by Max Brand
CHAPTER 36
TO ANDREW THE last danger of the holdup had been assigned as the rear guard, and he was the last man to pass Allister. The leader had drawn his horse to one side a couple of miles down the valley, and, as each of his band passed him, he raised his hand in silent greeting. It was the last Andrew saw of him, a ghostly figure sitting his horse with his hand above his head. After that his mind was busied by his ride, for, having the finest mount in the crowd, to him had been assigned the longest and the most roundabout route to reach the Twin Eagles.
Yet he covered so much ground with Sally that, instead of needing the full five days to make the rendezvous, he could afford to loaf the last stage of the journey. Even at that, he camped in sight of the cabin on the fourth night, and on the morning of the fifth he was the first man at the shack.
Jeff Rankin came in next. To Jeff, on account of his unwieldy bulk, had been assigned the shortest route; yet even so he dismounted, staggering and limping from his horse, and collapsed on the pile of boughs which Andrew had spent the morning cutting for a bed. As he dropped he tossed his bag of coins to the floor. It fell with a melodious jingling that was immediately drowned by Jeff’s groans; the saddle was torture to him, and now he was aching in every joint of his enormous body. “A nice haul — nothin’ to kick about,” was Jeff’s opinion. “But Caesar’s ghost — what a ride! The chief makes this thing too hard on a gent that likes to go easy, Andy.”
Andrew said nothing; silence had been his cue ever since he began acting as lieutenant to the chief. It had seemed to baffle the others; it baffled the big man now. Later on Joe Clune and Scottie came in together. That was about noon — they had met each other an hour before. But Allister had not come in, although he was usually the first at a rendezvous. Neither did Larry la Roche come. The day wore on; the silence grew on the group. When Andrew, proportioning the work for supper, sent Joe to get wood, Jeff for water, and began himself to work with Scottie on the cooking, he was met with ugly looks and hesitation before they obeyed. Something, he felt most decidedly, was in the air. And when Joe and Rankin came back slowly, walking side by side and talking in soft voices, his suspicions were given an edge.
They wanted to eat together; but he forced Scottie to take post on the high hill to their right to keep lookout, and for this he received another scowl. Then, when supper was half over, Larry la Roche came in to camp. News came with him, an atmosphere of tidings around his gloomy figure, but he cast himself down by the fire and ate and drank in silence, until his hunger was gone. Then he tossed his tin dishes away and they fell clattering on the rocks.
“Pick ’em up,” said Andrew quietly. “We’ll have no litter around this camp.” Larry la Roche stared at him in hushed malevolence. “Stand up and get ’em,” repeated Andrew. As he saw the big hands of Larry twitching he smiled across the fire at the tall, bony figure. “I’ll give you two seconds to get ’em,” he said.
One deadly second pulsed away, then Larry crumpled. He caught up his tin cup and the plate. “We’ll talk later about you,” he said ominously.
“We’ll talk about something else first,” said Andrew. “You’ve seen Allister?”
At first it seemed that La Roche would not speak; then his wide, thin lips writhed back from his teeth. “Yes.”
“Where is he?” “Gone to the happy hunting grounds.”
The silence came and the pulse in it. One by one, by a natural instinct, the men looked about them sharply into the night and made sure of their weapons. It was the only tribute to the memory of Allister from his men, but tears and praise could not have been more eloquent. He had made these men fearless of the whole world. Now were they ready to jump at the passage of a shadow. They looked at each other with strange eyes.
“Who? How many?” asked Jeff Rankin.
“One man done it.”
“Hal Dozier?” said Andrew.
“Him,” said Larry la Roche. He went on, looking gloomily down at the fire. “He got me first. The chief must of seen him get me by surprise, while I was down off my hoss, lying flat and drinking out of a creek!” He closed his great, bony fist in unspeakable agony at the thought. “Dozier come behind and took me. Frisked me. Took my guns, not the coin. We went down through the hills. Then the chief slid out of a shadow and come at us like a tiger. I sloped.”
