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara leaned forward a little and looked downward.
+Below her, on the narrow board-walk that ran
+in front of the Eating-House, were four men. She
+recognized three of them&mdash;Deveny, Strom Rogers,
+and Meeder Lawson, the Rancho Seco foreman.
+</p>
+<p>The other man was a stranger. Evidently it was
+the stranger to whom Deveny had spoken, for it was
+the stranger who answered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s in his office now.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny turned to Lawson and Rogers. &#8220;You two
+wait here, Laskar and myself will do the talking to
+Gage.&#8221; He started away with the man who had answered
+him; then called back over his shoulder:
+&#8220;Hang around; if there&#8217;s trouble, you&#8217;ll want to get
+in on it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny and Laskar walked down the street; the girl
+saw them enter the building occupied by the sheriff.
+</p>
+<p>Wondering, intensely curious&mdash;for that word
+&#8220;trouble&#8221; meant shooting in the vocabulary of men of
+the Deveny type&mdash;Barbara drew back until she was
+certain the men in the street could not see her.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_54' name='page_54'></a>54</span></p>
+<p>When Deveny and Laskar disappeared, Strom
+Rogers laughed sneeringly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Deveny&#8217;s scared of &#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan, I reckon. It&#8217;s
+a cheap frame-up.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Aw, hell,&#8221; jibed the other; &#8220;you&#8217;re jealous, that&#8217;s
+all. You&#8217;d like to see Harlan plug Deveny, eh; so&#8217;s
+you&#8217;d have a chance with Barbara Morgan. I&#8217;d be a
+heap careful, if I was you, Rogers. Deveny knows
+you took a shine to Barbara Morgan. I seen him
+lookin&#8217; hostile at you when you was quizzin&#8217; him in
+Balleau&#8217;s. He&#8217;s next.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is a free country,&#8221; returned Rogers. The
+girl caught the malignant note in his voice, and she
+leaned outward a little, trying to see his face, while she
+shivered with dread.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; laughed Lawson; &#8220;a man can cash in without
+any excuse, usual; all he&#8217;s got to do is to cross
+Deveny. You&#8217;re a damned fool, Strom, to go to takin&#8217;
+a shine to Barbara Morgan, when Deveny wants her.
+He&#8217;s been waitin&#8217; for her, an&#8217; meanin&#8217; to have her, all
+along. He&#8217;s only been waitin&#8217; until ol&#8217; Morgan cashed
+in, so&#8217;s he&#8217;d have a chance to take her. Now that
+Morgan&#8217;s dead his chance has come.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Silently, her face dead white, her eyes closed, Barbara
+slipped backward and crumpled into a heap on
+the dirty carpet of the room.
+</p>
+<p>When she again opened her eyes it was to look
+wildly at the open window through which the terrible
+news had come. Then she dragged herself to it, and
+making no sound leaned her arms on the sill and listened
+again, her heart seeming to be in the clutch of
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_55' name='page_55'></a>55</span>
+icy fingers, her brain atrophied, reeling in a chaos of
+incoherent, agonized impulses.
+</p>
+<p>She did not know how long she had been unconscious.
+She saw that Rogers and Lawson were still
+below, and still talking. So keen was her sense of
+hearing&mdash;every nerve straining in the effort to learn
+more&mdash;that the voices of the men came in through
+the window with a resonance that, she felt, must be
+audible to every person in Lamo.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It ain&#8217;t my style, that&#8217;s all. I&#8217;d meet Harlan on
+the level, man to man, if he was lookin&#8217; for me. It&#8217;s
+likely he ain&#8217;t at that. I&#8217;ve heard, bad as he is, that
+he plays square. An&#8217; if I was runnin&#8217; things I&#8217;d take
+a look at him before chargin&#8217; him with killin&#8217; Lane
+Morgan, when the killin&#8217; had been done by the Chief,
+an&#8217; Dolver, an&#8217; Laskar.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was Strom Rogers&#8217; voice. It bore conviction
+with it, even though there was passionate feeling
+behind it, mingled strangely with personal hatred and
+jealousy.
+</p>
+<p>Dumbly, Barbara clutched the window-sill. One
+dry, agonized sob racked her; and then she sat on
+the floor, to stare vacantly at the dingy walls of the
+room.
+</p>
+<p>Once more she heard Rogers&#8217; voice; this time there
+was a note of savage glee in it:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s Harlan now, just slippin&#8217; off his cayuse in
+front of Gage&#8217;s place. &#8216;Drag,&#8217; eh? Well, there don&#8217;t
+seem to be nothin&#8217; impedin&#8217; his actions anywhere.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Prompted by the urge of a curiosity that she could
+not resist, Barbara reeled to her feet, and with her
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_56' name='page_56'></a>56</span>
+hands resting on the window-sill leaned out and looked
+up the street.
+</p>
+<p>In front of the sheriff&#8217;s office, not more than thirty
+or forty feet distant, she saw a tall, well-built man
+standing beside the hitching rail that fringed the board
+sidewalk. He had evidently just dismounted, and he
+was standing at the head of a big, coal-black horse.
+He was in the act of hitching the animal, and his back
+was toward her.
+</p>
+<p>She watched breathlessly until he turned. And then
+she stared hard at him, noting the steady, cold, alert
+eyes; the firm lips; the bigness of him, the atmosphere
+of capableness that seemed to surround him; the low-swung
+guns at his hips, with no flaps on the holster-tops,
+and the bottoms of the holsters tied to his leather
+chaps with rawhide thongs.
+</p>
+<p>Never had she seen a man like him. For some
+reason, as yet inexplicable to her, he brought into her
+troubled consciousness a feeling of cold calm, a refreshing
+influence that might be compared to the sweep
+of a cool and unexpected breeze in the middle of a
+hot day.
+</p>
+<p>He dominated the group of men that instantly surrounded
+him; and the dominance was not of attire, for
+he was arrayed like the others. She saw Deveny
+standing near him, and the man Laskar behind Deveny
+and Sheriff Gage and several other men. And
+she saw Rogers and Lawson as they walked slowly
+toward him.
+</p>
+<p>And then a realization of her loss, of the tragedy
+that had descended upon her, again assailed her; and a
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_57' name='page_57'></a>57</span>
+fury of intolerance against inaction seized her. She
+could not stay in this room and suffer the hideous uncertainty;
+she could not take Rogers&#8217; word that her
+father had been killed. There must be some mistake.
+Perhaps Rogers knew she was at the window, listening,
+and he had said that just to spite her. For she had discouraged
+Rogers&#8217; advances as she had discouraged
+Deveny&#8217;s.
+</p>
+<p>Breathing fast, she unlocked the door and went out
+into the hall.
+</p>
+<p>The man whom Deveny had placed to guard her
+was still lounging on the stair platform, and he grinned
+when he saw her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Comin&#8217; to try ag&#8217;in?&#8221; he grinned.
+</p>
+<p>She smiled&mdash;a disarming smile that brought a fatuous
+gleam into the man&#8217;s eyes, so that he permitted
+her to come close to him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Deveny&#8217;s got damn&#8217; good judgment,&#8221; he said as
+she halted near him. &#8220;He knows a thoroughbred
+when he sees&mdash;Hell!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The ejaculation came from his lips as Barbara
+leaped swiftly past him. He threw out a futile arm,
+and stood for an instant, shocked into inaction as
+Barbara ran down the stairs toward the street. Then
+the man leaped after her, cursing. She could hear him
+saying: &#8220;Damn your hide! Damn your hide!&#8221; as
+he came after her, his spurs jangling on the steps.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VI_CHAINLIGHTNING' id='VI_CHAINLIGHTNING'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_58' name='page_58'></a>58</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VI</h2>
+<h3>CHAIN-LIGHTNING</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Turning from Purgatory, after he had dismounted
+in front of the sheriff&#8217;s office, Harlan
+faced three men who stood just outside of the building,
+watching him.
+</p>
+<p>The slightly humorous smile that curved Harlan&#8217;s
+lips might have betrayed his reason for dismounting
+in front of the sheriff&#8217;s office, for he had seen Laskar
+standing with the two other men. But no man could
+have told that he looked at Laskar directly, except
+Laskar himself, who would have sworn that Harlan
+did not remove his gaze from him, once he had slipped
+from Purgatory&#8217;s back.
+</p>
+<p>For Harlan&#8217;s eyes told nothing. They seemed to be
+gazing at nothing, and at everything. For Gage,
+watching the man, was certain Harlan was looking
+directly at him as he grinned, and Deveny, like Laskar,
+was sure Harlan&#8217;s gaze was upon him. And all
+of them, noting one another&#8217;s embarrassment, stood
+silent, marveling.
+</p>
+<p>And now Deveny discovered that Harlan was
+watching the three of them together&mdash;a trick which
+is accomplished by fixing the gaze upon some object
+straight in front of one; in this case it was Deveny&#8217;s
+collar&mdash;and then including other objects on each side
+of the center object.
+</p>
+<p>Steady nerves and an inflexible will are required to
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_59' name='page_59'></a>59</span>
+keep the gaze unwavering, and a complete absence of
+self-consciousness. Thus Deveny knew he was standing
+in the presence of a man whose poise and self-control
+were marvelous; and he knew, too, that Harlan
+would be aware of the slightest move made by either
+of the three; more, he could detect any sign of concerted
+action.
+</p>
+<p>And concerted action was what Deveny and Laskar
+and the sheriff had planned. And they had purposely
+dragged Laskar outside, expecting Harlan would do
+just as he had done, and as his eyes warned he intended
+to do.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m after you, Laskar,&#8221; he said softly.
+</p>
+<p>Laskar stiffened. He made no move, keeping his
+hands at his sides, where they had been all the time
+that had elapsed since Harlan had dismounted.
+</p>
+<p>Laskar&#8217;s eyes moved quickly, with an inquiring flash
+in them, toward Deveny and the sheriff. It was time
+for Deveny and the sheriff to precipitate the action
+they had agreed upon.
+</p>
+<p>But the sheriff did not move. Nor did Deveny
+change his position. A queer, cold chill had come over
+Deveny&mdash;a vague dread, a dragging reluctance&mdash;an
+indecision that startled him and made of his thoughts
+an odd jumble of half-formed impulses that seemed to
+die before they could become definite.
+</p>
+<p>He had faced gun-fighters before, and had felt no
+fear of them. But something kept drumming into his
+ears at this instant with irritating insistence that this
+was not an ordinary man; that standing before him,
+within three paces, his eyes swimming in an unfixed
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_60' name='page_60'></a>60</span>
+vacuity which indicated preparation for violent action,
+was Harlan&mdash;&#8220;Drag&#8221; Harlan, the Pardo two-gun
+man; Harlan, who had never been beaten in a gunfight.
+</p>
+<p>Could he&mdash;Deveny&mdash;beat him? Could he, now,
+with &#8220;Drag&#8221; Harlan watching the three of them,
+could he draw with any hope of success, with the hope
+of beating the other&#8217;s lightning hand on the downward
+flash to life or death?
+</p>
+<p>Deveny paled; he was afraid to take the chance.
+His eyes wavered from Harlan&#8217;s; he cast a furtive
+glance at the sheriff.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan caught the glance, smiled mirthlessly and
+spoke shortly to Laskar:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I told you to keep hittin&#8217; the breeze till there
+wasn&#8217;t any more breeze,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I ought to have
+bored you out there by the red rock. I gave you your
+chance. Flash your gun!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>This was Gage. His voice sounded as though it
+had been forced out: it was hoarse and hollow.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan did not move, nor did his eyes waver. There
+was feeling in them now: intense, savage, cold. And
+his voice snapped.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re the sheriff, eh? You want to gas, I reckon.
+Do it quick before this coyote goes for his gun.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The sheriff cleared his throat. &#8220;You&#8217;re under arrest,
+Harlan, for killin&#8217; Lane Morgan out there in the
+desert yesterday.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s eyes narrowed, his lips wreathed into a
+feline smile. But he did not change his position.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_61' name='page_61'></a>61</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Who&#8217;s the witness against me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Laskar.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Has he testified?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s goin&#8217; to.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan backed away a little. His grin was tiger-like,
+a yellow flame seemed to leap in his eyes. Laskar,
+realizing at last that he could hope for no assistance
+from Gage or Deveny, grew rigid with desperation.
+</p>
+<p>Death was in front of him; he knew it. Death or a
+deathless fame. The fates had willed one or the other,
+and he chose to take the gambler&#8217;s chance, the chance
+he and Dolver and the Chief had refused Lane Morgan.
+</p>
+<p>Deathless fame, the respect and the admiration of
+every man in the section was his if he beat &#8220;Drag&#8221;
+Harlan to the draw. Forever afterward, if he beat
+Harlan, he would be pointed at as the man who had
+met the Pardo gunman on even terms and had downed
+him.
+</p>
+<p>He stepped out a little, away from the front of the
+building, edging off from Deveny and Gage so that
+Harlan would have to watch in two directions.
+</p>
+<p>Lawson and Rogers, having advanced to a position
+within a dozen paces of the group in front of the
+sheriff&#8217;s office, now backed away, silent, watchful.
+Other men who had been standing near were on the
+move instantly. Some dove into convenient doorways,
+others withdrew to a little distance down the street.
+But all intently watched as Laskar showed by his actions
+that he intended to accept his chance.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_62' name='page_62'></a>62</span></p>
+<p>Deveny, too, watched intently. He kept his gaze
+fixed upon Harlan, not even glancing toward Laskar.
+For Deveny&#8217;s fear had gone, now that the dread presence
+had centered its attention elsewhere, and he was
+determined to discover the secret of Harlan&#8217;s hesitating
+&#8220;draw,&#8221; the curious movement that had given the
+man his sobriquet, &#8220;Drag.&#8221; The discovery of that
+secret might mean much to him in the future; it might
+even mean life to him if Harlan decided to remain in
+the section.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had made no hostile movement as yet. He
+still stood where he had stood all along, except for the
+slight backward step he had taken before Laskar began
+to move. But he watched Laskar as the latter edged
+away from the other men, and when he saw Laskar&#8217;s
+eyes widen with the thought that precedes action, with
+the gleam that reflects the command the brain transmutes
+to the muscles, his right hand flashed downward
+toward the hip.
+</p>
+<p>With a grunt, for Harlan had almost anticipated his
+thoughts, Laskar&#8217;s right hand swept toward the butt
+of his pistol.
+</p>
+<p>But Harlan&#8217;s hand had come to a poise, just above
+the stock of his weapon&mdash;a pause so infinitesimal that
+it was merely a suggestion of a pause.
+</p>
+<p>It was enough, however, to throw Laskar off his
+mental balance, and as he drew his weapon he glanced
+at Harlan&#8217;s holster.
+</p>
+<p>A dozen men who watched swore afterward that
+Laskar drew his gun first; that it was in his hand
+when Harlan&#8217;s bullet struck him. But Deveny knew
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_63' name='page_63'></a>63</span>
+better; he knew that Laskar was dead on his feet before
+the muzzle of his weapon had cleared the holster,
+and that the shot he had fired had been the result of
+involuntary muscular action; that he had pulled the
+trigger after Harlan&#8217;s bullet struck him, and while his
+gun had been loosening in his hand.
+</p>
+<p>For Deveny had seen the bullet from Laskar&#8217;s gun
+throw up sand at Harlan&#8217;s feet after Harlan&#8217;s weapon
+had sent its death to meet Laskar. And Deveny had
+discovered the secret of Harlan&#8217;s &#8220;draw.&#8221; The pause
+was a trick, of course, to disconcert an adversary.
+But the lightning flash of Harlan&#8217;s hand to his gun-butt
+was no trick. It was sheer rapidity, his hand moving
+so fast that the eye could not follow.
+</p>
+<p>And Deveny could get no pleasure from his discovery.
+Harlan had waited until Laskar&#8217;s fingers were
+wrapped around the stock of his pistol before he had
+drawn his own, and therefore in the minds of those
+who had witnessed the shooting, Harlan had been
+justified.
+</p>
+<p>Sheriff Gage thought so, too. For, after Laskar&#8217;s
+body had been carried away, Harlan stepped to where
+the sheriff stood and spoke shortly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You wantin&#8217; me for this?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Sheriff Gage shook his head. &#8220;I reckon everybody
+saw Laskar go for his gun. There was no <i>call</i> for him
+to go for his gun. If you&#8217;d have shot him without him
+reachin&#8217; for it things would have been different.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan said coldly, &#8220;I&#8217;m ready for that trial, now.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The sheriff&#8217;s eyes glowed with some secret significance
+as they met Harlan&#8217;s. He was standing at a
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_64' name='page_64'></a>64</span>
+little distance from Deveny, and he deliberately closed
+an eye at Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Trial&mdash;hell!&#8221; he declared, &#8220;you&#8217;ve destroyed the
+evidence.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan wheeled, to see Deveny standing near. And
+for an instant as their eyes met&mdash;Harlan&#8217;s level and
+cold, Deveny&#8217;s aflame with a hostility unmistakable&mdash;the
+crowd which had witnessed the shooting of Laskar
+again became motionless, while a silence, portending
+further violence, descended over the street.
+</p>
+<p>Then Deveny abruptly wheeled and began to walk
+across to the First Chance.
+</p>
+<p>He had not taken many steps, however, when there
+were sounds of commotion farther down the street
+toward the Eating-House&mdash;a man cursing and a girl
+screaming.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny halted and faced the point from which the
+sounds came, and a scowl appeared on his face.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan wheeled, also. And he saw, at a little distance
+down the street, a girl running, her hair tossing
+in a mass around her, her eyes wild with fright and
+terror. Behind her came a man, cursing as he ran.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan heard Sheriff Gage curse, too&mdash;heard him
+say:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s Lane Morgan&#8217;s daughter&mdash;Barbara!
+What in hell is she doin&#8217; here?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl, not more than a dozen feet ahead of her
+pursuer, ran straight toward Harlan. And when&mdash;as
+she drew closer and he saw that she was, indeed,
+actually coming toward him&mdash;her eyes on him as
+though she had singled him out as a protector&mdash;he
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_65' name='page_65'></a>65</span>
+advanced toward her, drawing one of his guns as he
+went.
+</p>
+<p>And, grinning as she neared him, he opened his
+arms wide and she ran straight into them, and laid
+her head on his shoulder, sobbing, and talking incoherently.
+While Harlan, his grin fading as he
+looked at her pursuer&mdash;who had halted within half a
+dozen paces of the girl&mdash;commanded lowly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re runnin&#8217; plumb into a heap of trouble, mister
+man. Throw your rope around the snubbin&#8217; post.
+Then get on your hind legs an&#8217; do some explainin&#8217;.
+What you chasin&#8217; this girl for?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The man reddened, looked downward, then up at
+Deveny. The latter, a pout on his lips, his eyes glowing
+savagely, walked to where Harlan stood with one
+arm around the girl, while Lawson, Rogers, Gage, and
+several other men advanced slowly and stood near
+him.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VII_SINGLEHANDED' id='VII_SINGLEHANDED'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_66' name='page_66'></a>66</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VII</h2>
+<h3>SINGLE-HANDED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Noting the concerted movement toward him,
+Harlan grinned at Barbara, gently disengaged
+himself from her grasp, and urged her toward the
+door of the sheriff&#8217;s office. She made no objection,
+for she felt that further trouble impended, and she
+knew she must not impede any action her rescuer
+planned.
+</p>
+<p>Reaching the street a few minutes before, she had
+noted the preparations for the swift tragedy that had
+followed; and despite her wild desire to escape Deveny&#8217;s
+man, she had halted, fascinated by the spectacle
+presented by the two men, gambling with death.
+</p>
+<p>She had halted at a little distance, crouching against
+the front of a building. And while she had been
+crouching there, trembling with a new apprehension,
+her pursuer had caught her.
+</p>
+<p>She had hardly been aware of him, and his grasp on
+her arm she had not resisted, so intense was her interest
+in what was transpiring. But the sudden ending of
+the affair brought again into her consciousness the
+recollection of her own peril, and when she saw Deveny
+cross the street she broke from the man&#8217;s restraining
+grasp and ran to Harlan, convinced that he&mdash;because
+he seemed to be antagonistic toward the forces
+arrayed against her&mdash;would protect her.
+</p>
+<p>And now, shrinking into the open doorway of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_67' name='page_67'></a>67</span>
+sheriff&#8217;s office, she watched breathlessly, with straining
+senses, the moving figures in the drama.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had backed a little way toward the doorway
+in which Barbara stood. The movement was
+strategic, and had been accomplished with deliberation.
+He was facing Lamo&#8217;s population&mdash;at least
+that proportion of it which was at home&mdash;with the
+comforting assurance that no part of it could get behind
+him.
+</p>
+<p>The gun he had drawn upon the approach of Barbara&#8217;s
+pursuer was still in his right hand. It menaced
+no one, and yet it seemed to menace everyone within
+range of it.
+</p>
+<p>For though the gun was held loosely in Harlan&#8217;s
+hand, the muzzle downward, there was a glow in the
+man&#8217;s eyes that conveyed a warning.
+</p>
+<p>The smile on his face, too, was pregnant with the
+promise of violence. It was a surface smile, penetrating
+no deeper than his lips, and behind it, partially
+masked by the smile, the men in the group in the
+street could detect the destroying passion that ruled
+the man at this instant.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny, who had approached to a point within a
+dozen feet of Harlan, came to a slow, reluctant halt
+when he caught a glimpse of the strange glow in Harlan&#8217;s
+eyes. All the others, Sheriff Gage included, likewise
+halted&mdash;most of them at a considerable distance,
+as their conceptions of prudence suggested.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s grin grew ironic as he noted the pause&mdash;the
+concerted rigidity of Lamo&#8217;s population.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Seems there&#8217;s a heap of folks wantin&#8217; to palaver,&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_68' name='page_68'></a>68</span>
+he said lowly. &#8220;An&#8217; no one is crowdin&#8217; me. That&#8217;s
+polite an&#8217; proper. Seems you all sort of guessed
+there&#8217;s plenty of room, an&#8217; crowdin&#8217; ain&#8217;t necessary.
+I&#8217;d thank every specimen to hook his thumbs in the
+armholes of his vest&mdash;same as though he&#8217;s a member
+of the pussy-café outfit which I&#8217;ve seen in Chicago,
+makin&#8217; moon-eyes at girls. If there&#8217;s any of you ain&#8217;t
+got on vests, why, you can fasten your sky-hooks on
+your shoulders any way to suit your idee of safety.
+Get them up!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It seemed ludicrous to Barbara, despite the shadow
+of tragedy that lurked over it all&mdash;the embarrassed
+manner in which Lamo&#8217;s citizens complied with the
+command, and the spectacle they presented afterward.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny&#8217;s hands were the last to go up. There was
+a coldly malignant glare in his eyes as under Harlan&#8217;s
+unwavering gaze he finally raised his hands and held
+them, palms outward, as for inspection.
+</p>
+<p>Rogers had complied instantly. There was a smile
+on his face, faint and suggestive of grim amusement,
+for he had been mentally tortured over the contemplation
+of Barbara&#8217;s predicament, and had been unable
+to think of any plan by which he might assist her.
+</p>
+<p>Meeder Lawson&#8217;s face was sullen and full of impotent
+rage, and he watched Deveny with a gaze of
+bitter accusation when he saw that the big man intended
+to obey Harlan&#8217;s order. Barbara&#8217;s pursuer,
+having felt Deveny&#8217;s angry gaze upon him, and being
+uncomfortably conscious that Harlan had not forgotten
+him, was red of face and self-conscious. He
+started, and the red in his face deepened, when Harlan,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_69' name='page_69'></a>69</span>
+in the silence which followed the concerted raising of
+hands, spoke sharply to him:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What was you tryin&#8217; to corral that girl for? Talk
+fast or I&#8217;ll bust you wide open!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The man grinned foolishly, shooting a furtive glance
+at Deveny.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why,&#8221; he said, noting Deveny&#8217;s scowl, &#8220;I reckon
+it was because I&#8217;d took a shine to her. I was tryin&#8217; to
+cotton up to her on the landin&#8217; about the Eatin&#8217;-House,
+an&#8217; she&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You lie!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>This was Barbara. Pale, her eyes flashing with
+indignation, she stepped down into the street, standing
+near Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That man,&#8221; Barbara went on, pointing to the red-faced
+pursuer, &#8220;told me early this morning that Luke
+Deveny had told him to watch me, that I was not to
+leave my room until Deveny came for me. I was a
+prisoner. He didn&#8217;t try to make love to me. I should
+have killed him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Speech had broken the tension under which Barbara
+had been laboring; the flow of words through her lips
+stimulated her thoughts and sent them skittering back
+to the salient incidents of her enforced confinement;
+they brought into her consciousness a recollection of
+the conversation she had heard between Meeder Lawson
+and Strom Rogers, regarding her father. She forgot
+Harlan, Deveny, and the others, and ran to Sheriff
+Gage.
+</p>
+<p>Gage, a tall, slender man of forty, was pale and uncomfortable
+as he looked down at the girl&#8217;s white, upturned
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_70' name='page_70'></a>70</span>
+face. He shrank from the frenzied appeal of
+her eyes, and he endured the pain of her tightly gripping
+fingers on the flesh of his arms without flinching.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Did&mdash;is father <i>dead</i>!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She waited, frantically shaking Gage. And Gage
+did not answer until his gaze had roamed the crowd.
+</p>
+<p>Then he said slowly and reluctantly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon he&#8217;s dead. Deveny was tellin&#8217; me&mdash;he
+was chargin&#8217; this man, Harlan, with killin&#8217; your
+father.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Barbara wheeled and faced Deveny. Rage, furious
+and passionate, had overwhelmed the grief she felt
+over the death of her father. The shock had been
+tremendous, but it had come while she had been leaning
+out of the window listening to Rogers and Lawson&mdash;when
+she had lain for many minutes unconscious
+on the floor of the room. Therefore the emotion she
+experienced now was not entirely grief, it was rather
+a frantic yearning to punish the men who had killed
+her father.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You charged this man with murdering my
+father?&#8221; she demanded of Deveny as she walked to
+him and stood, her hands clenched, her face dead
+white and her eyes blazing hate. &#8220;You know better.
+I heard Strom Rogers tell Meeder Lawson that it was
+Dolver and Laskar and somebody he called the
+&#8216;Chief,&#8217; who did it. I want to know who those men
+are; I want to know where I can find them! I want
+you to tell me!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re unstrung, Barbara,&#8221; said Deveny slowly,
+coolly, a faint smile on his face. &#8220;I know nothing
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_71' name='page_71'></a>71</span>
+about it. I merely repeated to Gage the word Laskar
+brought. Laskar said this man Harlan shot your
+father. It happened about a day&#8217;s ride out&mdash;near
+Sentinel Rock. If Laskar lied, he was paid for his
+lying. For Harlan has&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny paused, the sentence unfinished, for the girl
+turned abruptly from him and walked to Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That was Laskar&mdash;the man you killed just now?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Laskar an&#8217; Dolver,&#8221; relied Harlan. &#8220;There was
+three of them your father said. One got away in the
+night, leavin&#8217; Dolver an&#8217; Laskar to finish the job. I
+run plumb into them, crossin&#8217; here from Pardo. I
+bored Dolver, but I let Laskar off, not havin&#8217; the
+heart to muss up the desert with scum like him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl&#8217;s eyes gleamed for an instant with venomous
+satisfaction. Then she said, tremulously:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And father?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I buried him near the rock,&#8221; returned Harlan,
+lowly.
+</p>
+<p>Soundlessly, closing her eyes, Barbara sank into the
+dust of the street.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan broke the force of her fall with his left
+hand, supporting her partially until she collapsed; then,
+his eyes alight with a cold flame, he called, sharply,
+his gaze still on the group of men:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Get her, Gage! Take her into your place!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He waited until Gage carried the slack form inside.
+Then, his shoulders sagging, the heavy pistol in his
+right hand coming to a poise, the fingers of the left
+hand brushing the butt of the weapon in the holster
+at his left hip, the vacuous gleam in his eyes telling
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_72' name='page_72'></a>72</span>
+them all that his senses were alert to catch the slightest
+movement, he spoke, to Deveny:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I seen that desert deal. It wasn&#8217;t on the level. I
+ain&#8217;t no angel, but when I down a man I do it fair an&#8217;
+square&mdash;givin&#8217; him his chance. I sent that sneak Dolver
+out&mdash;an&#8217; that coyote Laskar. It was a dirty,
+rotten deal, the way they framed up on Morgan. It&#8217;s
+irritated me&mdash;I reckon you can hear my rattles right
+now. I&#8217;m stayin&#8217; in Lamo, an&#8217; I&#8217;m stickin&#8217; by this Barbara
+girl until you guys learn to walk straight up, like
+men!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He paused, and a heavy silence descended. No man
+moved. A sneer began to wreathe Harlan&#8217;s lips&mdash;a
+twisting, mocking, sardonic sneer that expressed his
+contempt for the men who faced him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not havin&#8217; any thoughts, eh?&#8221; he jeered.
+&#8220;There&#8217;s some guys that would rather do their fightin&#8217;
+with women, an&#8217; their thoughts wouldn&#8217;t sound right
+if they put words around them. I ain&#8217;t detainin&#8217; you
+no longer. Any man who thinks it&#8217;s time to call for
+a show-down can do his yappin&#8217; right now. Them
+that&#8217;s dead certain they&#8217;re through can mosey along,
+takin&#8217; care not to try any monkey business!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He stood, watching, his wide gaze including them
+all, until, one after another the men in the group
+silently moved away. They did not go far. Some of
+them merely stepped into near-by doorways, others
+sauntered slowly down the street and halted at a little
+distance to look back.
+</p>
+<p>But no man made a hostile move, for they had seen
+the tragedy in which Laskar had figured, and they had
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_73' name='page_73'></a>73</span>
+no desire to provoke Harlan to express again the cold
+wrath that slumbered in his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>Meeder Lawson was the first of Deveny&#8217;s intimates
+to leave the group. His face sullen, his eyes venomous,
+he walked across the street to the First Chance,
+and stood in the doorway, beside Balleau, who had
+been an interested onlooker.
+</p>
+<p>Then Strom Rogers moved. He wheeled slowly,
+flashing an inquiring glance at Deveny&mdash;who still
+stood motionless. Deveny had lowered his hands&mdash;they
+were hanging at his sides, the right hand having
+the palm toward Harlan, giving eloquent testimony
+of its owner&#8217;s peaceable intentions.
+</p>
+<p>Rogers&#8217; glance included the out-turned palm, and his
+lips curved in a faint smile. The smile held as his
+glance went to Harlan&#8217;s face, and for an instant as the
+eyes of the two men met, appraisal was the emotion
+that ruled in them. Harlan detected in Rogers&#8217; eyes
+a grim scorn of Deveny, and a malignant satisfaction;
+Rogers saw in Harlan&#8217;s eyes a thing that not one of
+the men who had faced the man had seen&mdash;cold
+humor.
+</p>
+<p>Then Rogers was walking away, leaving Deveny to
+face the man who had disrupted his plans.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny had not changed his position, and for an instant
+following the departure of Rogers, there was no
+word spoken. Then for the first time since he had
+dismounted from Purgatory, Harlan&#8217;s eyes lost their
+wide, inclusive vacuity. They met Deveny&#8217;s fairly,
+with a steady, direct, boring intensity; a light in them
+that resembled the yellow flame that Deveny had once
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_74' name='page_74'></a>74</span>
+seen in the eyes of a Mexican jaguar some year before
+at a camp on the Neuces.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny knew what the light in Harlan&#8217;s eyes meant.
+It meant the presence of a wild, rending passion, of
+elemental impulses; it meant that the man who faced
+him was eager to kill him, was awaiting his slightest
+hostile movement. It meant more. The gleam in Harlan&#8217;s
+eyes indicated that the man possessed that strange
+and almost uncanny instinct of thought reading, that
+he could detect in another&#8217;s eyes a mental impulse before
+the other&#8217;s muscles could answer it. Also, it meant
+certain death to Deveny should he obey the half-formed
+determination to draw and shoot, that was in
+his mind at this instant.
+</p>
+<p>He dropped his lids, attempting to veil the thought
+from Harlan. But when he again looked up it was to
+see Harlan&#8217;s lips twisting into a cold smile&mdash;to see
+Harlan slowly sheathing the gun he had held in his
+right hand.
+</p>
+<p>And now Harlan was standing before him, both
+weapons in their holsters. He and Deveny were facing
+each other upon a basis of equality. Harlan had disdained
+taking advantage.
+</p>
+<p>Apparently, if Deveny now elected to draw and
+shoot, his chances were as good as Harlan&#8217;s.
+</p>
+<p>And yet Deveny knew they were not as good. For
+Harlan&#8217;s action in sheathing his gun convinced Deveny
+that the man had divined his thoughts from the expression
+of his eyes before he had veiled them with
+the lids, and he was convinced that Harlan had sensed
+the chill of dread that had swept over him at that instant.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_75' name='page_75'></a>75</span>
+He was sure of it when he heard Harlan&#8217;s
+voice, low and taunting:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You waitin&#8217; for a show-down?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny smiled, pallidly. &#8220;I don&#8217;t mind telling you
+that I <i>did</i> have a notion that way a moment ago. But
+I was afraid I might be a little slow. When you
+downed Laskar I watched you, trying to learn the
+secret of your draw. I didn&#8217;t learn it, because there is
+no secret&mdash;you&#8217;re just a natural gunslinger without a
+flaw. You&#8217;re the fastest man with a gun I ever saw&mdash;and
+I&#8217;m taking my hat off to you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan smiled faintly, but his eyes did not lose their
+alertness, nor did the flame in them cool visibly. Only
+his lips betrayed whatever emotion he felt. He distrusted
+Deveny, for he had seen the half-formed determination
+in the man&#8217;s eyes, and his muscles were
+tensed in anticipation of a trick.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You didn&#8217;t stay here to tell me that. Get goin&#8217;
+with the real talk.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s right&mdash;I didn&#8217;t,&#8221; said Deveny. He was
+cool, now, and bland, having recovered his poise.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Higgins <i>was</i> watching Barbara Morgan at my orders.
+But I meant no harm to the girl. I knew she
+was in town, and I heard there were a few of the boys
+that were making plans about her. So I set Higgins
+to guard her. Naturally, she thought I meant harm
+to her.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Naturally,&#8221; said Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny said coolly: &#8220;I&#8217;ll admit I have a bad reputation.
+But it doesn&#8217;t run to women. It&#8217;s more in
+your line.&#8221; He looked significantly at the other.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_76' name='page_76'></a>76</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Meanin&#8217;?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, hell&mdash;you know well enough what I mean.
+You&#8217;re not such a law-abiding citizen, yourself. I&#8217;ve
+heard of you&mdash;often. And I&#8217;ve admired you. To
+get right down to the point&mdash;I could find a place
+where you&#8217;d fit in just right. We&#8217;re needing another
+man&mdash;a man of your general size and character.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan grinned. &#8220;I&#8217;m thankin&#8217; you. An&#8217; I sure
+appreciate what you&#8217;ve said. You&#8217;ve been likin&#8217; me
+so much that you tried to frame up on me about sendin&#8217;
+Lane Morgan out.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s business,&#8221; laughed Deveny. &#8220;You were
+an unknown quantity, then.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But not now&mdash;eh?&#8221; returned Harlan, his eyes
+gleaming with a cold humor. &#8220;You&#8217;ve got me sized
+up right. The yappin&#8217; I done about stickin&#8217; to Barbara
+Morgan wasn&#8217;t the real goods, eh?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly not!&#8221; laughed Deveny, &#8220;there must be
+some selfish motive behind that.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; you sure didn&#8217;t believe me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course not,&#8221; chuckled Deveny, for he thought
+he saw a gleam of insincerity in Harlan&#8217;s eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then I&#8217;ve got to do my yappin&#8217; all over again,&#8221;
+said Harlan. &#8220;Now get this straight. I&#8217;m stickin&#8217; to
+Barbara Morgan. I&#8217;m runnin&#8217; the Rancho Seco from
+now on. I&#8217;m runnin&#8217; it <i>my</i> way. Nobody is botherin&#8217;
+Barbara Morgan except them guys she wants to have
+bother her. That lets you out. You&#8217;re a rank coyote,
+an&#8217; I don&#8217;t have no truck with you except at the business
+end of a gun. Now take your damned, sneakin&#8217;
+grin over an&#8217; wet it down, or I&#8217;ll blow you apart!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_77' name='page_77'></a>77</span></p>
+<p>Deveny&#8217;s face changed color. It became bloated
+with a poisonous wrath, his eyes gleamed evilly and his
+muscles tensed. He stood, straining against the murder
+lust that had seized him, almost persuaded to take
+the slender chance of beating Harlan to his weapon.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You got notions, eh?&#8221; he heard Harlan say, jeeringly.
+&#8220;Well, don&#8217;t spoil &#8217;em. I&#8217;d admire to make
+you feel like you&#8217;d ought to have got started a week
+ago.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny smiled with hideous mirthlessness. But he
+again caught the flame in Harlan&#8217;s eyes. He wheeled,
+saying nothing more, and walked across the street without
+looking back.
+</p>
+<p>Smiles followed him; several men commented
+humorously, and almost immediately, knowing that
+this last crisis had passed, Lamo&#8217;s citizens resumed
+their interrupted pleasures.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan stood motionless until Deveny vanished into
+the First Chance, then he turned quickly and entered
+the sheriff&#8217;s office.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='VIII_BARBARA_IS_PUZZLED' id='VIII_BARBARA_IS_PUZZLED'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_78' name='page_78'></a>78</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER VIII</h2>
+<h3>BARBARA IS PUZZLED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Half an hour later, with Barbara Morgan, on
+&#8220;Billy&#8221;&mdash;a piebald pinto&mdash;riding beside him,
+Harlan loped Purgatory out of Lamo. They took a
+trail&mdash;faint and narrow&mdash;that led southward, for
+Barbara had said that the Rancho Seco lay in that
+direction.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had not seen Deveny or Rogers or Lawson
+after the scene in front of the sheriff&#8217;s office. He had
+talked for some time with Gage, waiting until Barbara
+Morgan recovered slightly from the shock she had
+suffered. Then when he had told her that he intended
+to accompany her to the Rancho Seco&mdash;and she had
+offered no objection&mdash;he had gone on a quest for her
+pony, finding him in the stable in the rear of the
+Eating-House.
+</p>
+<p>So far as Harlan knew, no one in Lamo besides
+Sheriff Gage had watched the departure of himself
+and Barbara. And there had been no word spoken
+between the two as they rode away&mdash;Lamo becoming
+at last an almost invisible dot in the great yawning
+space they left behind them.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara felt a curious unconcern for what was happening;
+her brain was in a state of dull apathy, resulting
+from shock and the period of dread under which
+she had lived for more than a day and a night.
+</p>
+<p>She did not seem to care what happened to her.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_79' name='page_79'></a>79</span>
+She knew, to be sure, that she was riding toward the
+Rancho Seco with a man whom she had heard called
+an outlaw by other men; she was aware that she must
+be risking something by accepting his escort&mdash;and yet
+she could not bring herself to feel that dread fear that
+she knew any young woman in her position should feel.
+</p>
+<p>It seemed to her that nothing mattered now&mdash;very
+much. Her father was dead&mdash;murdered by some
+men&mdash;two of whom had been punished by death, and
+another&mdash;a mysterious person called the &#8220;Chief&#8221;&mdash;who
+would be killed as soon as she could find him.
+That resolution was deeply fixed in her mind.
+</p>
+<p>Her gaze though, after a while, went to Harlan,
+and for many miles she studied him without his suspecting.
+And gradually she began to think about him,
+to wonder why he had protected her from the man,
+Higgins, and why he was going with her to the Rancho
+Seco.
+</p>
+<p>She provided&mdash;after a while&mdash;an answer to her
+first question: He had protected her because she had
+run into his arms in her effort to escape the clutches of
+the man who had pursued her&mdash;Higgins. She remembered
+that while she had been at the window,
+watching Harlan when he had dismounted in front of
+the sheriff&#8217;s office, he had seemed to make a favorable
+impression upon her.
+</p>
+<p>That was the reason, when she had seen him before
+her in the street, after he had shot Laskar, she had
+selected him as a protector. That had seemed to be
+the logical thing to do, for he had arrayed himself
+against her enemies in killing Laskar, and it was reasonable
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_80' name='page_80'></a>80</span>
+to suppose&mdash;conceding Laskar and Higgins
+were leagued with Deveny&mdash;that Harlan would protect
+her.
+</p>
+<p>It all seemed exceedingly natural, that far. It was
+when she began to wonder why Harlan was with her
+now that an element of mystery seemed to rule. And
+she was puzzled.
+</p>
+<p>She began to speculate over Harlan, and her mental
+efforts in that direction banished the somber thoughts
+that had almost overwhelmed her after the discovery
+of her father&#8217;s death. Yet they had ridden more than
+ten miles before she spoke.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What made you decide to ride with me to the
+Rancho Seco?&#8221; she demanded sharply.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan flashed a grin at her. He was riding a little
+in advance of her, and he had to turn in the saddle to
+see her face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I was headin&#8217; that way, an&#8217; wanted company. It
+sure gets lonesome ridin&#8217; alone.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She caught her breath at this answer, for it seemed
+that he had not revealed the real reason. And she had
+got her first good look at his face. It was lean and
+strong. His eyes were deep-set and rimmed by heavy
+lashes and brows, and there was a glow in them as he
+looked at her&mdash;a compelling fixity that held her. Her
+own drooped, and were lifted to his again in sheer
+curiosity, she thought at first.
+</p>
+<p>It was only when she found herself, later, trying to
+catch his glance again that she realized they were magnetic
+eyes, and that the glow in them was of a subtle
+quality that could not be analyzed at a glance.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_81' name='page_81'></a>81</span></p>
+<p>The girl was alert to detect a certain expression in
+his eyes&mdash;a gleam that would tell her what she half
+feared&mdash;that the motive that had brought him with
+her was like that which had caused Deveny to hold her
+captive. But she could detect no such expression in
+Harlan&#8217;s eyes, she could see a quizzical humor in his
+glances at times, or frank interest, and there were
+times when she saw a grim pity.
+</p>
+<p>And the pity affected her strangely. It brought him
+close to her&mdash;figuratively; it convinced her that he was
+a man of warm sympathies in spite of the reputation
+he held in the Territory.
+</p>
+<p>She had heard her father speak of him&mdash;always
+with a sort of awe in his voice; and tales of his reckless
+daring, his Satanic cleverness with a six-shooter, of his
+ruthlessness, had reached her ears from other sources.
+He had seemed, then, like some evil character of mythology,
+remote and far, and not likely to appear in the
+flesh in her section of the country.
+</p>
+<p>It seemed impossible that she had fled to such a man
+for protection&mdash;and that he had protected her; and
+that she was now riding beside him&mdash;or slightly behind
+him&mdash;and that, to all appearances, he was quite
+as respectful toward her as other men. That, she surmised,
+was what made it all seem so strange.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan did not seem disposed to talk; and he kept
+Purgatory slightly in the lead&mdash;except when the trail
+grew dim or disappeared altogether. Then he would
+pull the black horse up, look inquiringly at Barbara,
+and urge Purgatory after her when she took the lead.
+</p>
+<p>But there were many things that Barbara wanted to
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_82' name='page_82'></a>82</span>
+inquire about; and it was when they were crossing a
+big level between some rimming hills, where the trail
+was broad, that she urged her pony beside the black.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Won&#8217;t you tell me about father&mdash;how he died?&#8221;
+she asked.
+</p>
+<p>He looked sharply at her, saw that she was now
+quite composed, and drawing Purgatory to a walk, began
+to relate to her the incident of the fight at Sentinel
+Rock. His story was brief&mdash;brutally brief, she might
+have thought, had she not been watching his face during
+the telling, noting the rage that flamed in his eyes
+when he spoke of Dolver and Laskar and the mysterious
+&#8220;Chief.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was plain to the girl that he had sympathized
+with her father; and it was quite as plain that he now
+sympathized with her. And thus she mentally recorded
+another point in his favor:
+</p>
+<p>He might be a gunman, a ruthless killer, an outlaw
+of such evil reputation that men mentioned his name
+with awe in their voices&mdash;but she <i>knew</i>, now, that he
+had a keen sense of justice, and that the murder of her
+father had aroused the retributive instinct in him.
+</p>
+<p>Also, she was convinced that compared to Deveny,
+Rogers, and Lawson, he was a gentleman. At least,
+so far he had not looked at her as those men had
+looked at her. He had been with her now for several
+hours, in a lonely country where there was no law
+except his own desires, and he had been as gravely
+courteous and considerate as it was possible for any
+man to be.
+</p>
+<p>When he finished his story, having neglected to mention
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_83' name='page_83'></a>83</span>
+the paper he had removed from one of the cylinders
+of Morgan&#8217;s pistol&mdash;upon which was written instructions
+regarding the location of the gold Morgan
+had secreted&mdash;Barbara rode for a long time in silence,
+her head bowed, her eyes moist.
+</p>
+<p>At last she looked up. Harlan&#8217;s gaze was straight
+ahead; he was watching the trail, where it vanished
+over the crest of a high ridge, and he did not seem to
+be aware of Barbara&#8217;s presence.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And father told you to tell me&mdash;wanted you to
+bring the news to me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan nodded.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then,&#8221; she went on &#8220;your obligation&mdash;if you
+were under any&mdash;seems to have been completed. You
+need not have come out of your way.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I was headed this way.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;To the Rancho Seco?&#8221; she questioned, astonished.
+</p>
+<p>Again he nodded. But this time there was a slight
+smile on his lips.
+</p>
+<p>Her own straightened, and her eyes glowed with a
+sudden suspicion.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s odd,&#8221; she said; &#8220;very odd.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That you should be on your way to the Rancho
+Seco&mdash;and that you should encounter father&mdash;that
+you should happen to reach Sentinel Rock about the
+time he was murdered.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He looked straight at her, noting the suspicion in
+her eyes. His low laugh had a hint of irony in it.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard of such things,&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_84' name='page_84'></a>84</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;About guys happenin&#8217; to run plumb into a murder
+when they was innocent of it&mdash;an&#8217; of them bein&#8217; accused
+of the murder.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was the mocking light in his eyes that angered
+her, she believed&mdash;and the knowledge that he had
+been aware of her suspicion before it had become half
+formed in her mind.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m not accusing you!&#8221; she declared.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You said it was odd that I&#8217;d be headed this way&mdash;after
+I&#8217;d told you all there was to tell.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It is!&#8221; she maintained.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; he conceded; &#8220;mebbe it&#8217;s odd. But I&#8217;m
+still headin&#8217; for the Rancho Seco. Mebbe I forgot to
+tell you that your father said I was to go&mdash;that he
+made me promise to go.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He had not mentioned that before; and the girl
+glanced sharply at him. He met the glance with a
+slow grin which had in it a quality of that subtleness
+she had noticed in him before. A shiver of trepidation
+ran over her. But she sat rigid in the saddle, determined
+she would not be afraid of him. For the
+exchange of talk between them, and his considerate
+manner&mdash;everything about him&mdash;had convinced her
+that he was much like other men&mdash;men who respect
+women.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There is no evidence that father made you promise
+to go to the Rancho Seco.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There wasn&#8217;t no evidence that I made any promise
+to keep that man Deveny from herd-ridin&#8217; you,&#8221; he
+said shortly, with a grin. &#8220;I&#8217;m sure goin&#8217; to the
+Rancho Seco.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_85' name='page_85'></a>85</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Suppose I should not wish it&mdash;what then?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d keep right on headin&#8217; for there&mdash;keepin&#8217; my
+promise.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you always keep your promises?&#8221; she asked,
+mockery in her voice.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;When I make &#8217;em. Usually, I don&#8217;t do any promisin&#8217;.
+But when I do&mdash;that promise is goin&#8217; to be
+kept. If you ain&#8217;t likin&#8217; my company, ma&#8217;am, why, I
+reckon there&#8217;s a heap of trail ahead. An&#8217; I ain&#8217;t afraid
+of gettin&#8217; lost.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Isn&#8217;t that remarkable!&#8221; she jeered.
+</p>
+<p>He looked at her with sober eyes. &#8220;If we&#8217;re
+figurin&#8217; on hittin&#8217; the Rancho Seco before night we&#8217;ll
+have to quit our gassin&#8217; an&#8217; do some travelin&#8217;,&#8221; he advised.
+&#8220;Accordin&#8217; to the figures we&#8217;ve got about forty
+miles to ride, altogether. We&#8217;ve come about fifteen&mdash;an&#8217;,&#8221;
+he looked at a silver watch which he drew
+from a pocket, &#8220;it&#8217;s pretty near two now.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Without further words&mdash;for it seemed useless to
+argue the point upon which he was so obviously determined&mdash;Barbara
+urged Billy on, taking the lead.
+</p>
+<p>For more than an hour she maintained the lead,
+riding a short distance in advance, and seemingly paying
+no attention to Harlan. Yet she noted that he
+kept about the same distance from her always&mdash;though
+she never permitted him to observe that she
+watched him, for her backward glances were taken
+out of the corners of her eyes, when she pretended to
+be looking at the country on one side or the other.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan, however, noted the glances. And his lips
+curved into a faint grin as he rode. Once when he
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_86' name='page_86'></a>86</span>
+had dropped behind a little farther than usual, he
+leaned over and whispered into Purgatory&#8217;s ear:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;s sure ignorin&#8217; us, ain&#8217;t she, you black son-of-a-gun!
+She ain&#8217;t looked back here more&#8217;n three times
+in the last five minutes!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>And yet Harlan&#8217;s jocular mood did not endure long.
+During those intervals in which Barbara kept her gaze
+straight ahead on the trail, Harlan regarded her with
+a grave intentness that betrayed the soberness of his
+thoughts.
+</p>
+<p>In all his days he had seen no woman like her;
+and when she had come toward him in Lamo, with
+Higgins close behind her, he had been so astonished
+that he had momentarily forgotten Deveny and all the
+rest of them.
+</p>
+<p>Women of the kind he had met had never affected
+him as Barbara had affected him. He had still a
+mental picture of her as she had come toward him,
+with her hair flying in a golden-brown mass over her
+shoulders; her wide, fear-lighted eyes seeking his with
+an expression of appeal so eloquent that it had sent a
+queer, thrilling, protective sensation over him.
+</p>
+<p>And as she rode ahead of him it was the picture she
+had made <i>then</i> that he saw; and the emotions that
+assailed him were the identical emotions that had beset
+him when for a brief instant, in Lamo, he had held
+her in his arms, with her head resting on his shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>That, he felt, had been the real Barbara Morgan.
+Her manner now&mdash;the constrained and distant pose
+she had adopted, her suspicions, her indignation&mdash;all
+those were outward manifestations of the reaction that
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_87' name='page_87'></a>87</span>
+had seized her. The real Barbara Morgan was she
+who had run to him for protection and she would always
+be to him as she had appeared then&mdash;a soft,
+yielding, trembling girl who, at a glance had trusted
+him enough to run straight into his arms.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='IX_AN_UNWELCOME_GUEST' id='IX_AN_UNWELCOME_GUEST'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_88' name='page_88'></a>88</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER IX</h2>
+<h3>AN UNWELCOME GUEST</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was late afternoon when Barbara and Harlan&mdash;the
+girl still riding a little in advance of the man&mdash;rode
+their horses out of a stretch of broken country
+featured by low, barren hills and ragged draws, and
+came to the edge of a vast level of sage and mesquite
+that stretched southward an interminable distance.
+</p>
+<p>The sun was low&mdash;a flaming red disk that swam in
+a sea of ever-changing color between the towering
+peaks of two mighty mountains miles westward&mdash;and
+the sky above the big level upon which Barbara and
+Harlan rode was a pale amethyst set in the dull gray
+frame of the dusk that was rising from the southern
+and eastern horizons.
+</p>
+<p>Eastward the gray was pierced by the burning, flaming
+prismatic streaks that stretched straight from the
+cleft in the mountains where the sun was sinking&mdash;the
+sun seemed to be sending floods of new color into the
+streaks as he went, deepening those that remained;
+tinging it all with harmonious tones&mdash;rose and pearl
+and violet and saffron blending them with a giant,
+magic brush&mdash;recreating them, making the whole
+background of amethyst sky glow like a huge jewel
+touched by the myriad colors of a mighty rainbow.
+</p>
+<p>The trail taken by Barbara Morgan ran now, in a
+southeasterly direction, and it seemed to Harlan that
+they were riding straight into the folds of a curtain of
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_89' name='page_89'></a>89</span>
+gauze. For a haze was rising into the effulgent expanse
+of color, and the sun&#8217;s rays, striking it, wrought
+their magic upon it.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan, accustomed to sunsets&mdash;with a matter-of-fact
+attitude toward all of nature&#8217;s phenomena&mdash;caught
+himself admiring this one. So intent was he
+that he looked around with a start when Purgatory
+halted, to find that Barbara had drawn Billy down and
+was sitting in the saddle close to him, watching him,
+her eyes luminous with an emotion that thrilled Harlan
+strangely.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is the most beautiful place in the world,&#8221; she
+declared in a voice that seemed to quaver with awe.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s sure a beauty,&#8221; agreed Harlan. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been in
+a heap of places where they had sunsets, but dump &#8217;em
+all together an&#8217; they wouldn&#8217;t make an edge on this
+display. She&#8217;s sure a hummer!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl&#8217;s eyes seemed to leap at his praise.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I never want to leave this place,&#8221; she said. &#8220;There
+is nothing like it. Those two mountains that you see
+far out into the west&mdash;where the sun is going down&mdash;are
+about forty miles distant. If you will notice, you
+can see that there are other mountains&mdash;much smaller&mdash;connected
+with them. They are two small ranges,
+and they melt into the plains there&mdash;and there.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She pointed to the south and to the north, where
+the two ranges, seemingly extending straight westward,
+merged into the edge of the big level where
+Barbara and Harlan sat on their horses.
+</p>
+<p>The two ranges were perhaps a dozen miles apart,
+separated by a low level valley through which ran a
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_90' name='page_90'></a>90</span>
+narrow river, its surface glowing like burnished gold
+in the rays of the sinking sun.
+</p>
+<p>Gazing westward&mdash;straight into the glow&mdash;Harlan
+noted the virgin wildness of the immense valley.
+It lay, serene, slumberous; its salient features&mdash;ridges,
+low hills, rocky promontories and wooded slopes&mdash;touched
+by the rose tints that descended upon them;
+while in the depressions reigned purple shadows, soft-toned,
+blending perfectly with the brighter colors.
+</p>
+<p>With the sunset glow upon it; with the bastioned
+hills&mdash;barren at their peaks, ridged and seamed&mdash;looming
+clear and definite above the vast expanse of
+green, the colossal valley stretched, with no movement
+in it or above it&mdash;in a vacuum-like stillness that might
+have reigned over the world on the dawn of creation&#8217;s
+first morning.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan looked covertly at Barbara. The girl&#8217;s face
+was pale, and her eyes were glowing with a light that
+made him draw a long breath of sympathy and understanding.
+But it had been many years since he had
+felt the thrill of awe that she was experiencing at this
+minute.
+</p>
+<p>He knew that presently the spell would pass, and
+that material things would exact their due. And the
+resulting contrast between the beauty of the picture
+upon which she was gazing, and the solemn realization
+of loss that memory would bring, instantly, would almost
+crush her.
+</p>
+<p>Therefore he spoke seriously when he caught her
+looking at him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s sunsets <i>an&#8217;</i> sunsets,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They tell
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_91' name='page_91'></a>91</span>
+me that they&#8217;re a heap common in some parts of the
+world. Wyoming, now&mdash;Wyoming prides herself on
+sunsets. An&#8217; I&#8217;ve heard they have &#8217;em in Italy, an&#8217;
+France&mdash;an&#8217; some more of them foreign places&mdash;where
+guys go to look at &#8217;em. But it&#8217;s always seemed
+to me that there ain&#8217;t a heap of sense in gettin&#8217; fussed
+up over a sunset. The sun has got his work to do; an&#8217;
+he does it without any fussin&#8217;. An&#8217; they tell me that
+it&#8217;s the same sun that sets in all them places I&#8217;ve been
+tellin&#8217; you about.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, it&#8217;s always been my idee that the sun ain&#8217;t
+got no compliments due him&mdash;he&#8217;ll set mighty beautiful&mdash;sometimes;
+an&#8217; folks will get awed an&#8217; thrilly
+over him. But the next day&mdash;if a man happens to be
+ridin&#8217; in the desert, where there ain&#8217;t any water, he&#8217;ll
+cuss the sun pretty thorough&mdash;forgettin&#8217; the nice
+things he said about it once.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Barbara scowled at him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You haven&#8217;t a bit of poetry in your soul!&#8221; she
+charged. &#8220;I&#8217;m sorry we stopped to look at the valley
+or the sun&mdash;or anything. You don&#8217;t&mdash;you can&#8217;t appreciate
+the beautiful!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He was silent as she urged Billy onward. And
+as they fled southwestward, with Purgatory far behind,
+Harlan swept his hat from his head and bowed toward
+the mighty valley, saying lowly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re sure a hummer&mdash;an&#8217; no mistake. But if
+a man had any poetry in his soul&mdash;why&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He rode on, gulping his delight over having accomplished
+what he had intended to accomplish.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;She&#8217;ll be givin&#8217; it to me pretty regular; an&#8217; she
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_92' name='page_92'></a>92</span>
+won&#8217;t have time for no solemn thoughts. They&#8217;ll come
+later, though, when she gets to the Rancho Seco.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was the lowing of cattle that at last brought to
+Harlan the conviction that they were near the Rancho
+Seco&mdash;that and the sight of the roofs of some buildings
+that presently came into view.
+</p>
+<p>But they had been riding for half an hour before
+they came upon the cattle and buildings, and the flaming
+colors had faded into somber gray tones. The
+filmy dusk that precedes darkness was beginning to settle
+over the land; and into the atmosphere had come
+that solemn hush with which the wide, open places
+greet the night.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara had no further word to say to Harlan until
+they reached a group of buildings that were scattered
+on a big level near a river. They had passed a long
+stretch of wire fence, which Harlan suspected, enclosed
+a section of land reserved for a pasture; and the girl
+brought her pony to a halt in front of an adobe building
+near a high rail fence.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This is the Rancho Seco,&#8221; she said shortly. &#8220;This
+is the stable. Over there is the ranchhouse. Evidently
+the men are all away somewhere.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She got off the pony, removed the saddle and bridle,
+carried them into the stable, came out again, and
+opened a gate in the fence, through which she sent
+&#8220;Billy.&#8221; Then she closed the gate and turned to Harlan,
+who had dismounted and was standing at Purgatory&#8217;s
+head.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I thank you for what you have done for me,&#8221; she
+said, coldly. &#8220;And now, I should like to know just
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_93' name='page_93'></a>93</span>
+what you purpose to do&mdash;and why you have come.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s eyes narrowed as he returned her gaze.
+He remembered Lane Morgan&#8217;s words: &#8220;John Haydon
+is dead stuck on Barbara;&#8221; and he had wondered
+ever since the meeting in Lamo if Barbara returned
+Haydon&#8217;s affection, or if she trusted Haydon enough
+to confide in him.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara&#8217;s attitude toward Haydon would affect
+Harlan&#8217;s attitude toward the girl. For if she loved
+Haydon, or trusted him enough to confide in him&mdash;or
+even to communicate with him concerning ordinary details,
+Harlan could not apprise her of the significance
+of his presence at the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>For Haydon was unknown to Harlan and Harlan
+was not inclined to accept Morgan&#8217;s praise of him as
+conclusive evidence of the man&#8217;s worthiness. Besides,
+Morgan had qualified his instructions with: &#8220;Take
+a look at John Haydon, an&#8217; if you think he&#8217;s on the
+level&mdash;an&#8217; you want to drift on&mdash;turn things over
+to him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan did not want to &#8220;drift on.&#8221; Into his heart
+since his meeting in Lamo with Barbara&mdash;and during
+the ride to the Rancho Seco&mdash;had grown a decided
+reluctance toward &#8220;drifting.&#8221; And not even the girl&#8217;s
+scorn could have forced him to leave her at the ranch,
+unprotected.
+</p>
+<p>But he could not tell her why he could not go. Despite
+her protests he must remain&mdash;at least until he
+was able to determine the character of John Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>A gleam of faint mockery came into his eyes as he
+looked at Barbara.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_94' name='page_94'></a>94</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m keepin&#8217; my promise to your dad&mdash;I&#8217;m stayin&#8217;
+at the Rancho Seco because he told me to stay. He
+wanted me to sort of look out that nothin&#8217; happened to
+you. I reckon we&#8217;ll get along.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl caught her breath sharply. In the growing
+darkness Harlan&#8217;s smile seemed to hold an evil significance;
+it seemed to express a thought that took into
+consideration the loneliness of the surroundings, the
+fact that she was alone, and that she was helpless.
+More&mdash;it seemed to be a presumptuous smile, insinuating,
+full of dire promise.
+</p>
+<p>For Harlan was an outlaw&mdash;she could not forget
+that! He bore a reputation for evil that had made
+him feared wherever men congregated; and as she
+watched him it seemed to her that his face betrayed
+signs of his ruthlessness, his recklessness, and his readiness
+for violence of every kind.
+</p>
+<p>He might not have killed her father&mdash;Rogers and
+Lawson had acquitted him of that. But he might be
+lying about the promise to her father merely for the
+purpose of providing an excuse to come to the Rancho
+Seco. It seemed to her that if her father had really
+exacted a promise from him he would have written to
+her, or sent her some token to prove the genuineness
+of it. There was no visible evidence of Harlan&#8217;s truthfulness.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you mean to say you are going to stay here&mdash;indefinitely?&#8221;
+she demanded, her voice a little hoarse
+from the fright that was stealing over her.
+</p>
+<p>He smiled at her. &#8220;You&#8217;ve hit it about right,
+ma&#8217;am.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_95' name='page_95'></a>95</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t want you to stay here!&#8221; she declared,
+angrily.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m stayin&#8217;, ma&#8217;am.&#8221; His smile faded, and his
+eyes became serious&mdash;earnest.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Later on&mdash;when things shape themselves up&mdash;I&#8217;ll
+tell you why I&#8217;m stayin&#8217;. But just now&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She shrank from him, incredulous, a growing fear
+plain in her eyes. And before he could finish what he
+intended to say she had wheeled, and was running toward
+the ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>He watched until she vanished through an open
+doorway; he heard the door slam, and caught the
+sound of bars being hurriedly dropped into place. And
+after that he stood for a time watching the house. No
+light came from within, and no other sound.
+</p>
+<p>He frowned slightly, drawing a mental picture of
+the girl inside, yielding to the terror that had seized
+her. Then after a while he walked down along the
+corral fence until he came to another building&mdash;a
+bunkhouse. And for a long time he stood in the doorway
+of the building, watching the ranchhouse, afflicted
+with grim sympathy.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It ain&#8217;t so damn&#8217; cheerful, at that,&#8221; he mused. &#8220;I
+reckon she thinks she&#8217;s landed into trouble with both
+feet&mdash;with her dad cashin&#8217; in like he did, an&#8217; Deveny
+after her. It sure must be pretty hard to consider all
+them things. An&#8217; on top of that I mosey along, with
+a reputation as a no-good son-of-a-gun, an&#8217; scare the
+wits out of her with my homely mug. An&#8217; I can&#8217;t tell
+her why she hadn&#8217;t ought to be scared. I call that
+mighty mean.&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='X_ON_GUARD' id='X_ON_GUARD'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_96' name='page_96'></a>96</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER X</h2>
+<h3>ON GUARD</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The man whose soul held no love of the poetic
+sat for two or three hours on the threshold of
+the bunkhouse door, his gaze on the ranchhouse. He
+was considering his &#8220;reputation,&#8221; and he had reached
+the conclusion that Barbara Morgan had reason to
+fear him&mdash;if rumor&#8217;s tongues had related to her all
+of the crimes that had been attributed to him. And he
+knew she must have heard a great many tales about
+him, for rumor is a tireless worker.
+</p>
+<p>And for the first time in his life Harlan regretted
+that he had permitted rumor to weave her fabric of
+lies. For not one of the stories that luridly portrayed
+him in the rôle of a ruthless killer and outlaw was true.
+</p>
+<p>It was easy enough for him to understand how he
+had gained that reputation. He grinned mirthlessly
+now, as he mentally reviewed a past which <i>had</i> been
+rather like the record of a professional man-killer.
+And yet, reviewing his past&mdash;from the day about five
+years ago, when he had shot a Taos bully who had
+drawn a gun on him with murderous intent, until today,
+when he had sent Laskar to his death&mdash;he could not
+remember one shooting affray for which he could be
+blamed. As a matter of fact, he had&mdash;by the courts
+in some instances, and by witnesses in others, where
+there were no courts&mdash;been held blameless.
+</p>
+<p>There had been men who had seen Harlan draw his
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_97' name='page_97'></a>97</span>
+weapons with deadly intent&mdash;men who insisted that
+the man&#8217;s purpose was plain, to goad an enemy to draw
+a weapon, permitting him partially to draw it, and
+then to depend upon his superior swiftness and unerring
+aim. And this theory of Harlan&#8217;s character
+had gone abroad.
+</p>
+<p>And because the theory had been accepted, Harlan&#8217;s
+name became associated with certain crimes which are
+inseparable from the type of character which the popular
+imagination had given him. Strangers&mdash;criminals&mdash;in
+certain towns in the Territory and out of it must
+have heard with considerable satisfaction that their
+depredations had been charged to Harlan. Only once
+had Harlan been able to refute the charge of rumor.
+That was when, having passed a night in the company
+of Dave Hallowell, the marshal of Pardo, word was
+brought by a stage-driver that &#8220;Drag&#8221; Harlan had
+killed a man in Dry Bottom&mdash;a town two hundred
+miles north&mdash;and that Harlan had escaped, though a
+posse had been on his trail.
+</p>
+<p>Even when the driver was confronted by Harlan in
+the flesh he was doubtful, surrendering grudgingly, as
+though half convinced that Harlan had been able to
+transport himself over the distance from Dry Bottom
+to Pardo by some magic not mentioned.
+</p>
+<p>So it had gone. But the terrible record of evil deeds
+attributed to Harlan had not affected him greatly. In
+the beginning&mdash;when he had killed the Taos bully&mdash;he
+had been reluctant to take life; and he had avoided,
+as much as possible, company in which he would be
+forced to kill to protect himself.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_98' name='page_98'></a>98</span></p>
+<p>And through it all he had been able to maintain his
+poise, his self-control. The reputation he had achieved
+would have ruined some men&mdash;would have filled them
+with an ambition to fulfil the specifications of the
+mythical terror men thought him. There was a danger
+there; Harlan had felt it. There was a certain satisfaction
+in being pointed out as a man with whom other
+men dared not trifle; respect of a fearsome equality
+was granted him&mdash;he had seen it in the eyes of men,
+as he had seen an awed adulation in the eyes of
+women.
+</p>
+<p>He had felt them all&mdash;all the emotions that a real
+desperado could feel. He had experienced the impulse
+to swagger, to pose&mdash;really to live the part that his
+ill-fame had given him.
+</p>
+<p>But he had resisted those impulses; and the glow in
+his eyes when in the presence of men who feared him
+was not the passion to kill, but a humorous contempt
+of all men who abased themselves before him.
+</p>
+<p>On the night he had been with Dave Hallowell, the
+marshal of Pardo, he had listened with steady interest
+to a story told him by the latter. It concerned the
+Lamo region and the great basin at which he and
+Barbara Morgan had been looking when the girl had
+accused him of a lack of poetic feeling.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve heard reports about Sunset Valley,&#8221; Hallowell
+had said, squinting his eyes at Harlan. &#8220;I&#8217;ve met
+Sheriff Gage two or three times, an&#8217; he&#8217;s had somethin&#8217;
+to say about it. Accordin&#8217; to Gage, everything ain&#8217;t
+on the surface over there; there&#8217;s somethin&#8217; behind all
+that robbin&#8217; an&#8217; stealin&#8217; that&#8217;s goin&#8217; on. There&#8217;s somethin&#8217;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_99' name='page_99'></a>99</span>
+big, but it&#8217;s hid&mdash;an&#8217; no man ain&#8217;t ever been able
+to find out what it is. But it&#8217;s somethin&#8217;.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;In the first place, Deveny&#8217;s gang ain&#8217;t never been
+heard of as pullin&#8217; off anything anywheres else but in
+Sunset Valley. As for that, there&#8217;s plenty of room in
+the valley for them without gettin&#8217; out of it. But it
+seems they&#8217;d get out once in a while. They don&#8217;t&mdash;they
+stay right in the valley, or close around it. Seems
+to me they&#8217;ve got a grudge ag&#8217;in&#8217; them Sunset Valley
+ranchers, an&#8217; are workin&#8217; it off.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why? That question has got Gage guessin&#8217;. It&#8217;s
+got everybody guessin&#8217;. Stock is bein&#8217; run off in big
+bunches; men is bein&#8217; murdered without no cause; no
+man is able to get any money in or out of the valley&mdash;an&#8217;
+they&#8217;re doin&#8217; other things that is makin&#8217; the
+cattlemen feel nervous an&#8217; flighty.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve scared one man out&mdash;a Pole named
+Launski&mdash;from the far end. He pulled stakes an&#8217;
+hit the breeze runnin&#8217; sellin&#8217; out for a song to a guy
+named Haydon. I seen Launski when he clumb on
+the Lamo stage, headin&#8217; this way, an&#8217; he sure was a
+heap relieved to get out with a whole skin.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Hallowell talked long, and the mystery that seemed
+to surround Sunset Valley appealed to Harlan&#8217;s imagination.
+Yet he did not reveal his interest to Hallowell
+until the latter mentioned Barbara Morgan.
+Then his eyes glowed, and he leaned closer to the
+marshal.
+</p>
+<p>And when Hallowell remarked that Lane Morgan,
+of the Rancho Seco had declared he would give half
+his ranch to a trustworthy man who could be depended
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_100' name='page_100'></a>100</span>
+upon to &#8220;work his guns&#8221; in the interest of the Morgan
+family, the slow tensing of Harlan&#8217;s muscles might
+have betrayed the man&#8217;s emotions&mdash;for Hallowell
+grinned faintly.
+</p>
+<p>Hallowell had said more. But he did not say that
+word had come to him from Sheriff Gage&mdash;an appeal,
+rather&mdash;to the effect that Morgan had sent to him for
+such a man, and that Gage had transmitted the appeal
+to Hallowell. Hallowell thought he knew Harlan,
+and he was convinced that if he told Harlan flatly that
+Morgan wanted to employ him for that definite purpose,
+Harlan would refuse.
+</p>
+<p>And so Hallowell had gone about his work
+obliquely. He knew Harlan more intimately than he
+knew any other man in the country; and he was aware
+that the chivalric impulse was stronger in Harlan than
+in any man he knew.
+</p>
+<p>And he was aware, too, that Harlan was scrupulously
+honest and square, despite the evil structure
+which had been built around him by rumor. He had
+watched Harlan for years, and knew him for exactly
+what he was&mdash;an imaginative, reckless, impulsive
+spirit who faced danger with the steady, unwavering
+eye of complete unconcern.
+</p>
+<p>As Hallowell had talked of the Rancho Seco he had
+seen Harlan&#8217;s eyes gleam; seen his lips curve with a
+faint smile in which there was a hint of waywardness.
+And so Hallowell knew he had scattered his words on
+fertile mental soil.
+</p>
+<p>And yet Harlan would not have taken the trail that
+led to the Rancho Seco had not the killing of his
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_101' name='page_101'></a>101</span>
+friend, Davey Langan, followed closely upon the story
+related to him by the marshal.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had ridden eastward, to Lazette&mdash;a matter
+of two hundred miles&mdash;trailing a herd of cattle from
+the T Down&mdash;the ranch where he and Langan were
+employed.
+</p>
+<p>When he returned he heard the story of the killing
+of his friend by Dolver and another man, not identified,
+but who rode a horse branded with the L Bar M&mdash;which
+was the Rancho Seco brand.
+</p>
+<p>It was Hallowell who broke the news of the murder
+to Harlan, together with the story of his pursuit of
+Dolver and the other man, and of his failure to capture
+them.
+</p>
+<p>There was no thought of romance in Harlan&#8217;s mind
+when he mounted Purgatory to take up Dolver&#8217;s trail;
+and when he came upon Dolver at Sentinel Rock&mdash;and
+later, until he had talked with Lane Morgan&mdash;he
+had no thought of offering himself to Morgan, to
+become that trustworthy man who would &#8220;work his
+guns&#8221; for the Rancho Seco owner.
+</p>
+<p>But after he had questioned Laskar&mdash;and had felt
+that Laskar was not the accomplice of Dolver in the
+murder of Langan&mdash;he had determined to go to the
+ranch, and had told Morgan of his determination.
+</p>
+<p>Now, sitting on the threshold of the Rancho Seco
+bunkhouse, he realized that his talk with Morgan
+had brought him here in a different rôle than he had
+anticipated.
+</p>
+<p>From where he sat he had a good view of all the
+buildings&mdash;low, flat-roofed adobe structures, scattered
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_102' name='page_102'></a>102</span>
+on the big level with no regard for system, apparently&mdash;erected
+as the needs of a growing ranch required.
+Yet all were well kept and substantial, indicating that
+Lane Morgan had been a man who believed in neatness
+and permanency.
+</p>
+<p>The ranchhouse was the largest of the buildings.
+It was two stories high on the side fronting the slope
+that led to the river, and another section&mdash;in what
+appeared to be the rear, facing the bunkhouse, also
+had a second story&mdash;a narrow, boxlike, frowning section
+which had the appearance of a blockhouse on the
+parapet wall of a fort.
+</p>
+<p>And that, Harlan divined, was just what it had been
+built for&mdash;for defensive purposes. For the entire
+structure bore the appearance of age, and the style
+of its architecture was an imitation of the Spanish
+type. It was evident that Lane Morgan had considered
+the warlike instincts of wandering bands of
+Apache Indians when he had built his house.
+</p>
+<p>The walls connecting the fortlike section in the rear
+with the two-story front were about ten feet in height,
+with few windows; and the entire structure was built
+in a huge square, with an inner court, or <i>patio</i>,
+reached by an entrance that penetrated the lower
+center of the two-story section in front.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s interest centered heavily upon the ranchhouse,
+for it was there that Barbara Morgan had hidden
+herself, fearing him.
+</p>
+<p>She had entered a door that opened in the wall
+directly beneath the fortlike second story, and it was
+upon this door that Harlan&#8217;s gaze was fixed. He
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_103' name='page_103'></a>103</span>
+smiled wryly, for sight of the door brought Barbara
+into his thoughts&mdash;though he was not sure she had
+been out of them since the first instant of his meeting
+with her in Lamo.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;ve been tellin&#8217; her them damn stories about
+me bein&#8217; a hell-raiser&mdash;an&#8217; she believes &#8217;em,&#8221; he
+mused. And then his smile faded. &#8220;An she ain&#8217;t
+none reassured by my mug.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>But it was upon the incident of his meeting with
+Barbara, and the odd coincidence of his coming upon
+her father at Sentinel Rock, that his thoughts dwelt
+longest.
+</p>
+<p>It was odd&mdash;that meeting at Sentinel Rock. And
+yet not so odd, either, considering everything.
+</p>
+<p>For he had been coming to the Rancho Seco.
+Before he had reached Sentinel Rock he had been
+determined to begin his campaign against the outlaws
+at the Rancho Seco. It was his plan to ask Morgan
+for a job, and to spend as much of his time as possible
+in getting information about Deveny and his
+men, in the hope of learning the identity of the man
+who had assisted in the murder of Langan.
+</p>
+<p>What was odd about the incident was that Morgan
+should attempt to cross to Pardo to have his gold
+assayed at just about the time Harlan had decided to
+begin his trip to the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan smiled as his gaze rested on the ranchhouse.
+He was glad he had met Lane Morgan; he was glad
+he had headed straight for Lamo after leaving Morgan.
+For by going straight to Lamo he had been
+able to balk Deveny&#8217;s evil intentions toward the girl
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_104' name='page_104'></a>104</span>
+who, in the house now, was so terribly afraid of him.
+</p>
+<p>He had told Morgan why he was headed toward
+the Rancho Seco section, but he had communicated to
+Morgan that information only because he had wanted
+to cheer the man in his last moments. That was what
+had made Morgan&#8217;s face light up as his life had ebbed
+away. And Harlan&#8217;s eyes glowed now with the recollection.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The damned cuss&mdash;how he did brighten up!&#8221; he
+mused. &#8220;He sure was a heap tickled to know that
+the deck wasn&#8217;t all filled with dirty deuces.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>And then Harlan&#8217;s thoughts went again to Lamo,
+and to the picture Barbara had made running toward
+him. It seemed to him that he could still feel her in
+his arms, and a great regret that she distrusted him
+assailed him.
+</p>
+<p>He had sat for a long time on the threshold of
+the bunkhouse door, and after a time he noted that the
+moon was swimming high, almost overhead. He got
+up, unhurriedly, and again walked to the stable door,
+looking in at Purgatory. For Harlan did not intend
+to sleep tonight; he had resolved, since the Rancho
+Seco seemed to be deserted except for his and Barbara&#8217;s
+presence, to guard the ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>For he knew that the passions of Deveny for the
+girl were thoroughly aroused. He had seen in Deveny&#8217;s
+eyes there in Lamo a flame&mdash;when Deveny
+looked at Barbara&mdash;that told him more about the
+man&#8217;s passions than Deveny himself suspected. He
+grinned coldly as he leaned easily against the stable
+door; for men of the Deveny type always aroused
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_105' name='page_105'></a>105</span>
+him&mdash;their personality had always seemed to strike
+discord into his soul; had always fanned into flame the
+smoldering hatred he had of such men; had always
+brought into his heart those savage impulses which
+he had sometimes felt when he was on the verge of
+yielding to the urge to become what men had thought
+him&mdash;and what they still thought him&mdash;a conscienceless
+killer.
+</p>
+<p>His smile now was bitter with the hatred that was
+in his heart for Deveny&mdash;for Deveny had cast longing,
+lustful eyes upon Barbara Morgan&mdash;and the
+smile grew into a sneer as he drew out paper and
+tobacco and began to roll a cigarette.
+</p>
+<p>But as he rolled the cigarette his fingers stiffened;
+the paper and the tobacco in it dropped into the dust
+at his feet; and he stiffened, his lips straightening, his
+eyes flaming with rage, his muscles tensing.
+</p>
+<p>For a horseman had appeared from out of the
+moonlit haze beyond the river. Rigid in the doorway&mdash;standing
+back a little so that he might not be seen&mdash;Harlan
+watched the man.
+</p>
+<p>The latter brought his horse to a halt when he
+reached the far corner of the ranchhouse, dismounted,
+and stole stealthily along the wall of the building.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan was not more than a hundred feet distant,
+and the glare of the moonlight shining full on the man
+as he paused before the door into which Barbara Morgan
+had gone, revealed him plainly to Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>The man was Meeder Lawson. Harlan&#8217;s lips
+wreathed into a grin of cold contempt. He stepped
+quickly to Purgatory, drew his rifle from its saddle
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_106' name='page_106'></a>106</span>
+sheath and returned to the doorway. And there, standing
+in the shadows, he watched Lawson as the latter
+tried the door and, failing to open it, left it and crept
+along the wall of the building, going toward a window.
+</p>
+<p>The window also was fastened, it seemed, for Lawson
+stole away from it after a time and continued along
+the wall of the house until he reached the southeast
+corner. Around that, after a fleeting glance about
+him, Lawson vanished.
+</p>
+<p>Still grinning&mdash;though there was now a quality in
+the grin that might have warned Lawson, had he seen
+it&mdash;Harlan stepped down from the doorway, slipped
+into the shadow of the corral fence, and made his way
+toward the corner where Lawson had disappeared.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XI_THE_INTRUDER' id='XI_THE_INTRUDER'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_107' name='page_107'></a>107</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XI</h2>
+<h3>THE INTRUDER</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>After closing the door through which she had
+entered, Barbara Morgan slipped the fastenings
+into place and stood, an ear pressed against the door,
+listening for sounds that would tell her Harlan had
+followed her. But beyond the door all was silence.
+</p>
+<p>Breathing fast, yielding to the panic of fear that had
+seized her, over the odd light she had seen in Harlan&#8217;s
+eyes&mdash;a gleam, that to her, seemed to have been a
+reflection of some evil passion in the man&#8217;s heart&mdash;she
+ran through the dark room she had entered,
+opened a door that led to the <i>patio</i>, and peered fearfully
+outward, as though she half expected to see Harlan
+there.
+</p>
+<p>But the court was deserted, apparently, though there
+were somber shadows ranging the enclosing walls that
+would afford concealment for Harlan, had he succeeded
+in gaining entrance. As she stepped out of the
+doorway she peered intently around.
+</p>
+<p>Then, further frightened by the brooding silence
+that seemed to envelop the place, and tortured by
+tragic thoughts in which her father occupied a prominent
+position&mdash;almost crazed by the memory of what
+had happened during the preceding twenty-four hours&mdash;she
+fled across the <i>patio</i> swiftly, her terror growing
+with each step.
+</p>
+<p>She knew the house thoroughly; she could have
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_108' name='page_108'></a>108</span>
+found her way in complete darkness; and when she
+reached the opposite side of the court she almost threw
+herself at a door which, she knew, opened into the
+big room in which she and her father had usually
+passed their leisure.
+</p>
+<p>Entering, she closed the door, and barred it. Then,
+feeling more secure, she stood for an instant in the
+center of the room, gazing about, afflicted with an
+appalling sense of loss, of loneliness, and of helplessness.
+</p>
+<p>For this was the first time she had entered the
+house since the news of her father&#8217;s death had reached
+her; and she missed him, feeling more keenly than
+ever the grief she had endured thus far with a certain
+stoic calm; yielding to the tears that had been very
+close for hours.
+</p>
+<p>She did not light the kerosene lamp that stood on a
+big center table in the room. For there was light
+enough for her to see objects around her; and she
+went at last to an arm-chair which had been her
+father&#8217;s favorite, knelt beside it, and sobbed convulsively.
+</p>
+<p>Later, yielding to a dull apathy which had stolen
+over her, she made her way upstairs, to her room&mdash;which
+was directly over the front entrance to the <i>patio</i>&mdash;and
+sank into a chair beside one of the windows.
+</p>
+<p>She had locked her door after entering; and for
+the first time since arriving at the Rancho Seco she
+felt comparatively safe.
+</p>
+<p>Her thoughts were incoherent&mdash;a queer jumble of
+mental impulses which seemed to lead her always back
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_109' name='page_109'></a>109</span>
+to the harrowing realization that she had lost her
+father. That was the gigantic axis around which her
+whole mental structure revolved. It was staggering,
+stupefying, and her brain reeled under it.
+</p>
+<p>Other thoughts came, flickered like feeble lights,
+and went out&mdash;thoughts of what had happened to her
+at Lamo; a dull wonder over Meeder Lawson&#8217;s presence
+in town when he should have been with the men
+on the range; speculation as to the whereabouts of the
+men&mdash;why none of them had remained at the ranchhouse;
+and a sort of dumb, vague wonder over what
+her future would be.
+</p>
+<p>She thought, too, of John Haydon of the Star ranch&mdash;the
+big, smiling, serene-eyed man who seemed to
+bring a breath of romance with him each time he
+visited the Rancho Seco. Haydon would help her, she
+knew, and she would go to him in the morning.
+</p>
+<p>Her father had trusted Haydon, and she would
+trust him. Haydon was the one man in the section
+who seemed to have no fear of Deveny and his men&mdash;many
+times he had told her that most of the stories
+told of Deveny&#8217;s crimes were untrue&mdash;that he had not
+committed all those that were attributed to him.
+</p>
+<p>Not that Haydon condoned those offenses upon
+which Deveny stood convicted by circumstantial evidence.
+Nor had Haydon ever sought to defend Deveny.
+On the other hand, Haydon&#8217;s condemnation of
+the outlaw and his men had been vigorous&mdash;almost
+too vigorous for Haydon&#8217;s safety, she had heard her
+father say.
+</p>
+<p>It was when her thoughts dwelt upon Harlan that
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_110' name='page_110'></a>110</span>
+she was most puzzled&mdash;and impressed. For though
+she was acquainted with the man&#8217;s reputation&mdash;knowing
+him to be an outlaw of the reckless, dare-devil type&mdash;she
+felt the force of him, the compelling originality
+of him&mdash;as he differed from the outlaw of popular
+conception&mdash;his odd personality, which seemed to be
+a mingling of the elements of character embracing both
+good and evil.
+</p>
+<p>For though an outlaw himself, he had protected
+her from outlaws. And she had seen in his eyes certain
+expressions that told her that he felt impulses of
+sympathy and of tenderness. And his words to Deveny
+and others had seemed to hint of a fairly high honorableness.
+</p>
+<p>And though she had seen in his eyes a cold gleam
+that was convincing evidence of the presence of those
+ruthless passions which had made him an enemy of
+the law, she had also detected expressions in his eyes
+that told plainly of genial humor, of gentleness, and
+of consideration for other humans.
