by Max Brand
A little lean-to against the main shack served as a stable; the creek down the hillside was the watering trough. And Donnegan stood by while the big Negro silently tended to the horses — removing the packs and preparing them for the night. Still in silence he produced a small lantern and lighted it. It showed his face for the first time — the skin ebony black and polished over the cheekbones, but the rest of the face almost handsome, except that the slight flare of his nostrils gave him a cast of inhuman ferocity. And the fierceness was given point by a pair of arms of gorilla length; broad shoulders padded with rolling muscles, and the neck of a bull. On the whole, Donnegan, a connoisseur of fighting men, had never seen such promise of strength.
At his gesture, George led the way into the house. It was more commodious than most of the shacks of The Corner. In place of a single room this had two compartments — one for the kitchen and another for the living room. In vacating the hut, the last occupants had left some of the furnishings behind them. There was a mirror, for instance, in the corner; and beneath the mirror a cheap table in whose open drawer appeared a tumble of papers. Donnegan dropped the heavy sack of Godwin’s winnings to the floor, and while George hung the lantern on a nail on the wall, Donnegan crossed to the table and appeared to run through the papers.
He was humming carelessly while he did it, but all the time he watched with catlike intensity the reflection of George in the mirror above him. He saw — rather dimly, for the cheap glass showed all its images in waves — that George turned abruptly after hanging up the lantern, paused, and then whipped a hand into his coat pocket and out again.
Donnegan leaped lightly to one side, and the knife, hissing past his head, buried itself in the wall, and its vibrations set up a vicious humming. As for Donnegan, the leap that carried him to one side whirled him about also; he faced the big man, who was now crouched in the very act of following the knife cast with the lunge of his powerful body. There was no weapon in Donnegan’s hand, and yet George hesitated, balanced — and then slowly drew himself erect.
He was puzzled. An outburst of oaths, the flash of a gun, and he would have been at home in the brawl, but the silence, the smile of Donnegan and the steady glance were too much for him. He moistened his lips, and yet he could not speak. And Donnegan knew that what paralyzed George was the manner in which he had received warning. Evidently the simple explanation of the mirror did not occur to the fellow; and the whole incident took on supernatural colorings. A phrase of explanation and Donnegan would become again an ordinary human being; but while the small link was a mystery the brain and body of George were numb. It was necessary above all to continue inexplicable. Donnegan, turning, drew the knife from the wall with a jerk. Half the length of the keen blade had sunk into the wood — a mute tribute to the force and speed of George’s hand — and now Donnegan took the bright little weapon by the point and gave it back to the other.
“If you throw for the body instead of the head,” said Donnegan, “you have a better chance of sending the point home.”
He turned his back again upon the gaping giant, and drawing up a broken box before the open door he sat down to contemplate the night. Not a sound behind him. It might be that the big fellow had regained his nerve and was stealing up for a second attempt; but Donnegan would have wagered his soul that George Washington Green had his first and last lesson and that he would rather play with bare lightning than ever again cross his new master.
At length: “When you make down the bunks,” said Donnegan, “put mine farthest from the kitchen. You had better do that first.”
“Yes — sir,” came the deep bass murmur behind him.
And the heart of Donnegan stirred, for that “sir” meant many things.
Presently George crossed the floor with a burden; there was the “whish” of the blankets being unrolled — and then a slight pause. It seemed to him that he could hear a heavier breathing. Why? And searching swiftly back through his memory he recalled that his other gun, a stub-nosed thirty-eight, was in the center of his blanket roll.
And he knew that George had the weapon in his big hand. One pressure of the trigger would put an end to Donnegan; one bullet would give George the canvas sack and its small treasure.
“When you clean my gun,” said Donnegan, “take the action to pieces and go over every part.”
He could actually feel the start of George.
Then: “Yes, sir,” in a subdued whisper.
If the escape from the knife had startled George, this second incident had convinced him that his new master possessed eyes in the back of his head.
And Donnegan, paying no further heed to him, looked steadily across the hillside to the white tent of Lou Macon, fifty yards away.
CHAPTER 16
HIS PLAN, GROWN to full stature so swiftly, and springing out of nothing, well nigh, had come out of his first determination to bring Jack Landis back to Lou Macon; for he could interpret those blank, misty eyes with which she had sat after the departure of Landis in only one way. Yet to rule even the hand of big Jack Landis would be hard enough and to rule his heart was quite another story. Remembering Nelly Lebrun, he saw clearly that the only way in which he could be brought back to Lou was first to remove Nelly as a possibility in his eyes. But how remove Nelly as long as it was her cue from her father to play Landis for his money? How remove her, unless it were possible to sweep Nelly off her feet with another man? She might, indeed, be taken by storm, and if she once slighted Landis for the sake of another, his boyish pride would probably do the rest, and his next step would be to return to Lou Macon.
