Delphi Collected Works of Max Brand US

by Max Brand

  CHAPTER 28

  IT GAVE THEM both a welcome opportunity to laugh, welcome to the girl because it broke into an excitement which was rapidly telling upon her, and welcome to Donnegan because the strain of so many distortions of the truth was telling upon him as well. They laughed together. One hasty glance told Donnegan that half the couples in the room were whispering about Donnegan and Nelly Lebrun; but when he looked across the table he saw that Nelly Lebrun had not a thought for what might be going on in the minds of others. She was quite content.

  “And the girl?” she said.

  Donnegan rested his forehead upon his hand in thought. He dared not let Nelly see his face at this moment, for the mention of Lou Macon had poured the old flood of sorrow back upon him And therefore, when he looked up, he was sneering.

  “You know these blond, pretty girls?” he said.

  “Oh, they are adorable!”

  “With dull eyes,” said Donnegan coldly, and a twinkle came into the responsive eye of Nelly Lebrun. “The sort of a girl who sees a hero in such a fellow as Jack Landis.”

  “And Jack is brave.”

  “I shouldn’t have said that.”

  “Never mind. Brave, but such a boy.”

  “Are you serious?”

  She looked questioningly at Donnegan and they smiled together, slowly.

  “I — I’m glad it’s that way,” and Donnegan sighed.

  “And did you really think it could be any other way?”

  “I didn’t know. I’m afraid I was blind.”

  “But the poor girl on the hill; I wish I could see her.”

  She was watching Donnegan very sharply again.

  “A good idea. Why don’t you?”

  “You seem to like her?”

  “Yes,” said Donnegan judiciously. “She has an appealing way; I’m very sorry for her. But I’ve done my best; I can’t help her.”

  “Isn’t there some way?”

  “Of what?”

  “Of helping her.”

  Donnegan laughed. “Go to your father and persuade him to send Landis back to her.”

  She shook her head.

  “Of course, that wouldn’t do. There’s business mixed up in all this, you know.”

  “Business? Well, I guessed at that.”

  “My part in it wasn’t very pleasant,” she remarked sadly.

  Donnegan was discreetly silent, knowing that silence extracts secrets.

  “They made me — flirt with poor Jack. I really liked him!”

  How much the past tense may mean!

  “Poor fellow,” murmured the sympathetic Donnegan. “But why,” with gathering heat, “couldn’t you help me to do the thing I can’t do alone? Why couldn’t you get him away from the house?”

  “With Joe Rix and the Pedlar guarding him?”

  “They’ll be asleep in the middle of the night.”

  “But Jack would wake up and make a noise.”

  “There are things that would make him sleep through anything.”

  “But how could he be moved?”

  “On a horse litter kept ready outside.”

  “And how carried to the litter?”

  “I would carry him.” The girl looked at him with a question and then with a faint smile beginning. “Easily,” said Donnegan, stiffening in his chair. “Very easily.”

  It pleased her to find this weakness in the pride of the invincible Donnegan. It gave her a secure feeling of mastery. So she controlled her smile and looked with a sort of superior kindliness upon the red-headed little man.

  “It’s no good,” Nelly Lebrun said with a sigh. “Even if he were taken away — and then it would get you into a bad mess.”

  “Would it? Worse than I’m in?”

  “Hush! Lord Nick is coming to The Corner; and no matter what you’ve done so far — I think I could quiet him. But if you were to take Landis away — then nothing could stop him.”

  Donnegan sneered.

  “I begin to think Lord Nick is a bogie,” he said. “Everyone whispers when they speak of him.” He leaned forward. “I should like to meet him, Nelly Lebrun!”

  It staggered Nelly. “Do you mean that?” she cried softly.

  “I do.”

  She caught her breath and then a spark of deviltry gleamed. “I wonder!” said Nelly Lebrun, and her glance weighed Donnegan.

  “All I ask is a fair chance,” he said.

  “He is a big man,” said the girl maliciously.

  The never-failing blush burned in the face of Donnegan.