+</p>
+<p>But whatever she had seen in him, she felt his force&mdash;the
+terrible power of him when aroused. It was
+in the atmosphere that surrounded him; it was in the
+steady gleam of his eyes, in the poise of his head, and
+in the thrust of his jaw, all around him. She feared
+him, yet he fascinated her&mdash;compelled her&mdash;seemed
+to insist that she consider him in her scheme of life.
+</p>
+<p>In fact, he had made it plain to her that he intended
+to be considered. &#8220;I&#8217;m stayin&#8217; here,&#8221; he had told her
+in his slow, deliberate way.
+</p>
+<p>And that seemed to end it&mdash;she knew he <i>would</i>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_111' name='page_111'></a>111</span>
+stay; that he was determined, and that nothing short
+of force would dissuade him. And what force could
+she bring against him? A man whose name, mentioned
+in the presence of other men, made their faces blanch.
+</p>
+<p>Deep in her heart, though, lurked a conviction that
+Harlan had not told her everything that had happened
+at Sentinel Rock. She was afflicted with a suspicion
+that he was holding something back. She had
+seen that in his eyes, too, she thought. It seemed to
+her that her father <i>might</i> have told him to come to
+the Rancho Seco, and to stay there. And for that
+reason&mdash;because she suspected that Harlan had not
+told all he knew&mdash;she felt that she ought not order
+him away. If only he had not looked at her with
+that queer, insinuating smile!
+</p>
+<p>She had sat at the window for, it seemed to her,
+many hours before she became aware that the moon
+had risen and was directly overhead, flooding the
+ground in the vicinity of the ranchhouse with a soft,
+silver radiance.
+</p>
+<p>She got up with a start, remembering that she had
+left Harlan standing outside the door in the rear. She
+had almost forgotten that!
+</p>
+<p>She went to a window that opened into the <i>patio</i>,
+and looked downward. Every nook and corner of the
+<i>patio</i> was visible now; the dark, somber shadows had
+been driven away, and in the silvery flood that poured
+down from above the enclosure was brilliant, clearly
+defined&mdash;and deserted.
+</p>
+<p>And yet as the girl looked, a presentiment of evil
+assailed her, whitening her cheeks and widening her
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_112' name='page_112'></a>112</span>
+eyes. The quiet peace and tranquillity of the <i>patio</i>
+seemed to mock her; she felt that it held a sinister
+promise, a threat of dire things to come.
+</p>
+<p>The feeling was so strong that it drove her back
+from the window to the center of the room, where she
+stood, holding her breath, her hands clasped in front
+of her, the fingers twining stiffly. It seemed to her that
+she was waiting&mdash;waiting for something to happen&mdash;something
+that threatened.
+</p>
+<p>And when she heard a slight sound, seeming to arise
+from the room below her, she caught her breath with
+a gasp of horror.
+</p>
+<p>But she did not move. She stood there, with no
+breath issuing from between her lips, for many minutes,
+it seemed&mdash;waiting, dreading, a cold paralysis
+stealing over her.
+</p>
+<p>And then again it came&mdash;an odd sound&mdash;slow,
+creaking, seeming to come always nearer. It was not
+until she heard the sound directly outside her door
+that she realized that what she heard was a step on
+the stairs. And then, convinced that Harlan had
+gained entrance, she slipped noiselessly across the room
+to the front wall, where she took down a heavy pistol
+that hung from a wooden peg.
+</p>
+<p>With the huge weapon in hand she returned to a
+point near the center of the room, and with bated
+breath and glowing, determined eyes, faced the door.
+</p>
+<p>And when, after a time, she heard the door creak
+with a weight that seemed to be against it&mdash;after she
+saw it give; heard the lock break, and saw a man&#8217;s
+form darken the opening as the door was flung wide&mdash;she
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_113' name='page_113'></a>113</span>
+pressed the trigger of the weapon once&mdash;twice&mdash;three
+times&mdash;in rapid succession.
+</p>
+<p>She heard the man curse, saw him catch at his chest,
+and tumble headlong toward her. And she fired
+again, thinking he was trying to grasp her.
+</p>
+<p>She laughed hysterically when she saw him sink to
+the floor and stretch out with a queer inertness. Then,
+swaying, her brain reeling with the horror of the thing,
+she managed to get to the bed at the other side of the
+room. When she reached it she collapsed gently, a
+long, convulsive shudder running over her.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XII_BARBARA_SEES_A_LIGHT' id='XII_BARBARA_SEES_A_LIGHT'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_114' name='page_114'></a>114</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XII</h2>
+<h3>BARBARA SEES A LIGHT</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Barbara regained consciousness it was
+with a gasp of horror over the realization of
+what had happened. She stiffened immediately, however,
+and lay, straining at the dread paralysis that had
+gripped her; for she saw Harlan standing at her side,
+looking down into her face, his own set in a grim smile.
+</p>
+<p>She must have fainted again, for it seemed to her
+that a long period of time elapsed until she again became
+conscious of her surroundings. Harlan had
+moved off a little, though he was still watching her
+with the grimly humorous expression.
+</p>
+<p>She sat up, staring wildly at him; then shrank back,
+getting as far away from him as she could.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You!&#8221; she gasped, &#8220;You! Didn&#8217;t I&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He interrupted her, drawling his words a little:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The guy you shot was Lawson. You bored him a
+heap. I&#8217;ve toted him downstairs. He&#8217;s plenty dead.
+It was plumb good shootin&#8217;&mdash;for a woman.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>His words shocked her to action, and she got up
+and walked around the foot of the bed, from where
+she could see the spot where the intruder must have
+fallen after she had shot him. A dark stain showed
+on the floor where the man had lain, and the sight of
+it sent her a step backward, so that she struck the foot
+of the bed. She caught at the bed and grasped one
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_115' name='page_115'></a>115</span>
+of the posts, holding tightly to it while she looked
+Harlan over with dreading, incredulous eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&mdash;it wasn&#8217;t <i>you</i>!&#8221; she demanded. &#8220;Are you
+sure?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He smiled and said, slowly and consolingly: &#8220;I
+reckon if you&#8217;d shot <i>me</i> I&#8217;d be knowin&#8217; it. Don&#8217;t take
+it so hard, ma&#8217;am. Why, if a man goes to breakin&#8217;
+into a woman&#8217;s room that way he sure ain&#8217;t fit to go
+on livin&#8217; in a world where there <i>is</i> a woman.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It was Lawson&mdash;you say? Meeder Lawson&mdash;the
+Rancho Seco foreman? I thought&mdash;why, I
+thought it was you!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m thankin&#8217; you, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; he said, ironically.
+&#8220;But if you&#8217;ll just stick your head out of that window,
+you&#8217;ll see it was Lawson, right enough. He&#8217;s layin&#8217;
+right below the window.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She did as bidden, and she saw Lawson lying on the
+ground beneath the window, flat on his back, his face
+turned upward with the radiant moonlight shining full
+upon his wide-open, staring eyes.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara glanced swiftly, and then drew back into
+the room, shuddering.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan stood, silently regarding her, while she
+walked again to the bed and sat upon it, staring out
+into the flood of moonlight, her face ghastly, her
+hands hanging limply at her sides.
+</p>
+<p>She had killed a man. And though there was justification
+for the deed, she could not fight down the
+shivering horror that had seized her, the overpowering
+and terrible knowledge that she had taken human life.
+</p>
+<p>She sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, and
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_116' name='page_116'></a>116</span>
+Harlan said no word to her, standing motionless, his
+arms folded, one hand slowly caressing his chin, as he
+watched her.
+</p>
+<p>After a time, drawing a long, shuddering breath,
+she looked up at him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;How did you know&mdash;what made you come&mdash;here?&#8221;
+she asked.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t reckonin&#8217; to sleep tonight&mdash;havin&#8217;
+thoughts&mdash;about things,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I was puttin&#8217;
+in a heap of my time settin&#8217; in the doorway of the
+bunkhouse, wonderin&#8217; what had made you so scared
+of me. While I was tryin&#8217; to figure it out I saw Lawson
+comin&#8217;. There was somethin&#8217; in his actions which
+didn&#8217;t jibe with my ideas of square dealin&#8217;, an&#8217; so I
+kept lookin&#8217; at him. An&#8217; when I saw him prowlin&#8217;
+around, tryin&#8217; to open doors an&#8217; windows, why, I just
+naturally trailed him. An&#8217; I found the window he
+opened. I reckon that&#8217;s all.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She got up, swaying a little, a wan smile on her
+face that reflected her astonishment and wonder over
+the way she had jumbled things. For this man&mdash;the
+man she had feared when she had left him standing
+outside the door some hours before&mdash;had been eager
+to protect her from the other, who had attacked her.
+He had been waiting, watching.
+</p>
+<p>Moreover, there was in Harlan&#8217;s eyes as he stood
+in the room a considerate, deferential gleam that told
+her more than words could have conveyed to her&mdash;a
+something that convinced her that he was not the type
+of man she had thought him.
+</p>
+<p>The knowledge filled her with a strange delight.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_117' name='page_117'></a>117</span>
+There was relief in her eyes, and her voice was almost
+steady when she again spoke to him:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan,&#8221; she said, &#8220;did father really send you
+here? Did he make you promise to come?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon he did, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>For an instant she looked fairly at him, intently
+searching his eyes for indications of untruthfulness.
+Then she drew a long breath of conviction.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe you,&#8221; she said.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan swept his hat from his head. He bowed,
+and there was an odd leap in his voice:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That tickles me a heap, ma&#8217;am. I don&#8217;t know
+when I&#8217;ve heard anything that pleased me more.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He backed away from her until he reached the doorway.
+And she saw his eyes&mdash;wide and eloquent&mdash;even
+in the subdued light of the doorway.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;d go to sleep now, ma&#8217;am, if I was you. You
+need it a heap. It&#8217;s been a long day for you&mdash;an&#8217;
+things ain&#8217;t gone just right. I don&#8217;t reckon there&#8217;ll be
+anybody botherin&#8217; you any more tonight.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And you?&#8221; she asked, &#8220;won&#8217;t you try to get some
+sleep, too?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He laughed, telling her that he would &#8220;ketch a
+wink or two.&#8221; Then he turned and went down the
+stairs&mdash;she could hear him as he opened a lower
+door and went out.
+</p>
+<p>Looking out of the window an instant later, she
+saw him taking Lawson&#8217;s body away. And still later,
+hearing a sound outside, she stole to the window again.
+</p>
+<p>Below, seated on the threshold of the door that led
+into the room she had entered when she had crossed
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_118' name='page_118'></a>118</span>
+the <i>patio</i>, she saw Harlan. He was smoking a cigarette,
+leaning against the door jamb in an attitude of
+complete relaxation.
+</p>
+<p>There was something in his manner that comforted
+her&mdash;a calm confidence, a slow ease of movement as
+he fingered his cigarette that indicated perfect tranquility&mdash;an
+atmosphere of peace that could not have
+surrounded him had he meditated any evil whatever.
+</p>
+<p>She knew, now, that she had misjudged him. For
+he had made no attempt to take advantage of her loneliness
+and helplessness. And whatever his reputation&mdash;whatever
+the crimes he had committed against the
+laws&mdash;he had been a gentleman in his attitude toward
+her. That feature of his conduct dominated her
+thoughts as she stretched out on the bed; it was her
+last coherent thought as she went to sleep.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIII_HARLAN_TAKES_CHARGE' id='XIII_HARLAN_TAKES_CHARGE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_119' name='page_119'></a>119</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIII</h2>
+<h3>HARLAN TAKES CHARGE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Barbara could not have told why she had not
+acted upon her determination to ride westward
+to the Star ranch to acquaint John Haydon with the
+predicament into which the events of the past few
+hours had plunged her. She could not have explained
+why she permitted the first day&mdash;after Harlan&#8217;s coming&mdash;to
+pass without going to see Haydon, any more
+than she could have explained why she permitted many
+other days to pass in the same manner.
+</p>
+<p>She was almost convinced, though, that it was because
+of the manner in which Harlan took charge of
+the ranch&mdash;the capable and business-like way he had
+of treating the men.
+</p>
+<p>For the outfit came in late in the afternoon following
+the night which had marked the death of Lawson&mdash;the
+straw-boss explaining that he had received explicit
+orders from Lawson to &#8220;work&#8221; a grass level
+several miles down the river.
+</p>
+<p>One other reason for Barbara&#8217;s failure to ride to the
+Star&mdash;a reason that she did not permit to dwell prominently
+in her thoughts&mdash;was resentment.
+</p>
+<p>She had permitted the first day to pass without
+going to see Haydon. But when it had gone and
+another day dawned without Haydon coming to see
+<i>her</i>, she felt that he was deliberately absenting himself.
+For certainly he must have heard what had happened,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_120' name='page_120'></a>120</span>
+and if he thought as much of her as he had led her to
+believe he would have come to her instantly.
+</p>
+<p>Had Haydon seen the defiant gleam of her eyes
+when she gazed westward&mdash;in the direction of the
+Star&mdash;he might have realized that each day he stayed
+away from the Rancho Seco would make it that much
+more difficult for him to explain.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara stayed indoors much of the time during
+the first days of Harlan&#8217;s control of the ranch, but
+from the windows she saw him&mdash;noted that the men
+obeyed him promptly and without question.
+</p>
+<p>A sense of loss, of emptiness, still afflicted the girl,
+and yet through it all there ran a thrill of satisfaction,
+of assurance that the steady-eyed man who had saved
+her from Deveny, and who had treated her like a
+courtier of old on the night she had killed Lawson,
+seemed to have her welfare in mind, seemed&mdash;despite
+the reputation the people of the country had given
+him&mdash;to have constituted himself her guardian, without
+expectation of reward of the kind she had feared
+he sought.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s method of assuming control of the Rancho
+Seco had been direct and simple. When the twenty-seven
+men of the outfit had straggled into the yard
+surrounding the big corral&mdash;the chuck-wagon, bearing
+the cook and his assistant, trailing a little behind, and
+followed by the horses of the <i>remuda</i> with the wrangler
+hurling vitriolic language in the rear&mdash;Harlan
+was standing beside Purgatory near the corral fence in
+front of one of the bunkhouses.
+</p>
+<p>He had paid&mdash;apparently&mdash;no attention to the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_121' name='page_121'></a>121</span>
+men as they dismounted, unsaddled, and turned their
+horses into the corral, and he did not even look at the
+belligerent-eyed cook whose sardonic glance roved over
+him.
+</p>
+<p>But the men of the outfit watched him out of the
+corners of their eyes; as they passed him to go to the
+bunkhouses, they shot inquiring, speculating glances at
+one another, full of curiosity, not unmixed with astonishment
+over his continued silence.
+</p>
+<p>It was when, drawn by the wonder that consumed
+them, they gathered in a group near the door of one
+of the bunkhouses, that Harlan moved toward them.
+</p>
+<p>For he had noted that they had become grouped,
+and that into the atmosphere had come a tension.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s actions had been governed by design. His
+continued silence had been strategy of a subtle order.
+It had attracted the attention of the men, it had intrigued
+their interest.
+</p>
+<p>If he had spoken to them while they had been moving
+about on their different errands, telling them that
+henceforth he was to manage the Rancho Seco, they
+would have given him scant attention. Also, he would
+not have been able to study their faces as he had
+studied them while they had been watching him, and
+he would not have gained the knowledge of their characters
+that he now possessed.
+</p>
+<p>Besides, a humorous malice possessed Harlan&mdash;he
+wanted to view them collectively when he gave them
+his news, to note the various ways in which they would
+receive it.
+</p>
+<p>Absolute silence greeted Harlan&#8217;s forward movement.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_122' name='page_122'></a>122</span>
+He could hear the labored breathing of some
+of the men&mdash;men of violent temper who sensed
+trouble&mdash;and his grin grew broad as he halted within
+a dozen feet of the group.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Boys,&#8221; he said, slowly, &#8220;you&#8217;ve got a new boss.
+It&#8217;s me. A day or so ago, crossin&#8217; from Pardo, I run
+into a ruckus at Sentinel Rock. Lane Morgan was the
+center of the ruckus&mdash;an&#8217; he got perforated&mdash;plenty.
+But before he cashed in he got a gleam of downright
+sense an&#8217; told me he&#8217;d been lookin&#8217; for me, to make
+me manager of the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m reckonin&#8217; to be manager&mdash;beginnin&#8217; now. If
+there&#8217;s any of you men that ain&#8217;t admirin&#8217; to do the
+jumpin&#8217; when I yap orders to you, you&#8217;re doin&#8217; your
+gassin&#8217; right now. Them that&#8217;s pinin&#8217; to work under
+me is sure of a square deal, beginnin&#8217; now, and continuin&#8217;
+henceforth. I reckon that&#8217;s all.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Into Harlan&#8217;s eyes as he talked had come that vacuous
+light that had been in them when he had faced
+Deveny&#8217;s men in Lamo&mdash;the light that was always in
+his eyes whenever he faced more than one man, with
+trouble imminent.
+</p>
+<p>He saw the face of every man in the group&mdash;while
+seeming not to be looking at any of them. He noted
+the various shades of expression that came into their
+faces as they digested his words, he saw how some of
+them watched him with sober interest and how others
+permitted themselves a sneer of incredulity or dislike.
+</p>
+<p>He noted that a tall, slender, swarthy man on the
+extreme left of the group watched him with a malevolent
+gaze, his eyes flaming hate; he saw a black-haired,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_123' name='page_123'></a>123</span>
+hook-nosed fellow near the center of the group
+watching him with a grin of cold contempt.
+</p>
+<p>It seemed to Harlan that a fair proportion of the
+men were willing to acknowledge his authority&mdash;for
+they were frankly studying him, ready to greet him as
+their employer. Many others, however, were as
+frankly hostile.
+</p>
+<p>After Harlan ceased speaking there came a short
+silence, during which many of the men looked at one
+another inquiringly.
+</p>
+<p>It was a moment during which, had a leader appeared
+to take the initiative for those who intended
+to dissent from Harlan&#8217;s rule, the outfit might have
+been divided.
+</p>
+<p>Evidently the tall, swarthy man divined that the
+time to dissent had come, for he cleared his throat, and
+grinned felinely.
+</p>
+<p>Before he could speak, however, a short man with
+keen eyes that, since the instant they had rested upon
+Harlan, had been glowing with something that might
+have been defined as mingled astonishment and delight
+thinly concealed by a veneer of humor&mdash;said distinctly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You crossed over from Pardo&mdash;you say?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan nodded, and a pin-point of recognition
+glowed in his eyes as he looked at the man.
+</p>
+<p>The other laughed, lowly. &#8220;Seems I know you,&#8221;
+he said. &#8220;You&#8217;re &#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>A tremor ran through the group. There was a concerted
+stiffening of bodies, a general sigh from lungs
+in process of deflation. And then the group stood
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_124' name='page_124'></a>124</span>
+silent, every man watching Harlan with that intent
+curiosity that comes with one&#8217;s first glimpse of a noted
+character, introduced without expectation.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan noted that a change had come over the men.
+Those whose faces had betrayed their inclination to accept
+his authority had taken&mdash;without exception&mdash;a
+glum, disappointed expression. On the other hand,
+those who had formerly betrayed hostility, were now
+grinning with satisfaction.
+</p>
+<p>A tremor of malicious amusement, expressed visibly
+by a flicker of his eyelids, was Harlan&#8217;s only emotion
+over the change that had come in the men of the
+group. He could now have selected those of the men
+who&mdash;as Lane Morgan had said&mdash;could not be
+trusted, and he could have pointed out those who had
+been loyal to Morgan, and who would be loyal to
+Barbara and himself.
+</p>
+<p>Among the former were the tall, swarthy man on
+the extreme left, and the hook-nosed fellow near the
+center. There were perhaps ten of the latter, and it
+was plain to Harlan that the short man who had
+spoken was their leader.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan&mdash;eh?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>This was the tall, swarthy man. The malevolence
+had gone from his eyes, he was grinning broadly,
+though there was respect of a fawning character in his
+manner as he stepped out from the group and halted
+within a few feet of Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Me an&#8217; my friends wasn&#8217;t none tickled to find that
+we was goin&#8217; to have a new manager. We was sort of
+expectin&#8217; Miss Barbara to do the runnin&#8217; herself. But
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_125' name='page_125'></a>125</span>
+if <i>you</i> say you&#8217;re runnin&#8217; things, that makes it a whole
+lot different. We ain&#8217;t buckin&#8217; &#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan&#8217;s
+game.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thank you,&#8221; grinned Harlan. &#8220;I saw you reportin&#8217;
+to Miss Morgan. You&#8217;re straw-boss, I reckon.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve hit it. I&#8217;m Stroud&mdash;Lafe Stroud.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll keep on bein&#8217; straw-boss,&#8221; said Harlan,
+shortly. &#8220;I&#8217;m appointin&#8217; a foreman.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where&#8217;s Lawson?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was Stroud who spoke. There was a shadow of
+disappointment in his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Lawson won&#8217;t be needin&#8217; a title any more,&#8221; said
+Harlan, narrowing his eyes at the other. &#8220;He needs
+plantin&#8217;. Soon as we get set some of you boys can go
+over an&#8217; take care of him. You&#8217;ll find him in the
+harness shop. He busted down the door of Miss Barbara&#8217;s
+room last night, an&#8217; she made a colander out
+of him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan ignored the effect of his news on the men,
+fixing his gaze on the short man who had spoken first,
+and who was now standing silent, in an attitude that
+hinted of dejection.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll be foreman, Linton,&#8221; he stated shortly.
+</p>
+<p>Linton, who had been glumly listening, was so
+startled by the sudden descent upon his shoulders of
+the mantle of authority that he straightened with a
+snap and grabbed wildly at his hat&mdash;which dropped
+from his head despite his effort to clutch it, revealing
+a mop of fiery red hair. When he straightened, after
+recovering the hat, his freckled face was crimson with
+embarrassment and astonishment.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_126' name='page_126'></a>126</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m obliged to you,&#8221; he mumbled.
+</p>
+<p>That had ended it. The following morning Linton
+came to Harlan for orders, and a little later the entire
+outfit, headed by Stroud, and trailed by the chuck-wagon
+and the horses of the <i>remuda</i>, started southward
+to a distant section of the big level, leaving Linton
+and Harlan at the ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>And as the outfit faded into the southern distance,
+Harlan, walking near the larger of the two bunkhouses,
+came upon Linton.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan grinned when he saw the other.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You didn&#8217;t go with the outfit, Red?&#8221; he said.
+&#8220;Seems a foreman ought to be mighty eager to be with
+his men on their first trip after he&#8217;s appointed.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Linton&#8217;s face was pale, his gaze was direct.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Look here, Harlan,&#8221; he said, steadily. &#8220;I&#8217;ve
+knowed you a long time, an&#8217; I know that you&#8217;re a
+damn&#8217; sight straighter than a lot of men which has got
+reputations better than yourn. But there&#8217;s some things
+want explainin&#8217;. I&#8217;ve sort of took a shine to that little
+girl in there. There&#8217;s things brewin&#8217; which is goin&#8217;
+to make it mighty bad for her. It wasn&#8217;t so bad while
+old Morgan was here, but now he&#8217;s gone, an&#8217; she&#8217;s got
+to play it a lone hand.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You git riled an&#8217; sling your gun on me if you want
+to. I know I wouldn&#8217;t have a chance. But just the
+same, I&#8217;m tellin&#8217; you. You know that more&#8217;n half that
+outfit you&#8217;ve put me at the head of is Deveny&#8217;s men&mdash;sneakin&#8217;,
+thievin&#8217;, murderin&#8217; outlaws?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You wantin&#8217; to quit, Red?&#8221; said Harlan, smoothly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Quit! Hell&#8217;s fire! I&#8217;m hangin&#8217; on to the finish.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_127' name='page_127'></a>127</span>
+But I&#8217;m findin&#8217; out where you stand. What you
+meanin&#8217; to do with Barbara Morgan?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan grinned. &#8220;I answered that question when I
+appointed you foreman, Red. But I reckon I made a
+mistake&mdash;I ought to have appointed a man who knows
+what his think-box is for.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Linton flushed, and peered intently at the other.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Meanin&#8217; that you&#8217;re backin&#8217; Barbara in this here
+deal?&#8221; he demanded.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A real thoughtful man would have tumbled to it
+quicker,&#8221; was Harlan&#8217;s soft, ironical reply.
+</p>
+<p>For an instant Linton&#8217;s gaze was intense with
+searching, probing inquiry. And Harlan&#8217;s steady eyes
+were agleam with a light that was so quietly honest
+that it made Linton gasp:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Damn me! You mean it! You&#8217;re playin&#8217; &#8217;em
+straight, face up. That talk of yourn about Lane
+Morgan makin&#8217; you manager was straight goods. I
+know Dolver an&#8217; Laskar an&#8217; the guy they call &#8216;Chief&#8217;
+plugged Morgan&mdash;for I heard Stroud an&#8217; some more
+of them talkin&#8217; about it. An&#8217; I heard that you got
+Dolver an&#8217; Laskar, an&#8217; kept Deveny from grabbin&#8217; off
+Barbara Morgan, over in Lamo. But I thought you
+was playin&#8217; for Barbara, too&mdash;an&#8217; I wasn&#8217;t figurin&#8217; on
+lettin&#8217; you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan laughed lowly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Things don&#8217;t always shape up the way a man
+thinks they will, Red. I started for Lamo, figurin&#8217; to
+salivate Dolver an&#8217; the other guy who killed Davey
+Langan. I got Dolver at Sentinel Rock, an&#8217; I figured
+I&#8217;d be likely to run into the other guy somewheres&mdash;mebbe
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_128' name='page_128'></a>128</span>
+findin&#8217; him in Deveny&#8217;s gang. But runnin&#8217; into
+Lane Morgan sort of changed the deal. An&#8217; now I&#8217;m
+postponin&#8217; a lot of things until Barbara Morgan is
+runnin&#8217; free, with no coyotes from the Deveny crowd
+tryin&#8217; to rope her.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Linton&#8217;s eyes were glowing, he crowded close to
+Harlan, so close that his body touched Harlan&#8217;s,
+and he stood thus for an instant, breathing fast. Then,
+noting the unwavering, genial gleam in Harlan&#8217;s eyes&mdash;a
+visible sign of Harlan&#8217;s knowledge of his deep
+emotion&mdash;Linton seized one of the other&#8217;s hands and
+gripped it tightly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Damn your hide,&#8221; he said, lowly, &#8220;you had me
+goin&#8217;. I&#8217;m dead set on seein&#8217; that girl git a square
+deal, an&#8217; when I saw you makin&#8217; a play for them
+damned outlaws that are in the outfit, I sure figured
+there&#8217;d be hell a-poppin&#8217; around the Rancho Seco.
+You sure had me flabbergasted when you named me
+foreman, for I couldn&#8217;t anticipate your trail none.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But I reckon I&#8217;m wised up, now. You&#8217;re goin&#8217; to
+run a whizzer in on &#8217;em&mdash;playin&#8217; &#8217;em for suckers.
+An&#8217; I&#8217;m your right-hand man&mdash;stickin&#8217; with you until
+hell runs long on icebergs!&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIV_SHADOWS' id='XIV_SHADOWS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_129' name='page_129'></a>129</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIV</h2>
+<h3>SHADOWS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>A desire to ride once more in the peaceful sunshine
+of the land she loved was one of the first
+indications that Barbara was recovering from the shock
+occasioned by her father&#8217;s death. For two or three
+days she had not stirred from her room, except to go
+downstairs to cook her meals. She had spent much of
+her time sitting at a window nursing her sorrow.
+</p>
+<p>But on this morning she got out of bed feeling more
+composed than usual, with several new emotions struggling
+for the mastery. One of those emotions was
+that of intolerance.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s assumption of authority enraged her. He
+had come to the Rancho Seco with no credentials other
+than his mere word that her father had forced him
+to promise to &#8220;take hold&#8221; of &#8220;things.&#8221; And she intended,
+this very morning, to send Harlan away, and
+to assume control of the ranch herself.
+</p>
+<p>This determination held until after she had breakfasted,
+and then she stood for a long time in the
+kitchen door, looking out into the brilliant sunshine,
+afflicted with a strange indecision.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan <i>had</i> helped to fill the void created by her
+father&#8217;s death&mdash;that was certain. There had been
+something satisfying in his presence at the ranch; it
+had seemed to mean an assurance for her safety; she
+had felt almost as fully protected as when her father
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_130' name='page_130'></a>130</span>
+had been with her. It angered her to see him moving
+about the place as though he had a perfect right to be
+there, but at the same time she felt comfortably certain
+that as long as he was around no harm could come
+to her.
+</p>
+<p>Her emotions were so contradictory that she could
+not reach a decision regarding the action she should
+take and she bit her lips with vexation as she stood in
+the doorway.
+</p>
+<p>Later, her cheeks a little flushed with the realization
+that she was surrendering to an emotion that she could
+not understand&mdash;but which, she decided guiltily, her
+face crimson, had its inception in a conviction that she
+would regret seeing Harlan ride away, to return no
+more&mdash;she went to the corral, roped her pony, threw
+saddle and bridle on it, mounted the animal, and rode
+away&mdash;westward.
+</p>
+<p>She had not traveled more than half a mile when
+she heard the rapid beating of hoofs behind her.
+Glancing swiftly backward, she saw Purgatory coming,
+Harlan in the saddle, smoking a cigarette.
+</p>
+<p>Her pulses leaped, unaccountably, and the crimson
+flush again stained her cheeks; but she sat rigid in the
+saddle, and looked straight ahead, pretending she had
+not discovered the presence of horse and rider behind
+her.
+</p>
+<p>She rode another half mile before the flush died out
+of her cheeks. And then, responding to a swift indignation,
+she brought Billy to a halt, wheeled him, and
+sat motionless in the saddle, her face pale, her eyes
+flashing.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_131' name='page_131'></a>131</span></p>
+<p>With apparent unconcern Harlan rode toward her.
+The big black horse did not change his pace, nor did
+Harlan change expression. It seemed to the girl that
+in both horse and rider were a steadfastness of purpose
+that nothing could change. And despite her indignation,
+she felt a thrill of admiration for both man and
+horse.
+</p>
+<p>Yet her eyes were still flashing ominously when Harlan
+rode to within a dozen paces of her and brought
+the big black to a halt.
+</p>
+<p>There was an expression of grave respect on Harlan&#8217;s
+face; but she saw a lurking devil in his eyes&mdash;a
+gleam of steady, quizzical humor&mdash;that made her
+yearn to use her quirt on him. For by that gleam she
+knew he had purposely followed her; that he expected
+her to be angry with him for doing so. And the gleam
+also told her that he had determined to bear with her
+anger.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well?&#8221; she inquired, icily.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Good mornin&#8217;, ma&#8217;am.&#8221; He bowed to her, sweeping
+his broad-brimmed hat from his head with, it
+seemed to her, an ironical flourish.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is there something you want to speak to me
+about?&#8221; she asked, her chin elevated, disdain in her
+eyes. She assured herself that when he glanced at her
+as he was doing at this instant, she positively hated
+him. She wondered why she had tolerated his
+presence.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I wasn&#8217;t havin&#8217; any thoughts about speakin&#8217; to you,
+ma&#8217;am. Kind of a nice mornin&#8217; for a ride, ain&#8217;t it?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;If one rides alone,&#8221; she returned, significantly.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_132' name='page_132'></a>132</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I enjoy ridin&#8217; a whole lot better when I&#8217;ve got
+company,&#8221; he stated, gravely, with equal significance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Meaning that you have made up your mind to ride
+with me, I suppose?&#8221; she said coldly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve hit it, ma&#8217;am.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; she declared, her voice quivering with passion;
+&#8220;I don&#8217;t want you to ride with me. You came
+here and usurped whatever power and authority there
+is; and you are running the Rancho Seco as though it
+belongs to you. But you shan&#8217;t ride with me&mdash;I don&#8217;t
+want you to!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Had she been standing she must have stamped one
+foot on the ground, so vehement was her manner. And
+the flashing scorn of her eyes should have been enough
+to discourage most men.
+</p>
+<p>But not Harlan. His eyelids flickered with some
+emotion; and his eyes&mdash;she noted now, even though
+she could have killed him for his maddening insistence&mdash;were
+blue, and rimmed by heavy lashes that sun
+and sand had bleached until the natural brown of them
+threatened to become a light tan.
+</p>
+<p>She studied him, even while hating him for she saw
+the force of him&mdash;felt it. And though she was thinking
+spiteful things of him, she found that she was
+forming a new impression of him&mdash;of his character,
+his appearance, and of the motives that controlled
+him.
+</p>
+<p>And she thought she knew why men avoided having
+trouble with him. She told herself that if she were a
+man and she were facing him with violence in her
+heart, she would consider seriously before she betrayed
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_133' name='page_133'></a>133</span>
+it to him. For in his eyes, in the lips, in the thrust of
+his chin&mdash;even in the atmosphere that surrounded him
+at this instant, was a threat, an unspoken promise, lingering
+and dormant, of complete readiness&mdash;almost
+eagerness, she was convinced&mdash;for violence.
+</p>
+<p>She drew a sharp breath as she watched him. And
+when she saw his lips curving into a slight smile&mdash;wholesome,
+though grave; with a hint of boyish amusement
+in them&mdash;she got another quick impression of
+his character, new and startling and illuminating.
+</p>
+<p>For behind the hard, unyielding exterior that he
+presented to men; back of the promise and the threat
+of violence, was the impulsiveness and the gentleness
+that would have ruled him had not the stern necessity
+of self-preservation forced him to conceal them.
+</p>
+<p>The smile disarmed her. It <i>did</i> seem ludicrous&mdash;that
+she should try to force this man to do anything he
+did not want to do. And she had known that he would
+not obey her, and ride back to the ranchhouse; she
+was convinced that she must either go back or suffer
+him to follow her as he pleased.
+</p>
+<p>And she was determined not to give up her ride.
+She was determined to be very haughty about it,
+though; but when she wheeled Billy, to head him again
+into the western distance, her eyes twinkled her surrender,
+and her lips trembled on the verge of a defiant
+smile.
+</p>
+<p>Then Billy felt the quirt on his flank; he snorted
+with astonishment and disgust, and charged forward,
+tossing his head intolerantly.
+</p>
+<p>Looking sidelong, after Billy had traveled two or
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_134' name='page_134'></a>134</span>
+three hundred yards, Barbara observed that the big
+black horse was not more than half a dozen steps behind.
+And curiously, Barbara again experienced that
+comfortable assurance of protection, and of satisfaction
+over the nearness of Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>Moved by an entirely unaccountable impulse, she
+drew the reins slightly on Billy, slowing him, almost
+imperceptibly, so that both horses had traveled more
+than a quarter of a mile before the distance between
+them lessened noticeably.
+</p>
+<p>And then, with an impatience that caused her cheeks
+to glow, Barbara noted that Purgatory had slowed
+also, Harlan seemingly accommodating the animal&#8217;s
+pace to her own. It was plain to see that Harlan did
+not intend to assume that she had relented.
+</p>
+<p>For another quarter of a mile the distance remained
+the same, and the silence was unbroken except by the
+rhythmical beating of hoofs through the rustling,
+matted mesquite.
+</p>
+<p>Then Barbara, yielding to an impulse of righteous
+anger, brought on by Harlan&#8217;s obvious intention to
+remain at a respectful distance, deliberately brought
+Billy to a walk and waited until Harlan rode beside
+her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t need to be a brute&mdash;even if I did tell
+you to go back to the ranchhouse!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Meanin&#8217; what, ma&#8217;am? Why, I don&#8217;t remember
+to have done anything. I was doin&#8217; a heap of thinkin&#8217;
+just now&mdash;if that&#8217;s what you mean.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thinking mean things of me&mdash;I suppose&mdash;for
+what I said to you.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_135' name='page_135'></a>135</span></p>
+<p>He had been thinking of her&mdash;seriously. And his
+thoughts were far from fickle as he watched her now,
+riding within a few feet of him, her profile toward him,
+her head having a rigid set, her chin held high, her
+lips tight-pressed, and her hair drooping in graceful
+coils over her ears, and bulging in alluring disorder at
+the nape of her neck.
+</p>
+<p>He was thinking that he had braved, to answer a
+mere whim, greater dangers than he would be likely
+to meet in defending her from the wolf-pack which
+circumstances had set upon her. He was thinking that
+heretofore his life had been lived without regard to
+order or system&mdash;that he had led a will-o&#8217;-the-wisp
+existence, never knowing that such women as she
+graced the world. He was thinking of what might
+have happened to her had not Davey Langan been
+killed, and if he had not started out to avenge him.
+</p>
+<p>Into his thoughts at this minute flashed a mental
+picture that paled his face and brought his lips into
+straight, hard lines&mdash;a picture of Barbara at the
+mercy of Deveny.
+</p>
+<p>With a quick turn he brought Purgatory around in
+front of Billy, blocking the animal&#8217;s further progress
+westward. The girl started at the rapid movement,
+and watched him fearfully, dreading&mdash;she knew not
+what.
+</p>
+<p>But his smile&mdash;grim and mirthless though it was&mdash;partially
+reassured her, and she sat silent, looking at
+him as he spoke, rapidly, earnestly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I was thinkin&#8217; of you; an&#8217; I wasn&#8217;t thinkin&#8217; mean
+things&mdash;about you. I was thinkin&#8217; of Deveny&mdash;an&#8217;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_136' name='page_136'></a>136</span>
+of what your dad told me over there by Sentinel Rock.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your dad told me that you was in danger&mdash;that
+Deveny an&#8217; Strom Rogers an&#8217; some more of them had
+their eyes turned on you. Your dad made me promise
+that I&#8217;d come here an&#8217; look out for you&mdash;an&#8217; I mean
+to do it. That&#8217;s why I went to Lamo when I had
+no call to go there an&#8217; that&#8217;s why I brought Deveny
+to a show-down in front of you.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s somethin&#8217; goin&#8217; on around here that ain&#8217;t
+showin&#8217; on the surface&mdash;somethin&#8217; that&#8217;s hidden an&#8217;
+sneakin&#8217;. You heard some of them guys in Lamo
+gassin&#8217; about the &#8216;Chief&#8217; bein&#8217; one of the three that
+sent your dad over the Divide.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, your dad told me that, too&mdash;that there was
+three of them pitched onto him. It was the fellow
+they call Chief that shot your dad while he was sleepin&#8217;&mdash;when
+it was too dark for your dad to see his face.
+Your dad made me promise to hunt that guy up an&#8217;
+square things for him. That&#8217;s what I&#8217;m here for.
+Anyway, it&#8217;s one reason I&#8217;m here. The other reason
+is that I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to see that you get a square deal from
+them guys.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; you won&#8217;t get a square deal ridin&#8217; out alone,
+like this&mdash;especially when you head toward Sunset
+Trail, where Deveny an&#8217; his gang hang out. An&#8217; I&#8217;m
+settin&#8217; down hard on you ridin&#8217; that way. I&#8217;m keepin&#8217;
+you from runnin&#8217; any chances.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Silently Barbara had watched Harlan&#8217;s face while
+he had been talking. There was no doubt that he was
+in earnest, and there was likewise no doubt that he was
+concerned for her safety. But why? It seemed absurd
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_137' name='page_137'></a>137</span>
+that Harlan, an outlaw himself, should protect
+her from other outlaws. Yet in Lamo he had done
+just that.
+</p>
+<p>Behind his actions, his expressed concern for her,
+must be a motive. What was it? Was it possible
+that he was doing this thing unselfishly; that the promise
+her father had exacted from him had changed him;
+that in his heart at this instant dwelt those finer impulses
+which must be dormant in all men, however
+bad?
+</p>
+<p>The light of that great inquiry was in her eyes; they
+searched his face for subtlety and craft and cunning&mdash;for
+something that would give her a clue to his
+thoughts. And when she could find in his expression
+only a grave concern she pulled Billy around and
+started him back toward the ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>They had not ridden more than a hundred yards
+before she stole a glance at Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>He was now riding beside her, looking straight
+ahead, his face expressionless. Had he betrayed the
+slightest sign of triumph she would have changed her
+mind about going back to the ranchhouse with him.
+</p>
+<p>As it was, she felt a pulse of rage over her readiness
+in yielding to his orders. Yet the rage was
+softened by a lurking, stealthy joy she got out of his
+masterfulness.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I presume I may ride in another direction&mdash;east,
+for instance&mdash;or north, or south?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He apparently took no notice of the mockery in her
+voice.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll not be ridin&#8217; alone, anywhere,&#8221; he declared.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_138' name='page_138'></a>138</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh!&#8221; she returned, raising her chin and looking
+at him with a cold scorn that, she thought, would embarrass
+him; &#8220;I am to have a guardian.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He looked straight back to her, steadily, seemingly
+unaffected by the hostility of her gaze.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It amounts to that. But mebbe I wouldn&#8217;t put it
+just that way. Somebody&#8217;s got to look out for you&mdash;to
+see that you don&#8217;t go to rushin&#8217; into trouble. There
+was trouble over in Lamo&mdash;if you&#8217;ll remember.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>And now he smiled gravely at her, and her face
+reddened over the memory of the incident. She had
+been eager enough, then, to seek his protection; she
+had trusted him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That wasn&#8217;t your fault,&#8221; he went on gently.
+&#8220;You didn&#8217;t know then, mebbe, just what kind of a
+guy Deveny is. But you know now, an&#8217; it <i>would</i> be
+your fault if you run into him again.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He saw how she took it&mdash;how her color came and
+went, and how her eyes drooped from his. He smiled
+soberly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Looks to me that you&#8217;ve got to pin your faith to a
+mighty small chance, ma&#8217;am.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What chance?&#8221; She looked at him in startled
+wonderment, for it had not occurred to her that she
+faced any real danger, despite the threatening attitude
+of Deveny, and her isolation. For the great, peaceful
+world, and the swimming sunlight were full of the
+promise of the triumph of right and virtue; and the
+sturdy self-reliance of youth was in her heart.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What chance?&#8221; she repeated, watching him keenly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The chance that me an&#8217; Red Linton will be able
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_139' name='page_139'></a>139</span>
+to get things into shape to look out for you.&#8221; He
+was gravely serious.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It must seem a mighty slim chance to you&mdash;me
+comin&#8217; here with a reputation that ain&#8217;t any too good,
+an&#8217; Linton, with his red head an&#8217; his freckles. Seems
+like a woman would go all wrong, pinnin&#8217; her faith to
+red hair an&#8217; freckles an&#8217; a hell-raisin&#8217; outlaw. But
+there&#8217;s been worse combinations, ma&#8217;am&mdash;if I do say
+it myself. An&#8217; me an&#8217; Red is figurin&#8217; to come through,
+no matter what you think of us.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Red Linton?&#8221; she said. &#8220;That is the little, short,
+red-haired man you put in Lawson&#8217;s place, isn&#8217;t it? I
+have never noticed him&mdash;particularly. It seems that
+I have always thought him rather unimportant.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan grinned. &#8220;That&#8217;s a trick Red&#8217;s got&mdash;seemin&#8217;
+unimportant. Red spends a heap of his time
+not sayin&#8217; anything, an&#8217; hangin&#8217; around lookin&#8217; like
+he&#8217;s been misplaced. But when there&#8217;s any trouble,
+you&#8217;ll find Red like the banty rooster that&#8217;s figurin&#8217;
+to rule the roost.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I knowed him over in Pardo, ma&#8217;am&mdash;he rode
+for the T Down for two or three seasons.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are anticipating trouble&mdash;with Deveny?&#8221;
+she asked, a tremor in her voice.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There ain&#8217;t any use of tryin&#8217; to hide it, ma&#8217;am.
+Mebbe your dad thought you&#8217;d be better off by him
+not mentionin&#8217; it to you. But I&#8217;ve got a different idea.
+Anyone&mdash;man or woman&mdash;knows a heap more about
+how to go about things if they&#8217;re sort of able to anticipate
+trouble. Your dad told me things was in a mixup
+over here with Deveny an&#8217; some more of his kind; an&#8217;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_140' name='page_140'></a>140</span>
+I ain&#8217;t aimin&#8217; to let you go ramblin&#8217; around in the dark.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;About half the Rancho Seco men belong to Deveny&#8217;s
+gang, Linton says. That&#8217;s why I put Linton in
+Lawson&#8217;s place; an&#8217; that&#8217;s why I&#8217;m askin&#8217; you to stick
+pretty close to the Rancho Seco, an&#8217; requestin&#8217; you not
+to go rummagin&#8217; around the country.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She rode on silently, her face pale, digesting this
+disquieting news. She remembered now that her
+father <i>had</i> seemed rather worried at times, and that
+upon several occasions he had hinted that he was distrustful
+of some of the Rancho Seco men. But as Harlan
+had said, he had never taken her completely into
+his confidence&mdash;no doubt because he had not wanted
+her to worry. That was very like her father&mdash;always
+making life easy for her.
+</p>
+<p>However, covertly watching Harlan, she was conscious
+of an emotion that the latter did not suspect.
+The emotion was confidence&mdash;not in Harlan, for,
+though she had seen that he, apparently, was eager to
+become her champion, she could not forget that he,
+too, was an outlaw, with no proof that he had been
+sent to the Rancho Seco by her father; with nothing
+but his actions to convince her that his motives were
+founded upon consideration for her welfare.
+</p>
+<p>She thought of John Haydon as she rode beside
+Harlan; and it was confidence in him that was expressed
+in her glances at Harlan; she was convinced
+that she did not have to depend entirely upon Harlan.
+And when, as they neared the ranchhouse, and she saw
+a big gray horse standing near the entrance to the
+<i>patio</i>, her face reddened and her eyes grew brilliant
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_141' name='page_141'></a>141</span>
+with a light that drew a cold smile to Harlan&#8217;s face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That will be John Haydon&#8217;s horse, I reckon,&#8221; he
+said slowly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why,&#8221; she returned, startled; &#8220;how did you
+know?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He rode on, not replying. When they reached the
+ranchhouse, Harlan loped Purgatory toward one of
+the bunkhouses, in front of which he saw Red Linton
+standing. Barbara directed Billy to the <i>patio</i> entrance,
+and dismounted, her face flushed, to meet a man who
+came out of the open gateway to greet her, his face
+wreathed in a delighted smile.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XV_LINKED' id='XV_LINKED'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_142' name='page_142'></a>142</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XV</h2>
+<h3>LINKED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>&#8220;So you came at last?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Barbara had some difficulty in keeping resentment
+prominent in her voice as she faced John Haydon,
+for other emotions were clamoring within her&mdash;joy
+because Haydon <i>had</i> come, even though tardily;
+self-reproach because she saw in Haydon&#8217;s eyes a glowing
+anxiety and sympathy that looked as though they
+were of recent birth.
+</p>
+<p>There was repressed excitement in Haydon&#8217;s manner;
+it was as though he had only just heard of the
+girl&#8217;s affliction and had ridden hard to come to her.
+</p>
+<p>She was sure of the sincerity in his voice when he
+grasped her hands tightly and said:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;At last, Barbara! I heard it only this morning,
+and I have nearly killed my horse getting over here!
+Look at him!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The gray horse certainly did have the appearance of
+having been ridden hard. He stood, his legs braced,
+his head drooping, his muzzle and chest flecked with
+foam. Barbara murmured pityingly as she stroked
+the beast&#8217;s neck; and there was quick forgiveness in
+her eyes when she again looked at Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon was big&mdash;fully as tall as Harlan, and
+broader. His shoulders bulged the blue flannel shirt
+he wore; and it was drawn into folds at his slim
+waist, where a cartridge-studded belt encircled him,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_143' name='page_143'></a>143</span>
+sagging at the right hip with the weight of a heavy
+pistol.
+</p>
+<p>He wore a plain gray silk handkerchief at his
+throat; it sagged at the front, revealing a muscular development
+that had excited the envious admiration of
+men. His hair was coal-black, wavy and abundant&mdash;though
+he wore it short&mdash;with design, it seemed, for
+he must have known that it gave him an alert, virile
+appearance.
+</p>
+<p>His face, despite the tan upon it, and the little wrinkles
+brought by the sun and wind, had a clear, healthy
+color, and his eyes black as his hair, had a keen glint
+behind which lurked humor of a quality not to be determined
+at a glance&mdash;it was changeable, fleeting,
+mysterious.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara was silent. The steady courage that had
+sustained her until this instant threatened to fail her
+in the presence of this big, sympathetic man who
+seemed, to her, to embody that romance for which she
+had always longed. She looked at him, her lips trembling
+with emotion.
+</p>
+<p>Until now she had had no confidant&mdash;no one she
+could be sure of. And so, with Haydon standing close
+to her, though not too close&mdash;for he had never been
+able to achieve that intimacy for which he had yearned&mdash;she
+told him what had happened, including details
+of her father&#8217;s death, as related to her by Harlan;
+finishing by describing the incident with Deveny in
+Lamo (at which Haydon muttered a threat) and the
+subsequent coming of Harlan to the Rancho Seco, together
+with the story of his assumption of authority.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_144' name='page_144'></a>144</span></p>
+<p>When she concluded Haydon laid a sympathetic
+hand on her shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s too bad, Barbara. And on top of it all, Lawson
+had to play the beast, too, eh? Why didn&#8217;t you
+send someone to me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There was no one to send.&#8221; Her voice threatened
+to break, despite the brave gleam that flashed through
+the moisture in her eyes. &#8220;Lawson had sent the men
+away; and when they came in Harlan took charge of
+them. And&mdash;besides,&#8221; she admitted, dropping her
+gaze, &#8220;I&mdash;I thought you ought to&mdash;I thought you
+would&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He shook her, reprovingly, laughing deeply as he
+led her through the gateway into the <i>patio</i>, where they
+sat on a bench for a long time, talking, while the aspect
+of the <i>patio</i> began to change, becoming again a place
+of cheerfulness flooded with the soft, radiant light of
+returning happiness&mdash;reflected in her eyes; while the
+sunlight streaming down into the enclosure took on a
+brightness that made the girl&#8217;s eyes glisten; while the
+drab and empty days since her father&#8217;s death began to
+slip back into the limbo of memory&mdash;the sting and
+the sorrow of them removed. So does the heart of
+youth respond to the nearness of romance.
+</p>
+<p>They had been talking for half an hour when Barbara
+remembered that Haydon had not expressed a
+desire to meet Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon&#8217;s face lost a little of its color as he replied
+to her suggestion that they find the man.
+</p>
+<p>But he laughed, rather mirthlessly, she thought.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I intend to see him, Barbara&mdash;but alone. There
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_145' name='page_145'></a>145</span>
+are several things of importance that I want to say to
+him&mdash;chiefly concerning his conduct toward you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He got up. Barbara rose also, and walked with
+him, outside the gate, where he got on his horse, smiling
+down at her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan was right about your riding out alone. I&#8217;d
+stay as close to the ranchhouse as possible. There&#8217;s
+no telling what Deveny might try to do. But don&#8217;t
+worry. If it wasn&#8217;t so soon after&mdash;after what has
+happened&mdash;I would&mdash;&#8221; He smiled, and Barbara
+knew he meant what he had said to her many times&mdash;about
+there being a parson in Lazette, a hundred miles
+or so northeastward&mdash;and of his eagerness to be present
+with her while the parson &#8220;tied the knot.&#8221; His
+manner had always been jocose, and yet she knew of
+the earnestness behind it.
+</p>
+<p>Still, she had not yielded to his importunities, because
+she had not been quite sure that she wanted him.
+Nor was she certain now, though she liked him better
+at this moment than she had ever liked him before.
+</p>
+<p>She shook her head negatively, answering his smile;
+and watched him as he rode around a corner of the
+ranchhouse toward the corral where, no doubt, he
+would find Harlan.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Harlan had ridden directly to the bunkhouse door
+and dismounted. Red Linton said nothing until Harlan
+seated himself on a bench just outside the bunkhouse
+door. Then Linton grinned at him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a geezer come a-wooin&#8217;,&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan glared at the red-haired man&mdash;a truculent,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_146' name='page_146'></a>146</span>
+savage glare that made Linton stretch his lips until
+the corners threatened to retreat to his ears. Then
+Linton assumed a deprecatory manner.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They ain&#8217;t no chance for <i>him</i>, I reckon. He&#8217;s
+been burnin&#8217; up the breeze between here an&#8217; the Star
+for more&#8217;n a year&mdash;an&#8217; she ain&#8217;t as much as kissed
+him, I&#8217;d swear!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan did not answer.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You saw him?&#8221; questioned Linton.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shut your rank mouth.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Linton chuckled. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t know you&#8217;d been hit
+that bad. Howsomever, if you <i>have</i> been, why, there&#8217;s
+no sense of me wastin&#8217; time gassin&#8217; to you. They
+ain&#8217;t nothin&#8217; will cure that complaint but petticoats an&#8217;
+smiles&mdash;the which is mighty dangerous an&#8217; uncertain.
+I knowed a man once&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan got up and walked to the bunkhouse. And
+Linton, grinning, called loudly after him, pretending
+astonishment.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, he&#8217;s gone. Disappeared complete. An&#8217; me
+tryin&#8217; to jam some sense into his head.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Grinning, Linton sauntered away, vanishing within
+the blacksmith-shop.
+</p>
+<p>He had hardly disappeared when Haydon appeared
+from around a corner of the ranchhouse, at about the
+instant Harlan, sensing the departure of Linton, came
+to the door, frowning.
+</p>
+<p>The frown still narrowed Harlan&#8217;s eyes when they
+rested upon the horseman; and his brows were drawn
+together with unmistakable truculence when Haydon
+dismounted near the corral fence.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_147' name='page_147'></a>147</span></p>
+<p>Haydon&#8217;s manner had undergone a change. When
+in the presence of Barbara he had been confident, nonchalant.
+When he dismounted from his horse and
+walked toward Harlan there was about him an atmosphere
+that suggested carefulness. Before Haydon had
+taken half a dozen steps Harlan was aware that the
+man knew him&mdash;knew of his reputation&mdash;and feared
+him.
+</p>
+<p>Respect was in Haydon&#8217;s eyes, in the droop of his
+shoulders, in his hesitating step. And into Harlan&#8217;s
+eyes came a gleam of that contempt which had always
+seized him when in the presence of men who feared
+him.
+</p>
+<p>And yet, had not Harlan possessed the faculty of
+reading character at a glance; had he not had that uncanny
+instinct of divining the thoughts of men who
+meditated violence, he could not have known that
+Haydon feared him.
+</p>
+<p>For Haydon&#8217;s fear was not abject. It was that
+emotion which counsels caution, which warns of a
+worthy antagonist, which respects force that is elemental
+and destroying.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon smiled as he halted within a few paces of
+Harlan and turned the palms of his hands outward.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re &#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan, of Pardo,&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan nodded.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;My name&#8217;s Haydon. I own the Star&mdash;about fifteen
+miles west&mdash;on Sunset Trail. I happen to be a
+friend of Miss Morgan&#8217;s, and I&#8217;d like to talk with you
+about the Rancho Seco.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Get goin&#8217;.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_148' name='page_148'></a>148</span></p>
+<p>Haydon&#8217;s smile grew less expansive.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a rather difficult subject to discuss. It rather
+seems to be none of my affair. But you will understand,
+being interested in Barbara&#8217;s future, and in the
+welfare of the ranch, why I am presuming to question
+you. What do you intend to do with the ranch?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Run it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Of course,&#8221; smiled Haydon. &#8220;I mean, of course,
+to refer to the financial end of it. Miss Morgan will
+handle the money, I suppose.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You got orders from Miss Barbara to gas to me
+about the ranch?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, no, I can&#8217;t say that I have. But I have a
+natural desire to know.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll be tellin&#8217; her what I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to do.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon smiled faintly. Twice, during the silence
+that followed Harlan&#8217;s reply, Haydon shifted his gaze
+from Harlan&#8217;s face to the ground between himself and
+the other, and then back again. It was plain to Haydon
+that he could proceed no farther in that direction
+without incurring the wrath that slumbered in Harlan&#8217;s
+heart, revealed by his narrowing eyes.
+</p>
+<p>In Harlan&#8217;s heart was a bitter, savage passion.
+Hatred for this man, which had been aroused by Barbara&#8217;s
+reference to him, and intensified by his visit to
+the girl, had been made malignant by his appearance
+now in the rôle of inquisitor.
+</p>
+<p>Jealousy, Harlan would not have admitted; yet the
+conviction that Haydon was handsome, and that
+women would like him&mdash;that no doubt Barbara already
+liked him&mdash;brought a cold rage to Harlan. He
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_149' name='page_149'></a>149</span>
+stood, during the momentary silence, his lips curving
+with contempt, his eyes glinting with a passion that was
+unmistakable to Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>He stepped down from the doorway and walked
+slowly to Haydon, coming to a halt within a yard of
+him. His hands were hanging at his sides, his chin had
+gone a little forward; and in his manner was the threat
+that had brought a paralysis of fear to more than one
+man.
+</p>
+<p>Yet, except for a slow stiffening of his muscles, Haydon
+betrayed no fear. There was a slight smile on his
+lips; his eyes met Harlan&#8217;s steadily and unblinkingly.
+In them was a glint of that mysterious humor which
+other men had seen in them.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I know you&#8217;re lightning on the draw, Harlan,&#8221; he
+said, his faint smile fading a trifle. &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t have
+a chance with you; I&#8217;m not a gun-fighter. For that
+reason I don&#8217;t want any disagreement with you. And
+I&#8217;ve heard enough about you to know that you don&#8217;t
+shoot unless the other fellow is out to &#8216;get&#8217; you.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We won&#8217;t have any trouble. Be fair. As the
+man who will ultimately take charge of the Rancho
+Seco&mdash;since Miss Barbara has been good enough to
+encourage me&mdash;I would like to know some things.
+I&#8217;ve heard that Lane Morgan was killed at Sentinel
+Rock, and that you were with him when he died&mdash;and
+just before. Did he give you authority to take charge
+of the Rancho Seco?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He told me to take hold.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A written order?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;His word.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_150' name='page_150'></a>150</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;He said nothing else; there were no papers on
+him&mdash;nothing of value?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Neither man had permitted his eyes to waver from
+the other&#8217;s since Harlan had advanced; and they now
+stood, with only the few feet of space between them,
+looking steadily at each other.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan saw in Haydon&#8217;s eyes a furtive, stealthy
+gleam as of cupidity glossed over with a pretense of
+frank curiosity. He sensed greed in Haydon&#8217;s gaze,
+and knowledge of a mysterious quality.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon knew something about Lane Morgan&#8217;s errand
+to Pardo; he knew why the man had started for
+Pardo, and what had been on his person at the time of
+his death.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan was convinced of that; and the light in his
+eyes as he looked into Haydon&#8217;s reflected the distrust
+and the contempt he had for the man.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you think Morgan had in his clothes?&#8221;
+he questioned suddenly.
+</p>
+<p>A slow flush of color stole into Haydon&#8217;s cheeks,
+then receded, leaving him a trifle pale. He laughed,
+with a pretense of mockery.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You ought to know,&#8221; he said, a snarl in his voice.
+&#8220;You must have searched him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan grinned with feline mirthlessness. And he
+stepped back a little, knowledge and satisfaction in his
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>For he had &#8220;looked Haydon over,&#8221; following Morgan&#8217;s
+instructions. He had purposely permitted Haydon
+to question him, expecting that during the exchange
+of talk the man would say something that
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_151' name='page_151'></a>151</span>
+would corroborate the opinion that Harlan had instantly
+formed, that Haydon was not to be trusted.
+</p>
+<p>And Haydon&#8217;s snarl; the cupidity in his eyes, and
+his ill-veiled eagerness had convinced Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan did not resent Haydon&#8217;s manner; he was
+too pleased over his discovery that Haydon possessed
+traits of character that unfitted him for an alliance
+with Barbara. And it would be his business to bring
+those traits out, so that Barbara could see them unmistakably.
+</p>
+<p>He laughed lowly, dropping his gaze to Haydon&#8217;s
+belt; to his right hand, which hung limply near his
+pistol holster; and to the woolen shirt, with the silk
+handkerchief at the throat sagging picturesquely.
+</p>
+<p>His gaze roved over Haydon&mdash;insolently, contemptuously;
+his lips twitching with the grim humor
+that had seized him. And Haydon stood, not moving
+a muscle, undergoing the scrutiny with rigid body, with
+eyes that had become wide with a queer sensation of
+dread wonder that was stealing over him; and with a
+pallor that was slowly becoming ghastly.
+</p>
+<p>For he had no doubt that at last he had unwittingly
+aroused the demon in Harlan, and that violence, which
+he had wished to avoid, was imminent.
+</p>
+<p>But Harlan&#8217;s roving gaze, as he backed slightly
+away from Haydon, came to the breast-pocket of the
+man&#8217;s shirt. His gaze centered there definitely, his
+eyes narrowing, his muscles leaping a little.
+</p>
+<p>For out of the pocket stretched a gold chain, broken,
+its upper end&mdash;where it entered the buttonhole of the
+shirt&mdash;fastened to the buttonhole with a rawhide
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_152' name='page_152'></a>152</span>
+thong, as though the gold section were not long enough
+to reach.
+</p>
+<p>And the gold section of the chain was of the peculiar
+pattern of the section that Harlan had picked up on
+the desert near Sentinel Rock.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVI_DEEP_WATER' id='XVI_DEEP_WATER'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_153' name='page_153'></a>153</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVI</h2>
+<h3>DEEP WATER</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Despite his conviction that he stood in the presence
+of the mysterious &#8220;Chief&#8221; of whom he had
+heard much, Harlan&#8217;s expression did not change.
+There was a new interest added to it, and a deeper
+glow in his eyes. But he gave no outward evidence of
+surprise.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon I searched him,&#8221; he said, answering Haydon&#8217;s
+charge. &#8220;If I found anything on him I&#8217;m turnin&#8217;
+it over to Barbara Morgan&mdash;or hangin&#8217; onto it.
+That&#8217;s my business.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon laughed, for Harlan&#8217;s voice had broken the
+tension that had come with the interval of threatening
+silence.
+</p>
+<p>Since he could not induce Harlan to divulge anything
+of interest there was nothing to do but to withdraw
+as gracefully as possible. And he backed away,
+smiling, saying placatively:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No offense intended, Harlan. I was merely curious
+on Barbara&#8217;s account.&#8221; He mounted his horse,
+urged it along the corral fence, and sent back a
+smiling:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So-long.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Motionless, still standing where he had stood when
+Haydon climbed on his horse, Harlan watched while
+the man rode the short distance to the house. At the
+corner around which he had appeared some minutes
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_154' name='page_154'></a>154</span>
+before, Haydon brought his horse to a halt, waved a
+hand&mdash;at Barbara, Harlan supposed&mdash;and then rode
+on, heading westward toward Sunset Trail.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan watched him until he had penetrated far into
+the big valley; then he turned, slowly, and sought
+Red Linton&mdash;finding him in the blacksmith-shop.
+</p>
+<p>Later in the day&mdash;after Harlan and Linton had
+talked long, standing in the door of the blacksmith-shop&mdash;Linton
+mounted his horse and rode to where
+Harlan stood.
+</p>
+<p>Linton was prepared for a long ride. Folded in
+the slicker that was strapped to the cantle of his saddle
+was food; he carried his rifle in the saddle sheath, and
+a water-bag bulged above the horse&#8217;s withers.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You won&#8217;t find all the T Down boys yearnin&#8217; to
+bust into this ruckus,&#8221; Harlan said as he stood near
+Linton&#8217;s horse as Linton grinned down at him; &#8220;but
+there&#8217;ll be some. Put it right up to them that it ain&#8217;t
+goin&#8217; to be no pussy-kitten job, an&#8217; that it&#8217;s likely some
+of them won&#8217;t ever see the T Down again. But to
+offset that, you can tell &#8217;em that if we make good, the
+Rancho Seco will owe them a heap&mdash;an&#8217; they&#8217;ll get
+what&#8217;s comin&#8217; to them.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He watched while Linton rode eastward over the
+big level; then he grinned and walked to the ranchhouse,
+going around the front and standing in the wide
+gateway where he saw Barbara sitting on a bench
+in the <i>patio</i>, staring straight ahead, meditatively, unaware
+that he was standing in the gateway, watching
+her.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan watched the girl for a long time&mdash;until she
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_155' name='page_155'></a>155</span>
+turned and saw him. Then she blushed and stood up,
+looking at him in slight wonderment as he came toward
+her and stood within a few feet of her.
+</p>
+<p>On Harlan&#8217;s face was a slow, genial grin.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sunnin&#8217; yourself, eh?&#8221; he said. &#8220;Well, it&#8217;s a
+mighty nice day&mdash;not too hot. Have you knowed
+him long?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The startling irrelevance of the question caused
+Barbara to gaze sharply at Harlan, and when their
+eyes met she noted that his were twinkling with a light
+that she could not fathom. She hated him when she
+could not understand him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Haydon, do you mean?&#8221; she questioned, a
+sudden coldness in her voice.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan nodded.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A little more than a year, I think. It was just
+after I returned from school, at Denver.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He watched her, saying lowly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So it was Denver. I&#8217;d been wonderin&#8217;. I knowed
+it must have been some place. Schoolin&#8217; is a thing
+that I never had time to monkey with&mdash;I reckon my
+folks didn&#8217;t believe a heap in &#8217;em.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve lived in the West all your life&mdash;you were
+born in the West, I suppose?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He looked keenly at her. &#8220;I expect you knowed
+that without askin&#8217;. I&#8217;ve been wonderin&#8217; if it would
+have made any difference.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;How?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;In me. Do you think an education makes a man
+act different&mdash;gives him different ideas about his actions&mdash;in
+his dealin&#8217;s with women, for instance?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_156' name='page_156'></a>156</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I expect it does. Education should make a man
+more considerate of women&mdash;it is refining.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you reckon a man that ain&#8217;t had any education
+is coarse, an&#8217; don&#8217;t know how to treat a woman?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I didn&#8217;t say that; I said education <i>should</i> make a
+man treat women that way.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But it don&#8217;t always?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think not. I have known men&mdash;well educated
+men&mdash;who failed to treat women as they should be
+treated.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then that ain&#8217;t what you might call a hard-an&#8217;-fast
+rule&mdash;it don&#8217;t always work. An&#8217; there&#8217;s hope for
+any man who ain&#8217;t had schoolin&#8217;&mdash;if he&#8217;s wantin&#8217; to be
+a man.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Certainly.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But an educated man can&#8217;t claim ignorance when
+he aims to mistreat a woman. That&#8217;s how it figures
+up, ain&#8217;t it?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She laughed. &#8220;It would seem to point to that conclusion.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you&#8217;ve knowed Haydon about a year? I reckon
+he&#8217;s educated?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes.&#8221; She watched him closely, wondering at his
+meaning&mdash;why he had brought Haydon&#8217;s name into
+the discussion. She was marveling at the subtle light
+in his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your father liked Haydon&mdash;he told me Haydon
+was the only square man in the country&mdash;besides himself
+an&#8217; Sheriff Gage.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Father liked Haydon. I&#8217;m beginning to believe
+you really <i>did</i> have a talk with father before he died!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_157' name='page_157'></a>157</span></p>
+<p>He smiled. &#8220;Goin&#8217; back to Haydon. I had a talk
+with him a little while ago. I sort of took a shine to
+him.&#8221; He drew from a pocket the section of gold
+chain he had found on the desert, holding it out to her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Here&#8217;s a piece of Haydon&#8217;s watch chain,&#8221; he said
+slowly, watching her face. &#8220;The next time Haydon
+comes to see you, give it to him, tellin&#8217; him I found it.
+It&#8217;s likely he&#8217;ll ask you where I found it. But you can
+say I wasn&#8217;t mentionin&#8217;.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He turned, looking back over his shoulder at her as
+he walked toward the gate.
+</p>
+<p>She stood, holding the glittering links in the palm
+of one hand, doubt and suspicion in her eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why,&#8221; she called after him; &#8220;he was just here,
+and you say you talked with him! Why didn&#8217;t you
+give it to him?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Forgot it, ma&#8217;am. An&#8217; I reckon you&#8217;ll be seein&#8217;
+him before I do.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Then he strode out through the gate, leaving her to
+speculate upon the mystery of his words and his odd
+action in leaving the chain with her when he could
+have personally returned it to Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan, however, was grinning as he returned to
+the bunkhouse. For he wanted Barbara to see Haydon&#8217;s
+face when the section of chain was returned to
+him, to gain whatever illumination she could from the
+incident. He did not care to tell her&mdash;yet&mdash;that
+Haydon had killed her father; but he did desire to
+create in her mind a doubt of Haydon, so that she
+would hesitate to confide to him everything that happened
+at the Rancho Seco.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_158' name='page_158'></a>158</span></p>
+<p>For himself, he wanted to intimate delicately to
+Haydon his knowledge of what had really occurred at
+Sentinel Rock; it was a message to the man conveying
+a significance that Haydon could not mistake. It
+meant that for some reason, known only to himself,
+Harlan did not intend to tell what he knew.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVII_FORGING_A_LETTER' id='XVII_FORGING_A_LETTER'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_159' name='page_159'></a>159</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVII</h2>
+<h3>FORGING A LETTER</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The impulse which had moved Harlan to send
+Red Linton to the T Down ranch to enlist the
+services of some of his old friends had resulted from a
+conviction that he could not depend upon those men
+of the Rancho Seco outfit who had seemed to him, to
+be unfriendly to Stroud, the straw-boss. He knew
+nothing about them, and their loyalty to Barbara Morgan
+might be of a quality that would not endure
+through the sort of trouble that seemed to be imminent.
+</p>
+<p>The T Down men&mdash;those who would come&mdash;would
+stand with him no matter what happened&mdash;they
+would do his will without question.
+</p>
+<p>There was no doubt in Harlan&#8217;s mind that John
+Haydon was the mysterious &#8220;Chief&#8221;&mdash;the man who
+had sent into Lane Morgan&#8217;s breast the bullet that had
+ultimately killed him; and there was no doubt that
+some powerful, secret force was at work in the country,
+and that the force was directing its attention to
+the Rancho Seco and the defenseless girl who was at
+the nominal head of it. For some reason the secret
+force had killed her father, had isolated the ranch, had
+encompassed it with enemies, and was working slowly
+and surely to enmesh the girl herself.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan was convinced that one of the motives behind
+the subtle aggressions of the men was a yearning
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_160' name='page_160'></a>160</span>
+for the gold that Morgan had left&mdash;in fact the presence
+of Dolver and Laskar at Sentinel Rock&mdash;and
+Morgan&#8217;s word to him about the gold&mdash;provided
+sufficient evidence on that score.
+</p>
+<p>They had watched Morgan; they suspected he was
+taking gold to Pardo to have it assayed, and they had
+killed him in the hope of finding something on his person
+which would reveal to them where he had hidden
+the rest of it.
+</p>
+<p>One other motive was that of the eternal, ages-old
+passion of a man for woman. Evidence of that passion
+had been revealed to Harlan at Lamo, by the attack
+on Barbara by Deveny&#8217;s hireling&mdash;Higgins; by
+the subtle advances of John Haydon. It seemed to
+Harlan that all of these men had been&mdash;and were&mdash;equally
+determined to possess the girl.
+</p>
+<p>And yet back of it all&mdash;behind that which had been
+rendered visible by the actions of the man and by Harlan&#8217;s
+own deductions&mdash;was something else&mdash;something
+stealthy and hidden; a secret threat of dire things
+to come&mdash;a lingering promise of trickery.
+</p>
+<p>Standing at one of the gates of the corral upon the
+third morning following Linton&#8217;s departure, Harlan
+considered this phase of the situation. He felt the
+hidden threat of something sinister that lurked in the
+atmosphere.
+</p>
+<p>It was all around him. It seemed to lie secreted in
+the yawning space that engulfed the Rancho Seco&mdash;south,
+north, and east. From the haze that stretched
+into the unending distance westward it seemed to come,
+bearing its whispered promise. The solemn hills that
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_161' name='page_161'></a>161</span>
+flanked the wide stretches of Sunset Valley seemed to
+hint of it&mdash;somberly.
+</p>
+<p>Mystery was in the serene calm that seemed to
+encompass the big basin; from the far reaches westward,
+in the misty veil that seemed to hang from the
+far-flung shafts of sunlight that penetrated the fleecy
+clouds, came the sinister threat&mdash;the whole section
+seemed to pulse with it.
+</p>
+<p>And yet Harlan knew there could be no mystery
+except the mysteries of men. Nature was the same
+here as in any other section of the world, and her
+secrets were not more profound than usual.
+</p>
+<p>He grinned mirthlessly at the wonderful basin, noting
+that the Rancho Seco buildings seemed to lie on a
+direct line with its center; that the faint trail that ran
+through the basin&mdash;the trail men traveled&mdash;came on
+in its undulating way straight toward the Rancho Seco
+ranchhouse, seemed to bring the mystery of the big
+basin with it; seemed to be a link that connected the
+Rancho Seco with the promise of trouble.
+</p>
+<p>That impression might have engaged the serious
+thoughts of some men. It widened the smile on Harlan&#8217;s
+face. For he knew there was no threat in the
+beauty of the valley; that it did not hide its secrets
+from the prying eyes of men. Whatever secret the
+valley held was in the minds of men&mdash;the minds of
+Deveny and the mysterious &#8220;Chief,&#8221; and their followers.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had not absented himself from the ranchhouse
+since the departure of Linton. He had lounged
+in the vicinity of the buildings during the day&mdash;and
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_162' name='page_162'></a>162</span>
+Barbara had seen him many times from the windows;
+and he had spent his nights watching the ranchhouse,
+half expecting another attack on Barbara.
+</p>
+<p>The girl had seen him at night, too; and she had
+smiled at the picture he made with the moonlight shining
+upon him&mdash;or standing in some shadow&mdash;somber,
+motionless, undoubtedly guarding her.
+</p>
+<p>She saw him this morning, too, as he stood beside
+the corral gate, and there was a glow in her eyes that,
+had he seen it, might have thrilled him with its gratitude.
+</p>
+<p>She came out of a rear door after a while, and Harlan
+was still standing at the gate.
+</p>
+<p>He watched her as she came toward him&mdash;it was
+the first time she had ventured in that direction since
+the return from Lamo with him&mdash;noting that she
+seemed to be in better spirits&mdash;that she was smiling.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You looked lonesome,&#8221; she said, as she halted near
+him. &#8220;Did Linton join the outfit?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s likely; he went three days ago.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I knew he had gone; I saw you several times, and
+you were always alone. And,&#8221; she added, looking
+keenly at him; &#8220;I saw you several times, at night.
+Don&#8217;t you ever sleep?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon I&#8217;m a sort of restless cuss.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Her face took on serious lines.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Look here, Harlan,&#8221; she said, reprovingly, &#8220;you
+are keeping something back. You have been watching
+the ranchhouse at night&mdash;and during the day. You
+are guarding me. Why is it? Do you think I am
+going to run away?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_163' name='page_163'></a>163</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;From me?&#8221; he queried; &#8220;I was hopin&#8217; you
+wouldn&#8217;t.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She stiffened with exasperation, for she felt the insincerity
+in his manner&mdash;caught the humorous note in
+his voice.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are treating me as you would treat a child,&#8221;
+she declared; &#8220;and I won&#8217;t have it. Are you watching
+me because you fear there might be another&mdash;Lawson?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There might be.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Nonsense! There isn&#8217;t another man in the section
+would dare what Lawson dared!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Gentlemen&mdash;eh?&#8221; he said, tauntingly. &#8220;Well,
+I&#8217;ve nosed around quite considerable, an&#8217; I don&#8217;t remember
+to have ever run into a place where there was
+fewer <i>men</i> than in this neck of the woods.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There are plenty of gentlemen. Do you think
+John Haydon&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan grinned faintly. &#8220;He&#8217;s been fannin&#8217; it right
+along for half an hour,&#8221; he said, with seeming irrelevance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who?&#8221; she asked, with a swift, uncomprehending
+glance at him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your gentleman,&#8221; he said slowly.
+</p>
+<p>She followed the direction of his gaze, and saw, on
+the trail that led downward from a little table-land to
+the level that stretched toward the ranchhouse, a horseman,
+coming rapidly toward them.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s Mr. Haydon!&#8221; she ejaculated, her voice leaping.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So it is,&#8221; said Harlan, dryly. He looked keenly
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_164' name='page_164'></a>164</span>
+at her, noting the flush on her face, the brightness of
+her eyes. &#8220;You ain&#8217;t forgettin&#8217; to give him that piece
+of chain.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why,&#8221; she said, drawing the glittering links from
+a pocket of her skirt; &#8220;I have it here. You may return
+it to him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Me an&#8217; Haydon ain&#8217;t on speakin&#8217; terms,&#8221; he
+smiled. &#8220;He wouldn&#8217;t appreciate it none, if I give it
+to him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why&mdash;&#8221; she began, only to pause and look at him
+with a sudden comprehension in her eyes. For into
+Harlan&#8217;s face had come an expression that, she
+thought, she could analyze. It was jealousy. That
+was why he was reluctant to return the chain to Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>The situation was so positively puerile, she thought,
+that she almost felt like laughing. She would have
+laughed had it not been that she knew of Harlan&#8217;s unfailing
+vigilance&mdash;and that she felt differently toward
+him now than she had felt during the first days of
+their acquaintance. His steadfast vigilance, she decided,
+must have been responsible for the change, together
+with the steady consideration he revealed for
+her.
+</p>
+<p>At any rate, something about him had affected her.
+She felt more gentle toward him; more inclined to believe
+in him; and there had been times during the past
+few days when she had been astonished at the subtle,
+warm sensation that had stolen over her whenever she
+saw him or whenever she thought of him.
+</p>
+<p>Something of that warmth toward him was in her
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_165' name='page_165'></a>165</span>
+eyes now as she watched him and she decided that she
+should humor his whim; that she should perform the
+action that he was reluctant to perform.
+</p>
+<p>She smiled, with the wisdom of a woman to whom a
+secret had been unwittingly revealed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t like Haydon?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Him an&#8217; me ain&#8217;t goin&#8217; to be bosom friends.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why don&#8217;t you like him?&#8221; she asked banteringly.
+</p>
+<p>She thought his grin was brazen. &#8220;Why don&#8217;t you
+like me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I don&#8217;t know,&#8221; she said coldly. But her face reddened
+a little.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; he laughed; &#8220;that&#8217;s why I don&#8217;t like Haydon.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon had crossed the big level, and was close to
+the ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>The girl had determined to remain where she was,
+to return the piece of chain to Haydon in the presence
+of Harlan&mdash;in order to learn what she could of the
+depth of Harlan&#8217;s dislike for Haydon when in the
+presence of the latter. And so a silence came between
+them as they watched Haydon ride toward them.
+</p>
+<p>When Haydon rode close to them he halted his
+horse and sat in the saddle, an expression of cold inquiry
+on his face. His smile at Miss Barbara was a
+trifle forced; his glance at Harlan had a fair measure
+of frank dislike and suspicion in it.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan deliberately turned his back toward Barbara
+and Haydon when the latter dismounted; walked a
+little distance, and pretended to be interested in a snubbing
+post in the corral.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_166' name='page_166'></a>166</span></p>
+<p>Yet he cast furtive glances toward the two, and
+when he saw the girl reaching into a pocket for the
+section of chain he had given her, he slowly sauntered
+forward, and was within hearing distance when Barbara
+spoke to Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I was to give you this,&#8221; she said&mdash;and she extended
+a hand toward Haydon, the chain dangling
+from her fingers.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan saw Haydon&#8217;s muscles leap and become
+tense. He saw the man&#8217;s color go, saw his cheeks
+whiten; observed that his eyes widened and gleamed
+with mingled astonishment and alarm.
+</p>
+<p>He regained control of himself instantly, however,
+but Harlan had seen enough to strengthen his convictions,
+and he grinned as Haydon flashed a sharp glance
+at him.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara, too, had noted the strange light in Haydon&#8217;s
+eyes; she had seen that Haydon had seemed
+about to shrink from the chain when she held it out to
+him. She looked from Haydon to Harlan inquiringly
+and when her glance again returned to Haydon he
+was smiling.
+</p>
+<p>However, he had not taken the chain from her
+hand.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Is it yours?&#8221; she asked.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes&mdash;mine,&#8221; he answered, hesitatingly. &#8220;Where
+did you find it?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mr. Harlan found it.&#8221; Barbara noted Haydon&#8217;s
+quick start, the searching glance he gave Harlan&mdash;who
+was now leaning on a rail of the corral fence,
+seemingly uninterested.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_167' name='page_167'></a>167</span></p>
+<p>Haydon laughed, a little hoarsely, it seemed to
+Barbara, and more loudly than the occasion seemed to
+demand. She thought, though, that the laugh might
+have been a jeer for Harlan&#8217;s action in turning the
+chain over to her instead of returning it directly to
+the owner.
+</p>
+<p>She did not catch the searching inquiry of Haydon&#8217;s
+glance at Harlan, nor did she see Harlan&#8217;s odd smile
+at Haydon, and the slow wink that accompanied it.
+</p>
+<p>But the wink and the smile conveyed to Haydon the
+intelligence that Harlan knew the story connected with
+the loss of the chain, and that he had not communicated
+it to the girl. They also expressed to Haydon
+the message that Harlan and Haydon were kindred
+souls&mdash;the smile and the wink told Haydon that this
+man who knew his secret was secretly applauding him,
+even while inwardly laughing at him for his fear that
+the secret would be betrayed.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s voice broke a short silence.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Found it right about here&mdash;the other day. It
+must have laid there a long time, for it took a heap
+of polishin&#8217; to brighten it up.&#8221; Again he closed an eye
+at Haydon, and the latter grinned broadly.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara silently endured a pang of disappointment.
+She had caught Harlan&#8217;s wink. The man had betrayed
+jealousy only a few minutes ago, and he had
+refused personally to return the chain to Haydon.
+And yet he stood there now, smiling and winking at
+the other, evidently with the desire to ingratiate himself.
+Sycophant, weakling, or fool&mdash;which was he?
+She shuddered with disgust, deliberately turned her
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_168' name='page_168'></a>168</span>
+back to Harlan, and began to walk toward the ranchhouse,
+Haydon following.
+</p>
+<p>And Harlan, standing at the fence, leaned an elbow
+on one of the rails and watched the two, an enigmatic
+smile on his face.
+</p>
+<p>For he had succeeded in opening a gate which disclosed
+a trail that would lead him straight to the
+mystery, a breath of which had been borne to him that
+morning upon the slight breeze that had swept down
+to him from the mighty valley out of which Haydon
+had ridden.
+</p>
+<p>Between him and Haydon a bond had been established,
+fashioned from the links of the section of chain.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XVIII_HARLAN_RIDES_ALONE' id='XVIII_HARLAN_RIDES_ALONE'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_169' name='page_169'></a>169</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XVIII</h2>
+<h3>HARLAN RIDES ALONE</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Upon the morning of the fourth day following
+Haydon&#8217;s visit to the Rancho Seco, a dust cloud
+developed on the northwestern horizon. Harlan observed
+the cloud; he had been watching for it since
+dawn, when he had emerged from the stable door,
+where he had been looking after Purgatory.
+</p>
+<p>From the ranchhouse Barbara also saw the cloud,
+and she ran upstairs to one of the north windows.
+There, with her face pressed against the glass, she
+watched the cloud grow in size, observed that it was
+dotted with the forms of horsemen; saw at last that
+the horsemen were headed straight for the Rancho
+Seco. Then, wondering, anxious, eager, she descended
+the stairs and ran out to where Harlan was standing,
+speaking breathlessly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What does it mean? Who are they?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;ll be Red Linton an&#8217; some T Down boys.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;&#8216;T Down&#8217;?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Pardo men. From where I used to work. I sent
+Linton for them. If I&#8217;m going to run a ranch I aim to
+run it with men I can depend on.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She had hardly spoken to him in the four days that
+had elapsed since Haydon&#8217;s last visit, for the disgust
+she had felt that day had endured. But there was
+something new in his manner now&mdash;a briskness, a
+business-like air that made her look sharply at him.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_170' name='page_170'></a>170</span></p>
+<p>He smiled at her, and in the smile was a snapping
+humor that puzzled her.
+</p>
+<p>She stood, watching for a while&mdash;until the group
+of horsemen became clearly defined&mdash;and then, with
+a sudden fear that the men might be outlaws of the
+same type as Harlan&mdash;possibly he had sent for them
+because they were&mdash;she returned to the ranchhouse
+and watched from one of the windows.
+</p>
+<p>When the T Down men rode up to the corral gate
+they dismounted and surrounded Harlan. There were
+ten of them&mdash;rugged-looking fellows of various ages,
+bepistoled, begrimed with dust, and articulate with profane
+expressions of delight.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hell&#8217;s a-poppin&#8217;, Red says!&#8221; yelled one. &#8220;He
+says there&#8217;s geezers here which is pinin&#8217; for yore gore.
+Turn me loose on &#8217;em&mdash;oh, turn me loose!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The men, tired, dusty, and hungry, swarmed into
+one of the bunkhouses immediately after they had
+turned their horses into the corral and cared for their
+saddles.
+</p>
+<p>The men were in good spirits, despite their long
+ride; and for half an hour after they descended upon
+the bunkhouse the air pulsed with their talk and their
+laughter, as they washed their dust-stained faces from
+the tin washbasin on the bench outside the door, and
+combed their hair with a comb attached to a rawhide
+thong that swung from the wall above the basin.