“You left Allister to fight alone?” said Scottie Macdougal quietly, for he had come from his lookout to listen.
“I had no gun,” said Larry, without raising his eyes from the fire. “I sloped. I looked back and seen Allister sitting on his hoss, dead still. Hal Dozier was sittin’ on his hoss, dead still. Five seconds, maybe. Then they went for their guns together. They was two bangs like one. But Allister slid out of his saddle and Dozier stayed in his. I come on here.”
The quiet covered them. Joe Clune, with a shudder and another glance over his shoulder, cast a branch on the fire, and the flames leaped.
“Dozier knows you’re with us,” added Larry la Roche, and he cast a long glance of hatred at Andrew. “He knows you’re with us, and he knows our luck left us when you come.”
Andrew looked about the circle; not an eye met his.
The talk of Larry la Roche during the days of the ride was showing its effect now. The gage had been thrown down to Andrew, and he dared not pick it up.
“Boys,” he said, “I’ll say this: Are we going to bust up and each man go his way?”
There was no answer.
“If we do, we can split the profits over again. I’ll take no money out of a thing that cost Allister’s death. There’s my sack on the floor of the shack. Divvy it up among you. You fitted me out when I was broke. That’ll pay you back. Do we split up?”
“They’s no reason why we should — and be run down like rabbits,” said Joe Clune, with another of those terrible glances over his shoulder into the night.
The others assented with so many growls.
“All right,” said Andrew, “we stick together. And, if we stick together, I run this camp.”
“You?” asked Larry la Roche. “Who picked you? Who ‘lected you, son? Why, you unlucky—”
“Ease up,” said Andrew softly.
The eyes of La Roche flicked across the circle and picked up the glances of the others, but they were not yet ready to tackle Andrew Lanning.
“The last thing Allister did,” said Andrew, “was to make me his lieutenant. It’s the last thing he did, and I’m going to push it through. Not because I like the job.” He raised his head, but not his voice. “They may run down the rest of you. They won’t run down me. They can’t. They’ve tried, and they can’t. And I might be able to keep the rest of you clear. I’m going to try. But I won’t follow the lead of any of you. If there’d been one that could keep the rest of you together, d’you think Allister wouldn’t have seen it? Don’t you think he would of made that one leader? Why, look at you! Jeff, you’d follow Clune. But would Larry or Scottie follow Clune? Look at ’em and see!”
All eyes went to Clune, and then the glances of Scottie and La Roche dropped.
“Nobody here would follow La Roche. He’s the best man we’ve got for some of the hardest work, but you’re too flighty with your temper, Larry, and you know it. We respect you just as much, but not to plan things for the rest of us. Is that straight?
“And you, Scottie,” said Andrew, “you’re the only one I’d follow. I say that freely. But who else would follow you? You’re the best of us all at headwork and planning, but you don’t swing your gun as fast, and you don’t shoot as straight as Jeff or Larry or Joe. Is that straight?”
“What’s leading the gang got to do with fighting?” asked Scottie harshly. “And who’s got the right to the head of things but me?”
“Ask Allister what fighting had to do with the running of things,” said Andrew calmly.
The moon was sliding up out of the east; it changed the faces of the men and made them oddly animallike; they stared, fascinated, at Andrew.
&n
bsp; “There’s two reasons why I’m going to run this job, if we stick together. Allister named them once. I can take advice from any one of you; I know what each of you can do; I can plan a job for you; I can lead you clear of the law — and there’s not one of you that can bully me or make me give an inch — no, nor all of you together — La Roche! Macdougal! Clune! Rankin!”
It was like a roll call, and at each name a head was jerked up in answer, and two glittering eyes flashed at Andrew — flashed, sparkled, and then became dull. The moonlight had made his pale skin a deadly white, and it was a demoniac face they saw. The silence was his answer.
“Jeff,” he commanded, “take the hill. You’ll stand the watch tonight. And look sharp. If Dozier got Allister he’s apt to come at us. Step on it!”
