CHAPTER XII
THE DISCOVERY
Racey Dawson did not remain long idle after Marie's departure. Thegirl had barely entered the narrow passage between the warehouse andthe dance hall before he was crossing the street at a point beyondthe jail, where there were no shafts of light from open windows anddoorways to betray him.
Racey Dawson circled the sheriff's house and tippytoed past theoutermost of the six two-room shacks at the rear of the dance hall.His objective was the Starlight Saloon, his purpose to discover thebushwhacker who had tried to shoot him.
As he passed the outermost shack a light flashed up within it. Hesaw Marie's head and shoulder silhouetted against the curtain. Herecognized her immediately by the heavy mass of her hair. No otherwoman in Farewell possessed such a mop.
Racey resolved to speak with Marie again. His hand was lifted inreadiness to knock when Marie's visitor spoke. Racey's hand promptlydropped at his side. He had recognized the voice. It was that of Bull,the Starlight bartender.
The shack door was fairly well constructed. At least there were nocracks in it. But a log wall has oftentimes an open chink. This wallhad one between the third and fourth tiers of logs not more than ayard from the door. Racey crouched till his eyes were on a level withthe narrow crack.
He could not see Bull. But he could see Marie. Apparently she wasnot according her visitor the slightest attention. She daintily andunhurriedly hung her waist over the back of a chair. Then she turnedup the lamp, removed the pins from her abundant hair, shook it down,and began to brush it calmly and carefully.
"---- you!" snarled Bull, advancing to the table where he was withinrange of Racey's eyesight. "I spoke to you! What didja do it for?"
She raised her head and looked at him, the brush poised in one hand."---- you, Bull," she drawled at him. "I'm tellin' you, because I feltlike it."
Bull shot forth a hand and grabbed her right wrist. Marie, as a whole,did not move. But her left hand dropped languidly and nestled in theoverhang of her bodice.
"Bull," she said, softly, staring straight into the evil eyesglowering upon her. "Bull, bad as you are, you ain't never laid a handon me yet. You ain't gonna begin now, are you?"
Bull's great fingers began to tighten on her wrist, slowly,inexorably.
"I'm sorry, Bull," she resumed, when he made no reply, "but I got aderringer pointin' straight at yore stomach. Now you ain't gonna lemmemake a mess on my clean carpet, are you?"
Bull released her wrist as though it burnt him.
"You devil!" he exclaimed. "I believe you'd do it."
"Shore I would," she affirmed, serenely, dragging a small and uglyderringer from its place of concealment and balancing it on a pinkpalm. "I'll drill you in one blessed minute if you don't keep yorepaws to home. They's some things, Bull, you can't do to me. An' oneof them things is hurting me. I don't believe in corporal punishment,Bull."
"I wanna know what you horned in for," he demanded, pounding the tabletill the lamp danced again.
"If you only knowed what a silly fool you looked," she commented,"you'd sit down and take it easy.... That's right, tell theneighbours, do! Squawk out good and loud how yore bushwhackin' li'lkilling turned out a misdeal. Shore, I'd do that, if I was you. Whaddayou guess they pay Jake Rule an' Kansas Casey for, huh?"
"What did you get in front of him for?" Bull persisted in a lowertone. "I pretty near had him, but you--Gawd, I could wring yore neck!"
"But you won't," she reminded him, sweetly. "Lookit here, Bull, if youhadn't locked the door leading up the stairs to the Starlight's loft,I'd 'a' come after you there and done my persuadin' of you right inthe loft. As it was when I heard what you were up to--nemmine how Iheard. I heard, that's enough--I had to go out in the street anddo what I could there. I don't believe the feller liked it much,neither."
"But what's he to you? You ain't soft on him, are you, account of whathe done for that yellow mutt of yores?"
"I owe him something," she evaded. "That dog--I like that dog. Andthen that man treats me like a lady. It ain't every man treats me likea lady."
"I should hope not," guffawed the amiable Bull.
"Now that's a right funny joke," she assured him. "It almost makes melaugh. Still, alla same, I got feelin's. I'm a human being. And you'llnotice molasses catches a heap more flies than vinegar does. I likethat Dawson man, and I ain't gonna see him hurt."
"Did you tell him it was me up there with a rifle?" There was a hintof unease in the blustery tone.
"I didn't tell him nothin'," said Marie. "I ain't no snitch."
"Ah-h, you _are_ soft on him," Bull sneered in disgust.
"What if I am?" she flared. "What business is it of yores?"
"What'll Nebraska say?" he proffered.
"Nebraska hell!" she sneered. "Nebraska and me are through!"
"I know you've split, but that ain't saying Nebraska will let you gowith another gent."
"I'll go with anybody I please, and neither Nebraska nor you nore anyother damn man is gonna stop me. If you think different, _try_ it,just _try_ it! Thassall I ask. _This_ for you and Nebraska!" Withwhich she snapped her fingers under his nose once, twice, and again.