+</p>
+<p>They had been informed by Red Linton regarding
+the situation that had developed at the Rancho Seco&mdash;fully
+informed before they had begun their trip
+westward&mdash;Linton scrupulously and faithfully presenting
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_171' name='page_171'></a>171</span>
+to them the dangers that confronted them. And
+though some of them were still curious, and sought a
+word with Harlan in confirmation, they seemed to be
+satisfied to trust to Harlan&#8217;s judgment. Their faith
+was of the kind that needs but little verbal reassurance.
+</p>
+<p>That they admired the man who had sent for them
+there was little doubt; for they watched him with
+glowing eyes as he talked with them, revealing their
+pride that they had been selected. Hardy, clear-eyed,
+serenely unafraid, they instantly adapted themselves to
+the new &#8220;job,&#8221; and before their first meal was finished
+they were thoroughly at home.
+</p>
+<p>Shortly afterward&mdash;while the men were lounging
+about inside&mdash;Harlan drew Linton outside.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s the bunch I would have picked if I had gone
+myself,&#8221; complimented Harlan. &#8220;I&#8217;m thankin&#8217; you a
+heap.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He whispered to Linton the story of Haydon&#8217;s last
+visit and for the first time Linton heard about the section
+of chain which convicted Haydon of the murder
+of Lane Morgan. Linton&#8217;s eyes gleamed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve always sort of suspected the son-of-a-gun!&#8221;
+he declared. &#8220;An&#8217; him makin&#8217; love to Barbara! The
+sneakin&#8217; coyote! An&#8217; so you&#8217;re goin&#8217; to see him? I&#8217;d
+be a whole lot careful.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s smile was grave. &#8220;I&#8217;m reckonin&#8217; to be.
+I&#8217;d have gone before this, but I was waitin&#8217; for you
+boys. Nobody is sayin&#8217; anything to anybody. You&#8217;re
+stickin&#8217; close to the Rancho Seco, not lettin&#8217; Barbara
+out of your sight. That&#8217;s what I wanted you an&#8217; the
+other guys for. I&#8217;m playin&#8217; the rest of it a lone hand.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_172' name='page_172'></a>172</span></p>
+<p>Leaving Linton standing near the bunkhouse, he
+went to the stable, where he threw saddle and bridle on
+Purgatory. Then he mounted, waved a hand at Linton,
+who was watching him, and rode to the ranchhouse.
+At the northwest corner&mdash;around which Haydon
+had ridden on the occasion of his last visit&mdash;he
+brought Purgatory to a halt, for he saw Barbara just
+emerging from the <i>patio</i> gate.
+</p>
+<p>She halted in the opening when she observed him;
+making a picture that was vivid in his memory for
+many days afterward&mdash;for her eyes were alight with
+wonder, her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing
+fast.
+</p>
+<p>For she had watched from a window the coming of
+the T Down men; she had noted the conference between
+Harlan and Linton; and she had seen Harlan
+waving a hand at the red-haired man, seemingly in
+farewell. She stood now, afflicted with a strange regret,
+suddenly aware that she would feel the absence of
+the man who sat on his horse before her&mdash;for she
+divined that he was going.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m sayin&#8217; so-long to you, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; smiled Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh!&#8221; she said, aware of the flatness of her tone.
+&#8220;Are you going away?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m figurin&#8217; to go. I ain&#8217;t used to hangin&#8217; around
+one place very long. But I&#8217;m comin&#8217; back some day.
+Red Linton an&#8217; the boys will be seein&#8217; that things
+go smooth with you. You can depend on Red, and
+all the boys. They&#8217;re Simon-pure, dyed-in-the-wool,
+eighteen-carat men.&#8221; And now he grinned, gravely.
+&#8220;Remember this, Barbara: A man will do things when
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_173' name='page_173'></a>173</span>
+he&#8217;s handlin&#8217; a gold chain&mdash;things that he wouldn&#8217;t
+do if there didn&#8217;t happen to be any chain.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He doffed his hat and slapped Purgatory sharply,
+heading the animal westward, toward the yawning
+mouth of the big basin that stretched its mighty length
+into the mystery of distance.
+</p>
+<p>But his words left her with a conviction that she had
+again misjudged him, and that when he had appeared
+to fawn on Haydon he had been merely acting, merely
+pretending. She watched him, regretfully, longingly,
+assailed by emotions that she could not understand&mdash;until
+he and Purgatory grew small in the gulf of distance;
+until horse and rider were swallowed in the
+glowing haze.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XIX_HARLAN_JOINS_THE_GANG' id='XIX_HARLAN_JOINS_THE_GANG'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_174' name='page_174'></a>174</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XIX</h2>
+<h3>HARLAN JOINS THE GANG</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>At the edge of the big level, where it merged
+into the floor of the basin, Harlan drew Purgatory
+to a halt. For an instant he sat in the saddle
+scrutinizing a section of buffalo grass that fringed a
+clump of willows near the almost dry bed of the river
+that doubled slightly as it came from the basin. Something
+in the appearance of the grass had attracted his
+attention&mdash;it was matted, as though something had
+lain or rolled in it.
+</p>
+<p>He rode closer, cautiously, for the little trees formed
+a covert behind which any one of several dangers
+might lie concealed&mdash;and looked down at the grass.
+As he examined the place his lips twisted into a grim
+smile, and his eyes grew bright with comprehension.
+</p>
+<p>He rode around the clump of trees, making sure
+it was not occupied; then he dismounted.
+</p>
+<p>Someone had been concealed in the covert for many
+days&mdash;a man. For he saw the imprints of heels, and
+indentations where spurs had gashed the earth. The
+marks were all fresh&mdash;recently made. While he
+watched he saw some blades of the long grass slowly
+rise&mdash;as though, relieved from some pressure that had
+been upon them, they were eager to regain an upright
+position. He also saw scraps of food&mdash;jerked beef
+and biscuit&mdash;scattered here and there.
+</p>
+<p>He frowned, convinced that for days a man had
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_175' name='page_175'></a>175</span>
+occupied the covert, watching the Rancho Seco; convinced
+also, that the mystery he had sensed some days
+ago had been man-made, as he had felt. The man
+who had been there had been a sentinel, a spy, sent by
+Deveny or Haydon to observe his movements, and to
+report them, of course, to one or the other of the two
+outlaws.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan remounted Purgatory. His caution had not
+been wasted, and his vigilance in guarding the ranchhouse
+must have been irritating to the man who had
+been watching.
+</p>
+<p>He urged Purgatory on again&mdash;heading him westward,
+as before. And when he reached the crest of a
+slight rise in the valley&mdash;from where he could see the
+trail as it twisted and undulated around hills and into
+depressions&mdash;he saw, far up the valley&mdash;and yet not
+so far, either&mdash;not more than two miles&mdash;a horseman,
+riding slowly&mdash;away from him.
+</p>
+<p>The horseman was the spy, of course. Harlan had
+no doubt that if he lingered in the vicinity of the covert
+long enough he would discover the place where the
+horse had been concealed. But that was not important,
+now that he had discovered enough to satisfy
+himself that there had been a spy&mdash;and so he rode on,
+smiling faintly, knowing that the rider was headed
+into the valley&mdash;possibly to the outlaw rendezvous
+to appraise Deveny and the others of his coming.
+</p>
+<p>The trail was clearly defined, and there were places
+where it ran over broad levels of grass where he presented
+a good target to men who might be eager to
+send a shot at him. There were other spots where the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_176' name='page_176'></a>176</span>
+trail led into timber clumps and through tangles of
+brush where an ambuscade might be planned in perfect
+safety by an enemy; and there were the bastioned cliffs
+that towered above the trail at intervals, offering admirable
+hinding-places for any man with hostile intentions.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan, however, rode steadily, outwardly unconcerned;
+inwardly convinced that no attempt would be
+made to ambush him. For Haydon has passed that
+way on his return to the Star, and Harlan had no
+doubt that since the incident of the smile and the wink,
+Haydon had passed word that he was not to be
+molested.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon would be curious&mdash;as he had been curious
+at the Rancho Seco&mdash;to learn the significance of the
+smile and the wink. Haydon would want to discover
+just how much Harlan knew about the murder of Lane
+Morgan; and he would want to know what Harlan
+knew of the gold that Morgan had secreted. And so
+Harlan rode on, watching the country through which
+he passed, but feeling assured there would be no shot
+to greet him from one of the many natural vantage-points
+he encountered.
+</p>
+<p>He rode for an hour, not making very good time,
+for it was a new trail, and he was examining the country
+intently as he passed, fixing it in his memory for future
+convenience, perhaps&mdash;no one ever knew just when it
+might be necessary to use one&#8217;s knowledge&mdash;when he
+reached a low ridge which crossed the valley.
+</p>
+<p>Here he halted Purgatory and gazed about him.
+</p>
+<p>Before him stretched a green grass level, about two
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_177' name='page_177'></a>177</span>
+miles long, running the entire width of the valley. It
+was dotted with mesquite, sage, and here and there
+the thorny blade of a cactus rose. Some cattle were
+grazing on the level; they were several miles south,
+and he could see some horsemen near them.
+</p>
+<p>He decided he must be close to the Star; and he
+urged Purgatory on again, down upon the level, toward
+some timber that grew at the farther edge of the
+level. Just as he slipped down the slope of the ridge,
+he saw, far ahead of him, the horseman he had seen
+when he had entered the valley. The horseman was
+on the crest of a bald hill&mdash;low, and small&mdash;but
+Harlan caught a glimpse of him as he crossed it, riding
+fast.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan smiled again, and rode on his way, resuming
+his scrutiny of the country.
+</p>
+<p>The valley was mighty, magnificent; it deserved all
+the praise Barbara Morgan had heaped upon it.
+From the low mountain range on the north to the
+taller mountains southward, it was a virgin paradise
+in which reigned a peace so profound that it brought
+a reverent awe into the soul of the beholder.
+</p>
+<p>It thrilled Harlan despite the certain blasé, matter-of-fact
+attitude he had for all of nature&#8217;s phenomena;
+he found himself admiring the majestic buttes that
+fringed it; there was a glint of appreciation in his eyes
+for the colossal bigness of it&mdash;for the gigantic, sweeping
+curves which seemed to make of it an oblong bowl,
+a cosmic hollow, boundless, hinting of the infinite
+power of its builder.
+</p>
+<p>The trail that ran through it, drawled to threadlike
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_178' name='page_178'></a>178</span>
+proportions by the mightiness of the space through
+which it ran, was, for the greater part of the distance
+traveled by Harlan, a mere scratch upon a low rock
+ridge. And as he rode he could look down upon the
+floor of the valley, green and inviting.
+</p>
+<p>When he entered the timber at the edge of the grass
+level, he was conscious of a stealthy sound behind him.
+He turned quickly in the saddle, to see a man standing
+at the edge of some brush that fringed the trail.
+</p>
+<p>The man was big, a heavy black beard covered his
+chin and portions of his cheeks; his hat was drawn
+well down over his forehead, partially shielding his
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>A rifle in his hands was held loosely, and though it
+appeared that the man did not intend to use the
+weapon immediately, Harlan could see that his right
+forefinger was touching the trigger, and that the
+muzzle of the weapon was suggestively toward him.
+</p>
+<p>For the past few miles of his ride Harlan had been
+expecting an apparition of this sort to appear, and so
+he now gave no sign of surprise. Instead, he slowly
+raised both hands until they were on a level with his
+shoulders&mdash;and, still twisted about in the saddle, he
+grinned faintly at the man.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;From now on I&#8217;m to have company, eh?&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>The man smirked grimly at him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve hit it,&#8221; he answered. &#8220;You&#8217;re Harlan,
+ain&#8217;t you? &#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan, the Pardo two-gun man?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The man&#8217;s eyes were glowing with interest&mdash;critical,
+almost cynical, and they roved over Harlan with
+a probing intensity that left no doubt in Harlan&#8217;s mind
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_179' name='page_179'></a>179</span>
+that the man had heard of him and was examining him
+with intent to discover what sort of a character he was.
+</p>
+<p>Apparently satisfied&mdash;and also plainly impressed
+with what he saw, the man grinned&mdash;this time almost
+genially&mdash;and answered Harlan&#8217;s affirmative nod
+with:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, Haydon is expectin&#8217; you. You c&#8217;n let your
+paws down&mdash;takin&#8217; a heap of care not to go to foolin&#8217;
+with your guns. I ain&#8217;t takin&#8217; them; Haydon didn&#8217;t
+say anything about it. You&#8217;re ridin&#8217; that trail that
+forks off to the left.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan lowered his hands, resting them on the pommel
+of his saddle, and rode on, taking, as advised, a
+narrow trail that diverged from the other a short distance
+from where he had met the man. As he struck
+the other trail he heard the man coming behind him&mdash;on
+a horse.
+</p>
+<p>There were no further words. Harlan kept to the
+trail, riding slowly; the man behind him following at a
+short distance.
+</p>
+<p>In this manner they rode for perhaps a mile. Then
+the timber grew sparse, and Purgatory and his rider at
+last emerged upon a level that extended about a hundred
+feet and then sloped down abruptly to another
+level, through which flowed a narrow stream of water,
+shallow and clear.
+</p>
+<p>Close to the bank of the stream was an adobe ranchhouse,
+and surrounding it were several other buildings.
+At a slight distance from the house was a corral in
+which were several horses. In front of a bunkhouse
+were several men who, when they saw Harlan and the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_180' name='page_180'></a>180</span>
+other man coming, faced toward them and stood, motionless,
+watching.
+</p>
+<p>The men maintained silence as Harlan rode to the
+ranchhouse and sat in the saddle, awaiting the pleasure
+of his escort. He saw the latter grin at the other men
+as he passed them; and he grinned at Harlan as he
+brought his horse to a halt near Purgatory and dismounted.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon you&#8217;re to git off an&#8217; visit,&#8221; he said; &#8220;Haydon
+is inside.&#8221; As he dismounted and trailed the reins
+over the head of his beast he cast a sharp, critical eye
+over Purgatory.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a heap of hoss in that black, eh?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Plenty.&#8221; Harlan got down and ran a hand over
+Purgatory&#8217;s neck, while trailing the reins over his
+head. &#8220;Man-killer,&#8221; he warned. &#8220;Don&#8217;t touch him.
+He ain&#8217;t been rode by nobody but me, an&#8217; he won&#8217;t
+stand for nobody foolin&#8217; around him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had raised his voice until he was sure the
+men in front of the bunkhouse heard him; then he
+grinned genially at them all and followed the black-bearded
+man into the ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>An instant later, in a big room which had the appearance
+of an office, Harlan was confronting Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>The latter was sitting in a chair at a desk, and when
+Harlan entered Haydon got up and grinned at him,
+shallowly, without mirth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you got here,&#8221; he said; &#8220;I&#8217;ve been expecting
+you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been notin&#8217; that. That guy you left at the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_181' name='page_181'></a>181</span>
+edge of the level to keep an eye on the Rancho Seco
+didn&#8217;t cover his tracks. I run onto them&mdash;an&#8217; I saw
+him hittin&#8217; the breeze&mdash;comin&#8217; here. I reckon nobody
+is surprised.&#8221; Harlan grinned widely.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you noticed that,&#8221; said Haydon, answering
+Harlan&#8217;s grin. &#8220;Well, I don&#8217;t mind admitting that
+we&#8217;ve kept an eye on you. You&#8217;ve had me guessing.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon&#8217;s manner was that of the man who is careful
+not to say too much, his constraint was of the quality
+that hints of a desire to become confidential&mdash;a
+smooth, bland courtesy; a flattering voice&mdash;encouraging,
+suggesting frankness.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s manner was that of a certain reckless carelessness.
+He seemed to be perfectly at ease, confident,
+deliberate, and unwatchful. He knew Haydon was an
+outlaw; that the men who had been grouped in front
+of the bunkhouse were members of Haydon&#8217;s band; he
+knew the man who had escorted him to the Star had
+been deliberately stationed in the timber to watch for
+him. And he had no doubt that other outlaws had
+lain concealed along the trail to observe his movements.
+</p>
+<p>He knew, too, that he had placed himself in a precarious
+predicament&mdash;that his life was in danger, and
+that he must be exceedingly careful.
+</p>
+<p>Yet outwardly he was cool, composed. With Haydon&#8217;s
+eyes upon him he drew a chair to a point near
+the desk, seated himself in it, drew out paper and tobacco,
+and rolled a cigarette. Lighting it, he puffed
+slowly, watching while Haydon dropped into the chair
+he had vacated at Harlan&#8217;s appearance.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_182' name='page_182'></a>182</span></p>
+<p>When Haydon dropped into his chair he grinned
+admiringly at Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a cool one, Harlan,&#8221; he said; &#8220;I&#8217;ve got to
+say that for you. But there&#8217;s no use in four-flushing.
+You&#8217;ve come here to tell me something about the
+chain. Where did you find it?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;At Sentinel Rock&mdash;not far from where you
+plugged Lane Morgan.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re assuming that I shot Morgan?&#8221; charged
+Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Morgan was assumin&#8217;, too, I reckon,&#8221; grinned
+Harlan. &#8220;He told me it was you who shot him&mdash;he
+saw your face by the flash of your gun. An&#8217; he told
+me where to look for the chain&mdash;him not knowin&#8217; it
+was a chain&mdash;but somethin&#8217;.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon&#8217;s eyes gleamed with a cold rage&mdash;which
+he concealed by passing a hand over his forehead, veiling
+his eyes from Harlan. His lips were wreathed in
+a smile.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why didn&#8217;t you tell me that the other day&mdash;the
+first time I met you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan laughed. &#8220;I was havin&#8217; notions then&mdash;notions
+that I&#8217;d be playin&#8217; her a lone hand.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And now?&#8221; Haydon&#8217;s eyes were steady with cold
+inquiry.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got other notions. I&#8217;m acceptin&#8217; Deveny&#8217;s invitation
+to throw in with you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon was silent for an instant, and during the
+silence his gaze met Harlan&#8217;s fairly. By the humorous
+gleam in Harlan&#8217;s eyes Haydon divined that the man
+could not be misled&mdash;that he knew something of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_183' name='page_183'></a>183</span>
+situation in the valley, and that he had come here with
+the deliberate intention of joining the outlaw band.
+</p>
+<p>There was, as Haydon had intimated, little use for
+an attempt at equivocation or pretense. It was a situation
+that must be faced squarely by both himself and
+Harlan. Harlan&#8217;s reputation, and his action in keeping
+secret from Barbara Morgan the identity of her
+father&#8217;s murderer, indicated sincerity on the man&#8217;s
+part. And since Harlan knew him to be the murderer
+of Morgan it would be absurd for Haydon to pretend
+that he had no connection with Deveny&#8217;s band. He
+could not fool this man.
+</p>
+<p>Yet a jealous hatred of Harlan was thinly concealed
+by the steady smile with which he regarded his visitor.
+He had felt the antagonism of Harlan that day when
+he had talked with him at the bunkhouse door; Harlan&#8217;s
+manner that day had convinced him that Harlan
+was jealous of his attentions to Barbara Morgan.
+Also, there was in his heart a professional jealousy&mdash;jealousy
+of Harlan&#8217;s reputation.
+</p>
+<p>For this man who sat in his chair so calmly, with
+danger encompassing him, was greater than he. Haydon
+knew it. Had there been any doubt in his mind on
+that score it must have been removed by a memory of
+the manner in which his men had received the news
+that Harlan had left the Rancho Seco and was on his
+way up the valley.
+</p>
+<p>The rider Harlan had seen had come in with that
+news&mdash;and Haydon had been standing with the group
+at the bunkhouse when the man arrived. And he had
+not failed to note the nervous glances of some of the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_184' name='page_184'></a>184</span>
+men, and the restless eagerness, not unmixed with
+anxiety, with which they watched the trail.
+</p>
+<p>And now, facing Harlan, he felt the man&#8217;s greatness&mdash;his
+especial fitness for the career he had adopted.
+Harlan was the ideal outlaw. He was cool, deep,
+subtle. He was indomitable; he felt no fear; his will
+was inflexible, adamant. Haydon felt it. The fear he
+had experienced at his first meeting with Harlan had
+endured until this minute&mdash;it was strong as ever.
+</p>
+<p>Yet he admired the man; and knew that since he
+had come to the valley he must be considered an important
+factor. Haydon could not flatly tell him to
+get out of the valley; he could not order him away
+from the Rancho Seco. Harlan was in control there&mdash;for
+the rider who had come in with the news that
+Harlan had set out for the valley had also apprised
+Haydon of the coming, to the Rancho Seco, of the
+men of the T Down outfit.
+</p>
+<p>The rider had not been able to tell Haydon who
+the men were, of course; but it made little difference.
+They were friends of Harlan&#8217;s, for they had come
+from the direction of the desert&mdash;from Pardo.
+</p>
+<p>It was plain to Haydon that Harlan had come to
+the valley to stay. It was equally plain that he must
+be either propitiated or antagonized. He felt that
+Harlan was giving him his choice.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What do you want&mdash;if you throw in with us?&#8221;
+Haydon asked, following the trend of his own
+thoughts.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s straight talk,&#8221; said Harlan. &#8220;I&#8217;m givin&#8217;
+you a straight answer. If I join your bunch I join on
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_185' name='page_185'></a>185</span>
+the same footing with you an&#8217; Deveny&mdash;nothin&#8217; less.
+We split everything three ways&mdash;the other boys takin&#8217;
+their regular share after we take ours. I bring my boys
+in under the rules you&#8217;ve got that govern the others. I
+run the Rancho Seco&mdash;no one interferin&#8217;. When I
+rustle up that gold old Morgan hid, we split it three
+ways. Barbara Morgan goes with the ranch&mdash;no one
+interferin&#8217;.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Color surged into Haydon&#8217;s face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t want much, do you?&#8221; he sneered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I want what&#8217;s comin&#8217; to me&mdash;what I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to
+take, if I come in. That&#8217;s my proposition. You can
+take it or leave it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon was silent for an instant, studying Harlan&#8217;s
+face. What he saw there brought a frown to his own.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan,&#8221; he said softly, &#8220;some of the boys feel a
+little resentful over the way you sent Dolver and Laskar
+out. There are several friends of those two men
+outside now. Suppose I should call them in and tell
+them that the bars are down on you&mdash;eh?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>If Haydon expected his threat to intimidate Harlan,
+he was mistaken. Harlan sat, motionless, watching
+the outlaw chief steadily. And into his eyes came a
+glitter of that cold contempt which Haydon had seen
+in them on the day he had faced Harlan near the
+bunkhouse at the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re doin&#8217; the honors, Haydon,&#8221; he said. &#8220;If
+you&#8217;re that kind of a coyote I don&#8217;t want to deal with
+you. If you think you want to pass up a share of that
+hundred thousand, start yappin&#8217; to them boys. It&#8217;s
+likely there&#8217;s some of them hangin&#8217; around, close.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_186' name='page_186'></a>186</span>
+Mebbe you&#8217;ve got some of them peekin&#8217; around corners
+at me now. I ain&#8217;t runnin&#8217; from no trouble that
+comes my way. Get goin&#8217; if you&#8217;re yearnin&#8217; to requisition
+the mourners.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Rage over the threat was now plain in his eyes, for
+they were aflame with a cold fire as he got up from
+his chair and stood, crouching a little, his hands lingering
+near the butts of his guns.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon did not move, but his face grew pallid and
+he smiled nervously, with shallow mirth.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You are not in a joking mood today, Harlan?&#8221; he
+said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s jokes, <i>an&#8217;</i> jokes, Haydon. I&#8217;ve come here
+in good faith. I&#8217;ve been in camps like this before&mdash;in
+Kelso&#8217;s, Dave Rance&#8217;s, Blondy Larkin&#8217;s, an&#8217; some
+others. Them men are outlaws&mdash;like you an&#8217; me; an&#8217;
+they&#8217;ve done things that make them greater than you
+an&#8217; me&mdash;in our line. But I&#8217;ve visited them, free an&#8217;
+easy&mdash;goin&#8217; an&#8217; comin&#8217; whenever I pleased. An&#8217; no
+man threatenin&#8217; me.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your manners is irritatin&#8217; to me&mdash;I&#8217;m tellin&#8217; you
+so. I&#8217;m through! You&#8217;re takin&#8217; me out, now&mdash;back
+to the Rancho Seco. You&#8217;re ridin&#8217; behind me&mdash;minus
+your guns, your mouth shut tighter than you ever shut
+it before. An&#8217; if there&#8217;s any shootin&#8217; you&#8217;ll know it&mdash;plenty!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had brought matters to a crisis&mdash;suddenly,
+in a flash. The time for pretense had gone. Haydon
+could accept Harlan upon the terms he had mentioned,
+or he could take up the man&#8217;s challenge with all it implied&mdash;bitter
+warfare between the two factions, which
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_187' name='page_187'></a>187</span>
+would be unprofitable to both, and especially to Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>It was for Haydon to decide; and he sat for some
+seconds motionless in the chair, before he spoke.
+</p>
+<p>Then he got up&mdash;taking care to keep his right hand
+at a respectable distance from the butt of his pistol,
+and smilingly held out his hand.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It goes your way, Harlan&mdash;we take you in on
+your terms. I beg your pardon for saying what I did.
+That was just to try you out. I&#8217;ve heard a lot about
+you, and I wanted to see if you were in earnest&mdash;if
+you really wanted to come in. I&#8217;m satisfied.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They shook hands; their gaze meeting as they stood
+close together. The gaze endured for an instant; and
+then Haydon&#8217;s fell. The handshake lasted for several
+seconds, and it was curious to see how Haydon&#8217;s eyes,
+after they had become veiled from Harlan&#8217;s by the
+drooping lids, glowed with a malignant triumph and
+cunning.
+</p>
+<p>It was also curious to note that something of the
+same passion was revealed in Harlan&#8217;s eyes as they
+rested on the partially closed lids of the other&mdash;for
+there was triumph there, too&mdash;and comprehension,
+and craft of a kind that might have disturbed Haydon,
+had he seen it.
+</p>
+<p>Then their hands parted, mutually, and Haydon
+grinned smoothly and with apparent cordiality at Harlan.
+He grasped Harlan by an elbow and urged him
+toward the door through which the latter had entered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll give you a knockdown to the boys, now&mdash;those
+that are here,&#8221; he said.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_188' name='page_188'></a>188</span></p>
+<p>An hour later&mdash;after Haydon and the dozen men
+to whom he had introduced Harlan had watched Harlan
+ride eastward through the valley toward the Rancho
+Seco&mdash;Haydon rode westward, accompanied by
+several of the men.
+</p>
+<p>They rode for many miles into the heart of the big
+basin, coming at last to a gorge that wound a serpentine
+way southward, through some concealing hills,
+into a smaller basin. A heavy timber clump grew at
+the mouth of the gorge, hiding it from view from the
+trail that ran through the valley. Some rank underbrush
+that fringed the timber gave the mouth of the
+gorge the appearance of a shallow cave, and a wall of
+rock, forming a ragged arch over the entrance,
+heightened the impression. At first glance the place
+seemed to be impenetrable.
+</p>
+<p>But the horsemen filed through easily enough, and
+the underbrush closed behind them, so that, had they
+been seen, the watcher might have been startled by
+their sudden disappearance.
+</p>
+<p>Near the center of the little basin stood a huge
+cabin, built of adobe, with a flat roof. In a small
+corral were a number of cattle. Grazing upon the
+grass, with which the place was carpeted, were many
+horses; and lounging in the grass near the cabin, and
+upon some benches that ranged its walls, were perhaps
+a dozen men, heavily armed.
+</p>
+<p>Several of the men grinned as the newcomers rode
+in and dismounted, and one or two spoke a short greeting
+to Haydon, calling him &#8220;Chief.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon did not linger to talk with the men, though;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_189' name='page_189'></a>189</span>
+he dismounted and entered the cabin, where, an instant
+later, he was talking with Deveny.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon&#8217;s eyes were still triumphant&mdash;glowing with
+a malignant satisfaction.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He&#8217;s wise&mdash;and dead tickled to join,&#8221; he told
+Deveny, referring to Harlan. &#8220;And I took him in on
+his own terms. We&#8217;ll play him along, making him
+believe he&#8217;s regular and right, until we get what we
+want. Then we&#8217;ll down him!&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>At about the time Haydon was talking with Deveny,
+Harlan was dismounting at the Rancho Seco corral.
+</p>
+<p>The T Down men were variously engaged&mdash;some
+of them in the corral; others in the stable, and still
+others in the blacksmith-shop&mdash;all attending to their
+new duties&mdash;and only Red Linton was at the corral
+gate to greet Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>Triumph was in Harlan&#8217;s eyes as he grinned at Linton.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m a Simon-pure outlaw now, Red,&#8221; he stated.
+&#8220;Haydon didn&#8217;t hesitate none. He&#8217;s a sneakin&#8217;,
+schemin&#8217; devil, an&#8217; he hates me like poison. But he
+took me in, reckonin&#8217; to play me for a sucker. Looks
+like things might be interestin&#8217;.&#8221; He grinned. &#8220;I&#8217;m
+yearnin&#8217; for grub, Red.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Later, while Harlan was seated at a table in the
+cook shanty, he became aware of a shadow at the
+door; and he wheeled, to see Barbara Morgan looking
+in at him, her face flushed, a glow in her eyes that was
+entirely comprehensible to Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>She was glad he had returned&mdash;any man with half
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_190' name='page_190'></a>190</span>
+Harlan&#8217;s wisdom could have told that! And color of
+a kind not caused by the wind and sun suffused Harlan&#8217;s
+face.
+</p>
+<p>She had seen him from one of the kitchen windows,
+and curiosity&mdash;and an impatience that would not permit
+of delay&mdash;had brought her to search for him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why,&#8221; she said, &#8220;I&mdash;I thought&mdash;didn&#8217;t you say
+that you were going away?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Didn&#8217;t I go?&#8221; he grinned.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;For a day,&#8221; she taunted, her voice leaping.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;A day,&#8221; he said gravely; &#8220;why, it was longer than
+that, wasn&#8217;t it? Seems that I ain&#8217;t seen you for years
+an&#8217; years!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He got up, his hunger forgotten. But when he
+reached the door he saw her running toward the ranchhouse,
+not even looking back. He stood watching her
+until she opened a door and vanished. Then he
+grinned and returned to his neglected food, saying
+aloud, after the manner of men who spend much time
+in open places: &#8220;I&#8217;ll sure take care of her, Morgan.&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XX_LEFTHANDED' id='XX_LEFTHANDED'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_191' name='page_191'></a>191</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XX</h2>
+<h3>LEFT-HANDED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s statement to Haydon, to the effect
+that he had visited the camps of Kelso, Rance,
+Larkin, and other outlaws had been strictly accurate.
+At one time or another each of those outlaw leaders
+had sent for Harlan, to endeavor to prevail upon him
+to cast his lot with them&mdash;so common was the report
+that Harlan was of their type.
+</p>
+<p>And he had been able&mdash;as he had told Haydon&mdash;to
+go among them with impunity&mdash;unmolested, respected.
+And even after he had refused to join they
+had extended him the courtesy of faith&mdash;not even
+swearing him to secrecy. And he had vindicated their
+faith by keeping silent regarding them.
+</p>
+<p>Knowing, however, that the ethics of men of the
+type of Kelso, Rance, Larkin, and others provided a
+safe conduct for any man of their kind that came
+among them, Harlan had felt contempt for Haydon
+for his threat. And yet Harlan&#8217;s rage on that occasion
+had been largely surface; it had been displayed for
+effect&mdash;to force an instant decision from Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan was aware that his only hope of protecting
+Barbara Morgan from Haydon and Deveny was in an
+offensive war. He could not expect to wage such a
+war by remaining idly at the Rancho Seco, to await the
+inevitable aggressions of the outlaws, for he did not
+know when they would strike, nor how. It was certain
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_192' name='page_192'></a>192</span>
+they would strike, and it was as certain they would
+strike when he least expected them to.
+</p>
+<p>Therefore he had determined to join them, depending
+upon his reputation to allay any suspicion they
+might have regarding his motives. Haydon had taken
+him into the band, but Harlan had been convinced that
+Haydon distrusted him. He had seen distrust in Haydon&#8217;s
+eyes; and he had known, when Haydon dropped
+his gaze at the instant they had shaken hands, that the
+man meditated duplicity.
+</p>
+<p>Yet Harlan was determined to appear ignorant that
+Haydon meditated trickery. He intended to go among
+the men and deliberately to ignore the threatened dangers&mdash;more,
+to conduct himself in such a manner that
+Haydon would not suspect that he knew of any danger.
+</p>
+<p>It had been a slight incident that had suggested the
+plan to him&mdash;merely a glance at Strom Rogers, while
+the latter, in Lamo, had been watching Deveny.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had seen hatred in Rogers&#8217; face, and contempt
+and jealousy; and he knew that where such passion
+existed it could be made to grow and flourish by
+suggestion and by example.
+</p>
+<p>And he was determined to furnish the example.
+</p>
+<p>He knew something of the passions of men of the
+type which constituted the band headed by Deveny and
+Haydon; he knew how their passions might be played
+upon; he was aware of their respect and admiration
+for men of notorious reputation, with records for evil
+deeds and rapid &#8220;gunslinging.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He had seen how Strom Rogers had watched him&mdash;with
+awed respect; he had seen approval in Rogers&#8217;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_193' name='page_193'></a>193</span>
+eyes when they had exchanged glances in Lamo; and
+he had heard men in the group in front of the sheriff&#8217;s
+office speaking of him in awed whispers.
+</p>
+<p>He had never been affected by that sort of adulation&mdash;in
+Lamo or in the days that preceded his visit
+to the town. But he was not unmindful of the advantage
+such adulation would give him in his campaign
+for control of the outlaw camp. And that was what
+he had determined to achieve.
+</p>
+<p>Three times in as many days he rode up the valley
+to the Star, each time talking with Haydon&mdash;then
+leaving the latter to go out and lounge around among
+the men, listening to their talk, but taking little part in
+it. He did not speak until he was spoken to, and thus
+he challenged their interest, and they began to make
+advances to him.
+</p>
+<p>Their social structure was flimsy and thin, their fellowship
+as spontaneous as it was insincere; and within
+a few days the edge had worn off the strangeness that
+had surrounded Harlan, and he had been accepted
+with hardly a ripple of excitement.
+</p>
+<p>And yet no man among them had achieved intimacy
+with Harlan. There was a cold constraint in his manner
+that held them off, figuratively, barring them from
+becoming familiar with him. Several of them tried
+familiarity, and were astonished to discover that they
+had somehow failed&mdash;though they had been repelled
+so cleverly that they could not resent it.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had established a barrier without them
+being aware of how he had done it&mdash;the barrier of
+authority and respect, behind which he stood, an engaging,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_194' name='page_194'></a>194</span>
+saturnine, interesting, awe-compelling figure.
+</p>
+<p>At the end of a week the men of the Star outfit
+were addressing him as &#8220;boss;&#8221; listening to him with
+respect when he spoke, striving for his attention, and
+trying to win from him one of those rare smiles with
+which he honored those among them whose personalities
+interested him.
+</p>
+<p>At the end of two weeks half of the Star outfit was
+eager to obey any order he issued, while the remainder
+betrayed some slight hesitation&mdash;which, however,
+vanished when Harlan turned his steady gaze upon
+them.
+</p>
+<p>Behind their acceptance of him, though&mdash;back of
+their seeming willingness to admit him to their peculiar
+fellowship&mdash;was a reservation. Harlan felt it, saw
+it in their eyes, and noted it in their manner toward
+him. They had heard about him; they knew something
+of his record; reports of his cleverness with a
+weapon had come to them. And they were curious.
+</p>
+<p>There was speculation in the glances they threw at
+him; there was some suspicion, cynicism, skepticism,
+and not a little doubt. It seemed to Harlan that
+though they had accepted him they were impatiently
+awaiting a practical demonstration of those qualities
+that had made him famous in the country. They
+wanted to be &#8220;shown.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Their wild, unruly passions and lurid imaginations
+were the urges that drove them&mdash;that shaped their
+conduct toward their fellows. Some of them were
+rapid gunslingers&mdash;in the picturesque idioms of their
+speech&mdash;and there was not a man among them who
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_195' name='page_195'></a>195</span>
+did not take pride in his ability to &#8220;work&#8221; his gun.
+They had accepted Harlan, but it was obvious that
+among them were some that doubted the veracity of
+rumor&mdash;some who felt that Harlan had been overrated.
+</p>
+<p>It did not take Harlan long to discover who those
+doubting spirits were. He saw them watching him&mdash;always
+with curling lip and truculent eye; he heard
+references to his ability from them&mdash;scraps of conversation
+in which such terms and phrases as &#8220;a false
+alarm, mebbe,&#8221; &#8220;he don&#8217;t look it,&#8221; &#8220;wears &#8217;em for
+show, I reckon,&#8221; were used. He had learned the
+names of the men; there were three of them, known
+merely as &#8220;Lanky,&#8221; &#8220;Poggs,&#8221; and &#8220;Latimer.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Their raids upon the cattle in the basin took place
+at night; and their other depredations occurred at that
+time also. Harlan did not fail to hear of them, for
+their successes figured prominently in their daytime
+conversations; and he had watched the herd of cattle
+in the Star corrals grow in size until the enclosure
+grew too small to hold them comfortably. He had
+noted, too, the cleverness with which the men obliterated
+the brands on the stolen cattle&mdash;or refashioned
+them until proof of their identity was obscure.
+</p>
+<p>He had taken no part in any of the raids, though
+he had passed a few nights at the Star, directing, with
+the help of Strom Rogers, the altering of the brands
+and the other work attending the disguising of the
+cattle.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon he had seen but a few times, and Deveny
+not at all. He learned from Rogers that Haydon
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_196' name='page_196'></a>196</span>
+spent most of his time upon mysterious missions which
+took him to Lamo, to Lazette, and to Las Vegas; and
+that Deveny operated from a place that Rogers referred
+to as the &#8220;Cache,&#8221; several miles up the valley.
+</p>
+<p>Latimer, a tawny giant of a man with a long,
+hooked nose, and thin, cruel lips, interested Harlan.
+He watched the man when the other was not conscious
+of his glances, noting the bigness of him, his slow,
+panther-like movements; the glowing, savage truculence
+of his eyes; the hard, bitter droop of his lips
+under the yellow mustache he wore. He felt the threat
+of the man when the latter looked at him&mdash;it was personal,
+intense&mdash;seeming to have motive behind it. It
+aroused in Harlan a responsive passion.
+</p>
+<p>One day, seated on a bench in front of the long
+bunkhouse near the Star ranchhouse, Harlan was
+watching some of the men who were playing cards
+near him. They were lounging in the grass, laughingly
+pitting their skill against one another, while another
+group, in front of the stable, was diligently repairing
+saddles.
+</p>
+<p>Apart from the two groups were Lanky, Poggs, and
+Latimer. They were standing near the corral fence,
+about a hundred feet from where Harlan sat. The
+subject of their talk was unpleasant, for their faces
+reflected the venomous passions that inspired it.
+</p>
+<p>Latimer had been watching Harlan&mdash;his gaze
+boldly hostile and full of a hate that was unmistakable.
+</p>
+<p>And Harlan had not been unaware of Latimer&#8217;s
+gaze; he had noted the wolfish gleam in the other&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_197' name='page_197'></a>197</span>
+eyes&mdash;and because he was interested in Latimer, he
+watched him covertly.
+</p>
+<p>But Harlan had betrayed no sign that he knew Latimer
+was watching him; and when he saw Strom Rogers
+coming toward him from the stable, he grinned at him
+and made room for him when the latter headed for
+the bench upon which Harlan was sitting.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Lazy day,&#8221; offered Rogers as he dropped on the
+bench beside Harlan; &#8220;not a heap doin&#8217;.&#8221; He did
+not look at Harlan, but leaned forward, took up a
+cinch buckle that had been lying in the sand at his feet,
+and turned it idly over and over in his hands, apparently
+intent on its construction.
+</p>
+<p>With his head down, so that even the card-players
+could not see his lips move, he whispered to Harlan:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Don&#8217;t let &#8217;em see you know I&#8217;m talkin&#8217;! They&#8217;re
+framin&#8217; up on you!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan grinned, shielding his lips with a hand that
+he passed casually over them.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Meanin&#8217; Latimer&mdash;an&#8217; his friends?&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yep. Latimer&#8217;s jealous of you. Been jealous.
+Thinks he can match your gunplay&mdash;itchin&#8217; for
+trouble&mdash;bound to have it out with you. We was at
+the Cache last night, an&#8217; I heard him an&#8217; Deveny
+yappin&#8217; about it. Deveny&#8217;s back of him&mdash;he&#8217;s sore
+about the way you handed it to him in Lamo. Keep
+your eyes peeled; they&#8217;re pullin&#8217; it off pretty soon.
+Latimer&#8217;s doin&#8217; the shootin&#8217;&mdash;he&#8217;s tryin&#8217; to work himself
+up to it. Be careful.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m thankin&#8217; you.&#8221; Harlan leaned back, crossed
+his legs, and stared off into space, the light in his eyes
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_198' name='page_198'></a>198</span>
+becoming vacuous. He seemed not to be interested
+in Latimer and the other two, but in reality he saw
+them distinctly. But they had their backs to him now,
+and were slowly sauntering toward the stable door.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So Deveny ain&#8217;t admirin&#8217; me none?&#8221; he said to
+Rogers.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Not scarcely. No more than a gopher is admirin&#8217;
+a side-winder.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Latimer,&#8221; said Harlan, &#8220;don&#8217;t like my style of
+beauty either. I&#8217;ve been noticin&#8217; it. He&#8217;s a mighty interestin&#8217;
+man. If I wasn&#8217;t dead sure he ain&#8217;t the kind
+of a guy which goes around shootin&#8217; folks in the back,
+I&#8217;d say he pretty near fits the description I got of the
+man who helped Dolver salivate my side-kicker, Davey
+Langan, over in Pardo&mdash;a couple of months ago.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Rogers&#8217; side glance was pregnant with a grim, unsmiling
+humor.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you&#8217;ve picked him out? I&#8217;ve been wonderin&#8217;
+how long it would take you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The emotion that passed over Harlan was not visible.
+It might have been detected, however, by the
+slight leap in his voice.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You an&#8217; Latimer is bosom friends, I reckon?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shucks!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Rogers&#8217; glance met Harlan&#8217;s for a fleeting instant.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This gang needs cleanin&#8217; up,&#8221; said Rogers. He
+got up, and stood in front of Harlan, holding out the
+cinch buckle, as though offering it to the other. For
+both men had seen that Latimer had left his friends at
+the stable door and was coming slowly toward the
+bunkhouse.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_199' name='page_199'></a>199</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll have to be slick,&#8221; warned Rogers. &#8220;He&#8217;s
+comin&#8217;. I&#8217;ll be moseyin&#8217; out of the way.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He moved slowly from the bench, passed the group
+of card-players, and walked to the ranchhouse, where
+he hung the cinch buckle on a nail driven into the wall
+of the building. Then he slowly turned, facing the
+bench upon which Harlan still sat, and toward which
+Latimer was walking.
+</p>
+<p>It was evident that all of the men in the vicinity
+were aware of the threatened clash, for their manner,
+upon the approach of Latimer, indicated as much.
+</p>
+<p>For weeks they had been eager to test the traditional
+quickness of Harlan with the weapons that
+swung at his hips&mdash;those weapons had been a constant
+irritation to some of them, and an object of speculation
+to all. And when the night before some of them
+had heard the whispered word that Latimer&mdash;with
+Deveny&#8217;s sanction&mdash;indeed with Deveny&#8217;s encouragement&mdash;was
+determined to clash with Harlan, they
+had realized that the moment for which they had
+yearned was at hand.
+</p>
+<p>For they had seen in Harlan&#8217;s eyes&mdash;and had felt
+in the atmosphere that surrounded the man&mdash;the certainty
+that he would not refuse the clash with Latimer.
+The only question in their minds concerning Harlan
+was that of his speed and accuracy. And so when they
+saw Latimer coming they ceased playing cards and sat,
+interestedly watching&mdash;alert to note how Latimer
+would bring about the clash, and how Harlan would
+meet it.
+</p>
+<p>Latimer had nerved himself for the ordeal by talking
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_200' name='page_200'></a>200</span>
+with his friends. The will to kill Harlan had been
+in his heart for a long time, but he needed to reinforce
+it with an artificial rage. And, dwelling, with his
+friends, upon the irritating fact that Harlan had come
+among them to usurp authority to which he had no
+visible claim, he had succeeded in working his rage to a
+frenzy that took little account of consequences.
+</p>
+<p>Yet Latimer would not have been able to reach that
+frenzy had he not been convinced that he was Harlan&#8217;s
+master with the six-shooter. He really believed that
+Harlan had been overrated. He believed that because
+he wanted to believe it, and because his contempt for
+the man had bred that conviction in his heart.
+</p>
+<p>Also, he thought he knew why Harlan had come to
+the Star&mdash;why he had joined the outlaw camp. And
+the night before, he had communicated that suspicion
+to Deveny. It was because Harlan knew he had been
+with Dolver when Davey Langan had been killed.
+Latimer thought he had seen a slight relief in Deveny&#8217;s
+eyes when he had told the latter that, but he
+could not be sure, and it was not important.
+</p>
+<p>The important thing was that he must kill Harlan&mdash;and
+he meant to do it. He would kill him fairly, if
+possible, thereby enhancing his reputation&mdash;but he
+was certain to kill him, no matter what the method.
+</p>
+<p>That conviction blazed in his eyes as he came to a
+halt within a dozen paces of where Harlan was sitting.
+He had worked himself to such a pitch of rage that it
+gripped him like some strong fever&mdash;bloating his
+face, tensing his muscles, bulging his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had watched him; and his gaze was on the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_201' name='page_201'></a>201</span>
+other now with a steady, unwavering alertness that
+advertised his knowledge of what was impending. But
+he sat, motionless, rigid, waiting Latimer&#8217;s first hostile
+movement.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had turned a very little when Latimer had
+begun his walk toward the bench; his right side was
+slightly toward the man, the leg partially extended;
+while the left leg was doubled under the bench&mdash;seemingly
+to give him leverage should he decide to
+rise.
+</p>
+<p>But he gave no indication of meditating such a
+move. It was plain to the watchers that if he attempted
+it Latimer would draw his gun and begin to
+shoot.
+</p>
+<p>Latimer was convinced also that Harlan would not
+attempt to rise. He had Harlan at a disadvantage,
+and he laughed loudly, sardonically, contemptuously
+as he stood, his right hand hovering close to his pistol
+holster, his eyes aflame with hate and passion.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Keep a-settin&#8217;, you buzzard&#8217;s whelp!&#8221; he sneered;
+&#8220;keep a-settin&#8217;! Latimer&#8217;s out to git you. You know
+it&mdash;eh? You&#8217;ve knowed it right along&mdash;pretendin&#8217;
+not to. &#8216;Drag&#8217; Harlan&mdash;bah! Gunslinger with a
+record&mdash;an&#8217; caught a-settin&#8217;. Caught with the goods
+on, sneakin&#8217; in here, tryin&#8217; to ketch a man unawares.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Bah! Don&#8217;t I know what you&#8217;re here for? It&#8217;s
+me! You blowed Dolver apart for killin&#8217; that damned,
+slick-eyed pardner of yourn&mdash;Davey Langan. Do
+you want to know who sent Langan out? I&#8217;m tellin&#8217;
+you&mdash;it was me! Me&mdash;me!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He fairly yelled the last words, and stiffened, holding
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_202' name='page_202'></a>202</span>
+the fingers of his right hand clawlike, above the
+butt of the holstered pistol.
+</p>
+<p>And when he saw that Harlan did not move; that
+he sat there rigid, his eyes unblinking and expressionless;
+his right hand hanging limply at his side, near the
+partially extended leg; his left hand resting upon the
+thigh of the doubled leg&mdash;he stepped closer, watching
+Harlan&#8217;s right hand.
+</p>
+<p>For a space&mdash;while one might have counted ten&mdash;neither
+man moved a muscle. Something in Harlan&#8217;s
+manner sent into Latimer&#8217;s frenzied brain the message
+that all was not what it seemed&mdash;that Harlan was
+meditating some astonishing action. Ten seconds is
+not long, as times goes, but during that slight interval
+the taut nerves of Latimer&#8217;s were twanged with a torturing
+doubt that began to creep over him.
+</p>
+<p>Would Harlan never make that move? That question
+was dinned insistently into Latimer&#8217;s ears. He
+began to believe that Harlan did not intend to draw.
+</p>
+<p>And then&mdash;&mdash;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ah!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was Latimer&#8217;s lungs that breathed the ejaculation.
+</p>
+<p>For Harlan&#8217;s right hand had moved slightly upward,
+toward the pistol at his right hip. It went only
+a few inches; it was still far below the holster when
+Latimer&#8217;s clawlike fingers descended to the butt of his
+own weapon. The thought that he would beat Harlan
+in a fair draw was in his mind&mdash;that he would
+beat him despite the confusion of the hesitating motion
+with which Harlan got his gun out.
+</p>
+<p>Something was happening, though&mdash;something odd
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_203' name='page_203'></a>203</span>
+and unexplainable. For though Latimer had seemed
+to have plenty of time, he was conscious that Harlan&#8217;s
+gun was belching fire and death at him. He saw the
+smoke streaks, felt the bullets striking him, searing
+their way through him, choking him, weakening his
+knees.
+</p>
+<p>He went down, his eyes wide with incredulity, filling
+with hideous self-derision when he saw that the pistol
+which had sent his death to him was not in Harlan&#8217;s
+right hand at all, but in his left.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan got up slowly as Latimer stretched out in
+the dust at his feet&mdash;casting one swift glance at the
+fallen man to satisfy himself that for <i>him</i> the incident
+was ended. Then, with the gaze of every man in the
+outfit upon him, he strode toward the stable, where
+Lanky and Poggs were standing, having witnessed the
+death of their confederate.
+</p>
+<p>They stiffened to immobility as they watched Harlan&#8217;s
+approach, knowing that for them the incident was
+not closed&mdash;their guilt plain in their faces.
+</p>
+<p>And when Harlan halted in front of them they
+stood, not moving a muscle, their eyes searching Harlan&#8217;s
+face for signs that they too, were to receive a
+demonstration of the man&#8217;s uncanny cleverness.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You was backin&#8217; Latimer&#8217;s play,&#8221; said Harlan,
+shortly. &#8220;I&#8217;m aimin&#8217; to play the string out. Pull&mdash;or
+I&#8217;ll blow you apart!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Poggs and Lanky did not &#8220;pull.&#8221; They stood
+there, ghastly color stealing into their faces, their eyes
+wide with the knowledge that death would be the penalty
+of a hostile movement.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_204' name='page_204'></a>204</span></p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s pistol was again in its holster, and yet they
+had no desire to provoke the man to draw it. The
+furtive gleam in the eyes of both revealed the hope
+that gripped them&mdash;that some of the watchers would
+interfere.
+</p>
+<p>But not a man moved. Most of them had been
+stunned by the rapidity of Harlan&#8217;s action&mdash;by the
+deftness with which he had brought his left hand into
+use. They had received the practical demonstration
+for which they all had longed, and each man&#8217;s manner
+plainly revealed his decision to take no part in what
+was transpiring.
+</p>
+<p>They remained in their places while Harlan&mdash;understanding
+that Poggs and Lanky would not accept
+his invitation&mdash;spoke gruffly to them:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This camp ain&#8217;t got any room for skunks that go
+to framin&#8217; up on any of the boys. Today you done it
+to me&mdash;tomorrow you&#8217;d try to pull it off on some
+other guy.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re travelin&#8217;&mdash;pronto. You&#8217;re gettin&#8217; your
+cayuses. Then you&#8217;re hittin&#8217; the breeze away from
+here&mdash;an&#8217; not comin&#8217; back. That lets you out.
+Mosey!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He stood watchful, alert, while the men roped their
+horses, got their &#8220;war-bags,&#8221; from the bunkhouse,
+mounted, and rode away without looking back. Then
+he walked over to the bench where he had been sitting
+when Rogers had warned him of the plan to kill him;
+ordered several of the men to take Latimer&#8217;s body
+away, and then resumed his place on the bench, where
+he rolled a cigarette.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_205' name='page_205'></a>205</span></p>
+<p>Later, when the men who had gone with Latimer&#8217;s
+body returned to the vicinity of the ranchhouse, Harlan
+was still sitting on the bench.
+</p>
+<p>No man said a word to him, but he saw a new respect
+in the eyes of all of them&mdash;even in Rogers&#8217; gaze&mdash;which
+had not strayed from him for an instant during
+the trouble.
+</p>
+<p>And a little later, when Rogers walked to the bench
+and sat beside him, the other men had resumed their
+various pastimes as though nothing had happened.
+</p>
+<p>Again Rogers whispered to him, lowly, admiringly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This camp is yours, man, whenever you say the
+word!&#8221;
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXI_THE_BLACKBEARDED_MAN' id='XXI_THE_BLACKBEARDED_MAN'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_206' name='page_206'></a>206</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXI</h2>
+<h3>THE BLACK-BEARDED MAN</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>It was Strom Rogers who indicated to the outlaws
+at the Star that henceforth Harlan was to exercise
+authority of a kind that had formerly been vested in
+Haydon and Deveny.
+</p>
+<p>The corral was packed to suffocation with cattle,
+threatening the health of the animals; Deveny had
+sent no word from the Cache regarding the disposal
+of the stock, and Haydon&#8217;s whereabouts were unknown.
+</p>
+<p>Rogers had moved stock on his own initiative in
+former days&mdash;for he had been an able assistant to
+both leaders. And Rogers could have moved the stock
+out of the corral and to the point far south where the
+outlaws had always sold them.
+</p>
+<p>But there was malice in Rogers&#8217; heart toward the
+two outlaw leaders, and a perverse devil lurked in
+him. For many months he had worshiped Barbara
+Morgan from a distance, vaguely aware that his passion
+for her could never be realized. But there was
+a spark of honesty and justice in Rogers despite his
+profession, and a sincere admiration for the girl that
+admitted of no thought of evil toward her.
+</p>
+<p>He had almost betrayed his resentment to Deveny
+when in Lamo, on the day of the coming of Harlan,
+Deveny had boldly announced his intentions toward
+the girl; and it had been a dread of clashing with Deveny
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_207' name='page_207'></a>207</span>
+that had kept him from interfering. The will to
+protect the girl had been in Rogers&#8217; mind, but he
+lacked the physical courage to risk his life for her.
+</p>
+<p>This man who had boldly entered the outlaw camp,
+after first defying Deveny in Lamo, had made a stirring
+appeal to the good in Rogers; and he foresaw
+that trouble, in which Harlan had a chance to emerge
+victorious, was certain. And he had decided to align
+himself with the Pardo gunman.
+</p>
+<p>Therefore, on this morning, when it was certain
+that the cattle in the corral must be moved, he deliberately
+refused to exercise his prerogative. Instead, he
+waited until after breakfast&mdash;when the men were congregated
+outside the bunkhouse door&mdash;when he was
+certain they would all hear him.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had come out, too. He had not visited the
+Rancho Seco for more than a week, fearing that his
+absence might jeopardize the advantage he had gained
+over the men through the killing of Latimer.
+</p>
+<p>With the attention of all the men centered upon
+him, Rogers walked close to Harlan, speaking loudly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Them cattle ought to hit the trail, Harlan. It&#8217;s
+up to you&mdash;you&#8217;re the boss. Do we move &#8217;em&mdash;an&#8217;
+where?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>A comprehensive light gleamed in Harlan&#8217;s eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They move,&#8221; he said shortly. &#8220;Drive them where
+you&#8217;ve been drivin&#8217; them.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>As though he had been giving orders to the outlaws
+all his life, he briskly mentioned the names of the men
+who were to form the trail herd.
+</p>
+<p>Not a man dissented. Those whose names were
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_208' name='page_208'></a>208</span>
+called quickly detached themselves from the group,
+and sought the horse corral; where they roped their
+horses and began to make preparations to obey Harlan&#8217;s
+order. And later, when the cattle were driven
+out of the corral, and the trail herd crew straggled behind
+them over the level that led southward, the men
+were grinning.
+</p>
+<p>For Harlan had told them that their share of the
+spoils resulting from the sale of the cattle was to be
+materially increased. He had likewise told them that
+they might spend an extra day in &#8220;town&#8221; before their
+return.
+</p>
+<p>Only one man besides Harlan remained at the Star
+after the herd vanished into the southern distance.
+That man was the black-bearded fellow who had escorted
+Harlan to the ranchhouse on the occasion of his
+first visit&mdash;Lafe Woodward.
+</p>
+<p>This man&#8217;s admiration for Harlan had never been
+concealed. He had stayed as close to Harlan as possible;
+and from his manner Harlan had divined that
+the man was eager to ingratiate himself.
+</p>
+<p>Woodward stood near Harlan as the herd and the
+men vanished. He had grinned widely when, just
+before the outfit had departed, he had heard Rogers
+whisper to Harlan:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve made yourself solid with the bunch, for
+sure, by offerin&#8217; &#8217;em a bigger divvy. They&#8217;ve been
+grumblin&#8217; about it for a long time. They&#8217;re all sore
+at Haydon an&#8217; Deveny for bein&#8217; greedy. But you&#8217;re
+sure cookin&#8217; up a heap of trouble with Haydon an&#8217;
+Deveny!&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_209' name='page_209'></a>209</span></p>
+<p>Harlan grinned with grim mirthlessness. It had
+been his first opportunity to stir up dissension and
+strife in the outlaw camp, and he had taken instant advantage
+of it. He had created factional feeling, and
+he was prepared to accept the consequences.
+</p>
+<p>And, later in the day, when he saw Haydon ride in,
+dismount and cast a surprised glance at the empty
+corral, he knew that the moment for which he had
+planned, had come.
+</p>
+<p>Woodward was nowhere in sight; and Harlan, who
+had been in the blacksmith-shop, made himself visible
+to Haydon by stepping outside.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon called to him, sharply; and Harlan walked
+slowly to where the outlaw chief stood, a saturnine
+grin on his face, his eyes alight with a cold humor that
+might have been illuminating to Haydon had he taken
+the trouble to look into them.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon was laboring under some strong passion.
+He was suppressing it with an effort, but it showed in
+his tensed muscles and in his flushed face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where are the cattle?&#8221; he demanded, his voice
+a trifle hoarse.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They&#8217;re headed for Willow Wells&mdash;where you&#8217;ve
+been sellin&#8217; them.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;By whose orders?&#8221; Haydon&#8217;s voice was choked
+with passion.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Mine,&#8221; drawled Harlan. Harlan might have explained
+that the stock had been suffering in the crowded
+enclosure, thus assuaging Haydon&#8217;s wrath. But he
+gave no explanation&mdash;that would have been a revelation
+of eagerness to escape blame and the possible
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_210' name='page_210'></a>210</span>
+consequences of his act. Instead of explaining he
+looked steadily into Haydon&#8217;s eyes, his own cold and
+unblinking.
+</p>
+<p>He saw Haydon&#8217;s wrath flare up&mdash;it was in the
+heightened color that spread upward above the collar
+of his shirt; he saw the man&#8217;s terrific effort at self-control;
+and his look grew bitter with insolence.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What&#8217;s botherin&#8217; you?&#8221; he said.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The cattle&mdash;damn it!&#8221; shouted Haydon. &#8220;What
+in hell do you mean by sending them away without
+orders?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m havin&#8217; my say, Haydon. We agreed to split
+everything three ways. Authority to give orders goes
+with that. That was the agreement. A man&#8217;s got
+to be either a captain or a private, an&#8217; I&#8217;ve never
+played second to any man. I ain&#8217;t beginnin&#8217; now.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, damn you!&#8221; gasped Haydon. His eyes
+were aglare with a terrible rage and hate; he stepped
+backward a little, bending his right arm, spreading the
+fingers.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan had made no move, but the light in his eyes
+betrayed his complete readiness for the trouble that
+Haydon plainly meditated.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; he said, slowly, drawling his words, a little!
+&#8220;It&#8217;s come to that, I reckon. You&#8217;ve got to flash your
+gun now, or take it back. No man cusses me an&#8217; gets
+away with it. Get goin&#8217;!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon stood, swaying from side to side, in the
+grip of a mighty indecision. The fingers of his right
+hand spread wider; the hand descended to a point
+nearer to his pistol holster.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_211' name='page_211'></a>211</span></p>
+<p>There it poised, the fingers hooked, like the talons
+of some giant bird about to clutch a victim.
+</p>
+<p>Had Haydon faced a man with less courage; had
+Harlan&#8217;s iron control lacked that quality which permitted
+him to give an enemy that small chance for life
+which he always gave them, death might have reigned
+at the Star again. Haydon owed his life to that hesitation
+which had made Harlan famous.
+</p>
+<p>And as the strained, tense seconds passed with both
+men holding the positions they had assumed, it seemed
+Haydon was slowly beginning to realize that Harlan
+was reluctant, was deliberately giving him a chance.
+</p>
+<p>A change came over Haydon. The clawlike fingers
+began to straighten; imperceptibly at first, and then
+with a spasmodic motion that flexed the muscles in
+little jerks. The hand became limp; it dropped slowly
+to his side&mdash;down beyond the pistol holster. Then it
+came up, and the man swept it over his eyes, as though
+to brush away a vision that frightened him.
+</p>
+<p>His face grew pale, he shuddered; and at last he
+stood, swaying a little, his mouth open with wonder
+for the phenomenal thing that had happened to him.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s voice, cold and expressionless, startled
+him:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You wasn&#8217;t meanin&#8217; to cuss me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No!&#8221; The denial was blurted forth. Haydon
+grinned, faintly, with hideous embarrassment; the
+knowledge that he had been beaten, and that he owed
+his life to Harlan, was plain in his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>He laughed, uncertainly, as he made an effort to
+stiffen his lagging muscles.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_212' name='page_212'></a>212</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I was a bit flustered, Harlan; I talked rather recklessly,
+I admit. You see, I&#8217;ve been used to giving orders
+myself. I was riled for a minute.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That goes!&#8221; said Harlan, shortly. His voice had
+changed. The slow drawl had gone, and a snapping,
+authoritative sharpness had replaced it.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon gazed at him with a new wonder. He
+sensed in Harlan&#8217;s manner the consciousness of power,
+the determination to command. At a stroke, it seemed,
+Harlan had wrenched from him the right to rule. He
+felt himself being relegated to a subordinate position;
+he felt at this minute the ruthless force of the man who
+stood before him; he felt oddly impotent and helpless,
+and he listened to Harlan with a queer feeling of wonder
+for the absence of the rage that should have
+gripped him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m runnin&#8217; things from now on,&#8221; Harlan said.
+&#8220;I ain&#8217;t interferin&#8217; with the Star. But I&#8217;m runnin&#8217;
+things for the boys. I told Rogers to drive the cattle
+to Willow&#8217;s Wells&mdash;an&#8217; to sell them. I&#8217;ve promised
+the boys a bigger divvy. They get it. I&#8217;ve told them
+to take a day off, in town, after they turn the cattle
+over.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s got to be a new deal. The boys are fussed
+up&mdash;claimin&#8217; they ain&#8217;t gettin&#8217; their share. I&#8217;m seein&#8217;
+that they do. You can&#8217;t run a camp like this an&#8217; not
+treat the boys right.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The wonder that had been aroused in Haydon grew
+as Harlan talked; it increased in intensity until, when
+Harlan&#8217;s voice died away, it developed into suspicion.
+</p>
+<p>That was what Harlan had come to the Star for!
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_213' name='page_213'></a>213</span>
+He wanted to run the camp, to direct the activities of
+the outlaws in the valley. Power! Authority! Those
+were the things Harlan craved for.
+</p>
+<p>Haydon saw it all, now. He saw that Harlan
+wanted to dominate&mdash;everything. He wanted to rule
+the outlaw camp; he wanted to run the Rancho Seco;
+he intended to get possession of the gold that Morgan
+had left, and he wanted Barbara Morgan.
+</p>
+<p>The rage that had held Haydon in its clutch when
+he had called Harlan to him was reviving. Haydon&#8217;s
+face was still white, but the fury in his eyes&mdash;slowly
+growing&mdash;was not to be mistaken.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan saw it, and his lips straightened. He had
+expected Haydon would rage over what he had determined
+to tell him; and he was not surprised. He had
+deliberately goaded the man into his present fury. He
+had determined to kill him, and he had been disappointed
+when he had seen Haydon lose his courage
+when the crisis arrived. And now his deliberate and
+premeditated plan was to bear fruit.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan was reluctant to kill, but there seemed to be
+no other way. Haydon was a murderer. He had
+killed Lane Morgan; he was an outlaw whose rule had
+oppressed the valley for many months. If Harlan
+could have devised some plan that would make it possible
+for him to attain his end without killing anybody,
+he would have eagerly adopted it.
+</p>
+<p>But in this country force must be fought with force.
+It was a grim game, and the rules were inflexible&mdash;kill
+or be killed.
+</p>
+<p>His own life would be safe in this section so long
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_214' name='page_214'></a>214</span>
+as he guarded it. Eternal vigilance and the will to
+take life when his own was threatened was a principle
+which custom had established. If he expected to save
+the girl at the Rancho Seco he could not temper his
+actions with mercy. And he knew that if he was to
+succeed in his design to disrupt the outlaw gang he
+would have to remove the man who stood before him,
+working himself into a new frenzy. There seemed to
+be no other way.
+</p>
+<p>But Haydon seemed to have control of himself,
+now, despite the frenzied glare of his eyes. He was
+outwardly cool; his movements were deliberate&mdash;he
+had conquered his fear of Harlan, it seemed.
+</p>
+<p>He laughed, harshly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan,&#8221; he said; &#8220;you had me going&mdash;talking
+that way. By Heaven! you almost convinced me that
+I&#8217;d <i>let</i> you run things here. I was beginning to believe
+I&#8217;d lost my nerve. But see here!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He held out his right hand toward Harlan&mdash;it was
+steady, rigid, not a nerve in it quivered.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re fast with your guns, but you can&#8217;t run any
+whizzer in on me&mdash;you can&#8217;t intimidate me. You
+killed Latimer the other day; and you&#8217;ve got the boys
+with you. But you can&#8217;t run things here. Have all
+the boys gone?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Woodward&#8217;s here.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan spoke lowly; his eyes were keenly watchful.
+This flare-up on Haydon&#8217;s part was merely a phase of
+his confused mental condition. He saw that Haydon
+did not mean to use his gun&mdash;that he intended to ignore
+it, no doubt planning to regain his authority when
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_215' name='page_215'></a>215</span>
+the men of the outfit returned&mdash;when he might enlist
+the support of some of them.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Woodward&#8217;s here&mdash;eh?&#8221; laughed Haydon. He
+raised his voice, shouting for the man. And Harlan
+saw Woodward come from behind an outbuilding,
+look toward the ranchhouse, and then walk slowly
+toward them.
+</p>
+<p>Woodward halted when within several paces of the
+two, and looked from one to the other curiously, his
+eyes narrowed with speculation.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Woodward,&#8221; directed Haydon; &#8220;hit the breeze
+after the outfit and tell them to drive those cattle back
+here!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan grinned. &#8220;Woodward,&#8221; he said, gently;
+&#8220;you climb on your cayuse an&#8217; do as Haydon tells you.
+Haydon is figurin&#8217; on cashin&#8217; in when you do.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon blustered. &#8220;What do you mean?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I mean that if Woodward goes after the boys I&#8217;m
+goin&#8217; to blow you apart. I&#8217;m givin&#8217; the orders around
+here!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Watching Haydon, Harlan saw that he was not exhibiting
+rage, but intense interest. He was not looking
+at Harlan, but at Woodward. And, turning
+swiftly, his guns both leaping into his hands with the
+movement&mdash;for he had a swift suspicion that Woodward
+might be standing with Haydon against him&mdash;he
+saw that Woodward had fallen into a crouch; that
+the man&#8217;s right hand was hovering over his pistol holster,
+and that his eyes were gleaming with a light that
+could mean only the one thing&mdash;murder.
+</p>
+<p>Backing slowly away from both Haydon and Woodward,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_216' name='page_216'></a>216</span>
+Harlan watched them, his guns ready for instant
+action should he catch any sign that would indicate
+trickery toward himself.
+</p>
+<p>He saw no such signs. It became plain to him that
+Woodward had no eyes for anyone but Haydon, and
+that Haydon&#8217;s attention was fixed upon Woodward
+with an intentness that meant he had divined that
+Woodward&#8217;s peculiar manner had a definite, personal
+meaning.
+</p>
+<p>Woodward continued to advance on Haydon. He
+was waving his left hand as though giving Harlan a
+silent order to get out of his way, while his gaze was
+centered upon Haydon with an unspoken promise of
+violence, fascinating to behold.
+</p>
+<p>It seemed to have fascinated Haydon. Harlan saw
+him shrink back, the bluster gone out of him, his face
+the color of ashes. He kept stepping back, until he
+brought up against the rear wall of the ranchhouse;
+and there he stood, watching Woodward, his eyes
+bulging with dread wonder.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan saw his lips move; heard his voice, hoarse
+and throaty:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s a frame-up&mdash;a frame-up. Both of you are
+out to get me!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Frame-up!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>This was Woodward. He was a sinister figure,
+with his black beard seeming to bristle with passion, his
+eyes flaming with it; all his muscles tensed and quivering,
+and his right hand, with clawlike fingers, poised
+above the butt of his pistol.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Frame-up!&#8221; he repeated, laughing hoarsely between
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_217' name='page_217'></a>217</span>
+his teeth. &#8220;Hell&#8217;s fire! Do you think it takes
+two men to &#8216;get&#8217; you&mdash;you miserable whelp?
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been waitin&#8217; for this day&mdash;waitin&#8217; for it,
+waitin&#8217; to get you alone&mdash;waitin&#8217; for the boys to go
+so&#8217;s I could tell you somethin&#8217;.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You know what it is. You ain&#8217;t guessin&#8217;, eh?
+Listen while I tell you somethin&#8217;. The day &#8216;Drag&#8217;
+Harlan got in Lamo he brought news that Lane Morgan
+had been killed out in the desert. I heard the
+boys sayin&#8217; you had a hand in it. But I thought that
+was just talk. I didn&#8217;t believe you was that kind of a
+skunk. I waited.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Then you sent me over to the edge of the level,
+near the Rancho Seco&mdash;where Harlan found that
+flattened grass when he rode over here. You told me
+to watch Harlan and Barbara Morgan. You said
+you thought Harlan would try some sneak game with
+her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You can gamble I watched. I saw Harlan standin&#8217;
+guard over her; I saw him follow that sneak Lawson.
+I heard the shot that killed Lawson, an&#8217; I saw
+Harlan tote him downstairs, an&#8217; then set on the door-sill
+all night, guardin&#8217; Barbara Morgan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The sneakin&#8217; game was played by you, Haydon.
+When I saw Harlan headin&#8217; toward the valley the day
+he come here, I lit out ahead of him. And when he
+got to the timber over there I brought him in.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; I heard you talk that day. I heard him sayin&#8217;
+that you killed Lane Morgan. He said my dad told
+him you fired the shot that killed him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan started and leaned forward, amazed. But
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_218' name='page_218'></a>218</span>
+Haydon swayed, and then steadied himself with an
+effort, and stared at Woodward with bulging, incredulous
+eyes.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Your <i>dad</i>?&#8221; he almost shrieked; &#8220;Lane Morgan
+was your father?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Woodward&#8217;s grin was wolfish. He took two or
+three steps toward Haydon&mdash;panther-like steps that
+betrayed the lust that was upon him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m Billy Morgan,&#8221; he said, his teeth showing in
+a merciless grin; &#8220;Barbara&#8217;s brother. Flash your gun,
+Haydon; I&#8217;m goin&#8217; to kill you!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Haydon clawed for his pistol, missing the butt in
+his eagerness, and striving wildly to draw it. It
+snagged on a rawhide thong that supported the holster
+and his fingers were loosening in the partial grip when
+Billy Morgan shot him.
+</p>
+<p>He flattened against the wall of the ranchhouse for
+an instant, staring wildly around him; then his head
+sagged forward and he slid down the wall of the
+ranchhouse into the deep dust that was mounded
+near it.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXII_A_DEAD_MAN_WALKS' id='XXII_A_DEAD_MAN_WALKS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_219' name='page_219'></a>219</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXII</h2>
+<h3>A DEAD MAN WALKS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Harlan had paid strict attention to Lane Morgan&#8217;s
+words at Sentinel Rock, and he remembered
+that Morgan had told him that his son, whom
+he had called &#8220;Bill,&#8221; had left the Rancho Seco on
+some mission for the governor. Evidently it had not
+occurred to Morgan that his son&#8217;s mission had taken
+him only to the valley in which reigned those outlaws
+Morgan had reviled.
+</p>
+<p>But it was plain to Harlan that &#8220;Billy&#8221; was here&mdash;he
+had said so himself, and he had given proof that
+he had been watchful and alert to Barbara&#8217;s interests.
+And now was explained young Morgan&#8217;s interest in
+himself. The thought that during all the days he had
+spent at the Rancho Seco, his movements had been
+watched by the man who had just killed Haydon,
+brought a glow of ironic humor to Harlan&#8217;s eyes.
+</p>
+<p>During a long interval, through which Billy Morgan
+stood over Haydon, watching him with a cold
+savagery, Harlan kept at a respectable distance, also
+watching.
+</p>
+<p>He saw that for Haydon the incident had been
+fatal. The man&#8217;s body did not move after it slipped
+to the ground beside the ranchhouse wall. Yet Morgan
+watched until he was certain; then he slowly
+wheeled and looked at Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That settles him&mdash;damn him!&#8221; he said, with a
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_220' name='page_220'></a>220</span>
+breathlessness that told of the intense strain he had
+been laboring under.
+</p>
+<p>Still Harlan did not speak; and his guns were in
+their holsters when Morgan walked close to him, grinning
+wanly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I had to do it. There&#8217;s no use tryin&#8217; to depend
+on the law in this country. You&#8217;ve seen that, yourself.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve noticed it,&#8221; grinned Harlan. &#8220;You&#8217;re feelin&#8217;
+bad over it. I wouldn&#8217;t. If it had been my dad he
+killed I couldn&#8217;t have done any different. I reckon
+any man with blood in him would feel that way about
+a coyote like that killin&#8217; his father. If men don&#8217;t feel
+that way, why do they drag murderers to courts&mdash;where
+they have courts&mdash;an&#8217; ask the law to kill them.
+That&#8217;s just shovin&#8217; the responsibility onto some other
+guy.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve handed several guys their pass-out checks, an&#8217;
+I ain&#8217;t regrettin&#8217; one of them. There wasn&#8217;t one of
+them that didn&#8217;t have it comin&#8217; to him. They was
+lookin&#8217; for it, mostly, an&#8217; had to have it. I&#8217;ve heard
+of guys that had killed a man feelin&#8217; squeamish over it&mdash;with
+ghosts visitin&#8217; them at night; an&#8217; sufferin&#8217; a lot
+of mental torture. I reckon any man would feel that
+way if he&#8217;d killed an inoffensive man&mdash;or a good man,
+or one that hadn&#8217;t been tryin&#8217; to murder him.&#8221; He
+grinned again. &#8220;Why, I&#8217;m preachin&#8217;!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>And now into his gaze as he looked at Morgan,
+came cold reproach.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You wasn&#8217;t figurin&#8217; to let Barbara play it a lone
+hand?&#8221; he said.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_221' name='page_221'></a>221</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Hell&#8217;s fire&mdash;no!&#8221; denied Morgan, his eyes blazing.
+&#8220;I&#8217;ve been watchin&#8217; the Rancho Seco&mdash;as I told
+Haydon. I saw Barbara set out for Lamo. There
+was no one followin&#8217; her, an&#8217; so I thought she&#8217;d be all
+right. That mixup at Lamo slipped me. But I seen
+you an&#8217; Barbara come back, an&#8217; I heard the boys
+talkin&#8217; about what happened at Lamo. I&#8217;d heard of
+you, too; an&#8217; when I seen you come back with Barbara
+I watched you. An&#8217; I seen you was square, so I trusted
+you a heap.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; I had a talk with Sheriff Gage about you, an&#8217;
+he told me my dad had sent to Pardo for you, through
+Dave Hallowell, the marshal of Pardo. Gage said
+you was out to clean up Deveny an&#8217; Haydon, an&#8217; so I
+knowed I could depend on you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Barbara don&#8217;t know you&#8217;re hangin&#8217; around here&mdash;she
+ain&#8217;t known it?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shucks, I reckon not,&#8221; grinned Morgan. &#8220;I didn&#8217;t
+come here for six months after I left the Rancho Seco&mdash;until
+I growed a beard. Barbara&#8217;s been within a
+dozen feet of me, an&#8217; never knowed me. I&#8217;ve been
+thinkin&#8217; of telling her, but I seen Haydon was sweet
+on her, an&#8217; I didn&#8217;t dare tell her. Women ain&#8217;t reliable.
+She&#8217;d have showed it some way, an&#8217; then
+there&#8217;d have been hell to pay.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; I&#8217;ve been pridin&#8217; myself on takin&#8217; care of Barbara,&#8221;
+said Harlan. &#8220;I feel a heap embarrassed an&#8217;
+useless&mdash;just like I&#8217;d been fooled.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve done a thing I couldn&#8217;t do,&#8221; confessed
+Morgan; &#8220;you&#8217;ve busted Haydon&#8217;s gang wide open.
+If you hadn&#8217;t showed up there&#8217;d have been nothin&#8217;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_222' name='page_222'></a>222</span>
+done. There&#8217;s some of the boys that ain&#8217;t outlaws&mdash;boys
+that are with me, havin&#8217; sneaked into the gang to
+help me out. But we wan&#8217;t makin&#8217; no headway to
+speak of.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan looked at Haydon. &#8220;That guy was educated,&#8221;
+he said. &#8220;What was his game? I&#8217;ve felt all
+along that there was somethin&#8217; big back of him&mdash;that
+he wasn&#8217;t here just to steal cattle an&#8217; rob folks, an&#8217;
+such.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You ain&#8217;t heard,&#8221; smiled Morgan. &#8220;Of course
+you wouldn&#8217;t&mdash;unless Gage had gassed to you.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a gang of big men in Frisco, an&#8217; in the
+East, figurin&#8217; to run a railroad through the basin. A
+year or so ago there was secret talk of it in the capital.
+It leaked out that the railroad guys was intendin&#8217; to
+run their road through the basin. They was goin&#8217; to
+build a town right where the Rancho Seco lays; an&#8217;
+they was plannin&#8217; to irrigate a lot of the land around
+there. The governor says it was to be big&mdash;an&#8217; likely
+it&#8217;ll be big, when they get around to it.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But them things go slow, an&#8217; a gang of cheap
+crooks got wise to it. They sent Haydon down here,
+to scare the folks in the basin into sellin&#8217; out for a
+song. They&#8217;ve scared one man out&mdash;a Pole from the
+west end. But the others have stuck. Looks like they
+was figurin&#8217; on grabbin&#8217; the Rancho Seco without payin&#8217;
+<i>anything</i> for it&mdash;Haydon intendin&#8217;, I reckon, to
+put dad an&#8217; me out of the way an&#8217; marry Barbara.
+Then he could have cut the ranch up into town lots an&#8217;
+made a mint of coin.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; Deveny?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_223' name='page_223'></a>223</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Deveny&#8217;s a wolf. Haydon brought him here from
+Arizona&mdash;where he&#8217;d terrorized a whole county, runnin&#8217;
+it regardless. He figured to cash in, I reckon,
+but he&#8217;s been grabbin&#8217; up everything he could lay his
+hands on, on the way.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ll be tellin&#8217; Barbara, now?&#8221; suggested Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re shoutin&#8217;!&#8221; said Morgan, his eyes glowing.
+&#8220;I&#8217;m hittin&#8217; the breeze to the Rancho Seco for fair.&#8221;
+He looked at Haydon, and his eyes took on a new
+expression. &#8220;I was almost forgettin&#8217; what the governor
+sent me here for,&#8221; he added. &#8220;The governor
+was wantin&#8217; to know who is behind Haydon an&#8217; Deveny,
+an&#8217; I&#8217;m rummagin&#8217; around in Haydon&#8217;s office to
+find out. Goin&#8217;?&#8221; he invited.
+</p>
+<p>Both looked down at Haydon as they passed him,
+and an instant later they were entering a door of the
+ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>They had hardly disappeared when Haydon&#8217;s head
+moved slightly.
+</p>
+<p>His eyes were open; he glanced at the door of the
+ranchhouse through which Harlan and Morgan had
+entered. Then he raised his head, dragged himself to
+an elbow&mdash;upon which he rested momentarily, his
+face betraying the bitter malignance and triumph that
+had seized him.
+</p>
+<p>He had realized that Morgan had meant to kill
+him, even before Morgan had revealed his identity,
+and his backward movement, which had brought him
+against the wall of the ranchhouse had been made with
+design. He had felt that even if he should succeed in
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_224' name='page_224'></a>224</span>
+beating Morgan, Harlan would have taken up the
+quarrel, for he knew that Harlan also had designs on
+his life. And with a cupidity aroused over the desperate
+predicament in which he found himself, he had
+decided to take a forlorn chance.
+</p>
+<p>Morgan&#8217;s bullet had struck him, but by a convulsive
+side movement at the instant Morgan&#8217;s gun roared
+Haydon had escaped a fatal wound, and the bullet had
+entered his left side above the heart, paralyzing one of
+the big muscles of the shoulder.
+</p>
+<p>His left arm was limp and useless, and dragged in
+the dust as he squirmed around and gained his feet.
+There was no window in the wall of the ranchhouse
+on that side; and he backed away, staggering a little,
+for he had lost much blood. He kept the blank wall
+before him as he backed away from the house; and
+when he reached his horse he was a long time getting
+into the saddle. But he accomplished it at last; and
+sent the horse slowly up the slope and into the timber
+out of which Harlan had ridden with the black-bearded
+man on the day of his first visit to the Star.
+</p>
+<p>Back where the trail converged with the main trail
+that ran directly up the valley, Haydon, reeling in the
+saddle, sent his horse at a faster pace, heading it toward
+the Cache where he was certain he would find
+Deveny. And as he rode the triumph in his eyes grew.
+For he had heard every word of the conversation between
+Harlan and Morgan, and he hoped to get to the
+Cache before the two men discovered the trick he had
+played upon them&mdash;before they could escape.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIII_DEVENY_SECEDES' id='XXIII_DEVENY_SECEDES'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_225' name='page_225'></a>225</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIII</h2>
+<h3>DEVENY SECEDES</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Since the day he had heard that Harlan had appeared
+at the Star and had been taken into the
+outlaw band by Haydon, Deveny had exhibited fits of
+a sullen moroseness that had kept his closest friends
+from seeking his companionship. Those friends were
+few, for Deveny&#8217;s attitude toward his men had always
+been that of the ruthless tyrant; he had treated them
+with an aloofness that had in it a contempt which they
+could not ignore. More&mdash;he was merciless, and had
+a furious temper which found its outlet in physical violence.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny was a fast man with the big Colt that swung
+at his hip, a deadly marksman, and he needed but little
+provocation to exhibit his skill. For that reason his
+men kept the distance Deveny had established between
+them&mdash;never attempting familiarity with him.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny had heard from a Star man the story of
+Harlan&#8217;s coming to the Star and when a day or so
+later Haydon rode into the Cache, Deveny was in a
+state of furious resentment.
+</p>
+<p>There had been harsh words between Haydon and
+Deveny; the men of the Cache had no difficulty in comprehending
+that Deveny&#8217;s rage was bitter.
+</p>
+<p>Not even when Haydon told him that his acceptance
+of Harlan had been forced by circumstances, and that
+he was tricking Harlan into a state of fancied security
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_226' name='page_226'></a>226</span>
+in which he could the more easily bring confusion upon
+him did Deveny agree.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re a damned fool, Haydon!&#8221; he told the
+other, his face black with passion. &#8220;That guy is slick
+as greased lightning&mdash;and faster. And he don&#8217;t mean
+any good to the camp. He&#8217;s out for himself.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny did not intimate that his dislike of Harlan
+had been caused by the latter&#8217;s interference with his
+plans the day he had held Barbara Morgan a prisoner
+in the room above the Eating-House in Lamo; but
+Haydon, who had heard the details of the affair from
+one of his men, smiled knowingly.
+</p>
+<p>It was not Haydon&#8217;s plan to let Deveny know he
+knew of the affair, or that he cared about it if he had
+heard. And so he did not mention it.
+</p>
+<p>But in his heart was a rage that made his thoughts
+venomous; though he concealed his emotions behind
+the bland, smooth smile of good-natured tolerance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ll handle him, Deveny,&#8221; he said as he took leave
+of the other. &#8220;He&#8217;ll get his when he isn&#8217;t expecting
+it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny, however, had no faith in Haydon&#8217;s ability
+to &#8220;handle&#8221; Harlan. He had seen in the man&#8217;s eyes
+that day in Lamo something that had troubled him&mdash;an
+indomitability that seemed to indicate that the man
+would do whatever he set out to do.