All this seemed logical, but where find the man to storm the heart of Nelly and dazzle her bright, clever eyes? His own rags had made him shrug his shoulders; and it was the thought of clothes which had made him fasten his attention so closely on the man of the linen suit in Lebrun’s. Donnegan with money, with well-fitted clothes, and with a few notorious escapades behind him — yes, Donnegan with such a flying start might flutter the heart of Nelly Lebrun for a moment. But he must have the money, the clothes, and then he must deliberately set out to startle The Corner, make himself a public figure, talked of, pointed at, known, feared, respected, and even loved by at least a few. He must accomplish all these things beginning at a literal zero.
It was the impossible nature of this that tempted Donnegan. But the paradoxical picture of the ragged skulker in Milligan’s actually sitting at the same table with Nelly Lebrun and receiving her smiles stayed with him. He intended to rise, literally Phoenixlike, out of ashes. And the next morning, in the red time of the dawn, he sat drinking the coffee which George Washington Green had made for him and considering the details of the problem. Clothes, which had been a main obstacle, were now accounted for, since, as he had suspected, the packs of Godwin contained a luxurious wardrobe of considerable compass. At that moment, for instance, Donnegan was wrapped in a dressing gown of padded silk and his feet were encased in slippers.
But clothes were the least part of his worries. To startle The Corner, and thereby make himself attractive in the eyes of Nelly Lebrun, overshadowing Jack Landis — that was the thing! But to startle The Corner, where gold strikes were events of every twenty-four hours, just now — where robberies were common gossip, and where the killings now averaged nearly three a day — to startle The Corner was like trying to startle the theatrical world with a sensational play. Indeed, this parallel could have been pursued, for Donnegan was the nameless actor and the mountain desert was the stage on which he intended to become a headliner. No wonder, then, that his lean face was compressed in thought. Yet no one could have guessed it by his conversation. At the moment he was interrupted, his talk ran somewhat as follows.
“George, Godwin taught you how to make coffee?”
“Yes, sir,” from George. Since the night before he had appeared totally subdued. Never once did he venture a comment. And ever Donnegan was conscious of big, bright eyes watching him in a reverent fear not untinged by superstition. Once
, in the middle of the night, he had wakened and seen the vast shadow of George’s form leaning over the sack of money. Murder by stealth in the dark had been in the giant’s mind, no doubt. But when, after that, he came and leaned over Donnegan’s bunk, the master closed his eyes and kept on breathing regularly, and finally George returned to his own place — softly as a gigantic cat. Even in the master’s sleep he found something to be dreaded, and Donnegan knew that he could now trust the fellow through anything. In the morning, at the first touch of light, he had gone to the stores and collected provisions. And a comfortable breakfast followed.
“Godwin,” resumed Donnegan, “was talented in many ways.”
The big man showed his teeth in silence; for since Godwin proposed the sacrifice of the servant to preserve himself, George had apparently altered his opinion of the gambler.
“A talented man, George, but he knew nothing about coffee. It should never boil. It should only begin to cream through the crust. Let that happen; take the pot from the fire; put it back and let the surface cream again. Do this three times, and then pour the liquid from the grounds and you have the right strength and the right heating. You understand?”
“Yes, sir.”
“And concerning the frying of bacon—”
At this point the interruption came in the shape of four men at the open door; and one of these Donnegan recognized as the real estate dealer, who had shrewdly set up tents and shacks on every favorable spot in The Corner and was now reaping a rich harvest. Gloster was his name. It was patent that he did not see in the man in the silk dressing robe the unshaven miscreant of the day before who had rented the two tents.
“How’dee,” he said, standing on the threshold, with the other three in the background.
Donnegan looked at him and through him.
“My name is Gloster. I own this shack and I’ve come to find out why you’re in it.”
“George,” said Donnegan, “speak to him. Tel! him that I know houses are scarce in The Corner; that I found this place by accident vacant; that I intend to stay in it on purpose.”
George Washington Green instantly rose to the situation; he swallowed a vast grin and strode to the door. And though Mr. Gloster’s face crimsoned with rage at such treatment he controlled his voice. In The Corner manhood was apt to be reckoned by the pound, and George was a giant.
“I heard what your boss said, buddie,” said Gloster. “But I’ve rented this cabin and the next one to these three gents and their party, and they want a home. Nothing to do but vacate. Which speed is the thing I want. Thirty minutes will—”
“Thirty minutes don’t change nothing,” declared George in his deep, soft voice.
The real estate man choked. Then: “You tell your boss that jumping a cabin is like jumping a claim. They’s a law in The Corner for gents like him.”
George made a gesture of helplessness; but Gloster turned to the three.
“Both shacks or none at all,” said the spokesman. “One ain’t big enough to do us any good. But if this bird won’t vamoose—”
He was a tolerably rough-appearing sort and he was backed by two of a kind. No doubt dangerous action would have followed had not George shown himself capable of rising to a height. He stepped from the door; he approached Gloster and said in a confidential whisper that reached easily to the other three: “They ain’t any call for a quick play, mister. Watch yo’selves. Maybe you don’t know who the boss is?”
“And what’s more, I don’t care,” said Gloster defiantly but with his voice instinctively lowered. He stared past George, and behold, the man in the dressing gown still sat in quiet and sipped his coffee.
“It’s Donnegan,” whispered George.
“Don — who’s he?”
“You don’t know Donnegan?”