  “A large target is more easily hit,” he said through his teeth.

  Her thoughts played back and forth in her eyes.

  “I can’t do it,” she said.

  Donnegan played a random card.

  “I was mistaken,” he said darkly. “Jack was not the man I should have faced. Lord Nick!”

  “No, no, no, Mr. Donnegan!”

  “You can’t persuade me. Well, I was a fool not to guess it!”

  “I really think,” said the girl gloomily, “that as soon as Lord Nick comes, you’ll hunt him out!”

  He bowed to her with cold politeness. “In spite of his size,” said Donnegan through his teeth once more.

  And at this the girl’s face softened and grew merry.

  “I’m going to help you to take Jack away,” she said, “on one condition.”

  “And that?”

  “That you won’t make a step toward Lord Nick when he comes.”

  “I shall not avoid him,” said Donnegan.

  “You’re unreasonable! Well, not avoid him, but simply not provoke him. I’ll arrange it so that Lord Nick won’t come hunting trouble.”

  “And he’ll let Jack stay with the girl and her father?”

  “Perhaps he’ll persuade them to let him go of their own free will.”

  Donnegan thought of the colonel and smiled.

  “In that case, of course, I shouldn’t care at all.” He added: “But do you mean all this?”

  “You shall see.”

  They talked only a moment longer and then Donnegan left the hall with the girl on his arm. Certainly the thoughts of all in Milligan’s followed that pair; and it was seen that Donnegan took her to the door of her house and then went away through the town and up the hill. And big George followed him like a shadow cast from a lantern behind a man walking in a fog.

  In the hut on the hill, Donnegan put George quickly to work, and with a door and some bedding, a litter was hastily constructed and swung between the two horses. In the meantime, Donnegan climbed higher up the hill and watched steadily over the town until, in a house beneath him, two lights were shown. He came back at that and hurried down the hill with George behind and around the houses until they came to the pretentious cabin of the gambler, Lebrun.

  Once there, Donnegan went straight to an unlighted window, tapped; and it was opened from within, softly. Nelly Lebrun stood within.

  “It’s done,” she said. “Joe and the Pedlar are sound asleep. They drank too much.”

  “Your father.”

  “Hasn’t come home.”

  “And Jack Landis?”

  “No matter what you do, he won’t wake up; but be careful of his shoulder. It’s badly torn. How can you carry him?”

  She could not see Donnegan’s flush, but she heard his teeth grit. And he slipped through the window, gesturing to George to come close. It was still darker inside the room — far darker than the starlit night outside. And the one path of lighter gray was the bed of Jack Landis. His heavy breathing was the only sound. Donnegan kneeled beside him and worked his arms under the limp figure.

  And while he kneeled there a door in the house was opened and closed softly. Donnegan stood up.

  “Is the door locked?”

  “No,” whispered the girl.

  “Quick!”

  “Too late. It’s father, and he’d hear the turning of the key.”

  They waited, while the light, quick step came down the h
all of the cabin. It came to the door, it went past; and then the steps retraced and the door was opened gently.

  There was a light in the hall; the form of Lebrun was outlined black and distinct..

  “Jack!” he whispered.

  No sound; he made as if to enter, and then he heard the heavy breathing of the sleeper, apparently.

  “Asleep, poor fool,” murmured the gambler, and closed the door.

  The door was no sooner closed than Donnegan had raised the body of the sleeper. Once, as he rose, straining, it nearly slipped from his arms; and when he stood erect he staggered. But once he had gained his equilibrium, he carried the wounded man easily enough to the window through which George reached his long arms and lifted out the burden.

  “You see?” said Donnegan, panting, to the girl.

  “Yes; it was really wonderful!”

  “You are laughing, now.”

  “I? But hurry. My father has a fox’s ear for noises.”

  “He will not hear this, I think.” There was a swift scuffle, very soft of movement.

  “Nelly!” called a far-off voice.

  “Hurry, hurry! Don’t you hear?”

  “You forgive me?”

  “No — yes — but hurry!”