+</p>
+<p>But Deveny did not ride to the Star to see Harlan;
+he was reluctant to stir outside the Cache, and for
+many days, while Harlan was attaining supremacy at
+the Star, and while Haydon was absent on a mysterious
+mission, Deveny kept close to the Cache, nursing
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_227' name='page_227'></a>227</span>
+his resentment against Haydon, and deepening&mdash;with
+fancied situations&mdash;his hatred for Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>It did not surprise Deveny when a Star man rode into
+the Cache one day and told him that Harlan had
+killed Latimer in a gunfight, and that Harlan was
+slowly but surely gaining a following among the men.
+The information did not surprise Deveny; but it sent
+his mind into a chaos of conjecture and speculation,
+out of which at last a conviction came&mdash;that Harlan
+was seeking control of the outlaw band; that Haydon&#8217;s
+days as a leader were almost over, so far as he
+was concerned. For if Haydon insisted on taking
+Harlan into the secret councils of the camp he&mdash;Deveny&mdash;was
+going to operate independently.
+</p>
+<p>The more his thoughts dwelt upon that feature the
+more attractive it seemed to him. Independence of
+Haydon meant that he could do as he pleased without
+the necessity of consulting anybody. He could rustle
+whatever cattle he wanted&mdash;getting them where he
+could without following Haydon&#8217;s plans&mdash;which had
+always seemed rather nonsensical, embracing as they
+did the scheme of railroad building and town sites;
+and he could do as he pleased with Barbara Morgan,
+not having to consider Haydon at all.
+</p>
+<p>It was that last consideration that finally decided
+Deveny. He was an outlaw&mdash;not a politician; he
+robbed for gain, and not for the doubtful benefits that
+might be got out of the building of a town. And when
+he looked with desire upon a woman he didn&#8217;t care to
+share her with another man&mdash;not even Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>For two or three days after the conviction seized
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_228' name='page_228'></a>228</span>
+Deveny, he pondered over his chances, and when he
+reached a decision he acted with the volcanic energy
+that had characterized his depredations in the basin.
+</p>
+<p>On the morning of the day upon which Haydon returned
+to the Star to find the cattle gone and Harlan
+in control, Deveny appeared to a dozen Cache men
+who were variously engaged near the corral, ordering
+them to saddle their horses.
+</p>
+<p>Later, Deveny and his men rode southward across
+a low plateau that connected the buttes near the entrance
+to the Cache with the low hills that rimmed the
+basin. They traveled fast, and when they reached the
+rimming hills they veered eastward upon a broad sand
+plain.
+</p>
+<p>There was a grin on Deveny&#8217;s face now&mdash;a grin
+which expressed craft, duplicity, and bestial desire.
+And as he rode at the head of his men he drew mental
+pictures that broadened his grin and brought into his
+eyes an abysmal gleam.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIV_KIDNAPPED' id='XXIV_KIDNAPPED'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_229' name='page_229'></a>229</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIV</h2>
+<h3>KIDNAPPED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Barbara Morgan had yielded to the fever
+of impatience which had afflicted her during the
+latter days of Harlan&#8217;s absence from the Rancho Seco.
+She had been impatient ever since she had been forced
+to stay close to the house by Harlan&#8217;s orders; but she
+had fought it off until now, for she had been interested
+in Harlan, and had felt a deep wonder over his probable
+actions regarding her future.
+</p>
+<p>She had known, of course, that real danger from
+Deveny existed, for the incident in Lamo had convinced
+her of that, but she felt that Harlan&#8217;s fears for
+her were rather extravagant&mdash;it was rather improbable
+that Deveny would come boldly to the Rancho
+Seco and attempt to carry her away by force.
+</p>
+<p>The clear, brilliant sunshine of the country dispelled
+so grotesque a thought; the peaceful hills seemed to
+smile their denial; and the broad level near the entrance
+to the basin sent a calm message of reassurance
+to her.
+</p>
+<p>She had known Red Linton for a long time&mdash;for he
+had been with her father for nearly two seasons&mdash;and
+she had respected him for what he had seemed to be,
+a quiet, rather humorous man who did his work well,
+though without flourishes. He had never figured
+prominently in her thoughts, however, until the day
+Harlan had appointed him foreman of the Rancho
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_230' name='page_230'></a>230</span>
+Seco, and then her attention had been attracted to him
+because he had seemed interested in her.
+</p>
+<p>And she had noted that Linton&#8217;s interest in her
+seemed to grow after Harlan&#8217;s departure. He had
+talked with her several times, and she had questioned
+him about Harlan&#8217;s whereabouts. But Linton had not
+seemed to know; at least, if he did know, he kept his
+knowledge strictly to himself, not even intimating that
+he knew where Harlan had gone.
+</p>
+<p>Another thing she noted was that Linton seemed to
+have her under surveillance. Whenever she left the
+house&mdash;even for a short ride eastward&mdash;where Harlan
+had told her she might ride without danger&mdash;she
+discovered that Linton immediately mounted his horse,
+to linger somewhere in sight.
+</p>
+<p>The knowledge that she was watched began to irritate
+her and this morning she had got up with a determination
+to ride without company. With that end in
+view she had kept Billy all night in the patio; and
+when rather late in the morning she saw Linton riding
+eastward, she hurriedly threw saddle and bridle on the
+horse and rode westward, toward the big basin.
+</p>
+<p>She kept the house between her and the point where
+she had seen Linton&mdash;until a turn northward became
+inevitable; and then she urged Billy to a faster pace,
+in an endeavor to cross the wide plain that reached
+to the entrance to the basin before Linton could see
+her.
+</p>
+<p>Many times during the days before the coming of
+Deveny and Haydon to the valley she had ridden
+there; it had been a place in which reigned a mighty
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_231' name='page_231'></a>231</span>
+silence which she had loved, which had thrilled her.
+During those other days she was in the habit of riding
+to a point several miles up the valley&mdash;between the
+little basin where the Star was now and the Rancho
+Seco.
+</p>
+<p>The trail led upward in a slow, gradual slope to that
+point&mdash;a rugged promontory that jutted out from a
+mesa that rose above the floor of the valley. The
+mesa was fringed at the southern edge with stunt oak
+and nondescript brush. But there were breaks in the
+fringe which permitted her to ride close to the edge
+of the mesa; and from there she could look many miles
+up the valley&mdash;and across it, where the solemn hills
+rimmed the southern horizon, to a trail&mdash;called the
+South Trail by cattlemen in the valley, to distinguish
+it from the main trail leading through the mighty hollow
+in which she rode.
+</p>
+<p>When she reached the mesa she headed Billy directly
+for the break on the promontory. Dismounting, she
+stretched her legs to disperse the saddle weariness; then
+she found a huge rock which had been the seat from
+which she had viewed the wondrous landscape in the
+past.
+</p>
+<p>The reverent awe with which she had always viewed
+the valley was as strong in her today as it had ever
+been&mdash;stronger, in fact, because she had not seen the
+place for some time, and because in her heart there
+now dwelt a sadness that had not been there in those
+other days&mdash;at least since her mother had died.
+</p>
+<p>She was high above the floor of the valley; and she
+could see the main trail below her weaving around low
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_232' name='page_232'></a>232</span>
+mounds and sinking into depressions; disappearing into
+timber groves, reappearing farther on, disappearing
+again, and again reappearing until it grew blurred and
+indistinct in her vision.
+</p>
+<p>In the marvelous clarity of the atmosphere this
+morning every beauteous feature of the valley was
+disclosed to her inspection. The early morning haze
+had lifted, and the few fleecy clouds that floated in
+the blue bowl of sky were motionless, their majestic
+billows glowing in the sun. She saw a Mexican eagle
+swoop over the cloud, sailing on slow wing high above
+it, and growing so distant in her vision that he became
+a mere speck moving in the limitless expanse of space.
+</p>
+<p>It was a colossal landscape, and its creator had
+neglected no detail. And it was harmonious, from the
+emerald green that carpeted the floor of the valley
+near the gleaming river to the gigantic shoulders of
+the rugged hills that lifted their huge, bastioned walls
+into the blue of the sky. Some tall rock spires that
+thrust their peaks skyward far over on the southern
+side of the valley had always interested her; they
+seemed to be sentinels that guarded the place, hinting
+of an ages-old mystery that seemed to reign all about
+them.
+</p>
+<p>But there was mystery in everything in the valley,
+she felt; for it lay before her, spreading, slumbrous,
+basking in the brilliant sunlight&mdash;seeming to wait,
+as it seemed to have waited from the dawn of the
+first day, for man to wonder over it.
+</p>
+<p>She saw the Mexican eagle again after a while. It
+was making a wide circle beyond the rock spires, floating
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_233' name='page_233'></a>233</span>
+lazily above them in long, graceful swoops that
+were so lacking in effort that she longed to be up there
+with him&mdash;to ride the air with him, to feel the exhilaration
+he must feel.
+</p>
+<p>As she looked, however, she caught a faint blur on
+the southern horizon of the big picture&mdash;a yellowish-black
+cloud that hugged the horizon and traveled
+rapidly eastward. It was some time before she
+realized that what she saw was a dust cloud, and there
+were men in it&mdash;horsemen.
+</p>
+<p>She got up from the rock, her face slowly whitening.
+And into her heart came a presentiment that
+those men in the dust cloud were abroad upon an
+errand of evil.
+</p>
+<p>No doubt the presentiment was caused from the
+dread and fear she had lived under for days&mdash;the
+consciousness that Deveny was in the valley, and
+a recollection of the warnings that Harlan had given
+her. And she knew the horsemen could not be Rancho
+Seco men&mdash;for they had gone southward from the
+ranch, and there was no grass range where the horsemen
+were riding. Also, the men were riding eastward,
+toward the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>Trembling a little with apprehension, she mounted
+Billy and sent him down the slope to the floor of the
+valley. The descent was hazardous, and Billy did
+not make good time, but when he reached the level
+at the foot of the slope he stretched his neck and fell
+into a steady, rapid pace that took him down the valley
+swiftly.
+</p>
+<p>As the girl rode, the presentiment of evil increased,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_234' name='page_234'></a>234</span>
+and she grew nervous with a conviction that she
+would not be able to reach the Rancho Seco much in
+advance of the men. For she could see them more
+clearly now, because they were in the valley, traveling
+a shelving trail that sloped down from the hills toward
+the level that stretched to the ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>It was several miles from where she rode to the
+point where the horsemen were riding, and she was
+traversing a long ridge which must have revealed her
+to the men if they looked toward her.
+</p>
+<p>She had thought&mdash;after she had left the promontory&mdash;of
+concealing herself somewhere in the valley,
+to wait until she discovered who the men were and
+what their errand was; but she had a fear that if the
+men were Deveny&#8217;s outlaws they might return up the
+valley and accidentally come upon her. Also, she had
+yielded to the homing instinct which is strong in all
+living beings, for at home was safety that could not
+be found elsewhere.
+</p>
+<p>The South Trail, she knew, converged with the
+valley trail at the edge of the level. If she could
+reach that point a few minutes before the horsemen
+reached it she would rely on Billy to maintain his
+lead. Billy would have to maintain it!
+</p>
+<p>Leaning far over Billy&#8217;s mane she urged him on,
+coaxing him, flattering him, calling to him in terms
+of endearment. And the loyal little animal did his
+best, running as he had never run before.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara though, watching the horsemen with eyes
+into which there had come a glow of doubt, began
+to realize that Billy was losing the race. Also, by
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_235' name='page_235'></a>235</span>
+the time she had gone four or five miles, she discovered
+that the men had seen her. For the trails were growing
+close together now&mdash;not more than half a mile
+of slightly broken country stretched between them, and
+she could see the men waving their hats; could hear
+their voices above the whir and clatter of Billy&#8217;s
+passing.
+</p>
+<p>Still, she was determined to win, and Billy&#8217;s flanks
+felt the sting of the quirt that, hitherto, had swung
+from Barbara&#8217;s wrist.
+</p>
+<p>Billy revealed a marvelous burst of speed. But it
+did not last, and the horsemen, after hanging for an
+instant abreast of Billy, began to forge ahead.
+</p>
+<p>The courageous little animal had almost reached
+the covert that Harlan had discovered the day he had
+visited the Star the first time, and was nobly answering
+the stern urge of the quirt when another horseman
+suddenly appeared on the trail directly ahead of the
+girl, seemingly having ridden out of the covert.
+</p>
+<p>The trail was narrow, and Billy could not swerve
+around the new rider. So, sensing the danger of a
+collision he stiffened his legs, making a sliding halt that
+carried him a dozen feet, leaving him upon his
+haunches with Barbara frantically trying to keep to
+the saddle.
+</p>
+<p>Then Billy&#8217;s forehoofs came down; he grunted,
+heaved a tremendous sigh and stood, his legs braced,
+awaiting orders.
+</p>
+<p>No order came. For no words escaped Barbara&#8217;s
+lips. She sat in the saddle, her face ashen, terror
+clutching her.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_236' name='page_236'></a>236</span></p>
+<p>For the horseman who had ridden out of the covert
+was Stroud, the Rancho Seco straw-boss. He was
+grinning, and in his eyes was a gloating triumph that
+she could not mistake.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Lucky I took a notion to come in this mornin&#8217;,&#8221;
+he said. &#8220;I just got here. I seen you hittin&#8217; the
+breeze for fair while you was quite a piece up the
+basin; an&#8217; I seen Deveny an&#8217; the boys a-fannin&#8217; it, too.
+An&#8217; I says to myself: &#8216;Stroud, here&#8217;s Deveny racin&#8217;
+to see Miss Barbara, an&#8217; her actin&#8217; like she don&#8217;t want
+to see him. But I&#8217;ll fix it so she does.&#8217;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The girl touched Billy with the quirt, and the little
+animal lunged forward, close to Stroud&#8217;s horse. As
+the two beasts came close together Barbara struck at
+Stroud with the quirt, hoping to disconcert him so that
+she could send Billy past him.
+</p>
+<p>Stroud ducked and shot a hand out, seized the quirt
+and wrenched it from her hand. She screamed as the
+hairloop scraped the flesh of her wrist. And then
+she heard a thundering clatter of hoofs and saw Deveny
+and his men appear from beyond the covert and
+race toward her.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny spoke no word. But as he rode toward
+her she saw the gleam in his eyes, and she silently
+fought Stroud, who had grasped her and was pulling
+her toward him.
+</p>
+<p>It seemed to her that Deveny must have misunderstood
+Stroud&#8217;s action, for it was clear to her&mdash;even
+in the stress and confusion of the moment&mdash;that
+Deveny thought Stroud had attacked her through
+motives that were strictly personal.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_237' name='page_237'></a>237</span></p>
+<p>Anyway, before Stroud could speak Deveny&#8217;s pistol
+glittered. And malignantly, his eyes blazing with a
+jealous, evil light, he shot Stroud&mdash;twice.
+</p>
+<p>He sat in the saddle, his lips twitching into a sneer
+as he watched the straw-boss tumble from his horse
+and fall limply into the grass. Then with a smile
+that was hideous with a triumphant passion, he spurred
+his horse to Billy&#8217;s side, pulled the girl from the saddle,
+and sent his horse up the valley, motioning his men
+to follow.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXV_AMBUSHED' id='XXV_AMBUSHED'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_238' name='page_238'></a>238</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXV</h2>
+<h3>AMBUSHED</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Red Linton had ridden eastward to examine
+the grass of the range in that direction, for it
+had been some days since he had sent Stroud to the
+southern range, and since the cattle had been there
+for some time before that Linton felt they should be
+driven to fresh grass.
+</p>
+<p>And yet, perhaps, Linton&#8217;s search for good grass
+should not have taken him so far from the ranchhouse,
+for he remembered his promise to Harlan that
+he would not let Barbara out of his sight. But Barbara
+had made no objection to his guardianship of
+her, so far, and he had longed for a ride.
+</p>
+<p>He worried a little, though, and felt guilty of something
+very like treason to Harlan; and at last, not
+being able to ride farther with the thoughts that
+fought with his desires, he wheeled his horse and sent
+it scampering back toward the ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>When he reached the ranchhouse he saw none of
+the men, for he had set them at tasks inside the buildings;
+and he rode down to the ranchhouse, resolved
+to have a talk with the girl.
+</p>
+<p>When he rode around the near corner he saw that
+the <i>patio</i> gate was open. His horse leaped with the
+stern word he spoke to it, bringing him swiftly to the
+gate, where he dismounted and threw open a door
+that led into the house.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_239' name='page_239'></a>239</span></p>
+<p>He called to Barbara, and receiving no answer, he
+ran from room to room, not hesitating until he had
+explored them all.
+</p>
+<p>Emerging from the house, he mounted his horse
+and sent him westward, while he scanned the big level
+around him for sight of the girl.
+</p>
+<p>She had always ridden into the valley in former
+days, he remembered&mdash;and during the days of his
+guardianship she had more than once threatened to
+ride there. And he had no doubt she had gone there
+now, out of perverseness, just to irritate him.
+</p>
+<p>He held his horse to a rapid pace as he crossed the
+level, and he was still a mile distant from the covert
+where Barbara had met Stroud when he saw a group
+of horsemen traveling rapidly up the valley.
+</p>
+<p>Linton rode on, his anxiety acute, a grave suspicion
+afflicting him. And when, after he had ridden a little
+farther, he saw Barbara&#8217;s horse trotting slowly toward
+him, the stirrups swinging and flopping emptily against
+the saddle skirts, he drew a deep breath and brought
+his own horse to a halt, while he sat motionless in
+the saddle, tortured by bitter thoughts.
+</p>
+<p>He had no doubt that what Harlan feared would
+happen, had happened&mdash;that Deveny had come for
+Barbara. And Deveny had found her, through <i>his</i>
+dereliction. He had relaxed his vigilance for only a
+short time, and during that time Deveny had come.
+</p>
+<p>Linton looked back toward the Rancho Seco. The
+distance to the ranchhouse seemed to be interminable.
+He looked again up the valley, and saw that the horsemen
+were growing indistinct. Within a few minutes,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_240' name='page_240'></a>240</span>
+so rapid was their pace, they would vanish altogether.
+</p>
+<p>Linton thought of going back to the ranchhouse
+for the other men&mdash;that was why he had looked in
+that direction. But if he wished to keep the horsemen
+in sight he would not have time to get the other
+men. Before he could get the men and return to
+where he now stood Deveny would have taken the
+girl to that mysterious and unknown rendezvous in
+the hills in which his band had always concealed themselves,
+and Barbara would be lost.
+</p>
+<p>Linton&#8217;s lips straightened. He was to blame.
+</p>
+<p>He knew the danger that would attend the action
+of following Deveny&#8217;s men up the valley. Other men
+had attempted to trail them, and they had been found
+murdered, often with warnings upon them.
+</p>
+<p>But Linton hesitated only momentarily. With a
+grim smile for his chances of emerging unscathed from
+the valley, he urged his horse up the trail, riding hard.
+</p>
+<p>Several miles he had traveled, keeping the horsemen
+in sight, and he was beginning to believe that he would
+succeed where others had failed, when, passing through
+a clump of timber he detected movement in some brush
+at a little distance back.
+</p>
+<p>Divining that Deveny had seen him and had sent a
+man into the timber to ambush him, Linton threw himself
+flat on the horse&#8217;s mane. He felt a bullet sing
+past him, coming from the right, and he got his pistol
+out and was swinging its muzzle toward the point from
+which the bullet had come when a gun roared at his
+left.
+</p>
+<p>He felt a hot, searing pain in his side, and he
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_241' name='page_241'></a>241</span>
+reeled in the saddle from the shock. Instantly another
+bullet struck him, coming from the right. His
+pistol dropped from his weakening fingers, he toppled
+sidewise and tumbled limply into the dust.
+</p>
+<p>Shortly afterward, seemingly while he was in a state
+of coma, he heard hoofbeats, rapidly growing distant.
+</p>
+<p>He knew they were Deveny&#8217;s men and he yielded
+to a vague wonder as to why they had not made sure
+of their work.
+</p>
+<p>Doggedly, and with long and bitter effort, Linton
+began to turn himself so that he could get up. The
+pain from his wounds was excruciating, so that each
+muscular effort brought a retching groan from him.
+Yet he kept moving, twisting himself around until he
+got on his knees. From that position he tried a number
+of times to get to his feet, but he failed each time.
+</p>
+<p>At last, though, with the help of a boulder that lay
+beside the trail, he got his feet under him and stood
+for an instant, staggering weakly. Then he began
+to move forward to his horse. When he managed
+at last to clutch the saddle skirt he was reeling, his
+knees bending under him. However, he managed to
+get one leg over the saddle, taking a long time to do
+it; and eventually he was in the seat.
+</p>
+<p>He spent another long interval lashing himself to
+the saddle with the rope that he carried at the pommel;
+and then headed the horse toward the Rancho
+Seco.
+</p>
+<p>He began to ride, urging the horse to what seemed
+to him a rapid pace. But he had not gone very far
+when he sagged against the pommel, lifelessly.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVI_ROGERS_TAKES_A_HAND' id='XXVI_ROGERS_TAKES_A_HAND'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_242' name='page_242'></a>242</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVI</h2>
+<h3>ROGERS TAKES A HAND</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>The trail herd had made good progress through
+the valley, and Rogers, aided by the Star men,
+had kept them going. The men feared no interference
+with the work, for they had terrorized the ranchers
+in the valley until the latter well knew the futility
+of retaliatory measures. Still, a certain furtive quickness
+of movement had always characterized the operations
+of the outlaws&mdash;the instinct to move secretly, if
+possible, and to strike swiftly when they struck was
+always strong in them.
+</p>
+<p>Besides, the drive to Willow&#8217;s Wells was not a long
+one, and the cattle could stand a fast pace. So it was
+not long after the herd had left the Star until it
+straggled up a defile in the hills and out upon the level
+where Deveny&#8217;s men had to ride to take the south
+trail to the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>The level extended southward for a distance of
+several miles to a grass range that the Star men knew
+well&mdash;for there had been times when they had grazed
+cattle there, making camp on their frequent trips to
+the Wells.
+</p>
+<p>A range of low, flat hills marked the northern limits
+of the grazing section; and Rogers and his men trailed
+the cattle through the hills while the morning was
+still young.
+</p>
+<p>The herd was through the hills, and Rogers, twisting
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_243' name='page_243'></a>243</span>
+in the saddle, was taking a last look over the
+plain to make certain there had been no prying eyes
+watching the movements of himself and the men, when
+he saw, far to the west, a group of horsemen just coming
+into view at the edge of the plain&mdash;seemingly
+having ridden out of the big valley.
+</p>
+<p>Rogers wheeled his horse and watched the horsemen
+as they traveled eastward, making good time.
+He called to a man, named Colver, who was riding
+close to him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Them&#8217;s Deveny&#8217;s men&mdash;from the Cache. What
+in blazes are they up to? Somethin&#8217;s in the wind,
+Colver&mdash;they&#8217;re ridin&#8217; like the devil was after them
+an&#8217; burnin&#8217; the breeze for fair!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Rogers sent his horse scampering to the crest of
+one of the hills where, concealed behind some brush,
+he watched the progress of Deveny&#8217;s men eastward.
+</p>
+<p>When they passed the point on the plain where they
+would have to veer northward if they intended to visit
+the Star, he breathed with relief. For he had almost
+yielded to a conviction that Deveny <i>was</i> headed for
+the Star.
+</p>
+<p>But after the horsemen passed the point that led to
+the Star trail, a new anxiety seized Rogers&mdash;and a
+passion that sent the blood to his face swept over him.
+</p>
+<p>His eyes were glowing with an excitement that he
+could not repress when he turned to Colver.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Somethin&#8217;s up!&#8221; he snapped. &#8220;Deveny&#8217;s been
+sullen as hell for a good many days&mdash;ever since Harlan
+came to the Star. One of the boys was tellin&#8217; me
+he heard Deveny an&#8217; Haydon havin&#8217; it out over at
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_244' name='page_244'></a>244</span>
+the Cache. If there&#8217;s goin&#8217; to be a ruckus I&#8217;m goin&#8217;
+to be in on it!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He leaped his horse off the hill, racing him down
+into the grass plain after the other men. When he
+reached them he yelled sharply, and they spurred
+quickly to him, anticipating from his manner that
+danger threatened.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve got a hunch that hell&#8217;s a-goin&#8217; to pop right
+sudden, boys,&#8221; he told them. &#8220;An&#8217; we&#8217;re goin&#8217; away
+from it. If there&#8217;s any trouble we want to be in on it.
+Deveny&#8217;s up to somethin&#8217;. You-all know about the
+agreement made between Haydon an&#8217; Harlan&mdash;that
+Harlan was to run the Rancho Seco without interference.
+Deveny&#8217;s headed that way, an&#8217; Haydon ain&#8217;t
+around. It&#8217;s up to us boys to keep our eyes open.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan&#8217;s at the Star. He won&#8217;t be knowin&#8217; that
+Deveny is headin&#8217; for the Rancho Seco. Harlan&#8217;s
+white, boys; he&#8217;s done more for us guys since he&#8217;s
+been at the Star than Haydon or Deveny ever done
+for us. He&#8217;s promised us things that Haydon an&#8217;
+Deveny would never do. He&#8217;s a white man, an&#8217; I&#8217;m
+for him. An&#8217; I&#8217;m for takin&#8217; orders from him from
+now on. Who&#8217;s with me?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re shoutin&#8217;!&#8221; declared Colver.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s time for a new deal,&#8221; muttered another.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;re doin&#8217; the yappin&#8217;,&#8221; grimly announced a
+big man who was close to Rogers; &#8220;we&#8217;re followin&#8217;
+your lead.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m jumpin&#8217; for the Star then!&#8221; declared Rogers;
+&#8220;to put Harlan wise to where Deveny&#8217;s headed for.
+We&#8217;re leavin&#8217; the herd here until we find out what&#8217;s
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_245' name='page_245'></a>245</span>
+goin&#8217; on. Half of you guys beat it to the Rancho
+Seco&mdash;trailin&#8217; Deveny an&#8217; his boys, to find out what
+they&#8217;re doin&#8217;. You&#8217;re herd-ridin&#8217; them if they go to
+monkeyin&#8217; with the Rancho Seco. Slope!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Rogers had hardly ceased speaking when the outfit
+was on the move. There were eleven men, including
+Rogers; and they sent their horses leaping over the
+crest of the hill nearest them&mdash;dividing, as they
+reached the level on the other side with seemingly no
+previous arrangement, into two groups&mdash;one group
+going northeastward, toward the South Trail, and the
+other fading into the space that yawned between it and
+the point where the trail to the Star led downward into
+the big basin.
+</p>
+<hr class='tb' />
+
+<p>Haydon, holding hard to the pommel of the saddle,
+urging his horse along the trail that led up the valley,
+looked back whenever he reached a rise, his eyes
+searching the space behind him for the dread apparition
+that he expected momentarily.
+</p>
+<p>He knew that it would not be long before Morgan
+and Harlan would emerge from the ranchhouse to discover
+that he had escaped; and he knew, too, that they
+would suspect that he had gone to the Cache.
+</p>
+<p>He expected they would delay riding after him,
+however, until they searched for him in some of the
+buildings, and that delay, he hoped, would give him
+time to reach the Cache.
+</p>
+<p>He was handicapped by his useless arm&mdash;for it
+made riding awkward, and the numbness was stealing
+down his side, toward his leg. He paid little attention
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_246' name='page_246'></a>246</span>
+to the pain; indeed, he entirely forgot it in his
+frenzied eagerness to reach the Cache.
+</p>
+<p>More prominent in his brain at this minute than
+any other emotion was a dread of Billy Morgan. He
+had yielded to terror when Morgan had revealed his
+identity; but the terror he had felt then had not been
+nearly so paralyzing as that which was now upon him.
+</p>
+<p>His eyes were bulging as he rode; his lips were
+slavering, and he shuddered and cringed as he leaned
+over his horse&#8217;s mane, urging him to greater effort&mdash;even
+though there were times when his lurches almost
+threw him out of the saddle.
+</p>
+<p>For his previous terror had been somewhat tempered
+with a doubt of Morgan&#8217;s veracity. Even when he
+had seen Morgan reaching for his pistol he had felt
+the doubt&mdash;had felt that Morgan was not Morgan at
+all, but Woodward, perpetrating a grotesque joke.
+To be sure, when he had seen that Morgan really intended
+to kill him, he had been convinced that the
+man was in deadly earnest. It had been then that
+he had desperately twisted himself so that Morgan&#8217;s
+bullet had not touched a vital spot.
+</p>
+<p>But now his terror had grown; it was a thing that
+had got into his soul&mdash;for he had had time to meditate
+over what Morgan&#8217;s vengeance meant to him.
+</p>
+<p>It meant that Morgan would kill him, if he caught
+him; that the life he treasured would be taken from
+him; that the magnificent body which he had always
+so greatly admired would be shattered and broken.
+The mental picture he drew further increased his
+terror, and he began to mutter incoherent blasphemies
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_247' name='page_247'></a>247</span>
+as he raced his horse at a breakneck pace toward the
+Cache.
+</p>
+<p>But when he had ridden several miles and knew
+from the appearance of the valley that he was nearing
+the Cache and that he would reach it in safety, there
+came a change in him.
+</p>
+<p>He grew calmer; he began to feel a rage that sent
+the blood racing through his veins again. He looked
+back over the trail as often as formerly, but it was
+with a new expression&mdash;malevolent hatred. And
+when he finally reached the entrance to the Cache and
+rode through it, heading toward the building in which,
+he expected, he would find Deveny, the malevolence
+in his expression was mingled with triumph and
+cunning.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVII_A_DUAL_TRAGEDY' id='XXVII_A_DUAL_TRAGEDY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_248' name='page_248'></a>248</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVII</h2>
+<h3>A DUAL TRAGEDY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Harlan and Morgan had made a thorough
+search of Haydon&#8217;s desk in the latter&#8217;s office
+in the ranchhouse, and they had found letters addressed
+to Haydon&mdash;received at various towns in the vicinity
+and proving Morgan&#8217;s charges against him. And
+upon several of the letters were names that provided
+damaging evidence of the connection of influential men
+with the scheme to gain unlawful possession of much
+land in the basin.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;This cinches it!&#8221; declared Morgan as he carefully
+placed the letters into a pocket when he and Harlan
+emerged from the ranchhouse. &#8220;I reckon we&#8217;ve got
+proof now. An&#8217; the governor&#8217;ll be plumb tickled.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>They stepped down from the doorway and turned
+the corner of the house. Instantly they noted the
+disappearance of Haydon&#8217;s body. But they did not
+search among the other buildings for Haydon&mdash;as
+he had expected them to do. For they saw that his
+horse was also missing.
+</p>
+<p>Morgan ran for the corral, saying no word, his
+lips set in grim, vengeful lines. He had been a fool
+for not making sure that he had killed Haydon, but
+he would not make that mistake again. The gleam
+in his eyes revealed that.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan, too, divined what had happened. Purgatory
+was in the stable&mdash;which was farther from the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_249' name='page_249'></a>249</span>
+ranchhouse than the corral. And though Harlan
+moved swiftly Morgan was already on his horse and
+racing toward the timber when Purgatory emerged
+from the stable, saddled and bridled.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan noted that Morgan had not stopped to
+saddle his horse, and that omission revealed the man&#8217;s
+intense desire for haste. Harlan, however, headed
+Purgatory into the timber, but he was more than half
+a mile behind Morgan when he reached the main trail.
+</p>
+<p>He saw Morgan riding the trail that led up the
+valley, and he set out after him, giving the big black
+horse the rein. He divined that Morgan suspected
+Haydon had ridden in that direction; and while Harlan
+had never seen the Cache, he had heard the Star
+men speak of it, and he had noticed that when setting
+out for it they had always traveled the trail Morgan
+was traveling. Therefore, it was evident that Morgan
+thought Haydon had gone to the Cache. In that
+case he depended upon Deveny to assist him&mdash;if Morgan
+followed; and Harlan was determined to see the
+incident through.
+</p>
+<p>He sent Purgatory ahead at a good pace, but he
+noted soon that Morgan was increasing the distance
+between them. He began to urge Purgatory forward,
+and gradually the distance between the two riders
+grew shorter.
+</p>
+<p>Both were traveling rapidly, however, and it seemed
+to Harlan that they had not gone more than three
+or four miles when&mdash;watching Morgan closely, he
+saw him ride pell-mell into some timber that&mdash;apparently&mdash;fringed
+the front of a cave.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_250' name='page_250'></a>250</span></p>
+<p>It was some time before Harlan reached the timber,
+and when he did he could not immediately discover
+the spot into which Morgan had ridden. When
+he did discover it he rode Purgatory through, and
+found himself in a narrow gorge.
+</p>
+<p>He raced Purgatory through the gorge, and out of
+it to the sloping side of a little basin.
+</p>
+<p>He saw a house near the center of the basin&mdash;and
+Morgan riding close to it.
+</p>
+<p>The distance to the house was not great&mdash;not more
+than a quarter of a mile, it seemed; and Harlan felt
+some wonder that Morgan&mdash;who had been quite a
+little in advance of him&mdash;had not reached the house
+sooner. That mystery was explained to him almost
+instantly, though, when he saw that Morgan&#8217;s horse
+was walking, going forward with a pronounced limp.
+Evidently Morgan had met with an accident.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan was riding across the floor of the little basin,
+watching Morgan and wondering at the seeming
+absence of Deveny&#8217;s men, when he saw a smoke streak
+issue from one of the windows of the house, saw Morgan
+reel in the saddle, and slide to the ground.
+</p>
+<p>But before Harlan could reach the spot where Morgan
+had fallen, the man staggered to his feet and was
+running toward the house, swaying as he went.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan heard a muffled report as he sent Purgatory
+scampering after Morgan. He saw Morgan reel
+again, and he knew someone in the house was using a
+rifle.
+</p>
+<p>There was another report as Morgan lurched
+through an open doorway of the house. Then Harlan
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_251' name='page_251'></a>251</span>
+knew Morgan was using his gun, for its roaring
+crash mingled with the whiplike crack of a rifle.
+</p>
+<p>The firing had ceased when Harlan slipped off
+Purgatory at the open door; and both his guns were
+out as he leaped over the threshold.
+</p>
+<p>He halted, though, standing rigid, his guns slowly
+swagging in his hands, their muzzles drooping.
+</p>
+<p>For on the floor of the room&mdash;flat on his back
+near a corner&mdash;was Haydon. He was dead&mdash;there
+was no doubt of that.
+</p>
+<p>Nor was there any doubt that the bullets Haydon
+had sent had finished Morgan. He was lying on his
+right side, his right arm under him, extended; the palm
+of the hand upward, the fingers limply holding the
+pistol he had used, some smoke curling lazily from the
+muzzle.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan knelt beside Morgan, examining him for
+signs of life. He got up a little later and stood for
+some time looking down at the man, thinking of Barbara.
+Twice had tragedy cast its sinister shadow over
+her.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXVIII_CONVERGING_TRAILS' id='XXVIII_CONVERGING_TRAILS'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_252' name='page_252'></a>252</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXVIII</h2>
+<h3>CONVERGING TRAILS</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>An hour or so later, Harlan, having finished his
+labors in a clearing at the edge of the level near
+the gorge, climbed slowly on Purgatory and sent him
+back down the valley trail toward the Star.
+</p>
+<p>From the first his sympathies for Barbara had been
+deep, beginning on the evening Lane Morgan had
+mentioned her in his presence&mdash;when the man seemed
+to see her in that strange, awesome moment before his
+death&mdash;when he had seemed to hold out his arms to
+her. Later, at Lamo, when Harlan had held the girl
+in his arms, he felt that at that instant he must have
+experienced much the same protective impulse that
+Morgan would have felt, had the experience occurred
+to him. Harlan had been slightly cynical until that
+minute; but since then he had known that his rage
+against the outlaws was deeply personal.
+</p>
+<p>That rage, though, had centered most heavily upon
+Deveny. He had hated Haydon, too&mdash;from the
+first. In the beginning it had been a jealous hatred,
+aroused over the conviction that Barbara loved the
+man. But later&mdash;when he had discovered that Haydon
+was the mysterious &#8220;Chief,&#8221; that he was the real
+murderer of Lane Morgan, and that behind his professed
+love for the girl was meditated trickery&mdash;his
+hatred had become a passion in which Barbara did
+not figure.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_253' name='page_253'></a>253</span></p>
+<p>His hatred for Haydon, though, could not be compared
+with the passionate contempt and loathing he
+felt for Deveny. The man had attempted, in Lamo,
+a thing that Harlan had always abhorred, and the
+memory of that time was still vivid in Harlan&#8217;s brain.
+</p>
+<p>Into Harlan&#8217;s heart as he rode toward the Star
+flamed that ancient loathing, paling his face and bringing
+a gleam to his eyes that had been in them often
+of late&mdash;a lust for the lives of the men whose evil
+deeds and sinister influence had kept Barbara a virtual
+prisoner at the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>He rode the valley trail slowly, his thoughts upon
+Barbara, his lips straightening when he thought of
+how he would have to return to the Rancho Seco, some
+day, to tell her of her brother&#8217;s death. Twice had
+tragedy visited her, and again he would be the messenger
+to bring her the grim news.
+</p>
+<p>When he reached the Star he rode up to the corral
+fence and dismounted. He stood for a long time at
+the fence, his elbows on one of the rails, his thoughts
+dwelling upon Barbara. Pity for her whitened his face,
+set his lips in rigid lines.
+</p>
+<p>She had been in danger, but it seemed to him that
+it would soon be over. For Haydon would bother
+the girl no more, and as soon as he could meet Deveny
+he would remove another menace to Barbara&#8217;s life
+and happiness.
+</p>
+<p>He had no regrets for the men he had killed; they
+deserved what he had given them. As he had told
+Morgan, he had considered himself merely an instrument
+of the law of right and justice&mdash;which law
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_254' name='page_254'></a>254</span>
+was based upon the very principle that governed men
+in civilized communities.
+</p>
+<p>He was facing south, and he raised his head after
+a few minutes, for upon the slight breeze was borne to
+him the rapid drumming of hoofs. As he looked up
+he saw, far out toward the southern edge of the valley,
+a dust cloud, moving swiftly toward him.
+</p>
+<p>At first he suspected that the men in the group belonged
+to Deveny, and he drew out his pistols, one
+after the other, and examined them&mdash;for he decided&mdash;if
+Deveny was among the men&mdash;to settle for good
+the question of power and authority that Haydon had
+raised.
+</p>
+<p>When the men came closer, though, swooping
+toward the ranchhouse like feathers before a hurricane,
+he saw that Rogers was among them.
+</p>
+<p>Then, as the men came toward him down along
+the corral fence, Harlan saw that Rogers&#8217; eyes were
+wide with excitement. And he stood, his face darkening,
+as Rogers told him what he had seen, and
+voiced his suspicions.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;We&#8217;re with you, Harlan,&#8221; declared Rogers, sweeping
+a hand toward the men; &#8220;an&#8217; them other boys
+which have trailed Deveny, are with you. We&#8217;re out
+to &#8216;get&#8217; Deveny if you say the word; and that thief,
+Haydon, too.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan did not answer. He grinned at the men,
+though, and at Rogers&mdash;acknowledging his gratitude
+for their decision to be &#8220;with&#8221; him; then he turned,
+leaped on Purgatory, and sent the big beast thundering
+toward the timber that led to the main trail.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_255' name='page_255'></a>255</span></p>
+<p>Their voices silent, their horses falling quickly into
+the pace set by the big black, Rogers and the other
+men followed.
+</p>
+<p>The other half of Rogers&#8217; men, headed by Colver,
+were several miles behind Deveny&#8217;s horsemen when
+they reached the South Trail. They gained very little
+on the other men, though, for Deveny and his men
+were just then racing Barbara to the point where the
+trails converged, having seen her. But during
+Deveny&#8217;s halt at the covert, where he had shot Stroud,
+Colver&#8217;s men gained, and they were not more than
+two or three miles from the covert when Deveny&#8217;s
+men left it.
+</p>
+<p>From the shelving trail, ever sweeping toward the
+trail in the valley, Colver had noted the halt at the
+covert, though he had not seen Barbara, nor Stroud.
+He had seen, of course, that Deveny had not gone to
+the Rancho Seco, that for some reason or other he
+had swerved, taking the trail up the valley.
+</p>
+<p>Colver was puzzled, but he remembered Rogers&#8217;
+orders, and when he and his men reached the covert,
+they halted. They came upon Stroud, lying near some
+bushes, and they saw his horse, grazing on the tall
+grass near by. They had reached the covert too late
+to see Barbara&#8217;s pony; and when they remounted, after
+taking a look at Stroud, they caught a glimpse of a
+lone horseman racing up the valley in the direction
+taken by Deveny and his men.
+</p>
+<p>The lone horseman was Red Linton, though Colver
+did not know it, for the South Trail dipped into the
+basin miles before it emerged to the level at the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_256' name='page_256'></a>256</span>
+point of convergence with the other trail, and Colver
+had not seen Linton when he had passed.
+</p>
+<p>Colver and his men fled up the valley, following the
+trail taken by Deveny and the lone horseman, and
+when they had gone two or three miles they saw a
+rider coming toward them. They raced toward him,
+for they saw he was in trouble; that he had lashed
+himself to the pommel of the saddle, and that he was
+leaning far over it, limp and inert.
+</p>
+<p>Linton was not unconscious, but he was very near
+it; so near that he seemed to dream that men were
+around him and that voices were directed at him.
+</p>
+<p>Into his mind as he straightened and looked at the
+men finally came the conviction that this was not a
+dream; and after an instant of intense effort, during
+which he fixed his gaze on Colver, he recognized the
+other.
+</p>
+<p>He laughed, grimly, mockingly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Front an&#8217; rear&mdash;eh?&#8221; he said. &#8220;You got me,
+goin&#8217; an&#8217; comin&#8217;. Well, go to it&mdash;I deserve it, for
+lettin&#8217; Barbara out of my sight. If you don&#8217;t kill me,
+Harlan will. But if you guys are <i>men</i>, you won&#8217;t let
+Deveny&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Deveny&#8217;s got Barbara Morgan?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>This was Colver. Something in his voice straightened
+Linton further, and he steadied himself in the
+saddle and looked fairly at the man.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Deveny&#8217;s got her. An&#8217; they got me&mdash;chasin&#8217;
+&#8217;em. I was headin&#8217; back to the Rancho Seco, to get
+the T Down boys&mdash;all Harlan&#8217;s friends&mdash;to wipe
+Deveny out. If you guys are <i>men</i>&mdash;&mdash;&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_257' name='page_257'></a>257</span></p>
+<p>Sheer will could no longer support Linton&#8217;s failing
+muscles&mdash;and he again collapsed over the pommel.
+</p>
+<p>For an instant only did Colver hesitate. Then he
+turned to a lean rider who bestrode a tall, rangy horse.
+He spoke sharply to the rider:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hit the breeze to the Rancho Seco, an&#8217; get them
+T Down boys. Fan it, damn you!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The rider was off with the word, leaping his horse
+down the trail with dizzying speed. Then Colver
+loosed the rope that held Linton to the saddle, and
+with the help of the other men lifted the man down
+and stretched him in a plot of grass beside the trail,
+where they worked over him until they saw, far out
+on the level toward the Rancho Seco, a number of
+horsemen coming, seemingly abreast, as though they
+were racing, each man trying his best to outstrip the
+others.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXIX_WORLD_S_END' id='XXIX_WORLD_S_END'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_258' name='page_258'></a>258</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXIX</h2>
+<h3>WORLD&#8217;S END</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Barbara Morgan had fought Deveny until
+she became exhausted. Thereafter she lay
+quiet, breathing fast, yielding to the nameless terror
+that held her in its icy clutch.
+</p>
+<p>The appearance of Deveny so soon after the end
+of the heartbreaking ride down the trail had brought
+into her heart a sense of the futility of resistance&mdash;and
+yet she had resisted, involuntarily, instinctively.
+Yet resistance had merely served to increase the
+exhaustion that had come upon her.
+</p>
+<p>She had not known&mdash;until she lay passive in
+Deveny&#8217;s arms&mdash;how taut her nerves had been, nor
+how the physical ordeal had drained her strength.
+</p>
+<p>She felt the strain, now, but consideration for her
+body was overwhelmed by what she saw in Deveny&#8217;s
+eyes as she lay watching him.
+</p>
+<p>There were a dozen men with Deveny&mdash;she had
+seen them, counted them when they had been racing
+down the shelving trail on the other side of the valley.
+And she knew they were following Deveny, for she
+could hear the thudding of hoofs behind.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny&#8217;s big arms were around her; she could feel
+the rippling of his muscles as he swayed from side to
+side, balancing himself in the saddle. He was not
+using the reins; he was giving his attention to her,
+letting the horse follow his own inclinations.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_259' name='page_259'></a>259</span></p>
+<p>Yet she noted that the animal held to the trail, that
+he traveled steadily, requiring no word from his rider.
+</p>
+<p>Once, after they had ridden some distance up the
+valley, Barbara heard a man behind them call
+Deveny&#8217;s attention to some horsemen who were riding
+the shelving trail that Deveny and his men had
+taken on their way to the level; and she heard Deveny
+laugh.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Some of the Star gang, I reckon. Mebbe Haydon,
+goin&#8217; to the Rancho Seco, to see his girl.&#8221; He
+grinned down into Barbara&#8217;s face, his own alight with
+a triumph that made a shiver run over her.
+</p>
+<p>Later&mdash;only a few minutes, it seemed&mdash;she heard
+a man call to Deveny again, telling him that a lone
+rider was &#8220;fannin&#8217; it&#8221; up the valley.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Looks like that guy, Linton,&#8221; said the man.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Two of you drop back and lay for him!&#8221; ordered
+Deveny. &#8220;Make it sure!&#8221; he added, after a short
+pause.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara yielded to a quick horror. She fought
+with Deveny, trying in vain to free her arms&mdash;which
+he held tightly to her sides with his own. She gave
+it up at last, and lay, looking up into his face, her
+eyes blazing with impotent rage and repugnance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You mean to kill him?&#8221; she charged.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Sure,&#8221; he laughed; &#8220;there&#8217;s no one interfering
+with what&#8217;s going on now.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Overcome with nausea over the conviction that
+Deveny&#8217;s order meant death to Red Linton, Barbara
+lay slack in Deveny&#8217;s arms for a long time. A premonitory
+silence had settled over the valley; she heard
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_260' name='page_260'></a>260</span>
+the dull thud of hoofs behind her, regular and swift,
+the creaking of the saddle leather as the animal under
+her loped forward.
+</p>
+<p>There was no other sound. For the men behind
+her were strangely silent, and even Deveny seemed
+to be listening.
+</p>
+<p>After what seemed to be a long interval, she heard
+a shot, and then almost instantly, another. She shuddered,
+closing her eyes, for she knew they had killed
+Linton. And she had blamed Linton for guarding
+her from&mdash;from the very thing that had happened
+to her. And Linton had given his life for her!
+</p>
+<p>How long she had her eyes closed she did not know.
+The time could not have been more than a few minutes
+though, for she heard a voice behind her saying
+to Deveny:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;They got him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Then she looked up, to see Deveny grinning at her.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I reckon that&#8217;s all,&#8221; he said. &#8220;We&#8217;re headin&#8217; for
+the Cache&mdash;my hang-out. If you&#8217;d have been good
+over in Lamo, the day that damned Harlan came, this
+wouldn&#8217;t have happened. I&#8217;d sent for a parson, an&#8217;
+I intended to give you a square deal. But now it&#8217;s
+different. Then I was scared of running foul of Haydon&mdash;I
+didn&#8217;t want to make trouble. But I&#8217;m running
+my own game now&mdash;Haydon and me have
+agreed to call it quits. Me not liking the idea of Haydon
+adopting Harlan.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She stared up at him, her eyes widening.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You and Haydon were&mdash;what do you mean?&#8221;
+she asked, her heart seeming to be a dead weight in
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_261' name='page_261'></a>261</span>
+her breast, heavy with suspicion over the dread significance
+in his voice and words. She watched him,
+breathlessly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m meaning that Haydon and me were running
+things in the valley&mdash;that we were partners, splitting
+equal. But I&#8217;m playing a lone hand now.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>He seemed to enjoy her astonishment&mdash;the light
+in her eyes which showed that comprehension,
+freighted with hopelessness, was stealing over her.
+</p>
+<p>He grinned hugely as he watched her face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Haydon is the guy we called &#8216;Chief,&#8217;&#8221; he said,
+enjoying her further amazement and noting the sudden
+paleness that swept over her face. &#8220;He&#8217;s the guy
+who killed your father at Sentinel Rock. He was
+after you, meaning to make a fool of you. Hurts&mdash;does
+it?&#8221; he jeered, when he saw her eyes glow with a
+rage that he could understand. &#8220;I&#8217;ve heard of that
+chain deal&mdash;Haydon was telling me. When he shot
+your father he lost a bit of chain. Harlan found it
+and gave it back to him, with you looking on. I
+reckon that&#8217;s why him and Harlan hit it off together
+so well&mdash;Harlan knowing he killed your father and
+not telling you about it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>The long shudder that shook the girl betrayed
+something of the terrible emotion under which she was
+laboring; and when she finally opened her eyes to gaze
+again into Deveny&#8217;s, they were filled with a haunting
+hopelessness&mdash;a complete surrender to the sinister circumstances
+which seemed to have surrounded her from
+the beginning.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan,&#8221; she said weakly, as though upon him
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_262' name='page_262'></a>262</span>
+she had pinned her last hope; &#8220;Harlan has joined you
+after all&mdash;he is against me&mdash;too?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Him and Haydon are after the Rancho Seco.
+Harlan&#8217;s been playing with Haydon right along.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Barbara said nothing more. She was incapable of
+coherent thought or of definite action&mdash;or even of
+knowledge of her surroundings.
+</p>
+<p>For it seemed to her that Deveny had spoken truthfully.
+She had seen the incident of the broken chain;
+she had seen Harlan&#8217;s hypocritical grin upon that occasion&mdash;how
+he had seemed to be eager to ingratiate
+himself with Haydon.
+</p>
+<p>All were against her&mdash;everybody. Everybody, it
+seemed, but Red Linton. And they had killed Linton.
+</p>
+<p>She seemed to be drifting off into a place which was
+peopled with demons that schemed and planned for
+her honor and her life; and not one of them who
+planned and schemed against her gave the slightest
+indication of mercy or manliness. The world became
+chaotic with swirling objects&mdash;then a blank, aching
+void into which she drifted, feeling nothing, seeing
+nothing.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXX_THE_ULTIMATE_TREACHERY' id='XXX_THE_ULTIMATE_TREACHERY'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_263' name='page_263'></a>263</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXX</h2>
+<h3>THE ULTIMATE TREACHERY</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>When Barbara regained consciousness she was
+lying in some long, dusty grass beside the trail
+where she seemed to have been thrown, or where she
+had fallen. For she was lying on her right side, her
+right arm doubled under her, and she felt a pain in her
+shoulder which must have been where she had struck
+when she had fallen.
+</p>
+<p>She twisted around and sat up, bewildered, almost
+succumbing to the hideous terror which instantly
+gripped her when she remembered what had happened.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny&#8217;s horse stood near her, nipping the tips of
+the grass that grew at her feet. Beyond the animal&mdash;a
+little to her right, and perhaps fifty feet from her&mdash;were
+other horses, with riders.
+</p>
+<p>As she staggered to her feet she recognized the
+men who had been with Deveny. They were on their
+horses&mdash;all facing away from her. Facing Deveny&#8217;s
+men were all the T Down boys&mdash;she recognized them
+instantly. Pistols glittered in their hands; they seemed
+to be in the grip of some strong passion, which
+wreathed their faces into grim, bitter lines.
+</p>
+<p>Near the T Down men&mdash;flanking them&mdash;were
+other men. Among them she saw faces she knew&mdash;Colver,
+Strom Rogers, and others.
+</p>
+<p>There must have been twenty-five or thirty men,
+altogether, and they were all on a little level beside
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_264' name='page_264'></a>264</span>
+the trail. It seemed to Barbara that they all appeared
+to have forgotten her; seemed not to know that she
+was in the vicinity.
+</p>
+<p>She saw Deveny standing on the little level. His
+profile was toward her; there was a wild, savage glare
+in his eyes.
+</p>
+<p>Not more than a dozen feet from him was Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>She saw Harlan&#8217;s face from the side also. There
+was a grin on his lips&mdash;bitter, mirthless, terrible.
+</p>
+<p>She stood for what seemed to her a long time, watching
+all of them; her heart throbbing with a dread heaviness
+that threatened to choke her; her body in a state
+of icy paralysis.
+</p>
+<p>She thought she knew what had happened, for it
+seemed to her that everything in the world&mdash;all the
+passions and the desires of men&mdash;centered upon her.
+She felt that there were two factions&mdash;one headed
+by Deveny, and the other by Harlan, representing
+Haydon&mdash;and that they were about to fight for her.
+The T Down men seemed to be standing with Harlan&mdash;as,
+of course, they would, since he had sent for them
+to come to the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>Oddly, though, they apparently seemed to pay no
+attention to her; not one of them looked at her.
+</p>
+<p>If they were to fight it made no difference to her
+which faction won, for her fate would be the same, if
+she stayed.
+</p>
+<p>She did not know what put the thought into her
+mind, but as she stood there watching the men she
+repeated mentally over and over the words: &#8220;If I
+stay.&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_265' name='page_265'></a>265</span></p>
+<p>Why should she stay? She answered the question
+by stealing toward Deveny&#8217;s horse. When she
+reached the animal she paused, glancing apprehensively
+at the men, her breathing suspended&mdash;hoping, dreading,
+her nerves and muscles taut. It seemed they must
+see her.
+</p>
+<p>Not a man moved as she climbed upon the back of
+the horse; it seemed to her as she urged the animal
+gently and slowly away from the men that they heard
+nothing and saw nothing but Harlan and Deveny, and
+that Harlan and Deveny saw nothing but each other.
+</p>
+<p>She sent the horse away, walking him for a dozen
+yards or more, until he crossed the little level and sank
+into a shallow depression in the trail. Still looking
+back, she saw that none of the men had changed
+position&mdash;that they seemed to be more intent upon
+Harlan and Deveny. And she could hear Harlan&#8217;s
+voice, now, low, husky.
+</p>
+<p>She urged the horse into a lope; and when she had
+ridden perhaps a hundred yards, the conviction that
+she would escape grew strong in her. Once out of the
+valley she would ride straight to Lamo, to ask Sheriff
+Gage to protect her.
+</p>
+<p>She rode faster as she widened the distance that
+separated her from the men; and soon the horse was
+covering the trail rapidly; and she leaned forward in
+the saddle, praying that the men might not see her.
+</p>
+<p>She had gone several miles when she noticed a dark
+object beside the trail ahead of her. She drew the
+horse down and approached the spot cautiously. And
+when she saw that the object was a man, her thoughts
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_266' name='page_266'></a>266</span>
+flew to the shot she had heard, and to Deveny&#8217;s
+words:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Make sure of it.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It <i>was</i> Linton, she saw, as she halted the horse near
+the object she had seen. He was lying on his right
+side, resting his weight on an elbow, as though trying
+to rise.
+</p>
+<p>In an instant she was out of the saddle and at his
+side, raising his head.
+</p>
+<p>He looked at her, smiled, and said weakly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You got away, eh? I reckon they met Harlan.
+I was hopin&#8217; they would. Did they?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes,&#8221; she answered quickly. She had seen that
+Linton was badly wounded, and she knew that she
+must give up hope of getting to Lamo in order to give
+him the care he needed.
+</p>
+<p>So without speaking further, though with an effort
+that required the last ounce of her strength, she lifted
+Linton, he helping a little, and led him toward her
+horse. Somehow, with Linton doing all he could, she
+got him into the saddle, climbed up behind him, and
+sent the horse toward the Rancho Seco.
+</p>
+<p>Back at the little level where the men were grouped
+there was a tension that seemed to charge the atmosphere
+with tragedy. Deveny&#8217;s men sat silent in
+their saddles, watching their leader and Harlan with
+sullen, savage eyes. The T Down men, facing them,
+were equally sullen. Guns in hand, they alertly
+watched the men who were with Deveny, plainly determined
+that there should be no interference from them
+in the tragedy that seemed imminent.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_267' name='page_267'></a>267</span></p>
+<p>Rogers and his men, and the riders who had come
+with Colver, were also watching the Deveny group.
+All of these held weapons, too; and Rogers, who had
+dismounted, was standing beside his horse, a rifle resting
+on the saddle seat, his cheek snuggling the stock,
+the muzzle trained on Deveny.
+</p>
+<p>Harlan, Rogers, and the others, racing down the
+valley, had met Deveny and his men coming up. And
+when Deveny had recognized Harlan and the others
+he had quickly dismounted, bearing his unconscious
+burden. Because he felt that trouble would result
+from the meeting, Deveny had thrown Barbara from
+him.
+</p>
+<p>He had instantly forgotten the girl. For when
+Harlan came up Deveny saw a gleam in his eyes that
+sent his brain to throbbing with those unmistakable
+impulses of fear which had seized him the day, in
+Lamo, when Harlan had faced him.
+</p>
+<p>There had been a moment of silence when the two
+groups met; a stiffening of muscles and the heavy,
+strained breathing that, in men, tells of mental preparation
+for violence, swift and deadly.
+</p>
+<p>It had been Harlan who had prevented concerted
+action&mdash;action that would have brought about a battle
+in which all would have figured. His guns came out
+before the thought of trouble could definitely form in
+the brains of the Deveny men; and he had held them&mdash;the
+men in the saddles, Deveny standing&mdash;until the
+T Down men, whom he had seen from a distance, coming
+toward him, could arrive.
+</p>
+<p>Then, still menacing the Deveny men with weapons,
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_268' name='page_268'></a>268</span>
+he had dismounted to face Deveny&mdash;where he had
+been when Barbara Morgan had recovered consciousness.
+</p>
+<p>And while the girl had been stealing away he had
+been talking to Deveny, though loud enough for all of
+them to hear.
+</p>
+<p>There was about Harlan as this moment a threat
+that brought awe into the hearts of Deveny&#8217;s men&mdash;a
+cold, savage alertness that told them, unmistakably,
+that the man&#8217;s rage was at a pitch where the slightest
+movement by any of them would precipitate that action
+for which, plainly, Harlan longed.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;So you got Barbara Morgan?&#8221; he said as he stood
+close to Deveny. There was a taunt in his voice, and
+an irony that made Deveny squirm with fury.
+</p>
+<p>And yet Deveny fought hard for composure. He
+could see in Harlan&#8217;s manner something akin to what
+he had seen that day, in Lamo, when Harlan had
+baited him. His manner was the same, yet somehow
+it was not the same. There was this difference:
+</p>
+<p>In Lamo, Harlan had betrayed the threat of
+violence that Deveny had felt. But he had seemed to
+be composed, saturnine&mdash;willing to wait. It had
+seemed, then, that he wanted trouble, but he would
+not force it.
+</p>
+<p>Now, he plainly intended to bring a clash quickly.
+The determination was in his eyes, in the set of his
+head, and in his straight, stiff lips.
+</p>
+<p>He seemed to have forgotten the other men; his
+gaze was on Deveny with a boring intensity that sent
+a chill of stealthy dread over the outlaw.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_269' name='page_269'></a>269</span></p>
+<p>Deveny had faced many men in whose hearts lurked
+the lust to kill; he had shot down men who had faced
+him with that lust in their eyes&mdash;and he knew the passion
+when he saw it.
+</p>
+<p>He saw it now, in Harlan&#8217;s eyes&mdash;they were wanton&mdash;in
+them was concentrated all the hate and contempt
+that Harlan felt for him. But back of it all
+was that iron self-control that Deveny had seen in the
+man when he had faced him in Lamo.
+</p>
+<p>Deveny had avoided Harlan since that day. He
+had known why&mdash;and he knew at this minute. It
+was because he was afraid of Harlan&mdash;he feared him
+as a coward fears the death that confronts him. The
+sensation was premonitory. Nor was it that. It <i>had</i>
+been premonitory&mdash;it was now a conviction. In the
+time, in Lamo, when he had faced Harlan some prescience
+had warned him that before him was the man
+whom the fates had selected to bring death to him.
+</p>
+<p>He had felt it during all the days of Harlan&#8217;s
+presence in the section; he had felt it, and he had
+avoided the man. He felt it now, and his breathing
+grew fast and difficult&mdash;his chest laboring as he
+shrilled breath into his lungs.
+</p>
+<p>He knew what was coming; he knew that presently
+Harlan&#8217;s passion would reach the point where action
+would be imperative; that presently would come that
+slow, halting movement of Harlan&#8217;s hands toward his
+gun&mdash;which gun? He would witness, with himself
+as one of the chief actors, the hesitating movement
+which had brought fame of a dread kind to the man
+who stood before him.
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_270' name='page_270'></a>270</span></p>
+<p>Could he beat Harlan to the &#8220;draw?&#8221; Could he?
+That question was dinned into his ears and into his
+consciousness by his brain and his heart. He heard
+nothing of what was going on around him; he did not
+hear Harlan&#8217;s voice, though he saw the man&#8217;s lips
+moving. He did not see any of the men who stood
+near, nor did he see his men, sitting in their saddles,
+watching him.
+</p>
+<p>He saw nothing but Harlan; felt nothing except the
+blood that throbbed in his temples; was conscious of
+nothing but the question that filled his heart, his brain,
+and his soul&mdash;could he beat Harlan to the &#8220;draw?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Presently, when he saw, with astonishment, that
+Harlan was slowly backing away from him, crouching
+a little, he divined vaguely that the moment had come.
+And now, curiously, he heard Harlan&#8217;s voice&mdash;low,
+distinct, even. What an iceberg the man was!
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Haydon&#8217;s dead,&#8221; he heard Harlan saying&mdash;and
+he stared at Harlan, finding it difficult to comprehend.
+&#8220;Lafe Woodward killed him,&#8221; Harlan went
+on &#8220;killed him at the Cache. Now get this straight&mdash;all
+of you.&#8221; It seemed strange to Deveny that
+Harlan seemed to be speaking to the men, while
+watching him, only.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Woodward was killed, too. His real name was
+Bill Morgan. He was Lane Morgan&#8217;s son. Bill
+Morgan was sent here by the governor, to get evidence
+against Haydon. He got it. I took it from his
+pockets when I planted him&mdash;an&#8217; it&#8217;s goin&#8217; straight
+to the governor.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You guys are through here&mdash;&#8221; again he seemed
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_271' name='page_271'></a>271</span>
+to speak to all the men. &#8220;Morgan told me he had
+some men with the Cache gang. They&#8217;re to ride out
+an&#8217; join my boys&mdash;the T Down outfit.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Deveny was conscious that several men detached
+themselves from the group of riders he had brought
+with him, and rode to where the T Down men were
+standing. Then Harlan spoke again:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Now, she shapes up like this. If there&#8217;s any of
+the Star gang wantin&#8217; to go straight, they can throw in
+with the T Down boys, too. If there&#8217;s some that
+figure on pullin&#8217; their freight out of the valley&mdash;an&#8217;
+stayin&#8217; out&mdash;they can hit the breeze right now&mdash;drivin&#8217;
+that Star herd to Willow&#8217;s Wells, sellin&#8217; them,
+an&#8217; dividin&#8217; the money. Whoever is takin&#8217; up that
+proposition is startin&#8217; right now!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>About half the Star men began to move; heading
+up the valley. There was a momentary pause, and
+then those that were left of Deveny&#8217;s men moved
+uneasily.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Does that go for us guys too?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s wide open,&#8221; announced Harlan, cold humor
+seeming to creep into his voice. &#8220;It&#8217;s your chance
+to get out of this deal without gettin&#8217; what&#8217;s comin&#8217;
+to you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>There was a rush and clatter as Deveny&#8217;s men
+joined the men of the Star, who were already on the
+move. And then there followed a long silence, during
+which Deveny glanced up the valley and saw the
+men riding away.
+</p>
+<p>He turned again, to face Harlan, with the consciousness
+that he stood alone. The T Down men, half of
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_272' name='page_272'></a>272</span>
+the Star men, and a large proportion of the Cache
+men were standing with Harlan. Deveny saw Colver
+and Rogers among those who had aligned themselves
+with Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>No invitation to withdraw had been extended to
+Deveny. The knowledge strengthened his conviction
+that Harlan intended to kill him. And yet, now, facing
+Harlan, he knew that he would never take up
+the slender thread of chance that was offered him&mdash;to
+draw his gun, kill Harlan and resume his authority
+over the men who were left.
+</p>
+<p>The possibility, dangling at the other end of the
+slender thread of chance, did not allure him. For he
+knew he could not draw the pistol at his hip with Harlan&#8217;s
+gaze upon him&mdash;that would be suicide.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Deveny!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan&#8217;s voice, snapping with menace roused him,
+straightened him, brought an ashen pallor to his face.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s your turn, Deveny. You stay here. Flash
+your gun!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Here it was&mdash;the dreaded moment. Deveny saw
+the men around him stiffen rigidly; he heard their
+slow-drawn breaths. The thought to draw his gun
+was strong in him, and he fought hard to force his
+recreant muscles to do the will of his mind. For an
+instant he stood, his right hand poised above the holster
+of his pistol, the elbow crooked, ready to
+straighten.
+</p>
+<p>And then, with the steady, coldly flaming eyes of
+Harlan upon him, Harlan&#8217;s right hand extended
+slightly, the fingers spread a little as though he was
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_273' name='page_273'></a>273</span>
+about to offer his hand to the other. Deveny became
+aware that he was doing an astonishing thing. He
+was raising his right hand!
+</p>
+<p>Already it was at his shoulder. And as he marveled,
+it went higher, finally coming to a level with his
+head, where it stopped. He had publicly advertised
+his refusal to settle his differences with Harlan with
+the pistol.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yellow!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>It was Harlan&#8217;s voice. &#8220;You won&#8217;t fight an&#8217; you
+won&#8217;t run. Well, we&#8217;ll keep you, savin&#8217; you for the
+governor. I reckon he&#8217;ll be glad to see you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Harlan turned, sheathing his pistol, and began to
+walk toward his horse, his back toward Deveny.
+</p>
+<p>Then Deveny acted. His eyes flaming hate, he
+drew his pistol with a flashing movement, his face
+hideous with malignant passion.
+</p>
+<p>He sent one bullet into Harlan&#8217;s back and two more
+as Harlan tumbled forward, sinking to his knees from
+the shock. But Deveny&#8217;s two last bullets went wild,
+tearing up the grass of the level as the gun loosened in
+his hand.
+</p>
+<p>For Rogers&#8217; rifle was spitting fire and smoke with
+venomous rapidity, and Deveny was sinking, his knees
+doubling under him, his body shuddering with the impact
+of each bullet.
+</p>
+<hr class='major' />
+<div style='margin: auto; text-align: center; padding-top: 2em; padding-bottom: 1em'>
+<a name='XXXI_PEACE_AND_A_SUNSET' id='XXXI_PEACE_AND_A_SUNSET'></a>
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_274' name='page_274'></a>274</span>
+<h2>CHAPTER XXXI</h2>
+<h3>PEACE&mdash;AND A SUNSET</h3>
+</div>
+
+<p>Red Linton had recovered&mdash;there was no
+doubt of that. For Linton, though a trifle pale,
+was vigorous. Vigor was in the look of him as he
+stood, a slow grin on his face, beside Barbara Morgan
+at the entrance of the <i>patio</i> of the Rancho Seco ranchhouse.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara was sitting on a bench that ranged the
+front wall of the building. She was arrayed in a
+dress of some soft, fluffy material, in which she made
+a picture that brought a breathless longing into Linton&#8217;s
+heart&mdash;a longing which made him feel strangely
+tender and sympathetic.
+</p>
+<p>But Barbara was not smiling. There was a wistfulness
+in her eyes that made Linton gulp with jealous
+thoughts that came to him.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He don&#8217;t deserve it, the durned scalawag!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Deserve what?&#8221; questioned Barbara.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You,&#8221; muttered Linton, with an embarrassed grin.
+&#8220;Shucks, I wasn&#8217;t thinkin&#8217; I was talkin&#8217; out loud.
+I&#8217;m sure gettin&#8217; locoed.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Who doesn&#8217;t deserve me?&#8221; asked Barbara.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Harlan!&#8221; declared Linton, with a subtle glance
+at the girl. &#8220;He ain&#8217;t in no ways fit to be thinkin&#8217;
+serious thoughts about a girl like you.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Has he been thinking serious thoughts?&#8221; Her
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_275' name='page_275'></a>275</span>
+eyes dropped from Linton&#8217;s and the latter grinned
+widely.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Thinkin&#8217; them! He&#8217;s been talkin&#8217; them. Talked
+them all the time him an&#8217; me was stretched out in the
+big room, gettin&#8217; over our scratches. That man is
+plumb locoed. I couldn&#8217;t get him to talk nothin&#8217; else.
+When I told him about the governor sendin&#8217; him congratulations,
+an&#8217; offerin&#8217; to do somethin&#8217; handsome
+for him, he says: &#8216;You say she ain&#8217;t worryin&#8217; none
+about things? Red, do you think she&#8217;d hook up with
+a guy like me&mdash;that&#8217;s got a bad reputation?&#8217;&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Linton shot a side glance at Barbara and saw a
+flush steal into her cheeks. He concealed a broad grin
+with the palm of his hand and then said, gruffly:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I answers him as such a impertinent question ought
+to be answered. Says I&mdash;&#8216;Harlan, you&#8217;re a damned
+fool!&#8217;&mdash;askin&#8217; your pardon, ma&#8217;am. A girl like Barbara
+Morgan ain&#8217;t goin&#8217; to throw herself away on a no-good
+outlaw. Not none! Why, ma&#8217;am, he&#8217;s an outlaw
+at heart as well as by reputation. He&#8217;s clean bad&mdash;there
+ain&#8217;t a bit of good in him. Didn&#8217;t he go to
+Haydon deliberate? An&#8217; didn&#8217;t he keep you in suspense
+about what was goin&#8217; on&mdash;not tellin&#8217; you anything
+until he had to? Shucks!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;But there was a method in that, Linton,&#8221; said
+Barbara; &#8220;he told me he was afraid I&#8217;d unconsciously
+betray him, and then he could not have done what he
+did.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Linton grinned again&mdash;again concealing the grin.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t mean to say that you believe the cuss
+done the best he could?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_276' name='page_276'></a>276</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;I think I do, Linton.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shucks. Women is odd that way, ain&#8217;t they?
+You ain&#8217;t tellin&#8217; me that you think he&#8217;s on the level&mdash;that
+his reputation ain&#8217;t as bad as some folks make
+believe it is, an&#8217; that he&#8217;s <i>square</i>?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I believe he&#8217;s square, Linton!&#8221; the girl answered,
+firmly.
+</p>
+<p>Linton was silent for an instant, during which he
+stood on one foot, looking westward where the sun
+was swimming low above the big valley.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Ma&#8217;am,&#8221; he said lowly, breaking the silence:
+&#8220;I&#8217;m damned if I ain&#8217;t beginnin&#8217; to believe it, myself.
+There&#8217;s some things that seem to prove it.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;First, there&#8217;s him takin&#8217; your part over in Lamo.
+Then there&#8217;s him comin&#8217; here with you, knowin&#8217; you
+was alone&mdash;an&#8217; not botherin&#8217; you. Then he guarded
+you right steady, not lettin&#8217; Haydon or Deveny run in
+on you. Then he makes me foreman&mdash;which seems
+to prove that he&#8217;s got sense. Then he goes up the
+valley an&#8217; helps your brother bust up the outlaw gang,
+riskin&#8217; his life a lot.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; all the time he knows where your dad hid that
+gold. But he didn&#8217;t touch it until he got over that
+scratch Deveny give him&mdash;or until he could take you
+where it was hid an&#8217; show you he hadn&#8217;t touched it.
+Yes, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; he added with a hyprocritical grin&mdash;which
+he did not permit the girl to see&mdash;&#8220;I&#8217;m beginnin&#8217;
+to believe the cuss is on the level.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Oh, he <i>is</i>, Linton!&#8221; said Barbara, in a low, earnest
+voice.
+</p>
+<p>Again there was a silence. Then&mdash;&mdash;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_277' name='page_277'></a>277</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;Do you think he&#8217;s a pretty good looker, ma&#8217;am?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I think he is handsome!&#8221; Again the girl blushed.
+</p>
+<p>And again Linton grinned. He cleared his throat
+before he again spoke:
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; he drawled; &#8220;mebbe I wouldn&#8217;t go that
+far. Mostly I don&#8217;t care for a handsome man, anyway.
+I wouldn&#8217;t say he&#8217;s ugly, an&#8217; I won&#8217;t say he&#8217;s
+handsome. I&#8217;d light on a spot about halfway between
+them two extremes. I&#8217;d say he ain&#8217;t a bad looker.
+That would be about right.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He <i>is</i> handsome, Linton!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, likely he is&mdash;to a woman. I&#8217;ve heard
+that there&#8217;s <i>been</i> women which thought him a heap
+good lookin&#8217;.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Where, Linton?&#8221; she asked, quickly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Why, in Pardo, ma&#8217;am. There was a biscuit
+shooter in a eatin&#8217;-house there that was sure wild about
+Harlan&mdash;she followed him around a heap.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He didn&#8217;t have anything to do with her, Linton?&#8221;
+she questioned, stiffening.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Shucks! Not him. Women never bothered him
+none. He always fought shy of them&mdash;until now.
+He&#8217;s changed a lot. I don&#8217;t understand him no more.
+Keeps a-moonin&#8217; regular about you. I&#8217;m gettin&#8217; a heap
+sick of hangin&#8217; around him. Ain&#8217;t you?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No!&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, that&#8217;s a heap odd, ma&#8217;am. I was thinkin&#8217;
+you didn&#8217;t like him a heap. Accordin&#8217; to that, I
+reckon you&#8217;d be right glad to see him&mdash;comin&#8217; home
+from Pardo&mdash;where&#8217;s he been to have that gold
+assayed?&#8221;
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_278' name='page_278'></a>278</span></p>
+<p>&#8220;He ought to be here before dark, Linton. And
+I shall be glad to see him.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hopin&#8217; the gold will assay good, I reckon?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Hoping he will come back, safe.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You don&#8217;t care about the gold?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;No.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Only about him?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Yes, Linton,&#8221; she said, gently.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, that&#8217;s odd, ma&#8217;am,&#8221; drawled Linton.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;What is?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That I feel the same way about the cuss.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She looked keenly at him, saw the dancing, wayward
+gleam in his eyes, and gave him a reproachful glance.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;You&#8217;ve been pumping me, Linton,&#8221; she charged.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well,&#8221; he defended; &#8220;he&#8217;s my friend, ma&#8217;am; an&#8217;
+I was sure worried, thinkin&#8217; you wouldn&#8217;t take him&mdash;if
+he offered himself.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>She smiled, wisely.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;He did that long ago, Linton&mdash;right after he&mdash;well,
+the day he got up, after the doctor told him he
+could.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That he could offer himself?&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;That he could get up. Linton,&#8221; she said, severely;
+&#8220;you want to know too much.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>Linton did not answer. He took her by an arm,
+raised her to her feet, and turned her face toward
+the northeast&mdash;where a rider came, not more than
+two or three miles distant.
+</p>
+<p>Linton left her to stand there, while he made his
+way into one of the bunkhouses, where, with an appearance
+of unconcern that he did not feel, he watched the
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_279' name='page_279'></a>279</span>
+coming rider. And when he saw the rider head his
+horse straight for the gate of the patio, Linton grinned
+widely and sought some of the other men in the cook-house.
+</p>
+<p>The sun was between the two huge mountains at
+the western end of the big valley when Harlan dismounted
+at the <i>patio</i> gate and dropped, tired and
+dusty, to the bench upon which Barbara sat. Had
+Linton seen what occurred when Harlan dismounted
+he would have ceased to speculate over certain phases
+of the relations between the man and the girl.
+</p>
+<p>Barbara did not seem to mind the dust on Harlan&#8217;s
+sleeve, nor did she feel it on his shoulder where
+her head was nestling.
+</p>
+<p>For both were looking out into the big valley, where
+the sun was sinking with a splendor that reminded them
+of another day.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;The gold isn&#8217;t worth mining,&#8221; said Harlan,
+gently. &#8220;The assayer used names that didn&#8217;t mean
+anything to me, but he told me enough in plain talk,
+to prove that your dad wasted his time.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;I&#8217;m satisfied,&#8221; said the girl.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Me too,&#8221; smiled Harlan. &#8220;There&#8217;s somethin&#8217;
+better than gold.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s peace&mdash;and happiness,&#8221; said Barbara, gently.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;An&#8217; a girl,&#8221; smiled Harlan.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;And a man,&#8221; declared Barbara stoutly.
+</p>
+<p>&#8220;Well, then,&#8221; he conceded, &#8220;we won&#8217;t quarrel.
+We&#8217;ll say it&#8217;s both.&#8221;
+</p>
+<p>And they sat, saying little, watching the colors of
+the sunset flame over the mighty valley&mdash;stealing over
+<span class='pagenum'><a id='page_280' name='page_280'></a>280</span>
+the vast, silent space that spread between the two
+mountain ranges. And the big valley smiled back at
+them, softening the sadness that dwelt in the heart of
+the girl, and holding out to both of them a promise of
+good to come&mdash;telling them of a mystery that had
+been solved, and of a menace removed.
+</p>
+
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<p>&nbsp;</p>
+<hr class="full" />
+<p>***END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'DRAG' HARLAN***</p>
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+The Project Gutenberg eBook, 'Drag' Harlan, by Charles Alden Seltzer,
+Illustrated by P. V. E. Ivory
+
+
+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: 'Drag' Harlan
+
+
+Author: Charles Alden Seltzer
+
+
+
+Release Date: June 13, 2008  [eBook #25779]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)
+
+
+***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 'DRAG' HARLAN***
+
+
+E-text prepared by Roger Frank and the Project Gutenberg Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team (https://www.pgdp.net)
+
+
+
+Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this
+      file which includes the original illustration.
+      See 25779-h.htm or 25779-h.zip:
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/7/7/25779/25779-h/25779-h.htm)
+      or
+      (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/5/7/7/25779/25779-h.zip)
+
+
+
+
+
+"DRAG" HARLAN
+
+by
+
+CHARLES ALDEN SELTZER
+
+Author of
+The Boss of the Lazy Y,
+"Firebrand" Trevison,
+The Trail Horde,
+The Ranchman, Etc.
+
+Frontispiece by P. V. E. Ivory
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+[Illustration: She laid her head on his shoulder, sobbing, and talking
+incoherently. (Page 65)]
+
+
+
+Grosset & Dunlap
+Publishers :: New York
+
+Made in the United States of America
+
+Copyright
+A. C. McClurg & Co.
+1921
+
+Published May, 1921
+
+Copyrighted in Great Britain
+
+
+
+CONTENTS
+
+   CHAPTER                          PAGE
+         I  A Desert Rider             1
+        II  A Man's Reputation         9
+       III  A Girl Waits              31
+        IV  His Shadow Before         38
+         V  A Prison                  48
+        VI  Chain-Lightning           58
+       VII  Single-Handed             66
+      VIII  Barbara Is Puzzled        78
+        IX  An Unwelcome Guest        88
+         X  On Guard                  96
+        XI  The Intruder             107
+       XII  Barbara Sees a Light     114
+      XIII  Harlan Takes Charge      119
+       XIV  Shadows                  129
+        XV  Linked                   142
+       XVI  Deep Water               153
+      XVII  Forging a Letter         159
+     XVIII  Harlan Rides Alone       169
+       XIX  Harlan Joins the Gang    174
+        XX  Left-Handed              191
+       XXI  The Black-Bearded Man    206
+      XXII  A Dead Man Walks         219
+     XXIII  Deveny Secedes           225
+      XXIV  Kidnapped                229
+       XXV  Ambushed                 238
+      XXVI  Rogers Takes a Hand      242
+     XXVII  A Dual Tragedy           248
+    XXVIII  Converging Trails        252
+      XXIX  World's End              258
+       XXX  The Ultimate Treachery   263
+      XXXI  Peace--and a Sunset      274
+
+
+
+
+
+
+"DRAG" HARLAN
+
+CHAPTER I
+
+A DESERT RIDER
+
+
+From out of the shimmering haze that veiled the mystic eastern space came
+a big black horse bearing a rider. Swinging wide, to avoid the feathery
+dust that lay at the base of a huge sand dune, the black horse loped,
+making no sound, and seeming to glide forward without effort. Like a
+somber, gigantic ghost the animal moved, heroic of mold, embodying the
+spirit of the country, seeming to bear the sinister message of the
+desert, the whispered promise of death, the lingering threat, the grim
+mockery of life, and the conviction of futility.
+
+The black horse had come far. The glossy coat of him was thickly
+sprinkled with alkali dust, sifted upon him by the wind of his passage
+through the desert; his black muzzle was gray with it; ropes of it matted
+his mane, his forelock had become a gray-tinged wisp which he fretfully
+tossed; the dust had rimmed his eyes, causing them to loom large and
+wild; and as his rider pulled him to a halt on the western side of the
+sand dune--where both horse and rider would not be visible on the sky
+line--he drew a deep breath, shook his head vigorously, and blew a thin
+stream of dust from his nostrils.
+
+With head and ears erect, his eyes flaming his undying courage and his
+contempt for distance and the burning heat that the midday sun poured
+upon him, he gazed westward, snorting long breaths into his eager lungs.
+
+The rider sat motionless upon him--rigid and alert. His gaze also went
+into the west; and he blinked against the white glare of sun and
+distance, squinting his eyes and scanning the featureless waste with
+appraising glances.
+
+In the breathless, dead calm of the desert there was no sound or
+movement. On all sides the vast gray waste stretched, a yawning inferno
+of dead, dry sand overhung with a brassy, cloudless sky in which swam the
+huge ball of molten silver that for ages had ruled that baked and
+shriveled land.
+
+A score of miles westward--twoscore, perhaps--the shadowy peaks of some
+mountains loomed upward into the mystic haze, with purple bases melting
+into the horizon; southward were other mountains, equally distant and
+mysterious; northward--so far away that they blurred in the vision--were
+still other mountains. Intervening on all sides was the stretching,
+soundless, aching void of desolation, carrying to the rider its lurking
+threat of death, the promise of evil to come.
+
+The man, however, seemed unperturbed. In his narrowed, squinting eyes as
+he watched the desert was a gleam of comprehension, of knowledge intimate
+and sympathetic. They glowed with the serene calm of confidence; and far
+back in them lurked a glint of grim mockery. It was as though they
+visualized the threatened dangers upon which they looked, answering the
+threat with contempt.
+
+The man was tall. His slim waist was girded by a cartridge belt which was
+studded with leaden missiles for the rifle that reposed in the saddle
+holster, and for the two heavy pistols that sagged at his hips. A gray
+woolen shirt adorned his broad shoulders; a scarlet neckerchief at his
+throat which had covered his mouth as he rode was now drooping on his
+chest; and the big, wide-brimmed felt hat he wore was jammed far down
+over his forehead. The well-worn leather chaps that covered his legs
+could not conceal their sinewy strength, nor could the gauntleted leather
+gloves on his hands hide the capable size of them.
+
+He was a fixture of this great waste of world in whose center he sat. He
+belonged to the country; he was as much a part of it as the somber
+mountains, the sun-baked sand, the dead lava, and the hardy, evil-looking
+cacti growth that raised its spined and mocking green above the arid
+stretch. He symbolized the spirit of the country--from the slicker that
+bulged at the cantle of the saddle behind him, to the capable gloved
+hands that were now resting on the pommel of the saddle--he represented
+the force which was destined to conquer the waste places.
+
+For two days he had been fighting the desert; and in the serene calm of
+his eyes was the identical indomitability that had been in them when he
+had set forth. As he peered westward the strong lines around his mouth
+relaxed, his lips opened a trifle, and a mirthless smile wreathed them.
+He patted the shoulder of the black horse, and the dead dust ballooned
+from the animal's coat and floated heavily downward.
+
+"We're about halfway, Purgatory," he said aloud, his voice coming flat
+and expressionless in the dead, vacuum-like silence. He did not cease to
+peer westward nor to throw sharp glances north and south. He drew off a
+glove and pushed his hat back, using a pocket handkerchief to brush the
+dust from his face and running the fingers of the hand through his
+hair--thereby producing another ballooning dust cloud which splayed
+heavily downward.
+
+"What's botherin' me is that shootin'," he went on, still speaking to the
+black horse. "We sure enough heard it--didn't we?" He laughed, again
+patting the black's shoulder. "An' you heard it first--as usual--with me
+trailin' along about half a second behind. But we sure heard 'em, eh?"
+
+The black horse whinnied lowly, whereupon the rider dismounted, and
+stretched himself.
+
+From a water-bag at the cantle of the saddle he poured water into his big
+hat, watching sympathetically while the big horse drank. Some few drops
+that still remained in the hat after the horse had finished he playfully
+shook on the animal's head, smiling widely at the whinny of delight that
+greeted the action. He merely wet his own lips from the water-bag. Then
+for an instant, after replacing the bag, he stood at the black's
+shoulder, his face serious.
+
+"We'll hit the Kelso water-hole about sundown, I reckon, Purgatory," he
+said. "That's certain. There's only one thing can stop us--that shootin'.
