by Bret Harte
windows of the hotel reading-room,I was struck by the erratic movements of a dripping figure outside thatseemed to be hesitating over the entrance to the hotel. At timesfurtively penetrating the porch as far as the vestibule, and againshyly recoiling from it, its manner was so strongly suggestive of sometimid animal that I found myself suddenly reminded of Captain Jim andthe memorable evening of his exodus from Eureka Gulch. As the figurechanced to glance up to the window where I stood I saw to myastonishment that it WAS Captain Jim himself, but so changed andhaggard that I scarcely knew him. I instantly ran out into the halland vestibule, but when I reached the porch he had disappeared. Eitherhe had seen me and wished to avoid me, or he had encountered the objectof his quest, which I at once concluded must be Lacy Bassett. I was somuch impressed and worried by his appearance and manner, that, in thisbelief, I overcame my aversion to meeting Bassett, and even sought himthrough the public rooms and lobbies in the hope of finding Captain Jimwith him. But in vain; possibly he had succeeded in escaping hisrelentless friend.
As the wind and rain increased at nightfall and grew into a tempestuousnight, with deserted streets and swollen waterways, I did not go outagain, but retired early, inexplicably haunted by the changed andbrooding face of Captain Jim. Even in my dreams he pursued me in hisfavorite likeness of a wistful, anxious, and uneasy hound, who, on myturning to caress him familiarly, snapped at me viciously, and appearedto have suddenly developed a snarling rabid fury. I seemed to beawakened at last by the sound of his voice. For an instant I believedthe delusion a part of my dream. But I was mistaken; I was lying broadawake, and the voice clearly had come from the next room, and wasdistinctly audible over the transom.
"I've had enough of it," he said, "and I'm givin' ye now--thisnight--yer last chance. Quit this hotel and that woman, and go back toGilead and marry Polly. Don't do it and I'll kill ye, ez sure ez yousit there gapin' in that chair. If I can't get ye to fight me like aman,--and I'll spit in yer face or put some insult onto you afore thatwoman, afore everybody, ez would make a bigger skunk nor youturn,--I'll hunt ye down and kill ye in your tracks."
There was a querulous murmur of interruption in Lacy's voice, butwhether of defiance or appeal I could not distinguish. Captain Jim'svoice again rose, dogged and distinct.
"Ef YOU kill me it's all the same, and I don't say that I won't thankye. This yer world is too crowded for yer and me, Lacy Bassett. I'vebelieved in ye, trusted in ye, lied for ye, and fought for ye. Fromthe time I took ye up--a feller-passenger to 'Fresco--believin' therewor the makin's of a man in ye, to now, you fooled me,--fooled me aforethe Eureka boys; fooled me afore Gilead; fooled me afore HER; fooled meafore God! It's got to end here. Ye've got to take the curse of thatfoolishness off o' me! You've got to do one single thing that's likethe man I took ye for, or you've got to die. Times waz when I'd havewished it for your account--that's gone, Lacy Bassett! You've got todo it for ME. You've got to do it so I don't see 'd--d fool' writ inthe eyes of every man ez looks at me."
He had apparently risen and walked towards the door. His voice soundedfrom another part of the room.
"I'll give ye till to-morrow mornin' to do suthin' to lift this curseoff o' me. Ef you refoose, then, by the living God, I'll slap yer facein the dinin'-room, or in the office afore them all! You hear me!"
There was a pause, and then a quick sharp explosion that seemed to filland expand both rooms until the windows were almost lifted from theircasements, a hysterical inarticulate cry from Lacy, the violent openingof a door, hurried voices, and the tramping of many feet in thepassage. I sprang out of bed, partly dressed myself, and ran into thehall. But by that time I found a crowd of guests and servants aroundthe next door, some grasping Bassett, who was white and trembling, andothers kneeling by Captain Jim, who was half lying in the doorwayagainst the wall.
"He heard it all," Bassett gasped hysterically, pointing to me. "HEknows that this man wanted to kill me."
Before I could reply, Captain Jim partly raised himself with aconvulsive effort. Wiping away the blood that, oozing from his lips,already showed the desperate character of his internal wound, he saidin a husky and hurried voice: "It's all right, boys! It's my fault.It was ME who done it. I went for him in a mean underhanded way jestnow, when he hadn't a weppin nor any show to defend himself. Wegripped. He got a holt o' my derringer--you see that's MY pistolthere, I swear it--and turned it agin me in self-defense, and sarved meright. I swear to God, gentlemen, it's so!" Catching sight of myface, he looked at me, I fancied half imploringly and halftriumphantly, and added, "I might hev knowed it! I allers allowed LacyBassett was game!--game, gentlemen--and he was. If it's my last word,I say it--he was game!"
And with this devoted falsehood upon his lips and something of the oldcanine instinct in his failing heart, as his head sank back he seemedto turn it towards Bassett, as if to stretch himself out at his feet.Then the light failed from his yearning upward glance, and the curse offoolishness was lifted from him forever.
So conclusive were the facts, that the coroner's jury did not deem itnecessary to detain Mr. Bassett for a single moment after the inquest.But he returned to Gilead, married Polly Baxter, and probably on thestrength of having "killed his man," was unopposed on the platform nextyear, and triumphantly elected to the legislature!