Way of the Lawless

by Max Brand

  CHAPTER 17

  He waited an eternity; in actual time it was exactly ten minutes. Then acavalcade tramped down the hall. He heard their voices, and Hal Dozierwas among them. About him flowed a babble of questions as the menstruggled for the honor of a word from the great man. Perhaps he wascoming to his room to form the posse and issue general instructions forthe chase.

  The door opened. Dozier entered, jerked his head squarely to one side,and found himself gazing into the muzzle of a revolver. The astonishmentand the swift hardening of his face had begun and ended in a fractionof a second.

  "It's you, eh?" he said, still holding the door.

  "Right," said Andrew. "I'm here for a little chat about this Lanningyou're after."

  Hal Dozier paused another heartbreaking second, then he saw that cautionwas the better way. "I'll have to shut you out for a minute or two,boys. Go down to the bar and have a few on me." He turned, laughing andwaving to them. Then the door closed, and Dozier turned slowly to facehis hunted man. Into Andrew's mind came back the words of the greatoutlaw, Allister: "There's one man I'd think twice about meeting,and that--"

  "Sit down," said Andrew. "And you can take off your belt if you want to.Easy! That's it. Thank you."

  The belt and the guns were tossed onto the bed, and Hal Dozier satdown. He reminded Andrew of a terrier, not heavy, but all compact nerveand fighting force.

  "I'll not frisk you for another gun," said Andrew.

  "Thanks; I have one, but I'll let it lie."

  He made a movement. "If you don't mind," said Andrew, "I'd rather thatyou don't reach into your pockets. Use my tobacco and papers, if youwish." He tossed them onto the table, and Hal Dozier rolled his smoke insilence. Then he tilted back in his chair a little. His hand with thecigarette was as steady as a vise, and Andrew, shrugging forward his ownponderous shoulders, dropped his elbows on his knees and trained the gunfull on his companion.

  "I've come to make a bargain, Dozier," he said.

  The other made no comment, and the two continued that silent struggle ofthe eyes that was making Andrew's throat dry and his heart leap.

  "Here's the bargain: Drop off this trail. Let the law take its owncourse through other hands, but you give me your word to keep off thetrail. If you'll do that I'll leave this country and stay away. Exceptfor one thing, I'll never come back here. You're a proud man; you'venever quit a trail yet before the end of it. But this time I only askyou to let it go with running me out of the country."

  "What's the one thing for which you'd come back?"

  "I'll come back--once--because of a girl."

  He saw the eyes of Dozier widen and then contract again. "You're notexactly what I expected to find," he said. "But go on. If I don't takethe bargain you pull that trigger?"

  "Exactly."

  "H'm! You may have heard the voices of the men who came up the hall withme?"

  "Yes."

  "The moment a report of a gun is heard they'll swarm up to this room andget you."

  "They made too much noise. Barking dogs don't bite. Besides, the momentI've dropped you I go out that window."

  "It's a good bluff, Lanning," said the other. "I'll tell you what, ifyou were what I expected you to be, a hysterical kid, who had a bit ofbad luck and good rolled together, I'd take that offer. But you'redifferent--you're a man. All in all, Lanning, I think you're about asmuch of a man as I've ever crossed before. No, you won't pull thattrigger, because there isn't one deliberate murder packed away in yoursystem. It's a good bluff, as I said before, and I admire the way youworked it. But it won't do. I call it. I won't leave your trail,Lanning. Now pull your trigger."

  He smiled straight into the eye of the younger man. A flush jumped intothe cheeks of Andrew, and, fading, left him by contrast paler than ever."You were one-quarter of an inch from death, Dozier," he replied.

  "Lanning, with men like you--and like myself, I hope--there's noquestion of distance. It's either a miss or a hit. Here's a betterproposition: Let me put my belt on again. Then put your own gun back inthe holster. We'll turn and face the wall. And when the clock downstairsstrikes ten--that'll be within a few minutes--we'll turn and blaze atthe first sound."

  He watched his companion eagerly, and he saw the face of Andrew work. "Ican't do it, Dozier," said Andrew. "I'd like to. But I can't!"

  "Why not?" The voice of Hal Dozier was sharp with a new suspicion. "Getme out of the way, and you're free to get across the mountains, and,once there, your trail will never be found. I know that; every one knowsthat. That's why I hit up here after you."