+If it's Apaches, why, I reckon there's a long dry spell ahead of us; but
+if it's only Greasers----"
+
+He grinned with grim eloquence, patted the black again, and climbed into
+the saddle. Again, as before, he sat silent upon his mount, scanning the
+sun-scorched waste; and then he rode forward.
+
+An hour later, during which he loped the black horse slowly, he again
+drew the animal to a halt and gazed around him, frowning, his eyes
+gleaming with a savage intolerance.
+
+The shooting he had heard some time previous to his appearance at the
+base of the big sand dune had not been done by Indians. He was almost
+convinced of that now. Or, if Indians had done the shooting, they had not
+yet observed him. The fact that he had seen no smoke signals proved that.
+
+Still, there was the deep silence on every hand to bring doubt into his
+mind; and he knew that Indians--especially Apaches--were tricky,
+sometimes foregoing the smoke signals to lie in ambush. And very
+likely--if they had seen him coming--they were doing that very thing:
+waiting for him to ride into the trap they had prepared. He had not been
+able to locate the point from which the reports had come. It had seemed
+to him that they had come from a point directly westward; but he could
+not be sure, for he had seen no smoke.
+
+He talked no more to the horse, sitting rigidly in the saddle, erect, his
+head bent a little forward, his chin thrusting, his lips curving with a
+bitterly savage snarl. He felt the presence of living things with him in
+the desert; a presentiment had gripped him--a conviction that living men
+were close and hostile.
+
+Reaching downward, he drew the rifle from the saddle holster and examined
+its mechanism. Placing it across his knee, he drew out his heavy pistols,
+one after another, slowly twirling the cylinders. He replaced the
+pistols, making sure that the holster flaps were out of the way so that
+they would not catch or drag at the weapons when he wanted to use
+them--and with the rifle resting across his legs near the saddle horn, he
+rode slowly forward.
+
+He swung wide of even the small sand dunes as he passed them, and he kept
+a vigilant eye upon the dead rocks that dotted the level at infrequent
+intervals. Even the cactus clumps received flattering attention; and the
+little stretches of greasewood that came within range of his vision were
+examined closely.
+
+At the end of half an hour he had seen nothing unusual. Here and there he
+had noticed a rattler lurking in the shade of a rock or partly concealed
+under the thorny blade of a sprawling cactus; and he had seen a sage hen
+nestling in the hot sand. But these were fixtures--as was also the
+Mexican eagle that winged its slow way in mile-wide circles in the
+glaring, heat-pulsing sky.
+
+The rider again halted the black horse. The presentiment of evil had
+grown upon him, and he twisted around in the saddle, sweeping the
+desolate vast level with cold, alert, puzzled eyes.
+
+There was no object near him behind which an enemy might lie concealed;
+the gray floor of the desert within many hundred miles of him was smooth
+and flat and obstructionless. Far away, half a mile, perhaps, he saw a
+thrusting knob of rock, with some cactus fringing it. From where he sat
+in the saddle it seemed that the rock might be the peak of a mountain
+reaching upward out of the sea of sand and desert waste--but it was
+barren on sides and top, and would afford no concealment for an enemy,
+except at its base. And even the base was not large enough to conceal
+more than a few men.
+
+The rider gazed long at the rock, but could detect no sign of movement
+near it. He had turned from it, to look again into the western distance,
+when Purgatory whinnied lowly.
+
+Flashing around in the saddle, the rider again faced the rock. And he saw
+movement there now. The distance was great, but the clarity of the
+atmosphere brought a moving object distinctly into his vision. The object
+was a man, and, like a huge fly, he was crawling rapidly up the sloping
+side of the rock, toward its peak, which flattened abruptly at the
+summit.
+
+The man bore a rifle. The rider could see it dragging from the man's
+hand; and in a flash the rider was out of the saddle, throwing himself
+flat behind a low ridge of sand, his own rifle coming to a rest on a
+small boulder as he trained its muzzle upon the man, who by this time had
+reached the summit of the rocks in the distance. The rider waited,
+nursing the stock of the rifle, his eyes blazing, while Purgatory,
+seemingly aware of an impending tragedy, moved slowly away as though
+understanding that he must not expose himself.
+
+The rider waited, anticipating the bullet that would presently whine
+toward him. And then he heard the report of the man's rifle, saw that the
+smoke streak had been directed downward, as though the man on the summit
+of the rock were shooting at something below him.
+
+The rider had been pressing the trigger of his own weapon when he saw the
+smoke streak. He withheld his fire when he divined that the man was not
+shooting at him; and when he saw the man on the rock shoot again--downward
+once more--the rider frowned with embarrassment.
+
+"Don't even know I'm here!" he mused. "An' me gettin' ready to salivate
+him!"
+
+He got to his knees and watched, curiosity gleaming in his eyes. He saw
+the man on the rock fire again--downward--and he noted a smoke spurt
+answer the shot, coming upward from the base of the rock. The rider got
+to his feet and peered intently at the rock. And now he saw another man
+crouching near its base. This man, however, was not the one the man on
+the summit of the rock was shooting at, for smoke streaks were issuing
+from a weapon in that man's hand also, but they were horizontal streaks.
+
+Therefore the rider divined that the two men must be shooting at another
+who was on the far side of the rock; and he ran to Purgatory, speaking no
+word until he had vaulted into the saddle. Then he spoke shortly.
+
+"They're white men, Purgatory, an' they're havin' a private rukus, looks
+like. But we're doin' some investigatin' just to see if the game's on the
+level."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER II
+
+A MAN'S REPUTATION
+
+
+Purgatory moved fast, but warily. The black horse seemed to have caught
+something of his rider's caution. For part of the distance toward the
+rock the animal traveled straight, loping rapidly, but as he neared the
+little stretch of broken country that surrounded the rock he began to
+sheer off, advancing with mincing steps, his ears erect, his eyes wide
+and alert, snorting suspiciously.
+
+Knowing his horse, the rider made no attempt to guide him; he knew
+Purgatory was alert to any hostile movement on the part of the men who
+were shooting, and that at the first sign of danger to himself or to his
+rider he would do what was required of him.
+
+The man on the summit of the rock was still shooting, though
+intermittently. It seemed to the rider that the man's target must be
+elusive or concealed, for the shooter's actions showed that he was
+irritated. The other man, too, was still shooting. The rider noted that
+he, too, seemed to be meeting with failure, for as the rider drew nearer
+he heard the man curse.
+
+Neither of the two men who were visible to the rider had seen
+him--neither of them had heard the big black horse gliding over the deep
+sand of the desert. The rider grinned with grim mirthlessness, edging
+Purgatory around so that the two men, their backs toward him, were not
+more than twenty or thirty feet away and entirely exposed to his view.
+
+So intent were they upon their work that they did not even hear the
+rider's low laugh as he brought the big black horse to a halt and sat
+quietly in the saddle, a heavy pistol in each hand, watching them.
+
+The rock, the rider noted, was a huge granite block, rotted from long
+exposure to the elements, seamed and scarred and cracked. The action of
+the eternally moving sand had worn an irregular-shaped concave into its
+southern wall, so that the summit overhung the side. The man on the
+summit was lying flat on his stomach, leaning far over, still shooting
+downward. The other man, who was standing at the base, was flattened
+against it, facing the concave side, shooting occasionally, and cursing
+volubly.
+
+The rider was curious. Glancing sidelong, southward, he saw two horses
+not more than a hundred yards away. They were in a depression, behind a
+sand ridge, which accounted for the fact that the rider had not seen them
+before.
+
+Sight of the horses brought a widening grin to the rider's face. He had
+thought, at first, that the two men were shooting at another man,
+concealed behind the rock; but the fact that there were only two horses
+indicated that he had been in error. No man would be foolhardy enough to
+attempt to cross the desert on foot, and unless a man were a friend he
+would not be carried upon another man's horse. Therefore, it seemed to be
+evident that the target at which the men were shooting was not another
+man.
+
+And now, convinced that the men had cornered an animal of some kind, and
+that they feared it too greatly to face it openly, the rider laughed
+loudly and called to the men, his voice freighted with sarcasm.
+
+"Scared?" he said. "Oh, don't be. If you'll back off a little an' give
+him room, he'll just naturally slope, an' give you a chance to get to
+your cayuses."
+
+Both men wheeled almost at the same instant. The man at the base of the
+rock snarled--after the first gasp of astonishment, baring his teeth in
+hideous mirth and embarrassment; the other man, startled and caught off
+balance at the sound of the rider's voice, slipped, tried to catch
+himself, failed, and tumbled awkwardly down, scrambling and cursing, to
+the sand within a few feet of the rider.
+
+Sitting in the sand at the base of the rock, the man who had fallen also
+snarled as he sat, looking at the rider.
+
+Neither of the two men moved after the involuntary muscular action that
+had resulted from their astonishment. The man at the base of the rock
+stood in the position in which he had found himself when he had wheeled.
+
+The pistol in his right hand was held close to his side, the muzzle
+directed at the rider.
+
+But a change was coming over the man's face. The color was slowly going
+out of it, the lips were loosening as his jaws dropped, his body began to
+sag, and his eyes began to widen with fear, stark and naked. At length,
+the rider now watching him with a gaze in which there began to glow
+recognition and contempt, the man dropped his hands to his sides and
+leaned against the rock.
+
+"'Drag' Harlan!" he muttered hoarsely.
+
+The rider watched, his eyes glittering coldly, his lips twisting in a
+crooked sneer. Amusement was his dominating emotion, but there was hate
+in his gaze, mingling with a malignant joy and triumph. The pistols in
+his hands became steady as his wrist muscles stiffened; and he watched
+the two men warily, apparently looking straight at the standing man, but
+seeing the sitting man also.
+
+And now a silence fell--a strained, premonitory silence that had in it a
+hint of imminent tragedy. The sitting man stiffened, divining the promise
+of violence; the standing man shrank back a little and looked downward at
+the pistol in his right hand.
+
+The rider saw the glance and laughed lowly.
+
+"Keep her right where she is, Dolver," he warned. "You lift her one
+little wee lift, an' I bore you plumb in the brain-box. Sort of
+flabbergasted, eh? Didn't expect to run into me again so soon?"
+
+He laughed as the other cringed, his face dead white, his eyes fixed on
+the rider with a sort of dread fascination.
+
+"Dolver, didn't you know when you got my little partner, Davey Langan,
+that I'd be comin' for you?" said the rider in a slow, drawling whisper.
+"In the back you got him, not givin' him a chance. You're gettin' yours
+now. I'm givin' you a chance to take it like a man--standin', with your
+face to me. Lift her now--damn you!"
+
+There was no change in his expression as he watched the man he had called
+Dolver. There came no change in the cold, steady gleam of his eyes as he
+saw the man stiffen and swing the muzzle of his pistol upward with a
+quick, jerky motion. But he sneered as with the movement he sent a bullet
+into the man's chest; his lips curving with slight irony when Dolver's
+gun went off, the bullet throwing up sand at Purgatory's forehoofs.
+
+His eyes grew hard as he saw Dolver stagger, drop his pistol, and clutch
+at his chest; and he watched with seeming indifference as the man slowly
+sank to his knees and stretched out, face down, in the dust at the base
+of the rock.
+
+His lips were stiff with bitter rage, however, as he faced the other man,
+who had not moved.
+
+"Get up on your hind legs, you yellow coyote!" he commanded.
+
+For an instant it seemed that the other man was to share the fate of the
+first. The man seemed to think so, too, for he got up trembling, his
+hands outstretched along the rock, the fingers outspread and twitching
+from the paralysis of fear that had seized him.
+
+"Shoot your gab off quick!" commanded the rider. "Who are you?"
+
+"I'm Laskar," the man muttered.
+
+"Where you from?"
+
+"Lamo."
+
+The rider's eyes quickened. "Where did you meet up with that scum?" He
+indicated Dolver.
+
+"In town."
+
+"Lamo?"
+
+The man nodded.
+
+"How long ago?" asked the rider.
+
+"'Bout a week."
+
+The man's voice was hoarse; he seemed reluctant to talk more, and he cast
+furtive, dreading glances toward the base of the rock where Dolver had
+stood before the rider had surprised the men.
+
+Watching the man narrowly, the rider noted his nervous glance, and his
+shrinking, dreading manner. Harlan's eyes gleamed with suspicion, and in
+a flash he was off the black and standing before Laskar, forbidding and
+menacing.
+
+"Take off your gun-belt an' chuck it under my horse!" he directed
+sharply. "There's somethin' goin' on here that ain't been mentioned. I'm
+findin' out what it is."
+
+He watched while the man unbuckled his cartridge belt and threw it--the
+pistol still in the holster--into the sand at Purgatory's hoofs. Then he
+stepped to the man, sheathed one of his pistols, and ran the free hand
+over the other's clothing in search of other weapons. Finding none, he
+stooped and took up Dolver's pistol and rifle that had fallen from the
+man's hands when he had tumbled off the rock, throwing them near where
+the cartridge belt had fallen.
+
+"You freeze there while I take a look around this rock!" he commanded,
+with a cold look at the man.
+
+Half a dozen steps took him around the base of the rock. He went boldly,
+though his muscles were tensed and his eyes alert for surprises. But he
+had not taken a dozen steps in all when he halted and stiffened, his lips
+setting into straight, hard lines.
+
+For, stretched out on his left side in the sand close to the base of the
+rock--under the flattened summit which had afforded him protection from
+the bullets the man with the rifle had been sending at him--was a man.
+
+The man was apparently about fifty, with a seamed, pain-lined face. His
+beard was stained with dust, his hair was gray with it; his clothing
+looked as though he had been dragged through it. He was hatless, and one
+of his boots was off. The foot had been bandaged with a handkerchief, and
+through the handkerchief the dark stains of a wound appeared.
+
+The man's shirt was open in front; and the rider saw that another wound
+gaped in his chest, near the heart. The man had evidently made some
+attempt to care for that wound, too, for a piece of cloth from his shirt
+had been cut away, to permit him to get at the wound easily.
+
+The man's left side seemed to be helpless, for the arm was twisted
+queerly, the palm of the hand turned limply upward; but when the rider
+came upon him the man was trying to tuck a folded paper into one of the
+cylinders of a pistol.
+
+He had laid the weapon in the sand, and with his right hand was working
+with the cylinder and the paper. When he saw the rider he sneered and
+ceased working with the pistol, looking up into the rider's face, his
+eyes glowing with defiance.
+
+"No chance for that even, eh?" he said, glancing at the paper and the
+pistol. "Things is goin' plumb wrong!"
+
+He sagged back, resting his weight on the right elbow, and looked
+steadily at the rider--the look of a wounded animal defying his pursuers.
+
+"Get goin'!" he jeered. "Do your damnedest! I heard that sneak, Dolver,
+yappin' to you. You're 'Drag' Harlan--gun-fighter, outlaw, killer! I've
+heard of you," he went on as he saw Harlan scowl and stiffen. "Your
+reputation has got all over. I reckon you're in the game to salivate me."
+
+Harlan sheathed his gun.
+
+"You're talkin' extravagant, mister man." And now he permitted a cold
+smile to wreathe his lips. "If it'll do you any good to know," he added,
+"I've just put Dolver out of business."
+
+"I heard that, too," declared the man, laughing bitterly. "I heard you
+tellin' Dolver. He killed your partner--or somethin'. That's personal,
+an' I ain't interested. Get goin'--the sooner the better. If you'd hand
+it to me right now, I'd be much obliged to you; for I'm goin' fast. This
+hole in my chest--which I got last night while I was sleepin'--will do
+the business without any help from you."
+
+After a pause for breath, the man began to speak again, railing at his
+would-be murderers. He was talking ramblingly when there came a sound
+from the opposite side of the rock--a grunt, a curse, and, almost
+instantly, a shriek.
+
+The wounded man raised himself and threw a glance of startled inquiry at
+Harlan: "What's that?"
+
+Harlan watched the man steadily.
+
+"I reckon that'll be that man Laskar," he said slowly. "I lifted his gun
+an' his rifle, an' Dolver's gun, an' throwed them under Purgatory--my
+horse. Laskar has tried to get them, an' Purgatory's raised some
+objection."
+
+He stepped back and peered around the rock. Laskar was lying in the sand
+near the base of the rock, doubled up and groaning loudly, while
+Purgatory, his nostrils distended, his eyes ablaze, was standing over the
+weapons that lay in the sand, watching the groaning man malignantly.
+
+Harlan returned to the wounded man, to find that he had collapsed and was
+breathing heavily.
+
+For some minutes Harlan stood, looking down at him; then he knelt in the
+sand beside him and lifted his head. The man's eyes were closed, and
+Harlan laid his head down again and examined the wound in his chest.
+
+He shook his head as he got up, went to Purgatory, and got some water,
+which he used to wipe away the dust and blood which had become matted
+over the wound. He shook his head again after bathing the wound. The
+wound meant death for the man within a short time. Yet Harlan forced some
+water into the half-open mouth and bathed the man's face with it.
+
+For a long time after Harlan ceased to work with him the man lay in a
+stupor-like silence, limp and motionless, though his eyes opened
+occasionally, and by the light in them Harlan knew the man was aware of
+what he had been doing.
+
+The sun was going now; it had become a golden, blazing ball which was
+sinking over the peaks of some distant mountains, its fiery rays stabbing
+the pale azure of the sky with brilliantly glowing shafts that threw off
+ever-changing seas of color that blended together in perfect harmony.
+
+Harlan alternately watched the wounded man and Laskar.
+
+Laskar was still groaning, and finally Harlan walked to him and pushed
+him with a contemptuous foot.
+
+"Get up, you sneak!" he ordered. And Laskar, groaning, holding his
+chest--where Purgatory's hoofs had struck him--staggered to his feet and
+looked with piteously pleading eyes at the big man who stood near him,
+unmoved by the spectacle of suffering he presented.
+
+And when he found that Harlan gave him no sympathy, he cursed horribly.
+This drew a cold threat from Harlan.
+
+"Shut your rank mouth or I'll turn Purgatory loose on you--again. Lookin'
+for sympathy, eh? How much sympathy did you give that hombre who's
+cashin' in behind the rocks? None--damn you!"
+
+It was the first flash of feeling Harlan had exhibited, and Laskar shrank
+from him in terror.
+
+But Harlan followed him, grasping him by a shoulder and gripping it with
+iron fingers, so that Laskar screamed with pain.
+
+"Who is that man?" Harlan motioned toward the rock.
+
+"Lane Morgan. He owns the Rancho Seco--about forty miles south of Lamo,"
+returned Laskar after a long look into Harlan's eyes.
+
+"Who set you guys onto him--what you wantin' him for?"
+
+"I don't know," whined Laskar. "Day before yesterday Dolver an' me meets
+up in Lamo, an' Dolver asks me to help him give Morgan his pass-out
+checks on the ride over to Pardo--which Morgan's intendin' to make. I
+ain't got any love for Morgan, an' so I took Dolver up."
+
+"You're a liar!"
+
+Harlan's fingers were sinking into Laskar's shoulder again, and once more
+the man screamed with pain and impotent fury.
+
+"I swear--" began Laskar.
+
+Harlan's grin was bitterly contemptuous. He placed the other hand on
+Laskar's shoulder and forced the man to look into his eyes.
+
+"You're a liar, but I'm lettin' you off. You're a sneak with Greaser
+blood in you. I don't ever want to see you again. I'm goin' to Lamo--soon
+as this man Morgan cashes in. I'll be there some time tomorrow. Lamo
+wouldn't please me none if I was to find you there when I ride in. You
+slope, now--an' keep on hittin' the breeze until there ain't no more of
+it. I'd blow you apart if this man Morgan was anything to me. But it
+ain't my game unless I see you again."
+
+He watched until Laskar, still holding his chest, walked to where the two
+horses were concealed, and mounted one of them. When Laskar, leaning over
+the pommel of the saddle, had grown dim in the haze that was settling
+over the desert, Harlan scowled and returned to the wounded man.
+
+To his astonishment, Morgan was conscious--and a cold calmness seemed to
+have come over him. His eyes were filled with a light that told of
+complete knowledge and resignation. He half smiled as Harlan knelt beside
+him.
+
+"I'm about due, I reckon," he said. "I heard you talkin' to the man you
+just let get away. It don't make any difference--about _him_. I reckon he
+was just a tool, anyway. There's someone behind this bigger than Dolver
+an' that man Laskar. He didn't tell you?"
+
+Harlan shook his head negatively, watching the other intently.
+
+"I didn't reckon he would," said Morgan. "But there's _somebody_." He
+gazed long into Harlan's face, and the latter gazed steadily back at him.
+He seemed to be searching Harlan's face for signs of character.
+
+Harlan stood the probing glance well--so that at last Morgan smiled,
+saying slowly: "It's funny--damned funny. About faces, I mean. Your
+reputation--it's bad. I've been hearin' about you for a couple of years
+now. An' I've been lookin' at you an' tryin' to make myself say, 'Yes,
+he's the kind of a guy which would do the things they say he's done.'
+
+"I can't make myself say it; I can't even make myself think it. Either
+you're a mighty good actor, or you're the worst-judged man I ever met.
+Which is it?"
+
+"Mostly all of us get reputations we don't deserve," said Harlan lowly.
+
+Morgan's eyes gleamed with satisfaction. "Meanin' that you don't deserve
+yours?" he said.
+
+"I reckon there's been a heap of lyin' goin' on about me."
+
+For a long time Morgan watched the other, studying him. The long twilight
+of the desert descended and found them--Morgan staring at Harlan; the
+latter enduring the gaze--for he knew that the end would not long be
+delayed.
+
+At last Morgan sighed.
+
+"Well," he said, "I've got to take a chance on you. An', somehow, it
+seems to me that I ain't takin' much of a chance, either. For a man
+that's supposed to be the hell-raisin' outlaw that folks say you are,
+you've got the straightest eyes I ever seen. I've seen killers--an'
+outlaws, an' gun-fighters, an' I never seen one that could look at a man
+like you've looked at me. Harlan," he went on slowly, "I'm goin' to tell
+you about some gold I've hid--a hundred thousand dollars!"
+
+Keenly, suspicion lurking deep in his eyes, his mouth half open,
+seemingly ready to snap shut the instant he detected greed or cupidity in
+Harlan's eyes, he watched the latter.
+
+It seemed that he expected Harlan to betray a lust for the gold he had
+mentioned; and he was ready to close his lips and to die with his secret.
+And when he saw that apparently Harlan was unmoved, that he betrayed,
+seemingly, not the slightest interest, that even his eyelids did not
+flicker at his words, nor his face change color--Morgan drew a tremulous
+sigh.
+
+"You've got me guessin'," he confessed weakly. "I don't know whether
+you're a devil or a saint."
+
+"I ain't claimin' nothin'," said Harlan. "An' I ain't carin' a damn about
+your gold. I'd a heap rather you wouldn't mention it. More than one man
+has busted his character chasin' that rainbow."
+
+"You ain't interested?" demanded Morgan.
+
+"Not none."
+
+Morgan's eyes glowed with an eager light. For now that Harlan betrayed
+lack of interest, Morgan was convinced--almost--that the man's reputation
+for committing evil deeds had been exaggerated.
+
+"You've got to be interested," he declared, lifting himself on his good
+arm and leaning toward Harlan. "It ain't the gold that is botherin' me so
+much, anyway--it's my daughter.
+
+"It's all my own fault, too," he went on when he saw Harlan's eyes
+quicken. "I've felt all along that somethin' was wrong, but I didn't have
+sense enough to look into it. An' now, trustin' folks so much, an' not
+payin' strict attention to what was goin' on around me, I've got to the
+point where I've got to put everything into the hands of a man I never
+saw before--an outlaw."
+
+"There ain't nobody crowdin' you to put anything into his hands," sneered
+Harlan. "I ain't a heap anxious to go around buttin' into trouble for
+you. Keep your yap shut, an' die like a man!"
+
+Morgan laughed, almost triumphantly. "I'll do my dyin' like a man, all
+right--don't be afraid of that. You want to hear what I've got to tell
+you?"
+
+"I've got to listen. Shoot!"
+
+"There's a gang of outlaws operatin' in the Lamo country. Luke Deveny is
+the chief. It's generally known that Deveny's the boss, but he keeps his
+tracks pretty well covered, an' Sheriff Gage ain't been able to get
+anything on him. Likely Gage is scared of him, anyway.
+
+"Anyway, Gage don't do nothin'. Deveny's a bad man with a gun; there
+ain't his equal in the Territory. He's got a fellow that runs with
+him--Strom Rogers--who's almost as good as he is with a gun. They're holy
+terrors; they've got the cattlemen for two hundred miles around eatin'
+out of their hands. They're roarin', rippin' devils!
+
+"There ain't no man knows how big their gang is--seems like half the
+people in the Lamo country must belong to it. There's spies all around;
+there ain't a thing done that the outlaws don't seem to know of it. They
+drive stock off right in front of the eyes of the owners; they rob the
+banks in the country; they drink an' kill an' riot without anyone
+interferin'.
+
+"There ain't anyone knows where their hang-out is--no one seems to know
+anything about them, except that they're on hand when there's any
+devilment to be done.
+
+"I've got to talk fast, for I ain't got long. I've never had any trouble
+with Deveny or Rogers, or any of the rest of them, because I've always
+tended to my own business. I've seen the thing gettin' worse an' worse,
+though; an' I ought to have got out of there when I had a chance. Lately
+there ain't been no chance. They watch me like a hawk. I can't trust my
+men. The Rancho Seco is a mighty big place, an' I've got thirty men
+workin' for me. But I can't trust a damned one of them.
+
+"About a year ago I found some gold in the Cisco Mountains near the
+ranch. It was nugget gold--only a pocket. I packed it home, lettin'
+nobody see me doin' it; an' I got it all hid in the house, except the
+last batch, before anybody knowed anything about it. Then, comin' home
+with the last of it, the damned bottom had to bust out of the bag right
+near the corral gate, where Meeder Lawson, my foreman, was standin'
+watchin' me.
+
+"It turned out that he'd been watchin' me for a long time. I never liked
+the cuss, but he's a good cowman, an' I had to hold onto him. When he saw
+the gold droppin' out an' hittin' the ground like big hailstones, he
+grinned that chessie-cat grin he's got, an' wanted to know if I was
+through totin' it home.
+
+"I wanted to know how he knowed there was more of it, an' he said he'd
+been keepin' an eye on me, an' knowed there was a heap more of it
+somewhere around.
+
+"I fired him on the spot. There'd have been gunplay, but I got the drop
+on him an' he had to slope. Well, the next mornin' Luke Deveny rode up to
+where I was saddlin', an' told me I'd have to take Lawson back.
+
+"I done so, for I knowed there'd be trouble with the outlaws if I didn't.
+I ain't never been able to get any of that gold to the assayer. They've
+been watchin' me like buzzards on a limb over some carrion. I don't get
+out of their sight.
+
+"An' now they've finally got me. I've got a little of the gold in my
+pocket now--here it is." He drew out a small buckskin bag and passed it
+to Harlan, who took it and held it loosely in his hands, not taking his
+gaze from Morgan.
+
+"Keep a-goin'," suggested Harlan.
+
+"Interested, eh?" grinned Morgan; "I knowed you'd be. Well, here I am--I
+didn't get to the assay office at Pardo; an' I'll never get there now."
+He paused and then went on:
+
+"Now they're after Barbara, my daughter. Deveny--an' Strom Rogers, an'
+some more--all of them, I reckon. I ought to have got out long ago. But
+it's too late now, I reckon.
+
+"That damned Deveny--he's a wolf with women. Handsome as hell, with ways
+that take with most any woman that meets him. An' he's as smooth an' cold
+an' heartless as the devil himself. He ain't got no pity for nobody or
+nothin'. An' Strom Rogers runs him a close second. An' there's more of
+them almost as bad.
+
+"They watch every trail that runs from the Rancho Seco to--to anywhere.
+If I ride north there's someone watchin' me. If I ride south there's a
+man on my trail. If I go east or west I run into a man or two who's
+takin' interest in me. When I go to Lamo, there'll be half a dozen men
+strike town about the same time.
+
+"I can't prove they are Deveny's men--but I know it, for they're always
+around. An' it's the same way with Barbara--she can't go anywhere without
+Deveny, or Rogers--or some of them--ain't trailin' her.
+
+"As I said, the sheriff can't do anything--or he won't. He looks worried
+when I meet him, an' gets out of my way, for fear I'll ask him to do
+somethin'.
+
+"That's the way it stands. An' now Barbara will have to play it a lone
+hand against them. Bill Morgan--that's my son--ain't home. He's
+gallivantin' around the country, doin' some secret work for the governor.
+Somethin' about rustlers an' outlaws. He ought to be home now, to protect
+Barbara. But instead he's wastin' his time somewheres else when he ought
+to be here--in Lamo--where's there's plenty of the kind of guys he's
+lookin' for.
+
+"There's only one man in the country I trust. He's John Haydon, of the
+Star ranch--about fifteen miles west of the Rancho Seco. Seems to me that
+Haydon's square. He's an upstandin' man of about thirty, an' he's dead
+stuck on Barbara. Seems to me that if it wasn't for Haydon, Deveny, or
+Lawson, or Rogers, or some of them scum would have run off with Barbara
+long ago.
+
+"You see how she shapes up?" he queried as he watched Harlan's face.
+
+"Looks bad for Barbara," said Harlan slowly.
+
+Morgan writhed and was silent for a time.
+
+"Look here, Harlan," he finally said; "you're considered to be a
+hell-raiser yourself, but I can see in your eyes that you ain't takin'
+advantage of women. An' Harlan"--Morgan's voice quavered--"there's my
+little Barbara all alone to take care of herself with that gang of wolves
+around. I'm wantin' you to go to the Rancho Seco an' look around. My wife
+died last year. There's mebbe two or three guys around the ranch would
+stick to Barbara, but that's all. Take a look at John Haydon, an' if you
+think he's on the level--an' you want to drift on--turn things over to
+him."
+
+Morgan shuddered, and was silent for a time, his lips tight-shut, his
+face whitening in the dusk as he fought the pain that racked him. When he
+at last spoke again his voice was so weak that Harlan had to kneel and
+lean close to him to hear the low-spoken words that issued from between
+his quavering lips:
+
+"Harlan--you're white; you've got to be white--to Barbara! That paper I
+was tryin' to stuff into my gun--when you come around the rock. You take
+it. It'll tell you where the gold is. You'll find my will--in my desk in
+my office--off the _patio_. Everything goes to Barbara. Everybody knows
+that. Haydon knows it--Deveny's found it out. You can't get me back--it's
+too far. Plant me here--an' tell Barbara." He laughed hollowly. "I reckon
+that's all." He felt for one of Harlan's hands, found it, and gripped it
+with all his remaining strength. His voice was hoarse, quavering:
+
+"You won't refuse, Harlan? You can't refuse! Why, my little Barbara will
+be all alone, man! What a damned fool I've been not to look out for her!"
+
+Night had come, and Morgan could not see Harlan's face. But he was
+conscious of the firm grip of Harlan's hands, and he laughed lowly and
+thankfully.
+
+"You'll do it--for Barbara--won't you? Say you will, man! Let me hear you
+say it--now!"
+
+"I'm givin' you my word," returned Harlan slowly. And now he leaned still
+closer to the dying man and whispered long to him.
+
+When he concluded Morgan fought hard to raise himself to a sitting
+posture; he strained, dragging himself in the sand in an effort to see
+Harlan's face. But the black desert night had settled over them, and all
+Morgan could see of Harlan was the dim outlines of his head.
+
+"Say it again, man! Say it again, an' light a match so's I can see you
+while you're sayin' it!"
+
+There was a pause. Then a match flared its light revealing Harlan's face,
+set in serious lines.
+
+"I wouldn't lie to you--now--Morgan," he said; "I'm goin' to the Lamo
+country to bust up Deveny's gang."
+
+Morgan stared hard at the other while the flickering light lasted with a
+strained intensity that transfigured his face, suffusing it with a glow
+that could not have been more eloquent with happiness had the supreme
+Master of the universe drawn back the mysterious veil of life to permit
+him to look upon the great secret.
+
+When the match flickered and went out, and the darkness of the desert
+reigned again, Morgan sank back with a tremulous, satisfied sigh.
+
+"I'm goin' now," he said; "I'm goin'--knowin' God has been good to me."
+He breathed fast, gaspingly. And for a moment he spoke hurriedly, as
+though fearful he would not be given time to say what he wanted to say:
+
+"Someone plugged me--last night while I was sleepin'. Shot me in the
+chest--here. Didn't give me no chance. There was three of them. My fire
+had gone out an' I couldn't see their faces. Likely Laskar an' Dolver was
+two. The other one must have sloped. It was him shot me. Tried to knife
+me, too; but I fought him, an' he broke away. It happened behind a
+rock--off to the left--a red boulder.
+
+"I grabbed at him an' caught somethin'. What it was busted. I couldn't
+wait to find out what it was. I'm hopin' it's somethin' that'll help you
+to find out who the man was. I ain't goin' to be mean--just when I'm
+dyin'; but if you was to look for that thing, find it, an' could tell who
+the man is, mebbe some day you'd find it agreeable to pay him for what he
+done to me."
+
+He became silent; no sound except his fast, labored breathing broke the
+dead calm of the desert night.
+
+"Somethin' more than the gold an' Barbara back of it all," he muttered
+thickly, seeming to lapse into a state of semiconsciousness in which the
+burden that was upon his mind took the form of involuntary speech:
+"Somethin' big back of it--somethin' they ain't sayin' nothin' about. But
+Harlan--he'll take care of--" He paused; then his voice leaped. "Why,
+there's Barbara now! Why, honey, I thought--I--why----"
+
+His voice broke, trailing off into incoherence.
+
+After a while Harlan rose to his feet. An hour later he found the red
+rock Morgan had spoken of--and with a flaming bunch of mesquite in hand
+he searched the vicinity.
+
+In a little depression caused by the heel of a boot he came upon a
+glittering object, which he examined in the light of the flaming
+mesquite, which he had thrown into the sand after picking up the
+glittering object. Kneeling beside the dying flame he discovered that the
+glittering trifle he had found was a two- or three-inch section of gold
+watch chain of peculiar pattern. He tucked it into a pocket of his
+trousers.
+
+Later, he mounted Purgatory and fled into the appalling blackness,
+heading westward--the big black horse loping easily.
+
+The first streaks of dawn found Purgatory drinking deeply from the
+green-streaked moisture of Kelso's water-hole. And when the sun stuck a
+glowing rim over the desert's horizon, to resume his rule over the baked
+and blighted land, the big black horse and his rider were traveling
+steadily, the only life visible in the wide area of desolation--a moving
+blot, an atom behind which was death and the eternal, whispered promise
+of death.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER III
+
+A GIRL WAITS
+
+
+Lamo, sprawling on a sun-baked plain perhaps a mile from the edge of the
+desert, was one of those towns which owed its existence to the instinct
+of men to foregather. It also was indebted for its existence to the greed
+of a certain swarthy-faced saloon-keeper named Joel Ladron, who,
+anticipating the edict of a certain town marshal of another town that
+shall not be mentioned, had piled his effects into a prairie
+schooner--building and goods--and had taken the south trail--which would
+lead him wherever he wanted to stop.
+
+It had chanced that he had stopped at the present site of Lamo. Ladron
+saw a trail winding over the desert, vanishing into the eastern distance;
+and he knew that where trails led there were sure to be thirsty men who
+would be eager to look upon his wares.
+
+Ladron's history is not interesting. As time fled to the monotonous clink
+of coins over the bar he set up in the frame shack that faced the desert
+trail, Ladron's importance in Lamo was divided by six.
+
+The other dispensers had not come together; they had appeared as the
+needs of the population seemed to demand--and all had flourished.
+
+Lamo's other buildings had appeared without ostentation. There were
+twenty of them. A dozen of the twenty, for one reason or another, need
+receive no further mention. Of the remaining few, one was occupied by
+Sheriff Gage; two others by stores; one answered as an office and
+storage-room for the stage company; and still another was distinguished
+by a crude sign which ran across its weather-beaten front, bearing the
+legend: "Lamo Eating-House." The others were private residences.
+
+Lamo's buildings made some pretense of aping the architecture of
+buildings in other towns. The eating-house was a two-story structure,
+with an outside stairway leading to its upper floor. It had a flat roof
+and an adobe chimney. Its second floor had been subdivided into
+lodging-rooms. Its windows were small, grimy.
+
+Not one of Lamo's buildings knew paint. The structures, garish husks of
+squalor, befouled the calm, pure atmosphere, and mocked the serene
+majesty of nature.
+
+For, beginning at the edge of "town," a contrast to the desert was
+presented by nature. It was a mere step, figuratively, from that land
+from which came the whisper of death, to a wild, virgin section where the
+hills, the green-brown ridges, the wide sweeps of plain, and the cool
+shadows of timber clumps breathed of the promise, the existence, of life.
+
+To Barbara Morgan, seated at one of the east windows of the Lamo
+Eating-House--in the second story, where she could look far out into the
+desert--the contrast between the vivid color westward and the dun and
+dead flatness eastward, was startling. For she knew her father had
+entered the desert on his way to Pardo, on some business he had not
+mentioned; and the whispered threat that the desert carried was borne to
+her ears as she watched.
+
+On a morning, two days before, Morgan had left the Rancho Seco for Pardo.
+The girl had watched him go with a feeling--almost a conviction--that she
+should have kept him at home. She had not mentioned to him that she had a
+presentiment of evil, for she assured herself that she should have
+outgrown those puerile impulses of the senses. And yet, having watched
+him depart, she passed a sleepless night, and early the next morning had
+saddled her horse to ride to Lamo, there to await her father's return.
+
+It was late in the afternoon when she reached Lamo; and she had gone
+directly to the Eating-House, where she had passed another restless
+night--spending most of her time sitting at the window, where she was at
+this minute.
+
+Of course it was a three-day trip to Pardo, and she had no reason to
+expect Morgan to return until the end of the sixth day, at the very
+earliest. And yet some force sent her to the window at frequent
+intervals, where she would sit, as now, her chin resting in her hands,
+her eyes searching the vast waste land with an anxious light.
+
+An attache of the Eating-House had put her horse away--where, she did
+not know; and her meals had been brought to her by a middle-aged
+slattern, whose probing, suspicion-laden glances had been full of mocking
+significance. She had heard the woman speak of her to other female
+employees of the place--and once she had overheard the woman refer to her
+as "that stuck-up Morgan heifer."
+
+Their coarse laughter and coarser language had disgusted the girl, and
+she had avoided them all as much as possible.
+
+It was the first time she had remained overnight in the Eating-House
+lodging-rooms, though she had seen the building many times during her
+visits to Lamo. It wasn't what she was accustomed to at the Rancho Seco,
+nor was it all that a lodging-house might be--but it provided shelter for
+her while she waited.
+
+The girl felt--as she looked--decidedly out of place in the shabby room.
+Many times during her vigil she had shuddered when looking at the dirty,
+threadbare ingrain carpet on the floor of the room; oftener, when her
+gaze went to the one picture that adorned the unpapered walls, she shrank
+back, her soul filled with repugnance.
+
+Art, as here represented, was a cheap lithograph in vivid colors, of an
+Indian--an Apache, judging from his trappings--scalping a white man. In
+the foreground, beside the man, was a woman, her hair disheveled, wild
+appeal in her eyes, gazing at the Indian, who was grinning at her.
+
+A cheap bureau, unadorned, with a broken mirror swinging in a rickety
+frame; one chair, and the bed in which she had tried to sleep, were the
+only articles of furniture in the room.
+
+The girl, arrayed in a neat riding habit; her hair arranged in graceful
+coils; her slender, lissom figure denoting youth and vigor; the clear,
+smooth skin of her face--slightly tanned--indicating health--was as
+foreign to her present surroundings as life is foreign to the desert. In
+her direct eyes was the glow of sturdy honesty that had instantly
+antagonized the slattern who had attended her.
+
+That glow was not so pronounced now--it was dulled by anxiety as she
+looked out of the window, watching the desert light fade as twilight
+came, blotting the hot sand from her sight, erasing the straight,
+unfeatured horizon, and creating a black void which pulsed with mystery.
+
+She sighed when at last she could no longer penetrate the wall of
+darkness; got up and moved her chair to one of the front windows, from
+where she could look down into Lamo's one street.
+
+Lamo's lights began to flicker; from the town's buildings sounds began to
+issue--multisonous, carrying the message of ribaldry unrestrained.
+
+From a point not very far away came the hideous screeching of a fiddle,
+accompanied by a discordant, monotonous wail, as of someone singing a
+song unfamiliar to him; from across the street floated a medley of other
+noises, above which could be heard the jangling music of a heavily
+drummed piano. There came to her ears coarse oaths and the maudlin
+laughter of women.
+
+She had heard it all the night before; but tonight it seemed that
+something had been added to the volume of it. And as on the night before,
+she sat at the window, watching--for it was all new and strange to
+her--even if unattractive. But at last the horror of it again seized her,
+and she closed the window, determined to endure the increased heat.
+
+Half an hour later, lying, fully dressed, on the bed, she heard a voice
+in the hallway beyond the closed door of her room--a man's voice.
+
+"It isn't what one might call elegant," said the voice; "but if it's the
+best you've got--why, of course, it will have to do."
+
+The girl sat straight up in bed, breathless, her face paling.
+
+"It's Luke Deveny!" she gasped in a suffocating whisper.
+
+The man's voice was answered by a woman's--low, mirthful. The girl in the
+room could not distinguish the words. But the man spoke again--in a
+whisper which carried through the thin board partition to the girl:
+
+"Barbara Morgan is in there--eh?" he said and the girl could almost see
+him nodding toward her room.
+
+This time the girl heard the woman's voice--and her words:
+
+"Yes she's there, the stuck-up hussy!"
+
+The voice was that of the slattern.
+
+The man laughed jeeringly.
+
+"Jealous, eh?" he said. "Well, she _is_ a mighty good-looking girl, for a
+fact!"
+
+That was all. The girl heard Deveny step into a room--the room adjoining
+hers; she could hear his heavy boots striking the floor as he removed
+them.
+
+For a long time the girl rested on her elbow, listening; but no further
+sounds came from the room into which Deveny had gone. At last, trembling,
+her face white with fear, the girl got up and stole noiselessly to the
+door.
+
+A light bolt was the door's only fastening; and the girl stood long, with
+a hand upon it, considering its frailty. How easy it would be for a big
+man like Deveny to force the door. One shove of his giant shoulder and
+the bolt would give.
+
+Stealthily, noiselessly, straining with every ounce of her strength, she
+managed to lift the cheap bureau and carry it to the door, placing it
+against the latter, barricading it. Not satisfied, she dragged the bed
+over against the bureau.
+
+Even when that had been accomplished, she was not satisfied and during
+the greater part of the night she sat on the edge of the bed, listening
+and watching the door. For in the days that had fled Deveny had said
+certain things to her that she had not repeated to her father; he had
+looked at her with a significance that no man could have understood; and
+there had been a gleam in his eyes at these times which had convinced her
+that behind the bland smoothness of him--back of the suave politeness of
+his manner--was a primitive animalism. His suave politeness was a velvet
+veil of character behind which he masked the slavering fangs of the beast
+he really was.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IV
+
+HIS SHADOW BEFORE
+
+
+At ten o'clock the following morning, in a rear room of "Balleau's First
+Chance" saloon--which was directly across the street from the Lamo
+Eating-House--Luke Deveny and two other men were sitting at a card-table
+with bottle and glasses between them. A window in the eastern side of the
+room gave the men an unobstructed view of the desert, and for half an
+hour, as they talked and drank, they looked out through the window.
+
+A tall, muscular man with a slightly hooked nose, keen blue eyes with a
+cold glint in them, black hair, and an equally black mustache which
+revealed a firm-lipped mouth with curves at the corners that hinted of
+cynicism, and, perhaps cruelty, was sitting at the table so that he faced
+the window. His smile, as he again glanced out of the window, roved to
+Deveny--who sat at his right.
+
+"One man--an' a led horse," he said shortly. "Looks like Laskar."
+
+Deveny--big, smooth-shaven--with black, glowing, attractive eyes that
+held a glint quite as hard as that which shone in the eyes of the
+speaker, looked long out of the window at a moving dot on the desert,
+which seemed to be traveling toward them. Deveny had looked before; but
+now he saw two dots where at other times he had seen only one. His lips
+held a slight pout as he glanced at the speaker.
+
+"You're right, Rogers," he said; "there's only one. The old fool must
+have put up a fight."
+
+Deveny filled a glass from the bottle and drank slowly. His features were
+large. His nose was well shaped, with wide nostrils that hinted of a
+fiery, passionate nature; his thrusting chin and the heavy neck muscles
+told of strength, both mental and physical--of mental strength that was
+of a tenacious character, of physical strength that would respond to any
+demand of the will.
+
+He was handsome, and yet the suggestion of ruthlessness in the atmosphere
+of him--lurking behind the genial, easy-going exterior that he wore for
+appearances--or because it was his nature to conceal his passions until
+he desired to unleash them--was felt by those who knew him intimately. It
+had been felt by Barbara Morgan.
+
+Deveny was king of the lawless element in the Lamo section. The magnetism
+of him; the arrogance, glossed over with the calm and cold politeness of
+his manner; his unvarying immaculateness; the air of large and complete
+confidence which marked his every action; the swiftness with which he
+struck when he was aroused, or when his authority was questioned, placed
+him without dissent at the head of the element that ruled the Lamo
+country.
+
+Deveny ruled, but Deveny's rule was irksome to Strom Rogers--the man to
+whom Deveny had just spoken. For while Deveny drank, Rogers watched him
+with covert vigilance, with a jeering gleam far back in his eyes, with a
+secret envy and jealousy, with hatred and contempt and mockery.
+
+Yet there was fear in Rogers' eyes, too--a mere glimmer of it. Yet it was
+there; and when Deveny set his glass down and looked straight at Rogers,
+it was that fear which brought the fawning, insincere smirk to Rogers'
+lips.
+
+"See the girl?" questioned Rogers.
+
+Deveny laughed lowly. Apparently he did not notice the glow in Rogers'
+eyes; but had Rogers looked closely he might have seen Deveny's lips
+straighten as he shot a glance at the other.
+
+"Had the room next to her last night. Heard her drag the bed in front of
+the door of her room. She knew I was there, all right!" Deveny laughed
+deeply. "She's wised up by this time. Lolly Kaye hates her--because
+Barbara's a good-looking girl, I suppose. That's like some women. Lolly
+would see Barbara roasting in hell and not give her a hand!"
+
+"Lolly's been disappointed in love--I reckon." Rogers' laugh was hollow,
+mirthless. And again Deveny shot a glance at him.
+
+"But you didn't bother her--Barbara?" questioned Rogers in a dry, light
+voice.
+
+"No," grinned Deveny; "that time hasn't come--yet. It's coming soon. I
+told Lolly to keep an eye on her; I've got Engle and Barthman and Kelmer
+watching at the doors so Barbara can't light out for the Rancho Seco. She
+don't get away until tomorrow. Then she goes with me to the end of Sunset
+Trail. I've sent Shorty Mallo to Willow's Wells for the parson."
+
+"Barbara know what's up?" Rogers' voice was low and throaty.
+
+Again Deveny glanced at him--sharply.
+
+"Hell, no!" he snapped. "It's none of her damned business--nor
+anybody's!" He grinned maliciously when he saw Rogers' face whiten.
+
+"Barbara will need a husband now," Deveny went on. "With old Morgan gone
+and her brother sloped from the home ranch, she'll be kind of lonesome. I
+aim to cure her of that."
+
+He laughed, and Rogers writhed inwardly. For Rogers had long nursed a
+secret hope that one day the fates might take a notion to give him the
+chance that Deveny intended to seize.
+
+But Rogers was forced to conceal his jealousy and disappointment. He
+laughed mirthlessly.
+
+"So she can't get away, eh?--she's corralled!"
+
+"Bah!" declared Deveny; "she won't want to get away--once she knows what
+I mean--that it's going to be a regular wedding. She'll raise a fuss,
+most likely, to make folks believe she's unwilling, but in the end she'll
+get over it."
+
+Deveny glanced out of the window at the blot that was now closer.
+
+"It's Laskar, all regular," he said. "He's leading a sorrel horse--Dolver's
+horse. Old Morgan got Dolver--looks like, the damned old gopher! Men as
+willing as Dolver are not found every day." He looked at the third man, who
+had not spoken.
+
+"Lawson," he said, "you mosey down the trail a little piece and meet
+Laskar. Bring him here!"
+
+Lawson, a thin-faced, medium-sized man with narrow shoulders, whose
+distinguishing mark was a set of projecting upper teeth that kept his
+mouth in a continual smirking smile, got up quickly and went out. Deveny
+and Rogers, their thoughts centered upon the same person--Barbara
+Morgan--sat silent, watching Lawson as he rode down the street toward the
+point where the trail, crossing the broken stretch of country that
+intervened, merged into the desert.
+
+Half an hour later Laskar, holding his chest, where Purgatory had kicked
+him, was sitting at the table in the rear room of the First Chance,
+cursing with a fluency that he had not yielded to in many years.
+
+"Dolver's wiped out!" he gasped hoarsely; "plugged so quick he didn't
+know he was hit. A center shot--plumb in the heart; his own gun goin' off
+while he was fallin'. I looked him over--after. He was croaked complete.
+Then that sober-faced hyena lifts my gun--an' the rifle--an' says things
+to me, which I don't try to cross him. Then he goes behind the
+rock--where we was havin' it out--an' while he's gone I tries to git my
+guns from under that devil-eyed cayuse of his'n.
+
+"An' I don't succeed--noways. That black devil turns on a half-dollar an'
+plants his hoofs plumb in my breast-bone. If I'd been an inch nearer, or
+if he'd have kicked me a foot lower, or a foot higher, I'd be layin' out
+there where Dolver is now, the coyotes an' the buzzards gnawin' at me."
+
+Unmoved by Laskar's incoherence, Deveny calmly watched him. And now, when
+Laskar paused for breath, Deveny spoke slowly:
+
+"A _black_ horse, you said. How did a black horse get there? Old Morgan
+rode a bay when he left Lamo--Balleau says."
+
+"Did I say Morgan rode a black horse?" queried Laskar, knowledge in his
+eyes that he had a thing to tell that would blanch their faces. He
+grinned, still holding his chest, his glance malicious.
+
+"Did I say a _black_ horse?" he repeated. "Did I say Morgan rode a black
+horse? Morgan didn't. Morgan rode a bay--an' the Chief run it off after
+he shot Morgan. But Morgan didn't die right away, an' the Chief he had to
+slope, he said--an' he did--leavin' me an' Dolver to finish old Morgan.
+
+"We was tryin' our damnedest when this guy on the black horse pops up out
+of nowhere an' salivates Dolver."
+
+"Who was it?"
+
+This was Deveny. He was now leaning forward, a pout on his lips, watching
+Laskar with an intent, glowering gaze.
+
+"'Drag' Harlan!" shouted Laskar. His face lighted with a hideous joy as
+he watched the effect of his news.
+
+"'Drag' Harlan! Do you hear?" he went on. "'Drag' Harlan, the Pardo
+'two-gun' man! He's headed toward Lamo. He bored Dolver, an' he said that
+soon as Morgan cashed in he was hittin' the breeze for here!"
+
+Lawson, the man who had gone to meet Laskar, ejaculated hoarsely, and
+stood rigid, his mouth open, his eyes bulging. It was the involuntary
+expression of the astonishment and fear that had seized him. Laskar
+forgot the pain in his chest long enough to straighten and grin at
+Lawson.
+
+Rogers' face had changed color. He, too, had become rigid. He had been in
+the act of reaching for the bottle on the table, and the hand that had
+been extended had been suddenly drawn back, so that the hand was now
+midway between his body and the bottle--and the fingers were clenched.
+The other hand, under the table, was likewise clenched, and the muscles
+of his jaws were corded. Into his eyes had come a furtive, restless
+gleam, and his face had paled.
+
+Deveny gave no visible sign of perturbation. He coolly reached out,
+grasped the bottle that Rogers had been reaching for, and poured some of
+the amber fluid into one of the glasses. The other men watched him
+silently--all of them intent to note the tremor they expected to see.
+
+Deveny's hand did not tremble. He noted the glances of the men--the
+admiration that came into their eyes as with steady muscles he raised the
+glass and drank--and he smiled with slight contempt.
+
+"Coming here, eh?" he said evenly. "So he said that. Did he mention what
+he was coming for?"
+
+"He didn't mention," replied Laskar.
+
+"So he downed Dolver. Did he say what for?"
+
+"Said Dolver had shot up his partner, Davey Langan--back in Pardo. Harlan
+was evenin' up."
+
+"What do you know about Harlan?"
+
+The question was addressed to all of them.
+
+Rogers answered.
+
+"He's a bad guy--all bad. He's an iceberg, an' he's got the snakiest
+gun-hand of any man in the country. Draws hesitatin'-like. A man don't
+know when he's goin' to uncork his smoke-wagons. I seen him put Lefty
+Blandin' out. He starts for his guns, an' then kind of stops, trickin'
+the other guy into goin' for his. Then, before the other guy can get his
+gun to workin', Harlan's stickin' his away, an' the guy's ready for the
+mourners.
+
+"Harlan got his handle that way. He goes for his guns so slow an'
+hesitatin' that he seems to drag 'em out. But some way he's always
+shootin' first. An' they always let him off because it's mighty plain
+that the other guy tried to draw first."
+
+"I've heard that," said Deveny slowly. "What's his record?"
+
+"Plays her a lone hand," returned Rogers. He watched the other steadily.
+
+Deveny toyed with a glass as he gazed out of the window. There was a
+cold, sullen gleam in his eyes when he finally looked at Laskar.
+
+"You said Harlan told you he was coming here as soon as Morgan cashed in.
+According to that, Morgan must have been hit bad."
+
+"The Chief said he bored him plenty. An' me an' Dolver must have got him
+some."
+
+"You didn't get a chance to search Morgan?"
+
+"No chance--he fit like a hyena; an' when he got behind that damned rock
+there was no way of gettin' at him."
+
+"Then," said Deveny, "according to what you say, Harlan will come here as
+soon as Morgan dies. And when you left there Morgan was in a bad way.
+Harlan is due most any time, then."
+
+"That's the way I figger," agreed Laskar.
+
+And now Laskar fidgeted. "I aim to be hittin' the breeze now--before
+Harlan hits town. This climate is gettin' unhealthy for me. Harlan give
+me notice."
+
+"To leave town?"
+
+It was Deveny who spoke. There was a snarl in his voice; he leaned
+forward and scowled at Laskar.
+
+Laskar nodded.
+
+Rogers cleared his throat, and Lawson moved his feet uneasily.
+
+Deveny's scowl faded; he grinned coldly.
+
+"Giving orders--is he?" he snapped. "Well, we'll see." He laughed. "When
+Harlan hits town it will be a sign that old Morgan's crossed the Divide.
+Well, there was no witnesses to Morgan's cashing in, and one man's word
+is as good as another's in this country."
+
+"Meanin'?" questioned Rogers, noting the light in Deveny's eyes.
+
+"Meaning that Laskar is going--right now--to whisper into Sheriff Gage's
+ear that he saw our friend, 'Drag' Harlan, killing old Morgan."
+
+Rogers got to his feet, grinning. The gleam in his eyes indicated that he
+felt some relief over the prospect presented by Deveny's suggestion.
+
+"Of course we ain't sure Harlan means to make trouble here," he told
+Deveny; "but it's just as well to shove him off onto the sheriff."
+
+The four men walked to the front door of the First Chance, after pausing
+for a few minutes at the bar.
+
+Outside, halting for an instant on the board platform in front of the
+saloon, Rogers, who had been the first to emerge, started as he glanced
+toward the desert, and then stood rigid, shading his hands with his eyes
+against the sun that poured into his face.
+
+"He's comin' now!" he said.
+
+Deveny and the others also looked into the blinding glare of the
+sun--likewise shading their eyes. And they saw, far out upon the vast sea
+of sand--yet not so far that they could not distinguish objects--a black
+horse coming steadily toward them.
+
+Deveny was strangely silent, glowering toward the desert; Rogers folded
+his arms and faced the oncoming rider and the somber-coated animal he
+bestrode; Lawson scowled; and Laskar nervously estimated the distance
+that stretched between himself and the steady-eyed man who had told him
+certain things in a voice that had been entirely convincing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER V
+
+A PRISON
+
+
+Barbara Morgan had not been able to sleep except by fits and starts. A
+dozen times during the night she had caught herself on the verge of
+sinking into deep slumber, and each time she had got up and washed her
+eyes with some water from a pitcher on the bureau, determined that she
+would not take any chances of permitting Deveny to surprise her.
+
+When the dawn came she was haggard and tired; and she got up listlessly,
+combed her hair, and washed her face, and dragged away the pieces of
+furniture that had formed the barricade at the door.
+
+She felt more secure with the dawn, and when the sunlight began to stream
+into the east windows she opened the door of the room, descended the
+stairs, and took a short walk to the edge of town.
+
+Returning, she saw a man arrayed in overalls, boots, a blue woolen shirt,
+and broad felt hat, standing in the doorway of the stable that, she felt,
+belonged to the Eating-House. Sight of the stable brought to her thoughts
+of her horse--Billy--and she decided to determine if the man who had
+taken charge of him had put him into the stable.
+
+She paused before the door, directly in front of the man, who did not
+move aside to permit her to enter.
+
+She thought at first that he was not aware of her desire--until she
+observed an amused light in his eyes; and then she knew that he was
+purposely barring her way.
+
+"This is the Eating-House stable, I suppose?" she inquired quietly.
+
+"You're supposin' is a heap correct, ma'am," grinned the man.
+
+"Well," she said, "if you will kindly step aside I shall see if my horse
+is all right."
+
+"Your horse is all right, ma'am," returned the man. "I've just fed him."
+
+Irritated by his attitude, she spoke sharply:
+
+"Step aside, please; I am going into the stable!"
+
+The man grinned widely. "It's ag'in' orders, ma'am; you'll have to stay
+out."
+
+"Whose orders?"
+
+"Deveny's. You ain't to go into the stable."
+
+She hesitated, afflicted with a queer sensation of weakness and
+indecision.
+
+It was her fear of Deveny, she supposed, that made her feel that way,
+together with the conviction that Deveny must have known that she had
+been in the room next to the one he had taken, even before he had
+ascended the stairs. It seemed to her that this deliberate interference
+with her must be inspired by evil intentions, and for an instant panic
+overtook her.
+
+Then, yielding to the flash of anger that surged over her, she drew the
+small revolver she always carried with her on her rides, and presented
+it. She stepped back a little, so that the man might not strike the
+weapon from her hand, and spoke shortly, commandingly to him.
+
+"Get away from that door!"
+
+"Shootin', ma'am?" he drawled. "Oh, don't!"
+
+He grinned at her and calmly began to roll a cigarette, at which action
+she gulped with dismay, wheeled swiftly, and walked to the stairs. She
+went up proudly enough, her head held high, for she divined that the man
+would be watching her. But when she entered her room her pride forsook
+her, and she sank into a chair by the east window, dismayed and
+frightened.
+
+While she sat there the slatternly woman slowly opened the door and stuck
+her head in. She grinned widely at Barbara.
+
+"Goin' ridin' this mawnin', deary?"
+
+Barbara looked at her, saw the mockery in the jealous eyes, and turned
+her head again, making no reply.
+
+"Too stuck up to talk, eh?" jibed the slattern. "Well, before you get out
+of here you'll be tickled enough to shoot off your gab. Bah! You an' your
+airs! If you want any grub this mawnin' you'll come down an' grab it
+yourself, I'm tellin' you that."
+
+She slammed the door, her jeering laugh penetrating the partition with
+hideous resonance.
+
+After the woman had gone Barbara got up, her lips set in resolute lines.
+
+Once in the hall she started to walk toward the stairs, when she saw the
+cowboy of the stable lounging against the rail on the platform. He saw
+her at the instant she looked at him, and he grinned hugely.
+
+"I reckon you've noticed I've sort of shifted," he said. "I keep goin'
+up--gettin' higher in the world."
+
+"What are you doing here?" she demanded.
+
+"Just loafin', I reckon," grinned the other. "An' obeyin' orders," he
+added instantly. "Much as I hate to disconvenience a lady, I ain't takin'
+no chances on rilin' Deveny."
+
+"Do you mean that Deveny placed you here to watch me?"
+
+"He didn't issue no particular orders as to where I was to do my
+standin'. But he was sure earnest about sayin' that you wasn't to leave
+your room."
+
+"I left it once this morning."
+
+"My fault," he grinned. "I was sneakin' a drink in the Antler, an' you
+slipped me. I'm bettin' it don't happen ag'in!"
+
+Overcome with a cold terror that suddenly seized her, Barbara wheeled and
+re-entered her room, standing for an instant at the door as she locked
+it, and then walking to the chair and sinking nervelessly into it.
+
+Somehow, she sensed the futility of further effort at escape. She was
+aware of Deveny's power in the country; she knew that he ruled Lamo as he
+ruled every foot of land in the section; and she was convinced that it
+would be wasted effort to call for help. Even her own sex--represented by
+the slattern, and most of the women in Lamo were of that type, in
+character--seemed to be antagonistic toward her. It seemed to her that
+they would mock her as the slattern had mocked her, should she appeal to
+them.
+
+And as for the men of Lamo, they were not to be considered. She was
+certain she could not induce one of them to act contrary to Deveny's
+wishes. For her father had told her about Lamo's men--how they were
+slaves to the will of the man whose deeds of outlawry had made him feared
+wherever men congregated; and she knew Lamo itself was a sink-hole of
+iniquity where women were swallowed by the evil passions of men.
+
+She might have appealed to Gage, the sheriff, and she thought of Gage
+while she sat at the window. But Gage, her father had told her, with
+disgust in his eyes, was a man of colorless personality and of little
+courage--a negligible character upon whom the good people of the section,
+who were pitifully few, could not depend. Her father had told her that it
+was his opinion that Gage, too, was a slave to Deveny's will.
+
+She wished now that she had not yielded to the impulse which had brought
+her to Lamo; but her lips grew firm and her eyes defiant as she at last
+got up and walked to one of the front windows.
+
+Now, more vividly than ever, could she understand the significance of
+Deveny's glances at her in the past; the light in his eyes had been an
+expression of premeditated evil, awaiting an opportunity.
+
+She was pale, and her hands were trembling as she placed them on the sill
+of the front window and glanced down into the street, hoping that she
+might see a friendly face; praying that one of the Rancho Seco men might
+have come to town during the night.
+
+But she saw no one she knew. Indeed, except for a pony standing in front
+of a saloon down the street a little distance, and several others hitched
+to a rail across the street, in front of the First Chance saloon, Lamo
+seemed to be deserted. And a silence, deep and portentous of evil, seemed
+to have settled over the town.
+
+But as she leaned upon the sill a sound floated to her through the open
+window--a man's voice, so close to her that it made her start and
+stiffen. It was Deveny's voice, and it seemed to come from a point in the
+street directly beneath the window.
+
+"Did you find Gage?" it said.
+
+Barbara leaned forward a little and looked downward. Below her, on the
+narrow board-walk that ran in front of the Eating-House, were four men.
+She recognized three of them--Deveny, Strom Rogers, and Meeder Lawson,
+the Rancho Seco foreman.
+
+The other man was a stranger. Evidently it was the stranger to whom
+Deveny had spoken, for it was the stranger who answered.
+
+"He's in his office now."
+
+Deveny turned to Lawson and Rogers. "You two wait here, Laskar and myself
+will do the talking to Gage." He started away with the man who had
+answered him; then called back over his shoulder: "Hang around; if
+there's trouble, you'll want to get in on it."
+
+Deveny and Laskar walked down the street; the girl saw them enter the
+building occupied by the sheriff.
+
+Wondering, intensely curious--for that word "trouble" meant shooting in
+the vocabulary of men of the Deveny type--Barbara drew back until she was
+certain the men in the street could not see her.
+
+When Deveny and Laskar disappeared, Strom Rogers laughed sneeringly:
+
+"Deveny's scared of 'Drag' Harlan, I reckon. It's a cheap frame-up."
+
+"Aw, hell," jibed the other; "you're jealous, that's all. You'd like to
+see Harlan plug Deveny, eh; so's you'd have a chance with Barbara Morgan.
+I'd be a heap careful, if I was you, Rogers. Deveny knows you took a
+shine to Barbara Morgan. I seen him lookin' hostile at you when you was
+quizzin' him in Balleau's. He's next."
+
+"This is a free country," returned Rogers. The girl caught the malignant
+note in his voice, and she leaned outward a little, trying to see his
+face, while she shivered with dread.
+
+"Yes," laughed Lawson; "a man can cash in without any excuse, usual; all
+he's got to do is to cross Deveny. You're a damned fool, Strom, to go to
+takin' a shine to Barbara Morgan, when Deveny wants her. He's been
+waitin' for her, an' meanin' to have her, all along. He's only been
+waitin' until ol' Morgan cashed in, so's he'd have a chance to take her.
+Now that Morgan's dead his chance has come."
+
+Silently, her face dead white, her eyes closed, Barbara slipped backward
+and crumpled into a heap on the dirty carpet of the room.
+
+When she again opened her eyes it was to look wildly at the open window
+through which the terrible news had come. Then she dragged herself to it,
+and making no sound leaned her arms on the sill and listened again, her
+heart seeming to be in the clutch of icy fingers, her brain atrophied,
+reeling in a chaos of incoherent, agonized impulses.
+
+She did not know how long she had been unconscious. She saw that Rogers
+and Lawson were still below, and still talking. So keen was her sense of
+hearing--every nerve straining in the effort to learn more--that the
+voices of the men came in through the window with a resonance that, she
+felt, must be audible to every person in Lamo.
+
+"It ain't my style, that's all. I'd meet Harlan on the level, man to man,
+if he was lookin' for me. It's likely he ain't at that. I've heard, bad
+as he is, that he plays square. An' if I was runnin' things I'd take a
+look at him before chargin' him with killin' Lane Morgan, when the
+killin' had been done by the Chief, an' Dolver, an' Laskar."
+
+It was Strom Rogers' voice. It bore conviction with it, even though there
+was passionate feeling behind it, mingled strangely with personal hatred
+and jealousy.
+
+Dumbly, Barbara clutched the window-sill. One dry, agonized sob racked
+her; and then she sat on the floor, to stare vacantly at the dingy walls
+of the room.
+
+Once more she heard Rogers' voice; this time there was a note of savage
+glee in it:
+
+"There's Harlan now, just slippin' off his cayuse in front of Gage's
+place. 'Drag,' eh? Well, there don't seem to be nothin' impedin' his
+actions anywhere."
+
+Prompted by the urge of a curiosity that she could not resist, Barbara
+reeled to her feet, and with her hands resting on the window-sill leaned
+out and looked up the street.
+
+In front of the sheriff's office, not more than thirty or forty feet
+distant, she saw a tall, well-built man standing beside the hitching rail
+that fringed the board sidewalk. He had evidently just dismounted, and he
+was standing at the head of a big, coal-black horse. He was in the act of
+hitching the animal, and his back was toward her.
+
+She watched breathlessly until he turned. And then she stared hard at
+him, noting the steady, cold, alert eyes; the firm lips; the bigness of
+him, the atmosphere of capableness that seemed to surround him; the
+low-swung guns at his hips, with no flaps on the holster-tops, and the
+bottoms of the holsters tied to his leather chaps with rawhide thongs.
+
+Never had she seen a man like him. For some reason, as yet inexplicable
+to her, he brought into her troubled consciousness a feeling of cold
+calm, a refreshing influence that might be compared to the sweep of a
+cool and unexpected breeze in the middle of a hot day.
+
+He dominated the group of men that instantly surrounded him; and the
+dominance was not of attire, for he was arrayed like the others. She saw
+Deveny standing near him, and the man Laskar behind Deveny and Sheriff
+Gage and several other men. And she saw Rogers and Lawson as they walked
+slowly toward him.
+
+And then a realization of her loss, of the tragedy that had descended
+upon her, again assailed her; and a fury of intolerance against inaction
+seized her. She could not stay in this room and suffer the hideous
+uncertainty; she could not take Rogers' word that her father had been
+killed. There must be some mistake. Perhaps Rogers knew she was at the
+window, listening, and he had said that just to spite her. For she had
+discouraged Rogers' advances as she had discouraged Deveny's.
+
+Breathing fast, she unlocked the door and went out into the hall.
+
+The man whom Deveny had placed to guard her was still lounging on the
+stair platform, and he grinned when he saw her.
+
+"Comin' to try ag'in?" he grinned.
+
+She smiled--a disarming smile that brought a fatuous gleam into the man's
+eyes, so that he permitted her to come close to him.
+
+"Deveny's got damn' good judgment," he said as she halted near him. "He
+knows a thoroughbred when he sees--Hell!"
+
+The ejaculation came from his lips as Barbara leaped swiftly past him. He
+threw out a futile arm, and stood for an instant, shocked into inaction
+as Barbara ran down the stairs toward the street. Then the man leaped
+after her, cursing. She could hear him saying: "Damn your hide! Damn your
+hide!" as he came after her, his spurs jangling on the steps.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VI
+
+CHAIN-LIGHTNING
+
+
+Turning from Purgatory, after he had dismounted in front of the sheriff's
+office, Harlan faced three men who stood just outside of the building,
+watching him.
+
+The slightly humorous smile that curved Harlan's lips might have betrayed
+his reason for dismounting in front of the sheriff's office, for he had
+seen Laskar standing with the two other men. But no man could have told
+that he looked at Laskar directly, except Laskar himself, who would have
+sworn that Harlan did not remove his gaze from him, once he had slipped
+from Purgatory's back.
+
+For Harlan's eyes told nothing. They seemed to be gazing at nothing, and
+at everything. For Gage, watching the man, was certain Harlan was looking
+directly at him as he grinned, and Deveny, like Laskar, was sure Harlan's
+gaze was upon him. And all of them, noting one another's embarrassment,
+stood silent, marveling.
+
+And now Deveny discovered that Harlan was watching the three of them
+together--a trick which is accomplished by fixing the gaze upon some
+object straight in front of one; in this case it was Deveny's collar--and
+then including other objects on each side of the center object.
+
+Steady nerves and an inflexible will are required to keep the gaze
+unwavering, and a complete absence of self-consciousness. Thus Deveny
+knew he was standing in the presence of a man whose poise and
+self-control were marvelous; and he knew, too, that Harlan would be aware
+of the slightest move made by either of the three; more, he could detect
+any sign of concerted action.
+
+And concerted action was what Deveny and Laskar and the sheriff had
+planned. And they had purposely dragged Laskar outside, expecting Harlan
+would do just as he had done, and as his eyes warned he intended to do.
+
+"I'm after you, Laskar," he said softly.
+
+Laskar stiffened. He made no move, keeping his hands at his sides, where
+they had been all the time that had elapsed since Harlan had dismounted.
+
+Laskar's eyes moved quickly, with an inquiring flash in them, toward
+Deveny and the sheriff. It was time for Deveny and the sheriff to
+precipitate the action they had agreed upon.
+
+But the sheriff did not move. Nor did Deveny change his position. A
+queer, cold chill had come over Deveny--a vague dread, a dragging
+reluctance--an indecision that startled him and made of his thoughts an
+odd jumble of half-formed impulses that seemed to die before they could
+become definite.
+
+He had faced gun-fighters before, and had felt no fear of them. But
+something kept drumming into his ears at this instant with irritating
+insistence that this was not an ordinary man; that standing before him,
+within three paces, his eyes swimming in an unfixed vacuity which
+indicated preparation for violent action, was Harlan--"Drag" Harlan, the
+Pardo two-gun man; Harlan, who had never been beaten in a gunfight.
+
+Could he--Deveny--beat him? Could he, now, with "Drag" Harlan watching
+the three of them, could he draw with any hope of success, with the hope
+of beating the other's lightning hand on the downward flash to life or
+death?
+
+Deveny paled; he was afraid to take the chance. His eyes wavered from
+Harlan's; he cast a furtive glance at the sheriff.
+
+Harlan caught the glance, smiled mirthlessly and spoke shortly to Laskar:
+
+"I told you to keep hittin' the breeze till there wasn't any more
+breeze," he said. "I ought to have bored you out there by the red rock. I
+gave you your chance. Flash your gun!"
+
+"Harlan!"
+
+This was Gage. His voice sounded as though it had been forced out: it was
+hoarse and hollow.
+
+Harlan did not move, nor did his eyes waver. There was feeling in them
+now: intense, savage, cold. And his voice snapped.
+
+"You're the sheriff, eh? You want to gas, I reckon. Do it quick before
+this coyote goes for his gun."
+
+The sheriff cleared his throat. "You're under arrest, Harlan, for killin'
+Lane Morgan out there in the desert yesterday."
+
+Harlan's eyes narrowed, his lips wreathed into a feline smile. But he did
+not change his position.
+
+"Who's the witness against me?"
+
+"Laskar."
+
+"Has he testified?"
+
+"He's goin' to."
+
+Harlan backed away a little. His grin was tiger-like, a yellow flame
+seemed to leap in his eyes. Laskar, realizing at last that he could hope
+for no assistance from Gage or Deveny, grew rigid with desperation.
+
+Death was in front of him; he knew it. Death or a deathless fame. The
+fates had willed one or the other, and he chose to take the gambler's
+chance, the chance he and Dolver and the Chief had refused Lane Morgan.
+
+Deathless fame, the respect and the admiration of every man in the
+section was his if he beat "Drag" Harlan to the draw. Forever afterward,
+if he beat Harlan, he would be pointed at as the man who had met the
+Pardo gunman on even terms and had downed him.
+
+He stepped out a little, away from the front of the building, edging off
+from Deveny and Gage so that Harlan would have to watch in two
+directions.
+
+Lawson and Rogers, having advanced to a position within a dozen paces of
+the group in front of the sheriff's office, now backed away, silent,
+watchful. Other men who had been standing near were on the move
+instantly. Some dove into convenient doorways, others withdrew to a
+little distance down the street. But all intently watched as Laskar
+showed by his actions that he intended to accept his chance.
+
+Deveny, too, watched intently. He kept his gaze fixed upon Harlan, not
+even glancing toward Laskar. For Deveny's fear had gone, now that the
+dread presence had centered its attention elsewhere, and he was
+determined to discover the secret of Harlan's hesitating "draw," the
+curious movement that had given the man his sobriquet, "Drag." The
+discovery of that secret might mean much to him in the future; it might
+even mean life to him if Harlan decided to remain in the section.
+
+Harlan had made no hostile movement as yet. He still stood where he had
+stood all along, except for the slight backward step he had taken before
+Laskar began to move. But he watched Laskar as the latter edged away from
+the other men, and when he saw Laskar's eyes widen with the thought that
+precedes action, with the gleam that reflects the command the brain
+transmutes to the muscles, his right hand flashed downward toward the
+hip.
+
+With a grunt, for Harlan had almost anticipated his thoughts, Laskar's
+right hand swept toward the butt of his pistol.
+
+But Harlan's hand had come to a poise, just above the stock of his
+weapon--a pause so infinitesimal that it was merely a suggestion of a
+pause.
+
+It was enough, however, to throw Laskar off his mental balance, and as he
+drew his weapon he glanced at Harlan's holster.
+
+A dozen men who watched swore afterward that Laskar drew his gun first;
+that it was in his hand when Harlan's bullet struck him. But Deveny knew
+better; he knew that Laskar was dead on his feet before the muzzle of his
+weapon had cleared the holster, and that the shot he had fired had been
+the result of involuntary muscular action; that he had pulled the trigger
+after Harlan's bullet struck him, and while his gun had been loosening in
+his hand.
+
+For Deveny had seen the bullet from Laskar's gun throw up sand at
+Harlan's feet after Harlan's weapon had sent its death to meet Laskar.
+And Deveny had discovered the secret of Harlan's "draw." The pause was a
+trick, of course, to disconcert an adversary. But the lightning flash of
+Harlan's hand to his gun-butt was no trick. It was sheer rapidity, his
+hand moving so fast that the eye could not follow.
+
+And Deveny could get no pleasure from his discovery. Harlan had waited
+until Laskar's fingers were wrapped around the stock of his pistol before
+he had drawn his own, and therefore in the minds of those who had
+witnessed the shooting, Harlan had been justified.
+
+Sheriff Gage thought so, too. For, after Laskar's body had been carried
+away, Harlan stepped to where the sheriff stood and spoke shortly:
+
+"You wantin' me for this?"
+
+Sheriff Gage shook his head. "I reckon everybody saw Laskar go for his
+gun. There was no _call_ for him to go for his gun. If you'd have shot
+him without him reachin' for it things would have been different."
+
+Harlan said coldly, "I'm ready for that trial, now."
+
+The sheriff's eyes glowed with some secret significance as they met
+Harlan's. He was standing at a little distance from Deveny, and he
+deliberately closed an eye at Harlan.
+
+"Trial--hell!" he declared, "you've destroyed the evidence."
+
+Harlan wheeled, to see Deveny standing near. And for an instant as their
+eyes met--Harlan's level and cold, Deveny's aflame with a hostility
+unmistakable--the crowd which had witnessed the shooting of Laskar again
+became motionless, while a silence, portending further violence,
+descended over the street.
+
+Then Deveny abruptly wheeled and began to walk across to the First
+Chance.
+
+He had not taken many steps, however, when there were sounds of commotion
+farther down the street toward the Eating-House--a man cursing and a girl
+screaming.
+
+Deveny halted and faced the point from which the sounds came, and a scowl
+appeared on his face.
+
+Harlan wheeled, also. And he saw, at a little distance down the street, a
+girl running, her hair tossing in a mass around her, her eyes wild with
+fright and terror. Behind her came a man, cursing as he ran.
+
+Harlan heard Sheriff Gage curse, too--heard him say:
+
+"That's Lane Morgan's daughter--Barbara! What in hell is she doin' here?"
+
+The girl, not more than a dozen feet ahead of her pursuer, ran straight
+toward Harlan. And when--as she drew closer and he saw that she was,
+indeed, actually coming toward him--her eyes on him as though she had
+singled him out as a protector--he advanced toward her, drawing one of
+his guns as he went.
+
+And, grinning as she neared him, he opened his arms wide and she ran
+straight into them, and laid her head on his shoulder, sobbing, and
+talking incoherently. While Harlan, his grin fading as he looked at her
+pursuer--who had halted within half a dozen paces of the girl--commanded
+lowly:
+
+"You're runnin' plumb into a heap of trouble, mister man. Throw your rope
+around the snubbin' post. Then get on your hind legs an' do some
+explainin'. What you chasin' this girl for?"
+
+The man reddened, looked downward, then up at Deveny. The latter, a pout
+on his lips, his eyes glowing savagely, walked to where Harlan stood with
+one arm around the girl, while Lawson, Rogers, Gage, and several other
+men advanced slowly and stood near him.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VII
+
+SINGLE-HANDED
+
+
+Noting the concerted movement toward him, Harlan grinned at Barbara,
+gently disengaged himself from her grasp, and urged her toward the door
+of the sheriff's office. She made no objection, for she felt that further
+trouble impended, and she knew she must not impede any action her rescuer
+planned.
+
+Reaching the street a few minutes before, she had noted the preparations
+for the swift tragedy that had followed; and despite her wild desire to
+escape Deveny's man, she had halted, fascinated by the spectacle
+presented by the two men, gambling with death.
+
+She had halted at a little distance, crouching against the front of a
+building. And while she had been crouching there, trembling with a new
+apprehension, her pursuer had caught her.
+
+She had hardly been aware of him, and his grasp on her arm she had not
+resisted, so intense was her interest in what was transpiring. But the
+sudden ending of the affair brought again into her consciousness the
+recollection of her own peril, and when she saw Deveny cross the street
+she broke from the man's restraining grasp and ran to Harlan, convinced
+that he--because he seemed to be antagonistic toward the forces arrayed
+against her--would protect her.
+
+And now, shrinking into the open doorway of the sheriff's office, she
+watched breathlessly, with straining senses, the moving figures in the
+drama.
+
+Harlan had backed a little way toward the doorway in which Barbara stood.
+The movement was strategic, and had been accomplished with deliberation.
+He was facing Lamo's population--at least that proportion of it which was
+at home--with the comforting assurance that no part of it could get
+behind him.
+
+The gun he had drawn upon the approach of Barbara's pursuer was still in
+his right hand. It menaced no one, and yet it seemed to menace everyone
+within range of it.
+
+For though the gun was held loosely in Harlan's hand, the muzzle
+downward, there was a glow in the man's eyes that conveyed a warning.
+
+The smile on his face, too, was pregnant with the promise of violence. It
+was a surface smile, penetrating no deeper than his lips, and behind it,
+partially masked by the smile, the men in the group in the street could
+detect the destroying passion that ruled the man at this instant.
+
+Deveny, who had approached to a point within a dozen feet of Harlan, came
+to a slow, reluctant halt when he caught a glimpse of the strange glow in
+Harlan's eyes. All the others, Sheriff Gage included, likewise
+halted--most of them at a considerable distance, as their conceptions of
+prudence suggested.
+
+Harlan's grin grew ironic as he noted the pause--the concerted rigidity
+of Lamo's population.
+
+"Seems there's a heap of folks wantin' to palaver," he said lowly. "An'
+no one is crowdin' me. That's polite an' proper. Seems you all sort of
+guessed there's plenty of room, an' crowdin' ain't necessary. I'd thank
+every specimen to hook his thumbs in the armholes of his vest--same as
+though he's a member of the pussy-cafe outfit which I've seen in
+Chicago, makin' moon-eyes at girls. If there's any of you ain't got on
+vests, why, you can fasten your sky-hooks on your shoulders any way to
+suit your idee of safety. Get them up!"
+
+It seemed ludicrous to Barbara, despite the shadow of tragedy that lurked
+over it all--the embarrassed manner in which Lamo's citizens complied
+with the command, and the spectacle they presented afterward.
+
+Deveny's hands were the last to go up. There was a coldly malignant glare
+in his eyes as under Harlan's unwavering gaze he finally raised his hands
+and held them, palms outward, as for inspection.
+
+Rogers had complied instantly. There was a smile on his face, faint and
+suggestive of grim amusement, for he had been mentally tortured over the
+contemplation of Barbara's predicament, and had been unable to think of
+any plan by which he might assist her.
+
+Meeder Lawson's face was sullen and full of impotent rage, and he watched
+Deveny with a gaze of bitter accusation when he saw that the big man
+intended to obey Harlan's order. Barbara's pursuer, having felt Deveny's
+angry gaze upon him, and being uncomfortably conscious that Harlan had
+not forgotten him, was red of face and self-conscious. He started, and
+the red in his face deepened, when Harlan, in the silence which followed
+the concerted raising of hands, spoke sharply to him:
+
+"What was you tryin' to corral that girl for? Talk fast or I'll bust you
+wide open!"
+
+The man grinned foolishly, shooting a furtive glance at Deveny.
+
+"Why," he said, noting Deveny's scowl, "I reckon it was because I'd took
+a shine to her. I was tryin' to cotton up to her on the landin' about the
+Eatin'-House, an' she----"
+
+"You lie!"
+
+This was Barbara. Pale, her eyes flashing with indignation, she stepped
+down into the street, standing near Harlan.
+
+"That man," Barbara went on, pointing to the red-faced pursuer, "told me
+early this morning that Luke Deveny had told him to watch me, that I was
+not to leave my room until Deveny came for me. I was a prisoner. He
+didn't try to make love to me. I should have killed him."
+
+Speech had broken the tension under which Barbara had been laboring; the
+flow of words through her lips stimulated her thoughts and sent them
+skittering back to the salient incidents of her enforced confinement;
+they brought into her consciousness a recollection of the conversation
+she had heard between Meeder Lawson and Strom Rogers, regarding her
+father. She forgot Harlan, Deveny, and the others, and ran to Sheriff
+Gage.
+
+Gage, a tall, slender man of forty, was pale and uncomfortable as he
+looked down at the girl's white, upturned face. He shrank from the
+frenzied appeal of her eyes, and he endured the pain of her tightly
+gripping fingers on the flesh of his arms without flinching.
+
+"Did--is father _dead_!"
+
+She waited, frantically shaking Gage. And Gage did not answer until his
+gaze had roamed the crowd.
+
+Then he said slowly and reluctantly:
+
+"I reckon he's dead. Deveny was tellin' me--he was chargin' this man,
+Harlan, with killin' your father."
+
+Barbara wheeled and faced Deveny. Rage, furious and passionate, had
+overwhelmed the grief she felt over the death of her father. The shock
+had been tremendous, but it had come while she had been leaning out of
+the window listening to Rogers and Lawson--when she had lain for many
+minutes unconscious on the floor of the room. Therefore the emotion she
+experienced now was not entirely grief, it was rather a frantic yearning
+to punish the men who had killed her father.
+
+"You charged this man with murdering my father?" she demanded of Deveny
+as she walked to him and stood, her hands clenched, her face dead white
+and her eyes blazing hate. "You know better. I heard Strom Rogers tell
+Meeder Lawson that it was Dolver and Laskar and somebody he called the
+'Chief,' who did it. I want to know who those men are; I want to know
+where I can find them! I want you to tell me!"
+
+"You're unstrung, Barbara," said Deveny slowly, coolly, a faint smile on
+his face. "I know nothing about it. I merely repeated to Gage the word
+Laskar brought. Laskar said this man Harlan shot your father. It happened
+about a day's ride out--near Sentinel Rock. If Laskar lied, he was paid
+for his lying. For Harlan has----"
+
+Deveny paused, the sentence unfinished, for the girl turned abruptly from
+him and walked to Harlan.