"I wish Pap was still alive. He could always handle you. Remember thetime you sassed him there in ..." Here Marie accidentally dropped herbrush into an empty pail, and the clatter drowned out the name of thetown so far as Racey was concerned. But Marie caught the name, for shestraightened with a start and stared at Bull. "Yeah," continued Bull,"you remember it, huh? I guess you do. That was where Pap slapped yorechops and throwed you down the stairs. Like to broke yore neck thattime. I wish you had."
"'Pap,'" she repeated. "'Pap,' and that town. What made you think ofthem two names together?"
"Because that was the town where he throwed you down the stairs," Bulltold her matter-of-factly.
"It was the town where we met up with Bill Smith."
"What about it?"
"Nothing--only Bill Smith is here in town."
"In Farewell?"
"In Farewell."
"Why ain't I seen him if he's in Farewell?"
"Because he's shaved off all of that beard and part of hiseyebrows--they used to meet plumb in the middle, remember--till a bodywould hardly know him. I didn't. I knowed they was somethin' familiarabout him, but I couldn't tell what till you mentioned Pap and thetown together. Then I knowed. Yeah, Bull, this gent's the same BillSmith Pap picked up on the trail. He's a respectable member of societynow, I guess. Calls himself Jack Harpe and spends most of his timerunnin' round Lanpher."
"Then he ain't too respectable, the lousy pup. Calls himself JackHarpe, huh? Shore, he come in the Starlight with Lanpher and gimmethe eye without a quiver. Didn't know me, he didn't! And I ain't donenothin' to _my_ looks to change 'em."
"Huh, y' oughta seen the way he looked me up and down when he passedus on the Marysville trail. You'd 'a' thought he just seen me. Oh,he's got his nerve."
"Who is _us_?" Suspiciously.
"What it won't do you no good to know. I guess I can go riding with afriend if I like. You seem to keep forgettin' you ain't got any ropeson me--nary a rope. Stop botherin' yore fool head about me and mydoings, and think of something worth while--for instance, Jack Harpe."
"Then what?"
"No wonder they call you Bull. That's all you are, beef to the heelsand no more sense than a calf. Listen, Jack Harpe's respectable, ain'the? Or he aims to be, which is the same thing. Anyway, he's swellinground here like a poisoned pup and don't know us a-tall. Takin' himdown a couple o' pegs wouldn't hurt him. He always was too tall. I'llbet if he was come at right he'd pay cash down on the hoof for us, meand you both, to keep our heads shut about what we know."
"But we was in that, too."
"But we didn't do what he done," pointed out Marie. "And you knowyoreself the company don't drop the case like a ordinary sheriffdoes. No, I expect Jack Harpe would be worried some if he knowed we'drecognized him.... Aw, what are you scared of? Pap's dead, ain't he
?How can Harpe hurt us? He never knowed how intimate we knowed Papwhile he was stayin' at our house. He just thought Pap was a friend.He never knowed we got our share of the money. Nawsir, he can't hookus up with that killin' nohow, but we can hook him. Brace up to him,Bull. Maybe you can work him for a stake. They ain't no danger, I tellyou."
"By Gawd, I'd like to!" declared Bull and swore a string of oaths.
"Then go ahead," urged Marie. "And don't forget I want in on thestake."
"Ah-h, I do all the work and then have to whack up with you, huh? Iwill not. What I get I keep."
"I remember Jack Harpe used to say that. He shore hated himself, thepoor feller. Alla same, I guess maybe you'll go even Steven with me,Bull. Who is it recognized him first? Who give you the idea? Who did,huh? Who did? Whatever you get you'll divide with me or I'll know thereason why. And if you don't think I'm a wildcat get me roused, man,get me roused."
Bull stood back and scratched a tousled head. "I--well--" he began andpaused. Obviously the prospect did not wholly please him.
"Go to Jack Harpe easy like," suggested the girl. "Don't tell him toomuch, just enough to show yo're meanin' what you say. I'd do it myselfonly he'd laugh at me. He's one of those gents a woman has to shootbefore they'll believe she's in earnest. He ain't the only one, they'sanother just like him in town.... Nemmine who. You go to Jack Harpe.He'll listen to a man. G'on! They's money in it, if you work it right.You want money, don't you? You need three hundred to pay what you owePiggy Wadsworth, don't you? Yah, you big hunk, you been runnin' to mefor money long enough! Here's a chance to make some of yore own. Flyat it."
When Bull had picked up a rifle standing in a corner and departed,slamming the door behind him, Marie sat down on the lid of a mottledzinc trunk and wiped her hot face on a petticoat that hung on the wallconveniently to hand. "Warm work, warm work!" she muttered, wearily."I dunno when I seen Bull so mad. I shore thought one time thereI wasn't gonna get rid of him without a fight." She rolled herwell-shaped ankles and flipped the gilt tassels on her shoe tops toand fro (yes, indeed, some women wore tasseled footgear in thosedays). "Men," she went on, staring down at the shiny tassels, "men areshore hell."
The Heart of the Range Page 12