  “You will remember me?”

  “Mr. Donnegan!”

  “Adieu!”

  She caught a picture of him sitting in the window for the split part of a second, with his hat off, bowing to her. Then he was gone. And she went into the hall, panting with excitement.

  “Heavens!” Nelly Lebrun murmured. “I feel as if I had been hunted, and I must look it. What if he—” Whatever the thought was she did not complete it. “It may have been for the best,” added Nelly Lebrun.

  CHAPTER 29

  IT IS YOUR phlegmatic person who can waken easily in the morning, but an active mind readjusts itself slowly to the day. So Nelly Lebrun roused herself with an effort and scowled toward the door at which the hand was still rapping.

  “Yes?” she called drowsily.

  “This is Nick. May I come in?”

  “This is who?”

  The name had brought her instantly into complete wakefulness; she was out of the bed, had slipped her feet into her slippers and whipped a dressing gown around her while she was asking the question. It was a luxurious little boudoir which she had managed to equip. Skins of the lynx, cunningly matched, had been sewn together to make her a rug, and the soft fur of the wildcat was the outer covering of her bed. She threw back the tumbled bedclothes, tossed half a dozen pillows into place, transforming it into a day couch, and ran to the mirror.

  And in the meantime, the deep voice outside the door was saying: “Yes, Nick. May I come in?”

  She gave a little ecstatic cry, but while it was still tingling on her lips, she was winding her hair into shape with lightning speed; had dipped the tips of her fingers in cold water and rubbed her eyes awake and brilliant, and with one circular rub had brought the color into her cheeks.

  Scarcely ten seconds from the time when she first answered the knock, Nelly was opening the door and peeping out into the hall.

  The rest was done by the man without; he cast the door open with the pressure of his foot, caught the girl in his arms, and kissed her; and while he closed the door the girl slipped back and stood with one hand pressed against her face, and her face held that delightful expression halfway between laughter and embarrassment. As for Lord Nick, he did not even smile. He was not, in fact, a man who was prone to gentle expressions, but having been framed by nature for a strong dominance over all around him, his habitual expression was a proud self-containment. It would have been insolence in another man; in Lord Nick it was rather leonine.

  He was fully as tall as Jack Landis, but he carried his height easily, and was so perfectly proportioned that unless he was seen beside another man he did not look large. The breadth of his shoulders was concealed by the depth of his chest; and the girth of his throat was made to appear quite normal by the lordly size of the head it supported. To crown and set off his magnificent body there was a handsome face; and he had the combination of active eyes and red hair, which was noticeable in Donnegan, too. In fact, there was a certain resemblance between the two men; in the set of the jaw for instance, in the gleam of the eye, and above all in an indescribable ardor of spirit, which exuded from them both. Except, of course, that in Donnegan, one was conscious of all spirit and very little body, but in Lord Nick hand and eye were terribly mated. Looking upon so splendid a figure, it was no wonder that the mountain desert had forgiven the crimes of Lord Nick because of the careless insolence with which he treated the law. It requires an exceptional man to make a legal life attractive and respected; it takes a genius to make law-breaking glorious.

  No wonder that Nelly Lebrun stood with her hand against her cheek, looking him over, smiling happily at him, and questioning him about his immediate past all in the same glance. He waved her back to her couch, and she hesitated. Then, as though she remembered that she now had to do with Lord Nick in person, she obediently curled up on the lounge, and waited expectantly.

  “I hear you’ve been raising the devil,” said this singularly frank admirer.

  The girl merely looked at him.

  “Well?” he insisted.

  “I haven’t done a thing,” protested Nelly rather childishly.

  “No?” One felt that he could have crushed her with evidence to the contrary but that he was restraining himself — it was not worthwhile to bother with such a girl seriously. “Things have fallen into a tangle since I left, old Satan Macon is on the spot and your rat of a father has let Landis get away. What have you been doing, Nelly, while all this was going on? Sitting with your eyes closed?”

  He took a chair and lounged back in it gracefully.