  "I'll tell you why," said Andrew slowly. "I've got the blood of one manon my hands already, but, so help me God, I'm not going to have anotherstain. I had to shoot once, because I was hounded into it. And, if thisthing keeps on, I'm going to shoot again--and again. But as long as Ican I'm fighting to keep clean, you understand?"

  His voice became thin and rose as he spoke; his breath was a series ofgasps, and Hal Dozier changed color.

  "I think," said Andrew, regaining his self-control, "that I'd kill you.I think I'm just a split second surer and faster than you are with agun. But don't you see, Dozier?"

  He cast out his left hand, but his right hand held the revolver like arock.

  "Don't you see? I've got the taint in me. I've killed my man. If I killanother I'll go bad. I know it. Life will mean nothing to me. I can feelit in me."

  His voice fell and became deeper.

  "Dozier, give me my chance. It's up to you. Stand aside now, and I'llget across those mountains and become a decent man. Keep me here, andI'll be a killer. I know it; you know it. Why are you after me? Becauseyour brother was killed by me. Dozier, think of your brother and thenlook at me. Was his life worth my life? You're a cool-headed man. Youknew him, and you knew what he was worth. His killings were as long asthe worst bad man that ever stepped, except that he had the law behindhim. When he got on my trail he knew that I was just a scared kid whothought he'd killed a man. Why didn't he let me run until I found outthat I hadn't killed Buck Heath? Then he knew, and you know, that I'dhave come back. But he wouldn't give me the chance. He ran me into theground, and I shot him down. And that minute he turned me from a scaredkid into an outlaw--a killer. Tell me, man to man, Dozier, if Billhasn't already done me more wrong than I've done him!"

  As he finished that strange appeal he noted that the famous fighter waswhite about the mouth and shaken. He added with a burst of appeal: "Hal,you know I'm straight. You know I'm worth a chance."

  The older man lifted his head at last. "Andy, I can't leave the trail."

  At that sentence every muscle of Andrew's body relaxed, and he sat likeone in a state of collapse, except that the right hand and the gun in itwere steady as rocks.

  "Here's something between you and me that I'd swear I never said if Iwas called in a court," went on Hal Dozier in a solemn murmur. "I'lltell you that I know Bill was no good. I've known it for years, and I'vetold him so. It's Bill that bled me, and bled me until I've had to soaka mortgage on the ranch. It's Bill that's spent the money on his cussedbooze and gambling. Until now there's a man that can squeeze and ruin meany day, and that's Merchant. He sent me hot along this trail. He sentme, but my pride sent me also. No, son, I wasn't bought altogether. Andif I'd known as much about you then as I know now, I'd never havestarted to hound you. But now I've started. Everybody in the mountains,every puncher on the range knows that Hal Dozier has started on a newtrail, and every man of them knows that I've never failed before. Andy,I can't give it up. You see, I've got no shame before you. I tell youthe straight of it. I tell you that I'm a bought man. But I can't leavethis trail to go back and face the boys. If one of them was to shake hishead and say on the side that I'm no longer the man I used to be, I'dshoot him dead as sure as there's a reckoning that I'm bound for. Itisn't you, Andy; it's my reputation that makes me go on."

  He stopped, and the two men looked sadly at each other.

  "Andy, boy," said Hal Dozier, "I've no more bad feeling t
oward you thanif you was my own boy." Then he added with a little ring to his voice:"But I'm going to stay on your trail till I kill you. You write thatdown in red."

  And the outlaw dropped his gun suddenly into the holster. "That endsit, then," he said slowly. "The next time we meet we won't sit down andchin friendly like. We'll let our guns do our talking for us. And, firstof all, I'm going to get across these mountains, Hal, in spite of youand your friends."

  "You can't do it, Andy. Try it. I've sent the word up. The wholemountains will be alive watchin' for you. Every trail will be alivewith guns."

  But Andrew stood up, and, using always his left hand while the right armhung with apparent carelessness at his side, he arranged his hat so thatit came forward at a jaunty angle, and then hitched his belt around sothat the holster hung a little more to the rear. The position for a gunwhen one is sitting is quite different from the proper position when oneis standing. All these things Uncle Jasper had taught Andrew long andlong before. He was remembering them in chunks.

  "Give me three minutes to get my saddle on my horse and out of town,"said Andrew. "Is that fair?"

  "Considering that you could have filled me full of lead here," said HalDozier, with a wry smile, "I think that's fair enough."