+
+"That was Laskar--the man you killed just now?"
+
+"Laskar an' Dolver," relied Harlan. "There was three of them your father
+said. One got away in the night, leavin' Dolver an' Laskar to finish the
+job. I run plumb into them, crossin' here from Pardo. I bored Dolver, but
+I let Laskar off, not havin' the heart to muss up the desert with scum
+like him."
+
+The girl's eyes gleamed for an instant with venomous satisfaction. Then
+she said, tremulously:
+
+"And father?"
+
+"I buried him near the rock," returned Harlan, lowly.
+
+Soundlessly, closing her eyes, Barbara sank into the dust of the street.
+
+Harlan broke the force of her fall with his left hand, supporting her
+partially until she collapsed; then, his eyes alight with a cold flame,
+he called, sharply, his gaze still on the group of men:
+
+"Get her, Gage! Take her into your place!"
+
+He waited until Gage carried the slack form inside. Then, his shoulders
+sagging, the heavy pistol in his right hand coming to a poise, the
+fingers of the left hand brushing the butt of the weapon in the holster
+at his left hip, the vacuous gleam in his eyes telling them all that his
+senses were alert to catch the slightest movement, he spoke, to Deveny:
+
+"I seen that desert deal. It wasn't on the level. I ain't no angel, but
+when I down a man I do it fair an' square--givin' him his chance. I sent
+that sneak Dolver out--an' that coyote Laskar. It was a dirty, rotten
+deal, the way they framed up on Morgan. It's irritated me--I reckon you
+can hear my rattles right now. I'm stayin' in Lamo, an' I'm stickin' by
+this Barbara girl until you guys learn to walk straight up, like men!"
+
+He paused, and a heavy silence descended. No man moved. A sneer began to
+wreathe Harlan's lips--a twisting, mocking, sardonic sneer that expressed
+his contempt for the men who faced him.
+
+"Not havin' any thoughts, eh?" he jeered. "There's some guys that would
+rather do their fightin' with women, an' their thoughts wouldn't sound
+right if they put words around them. I ain't detainin' you no longer. Any
+man who thinks it's time to call for a show-down can do his yappin' right
+now. Them that's dead certain they're through can mosey along, takin'
+care not to try any monkey business!"
+
+He stood, watching, his wide gaze including them all, until, one after
+another the men in the group silently moved away. They did not go far.
+Some of them merely stepped into near-by doorways, others sauntered
+slowly down the street and halted at a little distance to look back.
+
+But no man made a hostile move, for they had seen the tragedy in which
+Laskar had figured, and they had no desire to provoke Harlan to express
+again the cold wrath that slumbered in his eyes.
+
+Meeder Lawson was the first of Deveny's intimates to leave the group. His
+face sullen, his eyes venomous, he walked across the street to the First
+Chance, and stood in the doorway, beside Balleau, who had been an
+interested onlooker.
+
+Then Strom Rogers moved. He wheeled slowly, flashing an inquiring glance
+at Deveny--who still stood motionless. Deveny had lowered his hands--they
+were hanging at his sides, the right hand having the palm toward Harlan,
+giving eloquent testimony of its owner's peaceable intentions.
+
+Rogers' glance included the out-turned palm, and his lips curved in a
+faint smile. The smile held as his glance went to Harlan's face, and for
+an instant as the eyes of the two men met, appraisal was the emotion that
+ruled in them. Harlan detected in Rogers' eyes a grim scorn of Deveny,
+and a malignant satisfaction; Rogers saw in Harlan's eyes a thing that
+not one of the men who had faced the man had seen--cold humor.
+
+Then Rogers was walking away, leaving Deveny to face the man who had
+disrupted his plans.
+
+Deveny had not changed his position, and for an instant following the
+departure of Rogers, there was no word spoken. Then for the first time
+since he had dismounted from Purgatory, Harlan's eyes lost their wide,
+inclusive vacuity. They met Deveny's fairly, with a steady, direct,
+boring intensity; a light in them that resembled the yellow flame that
+Deveny had once seen in the eyes of a Mexican jaguar some year before at
+a camp on the Neuces.
+
+Deveny knew what the light in Harlan's eyes meant. It meant the presence
+of a wild, rending passion, of elemental impulses; it meant that the man
+who faced him was eager to kill him, was awaiting his slightest hostile
+movement. It meant more. The gleam in Harlan's eyes indicated that the
+man possessed that strange and almost uncanny instinct of thought
+reading, that he could detect in another's eyes a mental impulse before
+the other's muscles could answer it. Also, it meant certain death to
+Deveny should he obey the half-formed determination to draw and shoot,
+that was in his mind at this instant.
+
+He dropped his lids, attempting to veil the thought from Harlan. But when
+he again looked up it was to see Harlan's lips twisting into a cold
+smile--to see Harlan slowly sheathing the gun he had held in his right
+hand.
+
+And now Harlan was standing before him, both weapons in their holsters.
+He and Deveny were facing each other upon a basis of equality. Harlan had
+disdained taking advantage.
+
+Apparently, if Deveny now elected to draw and shoot, his chances were as
+good as Harlan's.
+
+And yet Deveny knew they were not as good. For Harlan's action in
+sheathing his gun convinced Deveny that the man had divined his thoughts
+from the expression of his eyes before he had veiled them with the lids,
+and he was convinced that Harlan had sensed the chill of dread that had
+swept over him at that instant. He was sure of it when he heard Harlan's
+voice, low and taunting:
+
+"You waitin' for a show-down?"
+
+Deveny smiled, pallidly. "I don't mind telling you that I _did_ have a
+notion that way a moment ago. But I was afraid I might be a little slow.
+When you downed Laskar I watched you, trying to learn the secret of your
+draw. I didn't learn it, because there is no secret--you're just a
+natural gunslinger without a flaw. You're the fastest man with a gun I
+ever saw--and I'm taking my hat off to you."
+
+Harlan smiled faintly, but his eyes did not lose their alertness, nor did
+the flame in them cool visibly. Only his lips betrayed whatever emotion
+he felt. He distrusted Deveny, for he had seen the half-formed
+determination in the man's eyes, and his muscles were tensed in
+anticipation of a trick.
+
+"You didn't stay here to tell me that. Get goin' with the real talk."
+
+"That's right--I didn't," said Deveny. He was cool, now, and bland,
+having recovered his poise.
+
+"Higgins _was_ watching Barbara Morgan at my orders. But I meant no harm
+to the girl. I knew she was in town, and I heard there were a few of the
+boys that were making plans about her. So I set Higgins to guard her.
+Naturally, she thought I meant harm to her."
+
+"Naturally," said Harlan.
+
+Deveny said coolly: "I'll admit I have a bad reputation. But it doesn't
+run to women. It's more in your line." He looked significantly at the
+other.
+
+"Meanin'?"
+
+"Oh, hell--you know well enough what I mean. You're not such a
+law-abiding citizen, yourself. I've heard of you--often. And I've admired
+you. To get right down to the point--I could find a place where you'd fit
+in just right. We're needing another man--a man of your general size and
+character."
+
+Harlan grinned. "I'm thankin' you. An' I sure appreciate what you've
+said. You've been likin' me so much that you tried to frame up on me
+about sendin' Lane Morgan out."
+
+"That's business," laughed Deveny. "You were an unknown quantity, then."
+
+"But not now--eh?" returned Harlan, his eyes gleaming with a cold humor.
+"You've got me sized up right. The yappin' I done about stickin' to
+Barbara Morgan wasn't the real goods, eh?"
+
+"Certainly not!" laughed Deveny, "there must be some selfish motive
+behind that."
+
+"An' you sure didn't believe me?"
+
+"Of course not," chuckled Deveny, for he thought he saw a gleam of
+insincerity in Harlan's eyes.
+
+"Then I've got to do my yappin' all over again," said Harlan. "Now get
+this straight. I'm stickin' to Barbara Morgan. I'm runnin' the Rancho
+Seco from now on. I'm runnin' it _my_ way. Nobody is botherin' Barbara
+Morgan except them guys she wants to have bother her. That lets you out.
+You're a rank coyote, an' I don't have no truck with you except at the
+business end of a gun. Now take your damned, sneakin' grin over an' wet
+it down, or I'll blow you apart!"
+
+Deveny's face changed color. It became bloated with a poisonous wrath,
+his eyes gleamed evilly and his muscles tensed. He stood, straining
+against the murder lust that had seized him, almost persuaded to take the
+slender chance of beating Harlan to his weapon.
+
+"You got notions, eh?" he heard Harlan say, jeeringly. "Well, don't spoil
+'em. I'd admire to make you feel like you'd ought to have got started a
+week ago."
+
+Deveny smiled with hideous mirthlessness. But he again caught the flame
+in Harlan's eyes. He wheeled, saying nothing more, and walked across the
+street without looking back.
+
+Smiles followed him; several men commented humorously, and almost
+immediately, knowing that this last crisis had passed, Lamo's citizens
+resumed their interrupted pleasures.
+
+Harlan stood motionless until Deveny vanished into the First Chance, then
+he turned quickly and entered the sheriff's office.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER VIII
+
+BARBARA IS PUZZLED
+
+
+Half an hour later, with Barbara Morgan, on "Billy"--a piebald
+pinto--riding beside him, Harlan loped Purgatory out of Lamo. They took a
+trail--faint and narrow--that led southward, for Barbara had said that
+the Rancho Seco lay in that direction.
+
+Harlan had not seen Deveny or Rogers or Lawson after the scene in front
+of the sheriff's office. He had talked for some time with Gage, waiting
+until Barbara Morgan recovered slightly from the shock she had suffered.
+Then when he had told her that he intended to accompany her to the Rancho
+Seco--and she had offered no objection--he had gone on a quest for her
+pony, finding him in the stable in the rear of the Eating-House.
+
+So far as Harlan knew, no one in Lamo besides Sheriff Gage had watched
+the departure of himself and Barbara. And there had been no word spoken
+between the two as they rode away--Lamo becoming at last an almost
+invisible dot in the great yawning space they left behind them.
+
+Barbara felt a curious unconcern for what was happening; her brain was in
+a state of dull apathy, resulting from shock and the period of dread
+under which she had lived for more than a day and a night.
+
+She did not seem to care what happened to her. She knew, to be sure, that
+she was riding toward the Rancho Seco with a man whom she had heard
+called an outlaw by other men; she was aware that she must be risking
+something by accepting his escort--and yet she could not bring herself to
+feel that dread fear that she knew any young woman in her position should
+feel.
+
+It seemed to her that nothing mattered now--very much. Her father was
+dead--murdered by some men--two of whom had been punished by death, and
+another--a mysterious person called the "Chief"--who would be killed as
+soon as she could find him. That resolution was deeply fixed in her mind.
+
+Her gaze though, after a while, went to Harlan, and for many miles she
+studied him without his suspecting. And gradually she began to think
+about him, to wonder why he had protected her from the man, Higgins, and
+why he was going with her to the Rancho Seco.
+
+She provided--after a while--an answer to her first question: He had
+protected her because she had run into his arms in her effort to escape
+the clutches of the man who had pursued her--Higgins. She remembered that
+while she had been at the window, watching Harlan when he had dismounted
+in front of the sheriff's office, he had seemed to make a favorable
+impression upon her.
+
+That was the reason, when she had seen him before her in the street, after
+he had shot Laskar, she had selected him as a protector. That had seemed
+to be the logical thing to do, for he had arrayed himself against her
+enemies in killing Laskar, and it was reasonable to suppose--conceding
+Laskar and Higgins were leagued with Deveny--that Harlan would protect
+her.
+
+It all seemed exceedingly natural, that far. It was when she began to
+wonder why Harlan was with her now that an element of mystery seemed to
+rule. And she was puzzled.
+
+She began to speculate over Harlan, and her mental efforts in that
+direction banished the somber thoughts that had almost overwhelmed her
+after the discovery of her father's death. Yet they had ridden more than
+ten miles before she spoke.
+
+"What made you decide to ride with me to the Rancho Seco?" she demanded
+sharply.
+
+Harlan flashed a grin at her. He was riding a little in advance of her,
+and he had to turn in the saddle to see her face.
+
+"I was headin' that way, an' wanted company. It sure gets lonesome ridin'
+alone."
+
+She caught her breath at this answer, for it seemed that he had not
+revealed the real reason. And she had got her first good look at his
+face. It was lean and strong. His eyes were deep-set and rimmed by heavy
+lashes and brows, and there was a glow in them as he looked at her--a
+compelling fixity that held her. Her own drooped, and were lifted to his
+again in sheer curiosity, she thought at first.
+
+It was only when she found herself, later, trying to catch his glance
+again that she realized they were magnetic eyes, and that the glow in
+them was of a subtle quality that could not be analyzed at a glance.
+
+The girl was alert to detect a certain expression in his eyes--a gleam
+that would tell her what she half feared--that the motive that had
+brought him with her was like that which had caused Deveny to hold her
+captive. But she could detect no such expression in Harlan's eyes, she
+could see a quizzical humor in his glances at times, or frank interest,
+and there were times when she saw a grim pity.
+
+And the pity affected her strangely. It brought him close to
+her--figuratively; it convinced her that he was a man of warm sympathies
+in spite of the reputation he held in the Territory.
+
+She had heard her father speak of him--always with a sort of awe in his
+voice; and tales of his reckless daring, his Satanic cleverness with a
+six-shooter, of his ruthlessness, had reached her ears from other
+sources. He had seemed, then, like some evil character of mythology,
+remote and far, and not likely to appear in the flesh in her section of
+the country.
+
+It seemed impossible that she had fled to such a man for protection--and
+that he had protected her; and that she was now riding beside him--or
+slightly behind him--and that, to all appearances, he was quite as
+respectful toward her as other men. That, she surmised, was what made it
+all seem so strange.
+
+Harlan did not seem disposed to talk; and he kept Purgatory slightly in
+the lead--except when the trail grew dim or disappeared altogether. Then
+he would pull the black horse up, look inquiringly at Barbara, and urge
+Purgatory after her when she took the lead.
+
+But there were many things that Barbara wanted to inquire about; and it
+was when they were crossing a big level between some rimming hills, where
+the trail was broad, that she urged her pony beside the black.
+
+"Won't you tell me about father--how he died?" she asked.
+
+He looked sharply at her, saw that she was now quite composed, and
+drawing Purgatory to a walk, began to relate to her the incident of the
+fight at Sentinel Rock. His story was brief--brutally brief, she might
+have thought, had she not been watching his face during the telling,
+noting the rage that flamed in his eyes when he spoke of Dolver and
+Laskar and the mysterious "Chief."
+
+It was plain to the girl that he had sympathized with her father; and it
+was quite as plain that he now sympathized with her. And thus she
+mentally recorded another point in his favor:
+
+He might be a gunman, a ruthless killer, an outlaw of such evil
+reputation that men mentioned his name with awe in their voices--but she
+_knew_, now, that he had a keen sense of justice, and that the murder of
+her father had aroused the retributive instinct in him.
+
+Also, she was convinced that compared to Deveny, Rogers, and Lawson, he
+was a gentleman. At least, so far he had not looked at her as those men
+had looked at her. He had been with her now for several hours, in a
+lonely country where there was no law except his own desires, and he had
+been as gravely courteous and considerate as it was possible for any man
+to be.
+
+When he finished his story, having neglected to mention the paper he had
+removed from one of the cylinders of Morgan's pistol--upon which was
+written instructions regarding the location of the gold Morgan had
+secreted--Barbara rode for a long time in silence, her head bowed, her
+eyes moist.
+
+At last she looked up. Harlan's gaze was straight ahead; he was watching
+the trail, where it vanished over the crest of a high ridge, and he did
+not seem to be aware of Barbara's presence.
+
+"And father told you to tell me--wanted you to bring the news to me?"
+
+Harlan nodded.
+
+"Then," she went on "your obligation--if you were under any--seems to
+have been completed. You need not have come out of your way."
+
+"I was headed this way."
+
+"To the Rancho Seco?" she questioned, astonished.
+
+Again he nodded. But this time there was a slight smile on his lips.
+
+Her own straightened, and her eyes glowed with a sudden suspicion.
+
+"That's odd," she said; "very odd."
+
+"What is?"
+
+"That you should be on your way to the Rancho Seco--and that you should
+encounter father--that you should happen to reach Sentinel Rock about the
+time he was murdered."
+
+He looked straight at her, noting the suspicion in her eyes. His low
+laugh had a hint of irony in it.
+
+"I've heard of such things," he said.
+
+"What?"
+
+"About guys happenin' to run plumb into a murder when they was innocent
+of it--an' of them bein' accused of the murder."
+
+It was the mocking light in his eyes that angered her, she believed--and
+the knowledge that he had been aware of her suspicion before it had
+become half formed in her mind.
+
+"I'm not accusing you!" she declared.
+
+"You said it was odd that I'd be headed this way--after I'd told you all
+there was to tell."
+
+"It is!" she maintained.
+
+"Well," he conceded; "mebbe it's odd. But I'm still headin' for the
+Rancho Seco. Mebbe I forgot to tell you that your father said I was to
+go--that he made me promise to go."
+
+He had not mentioned that before; and the girl glanced sharply at him. He
+met the glance with a slow grin which had in it a quality of that
+subtleness she had noticed in him before. A shiver of trepidation ran
+over her. But she sat rigid in the saddle, determined she would not be
+afraid of him. For the exchange of talk between them, and his considerate
+manner--everything about him--had convinced her that he was much like
+other men--men who respect women.
+
+"There is no evidence that father made you promise to go to the Rancho
+Seco."
+
+"There wasn't no evidence that I made any promise to keep that man Deveny
+from herd-ridin' you," he said shortly, with a grin. "I'm sure goin' to
+the Rancho Seco."
+
+"Suppose I should not wish it--what then?"
+
+"I'd keep right on headin' for there--keepin' my promise."
+
+"Do you always keep your promises?" she asked, mockery in her voice.
+
+"When I make 'em. Usually, I don't do any promisin'. But when I do--that
+promise is goin' to be kept. If you ain't likin' my company, ma'am, why,
+I reckon there's a heap of trail ahead. An' I ain't afraid of gettin'
+lost."
+
+"Isn't that remarkable!" she jeered.
+
+He looked at her with sober eyes. "If we're figurin' on hittin' the
+Rancho Seco before night we'll have to quit our gassin' an' do some
+travelin'," he advised. "Accordin' to the figures we've got about forty
+miles to ride, altogether. We've come about fifteen--an'," he looked at a
+silver watch which he drew from a pocket, "it's pretty near two now."
+
+Without further words--for it seemed useless to argue the point upon
+which he was so obviously determined--Barbara urged Billy on, taking the
+lead.
+
+For more than an hour she maintained the lead, riding a short distance in
+advance, and seemingly paying no attention to Harlan. Yet she noted that
+he kept about the same distance from her always--though she never
+permitted him to observe that she watched him, for her backward glances
+were taken out of the corners of her eyes, when she pretended to be
+looking at the country on one side or the other.
+
+Harlan, however, noted the glances. And his lips curved into a faint grin
+as he rode. Once when he had dropped behind a little farther than usual,
+he leaned over and whispered into Purgatory's ear:
+
+"She's sure ignorin' us, ain't she, you black son-of-a-gun! She ain't
+looked back here more'n three times in the last five minutes!"
+
+And yet Harlan's jocular mood did not endure long. During those intervals
+in which Barbara kept her gaze straight ahead on the trail, Harlan
+regarded her with a grave intentness that betrayed the soberness of his
+thoughts.
+
+In all his days he had seen no woman like her; and when she had come
+toward him in Lamo, with Higgins close behind her, he had been so
+astonished that he had momentarily forgotten Deveny and all the rest of
+them.
+
+Women of the kind he had met had never affected him as Barbara had
+affected him. He had still a mental picture of her as she had come toward
+him, with her hair flying in a golden-brown mass over her shoulders; her
+wide, fear-lighted eyes seeking his with an expression of appeal so
+eloquent that it had sent a queer, thrilling, protective sensation over
+him.
+
+And as she rode ahead of him it was the picture she had made _then_ that
+he saw; and the emotions that assailed him were the identical emotions
+that had beset him when for a brief instant, in Lamo, he had held her in
+his arms, with her head resting on his shoulder.
+
+That, he felt, had been the real Barbara Morgan. Her manner now--the
+constrained and distant pose she had adopted, her suspicions, her
+indignation--all those were outward manifestations of the reaction that
+had seized her. The real Barbara Morgan was she who had run to him for
+protection and she would always be to him as she had appeared then--a
+soft, yielding, trembling girl who, at a glance had trusted him enough to
+run straight into his arms.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER IX
+
+AN UNWELCOME GUEST
+
+
+It was late afternoon when Barbara and Harlan--the girl still riding a
+little in advance of the man--rode their horses out of a stretch of
+broken country featured by low, barren hills and ragged draws, and came
+to the edge of a vast level of sage and mesquite that stretched southward
+an interminable distance.
+
+The sun was low--a flaming red disk that swam in a sea of ever-changing
+color between the towering peaks of two mighty mountains miles
+westward--and the sky above the big level upon which Barbara and Harlan
+rode was a pale amethyst set in the dull gray frame of the dusk that was
+rising from the southern and eastern horizons.
+
+Eastward the gray was pierced by the burning, flaming prismatic streaks
+that stretched straight from the cleft in the mountains where the sun was
+sinking--the sun seemed to be sending floods of new color into the
+streaks as he went, deepening those that remained; tinging it all with
+harmonious tones--rose and pearl and violet and saffron blending them
+with a giant, magic brush--recreating them, making the whole background
+of amethyst sky glow like a huge jewel touched by the myriad colors of a
+mighty rainbow.
+
+The trail taken by Barbara Morgan ran now, in a southeasterly direction,
+and it seemed to Harlan that they were riding straight into the folds of
+a curtain of gauze. For a haze was rising into the effulgent expanse of
+color, and the sun's rays, striking it, wrought their magic upon it.
+
+Harlan, accustomed to sunsets--with a matter-of-fact attitude toward all
+of nature's phenomena--caught himself admiring this one. So intent was he
+that he looked around with a start when Purgatory halted, to find that
+Barbara had drawn Billy down and was sitting in the saddle close to him,
+watching him, her eyes luminous with an emotion that thrilled Harlan
+strangely.
+
+"This is the most beautiful place in the world," she declared in a voice
+that seemed to quaver with awe.
+
+"It's sure a beauty," agreed Harlan. "I've been in a heap of places where
+they had sunsets, but dump 'em all together an' they wouldn't make an
+edge on this display. She's sure a hummer!"
+
+The girl's eyes seemed to leap at his praise.
+
+"I never want to leave this place," she said. "There is nothing like it.
+Those two mountains that you see far out into the west--where the sun is
+going down--are about forty miles distant. If you will notice, you can
+see that there are other mountains--much smaller--connected with them.
+They are two small ranges, and they melt into the plains there--and
+there."
+
+She pointed to the south and to the north, where the two ranges,
+seemingly extending straight westward, merged into the edge of the big
+level where Barbara and Harlan sat on their horses.
+
+The two ranges were perhaps a dozen miles apart, separated by a low level
+valley through which ran a narrow river, its surface glowing like
+burnished gold in the rays of the sinking sun.
+
+Gazing westward--straight into the glow--Harlan noted the virgin wildness
+of the immense valley. It lay, serene, slumberous; its salient
+features--ridges, low hills, rocky promontories and wooded slopes--touched
+by the rose tints that descended upon them; while in the depressions
+reigned purple shadows, soft-toned, blending perfectly with the brighter
+colors.
+
+With the sunset glow upon it; with the bastioned hills--barren at their
+peaks, ridged and seamed--looming clear and definite above the vast
+expanse of green, the colossal valley stretched, with no movement in it
+or above it--in a vacuum-like stillness that might have reigned over the
+world on the dawn of creation's first morning.
+
+Harlan looked covertly at Barbara. The girl's face was pale, and her eyes
+were glowing with a light that made him draw a long breath of sympathy
+and understanding. But it had been many years since he had felt the
+thrill of awe that she was experiencing at this minute.
+
+He knew that presently the spell would pass, and that material things
+would exact their due. And the resulting contrast between the beauty of
+the picture upon which she was gazing, and the solemn realization of loss
+that memory would bring, instantly, would almost crush her.
+
+Therefore he spoke seriously when he caught her looking at him.
+
+"There's sunsets _an'_ sunsets," he said. "They tell me that they're a
+heap common in some parts of the world. Wyoming, now--Wyoming prides
+herself on sunsets. An' I've heard they have 'em in Italy, an'
+France--an' some more of them foreign places--where guys go to look at
+'em. But it's always seemed to me that there ain't a heap of sense in
+gettin' fussed up over a sunset. The sun has got his work to do; an' he
+does it without any fussin'. An' they tell me that it's the same sun that
+sets in all them places I've been tellin' you about.
+
+"Well, it's always been my idee that the sun ain't got no compliments due
+him--he'll set mighty beautiful--sometimes; an' folks will get awed an'
+thrilly over him. But the next day--if a man happens to be ridin' in the
+desert, where there ain't any water, he'll cuss the sun pretty
+thorough--forgettin' the nice things he said about it once."
+
+Barbara scowled at him.
+
+"You haven't a bit of poetry in your soul!" she charged. "I'm sorry we
+stopped to look at the valley or the sun--or anything. You don't--you
+can't appreciate the beautiful!"
+
+He was silent as she urged Billy onward. And as they fled southwestward,
+with Purgatory far behind, Harlan swept his hat from his head and bowed
+toward the mighty valley, saying lowly:
+
+"You're sure a hummer--an' no mistake. But if a man had any poetry in his
+soul--why----"
+
+He rode on, gulping his delight over having accomplished what he had
+intended to accomplish.
+
+"She'll be givin' it to me pretty regular; an' she won't have time for no
+solemn thoughts. They'll come later, though, when she gets to the Rancho
+Seco."
+
+It was the lowing of cattle that at last brought to Harlan the conviction
+that they were near the Rancho Seco--that and the sight of the roofs of
+some buildings that presently came into view.
+
+But they had been riding for half an hour before they came upon the
+cattle and buildings, and the flaming colors had faded into somber gray
+tones. The filmy dusk that precedes darkness was beginning to settle over
+the land; and into the atmosphere had come that solemn hush with which
+the wide, open places greet the night.
+
+Barbara had no further word to say to Harlan until they reached a group
+of buildings that were scattered on a big level near a river. They had
+passed a long stretch of wire fence, which Harlan suspected, enclosed a
+section of land reserved for a pasture; and the girl brought her pony to
+a halt in front of an adobe building near a high rail fence.
+
+"This is the Rancho Seco," she said shortly. "This is the stable. Over
+there is the ranchhouse. Evidently the men are all away somewhere."
+
+She got off the pony, removed the saddle and bridle, carried them into
+the stable, came out again, and opened a gate in the fence, through which
+she sent "Billy." Then she closed the gate and turned to Harlan, who had
+dismounted and was standing at Purgatory's head.
+
+"I thank you for what you have done for me," she said, coldly. "And now,
+I should like to know just what you purpose to do--and why you have
+come."
+
+Harlan's eyes narrowed as he returned her gaze. He remembered Lane
+Morgan's words: "John Haydon is dead stuck on Barbara;" and he had
+wondered ever since the meeting in Lamo if Barbara returned Haydon's
+affection, or if she trusted Haydon enough to confide in him.
+
+Barbara's attitude toward Haydon would affect Harlan's attitude toward
+the girl. For if she loved Haydon, or trusted him enough to confide in
+him--or even to communicate with him concerning ordinary details, Harlan
+could not apprise her of the significance of his presence at the Rancho
+Seco.
+
+For Haydon was unknown to Harlan and Harlan was not inclined to accept
+Morgan's praise of him as conclusive evidence of the man's worthiness.
+Besides, Morgan had qualified his instructions with: "Take a look at John
+Haydon, an' if you think he's on the level--an' you want to drift
+on--turn things over to him."
+
+Harlan did not want to "drift on." Into his heart since his meeting in
+Lamo with Barbara--and during the ride to the Rancho Seco--had grown a
+decided reluctance toward "drifting." And not even the girl's scorn could
+have forced him to leave her at the ranch, unprotected.
+
+But he could not tell her why he could not go. Despite her protests he
+must remain--at least until he was able to determine the character of
+John Haydon.
+
+A gleam of faint mockery came into his eyes as he looked at Barbara.
+
+"I'm keepin' my promise to your dad--I'm stayin' at the Rancho Seco
+because he told me to stay. He wanted me to sort of look out that nothin'
+happened to you. I reckon we'll get along."
+
+The girl caught her breath sharply. In the growing darkness Harlan's
+smile seemed to hold an evil significance; it seemed to express a thought
+that took into consideration the loneliness of the surroundings, the fact
+that she was alone, and that she was helpless. More--it seemed to be a
+presumptuous smile, insinuating, full of dire promise.
+
+For Harlan was an outlaw--she could not forget that! He bore a reputation
+for evil that had made him feared wherever men congregated; and as she
+watched him it seemed to her that his face betrayed signs of his
+ruthlessness, his recklessness, and his readiness for violence of every
+kind.
+
+He might not have killed her father--Rogers and Lawson had acquitted him
+of that. But he might be lying about the promise to her father merely for
+the purpose of providing an excuse to come to the Rancho Seco. It seemed
+to her that if her father had really exacted a promise from him he would
+have written to her, or sent her some token to prove the genuineness of
+it. There was no visible evidence of Harlan's truthfulness.
+
+"Do you mean to say you are going to stay here--indefinitely?" she
+demanded, her voice a little hoarse from the fright that was stealing
+over her.
+
+He smiled at her. "You've hit it about right, ma'am."
+
+"I don't want you to stay here!" she declared, angrily.
+
+"I'm stayin', ma'am." His smile faded, and his eyes became
+serious--earnest.
+
+"Later on--when things shape themselves up--I'll tell you why I'm
+stayin'. But just now----"
+
+She shrank from him, incredulous, a growing fear plain in her eyes. And
+before he could finish what he intended to say she had wheeled, and was
+running toward the ranchhouse.
+
+He watched until she vanished through an open doorway; he heard the door
+slam, and caught the sound of bars being hurriedly dropped into place.
+And after that he stood for a time watching the house. No light came from
+within, and no other sound.
+
+He frowned slightly, drawing a mental picture of the girl inside,
+yielding to the terror that had seized her. Then after a while he walked
+down along the corral fence until he came to another building--a
+bunkhouse. And for a long time he stood in the doorway of the building,
+watching the ranchhouse, afflicted with grim sympathy.
+
+"It ain't so damn' cheerful, at that," he mused. "I reckon she thinks
+she's landed into trouble with both feet--with her dad cashin' in like he
+did, an' Deveny after her. It sure must be pretty hard to consider all
+them things. An' on top of that I mosey along, with a reputation as a
+no-good son-of-a-gun, an' scare the wits out of her with my homely mug.
+An' I can't tell her why she hadn't ought to be scared. I call that
+mighty mean."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER X
+
+ON GUARD
+
+
+The man whose soul held no love of the poetic sat for two or three hours
+on the threshold of the bunkhouse door, his gaze on the ranchhouse. He
+was considering his "reputation," and he had reached the conclusion that
+Barbara Morgan had reason to fear him--if rumor's tongues had related to
+her all of the crimes that had been attributed to him. And he knew she
+must have heard a great many tales about him, for rumor is a tireless
+worker.
+
+And for the first time in his life Harlan regretted that he had permitted
+rumor to weave her fabric of lies. For not one of the stories that
+luridly portrayed him in the role of a ruthless killer and outlaw was
+true.
+
+It was easy enough for him to understand how he had gained that
+reputation. He grinned mirthlessly now, as he mentally reviewed a past
+which _had_ been rather like the record of a professional man-killer. And
+yet, reviewing his past--from the day about five years ago, when he had
+shot a Taos bully who had drawn a gun on him with murderous intent, until
+today, when he had sent Laskar to his death--he could not remember one
+shooting affray for which he could be blamed. As a matter of fact, he
+had--by the courts in some instances, and by witnesses in others, where
+there were no courts--been held blameless.
+
+There had been men who had seen Harlan draw his weapons with deadly
+intent--men who insisted that the man's purpose was plain, to goad an
+enemy to draw a weapon, permitting him partially to draw it, and then to
+depend upon his superior swiftness and unerring aim. And this theory of
+Harlan's character had gone abroad.
+
+And because the theory had been accepted, Harlan's name became associated
+with certain crimes which are inseparable from the type of character
+which the popular imagination had given him. Strangers--criminals--in
+certain towns in the Territory and out of it must have heard with
+considerable satisfaction that their depredations had been charged to
+Harlan. Only once had Harlan been able to refute the charge of rumor.
+That was when, having passed a night in the company of Dave Hallowell,
+the marshal of Pardo, word was brought by a stage-driver that "Drag"
+Harlan had killed a man in Dry Bottom--a town two hundred miles
+north--and that Harlan had escaped, though a posse had been on his trail.
+
+Even when the driver was confronted by Harlan in the flesh he was
+doubtful, surrendering grudgingly, as though half convinced that Harlan
+had been able to transport himself over the distance from Dry Bottom to
+Pardo by some magic not mentioned.
+
+So it had gone. But the terrible record of evil deeds attributed to
+Harlan had not affected him greatly. In the beginning--when he had killed
+the Taos bully--he had been reluctant to take life; and he had avoided,
+as much as possible, company in which he would be forced to kill to
+protect himself.
+
+And through it all he had been able to maintain his poise, his
+self-control. The reputation he had achieved would have ruined some
+men--would have filled them with an ambition to fulfil the specifications
+of the mythical terror men thought him. There was a danger there; Harlan
+had felt it. There was a certain satisfaction in being pointed out as a
+man with whom other men dared not trifle; respect of a fearsome equality
+was granted him--he had seen it in the eyes of men, as he had seen an
+awed adulation in the eyes of women.
+
+He had felt them all--all the emotions that a real desperado could feel.
+He had experienced the impulse to swagger, to pose--really to live the
+part that his ill-fame had given him.
+
+But he had resisted those impulses; and the glow in his eyes when in the
+presence of men who feared him was not the passion to kill, but a
+humorous contempt of all men who abased themselves before him.
+
+On the night he had been with Dave Hallowell, the marshal of Pardo, he
+had listened with steady interest to a story told him by the latter. It
+concerned the Lamo region and the great basin at which he and Barbara
+Morgan had been looking when the girl had accused him of a lack of poetic
+feeling.
+
+"I've heard reports about Sunset Valley," Hallowell had said, squinting
+his eyes at Harlan. "I've met Sheriff Gage two or three times, an' he's
+had somethin' to say about it. Accordin' to Gage, everything ain't on the
+surface over there; there's somethin' behind all that robbin' an'
+stealin' that's goin' on. There's somethin' big, but it's hid--an' no man
+ain't ever been able to find out what it is. But it's somethin'.
+
+"In the first place, Deveny's gang ain't never been heard of as pullin'
+off anything anywheres else but in Sunset Valley. As for that, there's
+plenty of room in the valley for them without gettin' out of it. But it
+seems they'd get out once in a while. They don't--they stay right in the
+valley, or close around it. Seems to me they've got a grudge ag'in' them
+Sunset Valley ranchers, an' are workin' it off.
+
+"Why? That question has got Gage guessin'. It's got everybody guessin'.
+Stock is bein' run off in big bunches; men is bein' murdered without no
+cause; no man is able to get any money in or out of the valley--an'
+they're doin' other things that is makin' the cattlemen feel nervous an'
+flighty.
+
+"They've scared one man out--a Pole named Launski--from the far end. He
+pulled stakes an' hit the breeze runnin' sellin' out for a song to a guy
+named Haydon. I seen Launski when he clumb on the Lamo stage, headin'
+this way, an' he sure was a heap relieved to get out with a whole skin."
+
+Hallowell talked long, and the mystery that seemed to surround Sunset
+Valley appealed to Harlan's imagination. Yet he did not reveal his
+interest to Hallowell until the latter mentioned Barbara Morgan. Then his
+eyes glowed, and he leaned closer to the marshal.
+
+And when Hallowell remarked that Lane Morgan, of the Rancho Seco had
+declared he would give half his ranch to a trustworthy man who could be
+depended upon to "work his guns" in the interest of the Morgan family,
+the slow tensing of Harlan's muscles might have betrayed the man's
+emotions--for Hallowell grinned faintly.
+
+Hallowell had said more. But he did not say that word had come to him
+from Sheriff Gage--an appeal, rather--to the effect that Morgan had sent
+to him for such a man, and that Gage had transmitted the appeal to
+Hallowell. Hallowell thought he knew Harlan, and he was convinced that if
+he told Harlan flatly that Morgan wanted to employ him for that definite
+purpose, Harlan would refuse.
+
+And so Hallowell had gone about his work obliquely. He knew Harlan more
+intimately than he knew any other man in the country; and he was aware
+that the chivalric impulse was stronger in Harlan than in any man he
+knew.
+
+And he was aware, too, that Harlan was scrupulously honest and square,
+despite the evil structure which had been built around him by rumor. He
+had watched Harlan for years, and knew him for exactly what he was--an
+imaginative, reckless, impulsive spirit who faced danger with the steady,
+unwavering eye of complete unconcern.
+
+As Hallowell had talked of the Rancho Seco he had seen Harlan's eyes
+gleam; seen his lips curve with a faint smile in which there was a hint
+of waywardness. And so Hallowell knew he had scattered his words on
+fertile mental soil.
+
+And yet Harlan would not have taken the trail that led to the Rancho Seco
+had not the killing of his friend, Davey Langan, followed closely upon
+the story related to him by the marshal.
+
+Harlan had ridden eastward, to Lazette--a matter of two hundred
+miles--trailing a herd of cattle from the T Down--the ranch where he and
+Langan were employed.
+
+When he returned he heard the story of the killing of his friend by
+Dolver and another man, not identified, but who rode a horse branded with
+the L Bar M--which was the Rancho Seco brand.
+
+It was Hallowell who broke the news of the murder to Harlan, together
+with the story of his pursuit of Dolver and the other man, and of his
+failure to capture them.
+
+There was no thought of romance in Harlan's mind when he mounted
+Purgatory to take up Dolver's trail; and when he came upon Dolver at
+Sentinel Rock--and later, until he had talked with Lane Morgan--he had no
+thought of offering himself to Morgan, to become that trustworthy man who
+would "work his guns" for the Rancho Seco owner.
+
+But after he had questioned Laskar--and had felt that Laskar was not the
+accomplice of Dolver in the murder of Langan--he had determined to go to
+the ranch, and had told Morgan of his determination.
+
+Now, sitting on the threshold of the Rancho Seco bunkhouse, he realized
+that his talk with Morgan had brought him here in a different role than
+he had anticipated.
+
+From where he sat he had a good view of all the buildings--low,
+flat-roofed adobe structures, scattered on the big level with no regard
+for system, apparently--erected as the needs of a growing ranch required.
+Yet all were well kept and substantial, indicating that Lane Morgan had
+been a man who believed in neatness and permanency.
+
+The ranchhouse was the largest of the buildings. It was two stories high
+on the side fronting the slope that led to the river, and another
+section--in what appeared to be the rear, facing the bunkhouse, also had
+a second story--a narrow, boxlike, frowning section which had the
+appearance of a blockhouse on the parapet wall of a fort.
+
+And that, Harlan divined, was just what it had been built for--for
+defensive purposes. For the entire structure bore the appearance of age,
+and the style of its architecture was an imitation of the Spanish type.
+It was evident that Lane Morgan had considered the warlike instincts of
+wandering bands of Apache Indians when he had built his house.
+
+The walls connecting the fortlike section in the rear with the two-story
+front were about ten feet in height, with few windows; and the entire
+structure was built in a huge square, with an inner court, or _patio_,
+reached by an entrance that penetrated the lower center of the two-story
+section in front.
+
+Harlan's interest centered heavily upon the ranchhouse, for it was there
+that Barbara Morgan had hidden herself, fearing him.
+
+She had entered a door that opened in the wall directly beneath the
+fortlike second story, and it was upon this door that Harlan's gaze was
+fixed. He smiled wryly, for sight of the door brought Barbara into his
+thoughts--though he was not sure she had been out of them since the first
+instant of his meeting with her in Lamo.
+
+"They've been tellin' her them damn stories about me bein' a
+hell-raiser--an' she believes 'em," he mused. And then his smile faded.
+"An she ain't none reassured by my mug."
+
+But it was upon the incident of his meeting with Barbara, and the odd
+coincidence of his coming upon her father at Sentinel Rock, that his
+thoughts dwelt longest.
+
+It was odd--that meeting at Sentinel Rock. And yet not so odd, either,
+considering everything.
+
+For he had been coming to the Rancho Seco. Before he had reached Sentinel
+Rock he had been determined to begin his campaign against the outlaws at
+the Rancho Seco. It was his plan to ask Morgan for a job, and to spend as
+much of his time as possible in getting information about Deveny and his
+men, in the hope of learning the identity of the man who had assisted in
+the murder of Langan.
+
+What was odd about the incident was that Morgan should attempt to cross
+to Pardo to have his gold assayed at just about the time Harlan had
+decided to begin his trip to the Rancho Seco.
+
+Harlan smiled as his gaze rested on the ranchhouse. He was glad he had
+met Lane Morgan; he was glad he had headed straight for Lamo after
+leaving Morgan. For by going straight to Lamo he had been able to balk
+Deveny's evil intentions toward the girl who, in the house now, was so
+terribly afraid of him.
+
+He had told Morgan why he was headed toward the Rancho Seco section, but
+he had communicated to Morgan that information only because he had wanted
+to cheer the man in his last moments. That was what had made Morgan's
+face light up as his life had ebbed away. And Harlan's eyes glowed now
+with the recollection.
+
+"The damned cuss--how he did brighten up!" he mused. "He sure was a heap
+tickled to know that the deck wasn't all filled with dirty deuces."
+
+And then Harlan's thoughts went again to Lamo, and to the picture Barbara
+had made running toward him. It seemed to him that he could still feel
+her in his arms, and a great regret that she distrusted him assailed him.
+
+He had sat for a long time on the threshold of the bunkhouse door, and
+after a time he noted that the moon was swimming high, almost overhead.
+He got up, unhurriedly, and again walked to the stable door, looking in
+at Purgatory. For Harlan did not intend to sleep tonight; he had
+resolved, since the Rancho Seco seemed to be deserted except for his and
+Barbara's presence, to guard the ranchhouse.
+
+For he knew that the passions of Deveny for the girl were thoroughly
+aroused. He had seen in Deveny's eyes there in Lamo a flame--when Deveny
+looked at Barbara--that told him more about the man's passions than
+Deveny himself suspected. He grinned coldly as he leaned easily against
+the stable door; for men of the Deveny type always aroused him--their
+personality had always seemed to strike discord into his soul; had always
+fanned into flame the smoldering hatred he had of such men; had always
+brought into his heart those savage impulses which he had sometimes felt
+when he was on the verge of yielding to the urge to become what men had
+thought him--and what they still thought him--a conscienceless killer.
+
+His smile now was bitter with the hatred that was in his heart for
+Deveny--for Deveny had cast longing, lustful eyes upon Barbara
+Morgan--and the smile grew into a sneer as he drew out paper and tobacco
+and began to roll a cigarette.
+
+But as he rolled the cigarette his fingers stiffened; the paper and the
+tobacco in it dropped into the dust at his feet; and he stiffened, his
+lips straightening, his eyes flaming with rage, his muscles tensing.
+
+For a horseman had appeared from out of the moonlit haze beyond the
+river. Rigid in the doorway--standing back a little so that he might not
+be seen--Harlan watched the man.
+
+The latter brought his horse to a halt when he reached the far corner of
+the ranchhouse, dismounted, and stole stealthily along the wall of the
+building.
+
+Harlan was not more than a hundred feet distant, and the glare of the
+moonlight shining full on the man as he paused before the door into which
+Barbara Morgan had gone, revealed him plainly to Harlan.
+
+The man was Meeder Lawson. Harlan's lips wreathed into a grin of cold
+contempt. He stepped quickly to Purgatory, drew his rifle from its saddle
+sheath and returned to the doorway. And there, standing in the shadows,
+he watched Lawson as the latter tried the door and, failing to open it,
+left it and crept along the wall of the building, going toward a window.
+
+The window also was fastened, it seemed, for Lawson stole away from it
+after a time and continued along the wall of the house until he reached
+the southeast corner. Around that, after a fleeting glance about him,
+Lawson vanished.
+
+Still grinning--though there was now a quality in the grin that might
+have warned Lawson, had he seen it--Harlan stepped down from the doorway,
+slipped into the shadow of the corral fence, and made his way toward the
+corner where Lawson had disappeared.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XI
+
+THE INTRUDER
+
+
+After closing the door through which she had entered, Barbara Morgan
+slipped the fastenings into place and stood, an ear pressed against the
+door, listening for sounds that would tell her Harlan had followed her.
+But beyond the door all was silence.
+
+Breathing fast, yielding to the panic of fear that had seized her, over
+the odd light she had seen in Harlan's eyes--a gleam, that to her, seemed
+to have been a reflection of some evil passion in the man's heart--she
+ran through the dark room she had entered, opened a door that led to the
+_patio_, and peered fearfully outward, as though she half expected to see
+Harlan there.
+
+But the court was deserted, apparently, though there were somber shadows
+ranging the enclosing walls that would afford concealment for Harlan, had
+he succeeded in gaining entrance. As she stepped out of the doorway she
+peered intently around.
+
+Then, further frightened by the brooding silence that seemed to envelop
+the place, and tortured by tragic thoughts in which her father occupied a
+prominent position--almost crazed by the memory of what had happened
+during the preceding twenty-four hours--she fled across the _patio_
+swiftly, her terror growing with each step.
+
+She knew the house thoroughly; she could have found her way in complete
+darkness; and when she reached the opposite side of the court she almost
+threw herself at a door which, she knew, opened into the big room in
+which she and her father had usually passed their leisure.
+
+Entering, she closed the door, and barred it. Then, feeling more secure,
+she stood for an instant in the center of the room, gazing about,
+afflicted with an appalling sense of loss, of loneliness, and of
+helplessness.
+
+For this was the first time she had entered the house since the news of
+her father's death had reached her; and she missed him, feeling more
+keenly than ever the grief she had endured thus far with a certain stoic
+calm; yielding to the tears that had been very close for hours.
+
+She did not light the kerosene lamp that stood on a big center table in
+the room. For there was light enough for her to see objects around her;
+and she went at last to an arm-chair which had been her father's
+favorite, knelt beside it, and sobbed convulsively.
+
+Later, yielding to a dull apathy which had stolen over her, she made her
+way upstairs, to her room--which was directly over the front entrance to
+the _patio_--and sank into a chair beside one of the windows.
+
+She had locked her door after entering; and for the first time since
+arriving at the Rancho Seco she felt comparatively safe.
+
+Her thoughts were incoherent--a queer jumble of mental impulses which
+seemed to lead her always back to the harrowing realization that she had
+lost her father. That was the gigantic axis around which her whole mental
+structure revolved. It was staggering, stupefying, and her brain reeled
+under it.
+
+Other thoughts came, flickered like feeble lights, and went out--thoughts
+of what had happened to her at Lamo; a dull wonder over Meeder Lawson's
+presence in town when he should have been with the men on the range;
+speculation as to the whereabouts of the men--why none of them had
+remained at the ranchhouse; and a sort of dumb, vague wonder over what
+her future would be.
+
+She thought, too, of John Haydon of the Star ranch--the big, smiling,
+serene-eyed man who seemed to bring a breath of romance with him each
+time he visited the Rancho Seco. Haydon would help her, she knew, and she
+would go to him in the morning.
+
+Her father had trusted Haydon, and she would trust him. Haydon was the
+one man in the section who seemed to have no fear of Deveny and his
+men--many times he had told her that most of the stories told of Deveny's
+crimes were untrue--that he had not committed all those that were
+attributed to him.
+
+Not that Haydon condoned those offenses upon which Deveny stood convicted
+by circumstantial evidence. Nor had Haydon ever sought to defend Deveny.
+On the other hand, Haydon's condemnation of the outlaw and his men had
+been vigorous--almost too vigorous for Haydon's safety, she had heard her
+father say.
+
+It was when her thoughts dwelt upon Harlan that she was most puzzled--and
+impressed. For though she was acquainted with the man's reputation--knowing
+him to be an outlaw of the reckless, dare-devil type--she felt the force of
+him, the compelling originality of him--as he differed from the outlaw of
+popular conception--his odd personality, which seemed to be a mingling of
+the elements of character embracing both good and evil.
+
+For though an outlaw himself, he had protected her from outlaws. And she
+had seen in his eyes certain expressions that told her that he felt
+impulses of sympathy and of tenderness. And his words to Deveny and
+others had seemed to hint of a fairly high honorableness.
+
+And though she had seen in his eyes a cold gleam that was convincing
+evidence of the presence of those ruthless passions which had made him an
+enemy of the law, she had also detected expressions in his eyes that told
+plainly of genial humor, of gentleness, and of consideration for other
+humans.
+
+But whatever she had seen in him, she felt his force--the terrible power
+of him when aroused. It was in the atmosphere that surrounded him; it was
+in the steady gleam of his eyes, in the poise of his head, and in the
+thrust of his jaw, all around him. She feared him, yet he fascinated
+her--compelled her--seemed to insist that she consider him in her scheme
+of life.
+
+In fact, he had made it plain to her that he intended to be considered.
+"I'm stayin' here," he had told her in his slow, deliberate way.
+
+And that seemed to end it--she knew he _would_ stay; that he was
+determined, and that nothing short of force would dissuade him. And what
+force could she bring against him? A man whose name, mentioned in the
+presence of other men, made their faces blanch.
+
+Deep in her heart, though, lurked a conviction that Harlan had not told
+her everything that had happened at Sentinel Rock. She was afflicted with
+a suspicion that he was holding something back. She had seen that in his
+eyes, too, she thought. It seemed to her that her father _might_ have
+told him to come to the Rancho Seco, and to stay there. And for that
+reason--because she suspected that Harlan had not told all he knew--she
+felt that she ought not order him away. If only he had not looked at her
+with that queer, insinuating smile!
+
+She had sat at the window for, it seemed to her, many hours before she
+became aware that the moon had risen and was directly overhead, flooding
+the ground in the vicinity of the ranchhouse with a soft, silver
+radiance.
+
+She got up with a start, remembering that she had left Harlan standing
+outside the door in the rear. She had almost forgotten that!
+
+She went to a window that opened into the _patio_, and looked downward.
+Every nook and corner of the _patio_ was visible now; the dark, somber
+shadows had been driven away, and in the silvery flood that poured down
+from above the enclosure was brilliant, clearly defined--and deserted.
+
+And yet as the girl looked, a presentiment of evil assailed her,
+whitening her cheeks and widening her eyes. The quiet peace and
+tranquillity of the _patio_ seemed to mock her; she felt that it held a
+sinister promise, a threat of dire things to come.
+
+The feeling was so strong that it drove her back from the window to the
+center of the room, where she stood, holding her breath, her hands
+clasped in front of her, the fingers twining stiffly. It seemed to her
+that she was waiting--waiting for something to happen--something that
+threatened.
+
+And when she heard a slight sound, seeming to arise from the room below
+her, she caught her breath with a gasp of horror.
+
+But she did not move. She stood there, with no breath issuing from
+between her lips, for many minutes, it seemed--waiting, dreading, a cold
+paralysis stealing over her.
+
+And then again it came--an odd sound--slow, creaking, seeming to come
+always nearer. It was not until she heard the sound directly outside her
+door that she realized that what she heard was a step on the stairs. And
+then, convinced that Harlan had gained entrance, she slipped noiselessly
+across the room to the front wall, where she took down a heavy pistol
+that hung from a wooden peg.
+
+With the huge weapon in hand she returned to a point near the center of
+the room, and with bated breath and glowing, determined eyes, faced the
+door.
+
+And when, after a time, she heard the door creak with a weight that
+seemed to be against it--after she saw it give; heard the lock break, and
+saw a man's form darken the opening as the door was flung wide--she
+pressed the trigger of the weapon once--twice--three times--in rapid
+succession.
+
+She heard the man curse, saw him catch at his chest, and tumble headlong
+toward her. And she fired again, thinking he was trying to grasp her.
+
+She laughed hysterically when she saw him sink to the floor and stretch
+out with a queer inertness. Then, swaying, her brain reeling with the
+horror of the thing, she managed to get to the bed at the other side of
+the room. When she reached it she collapsed gently, a long, convulsive
+shudder running over her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XII
+
+BARBARA SEES A LIGHT
+
+
+When Barbara regained consciousness it was with a gasp of horror over the
+realization of what had happened. She stiffened immediately, however, and
+lay, straining at the dread paralysis that had gripped her; for she saw
+Harlan standing at her side, looking down into her face, his own set in a
+grim smile.
+
+She must have fainted again, for it seemed to her that a long period of
+time elapsed until she again became conscious of her surroundings. Harlan
+had moved off a little, though he was still watching her with the grimly
+humorous expression.
+
+She sat up, staring wildly at him; then shrank back, getting as far away
+from him as she could.
+
+"You!" she gasped, "You! Didn't I----"
+
+He interrupted her, drawling his words a little:
+
+"The guy you shot was Lawson. You bored him a heap. I've toted him
+downstairs. He's plenty dead. It was plumb good shootin'--for a woman."
+
+His words shocked her to action, and she got up and walked around the
+foot of the bed, from where she could see the spot where the intruder
+must have fallen after she had shot him. A dark stain showed on the floor
+where the man had lain, and the sight of it sent her a step backward, so
+that she struck the foot of the bed. She caught at the bed and grasped
+one of the posts, holding tightly to it while she looked Harlan over with
+dreading, incredulous eyes.
+
+"It--it wasn't _you_!" she demanded. "Are you sure?"
+
+He smiled and said, slowly and consolingly: "I reckon if you'd shot _me_
+I'd be knowin' it. Don't take it so hard, ma'am. Why, if a man goes to
+breakin' into a woman's room that way he sure ain't fit to go on livin'
+in a world where there _is_ a woman."
+
+"It was Lawson--you say? Meeder Lawson--the Rancho Seco foreman? I
+thought--why, I thought it was you!"
+
+"I'm thankin' you, ma'am," he said, ironically. "But if you'll just stick
+your head out of that window, you'll see it was Lawson, right enough.
+He's layin' right below the window."
+
+She did as bidden, and she saw Lawson lying on the ground beneath the
+window, flat on his back, his face turned upward with the radiant
+moonlight shining full upon his wide-open, staring eyes.
+
+Barbara glanced swiftly, and then drew back into the room, shuddering.
+
+Harlan stood, silently regarding her, while she walked again to the bed
+and sat upon it, staring out into the flood of moonlight, her face
+ghastly, her hands hanging limply at her sides.
+
+She had killed a man. And though there was justification for the deed,
+she could not fight down the shivering horror that had seized her, the
+overpowering and terrible knowledge that she had taken human life.
+
+She sat on the edge of the bed for a long time, and Harlan said no word
+to her, standing motionless, his arms folded, one hand slowly caressing
+his chin, as he watched her.
+
+After a time, drawing a long, shuddering breath, she looked up at him.
+
+"How did you know--what made you come--here?" she asked.
+
+"I wasn't reckonin' to sleep tonight--havin' thoughts--about things," he
+said. "I was puttin' in a heap of my time settin' in the doorway of the
+bunkhouse, wonderin' what had made you so scared of me. While I was
+tryin' to figure it out I saw Lawson comin'. There was somethin' in his
+actions which didn't jibe with my ideas of square dealin', an' so I kept
+lookin' at him. An' when I saw him prowlin' around, tryin' to open doors
+an' windows, why, I just naturally trailed him. An' I found the window he
+opened. I reckon that's all."
+
+She got up, swaying a little, a wan smile on her face that reflected her
+astonishment and wonder over the way she had jumbled things. For this
+man--the man she had feared when she had left him standing outside the
+door some hours before--had been eager to protect her from the other, who
+had attacked her. He had been waiting, watching.
+
+Moreover, there was in Harlan's eyes as he stood in the room a
+considerate, deferential gleam that told her more than words could have
+conveyed to her--a something that convinced her that he was not the type
+of man she had thought him.
+
+The knowledge filled her with a strange delight. There was relief in her
+eyes, and her voice was almost steady when she again spoke to him:
+
+"Harlan," she said, "did father really send you here? Did he make you
+promise to come?"
+
+"I reckon he did, ma'am," he said.
+
+For an instant she looked fairly at him, intently searching his eyes for
+indications of untruthfulness. Then she drew a long breath of conviction.
+
+"I believe you," she said.
+
+Harlan swept his hat from his head. He bowed, and there was an odd leap
+in his voice:
+
+"That tickles me a heap, ma'am. I don't know when I've heard anything
+that pleased me more."
+
+He backed away from her until he reached the doorway. And she saw his
+eyes--wide and eloquent--even in the subdued light of the doorway.
+
+"I'd go to sleep now, ma'am, if I was you. You need it a heap. It's been
+a long day for you--an' things ain't gone just right. I don't reckon
+there'll be anybody botherin' you any more tonight."
+
+"And you?" she asked, "won't you try to get some sleep, too?"
+
+He laughed, telling her that he would "ketch a wink or two." Then he
+turned and went down the stairs--she could hear him as he opened a lower
+door and went out.
+
+Looking out of the window an instant later, she saw him taking Lawson's
+body away. And still later, hearing a sound outside, she stole to the
+window again.
+
+Below, seated on the threshold of the door that led into the room she had
+entered when she had crossed the _patio_, she saw Harlan. He was smoking
+a cigarette, leaning against the door jamb in an attitude of complete
+relaxation.
+
+There was something in his manner that comforted her--a calm confidence,
+a slow ease of movement as he fingered his cigarette that indicated
+perfect tranquility--an atmosphere of peace that could not have
+surrounded him had he meditated any evil whatever.
+
+She knew, now, that she had misjudged him. For he had made no attempt to
+take advantage of her loneliness and helplessness. And whatever his
+reputation--whatever the crimes he had committed against the laws--he had
+been a gentleman in his attitude toward her. That feature of his conduct
+dominated her thoughts as she stretched out on the bed; it was her last
+coherent thought as she went to sleep.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIII
+
+HARLAN TAKES CHARGE
+
+
+Barbara could not have told why she had not acted upon her determination
+to ride westward to the Star ranch to acquaint John Haydon with the
+predicament into which the events of the past few hours had plunged her.
+She could not have explained why she permitted the first day--after
+Harlan's coming--to pass without going to see Haydon, any more than she
+could have explained why she permitted many other days to pass in the
+same manner.
+
+She was almost convinced, though, that it was because of the manner in
+which Harlan took charge of the ranch--the capable and business-like way
+he had of treating the men.
+
+For the outfit came in late in the afternoon following the night which
+had marked the death of Lawson--the straw-boss explaining that he had
+received explicit orders from Lawson to "work" a grass level several
+miles down the river.
+
+One other reason for Barbara's failure to ride to the Star--a reason that
+she did not permit to dwell prominently in her thoughts--was resentment.
+
+She had permitted the first day to pass without going to see Haydon. But
+when it had gone and another day dawned without Haydon coming to see
+_her_, she felt that he was deliberately absenting himself. For certainly
+he must have heard what had happened, and if he thought as much of her as
+he had led her to believe he would have come to her instantly.
+
+Had Haydon seen the defiant gleam of her eyes when she gazed westward--in
+the direction of the Star--he might have realized that each day he stayed
+away from the Rancho Seco would make it that much more difficult for him
+to explain.
+
+Barbara stayed indoors much of the time during the first days of Harlan's
+control of the ranch, but from the windows she saw him--noted that the
+men obeyed him promptly and without question.
+
+A sense of loss, of emptiness, still afflicted the girl, and yet through
+it all there ran a thrill of satisfaction, of assurance that the
+steady-eyed man who had saved her from Deveny, and who had treated her
+like a courtier of old on the night she had killed Lawson, seemed to have
+her welfare in mind, seemed--despite the reputation the people of the
+country had given him--to have constituted himself her guardian, without
+expectation of reward of the kind she had feared he sought.
+
+Harlan's method of assuming control of the Rancho Seco had been direct
+and simple. When the twenty-seven men of the outfit had straggled into
+the yard surrounding the big corral--the chuck-wagon, bearing the cook
+and his assistant, trailing a little behind, and followed by the horses
+of the _remuda_ with the wrangler hurling vitriolic language in the
+rear--Harlan was standing beside Purgatory near the corral fence in front
+of one of the bunkhouses.
+
+He had paid--apparently--no attention to the men as they dismounted,
+unsaddled, and turned their horses into the corral, and he did not even
+look at the belligerent-eyed cook whose sardonic glance roved over him.
+
+But the men of the outfit watched him out of the corners of their eyes;
+as they passed him to go to the bunkhouses, they shot inquiring,
+speculating glances at one another, full of curiosity, not unmixed with
+astonishment over his continued silence.
+
+It was when, drawn by the wonder that consumed them, they gathered in a
+group near the door of one of the bunkhouses, that Harlan moved toward
+them.
+
+For he had noted that they had become grouped, and that into the
+atmosphere had come a tension.
+
+Harlan's actions had been governed by design. His continued silence had
+been strategy of a subtle order. It had attracted the attention of the
+men, it had intrigued their interest.
+
+If he had spoken to them while they had been moving about on their
+different errands, telling them that henceforth he was to manage the
+Rancho Seco, they would have given him scant attention. Also, he would
+not have been able to study their faces as he had studied them while they
+had been watching him, and he would not have gained the knowledge of
+their characters that he now possessed.
+
+Besides, a humorous malice possessed Harlan--he wanted to view them
+collectively when he gave them his news, to note the various ways in
+which they would receive it.
+
+Absolute silence greeted Harlan's forward movement. He could hear the
+labored breathing of some of the men--men of violent temper who sensed
+trouble--and his grin grew broad as he halted within a dozen feet of the
+group.
+
+"Boys," he said, slowly, "you've got a new boss. It's me. A day or so
+ago, crossin' from Pardo, I run into a ruckus at Sentinel Rock. Lane
+Morgan was the center of the ruckus--an' he got perforated--plenty. But
+before he cashed in he got a gleam of downright sense an' told me he'd
+been lookin' for me, to make me manager of the Rancho Seco.
+
+"I'm reckonin' to be manager--beginnin' now. If there's any of you men
+that ain't admirin' to do the jumpin' when I yap orders to you, you're
+doin' your gassin' right now. Them that's pinin' to work under me is sure
+of a square deal, beginnin' now, and continuin' henceforth. I reckon
+that's all."
+
+Into Harlan's eyes as he talked had come that vacuous light that had been
+in them when he had faced Deveny's men in Lamo--the light that was always
+in his eyes whenever he faced more than one man, with trouble imminent.
+
+He saw the face of every man in the group--while seeming not to be
+looking at any of them. He noted the various shades of expression that
+came into their faces as they digested his words, he saw how some of them
+watched him with sober interest and how others permitted themselves a
+sneer of incredulity or dislike.
+
+He noted that a tall, slender, swarthy man on the extreme left of the
+group watched him with a malevolent gaze, his eyes flaming hate; he saw a
+black-haired, hook-nosed fellow near the center of the group watching him
+with a grin of cold contempt.
+
+It seemed to Harlan that a fair proportion of the men were willing to
+acknowledge his authority--for they were frankly studying him, ready to
+greet him as their employer. Many others, however, were as frankly
+hostile.
+
+After Harlan ceased speaking there came a short silence, during which
+many of the men looked at one another inquiringly.
+
+It was a moment during which, had a leader appeared to take the
+initiative for those who intended to dissent from Harlan's rule, the
+outfit might have been divided.
+
+Evidently the tall, swarthy man divined that the time to dissent had
+come, for he cleared his throat, and grinned felinely.
+
+Before he could speak, however, a short man with keen eyes that, since
+the instant they had rested upon Harlan, had been glowing with something
+that might have been defined as mingled astonishment and delight thinly
+concealed by a veneer of humor--said distinctly:
+
+"You crossed over from Pardo--you say?"
+
+Harlan nodded, and a pin-point of recognition glowed in his eyes as he
+looked at the man.
+
+The other laughed, lowly. "Seems I know you," he said. "You're 'Drag'
+Harlan!"
+
+A tremor ran through the group. There was a concerted stiffening of
+bodies, a general sigh from lungs in process of deflation. And then the
+group stood silent, every man watching Harlan with that intent curiosity
+that comes with one's first glimpse of a noted character, introduced
+without expectation.
+
+Harlan noted that a change had come over the men. Those whose faces had
+betrayed their inclination to accept his authority had taken--without
+exception--a glum, disappointed expression. On the other hand, those who
+had formerly betrayed hostility, were now grinning with satisfaction.
+
+A tremor of malicious amusement, expressed visibly by a flicker of his
+eyelids, was Harlan's only emotion over the change that had come in the
+men of the group. He could now have selected those of the men who--as
+Lane Morgan had said--could not be trusted, and he could have pointed out
+those who had been loyal to Morgan, and who would be loyal to Barbara and
+himself.
+
+Among the former were the tall, swarthy man on the extreme left, and the
+hook-nosed fellow near the center. There were perhaps ten of the latter,
+and it was plain to Harlan that the short man who had spoken was their
+leader.
+
+"'Drag' Harlan--eh?"
+
+This was the tall, swarthy man. The malevolence had gone from his eyes,
+he was grinning broadly, though there was respect of a fawning character
+in his manner as he stepped out from the group and halted within a few
+feet of Harlan.
+
+"Me an' my friends wasn't none tickled to find that we was goin' to have
+a new manager. We was sort of expectin' Miss Barbara to do the runnin'
+herself. But if _you_ say you're runnin' things, that makes it a whole
+lot different. We ain't buckin' 'Drag' Harlan's game."
+
+"Thank you," grinned Harlan. "I saw you reportin' to Miss Morgan. You're
+straw-boss, I reckon."
+
+"You've hit it. I'm Stroud--Lafe Stroud."
+
+"You'll keep on bein' straw-boss," said Harlan, shortly. "I'm appointin'
+a foreman."
+
+"Where's Lawson?"
+
+It was Stroud who spoke. There was a shadow of disappointment in his
+eyes.
+
+"Lawson won't be needin' a title any more," said Harlan, narrowing his
+eyes at the other. "He needs plantin'. Soon as we get set some of you
+boys can go over an' take care of him. You'll find him in the harness
+shop. He busted down the door of Miss Barbara's room last night, an' she
+made a colander out of him."
+
+Harlan ignored the effect of his news on the men, fixing his gaze on the
+short man who had spoken first, and who was now standing silent, in an
+attitude that hinted of dejection.
+
+"You'll be foreman, Linton," he stated shortly.
+
+Linton, who had been glumly listening, was so startled by the sudden
+descent upon his shoulders of the mantle of authority that he
+straightened with a snap and grabbed wildly at his hat--which dropped
+from his head despite his effort to clutch it, revealing a mop of fiery
+red hair. When he straightened, after recovering the hat, his freckled
+face was crimson with embarrassment and astonishment.
+
+"I'm obliged to you," he mumbled.
+
+That had ended it. The following morning Linton came to Harlan for
+orders, and a little later the entire outfit, headed by Stroud, and
+trailed by the chuck-wagon and the horses of the _remuda_, started
+southward to a distant section of the big level, leaving Linton and
+Harlan at the ranchhouse.
+
+And as the outfit faded into the southern distance, Harlan, walking near
+the larger of the two bunkhouses, came upon Linton.
+
+Harlan grinned when he saw the other.
+
+"You didn't go with the outfit, Red?" he said. "Seems a foreman ought to
+be mighty eager to be with his men on their first trip after he's
+appointed."
+
+Linton's face was pale, his gaze was direct.
+
+"Look here, Harlan," he said, steadily. "I've knowed you a long time, an'
+I know that you're a damn' sight straighter than a lot of men which has
+got reputations better than yourn. But there's some things want
+explainin'. I've sort of took a shine to that little girl in there.
+There's things brewin' which is goin' to make it mighty bad for her. It
+wasn't so bad while old Morgan was here, but now he's gone, an' she's got
+to play it a lone hand.
+
+"You git riled an' sling your gun on me if you want to. I know I wouldn't
+have a chance. But just the same, I'm tellin' you. You know that more'n
+half that outfit you've put me at the head of is Deveny's men--sneakin',
+thievin', murderin' outlaws?"
+
+"You wantin' to quit, Red?" said Harlan, smoothly.
+
+"Quit! Hell's fire! I'm hangin' on to the finish. But I'm findin' out
+where you stand. What you meanin' to do with Barbara Morgan?"
+
+Harlan grinned. "I answered that question when I appointed you foreman,
+Red. But I reckon I made a mistake--I ought to have appointed a man who
+knows what his think-box is for."
+
+Linton flushed, and peered intently at the other.
+
+"Meanin' that you're backin' Barbara in this here deal?" he demanded.
+
+"A real thoughtful man would have tumbled to it quicker," was Harlan's
+soft, ironical reply.
+
+For an instant Linton's gaze was intense with searching, probing inquiry.
+And Harlan's steady eyes were agleam with a light that was so quietly
+honest that it made Linton gasp:
+
+"Damn me! You mean it! You're playin' 'em straight, face up. That talk of
+yourn about Lane Morgan makin' you manager was straight goods. I know
+Dolver an' Laskar an' the guy they call 'Chief' plugged Morgan--for I
+heard Stroud an' some more of them talkin' about it. An' I heard that you
+got Dolver an' Laskar, an' kept Deveny from grabbin' off Barbara Morgan,
+over in Lamo. But I thought you was playin' for Barbara, too--an' I
+wasn't figurin' on lettin' you."
+
+Harlan laughed lowly.
+
+"Things don't always shape up the way a man thinks they will, Red. I
+started for Lamo, figurin' to salivate Dolver an' the other guy who
+killed Davey Langan. I got Dolver at Sentinel Rock, an' I figured I'd be
+likely to run into the other guy somewheres--mebbe findin' him in
+Deveny's gang. But runnin' into Lane Morgan sort of changed the deal. An'
+now I'm postponin' a lot of things until Barbara Morgan is runnin' free,
+with no coyotes from the Deveny crowd tryin' to rope her."
+
+Linton's eyes were glowing, he crowded close to Harlan, so close that his
+body touched Harlan's, and he stood thus for an instant, breathing fast.
+Then, noting the unwavering, genial gleam in Harlan's eyes--a visible
+sign of Harlan's knowledge of his deep emotion--Linton seized one of the
+other's hands and gripped it tightly.
+
+"Damn your hide," he said, lowly, "you had me goin'. I'm dead set on
+seein' that girl git a square deal, an' when I saw you makin' a play for
+them damned outlaws that are in the outfit, I sure figured there'd be
+hell a-poppin' around the Rancho Seco. You sure had me flabbergasted when
+you named me foreman, for I couldn't anticipate your trail none.
+
+"But I reckon I'm wised up, now. You're goin' to run a whizzer in on
+'em--playin' 'em for suckers. An' I'm your right-hand man--stickin' with
+you until hell runs long on icebergs!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIV
+
+SHADOWS
+
+
+A desire to ride once more in the peaceful sunshine of the land she loved
+was one of the first indications that Barbara was recovering from the
+shock occasioned by her father's death. For two or three days she had not
+stirred from her room, except to go downstairs to cook her meals. She had
+spent much of her time sitting at a window nursing her sorrow.
+
+But on this morning she got out of bed feeling more composed than usual,
+with several new emotions struggling for the mastery. One of those
+emotions was that of intolerance.
+
+Harlan's assumption of authority enraged her. He had come to the Rancho
+Seco with no credentials other than his mere word that her father had
+forced him to promise to "take hold" of "things." And she intended, this
+very morning, to send Harlan away, and to assume control of the ranch
+herself.
+
+This determination held until after she had breakfasted, and then she
+stood for a long time in the kitchen door, looking out into the brilliant
+sunshine, afflicted with a strange indecision.
+
+Harlan _had_ helped to fill the void created by her father's death--that
+was certain. There had been something satisfying in his presence at the
+ranch; it had seemed to mean an assurance for her safety; she had felt
+almost as fully protected as when her father had been with her. It
+angered her to see him moving about the place as though he had a perfect
+right to be there, but at the same time she felt comfortably certain that
+as long as he was around no harm could come to her.
+
+Her emotions were so contradictory that she could not reach a decision
+regarding the action she should take and she bit her lips with vexation
+as she stood in the doorway.
+
+Later, her cheeks a little flushed with the realization that she was
+surrendering to an emotion that she could not understand--but which, she
+decided guiltily, her face crimson, had its inception in a conviction
+that she would regret seeing Harlan ride away, to return no more--she
+went to the corral, roped her pony, threw saddle and bridle on it,
+mounted the animal, and rode away--westward.
+
+She had not traveled more than half a mile when she heard the rapid
+beating of hoofs behind her. Glancing swiftly backward, she saw Purgatory
+coming, Harlan in the saddle, smoking a cigarette.
+
+Her pulses leaped, unaccountably, and the crimson flush again stained her
+cheeks; but she sat rigid in the saddle, and looked straight ahead,
+pretending she had not discovered the presence of horse and rider behind
+her.
+
+She rode another half mile before the flush died out of her cheeks. And
+then, responding to a swift indignation, she brought Billy to a halt,
+wheeled him, and sat motionless in the saddle, her face pale, her eyes
+flashing.
+
+With apparent unconcern Harlan rode toward her. The big black horse did
+not change his pace, nor did Harlan change expression. It seemed to the
+girl that in both horse and rider were a steadfastness of purpose that
+nothing could change. And despite her indignation, she felt a thrill of
+admiration for both man and horse.
+
+Yet her eyes were still flashing ominously when Harlan rode to within a
+dozen paces of her and brought the big black to a halt.
+
+There was an expression of grave respect on Harlan's face; but she saw a
+lurking devil in his eyes--a gleam of steady, quizzical humor--that made
+her yearn to use her quirt on him. For by that gleam she knew he had
+purposely followed her; that he expected her to be angry with him for
+doing so. And the gleam also told her that he had determined to bear with
+her anger.
+
+"Well?" she inquired, icily.
+
+"Good mornin', ma'am." He bowed to her, sweeping his broad-brimmed hat
+from his head with, it seemed to her, an ironical flourish.
+
+"Is there something you want to speak to me about?" she asked, her chin
+elevated, disdain in her eyes. She assured herself that when he glanced
+at her as he was doing at this instant, she positively hated him. She
+wondered why she had tolerated his presence.
+
+"I wasn't havin' any thoughts about speakin' to you, ma'am. Kind of a
+nice mornin' for a ride, ain't it?"
+
+"If one rides alone," she returned, significantly.
+
+"I enjoy ridin' a whole lot better when I've got company," he stated,
+gravely, with equal significance.
+
+"Meaning that you have made up your mind to ride with me, I suppose?" she
+said coldly.
+
+"You've hit it, ma'am."
+
+"Well," she declared, her voice quivering with passion; "I don't want you
+to ride with me. You came here and usurped whatever power and authority
+there is; and you are running the Rancho Seco as though it belongs to
+you. But you shan't ride with me--I don't want you to!"
+
+Had she been standing she must have stamped one foot on the ground, so
+vehement was her manner. And the flashing scorn of her eyes should have
+been enough to discourage most men.
+
+But not Harlan. His eyelids flickered with some emotion; and his
+eyes--she noted now, even though she could have killed him for his
+maddening insistence--were blue, and rimmed by heavy lashes that sun and
+sand had bleached until the natural brown of them threatened to become a
+light tan.
+
+She studied him, even while hating him for she saw the force of him--felt
+it. And though she was thinking spiteful things of him, she found that
+she was forming a new impression of him--of his character, his
+appearance, and of the motives that controlled him.
+
+And she thought she knew why men avoided having trouble with him. She
+told herself that if she were a man and she were facing him with violence
+in her heart, she would consider seriously before she betrayed it to him.
+For in his eyes, in the lips, in the thrust of his chin--even in the
+atmosphere that surrounded him at this instant, was a threat, an unspoken
+promise, lingering and dormant, of complete readiness--almost eagerness,
+she was convinced--for violence.
+
+She drew a sharp breath as she watched him. And when she saw his lips
+curving into a slight smile--wholesome, though grave; with a hint of
+boyish amusement in them--she got another quick impression of his
+character, new and startling and illuminating.
+
+For behind the hard, unyielding exterior that he presented to men; back
+of the promise and the threat of violence, was the impulsiveness and the
+gentleness that would have ruled him had not the stern necessity of
+self-preservation forced him to conceal them.
+
+The smile disarmed her. It _did_ seem ludicrous--that she should try to
+force this man to do anything he did not want to do. And she had known
+that he would not obey her, and ride back to the ranchhouse; she was
+convinced that she must either go back or suffer him to follow her as he
+pleased.
+
+And she was determined not to give up her ride. She was determined to be
+very haughty about it, though; but when she wheeled Billy, to head him
+again into the western distance, her eyes twinkled her surrender, and her
+lips trembled on the verge of a defiant smile.
+
+Then Billy felt the quirt on his flank; he snorted with astonishment and
+disgust, and charged forward, tossing his head intolerantly.
+
+Looking sidelong, after Billy had traveled two or three hundred yards,
+Barbara observed that the big black horse was not more than half a dozen
+steps behind. And curiously, Barbara again experienced that comfortable
+assurance of protection, and of satisfaction over the nearness of Harlan.
+
+Moved by an entirely unaccountable impulse, she drew the reins slightly
+on Billy, slowing him, almost imperceptibly, so that both horses had
+traveled more than a quarter of a mile before the distance between them
+lessened noticeably.
+
+And then, with an impatience that caused her cheeks to glow, Barbara
+noted that Purgatory had slowed also, Harlan seemingly accommodating the
+animal's pace to her own. It was plain to see that Harlan did not intend
+to assume that she had relented.
+
+For another quarter of a mile the distance remained the same, and the
+silence was unbroken except by the rhythmical beating of hoofs through
+the rustling, matted mesquite.
+
+Then Barbara, yielding to an impulse of righteous anger, brought on by
+Harlan's obvious intention to remain at a respectful distance,
+deliberately brought Billy to a walk and waited until Harlan rode beside
+her.
+
+"You don't need to be a brute--even if I did tell you to go back to the
+ranchhouse!"
+
+"Meanin' what, ma'am? Why, I don't remember to have done anything. I was
+doin' a heap of thinkin' just now--if that's what you mean."
+
+"Thinking mean things of me--I suppose--for what I said to you."
+
+He had been thinking of her--seriously. And his thoughts were far from
+fickle as he watched her now, riding within a few feet of him, her
+profile toward him, her head having a rigid set, her chin held high, her
+lips tight-pressed, and her hair drooping in graceful coils over her
+ears, and bulging in alluring disorder at the nape of her neck.
+
+He was thinking that he had braved, to answer a mere whim, greater
+dangers than he would be likely to meet in defending her from the
+wolf-pack which circumstances had set upon her. He was thinking that
+heretofore his life had been lived without regard to order or
+system--that he had led a will-o'-the-wisp existence, never knowing that
+such women as she graced the world. He was thinking of what might have
+happened to her had not Davey Langan been killed, and if he had not
+started out to avenge him.
+
+Into his thoughts at this minute flashed a mental picture that paled his
+face and brought his lips into straight, hard lines--a picture of Barbara
+at the mercy of Deveny.
+
+With a quick turn he brought Purgatory around in front of Billy, blocking
+the animal's further progress westward. The girl started at the rapid
+movement, and watched him fearfully, dreading--she knew not what.
+
+But his smile--grim and mirthless though it was--partially reassured her,
+and she sat silent, looking at him as he spoke, rapidly, earnestly.
+
+"I was thinkin' of you; an' I wasn't thinkin' mean things--about you. I
+was thinkin' of Deveny--an' of what your dad told me over there by
+Sentinel Rock.
+
+"Your dad told me that you was in danger--that Deveny an' Strom Rogers
+an' some more of them had their eyes turned on you. Your dad made me
+promise that I'd come here an' look out for you--an' I mean to do it.
+That's why I went to Lamo when I had no call to go there an' that's why I
+brought Deveny to a show-down in front of you.
+
+"There's somethin' goin' on around here that ain't showin' on the
+surface--somethin' that's hidden an' sneakin'. You heard some of them
+guys in Lamo gassin' about the 'Chief' bein' one of the three that sent
+your dad over the Divide.
+
+"Well, your dad told me that, too--that there was three of them pitched
+onto him. It was the fellow they call Chief that shot your dad while he
+was sleepin'--when it was too dark for your dad to see his face. Your dad
+made me promise to hunt that guy up an' square things for him. That's
+what I'm here for. Anyway, it's one reason I'm here. The other reason is
+that I'm goin' to see that you get a square deal from them guys.
+
+"An' you won't get a square deal ridin' out alone, like this--especially
+when you head toward Sunset Trail, where Deveny an' his gang hang out.
+An' I'm settin' down hard on you ridin' that way. I'm keepin' you from
+runnin' any chances."
+
+Silently Barbara had watched Harlan's face while he had been talking.
+There was no doubt that he was in earnest, and there was likewise no
+doubt that he was concerned for her safety. But why? It seemed absurd
+that Harlan, an outlaw himself, should protect her from other outlaws.
+Yet in Lamo he had done just that.
+
+Behind his actions, his expressed concern for her, must be a motive. What
+was it? Was it possible that he was doing this thing unselfishly; that
+the promise her father had exacted from him had changed him; that in his
+heart at this instant dwelt those finer impulses which must be dormant in
+all men, however bad?
+
+The light of that great inquiry was in her eyes; they searched his face
+for subtlety and craft and cunning--for something that would give her a
+clue to his thoughts. And when she could find in his expression only a
+grave concern she pulled Billy around and started him back toward the
+ranchhouse.
+
+They had not ridden more than a hundred yards before she stole a glance
+at Harlan.
+
+He was now riding beside her, looking straight ahead, his face
+expressionless. Had he betrayed the slightest sign of triumph she would
+have changed her mind about going back to the ranchhouse with him.
+
+As it was, she felt a pulse of rage over her readiness in yielding to his
+orders. Yet the rage was softened by a lurking, stealthy joy she got out
+of his masterfulness.
+
+"I presume I may ride in another direction--east, for instance--or north,
+or south?"
+
+He apparently took no notice of the mockery in her voice.
+
+"You'll not be ridin' alone, anywhere," he declared.
+
+"Oh!" she returned, raising her chin and looking at him with a cold scorn
+that, she thought, would embarrass him; "I am to have a guardian."
+
+He looked straight back to her, steadily, seemingly unaffected by the
+hostility of her gaze.
+
+"It amounts to that. But mebbe I wouldn't put it just that way.
+Somebody's got to look out for you--to see that you don't go to rushin'
+into trouble. There was trouble over in Lamo--if you'll remember."
+
+And now he smiled gravely at her, and her face reddened over the memory
+of the incident. She had been eager enough, then, to seek his protection;
+she had trusted him.
+
+"That wasn't your fault," he went on gently. "You didn't know then,
+mebbe, just what kind of a guy Deveny is. But you know now, an' it
+_would_ be your fault if you run into him again."
+
+He saw how she took it--how her color came and went, and how her eyes
+drooped from his. He smiled soberly.
+
+"Looks to me that you've got to pin your faith to a mighty small chance,
+ma'am."
+
+"What chance?" She looked at him in startled wonderment, for it had not
+occurred to her that she faced any real danger, despite the threatening
+attitude of Deveny, and her isolation. For the great, peaceful world, and
+the swimming sunlight were full of the promise of the triumph of right
+and virtue; and the sturdy self-reliance of youth was in her heart.
+
+"What chance?" she repeated, watching him keenly.
+
+"The chance that me an' Red Linton will be able to get things into shape
+to look out for you." He was gravely serious.
+
+"It must seem a mighty slim chance to you--me comin' here with a
+reputation that ain't any too good, an' Linton, with his red head an' his
+freckles. Seems like a woman would go all wrong, pinnin' her faith to red
+hair an' freckles an' a hell-raisin' outlaw. But there's been worse
+combinations, ma'am--if I do say it myself. An' me an' Red is figurin' to
+come through, no matter what you think of us."
+
+"Red Linton?" she said. "That is the little, short, red-haired man you
+put in Lawson's place, isn't it? I have never noticed him--particularly.
+It seems that I have always thought him rather unimportant."
+
+Harlan grinned. "That's a trick Red's got--seemin' unimportant. Red
+spends a heap of his time not sayin' anything, an' hangin' around lookin'
+like he's been misplaced. But when there's any trouble, you'll find Red
+like the banty rooster that's figurin' to rule the roost.
+
+"I knowed him over in Pardo, ma'am--he rode for the T Down for two or
+three seasons."
+
+"You are anticipating trouble--with Deveny?" she asked, a tremor in her
+voice.
+
+"There ain't any use of tryin' to hide it, ma'am. Mebbe your dad thought
+you'd be better off by him not mentionin' it to you. But I've got a
+different idea. Anyone--man or woman--knows a heap more about how to go
+about things if they're sort of able to anticipate trouble. Your dad told
+me things was in a mixup over here with Deveny an' some more of his kind;
+an' I ain't aimin' to let you go ramblin' around in the dark.