And Jeff Rankin rose without a word and lumbered to the top of the hill. Larry la Roche suddenly filled his cup with boiling hot coffee, regardless of the heat, regardless of the dirt in the cup. His hand shook when he raised it to his lips.
CHAPTER 37
THERE WAS NO further attempt at challenging his authority. When he ordered Clune and La Roche to bring in boughs for bedding — since they were to stop in the shack overnight — they went silently. But it was such a silence as comes when the wind falls at the end of a day and in a silent sky the clouds pile heavily, higher and higher. Andrew took the opportunity to speak to Scottie Macdougal. He told Scottie simply that he needed him, and with him at his back he could handle the others, and more, too. He was surprised to see a twinkle in the eye of the Scotchman.
“Why, Andy,” said the canny fellow, “didn’t you see me pass you the wink? I was with you all the time!”
Andrew thanked him and went into the cabin to arrange for lights. He had no intention of shirking a share in the actual work of the camp; even though Allister had set that example for his following. He took some lengths of pitchy pine sticks and arranged them for torches. One of them alone would send a flare of yellow light through the cabin; two made a comfortable illumination. But he worked cheerlessly. The excitement of the robbery and the chase was over, and then the conflict with the men was passing. He began to see things truly by the drab light of retrospection. The bullets of Allister and Clune might have gone home — they were intended to kill, not to wound. And if there had been two deaths he, Andrew Lanning, would have been equally guilty with the men who handled the guns, for he had been one of the forces which made that shooting possible.
It was an ugly way to look at it — very ugly. It kept a frown on Andrew’s face, while he arranged the torches in the main room of the shack and then put one for future reference in the little shed which leaned against the rear of the main structure. He arranged his own bed in this second room, where the saddles and other accouterments were piled. It was easily explained, since there was hardly room for five men in the first room. But he had another purpose. He wanted to separate himself from the others, just as Allister always did. Even in a crowded room Allister would seem aloof, and Andrew determined to make the famous leader his guide.
Above all he was troubled by what Scottie had said. He would have felt easy at heart if the Scotchman had met him with an argument or with a frown or honest opposition or with a hearty handshake, to say that all was well between them. But this cunning lie — this cunning protestation that he had been with the new leader from the first, put Andrew on his guard. For he knew perfectly well that Scottie had not been on his side during the crisis with La Roche. Macdougal sat before the door, his metal flask of whisky beside him. It was a fault of Allister, this permitting of whisky at all times and in all places, after a job was finished. And while it made the other men savage beasts, it turned Scottie Macdougal into a wily, smiling snake. He had bit the heel of more than one man in his drinking bouts.
Presently La Roche and Clune came in. They had been talking together again. Andrew could tell by the manner in which they separated, as soon as they entered the room, and by their voices, which they made loud and cheerful; and, also, by the fact that they avoided looking at each other. They were striving patently to prove that there was nothing between them; and if Andrew had been on guard, now he became tinglingly so.
They arranged their bunks; Larry la Roche took from his vest a pipe with a small bowl and a long stem and sat down cross-legged to smoke. Andrew suggested that Larry produce the contents of his saddlebag and share the spoils of war.
He brought it out willingly enough and spilled it out on the improvised table, a glittering mass of gold trinkets, watches, jewels. He picked out of the mass a chain of diamonds and spread it out on his snaky fingers so that the light could play on it. Andrew knew nothing about gems, but he knew that the chain must be worth a great deal of money.
“This,” said Larry, “is my share. You gents can have the rest and split it up.”
“A nice set of sparklers,” nodded Clune, “but there’s plenty left to satisfy me.”
“What you think,” declared Scottie, “ain’t of any importance, Joe. It’s what the chief thinks that counts. Is it square, Lanning?”
Andrew flushed at the appeal and the ugly looks which La Roche and Clune cast toward him. He could have stifled Scottie for that appeal, and yet Scottie was smiling in the greatest apparent good nature and belief in their leader. His face was flushed, but his lips were bloodless. Alcohol always affected him in that manner.
“I don’t know the value of the stones,” said Andrew.