The mingled contempt and astonishment of George would have moved a thing of stone. It certainly troubled Gloster. And he turned to the three.
“Gents,” he said, “they’s two things we can do. Try the law — and law’s a lame lady in these parts — or throw him out. Say which?”
The three looked from Gloster to the shack; from the shack to Donnegan, absently sipping his coffee; from Donnegan to George, who stood exhibiting a broad grin of anticipated delight. The contrast was too much for them.
There is one great and deep-seated terror in the mountain desert, and that is for the man who may be other than he seems. The giant with the rough voice and the boisterous ways is generally due for a stormy passage west of the Rockies; but the silent man with the gentle manners receives respect. Traditions live of desperadoes with exteriors of womanish calm and the action of devils. And Donnegan sipping his morning coffee fitted into the picture which rumor had painted. The three looked at one another, declared that they had not come to fight for a house but to rent one, that the real estate agent could go to the devil for all of them, and that they were bound elsewhere. So they departed and left Gloster both relieved and gloomy.
“Now,” said Donnegan to George, “tell him that we’ll take both the shacks, and he can add fifty per cent to his old price.”
The bargain was concluded on the spot; the money was paid by George. Gloster went down the hill to tell The Corner that a mystery had hit the town and George brought the canvas bag back to Donnegan with the top still untied — as though to let it be seen that he had not pocketed any of the gold.
“I don’t want to count it,” said Donnegan. “Keep the bag, George. Keep money in your pocket. Treat both of us well. And when that’s gone I’ll get more.”
If the manner in which Donnegan had handled the renting of the cabins had charmed George, he was wholly entranced by this last touch of free spending. To serve a man who was his master was one thing; to serve one who trusted him so completely was quite another. To live under the same roof with a man who was a riddle was sufficiently delightful; but to be allowed actually to share in the mystery was a superhappiness. He was singing when he started to wash the dishes, and Donnegan went across the hill to the tent of Lou Macon.
She was laying the fire before the tent; and the morning freshness had cleared from her face any vestige of the trouble of the night before; and in the slant light her hair was glorious, all ruffling gold, semitransparent. She did not smile at him; but she could give the effect of smiling while her face remained grave; it was her inward calm content of which people were aware.
“You missed me?”
“Yes.”
“You were worried?”
“No.”
He felt himself put quietly at a distance. So he took her up the hill to her new home — the shack beside his own; and George cooked her breakfast. When she had been served, Donnegan drew the big man to one side.
“She’s your mistress,” said Donnegan. “Everything you do for her is worth two things you do for me. Watch her as if she were in your eye. And if a hair of her head is ever harmed — you see that fire burning yonder — the bed of coals?”
“Sir?”
“I’ll catch you and make a fire like that and feed you into it — by inches!”
And the pale face of Donnegan became for an instant the face of a demon. George Washington Green saw, and never forgot.
Afterward, in order that he might think, Donnegan got on one of the horses he had taken from Godwin and rode over the hills. They were both leggy chestnuts, with surprising signs of blood’ and all the earmarks of sprinters; but in Godwin’s trade sharp getaways were probably often necessary. The pleasure he took in the action of the animal kept him from getting into his problem.
How to startle The Corner? How follow up the opening gun which he had fired at the expense of Gloster and the three miners?
He broke off, later in the day, to write a letter to Colonel Macon, informing him that Jack Landis was tied hard and fast by Nelly Lebrun and that for the present nothing could be done except wait, unless the colonel had suggestions to offer.
The thought of the colonel, however, stimulated Donnegan.
And before midafternoon he had thought of a thing to do.
CHAPTER 17
THE BAR IN Milligan’s was not nearly so pretentious an affair as the bar in Lebrun’s, but it was of a far higher class. Milligan had even managed to bring in a few bottles of wine, and he had dispensed cheap claret at two dollars a glass when the miners wished to celebrate a rare occasion. There were complaints, not of the taste, but of the lack of strength. So Milligan fortified his liquor with pure alcohol and after that the claret went like a sweet song in The Corner. Among other things, he sold mint juleps; and it was the memory of the big sign proclaiming this fact that furnished Donnegan with his idea.
He had George Washington Green put on his town clothes — a riding suit in which Godwin had had him dress for the sake of formal occasions. Resplendent in black boots, yellow riding breeches, and blue silk shirt, the big man came before Donnegan for instructions.
“Go down to Milligan’s,” said the master. “They don’t allow colored people to enter the door, but you go to the door and start for the bar. They won’t let you go very far. When they stop you, tell them you come from Donnegan and that you have to get me some mint for a julep. Insist. The bouncer will start to throw you out.”
George showed his teeth.
“No fighting back. Don’t lift your hand. When you find that you can’t get in, come back here. Now, ride.”
So George mounted the horse and went. Straight to Milligan’s he rode and dismounted; and half of The Corner’s scant daytime population came into the street to see the brilliant horseman pass.
Scar-faced Lewis met the big man at the door. And size meant little to Andy, except an easier target.
“Well, confound my soul,” said Lewis, blocking the way. “A Negro in Milligan’s? Get out!”