+
+"About half the Rancho Seco men belong to Deveny's gang, Linton says.
+That's why I put Linton in Lawson's place; an' that's why I'm askin' you
+to stick pretty close to the Rancho Seco, an' requestin' you not to go
+rummagin' around the country."
+
+She rode on silently, her face pale, digesting this disquieting news. She
+remembered now that her father _had_ seemed rather worried at times, and
+that upon several occasions he had hinted that he was distrustful of some
+of the Rancho Seco men. But as Harlan had said, he had never taken her
+completely into his confidence--no doubt because he had not wanted her to
+worry. That was very like her father--always making life easy for her.
+
+However, covertly watching Harlan, she was conscious of an emotion that
+the latter did not suspect. The emotion was confidence--not in Harlan,
+for, though she had seen that he, apparently, was eager to become her
+champion, she could not forget that he, too, was an outlaw, with no proof
+that he had been sent to the Rancho Seco by her father; with nothing but
+his actions to convince her that his motives were founded upon
+consideration for her welfare.
+
+She thought of John Haydon as she rode beside Harlan; and it was
+confidence in him that was expressed in her glances at Harlan; she was
+convinced that she did not have to depend entirely upon Harlan. And when,
+as they neared the ranchhouse, and she saw a big gray horse standing near
+the entrance to the _patio_, her face reddened and her eyes grew
+brilliant with a light that drew a cold smile to Harlan's face.
+
+"That will be John Haydon's horse, I reckon," he said slowly.
+
+"Why," she returned, startled; "how did you know?"
+
+He rode on, not replying. When they reached the ranchhouse, Harlan loped
+Purgatory toward one of the bunkhouses, in front of which he saw Red
+Linton standing. Barbara directed Billy to the _patio_ entrance, and
+dismounted, her face flushed, to meet a man who came out of the open
+gateway to greet her, his face wreathed in a delighted smile.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XV
+
+LINKED
+
+
+"So you came at last?"
+
+Barbara had some difficulty in keeping resentment prominent in her voice
+as she faced John Haydon, for other emotions were clamoring within
+her--joy because Haydon _had_ come, even though tardily; self-reproach
+because she saw in Haydon's eyes a glowing anxiety and sympathy that
+looked as though they were of recent birth.
+
+There was repressed excitement in Haydon's manner; it was as though he
+had only just heard of the girl's affliction and had ridden hard to come
+to her.
+
+She was sure of the sincerity in his voice when he grasped her hands
+tightly and said:
+
+"At last, Barbara! I heard it only this morning, and I have nearly killed
+my horse getting over here! Look at him!"
+
+The gray horse certainly did have the appearance of having been ridden
+hard. He stood, his legs braced, his head drooping, his muzzle and chest
+flecked with foam. Barbara murmured pityingly as she stroked the beast's
+neck; and there was quick forgiveness in her eyes when she again looked
+at Haydon.
+
+Haydon was big--fully as tall as Harlan, and broader. His shoulders
+bulged the blue flannel shirt he wore; and it was drawn into folds at his
+slim waist, where a cartridge-studded belt encircled him, sagging at the
+right hip with the weight of a heavy pistol.
+
+He wore a plain gray silk handkerchief at his throat; it sagged at the
+front, revealing a muscular development that had excited the envious
+admiration of men. His hair was coal-black, wavy and abundant--though he
+wore it short--with design, it seemed, for he must have known that it
+gave him an alert, virile appearance.
+
+His face, despite the tan upon it, and the little wrinkles brought by the
+sun and wind, had a clear, healthy color, and his eyes black as his hair,
+had a keen glint behind which lurked humor of a quality not to be
+determined at a glance--it was changeable, fleeting, mysterious.
+
+Barbara was silent. The steady courage that had sustained her until this
+instant threatened to fail her in the presence of this big, sympathetic
+man who seemed, to her, to embody that romance for which she had always
+longed. She looked at him, her lips trembling with emotion.
+
+Until now she had had no confidant--no one she could be sure of. And so,
+with Haydon standing close to her, though not too close--for he had never
+been able to achieve that intimacy for which he had yearned--she told him
+what had happened, including details of her father's death, as related to
+her by Harlan; finishing by describing the incident with Deveny in Lamo
+(at which Haydon muttered a threat) and the subsequent coming of Harlan
+to the Rancho Seco, together with the story of his assumption of
+authority.
+
+When she concluded Haydon laid a sympathetic hand on her shoulder.
+
+"It's too bad, Barbara. And on top of it all, Lawson had to play the
+beast, too, eh? Why didn't you send someone to me?"
+
+"There was no one to send." Her voice threatened to break, despite the
+brave gleam that flashed through the moisture in her eyes. "Lawson had
+sent the men away; and when they came in Harlan took charge of them.
+And--besides," she admitted, dropping her gaze, "I--I thought you ought
+to--I thought you would----"
+
+He shook her, reprovingly, laughing deeply as he led her through the
+gateway into the _patio_, where they sat on a bench for a long time,
+talking, while the aspect of the _patio_ began to change, becoming again
+a place of cheerfulness flooded with the soft, radiant light of returning
+happiness--reflected in her eyes; while the sunlight streaming down into
+the enclosure took on a brightness that made the girl's eyes glisten;
+while the drab and empty days since her father's death began to slip back
+into the limbo of memory--the sting and the sorrow of them removed. So
+does the heart of youth respond to the nearness of romance.
+
+They had been talking for half an hour when Barbara remembered that
+Haydon had not expressed a desire to meet Harlan.
+
+Haydon's face lost a little of its color as he replied to her suggestion
+that they find the man.
+
+But he laughed, rather mirthlessly, she thought.
+
+"I intend to see him, Barbara--but alone. There are several things of
+importance that I want to say to him--chiefly concerning his conduct
+toward you."
+
+He got up. Barbara rose also, and walked with him, outside the gate,
+where he got on his horse, smiling down at her.
+
+"Harlan was right about your riding out alone. I'd stay as close to the
+ranchhouse as possible. There's no telling what Deveny might try to do.
+But don't worry. If it wasn't so soon after--after what has happened--I
+would--" He smiled, and Barbara knew he meant what he had said to her
+many times--about there being a parson in Lazette, a hundred miles or so
+northeastward--and of his eagerness to be present with her while the
+parson "tied the knot." His manner had always been jocose, and yet she
+knew of the earnestness behind it.
+
+Still, she had not yielded to his importunities, because she had not been
+quite sure that she wanted him. Nor was she certain now, though she liked
+him better at this moment than she had ever liked him before.
+
+She shook her head negatively, answering his smile; and watched him as he
+rode around a corner of the ranchhouse toward the corral where, no doubt,
+he would find Harlan.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Harlan had ridden directly to the bunkhouse door and dismounted. Red
+Linton said nothing until Harlan seated himself on a bench just outside
+the bunkhouse door. Then Linton grinned at him.
+
+"There's a geezer come a-wooin'," he said.
+
+Harlan glared at the red-haired man--a truculent, savage glare that made
+Linton stretch his lips until the corners threatened to retreat to his
+ears. Then Linton assumed a deprecatory manner.
+
+"They ain't no chance for _him_, I reckon. He's been burnin' up the
+breeze between here an' the Star for more'n a year--an' she ain't as much
+as kissed him, I'd swear!"
+
+Harlan did not answer.
+
+"You saw him?" questioned Linton.
+
+"Shut your rank mouth."
+
+Linton chuckled. "I didn't know you'd been hit that bad. Howsomever, if
+you _have_ been, why, there's no sense of me wastin' time gassin' to you.
+They ain't nothin' will cure that complaint but petticoats an'
+smiles--the which is mighty dangerous an' uncertain. I knowed a man
+once----"
+
+Harlan got up and walked to the bunkhouse. And Linton, grinning, called
+loudly after him, pretending astonishment.
+
+"Why, he's gone. Disappeared complete. An' me tryin' to jam some sense
+into his head."
+
+Grinning, Linton sauntered away, vanishing within the blacksmith-shop.
+
+He had hardly disappeared when Haydon appeared from around a corner of
+the ranchhouse, at about the instant Harlan, sensing the departure of
+Linton, came to the door, frowning.
+
+The frown still narrowed Harlan's eyes when they rested upon the
+horseman; and his brows were drawn together with unmistakable truculence
+when Haydon dismounted near the corral fence.
+
+Haydon's manner had undergone a change. When in the presence of Barbara
+he had been confident, nonchalant. When he dismounted from his horse and
+walked toward Harlan there was about him an atmosphere that suggested
+carefulness. Before Haydon had taken half a dozen steps Harlan was aware
+that the man knew him--knew of his reputation--and feared him.
+
+Respect was in Haydon's eyes, in the droop of his shoulders, in his
+hesitating step. And into Harlan's eyes came a gleam of that contempt
+which had always seized him when in the presence of men who feared him.
+
+And yet, had not Harlan possessed the faculty of reading character at a
+glance; had he not had that uncanny instinct of divining the thoughts of
+men who meditated violence, he could not have known that Haydon feared
+him.
+
+For Haydon's fear was not abject. It was that emotion which counsels
+caution, which warns of a worthy antagonist, which respects force that is
+elemental and destroying.
+
+Haydon smiled as he halted within a few paces of Harlan and turned the
+palms of his hands outward.
+
+"You're 'Drag' Harlan, of Pardo," he said.
+
+Harlan nodded.
+
+"My name's Haydon. I own the Star--about fifteen miles west--on Sunset
+Trail. I happen to be a friend of Miss Morgan's, and I'd like to talk
+with you about the Rancho Seco."
+
+"Get goin'."
+
+Haydon's smile grew less expansive.
+
+"It's a rather difficult subject to discuss. It rather seems to be none
+of my affair. But you will understand, being interested in Barbara's
+future, and in the welfare of the ranch, why I am presuming to question
+you. What do you intend to do with the ranch?"
+
+"Run it."
+
+"Of course," smiled Haydon. "I mean, of course, to refer to the financial
+end of it. Miss Morgan will handle the money, I suppose."
+
+"You got orders from Miss Barbara to gas to me about the ranch?"
+
+"Well, no, I can't say that I have. But I have a natural desire to know."
+
+"I'll be tellin' her what I'm goin' to do."
+
+Haydon smiled faintly. Twice, during the silence that followed Harlan's
+reply, Haydon shifted his gaze from Harlan's face to the ground between
+himself and the other, and then back again. It was plain to Haydon that
+he could proceed no farther in that direction without incurring the wrath
+that slumbered in Harlan's heart, revealed by his narrowing eyes.
+
+In Harlan's heart was a bitter, savage passion. Hatred for this man,
+which had been aroused by Barbara's reference to him, and intensified by
+his visit to the girl, had been made malignant by his appearance now in
+the role of inquisitor.
+
+Jealousy, Harlan would not have admitted; yet the conviction that Haydon
+was handsome, and that women would like him--that no doubt Barbara
+already liked him--brought a cold rage to Harlan. He stood, during the
+momentary silence, his lips curving with contempt, his eyes glinting with
+a passion that was unmistakable to Haydon.
+
+He stepped down from the doorway and walked slowly to Haydon, coming to a
+halt within a yard of him. His hands were hanging at his sides, his chin
+had gone a little forward; and in his manner was the threat that had
+brought a paralysis of fear to more than one man.
+
+Yet, except for a slow stiffening of his muscles, Haydon betrayed no
+fear. There was a slight smile on his lips; his eyes met Harlan's
+steadily and unblinkingly. In them was a glint of that mysterious humor
+which other men had seen in them.
+
+"I know you're lightning on the draw, Harlan," he said, his faint smile
+fading a trifle. "I wouldn't have a chance with you; I'm not a
+gun-fighter. For that reason I don't want any disagreement with you. And
+I've heard enough about you to know that you don't shoot unless the other
+fellow is out to 'get' you.
+
+"We won't have any trouble. Be fair. As the man who will ultimately take
+charge of the Rancho Seco--since Miss Barbara has been good enough to
+encourage me--I would like to know some things. I've heard that Lane
+Morgan was killed at Sentinel Rock, and that you were with him when he
+died--and just before. Did he give you authority to take charge of the
+Rancho Seco?"
+
+"He told me to take hold."
+
+"A written order?"
+
+"His word."
+
+"He said nothing else; there were no papers on him--nothing of value?"
+
+Neither man had permitted his eyes to waver from the other's since Harlan
+had advanced; and they now stood, with only the few feet of space between
+them, looking steadily at each other.
+
+Harlan saw in Haydon's eyes a furtive, stealthy gleam as of cupidity
+glossed over with a pretense of frank curiosity. He sensed greed in
+Haydon's gaze, and knowledge of a mysterious quality.
+
+Haydon knew something about Lane Morgan's errand to Pardo; he knew why
+the man had started for Pardo, and what had been on his person at the
+time of his death.
+
+Harlan was convinced of that; and the light in his eyes as he looked into
+Haydon's reflected the distrust and the contempt he had for the man.
+
+"What do you think Morgan had in his clothes?" he questioned suddenly.
+
+A slow flush of color stole into Haydon's cheeks, then receded, leaving
+him a trifle pale. He laughed, with a pretense of mockery.
+
+"You ought to know," he said, a snarl in his voice. "You must have
+searched him."
+
+Harlan grinned with feline mirthlessness. And he stepped back a little,
+knowledge and satisfaction in his eyes.
+
+For he had "looked Haydon over," following Morgan's instructions. He had
+purposely permitted Haydon to question him, expecting that during the
+exchange of talk the man would say something that would corroborate the
+opinion that Harlan had instantly formed, that Haydon was not to be
+trusted.
+
+And Haydon's snarl; the cupidity in his eyes, and his ill-veiled
+eagerness had convinced Harlan.
+
+Harlan did not resent Haydon's manner; he was too pleased over his
+discovery that Haydon possessed traits of character that unfitted him for
+an alliance with Barbara. And it would be his business to bring those
+traits out, so that Barbara could see them unmistakably.
+
+He laughed lowly, dropping his gaze to Haydon's belt; to his right hand,
+which hung limply near his pistol holster; and to the woolen shirt, with
+the silk handkerchief at the throat sagging picturesquely.
+
+His gaze roved over Haydon--insolently, contemptuously; his lips
+twitching with the grim humor that had seized him. And Haydon stood, not
+moving a muscle, undergoing the scrutiny with rigid body, with eyes that
+had become wide with a queer sensation of dread wonder that was stealing
+over him; and with a pallor that was slowly becoming ghastly.
+
+For he had no doubt that at last he had unwittingly aroused the demon in
+Harlan, and that violence, which he had wished to avoid, was imminent.
+
+But Harlan's roving gaze, as he backed slightly away from Haydon, came to
+the breast-pocket of the man's shirt. His gaze centered there definitely,
+his eyes narrowing, his muscles leaping a little.
+
+For out of the pocket stretched a gold chain, broken, its upper
+end--where it entered the buttonhole of the shirt--fastened to the
+buttonhole with a rawhide thong, as though the gold section were not long
+enough to reach.
+
+And the gold section of the chain was of the peculiar pattern of the
+section that Harlan had picked up on the desert near Sentinel Rock.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVI
+
+DEEP WATER
+
+
+Despite his conviction that he stood in the presence of the mysterious
+"Chief" of whom he had heard much, Harlan's expression did not change.
+There was a new interest added to it, and a deeper glow in his eyes. But
+he gave no outward evidence of surprise.
+
+"I reckon I searched him," he said, answering Haydon's charge. "If I
+found anything on him I'm turnin' it over to Barbara Morgan--or hangin'
+onto it. That's my business."
+
+Haydon laughed, for Harlan's voice had broken the tension that had come
+with the interval of threatening silence.
+
+Since he could not induce Harlan to divulge anything of interest there
+was nothing to do but to withdraw as gracefully as possible. And he
+backed away, smiling, saying placatively:
+
+"No offense intended, Harlan. I was merely curious on Barbara's account."
+He mounted his horse, urged it along the corral fence, and sent back a
+smiling:
+
+"So-long."
+
+Motionless, still standing where he had stood when Haydon climbed on his
+horse, Harlan watched while the man rode the short distance to the house.
+At the corner around which he had appeared some minutes before, Haydon
+brought his horse to a halt, waved a hand--at Barbara, Harlan
+supposed--and then rode on, heading westward toward Sunset Trail.
+
+Harlan watched him until he had penetrated far into the big valley; then
+he turned, slowly, and sought Red Linton--finding him in the
+blacksmith-shop.
+
+Later in the day--after Harlan and Linton had talked long, standing in
+the door of the blacksmith-shop--Linton mounted his horse and rode to
+where Harlan stood.
+
+Linton was prepared for a long ride. Folded in the slicker that was
+strapped to the cantle of his saddle was food; he carried his rifle in
+the saddle sheath, and a water-bag bulged above the horse's withers.
+
+"You won't find all the T Down boys yearnin' to bust into this ruckus,"
+Harlan said as he stood near Linton's horse as Linton grinned down at
+him; "but there'll be some. Put it right up to them that it ain't goin'
+to be no pussy-kitten job, an' that it's likely some of them won't ever
+see the T Down again. But to offset that, you can tell 'em that if we
+make good, the Rancho Seco will owe them a heap--an' they'll get what's
+comin' to them."
+
+He watched while Linton rode eastward over the big level; then he grinned
+and walked to the ranchhouse, going around the front and standing in the
+wide gateway where he saw Barbara sitting on a bench in the _patio_,
+staring straight ahead, meditatively, unaware that he was standing in the
+gateway, watching her.
+
+Harlan watched the girl for a long time--until she turned and saw him.
+Then she blushed and stood up, looking at him in slight wonderment as he
+came toward her and stood within a few feet of her.
+
+On Harlan's face was a slow, genial grin.
+
+"Sunnin' yourself, eh?" he said. "Well, it's a mighty nice day--not too
+hot. Have you knowed him long?"
+
+The startling irrelevance of the question caused Barbara to gaze sharply
+at Harlan, and when their eyes met she noted that his were twinkling with
+a light that she could not fathom. She hated him when she could not
+understand him.
+
+"Mr. Haydon, do you mean?" she questioned, a sudden coldness in her
+voice.
+
+Harlan nodded.
+
+"A little more than a year, I think. It was just after I returned from
+school, at Denver."
+
+He watched her, saying lowly:
+
+"So it was Denver. I'd been wonderin'. I knowed it must have been some
+place. Schoolin' is a thing that I never had time to monkey with--I
+reckon my folks didn't believe a heap in 'em."
+
+"You've lived in the West all your life--you were born in the West, I
+suppose?"
+
+He looked keenly at her. "I expect you knowed that without askin'. I've
+been wonderin' if it would have made any difference."
+
+"How?"
+
+"In me. Do you think an education makes a man act different--gives him
+different ideas about his actions--in his dealin's with women, for
+instance?"
+
+"I expect it does. Education should make a man more considerate of
+women--it is refining."
+
+"Then you reckon a man that ain't had any education is coarse, an' don't
+know how to treat a woman?"
+
+"I didn't say that; I said education _should_ make a man treat women that
+way."
+
+"But it don't always?"
+
+"I think not. I have known men--well educated men--who failed to treat
+women as they should be treated."
+
+"Then that ain't what you might call a hard-an'-fast rule--it don't
+always work. An' there's hope for any man who ain't had schoolin'--if
+he's wantin' to be a man."
+
+"Certainly."
+
+"But an educated man can't claim ignorance when he aims to mistreat a
+woman. That's how it figures up, ain't it?"
+
+She laughed. "It would seem to point to that conclusion."
+
+"So you've knowed Haydon about a year? I reckon he's educated?"
+
+"Yes." She watched him closely, wondering at his meaning--why he had
+brought Haydon's name into the discussion. She was marveling at the
+subtle light in his eyes.
+
+"Your father liked Haydon--he told me Haydon was the only square man in
+the country--besides himself an' Sheriff Gage."
+
+"Father liked Haydon. I'm beginning to believe you really _did_ have a
+talk with father before he died!"
+
+He smiled. "Goin' back to Haydon. I had a talk with him a little while
+ago. I sort of took a shine to him." He drew from a pocket the section of
+gold chain he had found on the desert, holding it out to her.
+
+"Here's a piece of Haydon's watch chain," he said slowly, watching her
+face. "The next time Haydon comes to see you, give it to him, tellin' him
+I found it. It's likely he'll ask you where I found it. But you can say I
+wasn't mentionin'."
+
+He turned, looking back over his shoulder at her as he walked toward the
+gate.
+
+She stood, holding the glittering links in the palm of one hand, doubt
+and suspicion in her eyes.
+
+"Why," she called after him; "he was just here, and you say you talked
+with him! Why didn't you give it to him?"
+
+"Forgot it, ma'am. An' I reckon you'll be seein' him before I do."
+
+Then he strode out through the gate, leaving her to speculate upon the
+mystery of his words and his odd action in leaving the chain with her
+when he could have personally returned it to Haydon.
+
+Harlan, however, was grinning as he returned to the bunkhouse. For he
+wanted Barbara to see Haydon's face when the section of chain was
+returned to him, to gain whatever illumination she could from the
+incident. He did not care to tell her--yet--that Haydon had killed her
+father; but he did desire to create in her mind a doubt of Haydon, so
+that she would hesitate to confide to him everything that happened at the
+Rancho Seco.
+
+For himself, he wanted to intimate delicately to Haydon his knowledge of
+what had really occurred at Sentinel Rock; it was a message to the man
+conveying a significance that Haydon could not mistake. It meant that for
+some reason, known only to himself, Harlan did not intend to tell what he
+knew.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVII
+
+FORGING A LETTER
+
+
+The impulse which had moved Harlan to send Red Linton to the T Down ranch
+to enlist the services of some of his old friends had resulted from a
+conviction that he could not depend upon those men of the Rancho Seco
+outfit who had seemed to him, to be unfriendly to Stroud, the straw-boss.
+He knew nothing about them, and their loyalty to Barbara Morgan might be
+of a quality that would not endure through the sort of trouble that
+seemed to be imminent.
+
+The T Down men--those who would come--would stand with him no matter what
+happened--they would do his will without question.
+
+There was no doubt in Harlan's mind that John Haydon was the mysterious
+"Chief"--the man who had sent into Lane Morgan's breast the bullet that
+had ultimately killed him; and there was no doubt that some powerful,
+secret force was at work in the country, and that the force was directing
+its attention to the Rancho Seco and the defenseless girl who was at the
+nominal head of it. For some reason the secret force had killed her
+father, had isolated the ranch, had encompassed it with enemies, and was
+working slowly and surely to enmesh the girl herself.
+
+Harlan was convinced that one of the motives behind the subtle
+aggressions of the men was a yearning for the gold that Morgan had
+left--in fact the presence of Dolver and Laskar at Sentinel Rock--and
+Morgan's word to him about the gold--provided sufficient evidence on that
+score.
+
+They had watched Morgan; they suspected he was taking gold to Pardo to
+have it assayed, and they had killed him in the hope of finding something
+on his person which would reveal to them where he had hidden the rest of
+it.
+
+One other motive was that of the eternal, ages-old passion of a man for
+woman. Evidence of that passion had been revealed to Harlan at Lamo, by
+the attack on Barbara by Deveny's hireling--Higgins; by the subtle
+advances of John Haydon. It seemed to Harlan that all of these men had
+been--and were--equally determined to possess the girl.
+
+And yet back of it all--behind that which had been rendered visible by
+the actions of the man and by Harlan's own deductions--was something
+else--something stealthy and hidden; a secret threat of dire things to
+come--a lingering promise of trickery.
+
+Standing at one of the gates of the corral upon the third morning
+following Linton's departure, Harlan considered this phase of the
+situation. He felt the hidden threat of something sinister that lurked in
+the atmosphere.
+
+It was all around him. It seemed to lie secreted in the yawning space
+that engulfed the Rancho Seco--south, north, and east. From the haze that
+stretched into the unending distance westward it seemed to come, bearing
+its whispered promise. The solemn hills that flanked the wide stretches
+of Sunset Valley seemed to hint of it--somberly.
+
+Mystery was in the serene calm that seemed to encompass the big basin;
+from the far reaches westward, in the misty veil that seemed to hang from
+the far-flung shafts of sunlight that penetrated the fleecy clouds, came
+the sinister threat--the whole section seemed to pulse with it.
+
+And yet Harlan knew there could be no mystery except the mysteries of
+men. Nature was the same here as in any other section of the world, and
+her secrets were not more profound than usual.
+
+He grinned mirthlessly at the wonderful basin, noting that the Rancho
+Seco buildings seemed to lie on a direct line with its center; that the
+faint trail that ran through the basin--the trail men traveled--came on
+in its undulating way straight toward the Rancho Seco ranchhouse, seemed
+to bring the mystery of the big basin with it; seemed to be a link that
+connected the Rancho Seco with the promise of trouble.
+
+That impression might have engaged the serious thoughts of some men. It
+widened the smile on Harlan's face. For he knew there was no threat in
+the beauty of the valley; that it did not hide its secrets from the
+prying eyes of men. Whatever secret the valley held was in the minds of
+men--the minds of Deveny and the mysterious "Chief," and their followers.
+
+Harlan had not absented himself from the ranchhouse since the departure
+of Linton. He had lounged in the vicinity of the buildings during the
+day--and Barbara had seen him many times from the windows; and he had
+spent his nights watching the ranchhouse, half expecting another attack
+on Barbara.
+
+The girl had seen him at night, too; and she had smiled at the picture he
+made with the moonlight shining upon him--or standing in some
+shadow--somber, motionless, undoubtedly guarding her.
+
+She saw him this morning, too, as he stood beside the corral gate, and
+there was a glow in her eyes that, had he seen it, might have thrilled
+him with its gratitude.
+
+She came out of a rear door after a while, and Harlan was still standing
+at the gate.
+
+He watched her as she came toward him--it was the first time she had
+ventured in that direction since the return from Lamo with him--noting
+that she seemed to be in better spirits--that she was smiling.
+
+"You looked lonesome," she said, as she halted near him. "Did Linton join
+the outfit?"
+
+"It's likely; he went three days ago."
+
+"I knew he had gone; I saw you several times, and you were always alone.
+And," she added, looking keenly at him; "I saw you several times, at
+night. Don't you ever sleep?"
+
+"I reckon I'm a sort of restless cuss."
+
+Her face took on serious lines.
+
+"Look here, Harlan," she said, reprovingly, "you are keeping something
+back. You have been watching the ranchhouse at night--and during the day.
+You are guarding me. Why is it? Do you think I am going to run away?"
+
+"From me?" he queried; "I was hopin' you wouldn't."
+
+She stiffened with exasperation, for she felt the insincerity in his
+manner--caught the humorous note in his voice.
+
+"You are treating me as you would treat a child," she declared; "and I
+won't have it. Are you watching me because you fear there might be
+another--Lawson?"
+
+"There might be."
+
+"Nonsense! There isn't another man in the section would dare what Lawson
+dared!"
+
+"Gentlemen--eh?" he said, tauntingly. "Well, I've nosed around quite
+considerable, an' I don't remember to have ever run into a place where
+there was fewer _men_ than in this neck of the woods."
+
+"There are plenty of gentlemen. Do you think John Haydon----"
+
+Harlan grinned faintly. "He's been fannin' it right along for half an
+hour," he said, with seeming irrelevance.
+
+"Who?" she asked, with a swift, uncomprehending glance at him.
+
+"Your gentleman," he said slowly.
+
+She followed the direction of his gaze, and saw, on the trail that led
+downward from a little table-land to the level that stretched toward the
+ranchhouse, a horseman, coming rapidly toward them.
+
+"It's Mr. Haydon!" she ejaculated, her voice leaping.
+
+"So it is," said Harlan, dryly. He looked keenly at her, noting the flush
+on her face, the brightness of her eyes. "You ain't forgettin' to give
+him that piece of chain."
+
+"Why," she said, drawing the glittering links from a pocket of her skirt;
+"I have it here. You may return it to him."
+
+"Me an' Haydon ain't on speakin' terms," he smiled. "He wouldn't
+appreciate it none, if I give it to him."
+
+"Why--" she began, only to pause and look at him with a sudden
+comprehension in her eyes. For into Harlan's face had come an expression
+that, she thought, she could analyze. It was jealousy. That was why he
+was reluctant to return the chain to Haydon.
+
+The situation was so positively puerile, she thought, that she almost
+felt like laughing. She would have laughed had it not been that she knew
+of Harlan's unfailing vigilance--and that she felt differently toward him
+now than she had felt during the first days of their acquaintance. His
+steadfast vigilance, she decided, must have been responsible for the
+change, together with the steady consideration he revealed for her.
+
+At any rate, something about him had affected her. She felt more gentle
+toward him; more inclined to believe in him; and there had been times
+during the past few days when she had been astonished at the subtle, warm
+sensation that had stolen over her whenever she saw him or whenever she
+thought of him.
+
+Something of that warmth toward him was in her eyes now as she watched
+him and she decided that she should humor his whim; that she should
+perform the action that he was reluctant to perform.
+
+She smiled, with the wisdom of a woman to whom a secret had been
+unwittingly revealed.
+
+"You don't like Haydon?"
+
+"Him an' me ain't goin' to be bosom friends."
+
+"Why don't you like him?" she asked banteringly.
+
+She thought his grin was brazen. "Why don't you like me?"
+
+"I don't know," she said coldly. But her face reddened a little.
+
+"Well," he laughed; "that's why I don't like Haydon."
+
+Haydon had crossed the big level, and was close to the ranchhouse.
+
+The girl had determined to remain where she was, to return the piece of
+chain to Haydon in the presence of Harlan--in order to learn what she
+could of the depth of Harlan's dislike for Haydon when in the presence of
+the latter. And so a silence came between them as they watched Haydon
+ride toward them.
+
+When Haydon rode close to them he halted his horse and sat in the saddle,
+an expression of cold inquiry on his face. His smile at Miss Barbara was
+a trifle forced; his glance at Harlan had a fair measure of frank dislike
+and suspicion in it.
+
+Harlan deliberately turned his back toward Barbara and Haydon when the
+latter dismounted; walked a little distance, and pretended to be
+interested in a snubbing post in the corral.
+
+Yet he cast furtive glances toward the two, and when he saw the girl
+reaching into a pocket for the section of chain he had given her, he
+slowly sauntered forward, and was within hearing distance when Barbara
+spoke to Haydon.
+
+"I was to give you this," she said--and she extended a hand toward
+Haydon, the chain dangling from her fingers.
+
+Harlan saw Haydon's muscles leap and become tense. He saw the man's color
+go, saw his cheeks whiten; observed that his eyes widened and gleamed
+with mingled astonishment and alarm.
+
+He regained control of himself instantly, however, but Harlan had seen
+enough to strengthen his convictions, and he grinned as Haydon flashed a
+sharp glance at him.
+
+Barbara, too, had noted the strange light in Haydon's eyes; she had seen
+that Haydon had seemed about to shrink from the chain when she held it
+out to him. She looked from Haydon to Harlan inquiringly and when her
+glance again returned to Haydon he was smiling.
+
+However, he had not taken the chain from her hand.
+
+"Is it yours?" she asked.
+
+"Yes--mine," he answered, hesitatingly. "Where did you find it?"
+
+"Mr. Harlan found it." Barbara noted Haydon's quick start, the searching
+glance he gave Harlan--who was now leaning on a rail of the corral fence,
+seemingly uninterested.
+
+Haydon laughed, a little hoarsely, it seemed to Barbara, and more loudly
+than the occasion seemed to demand. She thought, though, that the laugh
+might have been a jeer for Harlan's action in turning the chain over to
+her instead of returning it directly to the owner.
+
+She did not catch the searching inquiry of Haydon's glance at Harlan, nor
+did she see Harlan's odd smile at Haydon, and the slow wink that
+accompanied it.
+
+But the wink and the smile conveyed to Haydon the intelligence that
+Harlan knew the story connected with the loss of the chain, and that he
+had not communicated it to the girl. They also expressed to Haydon the
+message that Harlan and Haydon were kindred souls--the smile and the wink
+told Haydon that this man who knew his secret was secretly applauding
+him, even while inwardly laughing at him for his fear that the secret
+would be betrayed.
+
+Harlan's voice broke a short silence.
+
+"Found it right about here--the other day. It must have laid there a long
+time, for it took a heap of polishin' to brighten it up." Again he closed
+an eye at Haydon, and the latter grinned broadly.
+
+Barbara silently endured a pang of disappointment. She had caught
+Harlan's wink. The man had betrayed jealousy only a few minutes ago, and
+he had refused personally to return the chain to Haydon. And yet he stood
+there now, smiling and winking at the other, evidently with the desire to
+ingratiate himself. Sycophant, weakling, or fool--which was he? She
+shuddered with disgust, deliberately turned her back to Harlan, and began
+to walk toward the ranchhouse, Haydon following.
+
+And Harlan, standing at the fence, leaned an elbow on one of the rails
+and watched the two, an enigmatic smile on his face.
+
+For he had succeeded in opening a gate which disclosed a trail that would
+lead him straight to the mystery, a breath of which had been borne to him
+that morning upon the slight breeze that had swept down to him from the
+mighty valley out of which Haydon had ridden.
+
+Between him and Haydon a bond had been established, fashioned from the
+links of the section of chain.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XVIII
+
+HARLAN RIDES ALONE
+
+
+Upon the morning of the fourth day following Haydon's visit to the Rancho
+Seco, a dust cloud developed on the northwestern horizon. Harlan observed
+the cloud; he had been watching for it since dawn, when he had emerged
+from the stable door, where he had been looking after Purgatory.
+
+From the ranchhouse Barbara also saw the cloud, and she ran upstairs to
+one of the north windows. There, with her face pressed against the glass,
+she watched the cloud grow in size, observed that it was dotted with the
+forms of horsemen; saw at last that the horsemen were headed straight for
+the Rancho Seco. Then, wondering, anxious, eager, she descended the
+stairs and ran out to where Harlan was standing, speaking breathlessly:
+
+"What does it mean? Who are they?"
+
+"It'll be Red Linton an' some T Down boys."
+
+"'T Down'?"
+
+"Pardo men. From where I used to work. I sent Linton for them. If I'm
+going to run a ranch I aim to run it with men I can depend on."
+
+She had hardly spoken to him in the four days that had elapsed since
+Haydon's last visit, for the disgust she had felt that day had endured.
+But there was something new in his manner now--a briskness, a
+business-like air that made her look sharply at him.
+
+He smiled at her, and in the smile was a snapping humor that puzzled her.
+
+She stood, watching for a while--until the group of horsemen became
+clearly defined--and then, with a sudden fear that the men might be
+outlaws of the same type as Harlan--possibly he had sent for them because
+they were--she returned to the ranchhouse and watched from one of the
+windows.
+
+When the T Down men rode up to the corral gate they dismounted and
+surrounded Harlan. There were ten of them--rugged-looking fellows of
+various ages, bepistoled, begrimed with dust, and articulate with profane
+expressions of delight.
+
+"Hell's a-poppin', Red says!" yelled one. "He says there's geezers here
+which is pinin' for yore gore. Turn me loose on 'em--oh, turn me loose!"
+
+The men, tired, dusty, and hungry, swarmed into one of the bunkhouses
+immediately after they had turned their horses into the corral and cared
+for their saddles.
+
+The men were in good spirits, despite their long ride; and for half an
+hour after they descended upon the bunkhouse the air pulsed with their
+talk and their laughter, as they washed their dust-stained faces from the
+tin washbasin on the bench outside the door, and combed their hair with a
+comb attached to a rawhide thong that swung from the wall above the
+basin.
+
+They had been informed by Red Linton regarding the situation that had
+developed at the Rancho Seco--fully informed before they had begun their
+trip westward--Linton scrupulously and faithfully presenting to them the
+dangers that confronted them. And though some of them were still curious,
+and sought a word with Harlan in confirmation, they seemed to be
+satisfied to trust to Harlan's judgment. Their faith was of the kind that
+needs but little verbal reassurance.
+
+That they admired the man who had sent for them there was little doubt;
+for they watched him with glowing eyes as he talked with them, revealing
+their pride that they had been selected. Hardy, clear-eyed, serenely
+unafraid, they instantly adapted themselves to the new "job," and before
+their first meal was finished they were thoroughly at home.
+
+Shortly afterward--while the men were lounging about inside--Harlan drew
+Linton outside.
+
+"That's the bunch I would have picked if I had gone myself," complimented
+Harlan. "I'm thankin' you a heap."
+
+He whispered to Linton the story of Haydon's last visit and for the first
+time Linton heard about the section of chain which convicted Haydon of
+the murder of Lane Morgan. Linton's eyes gleamed.
+
+"I've always sort of suspected the son-of-a-gun!" he declared. "An' him
+makin' love to Barbara! The sneakin' coyote! An' so you're goin' to see
+him? I'd be a whole lot careful."
+
+Harlan's smile was grave. "I'm reckonin' to be. I'd have gone before
+this, but I was waitin' for you boys. Nobody is sayin' anything to
+anybody. You're stickin' close to the Rancho Seco, not lettin' Barbara
+out of your sight. That's what I wanted you an' the other guys for. I'm
+playin' the rest of it a lone hand."
+
+Leaving Linton standing near the bunkhouse, he went to the stable, where
+he threw saddle and bridle on Purgatory. Then he mounted, waved a hand at
+Linton, who was watching him, and rode to the ranchhouse. At the
+northwest corner--around which Haydon had ridden on the occasion of his
+last visit--he brought Purgatory to a halt, for he saw Barbara just
+emerging from the _patio_ gate.
+
+She halted in the opening when she observed him; making a picture that
+was vivid in his memory for many days afterward--for her eyes were alight
+with wonder, her cheeks were flushed, and she was breathing fast.
+
+For she had watched from a window the coming of the T Down men; she had
+noted the conference between Harlan and Linton; and she had seen Harlan
+waving a hand at the red-haired man, seemingly in farewell. She stood
+now, afflicted with a strange regret, suddenly aware that she would feel
+the absence of the man who sat on his horse before her--for she divined
+that he was going.
+
+"I'm sayin' so-long to you, ma'am," smiled Harlan.
+
+"Oh!" she said, aware of the flatness of her tone. "Are you going away?"
+
+"I'm figurin' to go. I ain't used to hangin' around one place very long.
+But I'm comin' back some day. Red Linton an' the boys will be seein' that
+things go smooth with you. You can depend on Red, and all the boys.
+They're Simon-pure, dyed-in-the-wool, eighteen-carat men." And now he
+grinned, gravely. "Remember this, Barbara: A man will do things when he's
+handlin' a gold chain--things that he wouldn't do if there didn't happen
+to be any chain."
+
+He doffed his hat and slapped Purgatory sharply, heading the animal
+westward, toward the yawning mouth of the big basin that stretched its
+mighty length into the mystery of distance.
+
+But his words left her with a conviction that she had again misjudged
+him, and that when he had appeared to fawn on Haydon he had been merely
+acting, merely pretending. She watched him, regretfully, longingly,
+assailed by emotions that she could not understand--until he and
+Purgatory grew small in the gulf of distance; until horse and rider were
+swallowed in the glowing haze.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XIX
+
+HARLAN JOINS THE GANG
+
+
+At the edge of the big level, where it merged into the floor of the
+basin, Harlan drew Purgatory to a halt. For an instant he sat in the
+saddle scrutinizing a section of buffalo grass that fringed a clump of
+willows near the almost dry bed of the river that doubled slightly as it
+came from the basin. Something in the appearance of the grass had
+attracted his attention--it was matted, as though something had lain or
+rolled in it.
+
+He rode closer, cautiously, for the little trees formed a covert behind
+which any one of several dangers might lie concealed--and looked down at
+the grass. As he examined the place his lips twisted into a grim smile,
+and his eyes grew bright with comprehension.
+
+He rode around the clump of trees, making sure it was not occupied; then
+he dismounted.
+
+Someone had been concealed in the covert for many days--a man. For he saw
+the imprints of heels, and indentations where spurs had gashed the earth.
+The marks were all fresh--recently made. While he watched he saw some
+blades of the long grass slowly rise--as though, relieved from some
+pressure that had been upon them, they were eager to regain an upright
+position. He also saw scraps of food--jerked beef and biscuit--scattered
+here and there.
+
+He frowned, convinced that for days a man had occupied the covert,
+watching the Rancho Seco; convinced also, that the mystery he had sensed
+some days ago had been man-made, as he had felt. The man who had been
+there had been a sentinel, a spy, sent by Deveny or Haydon to observe his
+movements, and to report them, of course, to one or the other of the two
+outlaws.
+
+Harlan remounted Purgatory. His caution had not been wasted, and his
+vigilance in guarding the ranchhouse must have been irritating to the man
+who had been watching.
+
+He urged Purgatory on again--heading him westward, as before. And when he
+reached the crest of a slight rise in the valley--from where he could see
+the trail as it twisted and undulated around hills and into depressions--he
+saw, far up the valley--and yet not so far, either--not more than two
+miles--a horseman, riding slowly--away from him.
+
+The horseman was the spy, of course. Harlan had no doubt that if he
+lingered in the vicinity of the covert long enough he would discover the
+place where the horse had been concealed. But that was not important, now
+that he had discovered enough to satisfy himself that there had been a
+spy--and so he rode on, smiling faintly, knowing that the rider was
+headed into the valley--possibly to the outlaw rendezvous to appraise
+Deveny and the others of his coming.
+
+The trail was clearly defined, and there were places where it ran over
+broad levels of grass where he presented a good target to men who might
+be eager to send a shot at him. There were other spots where the trail
+led into timber clumps and through tangles of brush where an ambuscade
+might be planned in perfect safety by an enemy; and there were the
+bastioned cliffs that towered above the trail at intervals, offering
+admirable hinding-places for any man with hostile intentions.
+
+Harlan, however, rode steadily, outwardly unconcerned; inwardly convinced
+that no attempt would be made to ambush him. For Haydon has passed that
+way on his return to the Star, and Harlan had no doubt that since the
+incident of the smile and the wink, Haydon had passed word that he was
+not to be molested.
+
+Haydon would be curious--as he had been curious at the Rancho Seco--to
+learn the significance of the smile and the wink. Haydon would want to
+discover just how much Harlan knew about the murder of Lane Morgan; and
+he would want to know what Harlan knew of the gold that Morgan had
+secreted. And so Harlan rode on, watching the country through which he
+passed, but feeling assured there would be no shot to greet him from one
+of the many natural vantage-points he encountered.
+
+He rode for an hour, not making very good time, for it was a new trail,
+and he was examining the country intently as he passed, fixing it in his
+memory for future convenience, perhaps--no one ever knew just when it
+might be necessary to use one's knowledge--when he reached a low ridge
+which crossed the valley.
+
+Here he halted Purgatory and gazed about him.
+
+Before him stretched a green grass level, about two miles long, running
+the entire width of the valley. It was dotted with mesquite, sage, and
+here and there the thorny blade of a cactus rose. Some cattle were
+grazing on the level; they were several miles south, and he could see
+some horsemen near them.
+
+He decided he must be close to the Star; and he urged Purgatory on again,
+down upon the level, toward some timber that grew at the farther edge of
+the level. Just as he slipped down the slope of the ridge, he saw, far
+ahead of him, the horseman he had seen when he had entered the valley.
+The horseman was on the crest of a bald hill--low, and small--but Harlan
+caught a glimpse of him as he crossed it, riding fast.
+
+Harlan smiled again, and rode on his way, resuming his scrutiny of the
+country.
+
+The valley was mighty, magnificent; it deserved all the praise Barbara
+Morgan had heaped upon it. From the low mountain range on the north to
+the taller mountains southward, it was a virgin paradise in which reigned
+a peace so profound that it brought a reverent awe into the soul of the
+beholder.
+
+It thrilled Harlan despite the certain blase, matter-of-fact attitude he
+had for all of nature's phenomena; he found himself admiring the majestic
+buttes that fringed it; there was a glint of appreciation in his eyes for
+the colossal bigness of it--for the gigantic, sweeping curves which
+seemed to make of it an oblong bowl, a cosmic hollow, boundless, hinting
+of the infinite power of its builder.
+
+The trail that ran through it, drawled to threadlike proportions by the
+mightiness of the space through which it ran, was, for the greater part
+of the distance traveled by Harlan, a mere scratch upon a low rock ridge.
+And as he rode he could look down upon the floor of the valley, green and
+inviting.
+
+When he entered the timber at the edge of the grass level, he was
+conscious of a stealthy sound behind him. He turned quickly in the
+saddle, to see a man standing at the edge of some brush that fringed the
+trail.
+
+The man was big, a heavy black beard covered his chin and portions of his
+cheeks; his hat was drawn well down over his forehead, partially
+shielding his eyes.
+
+A rifle in his hands was held loosely, and though it appeared that the
+man did not intend to use the weapon immediately, Harlan could see that
+his right forefinger was touching the trigger, and that the muzzle of the
+weapon was suggestively toward him.
+
+For the past few miles of his ride Harlan had been expecting an
+apparition of this sort to appear, and so he now gave no sign of
+surprise. Instead, he slowly raised both hands until they were on a level
+with his shoulders--and, still twisted about in the saddle, he grinned
+faintly at the man.
+
+"From now on I'm to have company, eh?" he said.
+
+The man smirked grimly at him.
+
+"You've hit it," he answered. "You're Harlan, ain't you? 'Drag' Harlan,
+the Pardo two-gun man?"
+
+The man's eyes were glowing with interest--critical, almost cynical, and
+they roved over Harlan with a probing intensity that left no doubt in
+Harlan's mind that the man had heard of him and was examining him with
+intent to discover what sort of a character he was.
+
+Apparently satisfied--and also plainly impressed with what he saw, the
+man grinned--this time almost genially--and answered Harlan's affirmative
+nod with:
+
+"Well, Haydon is expectin' you. You c'n let your paws down--takin' a heap
+of care not to go to foolin' with your guns. I ain't takin' them; Haydon
+didn't say anything about it. You're ridin' that trail that forks off to
+the left."
+
+Harlan lowered his hands, resting them on the pommel of his saddle, and
+rode on, taking, as advised, a narrow trail that diverged from the other
+a short distance from where he had met the man. As he struck the other
+trail he heard the man coming behind him--on a horse.
+
+There were no further words. Harlan kept to the trail, riding slowly; the
+man behind him following at a short distance.
+
+In this manner they rode for perhaps a mile. Then the timber grew sparse,
+and Purgatory and his rider at last emerged upon a level that extended
+about a hundred feet and then sloped down abruptly to another level,
+through which flowed a narrow stream of water, shallow and clear.
+
+Close to the bank of the stream was an adobe ranchhouse, and surrounding
+it were several other buildings. At a slight distance from the house was
+a corral in which were several horses. In front of a bunkhouse were
+several men who, when they saw Harlan and the other man coming, faced
+toward them and stood, motionless, watching.
+
+The men maintained silence as Harlan rode to the ranchhouse and sat in
+the saddle, awaiting the pleasure of his escort. He saw the latter grin
+at the other men as he passed them; and he grinned at Harlan as he
+brought his horse to a halt near Purgatory and dismounted.
+
+"I reckon you're to git off an' visit," he said; "Haydon is inside." As
+he dismounted and trailed the reins over the head of his beast he cast a
+sharp, critical eye over Purgatory.
+
+"There's a heap of hoss in that black, eh?"
+
+"Plenty." Harlan got down and ran a hand over Purgatory's neck, while
+trailing the reins over his head. "Man-killer," he warned. "Don't touch
+him. He ain't been rode by nobody but me, an' he won't stand for nobody
+foolin' around him."
+
+Harlan had raised his voice until he was sure the men in front of the
+bunkhouse heard him; then he grinned genially at them all and followed
+the black-bearded man into the ranchhouse.
+
+An instant later, in a big room which had the appearance of an office,
+Harlan was confronting Haydon.
+
+The latter was sitting in a chair at a desk, and when Harlan entered
+Haydon got up and grinned at him, shallowly, without mirth.
+
+"So you got here," he said; "I've been expecting you."
+
+"I've been notin' that. That guy you left at the edge of the level to
+keep an eye on the Rancho Seco didn't cover his tracks. I run onto
+them--an' I saw him hittin' the breeze--comin' here. I reckon nobody is
+surprised." Harlan grinned widely.
+
+"So you noticed that," said Haydon, answering Harlan's grin. "Well, I
+don't mind admitting that we've kept an eye on you. You've had me
+guessing."
+
+Haydon's manner was that of the man who is careful not to say too much,
+his constraint was of the quality that hints of a desire to become
+confidential--a smooth, bland courtesy; a flattering voice--encouraging,
+suggesting frankness.
+
+Harlan's manner was that of a certain reckless carelessness. He seemed to
+be perfectly at ease, confident, deliberate, and unwatchful. He knew
+Haydon was an outlaw; that the men who had been grouped in front of the
+bunkhouse were members of Haydon's band; he knew the man who had escorted
+him to the Star had been deliberately stationed in the timber to watch
+for him. And he had no doubt that other outlaws had lain concealed along
+the trail to observe his movements.
+
+He knew, too, that he had placed himself in a precarious predicament--that
+his life was in danger, and that he must be exceedingly careful.
+
+Yet outwardly he was cool, composed. With Haydon's eyes upon him he drew
+a chair to a point near the desk, seated himself in it, drew out paper
+and tobacco, and rolled a cigarette. Lighting it, he puffed slowly,
+watching while Haydon dropped into the chair he had vacated at Harlan's
+appearance.
+
+When Haydon dropped into his chair he grinned admiringly at Harlan.
+
+"You're a cool one, Harlan," he said; "I've got to say that for you. But
+there's no use in four-flushing. You've come here to tell me something
+about the chain. Where did you find it?"
+
+"At Sentinel Rock--not far from where you plugged Lane Morgan."
+
+"You're assuming that I shot Morgan?" charged Haydon.
+
+"Morgan was assumin', too, I reckon," grinned Harlan. "He told me it was
+you who shot him--he saw your face by the flash of your gun. An' he told
+me where to look for the chain--him not knowin' it was a chain--but
+somethin'."
+
+Haydon's eyes gleamed with a cold rage--which he concealed by passing a
+hand over his forehead, veiling his eyes from Harlan. His lips were
+wreathed in a smile.
+
+"Why didn't you tell me that the other day--the first time I met you?"
+
+Harlan laughed. "I was havin' notions then--notions that I'd be playin'
+her a lone hand."
+
+"And now?" Haydon's eyes were steady with cold inquiry.
+
+"I've got other notions. I'm acceptin' Deveny's invitation to throw in
+with you."
+
+Haydon was silent for an instant, and during the silence his gaze met
+Harlan's fairly. By the humorous gleam in Harlan's eyes Haydon divined
+that the man could not be misled--that he knew something of the situation
+in the valley, and that he had come here with the deliberate intention of
+joining the outlaw band.
+
+There was, as Haydon had intimated, little use for an attempt at
+equivocation or pretense. It was a situation that must be faced squarely
+by both himself and Harlan. Harlan's reputation, and his action in
+keeping secret from Barbara Morgan the identity of her father's murderer,
+indicated sincerity on the man's part. And since Harlan knew him to be
+the murderer of Morgan it would be absurd for Haydon to pretend that he
+had no connection with Deveny's band. He could not fool this man.
+
+Yet a jealous hatred of Harlan was thinly concealed by the steady smile
+with which he regarded his visitor. He had felt the antagonism of Harlan
+that day when he had talked with him at the bunkhouse door; Harlan's
+manner that day had convinced him that Harlan was jealous of his
+attentions to Barbara Morgan. Also, there was in his heart a professional
+jealousy--jealousy of Harlan's reputation.
+
+For this man who sat in his chair so calmly, with danger encompassing
+him, was greater than he. Haydon knew it. Had there been any doubt in his
+mind on that score it must have been removed by a memory of the manner in
+which his men had received the news that Harlan had left the Rancho Seco
+and was on his way up the valley.
+
+The rider Harlan had seen had come in with that news--and Haydon had been
+standing with the group at the bunkhouse when the man arrived. And he had
+not failed to note the nervous glances of some of the men, and the
+restless eagerness, not unmixed with anxiety, with which they watched the
+trail.
+
+And now, facing Harlan, he felt the man's greatness--his especial fitness
+for the career he had adopted. Harlan was the ideal outlaw. He was cool,
+deep, subtle. He was indomitable; he felt no fear; his will was
+inflexible, adamant. Haydon felt it. The fear he had experienced at his
+first meeting with Harlan had endured until this minute--it was strong as
+ever.
+
+Yet he admired the man; and knew that since he had come to the valley he
+must be considered an important factor. Haydon could not flatly tell him
+to get out of the valley; he could not order him away from the Rancho
+Seco. Harlan was in control there--for the rider who had come in with the
+news that Harlan had set out for the valley had also apprised Haydon of
+the coming, to the Rancho Seco, of the men of the T Down outfit.
+
+The rider had not been able to tell Haydon who the men were, of course;
+but it made little difference. They were friends of Harlan's, for they
+had come from the direction of the desert--from Pardo.
+
+It was plain to Haydon that Harlan had come to the valley to stay. It was
+equally plain that he must be either propitiated or antagonized. He felt
+that Harlan was giving him his choice.
+
+"What do you want--if you throw in with us?" Haydon asked, following the
+trend of his own thoughts.
+
+"That's straight talk," said Harlan. "I'm givin' you a straight answer.
+If I join your bunch I join on the same footing with you an'
+Deveny--nothin' less. We split everything three ways--the other boys
+takin' their regular share after we take ours. I bring my boys in under
+the rules you've got that govern the others. I run the Rancho Seco--no
+one interferin'. When I rustle up that gold old Morgan hid, we split it
+three ways. Barbara Morgan goes with the ranch--no one interferin'."
+
+Color surged into Haydon's face.
+
+"You don't want much, do you?" he sneered.
+
+"I want what's comin' to me--what I'm goin' to take, if I come in. That's
+my proposition. You can take it or leave it."
+
+Haydon was silent for an instant, studying Harlan's face. What he saw
+there brought a frown to his own.
+
+"Harlan," he said softly, "some of the boys feel a little resentful over
+the way you sent Dolver and Laskar out. There are several friends of
+those two men outside now. Suppose I should call them in and tell them
+that the bars are down on you--eh?"
+
+If Haydon expected his threat to intimidate Harlan, he was mistaken.
+Harlan sat, motionless, watching the outlaw chief steadily. And into his
+eyes came a glitter of that cold contempt which Haydon had seen in them
+on the day he had faced Harlan near the bunkhouse at the Rancho Seco.
+
+"You're doin' the honors, Haydon," he said. "If you're that kind of a
+coyote I don't want to deal with you. If you think you want to pass up a
+share of that hundred thousand, start yappin' to them boys. It's likely
+there's some of them hangin' around, close. Mebbe you've got some of them
+peekin' around corners at me now. I ain't runnin' from no trouble that
+comes my way. Get goin' if you're yearnin' to requisition the mourners."
+
+Rage over the threat was now plain in his eyes, for they were aflame with
+a cold fire as he got up from his chair and stood, crouching a little,
+his hands lingering near the butts of his guns.
+
+Haydon did not move, but his face grew pallid and he smiled nervously,
+with shallow mirth.
+
+"You are not in a joking mood today, Harlan?" he said.
+
+"There's jokes, _an'_ jokes, Haydon. I've come here in good faith. I've
+been in camps like this before--in Kelso's, Dave Rance's, Blondy
+Larkin's, an' some others. Them men are outlaws--like you an' me; an'
+they've done things that make them greater than you an' me--in our line.
+But I've visited them, free an' easy--goin' an' comin' whenever I
+pleased. An' no man threatenin' me.
+
+"Your manners is irritatin' to me--I'm tellin' you so. I'm through!
+You're takin' me out, now--back to the Rancho Seco. You're ridin' behind
+me--minus your guns, your mouth shut tighter than you ever shut it
+before. An' if there's any shootin' you'll know it--plenty!"
+
+Harlan had brought matters to a crisis--suddenly, in a flash. The time
+for pretense had gone. Haydon could accept Harlan upon the terms he had
+mentioned, or he could take up the man's challenge with all it
+implied--bitter warfare between the two factions, which would be
+unprofitable to both, and especially to Haydon.
+
+It was for Haydon to decide; and he sat for some seconds motionless in
+the chair, before he spoke.
+
+Then he got up--taking care to keep his right hand at a respectable
+distance from the butt of his pistol, and smilingly held out his hand.
+
+"It goes your way, Harlan--we take you in on your terms. I beg your
+pardon for saying what I did. That was just to try you out. I've heard a
+lot about you, and I wanted to see if you were in earnest--if you really
+wanted to come in. I'm satisfied."
+
+They shook hands; their gaze meeting as they stood close together. The
+gaze endured for an instant; and then Haydon's fell. The handshake lasted
+for several seconds, and it was curious to see how Haydon's eyes, after
+they had become veiled from Harlan's by the drooping lids, glowed with a
+malignant triumph and cunning.
+
+It was also curious to note that something of the same passion was
+revealed in Harlan's eyes as they rested on the partially closed lids of
+the other--for there was triumph there, too--and comprehension, and craft
+of a kind that might have disturbed Haydon, had he seen it.
+
+Then their hands parted, mutually, and Haydon grinned smoothly and with
+apparent cordiality at Harlan. He grasped Harlan by an elbow and urged
+him toward the door through which the latter had entered.
+
+"I'll give you a knockdown to the boys, now--those that are here," he
+said.
+
+An hour later--after Haydon and the dozen men to whom he had introduced
+Harlan had watched Harlan ride eastward through the valley toward the
+Rancho Seco--Haydon rode westward, accompanied by several of the men.
+
+They rode for many miles into the heart of the big basin, coming at last
+to a gorge that wound a serpentine way southward, through some concealing
+hills, into a smaller basin. A heavy timber clump grew at the mouth of
+the gorge, hiding it from view from the trail that ran through the
+valley. Some rank underbrush that fringed the timber gave the mouth of
+the gorge the appearance of a shallow cave, and a wall of rock, forming a
+ragged arch over the entrance, heightened the impression. At first glance
+the place seemed to be impenetrable.
+
+But the horsemen filed through easily enough, and the underbrush closed
+behind them, so that, had they been seen, the watcher might have been
+startled by their sudden disappearance.
+
+Near the center of the little basin stood a huge cabin, built of adobe,
+with a flat roof. In a small corral were a number of cattle. Grazing upon
+the grass, with which the place was carpeted, were many horses; and
+lounging in the grass near the cabin, and upon some benches that ranged
+its walls, were perhaps a dozen men, heavily armed.
+
+Several of the men grinned as the newcomers rode in and dismounted, and
+one or two spoke a short greeting to Haydon, calling him "Chief."
+
+Haydon did not linger to talk with the men, though; he dismounted and
+entered the cabin, where, an instant later, he was talking with Deveny.
+
+Haydon's eyes were still triumphant--glowing with a malignant
+satisfaction.
+
+"He's wise--and dead tickled to join," he told Deveny, referring to
+Harlan. "And I took him in on his own terms. We'll play him along, making
+him believe he's regular and right, until we get what we want. Then we'll
+down him!"
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+At about the time Haydon was talking with Deveny, Harlan was dismounting
+at the Rancho Seco corral.
+
+The T Down men were variously engaged--some of them in the corral; others
+in the stable, and still others in the blacksmith-shop--all attending to
+their new duties--and only Red Linton was at the corral gate to greet
+Harlan.
+
+Triumph was in Harlan's eyes as he grinned at Linton.
+
+"I'm a Simon-pure outlaw now, Red," he stated. "Haydon didn't hesitate
+none. He's a sneakin', schemin' devil, an' he hates me like poison. But
+he took me in, reckonin' to play me for a sucker. Looks like things might
+be interestin'." He grinned. "I'm yearnin' for grub, Red."
+
+Later, while Harlan was seated at a table in the cook shanty, he became
+aware of a shadow at the door; and he wheeled, to see Barbara Morgan
+looking in at him, her face flushed, a glow in her eyes that was entirely
+comprehensible to Harlan.
+
+She was glad he had returned--any man with half Harlan's wisdom could
+have told that! And color of a kind not caused by the wind and sun
+suffused Harlan's face.
+
+She had seen him from one of the kitchen windows, and curiosity--and an
+impatience that would not permit of delay--had brought her to search for
+him.
+
+"Why," she said, "I--I thought--didn't you say that you were going away?"
+
+"Didn't I go?" he grinned.
+
+"For a day," she taunted, her voice leaping.
+
+"A day," he said gravely; "why, it was longer than that, wasn't it? Seems
+that I ain't seen you for years an' years!"
+
+He got up, his hunger forgotten. But when he reached the door he saw her
+running toward the ranchhouse, not even looking back. He stood watching
+her until she opened a door and vanished. Then he grinned and returned to
+his neglected food, saying aloud, after the manner of men who spend much
+time in open places: "I'll sure take care of her, Morgan."
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XX
+
+LEFT-HANDED
+
+
+Harlan's statement to Haydon, to the effect that he had visited the camps
+of Kelso, Rance, Larkin, and other outlaws had been strictly accurate. At
+one time or another each of those outlaw leaders had sent for Harlan, to
+endeavor to prevail upon him to cast his lot with them--so common was the
+report that Harlan was of their type.
+
+And he had been able--as he had told Haydon--to go among them with
+impunity--unmolested, respected. And even after he had refused to join
+they had extended him the courtesy of faith--not even swearing him to
+secrecy. And he had vindicated their faith by keeping silent regarding
+them.
+
+Knowing, however, that the ethics of men of the type of Kelso, Rance,
+Larkin, and others provided a safe conduct for any man of their kind that
+came among them, Harlan had felt contempt for Haydon for his threat. And
+yet Harlan's rage on that occasion had been largely surface; it had been
+displayed for effect--to force an instant decision from Haydon.
+
+Harlan was aware that his only hope of protecting Barbara Morgan from
+Haydon and Deveny was in an offensive war. He could not expect to wage
+such a war by remaining idly at the Rancho Seco, to await the inevitable
+aggressions of the outlaws, for he did not know when they would strike,
+nor how. It was certain they would strike, and it was as certain they
+would strike when he least expected them to.
+
+Therefore he had determined to join them, depending upon his reputation
+to allay any suspicion they might have regarding his motives. Haydon had
+taken him into the band, but Harlan had been convinced that Haydon
+distrusted him. He had seen distrust in Haydon's eyes; and he had known,
+when Haydon dropped his gaze at the instant they had shaken hands, that
+the man meditated duplicity.
+
+Yet Harlan was determined to appear ignorant that Haydon meditated
+trickery. He intended to go among the men and deliberately to ignore the
+threatened dangers--more, to conduct himself in such a manner that Haydon
+would not suspect that he knew of any danger.
+
+It had been a slight incident that had suggested the plan to him--merely
+a glance at Strom Rogers, while the latter, in Lamo, had been watching
+Deveny.
+
+Harlan had seen hatred in Rogers' face, and contempt and jealousy; and he
+knew that where such passion existed it could be made to grow and
+flourish by suggestion and by example.
+
+And he was determined to furnish the example.
+
+He knew something of the passions of men of the type which constituted the
+band headed by Deveny and Haydon; he knew how their passions might be
+played upon; he was aware of their respect and admiration for men of
+notorious reputation, with records for evil deeds and rapid "gunslinging."
+
+He had seen how Strom Rogers had watched him--with awed respect; he had
+seen approval in Rogers' eyes when they had exchanged glances in Lamo;
+and he had heard men in the group in front of the sheriff's office
+speaking of him in awed whispers.
+
+He had never been affected by that sort of adulation--in Lamo or in the
+days that preceded his visit to the town. But he was not unmindful of the
+advantage such adulation would give him in his campaign for control of
+the outlaw camp. And that was what he had determined to achieve.
+
+Three times in as many days he rode up the valley to the Star, each time
+talking with Haydon--then leaving the latter to go out and lounge around
+among the men, listening to their talk, but taking little part in it. He
+did not speak until he was spoken to, and thus he challenged their
+interest, and they began to make advances to him.
+
+Their social structure was flimsy and thin, their fellowship as
+spontaneous as it was insincere; and within a few days the edge had worn
+off the strangeness that had surrounded Harlan, and he had been accepted
+with hardly a ripple of excitement.
+
+And yet no man among them had achieved intimacy with Harlan. There was a
+cold constraint in his manner that held them off, figuratively, barring
+them from becoming familiar with him. Several of them tried familiarity,
+and were astonished to discover that they had somehow failed--though they
+had been repelled so cleverly that they could not resent it.
+
+Harlan had established a barrier without them being aware of how he had
+done it--the barrier of authority and respect, behind which he stood, an
+engaging, saturnine, interesting, awe-compelling figure.
+
+At the end of a week the men of the Star outfit were addressing him as
+"boss;" listening to him with respect when he spoke, striving for his
+attention, and trying to win from him one of those rare smiles with which
+he honored those among them whose personalities interested him.
+
+At the end of two weeks half of the Star outfit was eager to obey any order
+he issued, while the remainder betrayed some slight hesitation--which,
+however, vanished when Harlan turned his steady gaze upon them.
+
+Behind their acceptance of him, though--back of their seeming willingness
+to admit him to their peculiar fellowship--was a reservation. Harlan felt
+it, saw it in their eyes, and noted it in their manner toward him. They
+had heard about him; they knew something of his record; reports of his
+cleverness with a weapon had come to them. And they were curious.
+
+There was speculation in the glances they threw at him; there was some
+suspicion, cynicism, skepticism, and not a little doubt. It seemed to
+Harlan that though they had accepted him they were impatiently awaiting a
+practical demonstration of those qualities that had made him famous in
+the country. They wanted to be "shown."
+
+Their wild, unruly passions and lurid imaginations were the urges that
+drove them--that shaped their conduct toward their fellows. Some of them
+were rapid gunslingers--in the picturesque idioms of their speech--and
+there was not a man among them who did not take pride in his ability to
+"work" his gun. They had accepted Harlan, but it was obvious that among
+them were some that doubted the veracity of rumor--some who felt that
+Harlan had been overrated.
+
+It did not take Harlan long to discover who those doubting spirits were.
+He saw them watching him--always with curling lip and truculent eye; he
+heard references to his ability from them--scraps of conversation in
+which such terms and phrases as "a false alarm, mebbe," "he don't look
+it," "wears 'em for show, I reckon," were used. He had learned the names
+of the men; there were three of them, known merely as "Lanky," "Poggs,"
+and "Latimer."
+
+Their raids upon the cattle in the basin took place at night; and their
+other depredations occurred at that time also. Harlan did not fail to
+hear of them, for their successes figured prominently in their daytime
+conversations; and he had watched the herd of cattle in the Star corrals
+grow in size until the enclosure grew too small to hold them comfortably.
+He had noted, too, the cleverness with which the men obliterated the
+brands on the stolen cattle--or refashioned them until proof of their
+identity was obscure.
+
+He had taken no part in any of the raids, though he had passed a few
+nights at the Star, directing, with the help of Strom Rogers, the
+altering of the brands and the other work attending the disguising of the
+cattle.
+
+Haydon he had seen but a few times, and Deveny not at all. He learned
+from Rogers that Haydon spent most of his time upon mysterious missions
+which took him to Lamo, to Lazette, and to Las Vegas; and that Deveny
+operated from a place that Rogers referred to as the "Cache," several
+miles up the valley.
+
+Latimer, a tawny giant of a man with a long, hooked nose, and thin, cruel
+lips, interested Harlan. He watched the man when the other was not
+conscious of his glances, noting the bigness of him, his slow,
+panther-like movements; the glowing, savage truculence of his eyes; the
+hard, bitter droop of his lips under the yellow mustache he wore. He felt
+the threat of the man when the latter looked at him--it was personal,
+intense--seeming to have motive behind it. It aroused in Harlan a
+responsive passion.
+
+One day, seated on a bench in front of the long bunkhouse near the Star
+ranchhouse, Harlan was watching some of the men who were playing cards
+near him. They were lounging in the grass, laughingly pitting their skill
+against one another, while another group, in front of the stable, was
+diligently repairing saddles.
+
+Apart from the two groups were Lanky, Poggs, and Latimer. They were
+standing near the corral fence, about a hundred feet from where Harlan
+sat. The subject of their talk was unpleasant, for their faces reflected
+the venomous passions that inspired it.
+
+Latimer had been watching Harlan--his gaze boldly hostile and full of a
+hate that was unmistakable.
+
+And Harlan had not been unaware of Latimer's gaze; he had noted the
+wolfish gleam in the other's eyes--and because he was interested in
+Latimer, he watched him covertly.
+
+But Harlan had betrayed no sign that he knew Latimer was watching him;
+and when he saw Strom Rogers coming toward him from the stable, he
+grinned at him and made room for him when the latter headed for the bench
+upon which Harlan was sitting.
+
+"Lazy day," offered Rogers as he dropped on the bench beside Harlan; "not
+a heap doin'." He did not look at Harlan, but leaned forward, took up a
+cinch buckle that had been lying in the sand at his feet, and turned it
+idly over and over in his hands, apparently intent on its construction.
+
+With his head down, so that even the card-players could not see his lips
+move, he whispered to Harlan:
+
+"Don't let 'em see you know I'm talkin'! They're framin' up on you!"
+
+Harlan grinned, shielding his lips with a hand that he passed casually
+over them.
+
+"Meanin' Latimer--an' his friends?" he said.
+
+"Yep. Latimer's jealous of you. Been jealous. Thinks he can match your
+gunplay--itchin' for trouble--bound to have it out with you. We was at
+the Cache last night, an' I heard him an' Deveny yappin' about it.
+Deveny's back of him--he's sore about the way you handed it to him in
+Lamo. Keep your eyes peeled; they're pullin' it off pretty soon.
+Latimer's doin' the shootin'--he's tryin' to work himself up to it. Be
+careful."
+
+"I'm thankin' you." Harlan leaned back, crossed his legs, and stared off
+into space, the light in his eyes becoming vacuous. He seemed not to be
+interested in Latimer and the other two, but in reality he saw them
+distinctly. But they had their backs to him now, and were slowly
+sauntering toward the stable door.
+
+"So Deveny ain't admirin' me none?" he said to Rogers.
+
+"Not scarcely. No more than a gopher is admirin' a side-winder."
+
+"Latimer," said Harlan, "don't like my style of beauty either. I've been
+noticin' it. He's a mighty interestin' man. If I wasn't dead sure he
+ain't the kind of a guy which goes around shootin' folks in the back, I'd
+say he pretty near fits the description I got of the man who helped
+Dolver salivate my side-kicker, Davey Langan, over in Pardo--a couple of
+months ago."
+
+Rogers' side glance was pregnant with a grim, unsmiling humor.
+
+"So you've picked him out? I've been wonderin' how long it would take
+you."
+
+The emotion that passed over Harlan was not visible. It might have been
+detected, however, by the slight leap in his voice.
+
+"You an' Latimer is bosom friends, I reckon?"
+
+"Shucks!"
+
+Rogers' glance met Harlan's for a fleeting instant.
+
+"This gang needs cleanin' up," said Rogers. He got up, and stood in front
+of Harlan, holding out the cinch buckle, as though offering it to the
+other. For both men had seen that Latimer had left his friends at the
+stable door and was coming slowly toward the bunkhouse.
+
+"You'll have to be slick," warned Rogers. "He's comin'. I'll be moseyin'
+out of the way."
+
+He moved slowly from the bench, passed the group of card-players, and
+walked to the ranchhouse, where he hung the cinch buckle on a nail driven
+into the wall of the building. Then he slowly turned, facing the bench
+upon which Harlan still sat, and toward which Latimer was walking.
+
+It was evident that all of the men in the vicinity were aware of the
+threatened clash, for their manner, upon the approach of Latimer,
+indicated as much.
+
+For weeks they had been eager to test the traditional quickness of Harlan
+with the weapons that swung at his hips--those weapons had been a
+constant irritation to some of them, and an object of speculation to all.
+And when the night before some of them had heard the whispered word that
+Latimer--with Deveny's sanction--indeed with Deveny's encouragement--was
+determined to clash with Harlan, they had realized that the moment for
+which they had yearned was at hand.
+
+For they had seen in Harlan's eyes--and had felt in the atmosphere that
+surrounded the man--the certainty that he would not refuse the clash with
+Latimer. The only question in their minds concerning Harlan was that of
+his speed and accuracy. And so when they saw Latimer coming they ceased
+playing cards and sat, interestedly watching--alert to note how Latimer
+would bring about the clash, and how Harlan would meet it.
+
+Latimer had nerved himself for the ordeal by talking with his friends.
+The will to kill Harlan had been in his heart for a long time, but he
+needed to reinforce it with an artificial rage. And, dwelling, with his
+friends, upon the irritating fact that Harlan had come among them to
+usurp authority to which he had no visible claim, he had succeeded in
+working his rage to a frenzy that took little account of consequences.
+
+Yet Latimer would not have been able to reach that frenzy had he not been
+convinced that he was Harlan's master with the six-shooter. He really
+believed that Harlan had been overrated. He believed that because he
+wanted to believe it, and because his contempt for the man had bred that
+conviction in his heart.
+
+Also, he thought he knew why Harlan had come to the Star--why he had
+joined the outlaw camp. And the night before, he had communicated that
+suspicion to Deveny. It was because Harlan knew he had been with Dolver
+when Davey Langan had been killed. Latimer thought he had seen a slight
+relief in Deveny's eyes when he had told the latter that, but he could
+not be sure, and it was not important.
+
+The important thing was that he must kill Harlan--and he meant to do it.
+He would kill him fairly, if possible, thereby enhancing his
+reputation--but he was certain to kill him, no matter what the method.
+
+That conviction blazed in his eyes as he came to a halt within a dozen
+paces of where Harlan was sitting. He had worked himself to such a pitch
+of rage that it gripped him like some strong fever--bloating his face,
+tensing his muscles, bulging his eyes.
+
+Harlan had watched him; and his gaze was on the other now with a steady,
+unwavering alertness that advertised his knowledge of what was impending.
+But he sat, motionless, rigid, waiting Latimer's first hostile movement.
+
+Harlan had turned a very little when Latimer had begun his walk toward
+the bench; his right side was slightly toward the man, the leg partially
+extended; while the left leg was doubled under the bench--seemingly to
+give him leverage should he decide to rise.
+
+But he gave no indication of meditating such a move. It was plain to the
+watchers that if he attempted it Latimer would draw his gun and begin to
+shoot.
+
+Latimer was convinced also that Harlan would not attempt to rise. He had
+Harlan at a disadvantage, and he laughed loudly, sardonically,
+contemptuously as he stood, his right hand hovering close to his pistol
+holster, his eyes aflame with hate and passion.
+
+"Keep a-settin', you buzzard's whelp!" he sneered; "keep a-settin'!
+Latimer's out to git you. You know it--eh? You've knowed it right
+along--pretendin' not to. 'Drag' Harlan--bah! Gunslinger with a
+record--an' caught a-settin'. Caught with the goods on, sneakin' in here,
+tryin' to ketch a man unawares.
+
+"Bah! Don't I know what you're here for? It's me! You blowed Dolver apart
+for killin' that damned, slick-eyed pardner of yourn--Davey Langan. Do
+you want to know who sent Langan out? I'm tellin' you--it was me!
+Me--me!"
+
+He fairly yelled the last words, and stiffened, holding the fingers of
+his right hand clawlike, above the butt of the holstered pistol.
+
+And when he saw that Harlan did not move; that he sat there rigid, his
+eyes unblinking and expressionless; his right hand hanging limply at his
+side, near the partially extended leg; his left hand resting upon the
+thigh of the doubled leg--he stepped closer, watching Harlan's right
+hand.
+
+For a space--while one might have counted ten--neither man moved a
+muscle. Something in Harlan's manner sent into Latimer's frenzied brain
+the message that all was not what it seemed--that Harlan was meditating
+some astonishing action. Ten seconds is not long, as times goes, but
+during that slight interval the taut nerves of Latimer's were twanged
+with a torturing doubt that began to creep over him.
+
+Would Harlan never make that move? That question was dinned insistently
+into Latimer's ears. He began to believe that Harlan did not intend to
+draw.
+
+And then----
+
+"Ah!"
+
+It was Latimer's lungs that breathed the ejaculation.
+
+For Harlan's right hand had moved slightly upward, toward the pistol at
+his right hip. It went only a few inches; it was still far below the
+holster when Latimer's clawlike fingers descended to the butt of his own
+weapon. The thought that he would beat Harlan in a fair draw was in his
+mind--that he would beat him despite the confusion of the hesitating
+motion with which Harlan got his gun out.
+
+Something was happening, though--something odd and unexplainable. For
+though Latimer had seemed to have plenty of time, he was conscious that
+Harlan's gun was belching fire and death at him. He saw the smoke
+streaks, felt the bullets striking him, searing their way through him,
+choking him, weakening his knees.
+
+He went down, his eyes wide with incredulity, filling with hideous
+self-derision when he saw that the pistol which had sent his death to him
+was not in Harlan's right hand at all, but in his left.
+
+Harlan got up slowly as Latimer stretched out in the dust at his
+feet--casting one swift glance at the fallen man to satisfy himself that
+for _him_ the incident was ended. Then, with the gaze of every man in the
+outfit upon him, he strode toward the stable, where Lanky and Poggs were
+standing, having witnessed the death of their confederate.
+
+They stiffened to immobility as they watched Harlan's approach, knowing
+that for them the incident was not closed--their guilt plain in their
+faces.
+
+And when Harlan halted in front of them they stood, not moving a muscle,
+their eyes searching Harlan's face for signs that they too, were to
+receive a demonstration of the man's uncanny cleverness.
+
+"You was backin' Latimer's play," said Harlan, shortly. "I'm aimin' to
+play the string out. Pull--or I'll blow you apart!"
+
+Poggs and Lanky did not "pull." They stood there, ghastly color stealing
+into their faces, their eyes wide with the knowledge that death would be
+the penalty of a hostile movement.
+
+Harlan's pistol was again in its holster, and yet they had no desire to
+provoke the man to draw it. The furtive gleam in the eyes of both
+revealed the hope that gripped them--that some of the watchers would
+interfere.
+
+But not a man moved. Most of them had been stunned by the rapidity of
+Harlan's action--by the deftness with which he had brought his left hand
+into use. They had received the practical demonstration for which they
+all had longed, and each man's manner plainly revealed his decision to
+take no part in what was transpiring.
+
+They remained in their places while Harlan--understanding that Poggs and
+Lanky would not accept his invitation--spoke gruffly to them:
+
+"This camp ain't got any room for skunks that go to framin' up on any of
+the boys. Today you done it to me--tomorrow you'd try to pull it off on
+some other guy.
+
+"You're travelin'--pronto. You're gettin' your cayuses. Then you're
+hittin' the breeze away from here--an' not comin' back. That lets you
+out. Mosey!"
+
+He stood watchful, alert, while the men roped their horses, got their
+"war-bags," from the bunkhouse, mounted, and rode away without looking
+back. Then he walked over to the bench where he had been sitting when
+Rogers had warned him of the plan to kill him; ordered several of the men
+to take Latimer's body away, and then resumed his place on the bench,
+where he rolled a cigarette.
+
+Later, when the men who had gone with Latimer's body returned to the
+vicinity of the ranchhouse, Harlan was still sitting on the bench.
+
+No man said a word to him, but he saw a new respect in the eyes of all of
+them--even in Rogers' gaze--which had not strayed from him for an instant
+during the trouble.
+
+And a little later, when Rogers walked to the bench and sat beside him,
+the other men had resumed their various pastimes as though nothing had
+happened.
+
+Again Rogers whispered to him, lowly, admiringly:
+
+"This camp is yours, man, whenever you say the word!"
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXI
+
+THE BLACK-BEARDED MAN
+
+
+It was Strom Rogers who indicated to the outlaws at the Star that
+henceforth Harlan was to exercise authority of a kind that had formerly
+been vested in Haydon and Deveny.
+
+The corral was packed to suffocation with cattle, threatening the health
+of the animals; Deveny had sent no word from the Cache regarding the
+disposal of the stock, and Haydon's whereabouts were unknown.
+
+Rogers had moved stock on his own initiative in former days--for he had
+been an able assistant to both leaders. And Rogers could have moved the
+stock out of the corral and to the point far south where the outlaws had
+always sold them.
+
+But there was malice in Rogers' heart toward the two outlaw leaders, and
+a perverse devil lurked in him. For many months he had worshiped Barbara
+Morgan from a distance, vaguely aware that his passion for her could
+never be realized. But there was a spark of honesty and justice in Rogers
+despite his profession, and a sincere admiration for the girl that
+admitted of no thought of evil toward her.
+
+He had almost betrayed his resentment to Deveny when in Lamo, on the day
+of the coming of Harlan, Deveny had boldly announced his intentions
+toward the girl; and it had been a dread of clashing with Deveny that had
+kept him from interfering. The will to protect the girl had been in
+Rogers' mind, but he lacked the physical courage to risk his life for
+her.
+
+This man who had boldly entered the outlaw camp, after first defying
+Deveny in Lamo, had made a stirring appeal to the good in Rogers; and he
+foresaw that trouble, in which Harlan had a chance to emerge victorious,
+was certain. And he had decided to align himself with the Pardo gunman.
+
+Therefore, on this morning, when it was certain that the cattle in the
+corral must be moved, he deliberately refused to exercise his
+prerogative. Instead, he waited until after breakfast--when the men were
+congregated outside the bunkhouse door--when he was certain they would
+all hear him.
+
+Harlan had come out, too. He had not visited the Rancho Seco for more
+than a week, fearing that his absence might jeopardize the advantage he
+had gained over the men through the killing of Latimer.
+
+With the attention of all the men centered upon him, Rogers walked close
+to Harlan, speaking loudly:
+
+"Them cattle ought to hit the trail, Harlan. It's up to you--you're the
+boss. Do we move 'em--an' where?"
+
+A comprehensive light gleamed in Harlan's eyes.
+
+"They move," he said shortly. "Drive them where you've been drivin'
+them."
+
+As though he had been giving orders to the outlaws all his life, he
+briskly mentioned the names of the men who were to form the trail herd.
+
+Not a man dissented. Those whose names were called quickly detached
+themselves from the group, and sought the horse corral; where they roped
+their horses and began to make preparations to obey Harlan's order. And
+later, when the cattle were driven out of the corral, and the trail herd
+crew straggled behind them over the level that led southward, the men
+were grinning.
+
+For Harlan had told them that their share of the spoils resulting from
+the sale of the cattle was to be materially increased. He had likewise
+told them that they might spend an extra day in "town" before their
+return.
+
+Only one man besides Harlan remained at the Star after the herd vanished
+into the southern distance. That man was the black-bearded fellow who had
+escorted Harlan to the ranchhouse on the occasion of his first
+visit--Lafe Woodward.
+
+This man's admiration for Harlan had never been concealed. He had stayed
+as close to Harlan as possible; and from his manner Harlan had divined
+that the man was eager to ingratiate himself.
+
+Woodward stood near Harlan as the herd and the men vanished. He had
+grinned widely when, just before the outfit had departed, he had heard
+Rogers whisper to Harlan:
+
+"You've made yourself solid with the bunch, for sure, by offerin' 'em a
+bigger divvy. They've been grumblin' about it for a long time. They're
+all sore at Haydon an' Deveny for bein' greedy. But you're sure cookin'
+up a heap of trouble with Haydon an' Deveny!"
+
+Harlan grinned with grim mirthlessness. It had been his first opportunity
+to stir up dissension and strife in the outlaw camp, and he had taken
+instant advantage of it. He had created factional feeling, and he was
+prepared to accept the consequences.
+
+And, later in the day, when he saw Haydon ride in, dismount and cast a
+surprised glance at the empty corral, he knew that the moment for which
+he had planned, had come.
+
+Woodward was nowhere in sight; and Harlan, who had been in the
+blacksmith-shop, made himself visible to Haydon by stepping outside.
+
+Haydon called to him, sharply; and Harlan walked slowly to where the
+outlaw chief stood, a saturnine grin on his face, his eyes alight with a
+cold humor that might have been illuminating to Haydon had he taken the
+trouble to look into them.
+
+Haydon was laboring under some strong passion. He was suppressing it with
+an effort, but it showed in his tensed muscles and in his flushed face.
+
+"Where are the cattle?" he demanded, his voice a trifle hoarse.
+
+"They're headed for Willow Wells--where you've been sellin' them."
+
+"By whose orders?" Haydon's voice was choked with passion.
+
+"Mine," drawled Harlan. Harlan might have explained that the stock had
+been suffering in the crowded enclosure, thus assuaging Haydon's wrath.
+But he gave no explanation--that would have been a revelation of
+eagerness to escape blame and the possible consequences of his act.
+Instead of explaining he looked steadily into Haydon's eyes, his own cold
+and unblinking.
+
+He saw Haydon's wrath flare up--it was in the heightened color that
+spread upward above the collar of his shirt; he saw the man's terrific
+effort at self-control; and his look grew bitter with insolence.
+
+"What's botherin' you?" he said.
+
+"The cattle--damn it!" shouted Haydon. "What in hell do you mean by
+sending them away without orders?"
+
+"I'm havin' my say, Haydon. We agreed to split everything three ways.
+Authority to give orders goes with that. That was the agreement. A man's
+got to be either a captain or a private, an' I've never played second to
+any man. I ain't beginnin' now."
+
+"Why, damn you!" gasped Haydon. His eyes were aglare with a terrible rage
+and hate; he stepped backward a little, bending his right arm, spreading
+the fingers.