  “How could I help it? I’m not a watchdog.”

  He was silent for a time. “Well,” he said, “if you told me the truth I suppose I shouldn’t love you, my girl. But this time I’m in earnest. Landis is a mint, silly child. If we let him go we lose the mint.”

  “I suppose you’ll get him back?”

  “First, I want to find out how he got away.”

  “I know how.”

  “Ah?”

  “Donnegan.”

  “Donnegan, Donnegan, Donnegan!” burst out Lord Nick, and though he did not raise the pitch of his voice, he allowed its volume to swell softly so that it filled the room like the humming of a great, angry tiger. “Nobody says three words without putting in the name of Donnegan as one of them! You, too!”

  She shrugged her shoulders.

  “Donnegan thrills The Corner!” went on the big man in the same terrible voice. “Donnegan wears queer clothes; Donnegan shoots Scar-faced Lewis; Donnegan pumps the nerve out of poor Jack Landis and then drills him. Why, Nelly, it looks as though I’ll have to kill this intruding fool!”

  She blanched at this, but did not appear to notice.

  “It’s a long time since you’ve killed a man, isn’t it?” she asked coldly.

  “It’s an awful business,” declared Lord Nick. “Always complications; have to throw the blame on the other fellow. And even these blockheads are beginning to get tired of my self-defense pleas.”

  “Well,” murmured the girl, “don’t cross that bridge until you come to it; and you’ll never come to it.”

  “Never. Because I don’t want him killed.”

  “Ah,” Lord Nick murmured. “And why?”

  “Because he’s in love — with me.”

  “Tush!” said Lord Nick. “I see you, my dear. Donnegan seems to be a rare fellow, but he couldn’t have gotten Landis out of this house without help. Rix and the Pedlar may have been a bit sleepy, but Donnegan had to find out when they fell asleep. He had a confederate. Who? Not Rix; not the Pedlar; not Lebrun. They all know me. It had to be someone who doesn’t fear me. Who? Only one person in the world. Nelly, you’re the one!”

  She hesitated a breathless instant.
>
  “Yes,” she said. “I am.”

  She added, as he stared calmly at her, considering: “There’s a girl in the case. She came up here to get Landis; seems he was in love with her once. And I pitied her. I sent him back to her. Suppose he is a mint; haven’t we coined enough money out of him? Besides, I couldn’t have kept on with it.”

  “No?”

  “He was getting violent, and he talked marriage all day, every day. I haven’t any nerves, you say, but he began to put me on edge. So I got rid of him.”

  “Nelly, are you growing a conscience?”

  She flushed and then set her teeth.

  “But I’ll have to teach you business methods, my dear. I have to bring him back.”

  “You’ll have to go through Donnegan to do it.”

  “I suppose so.”

  “You don’t understand, Nick. He’s different.”

  “Eh?”

  “He’s like you.”

  “What are you driving at?”

  “Nick, I tell you upon my word of honor, no matter what a terrible fighter you may be, Donnegan will give you trouble. He has your hair and your eyes and he moves like a cat. I’ve never seen such a man — except you. I’d rather see you fight the plague than fight Donnegan!”

  For the first time Lord Nick showed real emotion; he leaned a little forward.

  “Just what does he mean to you?” he asked. “I’ve stood for a good deal, Nelly; I’ve given you absolute freedom, but if I ever suspect you—”

  The lion was up in him unmistakably now. And the girl shrank.

  “If it were serious, do you suppose I’d talk like this?”

  “I don’t know. You’re a clever little devil, Nell. But I’m clever, too. And I begin to see through you. Do you still want to save Donnegan?”

  “For your own sake.”

  He stood up.

  “I’m going up the hill today. If Donnegan’s there, I’ll go through him; but I’m going to have Landis back!”

  She, also, rose.

  “There’s only one way out and I’ll take that way. I’ll get Donnegan to leave the house.”

  “I don’t care what you do about that.”

  “And if he isn’t there, will you give me your word that you won’t hunt him out afterward?”