“Don’t you?” murmured Scottie. “I forgot. Thought maybe you would. That was something that Allister did know.” The new leader saw a flash of glances toward Scottie, but the latter continued to eye the captain with a steady and innocent look.
“Scottie,” decided Andrew instantly, “is my chief enemy.”
If he could detach one man to his side all would be well. Two against three would be a simple thing, as long as he was one of the two. But four against one — and such a four as these — was hopeless odds. There seemed little chance of getting Joe Clune. There remained only Jeff Rankin as his possibly ally, and already he had stepped on Jeff’s toes sorely, by making the tired giant stand guard. He thought of all these things, of course, in a flash. And then in answer to his thoughts Jeff Rankin appeared. His heavy footfall crashed inside the door. He stopped, panting, and, in spite of his news, paused to blink at the flash of jewels.
“It’s comin’,” said Jeff. “Boys, get your guns and scatter out of the cabin. Duck that light! Hal Dozier is comin’ up the valley.”
There was not a single exclamation, but the lights went out as if by magic; there were a couple of light, hissing sounds, such as iron makes when it is whipped swiftly across leather.
“How’d you know him by this light?” asked Larry la Roche, as they went out of the door. Outside they found everything brilliant with the white moonshine of the mountains.
“Nobody but Hal Dozier rides twistin’ that way in the saddle. I’d tell him in a thousand. It’s old wounds that makes him ride like that. We got ten minutes. He’s takin’ the long way up the cañon. And they ain’t anybody with him.”
“If he’s come alone,” said Andrew, “he’s come for me and not for the rest of you.”
No one spoke. Then Larry la Roche: “He wants to make it man to man. That’s clear. That’s why he pulled up his hoss and waited for Allister to make the first move for his gun. It’s a clean challenge to some one of us.”
Andrew saw his chance and used it mercilessly.
“Which one of you is willing to take the challenge?” he asked. “Which one of you is willing to ride down the cañon and meet him alone? La Roche, I’ve heard you curse Dozier.”
But Larry la Roche answered: “What’s this fool talk about takin’ a challenge? I say, string out behind the hills and pot him with rifles.”
“One man, and we’re five,” said Jeff Rankin. “It ain’t sportin’, Larry. I hate to hear you say that. We’d be despised all over the mountains if we done it. He’s makin’ his play with a lone
hand, and we’ve got to meet him the same way. Eh, chief?”
It was sweet to Andrew to hear that appeal. And he saw them turn one by one toward him in the moonlight and wait. It was his first great tribute. He looked over those four wolfish figures and felt his heart swelling.
“Wish me luck, boys,” he said, and without another word he turned and went down the hillside.
The others watched him with amazement. He felt it rather than saw it, and it kept a tingle in his blood. He felt, also, that they were spreading out to either side to get a clear view of the fight that was to follow, and it occurred to him that, even if Hal Dozier killed him, there would not be one chance in a thousand of Hal’s getting away. Four deadly rifles would be covering him.
It must be that a sort of madness had come on Dozier, advancing in this manner, unsupported by a posse. Or, perhaps, he had no idea that the outlaws could be so close. He expected a daylight encounter high up the mountains.
But Andrew went swiftly down the ravine.
Broken cliffs, granite boulders jumped up on either side of him, and the rocks were pale and glimmering under the moon. This one valley seemed to receive the light; the loftier mountains rolling away on each side were black as jet, with sharp, ragged outlines against the sky. It was a cold light, and the chill of it went through Andrew. He was afraid, afraid as he had been when Buck Heath faced him in Martindale, or when Bill Dozier ran him down, or when the famous Sandy cornered him. His fingers felt brittle, and his breath came and went in short gasps, drawn into the upper part of his lungs only.
Behind him, like an electric force pushing him on, the outlaws watched his steps. They, also, were shuddering with fear, and he knew it.
Dozier was coming, fresh from another kill.
“Only one man I’d think twice about meeting,” Allister had said in the old days, and he had been right. Yet there were thousands who had sworn that Allister was invincible — that he would never fall before a single man.