+
+Harlan had made no move, but the light in his eyes betrayed his complete
+readiness for the trouble that Haydon plainly meditated.
+
+"Yes," he said, slowly, drawling his words, a little! "It's come to that,
+I reckon. You've got to flash your gun now, or take it back. No man
+cusses me an' gets away with it. Get goin'!"
+
+Haydon stood, swaying from side to side, in the grip of a mighty
+indecision. The fingers of his right hand spread wider; the hand
+descended to a point nearer to his pistol holster.
+
+There it poised, the fingers hooked, like the talons of some giant bird
+about to clutch a victim.
+
+Had Haydon faced a man with less courage; had Harlan's iron control
+lacked that quality which permitted him to give an enemy that small
+chance for life which he always gave them, death might have reigned at
+the Star again. Haydon owed his life to that hesitation which had made
+Harlan famous.
+
+And as the strained, tense seconds passed with both men holding the
+positions they had assumed, it seemed Haydon was slowly beginning to
+realize that Harlan was reluctant, was deliberately giving him a chance.
+
+A change came over Haydon. The clawlike fingers began to straighten;
+imperceptibly at first, and then with a spasmodic motion that flexed the
+muscles in little jerks. The hand became limp; it dropped slowly to his
+side--down beyond the pistol holster. Then it came up, and the man swept
+it over his eyes, as though to brush away a vision that frightened him.
+
+His face grew pale, he shuddered; and at last he stood, swaying a little,
+his mouth open with wonder for the phenomenal thing that had happened to
+him.
+
+Harlan's voice, cold and expressionless, startled him:
+
+"You wasn't meanin' to cuss me?"
+
+"No!" The denial was blurted forth. Haydon grinned, faintly, with hideous
+embarrassment; the knowledge that he had been beaten, and that he owed
+his life to Harlan, was plain in his eyes.
+
+He laughed, uncertainly, as he made an effort to stiffen his lagging
+muscles.
+
+"I was a bit flustered, Harlan; I talked rather recklessly, I admit. You
+see, I've been used to giving orders myself. I was riled for a minute."
+
+"That goes!" said Harlan, shortly. His voice had changed. The slow drawl
+had gone, and a snapping, authoritative sharpness had replaced it.
+
+Haydon gazed at him with a new wonder. He sensed in Harlan's manner the
+consciousness of power, the determination to command. At a stroke, it
+seemed, Harlan had wrenched from him the right to rule. He felt himself
+being relegated to a subordinate position; he felt at this minute the
+ruthless force of the man who stood before him; he felt oddly impotent
+and helpless, and he listened to Harlan with a queer feeling of wonder
+for the absence of the rage that should have gripped him.
+
+"I'm runnin' things from now on," Harlan said. "I ain't interferin' with
+the Star. But I'm runnin' things for the boys. I told Rogers to drive the
+cattle to Willow's Wells--an' to sell them. I've promised the boys a
+bigger divvy. They get it. I've told them to take a day off, in town,
+after they turn the cattle over.
+
+"There's got to be a new deal. The boys are fussed up--claimin' they
+ain't gettin' their share. I'm seein' that they do. You can't run a camp
+like this an' not treat the boys right."
+
+The wonder that had been aroused in Haydon grew as Harlan talked; it
+increased in intensity until, when Harlan's voice died away, it developed
+into suspicion.
+
+That was what Harlan had come to the Star for! He wanted to run the camp,
+to direct the activities of the outlaws in the valley. Power! Authority!
+Those were the things Harlan craved for.
+
+Haydon saw it all, now. He saw that Harlan wanted to dominate--everything.
+He wanted to rule the outlaw camp; he wanted to run the Rancho Seco; he
+intended to get possession of the gold that Morgan had left, and he wanted
+Barbara Morgan.
+
+The rage that had held Haydon in its clutch when he had called Harlan to
+him was reviving. Haydon's face was still white, but the fury in his
+eyes--slowly growing--was not to be mistaken.
+
+Harlan saw it, and his lips straightened. He had expected Haydon would
+rage over what he had determined to tell him; and he was not surprised.
+He had deliberately goaded the man into his present fury. He had
+determined to kill him, and he had been disappointed when he had seen
+Haydon lose his courage when the crisis arrived. And now his deliberate
+and premeditated plan was to bear fruit.
+
+Harlan was reluctant to kill, but there seemed to be no other way. Haydon
+was a murderer. He had killed Lane Morgan; he was an outlaw whose rule
+had oppressed the valley for many months. If Harlan could have devised
+some plan that would make it possible for him to attain his end without
+killing anybody, he would have eagerly adopted it.
+
+But in this country force must be fought with force. It was a grim game,
+and the rules were inflexible--kill or be killed.
+
+His own life would be safe in this section so long as he guarded it.
+Eternal vigilance and the will to take life when his own was threatened
+was a principle which custom had established. If he expected to save the
+girl at the Rancho Seco he could not temper his actions with mercy. And
+he knew that if he was to succeed in his design to disrupt the outlaw
+gang he would have to remove the man who stood before him, working
+himself into a new frenzy. There seemed to be no other way.
+
+But Haydon seemed to have control of himself, now, despite the frenzied
+glare of his eyes. He was outwardly cool; his movements were
+deliberate--he had conquered his fear of Harlan, it seemed.
+
+He laughed, harshly.
+
+"Harlan," he said; "you had me going--talking that way. By Heaven! you
+almost convinced me that I'd _let_ you run things here. I was beginning
+to believe I'd lost my nerve. But see here!"
+
+He held out his right hand toward Harlan--it was steady, rigid, not a
+nerve in it quivered.
+
+"You're fast with your guns, but you can't run any whizzer in on me--you
+can't intimidate me. You killed Latimer the other day; and you've got the
+boys with you. But you can't run things here. Have all the boys gone?"
+
+"Woodward's here."
+
+Harlan spoke lowly; his eyes were keenly watchful. This flare-up on
+Haydon's part was merely a phase of his confused mental condition. He saw
+that Haydon did not mean to use his gun--that he intended to ignore it,
+no doubt planning to regain his authority when the men of the outfit
+returned--when he might enlist the support of some of them.
+
+"Woodward's here--eh?" laughed Haydon. He raised his voice, shouting for
+the man. And Harlan saw Woodward come from behind an outbuilding, look
+toward the ranchhouse, and then walk slowly toward them.
+
+Woodward halted when within several paces of the two, and looked from one
+to the other curiously, his eyes narrowed with speculation.
+
+"Woodward," directed Haydon; "hit the breeze after the outfit and tell
+them to drive those cattle back here!"
+
+Harlan grinned. "Woodward," he said, gently; "you climb on your cayuse
+an' do as Haydon tells you. Haydon is figurin' on cashin' in when you
+do."
+
+Haydon blustered. "What do you mean?"
+
+"I mean that if Woodward goes after the boys I'm goin' to blow you apart.
+I'm givin' the orders around here!"
+
+Watching Haydon, Harlan saw that he was not exhibiting rage, but intense
+interest. He was not looking at Harlan, but at Woodward. And, turning
+swiftly, his guns both leaping into his hands with the movement--for he
+had a swift suspicion that Woodward might be standing with Haydon against
+him--he saw that Woodward had fallen into a crouch; that the man's right
+hand was hovering over his pistol holster, and that his eyes were
+gleaming with a light that could mean only the one thing--murder.
+
+Backing slowly away from both Haydon and Woodward, Harlan watched them,
+his guns ready for instant action should he catch any sign that would
+indicate trickery toward himself.
+
+He saw no such signs. It became plain to him that Woodward had no eyes
+for anyone but Haydon, and that Haydon's attention was fixed upon
+Woodward with an intentness that meant he had divined that Woodward's
+peculiar manner had a definite, personal meaning.
+
+Woodward continued to advance on Haydon. He was waving his left hand as
+though giving Harlan a silent order to get out of his way, while his gaze
+was centered upon Haydon with an unspoken promise of violence,
+fascinating to behold.
+
+It seemed to have fascinated Haydon. Harlan saw him shrink back, the
+bluster gone out of him, his face the color of ashes. He kept stepping
+back, until he brought up against the rear wall of the ranchhouse; and
+there he stood, watching Woodward, his eyes bulging with dread wonder.
+
+Harlan saw his lips move; heard his voice, hoarse and throaty:
+
+"It's a frame-up--a frame-up. Both of you are out to get me!"
+
+"Frame-up!"
+
+This was Woodward. He was a sinister figure, with his black beard seeming
+to bristle with passion, his eyes flaming with it; all his muscles tensed
+and quivering, and his right hand, with clawlike fingers, poised above
+the butt of his pistol.
+
+"Frame-up!" he repeated, laughing hoarsely between his teeth. "Hell's
+fire! Do you think it takes two men to 'get' you--you miserable whelp?
+
+"I've been waitin' for this day--waitin' for it, waitin' to get you
+alone--waitin' for the boys to go so's I could tell you somethin'.
+
+"You know what it is. You ain't guessin', eh? Listen while I tell you
+somethin'. The day 'Drag' Harlan got in Lamo he brought news that Lane
+Morgan had been killed out in the desert. I heard the boys sayin' you had
+a hand in it. But I thought that was just talk. I didn't believe you was
+that kind of a skunk. I waited.
+
+"Then you sent me over to the edge of the level, near the Rancho
+Seco--where Harlan found that flattened grass when he rode over here. You
+told me to watch Harlan and Barbara Morgan. You said you thought Harlan
+would try some sneak game with her.
+
+"You can gamble I watched. I saw Harlan standin' guard over her; I saw
+him follow that sneak Lawson. I heard the shot that killed Lawson, an' I
+saw Harlan tote him downstairs, an' then set on the door-sill all night,
+guardin' Barbara Morgan.
+
+"The sneakin' game was played by you, Haydon. When I saw Harlan headin'
+toward the valley the day he come here, I lit out ahead of him. And when
+he got to the timber over there I brought him in.
+
+"An' I heard you talk that day. I heard him sayin' that you killed Lane
+Morgan. He said my dad told him you fired the shot that killed him."
+
+Harlan started and leaned forward, amazed. But Haydon swayed, and then
+steadied himself with an effort, and stared at Woodward with bulging,
+incredulous eyes.
+
+"Your _dad_?" he almost shrieked; "Lane Morgan was your father?"
+
+Woodward's grin was wolfish. He took two or three steps toward
+Haydon--panther-like steps that betrayed the lust that was upon him.
+
+"I'm Billy Morgan," he said, his teeth showing in a merciless grin;
+"Barbara's brother. Flash your gun, Haydon; I'm goin' to kill you!"
+
+Haydon clawed for his pistol, missing the butt in his eagerness, and
+striving wildly to draw it. It snagged on a rawhide thong that supported
+the holster and his fingers were loosening in the partial grip when Billy
+Morgan shot him.
+
+He flattened against the wall of the ranchhouse for an instant, staring
+wildly around him; then his head sagged forward and he slid down the wall
+of the ranchhouse into the deep dust that was mounded near it.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXII
+
+A DEAD MAN WALKS
+
+
+Harlan had paid strict attention to Lane Morgan's words at Sentinel Rock,
+and he remembered that Morgan had told him that his son, whom he had
+called "Bill," had left the Rancho Seco on some mission for the governor.
+Evidently it had not occurred to Morgan that his son's mission had taken
+him only to the valley in which reigned those outlaws Morgan had reviled.
+
+But it was plain to Harlan that "Billy" was here--he had said so himself,
+and he had given proof that he had been watchful and alert to Barbara's
+interests. And now was explained young Morgan's interest in himself. The
+thought that during all the days he had spent at the Rancho Seco, his
+movements had been watched by the man who had just killed Haydon, brought
+a glow of ironic humor to Harlan's eyes.
+
+During a long interval, through which Billy Morgan stood over Haydon,
+watching him with a cold savagery, Harlan kept at a respectable distance,
+also watching.
+
+He saw that for Haydon the incident had been fatal. The man's body did
+not move after it slipped to the ground beside the ranchhouse wall. Yet
+Morgan watched until he was certain; then he slowly wheeled and looked at
+Harlan.
+
+"That settles him--damn him!" he said, with a breathlessness that told of
+the intense strain he had been laboring under.
+
+Still Harlan did not speak; and his guns were in their holsters when
+Morgan walked close to him, grinning wanly.
+
+"I had to do it. There's no use tryin' to depend on the law in this
+country. You've seen that, yourself."
+
+"I've noticed it," grinned Harlan. "You're feelin' bad over it. I
+wouldn't. If it had been my dad he killed I couldn't have done any
+different. I reckon any man with blood in him would feel that way about a
+coyote like that killin' his father. If men don't feel that way, why do
+they drag murderers to courts--where they have courts--an' ask the law to
+kill them. That's just shovin' the responsibility onto some other guy.
+
+"I've handed several guys their pass-out checks, an' I ain't regrettin'
+one of them. There wasn't one of them that didn't have it comin' to him.
+They was lookin' for it, mostly, an' had to have it. I've heard of guys
+that had killed a man feelin' squeamish over it--with ghosts visitin'
+them at night; an' sufferin' a lot of mental torture. I reckon any man
+would feel that way if he'd killed an inoffensive man--or a good man, or
+one that hadn't been tryin' to murder him." He grinned again. "Why, I'm
+preachin'!"
+
+And now into his gaze as he looked at Morgan, came cold reproach.
+
+"You wasn't figurin' to let Barbara play it a lone hand?" he said.
+
+"Hell's fire--no!" denied Morgan, his eyes blazing. "I've been watchin'
+the Rancho Seco--as I told Haydon. I saw Barbara set out for Lamo. There
+was no one followin' her, an' so I thought she'd be all right. That mixup
+at Lamo slipped me. But I seen you an' Barbara come back, an' I heard the
+boys talkin' about what happened at Lamo. I'd heard of you, too; an' when
+I seen you come back with Barbara I watched you. An' I seen you was
+square, so I trusted you a heap.
+
+"An' I had a talk with Sheriff Gage about you, an' he told me my dad had
+sent to Pardo for you, through Dave Hallowell, the marshal of Pardo. Gage
+said you was out to clean up Deveny an' Haydon, an' so I knowed I could
+depend on you."
+
+"Barbara don't know you're hangin' around here--she ain't known it?"
+
+"Shucks, I reckon not," grinned Morgan. "I didn't come here for six
+months after I left the Rancho Seco--until I growed a beard. Barbara's
+been within a dozen feet of me, an' never knowed me. I've been thinkin'
+of telling her, but I seen Haydon was sweet on her, an' I didn't dare
+tell her. Women ain't reliable. She'd have showed it some way, an' then
+there'd have been hell to pay."
+
+"An' I've been pridin' myself on takin' care of Barbara," said Harlan. "I
+feel a heap embarrassed an' useless--just like I'd been fooled."
+
+"You've done a thing I couldn't do," confessed Morgan; "you've busted
+Haydon's gang wide open. If you hadn't showed up there'd have been
+nothin' done. There's some of the boys that ain't outlaws--boys that are
+with me, havin' sneaked into the gang to help me out. But we wan't makin'
+no headway to speak of."
+
+Harlan looked at Haydon. "That guy was educated," he said. "What was his
+game? I've felt all along that there was somethin' big back of him--that
+he wasn't here just to steal cattle an' rob folks, an' such."
+
+"You ain't heard," smiled Morgan. "Of course you wouldn't--unless Gage
+had gassed to you.
+
+"There's a gang of big men in Frisco, an' in the East, figurin' to run a
+railroad through the basin. A year or so ago there was secret talk of it
+in the capital. It leaked out that the railroad guys was intendin' to run
+their road through the basin. They was goin' to build a town right where
+the Rancho Seco lays; an' they was plannin' to irrigate a lot of the land
+around there. The governor says it was to be big--an' likely it'll be
+big, when they get around to it.
+
+"But them things go slow, an' a gang of cheap crooks got wise to it. They
+sent Haydon down here, to scare the folks in the basin into sellin' out
+for a song. They've scared one man out--a Pole from the west end. But the
+others have stuck. Looks like they was figurin' on grabbin' the Rancho
+Seco without payin' _anything_ for it--Haydon intendin', I reckon, to put
+dad an' me out of the way an' marry Barbara. Then he could have cut the
+ranch up into town lots an' made a mint of coin."
+
+"An' Deveny?"
+
+"Deveny's a wolf. Haydon brought him here from Arizona--where he'd
+terrorized a whole county, runnin' it regardless. He figured to cash in,
+I reckon, but he's been grabbin' up everything he could lay his hands on,
+on the way."
+
+"You'll be tellin' Barbara, now?" suggested Harlan.
+
+"You're shoutin'!" said Morgan, his eyes glowing. "I'm hittin' the breeze
+to the Rancho Seco for fair." He looked at Haydon, and his eyes took on a
+new expression. "I was almost forgettin' what the governor sent me here
+for," he added. "The governor was wantin' to know who is behind Haydon
+an' Deveny, an' I'm rummagin' around in Haydon's office to find out.
+Goin'?" he invited.
+
+Both looked down at Haydon as they passed him, and an instant later they
+were entering a door of the ranchhouse.
+
+They had hardly disappeared when Haydon's head moved slightly.
+
+His eyes were open; he glanced at the door of the ranchhouse through
+which Harlan and Morgan had entered. Then he raised his head, dragged
+himself to an elbow--upon which he rested momentarily, his face betraying
+the bitter malignance and triumph that had seized him.
+
+He had realized that Morgan had meant to kill him, even before Morgan had
+revealed his identity, and his backward movement, which had brought him
+against the wall of the ranchhouse had been made with design. He had felt
+that even if he should succeed in beating Morgan, Harlan would have taken
+up the quarrel, for he knew that Harlan also had designs on his life. And
+with a cupidity aroused over the desperate predicament in which he found
+himself, he had decided to take a forlorn chance.
+
+Morgan's bullet had struck him, but by a convulsive side movement at the
+instant Morgan's gun roared Haydon had escaped a fatal wound, and the
+bullet had entered his left side above the heart, paralyzing one of the
+big muscles of the shoulder.
+
+His left arm was limp and useless, and dragged in the dust as he squirmed
+around and gained his feet. There was no window in the wall of the
+ranchhouse on that side; and he backed away, staggering a little, for he
+had lost much blood. He kept the blank wall before him as he backed away
+from the house; and when he reached his horse he was a long time getting
+into the saddle. But he accomplished it at last; and sent the horse
+slowly up the slope and into the timber out of which Harlan had ridden
+with the black-bearded man on the day of his first visit to the Star.
+
+Back where the trail converged with the main trail that ran directly up
+the valley, Haydon, reeling in the saddle, sent his horse at a faster
+pace, heading it toward the Cache where he was certain he would find
+Deveny. And as he rode the triumph in his eyes grew. For he had heard
+every word of the conversation between Harlan and Morgan, and he hoped to
+get to the Cache before the two men discovered the trick he had played
+upon them--before they could escape.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIII
+
+DEVENY SECEDES
+
+
+Since the day he had heard that Harlan had appeared at the Star and had
+been taken into the outlaw band by Haydon, Deveny had exhibited fits of a
+sullen moroseness that had kept his closest friends from seeking his
+companionship. Those friends were few, for Deveny's attitude toward his
+men had always been that of the ruthless tyrant; he had treated them with
+an aloofness that had in it a contempt which they could not ignore.
+More--he was merciless, and had a furious temper which found its outlet
+in physical violence.
+
+Deveny was a fast man with the big Colt that swung at his hip, a deadly
+marksman, and he needed but little provocation to exhibit his skill. For
+that reason his men kept the distance Deveny had established between
+them--never attempting familiarity with him.
+
+Deveny had heard from a Star man the story of Harlan's coming to the Star
+and when a day or so later Haydon rode into the Cache, Deveny was in a
+state of furious resentment.
+
+There had been harsh words between Haydon and Deveny; the men of the
+Cache had no difficulty in comprehending that Deveny's rage was bitter.
+
+Not even when Haydon told him that his acceptance of Harlan had been
+forced by circumstances, and that he was tricking Harlan into a state of
+fancied security in which he could the more easily bring confusion upon
+him did Deveny agree.
+
+"You're a damned fool, Haydon!" he told the other, his face black with
+passion. "That guy is slick as greased lightning--and faster. And he
+don't mean any good to the camp. He's out for himself."
+
+Deveny did not intimate that his dislike of Harlan had been caused by the
+latter's interference with his plans the day he had held Barbara Morgan a
+prisoner in the room above the Eating-House in Lamo; but Haydon, who had
+heard the details of the affair from one of his men, smiled knowingly.
+
+It was not Haydon's plan to let Deveny know he knew of the affair, or
+that he cared about it if he had heard. And so he did not mention it.
+
+But in his heart was a rage that made his thoughts venomous; though he
+concealed his emotions behind the bland, smooth smile of good-natured
+tolerance.
+
+"I'll handle him, Deveny," he said as he took leave of the other. "He'll
+get his when he isn't expecting it."
+
+Deveny, however, had no faith in Haydon's ability to "handle" Harlan. He
+had seen in the man's eyes that day in Lamo something that had troubled
+him--an indomitability that seemed to indicate that the man would do
+whatever he set out to do.
+
+But Deveny did not ride to the Star to see Harlan; he was reluctant to
+stir outside the Cache, and for many days, while Harlan was attaining
+supremacy at the Star, and while Haydon was absent on a mysterious
+mission, Deveny kept close to the Cache, nursing his resentment against
+Haydon, and deepening--with fancied situations--his hatred for Harlan.
+
+It did not surprise Deveny when a Star man rode into the Cache one day
+and told him that Harlan had killed Latimer in a gunfight, and that
+Harlan was slowly but surely gaining a following among the men. The
+information did not surprise Deveny; but it sent his mind into a chaos of
+conjecture and speculation, out of which at last a conviction came--that
+Harlan was seeking control of the outlaw band; that Haydon's days as a
+leader were almost over, so far as he was concerned. For if Haydon
+insisted on taking Harlan into the secret councils of the camp
+he--Deveny--was going to operate independently.
+
+The more his thoughts dwelt upon that feature the more attractive it
+seemed to him. Independence of Haydon meant that he could do as he
+pleased without the necessity of consulting anybody. He could rustle
+whatever cattle he wanted--getting them where he could without following
+Haydon's plans--which had always seemed rather nonsensical, embracing as
+they did the scheme of railroad building and town sites; and he could do
+as he pleased with Barbara Morgan, not having to consider Haydon at all.
+
+It was that last consideration that finally decided Deveny. He was an
+outlaw--not a politician; he robbed for gain, and not for the doubtful
+benefits that might be got out of the building of a town. And when he
+looked with desire upon a woman he didn't care to share her with another
+man--not even Haydon.
+
+For two or three days after the conviction seized Deveny, he pondered
+over his chances, and when he reached a decision he acted with the
+volcanic energy that had characterized his depredations in the basin.
+
+On the morning of the day upon which Haydon returned to the Star to find
+the cattle gone and Harlan in control, Deveny appeared to a dozen Cache
+men who were variously engaged near the corral, ordering them to saddle
+their horses.
+
+Later, Deveny and his men rode southward across a low plateau that
+connected the buttes near the entrance to the Cache with the low hills
+that rimmed the basin. They traveled fast, and when they reached the
+rimming hills they veered eastward upon a broad sand plain.
+
+There was a grin on Deveny's face now--a grin which expressed craft,
+duplicity, and bestial desire. And as he rode at the head of his men he
+drew mental pictures that broadened his grin and brought into his eyes an
+abysmal gleam.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIV
+
+KIDNAPPED
+
+
+Barbara Morgan had yielded to the fever of impatience which had afflicted
+her during the latter days of Harlan's absence from the Rancho Seco. She
+had been impatient ever since she had been forced to stay close to the
+house by Harlan's orders; but she had fought it off until now, for she
+had been interested in Harlan, and had felt a deep wonder over his
+probable actions regarding her future.
+
+She had known, of course, that real danger from Deveny existed, for the
+incident in Lamo had convinced her of that, but she felt that Harlan's
+fears for her were rather extravagant--it was rather improbable that
+Deveny would come boldly to the Rancho Seco and attempt to carry her away
+by force.
+
+The clear, brilliant sunshine of the country dispelled so grotesque a
+thought; the peaceful hills seemed to smile their denial; and the broad
+level near the entrance to the basin sent a calm message of reassurance
+to her.
+
+She had known Red Linton for a long time--for he had been with her father
+for nearly two seasons--and she had respected him for what he had seemed
+to be, a quiet, rather humorous man who did his work well, though without
+flourishes. He had never figured prominently in her thoughts, however,
+until the day Harlan had appointed him foreman of the Rancho Seco, and
+then her attention had been attracted to him because he had seemed
+interested in her.
+
+And she had noted that Linton's interest in her seemed to grow after
+Harlan's departure. He had talked with her several times, and she had
+questioned him about Harlan's whereabouts. But Linton had not seemed to
+know; at least, if he did know, he kept his knowledge strictly to
+himself, not even intimating that he knew where Harlan had gone.
+
+Another thing she noted was that Linton seemed to have her under
+surveillance. Whenever she left the house--even for a short ride
+eastward--where Harlan had told her she might ride without danger--she
+discovered that Linton immediately mounted his horse, to linger somewhere
+in sight.
+
+The knowledge that she was watched began to irritate her and this morning
+she had got up with a determination to ride without company. With that
+end in view she had kept Billy all night in the patio; and when rather
+late in the morning she saw Linton riding eastward, she hurriedly threw
+saddle and bridle on the horse and rode westward, toward the big basin.
+
+She kept the house between her and the point where she had seen
+Linton--until a turn northward became inevitable; and then she urged
+Billy to a faster pace, in an endeavor to cross the wide plain that
+reached to the entrance to the basin before Linton could see her.
+
+Many times during the days before the coming of Deveny and Haydon to the
+valley she had ridden there; it had been a place in which reigned a
+mighty silence which she had loved, which had thrilled her. During those
+other days she was in the habit of riding to a point several miles up the
+valley--between the little basin where the Star was now and the Rancho
+Seco.
+
+The trail led upward in a slow, gradual slope to that point--a rugged
+promontory that jutted out from a mesa that rose above the floor of the
+valley. The mesa was fringed at the southern edge with stunt oak and
+nondescript brush. But there were breaks in the fringe which permitted
+her to ride close to the edge of the mesa; and from there she could look
+many miles up the valley--and across it, where the solemn hills rimmed
+the southern horizon, to a trail--called the South Trail by cattlemen in
+the valley, to distinguish it from the main trail leading through the
+mighty hollow in which she rode.
+
+When she reached the mesa she headed Billy directly for the break on the
+promontory. Dismounting, she stretched her legs to disperse the saddle
+weariness; then she found a huge rock which had been the seat from which
+she had viewed the wondrous landscape in the past.
+
+The reverent awe with which she had always viewed the valley was as
+strong in her today as it had ever been--stronger, in fact, because she
+had not seen the place for some time, and because in her heart there now
+dwelt a sadness that had not been there in those other days--at least
+since her mother had died.
+
+She was high above the floor of the valley; and she could see the main
+trail below her weaving around low mounds and sinking into depressions;
+disappearing into timber groves, reappearing farther on, disappearing
+again, and again reappearing until it grew blurred and indistinct in her
+vision.
+
+In the marvelous clarity of the atmosphere this morning every beauteous
+feature of the valley was disclosed to her inspection. The early morning
+haze had lifted, and the few fleecy clouds that floated in the blue bowl
+of sky were motionless, their majestic billows glowing in the sun. She
+saw a Mexican eagle swoop over the cloud, sailing on slow wing high above
+it, and growing so distant in her vision that he became a mere speck
+moving in the limitless expanse of space.
+
+It was a colossal landscape, and its creator had neglected no detail. And
+it was harmonious, from the emerald green that carpeted the floor of the
+valley near the gleaming river to the gigantic shoulders of the rugged
+hills that lifted their huge, bastioned walls into the blue of the sky.
+Some tall rock spires that thrust their peaks skyward far over on the
+southern side of the valley had always interested her; they seemed to be
+sentinels that guarded the place, hinting of an ages-old mystery that
+seemed to reign all about them.
+
+But there was mystery in everything in the valley, she felt; for it lay
+before her, spreading, slumbrous, basking in the brilliant
+sunlight--seeming to wait, as it seemed to have waited from the dawn of
+the first day, for man to wonder over it.
+
+She saw the Mexican eagle again after a while. It was making a wide
+circle beyond the rock spires, floating lazily above them in long,
+graceful swoops that were so lacking in effort that she longed to be up
+there with him--to ride the air with him, to feel the exhilaration he
+must feel.
+
+As she looked, however, she caught a faint blur on the southern horizon
+of the big picture--a yellowish-black cloud that hugged the horizon and
+traveled rapidly eastward. It was some time before she realized that what
+she saw was a dust cloud, and there were men in it--horsemen.
+
+She got up from the rock, her face slowly whitening. And into her heart
+came a presentiment that those men in the dust cloud were abroad upon an
+errand of evil.
+
+No doubt the presentiment was caused from the dread and fear she had
+lived under for days--the consciousness that Deveny was in the valley,
+and a recollection of the warnings that Harlan had given her. And she
+knew the horsemen could not be Rancho Seco men--for they had gone
+southward from the ranch, and there was no grass range where the horsemen
+were riding. Also, the men were riding eastward, toward the Rancho Seco.
+
+Trembling a little with apprehension, she mounted Billy and sent him down
+the slope to the floor of the valley. The descent was hazardous, and
+Billy did not make good time, but when he reached the level at the foot
+of the slope he stretched his neck and fell into a steady, rapid pace
+that took him down the valley swiftly.
+
+As the girl rode, the presentiment of evil increased, and she grew
+nervous with a conviction that she would not be able to reach the Rancho
+Seco much in advance of the men. For she could see them more clearly now,
+because they were in the valley, traveling a shelving trail that sloped
+down from the hills toward the level that stretched to the ranchhouse.
+
+It was several miles from where she rode to the point where the horsemen
+were riding, and she was traversing a long ridge which must have revealed
+her to the men if they looked toward her.
+
+She had thought--after she had left the promontory--of concealing herself
+somewhere in the valley, to wait until she discovered who the men were
+and what their errand was; but she had a fear that if the men were
+Deveny's outlaws they might return up the valley and accidentally come
+upon her. Also, she had yielded to the homing instinct which is strong in
+all living beings, for at home was safety that could not be found
+elsewhere.
+
+The South Trail, she knew, converged with the valley trail at the edge of
+the level. If she could reach that point a few minutes before the
+horsemen reached it she would rely on Billy to maintain his lead. Billy
+would have to maintain it!
+
+Leaning far over Billy's mane she urged him on, coaxing him, flattering
+him, calling to him in terms of endearment. And the loyal little animal
+did his best, running as he had never run before.
+
+Barbara though, watching the horsemen with eyes into which there had come
+a glow of doubt, began to realize that Billy was losing the race. Also,
+by the time she had gone four or five miles, she discovered that the men
+had seen her. For the trails were growing close together now--not more
+than half a mile of slightly broken country stretched between them, and
+she could see the men waving their hats; could hear their voices above
+the whir and clatter of Billy's passing.
+
+Still, she was determined to win, and Billy's flanks felt the sting of
+the quirt that, hitherto, had swung from Barbara's wrist.
+
+Billy revealed a marvelous burst of speed. But it did not last, and the
+horsemen, after hanging for an instant abreast of Billy, began to forge
+ahead.
+
+The courageous little animal had almost reached the covert that Harlan
+had discovered the day he had visited the Star the first time, and was
+nobly answering the stern urge of the quirt when another horseman
+suddenly appeared on the trail directly ahead of the girl, seemingly
+having ridden out of the covert.
+
+The trail was narrow, and Billy could not swerve around the new rider.
+So, sensing the danger of a collision he stiffened his legs, making a
+sliding halt that carried him a dozen feet, leaving him upon his haunches
+with Barbara frantically trying to keep to the saddle.
+
+Then Billy's forehoofs came down; he grunted, heaved a tremendous sigh
+and stood, his legs braced, awaiting orders.
+
+No order came. For no words escaped Barbara's lips. She sat in the
+saddle, her face ashen, terror clutching her.
+
+For the horseman who had ridden out of the covert was Stroud, the Rancho
+Seco straw-boss. He was grinning, and in his eyes was a gloating triumph
+that she could not mistake.
+
+"Lucky I took a notion to come in this mornin'," he said. "I just got
+here. I seen you hittin' the breeze for fair while you was quite a piece
+up the basin; an' I seen Deveny an' the boys a-fannin' it, too. An' I
+says to myself: 'Stroud, here's Deveny racin' to see Miss Barbara, an'
+her actin' like she don't want to see him. But I'll fix it so she does.'"
+
+The girl touched Billy with the quirt, and the little animal lunged
+forward, close to Stroud's horse. As the two beasts came close together
+Barbara struck at Stroud with the quirt, hoping to disconcert him so that
+she could send Billy past him.
+
+Stroud ducked and shot a hand out, seized the quirt and wrenched it from
+her hand. She screamed as the hairloop scraped the flesh of her wrist.
+And then she heard a thundering clatter of hoofs and saw Deveny and his
+men appear from beyond the covert and race toward her.
+
+Deveny spoke no word. But as he rode toward her she saw the gleam in his
+eyes, and she silently fought Stroud, who had grasped her and was pulling
+her toward him.
+
+It seemed to her that Deveny must have misunderstood Stroud's action, for
+it was clear to her--even in the stress and confusion of the moment--that
+Deveny thought Stroud had attacked her through motives that were strictly
+personal.
+
+Anyway, before Stroud could speak Deveny's pistol glittered. And
+malignantly, his eyes blazing with a jealous, evil light, he shot
+Stroud--twice.
+
+He sat in the saddle, his lips twitching into a sneer as he watched the
+straw-boss tumble from his horse and fall limply into the grass. Then
+with a smile that was hideous with a triumphant passion, he spurred his
+horse to Billy's side, pulled the girl from the saddle, and sent his
+horse up the valley, motioning his men to follow.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXV
+
+AMBUSHED
+
+
+Red Linton had ridden eastward to examine the grass of the range in that
+direction, for it had been some days since he had sent Stroud to the
+southern range, and since the cattle had been there for some time before
+that Linton felt they should be driven to fresh grass.
+
+And yet, perhaps, Linton's search for good grass should not have taken
+him so far from the ranchhouse, for he remembered his promise to Harlan
+that he would not let Barbara out of his sight. But Barbara had made no
+objection to his guardianship of her, so far, and he had longed for a
+ride.
+
+He worried a little, though, and felt guilty of something very like
+treason to Harlan; and at last, not being able to ride farther with the
+thoughts that fought with his desires, he wheeled his horse and sent it
+scampering back toward the ranchhouse.
+
+When he reached the ranchhouse he saw none of the men, for he had set
+them at tasks inside the buildings; and he rode down to the ranchhouse,
+resolved to have a talk with the girl.
+
+When he rode around the near corner he saw that the _patio_ gate was
+open. His horse leaped with the stern word he spoke to it, bringing him
+swiftly to the gate, where he dismounted and threw open a door that led
+into the house.
+
+He called to Barbara, and receiving no answer, he ran from room to room,
+not hesitating until he had explored them all.
+
+Emerging from the house, he mounted his horse and sent him westward,
+while he scanned the big level around him for sight of the girl.
+
+She had always ridden into the valley in former days, he remembered--and
+during the days of his guardianship she had more than once threatened to
+ride there. And he had no doubt she had gone there now, out of
+perverseness, just to irritate him.
+
+He held his horse to a rapid pace as he crossed the level, and he was
+still a mile distant from the covert where Barbara had met Stroud when he
+saw a group of horsemen traveling rapidly up the valley.
+
+Linton rode on, his anxiety acute, a grave suspicion afflicting him. And
+when, after he had ridden a little farther, he saw Barbara's horse
+trotting slowly toward him, the stirrups swinging and flopping emptily
+against the saddle skirts, he drew a deep breath and brought his own
+horse to a halt, while he sat motionless in the saddle, tortured by
+bitter thoughts.
+
+He had no doubt that what Harlan feared would happen, had happened--that
+Deveny had come for Barbara. And Deveny had found her, through _his_
+dereliction. He had relaxed his vigilance for only a short time, and
+during that time Deveny had come.
+
+Linton looked back toward the Rancho Seco. The distance to the ranchhouse
+seemed to be interminable. He looked again up the valley, and saw that
+the horsemen were growing indistinct. Within a few minutes, so rapid was
+their pace, they would vanish altogether.
+
+Linton thought of going back to the ranchhouse for the other men--that
+was why he had looked in that direction. But if he wished to keep the
+horsemen in sight he would not have time to get the other men. Before he
+could get the men and return to where he now stood Deveny would have
+taken the girl to that mysterious and unknown rendezvous in the hills in
+which his band had always concealed themselves, and Barbara would be
+lost.
+
+Linton's lips straightened. He was to blame.
+
+He knew the danger that would attend the action of following Deveny's men
+up the valley. Other men had attempted to trail them, and they had been
+found murdered, often with warnings upon them.
+
+But Linton hesitated only momentarily. With a grim smile for his chances
+of emerging unscathed from the valley, he urged his horse up the trail,
+riding hard.
+
+Several miles he had traveled, keeping the horsemen in sight, and he was
+beginning to believe that he would succeed where others had failed, when,
+passing through a clump of timber he detected movement in some brush at a
+little distance back.
+
+Divining that Deveny had seen him and had sent a man into the timber to
+ambush him, Linton threw himself flat on the horse's mane. He felt a
+bullet sing past him, coming from the right, and he got his pistol out
+and was swinging its muzzle toward the point from which the bullet had
+come when a gun roared at his left.
+
+He felt a hot, searing pain in his side, and he reeled in the saddle from
+the shock. Instantly another bullet struck him, coming from the right.
+His pistol dropped from his weakening fingers, he toppled sidewise and
+tumbled limply into the dust.
+
+Shortly afterward, seemingly while he was in a state of coma, he heard
+hoofbeats, rapidly growing distant.
+
+He knew they were Deveny's men and he yielded to a vague wonder as to why
+they had not made sure of their work.
+
+Doggedly, and with long and bitter effort, Linton began to turn himself
+so that he could get up. The pain from his wounds was excruciating, so
+that each muscular effort brought a retching groan from him. Yet he kept
+moving, twisting himself around until he got on his knees. From that
+position he tried a number of times to get to his feet, but he failed
+each time.
+
+At last, though, with the help of a boulder that lay beside the trail, he
+got his feet under him and stood for an instant, staggering weakly. Then
+he began to move forward to his horse. When he managed at last to clutch
+the saddle skirt he was reeling, his knees bending under him. However, he
+managed to get one leg over the saddle, taking a long time to do it; and
+eventually he was in the seat.
+
+He spent another long interval lashing himself to the saddle with the
+rope that he carried at the pommel; and then headed the horse toward the
+Rancho Seco.
+
+He began to ride, urging the horse to what seemed to him a rapid pace.
+But he had not gone very far when he sagged against the pommel,
+lifelessly.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVI
+
+ROGERS TAKES A HAND
+
+
+The trail herd had made good progress through the valley, and Rogers,
+aided by the Star men, had kept them going. The men feared no
+interference with the work, for they had terrorized the ranchers in the
+valley until the latter well knew the futility of retaliatory measures.
+Still, a certain furtive quickness of movement had always characterized
+the operations of the outlaws--the instinct to move secretly, if
+possible, and to strike swiftly when they struck was always strong in
+them.
+
+Besides, the drive to Willow's Wells was not a long one, and the cattle
+could stand a fast pace. So it was not long after the herd had left the
+Star until it straggled up a defile in the hills and out upon the level
+where Deveny's men had to ride to take the south trail to the Rancho
+Seco.
+
+The level extended southward for a distance of several miles to a grass
+range that the Star men knew well--for there had been times when they had
+grazed cattle there, making camp on their frequent trips to the Wells.
+
+A range of low, flat hills marked the northern limits of the grazing
+section; and Rogers and his men trailed the cattle through the hills
+while the morning was still young.
+
+The herd was through the hills, and Rogers, twisting in the saddle, was
+taking a last look over the plain to make certain there had been no
+prying eyes watching the movements of himself and the men, when he saw,
+far to the west, a group of horsemen just coming into view at the edge of
+the plain--seemingly having ridden out of the big valley.
+
+Rogers wheeled his horse and watched the horsemen as they traveled
+eastward, making good time. He called to a man, named Colver, who was
+riding close to him.
+
+"Them's Deveny's men--from the Cache. What in blazes are they up to?
+Somethin's in the wind, Colver--they're ridin' like the devil was after
+them an' burnin' the breeze for fair!"
+
+Rogers sent his horse scampering to the crest of one of the hills where,
+concealed behind some brush, he watched the progress of Deveny's men
+eastward.
+
+When they passed the point on the plain where they would have to veer
+northward if they intended to visit the Star, he breathed with relief.
+For he had almost yielded to a conviction that Deveny _was_ headed for
+the Star.
+
+But after the horsemen passed the point that led to the Star trail, a new
+anxiety seized Rogers--and a passion that sent the blood to his face
+swept over him.
+
+His eyes were glowing with an excitement that he could not repress when
+he turned to Colver.
+
+"Somethin's up!" he snapped. "Deveny's been sullen as hell for a good
+many days--ever since Harlan came to the Star. One of the boys was
+tellin' me he heard Deveny an' Haydon havin' it out over at the Cache. If
+there's goin' to be a ruckus I'm goin' to be in on it!"
+
+He leaped his horse off the hill, racing him down into the grass plain
+after the other men. When he reached them he yelled sharply, and they
+spurred quickly to him, anticipating from his manner that danger
+threatened.
+
+"I've got a hunch that hell's a-goin' to pop right sudden, boys," he told
+them. "An' we're goin' away from it. If there's any trouble we want to be
+in on it. Deveny's up to somethin'. You-all know about the agreement made
+between Haydon an' Harlan--that Harlan was to run the Rancho Seco without
+interference. Deveny's headed that way, an' Haydon ain't around. It's up
+to us boys to keep our eyes open.
+
+"Harlan's at the Star. He won't be knowin' that Deveny is headin' for the
+Rancho Seco. Harlan's white, boys; he's done more for us guys since he's
+been at the Star than Haydon or Deveny ever done for us. He's promised us
+things that Haydon an' Deveny would never do. He's a white man, an' I'm
+for him. An' I'm for takin' orders from him from now on. Who's with me?"
+
+"You're shoutin'!" declared Colver.
+
+"It's time for a new deal," muttered another.
+
+"You're doin' the yappin'," grimly announced a big man who was close to
+Rogers; "we're followin' your lead."
+
+"I'm jumpin' for the Star then!" declared Rogers; "to put Harlan wise to
+where Deveny's headed for. We're leavin' the herd here until we find out
+what's goin' on. Half of you guys beat it to the Rancho Seco--trailin'
+Deveny an' his boys, to find out what they're doin'. You're herd-ridin'
+them if they go to monkeyin' with the Rancho Seco. Slope!"
+
+Rogers had hardly ceased speaking when the outfit was on the move. There
+were eleven men, including Rogers; and they sent their horses leaping
+over the crest of the hill nearest them--dividing, as they reached the
+level on the other side with seemingly no previous arrangement, into two
+groups--one group going northeastward, toward the South Trail, and the
+other fading into the space that yawned between it and the point where
+the trail to the Star led downward into the big basin.
+
+                    *       *       *       *       *
+
+Haydon, holding hard to the pommel of the saddle, urging his horse along
+the trail that led up the valley, looked back whenever he reached a rise,
+his eyes searching the space behind him for the dread apparition that he
+expected momentarily.
+
+He knew that it would not be long before Morgan and Harlan would emerge
+from the ranchhouse to discover that he had escaped; and he knew, too,
+that they would suspect that he had gone to the Cache.
+
+He expected they would delay riding after him, however, until they
+searched for him in some of the buildings, and that delay, he hoped,
+would give him time to reach the Cache.
+
+He was handicapped by his useless arm--for it made riding awkward, and
+the numbness was stealing down his side, toward his leg. He paid little
+attention to the pain; indeed, he entirely forgot it in his frenzied
+eagerness to reach the Cache.
+
+More prominent in his brain at this minute than any other emotion was a
+dread of Billy Morgan. He had yielded to terror when Morgan had revealed
+his identity; but the terror he had felt then had not been nearly so
+paralyzing as that which was now upon him.
+
+His eyes were bulging as he rode; his lips were slavering, and he
+shuddered and cringed as he leaned over his horse's mane, urging him to
+greater effort--even though there were times when his lurches almost
+threw him out of the saddle.
+
+For his previous terror had been somewhat tempered with a doubt of
+Morgan's veracity. Even when he had seen Morgan reaching for his pistol
+he had felt the doubt--had felt that Morgan was not Morgan at all, but
+Woodward, perpetrating a grotesque joke. To be sure, when he had seen
+that Morgan really intended to kill him, he had been convinced that the
+man was in deadly earnest. It had been then that he had desperately
+twisted himself so that Morgan's bullet had not touched a vital spot.
+
+But now his terror had grown; it was a thing that had got into his
+soul--for he had had time to meditate over what Morgan's vengeance meant
+to him.
+
+It meant that Morgan would kill him, if he caught him; that the life he
+treasured would be taken from him; that the magnificent body which he had
+always so greatly admired would be shattered and broken. The mental
+picture he drew further increased his terror, and he began to mutter
+incoherent blasphemies as he raced his horse at a breakneck pace toward
+the Cache.
+
+But when he had ridden several miles and knew from the appearance of the
+valley that he was nearing the Cache and that he would reach it in
+safety, there came a change in him.
+
+He grew calmer; he began to feel a rage that sent the blood racing
+through his veins again. He looked back over the trail as often as
+formerly, but it was with a new expression--malevolent hatred. And when
+he finally reached the entrance to the Cache and rode through it, heading
+toward the building in which, he expected, he would find Deveny, the
+malevolence in his expression was mingled with triumph and cunning.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVII
+
+A DUAL TRAGEDY
+
+
+Harlan and Morgan had made a thorough search of Haydon's desk in the
+latter's office in the ranchhouse, and they had found letters addressed
+to Haydon--received at various towns in the vicinity and proving Morgan's
+charges against him. And upon several of the letters were names that
+provided damaging evidence of the connection of influential men with the
+scheme to gain unlawful possession of much land in the basin.
+
+"This cinches it!" declared Morgan as he carefully placed the letters
+into a pocket when he and Harlan emerged from the ranchhouse. "I reckon
+we've got proof now. An' the governor'll be plumb tickled."
+
+They stepped down from the doorway and turned the corner of the house.
+Instantly they noted the disappearance of Haydon's body. But they did not
+search among the other buildings for Haydon--as he had expected them to
+do. For they saw that his horse was also missing.
+
+Morgan ran for the corral, saying no word, his lips set in grim, vengeful
+lines. He had been a fool for not making sure that he had killed Haydon,
+but he would not make that mistake again. The gleam in his eyes revealed
+that.
+
+Harlan, too, divined what had happened. Purgatory was in the
+stable--which was farther from the ranchhouse than the corral. And though
+Harlan moved swiftly Morgan was already on his horse and racing toward
+the timber when Purgatory emerged from the stable, saddled and bridled.
+
+Harlan noted that Morgan had not stopped to saddle his horse, and that
+omission revealed the man's intense desire for haste. Harlan, however,
+headed Purgatory into the timber, but he was more than half a mile behind
+Morgan when he reached the main trail.
+
+He saw Morgan riding the trail that led up the valley, and he set out
+after him, giving the big black horse the rein. He divined that Morgan
+suspected Haydon had ridden in that direction; and while Harlan had never
+seen the Cache, he had heard the Star men speak of it, and he had noticed
+that when setting out for it they had always traveled the trail Morgan
+was traveling. Therefore, it was evident that Morgan thought Haydon had
+gone to the Cache. In that case he depended upon Deveny to assist him--if
+Morgan followed; and Harlan was determined to see the incident through.
+
+He sent Purgatory ahead at a good pace, but he noted soon that Morgan was
+increasing the distance between them. He began to urge Purgatory forward,
+and gradually the distance between the two riders grew shorter.
+
+Both were traveling rapidly, however, and it seemed to Harlan that they
+had not gone more than three or four miles when--watching Morgan closely,
+he saw him ride pell-mell into some timber that--apparently--fringed the
+front of a cave.
+
+It was some time before Harlan reached the timber, and when he did he
+could not immediately discover the spot into which Morgan had ridden.
+When he did discover it he rode Purgatory through, and found himself in a
+narrow gorge.
+
+He raced Purgatory through the gorge, and out of it to the sloping side
+of a little basin.
+
+He saw a house near the center of the basin--and Morgan riding close to
+it.
+
+The distance to the house was not great--not more than a quarter of a
+mile, it seemed; and Harlan felt some wonder that Morgan--who had been
+quite a little in advance of him--had not reached the house sooner. That
+mystery was explained to him almost instantly, though, when he saw that
+Morgan's horse was walking, going forward with a pronounced limp.
+Evidently Morgan had met with an accident.
+
+Harlan was riding across the floor of the little basin, watching Morgan
+and wondering at the seeming absence of Deveny's men, when he saw a smoke
+streak issue from one of the windows of the house, saw Morgan reel in the
+saddle, and slide to the ground.
+
+But before Harlan could reach the spot where Morgan had fallen, the man
+staggered to his feet and was running toward the house, swaying as he
+went.
+
+Harlan heard a muffled report as he sent Purgatory scampering after
+Morgan. He saw Morgan reel again, and he knew someone in the house was
+using a rifle.
+
+There was another report as Morgan lurched through an open doorway of the
+house. Then Harlan knew Morgan was using his gun, for its roaring crash
+mingled with the whiplike crack of a rifle.
+
+The firing had ceased when Harlan slipped off Purgatory at the open door;
+and both his guns were out as he leaped over the threshold.
+
+He halted, though, standing rigid, his guns slowly swagging in his hands,
+their muzzles drooping.
+
+For on the floor of the room--flat on his back near a corner--was Haydon.
+He was dead--there was no doubt of that.
+
+Nor was there any doubt that the bullets Haydon had sent had finished
+Morgan. He was lying on his right side, his right arm under him,
+extended; the palm of the hand upward, the fingers limply holding the
+pistol he had used, some smoke curling lazily from the muzzle.
+
+Harlan knelt beside Morgan, examining him for signs of life. He got up a
+little later and stood for some time looking down at the man, thinking of
+Barbara. Twice had tragedy cast its sinister shadow over her.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXVIII
+
+CONVERGING TRAILS
+
+
+An hour or so later, Harlan, having finished his labors in a clearing at
+the edge of the level near the gorge, climbed slowly on Purgatory and
+sent him back down the valley trail toward the Star.
+
+From the first his sympathies for Barbara had been deep, beginning on the
+evening Lane Morgan had mentioned her in his presence--when the man
+seemed to see her in that strange, awesome moment before his death--when
+he had seemed to hold out his arms to her. Later, at Lamo, when Harlan
+had held the girl in his arms, he felt that at that instant he must have
+experienced much the same protective impulse that Morgan would have felt,
+had the experience occurred to him. Harlan had been slightly cynical
+until that minute; but since then he had known that his rage against the
+outlaws was deeply personal.
+
+That rage, though, had centered most heavily upon Deveny. He had hated
+Haydon, too--from the first. In the beginning it had been a jealous
+hatred, aroused over the conviction that Barbara loved the man. But
+later--when he had discovered that Haydon was the mysterious "Chief,"
+that he was the real murderer of Lane Morgan, and that behind his
+professed love for the girl was meditated trickery--his hatred had become
+a passion in which Barbara did not figure.
+
+His hatred for Haydon, though, could not be compared with the passionate
+contempt and loathing he felt for Deveny. The man had attempted, in Lamo,
+a thing that Harlan had always abhorred, and the memory of that time was
+still vivid in Harlan's brain.
+
+Into Harlan's heart as he rode toward the Star flamed that ancient
+loathing, paling his face and bringing a gleam to his eyes that had been
+in them often of late--a lust for the lives of the men whose evil deeds
+and sinister influence had kept Barbara a virtual prisoner at the Rancho
+Seco.
+
+He rode the valley trail slowly, his thoughts upon Barbara, his lips
+straightening when he thought of how he would have to return to the
+Rancho Seco, some day, to tell her of her brother's death. Twice had
+tragedy visited her, and again he would be the messenger to bring her the
+grim news.
+
+When he reached the Star he rode up to the corral fence and dismounted.
+He stood for a long time at the fence, his elbows on one of the rails,
+his thoughts dwelling upon Barbara. Pity for her whitened his face, set
+his lips in rigid lines.
+
+She had been in danger, but it seemed to him that it would soon be over.
+For Haydon would bother the girl no more, and as soon as he could meet
+Deveny he would remove another menace to Barbara's life and happiness.
+
+He had no regrets for the men he had killed; they deserved what he had
+given them. As he had told Morgan, he had considered himself merely an
+instrument of the law of right and justice--which law was based upon the
+very principle that governed men in civilized communities.
+
+He was facing south, and he raised his head after a few minutes, for upon
+the slight breeze was borne to him the rapid drumming of hoofs. As he
+looked up he saw, far out toward the southern edge of the valley, a dust
+cloud, moving swiftly toward him.
+
+At first he suspected that the men in the group belonged to Deveny, and
+he drew out his pistols, one after the other, and examined them--for he
+decided--if Deveny was among the men--to settle for good the question of
+power and authority that Haydon had raised.
+
+When the men came closer, though, swooping toward the ranchhouse like
+feathers before a hurricane, he saw that Rogers was among them.
+
+Then, as the men came toward him down along the corral fence, Harlan saw
+that Rogers' eyes were wide with excitement. And he stood, his face
+darkening, as Rogers told him what he had seen, and voiced his
+suspicions.
+
+"We're with you, Harlan," declared Rogers, sweeping a hand toward the
+men; "an' them other boys which have trailed Deveny, are with you. We're
+out to 'get' Deveny if you say the word; and that thief, Haydon, too."
+
+Harlan did not answer. He grinned at the men, though, and at
+Rogers--acknowledging his gratitude for their decision to be "with" him;
+then he turned, leaped on Purgatory, and sent the big beast thundering
+toward the timber that led to the main trail.
+
+Their voices silent, their horses falling quickly into the pace set by
+the big black, Rogers and the other men followed.
+
+The other half of Rogers' men, headed by Colver, were several miles
+behind Deveny's horsemen when they reached the South Trail. They gained
+very little on the other men, though, for Deveny and his men were just
+then racing Barbara to the point where the trails converged, having seen
+her. But during Deveny's halt at the covert, where he had shot Stroud,
+Colver's men gained, and they were not more than two or three miles from
+the covert when Deveny's men left it.
+
+From the shelving trail, ever sweeping toward the trail in the valley,
+Colver had noted the halt at the covert, though he had not seen Barbara,
+nor Stroud. He had seen, of course, that Deveny had not gone to the
+Rancho Seco, that for some reason or other he had swerved, taking the
+trail up the valley.
+
+Colver was puzzled, but he remembered Rogers' orders, and when he and his
+men reached the covert, they halted. They came upon Stroud, lying near
+some bushes, and they saw his horse, grazing on the tall grass near by.
+They had reached the covert too late to see Barbara's pony; and when they
+remounted, after taking a look at Stroud, they caught a glimpse of a lone
+horseman racing up the valley in the direction taken by Deveny and his
+men.
+
+The lone horseman was Red Linton, though Colver did not know it, for the
+South Trail dipped into the basin miles before it emerged to the level at
+the point of convergence with the other trail, and Colver had not seen
+Linton when he had passed.
+
+Colver and his men fled up the valley, following the trail taken by
+Deveny and the lone horseman, and when they had gone two or three miles
+they saw a rider coming toward them. They raced toward him, for they saw
+he was in trouble; that he had lashed himself to the pommel of the
+saddle, and that he was leaning far over it, limp and inert.
+
+Linton was not unconscious, but he was very near it; so near that he
+seemed to dream that men were around him and that voices were directed at
+him.
+
+Into his mind as he straightened and looked at the men finally came the
+conviction that this was not a dream; and after an instant of intense
+effort, during which he fixed his gaze on Colver, he recognized the
+other.
+
+He laughed, grimly, mockingly:
+
+"Front an' rear--eh?" he said. "You got me, goin' an' comin'. Well, go to
+it--I deserve it, for lettin' Barbara out of my sight. If you don't kill
+me, Harlan will. But if you guys are _men_, you won't let Deveny----"
+
+"Deveny's got Barbara Morgan?"
+
+This was Colver. Something in his voice straightened Linton further, and
+he steadied himself in the saddle and looked fairly at the man.
+
+"Deveny's got her. An' they got me--chasin' 'em. I was headin' back to
+the Rancho Seco, to get the T Down boys--all Harlan's friends--to wipe
+Deveny out. If you guys are _men_----"
+
+Sheer will could no longer support Linton's failing muscles--and he again
+collapsed over the pommel.
+
+For an instant only did Colver hesitate. Then he turned to a lean rider
+who bestrode a tall, rangy horse. He spoke sharply to the rider:
+
+"Hit the breeze to the Rancho Seco, an' get them T Down boys. Fan it,
+damn you!"
+
+The rider was off with the word, leaping his horse down the trail with
+dizzying speed. Then Colver loosed the rope that held Linton to the
+saddle, and with the help of the other men lifted the man down and
+stretched him in a plot of grass beside the trail, where they worked over
+him until they saw, far out on the level toward the Rancho Seco, a number
+of horsemen coming, seemingly abreast, as though they were racing, each
+man trying his best to outstrip the others.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXIX
+
+WORLD'S END
+
+
+Barbara Morgan had fought Deveny until she became exhausted. Thereafter
+she lay quiet, breathing fast, yielding to the nameless terror that held
+her in its icy clutch.
+
+The appearance of Deveny so soon after the end of the heartbreaking ride
+down the trail had brought into her heart a sense of the futility of
+resistance--and yet she had resisted, involuntarily, instinctively. Yet
+resistance had merely served to increase the exhaustion that had come
+upon her.
+
+She had not known--until she lay passive in Deveny's arms--how taut her
+nerves had been, nor how the physical ordeal had drained her strength.
+
+She felt the strain, now, but consideration for her body was overwhelmed
+by what she saw in Deveny's eyes as she lay watching him.
+
+There were a dozen men with Deveny--she had seen them, counted them when
+they had been racing down the shelving trail on the other side of the
+valley. And she knew they were following Deveny, for she could hear the
+thudding of hoofs behind.
+
+Deveny's big arms were around her; she could feel the rippling of his
+muscles as he swayed from side to side, balancing himself in the saddle.
+He was not using the reins; he was giving his attention to her, letting
+the horse follow his own inclinations.
+
+Yet she noted that the animal held to the trail, that he traveled
+steadily, requiring no word from his rider.
+
+Once, after they had ridden some distance up the valley, Barbara heard a
+man behind them call Deveny's attention to some horsemen who were riding
+the shelving trail that Deveny and his men had taken on their way to the
+level; and she heard Deveny laugh.
+
+"Some of the Star gang, I reckon. Mebbe Haydon, goin' to the Rancho Seco,
+to see his girl." He grinned down into Barbara's face, his own alight
+with a triumph that made a shiver run over her.
+
+Later--only a few minutes, it seemed--she heard a man call to Deveny
+again, telling him that a lone rider was "fannin' it" up the valley.
+
+"Looks like that guy, Linton," said the man.
+
+"Two of you drop back and lay for him!" ordered Deveny. "Make it sure!"
+he added, after a short pause.
+
+Barbara yielded to a quick horror. She fought with Deveny, trying in vain
+to free her arms--which he held tightly to her sides with his own. She
+gave it up at last, and lay, looking up into his face, her eyes blazing
+with impotent rage and repugnance.
+
+"You mean to kill him?" she charged.
+
+"Sure," he laughed; "there's no one interfering with what's going on
+now."
+
+Overcome with nausea over the conviction that Deveny's order meant death
+to Red Linton, Barbara lay slack in Deveny's arms for a long time. A
+premonitory silence had settled over the valley; she heard the dull thud
+of hoofs behind her, regular and swift, the creaking of the saddle
+leather as the animal under her loped forward.
+
+There was no other sound. For the men behind her were strangely silent,
+and even Deveny seemed to be listening.
+
+After what seemed to be a long interval, she heard a shot, and then
+almost instantly, another. She shuddered, closing her eyes, for she knew
+they had killed Linton. And she had blamed Linton for guarding her
+from--from the very thing that had happened to her. And Linton had given
+his life for her!
+
+How long she had her eyes closed she did not know. The time could not
+have been more than a few minutes though, for she heard a voice behind
+her saying to Deveny:
+
+"They got him."
+
+Then she looked up, to see Deveny grinning at her.
+
+"I reckon that's all," he said. "We're headin' for the Cache--my
+hang-out. If you'd have been good over in Lamo, the day that damned
+Harlan came, this wouldn't have happened. I'd sent for a parson, an' I
+intended to give you a square deal. But now it's different. Then I was
+scared of running foul of Haydon--I didn't want to make trouble. But I'm
+running my own game now--Haydon and me have agreed to call it quits. Me
+not liking the idea of Haydon adopting Harlan."
+
+She stared up at him, her eyes widening.
+
+"You and Haydon were--what do you mean?" she asked, her heart seeming to
+be a dead weight in her breast, heavy with suspicion over the dread
+significance in his voice and words. She watched him, breathlessly.
+
+"I'm meaning that Haydon and me were running things in the valley--that
+we were partners, splitting equal. But I'm playing a lone hand now."
+
+He seemed to enjoy her astonishment--the light in her eyes which showed
+that comprehension, freighted with hopelessness, was stealing over her.
+
+He grinned hugely as he watched her face.
+
+"Haydon is the guy we called 'Chief,'" he said, enjoying her further
+amazement and noting the sudden paleness that swept over her face. "He's
+the guy who killed your father at Sentinel Rock. He was after you,
+meaning to make a fool of you. Hurts--does it?" he jeered, when he saw
+her eyes glow with a rage that he could understand. "I've heard of that
+chain deal--Haydon was telling me. When he shot your father he lost a bit
+of chain. Harlan found it and gave it back to him, with you looking on. I
+reckon that's why him and Harlan hit it off together so well--Harlan
+knowing he killed your father and not telling you about it."
+
+The long shudder that shook the girl betrayed something of the terrible
+emotion under which she was laboring; and when she finally opened her
+eyes to gaze again into Deveny's, they were filled with a haunting
+hopelessness--a complete surrender to the sinister circumstances which
+seemed to have surrounded her from the beginning.
+
+"Harlan," she said weakly, as though upon him she had pinned her last
+hope; "Harlan has joined you after all--he is against me--too?"
+
+"Him and Haydon are after the Rancho Seco. Harlan's been playing with
+Haydon right along."
+
+Barbara said nothing more. She was incapable of coherent thought or of
+definite action--or even of knowledge of her surroundings.
+
+For it seemed to her that Deveny had spoken truthfully. She had seen the
+incident of the broken chain; she had seen Harlan's hypocritical grin
+upon that occasion--how he had seemed to be eager to ingratiate himself
+with Haydon.
+
+All were against her--everybody. Everybody, it seemed, but Red Linton.
+And they had killed Linton.
+
+She seemed to be drifting off into a place which was peopled with demons
+that schemed and planned for her honor and her life; and not one of them
+who planned and schemed against her gave the slightest indication of
+mercy or manliness. The world became chaotic with swirling objects--then
+a blank, aching void into which she drifted, feeling nothing, seeing
+nothing.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXX
+
+THE ULTIMATE TREACHERY
+
+
+When Barbara regained consciousness she was lying in some long, dusty
+grass beside the trail where she seemed to have been thrown, or where she
+had fallen. For she was lying on her right side, her right arm doubled
+under her, and she felt a pain in her shoulder which must have been where
+she had struck when she had fallen.
+
+She twisted around and sat up, bewildered, almost succumbing to the
+hideous terror which instantly gripped her when she remembered what had
+happened.
+
+Deveny's horse stood near her, nipping the tips of the grass that grew at
+her feet. Beyond the animal--a little to her right, and perhaps fifty
+feet from her--were other horses, with riders.
+
+As she staggered to her feet she recognized the men who had been with
+Deveny. They were on their horses--all facing away from her. Facing
+Deveny's men were all the T Down boys--she recognized them instantly.
+Pistols glittered in their hands; they seemed to be in the grip of some
+strong passion, which wreathed their faces into grim, bitter lines.
+
+Near the T Down men--flanking them--were other men. Among them she saw
+faces she knew--Colver, Strom Rogers, and others.
+
+There must have been twenty-five or thirty men, altogether, and they were
+all on a little level beside the trail. It seemed to Barbara that they
+all appeared to have forgotten her; seemed not to know that she was in
+the vicinity.
+
+She saw Deveny standing on the little level. His profile was toward her;
+there was a wild, savage glare in his eyes.
+
+Not more than a dozen feet from him was Harlan.
+
+She saw Harlan's face from the side also. There was a grin on his
+lips--bitter, mirthless, terrible.
+
+She stood for what seemed to her a long time, watching all of them; her
+heart throbbing with a dread heaviness that threatened to choke her; her
+body in a state of icy paralysis.
+
+She thought she knew what had happened, for it seemed to her that
+everything in the world--all the passions and the desires of
+men--centered upon her. She felt that there were two factions--one headed
+by Deveny, and the other by Harlan, representing Haydon--and that they
+were about to fight for her. The T Down men seemed to be standing with
+Harlan--as, of course, they would, since he had sent for them to come to
+the Rancho Seco.
+
+Oddly, though, they apparently seemed to pay no attention to her; not one
+of them looked at her.
+
+If they were to fight it made no difference to her which faction won, for
+her fate would be the same, if she stayed.
+
+She did not know what put the thought into her mind, but as she stood
+there watching the men she repeated mentally over and over the words: "If
+I stay."
+
+Why should she stay? She answered the question by stealing toward
+Deveny's horse. When she reached the animal she paused, glancing
+apprehensively at the men, her breathing suspended--hoping, dreading, her
+nerves and muscles taut. It seemed they must see her.
+
+Not a man moved as she climbed upon the back of the horse; it seemed to
+her as she urged the animal gently and slowly away from the men that they
+heard nothing and saw nothing but Harlan and Deveny, and that Harlan and
+Deveny saw nothing but each other.
+
+She sent the horse away, walking him for a dozen yards or more, until he
+crossed the little level and sank into a shallow depression in the trail.
+Still looking back, she saw that none of the men had changed
+position--that they seemed to be more intent upon Harlan and Deveny. And
+she could hear Harlan's voice, now, low, husky.
+
+She urged the horse into a lope; and when she had ridden perhaps a
+hundred yards, the conviction that she would escape grew strong in her.
+Once out of the valley she would ride straight to Lamo, to ask Sheriff
+Gage to protect her.
+
+She rode faster as she widened the distance that separated her from the
+men; and soon the horse was covering the trail rapidly; and she leaned
+forward in the saddle, praying that the men might not see her.
+
+She had gone several miles when she noticed a dark object beside the
+trail ahead of her. She drew the horse down and approached the spot
+cautiously. And when she saw that the object was a man, her thoughts flew
+to the shot she had heard, and to Deveny's words:
+
+"Make sure of it."
+
+It _was_ Linton, she saw, as she halted the horse near the object she had
+seen. He was lying on his right side, resting his weight on an elbow, as
+though trying to rise.
+
+In an instant she was out of the saddle and at his side, raising his
+head.
+
+He looked at her, smiled, and said weakly:
+
+"You got away, eh? I reckon they met Harlan. I was hopin' they would. Did
+they?"
+
+"Yes," she answered quickly. She had seen that Linton was badly wounded,
+and she knew that she must give up hope of getting to Lamo in order to
+give him the care he needed.
+
+So without speaking further, though with an effort that required the last
+ounce of her strength, she lifted Linton, he helping a little, and led
+him toward her horse. Somehow, with Linton doing all he could, she got
+him into the saddle, climbed up behind him, and sent the horse toward the
+Rancho Seco.
+
+Back at the little level where the men were grouped there was a tension
+that seemed to charge the atmosphere with tragedy. Deveny's men sat
+silent in their saddles, watching their leader and Harlan with sullen,
+savage eyes. The T Down men, facing them, were equally sullen. Guns in
+hand, they alertly watched the men who were with Deveny, plainly
+determined that there should be no interference from them in the tragedy
+that seemed imminent.
+
+Rogers and his men, and the riders who had come with Colver, were also
+watching the Deveny group. All of these held weapons, too; and Rogers,
+who had dismounted, was standing beside his horse, a rifle resting on the
+saddle seat, his cheek snuggling the stock, the muzzle trained on Deveny.
+
+Harlan, Rogers, and the others, racing down the valley, had met Deveny
+and his men coming up. And when Deveny had recognized Harlan and the
+others he had quickly dismounted, bearing his unconscious burden. Because
+he felt that trouble would result from the meeting, Deveny had thrown
+Barbara from him.
+
+He had instantly forgotten the girl. For when Harlan came up Deveny saw a
+gleam in his eyes that sent his brain to throbbing with those
+unmistakable impulses of fear which had seized him the day, in Lamo, when
+Harlan had faced him.
+
+There had been a moment of silence when the two groups met; a stiffening
+of muscles and the heavy, strained breathing that, in men, tells of
+mental preparation for violence, swift and deadly.
+
+It had been Harlan who had prevented concerted action--action that would
+have brought about a battle in which all would have figured. His guns
+came out before the thought of trouble could definitely form in the
+brains of the Deveny men; and he had held them--the men in the saddles,
+Deveny standing--until the T Down men, whom he had seen from a distance,
+coming toward him, could arrive.
+
+Then, still menacing the Deveny men with weapons, he had dismounted to
+face Deveny--where he had been when Barbara Morgan had recovered
+consciousness.
+
+And while the girl had been stealing away he had been talking to Deveny,
+though loud enough for all of them to hear.
+
+There was about Harlan as this moment a threat that brought awe into the
+hearts of Deveny's men--a cold, savage alertness that told them,
+unmistakably, that the man's rage was at a pitch where the slightest
+movement by any of them would precipitate that action for which, plainly,
+Harlan longed.
+
+"So you got Barbara Morgan?" he said as he stood close to Deveny. There
+was a taunt in his voice, and an irony that made Deveny squirm with fury.
+
+And yet Deveny fought hard for composure. He could see in Harlan's manner
+something akin to what he had seen that day, in Lamo, when Harlan had
+baited him. His manner was the same, yet somehow it was not the same.
+There was this difference:
+
+In Lamo, Harlan had betrayed the threat of violence that Deveny had felt.
+But he had seemed to be composed, saturnine--willing to wait. It had
+seemed, then, that he wanted trouble, but he would not force it.
+
+Now, he plainly intended to bring a clash quickly. The determination was
+in his eyes, in the set of his head, and in his straight, stiff lips.
+
+He seemed to have forgotten the other men; his gaze was on Deveny with a
+boring intensity that sent a chill of stealthy dread over the outlaw.
+
+Deveny had faced many men in whose hearts lurked the lust to kill; he had
+shot down men who had faced him with that lust in their eyes--and he knew
+the passion when he saw it.
+
+He saw it now, in Harlan's eyes--they were wanton--in them was
+concentrated all the hate and contempt that Harlan felt for him. But back
+of it all was that iron self-control that Deveny had seen in the man when
+he had faced him in Lamo.
+
+Deveny had avoided Harlan since that day. He had known why--and he knew
+at this minute. It was because he was afraid of Harlan--he feared him as
+a coward fears the death that confronts him. The sensation was
+premonitory. Nor was it that. It _had_ been premonitory--it was now a
+conviction. In the time, in Lamo, when he had faced Harlan some
+prescience had warned him that before him was the man whom the fates had
+selected to bring death to him.
+
+He had felt it during all the days of Harlan's presence in the section;
+he had felt it, and he had avoided the man. He felt it now, and his
+breathing grew fast and difficult--his chest laboring as he shrilled
+breath into his lungs.
+
+He knew what was coming; he knew that presently Harlan's passion would
+reach the point where action would be imperative; that presently would
+come that slow, halting movement of Harlan's hands toward his gun--which
+gun? He would witness, with himself as one of the chief actors, the
+hesitating movement which had brought fame of a dread kind to the man who
+stood before him.
+
+Could he beat Harlan to the "draw?" Could he? That question was dinned
+into his ears and into his consciousness by his brain and his heart. He
+heard nothing of what was going on around him; he did not hear Harlan's
+voice, though he saw the man's lips moving. He did not see any of the men
+who stood near, nor did he see his men, sitting in their saddles,
+watching him.
+
+He saw nothing but Harlan; felt nothing except the blood that throbbed in
+his temples; was conscious of nothing but the question that filled his
+heart, his brain, and his soul--could he beat Harlan to the "draw?"
+
+Presently, when he saw, with astonishment, that Harlan was slowly backing
+away from him, crouching a little, he divined vaguely that the moment had
+come. And now, curiously, he heard Harlan's voice--low, distinct, even.
+What an iceberg the man was!
+
+"Haydon's dead," he heard Harlan saying--and he stared at Harlan, finding
+it difficult to comprehend. "Lafe Woodward killed him," Harlan went on
+"killed him at the Cache. Now get this straight--all of you." It seemed
+strange to Deveny that Harlan seemed to be speaking to the men, while
+watching him, only.
+
+"Woodward was killed, too. His real name was Bill Morgan. He was Lane
+Morgan's son. Bill Morgan was sent here by the governor, to get evidence
+against Haydon. He got it. I took it from his pockets when I planted
+him--an' it's goin' straight to the governor.
+
+"You guys are through here--" again he seemed to speak to all the men.
+"Morgan told me he had some men with the Cache gang. They're to ride out
+an' join my boys--the T Down outfit."
+
+Deveny was conscious that several men detached themselves from the group
+of riders he had brought with him, and rode to where the T Down men were
+standing. Then Harlan spoke again:
+
+"Now, she shapes up like this. If there's any of the Star gang wantin' to
+go straight, they can throw in with the T Down boys, too. If there's some
+that figure on pullin' their freight out of the valley--an' stayin'
+out--they can hit the breeze right now--drivin' that Star herd to
+Willow's Wells, sellin' them, an' dividin' the money. Whoever is takin'
+up that proposition is startin' right now!"
+
+About half the Star men began to move; heading up the valley. There was a
+momentary pause, and then those that were left of Deveny's men moved
+uneasily.
+
+"Does that go for us guys too?"
+
+"It's wide open," announced Harlan, cold humor seeming to creep into his
+voice. "It's your chance to get out of this deal without gettin' what's
+comin' to you."
+
+There was a rush and clatter as Deveny's men joined the men of the Star,
+who were already on the move. And then there followed a long silence,
+during which Deveny glanced up the valley and saw the men riding away.
+
+He turned again, to face Harlan, with the consciousness that he stood
+alone. The T Down men, half of the Star men, and a large proportion of
+the Cache men were standing with Harlan. Deveny saw Colver and Rogers
+among those who had aligned themselves with Harlan.
+
+No invitation to withdraw had been extended to Deveny. The knowledge
+strengthened his conviction that Harlan intended to kill him. And yet,
+now, facing Harlan, he knew that he would never take up the slender
+thread of chance that was offered him--to draw his gun, kill Harlan and
+resume his authority over the men who were left.
+
+The possibility, dangling at the other end of the slender thread of
+chance, did not allure him. For he knew he could not draw the pistol at
+his hip with Harlan's gaze upon him--that would be suicide.
+
+"Deveny!"
+
+Harlan's voice, snapping with menace roused him, straightened him,
+brought an ashen pallor to his face.
+
+"It's your turn, Deveny. You stay here. Flash your gun!"
+
+Here it was--the dreaded moment. Deveny saw the men around him stiffen
+rigidly; he heard their slow-drawn breaths. The thought to draw his gun
+was strong in him, and he fought hard to force his recreant muscles to do
+the will of his mind. For an instant he stood, his right hand poised
+above the holster of his pistol, the elbow crooked, ready to straighten.
+
+And then, with the steady, coldly flaming eyes of Harlan upon him,
+Harlan's right hand extended slightly, the fingers spread a little as
+though he was about to offer his hand to the other. Deveny became aware
+that he was doing an astonishing thing. He was raising his right hand!
+
+Already it was at his shoulder. And as he marveled, it went higher,
+finally coming to a level with his head, where it stopped. He had
+publicly advertised his refusal to settle his differences with Harlan
+with the pistol.
+
+"Yellow!"
+
+It was Harlan's voice. "You won't fight an' you won't run. Well, we'll
+keep you, savin' you for the governor. I reckon he'll be glad to see
+you."
+
+Harlan turned, sheathing his pistol, and began to walk toward his horse,
+his back toward Deveny.
+
+Then Deveny acted. His eyes flaming hate, he drew his pistol with a
+flashing movement, his face hideous with malignant passion.
+
+He sent one bullet into Harlan's back and two more as Harlan tumbled
+forward, sinking to his knees from the shock. But Deveny's two last
+bullets went wild, tearing up the grass of the level as the gun loosened
+in his hand.
+
+For Rogers' rifle was spitting fire and smoke with venomous rapidity, and
+Deveny was sinking, his knees doubling under him, his body shuddering
+with the impact of each bullet.
+
+
+
+
+CHAPTER XXXI
+
+PEACE--AND A SUNSET
+
+
+Red Linton had recovered--there was no doubt of that. For Linton, though
+a trifle pale, was vigorous. Vigor was in the look of him as he stood, a
+slow grin on his face, beside Barbara Morgan at the entrance of the
+_patio_ of the Rancho Seco ranchhouse.
+
+Barbara was sitting on a bench that ranged the front wall of the
+building. She was arrayed in a dress of some soft, fluffy material, in
+which she made a picture that brought a breathless longing into Linton's
+heart--a longing which made him feel strangely tender and sympathetic.
+
+But Barbara was not smiling. There was a wistfulness in her eyes that
+made Linton gulp with jealous thoughts that came to him.
+
+"He don't deserve it, the durned scalawag!"
+
+"Deserve what?" questioned Barbara.
+
+"You," muttered Linton, with an embarrassed grin. "Shucks, I wasn't
+thinkin' I was talkin' out loud. I'm sure gettin' locoed."
+
+"Who doesn't deserve me?" asked Barbara.
+
+"Harlan!" declared Linton, with a subtle glance at the girl. "He ain't in
+no ways fit to be thinkin' serious thoughts about a girl like you."
+
+"Has he been thinking serious thoughts?" Her eyes dropped from Linton's
+and the latter grinned widely.
+
+"Thinkin' them! He's been talkin' them. Talked them all the time him an'
+me was stretched out in the big room, gettin' over our scratches. That
+man is plumb locoed. I couldn't get him to talk nothin' else. When I told
+him about the governor sendin' him congratulations, an' offerin' to do
+somethin' handsome for him, he says: 'You say she ain't worryin' none
+about things? Red, do you think she'd hook up with a guy like me--that's
+got a bad reputation?'"
+
+Linton shot a side glance at Barbara and saw a flush steal into her
+cheeks. He concealed a broad grin with the palm of his hand and then
+said, gruffly:
+
+"I answers him as such a impertinent question ought to be answered. Says
+I--'Harlan, you're a damned fool!'--askin' your pardon, ma'am. A girl
+like Barbara Morgan ain't goin' to throw herself away on a no-good
+outlaw. Not none! Why, ma'am, he's an outlaw at heart as well as by
+reputation. He's clean bad--there ain't a bit of good in him. Didn't he
+go to Haydon deliberate? An' didn't he keep you in suspense about what
+was goin' on--not tellin' you anything until he had to? Shucks!"
+
+"But there was a method in that, Linton," said Barbara; "he told me he
+was afraid I'd unconsciously betray him, and then he could not have done
+what he did."
+
+Linton grinned again--again concealing the grin.
+
+"You don't mean to say that you believe the cuss done the best he could?"
+
+"I think I do, Linton."
+
+"Shucks. Women is odd that way, ain't they? You ain't tellin' me that you
+think he's on the level--that his reputation ain't as bad as some folks
+make believe it is, an' that he's _square_?"
+
+"I believe he's square, Linton!" the girl answered, firmly.
+
+Linton was silent for an instant, during which he stood on one foot,
+looking westward where the sun was swimming low above the big valley.
+
+"Ma'am," he said lowly, breaking the silence: "I'm damned if I ain't
+beginnin' to believe it, myself. There's some things that seem to prove
+it.
+
+"First, there's him takin' your part over in Lamo. Then there's him
+comin' here with you, knowin' you was alone--an' not botherin' you. Then
+he guarded you right steady, not lettin' Haydon or Deveny run in on you.
+Then he makes me foreman--which seems to prove that he's got sense. Then
+he goes up the valley an' helps your brother bust up the outlaw gang,
+riskin' his life a lot.
+
+"An' all the time he knows where your dad hid that gold. But he didn't
+touch it until he got over that scratch Deveny give him--or until he
+could take you where it was hid an' show you he hadn't touched it. Yes,
+ma'am," he added with a hyprocritical grin--which he did not permit the
+girl to see--"I'm beginnin' to believe the cuss is on the level."
+
+"Oh, he _is_, Linton!" said Barbara, in a low, earnest voice.
+
+Again there was a silence. Then----
+
+"Do you think he's a pretty good looker, ma'am?"
+
+"I think he is handsome!" Again the girl blushed.
+
+And again Linton grinned. He cleared his throat before he again spoke:
+
+"Well," he drawled; "mebbe I wouldn't go that far. Mostly I don't care
+for a handsome man, anyway. I wouldn't say he's ugly, an' I won't say
+he's handsome. I'd light on a spot about halfway between them two
+extremes. I'd say he ain't a bad looker. That would be about right."
+
+"He _is_ handsome, Linton!"
+
+"Well, likely he is--to a woman. I've heard that there's _been_ women
+which thought him a heap good lookin'."
+
+"Where, Linton?" she asked, quickly.
+
+"Why, in Pardo, ma'am. There was a biscuit shooter in a eatin'-house
+there that was sure wild about Harlan--she followed him around a heap."
+
+"He didn't have anything to do with her, Linton?" she questioned,
+stiffening.
+
+"Shucks! Not him. Women never bothered him none. He always fought shy of
+them--until now. He's changed a lot. I don't understand him no more.
+Keeps a-moonin' regular about you. I'm gettin' a heap sick of hangin'
+around him. Ain't you?"
+
+"No!"
+
+"Well, that's a heap odd, ma'am. I was thinkin' you didn't like him a
+heap. Accordin' to that, I reckon you'd be right glad to see him--comin'
+home from Pardo--where's he been to have that gold assayed?"
+
+"He ought to be here before dark, Linton. And I shall be glad to see
+him."
+
+"Hopin' the gold will assay good, I reckon?"
+
+"Hoping he will come back, safe."
+
+"You don't care about the gold?"
+
+"No."
+
+"Only about him?"
+
+"Yes, Linton," she said, gently.
+
+"Well, that's odd, ma'am," drawled Linton.
+
+"What is?"
+
+"That I feel the same way about the cuss."
+
+She looked keenly at him, saw the dancing, wayward gleam in his eyes, and
+gave him a reproachful glance.
+
+"You've been pumping me, Linton," she charged.
+
+"Well," he defended; "he's my friend, ma'am; an' I was sure worried,
+thinkin' you wouldn't take him--if he offered himself."
+
+She smiled, wisely.
+
+"He did that long ago, Linton--right after he--well, the day he got up,
+after the doctor told him he could."
+
+"That he could offer himself?"
+
+"That he could get up. Linton," she said, severely; "you want to know too
+much."
+
+Linton did not answer. He took her by an arm, raised her to her feet, and
+turned her face toward the northeast--where a rider came, not more than
+two or three miles distant.
+
+Linton left her to stand there, while he made his way into one of the
+bunkhouses, where, with an appearance of unconcern that he did not feel,
+he watched the coming rider. And when he saw the rider head his horse
+straight for the gate of the patio, Linton grinned widely and sought some
+of the other men in the cook-house.
+
+The sun was between the two huge mountains at the western end of the big
+valley when Harlan dismounted at the _patio_ gate and dropped, tired and
+dusty, to the bench upon which Barbara sat. Had Linton seen what occurred
+when Harlan dismounted he would have ceased to speculate over certain
+phases of the relations between the man and the girl.
+
+Barbara did not seem to mind the dust on Harlan's sleeve, nor did she
+feel it on his shoulder where her head was nestling.
+
+For both were looking out into the big valley, where the sun was sinking
+with a splendor that reminded them of another day.
+
+"The gold isn't worth mining," said Harlan, gently. "The assayer used
+names that didn't mean anything to me, but he told me enough in plain
+talk, to prove that your dad wasted his time."
+
+"I'm satisfied," said the girl.
+
+"Me too," smiled Harlan. "There's somethin' better than gold."
+
+"It's peace--and happiness," said Barbara, gently.
+
+"An' a girl," smiled Harlan.
+
+"And a man," declared Barbara stoutly.
+
+"Well, then," he conceded, "we won't quarrel. We'll say it's both."
+
+And they sat, saying little, watching the colors of the sunset flame over
+the mighty valley--stealing over the vast, silent space that spread
+between the two mountain ranges. And the big valley smiled back at them,
+softening the sadness that dwelt in the heart of the girl, and holding
+out to both of them a promise of good to come--telling them of a mystery
+that had been solved, and of a menace removed.
+
+
+
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